Drinks packages - how good is the value?

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Hi everyone!  Apologies if this is a daft question, but I am new to cruising and I'm finding MSC's website very confusing. I know this is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is, but any advice would be welcome.

 

Spouse and I are going to be cruising on the Poesia very soon.  We're considering booking the all inclusive bar and restaurant drinks package, but we're not sure if this is good value or not, partly because I can't find any info about the prices of coffees, ice creams, etc, which factors into our decision.  We'd probably be looking to have a drink with lunch on the two sea days, and to do the equivalent of splitting a bottle of wine with dinner, and probably a drink after dinner. We also like coffee and ice cream!  We did think about the wine and water package, but as it's a six night cruise and we're having a meal in the sushi restaurant one night, where you can't use it, so I doubt we'd actually get through all the bottles of wine....

So what do you think?  And are there any advantages in terms of service charges in booking a package  - I seem to remember seeing a reference somewhere to saving on the 15% service charge if you buy a package, but I can't find it now!

[JoFromEdinburgh]

If it makes any difference, the cruise is in the Western Med.

[sidari]

Jo ... You can also get bottled water, and to also take off the ship with the package along with the speciality coffee included, you save the 15% if you buy before you go.

The first of our MSC cruises was a transatlantic on Poesia which is a nice ship especially the Zebra lounge, have a look for the roll call for your sailing date which might also be helpful for info plus you could also check the book of faces to see if anyone has set up an info page there as well.

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Thanks, that's all very helpful, especially the detail about the bottled water!  What you say about the service charge makes sense (presumably you still pay a service charge for any drinks ordered 'a la carte'?)

 

I'm leaning to going for the package - I think I've just got a bit of sticker shock, but if you look at what it is per day, it makes a lot of sense....

[sidari]

Any drinks ordered outside of the package as you say will incur a separate charge, not sure what cost you are being asked to pay but I would guess around £21/£23 per day, sounds a lot but four alcoholic drinks and a couple of Coffees and you are in front, add a few bottles of water and Gelato and you are well ahead.

[tallnthensome]

The premium drink package on MSC is by far the best and most worth while drink package we have ever had on any cruise line. 

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Thanks both!

[sidari]

Jo ... Check out the other thread re the drink packages.

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Thank you, I'll take a look.

[Leekaz]

We’re having same dilemma as you Jo. We’re a family of 4 (from Scotland too). Just not actually sure that on a 7 day cruise with ports everyday that we’d really use £490 worth of drinks/ice cream. I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t take it and ended up going way over though 😂😂

 

I do know from this site that the 15% gets added on to drinks if you don’t take a drinks package. 

 

[sidari]

Leekaz ... That is always a dilemma depending on the number of sea days and how long you feel you will be off the ship, we usually work on what is it we want to see in a given port and how long will we be off the ship, in September after the F1 race in Singapore we had a 4 night cruise on Voyager of the Seas to Malaysia and Thailand, drink package of which there was just one was £33 pp pd ! with the two ports you had little choice but to book ships tours due to length of port time on one and distance on another. Buying a package was pointless but RCI drinks were ridiculous prices, we paid £26 for one drink each !

So its a balancing act on a port intensive itinerary against what you think you might have to pay without a package, having one means not having to say no to the kids when they want ice cream or soda drinks. For yourself if you had just 4 drinks per day including Dinner and speciality Coffee instead of the buffet one plus ice cream and maybe hot Chocolate that is your daily rate covered. And as you say every drink ordered not from a package incurs the 15% gratuity.

Hope this helps.

Edited November 9, 2018 by sidari

[Captain-John]

12 hours ago, Leekaz said:

We’re having same dilemma as you Jo. We’re a family of 4 (from Scotland too). Just not actually sure that on a 7 day cruise with ports everyday that we’d really use £490 worth of drinks/ice cream. I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t take it and ended up going way over though 😂😂

 

I do know from this site that the 15% gets added on to drinks if you don’t take a drinks package. 

 

 

I find MSC's basic drinks package very good value for money - just three drinks at around the 7 euro mark (+15%) and you've broken even compared to the cost of the package. Quite easy to do for me !

[heatherb1958]

We have had the basic drinks package twice now on MSC , it is seriously good value , did not need the premium package as there was plenty on offer .

 

We had morning  coffee, juice ( not fresh orange juice) plus a bottle of water , would probably be  €8 + for the three together .

Wine with dinner at €5 a glass for the house wine .

coffees and brandies or other liquer after dinner like Cointreau, Baileys 

Then add the ice cream at your leisure and other mixed drinks it all adds up and it does not take long to be ahead without feeling you need to be constantly imbibing. 😆.

 

The only thing we found strange is that there were wines on the menu which were less than the €5 a glass house wine and they were not included in the drinks package. It would have been nice to have them for a change . 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by heatherb1958

[Zephyr173]

I totally agre with Sidari and Heatherb that the drinks packages are quite good value, so long as you have at least a few drinks along the way.  I actually kept a tab, on a spreadsheet, of our consumption on 2 cruises with the package you are looking at.  Our total consumption on both occasions was significantly over the cost of the package.

 

It's pretty easy…  Knowing you have a package, you don't fuss and ask yourself if you should indulge or not.  The answer is yes.

 

Do you get a specialty coffee?  Nope - you get a cafe corretto.  Do you order OJ?  Nope - that will be a mimosa for DW, a juice-free one for me.  Prosecco by the pool, wine for lunch and dinner, cocktail(s) to celebrate coming back from an excursion, another to remind ouselves that we're not behind a desk.  And after the show, why not a couple shots of grappa.

 

There.  That's money well spent.  Thank heavens there's a gym.  I'll drink to that!

[AndyBTW]

We just got home after 24 days on the Venice-Durban 'relocation' cruise, on the MSC Musica.

Booking our options ahead of the cruise (on the web site) was hugely problematic (I will skip all the details here!) and where some comments above suggest comparison of the pre-booked package with the on-board prices is possible, we have found it impossible.  The web site promises 'up to 20% discount', but when you get your ticket (which details the options) there is no indication of what we actually paid; when on board, there were no packages that compared with the web site options, and in the last analysis we have NO understanding of what discount, if any, we got. Worse, it was NOT clear to us that with the Fantastica option you get one litre of water (sometimes we got 1.5 litre bottles) at lunch and dinner in the restaurant (but NOT in the cafeteria), and so having bought the combo wine and water packages we found we did not need the water, hence we have wasted the cost of all the 'tickets' for mineral water which we did not need. What also surprised us, is that the basic drinks packages seemed to have little relation to the length of the cruise (24 days).  There were many good things on this cruise, but understanding and benefitting from the drinks packages was not one of them!

I think it was only on day 20 that we realised the main benefit of the pre-booked drinks packages is that ALL drinks ordered at the bar incur a 15% 'service charge' when ordered on board, whereas the packages do not seem to include that. 

There is so much to think about when booking a cruise, this confusion with drinks (and the dreadful web site) will lead us to avoid MSC completely in the future. Shame.

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Went back to book it and the website now won't let me add a drinks package.  Is there a cut off date, or is just being flaky?  Annoyed to be hit with the 15% service fee if so and even more annoyed there was nothing obvious to warn you about the cut-off...

[hamrag]

4 minutes ago, JoFromEdinburgh said:

Went back to book it and the website now won't let me add a drinks package.  Is there a cut off date, or is just being flaky?  Annoyed to be hit with the 15% service fee if so and even more annoyed there was nothing obvious to warn you about the cut-off...

If it is the sailing on 12th November then, yes, you have hit cut-off. I would have said call them but, given this is the weekend, it probably won't help! On boarding day, it is difficult to get value from a drinks package, so you could take it on board from the morning of day 2 and that would help recover some of that 15% hit.

 

Enjoy the cruise.

[JoFromEdinburgh]

Thanks hamrag, that's a bit frustrating but it can't be helped now. Thanks for your tip regarding boarding day though!

[JoFromEdinburgh]

On 11/8/2018 at 11:38 PM, Leekaz said:

We’re having same dilemma as you Jo. We’re a family of 4 (from Scotland too). Just not actually sure that on a 7 day cruise with ports everyday that we’d really use £490 worth of drinks/ice cream. I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t take it and ended up going way over though 😂😂

 

I do know from this site that the 15% gets added on to drinks if you don’t take a drinks package. 

 

Leekaz, take note that there's a cut off point for booking a package - I didn't realise that.....

[Leekaz]

Thanks all. Have a great cruise Jo. That’s a shame re the cut off.