New to Royal, ? about drink package special email

[IcanSeaclearlynow]

Sailing Oct. 10th on Symphony.  Received an email showing buy 1, get 1 50% off deluxe drink package.   In My cruise planner it shows the price would be $55 pp per day (price shown reflects your discount).  Is the drink package on symphony, 7 day, normally $110 pp per day 🙄 or is this special $55 for 1st person & $27.50 for 2nd person?  The special expires today.  
 

On a separate note, I saw on another post that RC sends lots of emails on specials. What are some of the best ones to look for?  We’ve only sailed Carnival and normally we find their best email specials are a small percentage off excursions.  
 

Thanks in advance for the replies.  

[Ourusualbeach]

34 minutes ago, IcanSeaclearlynow said:

Sailing Oct. 10th on Symphony.  Received an email showing buy 1, get 1 50% off deluxe drink package.   In My cruise planner it shows the price would be $55 pp per day (price shown reflects your discount).  Is the drink package on symphony, 7 day, normally $110 pp per day 🙄 or is this special $55 for 1st person & $27.50 for 2nd person?  The special expires today.  
 

On a separate note, I saw on another post that RC sends lots of emails on specials. What are some of the best ones to look for?  We’ve only sailed Carnival and normally we find their best email specials are a small percentage off excursions.  
 

Thanks in advance for the replies.  

Smoke and mirrors.

 

it is $55 for both guests 

[WI-Cruiser]

I don't think there's anything 'normal' about RCCL's pricing.  Drink package prices vary from ship to ship and sailing to sailing.  My experience is that it's always more expensive to buy onboard so I purchase in advance.  If you want the drink package and it's at a price you can live with - buy it.  Continue to watch prices as the can, and most likely will, vary.  If the price goes down it's simple to cancel the original purchase and buy at the cheaper price.

[brillohead]

The $55 price is per person and reflects the savings already applied.

At that rate, it would be $73 for the first person, and half of that is $36.50 for the second person, for a total of $109.50, rounded to $110... divide that into two people and it's $55/person.

As stated above, it's always cheaper to buy online before the cruise, IF AND ONLY IF you're going to get your money's worth out of a drink package.  If you buy it and see a lower price later on in the Cruise Planner, you can cancel and repurchase at the lower rate up until 3 days before the cruise.  

If you really don't drink much booze, you can purchase a Refreshment or Classic Soda package (or no package at all) instead, and just pay for your boozy drinks as you go.  Some people come out ahead buying the booze package, others come out ahead paying as they go.  

[papaflamingo]

As brillohead said, better to buy on line. If you are going to buy the drink package anyway, get it now and watch the prices.  If they go down, you can always cancel and repurchase.  If they go up you'll be locked in.  If you buy now and decide before your cruise that you don't really want it, you can cancel.  So the only downside to buying now is that they have your money.  But the upside is you might have the lowest price. 

[cort43202]

We are on the Freedom in March and then again in June.  Both are 7 days and show our Buy One, Get half off at $51/day (excluding the 18% gratuity).  Total for one person is $421 and $842 for two.  Not sure if this is a good deal or not.

[brillohead]

58 minutes ago, cort43202 said:

Total for one person is $421 and $842 for two.  Not sure if this is a good deal or not.

Depends how much you'll drink, especially on a port-intensive cruise.

Have you cruised before?  If so, what does your bar bill average?

[CruiseGirl4ever]

2 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

 If you are going to buy the drink package anyway, get it now and watch the prices.  If they go down, you can always cancel and repurchase.  If they go up you'll be locked in. 

I took the bait and purchased 2 drink packages for our August 30 cruise on Liberty yesterday. Got the "discounted" price of $51pp (plus 18% gratuity). I'm a Diamond, so I probably would be better off to pay as I go (given the 3 free drinks per night and 2 bottles of wine allowed), but my man definitely wanted the $51/day deal, so we grabbed it. I've never bought the drink package before, so my question is how will I know if the price dropped? I'm guessing RCI won't be emailing me again about the drink package. 😉 Shelling out over $800 today for drinks I'll have in 6 months feels odd to me, so if I want to make sure we're not paying a penny more than we have to.

[CruiseGirl4ever]

1 hour ago, cort43202 said:

We are on the Freedom in March and then again in June.  Both are 7 days and show our Buy One, Get half off at $51/day (excluding the 18% gratuity).  Total for one person is $421 and $842 for two.  Not sure if this is a good deal or not.

I used someone else's Excel spreadsheet to do the math, and here's what we came up with.

 

[brillohead]

6 minutes ago, CruiseGirl4ever said:

I took the bait and purchased 2 drink packages for our August 30 cruise on Liberty yesterday. Got the "discounted" price of $51pp (plus 18% gratuity). I'm a Diamond, so I probably would be better off to pay as I go (given the 3 free drinks per night and 2 bottles of wine allowed), but my man definitely wanted the $51/day deal, so we grabbed it. I've never bought the drink package before, so my question is how will I know if the price dropped? I'm guessing RCI won't be emailing me again about the drink package. 😉 Shelling out over $800 today for drinks I'll have in 6 months feels odd to me, so if I want to make sure we're not paying a penny more than we have to.

Just keep looking in the Cruise Planner periodically to see what it's selling for that day.

[cort43202]

5 hours ago, brillohead said:

Depends how much you'll drink, especially on a port-intensive cruise.

Have you cruised before?  If so, what does your bar bill average?

I think this is our 14th cruise.  Every cruise seems to be different with regards to drinks.  We are Diamond so we could probably save by using the three free drinks but I really like the ease of the package and being able to try things I wouldn't normally try if I had to pay and wound up not liking it.  I'll make sure I get my moneys worth but I hate overpaying for anything.  

[brillohead]

4 minutes ago, cort43202 said:

I think this is our 14th cruise.  Every cruise seems to be different with regards to drinks.  We are Diamond so we could probably save by using the three free drinks but I really like the ease of the package and being able to try things I wouldn't normally try if I had to pay and wound up not liking it.  I'll make sure I get my moneys worth but I hate overpaying for anything.  

Take into account how much time you'll be in port.... most of Freedom's cruises are very port-intensive (unless you're not going ashore in all of them).  

[IcanSeaclearlynow]

Thx brillohead for the breakdown explanation and cruisegirl4ever for listing cost of drinks.  

[papaflamingo]

8 hours ago, CruiseGirl4ever said:

I took the bait and purchased 2 drink packages for our August 30 cruise on Liberty yesterday. Got the "discounted" price of $51pp (plus 18% gratuity). I'm a Diamond, so I probably would be better off to pay as I go (given the 3 free drinks per night and 2 bottles of wine allowed), but my man definitely wanted the $51/day deal, so we grabbed it. I've never bought the drink package before, so my question is how will I know if the price dropped? I'm guessing RCI won't be emailing me again about the drink package. 😉 Shelling out over $800 today for drinks I'll have in 6 months feels odd to me, so if I want to make sure we're not paying a penny more than we have to.

$51 is probably a good deal for you.  Keep in mind though, that the Diamond discount on board for the drink package is 20% and for Diamond Plus, 30%.  The big question always remains, what is the price on board.  Seems $70 is the general going rate.  So $51 is pretty good. 

Also frequently check your Cruise Planner to see if the packages drop.  I suspect that $51 will be the best you'll see, but you never know.  

Edited March 2, 2020 by papaflamingo

[mac66]

FYI,  whenever they say buy one get one 50% off on anything what they are really saying is a 25% discount. But with RC, it's 25% off of what?  As there is no real set price for the drink package. It is a nebulous number based on a marketing ploy. 

 

The best way to get the best price is to go on your cruise planner everyday and check the price. It may go up, it may go down.

 

Having said that $51 is probably as low as it's going to go.

[not-enough-cruising]

17 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

$51 is probably a good deal for you.  Keep in mind though, that the Diamond discount on board for the drink package is 20% and for Diamond Plus, 30%.  The big question always remains, what is the price on board.  Seems $70 is the general going rate.  So $51 is pretty good. 

Also frequently check your Cruise Planner to see if the packages drop.  I suspect that $51 will be the best you'll see, but you never know.  

There is no longer a Diamond discount for the drink package (only D+)

[papaflamingo]

On 3/2/2020 at 1:54 PM, not-enough-cruising said:

There is no longer a Diamond discount for the drink package (only D+)

Thanks.  Didn't know that.