Beverage Package Discounts - First Time RCL Converted From NCL - Advice Needed

[vicbomb5]

Hey everyone,

My wife and I have done dozens and dozens of NCL cruises - but due to lack of options and cancellations, we are very excited to sail on RCL - have sailings booked for October 15th and January.

 

Question - for the October 15th cruise - it is a 3-night out of Miami on the Freedom - on Cruise Planner it shows 30% off the beverage package.  

 

Is this a promo I need to jump on now?  I heard as it gets closer they offer 50% off.  From your experience, what should I expect and when should I jump on the promo?

 

I absolutely plan to buy it pre-cruise but I am also the type who loves to chase down deals so curious of what others have seen prior.

 

Thanks in advance and very excited to try out RCL this year and next in 2022!

 

-Vic

[Biker19]

2 minutes ago, vicbomb5 said:

From your experience, what should I expect and when should I jump on the promo?

When you see a price you feel has value to you.

[CTCruiser76]

The Royal 3 night & 4 night cruises tend to run higher prices for their drink packages. Except to pay somewhere between $48 to $68 per night. The good thing about Royal, is that you can book it now and cancel and rebook at lower price if it comes down. 

 

There also may be a 4th of July sale this week as well.

 

[RFerrington]

9 minutes ago, vicbomb5 said:

Hey everyone,

My wife and I have done dozens and dozens of NCL cruises - but due to lack of options and cancellations, we are very excited to sail on RCL - have sailings booked for October 15th and January.

 

Question - for the October 15th cruise - it is a 3-night out of Miami on the Freedom - on Cruise Planner it shows 30% off the beverage package.  

 

Is this a promo I need to jump on now?  I heard as it gets closer they offer 50% off.  From your experience, what should I expect and when should I jump on the promo?

 

I absolutely plan to buy it pre-cruise but I am also the type who loves to chase down deals so curious of what others have seen prior.

 

Thanks in advance and very excited to try out RCL this year and next in 2022!

 

-Vic

As a general rule of thumb, you should just ignore the % off and look at the bottom line - final price.  Then you can compare that final price to see if you can save money down the line.  The % off is really just a sales gimmick and since it's based on the on board price, and they NEVER divulge what that price is - you never really know what the basis for the % discount is.  Best just to go by final price and forget the % discount.

[vicbomb5]

7 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

As a general rule of thumb, you should just ignore the % off and look at the bottom line - final price.  Then you can compare that final price to see if you can save money down the line.  The % off is really just a sales gimmick and since it's based on the on board price, and they NEVER divulge what that price is - you never really know what the basis for the % discount is.  Best just to go by final price and forget the % discount.

Totally valid - thank you.

[vicbomb5]

15 minutes ago, CTCruiser76 said:

The Royal 3 night & 4 night cruises tend to run higher prices for their drink packages. Except to pay somewhere between $48 to $68 per night. The good thing about Royal, is that you can book it now and cancel and rebook at lower price if it comes down. 

 

There also may be a 4th of July sale this week as well.

 

Good call - ok - did not know you can cancel and rebook if it drops with that stuff - I will hold for the 4th of July sale I think and then if its still static where it is now I'll just snag it.  Thank you!

[Jarmo]

The on board price has been displayed in the planner for a little while now.  Don't know if all sailings are showing this, and of course this price could change.  To the OP, I expect to see this % off often, and would be a little surprised if we don't see better at some point.

 

[smplybcause]

I often cruise NCL too for the drink package. Like other's said ignore the % off - just look at the final price. It will be more expensive on board so definitely buy it before hand. I think the price getting into the $40s is wishful thinking now, so I usually aim for low 50s. And just check back a lot to see if for some reason it goes down. 

[MississippiMom]

I hope the OP doesn't mind me "piggy backing."

 

When I click the "learn more" link regarding the RCCL beverage packages, it tells me that it is for up to $12 drinks.  But, recently, I saw the list of the drink menus on the AOS sailing and the specialty drinks were $13.  What?!?!?  Are the bars really going to be charging me $1 for each drink even if I purchase the Deluxe Beverage Package?

[smplybcause]

8 minutes ago, MississippiMom said:

I hope the OP doesn't mind me "piggy backing."

 

When I click the "learn more" link regarding the RCCL beverage packages, it tells me that it is for up to $12 drinks.  But, recently, I saw the list of the drink menus on the AOS sailing and the specialty drinks were $13.  What?!?!?  Are the bars really going to be charging me $1 for each drink even if I purchase the Deluxe Beverage Package?

 

So before pandemic Royal had two pricing levels one for the brand new ships (Oasis class and I think Quantum too) and one for the old ships. New ship drink package was up to $13 to cover the higher prices and up to $12 on the older ships. 

 

It looks like they've just switched every ship to the $13 drink pricing but hasn't updated all the website to reflect that. Because I haven't seen anyone on AOTS post about how their drink package isn't covering a lot of the drinks. 

 

There will likely be a few specialty drinks that would be over the drink price. I know when I was last on Oasis the Champagne bar had a few fancy martinis over $13 but the majority were under. 

[vicbomb5]

58 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

I often cruise NCL too for the drink package. Like other's said ignore the % off - just look at the final price. It will be more expensive on board so definitely buy it before hand. I think the price getting into the $40s is wishful thinking now, so I usually aim for low 50s. And just check back a lot to see if for some reason it goes down. 

I will keep checking back - low $50s is a good target.

 

For what it's worth the price of my trip here - oceanview balcony + buying drink package still beats NCL's free drink package price by about $400 for the same trip - 3 days out of Miami to Nassau/Private island and back.  The NCL one that got cancelled was in early January 2022, but still I was surprised to see RCL so much "cheaper" at least in this instance - pleasant surprise we are super excited.

[vicbomb5]

Just now, smplybcause said:

 

So before pandemic Royal had two pricing levels one for the brand new ships (Oasis class and I think Quantum too) and one for the old ships. New ship drink package was up to $13 to cover the higher prices and up to $12 on the older ships. 

 

It looks like they've just switched every ship to the $13 drink pricing but hasn't updated all the website to reflect that. Because I haven't seen anyone on AOTS post about how their drink package isn't covering a lot of the drinks. 

 

There will likely be a few specialty drinks that would be over the drink price. I know when I was last on Oasis the Champagne bar had a few fancy martinis over $13 but the majority were under. 

Piggy back away i'm learning the RCL world as I go here 🙂

[smplybcause]

1 minute ago, vicbomb5 said:

I will keep checking back - low $50s is a good target.

 

For what it's worth the price of my trip here - oceanview balcony + buying drink package still beats NCL's free drink package price by about $400 for the same trip - 3 days out of Miami to Nassau/Private island and back.  The NCL one that got cancelled was in early January 2022, but still I was surprised to see RCL so much "cheaper" at least in this instance - pleasant surprise we are super excited.

 

Interesting. The last weekender I went on was NCL because it was quite a lot cheaper than Royal. But Royal was a newly amped ship and NCL was the Sun which is an old ship. 

 

I will reiterate, as another poster mentioned, the weekender trips tend to have higher drink package prices. They figure most people go on it as a booze cruise so they can get higher prices so low 50s might be a dream. 

[3kidsncats]

Also back to Royal after numerous NCL cruises.  Keep in mind one big difference, of potential value, with Royal’s package. It’s more $ but includes specialty coffees, bottled water, juices, etc.  so be sure to look at the inclusion list.  That helped me make my decision after the initial sticker shock.

 

And so far, after a few months tracking, the price for my sailings has jumped back and forth between $67 per day, to $58 per day.  Never lower than that.  I’m on a 7 day, FYI.  

[Peak city]

21 hours ago, vicbomb5 said:

I will keep checking back - low $50s is a good target.

 

For what it's worth the price of my trip here - oceanview balcony + buying drink package still beats NCL's free drink package price by about $400 for the same trip - 3 days out of Miami to Nassau/Private island and back.  The NCL one that got cancelled was in early January 2022, but still I was surprised to see RCL so much "cheaper" at least in this instance - pleasant surprise we are super excited.

Be aware that the price you see in the cruise planner is not the final price.  When you put it in your cart, look at the details and you will see that 18% gratuity is automatically added on.  My advice would be to purchase it now.  If it goes lower, cancel and re-purchase.  There may be a July 4th sale.  We are booked for an 8 day out of Miami in December and the current price is $53/pp/day + 18% gratuity.  For your 2022 sailing, watch for a black Friday sale.

[MikeBayAreaCa]

We get a bottle of water with almost every drink we get and always get some at after breakfast to put in the refrigerator or take on excursions.  Probably 6 to 8 bottles a day.  Add in a specialty coffee, a fresh squeezed orange juice and a few Diet Coke and too only need to have a couple of alcoholic drinks a day to break even.

[Don'tNeedAName]

1 hour ago, Peak city said:

There may be a July 4th sale.

 

The DBP for our March 2022 Anthem cruise has been holding steady for a while at $50pp/d (pre-grats).  I checked today and it just went up to $57. Now they can make their July 4th sale even more attractive.

 

Raise the price, then put it on sale... oh the joys of "dynamic" pricing!

[MississippiMom]

56 minutes ago, MikeBayAreaCa said:

We get a bottle of water with almost every drink we get and always get some at after breakfast to put in the refrigerator or take on excursions.  Probably 6 to 8 bottles a day.  Add in a specialty coffee, a fresh squeezed orange juice and a few Diet Coke and too only need to have a couple of alcoholic drinks a day to break even.

This sounds a lot like us on a different line, but I imagine we would do the same on RCCL. 

There is so much more on the Deluxe Beverage Package than alcohol.  Not sure why people get so hung up that those that buy it are going to consume 15 alcoholic drinks in a day.  They might . . .  but it's not required.  

[smokeybandit]

The advertised percent off isn't really relevant to how good of a deal it is.

 

As other have noted, under $60 would be a good baseline price, then seek out prices under that as time goes on

[TPA2005]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:08 AM, CTCruiser76 said:

The Royal 3 night & 4 night cruises tend to run higher prices for their drink packages. Except to pay somewhere between $48 to $68 per night. The good thing about Royal, is that you can book it now and cancel and rebook at lower price if it comes down. 

 

There also may be a 4th of July sale this week as well.

 

I booked the drink package for a January 2022 cruise out of Miami. How can I see what the current price is to check if it is better than what I booked. When I look at the packages it just shows I already booked the beverage pkg and no price.

 

Thank you

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, TPA2005 said:

I booked the drink package for a January 2022 cruise out of Miami. How can I see what the current price is to check if it is better than what I booked. When I look at the packages it just shows I already booked the beverage pkg and no price.

 

Thank you

Just click on it. It will show the price. 

[kayjaypea42]

Do y'all reckon they'll have a Black Friday or other type of sale on Bev pkgs around the holidays?  I think that might be the next big sales push, unless they do a Labor Day sale?  Thanks!

[smplybcause]

21 minutes ago, kayjaypea42 said:

Do y'all reckon they'll have a Black Friday or other type of sale on Bev pkgs around the holidays?  I think that might be the next big sales push, unless they do a Labor Day sale?  Thanks!

 

Black Friday usually has some of the best sales. Usually goes until Cyber Monday. Labor day will undoubtedly have a sale - whether it's a good sale or just the regular ol' sale prices Royal posts is anyone's guess. 

[TPA2005]

15 hours ago, Coralc said:

Just click on it. It will show the price. 

Thank you!

[BirdTravels]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:02 AM, vicbomb5 said:

Hey everyone,

My wife and I have done dozens and dozens of NCL cruises - but due to lack of options and cancellations, we are very excited to sail on RCL - have sailings booked for October 15th and January.

 

Question - for the October 15th cruise - it is a 3-night out of Miami on the Freedom - on Cruise Planner it shows 30% off the beverage package.  

 

Is this a promo I need to jump on now?  I heard as it gets closer they offer 50% off.  From your experience, what should I expect and when should I jump on the promo?

 

I absolutely plan to buy it pre-cruise but I am also the type who loves to chase down deals so curious of what others have seen prior.

 

Thanks in advance and very excited to try out RCL this year and next in 2022!

 

-Vic

So, Vic, the one nice thing about the RCCL cruise planner is that you can shop every day. If you see a better deal, you can cancel your existing order and place a new one. NCL's policy is once you buy it, you own it unless you want to wait an hour on the phone to cancel it. We just did that with some shore excursions on a September cruise,,,, saw a better price on cruise planner and rebooked our shore ex ourselves for the lower price.