Drink prices vs HIA package

[flyboy3]

Trying to determine if HIA package at $50 pp(includes drink package, internet, $200 shore excursion, and 2 specialty dinners is worthwhile. Could someone post current drink prices to help me?

[WanderingTheWorld]

You can check out drink menus here: https://rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/hal-beverage-menus/

 

Personally, I think the HIA is a bit pricey. My upcoming HAL cruise is 11 days and port heavy. The HIA would cost $1,100 for the two of us. We don't need the wifi; we try to avoid cruise line excursions; and specialty dining isn't a priority. That's just too much for drinks alone, especially with so much time on land.

 

The value of the HIA package all depends on the importance of the inclusions, the length of your cruise, and the number of sea days.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Actually some of those drinks prices are now higher than what Roger had from earlier this year. I noticed several drinks especially wines many were about $1.00 to 2.00 higher. Not all but some. We know that the Specialty restaurants have gone up higher in prices very recently. And with Starlink the internet is now much higher. Prices are all just slowly going up with no notice.

If you are considering a cruise in 2024 or 2025 that has the Have It All Plus with pre paid crew incentive that is a big plus. I have found it to be about on par with what the average person will spend maybe even a bit better. It just makes it easy not having to pay for those items while on board.

I recently booked a last minute (7 weeks before the cruise) figuring I would just do the cheap flash sale NO Have It All.  Holland America does offer where you can purchase after booking for $50.00 per person per day the Have it All but that does not include the gratuities. I decided to add up what we would spend, we are far from big drinkers but I added up what our recent cruise was and included the unlimited internet which I definitely use and dining in the Pinnacle Grill and Shore Excursion credit and it came out pretty close to the same. Probably a bit of a savings of about $20.00. This way I do not have to worry about watching as closely to what is being charged. It just makes the cruise experience I lot more pleasurable. 

[Dutchman48]

Tend to agree with Wandering.

For me it has been worth it when crew appreciation is also included. When not I usually go for a wine package and pay as we go for all other drinks. 

[billco]

58 minutes ago, WanderingTheWorld said:

The value of the HIA package all depends on the importance of the inclusions, the length of your cruise, and the number of sea days.

I agree. We have a 22 day Antarctica cruise booked in January. I bought the HIA for $2200 after booking. It includes the basic WiFi ($29.99/Day), Shore Excursion Discount ($600), Specialty Dining, Drinks Package, and Crew Appreciation ($16/per person/day $704).Since we do use WiFi and drink moderately I think it is a good deal. Normally, we wouldn't buy their excursions or dine at their specialty restaurants, but having them available makes it a good deal. Also, this cruise has 16 days where we will be doing scenic cruising or just at sea. BTW, we didn't have Crew Appreciation when I first bought it, but was able to add it during a recent promotion at no extra charge.

Edited October 6, 2023 by billco

[Mary229]

If you are 4 or 5 star you also enjoy discounts on specialty coffee, specialty dining and perhaps internet so do your math 

[FlorenceItaly]

For various reasons we typically purchase HAL Cancel for Any Reason Insurance.  Adding HIA  increases my insurance cost so this is also something I consider.

[Toofarfromthesea]

9 hours ago, Mary229 said:

If you are 4 or 5 star you also enjoy discounts on specialty coffee, specialty dining and perhaps internet so do your math 

 

That's good advice, always do the math.  My analysis was as follows.  17 day cruise, so 850 for HIA.  Usually I don't care to go on ship excursions, but in this case there is a Pearl Harbor excursion I want to go on and the cost is exactly the amount of the 200. excursion credit.  I would buy the internet package, which I value at about 200.  And I would go to each of the speciality restaurants so I would get full value of about 100 on the 2 included.  That adds up to 500, meaning I'd be paying 350 for the drink package for 17 days, or about 20 per day.  I'm on vacation so I would probably average 3 alcoholic drinks per day.  Plus I enjoy specialty coffees.  Buying them all a la carte would easily exceed 20 per day, so the HIA made sense for me.

 

It all depends on which features you will utilize and what the cost would be individually.

[badtwin]

We are just back from 21 days on Rotterdam, first time with HIA.  After adamantly saying "the math doesn't work for us" in prior posts, we changed our minds at the last minute after some additional thoughts.  

 

Bottom line, HIA was well worth it to us on this cruise, but we probably won't be using it for every cruise.

 

What changed our minds?  We usually do a wine package and get internet and a beer for DH in ports. This was a Norwegian and Baltic cruise, and we were aware port prices were going to generally be much higher than usual, so we would want to eat and drink on the ship more than usual.  The cruise was the longest we had tried, with 6 sea days which meant long days on the ship (we aren't sea day people) and days without internet if we didn't get an internet package. I also tend to get cheap about ordering drinks on board and convinced DH this would allow me to order a bit more freely (it did but not too much) and the numbers made sense if we would replace our wine packages with HIA.

 

Why we aren't converts for all future cruises?  We would not normally go to the specialty restaurants or on ship tours, so it is hard to quantify the value of those.  We certainly enjoyed them, and the bike tours were quite a lot of fun. With a lot of ports, it was nice to have an easy option like that.  The big problem was the wine selection with the HIA package.  I don't think we are wine snobs (we mostly drink from a box at home) but DH was unhappy with the  choices, and even though he was willing to pay the extra price for wines at the next level, found the selections by the glass wanting.  We also missed having a bottle at dinner and the ability to have a second glass when we wanted it (wine service at dinner could be frustrating)  or share with tablemates.  On our next cruise, we will be able to take a few bottles with us because we are driving, and even with corkage, it is worth it to get something we like.

 

So all in all, HIA worked nicely for the last cruise, but we will do the math and consider all the factors on each cruise.

[Dutchman48]

5 hours ago, badtwin said:

 

 

So all in all, HIA worked nicely for the last cruise, but we will do the math and consider all the factors on each cruise.

Agree,

On most of our cruises have it all worked out fine but on some the math was not in my favor and we did not go that route. Alway do the math!