Just when you think the drink package can't go higher....

[mac66]

6 hours ago, Goofyfanatic said:

 

Simple economics...the company is looking to make "x" on their alcohol sales. The more people that smuggle booze aboard means that the company will have to charge more to get to that "x". 

 

Several faulty assumptions....

 

1. You are assuming that people who smuggle would be buying the ship's booze rather than simply not drink. 

 

2. It is unlikely that smuggling booze on board increases drink prices. The ship doesn't know who or how much booze gets smuggled on board.That's like saying booze/wine prices will go up if everybody who can brings two bottles of wine on board. I would guess that the ship doesn't count (and doesn't care) the number of bottles of wine  brought on board.  The ship has a pretty good idea of how much alcohol revenue any given cruise brings in. It is unaffected by a few people bringing their own.

 

3, I know people who still bring their favorite (scotch) on board even though they buy the drink package. They bring it because their brand is not offered on the ship and they still want a touch of their favorite on vacation. That certainly doesn't affect drink prices.

 

 

[atush]

Well my drinks package has gone down $9 pp/pd since yesterday and $5 pp/pd since we paid for it.

 

So i have cancelled and rebooked and saved some bucks.

 

Price history for my cruise, when i booked a fw weeks back $61, then $57 which i booked and paid for, then up to $61, tonight down to $52 pp/pd.  But some on my roll call paid less in july before i booked, i think it was $48.

 

So check your planners (in between looking at the hurricane).

[LMaxwell]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:15 AM, Merion_Mom said:

Before the drink packages, everyone paid the "per drink" prices.  It's just that now you are habituated to the "bargain" (HA!) price of an unlimited package.

 

RCI made way more off me that way.  I would buy beers in the 3-4 range and cocktails $5-6, no problem.  Now that they are double that I'm not interested.  I don't consume nearly enough to justify a package.  So I just don't drink during the day time.  

[ToroAzul]

Booze (most) doesn't expire, they aren't dumping cubic gallons overboard when a cruise ends. 

 

Want me to not smuggle? Make a price we can both agree on or I'll adjust my behavior. 

 

At $55 or less pd I'm a buyer. Higher than that then I'll bring my own and supplement at the bars. 

 

ETA: there are other cruise lines too and none of the mainstream vary by much. 

Edited August 29, 2019 by ToroAzul

[Dayman9966]

5 hours ago, NKLCRUISES said:

Check your price. Indy 11/21/19 was $52 when first booked, went up to $65, down to $61, back to $65. Now it is showing $56. I purchased at $61 and canceled and rebooked now at the $56. 

Thanks for the heads up!!!

[brad_p]

I find it quite amusing that before drinks packages there were all these posts about drink smuggling, rum runners, strategies to smuggle etc. This is when most drinks were under $5 (plus tip).

 

Then the drink packages came in and all was good with the world.

 

Now the packages are very expensive, we're back to discussions on "smuggling".

 

I wonder if the top dogs at RCL missed the lesson on the laws of supply and demand - in particular where price fits in to that

Edited August 30, 2019 by brad_p
typo

[boscobeans]

22 hours ago, dswallow said:

 

 

At the same time I'm sure they love having this explanation as a way to also ensure the only real alternative is spending about 25 times the cost of a bottle of liquor on a per-drink basis. 🙂

This is a serious question..

 

If you went out to a nice restaurant on par with an MDR or specialty shipboard restaurant,

 

or to a club that had very nice seating, table service, live music and maybe dancing,

 

or to an entertainment venue with comedians, singers, dancers or other types of stage shows where you were served at your seat

 

or to a pool where you had bar service at your lounge chair,

 

what do places like the above charge for drinks in your area???

 

 

[Iamcruzin]

15 hours ago, brad_p said:

 

I wonder if the top dogs at RCL missed the lesson on the laws of supply and demand - in particular where price fits in to that

They must otherwise they wouldn't be getting $72pp for the drink packages or $1299 for few hours in a Cabana.  How many times have you read on this site, Buy it now and if the prices goes down cancel it"? If people buy it at the high there is no reason to lower the price. As far as smuggling I'm too old and too lazy to be bothered. I won't even bother to bring on the 2 bottles of wine that are allowed.  At the very least I will order a refreshment package  and just pay for the occasional  cocktail which is actually less stressful than trying to stick it to the man by getting more than my monies worth.

[atush]

1 hour ago, boscobeans said:

This is a serious question..

 

If you went out to a nice restaurant on par with an MDR or specialty shipboard restaurant,

 

or to a club that had very nice seating, table service, live music and maybe dancing,

 

or to an entertainment venue with comedians, singers, dancers or other types of stage shows where you were served at your seat

 

or to a pool where you had bar service at your lounge chair,

 

what do places like the above charge for drinks in your area???

 

 

 

 

Simple.  I dont live in NYC with table service /vip cr*p.  No pools with service at your chair- even at my house in France.  Too cold for pools here where i live most months of the year.  Warm enough at my house in FL but am generally cutting back tropical vegetation so am drinking pool service on my lanai (we take turns serving each other).

 

So i cant say.  I've paid for a deluxe beverage package though so i dont have to worry about all your trials to spend a load of dosh in NYC or what my bar bill be on my next cruise lol

[boscobeans]

4 minutes ago, atush said:

 

 

So i cant say.  I've paid for a deluxe beverage package though so i dont have to worry about all your trials to spend a load of dosh in NYC or what my bar bill be on my next cruise lol

My Wife and I have always purchased packages when ever possible.

No thinking about our total bill

With all warm climate cruises no thoughts as to how many beers, bottles of water or frozen daiquiris we slosh down.

Just makes sense for us and compared to any Places around here, aside from local hangouts, the prices are a bargain.

 

Edited August 30, 2019 by boscobeans

[atush]

Nothing to say then

[boscobeans]

6 minutes ago, atush said:

Nothing to say then

I responded...see above.

[charmy98]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:05 AM, NateUpNorth said:

 

That puts it darn near the $100 CAD vicinity.

In perspective - that's 25% more per day to DRINK on my cruise than my cost per person FOR the cruise.

Our Symphony for Feb 2020 is sitting at $81 and that is supposedly with buy 1 get 1 50% off, They won't be getting our money.

[charmy98]

On 8/28/2019 at 12:25 PM, smokeykat said:

My drink package price also went up for my December Anthem cruise. I noticed a lot of prices increased on Monday. It is RCCL getting ready for the Labor Day Sale...so they up the prices just so you think they are giving you a deal when they add the sale this weekend....lol

What a joke I just received a Labor Day Sale email from RCCL my drink package amount $81.13 a day has not changed in price as it was the same amount 7 days ago. 

[DaCruiseBug]

It's all based on supply & demand. It's the beauty of capitalism. We bought ours for the Allure at $49 and the price has fluctuated between that and $62 per day. You can always cancel if the price drops so why not purchase it at the current price and then cancel/re-order if the price drops? Seems like it's the way to go.

 

As others have said...NCL charge $99 per day, plus 20% service charge, plus it doesn't even include bottled water - specialty coffee- energy drinks etc.

[DISFANS3]

Just wish RCI would just set the price and be done with it.

[Clarea]

7 minutes ago, DISFANS3 said:

Just wish RCI would just set the price and be done with it.

 

Would be nice, but unfortunately for us, they will keep doing the dynamic pricing thing as long as they think it's making them more money than static pricing.

[papaflamingo]

On 8/29/2019 at 7:19 PM, ToroAzul said:

Want me to not smuggle? Make a price we can both agree on or I'll adjust my behavior. 

 

Baloney.  Of course you'd still smuggle.  They could charge $2 for a mixed drink and $1 for a beer and you'd still rationalize your smuggling with, for example, "gee I like  a drink on  my balcony and don't want to have to go to the bar to get it so I'll just bring on  a bit for that."  The only thing that would keep you or anyone else who smuggles from doing it is all inclusive.  Oh, before you attack me, I don't judge one for smuggling.  It's  a game really, to see if you can do it.  We don't do it anymore because we found we simply don't sit on our balcony and drink.  But I don't make any excuses. We've been caught before.  I know I'm violating the rules no excuses here and no justification. 

[4774Papa]

We are Diamond and don't need no stinking drink packages.

[ToroAzul]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

Baloney.  Of course you'd still smuggle.  They could charge $2 for a mixed drink and $1 for a beer and you'd still rationalize your smuggling with, for example, "gee I like  a drink on  my balcony and don't want to have to go to the bar to get it so I'll just bring on  a bit for that."  The only thing that would keep you or anyone else who smuggles from doing it is all inclusive.  Oh, before you attack me, I don't judge one for smuggling.  It's  a game really, to see if you can do it.  We don't do it anymore because we found we simply don't sit on our balcony and drink.  But I don't make any excuses. We've been caught before.  I know I'm violating the rules no excuses here and no justification. 

By that clairvoyant rationale, am I smuggling in 3 weeks where I bought the package at $46 pppd? 

 

Get outside and take a walk papa. You're projecting whatever issues you have on me. 

[ToroAzul]

4 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

It's all based on supply & demand. It's the beauty of capitalism. We bought ours for the Allure at $49 and the price has fluctuated between that and $62 per day. You can always cancel if the price drops so why not purchase it at the current price and then cancel/re-order if the price drops? Seems like it's the way to go.

 

As others have said...NCL charge $99 per day, plus 20% service charge, plus it doesn't even include bottled water - specialty coffee- energy drinks etc.

Agreed on all points. I ❤️ capitalism. 

 

NCL is even more confusing. Instead of dynamic pricing they use a shell game for their "free" at sea program. 

 

We did Disney the past two years and smuggled AND dropped $800 on the bars plus the Palo prefixe with wine tasting. 

[Joebucks]

On 8/30/2019 at 12:47 AM, brad_p said:

I wonder if the top dogs at RCL missed the lesson on the laws of supply and demand - in particular where price fits in to that

 

Do you realize, that the laws and supply and demand are what raised it in the first place? This is a good economy where people have more money to spend, and cruises are selling out. Couple that with people's obsession with unlimited alcohol, and the law has been served.

[Cruisegirl6]

It appears to me from reading above posts, that RC is making a huge mistake raising those prices on the drink package, I am reading many saying they will no longer purchase it at the prices its been the past couple of weeks and some saying they don't need to drink because of the prices of drinks and the package and then there are those who said they will smuggle...I figured when I saw the price went up on the drink package, I knew exactly smuggling be happening.  It pretty much was a thing in the past when RC had their prices of the drink package at an affordable and reasonable price, but to raise it that high is way too much and I can understand why people want to smuggle (although against the rules and I generally always like a clean conscious and stick to the rules, but I myself PROBABLY will be smuggling just like in the good ole days when I was very young).

 

If people do purchase the drink package at those prices, RC may keep those prices.  On another note, the prices of purchasing individual drinks on the ship is outrageously ridicously high!  They do that to force you to purchase the drink package, which is fine when the price of the drink package is reasonable for the customer, but to have the drink prices set that high and many now won't be purchasing the drink package, I see the cruise line loosing $$ in that area.  I also see passengers going over to other cruise lines that offer the drink package and such in the price of the cruise, this is another thing RC needs to think about right away because they can loose alot of their repeat customers, this includes me as I am thinking of going over to Celebrity and Princess.

 

I say with the 18% gratuity added on the drink package, a reasonable price per day should be $49-$51.  I do hope we get a price like that then we will purchase, if not, I take the two bottles of wine on board, my other half is Select at the casino and drinks free and the casino always sends us a bottle or two in our room and we are diamond, there is no need for us to purchase, but if the price comes down we will jump on it.

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Cruisegirl6

[Elizabeth926]

I just checked mine and it is $52 for a 2020 Norway/Iceland cruise. 

[Tree_skier]

I just checked and my Adventure Dec 19 is $48. (just bought it), Radiance May 20 is $52 (still waiting.) Allure Dec 20 is $65 (definitely waiting) and Independence April 21 is not listing drink pkg. prices yet (forced to wait 🙂)