Possible Price Increase for Drinks packages on Cunard

[PORT ROYAL]

10 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Isn’t that cheating?

No…. The OP stated what were any restrictions on having a package and then “buying” a round of drinks.  

[Pushpit]

3 hours ago, corporate services said:

Also, what is to stop just one person purchasing the drinks package and then buying drinks for everyone in their group?

Everyone in your stateroom needs to be on the same package. There are some rules about serving one drink at a time and 15 minutes intervals, so you can't charge a round of drinks to the package, but you are free to buy drinks outside the package. They are reasonably relaxed about this, particularly if you are both seated together and both on the package, they don't actually set a clock on your orders - and trying to get 2 rounds of service within 15 minutes would be an interesting experience given staffing levels.

 

I'm not an expert on the alcohol package, but as I recall there will be drink options available to you in the restaurants including the Lido / Kings Court, but when it comes to wine they are a bit restricted. Just some wine glass options, about 5 whites and 5 reds. The package also gives you a 20% discount on items not within the $13.50 limit.  My feeling is that if you are disciplined enough to stick to the less expensive purchases then you would be able to keep spending under $70 a day anyway, the package won't therefore save you anything. Depends a bit if you are a day-time as well as evening drinker and plans for port days etc. The point I make here is that Cunard makes huge sums from alcohol (as you have seen) and they aren't going to permit big savings via the packages, on the contrary they make probably more margin from packages. 

 

The other option may be the Wine Collections, which may be a better way to save 25%.

[Wagtail adventures]

Is bottled water delivered to your stateroom is included in the 'beer, wines and spirits' package?  Thank you

[corporate services]

19 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

Nothing to stop the physical purchase of a full round of drinks for all one’s friends/group.  Done it numerous of times.

 

Having now read the T's and C's through you can buy a whole round of drinks, but only one of them will be on your package, the rest will be charged to your account at the normal cost

[Winifred 22]

1 hour ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Is bottled water delivered to your stateroom is included in the 'beer, wines and spirits' package?  Thank you

 

34 minutes ago, corporate services said:

Having now read the T's and C's through you can buy a whole round of drinks, but only one of them will be on your package, the rest will be charged to your account at the normal cost

No room service drinks are included in your drink package. It’s just for use in bars and restaurants. They do separate room service drinks packages for an additional cost. 

[Pushpit]

3 hours ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Is bottled water delivered to your stateroom is included in the 'beer, wines and spirits' package?  Thank you

No, the packages won't cover anything in the stateroom (unless you carry it back from a bar). The exception is that in Grills the steward will leave some bottled still water in your room and will replenish. There is a water package in the paid-for room service menu. You can also get free filtered water from the gym and Kings Court / Lido, though for noro reasons it's best not to directly fill a personal water container from these locations.

[LittleFish1976]

I've just had a most frustrating experience of logging in to three of my current bookings to find the drinks package being offerred to me for $67.50 per day. That unexpected price caused me to do some calculations, give things some thought and wonder if I shouldn't perhaps take the package for a couple of shortish voyages I wasn't planning on doing so for, and cancel and re-purchase the quite long voyage's package I bought months ago.

 

Half an hour or so later, after I'd been timed out, I logged back in only to find the prices had miraculously and frustratingly risen again to $72 per day!

 

All very odd.

[LittleFish1976]

The website is now slipping between $67.50 and $72 per day even within the same transaction. One could speculate they are in the middle of altering the prices, perhaps but any reduction in price would be very surprising.

[Wagtail adventures]

Weird as $72 per night is the advance price for 5-14 nights, and $67.50 for 15-84 nights.  Maybe a Cunard website glitch, or cookie complication?

[LittleFish1976]

2 minutes ago, Wagtail adventures said:

Weird as $72 per night is the advance price for 5-14 nights, and $67.50 for 15-84 nights.  Maybe a Cunard website glitch, or cookie complication?

Yes, it is odd. I finally worked out that the $67.50 would be the correct price for 15-84 nights but it was also showing me that price (on and off) for two 9 night cruises until I went to check out at which point the price would change to the $72. I'm just accepting that it's all a bit wrong.

[renji]

On 12/22/2023 at 8:34 PM, 2Oldpeopleinlove said:

I kept track this last time, and after waiting until the second day to buy in and adding the 15%, we did slightly better than break-even. For us the point is the luxury of not having to think about what things cost, as we habitually do in our frugal “real lives.”

This is why I do it.  It’s going to sound crazy but I get it so I feel free to try things and free to abandon drinks.