Trying to decide about upgrading Drinks on Us Promo

[Marie50]

Anyone currently on the Divina or who sailed recently, are most cocktail $8.00 or less?  Not worth upgrading to Classic Package if they are more than $8.00, as that is the limit.

[Até]

Have you talked to MSC if that is even still a possibility?  I've seen one post where someone with DOU was mad because they could no longer upgrade to Classic or Deluxe, only to Premium or Plus.

[LaCal]

2 hours ago, Marie50 said:

Anyone currently on the Divina or who sailed recently, are most cocktail $8.00 or less?  Not worth upgrading to Classic Package if they are more than $8.00, as that is the limit.

I was just looking at some drink menus and prices ranged from $8.50-$9.95 and $10.95 if that helps 

[sfaaa]

Long Island Ice Tea is priced at $9.95 and included in the package together with 5 other cocktail choices. Save your money. No need to upgrade. 

[neptuno]

Drinks On Us does not include the %15 gratuity, and you must sign a receipt for each order.  We were allowed to upgrade to Classic before the cruise, which included gratuities for $18pppd.  Since gratuities on the DOU package average about $1/drink, and if you drink ten (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, water) it will be at least $10pppd extra in gratuities.  It appeared that once on board ship you could upgrade only to Premium, not Classic.  We enjoyed the liquors and cordials in the Classic which are not included in DOU, and did not have to sign any receipts.  Do the math, and see if it works for you.  Cheers

[MadManOfBethesda]

On ‎12‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 6:02 PM, neptuno said:

Drinks On Us does not include the %15 gratuity, and you must sign a receipt for each order.  We were allowed to upgrade to Classic before the cruise, which included gratuities for $18pppd.  Since gratuities on the DOU package average about $1/drink, and if you drink ten (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, water) it will be at least $10pppd extra in gratuities.  It appeared that once on board ship you could upgrade only to Premium, not Classic.  We enjoyed the liquors and cordials in the Classic which are not included in DOU, and did not have to sign any receipts.  Do the math, and see if it works for you.  Cheers

My wife and I are currently on Divina, on the 9th day of a 10-day sailing.  We have the DOU coupons and have never once been asked to sign a receipt, so I don't know where you came up with that statement.  In fact, on a few occasions, we weren't even handed a receipt at all, just given our room card back.

[Preziosa]

Hello Madman of Bethes

Do you pay the 15 % extra when you order a drink with DOU

[MadManOfBethesda]

9 hours ago, Preziosa said:

Hello Madman of Bethes

Do you pay the 15 % extra when you order a drink with DOU

 

There is no automatic tip, 15% or otherwise, added to the cost of the drink when you use a coupon.  On the occasions when I was provided a receipt, it would show for example, $6.50 for a Guinness I ordered, then a line subtracting out the $6.50, with a final balance of $0.00.  However, I personally actually tip more than 15% because I usually tip using $2 bills (except when I'm just getting a bottle of water).  However, I am definitely in the minority when it comes to tipping. In fact, I can't recall seeing anyone else on this cruise tip when using a DOU coupon.  I even pointed that out to my wife as we were sitting at the bar by the Garden pool this morning. 

 

I mentioned to her that I had never seen such a group of uninterested, dispirited bartenders and waitstaff as we have on this cruise, and then I stated that it was probably because they don't get tipped as much as bar staff on other lines. We then made it a point to watch all the people who ordered drinks using the coupons. Not one person provided a tip.

[MadManOfBethesda]

I think I need to issue a clarification on my above posts.  The drink coupons to which I was referring are the 12 coupons that my wife and I each received as part of our Fantastica booking.  This is our first MSC cruise and I just realized that these drink coupons may be different from the DOU promo.  What I wrote above about our coupons was correct.  There are no tips/service charges added to the drink charge and there is nothing to sign when you receive your drink.  I do not know if DOU is handled differently and I apologize for any confusion my posts may have caused.

[neptuno]

Fantastica coupons may not be available for Caribbean cruising as of jan 1st 2019 according to travel agent.  MSC is offering "Easy" package now on "select" cruises;  eg. Seaside mar 30 2019, which is similar to old "Drinks on Us", but with added coffees.  Still unclear from MSC whether we can upgrade to anything less than Premium.

[kiminey65]

1 hour ago, neptuno said:

Fantastica coupons may not be available for Caribbean cruising as of jan 1st 2019 according to travel agent.  MSC is offering "Easy" package now on "select" cruises;  eg. Seaside mar 30 2019, which is similar to old "Drinks on Us", but with added coffees.  Still unclear from MSC whether we can upgrade to anything less than Premium.

 

I believe you are correct that fantastica vouchers (for 12 individual drinks per person in their cabin) is obsolete and no longer offered when a cruiser is under their DOU promo or their newer promo of "unlimited drinks" which is also known as the EASY pkg and is quite limited in selections of said drinks. However, I believe the drink vouchers are still accepted as payment for a drink though the end of March 2019. This has been stated over and over since I've been reading on here for a good 7 or 8 months. Depending on what promo you booked on and when will be the deciding factor on which upgrade you can get. (Formally DOU could upgrade to Classic @ $18pp/pd). We booked after the new changes on their Easy pkg. If we upgraded it has to be to premium @ $27pp/pd. I have in my possession some beverage vouchers that I plan to use on drinks that aren't included in the Easy pkg. We sail March 9, 2019 making it before the deadline of expiration. This will save us a few hundred dollars!  I also feel compelled to add that we always tip regardless of which promo our pkg is under. That will apply to the vouchers as well.

[ssmea03]

New price limits for  the classic package while you still have it. You can no longer upgrade to this or any of the other old packages. 

[camofwilliamsburg]

The gratuities for the DOU package are automatically added to you folio. We will have that package but we also have beer coupons and drink coupons left over from other cruises that we will use.