Drinks packages coming to P&O

[Selbourne]

Not sure that I follow the logic of ‘because I have OBC the actual cost is less’ when OBC is your money (not P&O’s) to use as you wish, unless you never book excursions, buy anything in the shops, use Select Dining restaurants etc. Furthermore, you can use OBC (and Peninsular discount when OBC has been used up) for normal drink purchases, without the need for a package. I do agree however that for those with multiple children, who get their package free if the adults buy it, then the case for the package may be more compelling, if you can live with all the restrictions. 

[CaptainZander]

It depends what you would normally spend OBC on as to how you think this will work for you. If you tend to shop with it for a treat or use it in the spa or retreat then the package is not a good deal.

 

We are going to the Baltic this year so will be pre-booking any excursions before we board to ensure there is still availability or arranging with local companies.

 

We will not be using the spa or retreat and will probably have the odd meal supplement to pay but nothing significant.

 

We do have some drinks at lunch, a bottle of wine at dinner and some drinks after dinner at the shows. Our usual drinks bill would be around the £610 mark anyway for all four of us. Now with the package, we can have a drink when we fancy and as long as we have more than £10.88 worth per day we can feel no great pressure to drink a lot more to get our monies worth.

 

We will have to work around the restrictions - more cocktails will make it easier to bear and the kids will enjoy the freedom too to have a drink when they want without it being marked off their usual drinks card. 

 

I am an interested to see how the package will be used as an enticement for future bookings and if it affects drink prices in general but with so much uncertainty around at the moment with 49 days until Brexit, it is just another small factor to consider in a complex landscape. 

 

We love our cruises with P&O and whilst this is a nice to have for us it is not a deal breaker either way. 

[jeanlyon]

Can I ask what you mean by " as long as we have more than £10.88 a day "  It's £39 per day per person?

[majortom10]

26 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Can I ask what you mean by " as long as we have more than £10.88 a day "  It's £39 per day per person?

Because she is taking into account OBC, Peninsular Club discount and the fact that she has children who will get free drinks package.

Edited February 8, 2019 by majortom10

[CaptainZander]

Exactly. The way we view it for our next trip is that the package cost minus our OBC and peninsular discount works out at £10.88 for each of us per day as a family of 4.

 

I think it will let us be more sociable and have a few drinks before dinner in a bar rather than having a gin on the balcony most nights before dinner (we are always late sitting). So I see that as a potential benefit too. 

 

I don’t think it will cause us to drink a lot more than we would at the moment but it may encourage us to try some different drinks and some new venues. It will be interesting to see how it works in practice and whether we find it to be a good thing. 

 

I appreciate it won’t suit everyone but I can see families seeing this as an interesting option. 

[bee-ess]

10 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

You are indeed but my concern about the introduction of a drinks package, as a moderate drinker with a wife who drinks far less, is that P&O will now start to increase drink prices to make the drinks package look more attractive. This then leads to the drinks package price rising and becomes a vicious upward spiral until this particular profit centre reaches its plateau and drinks on board become luxury items.

 

Thats my concern as well.

[bee-ess]

4 hours ago, CaptainZander said:

Exactly. The way we view it for our next trip is that the package cost minus our OBC and peninsular discount works out at £10.88 for each of us per day as a family of 4.

 

I think it will let us be more sociable and have a few drinks before dinner in a bar rather than having a gin on the balcony most nights before dinner (we are always late sitting). So I see that as a potential benefit too. 

 

I don’t think it will cause us to drink a lot more than we would at the moment but it may encourage us to try some different drinks and some new venues. It will be interesting to see how it works in practice and whether we find it to be a good thing. 

 

I appreciate it won’t suit everyone but I can see families seeing this as an interesting option. 

 

Sorry, but you don't start getting your Peninsular discount until you have used up your OBC, but I agree it is good value in your situation.

[majortom10]

10 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

 

Sorry, but you don't start getting your Peninsular discount until you have used up your OBC, but I agree it is good value in your situation.

P&O have stated on their Facebook page that you will get your appropriate discount on the drinks package at point of purchase and will not be affected by OBC. Whether this works out this way or again different departments given out differing information we will wait to see or perhaps those that purchase drinks package will report back.

[bee-ess]

5 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Because she is taking into account OBC, Peninsular Club discount and the fact that she has children who will get free drinks package.

 

Oops, didn't know that - is it only for Drinks Package that do get your discount or all spends. Have always had to use up OBC first in the past

[CaptainZander]

The calculation is taking off the OBC amount first then applying the peninsular discount to the remaining balance to determine the per head per day cost of the drinks package for our family. I agree that the discount only applies once OBC has been used up. 

[jeanlyon]

I don't understand that at all.  However, on our next cruise, we have £270 OBC which will all but cover our drinks and we don't do excursions, preferring to DIY, so might not need any more money at all!!  That;s a 19 night cruise.

[majortom10]

37 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I don't understand that at all.  However, on our next cruise, we have £270 OBC which will all but cover our drinks and we don't do excursions, preferring to DIY, so might not need any more money at all!!  That;s a 19 night cruise.

But you arent a couple with 2 kids who obviously spend a lot on drinks sp pretty obvious that they would normally spend what you do. To be honest to only spend £270 on a 19 nt cruise is very low spend and if as you have said you have one glass of wine before dinner and one during dinner if hubby has the same and you do it every night on a 19nt cruise it will cost you more than £270 as it works out at just over £7pppd.

Edited February 8, 2019 by majortom10

[jeanlyon]

No, we have a bottle of wine with dinner, but that is not included in the package!   How does your package include kids?  Don't you have to buy the kids soft drinks package as well?  Each person has to buy the £39 package, so that's 78 pp per day.  Then there's the kids packages, or have I not understood something.

[CaptainZander]

The kids package is included for kids in the same cabin when the adults purchase the Ultimate Drinks Package. 

 

I’ll explain it:

Total cost for 2 adults. £1118.60 for 2 weeks.

 

Minus our OBC (£460) = 658.60

 

Minus our peninsular discount once OBC used up (7.5%) = £609.205

 

So cost per day for 4 of us is £609.205 / 14 = £43.52

 

Price per head per day is £10.88

 

Great value for us as we can drink this each in Costa and soft drinks, never mind when you add a few drinks and glasses of wine on. 

 

Hope that helps to clarify. 

 

[Selbourne]

I do find this notion that OBC is somehow not the passengers money but P&O’s quite incredible. The same used to be said by some people about the auto service charge and I could never understand the logic of that either. 

 

If I give you £50 to put in your pocket to add to the £20 that you already had there and you go out shopping and spend £70, would you say that you only really spent £20 because someone had already given you £50?

 

I consider the price that I pay for every cruise to be the net of the price paid less OBC, because P&O uses it as a marketing tool (price up, OBC up - price down, OBC down). We have had as little as £200 OBC (for two of us) and as much as £1000 (for four of us) and I have never had any difficulty using it up, even without drinks packages. 

 

What it does highlight is how clever the concept of OBC is as a marketing concept when so many people don’t consider it as their own money and are happy to use it for things that, if they had to pay the full cost out of their pocket, they might think twice about. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, CaptainZander said:

The kids package is included for kids in the same cabin when the adults purchase the Ultimate Drinks Package. 

 

I’ll explain it:

Total cost for 2 adults. £1118.60 for 2 weeks.

 

Minus our OBC (£460) = 658.60

 

Minus our peninsular discount once OBC used up (7.5%) = £609.205

 

So cost per day for 4 of us is £609.205 / 14 = £43.52

 

Price per head per day is £10.88

 

Great value for us as we can drink this each in Costa and soft drinks, never mind when you add a few drinks and glasses of wine on. 

 

Hope that helps to clarify. 

 

I agree with all your calculations except the OBC, if you did not allocate this to your drinks package then it would be available for lots of other things like speciality dining or spa treatments or something from the shops. The rest is specific to your drinks package, which works out at £18.50 pp.

[jeanlyon]

I can't agree about the OBC?  this is your money.  Our OBC pays most of our drinks bill.  I just cannot see your figures and I'm quite good at maths.

[CaptainZander]

I am merely illustrating in my example above how it could work for us. I did not mean to suggest that it would be the same for everyone. Our level of OBC and peninsular discount are particular to our next cruise. 

 

I’ve outlined the maths in detail above so have no more to add. We view the OBC as bonus credit as we got great deals on our next two cruises. I realise, as stated above, that people like to use it for all sorts of different reasons but in this example we have chosen to use it on the drinks package. 

 

I agree the drinks package will not work for many people but wanted to be a minority voice that shows it will work well for some, particularly for families, without having to drink to excess. 

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I agree with all your calculations except the OBC, if you did not allocate this to your drinks package then it would be available for lots of other things like speciality dining or spa treatments or something from the shops. The rest is specific to your drinks package, which works out at £18.50 pp.

 

I got to the same figure BUT then I realised that kids soft drinks packages are only £7.95 a day (if you had to pay for them) so in the example given by CaptainZander the adults are actually paying £29 per person per day, after discount. Clearly a lot better than £39.95 but for me the maths are one thing - the restrictions, which render the AI package useless at any price for many of us, are another!

[Zombatar]

I posted this yesterday to the "Other" P&O drinks thread so here it is on the proper thread!!

 

Interesting thread and I think the general feeling is that the package is too expensive. I agree with that and also find that it is pretty unworkable unless you are a beer drinker in which case it will suit you fine as long as you are drinking over ten pints a day. We have just retuned from28 days on Ventura. We don't drink very much doing the day but occasionally will have cider for me and a glass of house wine for Jenny, these would be covered on the package. Every evening we went to the Red bar for G&T's. I like the Andersons perfect serve which is excluded from the package as it is over the £6.95 limit and also a double and with a bottle of tonic. Jenny has a single Andersons (okay under the package) with a Slimline tonic (not allowed under the package as it is a can). Off to dinner then and our glasses of Red wine do not qualify under the package as they cost just over £7 each and that exceeds the £6.95 limit. The package also excluded large bottles of water, but my after dinner scotch would be okay as long as I don't have my usual double! The cost of the package for a 28 day cruise would be £2240. Our total spend for the cruise was just a bit over £1500 and that's before the deduction of OBC and Peninsular club discount!(Gratuities are not included as I cancelled them on the second day).  Nuff said I think!

 

Peter and Jenny

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Zombatar
Spelling corrections

[darrencolne]

People who like wine with meals can you not just have glasses of wine instead of purchasing a bottle? Glasses of wine must be u der the 6.99 threshold?  We will be getting wibe by the glass with meals

[FangedRose]

1 minute ago, darrencolne said:

People who like wine with meals can you not just have glasses of wine instead of purchasing a bottle? Glasses of wine must be u der the 6.99 threshold?  We will be getting wibe by the glass with meals

Yes. If you can get the wine waiter to come to your table more than once during the meal. 

[majortom10]

3 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

Yes. If you can get the wine waiter to come to your table more than once during the meal. 

That has always been a problem in the past and cynically think that will be even more of a problem in the future to stop you ordering more glasses of wine and boosting P&Os profits.

[jeanlyon]

Yes, we have our bottle of wine on the table and we pour it ourselves.  For one thing, I don't like my glass topped up.  I would rather finish the glass and then have some more if I want it.  I don't want to have to ask the wine waiter each time.  We order from the wineline on the first day onboard and then when that's finished, we order another.  They keep the bottle with our name on it.

 

Actually, I was wrong above, £270 won't cover it, but it won't be more than about another £130.  About £400 in all.  We don't finish a bottle of wine every night, so I reckon on about 12 bottles of wine for a 19 nighter, plus about £10 per night in the bar.  Husband has a whisky and I have a glass of wine.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by jeanlyon

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, darrencolne said:

People who like wine with meals can you not just have glasses of wine instead of purchasing a bottle? Glasses of wine must be u der the 6.99 threshold?  We will be getting wibe by the glass with meals

 

Aside from the service issues already mentioned, you can only get a limited selection of wines by the glass. We certainly aren’t wine snobs, but we tend not to like the house wines offered by P&O and like to try different wines which we order by the bottle, even though a bottle usually lasts us a couple of nights. We tend to have a nice white and a nice red on the go, so don’t have to be ordering continually. Getting the attention of a wine waiter more than once is a hassle we don’t need when on holiday.