Usage lenghts of Freestyle cups

[Brandis]

We're doing a 3 night cruise, followed a 14 nights TA. For the first leg, I just purchased the soda drinks package, since there is only one sea day where I could really profit from the Refreshment package. However, on the TA we have 8 seadays, making it worth getting the Refreshment package (just for the JR milkshakes alone) 🙂

 

So I should get a Freestyle cup on the first cruise with the soda package and as far as I know, those cups are not indivdually programmed for each separate cruise lenght but usually just have a default number of days programmed into them to cover most cruise lenghts.

 

As I have so many of those cups already, I just leave them in the cabin at the end of the cruise to be discarded. Bus since we do a B2B, getting 2 cups feels like a real waste. So I was wondering if I just can tell them at the beginning of the second cruise to not give me another cup and still use the one from the first cruise. Or do you think it would stop working mid-way through the second cruise and I still had to request a new one?

[Biker19]

49 minutes ago, Brandis said:

Or do you think it would stop working mid-way through the second cruise and I still had to request a new one?

This. Some have reported that you no longer get a cup in your room, so you probably wouldn’t get the second one until you ask for it. The default length of functionality of the cup seems to be about two weeks from time of activation. 

[Brandis]

OK, so you have to actively ask for it on boarding day? Then I'll just keep the first one and if it stops working halfway through the second cruise, I'll just ask them if they can reactivate the chip. If they can't, they still can give me a second cup. 

 

Or maybe, after two weeks I'm so done with the freestyle drinks, I don't even notice that the cup is not working anymore.

 

For me, the soda is just an added perk anyways, I get the refreshment package mostly for the fresh OK in the morning, mocktails and some JR malts.

[Biker19]

9 minutes ago, Brandis said:

OK, so you have to actively ask for it on boarding day? 

If you want to use the Feestyle machines, yea. Whether you get the cup in the cabin may vary by ship or even sailing. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Biker19

[brillohead]

I have never had the cup in my room since COVID -- have to go to a bar and ask for it (it will show up on your folio as a $0.00 charge at the bar where you got the cup).  Not all bars will have cups available -- best bet is a bar on the pool deck or Windjammer.

The Freestyle machine will show you the date that your cup is active through.  If using the cup at a bar, the date doesn't matter.  You can also just get a soda at the bar without the cup by showing them the Refreshment Package on your card.

 

[firefly333]

19 minutes ago, brillohead said:

I have never had the cup in my room since COVID -- have to go to a bar and ask for it (it will show up on your folio as a $0.00 charge at the bar where you got the cup).  Not all bars will have cups available -- best bet is a bar on the pool deck or Windjammer.

The Freestyle machine will show you the date that your cup is active through.  If using the cup at a bar, the date doesn't matter.  You can also just get a soda at the bar without the cup by showing them the Refreshment Package on your card.

 

Interesting you can see the date it's good thru.

 

I've only gotten them at the coffee cafe window. Never tried your places. 

 

Thanks

[BillOh]

Ok, this thread has me questioning my sanity.  I remember using the cups on our 8 day Enchantment cruise, but I don't remember getting them, I THINK they were in our room 🙂

[AF-1]

3 minutes ago, BillOh said:

Ok, this thread has me questioning my sanity.  I remember using the cups on our 8 day Enchantment cruise, but I don't remember getting them, I THINK they were in our room 🙂

I think you get them at a bar. Because of covid they don't put the cups in the room. Not sure why; but that is pretty much the norm now

[BillOh]

8 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

I think you get them at a bar. Because of covid they don't put the cups in the room. Not sure why; but that is pretty much the norm now

Not questioning you at all, but over the last 2 years I've gotten so tired of using the expression "Because of Covid" as the go to excuse.    Rather than putting them in rooms, make everyone come to the central location to get them!   

[ramja96]

2 minutes ago, BillOh said:

I've gotten so tired of using the expression "Because of Covid"

 

👆THIS!!!👆😕

[orville99]

3 hours ago, Brandis said:

For me, the soda is just an added perk anyways, I get the refreshment package mostly for the fresh OJ in the morning, mocktails and some JR malts.

Other than at the Freestyle machines or at a bar with the cup, you need to have the refreshment package logo on your seapass card for anything anywhere else. BTW, the fresh OJ machines have disappeared from the WJ (at least on Mariner).

Edited August 9, 2022 by orville99

[dwp10mm]

Not in your cabin on Odyssey in February.  I picked ours up in the Pub.  We were on a B2B and I don't believe we picked up our cups for the 2nd week.  The freestyle machine does show the "active until" date if you look closely when you fill it up.  I believe ours were set to expire 2 days after we got off (by this I mean our cups from week 1 were going to expire 2 days after the week 2 cruise).  Worst case scenario is as you describe.  They stop working at some point and you have to ask/pick up your new cups.

Edited August 9, 2022 by dwp10mm
Clarifying expiration date.

[ramja96]

10 minutes ago, orville99 said:

BTW, the fresh OJ machines have disappeared from the WJ (at least on Mariner).

 

They were over-rated and unreliable, anyway.  Seems like they were out of order half the time.  And, I always questioned how often (and how thoroughly) they were washed.

Edited August 9, 2022 by ramja96

[brillohead]

52 minutes ago, AF-1 said:

I think you get them at a bar. Because of covid they don't put the cups in the room. Not sure why; but that is pretty much the norm now

 

38 minutes ago, BillOh said:

Not questioning you at all, but over the last 2 years I've gotten so tired of using the expression "Because of Covid" as the go to excuse.    Rather than putting them in rooms, make everyone come to the central location to get them!   

I think the "because of COVID" in this case is more "because of staffing shortages since COVID"... they don't have enough extra staff to just send people around delivering cups to the individual rooms on TAD.

Since there are bars all over that are staffed anyway, just having the customer pick up the cup works best.  Also allows people to get their cups before staterooms are available to the public.  And also saves cups that wouldn't get used anyway for people who just get drinks at a bar.  Win-win-win.

 

[BillOh]

I was assuming they just dropped them off with the regular room prep, but that would take a lot of space. I did ask the wife and she remembers nobody told us where the cups were.  We saw someone with them and asked. They were at a booth next to Guest services where we just gave our room # and got 2.

[brillohead]

2 minutes ago, BillOh said:

I was assuming they just dropped them off with the regular room prep, but that would take a lot of space.

It's also a different department.  They were dropped off by Beverage staff, not Housekeeping staff, just like the "minibar" of the past.

[BillOh]

By the way, my most recent cup is still in use on my 2nd job, This current version seals up nice and keeps things cold a little.  I talk a lot on this job and they won't let us have drinks on the sales floor, so I keep mine in the check in area.  At least this one gets a lot of use.

 

[BillOh]

4 hours ago, Brandis said:

 

 

For me, the soda is just an added perk anyways, I get the refreshment package mostly for the fresh OK in the morning, mocktails and some JR malts.

Thanks for the Johnny Rocket's reminder. There wasn't one on Enchantment, my first post pandemic cruise, but there is on Mariner next month!

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

1 hour ago, brillohead said:

I have never had the cup in my room since COVID -- have to go to a bar and ask for it (it will show up on your folio as a $0.00 charge at the bar where you got the cup).  Not all bars will have cups available -- best bet is a bar on the pool deck or Windjammer.

The Freestyle machine will show you the date that your cup is active through.  If using the cup at a bar, the date doesn't matter.  You can also just get a soda at the bar without the cup by showing them the Refreshment Package on your card.

 

Just off the Navigator and that was exactly our experience for the granddaughters.  I got their cups at Lime & Coconut as soon as I had our seapass cards.  If I refilled them there they didn't even scan the cups and seldom took their seapass card.  

[flamingos]

IIRC, the last time we used a soda cup in the Before Times, it was good for an additional week beyond our end date. We joked about handing  it off to some random person in line.  

 

But those were 7 days cruises - I have no idea what the length is for a shorter cruise.

[ReneeFLL]

5 hours ago, Biker19 said:

This. Some have reported that you no longer get a cup in your room, so you probably wouldn’t get the second one until you ask for it. The default length of functionality of the cup seems to be about two weeks from time of activation. 

Ours was 4 days after an 8 day cruise.

[topnole]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

This. Some have reported that you no longer get a cup in your room, so you probably wouldn’t get the second one until you ask for it. The default length of functionality of the cup seems to be about two weeks from time of activation. 

And what happens if you never activate them.  Do they work later?   We have several sets that we never even touched because we don’t drink soda on a cruise.  Maybe I could sell them on eBay.   😂😂😂

[AF-1]

3 hours ago, BillOh said:

Not questioning you at all, but over the last 2 years I've gotten so tired of using the expression "Because of Covid" as the go to excuse.    Rather than putting them in rooms, make everyone come to the central location to get them!   

Royal Caribbean used to have tables set up where you grabbed a cup when you boarded.  I picked up mine outside the WJ Cafe

Edited August 9, 2022 by AF-1

[LeeW]

4 hours ago, topnole said:

And what happens if you never activate them.  Do they work later?   We have several sets that we never even touched because we don’t drink soda on a cruise.  Maybe I could sell them on eBay.   😂😂😂

 

Did in the past (we used unactivated cups before when the cups were left in the room).  Different style now and bartenders will ask to see your cruise card if you use one.  Unactivated cups did NOT work on last Symphony and Harmony cruises.  Activation is for two weeks.  We would have been perfectly happy using our original cups for B2B2B, but they quit working in machine and had to get new ones for the last week.  We have often used the first cup for the second cruise and lately haven't bothered picking up the second one.  Harmony and Symphony had them at one of the large kiosks opposite the stage stairs.

 

We were told they quit putting them in rooms because so many people with Deluxe Drink Packages just throw them away.  Waste of time running around delivering them.

[notscb]

11 hours ago, Brandis said:

OK, so you have to actively ask for it on boarding day? Then I'll just keep the first one and if it stops working halfway through the second cruise, I'll just ask them if they can reactivate the chip. If they can't, they still can give me a second cup. 

 

Yes. On boarding day we had to go to Ben and Jerry's to ask for it when I was on Freedom in May (they were closed for regular business and only handing out cups originally, but I went later and still got the cup while they were open normally).