Premium Drink FAS + .... ever go on sale?

[SakeDad]

We are not sailing until April and will be buying the FAS+ drink package. Currently $35 a day after gratuities are added. Do they ever do a sale on these? If so can you get the difference after you purchase the higher rate? Thanks

[nhtravels]

I've never seen it go on sale, but boy would it be nice!

[SharkieQueen]

Never seen a sale ☹️

[hawkeyetlse]

If anything the price will probably go up between now and next April, so you might consider purchasing it now to lock in the price. On the other hand, the package gets worse and worse every time they update it, so it might not be worth purchasing by the time your cruise comes around. If you buy it now, they will not guarantee the terms of the package that you are paying for today. You will get whatever watered-down version of Premium Plus they are offering at the time of your sailing.

[SakeDad]

Yeah...we just got off the Prima and had it. $45 10 year old Talinger and Vueve (where I could get it) more than made up for the the price. I got my monies worth but if I can save on a 17 day I certainly wouldn't say no.

[cruiseny4life]

NCL debuted Free at Sea Plus last year, in the spring at $49 per person, per day. I expect the price will go up at any moment. And, there has definitely not been a sale since they started offering the bundle. 

[DCGuy64]

17 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

NCL debuted Free at Sea Plus last year, in the spring at $49 per person, per day. I expect the price will go up at any moment. And, there has definitely not been a sale since they started offering the bundle. 

And if people keep paying for it at full price, there's little or no incentive to discount it.

[AstoriaPreppy]

18 hours ago, SakeDad said:

We are not sailing until April and will be buying the FAS+ drink package. Currently $35 a day after gratuities are added. Do they ever do a sale on these? If so can you get the difference after you purchase the higher rate? Thanks

 

As far as I've seen, only Royal/Celebrity ever run sales on the pre-purchased beverage packages, and those sales are much less common than they were even a year or so ago. It wasn't uncommon to see them going for 25 or 30% off on Black Friday, but this may be a thing of the past. 

[JamesIowa]

If my math isn’t crazy, the value in fas+ can be optimized by longer cruises perhaps vs fas + discounts:

note: for comparison I did not consider the fas+ shorex discount. Also assuming you were already planning to make these upgrades (streaming, p+).

7 day cruise

cost to individually upgrade to

unlimited Wi-Fi w/streaming: $179.93

p+: $243.60

2sdp: $82.80

total: $509.43 ($72p/d)

 

For FAS+ it’s $343 + $70 (for streaming Wi-Fi)= $413.70 ($59p/d) 

 

15 day

cost to individually upgrade to:

unlimited Wi-Fi w/streaming: $379.85 

p+: $522

2sdp: $82.80

total: $984.65 ($65 p/d)

 

FAS+ is $630 + $150 (streaming) = $780.52 ($52 p/d)

 

Saving $7 p/d on a 15 day cruise = $105 (and $204 less than what I was going to pay to upgrade separately).

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by JamesIowa

[hawkeyetlse]

FAS+ costs the same no matter how long the cruise is ($49/p/d, or $59 with streaming internet). You may have been looking at the solo traveler's price to get $42/p/d ($52 with streaming).

 

In general FAS+ is poor value on longer cruises, first of all because most people won't keep up the same level of drinking over 15 days, so they don't take as much advantage of the P+ package, and because they still just give you 2 additional specialty meals, even on very long cruises.

[Grimix]

30 minutes ago, hawkeyetlse said:

In general FAS+ is poor value on longer cruises, first of all because most people won't keep up the same level of drinking over 15 days, so they don't take as much advantage of the P+ package

Challenge accepted! (Ok, as I'm still working and they only grudgingly like to let me off I'll have to postpone my attempt to when/if I retire...)

[JamesIowa]

20 hours ago, hawkeyetlse said:

In general FAS+ is poor value on longer cruises,

Perception vs reality.

 

the reality is on a 15 day cruise I was going to pay $379 for internet and $82 for 2sdp. That’s $461.

with fas+ I essentially get p+ for $319 vs $522. 
$319<$522

 

not sure how that’s a poor value given the assumptions from op and above.

[hawkeyetlse]

I meant poorer value compared to a shorter cruise. Obviously FAS+ is always going to work out to be cheaper than purchasing the three upgrades separately, that's the whole point of it.

 

What I was primarily reacting to from your earlier post is that FAS+ does not become cheaper per day on longer cruises. The price per day is always the same, so the overall value decreases as the cruise gets longer (because you never get more than 2 additional dinners).

 

You are still assuming the wrong price for a 15-day cruise. It would be $59 × 15 days = $885. You are still saving money by bundling the upgrades, it's actually less savings per day than for a 7-day cruise (if the other prices you quoted are accurate). Again it's because the value of the 2 additional dinners always stays the same, but they make you keep paying for them every day.

[JamesIowa]

1 hour ago, hawkeyetlse said:

You are still assuming the wrong price for a 15-day cruise. It would be $59 × 15 days = $885

That is not accurate. I just made fp on the 15 day cruise, fas + w/streaming was 780 ($52p/d).

without streaming internet it’s $630 ($42 p/d)

7 day cruise: fas+ $59 p/d

15 day cruise: fas+ $52 p/d

Edited August 13, 2023 by JamesIowa

[hawkeyetlse]

Are you just one guest in the cabin? Then $52/p/d is the correct price, but again it would be the same daily rate for a 7-day cruise.