Another Option instead of Purchasing Beverage Packages

[Hawaiidan]

19 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

Have you bothered to consider that some of us are not using investments for  our pre-purchases of OBC?  Some of us do it from our regular cash flow.  

 

Don’t “assume”.  You know what happens when you ASSuME

Your right.... I figures that most are retired and rely on investments for  their trips and the majority of  income.   Sorry I did make that assumption as almost everyone I know  is in that "boat"..

[Cruise Junky]

1 minute ago, Hawaiidan said:

 

 

I can understand you reluctance.    Its not that hard to pick investments that perform reliably offer good dividends and  do so reliably year after year after year some times are better than others but is is safe to develop a  base that grows 20-25% a year on average, 

  Like astrophysics and aeronautical engineering   investments can be calculated just as  drag and thrust or Vne can.  Knowing the past can in many instances predict the future.  By doing research you can with reliability predict the future..ask Buffett.... Like  science it takes awareness and focus.        Did you run into Bill Varnendoe  or Jim Cole....by chance.

I have confined my involvement now only 1.... for the past 15 years  it has kept me solvent.  Hey  its natural to distrust the world of investment... remember 1939 still clouds many minds..   

I wish you a good  future...   how ever you and other choose. Just like physics ,the laws of investing  remain pretty solid and reliable since Archimedes and Euclid  .

Dude, I have worked at the world's largest stock registry business for close to 30 years.  Let it go.....

[kazu]

1 minute ago, Hawaiidan said:

Your right.... I figures that most are retired and rely on investments for  their trips and the majority of  income.   Sorry I did make that assumption as almost everyone I know  is in that "boat"..

 

I am retired and DH is mostly retired.  It is all paid from cash flow, not investments.  I suspect we are not alone.  That’s the benefit if you do it bit by bit.

[Hawaiidan]

2 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I am retired and DH is mostly retired.  It is all paid from cash flow, not investments.  I suspect we are not alone.  That’s the benefit if you do it bit by bit.

 

2 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I am retired and DH is mostly retired.  It is all paid from cash flow, not investments.  I suspect we are not alone.  That’s the benefit if you do it bit by bit.

 

2 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I am retired and DH is mostly retired.  It is all paid from cash flow, not investments.  I suspect we are not alone.  That’s the benefit if you do it bit by bit.

Mr too.... I have what you call a cash flow bit by bit  but much of it is from investments  which is my saving, fun money and day to day income....     No different... I just look at it and structure it different..   In the end  we are both doing the same things.

Enjoy retirement  bon vie.

[Hawaiidan]

8 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

Dude, I have worked at the world's largest stock registry business for close to 30 years.  Let it go.....

Your right.... I get frustrated  people locked  in a comfortable pattern.    If your a broker or were  you understand.

[kazu]

3 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

 

 

Mr too.... I have what you call a cash flow bit by bit  but much of it is from investments  which is my saving, fun money and day to day income....     No different... I just look at it and structure it different..   In the end  we are both doing the same things.

Enjoy retirement  bon vie.

 

Nope we’re not doing the same things.  Haven’t touched my investments yet.

It’s not my day to day income.  The day will come - but it hasn’t yet.  We operate on our regular cash flow but if I don’t hit the investments soon, someone else will get to spend them 😄 

[RocketMan275]

44 minutes ago, kazu said:

 We operate on our regular cash flow but if I don’t hit the investments soon, someone else will get to spend them 😄 

As a 'rocket scientist' once said:  "If you don't travel first class, your grand kids will."

[kazu]

1 minute ago, RocketMan275 said:

As a 'rocket scientist' once said:  "If you don't travel first class, your grand kids will."

LOL - we do go first class (when we can) on that exact premise.

 

I really liked a roll call member’s name - ski ww - standing for “spending our kids inheritance world wide”.  Sound thinking 😄 

[RocketMan275]

3 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

 

 

I can understand you reluctance.    Its not that hard to pick investments that perform reliably offer good dividends and  do so reliably year after year after year some times are better than others but is is safe to develop a  base that grows 20-25% a year on average, 

 

If you could reliably, year in year out, produce 20-25% ROI, Warren Buffet would have you on speed dial.

[Fouremco]

9 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

If you could reliably, year in year out, produce 20-25% ROI, Warren Buffet would have you on speed dial.

There are definitely some credibility issues with this self-professed financial whiz. 

[cruzin4us]

Argh, ya all are making my head spin 

 

My intent of this post is for the poorer people like myself to try to sock away a little $ away at a time in OBC so we don't have shell shock at the end of the cruise.  A lot of us don't have the luxury of big savings, stock accounts, inheritance, etc. 

 

I'm trying to help some people with other options instead of buying a beverage package and getting hoodwinked when they realize it doesn't pay for itself.   The OBC suggestion is a way of saving a little extra money to pay for drinks rather than charging it to a cc which like some of us with the best of intentions don't manage to pay it off monthly.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by cruzin4us

[5bestyears]

13 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

Argh, ya all are making my head spin 

 

My intent of this post is for the poorer people like myself to try to sock away a little $ away at a time in OBC so we don't have shell shock at the end of the cruise.  A lot of us don't have the luxury of big savings, stock accounts, inheritance, etc. 

 

I'm trying to help some people with other options instead of buying a beverage package and getting hoodwinked when they realize it doesn't pay for itself.   The OBC suggestion is a way of saving a little extra money to pay for drinks rather than charging it to a cc which like some of us with the best of intentions don't manage to pay it off monthly.

 

 

Thanks....I didn't intend to start a huge discussion involving "investments". My husband and I are cautious spenders. This is only our 2nd cruise. (Most of our vacas are either driving, Hawaii, or Mexico.) Our first cruise involved the "early bird" booking, including the beverage package promotion. So...we are shell-shocked to say the least.

The OBC is what we were thinking. In addition, our children gave us a Princess gift card for Christmas. 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[5bestyears]

4 hours ago, kazu said:

LOL - we do go first class (when we can) on that exact premise.

 

I really liked a roll call member’s name - ski ww - standing for “spending our kids inheritance world wide”.  Sound thinking 😄 

Thanks, we normally go first class as much as possible. However, we are very frugal with our expenses, and would rather enjoy the excursions, and the sights of the British Isles. Thus, looking toward future adventures. Thanks for your input!

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, 5bestyears said:

Thanks, we normally go first class as much as possible. However, we are very frugal with our expenses, and would rather enjoy the excursions, and the sights of the British Isles. Thus, looking toward future adventures. Thanks for your input!

 

I fully admit most of our biz/first class flights have been on FF miles so we just pay taxes except for a couple of flight eases with HAL which were a good enough price that I put my FF miles back in the bank 😉

enjoy the British Isles.  I am sure you will have a lovely time 🙂 

[RuthC]

26 minutes ago, 5bestyears said:

44 minutes ago, cruzin4us said:

 

Thanks....I didn't intend to start a huge discussion involving "investments".

You didn't, so don't worry about it. Sometimes it's just better to let go.

[Jan3]

Question: if you are having a glass of wine in your cabin and not finished, can you carry it into the dining room?

[FlorenceItaly]

12 minutes ago, Jan3 said:

Question: if you are having a glass of wine in your cabin and not finished, can you carry it into the dining room?

Yes 

[ricko999]

Wow! What a thread, only thing not in it is the kitchen sink!  We were going to get a DP, but I'm liking the pre-purchasing more OBC and not fret about the drink charges. These are vacations after all. TC

 

[terrydtx]

We had the SBP with our Explore 4 booking for our July Alaska cruise, but this week the price dropped for our SS cabin by $767pp with out the X4 promo. We rebooked at the new lower price and saved over $1500 without the SBP now but we will come nowhere close to spending $1500 on drinks. We then ordered a 4 bottle wine package under $200 so we are now all set for our cruise.

[Patsy Flower]

I am new to Hal. First cruise 31st August.

We are happy drinking fountain soda (we don't drink alcohol) so I think we will purchase a soda card. Could anyone tell me how much is usually deducted for each drink. Also if I pre purchase before we board will the cards be in the cabin.

Thank you for all the information on these boards. It is invaluable. 

[kaiiak]

On 4/4/2019 at 6:21 PM, cruzin4us said:

Argh, ya all are making my head spin 

 

My intent of this post is for the poorer people like myself to try to sock away a little $ away at a time in OBC so we don't have shell shock at the end of the cruise.  A lot of us don't have the luxury of big savings, stock accounts, inheritance, etc. 

 

I'm trying to help some people with other options instead of buying a beverage package and getting hoodwinked when they realize it doesn't pay for itself.   The OBC suggestion is a way of saving a little extra money to pay for drinks rather than charging it to a cc which like some of us with the best of intentions don't manage to pay it off monthly.

 

 

Thank you! I appreciated your post.  We received a  SBP as part of the Explore 4, but I don't think I would purchase it myself.  For our adult son we bought him the Quench because we were concerned he wouldn't drink enough to make it cost effective  .Maybe its us Californians who appreciate your post because the cost of living is so darn high here! :)

[cruzin4us]

Just wanted to update this post after our cruise......

 

1.  I would DEFINITELY purchase the Quench beverage package again.   The mocktails and coffee drinks were perfect.   We got a large bottle of rum for our room and tho it was slightly inconvenient to run down to my room to add a bit of rum to my mocktail, it saved me a bunch of money in the long run.   Sometimes I just drank the mocktail and found it refreshing by the pool.   No way would have bought a mocktail without this pkg.

2.  I'm not a soda drinker so I didn't use that portion.

3.  I would also pour a bit of bailey's in a cup before I went and got my specialty coffee. 

4.  I only purchased 2 alcoholic drinks the entire cruise.

5.  We brought a bottle of wine on board for each night....paid the corkage on 5 of them.  This was still cheaper than buying the wine they offered of any quality.

6.  Sometimes I would order a Red Bull....they were $5.25 each if I chose to purchase.   I had one of these a day.

 

 

[kazu]

Just back from our cruise and we had dropped Explore4.

 

I don't regret it for a minute.  Those that know us know we enjoy a drink or two (or three 😉 )

 

Between Happy Hour, regular drink purchases and our wine packages we spent far less than what the Explore4 package cost.  We certainly spent but not what Explore4 would have been.

 

We did bring some wine on board to enjoy in our room and a special sparkling (nearly champagne) wine for our last night in the PG to share with our table.  Even taking the corkage into account, we still came out ahead 😄 

 

We bought beverage cards as I hate a long statement to decipher and try to remember and we actually had a tad left over which was credited back to our account.

 

Caveat - we had Explore4 for one segment last year and still ordered wine packages.  I simply don't want to drink the Explore4 wine at dinner.  DH likes Malbecs and other reds (which aren't in Explore4) and I am fussy on my dinner wines. 😉.  So Explore4 or not, I know we would have done the wine packages anyways.  Even taking them into account, we were ahead.

 

And, a comment on Happy Hour.  I really like Happy Hour with the $2 extra as it lets you choose  any drink offered.  So we had the really good wines which cost us less than 2 regular cheaper wines and we enjoyed them.

 

Caveat #2 - our cruise was fairly port intensive and I knew that and took that into account when I made the decision to drop it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rkacruiser]

3 minutes ago, kazu said:

Between Happy Hour, regular drink purchases and our wine packages we spent far less than what the Explore4 package cost.  We certainly spent but not what Explore4 would have been.

 

Your experience mirrors mine.  Besides, booking a cruise without these "wonderful packages" has, in every HAL cruise I have booked when such were offered, resulted in a cruise fare that was hundreds of dollars less than what I would have paid if the booking included the "wonderful packages".

[TAD2005]

On 4/4/2019 at 3:59 PM, Hawaiidan said:

 

 

By doing research you can with reliability predict the future..ask Buffett....

I did ask Buffett and he advised me to have plenty of Margaritas and purchase the SBP with my regular liquid income, which I always do and I have made out by hundreds of dollars on cruises from 14 days to 29 days.   I am happy with my financial decisions, and I do not need financial lectures to be able to enjoy my cruises.