Soda Card questions

[Solo Cruiser]

Having only cruised Princess (so far :D ) I am only familiar with their soda card policy. While I was reading about onboard gifting prior to the cruise, I noticed that soda cards were only good for 20 sodas.

 

Is there a special card that is issued and punched each time you order or does HAL put a sticker on your key card and allow unlimited soda purchases? Are these "purchases" only good at bars or are they also good in dining rooms and room service?

 

Thanks in advance for your responses, I'm so looking forward to experiencing HAL.

[Jade13]

Having only cruised Princess (so far :D ) I am only familiar with their soda card policy. While I was reading about onboard gifting prior to the cruise, I noticed that soda cards were only good for 20 sodas.

 

Is there a special card that is issued and punched each time you order or does HAL put a sticker on your key card and allow unlimited soda purchases? Are these "purchases" only good at bars or are they also good in dining rooms and room service?

 

Thanks in advance for your responses, I'm so looking forward to experiencing HAL.

 

It is one punch on the card per drink. You can purchase a 20 punch card (last year I think it was $18.75, but may have gone up). It is for coke products. We had one card for the two of us for the week.

 

We only use the cards at dinner. At breakfast we usually have both tea and orange juice. the juices are included in your cruise fare. At lunch we had ice tea. I can't remember what else is included. Apparently HAL np longer gives free lemonade which would be nice in summer. That is one thing I would like to see.

 

The cards are good everwhere with the exception of room service. Hal also allows you to bring drinks onboard, so we brought a pack of canned cola.

[GmaPajama]

Hi Sandy -

 

It's great that you are booked on your first HAL. Ms Westerdam was our first HAL cruise, and I know you're going to love her. I think the soda cards are intended for bar and poolside use - but we were able to use ours in the show lounge and at dinner. We buy 2 cards, but only carry one at a time. It's a punch card, so they just punch out the number of sodas ordered. It's also supposed to be for a glass of soda, but we were usually given a full can instead. A pretty good deal.

 

Have fun anticipating this cruise!

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

Although we have never bought a soda card, we have seen people use them everywhere on the ship - pools, showroom, dining room and the various bars. You just can't use them for cabin service.

 

It seems to vary by ship. Some ships give you the can. Most of the ships use the glass method.

 

Enjoy your first HAL cruise.

[jtl513]

Price is $18 + 15% service charge = $20.70

[mim100]

Just off the Zuiderdam....none of the bar staff would give us cans...we would have preferred cans ( even offered to let them do two punches )...easier to carry back to the room....if you want the soda for mix, ask them for "no ice"...

 

we didn't use the whole card and found a Mum with 3 kids onboard that were staying on for Alaska...she was very happy to get our unused soda, coffee and cocktail cards !

[GoneCruzn]

I'll be on the Zuiderdam in Dec. Can the soda cards be purchased on the ship? Is there a limit as to how many cards you can use?

[mim100]

We purchased our soda cards ( and coffee cards and cocktail cards ) online...we did them online to help coordinate the budget ....I did see cocktail cards for sale but not soda cards so I'm not sure about that...

 

the cards were waiting for us in our cabin when we arrived..

 

have a great trip on the Zuiderdam...you'll love her !

[jtl513]

I'll be on the Zuiderdam in Dec. Can the soda cards be purchased on the ship?

Yes

Is there a limit as to how many cards you can use?

No

. .

[TnTom]

On the Oosterdam last year, I purchased a 20-punch soda card. For each "punch" you got your soft drink served in a (small) high ball glass.

 

Being a major Diet Pepsi drinker, at our first port, Cabo, I purchased several bottles of my drink of choice.

 

If you are addicted to soft drinks like me, you might want to consider carrying your own... it is perfectly ok.

[NDCruiser]

Help! Can someone tell me about the coffee cards & cocktail cards on HAL? I've never heard of a cocktail card. Thanks!

[bankerbabe]

Help! Can someone tell me about the coffee cards & cocktail cards on HAL? I've never heard of a cocktail card. Thanks!

 

I can't speak for the coffee cards, since we didn't purchase them. But we liked the cocktail cards. They are good for ten cocktails and are a great budgeting tool.

 

If you tend to order the drink of the day or like a specific brand of liquor I would not recommend the cards, since you cannot get top shelf liquor with the cocktail card and the drink of the day is cheaper than the price per drink when you buy the card. I tend to order cosmopolitans, espresso martinis, mai tais, etc. and used my cards extensively. Notice I said cards (plural) :)

 

Like all of the cards (coffee, cocktail, wine, and soda) you can buy them in advance or you can wait until you board the ship. On the Noordam, we were able to buy additional cocktail cards at any bar. We never had to buy additional soda cards - guess we had a good time.

[annbanan]

What are coffee cards? :confused:

I'm not familiar with these. Is it something new?

[Ducky61]

they are punch cards and you can use them in dining room, lounges and on deck

[Solo Cruiser]

Thanks for all the replies. Ok so it looks like I'm going to check luggage now for my plane ride down so I can haul a bigger suitcase. I guess I'll pack some soda since that's ok on HAL apparently. The cocktail card sounds like a great idea and I'll probably still get the soda card for dining room and bar use. Thanks again everyone for being so helpful.

[travelingfast]

If you do not use the entire punch card on your cruise, can you use it on another cruise that you take in the future?

[Bubski]

Keeping card for the next trip in theory they say no. Unless they change the format ... of the card how would they know?

 

We found it easier just to give what we had left away to someone who was cruising on past us. Felt good.

 

I wouldn't get as many soda cards next time and also not as many cocktail cards...nice for budgeting and most everything was purchased then before we left home and a nice way to realize how much you are actually buying.

 

But for me, a beer or a vodka would have been cheaper and more preferred most of the time, I found myself trying to figure out what kind of a cocktail I would want to drink and struggled with that most of the time.

 

Dining room we were never asked for a pop card when we ordered club soda and we were never charged.

 

Coffee cards we found very worthwhile and next time might get an additional one; however they worked out almost even for us this time.

If you didn't ask if they would take the card and just handed it to them in the Windstar they never questioned punching it for any of the drinks. Latte, Cappachino, Smoothie, Gran Italia ... it worked very well.

 

All in all we like pre-buying for budgeting and working out the cost.

 

However next time I would buy less I think and re-buy on the ship if needed. The soda card for sure (for our tastes anyway).

 

The house highball was around 4.50 and so was a beer if I recall.

 

The signature cocktails were 6.25 and once in the Crow's Nest when I asked for a drink I was told it couldn't go on the card because it was more than 6.25 (which it wasn't) I didn't sweat it just changed my order to something else.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Barb