Drinks package? Need help!

[Jeaannie55]

I’m hoping someone from this lovely community can help.  My daughter gifted me a cruise for my Christmas present! 

Although I have cruised P&O before, not for quite a while and I wonder if anyone could help me decide about purchasing a drinks package?

we are onboard The Ventura at Easter and we are looking at the Premium drinks package, but I can’t seem to find if that includes specialty coffees or fresh juices for example, particularly at breakfast time? 
would appreciate any information, thank you.

[Mike Senior]

Drinks-packages-Terms-and-Conditions-2023- (1).pdf

[Josy1953]

It really depends what and how much you drink.

We looked at it earlier this year and decided against it.  We know how much and what we drink on a typical day on a cruise and then looked at the price list to work out our typical daily spend multiplied it by 14 for a 2 week cruise then decided that for us it was cheaper to pay for the drinks as we had them rather than buy a package.

[yorkshirephil]

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

It really depends what and how much you drink.

We looked at it earlier this year and decided against it.  We know how much and what we drink on a typical day on a cruise and then looked at the price list to work out our typical daily spend multiplied it by 14 for a 2 week cruise then decided that for us it was cheaper to pay for the drinks as we had them rather than buy a package.

To add to this it also depends whether you have any OBC and what you plan to do with it, usually for us the OBC pays for our coffees and drinks.

[majortom10]

Also take into account value for money when you are in port and off the ship so don't drink as much.

[Barbadossunshine]

13 hours ago, Jeaannie55 said:

I’m hoping someone from this lovely community can help.  My daughter gifted me a cruise for my Christmas present! 

Although I have cruised P&O before, not for quite a while and I wonder if anyone could help me decide about purchasing a drinks package?

we are onboard The Ventura at Easter and we are looking at the Premium drinks package, but I can’t seem to find if that includes specialty coffees or fresh juices for example, particularly at breakfast time? 
would appreciate any information, thank you.

Your choice to buy or not to buy. We bought a delux for our cruise to the Caribbean and for us it was worth the money and our friends and family who were with us bought the package as well and everyone of them definitely said it was totally worth the money they paid for it. We never took drinks bottles to fill up at the water stations as always got the small bottles of water which is included in the delux package and the amount of these we were drinking each day added up. Along with fresh juices and Costa Coffees and other drinks in costa. Along with large glasses of wine and you automatically get doubles if you are a spirit drinker along with fever tree which is part of the delux package. You had to say to the people taking drink orders if you wanted a single spirit. All this was spread across the day especially on sea days. The package continues until the last day of cruise until you depart the ship to go home.

[galeforce9]

4 hours ago, Barbadossunshine said:

Your choice to buy or not to buy. We bought a delux for our cruise to the Caribbean and for us it was worth the money and our friends and family who were with us bought the package as well and everyone of them definitely said it was totally worth the money they paid for it. We never took drinks bottles to fill up at the water stations as always got the small bottles of water which is included in the delux package and the amount of these we were drinking each day added up. Along with fresh juices and Costa Coffees and other drinks in costa. Along with large glasses of wine and you automatically get doubles if you are a spirit drinker along with fever tree which is part of the delux package. You had to say to the people taking drink orders if you wanted a single spirit. All this was spread across the day especially on sea days. The package continues until the last day of cruise until you depart the ship to go home.

That’s helpful thanks.  Am I right in thinking the water, juices, coffee do not count towards the drinks maximum.  I drink more expensive tonics, wine and spirits (not  many) but quite a lot of water etc.  

[Barbadossunshine]

21 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

That’s helpful thanks.  Am I right in thinking the water, juices, coffee do not count towards the drinks maximum.  I drink more expensive tonics, wine and spirits (not  many) but quite a lot of water etc.  

The non alcoholic drinks do not count as part of the Delux drinks package. In some

of the bars we found they were not serving the fever tree for ginger ale which is my personal choice for a mixer and it was britvic not a fan of this mixer but will take if last resort, also used fentimans ginger beer as a mixer as well. The Glass house had a lovely selection of wines we liked to Drink and these were about £15 a glass mark as well. Also only ourselves had OBC which was us having shares in Carnival. No others in party had any OBC and all drink packages were bought before we got on ship which we got discounted by 20% or 25%. 
 

Hope this helps.

[galeforce9]

4 minutes ago, Barbadossunshine said:

The non alcoholic drinks do not count as part of the Delux drinks package. In some

of the bars we found they were not serving the fever tree for ginger ale which is my personal choice for a mixer and it was britvic not a fan of this mixer but will take if last resort, also used fentimans ginger beer as a mixer as well. The Glass house had a lovely selection of wines we liked to Drink and these were about £15 a glass mark as well. Also only ourselves had OBC which was us having shares in Carnival. No others in party had any OBC and all drink packages were bought before we got on ship which we got discounted by 20% or 25%. 
 

Hope this helps.

After my own heart!   Anderson’s and the glass house are my venues of choice on Aurora 🙂 for this reason.  Also have the carnival obc 

[cuatbar58]

We recently brought a deluxe drink package. The reasoning behind our purchase was that  we qualified for 2 soft drink packages for our grandchildren and the deluxe included doubles and large glasses of wine. We did not keep a tally but I believe we probably broke even. The main advantage was we did not come home to a large credit bill. We would not consider having the package for just the two of us unless we got some kind of special deal. It cost us with discounts £1260.

 

If you don’t drink much on first day or last day or feel unwell for any part of a your cruise the package starts to look poor value. I would also say most of the wines are very average when you look at the menu ignore the price they are wines that cost £7 to £8 pounds in a supermarket and probably half that in a Spanish supermarket. I do not think too much of P&O cocktails either. There is a great selection of beers though.

 

I believe as time goes on the packages will start to look like a better deals as I am sure P&O will be putting up their bar prices on a regular basis. I noticed in a national newspaper a P&O cruise advertised with an included drink  package could be the way things will go. My advice anyone who has brought the package Just enjoy it’s been paid for and there is no need to count or justify the cost the money has already been spent.

 

[jeanlyon]

We don't actually worry about what we spend, but on the other hand, we don't do soft drinks at all, nor do we buy water.  So we have a large wine each in the bar and then a bottle on the table with dinner.  On Aurora they keep it for the next night if you haven't drunk it all.  I have the odd coffee.  On our last 19 night cruise, our spend was £560.  The package would have been more than double.  So it's horses for courses.

 

totally agree about the time you spend ashore and maybe not feeling well.  

[Interestedcruisefan]

I already eat too many extra calories on a cruise to not challenge myself to having to burn the extra calories I would be consuming if I tried to get my moneys worth from any kind of drinks package they offer!!

 

Dread to think the extra calories I would add per day when I'm already overloading on the food as it is compared to being at home

 

Drinking lots of water in between the odd cocktail helps with that a little bit!!

 

But not enough!!

Edited January 2 by Interestedcruisefan

[WestonOne]

As others have said, it all depends on what you drink and how often.  My wife doesn't drink alcohol at all, and I tend to stick at about one glass of wine a day, so we have just looked at the non-alcoholic option.  That turns out to be just under £50 a day.

Really?  On a 65 day cruise, over £3000 between us?  (We would both have to buy it, I think.) That's a goodly proportion of the per person price of the cabin.

We will give it a miss again.

Edited February 9 by WestonOne

[jeanlyon]

I just looked at a 12 night Norway cruise.  The drinks package is £868!   On a 19 night cruise our spend was £560.  And that is only alcohol and the odd coffee.

[doog442]

We spent £550 of our £750 OBC on booze, mocktails, cocktails  and coffee on our recent 14 day Caribbean. The rest went on a couple of tours. My wife isn't much of a drinker but we took 1 litre of gin and paid £18 on board for ten tonic waters.

 

There was no restriction bringing alcohol on board from the various ports we visited so I bought a few beers and soft drinks where I could. I enjoy a drink mind and we still ended up in the Crows nest trying to use up the dregs of the OBC on the last night. 

 

Daily was a large glass each of Rose or Merlot for Dinner, Cocktail and beer pre dinner and a cocktail / beer post dinner... sea days perhaps a beer / glass of rose at lunchtime. 

[poorer]

It's not always about how much alcohol you drink its about how you use the drink package.

We did this for the first time last year and used this for coffees and iced coffees and juices as well as premium drinks such as miravel wine.It does not mean that you have to constant consume alcohol but can have a variation when you want rather than wait to get  cheap coffee from machine  just calculate what you want whether it is a non alcoholic beverage or coffee or alcohol it is your decision  

[doog442]

44 minutes ago, poorer said:

It's not always about how much alcohol you drink its about how you use the drink package.

We did this for the first time last year and used this for coffees and iced coffees and juices as well as premium drinks such as miravel wine.It does not mean that you have to constant consume alcohol but can have a variation when you want rather than wait to get  cheap coffee from machine  just calculate what you want whether it is a non alcoholic beverage or coffee or alcohol it is your decision  

 

I found the coffees from the buffet to be fine but the better half wanted Costa. The issue was that the place was completely overrun with long waits and a lot of frustrated people and bars were refusing to do coffees. P&O have also limited their free soft drinks to water, Princess haven't for example.

 

Many of the drinks on drink menus weren't even part of the basic drinks package. P&O meanwhile will continue to raise the price of drinks and try and force people into what is a poor package. 

 

Compare the basic drinks package to Princess or Celebrity and I think they're going into unchartered territory here.  

[Clodia]

Having tried both packages including alcohol, I think that the deluxe one is better value, but it depends what you drink. If I were a beer drinker it wouldn't pay.

I like decent wine and premium spirirts, and I like large glasses and double measures. You only have to have a glass of wine with lunch, a pre dinner drink, a glass or two with dinner and a pre bedtime drink to break even, and that's without the bottled water and coffees I drink. Whereas the classic package, with single measures, smaller glasses, and excluding the more expensive wines and cocktails, is not for me at all.

Edited February 10 by Clodia

[sandancer]

I agree with Clodia, the de luxe package is well worth the extra few £s. We probably didn’t get the full value of it but that’s just us. We did enjoy ordering a glass of wine costing £16.50. We have a shed load of obc on our next cruise so no package for us this time. We have however booked the Premium package on our next Princess cruise. No comparison to P&O. 

[MellyMoo1989]

I went on a different tack with working things out, I'm going on a 14 day cruise and I'm a girl who likes her lager. If I was to have 4 or 5 lagers throughout the day/evening and a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, every day, without ever ordering anything different, by the end of those two weeks I'd be £51 under the total cost of what it would be if I went for the Classic Package**... For the sake of £51 and the additional bonus of small costa coffees, soft drinks, cocktails, spirits.. it was a no brainer.🙂

 

** Basing prices on pints of Birra Moretti & New Zealand Sauv Blanc.

Edited February 10 by MellyMoo1989

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, MellyMoo1989 said:

I went on a different tack with working things out, I'm going on a 14 day cruise and I'm a girl who likes her lager. If I was to have 4 or 5 lagers throughout the day/evening and a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, every day, without ever ordering anything different, by the end of those two weeks I'd be £51 under the total cost of what it would be if I went for the Classic Package**... For the sake of £51 and the additional bonus of small costa coffees, soft drinks, cocktails, spirits.. it was a no brainer.🙂

 

** Basing prices on pints of Birra Moretti & New Zealand Sauv Blanc.

Would you drink 4/5 lagers every day on a port intensive cruise though.

[MellyMoo1989]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Would you drink 4/5 lagers every day on a port intensive cruise though.

probably. One or two when back on the ship and three in the evening as an example. 

[jeanlyon]

On 2/9/2024 at 10:23 PM, poorer said:

It's not always about how much alcohol you drink its about how you use the drink package.

We did this for the first time last year and used this for coffees and iced coffees and juices as well as premium drinks such as miravel wine.It does not mean that you have to constant consume alcohol but can have a variation when you want rather than wait to get  cheap coffee from machine  just calculate what you want whether it is a non alcoholic beverage or coffee or alcohol it is your decision  

People really do need to work out what they normally drink on a cruise.   For example, we don't do juices, iced coffees or premium drinks.  Only you know what you normally would drink.  Also, if the cruise is port intensive, you won't be using that much as you will be ashore.  And, if you are ill for a few days, you have wasted quite a lot of money.

Edited February 11 by jeanlyon

[SeaJane]

9 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

People really do need to work out what they normally drink on a cruise.   For example, we don't do juices, iced coffees or premium drinks.  Only you know what you normally would drink.  Also, if the cruise is port intensive, you won't be using that much as you will be ashore.  And, if you are ill for a few days, you have wasted quite a lot of money.

Completely agree. We like a few drinks, but do not do specialist coffees, juices or buy water. We always have a bottle of wine with dinner and a few glasses of wine or beer for OH at other times on a sea day. When in port we usually use the local restaurants or cafes. For us the drinks package isn’t worth it. For a family with children having a lot of soft drinks as well I can understand it totally makes sense.

[JeanieC,Aston]

A glass of Prosecco on P&O is £6.75,,,,one glass before dinner,one glass at dinner and three glasses the rest of the evening (tiny 175ml glasses) a coffee and can of Pepsi and you have paid for your drink package…..Easy.