Drink Package Cost

[Itried4498]

Just did a B2B on the Navigator.  We booked our cruises less than a month in advance, and prices were in the $80-range (plus 18%) per day.  Onboard, you could purchase it for $102/day (plus 18%); they had a buy one, get one half off promotion (first day only).  So, if you're traveling on the Navigator, that would be the way to go if you want the drink package.

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

50 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

Just did a B2B on the Navigator.  We booked our cruises less than a month in advance, and prices were in the $80-range (plus 18%) per day.  Onboard, you could purchase it for $102/day (plus 18%); they had a buy one, get one half off promotion (first day only).  So, if you're traveling on the Navigator, that would be the way to go if you want the drink package.

 

$102 + $51 = $153/2 = $76.50/day.  Wow, what a savings!  

 

I'm still happy with the refreshment package I got for $19/day. I can't justify spending an extra $50-60 per day just to add alcohol.  

[coaster]

Drink package cost is only $4 less than what we paid for a 9 nighter on Granduer. Never seen it so close to the cruise fare. No way I will pay that as we are diamond and will just pay extra for more than 4 drinks a day for each of us. Royal has  priced it too high lately.

[vjmatty]

20 hours ago, Kimboriffic said:

Our Independence sailing is up to $82. A day. Probably because there is not much else to do at Nassau and Coco Cay. That’s too much especially when my cabin-mate hardly drinks.  I’m hoping they lower it.

This is why it's not worth it for DH and me.....he may drink enough alcohol to make it worthwhile for his own DBP, but when you add me into it, it isn't even worth my getting the refreshment package which they'll allow instead of both of us buying the DBP.

[grandgeezer]

2 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

$102 + $51 = $153/2 = $76.50/day.  Wow, what a savings!  

 

I'm still happy with the refreshment package I got for $19/day. I can't justify spending an extra $50-60 per day just to add alcohol.  

Don’t forget to add the 18% gratuity. 

[coaster]

Miss when we paid $40 a day on Serenade back in December. Inflation is not that high to charge the current prices. Paid $188.80 pp with gratuity for our 4 nighter from Tampa. Ship was under 50 percent capacity.  I guess it spoiled me when ships are now booked to full capacity now and drink package prices are through the roof!

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by coaster

[Itried4498]

1 hour ago, coaster said:

Miss when we paid $40 a day on Serenade back in December. Inflation is not that high to charge the current prices. Paid $188.80 pp with gratuity for our 4 nighter from Tampa. Ship was under 50 percent capacity.  I guess it spoiled me when ships are now booked to full capacity now and drink package prices are through the roof!

 

 

 

 

Probably has less to do with ship occupancy, and more to do with their algorithm that attempts to maximize revenues.  We did Navigator B2B; the 3-day weekend sailing had about 800 less people onboard than the 4-day weekday sailing, but the drink package was more expensive.  The 3-day weekend sailing is largely a booze cruise, so not terribly surprising. 

[doppelganger2621]

Finishing up a 6 night adventure on the Allure and my wife and I paid for the cost of our drink package (60.99/pp) by day 3.

 

Honestly, the mixed drinks aren’t that strong and anyone who drinks even socially can get their money’s worth pretty easily IMO. I was a TAD fearful we wouldn’t be able to, but by the end of the first day, literally just our embarkation day, I knew we would have no problem getting our money’s worth. Plus being able to use it at CocoCay was a big plus. Cafe Promenade does boozy coffee drinks. Couple glasses of wine with dinner, we would have had no problem hitting the “breakeven” at $84 probably. 
 

Plus it was so nice just to not worry about. Hand over the card, get your drink, that’s it.

[SuitesRbest]

Getting the Royal shaft (Pun intended) with ours. 18 day repo cruise from Hawaii to Australia is just over $91 (Grats included)  a day, this a 18 day cruise also cost is over $3200 for the 2 of us.

[Joebucks]

20 hours ago, little britain said:

FYI: this is the price onboard Wonder in the Mediterranean which includes the Spanish VAT … over $100pppd all in ! 

 

I couldn't imagine paying $514 for a week of drinks when you already get 5  vouchers per day. What a contrast of value.

[lks93]

Hi!  First time RCL customer.  We made our reservation and added the Deluxe drink package.  We have read to watch for sales.  When I go back on the RCL site it shows I have purchased the Deluxe package and displays the price I paid.  Can someone please let me where/how to find if the package price changes?  Thanks!

[rudeney]

2 hours ago, lks93 said:

Hi!  First time RCL customer.  We made our reservation and added the Deluxe drink package.  We have read to watch for sales.  When I go back on the RCL site it shows I have purchased the Deluxe package and displays the price I paid.  Can someone please let me where/how to find if the package price changes?  Thanks!

 

You should be able to click on the picture of the package above where it says "You Purchased This Item" and see the current price.  

[dual]

On 6/24/2022 at 9:02 AM, zeberdee said:

I just checked this morning and WOW, really!

 

It was £60.75 yesterday which we thought was excessive so its now approx. $95 a day as a special offer.

 

 

From

£72.85 GBP / per guest per day

£91.06 GBP onboard

(20% OFF)PRE-CRUISE SAVINGS

Reserve

lol its crazy isnt it. Im on symphony in December 2022 and they are quoting £75.95 per day. Im not paying that and I am banking on a deal at some point in time if not I will go a la carte. Im also from the UK. I dont drink £75 worth of alcohol in a month never mind a day! lol😱

 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

DBP for our November 2022 sailing on Wonder has gone up $10 per day since I first started tracking it.  It started at $68, I bought at $70, and it's now $78.  

[baelor]

DBP for our August Symphony sailing has been $73 since April.  There was one decrease to $68 for a day or two, which was enough to get my friend who was unwilling to pay $73 to get it.

[AtlThunderDan]

We are looking at Mariner in August and we are getting two interior rooms, 1 for our kids and 1 with my wife and I. 

That said, we are going to do one of us and a kid in each room since they are only 9 and 12.

My wife or I could technically just get one drink package. How often can you get a drink? Worth it to "split" it? 

After cruising 15 plus times in different lines we haven't ever gotten the package. 

 

[rudeney]

12 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

We are looking at Mariner in August and we are getting two interior rooms, 1 for our kids and 1 with my wife and I. 

That said, we are going to do one of us and a kid in each room since they are only 9 and 12.

My wife or I could technically just get one drink package. How often can you get a drink? Worth it to "split" it? 

After cruising 15 plus times in different lines we haven't ever gotten the package. 

 

 

So you are planning to share a single drink package between you and your wife?  That's against the rules, but in practice, I doubt you'll get caught.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

15 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

We are looking at Mariner in August and we are getting two interior rooms, 1 for our kids and 1 with my wife and I. 

That said, we are going to do one of us and a kid in each room since they are only 9 and 12.

My wife or I could technically just get one drink package. How often can you get a drink? Worth it to "split" it? 

After cruising 15 plus times in different lines we haven't ever gotten the package. 

 

Keep your wife and yourself in the same room.  CALL and say your wife doesn't drink and would like (insert other drink package here).  That will be allowed.  Do NOT "share" your package with your wife.  

[baelor]

28 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

My wife or I could technically just get one drink package. How often can you get a drink? Worth it to "split" it? 

To add on to the others, sharing the package is unethical (because against the rules people voluntarily agree to when going on the cruise) and detrimental to others, because RCI will increase package prices to offset what it perceives as the likely loss attributable to sharing.

[exm]

11 hours ago, baelor said:

To add on to the others, sharing the package is unethical (because against the rules people voluntarily agree to when going on the cruise) and detrimental to others, because RCI will increase package prices to offset what it perceives as the likely loss attributable to sharing.

 

I'm not promoting sharing, but the package prices have absolutely skyrocketed this year: it's becoming borderline unaffordable.

[Jerseygirl1416]

I bought the refreshment pkg at $18 for my husband because he doesn’t drink enough alcohol to make the DBP payoff at these prices. I was waiting for it to go down but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I had $31 in OBC left on my CP, $159 leftover credit on my Amex due to a price drop after using some to prepay my gratuities and then I got the spend $500 get $125 statement credit on my Amex for RC. With all this I called and bought the DBP for myself at $72😳 so it really only cost me in my mind $287. I know it’s a lot of mind games but with the prices almost double what we’re used to you gotta do what you gotta do.

[AtlThunderDan]

11 hours ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

Keep your wife and yourself in the same room.  CALL and say your wife doesn't drink and would like (insert other drink package here).  That will be allowed.  Do NOT "share" your package with your wife.  

I can't. You can't have 2 minors in the same room. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids. 

 

Anyhow, you guys missed the point. I understand that you should have both of us on our own package. That's not the point. We aren't new to cruising. 

I wanted more thoughts on if this would work, and what the detractors are. 

We may do two, we may not. We've been on different lines, so no Diamond for us yet. 

[Jerseygirl1416]

6 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

I can't. You can't have 2 minors in the same room. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids. 

 

Anyhow, you guys missed the point. I understand that you should have both of us on our own package. That's not the point. We aren't new to cruising. 

I wanted more thoughts on if this would work, and what the detractors are. 

We may do two, we may not. We've been on different lines, so no Diamond for us yet. 

My advice is you play by the rules the rest of us are and get the pkg for the people who are going to use it. Or do what you want and risk getting caught or just feeling guilty every time you share it.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

10 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

I can't. You can't have 2 minors in the same room. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids. 

 

Anyhow, you guys missed the point. I understand that you should have both of us on our own package. That's not the point. We aren't new to cruising. 

I wanted more thoughts on if this would work, and what the detractors are. 

We may do two, we may not. We've been on different lines, so no Diamond for us yet. 

Yes you CAN have 2 minors in the same room, provided the adults are either adjacent (doesn't have to be connecting) or immediately across the hall.  I don't know if you can book this online or needs to be done via TA or Royal directly.

 

Royal's "rule" is you can not share a package.  If you get an alcohol package, you are not allowed to get an alcoholic drink on your package and give it to your wife.  Will you get caught?  Maybe, maybe not.  But if you are, your package will be canceled at minimum.  There may (probably?) be other consequences. 

[doppelganger2621]

17 minutes ago, AtlThunderDan said:

I can't. You can't have 2 minors in the same room. There are 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kids. 

 

Anyhow, you guys missed the point. I understand that you should have both of us on our own package. That's not the point. We aren't new to cruising. 

I wanted more thoughts on if this would work, and what the detractors are. 

We may do two, we may not. We've been on different lines, so no Diamond for us yet. 

You’re correct that since you are in separate rooms, you would only have to buy one drink package I believe since it’s by room and not party. However, that drink package can only be used by the person the name is under—it can’t be split or shared. 
 

I didn’t notice any time limit between getting drinks but if you go to a bar with only one card they will only give you one drink. If your wife also gets the package you can take both cards to the bar and get a drink for each of you.

 

The detractors being if you get caught sharing your drink package, they’ll likely charge you for both, then withdraw your package privileges with no refund. Also it’s just generally being cheap.

 

If you choose for one of you to get the package, that’s fine, but if the other person wants an alcoholic beverage they should go ahead and pay a La carte for each drink they get—or just have them get the drink package too.

Edited June 27, 2022 by doppelganger2621