Evaluating a beverage package? Here is a beverage list with prices, as of mid-2010.

[champagnecruiser]

Hi Haggis10000
Premium Package is shown on Celebrity site as £30.87 per day excluding 15%.See earlier post on this thread from Gordiej on Sept 14 - same package in US Dollars is $48.43 per day. By my reckoning this makes the cost pretty much identical whether you buy in $ or £.
Enjoy your 1st cruise - Constellation is a beautiful ship- will look even more beautiful if you buy the package!

[haggis_10000]

Thanks Champagnecruiser,

Counting the days!!

[jg51]

Originally Posted by haggis_10000

As a first time cruiser we have been labouring over the decision whether or not to buy a premium classic drinks package for the 14 day cruise. Being from the UK I priced the package up at £994 including 15% for two of us (US$1553!!) for 14 days. According to a post on another thread it has been stated that this would cost US$788.94!! My question is can you buy these packages on board? and would the price be similar to US$788.94. Seems that just for being British we are getting ripped off!! Unless I have made a mistake!!

Yes, "haggis_10000." You "made a mistake."
You forgot to double the $788.90, because there are two of you!

You probably noticed my message (posted yesterday) on another thread. [I will repeat it here and now, just in case I never posted similar information earlier on this "sticky" thread.] By the way, you accidentally referred to something nonexistent: "a premium classic drinks package." I think that you meant, "Premium Package" (alcoholic).

Here are the prices -- showing "base" and "service charge" -- of the four main beverage packages (as of today, September 18, 2010) at the Celebrity site:

Classic Non-Alcoholic Package: base price $13 ... add 15% required service charge (1.95) = $14.95 per person per day -- which would come to $104.65 for seven days or $209.30 for fourteen days.

Premium Non-Alcoholic Package: base price $16 ... add 15% required service charge (2.40) = $18.40 per person per day -- which would come to $128.80 for seven days or $257.60 for fourteen days.

Classic [Alcoholic] Package: base price $39 ... add 15% required service charge (5.85) = $44.85 per person per day -- which would come to $313.95 for seven days or $627.90 for fourteen days.

Premium [Alcoholic] Package: base price $49 ... add 15% required service charge (7.35) = $56.35 per person per day -- which would come to $394.45 for seven days or $788.90 for fourteen days.

[Kim Fontaine]

I have a problem: I do not drink anything with caffine: I only drink Fresca which is distributed by Coke: It is not listed. Any idea if I might have some delivered to my room for consumption there?

[clydecruiser]

Originally Posted by haggis_10000

Due to sail on the Constellation on the 12th February 2011. As a first time cruiser we have been labouring over the decision whether or not to buy a premium classic drinks package for the 14 day cruise. Being from the UK I priced the package up at £994 including 15% for two of us (US$1553!!) for 14 days.

According to a post on another thread it has been stated that this would cost US$788.94!!

My question is can you buy these packages on board? and would the price be similar to US$788.94. Seems that just for being British we are getting ripped off!!
Unless I have made a mistake!!

Just tried to price up the package on Celebrity's website but once again it appears to be unavailable yet again!!!!

Haggis

One thing to be aware of is that the price in GBP can change on a near weekly basis depending on exchange rate fluctuations. We have watched the cost of the premium package for our cruise come down £60 per person.

so even if you book keep an eye on the price and be ready to cancel the package and book it again if the price is in your favour.

[jg51]

Originally Posted by Kim Fontaine

I have a problem: I do not drink anything with caffine: I only drink Fresca which is distributed by Coke: It is not listed. Any idea if I might have some delivered to my room for consumption there?

Hello, "Kim Fontaine."
It is possible that Fresca is not available aboard Celebrity ships. A menu that I found online listed Sprite and Diet Sprite, but not Fresca. (All of these things are now distributed by Coca Cola.) You are free to bring your own cans/bottles of Fresca aboard -- as many as you care to pack in your checked baggage.

[reklawr]

Originally Posted by poolboyclay

I made a spreadsheet in Excel that helps with the evaluation of whether a drink package is good for you.
It's based on the data in the first post of this thread. If anyone is interested and you have excel I will send it to you.
If the Moderators want to evaluate this and "Sticky" it I will send to them as well.

I MAKE NO PROMISES AS TO ACCURACY, BUT IT WORKED FOR ME!!!

Clay

Poolboy, Could you please e-mail me your excel spread sheet?
to reklawr@gmail.com

Thanks

[reklawr]

Originally Posted by reklawr

Poolboy, Could you please e-mail me your excel spread sheet?
to reklawr@gmail.com

Thanks

Yep, You knew I would find it if I would only read the rest of the thread.
I got it. I think we will buy the premium package. One for each of us.

Thanks poolboy.

[travelteach326]

We are sailing on the Summit in November. We are trying to decide whether to purchase a Classic or Premium package. I read the list of beverages at the beginning of this thread and see most beverages/drinks cost $8 or less. There are a few drinks that cost a little more. We don't drink any of the "named" brands on the Premium Package. If we wanted Martini's than we would get the Premium Package. Other than that, I don't see why we would purchase the Premium Package.

Beverage Packages

Fountain Soda Package ($5 per day)
Package selections include the following brands:


Coke Diet Coke Sprite Seagram's Tonic Water Canada Dry club soda

Premium Water ($11 per day)
Enjoy the pure refreshment of Evian still water and/or Pellegrino sparkling bottled water for the duration of your cruise. Perfected by nature in the French Alps, Evian replenishes your body and mind. San Pellegrino, sourced from three great springs in northern Italy, provides the ideal accompaniment to any meal. Show your SeaPass Card at any bar, lounge or restaurant to indicate your participation.

Package selections include the following brands:


Evian San Pellegrino

Classic Non-Alcoholic Package ($13 per day)
In addition to enjoying your favorite Coca Cola can and fountain sodas selections such as Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta Orange and Coke Zero, you may also enjoy fresh squeezed and bottled juices, Premium Coffees and Teas and Non-Premium Bottled Water.

Package selections include, but are not limited to the following brands:


Coke Diet Coke Fanta Orange Coke Zero Sprite Diet Sprite Barqs
Cranberry Tomato Apple Pineapple Orange Grapefruit
Coffee Tea Aqualina

Premium Non-Alcoholic Package ($16 per day)

Enjoy nearly our entire selection of Non-Alcoholic beverages on board including all canned and fountain soft drinks from Coca Cola, Premium Bottled Water from Evian, Perrier and San Pellegrino, Specialty Coffees and Teas, Non-Alcoholic Frozen Drinks and Smoothies, Red Bull Energy Drink and Specialty Waters from Vitamin Water.

Package selections include, but are not limited to the following brands:


Coke Diet Coke Fanta Orange Coke Zero Sprite Diet Sprite Barqs Cranberry Pineapple Orange Tomato Apple Grapefruit
Coffee Tea Red Bull Pellegrino Vitamin Water Evian
Non-Alcoholic Frozen Drinks

Classic Package ($39 per day)
Upgrade your cruise experience and pay one price to enjoy all of the benefits of our Classic Non-Alcoholic package as well as all Beers up to $5 per serving and spirits, cocktails and wines by the glass up to $8 per serving.

Package selections include, but are not limited to the following brands:

Coors Light Becks Heineken Amstel Light Corona Heineken Light Franziskaner
Dos Equis Red Stripe Samuel Adams Leffe O'Doul's Johnny Red Dewars White
J & B Cutty Sark Canadian Club Seagram's VO Seagram's 7 Jameson Jim Beam
Jack Daniel's Carlos 1 Metaxa Hennessy VS Beefeaters Tanqueray Absolut Smirnoff Stolichnaya Three Olives Bacardi Malibu Captain Morgan Jose Cuervo Disaronno Bailey's
Frangelico Drambuie Sambuca Kahlua Bolini St. Francis J & H Selbach Southern Right Paul Jaboulet Beringer Heron's Nest Rutherford Ranch Kendall Jackson Marques de la Concordia

Premium Package ($49 per day)
For the ultimate in value and convenience, our premium package provides all the benefits of our Premium Non-Alcoholic and Classic Alcoholic Packages. In addition, you can enjoy our entire selection of Beers as well as Spirits, Cocktails and Wines by the Glass up to $12 per serving.

Package selections include, but are not limited to the following brands:


Grolsh Swing Carlsberg Hoegarden Guinness Newcastle Brown Boddington's Leffe
Stella Artois Peroni Johnny Black Glenfiddich Dewars 12 year Chivas Regal Glenlivet
Crown Royal Tangle Ridge Old Black Bush Knob Creek Blanton's Single Remy VSOP Courvosier VSOP Hennessy VSOP Bombay Sapphire Ketel One Effen Level Belvedere Grey Goose Pyrat XO Reserve Montecristo Bacardi 8 Patron Silver Patron Anejo Patron Gold Extase XO Grand Marnier Bollini St. Francis J & H Selbach Jena Luc Colombo Antinori Chateau Castera

[Tuna Fish]

Originally Posted by Kim Fontaine

I have a problem: I do not drink anything with caffine: I only drink Fresca which is distributed by Coke: It is not listed. Any idea if I might have some delivered to my room for consumption there?

Room service will not honor your Drink Package. You will be charged what ever the rate is + 15% for the service to bring soda/beer/liquor drink to your cabin.

[Tuna Fish]

[quote=cybx;26065900]Does anybody know how the bar staff receives gratuities from these alcohol packages? I understand there is a standard 15% gratuity that is added to any package that is purchased. Does the entire bar staff split the 15% from all the drink packages?

The 15% is added to the cost of the individual drink, not the total package cost. So it makes no difference to the staff if you buy a drink with no package or with one. They just continue to be very gracious and hope you order more drinks.

[Tudorcruisers]

Hi everyone. My OH and I are just back from a seven night Western Med cruise and we bought the Premium drinks package. It was 49$ per person and then there was the gratutities and then a Spanish tax added as well so it ended up somewhere just over 800 dollars which is a lot of money.
Saying that we had freshly squeezed orange juice each morning, lots of bottles of water throughout the day, cocktail of the day while sailing away and then before dinner it was great to meet in the Martini bar. The Martinis are 10 dollars and then with dinner we had a few glasses of really nice wine that was 11 dollars a glass. The package covered glasses of chamagne and also the beautiful coffees and teas in Cafe Bacio.

For us it was a real treat and a chance to try things that we normally wouldn't drink and anything up to 12 dollars was covered. We covered the cost of the 49 dollars each day as we just thought gratutities and tax is something we can do nothing about.

We would definitely do this again and had a great trip. Hope this helps those of you trying to decide.

[walterharris]

I am sailing on Solstice 09/19/10. I purchased the classic beverage package on 09/08/10 but it still is not showing up on my reservation page as being purchased?The specialty restaurant purchases I made are there but were it reads Beverage Package Purchases there is a 0 there?I had already completed on-line check in before I made the purchase so could that have anything to do with it?I do have the receipt showing the purchase and it has been debited from my bank accountThanks for any info

[jg51]

Originally Posted by Tuna Fish

The 15% is added to the cost of the individual drink, not the total package cost.

Hello, "Tuna Fish."
Perhaps you wrote something that you didn't really intend to write, but what you did write (quoted above) is unclear, if not incorrect.

If you buy a package, there certainly is a 15% service charge included in the total cost of the package cost.

Example (supposing that you are going on a 7-day cruise):
1. Premium Package = $49 per day (base price).
2. $49 X 7 = $343 (base price)
3. $343 X .15 [service charge] = $51.45
4. Total = $343 + 51.45 = $394.45

Another way to compute it is this:
1. Premium Package = $49 per day (base price).
2. $49 X .15 [service charge] = $7.35
3. $49 (base price) + 7.35 (service charge) = $56.35 (total daily).
4. Total = $56.35 X 7 = $394.45

[jg51]

Originally Posted by Tudorcruisers

It was 49$ per person and then there was the gratutities and then a Spanish tax added as well so it ended up somewhere just over 800 dollars which is a lot of money. ... We covered the cost of the 49 dollars each day as we just thought gratutities and tax is something we can do nothing about. We would definitely do this again and had a great trip.

Hello, "Tudorcruisers."
I'm glad that you had a great trip and that you found the beverage package helpful. However, something that you stated is not correct, and I want to address it here for the benefit of others who will be embarking in Barcelona.

You wrote: the Spanish "tax is something we [could] do nothing about." It's unfortunate that you did not see this Value Added Tax (VAT) being discussed by some CruiseCritic members before you went on your cruise. You could have avoided paying this big penalty (8%, if I recall correctly). The trick is to wait to buy your package until about an hour after sailaway -- at which point the ship is in international waters and no longer subject to the VAT!

Now, I have read that, under certain circumstances, it is possible for a non-European traveler to obtain a refund of a VAT that has been paid. I don't know, however, what those circumstances are. You could probably track down the explanation somewhere on the Internet.

[jg51]

Originally Posted by walterharris

I am sailing on Solstice 09/19/10. I purchased the classic beverage package on 09/08/10 but it still is not showing up on my reservation page as being purchased?The specialty restaurant purchases I made are there but were it reads Beverage Package Purchases there is a 0 there?I had already completed on-line check in before I made the purchase so could that have anything to do with it?I do have the receipt showing the purchase and it has been debited from my bank accountThanks for any info

Hello, "walterharris."
Relax. I'll help you to find what you are looking for.

Please do this:
1. Go to "My Celebrity" and sign on.
2. On the page that will appear, click on "My Reservations."
3. On the right side of the next page that will appear, click on "Manage My Reservation" (which should appear on a drop-down menu when you point at it).
4. On the next page that will appear, ignore the "0" that you'll see (regarding packages).
5. Instead, click on the "Beverage Packages" tab at the top of that page.
6. A new page will slowly appear that will show the amount that you have paid for the package.

Have a GREAT cruise!
.

[Jobeth66]

Originally Posted by jg51

Hello, "Tudorcruisers."
I'm glad that you had a great trip and that you found the beverage package helpful. However, something that you stated is not correct, and I want to address it here for the benefit of others who will be embarking in Barcelona.

You wrote: the Spanish "tax is something we [could] do nothing about." It's unfortunate that you did not see this Value Added Tax (VAT) being discussed by some CruiseCritic members before you went on your cruise. You could have avoided paying this big penalty (8%, if I recall correctly). The trick is to wait to buy your package until about an hour after sailaway -- at which point the ship is in international waters and no longer subject to the VAT!

Now, I have read that, under certain circumstances, it is possible for a non-European traveler to obtain a refund of a VAT that has been paid. I don't know, however, what those circumstances are. You could probably track down the explanation somewhere on the Internet.

VAT is generally refundable for tangible property purchases only (goods for export, essentially-souvenirs and the like), not for food/beverage/hospitality charges.

[Pacific islanders]

Originally Posted by seafun

And it was slightly embarrassing!

It said my beverage bill would be $981.00 for my 10 day cruise.

Hmmm.... beverage card, here I come!

Thanks for the work that went into this tool. It took me a couple tries, but it did work.

Seafun...we need to co-ordinate our cruises...we ordered the premium package for our South American cruise in Jan/11 from Buenos Aires with Celebrity...Bloody Mary's with breakfast..yum, learned that on the NZ to Hawaii, and of course I'm sure it's the specialty coffees that bring up the bill
Since you are close to home, we could party together!

[rts]

Hi jg51,

I have been reading all of your posts concerning beverage packages. Thank you for all of your information. I usually drink beer on cruise with some wine at dinner, so classic package is probably the best for me. However, I usually will finish dessert with a cappuccino. Just checking to see if this is a premium coffee or specialty coffee. Would this be covered with the classic package.

Thanks, Rick

[jg51]

Originally Posted by Jobeth66

VAT is generally refundable for tangible property purchases only (goods for export, essentially-souvenirs and the like), not for food/beverage/hospitality charges.

Thanks for this explanation, "Jobeth66."

Originally Posted by rts

Thank you for all of your information. ... classic package is probably the best for me. However, I usually will finish dessert with a cappuccino. Just checking to see if this is a premium coffee or specialty coffee. Would this be covered with the classic package.

Hello, "rts."
You're welcome!
I am sure that cappuccino is covered by the Classic Package.
Since you drink beer, though ... Before you order the Classic Package, I want to make sure that you are aware of the limitation on varieties of beer that will be imposed on you. I have identified 54 kinds of beer/ale/stout/cider listed on "X" bar menus. Of these, 32 have prices per glass that are above the $5 cut-off point for the Classic Package, so that leaves the following 22 products from which you would be able to choose (if they are in stock):

_Coors Light 4.5
_Michelob Light 4.5
_Bud Light 4.5
_Miller Lite 4.5
_Amstel Light [Holland] 5.0
_Corona Light [Mexico] 5.0
_Heineken Light [Holland] 5.0
_Beck's [Germany]_5.0______
_Heineken (reg.) [Holland] 5.0
_Samuel Adams 5.0_____
_Franziskaner [Bavaria]_5.0__
_Dos Equis [Mexico]_5.0_
_Red Stripe [Jamaica]_5.0_____
_Leffe Blonde [Belgium] 5.0___
_Budweiser 4.5 __________
_Strongbow Cider [GB] 5.0
_Corona (reg.) [Mexico] 5.0
_Smirnoff Ice [GB malt liquor] 5.0
_Bacardi Ice Malt 5.0_______
_Strongbow Cider [England] 5.0
_San Miguel [Philippines] 5.0
_Tiger [Singapore] 5.0

Whatever you decide to do, I hope that you have a lot of fun.