Free Drink Package 14$ pp a day?

[Tookie]

Does anyone know anything about Celebrity charging 14$ a person for the free beverage package promotion? Supposedly they are charging this if you pick a beverage package as one of your perks. If this is true, I will cancel my beverage perk on my next cruise. 

[downsmead]

Yes, there is a long thread already devoted to this discussion.

 

[Itscoldoutside]

Im sure the $14 is the gratuity....Now mind you this will be a daily charge of $14, not just a one time charge.   If you dont pay it up front, they'll add it to your bill at the end of the cruise.   Nothing is "free".

Edited October 4, 2019 by Itscoldoutside
add sentence

[Luvcrusn]

7 minutes ago, Tookie said:

Does anyone know anything about Celebrity charging 14$ a person for the free beverage package promotion? Supposedly they are charging this if you pick a beverage package as one of your perks. If this is true, I will cancel my beverage perk on my next cruise. 

If you choose the beverage package as a perk in a booking made after 10/10/2019 $14 per person per day will be added onto the price of the cruise. If you have bookings made prior to 10/10/2019 and have the beverage package as a perk you are grandfathered in and the $114pppd will not be charged. This is booking date, not sailing date. 

[jimzgoldfinch]

3 minutes ago, Itscoldoutside said:

Im sure the $14 is the gratuity....Now mind you this will be a daily charge of $14, not just a one time charge.   If you dont pay it up front, they'll add it to your bill at the end of the cruise.   Nothing is "free".

It is not a gratuity. It is an upfront charge at time of booking if you select beverage package as one of the perks. It will not be applied to your bill at the end of the cruise.

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Beverage_Pkg_Perk_Price_Increase-Field-Trade_One_Pager.pdf

[davekathy]

1 minute ago, jimzgoldfinch said:

It is not a gratuity. It is an upfront charge at time of booking if you select beverage package as one of the perks. It will not be applied to your bill at the end of the cruise.

http://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Beverage_Pkg_Perk_Price_Increase-Field-Trade_One_Pager.pdf

Agree. 

Edited October 4, 2019 by davekathy

[bikerunner]

Free is a misnomer. If you got the perks package with 2 perks it was around 35 a day pp added to the cruise fare. was never free. 

[MightyMike]

30 minutes ago, bikerunner said:

Free is a misnomer. If you got the perks package with 2 perks it was around 35 a day pp added to the cruise fare. was never free. 

 

Correct. I was kind of shocked the first time I created a mock reservation and checked "No, thanks" for the perks selection and saw the final price go down over $200. Celebrity's site does not make that clear at all. They have made a lot of money creating the illusion of the perks being "free."

 

The best thing we can do is to get good at creating mock reservations online, try all the options, and compare the final prices. When all is said and done, that's the number that matters.

[bikerunner]

44 minutes ago, MightyMike said:

 

Correct. I was kind of shocked the first time I created a mock reservation and checked "No, thanks" for the perks selection and saw the final price go down over $200. Celebrity's site does not make that clear at all. They have made a lot of money creating the illusion of the perks being "free."

 

The best thing we can do is to get good at creating mock reservations online, try all the options, and compare the final prices. When all is said and done, that's the number that matters.

Completely agree. The numbers still work for me since I usually do 10 day or longer cruises. But will watch how much water n coffees along with wine I drink on my nov cruise to have some data. But figuring coffees are 5 and waters are 4-5 each I’m at twenty quickly before touching a glass of wine or mixed drink.  

[jelayne]

6 hours ago, Tookie said:

Does anyone know anything about Celebrity charging 14$ a person for the free beverage package promotion? Supposedly they are charging this if you pick a beverage package as one of your perks. If this is true, I will cancel my beverage perk on my next cruise. 

 If you are already booked with the beverage package you will not be charged, no need to cancel. 

Going forward you can decide not to choose the beverage package and select prepaid gratuities, OBC or wi-fi with no extra charge. On a 10 night cruise the gratuity is worth $ 280 for a Veranda, the OBCis worth $300, unlimited wi-fi for 2 without a CC discount is about $400, the Classic Beverage Package with gratuties is $1408 for 2.  So even with a $280 surcharge isn’t too bad, unless you and your cruising partner will spend less than $28 per day on water, soda,coffee, juice, wine and cocktails

[Shadow9612]

2 hours ago, MightyMike said:

 

Correct. I was kind of shocked the first time I created a mock reservation and checked "No, thanks" for the perks selection and saw the final price go down over $200. Celebrity's site does not make that clear at all. They have made a lot of money creating the illusion of the perks being "free."

 

The best thing we can do is to get good at creating mock reservations online, try all the options, and compare the final prices. When all is said and done, that's the number that matters.

On a related note, has anyone been able to see a "no perk" rate with a refundable deposit ?

[hcat]

LINK TO THE ORIGINAL THREAD....GOOD INFO AND CHARTS,,,CHECK IT OUT!

[DrKoob]

14 hours ago, Itscoldoutside said:

Im sure the $14 is the gratuity....Now mind you this will be a daily charge of $14, not just a one time charge.   If you dont pay it up front, they'll add it to your bill at the end of the cruise.   Nothing is "free".

 

That is  not correct. It is not a gratuity. And it is never added to your bill at the end of the.cruise. We (all travel agents) have been thoroughly briefed on this. It is an add on charge when you book to cover increases X has had in the the cost of beverages since they started this program. So it is just a straight price increase. Where we (TAs) used to have three different pricing tiers to look at, (the old Good, Better, Best) we now have five (Good, Better, Better with beverages, Best, Best with beverages.) And none of this applies to anyone in a suite. 

 

The pricing with the additional $14 per day is still a MUCH better bargain than outright purchasing a beverage package. And anyone who purchases a cruise or has purchased a cruise prior to October 10, it will not apply to them.

 

[NantahalaCruiser]

19 hours ago, jelayne said:

 If you are already booked with the beverage package you will not be charged, no need to cancel. 

Going forward you can decide not to choose the beverage package and select prepaid gratuities, OBC or wi-fi with no extra charge. On a 10 night cruise the gratuity is worth $ 280 for a Veranda, the OBCis worth $300, unlimited wi-fi for 2 without a CC discount is about $400, the Classic Beverage Package with gratuties is $1408 for 2.  So even with a $280 surcharge isn’t too bad, unless you and your cruising partner will spend less than $28 per day on water, soda,coffee, juice, wine and cocktails

Minor correction: the auto-gratuity is $14.50 pppd for Veranda or below; so a 10-night cruise would be $290 per cabin for Veranda or below.