Eye watering cost of drinks package price on Anthem

[Aladdin22]

Booked a four night coastal cruise on Anthem. Just checked my cruise planner and the Deluxe drinks package is priced at £ 79.80 ($ 110) per night! On top of this internet is £ 9.87 and gratuities £ 11. A total of approx £ 100 per person per night.  Princess are offering all of the above for £ 30 per night.  P&Os drinks package is £ 40 per night with no gratuity to be paid.

 

How can RCI justify this ridiculous price.  Their cruise prices are more expensive, which I understand as the Anthem is a beautiful ship but the “add ons”  are exorbitant and unjustified 

[Jimbo]

Just Testing the Waters.............

[NateUpNorth]

That's $140 CAD a day for drinks alone. LOL
I wonder what the individual prices will look like when people are back on board? Yikes.

[ONECRUISER]

41 minutes ago, Aladdin22 said:

Booked a four night coastal cruise on Anthem. Just checked my cruise planner and the Deluxe drinks package is priced at £ 79.80 ($ 110) per night! On top of this internet is £ 9.87 and gratuities £ 11. A total of approx £ 100 per person per night.  Princess are offering all of the above for £ 30 per night.  P&Os drinks package is £ 40 per night with no gratuity to be paid.

 

How can RCI justify this ridiculous price.  Their cruise prices are more expensive, which I understand as the Anthem is a beautiful ship but the “add ons”  are exorbitant and unjustified 

They like all Companies only charge what people will pay. If prices are too high and cheaper pay by the drink then just do that. 

[DiWilliams]

We have an October cruise on Anthem booked. Current price for the DBP is £47.88pppn. Maybe Royal fears the shorter cruises this summer could become a bit of a booze cruise if the DBPs are too reasonably priced? 

[taglovestocruise]

1 hour ago, Aladdin22 said:

Booked a four night coastal cruise on Anthem. Just checked my cruise planner and the Deluxe drinks package is priced at £ 79.80 ($ 110) per night! On top of this internet is £ 9.87 and gratuities £ 11. A total of approx £ 100 per person per night.  Princess are offering all of the above for £ 30 per night.  P&Os drinks package is £ 40 per night with no gratuity to be paid.

 

How can RCI justify this ridiculous price.  Their cruise prices are more expensive, which I understand as the Anthem is a beautiful ship but the “add ons”  are exorbitant and unjustified 

Because enough people are willing to pay. Just checked prices on the 3 night Mexico cruise starting in November on Navigator. Two in a 2C balcony is currently 1400.00 and that is with 60% off for second guest.. Seems like a lot for 3 nights, but the ship will probably sail full. ..

[Aladdin22]

35 minutes ago, DiWilliams said:

We have an October cruise on Anthem booked. Current price for the DBP is £47.88pppn. Maybe Royal fears the shorter cruises this summer could become a bit of a booze cruise if the DBPs are too reasonably priced? 

Can see that Royal don’t want a booze cruise but, realistically speaking, as only passengers who have had two vaccinations are eligible for this cruise I would imagine average age will be  60+, hardly booze cruisers

[The sea calls my name]

1 hour ago, NateUpNorth said:

That's $140 CAD a day for drinks alone. LOL
I wonder what the individual prices will look like when people are back on board? Yikes.

High.

[M&A]

Don't buy the drinks package!!  My wife is a non-drinker and they only sell the drinks package per couple.  Too pricey for me.   I will continue to buy things like  the beer "bucket special".  I expect to pay more for booze just like I would at a luxury hotel.

Non-drinkers are laughing

[Aladdin22]

9 minutes ago, M&A said:

Don't buy the drinks package!!  My wife is a non-drinker and they only sell the drinks package per couple.  Too pricey for me.   I will continue to buy things like  the beer "bucket special".  I expect to pay more for booze just like I would at a luxury hotel.

Non-drinkers are laughing

Well we won’t buy the drinks package but are worried what the actual drinks prices will be.  We don’t mind paying premium prices to be on a nice ship but these prices against Princess etc are crazy. 
 

We’re Diamond Plus so will definitely take advantage of the free drinks on offer

[Hogbay]

1 hour ago, NateUpNorth said:

That's $140 CAD a day for drinks alone. LOL
I wonder what the individual prices will look like when people are back on board? Yikes.

Beat you !!! 141.80 AUD 😭

[Missusdubbya]

Yikes so high - for 4 night I would survive on free D+ drinks and your BYO 2 bottles of wine.

[CaroleC]

1 hour ago, Aladdin22 said:

Can see that Royal don’t want a booze cruise but, realistically speaking, as only passengers who have had two vaccinations are eligible for this cruise I would imagine average age will be  60+, hardly booze cruisers

Well I fall into that age bracket and I’ve got to say I’m partial to the odd glass of wine or two not to mention cocktails whilst cruising! 😆😆

[twangster]

Bring 2 bottles of wine with you.  Can you do that in the UK like elsewhere?

[Aladdin22]

37 minutes ago, CaroleC said:

Well I fall into that age bracket and I’ve got to say I’m partial to the odd glass of wine or two not to mention cocktails whilst cruising! 😆😆

Good for you Carole as I’m the same. Just shocked at the pricing!! I’ll definitely get my cocktails in during the Diamond happy hour! Just annoyed as we’ve also booked a Princess four night cruise where drinks, tips and WiFi are £30 per day. How RCI think we’ll pay almost £100 for the same is beyond me. Exhorbitant!! 

[HicksRA]

Maybe they’re planning ahead for when after 90% of passengers are Diamond and above from multiple bookings under the double points promo, they’re all swilling free drinks and need more money to pay for it. 
They gotta pay for all that free alcohol somehow. 😉

[PelicanBill]

2 years ago paid $880 USD for an 8 night cruise drink package.  It's up a bit as all prices are up a bit but not surprising to me.  The "price increase" is adding the gratuities instead of being included as before.

[Sms1973]

Pelican Bill, was that PP or per couple?

[kernow]

Glad we went for MSC with drink package and tips included rather than Anthem!

 

Think I'd have stuck to the D+ drinks and taken 2 bottles of wine. At least you'll be able to use the free drinks throughout the day now though.

[little britain]

11 hours ago, Aladdin22 said:

Can see that Royal don’t want a booze cruise but, realistically speaking, as only passengers who have had two vaccinations are eligible for this cruise I would imagine average age will be  60+, hardly booze cruisers

This is the UK remember. The vaccine rollout has been amazing.. they are now calling 45s for their first one so in 10 weeks that age group will be having their second. Ready to cruise 2 weeks after that at the start of July.

[Fabulous97]

As it's four nights they don't want it to become a big piss up! As it's at sea all the time a lot of booze can potentially be consumed.

 

We are booked in 49 and 50 as will have our second jabs beginning of June. We haven't been anywhere for over 18 months. Just looking forward to a break!

 

Don't forget in the UK we don't pay any gratuity on top of drinks packages, in Europe it is illegal. You pay for what you get nothing more. If we get "free" drinks packages no gratuities on either.

[PelicanBill]

10 hours ago, Sms1973 said:

Pelican Bill, was that PP or per couple?

I went back and looked. The non-sale price was $880 per person. I did end up getting a buy one get one 50% off sale.  

[smokeybandit]

That would be on the level of eye gouging, not just eye watering

[Aladdin22]

On our last couple of RCI cruises we got a 30% discount off the drinks package price as we’re D+,  so hoping that they will do that again, but who knows. 

[Aladdin22]

1 hour ago, Fabulous97 said:

As it's four nights they don't want it to become a big piss up! As it's at sea all the time a lot of booze can potentially be consumed.

 

We are booked in 49 and 50 as will have our second jabs beginning of June. We haven't been anywhere for over 18 months. Just looking forward to a break!

 

Don't forget in the UK we don't pay any gratuity on top of drinks packages, in Europe it is illegal. You pay for what you get nothing more. If we get "free" drinks packages no gratuities on either.

I can see that they don’t want a booze cruise but we’ve also booked a four night one on Princess and drinks, WiFi and tips are £30 pppn!  
 

Like you we’ve not been away for ages and had a few cancelled cruises so booked the Anthem, Princess and a seven night P&O - just hope we like this ‘new cruising’ .  Desperate for a break!