beverage package

[Neene0311]

looking to book cruise and everytime i add the free beverage package option the cruise fare increases by 400. this is on top.of the 99 gratuities added to it. i understand the 99. i dont understand the 400 increase. i can pick the sail away price with no added "free" options for 400 less

[TheDougOut]

I believe the sail away price is discounted because it doesn't include the promo that allows you to pick your perk.

[labatsman]

looking to book cruise and everytime i add the free beverage package option the cruise fare increases by 400. this is on top.of the 99 gratuities added to it. i understand the 99. i dont understand the 400 increase. i can pick the sail away price with no added "free" options for 400 less[/quote

 

Is that $400 total for 2 people. I just booked and there was a difference of $200 pp over no beverage plan

[hawkeyetlse]

looking to book cruise and everytime i add the free beverage package option the cruise fare increases by 400. this is on top.of the 99 gratuities added to it. i understand the 99. i dont understand the 400 increase. i can pick the sail away price with no added "free" options for 400 less

That is the the true cost to you for the beverage package perk. You are looking at a 7 day cruise. If you bought the UBP yourself, it would cost $652 ($79 × 7 + 18%). If you take the Free at Sea price, the UBP will cost you $400 + $99.54. So you're saving about $150 per person, assuming you would have bought the UBP anyway.

 

But some people don't want to drink anywhere near $400 worth of drinks in 7 days, and if you are one of those people, then you should take the Sail Away price with no perks included.

 

Whatever you do, do not pick any of the other perks (SDP, shorex credit, internet), because they are all worth much less than $400.

[Neene0311]

a year and a half ago the ubp was really free. and it was for one person not two. but thank.you at least i wasnt going nuts looking at it. free at sea isnt free

[fmigali]

Very interesting. There was no difference in price on the cruise we booked earlier this week. I had read some varying reports, similar to this, about price differences. Maybe we just got lucky? Yes, we did have the gratuity surcharge but that was only $200 for the two of us. We will definitely drink $200 worth of drinks over 7 days.

[hawkeyetlse]

a year and a half ago the ubp was really free.

It was really free in that the service charge/gratuities were included, but they did not offer a "sail away" rate at that time, so there is no way to know how much they added to the cruise fare so that they could offer you the UBP for free. And even now, the sail away rate is not offered in all categories on all cruises, and when it is, the difference is price is not usually as big as it was on the cruise you were looking at. So there's still no simple formula to determine across the board how much cruise fares have gone up to pay for the promos.