Deluxe Drink Package Pricing

[1bravesfan]

Does the price of the Deluxe Drink package actually fluctuate prior to the cruise date?  The price is currently over $80 a day for the cruise I am looking to board for November 26, 2022

[aubreyc1988]

It does fluctuate. I booked a month ago for Sept 4th sailing and it has changed about 4x since I booked. Lowest I have seen has been 64.99pp pd

[SilkySal]

Is that a sale amount? Sales are usually buy one, get the 2nd for half off, which means 25% off each. Sometimes, you may see 30% off but not always. One used to be able to buy a package; then, if it goes on sale, you could cancel it and buy it again for the lesser amount; not sure if they still allow that but it should say it somewhere in the small print! LOL!

[clskinsfan]

49 minutes ago, SilkySal said:

Is that a sale amount? Sales are usually buy one, get the 2nd for half off, which means 25% off each. Sometimes, you may see 30% off but not always. One used to be able to buy a package; then, if it goes on sale, you could cancel it and buy it again for the lesser amount; not sure if they still allow that but it should say it somewhere in the small print! LOL!

They still allow it. We cancelled our drink package back in Feb and booked at a lower rate.

[rudeney]

1 hour ago, SilkySal said:

Is that a sale amount? Sales are usually buy one, get the 2nd for half off, which means 25% off each. Sometimes, you may see 30% off but not always. One used to be able to buy a package; then, if it goes on sale, you could cancel it and buy it again for the lesser amount; not sure if they still allow that but it should say it somewhere in the small print! LOL!

 

Ignore the "SALE!" banners- they are just marketing hype.  On our next cruise, the lowest price I've seen is $65, but it's also been as high as $80.  Right now, it's listed at $70 with no "sale" banner.  I once saw it as BOGO50% where the price was $100 for the first one, $50 for the 2nd one, so  $75 each).  The $65 was advertised at 30% off one day and 35% off another day.  And yes, you can cancel one for a refund and repurchase at a lower price.  I've done this with several Cruise Planner items.  I check prices every...single...day!  The only caveat there is that it can take a while to refund your credit card (it takes about 4-5 days with AMEX for me).   Also, be careful doing that with excursions and other things that can sell out - rebuy first, and then if it doesn't automatically cancel the other one, you can then do it. 

[English101]

On 8/29/2022 at 11:56 AM, rudeney said:

 

Ignore the "SALE!" banners- they are just marketing hype.  On our next cruise, the lowest price I've seen is $65, but it's also been as high as $80.  Right now, it's listed at $70 with no "sale" banner.  I once saw it as BOGO50% where the price was $100 for the first one, $50 for the 2nd one, so  $75 each).  The $65 was advertised at 30% off one day and 35% off another day.  And yes, you can cancel one for a refund and repurchase at a lower price.  I've done this with several Cruise Planner items.  I check prices every...single...day!  The only caveat there is that it can take a while to refund your credit card (it takes about 4-5 days with AMEX for me).   Also, be careful doing that with excursions and other things that can sell out - rebuy first, and then if it doesn't automatically cancel the other one, you can then do it. 

I already bought the deluxe beverage package. I’m not sure how to see what the current pricing is now. doesn’t show as an option since I already bought it. 😩 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

1 hour ago, English101 said:

I already bought the deluxe beverage package. I’m not sure how to see what the current pricing is now. doesn’t show as an option since I already bought it. 😩 

I thought so too, just click on the package icon that's grayed out and it will show the current price. 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 8/29/2022 at 6:11 AM, 1bravesfan said:

Does the price of the Deluxe Drink package actually fluctuate prior to the cruise date?  The price is currently over $80 a day for the cruise I am looking to board for November 26, 2022

Price does fluctuate, but this close to sailing I would guess it's only going to go up.  We sail November 20th and a year ago ours was $68, then $72, then $78, then back to $72 (when I bought), and now has been at $78 for a couple of months.  As pointed out it's easy to cancel and buy again if it goes down.  The only catch is you won't get the canceled credit back right away.  

[bmc alabama]

RCCL's beverage package, I have not found to be a great value.  We have done 2 RCCL cruises this year (Oasis and Independence) and I want to say that for either cruise, the cheapest I ever found the per day drink package was maybe in the high $60's per person per day.  As we are lowly Gold members, we don't get free drinks, so we definitely kept an eye on this, but found in the end, it was just too pricey.

 

Compare that to our experience on Crown Princess in Alaska in May.  It was $40 per person per day (FYI, it has now gone up to $50 pp/pd) for the "Princess Plus" package.  That included not only the drink package, but gratuities ($14.50 pp/pd) and Wifi ($10 pp/pd).  And, as you have to pay gratuities anyway, it's almost like a no-brainer, even at $50 pp/pd.  I think that X does something similar.

[deliver42]

Check this weekend. They may have a Labor Day sale.

[ray985]

Here you'll see a breakdown the prices people are seeing broken down by ship. The prices go up and down every 3 or 4 weeks. 

https://cruisespotlight.com/rcl-deluxe-beverage-package-analysis/

 

Overall, the average price has been much higher since May. 

[sailor05]

Since the return from covid they've jacked up the prices. My sailing for Oasis in October is "on sale" for $78. That takes 6 drinks to break even. Since I get 4 free diamond drinks that means I'd have to drink 10 a day EVERY day to break even. There is definitely days I hit that but certainly not every single day.

[lucky1ns]

Dont they limit the number of drinks per day? May as well just pay full price.

[taglovestocruise]

On 8/29/2022 at 6:11 AM, 1bravesfan said:

Does the price of the Deluxe Drink package actually fluctuate prior to the cruise date?  The price is currently over $80 a day for the cruise I am looking to board for November 26, 2022

We have a cruise booked for early Oct. Price dropped over last few days and is $66.99 today. 

[nferr]

I booked my November cruise months ago and the drink package has stayed at $72 when not on sale and $67 for the frequent sales. Has not varied from those prices.

[6045pjp]

Booked recently for Oct 10th - So far only price I've seen is $83.99 (says that is "on sale" at 20% off of $105).

To me, that is crazy expensive. Will just sneak liquor on unless it drops below $70.

[MaddyandMax]

11 hours ago, sailor05 said:

Since the return from covid they've jacked up the prices. My sailing for Oasis in October is "on sale" for $78. That takes 6 drinks to break even. Since I get 4 free diamond drinks that means I'd have to drink 10 a day EVERY day to break even. There is definitely days I hit that but certainly not every single day.

We are going on the same cruise! I wonder if the ships have anything to do with this.  This is my first time on Oasis class and everything is more expensive.   I was on Anthem just this March and got the drink package for $56.  This time the cheapest price I have seen is $72.99.

[1bravesfan]

My price has dropped to $66 a day plus gratuity ($778 total for 5 day cruise for Wife and I).  Not sure it is even worth that much being that we have two port stops.

[goldfish65]

12 days at $62 + grat $1755.84 for 2 ppl and we have $500 OBC, and suite perks....gonna skip it and drink like we would on any vacation, I'll report back how it ends up working out for us.

[nadge]

I booked Rhapsody out of Haifa for a short 4 night cruise in mid September- first time RCL taster cruise.

When i booked at the end of July the deluxe drinks package was $67 pppd - and it has fluctuated between $63 and $67 since then including many "promotions" that mathematically didn't make sense !!

 

However, I got an e-mail last week with another promotion and lo and behold, the deluxe drinks package was $39pppd. I immediately cancelled the ones I'd bought and bought again at the new price.