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HAL Signature and Elite Beverage Packages


MickeyG
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Greetings!

 

My wife and l will be taking our first cruise on a HAL ship next month and am wondering if there is an appreciable difference between the Signature and Elite Beverage packages. We've done the Premiere Beverage Package on Celebrity and that has worked well for us. Do both packages offer specialty coffees, high end liquors, beers and wines by the glass? Would appreciate any feedback from anyone who has purchased either beverage package on HAL.

 

Thanks so much!!!

 

Mick

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If you look down the board, there are dozens of threads on the beverage packages. The main difference being the Signature package gets you drinks valued up to $11, the Elite gets you drinks up to $15.

 

Many will say if you want some better wines, the Elite Package is the way to go. 

 

All the beers on board are covered by the drinks packages, and I believe that is true for specialty coffees. As to high end liquors...if it is valued at $11 or $15, or less, you get it in the appropriate package. Somewhere here on one of the many threads is a a menu of what is covered.

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Here is the link for the beverage plans before the SBP went to $11. It's still valid because the $11 was not to give you more choices, but because the threshold drinks increased in price that much!

 

https://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Beverage-Packages.pdf

 

As you can see the Elite's difference is mostly in wines and high-end tequilas and scotch. We are pretty lowbrow wine enthusiasts and always find something to drink in the Signature plan. YMMV!

 

ETA: the brands and labels are not cast in stone and may vary ship-to-ship.

Edited by crystalspin
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1 hour ago, MickeyG said:

We've done the Premiere Beverage Package on Celebrity and that has worked well for us.

If you were happy with the Premium Beverage Package (vs the lower tier Classic) on Celebrity, you will want to purchase the Elite-- they are essentially the same thing. 

 

1 hour ago, MickeyG said:

Do both packages offer specialty coffees, high end liquors, beers and wines by the glass?

The Elite package offers the high end stuff-- the lower tier Signature offers well liquor drinks, basic wines by the glass, and beer. I'm a bit snobbish in what I drink (meaning I want brand name liquors that I enjoy) and this was only really done well on the Elite plan. 

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We have had the Signature Drink Packages for many of our HAL cruises (6 since last November), but we have found a new formula that works well for us. We found that we were always looking at menus to make sure we didn’t order a drink that was over our limit. Of course, the Elite package has a higher limit.  For the last few cruises, we purchased a wine package for 8 bottles (there are three different levels depending on your tastes) and have a bottle for each dinner or Pinnacle lunch (on sea days). If we deplete that pkg, we simply add another for the number of bottles we need for the remainder of the cruise). That has worked well for us. We don’t have really fancy tastes, so Cellar 3 has  been quite adequate (we actually have discovered some decent everyday wines that we now purchase at Total Wines while at home). For other drinks, we purchase a $250 drink card for each of us...again, if it hits zero, we purchase another.  The two good things about a drink card are that you can purchase two drinks at a time AND if you don’t use it all, you can request a credit on your account! 
I’m not saying a drink package is bad (heck no!),  just letting you know what has worked for us. The convenience of either drink package, wine package or drink card makes a cruise easier....don’t have to keep signing all those receipts!

Happy sails!

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