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[Bellasmam]

Unsure whether or not to book a beverage package for our upcoming cruise on Celebrity Reflection. DH and I enjoy a tipple but on checking prices unsure what to do DH enjoys whiskies which appear to be in the price bracket for the premium package. If we purchase a classic package can we pay the difference or do we have to buy the premium package up front. Also I read somewhere that buying packages when on board is more expensive, does anyone have experience of this as I was thinking of waiting to see how much we spent on first day before making a decision!

[dkjretired]

Unsure whether or not to book a beverage package for our upcoming cruise on Celebrity Reflection. DH and I enjoy a tipple but on checking prices unsure what to do DH enjoys whiskies which appear to be in the price bracket for the premium package. If we purchase a classic package can we pay the difference or do we have to buy the premium package up front. Also I read somewhere that buying packages when on board is more expensive, does anyone have experience of this as I was thinking of waiting to see how much we spent on first day before making a decision!

 

You can't pay the difference if you have classic and buy something on premium package, have to pay the full amount. Keep in mind when deciding that waters and some specialty coffees are covered under the classic package.

[Nachosdelux]

You can upgrade the Classic Package to the Premium package any time on board.

[ClaudiaB]

We have never found it cost-effective to purchase a beverage package. We just don't drink enough. You have to do the numbers. We don't drink coffee at all, we are fine in most cases with the water on board, and usually just have a glass or two of wine at dinner. We don't drink alcohol during the day, usually just water and an occasional Diet Coke or iced tea.

 

It is not more expensive on board, so best to wait a day or so and then decide.

 

If you like a lot of specialty coffee, fancy bottled water, and you like to have an alcoholic beverage during the day as well as at night - then it might work out for you. On past cruises, even with a couple glasses of wine or martinis, a few Diet Cokes and a couple bottles of water for port days, we wouldn't have come close to breaking even on a package.

 

If you purchased the Classic package, you have to pay the entire price of a drink, not just the difference. If you have the Premium package you just pay the difference.

 

There are some threads on here which show how some people easily justify the cost, and for them the numbers work.

 

We received the Classic package for the first time as a perk for our upcoming cruise. We may upgrade to premium because when we DO enjoy an adult beverage we like the higher priced wines and martinis. Plus we have a crazy amount of on board credit and that will pay for the upgrade with lots left over. We will upgrade on board so we use the credit.

[AtleeH]

A beverage pkg all depends on how many alcoholic drinks you will be partaking, and how much the pkg will cost you out of pocket.

 

For me, it was a no brainer on our Jan 2016 cruise. We got the 123 Go deal. We could pick either $200 OBC for the cabin, or a classic drink pkg for both of us. It will be very easy for me to go past $200 in drinks, especially considering bottled water and fresh squeezed juices are also included.

 

If I had had to pay for the drink pkg, I may have passed on the deal.

[Bellasmam]

by my reckoning it is going to cost about £800 for the classic drinks package. This seems an obscene amount to spend on beverages. However, I am worried that if we buy as we go with the service charge added each time, it will end up costing us even more!

[Barwick Cruiser]

by my reckoning it is going to cost about £800 for the classic drinks package. This seems an obscene amount to spend on beverages. However, I am worried that if we buy as we go with the service charge added each time, it will end up costing us even more!

 

If you have to pay for the package, and you're not big alchohol drinkers then I would agree with previous posters and just wait until you're onboard to decide. It is not more expensive to buy the package onboard and it will be prorated for the remaining days of your cruise. You can buy a package anytime up to four or so days left in your sailing...lots of time to decide. If I had to pay for a package out of pocket then I definitely wouldn't and we do enjoy our share of drinks (wine, beer, cocktails, water, coffee, tea, juices, smoothies etc) but would never spend what the package costs. We had the Classic pkg as a perk on our last two cruises and it was great but I'm sure Celebrity didn't lose any money on us!!

Cathy

[Rascal1]

We also had the debate, should we or shouldn't we before we cruised. I think you pay 18% at checkout if you buy a drinks package so you end up paying the 18% whether you buy before or as you go.

 

We decided not to buy it, we paid for drinks as we went and it worked out far cheaper to do this as opposed to the package. Some days the package would have been cheaper but overall it wasn't worth it.

 

It's good advice from others to have a look at other threads and try and work out based on your own consumption. The other thing I'd suggest is considering how many port days you have, if you have long port days and are planning on being off the ship, you will probably drink less than if you have sea days or stay on board.

 

The other thing we found, if you like speciality coffees, the coffee mugs you have drinking in 'Cafe Al Bacio' (sorry if spelt wrong) are much smaller than the takeaway cups. So if you don't have a drinks package, you get more coffee for your money if you have takeaway.