Buying Diamond plus drink package onboard

[mondsd]

Hi! quick question. When purchasing the ultimate beverage package onboard with the 30% off diamond plus discount, is the discount taken off the price before adding the 18% gratuity or after the 18%?

 

Thanks :-)

[Merion_Mom]

Hi! quick question. When purchasing the ultimate beverage package onboard with the 30% off diamond plus discount, is the discount taken off the price before adding the 18% gratuity or after the 18%?

 

Thanks :-)

Before.

[PerferWarmWeather]

Which is usually the better deal for a Diamond Plus? To purchase the package before the cruise or wait until onboard?

 

Thank you

[Clarea]

Which is usually the better deal for a Diamond Plus? To purchase the package before the cruise or wait until onboard?

 

Thank you

Unpredictable, there would have to be a consistent price onboard to make the comparison.

[maggieq]

We have done both depending on the sales. For our upcoming Symphony cruise, we bought online when a good sale came our way. To me this perk should be adjusted because some of the sale prices work out to be what 30% off would be - for everyone not just diamond plus. Same as the bogo...

 

I think Rccl needs to review these two perks and adjust them.

[PerferWarmWeather]

Thank you for your replies. Our upcoming cruise will be our first as a Diamond Plus and we’ve never bought the drink package. Online it’s listed for $42pp per day.

[Ourusualbeach]

Thank you for your replies. Our upcoming cruise will be our first as a Diamond Plus and we’ve never bought the drink package. Online it’s listed for $42pp per day.

It will likely be $60 per day or more on board. At $42 per day I would buy now.

[PerferWarmWeather]

It will likely be $60 per day or more on board. At $42 per day I would buy now.

 

 

 

Great, thank you

 

 

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[dswallow]

Generally speaking, you'll never see a sale for more than 30% off the Deluxe Beverage package, be it alone or part of a VOOM Surf+Stream 1-device combo. Prices do go up, however, and the pattern seems to be annually. So you could perhaps save a small amount per day buying it early, before a price increase. But once the price increase is effective, you'll continue to not see a better online discount than 30% off the new onboard price.

 

When there's a sale online, they'll tell you the sale deal -- "20% off onboard prces", "Buy 1 get 2nd at 50%" - aka 25% off onboard prices", or "30% off onboard prices".

 

Divide the advertised sale price by the discount...

 

$42 at 30% off -- $42/0.70 or $60

$45 at "Buy 1 get 2nd at 50%" -- $45/0.75 or $60

$48 at "20% off" -- $48/0.80 or $60

 

Guess what the onboard price is for that sailing? :)

 

Anyway, for the sailings I've seen the onboard price apparently jump up a bit, it went up 5%, so $60 to $62.67 -- on specific sailings I've noticed. RCL rounds things often, so that may really mean the onboard price is going to be $63. Would it have been worthwhile to buy it at the old price as much as 6 months before the sailing? (12 days x $3 * 70%) basically locking up $700 for 6 months to save $20-$25?

 

So, except for price increases coming in at some point, the Diamond Plus 30%-off onboard price discount on the Deluxe Beverage Package is pretty much the best you'll ever see online so Diamond Plus (and Pinnacle) members generally don't need to purchase it in advance to get the best deal they can on it.

Edited September 2, 2018 by dswallow

[Big_G]

Which is usually the better deal for a Diamond Plus? To purchase the package before the cruise or wait until onboard?

 

Thank you

 

I've never paid more than $42 and have paid as low as $37. We've never paid more than any online 'sale' so we tend to roll the dice and wait until we board. I figure at this point we're playing with house money.