$12 Drinks? No thanks!

[K3nn7]

For those of us who have yet to sail and see the prices for our selfs, here is a little overview of what the current prices of drinks are.

Edited April 14, 2015 by K3nn7

[joeyancho]

Those prices are criminal! All the more reason to smuggle. Or come on over to princess. While I don't drink, I looked at the bar menu and the drinks were quite reasonable. About the same as in a restaurant at home. They don't have rock walls or surfing but they do have great food and nice ships, without the riff raff carnival seems to attract lately.

[A2Mich]

Except they spent lots of $$ putting DLs on the fleet only recently !

 

Still, they also are modifying brand new ships to send to China, so who knows:confused:

 

 

I know--was only kidding anyway

[papaflamingo]

Compare w/ premium cruise line-Oceania. Prestige package is $60/day including 18% gratuity. Top brands w/ no limit on number of drinks (see sample menu) http://www.oceaniacruises.com/beveragepackages

 

 

I'm assuming you mean that Oceana is a better deal as the available alcohol is better. Royal Caribbeans Premium Package is about $58 per day including 18% gratuity. Now that doesn't include any drink over $12, but that is a very few drinks. But more importantly, the Jan 4 sailing on Seranade 10 night Caribbean is $1086 for an inside cabin. The Jan 3 sailing on Oceana's Rivera 10 night Caribbean is $2249 for an inside cabin. Not a math major, but seems you pay a whole lot more on Oceana for top shelf drinks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rusty nut]

I wonder what Royal Caribbean's actual cost is to serve a $12.00 cocktail? With the volume of alcohol that they purchase, my guess would be somewhere between .50 cents and $1.00.

 

I'm not complaining because I understand that RC is a business and they would not charges these prices unless they were confident that their customers would be willing to pay them.

I want to be very clear in stating that I believe RCCI drink prices are out of control. Yes, they are high end, land based resort prices. However, your question was about what it costs RCCI to make a drink. I'd like to point out that the "cost" of a drink includes more than you can possibly imagine, and it is simply not how much RCCI paid for a bottle of booze divided by the number of drinks said bottle provided. Part of that 1.5 billion dollar Oasis price tag is right there in that drink. How much do you think it costs to purchase, maintain, and staff a one point five billion dollar ship? Again, I'm not defending RCCI's drink prices, just pointing out that there's much more to the "cost" of a drink than you think.

[rusty nut]

A few more menus-

 

http://www.travelingwiththejones.com/2014/08/13/is-the-premium-beverage-package-on-royal-caribbean-cruises-a-good-deal/

 

Scroll down for prices. Posted Aug 2014. $5.75 Bacardi and coke.

 

Now can people stop saying that we've been paying $10 per drink forever.

 

The menu poster says: "While it’s nice to have an all-inclusive drink package, the price is too high for many to justify the purchase. Buying a package definitely makes you drink more, as you think you need to get your daily “value” of the $55 cost. Depending on what you drink, you could probably buy individual drinks cheaper."

 

Not anymore.

Aug. 2014? I think you missed the point of this thread which is, starting in 2015 RCCI took the prices off the menu and raised them substantially. Some posters are reporting drink prices no lower than $10, including rum/Coke.

[james.hartle.1]

We never got the packages on HaL but have on both of our Celebrity cruises. Well worth it to me but I am a fixture at the bar up on 15.

[dcgrumpy]

Aug. 2014? I think you missed the point of this thread which is, starting in 2015 RCCI took the prices off the menu and raised them substantially. Some posters are reporting drink prices no lower than $10, including rum/Coke.

 

I think you missed her point.

[GottaLuvCruising]

We are sailing the Allure with a family & friends group. I didn't pick the cruise line, ship or itinerary, but just booked to do it with everyone. Almost half of my 40 previous cruises have been with Carnival (previously mentioned "riff raff"), but a lot on Princess with a few each on Disney, NCL, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. Generally we each order 3 or 4 drinks each day.

 

We simply won't buy drinks on this cruise. The prices are insane and there's no way I'd pay $800 for drinks for the two of us. We'll buy drinks in port, enjoy the two bottles of wine we bring on board and otherwise we're good with ice water.

 

Situation makes me angry and resentful. I likely will spend a lot less on board in general because they are trying to force guests into buying alcohol packages. And there's pretty much no chance I'll book Royal Caribbean again.

[OzKiwiJJ]

The prices are still ok from the Australian perspective. But then we do have a lot of tax on alcohol here. And of course the currency conversion rate does not help :)

 

 

Not when you compare them with Aussie-based cruiselines like Princess.

 

Cocktails

- Sun Princess at Christmas AU $14 and no additional service charge.

- Rhapsody of the Seas last month US $14 plus 18% service charge, roughly AU $21 after currency conversion.

 

One wine we drank on Sun Princess was AU $42 per bottle, on Rhapsody it was US $48 plus 18%, roughly AU $72 after currency conversion.

Edited April 14, 2015 by OzKiwiJJ

[American Bear]

Another advantage for Carnival where you can order pre-cruise through bon voyage a bottle of hard liquor, or beer to be delivered to your room.

Last time we looked the average was about $75.-$85. a 1 liter bottle(22 shots) for hard liquor. That's less then $3.50 a shot!

Most Beers are $24. for 4-16 oz bottles. $6. a beer.

A few beers were $21. for 4-11 oz. %.25 a beer.

 

We remember Majesty had beer bags that were a pretty good deal after your initial purchase of the bag.

[mtebor]

I have an upcoming 11 nighter serenade cruise and I will not be paying over $600 for a package.

As much as I wanted to go to vintages and try different wines, I will stick with the free ice tea.

I plan on bringing my 2 bottles for our balcony and will drink beer in port.

[NanL]

Watch your bill on RC. I ordered a house wine and they billed me a dollar more for a different wine than I received. They gave me the free diamond club wine and billed me for another.

[marci22]

I think you missed her point.

 

Thank you ;)

[bcarney]

It costs me $14.50 for a Molson Canadian at an Islanders game.

 

The difference there is you didn't pay several thousand dollars to attend the game nor were you there for 7 days straight.

[fendbass]

We are not big drinkers, for a 7-day cruise, our bar bill typically comes in at about $100. I enjoyed a drink 2-3 nights during the cruise, but no more, not at $12. Of course, my wife will still have her chocolate martinis... got to keep peace at home

 

This is America, people... land of unrestrained capitalism, where business gets ALL the tax breaks (I mean, they can deduct their advertising costs. Really??) and we have all their idiot "pro-business" politicians falling all over each other to give them more

 

They charge what they do because they can. Their costs are going up, just like ours, but it all rolls downhill, and your typical consumer is at the bottom

 

All we can do is to vote with our wallets, and even at that, the cruise lines will probably make it up by paying their employees less, or taking away benefits

[mark290]

We are not big drinkers, for a 7-day cruise, our bar bill typically comes in at about $100. I enjoyed a drink 2-3 nights during the cruise, but no more, not at $12. Of course, my wife will still have her chocolate martinis... got to keep peace at home

 

This is America, people... land of unrestrained capitalism, where business gets ALL the tax breaks (I mean, they can deduct their advertising costs. Really??) and we have all their idiot "pro-business" politicians falling all over each other to give them more

 

They charge what they do because they can. Their costs are going up, just like ours, but it all rolls downhill, and your typical consumer is at the bottom

 

All we can do is to vote with our wallets, and even at that, the cruise lines will probably make it up by paying their employees less, or taking away benefits

 

The ships aren't flagged in America and for the most part don't sail in America.

[Big_G]

We are not big drinkers, for a 7-day cruise, our bar bill typically comes in at about $100. I enjoyed a drink 2-3 nights during the cruise, but no more, not at $12. Of course, my wife will still have her chocolate martinis... got to keep peace at home

 

This is America, people... land of unrestrained capitalism, where business gets ALL the tax breaks (I mean, they can deduct their advertising costs. Really??) and we have all their idiot "pro-business" politicians falling all over each other to give them more

 

They charge what they do because they can. Their costs are going up, just like ours, but it all rolls downhill, and your typical consumer is at the bottom

 

All we can do is to vote with our wallets, and even at that, the cruise lines will probably make it up by paying their employees less, or taking away benefits

 

I've never seen so many cliches stitched together in one post. You win the award. :D

[DirtyDawg]

We are not big drinkers, for a 7-day cruise, our bar bill typically comes in at about $100. I enjoyed a drink 2-3 nights during the cruise, but no more, not at $12. Of course, my wife will still have her chocolate martinis... got to keep peace at home

 

This is America, people... land of unrestrained capitalism, where business gets ALL the tax breaks (I mean, they can deduct their advertising costs. Really??) and we have all their idiot "pro-business" politicians falling all over each other to give them more

 

They charge what they do because they can. Their costs are going up, just like ours, but it all rolls downhill, and your typical consumer is at the bottom

 

All we can do is to vote with our wallets, and even at that, the cruise lines will probably make it up by paying their employees less, or taking away benefits

 

So if American businesses are so under-taxed why are they falling all over themselves to keep their foreign profits offshore? Why because, the U.S. is a high corporate tax jurisdiction vs. most other nations. And yes they can deduct the costs of doing business (advertising, salaries, energy costs, etc.) to determine their taxable income, just like most jurisdictions.

 

Now, if you want to complain on the non existent income taxes that the cruise lines pay start a new thread and we can discuss.

[Yorkvillain]

The difference there is you didn't pay several thousand dollars to attend the game nor were you there for 7 days straight.

 

Understood. I was kind of kidding around since the poster I replied to was talking about drinks being cheaper on Long Island. It does cost me $14.50 for a beer but booze prices are always inflated at sports arenas.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Yorkvillain

[prefer2cruise]

Before we were given the free booze packages on Celebrity, we simply smuggled bottles in our checked bags for years...

[grandgeezer]

Before we were given the free booze packages on Celebrity, we simply smuggled bottles in our checked bags for years...

 

Why would they give you a free booze package when the can gouge you $10 a crack? Doesn't sound like a smart business decision.

[squadron]

Why would they give you a free booze package when the can gouge you $10 a crack? Doesn't sound like a smart business decision.

 

When pricing out Celebrity fares - don't think the liquor package is free - it is factored into the fare price. I'd rather pay a cheaper fare and buy drinks when I want. I know that would be cheaper for me and others. You know the expression "no free lunch or in this case no free drinks".

[Avelinnne]

I don't pay $14 for a cheap drink in a plastic cup on land and I'm sure as hell not going to on vacation!

 

 

You said it so eloquently. Ditto!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited April 14, 2015 by Avelinnne

[#bbfam]

I got the drink package and loved having it. Made it a true no worries vacation - I got whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it... From speciality coffees to mimosas to beers to cocktails to wine or champagne with dinner and after-dinner coffee or dessert drinks. Totally worth it for me to just not think about the price and enjoy myself. YMMV