Drinks & More Question (Premium + Package)

[DebInAntigua]

Couple of questions for anyone who has experienced this package onboard already.

 

1) Does the drink indicator on your express pass and seapass stay "PALL" or does it change? Wondering if I should watch for it to update or if they keep that part marked as PALL

2) What's the wine tasting like? Is it equivalent to one of the ones they sell online in the Cruise Planner, or ? Wondering because we bought the Wines Around the World experience and I'm not sure if that's redundant now or worth keeping.

3) Is the casino free play money pre-loaded on your card so you can use it in the slot machines, or is it only good at the tables, or..?

4) Has anyone been able to influence the choice of wines by the bottle you receive? Any tips?

[Criop]

We went ahead and paid the $9/day to give it a shot. The mini bar usage (as limited as it appears) is the prime draw. I hate having to run up to a bar to get a beer, wine, or water.  And since we do typically blow about $100 in the casino each trip, a couple big bottles of wine never hurt, and we love wine tasting - why not. 

 

Here is my guess on your questions:

 

 1) Does the drink indicator on your express pass and seapass stay "PALL" or does it change? Wondering if I should watch for it to update or if they keep that part marked as PALL

 

My guess is there is no need to have a different code on your card. All the perks are 1-time or in room.

 

2) What's the wine tasting like? Is it equivalent to one of the ones they sell online in the Cruise Planner, or ? Wondering because we bought the Wines Around the World experience and I'm not sure if that's redundant now or worth keeping.

 

A couple other posts seem to indicate it was a special one for those with the D&M package. I have done the Wines of the World before and it was fun. My guess is this is more of a special think.

 

3) Is the casino free play money pre-loaded on your card so you can use it in the slot machines, or is it only good at the tables, or..?

 

We've received casino credit before and it can be loaded on your card (you have to play it all, but get to keep the payout's as cash). We also play craps, so we also have gone to the casino cage and had it converted to special chips that work the same way. You have to bet them, but you get paid out in 'real' chips.

 

4) Has anyone been able to influence the choice of wines by the bottle you receive? Any tips?

 

This one I have no idea, but I did receive an email for this cruise and it asked about my preferences (hangers, pillows,...). One of the questions was do I prefer white, red, or bubbles wine. So hopefully they will use that to make the choice for this too. 

 

 

We set sail on Sunday (10/27). We have internet included, so if I'll report back if I learn anything.

 

[DebInAntigua]

2 minutes ago, Criop said:

We set sail on Sunday (10/27). We have internet included, so if I'll report back if I learn anything.

 

 

Happy sailing! Will look forward to hearing how well this works for you onboard. 🙂

[jelayne]

After your post I looked at this.  When it was called Premium + you couldn’t upgrade to it, it was outright purchase only.  But renamed you could upgrade to it.  We had the Classic booking perk & upgraded to Premium a few months ago.  Thought I would upgrade DH to this as a birthday surprise thinking it would $135 for our 15 night cruise.  Turns out we upgraded from Classic to Premium during a 50% off sale so to upgrade DH we would have to cancel the 1/2 price upgrade and then upgrade again so rather than $135 it would have been $224 so we passed.  

[bikerunner]

6 hours ago, jelayne said:

After your post I looked at this.  When it was called Premium + you couldn’t upgrade to it, it was outright purchase only.  But renamed you could upgrade to it.  We had the Classic booking perk & upgraded to Premium a few months ago.  Thought I would upgrade DH to this as a birthday surprise thinking it would $135 for our 15 night cruise.  Turns out we upgraded from Classic to Premium during a 50% off sale so to upgrade DH we would have to cancel the 1/2 price upgrade and then upgrade again so rather than $135 it would have been $224 so we passed.  

That’s what happened to me. I didn’t even know a 50% sale existed.  But I ll live eith premium for both of us.  

[Criop]

Having g a great experience with this package. $50 each on casio, no issues replenishing our mini bar daily, 4 bottles of wine, and wine tasting confirmed. We didn't get a choice on the wine(it's there low end selections, but nice addition for the room.

[hiccups]

We thought about upgrading, but once we upgraded from classic to premium through the cruise planner, the option to upgrade to drinks and more disappeared!  So we'll just stick with premium.

I posted in the shore excursion sale thread that when the most recent sale started, drinks and more was listed as "10% off, on sale for $21 per day, originally $19 per day."  I called Captains Club about the discrepancy, and after looking into it, they said that upgrade wasn't on sale for our sailing anyway.

[slei15]

Just upgraded from the included premium package (sail all included) to drinks and more for $126 total for the two of us.  With the current pre-cruise sale, with the service charge it is $9/day/person for the upgrade.  After the $100 in casino credit which we would have spent anyway, that is $26 for the minibar, 4 bottles of wine, and the wine tasting.  Not too bad!

[killsport]

1 hour ago, slei15 said:

Just upgraded from the included premium package (sail all included) to drinks and more for $126 total for the two of us.  With the current pre-cruise sale, with the service charge it is $9/day/person for the upgrade.  After the $100 in casino credit which we would have spent anyway, that is $26 for the minibar, 4 bottles of wine, and the wine tasting.  Not too bad!

What is in your minibar? Are snacks included? What was the wine tasting (was it different from the Elite one)?

[slei15]

1 minute ago, killsport said:

What is in your minibar? Are snacks included? What was the wine tasting (was it different from the Elite one)?

Good question...We'll find out at Christmas!

 

If anyone who has sailed with it can answer @Criop? That would be great!

[Criop]

Minibar has: 1 red, 1 white 375 ml good wine (Kendal Jackson, la cream), 4 mini vodkas, 2 beers (Heineken), coke & Diet Coke, 2 waters (Evian/ Perrier), 2 small Pringle’s, 2 kind bars.

 

whole thing is replenished around noon and its all included.

 

we are doing the wine tasting today. Ours is a “wines of the world” and the elite is a separate event. The sommelier was selling it to others at dinner last night, so it is a legit event.

[TinyG]

How was the wine tasting? We leave next Saturday and it's an option.

[vtcruising]

21 minutes ago, TinyG said:

How was the wine tasting? We leave next Saturday and it's an option.

If they don't come back and answer I will say that we have done the World Wine tasting a few times and it is quite nice. They have always had 6 stations with two wines each (1 red, 1 white or rose usually) from different regions from around the world. The ones we have attended were held at Cellar Masters, with a couple of stations inside and the rest out in the corrider in front of Cellar Masters.  Out of the 12 wines, some are quite good, other less so, IMO. We have found some of new favorites to have with dinner by going to this event.

 

Examples I can remember include stations from Down Under (New Zealand and Australia), Italian, South American, Spanish, US West Coast, French, German. They have a different wine steward/sommelier at each station who will explain the wines and answer questions. We usually go with friends and have a lovely time. It is a good deal at $20 each, if not included with your package.

Edited November 3, 2019 by vtcruising

[TinyG]

Thank you for the reply! X has it discounted 10% on the website today, it was an easy decision to use the last of our OBC so for both of us it was a total of $68.00. I am hoping they can switch to other spirits like a gin, as I like that over vodka. Nice to have the water in the room, and not have to carry it back. 😎

[Criop]

4 hours ago, TinyG said:

How was the wine tasting? We leave next Saturday and it's an option.

It was exactly as described above "world wine tour". Overall the package was well worth the cost for us.

[TinyG]

20 minutes ago, Criop said:

It was exactly as described above "world wine tour". Overall the package was well worth the cost for us.

Perfect, thank you! We are so ready for our cruise. Tick tock....

[Luvcrusn]

Interesting thread. We have PBP as an included perk and the Premium + was on sale for less than the cost of the PBP we already had. I called to inquire (twice) and was told (both times) that I couldn't upgrade because we'd received the PBP as a perk and that the Premium + was only available to those who'd purchased the PBP. Maybe I'll have to make call #3!

[vtcruising]

11 hours ago, TinyG said:

Perfect, thank you! We are so ready for our cruise. Tick tock....

FYI, they are healthy pours so you might want to schedule a nap after the tasting. 😉

 

[slei15]

12 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Interesting thread. We have PBP as an included perk and the Premium + was on sale for less than the cost of the PBP we already had. I called to inquire (twice) and was told (both times) that I couldn't upgrade because we'd received the PBP as a perk and that the Premium + was only available to those who'd purchased the PBP. Maybe I'll have to make call #3!

That was the case when it was the Premium Plus, however; the Drinks and More (same thing, new name) specifically states that upgrade into is available.  They actually have a specific code for Upgrade in from Promo Premium Beverage Package. 

[Cdresser]

12 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Interesting thread. We have PBP as an included perk and the Premium + was on sale for less than the cost of the PBP we already had. I called to inquire (twice) and was told (both times) that I couldn't upgrade because we'd received the PBP as a perk and that the Premium + was only available to those who'd purchased the PBP. Maybe I'll have to make call #3!

I also had the premium package as a perk but was able to buy just the upgrade to drinks and more.  Initially, my cruise planner was not reflecting my drink package perk and wanted me to pay full price for drinks and more. An email to my TA and 2 calls on her part to celebrity fixed that and the upgrade option finally showed up.

[vtcruising]

5 minutes ago, Cdresser said:

I also had the premium package as a perk but was able to buy just the upgrade to drinks and more.  Initially, my cruise planner was not reflecting my drink package perk and wanted me to pay full price for drinks and more. An email to my TA and 2 calls on her part to celebrity fixed that and the upgrade option finally showed up.

Is your cruise this year? I haven't seen it pop up for 2020 cruises yet.

[Cdresser]

Yes, we are sailing Edge on 12/8 in an SS. We also just added to that trip, sailing Infinity on 12/16 in an RS. The cruise planner for the 12/16 cruise has drink and more but shows full price. Since we are in RS for that cruise I didn't bother getting it corrected because we will already have most of the perks from that package.

[TinyG]

5 hours ago, Cdresser said:

I also had the premium package as a perk but was able to buy just the upgrade to drinks and more.  Initially, my cruise planner was not reflecting my drink package perk and wanted me to pay full price for drinks and more. An email to my TA and 2 calls on her part to celebrity fixed that and the upgrade option finally showed up.

I had the same premium as a perk, but mine was correct on the price for the upgrade. I have the receipt that I will bring along next week. 

[s0479]

14 minutes ago, TinyG said:

I had the same premium as a perk, but mine was correct on the price for the upgrade. I have the receipt that I will bring along next week. 

I have the classic as a perk.  Can I upgrade to the drinks and more?  It doesn’t show in my planner.

[TinyG]

1 minute ago, s0479 said:

I have the classic as a perk.  Can I upgrade to the drinks and more?  It doesn’t show in my planner.

I think I saw that you can upgrade to premium, but not all the way to premium +