DRINKS PACKAGE : IS IT WORTH IT?

CRUISE TIPS : DRINKS PACKAGE

IS A DRINKS PACKAGE WORTH IT?

I can’t actually answer that question.

What’s the point of this article then?

Well the real answer is, it depends…..on You!

So these are my tips to find out whether or not a drinks package is worth it for you.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

I have just booked a cruise on P&O’s cruise ship Iona, and with booking comes that question, “Should I buy a drinks package?”

Ask that question on many an online cruise forum and at least one person will immediately reply “No!”, for no other reason than they assume if you have a drinks package you must be, or will turn into, a drunken lout.

I’m sure it must happen, though I’ve never really seen it in years of cruising.

In reality I ignore those sort of comments.

The decision for me is much more scientific.

What’s the cost? Does it include my favourite tipple? Will I break even, given how much I drink?

HOW TO DECIDE?

There are plenty of people who automatically book the drinks package as part of the cruise price. It is an integral part of their holiday that they don’t want to think about.

Cost is not an issue and there is no decision to be made.

The accountant in me doesn’t work like that. I like to know I’m getting value for money

All Inclusive

One option is to book an All Inclusive cruise.

If drinks are included you have no bar bill to worry about at the end of the cruise. Marella Cruises have this as standard for example.

Even so, they, like many a drinks package, offer an upgrade to a better tier of drinks package, with “premium” branded beers, spirits and mixers.

The same decision, whether paying for an upgrade from a standard to premium drinks package is worth it, kicks in.

Although I’ve been on ships where some of the drinks they considered premium were very questionable, while my favourites were in the standard package. No point upgrading. Happy days!

Things to consider

If you are thinking of buying a drinks package though these are some of the things I consider when making my decision.

1. Be honest with yourself

The person tutting at you online about how much you may or may not drink, will not be paying your bar bill at the end of the cruise.

If you know you are going to be drinking 5 pints a night and a few glasses of wine over dinner, fine. Its your holiday.

That also makes it more likely that a drinks package will work for you.

2. What do you drink?

Anything alcoholic!! I’m only (partly) joking, haha.

I’m not a fussy drinker. I’ll try most lagers. I like a nice glass of wine, but I often can’t tell the difference with the house wines (although sometimes you really can!!) I certainly wouldn’t know the difference between brands of spirits and mixers.

But that’s me.

A lot of people only drink one brand of spirit, a certain beer, or like mixers in cans. These generally cost a bit more, so you may drink fewer but higher priced items.

And its a cruise, so who doesn’t love a cocktail at sailaway. Again these are often premium drinks.

3. Its not all alcohol

Whatever you do, or don’t drink, there’s often a package to suit.

Its not all about alcohol. There are often soft drink or speciality coffee drinks packages too. The same rules apply when deciding if that type of drinks package is worth it to you.

And even if you are only a moderate drinker, the main packages often include the cost of mocktails, soft drinks and coffees, and even bottled water.

Don’t forget to count these in your daily drinking as the cost soon mounts up.

4. How long are you sailing for?

A 3 day mini cruise has a different vibe to a week, fortnight or longer at sea.

Having a party binge for a short cruise is fine.

But if you are on a longer cruise do you really want to be drinking at full pace every night? (As I said if you do that’s your call, be honest!)

I have made the mistake of paying for a drinks package on a two week cruise and feeling like I had to drink a certain number of drinks every night to get my money’s worth.

By the end of the cruise I was sick of the sight of alcohol. I never made that mistake again. In fact now if I do buy a package I consider it money spent and don’t worry about what I drink after that.

Also drinks packages aren’t exactly cheap and you have to pay for the whole cruise. 14 days at the daily rate can be a big number to add to the price of your holiday.

5. Do the maths

So, you know roughly what you like to drink, have an idea of how many drinks you’ll drink and you will know what you are being charged per day for each drinks package.

Now its time to do the maths.

Google “drinks menus” for your particular ship. Loads of people post helpful photos of the bar menus online.

This will give you an idea of the price of drinks, and more specifically the prices for what you like to drink.

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Cruise Tip: Watch out for tips. American cruise lines in particular tend to add a gratuity into the price that’s not part of the menu. These are often covered by a drinks package, but added on if you pay as you go.

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Then its a simple case of adding up the cost.

Again don’t forget your waters and soft drinks.

It will be obvious if you won’t drink anything like enough to make it pay, or for that matter that you will and its a no brainer.

The big decision is if you are roughly at break even. Then other factors, like not having to think about ordering that extra drink, kick in.

I love it when they just top up your wine at dinner. That rarely happens when you are paying by the glass.

Hopefully it will be an easy choice!!

BEWARE OF THE SMALL PRINT

When deciding about a drinks package, just be aware of some of the small print.

1. Is the drinks package unlimited?

Quite a lot of drinks packages have a daily limit on the number of alcoholic drinks you can have per day. That number doesn’t count soft drinks, which generally are unlimited although you often have to wait a short time before ordering your next drink.

The limit is often somewhere around 15 alcoholic drinks, which takes some drinking in a day.

Even so I have seen indignant comments online from people worried about being cut off or having to pay more later.

Also some of the All Inclusive packages end at 2am. If you are a night owl and enjoy partying in the disco until late you might be paying for your night cap.

2. Is there a price limit?

On my cruise on Celebrity Beyond earlier this year I had a standard “Classic” drinks package.

This covered drinks up to $9, which was fine for most of the things I wanted to drink.

However cocktails in the Martini Bar were upwards of $15 each.

Celebrity were great. You could take your $9 drinks credit and just pay the extra $6 (plus a tip, so more like $7) as a surcharge for the cocktail.

Perfect if like me you only wanted the occasional Martini. However if that was your favourite tipple and you drank two per day it became worth considering upgrading to the better drinks package.

Also be aware that this rule does not apply to all cruise lines. For some if you buy a drink over the package limit you get charged in full.

3. Bottles of wine

Most drinks packages don’t apply to bottles of wine.

If you choose a wine that you can’t buy by the glass you’ll either be paying full price for the bottle, or maybe get a partial discount.

Some ships offer specific wine bottle packages, where you can buy a few bottles to last for the cruise.

If you don’t finish the bottle over dinner the restaurants will save it, labelled with your cabin number, and bring the rest to you the next night.

Even without a package this sometimes works out cheaper than buying wine by the glass.

4. Where does the drinks package apply?

If you’ve read my Postcard from Cococay you may remember that Royal Caribbean let you use their drinks package on their private party island, Perfect Day at Cococay,

It definitely makes it more worthwhile when you can use your drinks package ashore.

In contrast beware the mini bar in your cabin, because the drinks package rarely applies to items from the mini bar. That can lead to an unexpected extra charge.

You can get around this by ordering room service or just ordering at the bar and taking a drink back to your cabin when you go back inside.

I like to grab a couple of bottles of water on my way to bed at the end of the night.

5. Does everyone need to buy the drinks package?

Cruise lines are not daft. They know that couples might consider getting one drinks package between two.

To combat this the rule is generally that every adult in a cabin must have the same drinks package.

So if one partner drinks like a fish, but the other is tee total, paying for two drinks packages may not be cost effective if only one is really being used.

But do check, because not every cruise line has this rule.

6. Are there other benefits?

As an example Princess Cruises offer three types of fare:

• Standard, you essentially just pay for the cruise.
• Princess Plus, includes the drinks package, but also wi-fi and crew tips.
• Princess Premier throws in speciality dining and photo packages too.

The decision is complicated by whether these added extras are also worth it to you.

For me the Princess Plus fare becomes a no brainer usually, as the cost of tips alone makes the upgrade worthwhile. Wi-fi is a nice to have, but I wouldn’t pay for it.

Premier doesn’t add value to me as I don’t often use speciality dining.

Easy decision!

SO WHAT DID I DECIDE THIS TIME?

I’m counting down to my cruise on the P&O cruise ship Iona.

I am sailing for 14 nights, so the drinks package (£39.95 per night in October 2022) is not a small sum.

You might have guessed that I like a drink, but I’m trying to be a bit healthier, so I’m not sure I want a fortnight’s drinking binge.

And as it happens I’ve followed my own advice and Googled the drinks prices. Actually quite reasonable UK pub prices from what I can see. They don’t seem to have bumped up the price because they have a captive audience. That means you need to drink even more to break even.

So for this cruise I have decided the drinks package is not worth it to me and I will pay as I go.

But I have also promised myself that I will not be tight. I will have that extra drink when I want it.

My inner accountant will no doubt check the bar bill at the end to see if I made the right decision!

For now though it’s time to get back to packing. I’m sailing this weekend and I can hear a sailaway drink calling already!

Cheers!