Beverage Package Pricing Increase

[Wine-O]

Was 18% gratuity always the norm? and can anyone tell me more about the "non-premium bottled water"? What does this mean? Non premium? What brand of bottled water is served?

 

Probably the same stuff you get out of your kitchen sink.

[Cruise Junky]

Was 18% gratuity always the norm? and can anyone tell me more about the "non-premium bottled water"? What does this mean? Non premium? What brand of bottled water is served?

 

I think premium water is Evian ....blech....we happily take the non premium instead.

[Irishhappycruiser]

Thank you.

[Oville]

I think premium water is Evian ....blech....we happily take the non premium instead.

 

What does blech mean?

[Cruise Junky]

What does blech mean?

 

Blech is my personal opinion of Evian. We hate it and would much rather have their non premium water.

[Iamcruzin]

I think premium water is Evian ....blech....we happily take the non premium instead.

 

Evian spelled backwards is....Naive. So yeah non premium or tap works for me.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Iamcruzin

[MR_T]

We sail early May so to avoid headaches on vacation I upgraded via the phone yesterday. I plan on cashing out the $300 obc in the casino and using it as spending money in port. Just pay the 5% fee and call it a day.

 

 

We did this on our last cruise on the 1st March just gone and had no problems! [emoji4]

[Pushka]

I drink tap water at home but never in an overseas country. I've adapted to tap water at home but not overseas - even where the quality is fine.

[gcgold]

I drink tap water at home but never in an overseas country. I've adapted to tap water at home but not overseas - even where the quality is fine.

 

 

tap water in Oz ? my pal in Sydney says that is Fosters [emoji12]

 

The premium water we get is the Pellegrino. drink lots of it to try and dilute all the premium booze i get from the upgraded package

[e11wa]

upgraded my included classic package to premium for my Nov'16 cruise this week.

best move every.

[CruisinCrow]

Evian spelled backwards is....Naive.

 

Hee hee :)

[richsea]

I'd love to do a blind taste test with bottled water & dare someone to identify the brand.:eek:

[Cruise Junky]

I'd love to do a blind taste test with bottled water & dare someone to identify the brand.:eek:

 

Most bottled water brands I couldn't tell apart but Evian has this weird dead taste, I'm not sure what they do to it but it's definitely different than normal bottled water.

[Irishhappycruiser]

Tired to book my drinks package there but the website is not working. The page was updated today but the link to book the package brings you back to the my celebrity home page. [emoji52]

[bagpiper]

Tired to book my drinks package there but the website is not working. The page was updated today but the link to book the package brings you back to the my celebrity home page. [emoji52]

 

Why not just call Celebrity at 1-844-418-6824. They will take care of everything for you and then send you an email confirmation. Sometimes it's a lot easier to call than deal with the web-site. :) Good Luck!!

Rose

[Host Anne]

Geyser Peak was the brand of water included in the Classic package last week on Constellation. Evian is in the premium as others noted. Geyser Peak is perfectly fine! :)

[Host Anne]

WOW...33 pages in less than two weeks. Talk about a hot topic.

 

Many of you will be surprised by my take on this. I've been sailing Celebrity for a long time. The pricing of an average cruise hasn't gone up significantly in a long time. In fact, in some cases, it has gone down. Now they are offering all these incentives to book, which in some cases add up to more than $800 - $1,000 in value (at least that's the value for our next cruise that include the 123ALL promotion).

 

I'm not the best with math but common sense tells me something's got to give somewhere. Celebrity is business (like most of us) to make money. They can't possibly continue to give away these perks and not make it up somewhere. Sure, cruise prices have crept up a little but nowhere near enough to cover the cost of what we are getting.

 

I don't really have a problem with them increasing drink package pricing or specialty restaurant pricing (or even cruise prices). We have choices to not purchase these things if we don't like the prices.

 

BUT (and it's a pretty big but for me) what does bother me is what's happening onboard ships. You can't really find out what drinks are included in what packages. I asked last week on Constellation and was told they couldn't provide me with a list.

 

Drinks that were included in the Classic Package in January (Sam Adams for example) have been moved to the Premium Package. One bartender told us "see the beer bottles on the shelf? The ones to the left are in the Classic and the ones on the right are in the Premium." Makes it easy for them when they want to make a change; simply slide a bottle to the right! Celebrity Cruises stated earlier in this thread that they wouldn't be moving any drinks from one package to the other. I don't believe that and it's pretty tough to know if they do unless you sail with them frequently since they do not publish a list of drinks in each package for everyone to see.

 

Beyond not being able to really find out what is included in what package, bars are often (at least several times each day on our recent cruise) out of Classic item selections. Couple that with the cutback in staff (nearly impossible to be served a drink any more....you almost always had to go wait at the bar) and the unfriendliness of the bar staff at some bars last week, I think things are beginning to take a toll.

 

I'd much rather pay a little more, see the crew happy and friendly and enjoy the beautiful ships in the Celebrity fleet.

[ChucktownSteve]

A smart business adds something free to a customer with a high perceived value and a low out of pocket cost. Liquor has a very high margin especially in the volume they buy it. Plus if you "short" pour a mixed drink, that's not a lot of money.

 

But the package promotion sure did sell a lot of cabins quickly. Now that they have cruisers enticed, they can be more selective offering the packages on cruises that need the help.

 

I've seen where I can get a lower price on my cabin or upgrade for the same price for two booked cruises. The problem is I'd have to give up the "free" promotions. So are they really free?

[cody cruiser]

Does anyone have a current individual drink price list for Celebrity? Found one for Royal Caribbean but not certain prices are the same. We are sailing March of 2016 but the most current list we can find for Celebrity is from 2010. Thank you kindly.

[flames9]

A smart business adds something free to a customer with a high perceived value and a low out of pocket cost. Liquor has a very high margin especially in the volume they buy it. Plus if you "short" pour a mixed drink, that's not a lot of money.

 

But the package promotion sure did sell a lot of cabins quickly. Now that they have cruisers enticed, they can be more selective offering the packages on cruises that need the help.

 

I've seen where I can get a lower price on my cabin or upgrade for the same price for two booked cruises. The problem is I'd have to give up the "free" promotions. So are they really free?

 

Hard to say..For our British Isles cruise this is coming up in August, I had a quote for an Aqua Gaurantee from 1 TA that was pretty low...BUT did not include the 1.2.3 GO promotion and did not know where the Cabin would be. But if one was not a drinker and did not care about OBC...or where their cabin would be in Aqua class....was a pretty good deal. But we do care where our cabin is and take advantage of all the 1.2.3 Go promotions. I get a feeling many on CC don't search around for good deals (TAs)

Edited April 11, 2015 by flames9

[mermamasailsagain]

I'm sorry that this went off on a tangent of water tastes and can prices but good that it is finally coming back to the main theme of this thread in the rise in the beverage package. My earlier post has yet to be answered.

 

I'd really like the Celebrity rep to clarify their statement made earlier in post 286 and 582. I was feeling good about my planned 123 promo upgrade on my cruise in June at the old cost but on second thoughts, feel the statement could be misinterpreted ... does Celebrity mean that I can upgrade at the old price onboard only til April 20th or indefinitely if already purchased prior to the increase?

 

Interested in how everyone else reads it but especially if Celebrity would clarify and add if there is any date of expiry for upgrading if you received the beverage package as a promo?

[chamima]

I'm sorry that this went off on a tangent of water tastes and can prices but good that it is finally coming back to the main theme of this thread in the rise in the beverage package. My earlier post has yet to be answered.

 

I'd really like the Celebrity rep to clarify their statement made earlier in post 286 and 582. I was feeling good about my planned 123 promo upgrade on my cruise in June at the old cost but on second thoughts, feel the statement could be misinterpreted ... does Celebrity mean that I can upgrade at the old price onboard only til April 20th or indefinitely if already purchased prior to the increase?

 

Interested in how everyone else reads it but especially if Celebrity would clarify and add if there is any date of expiry for upgrading if you received the beverage package as a promo?

 

 

I read it as indefinitely but now that you've mentioned it that might be my own wishful thinking. :confused:

[Iamcruzin]

Beyond not being able to really find out what is included in what package, bars are often (at least several times each day on our recent cruise) out of Classic item selections. Couple that with the cutback in staff (nearly impossible to be served a drink any more....you almost always had to go wait at the bar) and the unfriendliness of the bar staff at some bars last week, I think things are beginning to take a toll.

 

I'd much rather pay a little more, see the crew happy and friendly and enjoy the beautiful ships in the Celebrity fleet.

 

I am not at all surprised. I'm relatively new to Celebrity, I have only sailed once. I happened to book my first cruise just before they offered the first 123 go or pick you perk offer. I booked under a different promo so I didn't received the free beverage package. One of my first questions on this board was it inquire about the bar service since a majority of the ship received the drink package free. At the time there wasn't a decline in service or attitude by the bar staff. I actually purchased the drink package for myself and my wife. We were very satisfied with the beverage choices under the classic plan and the service was quick except at the pool bar in the afternoon. Last year they tried to dumb down the classic beverage choices which caused a mutiny on CC. I kind of figured that they would start running out of classic brands and the service would decline.

[wallie5446]

I'm sorry that this went off on a tangent of water tastes and can prices but good that it is finally coming back to the main theme of this thread in the rise in the beverage package. My earlier post has yet to be answered.

 

I'd really like the Celebrity rep to clarify their statement made earlier in post 286 and 582. I was feeling good about my planned 123 promo upgrade on my cruise in June at the old cost but on second thoughts, feel the statement could be misinterpreted ... does Celebrity mean that I can upgrade at the old price onboard only til April 20th or indefinitely if already purchased prior to the increase?

 

Interested in how everyone else reads it but especially if Celebrity would clarify and add if there is any date of expiry for upgrading if you received the beverage package as a promo?

 

It means we can upgrade for the difference in the price between the 2 packages, ( if you chose it as your 123 Perk ) which will still be $10.00 plus the $1.80 grat.

If you purschased a Classic package at the old price point, you will have to pay the additional $6.00 increase that went into effect on April 6th, if you did not upgrade before the April 20th deadline.

Edited April 12, 2015 by wallie5446

[mermamasailsagain]

Thanks for trying to interpret it but I did the same...but read again and it isn't concrete if you can do that until April 20th or beyond and if longer, til when? I certainly want to read it that way for June, but does that allow people who have booked into November to keep to the old upgrade price too? Someone on our cruise called in to Celebrity and was told that he would be charged $16 come June for the upgrade onboard. It would be great to get it answered here and take a print out on board rather than my hearsay if there was any confusion.