Classic Soda Package

[dontpanik]

Hello.  We will be on the 8 night, Western Caribbean cruise next year on the Caribbean Princess.  It is just my DH and myself in our room and we are traveling with a couple using the Plus package.  My DH and I do not drink but we love the mocktails!  I have read the terms and conditions and did not see the answer and it could be from previous cruises on other lines, but I thought there was a limit of 15 drinks a day?  Does that limit exist for a N/A package or is it there to limit alcoholic overconsumption on board?  Is it a hard and fast limit, or is it more discretionary based on their observations of thinking you may be sharing or getting drunk?  I am only asking because we may get several glasses of juice in the morning which are pretty small, more than a few sodas/refills up on deck plus we love the mocktails when seating in lounges/bars and during and after dinner...those can add up. There is no chance we would attempt to circumvent the sharing rule as our travel companions have the alcohol included package and have no need.  Anyone have experience with this?

[Steelers36]

31 minutes ago, dontpanik said:

Hello.  We will be on the 8 night, Western Caribbean cruise next year on the Caribbean Princess.  It is just my DH and myself in our room and we are traveling with a couple using the Plus package.  My DH and I do not drink but we love the mocktails!  I have read the terms and conditions and did not see the answer and it could be from previous cruises on other lines, but I thought there was a limit of 15 drinks a day?  Does that limit exist for a N/A package or is it there to limit alcoholic overconsumption on board?  Is it a hard and fast limit, or is it more discretionary based on their observations of thinking you may be sharing or getting drunk?  I am only asking because we may get several glasses of juice in the morning which are pretty small, more than a few sodas/refills up on deck plus we love the mocktails when seating in lounges/bars and during and after dinner...those can add up. There is no chance we would attempt to circumvent the sharing rule as our travel companions have the alcohol included package and have no need.  Anyone have experience with this?

It is quite clear in the T&C's if you review the drink packages.  The limit of 15 per day (6am - 6am) is only for beverages containing alcohol.  You could have a coffee, soda, or mocktail every 10 minutes.

 

BTW, your breakfast juice is free.  Just ask for a large glass if you don't want to ask for multiple small ones.

[Abercrombie2019]

31 minutes ago, dontpanik said:

Hello.  We will be on the 8 night, Western Caribbean cruise next year on the Caribbean Princess.  It is just my DH and myself in our room and we are traveling with a couple using the Plus package.  My DH and I do not drink but we love the mocktails!  I have read the terms and conditions and did not see the answer and it could be from previous cruises on other lines, but I thought there was a limit of 15 drinks a day?  Does that limit exist for a N/A package or is it there to limit alcoholic overconsumption on board?  Is it a hard and fast limit, or is it more discretionary based on their observations of thinking you may be sharing or getting drunk?  I am only asking because we may get several glasses of juice in the morning which are pretty small, more than a few sodas/refills up on deck plus we love the mocktails when seating in lounges/bars and during and after dinner...those can add up. There is no chance we would attempt to circumvent the sharing rule as our travel companions have the alcohol included package and have no need.  Anyone have experience with this?

The limit of 15 drinks is only for drink packages that include alcohol.  There is no limit to the number of nonalcoholic drinks.

[jean-lynd]

Are you planning on prepaying your gratuities and getting wi-fi? The cost of wi-fi is $14.99 per day and the cost of crew appreciation is $16.00 per day.  I just looked up the price for the non-alchohol package and it is $35.39.  This comes to $66.38 per day while the Plus package is $60 per day. With the Plus package you also get a number of free items that you may or may not want to use. I hope this helps!

[dontpanik]

11 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

It is quite clear in the T&C's if you review the drink packages.  The limit of 15 per day (6am - 6am) is only for beverages containing alcohol.  You could have a coffee, soda, or mocktail every 10 minutes.

 

BTW, your breakfast juice is free.  Just ask for a large glass if you don't want to ask for multiple small ones.

Thank you.  It is not in the terms and conditions for the package I am looking at but then it is probably not there for obvious reasons since it does not apply.

[dontpanik]

1 minute ago, jean-lynd said:

Are you planning on prepaying your gratuities and getting wi-fi? The cost of wi-fi is $14.99 per day and the cost of crew appreciation is $16.00 per day.  I just looked up the price for the non-alchohol package and it is $35.39.  This comes to $66.38 per day while the Plus package is $60 per day. With the Plus package you also get a number of free items that you may or may not want to use. I hope this helps!

We did the math and we are not going for the zero alcohol package because (IMO) it is extremely over priced.  The soda package really has all we need and we may do an ala carte for a coffee/tea every once and awhile but not enough to make it worth it to upgrade.  We are prepaying our gratuities, but have no need of wifi, the casual dining, fitness classes or anything else on the package.  This is our first time with PCL, but I must say, for the price of the plus package, I am surprised no specialty dining outside of the casual restaurants are included and no excursions.  Ah well.

[jean-lynd]

3 minutes ago, jean-lynd said:

Are you planning on prepaying your gratuities and getting wi-fi? The cost of wi-fi is $14.99 per day and the cost of crew appreciation is $16.00 per day.  I just looked up the price for the non-alchohol package and it is $35.39.  This comes to $66.38 per day while the Plus package is $60 per day. With the Plus package you also get a number of free items that you may or may not want to use. I hope this helps!

Sorry, I thought you were looking at the non-alchohol package not the soda package. I see the soda package is $17.69 so that would put the total at $48.69 which would be a savings if you aren't interested in any of the other included items. I hope this helps!

[LeeW]

When the soda package was $6/day it worked great for us.  Now they are pushing the Nonalcohol package and even the soda package has become overprices.  As Elite we get 22 diet cokes for our minibar.  We may or may not bring sodas onboard, but on last 14 day trip we bought three of their 6 soda packages precruise.  Works out to about $2/can, which is cheaper than ordering a single can onboard.

 

OP likes the mocktails, so NA package sounds good for them.  Or the alcohol packages if they use a lot of internet.

[Itried4498]

On my last cruise, soda package was $15pp per day.  Soda is $2.50 per can (slightly less for fountain, although taste is too poor for us to order).  Unless you have a server who looks the other way (so you can “share” the package), that’s a lot of soda to break even.

[dontpanik]

1 hour ago, Itried4498 said:

On my last cruise, soda package was $15pp per day.  Soda is $2.50 per can (slightly less for fountain, although taste is too poor for us to order).  Unless you have a server who looks the other way (so you can “share” the package), that’s a lot of soda to break even.

True, but we'll be using it more for the mocktails, which we REALLY enjoyed when we had the beverage package on Holland America.  We also really loved having the special coffees and teas, but no way I am paying for the zero alcohol package.  We'll pay for those ala carte since it won't be an every day thing

[CU64]

14 hours ago, dontpanik said:

Hello.  We will be on the 8 night, Western Caribbean cruise next year on the Caribbean Princess.  It is just my DH and myself in our room and we are traveling with a couple using the Plus package.  My DH and I do not drink but we love the mocktails!  I have read the terms and conditions and did not see the answer and it could be from previous cruises on other lines, but I thought there was a limit of 15 drinks a day?  Does that limit exist for a N/A package or is it there to limit alcoholic overconsumption on board?  Is it a hard and fast limit, or is it more discretionary based on their observations of thinking you may be sharing or getting drunk?  I am only asking because we may get several glasses of juice in the morning which are pretty small, more than a few sodas/refills up on deck plus we love the mocktails when seating in lounges/bars and during and after dinner...those can add up. There is no chance we would attempt to circumvent the sharing rule as our travel companions have the alcohol included package and have no need.  Anyone have experience with this?

On Celebrity, there is unlimited (No counts) on the Zero Alcohol package. I would assume the same goes for Princess.

[MissP22]

20 hours ago, jean-lynd said:

Are you planning on prepaying your gratuities and getting wi-fi? The cost of wi-fi is $14.99 per day and the cost of crew appreciation is $16.00 per day.  I just looked up the price for the non-alchohol package and it is $35.39.  This comes to $66.38 per day while the Plus package is $60 per day. With the Plus package you also get a number of free items that you may or may not want to use. I hope this helps!

The only problem with your logic is that the Plus package must be purchased for both adults in the cabin, bringing it to $120 per day.

[helenb]

We did the soda package on our recent Regal NYE cruise. Like you, we used to get the 'soda only' package that was $7 per day. Now we have to pay $15 per day. But I can confirm that it DOES include mocktails. So you can get cans of soda and mocktails with no limits.

 

One thing I liked about the new package was that they were no longer enforcing the 'one drink per person' rule. I was able to walk up and get 3 cans of soda at once, all by myself. It made it easy to stockpile soda cans and then take them onshore with us.

 

With the soda package being $15 per day, it *almost* made sense for the Plus package instead... when it was $40 per day. Now at $60 per day, it's not even close. If you don't drink alcohol, it's tough to get your value out of Plus.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

22 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

Soda is $2.50 per can

I could swear soda was $3.50 a can last time we were on Enchanted in 2022.

 

On 1/14/2024 at 1:53 PM, dontpanik said:

The soda package really has all we need and we may do an ala carte for a coffee/tea every once and awhile but not enough to make it worth it to upgrade. 

we got the soda package for the kiddo in 2022 and he loved all the mocktails. The Key West cooler was by far the best. Zero Mojito was great too! They can make any alcoholic drink into a non-alcoholic. Sometimes we found that not all the mocktails were available through the TV menu. There were more on the app menu. 

It was totally worth it at $11.60 a day. I guess $15+tip/tax is quite a bit more, but I think it's still worth it if you drink a lot of soda and mocktails. Our kid certainly does. Not at home, but on a cruise he makes that package worth every penny.

 

I bought the fancy coffees for myself with the small amount of OBC we sometimes get.

 

[jean-lynd]

9 hours ago, MissP22 said:

The only problem with your logic is that the Plus package must be purchased for both adults in the cabin, bringing it to $120 per day.

Ok - if both people are paying gratuities, getting wifi and getting the non-alchohol package it comes to $66.38 per person or $132.76 per cabin - or a savings of $12.76 per cabin for the Plus package.  Obviously, if only one person is getting wifi or the non-alchohol package the Plus package would not work for them.

[helenb]

3 hours ago, jean-lynd said:

Ok - if both people are paying gratuities, getting wifi and getting the non-alchohol package it comes to $66.38 per person or $132.76 per cabin - or a savings of $12.76 per cabin for the Plus package.  Obviously, if only one person is getting wifi or the non-alchohol package the Plus package would not work for them.

 

The non-alcohol package is different from the soda package. The non-alcohol package is much more... while the soda package is only $15 per day. $15 + $16 for gratuities + wifi is far less than $60.

[MissP22]

9 hours ago, helenb said:

 

The non-alcohol package is different from the soda package. The non-alcohol package is much more... while the soda package is only $15 per day. $15 + $16 for gratuities + wifi is far less than $60.

Exactly.