Just when you think the drink package can't go higher....

[mayleeman]

9 hours ago, uvadover said:

 Because it affects you how?

Not sure about that poster's intent, but increased smuggling (and telling people about it) will likely lead to more intensive inspections, delaying boarding. Maybe even curtailing the wine/soda/liquids they now allow you to bring.

 

Cheaters tend to ruin things for other people. But maybe that is a reason to hope they DON'T get caught!

Edited August 29, 2019 by mayleeman

[mattb31]

17 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

Not sure about that poster's intent, but increased smuggling (and telling people about it) will likely lead to more intensive inspections, delaying boarding. Maybe even curtailing the wine/soda/liquids they now allow you to bring.

 

Cheaters tend to ruin things for other people. But maybe that is a reason to hope they DON'T get caught!

 

It really doesn't affect any other cruisers at all. You can let the cruise lines tell you all they want that they are increasing costs because of how customers behave, but in reality it's just to increase their bottom line. Besides, the number of people who go through the effort of sneaking alcohol on-board isn't really that high.

 

I was just on Symphony in May and we paid $49/per day. If it really is $65 per day that's a 30%+ increase in less than a year. No way that's worth it for me and no way I'm going to sit here and feel bad about it either. NCL always runs Free at Sea offers (Celebrity offers the package included too) including the packages, and whether it's priced into the fare or not, at least you know what you are paying when you book. Royal's has been a guessing game forever, which probably facilitates people sneaking on alcohol. I could book a cruise with Royal next year and have no idea if I'm going to be paying $400 or $500 for the package, and that's a significant variance in the cost.

 

3 750mL of Bacardi $45, Soda package sub-$100 for the week. That comes to about $150ish range to drink on my own for a week compared to the $500+ for Royal's drink package. To be honest, if it really hurt the cruise lines that much, they could end it tomorrow, but they don't care enough that I'm drinking alcohol I snuck on board, so I won't feel bad about it.

[mac66]

cough, cough...rum runners...cough, cough

Edited August 29, 2019 by mac66

[Goofyfanatic]

10 hours ago, uvadover said:

 Because it affects you how?

 

Simple economics...the company is looking to make "x" on their alcohol sales. The more people that smuggle booze aboard means that the company will have to charge more to get to that "x". 

[zepp914]

We paid about $49 per day.  With the gratuity, it worked out to being $404 each for the 7 day cruise.   I am not sure we would do it again even if we got that price.  My wife enjoyed the piece of mind and the water bottles we could take off the ship, but mathematically it isn't a super savings for us.  I think I ordered around 75 drinks and my wife had about 50.  About half were at the Bionic Bar, but the rest were all over the ship.  That puts us at $6.46 per drink with gratuity.  For some reason I don't trust the gratuity with the drink package.  When I hand someone a couple of bucks, I know he/she received it.  I really don't know how a fixed gratuity works with a variable drink package.  If I only ordered one drink, would that bartender receive all $62 of the gratuity or does Royal keep most of it?  On the flip side if I ordered 1,000 drinks, would each bartender receive only 6.2 pennies per drink?  I went back and cash tipped the bartenders that helped us.  

 

With the exception of the Royal Lemonade, we liked the drinks of the day, so I think next time we will stick with those and the $7.99 beers.  We saw that they still sell the 10 drink cards for $80 or was it $89 on the last 2 days, so I think we will do that too.  We also skipped all of the all-inclusives in the ports for obvious reasons.    Without the package, I doubt we would have ordered a combined 40 drinks over the course of the cruise.   We did enjoy the sodas.  I wish I could say my wife enjoyed the coffee 👎

[Cruiser_1977]

A bit off topic:  I have a good friend who had her luggage and some of the contents ruined because someone tried to smuggle liquor in one of those camel bag type things. It leaked all over. Luckily my luggage is waterproof. She was not that lucky.

[Don'tNeedAName]

19 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

 

It really doesn't affect any other cruisers at all. You can let the cruise lines tell you all they want that they are increasing costs because of how customers behave, but in reality it's just to increase their bottom line.

 

Try to justify it however you want, but it absolutely affects other cruisers.  Of course the cruise lines (like any business) are worried about the bottom line... alcohol has insane profit margins, so if there are people breaking the rules (i.e., taking away from the bottom line), guess where the cruise lines make it up?  Think it might have something to do with those who do play by the rules?

 

37 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

To be honest, if it really hurt the cruise lines that much, they could end it tomorrow, but they don't care enough that I'm drinking alcohol I snuck on board, so I won't feel bad about it.

 

Even by making this statement, you are recognizing that it does hurt the cruise lines (just not "enough" in your mind) and how your actions could negatively affect others.  Just because a retail store doesn't do everything in its power to stop shoplifting doesn't mean that it is OK to shoplift.  It's merely that the costs to implement fail-safe preventative measures exceeds the costs associated with shrinkage from shoplifting.

 

I'm sure a response might be "but I'm not actually stealing product," but you'd be missing the point.  Cruise lines have implemented measures to try to stop people from bringing alcohol on board because it is against the rules.  You're now saying they could do more to stop it.  As mayleeman said in the post you were replying to, examples of these additional measures might be more invasive baggage searches, increased check-in times, new restrictions on what can be brought on board, etc.  These are simple and obvious examples of the types of negative impacts that your actions can have to other cruisers.

 

You are breaking the rules, and if you are fine with that, then whatever.  I'm not your dad; do what you want.  Just don't try to play it like you aren't (a) doing something wrong and (b) doing something that has a negative impact on others. 

[mayleeman]

@Don'tNeedAName 

 

Nice post.

 

It is the same thinking that people use to rationalize stealing software, movies, music, etc. "But it costs so MUCH!" Still theft. 

 

A lot of people only want the rules enforced if they aren't breaking them! 

[mattb31]

34 minutes ago, Don'tNeedAName said:

Try to justify it however you want, but it absolutely affects other cruisers.  Of course the cruise lines (like any business) are worried about the bottom line... alcohol has insane profit margins, so if there are people breaking the rules (i.e., taking away from the bottom line), guess where the cruise lines make it up?  Think it might have something to do with those who do play by the rules?

Nope, not one bit.

 

35 minutes ago, Don'tNeedAName said:

 

Even by making this statement, you are recognizing that it does hurt the cruise lines (just not "enough" in your mind) and how your actions could negatively affect others.  Just because a retail store doesn't do everything in its power to stop shoplifting doesn't mean that it is OK to shoplift.  It's merely that the costs to implement fail-safe preventative measures exceeds the costs associated with shrinkage from shoplifting.

 

Shoplifting is nowhere close to the same as bringing your own booze on a cruise. And yes, my exact argument would be that I'm not taking any product. You say that cruise lines have implemented measures to stop it, but what measures? Virtually no one gets caught smuggling a few plastic flasks full of booze on to a cruise ship, and if they do, the cruise line just throws out the alcohol, nothing happens to the passengers. If they wanted to crack down they could start following their own guidelines and kicking people off the ship for it, but they won't, because a paying cruiser (alcohol package or not) is worth more to them than someone who is not on the ship.

 

42 minutes ago, Don'tNeedAName said:

As mayleeman said in the post you were replying to, examples of these additional measures might be more invasive baggage searches, increased check-in times, new restrictions on what can be brought on board, etc.  These are simple and obvious examples of the types of negative impacts that your actions can have to other cruisers.

 

But we've seen time and time again that this won't happen. People have been taking alcohol on to cruise ships for years. Royal Caribbean stands alot more to lose by strictly enforcing the 'smuggling' rules rather than just being lax on them.

 

1. Not many people smuggle booze in the first place.
2. There are plenty of other cruise lines that include the price of alcohol in the fare. The first time Royal kicks someone off a cruise for smuggling alcohol, is likely the last time that person ever cruises with Royal. So they stand to lose far more by kicking them off then the $500 they could've made on the alcohol package. Now that cruiser goes to a competitor.

 

[Merion_Mom]

21 hours ago, NateUpNorth said:

 

Interesting......... our December 2020 cruise is available in the cruise planner. 

 

My May 2020 cruises do not have beverage packages in the Cruise Planner yet.  (but I could buy a dining package 🙃)

[BillOh]

1 hour ago, Goofyfanatic said:

 

Simple economics...the company is looking to make "x" on their alcohol sales. The more people that smuggle booze aboard means that the company will have to charge more to get to that "x". 

I don't argue your intent, but this statement is a bit silly if you have ever worked for a large corporation.      I don't smuggle, but I'm going to enjoy every bit of the $18/day drink package on next year's 9 day cruise. 

[Don'tNeedAName]

14 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

Shoplifting is nowhere close to the same as bringing your own booze on a cruise. And yes, my exact argument would be that I'm not taking any product. You say that cruise lines have implemented measures to stop it, but what measures? Virtually no one gets caught smuggling a few plastic flasks full of booze on to a cruise ship, and if they do, the cruise line just throws out the alcohol, nothing happens to the passengers. If they wanted to crack down they could start following their own guidelines and kicking people off the ship for it, but they won't, because a paying cruiser (alcohol package or not) is worth more to them than someone who is not on the ship.

 

Yes, I already knew your exact argument, and as stated, that misses the point.  You claim to not feel bad because they could do more to stop it, but they don't.  I'm saying just because a company doesn't do everything possible within its power to stop people from breaking the rules, doesn't mean that it is OK to break the rules.

 

If we wanted to get really theoretical in here, it also may not be as far from shoplifting as your cognitive dissonance wants you to believe.  Are you telling me that if the cruise lines implemented measures that caught 100% of alcohol being brought on board that you wouldn't order even one single drink for the entirety of your cruise?  If not, then your actions are economically equivalent to theft, even if they aren't actual theft.

 

With respect to what cruise lines are already doing, you ask "what measures?"  Your next sentence already recognizes what measures--they do a cursory search of bags and throw alcohol out if any is found.  I've already stated that they don't do more than that precisely because of cost-benefit.  That does not somehow make your breaking the rules OK.

 

I don't follow every rule I come across in my life, and like I said before, I don't care what you do with respect to sneaking booze on board (not that it would matter if I cared anyway).  But at least own your actions, and stop trying to pretend that you're not doing anything wrong.

[Don'tNeedAName]

9 minutes ago, BillOh said:

I don't argue your intent, but this statement is a bit silly if you have ever worked for a large corporation.      I don't smuggle, but I'm going to enjoy every bit of the $18/day drink package on next year's 9 day cruise. 

 

But there's the rub--you were playing by Royal's rules when you bought the package.  They like to play games with dynamic pricing, and this time they got burned for once.  From my point of view, I think Royal did the right thing by honoring the packages for the same reason I think it's the right thing to not smuggle booze on board.

[Jarmo]

I can think of one positive of smugglers.  They take up less of the bartenders time and leave my favorite booze(s) for me. It's the sharers that are annoying.

[BonnieSte]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:14 AM, NateUpNorth said:

 

That "dumb move" depends.

I know they'd make more profit from my family on two reasonable priced drink package than the drinks we purchase individually.

The real question is are there more like us, or more that will pay the higher cost regardless?

I am with you. We will just have a few drinks on the islands and have a drink or 2 on the ship.

 

[korpo024]

This is just wrong.... no 72 € and a few weeks ago just 56 €. This is just stupid. No way we're going to buy this package. Smuggling alcohol will be our case...

[korpo024]

2 hours ago, mayleeman said:

@Don'tNeedAName 

 

Nice post.

 

It is the same thinking that people use to rationalize stealing software, movies, music, etc. "But it costs so MUCH!" Still theft. 

 

A lot of people only want the rules enforced if they aren't breaking them! 

72€ for a drinking package is theft.....

[Goofyfanatic]

1 hour ago, BillOh said:

I don't argue your intent, but this statement is a bit silly if you have ever worked for a large corporation.      I don't smuggle, but I'm going to enjoy every bit of the $18/day drink package on next year's 9 day cruise. 

 

I work for one of the largest banks in the country and believe me every dang penny is counted and we hear about it every Tuesday on a conference call. Not silly at all.

 

No problem with the $18 mistake in fact I am shocked that Royal honored it. The press would have been awful for them but they had every right to do it under the terms and conditions.

[legaljen1969]

On ‎8‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 10:57 AM, atush said:

ours went up today from 57 back to 61.  Why didnt you buy it at $52?

 

My theory is they have raised prices in advance of a LD sale.

I had it at $52 but then ran into an emergency situation where I needed that money back on my credit card. I cancelled and then had to buy back at $57.  

People there are NO SALES.  They raise the price so they can have a sale and charge you exactly what they were charging you before, only now it looks like a sale.   LOL

[atush]

Well to me, $52 Was a sale.  As i also have paid $57 so far.  Could be worse, it has gone back up to $61

[mayleeman]

I wonder how many people who decide not to follow the rules they agreed to by buying a cruise have spent time griping about how no one's word means anything any more?

[boscobeans]

Drink prices??

 

I don't know about places other than where (Albany NY) I live or have lived (New York City) but they are NOT out of line compared to many places, in fact quite a bit lower than may touristy or trendy watering holes.

 

Comparing the normal ambiance found aboard ships in their comfortable lounge areas, many with live music and table service to getting a drink at a bar that may have a good juke box and a few booths I see a big difference. 

 

10-14 dollars for a glass of wine

10 - 15 for a frozen blender cocktail

8-9 for a simple Gin and Tonic

and 5-7 bucks for a beer,

AND EVEN HIGHER IN MANY PLACES that offer some kind of ambiance or an outdoor table...

 

Ship's prices are no higher than in MOST decent places that offer live music, a Broadway type show, a singer, band,  comedian or a magician or bar service by a pool or on a beach.

I  know that drinks at any Marriot, Hilton or other hotel chain are on par if not higher than on a ship.

Sure I can head down to the local for a $2.50 Bud draught or $4 bucks for a G and T but it's like comparing apples to pumpkins in my view.

 

 

[NKLCRUISES]

On 8/28/2019 at 11:25 AM, Dayman9966 said:

Honestly, should have bought at $52, but when people post they get things for less, it's kind of a mind bender making the decision.  But, I can always just pay out of pocket, I like beers, but I won't drink 10+ per day.  Live and learn I guess.

Check your price. Indy 11/21/19 was $52 when first booked, went up to $65, down to $61, back to $65. Now it is showing $56. I purchased at $61 and canceled and rebooked now at the $56. 

[JillK]

It does seem to be all over the place with no real rhyme or rhythm. When it first became available for my March Break 2020 cruise it was $67/day. Last week it was down to $57/day and now it is back up to $61/day. 

 

Although we certainly like our libations when on vacation, we've done the math and for us at the current price, it's not worth the expense... on the Brilliance over the course of 13 nights last year, my husband and I had a bar bill of just over $400, including soda. Hard to justify spending over $900 on a 7 nighter just for the convenience of the package.

 

We were able to economize on the Brilliance as we took advantage of the punch card where you get 10 mixed drinks for a set price (believe it was $89, including gratuity) and we also got a similar punch card for 10 draft beers for a discount (if memory serves, $56). Those only came out mid-cruise but definitely helped us to save over buying all week a la carte.

 

We're hopeful to see those again in March!

[dswallow]

The claimed reason RCCL prevents you from bringing on your own alcohol is that they need to be able to ensure guests who are inebriated do not get more alcohol, hence they really want alcoholic beverages to only be things that get served by ship staff. And yeah, I can understand at least to some extent that part of it. I know those who are determined can find ways around it. 

 

It doesn't quite gel with their allowing 2 bottles of wine per cabin so much, though I guess to the extent if they allowed 2 per person and accommodated even more when 3 or 4 or 5 people shared a cabin, at least it isn't quite creating a way one person has immediate access to 10 full bottles of wine.

 

At the same time I'm sure they love having this explanation as a way to also ensure the only real alternative is spending about 25 times the cost of a bottle of liquor on a per-drink basis. 🙂