Deluxe beverage package $59/day

[taglovestocruise]

14 minutes ago, Balsam12 said:

I didn't see anyone "correcting" you.

 

I had a similar "huh?" reaction when I saw 16.36% gratuity in your post... as far as I knew, gratuity charges were 18%.

 

Can you enlighten us on how you save 1.64% on yours?

Royals new math. This is what it says at checkout.

 

• A 16.36% gratuity charge will be added to each package price listed above.
• Please note: Orders cannot be modified once they're added to your shopping cart. To change an order, you'll need to first cancel the order, and then make your purchase(s) agai
•  
• This is for Allure Oct. 25 2020 in the Med.. We are on the following cruise leaving on the TA back to Fll. Things are back to normal.

• Thomas 

  • Age 70
  • Reservation xxx2461

  Deborah 

  • Age 64
  • Reservation xxx2461
  • A 18% gratuity charge will be added to each package price listed above.
  • Please note: Orders cannot be modified once they're added to your shopping cart. To change an order, you'll need to first cancel the order, and then make your purchase(s) again.
  •  
  •  The UBP is 60+grat the first week and 52+ grant the second week. 

[Crism]

$65 a day on a 4 night Navigator! Absolutely not!

[RickAinley]

18 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Royals new math. This is what it says at checkout.

 

I'm betting it's because European cruises probably have to charge VAT (Value Added Tax), show an inclusive price and the gratuity is added to the pre-tax price. Just a calculated guess!

[Retired LEO]

8 hours ago, CK57 said:

We are Harmony in April 2020 and has been at $57, until last week at $62, and today $65.  They are nuts!

Who's nuts? The cruise line for trying to make a little money or those that are willing to pay the $65

[vision14k]

The price I paid for the deluxe plus Voom a

couple weeks ago is cheaper than the amount they’re asking now for just the deluxe! Crazy!

[mayleeman]

Both legs of our Oct 20/Oct 27 Allure B2B have gone up. On both, UDP went from 175 to 199; bev pkg from 50/49 (respectively) to 59; bev + Voom up to 73 from 60/59; and refreshment pkg has gone from 20 to 26 on both.

 

FWIW, soda pkg remains at 8.99, and the coffee card stays at 31.

 

I am now a convert to the Church of Zismakethnosense!

Edited August 10, 2019 by mayleeman
;

[Merion_Mom]

4 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

YEP, you are always correcting me and you are always wrong. Wrong about gratuities, wrong about specialty dining packages, wrong about what I can get in the DL.  Wrong about using the DL vouchers in specialty dining after the cut off time. Wrong about ordering a second entrée in specialty dining. Par for the course you will be wrong next time. This is for Oct 25 2020 Allure. Happy cruising. 

• A 16.36% gratuity charge will be added to each package price listed above.
• Please note: Orders cannot be modified once they're added to your shopping cart. To change an order, you'll need to first cancel the order, and then make your purchase(s) agai

 

I sincerely hope that you feel better now.

[CruisingNole]

4 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

YEP, you are always correcting me and you are always wrong. Wrong about gratuities, wrong about specialty dining packages, wrong about what I can get in the DL.  Wrong about using the DL vouchers in specialty dining after the cut off time. Wrong about ordering a second entrée in specialty dining. Par for the course you will be wrong next time. This is for Oct 25 2020 Allure. Happy cruising. 

• A 16.36% gratuity charge will be added to each package price listed above.
• Please note: Orders cannot be modified once they're added to your shopping cart. To change an order, you'll need to first cancel the order, and then make your purchase(s) agai

 

Grandma always knows best 😂

[Biker19]

10 hours ago, Balsam12 said:

Can you enlighten us on how you save 1.64% on yours?

Most folks in this thread are talking about the DP - I think that poster bought the combo package, DP+VOOM. There's no grats on the VOOM portion of the combo, so the math works out that the grats is that weird amount.

[Merion_Mom]

30 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Most folks in this thread are talking about the DP - I think that poster bought the combo package, DP+VOOM. There's no grats on the VOOM portion of the combo, so the math works out that the grats is that weird amount.

 

If that is the situation, your explanation makes a lot of sense. 

[kidless]

When drink package was first introduced we thought GREAT! Pay up front no worries. Now I’m not so sure. We’ve seen a decline in table service in lounges and the bars often get mobbed! People drink more in effort to get their  “moneys worth” so really drunk people around.  Drink package kind of negates the benefit of DL.  Price is all over place $46 on one cruise $67 on another. 

 

I’d love to see Royal Caribbean offer some different packages at lower prices. Perhaps 50% off package for Diamond and above. Or a package for $35 day but with drink limit. 

 

#JMHO

[CruisingNole]

12 minutes ago, kidless said:

When drink package was first introduced we thought GREAT! Pay up front no worries. Now I’m not so sure. We’ve seen a decline in table service in lounges and the bars often get mobbed! People drink more in effort to get their  “moneys worth” so really drunk people around.  Drink package kind of negates the benefit of DL.  Price is all over place $46 on one cruise $67 on another. 

 

I’d love to see Royal Caribbean offer some different packages at lower prices. Perhaps 50% off package for Diamond and above. Or a package for $35 day but with drink limit. 

 

#JMHO

 

Royal is my preferred cruise line but one thing I despise (and for this reason, many people cruise other lines) is that when I book my cruise, I don’t know what the real price is going to be until after my card is charged. Don’t know what drink package, speciality dining etc will cost. When you have a group of people on a budget, the little things matter and after they are all tallied up, they aren’t so little. One sailing charges $45 for drink package, another charges $65. The discrepancy is ridiculous.

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

... One sailing charges $45 for drink package, another charges $65. The discrepancy is ridiculous.

 

Dynamic pricing.

[CruisingNole]

Just now, Host Clarea said:

 

Dynamic pricing.

 

I understand the concept, but it would be nice if the current prices were disclosed to me before my credit card is charged, like every other cruise line. That’s all I was getting at. As a consumer, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to ask for.

[Merion_Mom]

3 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

 

I understand the concept, but it would be nice if the current prices were disclosed to me before my credit card is charged, like every other cruise line. That’s all I was getting at. As a consumer, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to ask for.

 

But you may hit the jackpot with a really great sale price!  People often post that they get the best price on a holiday sale. Labor Day is coming. 😊

[Clarea]

5 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

 

I understand the concept, but it would be nice if the current prices were disclosed to me before my credit card is charged, like every other cruise line. That’s all I was getting at. As a consumer, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing to ask for.

 

I thought Royal's website showed the final charge before you had to click "Purchase".

[LuCruise]

4 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

But you may hit the jackpot with a really great sale price!  People often post that they get the best price on a holiday sale. Labor Day is coming. 😊

Maybe that's why they jacked up the prices....so on Labor Day, they offer the "previous" going rate.

 

[CruisingNole]

12 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I thought Royal's website showed the final charge before you had to click "Purchase".

 

For drink and dining packages? Nope. Those prices aren’t disclosed until AFTER you’ve booked the cruise. But you know that.

[BND]

I just don't see how this is worth it for most people, even at less than $50/day.  We have never spent enough to justify it.  As an example, we just got back from a week on Carnival Pride.  Their drink package is comparable in price, but you can't use it on their private island which was our longest port day (although it rained/t--stormed and we got back onboard early) and after 1 week, buying what we wanted when we wanted including specialty coffee, wine, cocktails and soda, we spent a whopping $ 236 for both of us.  So, that's about $33/day for two people, or $16.50/day per person.  I drink more than DH so my daily was closer to $20, but still.  The package is such a huge moneymaker for the cruise lines.  For every person who is convinced they drink more than the package value, there are probably 25 others who don't get anywhere near it so of course RCI is going to push it to what the market will bear.  

 

I also don't get the mentality of not wanting the bill at the end.  If it's less, why wouldn't you?

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

 

For drink and dining packages? Nope. Those prices aren’t disclosed until AFTER you’ve booked the cruise. But you know that.

 

Sorry, I misunderstood.  I thought you were saying that you had to purchase the dining package before you saw the price.

 

So you are saying that Royal should not be able to change any of the add-on prices for up to 1.5 years after a cruise comes out.

[CruisingNole]

4 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Sorry, I misunderstood.  I thought you were saying that you had to purchase the dining package before you saw the price.

 

So you are saying that Royal should not be able to change any of the add-on prices for up to 1.5 years after a cruise comes out.

 

Of course they can change it. I’ll repeat what I’ve already said. It would be nice if the current prices for drink and dining packages were disclosed to the consumer prior to booking the cruise. That’s all.

[TwinMamainMN]

Deluxe Beverage Package has been $52 for awhile now on Radiance for our May 2020 TP sailing from HI to Vanocuver. Being on a smaller ship isn't always a bad thing.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

16 minutes ago, BND said:

I just don't see how this is worth it for most people, even at less than $50/day.  We have never spent enough to justify it.  As an example, we just got back from a week on Carnival Pride.  Their drink package is comparable in price, but you can't use it on their private island which was our longest port day (although it rained/t--stormed and we got back onboard early) and after 1 week, buying what we wanted when we wanted including specialty coffee, wine, cocktails and soda, we spent a whopping $ 236 for both of us.  So, that's about $33/day for two people, or $16.50/day per person.  I drink more than DH so my daily was closer to $20, but still.  The package is such a huge moneymaker for the cruise lines.  For every person who is convinced they drink more than the package value, there are probably 25 others who don't get anywhere near it so of course RCI is going to push it to what the market will bear.  

 

I also don't get the mentality of not wanting the bill at the end.  If it's less, why wouldn't you?

Totally agree with you!  

 

If you think you're going to drink enough, fine go for it.  But the people who say "I don't want to think about the cost" or "I don't want to deal with a bill at the end" (here's a hint... take the money you would have spent on the package and set it aside, then use that to pay your bill at the end) or the other bizarre reasons just floor me.  

[Clarea]

11 minutes ago, CruisingNole said:

 

Of course they can change it. I’ll repeat what I’ve already said. It would be nice if the current prices for drink and dining packages were disclosed to the consumer prior to booking the cruise. That’s all.

 

So you would be OK with them disclosing the prices pre-cruise, then having different prices when you go into your Cruise Planner 5 minutes after booking the cruise to actually purchase the add-ons.  Because you know  that's the way it would be with Royal.

[reaton]

34 minutes ago, BND said:

I just don't see how this is worth it for most people, even at less than $50/day.  We have never spent enough to justify it.  As an example, we just got back from a week on Carnival Pride.  Their drink package is comparable in price, but you can't use it on their private island which was our longest port day (although it rained/t--stormed and we got back onboard early) and after 1 week, buying what we wanted when we wanted including specialty coffee, wine, cocktails and soda, we spent a whopping $ 236 for both of us.  So, that's about $33/day for two people, or $16.50/day per person.  I drink more than DH so my daily was closer to $20, but still.  The package is such a huge moneymaker for the cruise lines.  For every person who is convinced they drink more than the package value, there are probably 25 others who don't get anywhere near it so of course RCI is going to push it to what the market will bear.  

 

I also don't get the mentality of not wanting the bill at the end.  If it's less, why wouldn't you?

 

I completely agree. We just got back from a b2b, so 14 days. I was skeptical of the price of the deluxe package so we decided to try this time without it (and it never got below $48 per person per day). We spent $400 in total for both weeks (including $137 in liquor to bring home and $40 in bow ties and a new purse). We brought on water/soda/wine. We bought a couple bottles of wine while dining in specialty restaurants and had a day where we drank whatever by the pool. We drank in port. We don’t normally drink much soda or any specialty coffees. I also brought my Britta water bottle that I use at work. So glad we didn’t buy the package. For us the fact that you have to drink that much every day was a sticking point. After having the beverage package on other lines, I know I run into drink fatigue especially on a port intense cruise. I also don’t drink a ton at home regularly, so there’s that also.