Pre cruise sale - beverage package, etc.

[crzndeb]

You can also take a 12 pack of water, or soda, plus a bottle of wine. Are there any Diamond and above in your family? If they get vouchers, they can also share those.

You can also take a sports bottle and fill up with ship water. It’s perfectly fine. They usually have a flavored water at the dispenser in Windjammer. 
Specialty cocktails are usually $14, mixed drinks, like rum & coke, $10ish. Each drink will have an 18% gratuity added. 
And figure port days. Will that $70-80 per day be worth it on those days.

Some people are allday drinkers, some like a couple in the evening. 

[Beachfrog]

Keeping an eye on the cost. Right now it is $76. For me I’m a bit short, but my spouse would go over. Right now just breaking even. Fingers crossed the package goes down more. Is there a July 4th sale?

[Cruisegirl138]

5 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

You can also take a 12 pack of water, or soda, plus a bottle of wine. Are there any Diamond and above in your family? If they get vouchers, they can also share those.

You can also take a sports bottle and fill up with ship water. It’s perfectly fine. They usually have a flavored water at the dispenser in Windjammer. 
Specialty cocktails are usually $14, mixed drinks, like rum & coke, $10ish. Each drink will have an 18% gratuity added. 
And figure port days. Will that $70-80 per day be worth it on those days.

Some people are allday drinkers, some like a couple in the evening. 

Yes makes sense ti consider all that.  Only

one port the package is included on cococay. I’m not usually all day drinker but my family is and by pool it’s nice. 

[Tree_skier]

2 minutes ago, Beachfrog said:

Keeping an eye on the cost. Right now it is $76. For me I’m a bit short, but my spouse would go over. Right now just breaking even. Fingers crossed the package goes down more. Is there a July 4th sale?

There is but the only time you ever seem significant saving is the Black Friday sale.  July 4th won't much different than what is on sale right now.

[Beachfrog]

12 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

There is but the only time you ever seem significant saving is the Black Friday sale.  July 4th won't much different than what is on sale right now.

Thanks. We booked the cruise during the last Black Friday sale. Didn’t want the drink package then. What were we thinking?!

[Cruisegirl138]

5 minutes ago, Beachfrog said:

Thanks. We booked the cruise during the last Black Friday sale. Didn’t want the drink package then. What were we thinking?!

It’s BOGO 50% off now if that helps 😀

[Beachfrog]

1 minute ago, Cruisegirl138 said:

It’s BOGO 50% off now if that helps 😀

Even with BOGO it still comes to $76 a person, not including gratuity. Not low enough for us to come out ahead.

[Cruisegirl138]

2 minutes ago, Beachfrog said:

Even with BOGO it still comes to $76 a person, not including gratuity. Not low enough for us to come out ahead.

I get it. That’s what I'm

struggling with 

[Gabrielle R.]

1 hour ago, Cruisegirl138 said:

Ahh so that makes sense. I can get bottled water too at anytime?  I drink a lot of water. And juice is no longer complimentary?  See, last time I cruised it was. All but soda I thought. So this may make it worth it. Cause I’m just not a roll out of bed and start throwing back shots type of person lol. I don’t even know the average price per drink on a cruise anymore.  I live in NYC so always guesstimate on the higher end anyway.  

I really enjoy having the good coffee in the morning.  DH and I often sit out on the promenade and have several coffees.  Then fresh juice and bottled water whenever we want- super nice when going ashore. 

[Cruisegirl138]

3 minutes ago, Gabrielle R. said:

I really enjoy having the good coffee in the morning.  DH and I often sit out on the promenade and have several coffees.  Then fresh juice and bottled water whenever we want- super nice when going ashore. 

Yes that totally is a big plus 

[ngrund]

11 hours ago, JK805 said:

I usually check a couple times a week on pricing, as their “sale” cycles tend to be something like Tues-Fri and Sat-Mon (or some slight variation). Often times it just bounces between two price points, but last year I got the cheapest beverage packages the week before Halloween ($5-10/day cheaper than Black Friday prices came in at even).

But don’t pay attention to the % off they have listed, just look at the actual pricing and compare to that as their “math” is often a bit off - for example last year on Navigator on board price of DX is $102/day, CP had it as $76.99/day claiming it was 30% off, but mathematically it’s really ~25%. 

the problem RCL has with their math is % of what- marketing people just love stating things as % since it confuses a lot of people-

 

the savings of $25 is as you say about 25% of 102 but it is also 32% of $77

[poocher]

6 minutes ago, ngrund said:

the problem RCL has with their math is % of what- marketing people just love stating things as % since it confuses a lot of people-

 

the savings of $25 is as you say about 25% of 102 but it is also 32% of $77

The full price is always shown in the CP next to the sale price so their percentages are indeed accurate.  The problem is the full price often changes.  But it’s always there.  Unfortunately reading has become a lost art.  People see what they want to see and don’t read further.  We may not like Royal’s CP sales but I have yet to find one that is flat out wrong.

Edited June 8, 2023 by poocher

[ngrund]

Just checked my planner-$71 a day p/p for next June, down from 75-

[The Scurvy Pirate]

1 hour ago, poocher said:

The full price is always shown in the CP next to the sale price so their percentages are indeed accurate.  The problem is the full price often changes.  But it’s always there.  Unfortunately reading has become a lost art.  People see what they want to see and don’t read further.  We may not like Royal’s CP sales but I have yet to find one that is flat out wrong.

Unless you have kept track of the initial "full price" or any subsequent changes, its really hard to know, which is probably RCI's intent.  I would venture most people don't check/follow pricing on a regular basis.  The people on CC are the exception.  As everyone says, if you like the price, buy it. I am of the opinion, if you konw you want it, but aren't sure of the price, still buy it.  You can always re-price if it goes down.  If you change your mind, you can always cancel and get your money back.  The problem with not buying "now", there is a reasonable chance the base price tomorrow may be even higher.  I can't tell you how many times I was waiting for a lower price or the next "sale" and then there was a jump in the base price, so I coudn't even get it at the previous price I was debating.  For example, the UDP was fluctuating between $226 and $261.  It was at $261 when I decided to purchase (after much procrastination), so I was waiting for the next "sale" for it to go back to $226, when it jumped to $288 and $327, never to see $226. again...

[Cruisegirl138]

15 hours ago, ngrund said:

Just checked my planner-$71 a day p/p for next June, down from 75-

You get that price now?  I see $75.99.  I guess could also depend on sailing 

[Merion_Mom]

24 minutes ago, Cruisegirl138 said:

You get that price now?  I see $75.99.  I guess could also depend on sailing 

 

It absolutely varies from ship to ship, from sailing to sailing.  Not standard across the fleet by any means.

[Cruisegirl138]

4 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

It absolutely varies from ship to ship, from sailing to sailing.  Not standard across the fleet by any means.

Thank you I’m learning that now 

[ARandomTraveler]

The deluxe package dropped to $43.99 today on my sailing. Before you get too excited, mine is a 12-day Asian cruise, so the price was already a lot lower than "normal" ($54.99-$58.99), but a $10 drop is a lot.
 

So I'm curious if the usual $75.99/day price has dropped into the $65/day range or if it was just my sailing that is having this big drop. It could be that they weren't selling enough beverage packages and since the cruise is only 55 days away they're doing a fire sale. 

[Cruisegirl138]

4 minutes ago, ARandomTraveler said:

The deluxe package dropped to $43.99 today on my sailing. Before you get too excited, mine is a 12-day Asian cruise, so the price was already a lot lower than "normal" ($54.99-$58.99), but a $10 drop is a lot.
 

So I'm curious if the usual $75.99/day price has dropped into the $65/day range or if it was just my sailing that is having this big drop. It could be that they weren't selling enough beverage packages and since the cruise is only 55 days away they're doing a fire sale. 

Oh wow that’s awesome.  I did get excited for a split second 

[The Scurvy Pirate]

2 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

So I'm curious if the usual $75.99/day price has dropped into the $65/day range or if it was just my sailing that is having this big drop. It could be that they weren't selling enough beverage packages and since the cruise is only 55 days away they're doing a fire sale. 

My cruise from Miami is in 130 days.  My planner "sale" is the same as all the other "sales" at 20% one week, 25% the other week, saving all of $5.00.  Hopefully (although doubtful) I will see a decent price drop closer in....

[twangster]

2 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

So I'm curious if the usual $75.99/day price has dropped into the $65/day range or if it was just my sailing that is having this big drop. It could be that they weren't selling enough beverage packages and since the cruise is only 55 days away they're doing a fire sale. 

 

No DX price drops for several US and European cruises but for my Singapore cruise the DX is $44.99 pppd.

[KroozNut]

On 6/7/2023 at 5:00 PM, Tree_skier said:

To do the math you need to guesstimate how much you are going to drink on a daily basis.  With waters and Lattes in the morning It has always worked out pretty well for me.  There was a spread sheet that someone had posted that was really useful in determining the cost effectiveness of the package.  I seem to not be able to find the link though.  Perhaps someone else might post it.

I'd like to see that as well, as I'd like to crunch some numbers to determine cost effectiveness of the package.

Or if anyone has a good set of recent beverage menus with prices they could share, that would be really helpful.

[Cruisegirl138]

3 minutes ago, KroozNut said:

I'd like to see that as well, as I'd like to crunch some numbers to determine cost effectiveness of the package.

Or if anyone has a good set of recent beverage menus with prices they could share, that would be really helpful.

I did a Google search a few days ago how much drinks cost on Royal and some stuff popped up.  They seemed to be like $12 on average.  Up to $14 maybe 

[poocher]

The popular drinks one sees around the pool (pina colada, lava flow, margaritas etc) are $15 plus gratuity ($16.34).  Beer, wine, hard seltzers less.  You can see current on board prices in the app by choosing a current sailing on the ship you are interested in.  Prices are there.

Edited June 13, 2023 by poocher

[Cruisegirl138]

38 minutes ago, poocher said:

The popular drinks one sees around the pool (pina colada, lava flow, margaritas etc) are $15 plus gratuity ($16.34).  Beer, wine, hard seltzers less.  You can see current on board prices in the app by choosing a current sailing on the ship you are interested in.  Prices are there.

thanks.  I just purchased the package yesterday so I guess all in lol