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Taking alcohol on board


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I am on the 14 July sailing and have not been informed of any changes to the drinks packages already offered. As stated previously, my TA has spoken to P & O who have categorically denied any changes, either on Azura or any other ship. I will report back next week upon my return.

 

 

 

Great thank you

 

 

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For what it's worth, I think that P&O will eventually go down the All Inclusive route in order to remain competitive. It would also very much appeal to the demographic that they are now targeting. Sadly, that doesn't include us as we are moderate drinkers and don't like to be around people who are inebriated, with the loudness and poor behavior that can result. This is not just confined to short cruises. We have twice seen aggressive drunken behavior (where security staff have had to be called) on regular cruises and AI will inevitably result in a lot more of these incidents. Some people will also adopt the mentality of 'getting their money's worth' and heavy drinkers would be able to sink a heck of a lot of booze on a long hot sea day. It only takes a tiny minority to have a major adverse impact on the majority.

 

One question for those who have experienced AI packages on other lines. Some friends of ours went on one of the US lines and said that their drinks package covered drinks up to, say, $13.99 but if the drink was more (which many were) then they couldn't just pay the difference, they had to pay the full price. They ended up having to upgrade to a premium drinks package. Is that true, because that seems like a complete rip off to me?

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For what it's worth, I think that P&O will eventually go down the All Inclusive route in order to remain competitive. It would also very much appeal to the demographic that they are now targeting. Sadly, that doesn't include us as we are moderate drinkers and don't like to be around people who are inebriated, with the loudness and poor behavior that can result. This is not just confined to short cruises. We have twice seen aggressive drunken behavior (where security staff have had to be called) on regular cruises and AI will inevitably result in a lot more of these incidents. Some people will also adopt the mentality of 'getting their money's worth' and heavy drinkers would be able to sink a heck of a lot of booze on a long hot sea day. It only takes a tiny minority to have a major adverse impact on the majority.

 

One question for those who have experienced AI packages on other lines. Some friends of ours went on one of the US lines and said that their drinks package covered drinks up to, say, $13.99 but if the drink was more (which many were) then they couldn't just pay the difference, they had to pay the full price. They ended up having to upgrade to a premium drinks package. Is that true, because that seems like a complete rip off to me?

We were on Celebrity Eclipse last year with a "free" classic drinks package, if we wanted a drink not covered by it we would have had to pay the full price of the drink. I too am not a fan of drinks packages as they are poor value for money for the amount we drink, and we're not exactly teetotallers!

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We were on Celebrity Eclipse last year with a "free" classic drinks package, if we wanted a drink not covered by it we would have had to pay the full price of the drink. I too am not a fan of drinks packages as they are poor value for money for the amount we drink, and we're not exactly teetotallers!

 

Thanks kenhem. That confirms what our friends told us. They also said that a lot of the 'decent' drinks were above the price cap, which seemed incredible. We sound the same as you. We like a drink but not enough to warrant a big upfront cost. We also like to drink decent stuff and not plonk, so would begrudge feeling ripped off if we couldn't just pay the difference.

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We were on Celebrity Eclipse last year with a "free" classic drinks package, if we wanted a drink not covered by it we would have had to pay the full price of the drink. I too am not a fan of drinks packages as they are poor value for money for the amount we drink, and we're not exactly teetotallers!

 

We were on Celebrity in May. You now only have to pay the difference in price for the more expensive drinks. I think this is a recent change. We found the Classic fine for us though.

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Yes Celebrity you pay the difference.

 

On Fred Olsen you get 50% off the costs of any drinks or bottles of wine not on the AI (except Champagne)

 

Marella have a supplement for drinks not on AI ( or at least they did, have not been on recently)

 

I’m not a heavy drinker but I do quite like AI as there are no nasty surprises at the end of the cruise. I particularly like the ones that include the speciality coffee and bottles sparkiling water in addition to just alcoholic beverages. The premium on Celebrity even does fresh press fruit and vegetable juices.

 

That said the crowd on P&O has been changing a lot recently and some are knocking back a lot of booze without the incentive of AI. I think Selbourne is right that some people will see it as a personal challenge to make sure they get their money’s worth out of any package.

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Yes Celebrity you pay the difference.

 

 

 

On Fred Olsen you get 50% off the costs of any drinks or bottles of wine not on the AI (except Champagne)

 

 

 

Marella have a supplement for drinks not on AI ( or at least they did, have not been on recently)

 

 

 

I’m not a heavy drinker but I do quite like AI as there are no nasty surprises at the end of the cruise. I particularly like the ones that include the speciality coffee and bottles sparkiling water in addition to just alcoholic beverages. The premium on Celebrity even does fresh press fruit and vegetable juices.

 

 

 

That said the crowd on P&O has been changing a lot recently and some are knocking back a lot of booze without the incentive of AI. I think Selbourne is right that some people will see it as a personal challenge to make sure they get their money’s worth out of any package.

 

 

 

Of course people will weigh up whether they would benefit from buying the AI package and will also make sure that they use the daily amount it has cost - this isn’t always from alcohol though and doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be raucous misbehaviour as a result. I’ve been on a few lines that have AI packages and haven’t noticed a difference in behaviour to passengers on my recent P&O cruise where litres of spirits can be consumed in your cabin and then topped up by drinks from cheap bar!

 

 

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We were on Celebrity Eclipse last year with a "free" classic drinks package, if we wanted a drink not covered by it we would have had to pay the full price of the drink. I too am not a fan of drinks packages as they are poor value for money for the amount we drink, and we're not exactly teetotallers!

 

Thanks kenhem. That confirms what our friends told us. They also said that a lot of the 'decent' drinks were above the price cap, which seemed incredible. We sound the same as you. We like a drink but not enough to warrant a big upfront cost. We also like to drink decent stuff and not plonk, so would begrudge feeling ripped off if we couldn't just pay the difference.

 

We always upgrade the 'free classic package' to premium to avoid having to pay full price for better drinks and because the wine selection is better. On Premium if the drink is more than the upper limit you only pay the difference. Normally we have enough OBC to cover the upgrade. You could not afford to pay the full price for a premium package as it is $55 pppd + 18% but then the drinks are very expensive. On Celebrity it doesn't take much to get to $55.

We are probably above average drinkers on holiday but are certainly not drunk or aggressive and having the drinks package suits us.

Another point to consider is the the package includes all soft drinks, water, the coffee shop, breakfast juices as well as alcohol.

Wine is only by the glass but as soon as you choose a wine they just keep topping up.

The biggest bonus - you don't have to sign for anything.

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Thanks kenhem. That confirms what our friends told us. They also said that a lot of the 'decent' drinks were above the price cap, which seemed incredible. We sound the same as you. We like a drink but not enough to warrant a big upfront cost. We also like to drink decent stuff and not plonk, so would begrudge feeling ripped off if we couldn't just pay the difference.

We also take the same view as you Selbourne.

Also, some people talk of free alcoholic drinks packages but surely the cost of the cruise is increased to effectively pay for these so called free AI packages.

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We also take the same view as you Selbourne.

Also, some people talk of free alcoholic drinks packages but surely the cost of the cruise is increased to effectively pay for these so called free AI packages.

They are for RCCL when booked in the UK.
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The RC cocktail hour is every night too.

We are also D+ on RCI but enjoy our January cruise on Azura to Caribbean because of direct flights from our local airport. Just to summarise are we not able to buy gin at airport to take on board?

Never take booze on RCI because of nightly happy hour and gift of wine awaiting in our stateroom.

Thank you

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We are also D+ on RCI but enjoy our January cruise on Azura to Caribbean because of direct flights from our local airport. Just to summarise are we not able to buy gin at airport to take on board?

Never take booze on RCI because of nightly happy hour and gift of wine awaiting in our stateroom.

Thank you

I understand P&O allows 1 bottle per person when boarding.
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I litre each, to be precise.

 

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And.......will that be allowed on Azura if there is a drinks package? I think not.

No other cruise line that has AI packages allows even a drop of alcohol to be brought on board!

 

 

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And.......will that be allowed on Azura if there is a drinks package? I think not.

No other cruise line that has AI packages allows even a drop of alcohol to be brought on board!

 

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Try Marella, they do!

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And.......will that be allowed on Azura if there is a drinks package? I think not.

No other cruise line that has AI packages allows even a drop of alcohol to be brought on board!

 

 

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its only a trial and people will have to purchase it..I would take it while trialing it and its a purchasable extra they will still let people take drink onboard. If they decide to go fleet wide I think they will join the rest and stop you taking drinks onboard at that poing. I am not sure how popular it will actually be. intresting that they are trying it out on a large ship with a younger age demographic..what sort of % would they sell on Aurora or Arcadia say.

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its only a trial and people will have to purchase it..I would take it while trialing it and its a purchasable extra they will still let people take drink onboard. If they decide to go fleet wide I think they will join the rest and stop you taking drinks onboard at that poing. I am not sure how popular it will actually be. intresting that they are trying it out on a large ship with a younger age demographic..what sort of % would they sell on Aurora or Arcadia say.
Great point.
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And.......will that be allowed on Azura if there is a drinks package? I think not.

No other cruise line that has AI packages allows even a drop of alcohol to be brought on board!

 

 

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I would have thought it would be in their interests to let you bring your own drink on board (the more the better from their perspective) as presumably if you have a limit on what you can, or will drink, then you'll be drinking less of their drinks which you have already paid for in your cruise price. Or am I missing something?

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I would have thought it would be in their interests to let you bring your own drink on board (the more the better from their perspective) as presumably if you have a limit on what you can, or will drink, then you'll be drinking less of their drinks which you have already paid for in your cruise price. Or am I missing something?

 

 

 

If you were buying a drinks package you wouldn’t be needing to bring alcohol onboard - my point was that most cruise lines (apart from Marella apparently) don’t allow you to bring drink on board if there is a drinks package on board, whether you choose to buy it or not.

 

Just an observation - who knows what they’ll actually do - time will tell!

 

 

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If you were buying a drinks package you wouldn’t be needing to bring alcohol onboard - my point was that most cruise lines (apart from Marella apparently) don’t allow you to bring drink on board if there is a drinks package on board, whether you choose to buy it or not.

 

Just an observation - who knows what they’ll actually do - time will tell!

 

 

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As others have said - usually when drinks packages are introduced the cost of buying individual drinks goes up as a way to try and make the package seem better value and then you can’t bring drink onboard by the litre

 

 

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If you were buying a drinks package you wouldn’t be needing to bring alcohol onboard - my point was that most cruise lines (apart from Marella apparently) don’t allow you to bring drink on board if there is a drinks package on board, whether you choose to buy it or not.

 

Just an observation - who knows what they’ll actually do - time will tell!

 

 

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Not entirely sure that the other lines not allowing booze on board had anything to do with drinks packages.

 

 

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If you were buying a drinks package you wouldn’t be needing to bring alcohol onboard - my point was that most cruise lines (apart from Marella apparently) don’t allow you to bring drink on board if there is a drinks package on board, whether you choose to buy it or not.

 

Just an observation - who knows what they’ll actually do - time will tell!

 

 

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As I read your post which said 'No other cruise line that has AI packages allows even a drop of alcohol to be brought on board!', I took the AI to be part of the cruise package but if there is the option to buy into the AI or not then I can see the rationale.

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If you were buying a drinks package you wouldn’t be needing to bring alcohol onboard - my point was that most cruise lines (apart from Marella apparently) don’t allow you to bring drink on board if there is a drinks package on board, whether you choose to buy it or not.

 

Just an observation - who knows what they’ll actually do - time will tell!

 

 

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Princess let you take a bottle onboard too.

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Princess let you take a bottle onboard too.

 

 

 

One bottle of wine ‘for special occasions’ not a litre of spirits each? Unless they’ve changed their policy recently?

 

 

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