If you read the blog often, you know that I have a cruise coming up. Specifically, Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas. It’s a pretty lengthy 11-night cruise to the Caribbean from New York. Sailing from the New York area in December means a couple of things. First, it’s going to be chilly at the beginning and the end of the cruise, and warm in the middle. Second, we are going to have a string of successive sea days at the beginning and the end of the cruise as well. For these, and a few other reasons, I have decided to purchase the “Ultimate” drink package for MrsMJ and myself. Let’s look at a few details. (Note: When I reference pricing, please remember that it is per person and a 15% (now 18%) gratuity will be added, and prices are subject to change over time. Verify before you purchase anything.)
Royal Caribbean offers a variety of beverage packages, and they aren’t always about alcohol. There’s the “Royal Refreshment” package which is fondly known as the soda package. It prices at $4.50 a day for children 17 and under, and $6.50 a day for 18 and over. If you drink a lot of soda, I think it’s an OK deal.
There’s also a “Royal Replenish” package that includes the soda package, as well as premium coffees, bottled waters (still and sparkling), fresh squeezed juices and nonalcoholic cocktails. This package prices at $19 per day. However, I think the real value in packages lies in those that include alcohol. Obviously, if you don’t drink alcohol, you probably aren’t even reading this post. And if you do, you’re probably wondering if the alcohol packages are worth it. Like most things in life, the answer to that question is “it depends.”
If your standard alcohol consumption is one beer in the afternoon by the pool, and one or two glasses of wine at dinner, don’t bother. Beyond that, the packages become a better deal based on your habits. The best value lies in the most premium packages in my opinion, as long as you have a certain comfort level in “value” not always being about money. Personally, I find value in knowing what my bill will be at the end of the cruise. In other words, no surprises. I say that as someone who has been “surprised” at the end of more than one cruise.
The Details
For my upcoming cruise, there were three choices, the “Select” package, the “Premium” package, and the “Ultimate” package. The Select package prices at $35 per day and includes:
- Beer
- Wines by the glass (up to $8 in value)
- Non-Alcoholic cocktails
- Fountain soda with Coca Cola® souvenir cup
- 20% off bottles of wine
This meets my typical cruise budget of $100 per day, but there are other things to consider. I’m not an $8 wine drinker. MrsMJ has a saying, “Life is too short for cheap wine, and bad coffee.” Words to live by. 🙂 So let’s take a look at the Premium package, which prices at $49 per day.
- Premium cocktails (up to $12 in value)
- Frozen cocktails
- Beer
- Premium wines by the glass (up to $12 in value)
- Non-alcoholic cocktails
- Bottled water still (500 ml)
- Fountain soda with Coca Cola® souvenir cup
- 20% off bottles of wine
This package has a lot of what I want. Bottled water, wine, beer, and I suppose I might drink an occasional cocktail over the course of 12 days too. The one thing it’s missing for me is coffee. Coffee is important to me and that leads me to the Ultimate drink package. The marketing materials say “virtually unlimited options.” It combines all the benefits of the Royal Replenish and Premium packages which gives me access to the premium coffees I want as well, all for the low price of $55 per day. (I’m kidding, but only a little!)
The Decision
I’m buying the Ultimate drink package for MrsMJ and myself for our upcoming Quantum of the Seas cruise. Let’s look at the math. $55 x 11 nights = 605 per person. Total $1,210.00. A 15% gratuity of $181.50 will be added for an all-in price of $1,391.50. That works out to $126.50 per night for the two of us, or $63.25 per day, per person. Here’s why I think that’s a pretty decent deal for us. (Note: The price has since risen to $65 per day)
- This will be our big vacation for the year. It could be a late as August, or even October 2015 before we take any substantial time off again. We’re ready to party it up a little.
- Our cruise includes 3 days at sea on each end. We’ll be in the market for entertainment. The ship has plenty, and there’ll be many opportunities for thirst quenching while we are enjoying ourselves.
- But the most important reason for our particular situation? I know up front what the majority of our onboard spending is going to be, and that is no small deal on a 12 day cruise.
In the end, this is an individual decision, and I could reach an entirely different conclusion on another cruise depending on the specific circumstances. When I return from the cruise, I will prepare another post that is very math focused and takes a look at whether I made money, lost money, or broke even with this decision. In the meantime, if you’re looking for more details on drink packages of other cruise lines, I highly recommend you take a look at Cruise with Gambee. Gambee has details on the drink packages of all the major lines.
-MJ, November 8, 2014
Its sometime later but we’re going on the NCL Breakaway free unlimited drinks beer, wine alcohol, cant be that
do you know if they had a time limit before each drink?
If they had one, no one told me, or I wasn’t drinking fast enough. 🙂 In general, they aren’t going to let you order more than one drink at a time. As long as you aren’t obviously over-imbibing or passing off your extra drinks to friends, I don’t think anyone is going to say anything.
I was under the impression (from my research) that the 15% gratuity was included in the prices listed. Please clarify? A lot of the cruise lines are now promoting these drink packages, I only hope they don’t start “watering down” the drinks! Have a great time!
@Sandy,
When I bought, they had begun breaking out the gratuity separately. Looks like that is still the case. Drink gratuities recently went up to 18% on Royal Caribbean as well.
I’m curious, what did you find on the wine upgrade? I am hoping they do indeed allow this now.
Mike, on the handful of occasions I wanted a higher priced wine, I just paid the difference.
I’m not much of a drinker, but the DH probably drinks just enough to make one of the packages worth it. With access to the Concierge lounge and the few hours of free drinks, I’ve never considered getting him a drink package. However, the last time I cruise, I found that the CL “free” drinks just didn’t work out very well. Part of it was our timing, but also trying to use the “credit” on our cards at a bar outside the CL was more hassle than it was worth. Perhaps we’ll try a drinks package for the DH on our next cruise. Thanks for the post and I’m so looking forward to your Quantum reports (and am green with envy!).
We’ve had the drink package 2x, one we purchased on Celebrity for a Carib cruise & once we got for free on HAL for an Alaskan cruise. I struggle with what the packages cost, but I will say that I really do enjoy them when I have them. It feels liberating to order a drink you’ve never heard of before, knowing that if you don’t like it, you can just order something else. I also ordering a pre drink dinner, 1-2 glasses of wine with dinner, a cappuccino with dessert & sometimes a post desert cordial. Excessive? No doubt. An enjoyable meal experience? for sure!
One thing I wanted to throw out MJ, my experience on both of these lines was that if you order a glass of wine above the cutoff amount, you couldn’t just simply pay the difference, it would be the full price. I hope Royal is different for you. If not, I’d suggest just bringing your allowable 2 bottles of really good stuff on the ship for special dinners, and finding mixed drinks you like with dinner for the rest as opposed to glasses of wine. I’m a big wine guy, but for cruises, and especially Carib ones, I find it easy enough to stick with beer & good cocktails most of the time.
Sail on!
I’d understood RCL didn’t do the “pay the difference” thing for pricier wines, but I read somewhere that has changed. Will find out for sure in a few weeks. 🙂
Thanks for your take on the drinks packages, very helpful as usual. Have a great cruise.
The numbers seem big but if you have:
1 coffee & 1 juice each day
1 lunch drink
1 fuzzy tropical drink at pool
2 wine with dinner
i.e. not crazy drinking for a day on a ship you come out even or ahead! At this point if you have an evening cocktail at a show it ends up free.
Great post as always.
Some of non-cruisers might have thought sodas would have been free (included with cruise cost)anyway. So meals are included, but not a Coke with dinner? Or just at other times?
It would interesting to see a write-up of all the costs you typically pay on a cruise beyond the upfront obvious cost. Just a typical trip with an excursion or two, an average number of drinks (alc and otherwise, tips, etc.
A lot of cruises look really cheap, but you wonder what it will really cost. For example you budget $100 a day, which I assume does not include the upfront cost of the cruise. That’s more than a lot of cruise advertise they cost a day.
Maybe this uncertainty keeps some people from cruising. Or maybe it’s just me. I hate to feel nickeled and dimed… or 100 dollared (sic?).
Carl,
You raise valid points. Perhaps I’ll use the bill from my upcoming cruise as an example for a post beyond booze packages. That way I’ll have current pricing.
Disney is the only big-market line I can think of that includes soda.
“up to $X in value” – what does that mean? There’s the menu and then you have wine by the glass or cocktails each with a price and the ones that are X or less are included in the package?
I’ll use the wine example – Up to $12 means that any wine up to $12 per glass is included. If I want a $15 glass of wine…doesn’t happen often, but might… I pay the $3 difference.