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Signature beverage package


twentyknots
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7 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

No, it won’t be there.

 

Log in to your booking and click on “my itinerary” and it should show on your embarkation day.  It doesn’t hurt to bring a print out of that or the email from HAL confirming your purchase with you - in case.  Once you see all is good, it can go in recycling on board.

Hmmmm - It isnt listed there either.  I booked and paid through a TA.  I guess I will contact him.  Thanks!

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On 9/21/2019 at 9:53 AM, Aquahound said:

 

The promotion I received was $140 per person on top of the normal booking price.  Nowhere in it or on my documents does it even mention gratuities.  Nor was I charged gratuities upon final payment.  Am I to assume they were included or will there be a gratuity fee added to my on-board spending account?  I'm good either way because it was a good deal, but it would just be nice to know.  

I think we are mixing up the terms "gratuities" and the Hotel Service Charge (HSC).   The 15% gratuity charged on every beverage is included in the Signature Beverage Package (SBP) and it doesn't matter if you purchase the SBP with your cash or it was supplied via a promotion like (the OLD) Explore-4 or the Early Booking Bonus (EBB).   The SBP is priced (or valued if it is part of a promotion) at $44.95 per day plus 15%, or $51.70 per cruise day.   The 15% gratuity has been paid, so you should see no additional cabin account charges from drinks you get using the package.  If you order a drink that exceeds the $11 max of the SBP, then you will pay for the full menu price of the drink plus 15%.   And the $11 max price included in the SBP is the beverage's MENU price.  You do not have to figure-in the 15% to see if the drink is included in the $11 max price.  You (or HAL) have already paid for the 15% gratuity.

The daily HSC gratuities are not related in any way to the 15% gratuities for beverage service.  Totally different animal.  Some promotions provide free Hotel Service Charge.   That is a fixed amount credited to your onboard account and debited each day.   Those gratuities are not related to the pre-paid gratuities of the SBP.

Edited by TAD2005
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On 5/10/2019 at 11:22 PM, Jammu2 said:

I'm on Oosterdam now. Our party has the SBP. Also a gift from the TA.

 

No 1 liter bottles! You will be charged. Order the 500 ml Evian or the 350 ml Perrier.

 

The $11 is for wine by the glass. Not mixed drinks. Drink limit is still $9.

 

Unlimited non-alcohol is right. I dont think Heineken 0.0 is unlimited.

 

Have a great time. We are!

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On 9/22/2019 at 12:14 PM, TAD2005 said:

I think we are mixing up the terms "gratuities" and the Hotel Service Charge (HSC).   The 15% gratuity charged on every beverage is included in the Signature Beverage Package (SBP) and it doesn't matter if you purchase the SBP with your cash or it was supplied via a promotion like (the OLD) Explore-4 or the Early Booking Bonus (EBB).   The SBP is priced (or valued if it is part of a promotion) at $44.95 per day plus 15%, or $51.70 per cruise day.   The 15% gratuity has been paid, so you should see no additional cabin account charges from drinks you get using the package.  If you order a drink that exceeds the $11 max of the SBP, then you will pay for the full menu price of the drink plus 15%.   And the $11 max price included in the SBP is the beverage's MENU price.  You do not have to figure-in the 15% to see if the drink is included in the $11 max price.  You (or HAL) have already paid for the 15% gratuity.

The daily HSC gratuities are not related in any way to the 15% gratuities for beverage service.  Totally different animal.  Some promotions provide free Hotel Service Charge.   That is a fixed amount credited to your onboard account and debited each day.   Those gratuities are not related to the pre-paid gratuities of the SBP.

 

On 9/21/2019 at 8:32 AM, kazu said:

 

I’m not sure what your $140 pp is?  OBC?  

 

But, if gratuities are not mentioned, it’s my experience they are not paid by HAL.

 

But, gratuities are never charged with final payment.  They are charged daily when you are on board and are part of your final bill for charges incurred on the ship.

 

I hope this makes sense.

 

There definitely seems to be a mix up with the terms because I wasn't referring to the regular hotel service charge gratuities.  

 

$140 was what I paid for the SBP.  It was a promotion at booking.  On line, I was able to choose the regular room rate, or a rate of $140 more that included the SBP.  With the talk of gratuities, I wasn't sure if that incredibly cheap rate for the SBP included gratuities or if I would have been charged gratuities on board with every drink order, or even just a flat 15% rate on top of the $140.  I never had the SBP on HAL, so I didn't know how they did it.

 

But having just returned from my trip, I can confirm that incredible $140 rate did include the gratuities.   I did not pay a dime more at booking, nor on the ship.  😁

Edited by Aquahound
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  • 1 month later...
On 9/28/2019 at 3:07 PM, Aquahound said:

 

 

There definitely seems to be a mix up with the terms because I wasn't referring to the regular hotel service charge gratuities.  

 

$140 was what I paid for the SBP.  It was a promotion at booking.  On line, I was able to choose the regular room rate, or a rate of $140 more that included the SBP.  With the talk of gratuities, I wasn't sure if that incredibly cheap rate for the SBP included gratuities or if I would have been charged gratuities on board with every drink order, or even just a flat 15% rate on top of the $140.  I never had the SBP on HAL, so I didn't know how they did it.

 

But having just returned from my trip, I can confirm that incredible $140 rate did include the gratuities.   I did not pay a dime more at booking, nor on the ship.  😁

 

With the Signature Beverage Package, are glasses of wine (up to $11) covered in the Main Dining Room? Asking because I've seen others who prefer to bring their own wine aboard (and pay the fee) rather than pay for the wine on board. But I don't have a ... let's say, refined taste for wine, so I think I'll be satisfied with the lower priced wines, so long as they are covered in most circumstances I find myself in (I know there are exceptions to where SBP applies).

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On 5/15/2019 at 8:31 AM, fatcat04 said:

A regular martini looks to be $8.75. Here is the best site around for all bar menus on HAL. This site is a great resource. http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/hal-beverage-menus

Thank you for this great information. Decent pricing for cocktails and spirits and a nice selection. 

I looked at menus at four venues. And wow! What a pitiful selection of wines by the glass! I would say this goes for either the elite or regular package!  I was thinking about upgrading to elite for nicer wines, but if this is what HAL is offering in May, It just doesn’t seem worth it to me. I thought Princess had a weak wine list by the glass, but HAL takes the prize for that. Maybe it’s just me, yes I enjoy nice wine, but many of these wines are fairly pitiful. A corkage fee may be okay from time to time on our longer voyage. 

Edited by Vineyard View
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5 hours ago, CrowsNest91 said:

 

With the Signature Beverage Package, are glasses of wine (up to $11) covered in the Main Dining Room? Asking because I've seen others who prefer to bring their own wine aboard (and pay the fee) rather than pay for the wine on board. But I don't have a ... let's say, refined taste for wine, so I think I'll be satisfied with the lower priced wines, so long as they are covered in most circumstances I find myself in (I know there are exceptions to where SBP applies).

 

Yes, it does cover it.  We had wine a couple times at dinner.  There were only a couple choices that were covered, but I didn't think they were bad.  

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7 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Thank you for this great information. Decent pricing for cocktails and spirits and a nice selection. 

I looked at menus at four venues. And wow! What a pitiful selection of wines by the glass! I would say this goes for either the elite or regular package!  I was thinking about upgrading to elite for nicer wines, but if this is what HAL is offering in May, It just doesn’t seem worth it to me. I thought Princess had a weak wine list by the glass, but HAL takes the prize for that. Maybe it’s just me, yes I enjoy nice wine, but many of these wines are fairly pitiful. A corkage fee may be okay from time to time on our longer voyage. 

 

I agree that HAL's wine selections overall are a weak link for them but the selection of other alcoholic beverages is good at a reasonable price as long as your drink of choice is not "out of stock" for your cruise.  My beer choices have been "out of stock" on a couple of my cruises and they are just run of the mill United States brands.  I'll see how well stocked the Oosterdam is in two weeks!! 🙂

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18 hours ago, oakridger said:

 

I agree that HAL's wine selections overall are a weak link for them but the selection of other alcoholic beverages is good at a reasonable price as long as your drink of choice is not "out of stock" for your cruise.  My beer choices have been "out of stock" on a couple of my cruises and they are just run of the mill United States brands.  I'll see how well stocked the Oosterdam is in two weeks!! 🙂

I totally agree with you on the selection of other alcoholic beverages. No issues with what is offered, nor the pricing which is completely fair in my opinion.  I didn’t even think about an ‘out of stock’ problem but we can be flexible! 

With our upcoming itinerary we will have no problem finding nice local wines in ports at reasonable prices, and pay the corkage fee if we want different wines than offered from time to time. There are itineraries where this strategy wouldn’t work so well, so I know we will be happy with how this rolls out! I am grateful for the information ahead of time. 

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  • 2 months later...

Does anyone know if you purchase the SBP if you can drink the DeGroff cocktails? It states any alcoholic drink under $11 and some of these cocktails are $10.95 on the menus BUT the elite package specifically states include the DeGroff cocktails?

 

anyone have experience with this onboard?

 

i mainly drink cocktails and beer so trying to see if it’s worthwhile spending the extra 

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  • 2 months later...

What I didn’t see answered though is if your given the SBP for free as a promotional freebie for booking during this COVID-19 issue, is if you can upgrade to the Elite for the difference in price between the SBP and elite? In the case of our cruise. If one were to buy the SBP, it would be $723, and the Elite is $806. (Total) Since I am getting the SBP for free. I am wondering if I could upgrade to the elite, by paying the difference of $83. I would prefer to do this to get the added benefit of getting to choose the $15 drinks, instead of only the $11 drinks for my 14 day cruise.

Edited by Texasgrillchef
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Thank you all for the great information in this this thread.

 

Does anyone have the wine by the glass list for the MDR?  That would be critical for us to know before purchasing a beverage package.

 

 

 

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Thanks to Mr. Roger Jett in his link below -  These will give you a general idea, but even before the shutdown, in my experience, the wines varied from ship to ship.  After start up the wines sourced could be different.  Also, in my opinion the wines by the glass were just "so so".....but that didn't stop me from drinking some of them!  

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/hal-beverage-menus

 

 

~Nancy

 

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