Gratuity on Free at Sea packages

[niborHS]

We are trying to decide whether to book the guarantee cabin, or a level that will give us the beverage package and specialty dining for free. When they charge the 20% gratuity, do they do it on the amount of the per day unlimited beverage package, which is an unbelievable $99 per day (We didn't cruise that long ago, last year on Celebrity, and it was definitely nowhere near that). Or, do they charge you based on what you actually drink? 

[lizygirl3]

On the price of the beverage package

 

[RD29P5]

Some find it better to pay for drinks as you go. For me it's not too big of stretch to think that we will probably drink enough over the course of 7 days to exceed the out of pocket cost to us on the free at sea perk. Neither of us are heavy drinker's but when you look at the cost of the drinks it adds up pretty quick. Although they are cheaper than at a professional sports event or a concert.

[BirdTravels]

It is the retail cost of the drink package and dining package. 20% gratuity. It is a great deal!

[blinks14]

Even for the cost of the gratuity my husband and I would drink way more than that. On our last cruise I kept the receipts and added it up. To us it’s worth it. It won’t be a stretch to drink more than $430 on an 11 night cruise.

[fshagan]

Is the $20 a day still equal to just 2, maybe 3, drinks? That used to be the case.

 

So if you think you will drink 3 drinks a day then the package gratuity is worth it. We don't drink that much, even on vacation, so we never take that perk. 

[mianmike]

On our upcoming cruise to get the beverage package we'd have to pay $900 more (Price difference between Sailaway balcony cabin and regular balcony and the 20% service charge)  

 

We would have to drink $75 worth of drinks a day to break even.  For us it's cheaper to just buy the drinks individually.  Heavy drinkers would save money paying for the higher priced cabin and receive the drink package.  

[GUT2407]

50 minutes ago, mianmike said:

On our upcoming cruise to get the beverage package we'd have to pay $900 more (Price difference between Sailaway balcony cabin and regular balcony and the 20% service charge)  

 

We would have to drink $75 worth of drinks a day to break even.  For us it's cheaper to just buy the drinks individually.  Heavy drinkers would save money paying for the higher priced cabin and receive the drink package.  

But if you need/want to pick your cabin..??

[cdnsteelman]

This is one that's completely down to the habits of the individual cruiser and, of course, the price differentials between X and non X staterooms on a given sailing. Bigger drinkers may come out ahead by paying the fare difference from a GTY to a non X stateroom plus the ~$20 / per person per day gratuity and where more moderate drinkers may not. On an upcoming February 7 nighter out of Miami that I looked at randomly as a sample, the total cost difference (fare plus grats) for two between an IX and ID (cheapest non GTY inside) would be $600 for the couple or ~$86 / day. If you go with an $8 / drink average that's 5 drinks per person per day and you break even. If you want a balcony - the difference between BX and BC on that sailing including the auto grats for two is closer to $1,100 or $157 / day. If you do the math and it's close then step up to the non X and then you don't have to think about it if you want an extra night cap or decide to start collecting little umbrellas on a sea day 😉 As another poster mentioned by going with the non X category you do get the benefit of selecting your stateroom although I'm not sure there's much benefit between IX and ID in selection unless you have very specific needs like proximity to elevator banks / stairs / etc.

Edited October 29, 2018 by cdnsteelman

[SNJCruisers]

Don't know where you're getting 8.00 per drink average unless you're drinking one mixed drink and rest is beer.  Shots of Fireball are 10 bucks.

Edited October 29, 2018 by SNJCruisers

[cdnsteelman]

8 minutes ago, SNJCruisers said:

Don't know where you're getting 8.00 per drink average unless you're drinking one mixed drink and rest is beer.  Shots of Fireball are 10 bucks.

Fair enough - I drink beer and had no idea well drinks were so steep... revise my math to $10 bucks a drink and still make the decision that suits your habits.

[SNJCruisers]

5 minutes ago, cdnsteelman said:

Fair enough - I drink beer and had no idea well drinks were so steep... revise my math to $10 bucks a drink and still make the decision that suits your habits.

There might have been a recent price reduction, but two years ago Dark n Stormys were 16.95 on NCL and only 8.50 on Carnival. Some martinis on NCL are 16.95 and over the 15.00 limit on the UBP, whereas most martinis on Carnival are 10.95 and even the ones with Grey Goose VX are 20.00 and all are covered by their drink package.

[vpearlkc]

If there were no service charges the cruise would be way more expensive as these charges pay the servers, bartenders etc. Their base pay is almost nothing and too many people would stiff these hardworking people so livable wages would have to be paid to attract employees. 

 

If you don't drink much just pay as you go and don't take the package.

[rtkenmore]

18 hours ago, Robinsilver said:

We are trying to decide whether to book the guarantee cabin, or a level that will give us the beverage package and specialty dining for free. When they charge the 20% gratuity, do they do it on the amount of the per day unlimited beverage package, which is an unbelievable $99 per day (We didn't cruise that long ago, last year on Celebrity, and it was definitely nowhere near that). Or, do they charge you based on what you actually drink? 

 

They charge 20% on the total package price ($99/day) so essentially they will charge you $19.80/day.  As long as you drink $20 worth of sodas, alcoholic beverages, etc. per day... It's worth it.  If you're not going to drink that much, save the money and do a guarantee.

 

Our last cruise was our first with UBP and as much as my mom was hesitant about the gratuity charge being "so expensive"... Once she got on board and started using it, she felt it was well worth it.  I would end up having a drink or two by the pool each day, a glass of wine or two with dinner and then another drink or two at the shows each night...  Not to mention several drinks at Howl At The Moon too.  The beverage package gratuity definitely paid for itself in our eyes.

[cathi007]

7 hours ago, mianmike said:

On our upcoming cruise to get the beverage package we'd have to pay $900 more (Price difference between Sailaway balcony cabin and regular balcony and the 20% service charge)  

 

We would have to drink $75 worth of drinks a day to break even.  For us it's cheaper to just buy the drinks individually.  Heavy drinkers would save money paying for the higher priced cabin and receive the drink package.  

I would never pay for the package, but when you get it as a perk you are just paying the gratuity, so for me its worth it, as I will have 3 or 4 frozen drinks a day, more on sea days. But to pay for it, not worth it for me

[niborHS]

That's the thing, if we take the sailaway, we are paying a lot less for the cabin, so the drinks are free, but we are paying the extra price plus the $19.80 a day. I don't drink soda, have water during the day, wine with dinner, and maybe after. Anyone know what they charge for an average drink or a decent glass of wine? Hopefully they have something like a Malbec from Chili that's good and not expensive. I know whatever I normally drink at home would end up being $18 a glass. For the gratuity on the specialty dining, not sure what they charge. I think the food is generally much better in the specialty restaurants, but I can manage in the dining room too.

 

[niborHS]

2 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

There might have been a recent price reduction, but two years ago Dark n Stormys were 16.95 on NCL and only 8.50 on Carnival. Some martinis on NCL are 16.95 and over the 15.00 limit on the UBP, whereas most martinis on Carnival are 10.95 and even the ones with Grey Goose VX are 20.00 and all are covered by their drink package.

I don't consider Carnival an option, so that doesn't matter. My sister-in-law drinks Cosmos, so if they are not going to be covered, then it's irrelevant.

 

[rtkenmore]

1 hour ago, Robinsilver said:

That's the thing, if we take the sailaway, we are paying a lot less for the cabin, so the drinks are free, but we are paying the extra price plus the $19.80 a day. I don't drink soda, have water during the day, wine with dinner, and maybe after. Anyone know what they charge for an average drink or a decent glass of wine? Hopefully they have something like a Malbec from Chili that's good and not expensive. I know whatever I normally drink at home would end up being $18 a glass. For the gratuity on the specialty dining, not sure what they charge. I think the food is generally much better in the specialty restaurants, but I can manage in the dining room too.

 

 

Best I recall, wines range from $6 or 7 on the low end and up.  Martini/Cosmo/etc. around $10 and up depending...  Frozen drinks $8-12 or so...  The vast majority of drinks are under the $15 limit unless you get premium liquor.  If you google search, a lot of times you can find menu's online including drink menus and pricing.

 

Our last cruise, I figured I drank on average about $50-90 a day worth of drinks depending on if it was a sea day or port day.  If I averaged $75/day, that was $525 for the week and we definitely did better by doing a rate that included the drink package.  I'm like most everyone else though, there is no chance in hell that I'm going to pay out of pocket for the drink package ($831.60 w/ gratuity).  That's another cruise if you ask me.

 

Last minute cruises though, you probably come out better doing sail away rates.  The cruise we have booked in January, if you book ocean view sail away, it's around $1600.  If you book obstructed ocean view and select drinks/dining package, then it's around $3100.  This is a cruise less than 90 days out so they are trying to fill the ship now with low, low sail away rates.  When we originally, booked, there was only about a $200 difference in sail away and choosing our own room.

[mianmike]

2 hours ago, cathi007 said:

I would never pay for the package, but when you get it as a perk you are just paying the gratuity, so for me its worth it, as I will have 3 or 4 frozen drinks a day, more on sea days. But to pay for it, not worth it for me

But you don't just have to pay the service charge, you have to pay for a more expensive cabin to get the perks. 

[niborHS]

Thanks RTkenmore, very helpful info.

 

[mianmike]

9 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

But if you need/want to pick your cabin..??

On our upcoming cruise we bought the Sailaway rate balcony and we had a choice of four cabins.  Not much, but a choice.  I would never pay $500-$600 for the privilege to choose a cabin.

[PoofCat99]

3 minutes ago, mianmike said:

But you don't just have to pay the service charge, you have to pay for a more expensive cabin to get the perks. 

I got the package with a studio, so no, you don't always have to get a "more expensive" cabin. 

[rtkenmore]

10 minutes ago, mianmike said:

On our upcoming cruise we bought the Sailaway rate balcony and we had a choice of four cabins.  Not much, but a choice.  I would never pay $500-$600 for the privilege to choose a cabin.

 

If you chose a sail away rate, those are not necessarily the only cabins you will be assigned to.  They have cabins on every ship that are marketed as IX, OX, BX, etc. so the categories show up in the search results, etc.  If you have a sail away booked, you are guaranteed a minimum cabin of the category you booked but could wind up with any cabin at or above that category.

 

Do you actually have an assigned room number yet?

[mianmike]

Just now, rtkenmore said:

 

If you chose a sail away rate, those are not necessarily the only cabins you will be assigned to.  They have cabins on every ship that are marketed as IX, OX, BX, etc. so the categories show up in the search results, etc.  If you have a sail away booked, you are guaranteed a minimum cabin of the category you booked but could wind up with any cabin at or above that category.

 

Do you actually have an assigned room number yet?

Yes, we were given four cabins to choose from.  We selected our cabin 8 months ago.  It's been listed on MyNCL and our cruise docs.

[rtkenmore]

Just now, mianmike said:

Yes, we were given four cabins to choose from.  We selected our cabin 8 months ago.  It's been listed on MyNCL and our cruise docs.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't wind up with a different cabin before you set sail.

 

Which ship & cruise are you booked?