Different Beverage Package Question

[Oscar13]

On our upcoming Alaska cruise we received through the BSE promo the beverage package. 

My question is - Do the beverages show up on your account?  Even though they are covered under the package.

 

Interested to see how much we actually use the promo package.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

K2

[1Gizmo]

We had it on an Alaska cruise 2018 and they didn't show on the account. On a TA last November didn't have the package and they showed on the account. For us, unless it is included it is not worth it .

[jennybenny]

Your alcoholic drink count (or small waters, or coffee) will not show up on your account balance when you have the PBP. However, when you order an alcoholic drink, they know how many you've had.  So, you can always ask how many you have left, if you don't know. However, if you want to know how much you actually use, just ask a bar tender before you go to bed nightly.  The tally resets at 6 AM.

We always grab a bottle of water before bed.

 

Also, the non alcoholic options included do not get added to your account balance either. 

Edited February 13, 2020 by jennybenny

[Kansas Gal]

Do you get the bottles of water from a bar?  What about International Cafe?

 

[polmcs]

You can grab bottles of water from any bar, the International Cafe and also near the gantry/tender routes when going ashore.

 

As for keeping track of alcoholic drinks, when on a medallion cruise, the app will show you how many drinks you’ve had that particular day.

[pseudoswede]

3 minutes ago, polmcs said:

You can grab bottles of water from any bar, the International Cafe and also near the gantry/tender routes when going ashore.

 

Is there a time limit between water bottle purchases?

[polmcs]

5 minutes ago, pseudoswede said:

 

Is there a time limit between water bottle purchases?

I’ve never noticed any time limit. Usually on our last drink of the evening at Crooners, we’ll order a night cap and a bottle of water each and have never had an issue. 

[Thrak]

I keep track of my folio. If a drink shows up I go to Customer Services and have it removed. It can definitely happen.

[Katwoman007]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

I keep track of my folio. If a drink shows up I go to Customer Services and have it removed. It can definitely happen.

We had one show up on ours from the back bar by the aft pool and we even told them it should not have been charged. They pulled the receipt and asked if that was his signature. Yes, it was... but I got the SAME exact drink and it was covered. They would not waive it. It was so odd. Only that one area made us sign for our drinks. We always got some Alaska special that was like a Baileys hot drink they had on a sign of like 6 other drinks. 
 

[Thrak]

8 minutes ago, Katwoman007 said:

We had one show up on ours from the back bar by the aft pool and we even told them it should not have been charged. They pulled the receipt and asked if that was his signature. Yes, it was... but I got the SAME exact drink and it was covered. They would not waive it. It was so odd. Only that one area made us sign for our drinks. We always got some Alaska special that was like a Baileys hot drink they had on a sign of like 6 other drinks. 
 

 

On one cruise every single time I ordered a drink in the theater I got charged. They were getting the drinks from the Casino Bar and, for some bizarre reason, they kept charging me. I had it removed each time. I'd have a real issue if I was being charged twice - which is the case if you have the beverage package and are still being charged onboard. I would definitely have (politely) escalated the issue to the beverage manager.

Edited February 13, 2020 by Thrak

[Katwoman007]

14 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

On one cruise every single time I ordered a drink in the theater I got charged. They were getting the drinks from the Casino Bar and, for some bizarre reason, they kept charging me. I had it removed each time. I'd have a real issue if I was being charged twice - which is the case if you have the beverage package and are still being charged onboard. I would definitely have (politely) escalated the issue to the beverage manager.

It was just one of those moments that was like, make it stop. lol I was not sure how to feel because I had a photo of the sign (which after 10 days of alaska photos it was not the easiest to find on my phone lol) and if it was not a "covered drink" for sure under the price, but whatever... we were charged only once vs all the other drink times. We had the package. We actually tried all the special drinks as well, without issue. Just annoying. I could have gone farther but honestly, we just let it go... that time. 

[Oscar13]

Thanks jennybenny

I am not worried about having too many, don't think I could drink 15 even adding in pop,water and coffee.  Just more of a curiosity question.

 

K2

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, Oscar13 said:

Thanks jennybenny

I am not worried about having too many, don't think I could drink 15 even adding in pop,water and coffee.  Just more of a curiosity question.

 

K2

 

Of course pop, water, and coffee don't count toward the 15 drink limit. It is only alcoholic drinks in the period 6AM to 6AM. Other drinks don't "count".

[jennybenny]

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

I keep track of my folio. If a drink shows up I go to Customer Services and have it removed. It can definitely happen.

Yes, it does happen!!

 

I do like how the Medallion app keeps track of your drink count.  We did not encounter any problems with drinks on our last cruise on the Royal, but we have had issues on the Grand a few years ago.  I think they were getting used to the drink limits and perhaps when someone did an "inquiry" it counted as a drink AGAINST your count.  By inquiry, I mean they entered one number, wrong one, do another, yep, let's charge that card...  Had to speak to the Beverage manager that cruise about over charges. Outside of that cruise we've not had a problem again with the count. 

 

My son however was charged for a a soda when he has the soda package, but we review our account daily to make sure everything on there is accurate and have never had an issue with Guest Services taking care of the erroneous charge (after doing some verification on their part)
 

[nycruiser2006]

We just recently returned from the Grand, who is not converted to 100% Medallain yet.  We used the Ocean Concierge app.  Besides using it for texting other passengers, it also listed all the day's activities and my beverage package was under a drop down box under my name.   It would show every alcoholic drink, the location and time.  all specialty coffees, teas, water, milkshakes,  soda's did not show up.  Only Alcoholic items

[Oscar13]

Thank you nycruiser - that was the type of info I was looking for.

 

K2

[Thrak]

22 hours ago, nycruiser2006 said:

We just recently returned from the Grand, who is not converted to 100% Medallain yet.  We used the Ocean Concierge app.  Besides using it for texting other passengers, it also listed all the day's activities and my beverage package was under a drop down box under my name.   It would show every alcoholic drink, the location and time.  all specialty coffees, teas, water, milkshakes,  soda's did not show up.  Only Alcoholic items

 

Even though you had the beverage package your drinks showed up? That is a change from how it was with the old system. When we had the beverage package in the past the only alcoholic drinks that showed up were ones that shouldn't have been charged. Everything covered by the beverage package simply didn't appear. I guess this way would make it easier to track how many drinks you had each day - as long as there was no charge involved.

[jennybenny]

Just now, Thrak said:

 

Even though you had the beverage package your drinks showed up? That is a change from how it was with the old system. When we had the beverage package in the past the only alcoholic drinks that showed up were ones that shouldn't have been charged. Everything covered by the beverage package simply didn't appear. I guess this way would make it easier to track how many drinks you had each day - as long as there was no charge involved.

I think what he's saying is that the app showed the drink total per day, not on the bill.  If that's the case, it's nice to know that you can see that total on the Grand.

 

Side note, Carnival cruises show each drink on your bill when you purchase their Cheers! Package (drink package). At least they did a few years ago for my mother in law's 70th birthday cruise. 

[Thrak]

19 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

I think what he's saying is that the app showed the drink total per day, not on the bill.  If that's the case, it's nice to know that you can see that total on the Grand.

 

Side note, Carnival cruises show each drink on your bill when you purchase their Cheers! Package (drink package). At least they did a few years ago for my mother in law's 70th birthday cruise. 

 

I actually think it would be a good change. It would let people know if their package was being charged for drinks they didn't have. It's easy for a bartender to charge someone's beverage package for someone else's drink. Heck, my wife may have 4 drinks in a day and someone who was very friendly with the bartender might get a bunch of drinks charged to her account. Who would know? A $50 tip might go a long way... I would prefer to see what I ordered, when I ordered it, and where I ordered it. I liked that, when I had a coffee package, the number of coffee drinks I had used showed up on my folio so I knew how many I had left.

[nycruiser2006]

12 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

I actually think it would be a good change. It would let people know if their package was being charged for drinks they didn't have. It's easy for a bartender to charge someone's beverage package for someone else's drink. Heck, my wife may have 4 drinks in a day and someone who was very friendly with the bartender might get a bunch of drinks charged to her account. Who would know? A $50 tip might go a long way... I would prefer to see what I ordered, when I ordered it, and where I ordered it. I liked that, when I had a coffee package, the number of coffee drinks I had used showed up on my folio so I knew how many I had left.

Exactly.  It showed the location (Calypso Bar) and the number 1/15, 2/15 etc and the exact time.  It also came in handy when this happened.  At dinner every night we would leave the table with 2 Corona’s unopened.  We like to keep a few in our fridge.  One day I noticed I was billed for a drink. Went to guest services, they pulled the receipt, and it was fir a Corona. They went back and could see we had the beverage package and that every night we each ordered 1 Corona on both our cards.  Charge was taken off in a flash 

[jennybenny]

30 minutes ago, nycruiser2006 said:

Exactly.  It showed the location (Calypso Bar) and the number 1/15, 2/15 etc and the exact time.  It also came in handy when this happened.  At dinner every night we would leave the table with 2 Corona’s unopened.  We like to keep a few in our fridge.  One day I noticed I was billed for a drink. Went to guest services, they pulled the receipt, and it was fir a Corona. They went back and could see we had the beverage package and that every night we each ordered 1 Corona on both our cards.  Charge was taken off in a flash 

So it sounds like Princess has finally made this change and now shows it on the bill? That’s awesome 

Way easier to see if something is incorrectly charged 

[nycruiser2006]

12 minutes ago, jennybenny said:

So it sounds like Princess has finally made this change and now shows it on the bill? That’s awesome 

Way easier to see if something is incorrectly charged 

The drink package items don’t show on your bill.Only the billed item showed. But They show on the personalizer under Ocean Concierge, on my cell phone. There’s a drop down box that says Beverage package just above The drop down for room charges.  Hope this clears it up

[jennybenny]

3 hours ago, nycruiser2006 said:

The drink package items don’t show on your bill.Only the billed item showed. But They show on the personalizer under Ocean Concierge, on my cell phone. There’s a drop down box that says Beverage package just above The drop down for room charges.  Hope this clears it up

Boo, I do keep track on my own, but I do like to confirm my numbers match Princess numbers. It's nice to know the app shows you the number, but I do like the idea of having it itemized on your bill. 

[marybrodo]

Thank you to everyone for sharing your experiences and advice.  We have a PBP for the Grand (Alaska, May, 2020) and I was wondering about this and very much appreciate the direction.  I don't want to have to deal with inaccurate charges after the fact... am looking forward to not having any "extras" on the bill when we disembark!

[jennybenny]

1 hour ago, marybrodo said:

Thank you to everyone for sharing your experiences and advice.  We have a PBP for the Grand (Alaska, May, 2020) and I was wondering about this and very much appreciate the direction.  I don't want to have to deal with inaccurate charges after the fact... am looking forward to not having any "extras" on the bill when we disembark!

My DH also likes to have a zero balance prior to leaving the ship. I think he just wants the vacation "paid in full". So, he's prepaid gratuities, drink package, specialty dinner, etc when he can (or it isn't included). Then he takes cash to pay off the incidentals I may purchase on board 🙂 because I'm always going to do some spending...

Enjoy your cruise!