Buying Beverage Package Prior to Cruise

[NRWPA]

I will be buying the Easy Plus package prior to my cruise but want to buy it just before the sailing. When does MSC "close" purchases of extras for their cruises? i.e. Royal Caribbean closes purchases 3 days before the cruise. This is to help me decide which of my credit cards to use.

[Morgsmom]

3 or 4 days before - and that is likely based on the date in EUROPE where the HQ is.

[NRWPA]

56 minutes ago, Morgsmom said:

3 or 4 days before - and that is likely based on the date in EUROPE where the HQ is.

Thanks for answering :) 

[Illbcruzn4life]

14 hours ago, NRWPA said:

I will be buying the Easy Plus package prior to my cruise but want to buy it just before the sailing. When does MSC "close" purchases of extras for their cruises? i.e. Royal Caribbean closes purchases 3 days before the cruise. This is to help me decide which of my credit cards to use.

I did this once when booking. I declined to get the easy plus/wifi package when I booked and when I went to buy the drinks package later it was like $300pp more than if I would have purchased when book.

[RandomUser123]

My advice is if you know you are going to want the drink package is to get it when you book the cruise as part of the cruise rate with easy plus and WiFi for 1 device included. It will be much cheaper then. 

[NRWPA]

10 hours ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

I did this once when booking. I declined to get the easy plus/wifi package when I booked and when I went to buy the drinks package later it was like $300pp more than if I would have purchased when book.

thanks, I was told not to wait until I board by the MSC rep, I just want to wait until the first of June for a 6/29 cruise. My problem now is that I travel solo and when I try to buy online it wants to charge me for 2 people...for some reason, they have a 2nd "person" listed as "guest" on my rez. Guess I'll have to call, something I wanted to avoid

[hawkeyetlse]

That is unfortunate, but if there are two people on your booking now, there will still be two people on it in June, so you're going to have to call sooner or later no matter what. Unless you are OK with paying for two packages and then hoping that MSC eventually refunds one of them.

 

For sure do not wait until you're on board, because then you will have to pay the 18% service charge on top of the price of the package.

[NRWPA]

2 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

That is unfortunate, but if there are two people on your booking now, there will still be two people on it in June, so you're going to have to call sooner or later no matter what. Unless you are OK with paying for two packages and then hoping that MSC eventually refunds one of them.

 

For sure do not wait until you're on board, because then you will have to pay the 18% service charge on top of the price of the package.

I ended up using a different credit card and booking the package over the phone today. The rep had difficulty removing the second passenger "Guest, GGuest" and also kept getting the double charge, but finally was able to get me the package for one. The verification email shows the package but still shows the second passenger. Hopefully, I won't be charged daily gratuities for two. I really don't want to spend any of my 7 day cruise battling to get charges posted correctly.

[Illbcruzn4life]

10 hours ago, NRWPA said:

thanks, I was told not to wait until I board by the MSC rep, I just want to wait until the first of June for a 6/29 cruise. My problem now is that I travel solo and when I try to buy online it wants to charge me for 2 people...for some reason, they have a 2nd "person" listed as "guest" on my rez. Guess I'll have to call, something I wanted to avoid

That's hard to avoid with MSC's website.

[Illbcruzn4life]

3 hours ago, NRWPA said:

I ended up using a different credit card and booking the package over the phone today. The rep had difficulty removing the second passenger "Guest, GGuest" and also kept getting the double charge, but finally was able to get me the package for one. The verification email shows the package but still shows the second passenger. Hopefully, I won't be charged daily gratuities for two. I really don't want to spend any of my 7 day cruise battling to get charges posted correctly.

if nobody else checks in at the pier for your cabin I'm pretty sure they won't be charging for a second person. 

[NRWPA]

28 minutes ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

if nobody else checks in at the pier for your cabin I'm pretty sure they won't be charging for a second person. 

One would think that...I just looked at my credit card and see the charge for one person drink package, and another "charge" of 0 (on a separate line). Both are listed as pending charges. I'll have to keep an eye on this to make sure that 0 doesn't turn into something more. Maybe I'm jaded after the kerfuffle today trying to check in. I won't go into it, but it took me quite some time for all the info I entered to be accepted.

[PTC DAWG]

On 5/29/2024 at 11:40 PM, Illbcruzn4life said:

I did this once when booking. I declined to get the easy plus/wifi package when I booked and when I went to buy the drinks package later it was like $300pp more than if I would have purchased when book.

Exactly, usually this is the best way to do it..