Help with beverage decision

[lreinstein]

Hi

 

My wife and I are planning to take our first cruise of the Adriatic on Celebrity to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I have some questions

 

1. The whole beverages thing is a bit overwhelming. If I eat in the main restaurant and want a glass of water, is there a charge? What about a diet coke? Is the "tap" water drinkable?

 

2. Which beverage package (or NONE) would be be best off with? We typically like very good coffee in the morning. Drink mainly seltzer/club soda throughout the day. And at night have a dry-martini (premium gin) and perhaps a good glass of wine with dinner. Based upon this, what is recommended?

 

 

Thank you for your patient help.

 

Larry

[RickT]

Ultimately the answer will depend on how much you drink.

 

My wife and I enjoy wine with dinner and often an after dinner drink. At this point I can't justify buying a drink package. Search the forums to find out some drink costs to see if it makes sense to you.

 

To answer some of your other questions.

 

1) Yes, you can buy wine by the glass in the dinning room and anywhere else on board.

2) You can also buy a bottle of wine at dinner and if you don't finish it you can have it brought back to your table the next night.

3) Tap water is certainly drinkable

4) Pop and other sodas will cost you

5) The buffet area will often have juices and/or iced tea which are free

6) Regular coffee is free however it will depend on your tastes if you think it is good.

7) Espressos, Cappuccino's, etc are available at extra cost

8) Specialty drinks (martini's, scotch, etc) are available and the cost will vary depending on the drink and whether or not you use bar rail or premium.

 

My understanding is you can buy the drink package at any point in the cruise. You might want to try a day or two buying as you go and if the cost is exceeding the drink package you can upgrade.

 

Good luck. Enjoy your cruise.

[windra06]

Hi

 

My wife and I are planning to take our first cruise of the Adriatic on Celebrity to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I have some questions

 

1. The whole beverages thing is a bit overwhelming. If I eat in the main restaurant and want a glass of water, is there a charge? What about a diet coke? Is the "tap" water drinkable?

 

2. Which beverage package (or NONE) would be be best off with? We typically like very good coffee in the morning. Drink mainly seltzer/club soda throughout the day. And at night have a dry-martini (premium gin) and perhaps a good glass of wine with dinner. Based upon this, what is recommended?

 

 

Thank you for your patient help.

 

Larry

 

Tap water is always served with ice,for free in the MDR. I could not detect any taste to it and my partner drank it and he refuses to drink tap water at home. Diet coke was about $2.50 or around that mark per can.

 

Lemonade,orange/apple juice,tea and filter coffee is free in the buffet and spa cafe.

 

We had the free classic package and upgraded to premium for $11.50 per day, we drank in molecular several cocktails per night at $13.75 each and several glasses of wine with dinner plus evian which is $3 a bottle and tea/cofees so it was worth it to us, but I don't think we would have drunk $62 per day each if we didn't have the package.

 

In the MDR there were plenty of reasonable wine choices below $10, I don't know if it was because we were on a package or not but when we checked our drinks 'bill' the wine was only counted once despite the waiter topping us up several times, it may be worth checking before buying a package.

 

Tea in the cafe was $4-5 and I think the coffee was a little more, unless you plan on drinking cocktails or alot of wine IMO it's not worth it to get a package. It was nice though to not have to worry about anything whilst on holiday,nothing to sign etc.

[drarill]

Hi

 

My wife and I are planning to take our first cruise of the Adriatic on Celebrity to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I have some questions

 

1. The whole beverages thing is a bit overwhelming. If I eat in the main restaurant and want a glass of water, is there a charge? What about a diet coke? Is the "tap" water drinkable?

 

2. Which beverage package (or NONE) would be be best off with? We typically like very good coffee in the morning. Drink mainly seltzer/club soda throughout the day. And at night have a dry-martini (premium gin) and perhaps a good glass of wine with dinner. Based upon this, what is recommended?

 

 

Thank you for your patient help.

 

Larry

 

Why don't you check the non alcoholic packages. The classic is only $14 a day and the premium $18. These packages include the specialty coffees and teas, bottled water, can sodas and freshly squeezed orange juice. The premium includes frozen drinks and smoothies, perrier and pellegrino. I usually buy the classic package but this summer I'm upgrading myself to the premium. My husband likes to buy bottles of wine for dinner and as RickT already told you, they will brought it back for you the next day if you don't drink the whole bottle. Hope this helps.

[miched]

You can also take a few bottle on wine on board for use in your cabin.

 

You can buy wine by the glass from the dispenser and take it into the dining room. ;) :rolleyes:

 

You can purchase a wine package.

 

Figure $5 for special coffee, $10 to $12 for wine or Martinis. Tap water is fine and drinkable. Drink packages are around $50 to $62 dollars per day per person. If you drink more than 5 drinks a day get the package and that gives you freedom to drink everything and anything whenever you want. Plus a bottle of water that you can take ashore.

 

If you have the package you will drink more of the NA such as bottle water, coffee, juices and etc. and even a few extra drinks. If you don't you will be more conservative and drink tap water, house coffee, and think twice about having a second or third glass of wine, after dinner drink, that frosty drink while at the pool, or the extra martini during the evening.

 

Depends on how much you want to spend and what you enjoy. Make it a nice vacation or a great one. With the drinks package tips are included in the price no matter how many you have.

 

 

I think you could save some money by paying ala carte based on your likes. You may luck out where they have happy hour at some of the bars where it is 2 for 1 during the evening.

 

 

.

[cruisestitch]

"You can also take a few bottle on wine on board for use in your cabin. "

 

To be accurate, you can bring two bottles of wine per stateroom, at embarkation only.

[kdooley]

Can you bring your own water and soda? At embankment and at ports? First timers on Celebrity, too, but have cruised other lines that allow you to bring non-alcoholic drinks.

[barbatkins]

"You can also take a few bottle on wine on board for use in your cabin. "

 

To be accurate, you can bring two bottles of wine per stateroom, at embarkation only.

 

Are these 2 bottles supposed o be in your carry on?

[happy cruzer]

Did you try using the spreadsheet calculator to see what you thought? I think if you do a search with spreadsheet as the key word you should be able to find it. It has drink prices in it so that is very helpful. No way to say for sure without doing a little math if your question is a purely financial one. I think most get packages because they like the all inclusive feel of them and some actually do break even.

[Northern Aurora]

Can you bring your own water and soda? At embankment and at ports? First timers on Celebrity, too, but have cruised other lines that allow you to bring non-alcoholic drinks.

 

Sodas and water can be brought on-board both on the day of embarkation and at ports.

 

My husband and I have never purchased a beverage package. The hubby, who demonstrates his scientist background by recording all sorts of data, has a spreadsheet with all of our cruise costs, and so we know exactly what we have spent for alcohol on board. While we do purchase some pots of specialty tea at the Cafe al Bacio (or Cova Cafe on the Century) and also have wine every evening during dinner, our charges never have approached the amount that a premium alcohol beverage package would cost us.

[Vonodin]

Why don't you check the non alcoholic packages. The classic is only $14 a day and the premium $18. These packages include the specialty coffees and teas, bottled water, can sodas and freshly squeezed orange juice. The premium includes frozen drinks and smoothies, perrier and pellegrino. I usually buy the classic package but this summer I'm upgrading myself to the premium. My husband likes to buy bottles of wine for dinner and as RickT already told you, they will brought it back for you the next day if you don't drink the whole bottle. Hope this helps.

 

Just off the Solstice to Alaska. My DW and I did the PMNA premium non alcohol. Celebrity lost out....

$18 a day plus gratuity $144 ea. total.

My card showed 27 times at Cafe al Bacio. I did have de-cafe white chocolate mochas at night. We took UNopened CANNED coke products on excursions and back to room. Received premium bottled water when ever I asked for it at bars. I do not drink but my DW would have a glass of wine with dinner. The extra with gratuity worked out to less then buying an alcohol package.

Depending on how mush alcohol you drink, the PMNA package would be your best bet if only having to buy an alcohol drink or two each night.

 

You can search prices on menues at Celebrity site or here on CC, then guestimate what you might drink.

[Brentngigi]

Your beverage habits sound identical to ours. We went with the soda package on our last cruise on the Infinity and were very happy. I don't recall exactly, but at about $8 per person per day you can have unlimited soda/club soda/seltzer, etc. We thought it was the best deal on the cruise, and it saved us a lot of money. I try not to drink a lot of juices (or non-alcohol drinks that have calories in general) so the expanded packages were more than we needed.

 

The soda package is great because you end up spending more time than you might expect in various bars and lounges during the week, and i would just get a club soda with lime not wanting to be drinking alcohol all day (I'd just fall asleep!). Also, you can ask for unopened cans of anything to take back to your room for later.

 

When we wanted a cocktail we would just order what we wanted (the individual cocktail prices are quite reasonable). At dinner, we would order wine by the glass or a bottle, depending on our mood. Plus the wait staff will bring you your club soda in place of tap water at meals if you ask for it. I found the free cruise coffee to be adequate (I drink Starbucks every day at home), but there are espresso beverages you can get as well on an as needed basis.

 

For the week we spent less than $300 for 2 people on all drinks doing as I described above.

 

Enjoy your trip. Cheers!