Buying Two Drinks

[arokcab]

Can I buy my wife's drink when I'm getting a drink or does she have to be there also?

 

[Fouremco]

If you each have a beverage package, you'll need her sea pass as well, but she doesn't need to join you.

 

If you are buying the drinks, then you can buy as many as you want at a time.

[AroundWithMAPTravels]

My experience was “it depends”. … on a recent trip,  it was  sometimes yes , sometimes no…in same venue.   We were sometimes required to provide both cards, sometimes one would suffice.   Did not seem to be a pattern.

[Cruisercl]

14 hours ago, Fouremco said:

If you each have a beverage package, you'll need her sea pass as well, but she doesn't need to join you.

 

If you are buying the drinks, then you can buy as many as you want at a time.

So does that mean if a person has the BP and meets the 15 drink criteria they can then buy drinks? With the BP including water, coffee and soda pop they all add up to the limit. 

Does anyone have experience with this? 😊

TIA.

[0106]

5 minutes ago, Cruisercl said:

if a person has the BP and meets the 15 drink criteria they can then buy drinks?

You can buy drinks if you exceed your 15 drink limit.  I have had the BP on several cruises and have never exceeded 15 drinks even on sea days.

[rodndonna]

5 minutes ago, 0106 said:

You can buy drinks if you exceed your 15 drink limit.  I have had the BP on several cruises and have never exceeded 15 drinks even on sea days.

 

I agree. It sounded like we might hit the limit when taking into account waters, coffees, mocktails (or soda's), but we never actually came close. I seem to recall at a couple of bars, they would try to make sure we were alternating using cards as a couple - this would help if one drinks more than the other to avoid hitting that limit, but we never did get that close anyway.

[Fouremco]

4 hours ago, Cruisercl said:

So does that mean if a person has the BP and meets the 15 drink criteria they can then buy drinks? With the BP including water, coffee and soda pop they all add up to the limit. 

Does anyone have experience with this? 😊

TIA.

I've never reached the 15 drink limit, but if you max out, I believe that your card won't allow the bartender to make the charge. A bit like when you max out your credit card ashore. 😵‍💫

[Blackduck59]

I've never reached the 15 limit either. You can ask for a glass of water, they are free. If you insist on canned water, that counts against your 15 drink limit as does pop. I have to think that if you go over the 15 you would be charged full price for subsequent drinks on that day. I would suggest you keep track of your count and at the end of the day grab some water or pop and put them in the fridge in your cabin. Keeping in mind the "mini bar" in your cabin is not part of your beverage package. 

[SDARCH]

13 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I've never reached the 15 drink limit, but if you max out, I believe that your card won't allow the bartender to make the charge. A bit like when you max out your credit card ashore. 😵‍💫

Once you hit 15, the drinks just get charged to your account.

[Fouremco]

4 minutes ago, SDARCH said:

Once you hit 15, the drinks just get charged to your account.

I overheard a bartender advising a passenger that he had hit the 15 drink max and wasn't able to use his card to charge a drink to his account. The passenger was well into his cups, and maybe this was simply a ruse on the part of the bartender to cut him off without any confrontation.

[SDARCH]

Just now, Fouremco said:

The passenger was well into his cups, and maybe this was simply a ruse on the part of the bartender to cut him off without any confrontation.

Good move on the bartender!  

[cbr663]

When using a beverage package, I simply presented the 2 cards.  My DW was always close by anyway and the bartenders/waiters can easily see that the cards are from the same cabin.  As another poster pointed out, without a beverage package you can buy as many as you want.

 

Personally, I was more concerned about getting my card returned and not someone else's.

Edited September 22, 2023 by cbr663

[lavictoria]

53 minutes ago, SDARCH said:

Once you hit 15, the drinks just get charged to your account.

This is the correct answer.

Since I'm not usually a heavy drinker I got into the habit of ordering a Perrier water (small bottle) with every alcoholic drink I ordered to keep me hydrated and not too tipsy.

One day of our 18-day itinerary I had used my card to buy an extra coffee and a can of water for hubs while waiting for him as well as my usual fresh-squeezed orange juice, cans of water, pop, mocktails wine etc during the day.

When I checked my account the following day I had a charge for one mixed drink at 11:00 the night before. I was slightly salty since I had ordered a martini and a Perrier simultaneously but learned my lesson.

[Cruisercl]

Thanks for all of the answers everyone! 

I just have not been on a cruiseline that limits drinks with a BP. 😊

 

[RD64]

1 hour ago, Cruisercl said:

Thanks for all of the answers everyone! 

I just have not been on a cruiseline that limits drinks with a BP. 😊

 

Which cruise lines do not have the limit? Fifteen seems to be pretty standard I believe.

[Cruisercl]

I know NCL doesn't, when I cruised Celebrity and RCL a few years ago they didn't.

I also have taken a EU river cruise that didn't.

I am thinking it is the Carnival products that have the limit.

Edited September 22, 2023 by Cruisercl
eta

[albingirl]

Our drink card gets hit hard for coffee and water.  But, in the late afternoon, we always go to the same bar, Seaview, and so we aren't asked for separate cards.  Sometimes, though, it might be good to use separate cards if you drink alot, so one card doesn't go over and you get charged for the over.  We don't so it's not an issue.  But, I've given this thought.  Lol.

[electro]

5 hours ago, RD64 said:

Which cruise lines do not have the limit? Fifteen seems to be pretty standard I believe.

NCL and MSC do not have limits on the amount of drinks on their drink packages. 

I thought I read that some others, maybe carinval?, only have limits on alcohol drinks and not on non alcoholic drinks. 

HAL is the only one I know that has a limit that includes non alcohol drinks.

 

 

[electro]

8 hours ago, Fouremco said:

I overheard a bartender advising a passenger that he had hit the 15 drink max and wasn't able to use his card to charge a drink to his account. The passenger was well into his cups, and maybe this was simply a ruse on the part of the bartender to cut him off without any confrontation.

It doesn't makes sense that they automatically cut you off when you reach 15 drinks as 14 of them could be non alcoholic drinks.

I think you are correct in that the bartender used it as way to cut off a passenger without confrontation.

[Fouremco]

10 minutes ago, electro said:

It doesn't makes sense that they automatically cut you off when you reach 15 drinks as 14 of them could be non alcoholic drinks.

I think you are correct in that the bartender used it as way to cut off a passenger without confrontation.

I think that when the 15 drink limit was introduced, there was some talk of it being related to avoiding alcohol abuse, but you're quite right, you could be cut off after 14 bottles of water and a light beer. I suspect that the true motivator was simply reducing the number of "free" drinks they have to hand out under the BP.

 

Some lines handle it differently. With HAL, for example, with the Elite BP, there's 15-drink daily limit on alcoholic drinks, but you can enjoy unlimited non-alcoholic beverages.

[crystalspin]

20 hours ago, albingirl said:

...Sometimes, though, it might be good to use separate cards if you drink alot, so one card doesn't go over and you get charged for the over.  We don't so it's not an issue.  But, I've given this thought.  Lol.

This***. We hang out in the Crows Nest (and Dutch Cafe on Pinnacle ships), so usually the beverage stewards are fetching our drinks. It's faster for the bar tender to run only one card, so we alternate cards during the day (including at Exploration Cafe).

[RD64]

Truly from my own observations 15 drinks - be it coffee, alcoholic, non-alcoholic is a lot for a 24 hour period. Do you drink 15 beverages a day at home? Personally, because I was on holiday, I would have 8-10 alcoholic beverages (if you are going to be all Judgy Judgerson on me please refrain from doing so) 1-2 specialty coffees, Perrier at lunch at dinner, and bring back extra Perrier at the end of the day.
 

 At night you could people were at the bars stocking up on bottles / cans of water or pop to bring back to the cabin. There was one older couple travelling with an adult child, and all three had the HIA. Only the adult child drank alcohol - and they never came close to their 45 day limit.
 

This may be an important consideration for Americans as I have noticed that Americans seem to consume large quantities of pop/ soda - Canadians not as much.

Edited September 23, 2023 by RD64
Additional

[IAcruising]

I drink double-shots with a slash of Coke. I slam down two of those just as a primer, so, I'd have 4 of my 15-limit done before I've even really started.  That can't be right.

 

[Blackduck59]

1 minute ago, IAcruising said:

I drink double-shots with a slash of Coke. I slam down two of those just as a primer, so, I'd have 4 of my 15-limit done before I've even really started.  That can't be right.

 

It is right, apparently you need a better plan, or a bigger wallet.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

On 9/22/2023 at 10:10 AM, Fouremco said:

I've never reached the 15 drink limit, but if you max out, I believe that your card won't allow the bartender to make the charge. A bit like when you max out your credit card ashore. 😵‍💫

I recently travelled with a relative who hit the 15 drink limit a couple of times. After the 15th beverage, the drinks were charged to her account.