The whole beverage package conundrum.

[Galesa]

Hi Folks

 

Cruising on Westerdam from Sydney on November 8, to New Zealand, 14 days. We are regular drinkers rather than heavy drinkers: On cruises, a few "sundowners", a drink with dinner and perhaps one or two after dinner drinks in the bars/or lounges. We enjoy sitting on the balcony having a few drinks in the late afternoon, early evening. I drink beer mainly but will have an after dinner scotch. DW likes sparkling white wine of any sort and drinks Coke No Sugar. She may have an after dinner liqueur. We will no doubt attend the odd "happy hour" during the cruise, however. We are not cocktail drinkers but would no doubt experiment should we take on a beverage package.

 

We've considered the HIA package (discounted to AUD1950 for the entire cruise) but as I understand this does not include mini-bar drinks and you can't buy a bottle of wine or a 6(5) pack with this package and take it to your room.

 

So we have narrowed it down to buying the Unlimited Coke package, pre purchasing Beer in "5" packs (4) and the 6 bottle Sommellier Suite No. 2 which includes a La Grande Courtage Brut, plus the Premium Internet package. We've yet to decide on shore excursions. This totals AUD930. With an "extras" budget of around AUD2500ish for the cruise, this should leave enough to pay for the odd excursion plus happy hour drinks and after dinner drinks. 

 

While appreciate I'm using AUD instead of USD, for the purposes of discussion the numbers shouldn't matter.

 

So, my questions are:

 

1. Do you think we would get value from the HIA or any other beverage package for that matter, given the information above; and 

2. With respect to the Sommellier Suite No. 2 package are we able to have 6 bottles of the one wine - La Grande Courtage Brut

 

Any assistance would be very much appreciated. Trying to decide which is the best way to go is seriously doing my head in. 

 

[iceman93]

You sound like perfect candidates for the HIA package.  Having the ability to grab that many random drinks throughout the day and not have to worry about paying for them would seem to be worth more than the raw dollar value of the drinks themselves.

 

If you want to add sommelier suite packages for bottles of wine, that's another good option, but you could also just purchase the occasional bottle of wine and probably still come out ahead.

 

I guess the question is whether you will track every single dollar and cent to see if you're making money, or if you prefer the peace of mind of just ordering what you want when you want.

[crystalspin]

Welcome back to posting on Cruise Critic!

 

This cruise appears to be sold out? or is it a Charter? I can't run a dummy booking on it to have anything to base my answers on! I did bring up the return trip in December.

 

1) The HIA for 14 days should include for each of you: two Specialty dinners, two Excursions, Surf Wifi, the Signature Beverage Package, and (in the US, for a limited time) Crew Appreciation AKA Hotel Service Charge. This may be rolled into your cruise fare already in Australia? 

 

The Signature Beverage Package includes glasses of wine and bottles or cans of beer and probably soft drinks. You can, however, buy one or more beers and canned cokes (a few minutes apart by the rules, but in practice depending on your bartender), and ask that they not be opened, and take them to your cabin to put in the mini-fridge.

 

I agree with @iceman93, you sound like this could be for you! Remember it also includes espresso drinks in the Crows Nest on Observation Deck! Fifteen total beverages per day each under US$11.

 

2) I believe the Sommelier Suites are your-choice of included "Cellar" wines, so yes on the all of one kind. However, Sommelier wines are to be drunk with meals or in your cabin, not in the bars and lounges, if you didn't notice that.

 

You can empty the mini-bar (or ask your steward to do that) and have all the La Grande Courtage Brut delivered at the start of the cruise, lest they run out!

[triiip42]

You have to determine if you get value or not but we just finished two cruises both with the HIA drink package. we do not drink much and thought it would be a waste but to our surprise we really liked the package. It was very relaxing for us to get specialty coffees, dinner drinks, etc. we knew we would never get to 15.. I know it says, one drink at a time.

Our experience: We had the room stewards empty out the mini frig. in the room. We then went to a bar and asked for 4 cans of un-opened soda(2 on each card)..took those to the room. Then we got 4 bottles of unopened beer(2 per card) and took those to the room. We kept it stoked ourselves with the package. we could put more in if we wanted without buying the 5 beer pack or soda package. So in room we had want we wanted and the rest was available from any bar on the ship when we were out and about or at dining.

Can't help with the bottled wine...but iceman93 mentioned what several of the wine drinkers do.

 

Enjoy your cruise..

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by triiip42
I see crystalspin answered while I was typing.

[crystalspin]

@Galesa

I forgot to mention "bottled" water. I put that in quotes because new policy is supposed to be fleetwide, water in cans or metal bottles only!

 

You might want to bring a reusable flask or bottle. Also you don't NEED to buy water; the tap water is perfectly safe and tasty (or lack of tasty) -- you can fill your own bottle in the Lido by using a clean glass to transfer from the cold water dispenser to your container.

[rodndonna]

11 hours ago, Galesa said:

Hi Folks

 

Cruising on Westerdam from Sydney on November 8, to New Zealand, 14 days. We are regular drinkers rather than heavy drinkers: On cruises, a few "sundowners", a drink with dinner and perhaps one or two after dinner drinks in the bars/or lounges. We enjoy sitting on the balcony having a few drinks in the late afternoon, early evening. I drink beer mainly but will have an after dinner scotch. DW likes sparkling white wine of any sort and drinks Coke No Sugar. She may have an after dinner liqueur. We will no doubt attend the odd "happy hour" during the cruise, however. We are not cocktail drinkers but would no doubt experiment should we take on a beverage package.

 

We've considered the HIA package (discounted to AUD1950 for the entire cruise) but as I understand this does not include mini-bar drinks and you can't buy a bottle of wine or a 6(5) pack with this package and take it to your room.

 

So we have narrowed it down to buying the Unlimited Coke package, pre purchasing Beer in "5" packs (4) and the 6 bottle Sommellier Suite No. 2 which includes a La Grande Courtage Brut, plus the Premium Internet package. We've yet to decide on shore excursions. This totals AUD930. With an "extras" budget of around AUD2500ish for the cruise, this should leave enough to pay for the odd excursion plus happy hour drinks and after dinner drinks. 

 

While appreciate I'm using AUD instead of USD, for the purposes of discussion the numbers shouldn't matter.

 

So, my questions are:

 

1. Do you think we would get value from the HIA or any other beverage package for that matter, given the information above; and 

2. With respect to the Sommellier Suite No. 2 package are we able to have 6 bottles of the one wine - La Grande Courtage Brut

 

Any assistance would be very much appreciated. Trying to decide which is the best way to go is seriously doing my head in. 

 

 

You sound more like an HIA candidate to me as well.

 

Have you added gratuities to your drink costs (another 18%)? They make quite a difference as well, and HIA include grats.  It really doesn't take many drinks (with tax and grats) to get to the HIA price when you count in the dinner, Wifi and excursion credit. 

 

You won't need the minibar. likely your room is not too far from a bar and you can just pop out to get drinks and bring them back. 

[Galesa]

Thanks very much everyone. Think the HIA might suit given the responses.

 

Crystalspin - Crew appreciation is extra. It's a HAL cruise so possibly sold out!

Edited September 22, 2022 by Galesa

[mr. godfredo]

Please keep in mind the drink price limits for the HIA as it is the signature package capped at $11.00 per drink. If you drink scotch and your wife enjoys sparkling wines, the package may not cover the brands you like. In that case you would need to upgrade the package. I am a bourbon drinker and found that I needed to upgrade my package for the brands I like as they were over the $11.00 price tag. 

[laurelholly]

 

This cruise appears to be sold out? or is it a Charter? I can't run a dummy booking on it to have anything to base my answers on! I did bring up the return trip in December.
 

i think there is a system glitch. We tried a dummy booking today on a different cruise and says no rooms. 

[dshroyer]

You can buy buckets of beer at the daily happy hour. Almost half price. Take it to your room.

[faerievert]

I would do the package if you can get it at have it all pricing. You’ll have a fridge, so just grab a canned, sealed beer or two anytime you head to your room. Ask the steward to empty the minibar in the room so that you can do this. If you can’t get have it all pricing, then load up on those room drinks on happy hour. 

[daveAZBC]

One contrary observation re the drinks package: We purchased it for an 11-day HAL trip 3 years ago and found that it changed our behavior and not in a good way. Like Galesa, we are regular imbibers who would normally have wine when we go out for dinner and one or two scotches later in the evening. Once we had the package, we set out to be sure we 'got our money's worth' every day. We always ordered a 2nd glass of wine at meals, and only ordered doubles (yes they allowed it!) when drinking scotch. We 'won' in that we got near the 15-drink max per person per day. We 'lost' in that we drank more than we should have. Just in case you think we are 20-something party types, we were in our late 70's at the time! No more drinks packages for us!

[albingirl]

It really depends on how much time you plan on being off the ship.  It's not worth it for us when we are in Europe or someplace where we expect to do some touring.  Off the ship for all day and not back on until dinner time.  We find the wine prices in Europe to be alot more reasonable than on the ship, and for the ship, we buy the wine package instead of the Have It All.  I suppose this doesn't work if you like bourbon or scotch or something like that. Probably my suggestion is meaningless to most people.

[FlaMariner]

Everyone needs to do what you did and do your own "business case"......

 

For us, the drink packages never come out good.....We enjoy the Sommelier package #1 with our 3 star 25% discount and the occasional happy hour and perhaps drinks at Billboard Onboard and we are better off with the $$$....and as mentioned above, if we had the package, we would be sure to "get our money's worth" and our liver would pay the price. 

 

 

 

[FlorenceItaly]

11 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

Everyone needs to do what you did and do your own "business case"......

 

For us, the drink packages never come out good.....We enjoy the Sommelier package #1 with our 3 star 25% discount and the occasional happy hour and perhaps drinks at Billboard Onboard and we are better off with the $$$....and as mentioned above, if we had the package, we would be sure to "get our money's worth" and our liver would pay the price. 

 

 

 

This is our upcoming approach on our early November cruise.  I've also ordered dh a bottle of Jim Beam.

[mwj]

We don't think it's a conundrum. We save substantial money by buying special fares that don't include a drink package. We will enjoy an occasional cocktail or wine. We don't need 15 daily drinks.

[Crazy For Cats]

We’ve done the math on drinks.  We reviewed previous spending on drinks to determine what we actually spent on past cruises.  On average we spend about $25 pd pp.  We do drink more in the Caribbean than Alaska or New England.  The we figure our mariner status for the rest of the perks.  The end result is that we do not purchase the package, if it’s included in the fare we are ok with that.  
Also keep in mind that if you buy the package it is added to your base fare and the insurance cost goes up if you bought insurance through HAL.

[shipper50]

My agent sold me a Signature Bev HIA package promo and since its just me, how can I get and take a few beers back to my cabin and sit on the balcony and drink and watch? I was on Celebrity in 2012 and got the soft drink package and couldn't get more than one coke every hour or so.

[rodndonna]

2 hours ago, mwj said:

We don't think it's a conundrum. We save substantial money by buying special fares that don't include a drink package. We will enjoy an occasional cocktail or wine. We don't need 15 daily drinks.

 

The break even point is much less than 15, but if you are occasional (typically max at 2 maybe 3 drinks in a day) then not worth it.

 

Even just being beer drinkers (the cheapest drink out there),  the math for out last  7 day trip was simple - 

HIA (Have it all )package was

$45/day =

$315

minus $100 towards a shore excursion

minus  say $30 towards dining and 

minus WIFI (not sure what that costs so I'll say free $0) =

$185 (ignoring WIFI benefit )  or

$26.40/day for drinks.

 

a $7.50 beer costs $8.85 with the 18% gratuity.

So 3 beer is our breakeven point (or 2 beer and a specialty coffee or a 2 beer and a glass of wine....)

 

 

 

 

[Oceanwench]

5 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

 

The break even point is much less than 15, but if you are occasional (typically max at 2 maybe 3 drinks in a day) then not worth it.

 

Even just being beer drinkers (the cheapest drink out there),  the math for out last  7 day trip was simple - 

HIA (Have it all )package was

$45/day =

$315

minus $100 towards a shore excursion

minus  say $30 towards dining and 

minus WIFI (not sure what that costs so I'll say free $0) =

$185 (ignoring WIFI benefit )  or

$26.40/day for drinks.

 

a $7.50 beer costs $8.85 with the 18% gratuity.

So 3 beer is our breakeven point (or 2 beer and a specialty coffee or a 2 beer and a glass of wine....)

 

 

 

 

Thank you for doing this!

We never aim to get to the 15-drink limit. That's not the reason we get the HIA package.
For us, it makes sense because -- as demonstrated above -- it's economical.
We drink specialty coffees every day. 
DH has a beer or two at lunch. 
We have a drink with dinner.
We go to the RS Rock Room (or BB King) until it closes, and have drinks there -- usually the specialty drinks of the venue.
Those add up to much more than the $50/day charge of HIA.
 

[FlaMariner]

That's a great example of why everyone needs to do their own "business case"......

 

With the above, we would never use a cruise ship excursion, we do not go to surcharge restaurants and we certainly do not want to surf the web when on vacation.....So none of those "features" holds any value for us.  

 

We also prefer the standard "included" coffee and do not want a latte......

 

We do enjoy wine with dinner and an occasional drink...with happy hour being a driver......but the math does not work in our favor even at the bargain of $45 a day. 

 

I'm glad we all have choices and can figure out what works for all of us!

 

 

[LizzGo]

As long as we’re talking drink packages, I have a question. We have the HAI with our upcoming cruise. How to we upgrade the drinks package? 

[YourWorldWithBill]

Another note as everyone considers weighing costs: the way items are considered drinks is calculated a bit strangely. For example, if you take a can of water, it's charged, so it would be part of the drinks package. We tend to stock up on water, asking our steward to bring extra, but sometime it's convenient to grab a can. And don't forget certain sodas!

 

I think that the comments taking all the expenses into consideration make the most sense. At times gratuities were not included in some packages, but now they usually are included. Same for wi-fi.

 

Now, if they would just include some chips at the craps table......

[crystalspin]

4 hours ago, shipper50 said:

My agent sold me a Signature Bev HIA package promo and since its just me, how can I get and take a few beers back to my cabin and sit on the balcony and drink and watch? I was on Celebrity in 2012 and got the soft drink package and couldn't get more than one coke every hour or so.

The timing for ordering another drink is much shorter than that, and if you 'adopt' a particular bar/service area (convenient to your cabin?), you can probably by one opened, get one unopened for your cabin... especially during Happy Hour. These are just thoughts! But we have gotten unopened waters that way.

[shipper50]

11 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

The timing for ordering another drink is much shorter than that, and if you 'adopt' a particular bar/service area (convenient to your cabin?), you can probably by one opened, get one unopened for your cabin... especially during Happy Hour. These are just thoughts! But we have gotten unopened waters that way.

Thank you very much for all your replies to my posts. If I ever see your name on a roll call I am on I will buy you a drink of your choice.🙂