Advice Please

Looking forward to our second cruise in September on Freedom. On are first cruise we enjoyed tea, coffee, cokes for the fridge, daily as well as beer and c cocktails on the sea days. Zip forward to our upcoming sailing With the increased drink prices and the crazy things I am hearing about weak coffee and tea unless you upgrade, should I be taking a serious look at a drink package Not big drinkers however our bar portion our first sailing was around $300.00. Gut tells me look at a package......experienced knowledge of the works and wisdom is appreciate.

Looking forward to our second cruise in September on Freedom. On are first cruise we enjoyed tea, coffee, cokes for the fridge, daily as well as beer and c cocktails on the sea days. Zip forward to our upcoming sailing With the increased drink prices and the crazy things I am hearing about weak coffee and tea unless you upgrade, should I be taking a serious look at a drink package Not big drinkers however our bar portion our first sailing was around $300.00. Gut tells me look at a package......experienced knowledge of the works and wisdom is appreciate.

It is really difficult to gauge what someone else is going to drink. That being said, I will help the best I can.

Since my DH and myself are not big drinkers we only opted for the replenish package for the frozen drinks and bottled water. It does include specialty coffee and tea but I haven't had any yet (next cruise I will when we have more sea days.) I did have a few reg coffees in the MDR and they seemed fine to me but, I am not a big coffee drinker either... only during the winter months and only 1 or 2 cups a week.

from what I hear you would need to drink about 6-8 alcoholic drinks per day to break even. If not, you are better off paying as you go or doing the refreshment or replenishment package.

just so you know making 2 post,10 mins apart, saying the same thing won't get you many, if any replies...

from what I hear you would need to drink about 6-8 alcoholic drinks per day to break even. If not, you are better off paying as you go or doing the refreshment or replenishment package.

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At the new increased drink prices of $12 a cocktail it's more like 4-5 drinks :eek:

I did not find the coffee or tea to be weak at all. I bring my own travel mug and enjoy the free coffee or tea That is available at the Cafe Promenade.

At the new increased drink prices of $12 a cocktail it's more like 4-5 drinks :eek:

Two pina coladas while docked in SAn Juan cost me $30. :eek:

Then a few times I ordered a frozen mojito for $8 which was good and the Miami Vice was $8. of course that $8 is not including 18% tip.

It was weird the drinks varied in price from bar to bar to port of call

Loved loved loved the Seattle best coffee on freedom. Cruised last fall and was very happy with the coffee.

We got the soda package and were all happy with that. My husband and I aren't big drinkers anymore so we simply paid per drink. We were in the presidential suite and took advantage of the concierge lounge for wine the first few days of the cruise adventure.

I did not find the coffee weak at all, and I am a big coffee drinker. I usually buy a package because I do enjoy the frilly coffees too. Is the package worth it? Only you can decide. Most of the time it is for me, unless the cruise is really port intensive.

Just curious as to how you guys define a "port intensive" cruise. Would a 7 night cruise with 2 at sea days and 4 ports be port intensive?

Nobody's opinion but yours counts, but I'm a big coffee drinker and I LOVE Seattle's Best, which is the FREE coffee and I'm from the South where we are big on our tea. While they don't have sweet tea on the ships, I've never found the tea to be weak either. We buy the soda package because we do drink more soda on we are on vacation or on a cruise. On FOS they have the Dasani flavored water in the fountains, which we like also. We have an occasional frozen drink out by the pool so we pay as we go. We are, however, Diamond so we get the DL drinks for free and we get the 3 free drinks per evening (between5:30 and 8:30) for free and we've never used all three of those AND gone to the DL for drinks in one evening. Everyone's drinking habits are different though so our experience might not be the same as someone else.

Just curious as to how you guys define a "port intensive" cruise. Would a 7 night cruise with 2 at sea days and 4 ports be port intensive?

To me personally no. My last cruise was 7 day, 5 ports of call and 1 day at sea. That is what I would call port intensive.