Deluxe Drink Package pricing

[bitofun]

Has anyone else noticed RCI has taken several small price increases for the deluxe drink package after the "glitch" of $18/day? I have a 2020 sailing late April. I missed the "special" price by literally minutes. Oh well, such is life... At that time my sailing was $54/pp/day, but it's now up to $59/pp/day. My take on this is RCI is coming up with ways to recover from the "glitch". Like I said, this is just my take... Hoping to see even a small drop in price before my 2020 sailing.

[Clarea]

I've noticed that reported prices seem to be inching higher as time goes on.  I've not seen any recent reports of sub $40 prices like a couple of years ago.  I don't think it has anything to do with the $18 glitch.  Royal is continually testing what the market will bear.

[MandyMooToo]

I feel like they have been raising the price (on other things too, such as excursions) since the announced beverage package increase that happened at the beginning of this year I think?  As Clarea said, I have yet to see the prices as low as they were last year or the year before of course.  I doubt they are increasing the prices now just to make up for the "glitch."  I think it is more like the Key, they are testing the waters to see what we as customers are willing to pay before the masses drop off and stop buying.

[Sharenamichele]

I have a March 2020 cruise booked and the price started at $57 per night and has increased to $65 per night.  It still states the same  20% off onboard prices.  $1,073.89 including 18% gratuity for 2 people definitely seems to high.  

[CruiseBride926]

I’d held off on booking it for our Anthem cruise for a while and after continuously seeing it go down to $52 during a sale I decided to just go with it at that price in case it doesn’t get lower. Glad I did because the lowest I’ve seen it since then is $59 and it’s currently at $65. We are less then 2 months out so I’m pretty surprised it’s back up to that high.

[Esprit]

For us here in the UK the current price for our October Allure B2B is £52.91 (inc grat's) per day. I got it at £41.25 (inc grat's) a few months back. Makes quite a difference over 14 nights for two people!

[ryano]

Everyone that held off purchasing it for our upcoming Harmony cruise in 19 days is now crying the blues.  It teetered back and forth between $52 and $56 for months.  It went down to $49 and stayed there for a few weeks.  I tried to tell them in our group to jump on it if they were going to as it likely would not go lower and some didnt.  It is now 61.00 a day.  The highest Ive seen it since Ive been monitoring.

 

I dont think it has anything to do with the glitch.  I agree with Clarea in that they are just testing the waters to see what the market will bare. Ive seen The Key go from 19.99 to 29.99 on our cruise.   As long as people continue to buy at these prices, you can expect them to keep going up 

Edited August 13, 2019 by ryano

[Jarmo]

Seeing the $65 price for my Navigator cruise after it had been sitting at $52/$56 for a couple months.  I am guessing we will see some 'Unprecedented Sale Prices for Your Upcoming Sailing' emails in the next month or two with 35%-40% off to get back in the $49-$52 range.    

[springfire]

Royal wants $59/day for our Allure cruise next month and $65/day for Independence cruise in December.  Reality is we will not be buying the drinking package at those prices.   We will adjust by bringing two bottles of wine with us when we board,  use drink coupons, use the discount for wine deal with specialty dining, and taking advantage of a couple of private excursions that include drinks.  We will still buy a drink or two.  We will have a great time on our cruises with or without the drinking package.

[SunsetCruizen]

You can always purchase the drink package when you see a "reasonable" price and then if the price goes down simple cancel the drink package a re-buy it.  For my sailing on the Empress Oct 16 I can cancel and re-buy as often as I want up until Oct 14.  I've already done this once as we bought it at $52 and it went down to $47.  This also works for the excursions as well.