Beverage Selection

Okay, in all honesty, if there was one thing I could not get over on my cruise, it was the lack of drink selections.

For lunch and dinner, there were 4 drinks available: water, tea, coffee and milk (skim and regular). For breakfast, there was OJ, apple and cranberry juice. Why not offer apple and cranberry juice for the other meals? Why not add lemonade, grape juice and/or punch? It seems so fitting to have punch available on a cruise to the tropics? It can't possibly be that big of a cost.

Now, maybe I was out of the loop. I know we never asked which drinks came with our soda card. We just assumed Pepsi products such as Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt Dew and Sierra Mist. Are there non-carbonated pepsi products we weren't aware of? We liked soda, but who can drink that much soda? Nonetheless, the buffet should have other drinks available.

What am I missing here? What did I not notice? Was there some juice package I could've purchased and received bottled juices for meals?

If you want other selections you'll have to go to Carnival, they offer lemonade during the day at the Lido Buffet.

If you want unlimited drinks go on Disney, they offer soda selections and punch at their buffet.

If you wanted juices during the day why didn't you fill a bottle you brought with you at breakfast?

You can always carry on your own juices/punch.

Hot chocolate is offered all day without charge on NCL.

Sorry you were disappointed, I basically stick with ship's water and make lemonade with powder I bring from home, otherwise I'll splurge once in a while on a ginger beer if I can find the bar that carries it. ;)

If you want other selections you'll have to go to Carnival, they offer lemonade during the day at the Lido Buffet.

 

If you want unlimited drinks go on Disney, they offer soda selections and punch at their buffet.

 

If you wanted juices during the day why didn't you fill a bottle you brought with you at breakfast?

 

You can always carry on your own juices/punch.

 

Hot chocolate is offered all day without charge on NCL.

 

Sorry you were disappointed, I basically stick with ship's water and make lemonade with powder I bring from home, otherwise I'll splurge once in a while on a ginger beer if I can find the bar that carries it. ;)

See, I have two problems with this.

1. I shouldn't have to choose to spend thousands of dollars with another cruise line over drink selections. They should just offer some more drinks! :)

2. I'm not interested in carrying things around on a ship, especially when I'm going to eat. I think it's a bit tacky (for lack of a better word) to bring drinks to a buffet, especially the MDR. I don't think I'm being picky to the point where I'm wanting Diet Cherry Dr Pepper or something that would appeal to a select few. Although tackyness aside, maybe there is some truth to just bringing a cooler of some sort with drinks one might prefer.

Cruisin, I agree, but don't know what/if we can do about it.

See, I have two problems with this.

 

1. I shouldn't have to choose to spend thousands of dollars with another cruise line over drink selections. They should just offer some more drinks! :)

 

2. I'm not interested in carrying things around on a ship, especially when I'm going to eat. I think it's a bit tacky (for lack of a better word) to bring drinks to a buffet, especially the MDR. I don't think I'm being picky to the point where I'm wanting Diet Cherry Dr Pepper or something that would appeal to a select few. Although tackyness aside, maybe there is some truth to just bringing a cooler of some sort with drinks one might prefer.

I will bring individual serve packets of Chrystal Light, or similar which take up no room and mix my own drinks in the MDR, or I drink Iced Tea, but mostly wine, or beer, which is much more fun ;)

I will bring individual serve packets of Chrystal Light, or similar which take up no room and mix my own drinks in the MDR, or I drink Iced Tea, but mostly wine, or beer, which is much more fun ;)

I suppose Crystal Light isn't that difficult to carry around, but I don't even drink Crystal Light at home or use additives for water. Maybe it's worth considering

i buy the soda card plus carry-on other drinks--that way i can always have a drink, its really not a big deal and also i usually have the drink pkgs too.

Cruisin, I agree, but don't know what/if we can do about it.

Maybe we could contact NCL? I really think non-alcoholic beverage selections should be something trivial, especially for people going on vacation.

i buy the soda card plus carry-on other drinks--that way i can always have a drink, its really not a big deal and also i usually have the drink pkgs too.

Drink pkgs meaning?

I know on Royal Caribbean, they had a juice drink package you could buy. I think it was a line of Tropicana juices. I'm not sure how it worked. I didn't notice if NCL had one, just water and soda. Maybe something like this is or should be available for NCL?

I guess one thing that enhanced my annoyance over this was that they had other drinks that they were "free" for breakfast: orange, cranberry and apple. Why hold out for lunch and dinner?