Getting your money's worth with drink package

My goodness! How would someone stand up, let alone function drinking that much? On the other hand, they would have a lot of fun.

Ohiodoglover

Looks accurate, I drink to that!

Is that all? What a waste of the drinks package....:D

Is that all? What a waste of the drinks package....:D

Hehehehe very funny!

Looks accurate, I drink to that!

I'm with you on that!

I easily drink 2 bottles of red wine per day plus whatever I have while on the excursions plus beer or drink of the day. Just gotta eat and stay hydrated and know your limits, before acting like a drunken fool...

I easily drink 2 bottles of red wine per day plus whatever I have while on the excursions plus beer or drink of the day. Just gotta eat and stay hydrated and know your limits, before acting like a drunken fool...

How can this be true? Are the British used to drinking that much? Maybe they were wasted while doing the poll? I know my cousin in Germany can drink us under the table, but I don't think that much. I would be sick as a dog or dead if I drank that much. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Does the drink package cost the same in the UK as it does for us in the US or more? I got the drink package for our next cruise because it was a perk. I will probably only drink about 5 - 10 drinks more than my usual on a 14 day cruise. When I really think about it I might not even really drink much more if at all. I don't like not sleeping very well and the feeling of drinking to much.

Sure there are people on cruise ships who drink to excess...

But as I have pointed out many times before one can easily get "value" out of a Celebrity Bevvy Package without a whole lot of Booze in the mix...

Morning:

Premium Tea or Coffee from Cafe al Bacio

Fresh Squeezed OJ (or Smoothie) with Breakfast

Day Ashore:

2 Bottles of Spring Water as one leaves the ship

Back Aboard:

A stop at Cafe al Bacio for a cool & refreshing Iced Tea or Coffee

Cocktail Hour:

An exotic drink from one of the many Bars aboard... Martini - Molecular - or Crush

Dinner:

A bottle of Sparking Water

A glass or two of wine

A Cappucinno with Dessert

After Dinner:

A nightcap in one of the many bars or lounges, casino or nightclub

Or perhaps just a late night Coffee, Tea or Bottled Water before turning in

In total... 2, 3 or 4 alcoholic bevvys... But way more non-alcoholic liquids in the mix

I truly believe that the break even point for most Celebrity Cruisers is going to be found around that 2nd or 3rd alcoholic drink a day...

And health wise that also can still be with in the acceptable Guidelines for consumption (Women = 2 per day to a max of 14 per week... And Men = 3 per day to a max of 21 per week)

Cheers!

We tend to drink more on a cruise than at home, but those numbers are serious.

DW and I usually drink half (sometimes the whole bottle) a bottle of wine at dinner. Since we are elite, I will have three small glasses of wine, DW two at happy hour. We don't drink alcohol prior to happy hour. Sometimes we will have an after dinner drink.

Sometimes we do wine tasting and probably get another three glasses of wine, but that is one day out of four.

That would give us per day six or seven drinks a day, about one third of what that article found.

The drinks package doesn't work for us, since we have the elite happy hour.

Also, we don't drink five dollar coffee, bottled water or sodas.

Interesting side note: The article only reports of drinks consumed before noon.:eek:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/cruise-news/11021248/168-units-of-alcohol-just-an-average-week-on-a-cruise-ship.html

I don't drink the types of drinks they are saying, but trust me, I drink enough beer and then a few cocktails at night to easily pay for the beverage package. Add in water and soda and it is a no brainer.

Sure there are people on cruise ships who drink to excess...

 

But as I have pointed out many times before one can easily get "value" out of a Celebrity Bevvy Package without a whole lot of Booze in the mix...

 

Morning:

Premium Tea or Coffee from Cafe al Bacio

Fresh Squeezed OJ (or Smoothie) with Breakfast

 

Day Ashore:

2 Bottles of Spring Water as one leaves the ship

 

Back Aboard:

A stop at Cafe al Bacio for a cool & refreshing Iced Tea or Coffee

 

Cocktail Hour:

An exotic drink from one of the many Bars aboard... Martini - Molecular - or Crush

 

Dinner:

A bottle of Sparking Water

A glass or two of wine

A Cappucinno with Dessert

 

After Dinner:

A nightcap in one of the many bars or lounges, casino or nightclub

Or perhaps just a late night Coffee, Tea or Bottled Water before turning in

 

In total... 2, 3 or 4 alcoholic bevvys... But way more non-alcoholic liquids in the mix

 

I truly believe that the break even point for most Celebrity Cruisers is going to be found around that 2nd or 3rd alcoholic drink a day...

 

And health wise that also can still be with in the acceptable Guidelines for consumption (Women = 2 per day to a max of 14 per week... And Men = 3 per day to a max of 21 per week)

 

Cheers!

Thanks for reporting that. I was sure I'd seen this post before and have been contemplating the classic drinks package recently for my forthcoming Baltic cruise.

Do you know how much the large bottles of water are at the moment? I mean just still drinking water.

Thanks

It would be easy for anyone to do that and not realized it.

A Bloody Mary, screwdriver or Mimosa in the morning

A beer or 2 during lunch.

A few beers around the pool, or a few frozen daiquiris,

Beer or two on the balcony getting ready before dinner or a glass of wine.

A Martini before dinner.

A few glasses of wine during dinner and a after dinner drink.

A few drinks later in a lounge or in the theater.

A night cap or 2 sitting on the balcony before bed.

Drink up 🍸🍻🍺

Thanks for reporting that. I was sure I'd seen this post before and have been contemplating the classic drinks package recently for my forthcoming Baltic cruise.

 

Do you know how much the large bottles of water are at the moment? I mean just still drinking water.

 

Thanks

Sorry, I do not the current pricing as my last Celebrity Cruise was in 2013... And there has been a price adjustment since then

Back in 2012 & 2013 on both the Solstice & Summit, there was a table set up with Cold Bottled Water for Pax grab & go as they got off the ship. At that time they were the small 500 ml (pint) Bottles and were priced at $ 4 each... Mr Sloop & I would always ask for 2 each... And poof there went $ 8 each.

As I said in my post finding value in a Bevvy Pkg daily doesn't take long !!

Maybe someone else knows the current pricing for Celebrity's Bottled Spring Water... If not I would say you could count on it being somewhere between $ 4 and $ 5 (knowing that the prices on most bevvys aboard have gone up in the last year)

Hope this helps (somewhat)

Cheers!

WE did a premium beverage package on our Thanksgiving cruise, We were in astupor the whole trip. That was ok for a Caribbean cruise, but the Adriatic cruise we did this year - 9 ports in 11 days no way. We would never get off the ship. Too much.

Sorry, I do not the current pricing as my last Celebrity Cruise was in 2013... And there has been a price adjustment since then

 

Back in 2012 & 2013 on both the Solstice & Summit, there was a table set up with Cold Bottled Water for Pax grab & go as they got off the ship. At that time they were the small 500 ml (pint) Bottles and were priced at $ 4 each... Mr Sloop & I would always ask for 2 each... And poof there went $ 8 each.

 

As I said in my post finding value in a Bevvy Pkg daily doesn't take long !!

 

Maybe someone else knows the current pricing for Celebrity's Bottled Spring Water... If not I would say you could count on it being somewhere between $ 4 and $ 5 (knowing that the prices on most bevvys aboard have gone up in the last year)

 

Hope this helps (somewhat)

 

Cheers!

Thanks for that.

$4 for 500ml seems very expensive compared to what we would pay in the uk. We wouldn't expect to pay no more than £1 for 500ml of water. I assumed the $4 would be for a large bottle, here that usually means 2 or 2,5 litres.

My concern would be whether somebody using a drinks package would be able to purchase two of those per person in one transaction when the drinks package says only one drink at a time. One 500ml bottle of water isn't going to keep me going for a whole day.

Thanks for that.

 

$4 for 500ml seems very expensive compared to what we would pay in the uk. We wouldn't expect to pay no more than £1 for 500ml of water. I assumed the $4 would be for a large bottle, here that usually means 2 or 2,5 litres.

 

My concern would be whether somebody using a drinks package would be able to purchase two of those per person in one transaction when the drinks package says only one drink at a time. One 500ml bottle of water isn't going to keep me going for a whole day.

Never saw any large (Litre or greater) bottled Spring water on either of my last Celebrity Cruises out of US Ports ... Did see Sparkling Water in larger sizes

Ya Drinks on-board a ship are not cheap by any means... More in line with posh hotels & resorts (then again in some regards this is what the are). You can as I said above find pricing of individual drinks elsewhere on this Celebrity CC Board

This is also why no doubt so many cruisers take advantage of the fact that on Celebrity you can bring aboard a 750 ml bottle of wine per person, and as much pop, juice or bottled water as you like.

A case of 24 Bottled 500 ml Water here runs around $ 3 on sale... And a case of 12 pop less than $ 4 on sale... Compare that to $ 4 each & $ 2 each (plus 15% Grat) on-board and it is easy to see why so many show up on E-Day with these things

We never had a problem getting 2 Bottled Waters each at the same time when leaving the ship (some folks even asked for 3). Although the rules say one drink per person at a time... We've found Servers often don't enforce this rule... More so if they've gotten to know you over the course of the cruise (or if you are just a decent sort who treats them nicely like a real person... And don't treat them like they aren't there / look right thru them / or worse !! Nothing ticks me off more than the Pax who treat crew members rudely or with disrespect. And sadly I see at least one person do this on every cruise I've been on. )

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

Never saw any large (Litre or greater) bottled Spring water on either of my last Celebrity Cruises out of US Ports ... Did see Sparkling Water in larger sizes

 

Ya Drinks on-board a ship are not cheap by any means... More in line with posh hotels & resorts (then again in some regards this is what the are). You can as I said above find pricing of individual drinks elsewhere on this Celebrity CC Board

 

This is also why no doubt so many cruisers take advantage of the fact that on Celebrity you can bring aboard a 750 ml bottle of wine per person, and as much pop, juice or bottled water as you like.

 

A case of 24 Bottled 500 ml Water here runs around $ 3 on sale... And a case of 12 pop less than $ 4 on sale... Compare that to $ 4 each & $ 2 each (plus 15% Grat) on-board and it is easy to see why so many show up on E-Day with these things

 

We never had a problem getting 2 Bottled Waters each at the same time when leaving the ship (some folks even asked for 3). Although the rules say one drink per person at a time... We've found Servers often don't enforce this rule... More so if they've gotten to know you over the course of the cruise (or if you are just a decent sort who treats them nicely like a real person... And don't treat them like they aren't there / look right thru them / or worse !! Nothing ticks me off more than the Pax who treat crew members rudely or with disrespect. And sadly I see at least one person do this on every cruise I've been on. )

 

Hope this helps,

 

Cheers!

Ok, maybe a couple of bottles each isn't out of the question then! Cheers

FYI the water on the ship is perfectly safe to drink, and your steward will generally leave a pitcher of ice water in your cabin 2x/day if requested.

We just buy our bottles of water off the ship for 1/4 the cost--and it's cold when we drink it. that way we are not toting around extra weight. Makes zero sense to me to take water off the ship unless it's free, and even then it's worth the 1E to me to have it cold.

So I plugged this into the drinks calculator designed by another CC member:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2038767&highlight=drink+calculator+2014

I priced the bottles of wine at $50 each, the liquor at classic price, the shots at premium price,. Without non alcoholic drinks the bar tab is $3651.48 inclusive of gratuity ($833.98 without the 7 bottles of wine).

Does seem a bit excessive....My spend on a 7 day charter without drink package with all drinks, water soda, coffees etc. was only about $650...

For most the drink package isn't worth the money. I have never spent the cost of any drink package for drinks on any cruise. If you have the drink package as a perk it is easy to justify the cost as you will end up drinking more than you normally do or should and at the end if you total it up it would have cost more than paying as you go so it appears to be a fantastic deal. Offering a drink package is a method for the cruise line to generate guaranteed revenue.

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

Some, maybe a just a few, don't have the same capacity of other. While my friends can drink 4-6 beers, I can only have 2 at the most, 3 if I don't eat much.

Normally I would have 1 beer every 2-3 weeks. My day on a cruise is like this.

OJ with breakfast (covered with AQ)

Water for excursions (covered with AQ)

Juice/soda with lunch

Wine with dinner

Drink from Molecular Bar (maybe)

Or

Chai tea from Café Bacío (maybe)

Having wine every night is way past my norm, but I'm on vacation. And I'm usually so full from dinner that a drink after dinner is more of a maybe.

Bottom line for me, buying a drinks package out right makes no sense. However upgrading from a classic drinks perk to premium can work and save me around $200-300. Especially since I don't have to buy my GF any drinks. ;)

FYI the water on the ship is perfectly safe to drink.

Yes very safe to drink BUT it has a very different mineral balance and for a lot of people this can have side effects, swelling ankles, fingers, painful joints

As one affected, I love my package, it keeps me well stocked in water as well as wine etc

Some, maybe a just a few, don't have the same capacity of other. While my friends can drink 4-6 beers, I can only have 2 at the most, 3 if I don't eat much.

 

Normally I would have 1 beer every 2-3 weeks. My day on a cruise is like this.

 

OJ with breakfast (covered with AQ)

 

Water for excursions (covered with AQ)

 

Juice/soda with lunch

 

Wine with dinner

 

Drink from Molecular Bar (maybe)

Or

Chai tea from Café Bacío (maybe)

 

Having wine every night is way past my norm, but I'm on vacation. And I'm usually so full from dinner that a drink after dinner is more of a maybe.

 

Bottom line for me, buying a drinks package out right makes no sense. However upgrading from a classic drinks perk to premium can work and save me around $200-300. Especially since I don't have to buy my GF any drinks. ;)

yes, i'll be travelling aqua class next weekend so that makes breakfast drinks all inclusive and lets me get a bottle of water to take ashore anyway.

If I'm going to get value from a classic drinks package, i will have to do it all late afternoon and through the evening. Honestly, I'm not sure how easy this will be when port days will necessitate some early starts in the morning!

I can see myself having four alcoholic drinks minimum of an evening, occasionally a fifth, which i guess will take me pretty close to the $56 per day spend.

Realistically, I expect I could just about get the value out of a classic package if I used sea days to get my spend up, in the form of some coffees / non alco drinks, plus a cheeky afternoon alco drink or two.