Current (3/12/14) drinks packages

[bumbershoot]

I'm not sure anyone has compiled this here. Scouring the cruisecritic boards for the various posts can be daunting.

I don't intend this as a "be all end all" post, but at least to lay out the basics, the info available today, as a starting point.


Here is the PDF from RCCL's site as of 3/12/14.


Drinks packages are available on sailings of 4 nights or longer.

Each package includes gratuity, so we can already consider a 15% tip to have been paid for any order we make. If we wish to tip more, we can. If we don't, they are already getting 15% so don't worry.

You do not have to order the same drinks package for everyone. If I were a bigger drinker, we would get one with booze for me, the one without booze for DH, and the water package for DS. Or any combo. Or just one package for DH and pay OOP for me and DS. etc.



Starting from the top.


Ultimate:

$65 per person per day.
Includes:
Virtually unlimited options.
A combination of all the
benefits from Premium
and Royal Replenish
packages.

In other words:
• Call, and premium
cocktails (up to $10 value)
• Frozen cocktails
• Beer
• Premium wines by the
glass (up to $12 value)
• Non-alcoholic cocktails
• Fountain soda with
Coca Cola® souvenir cup

and

• Premium coffee
• Premium tea
• Bottled water: Sparkling
(375ml) or Still (500ml)
• Fresh squeezed
orange juice


PREMIUM:

$55 per person, per day
Includes:
• Call, and premium
cocktails (up to $10 value)
• Frozen cocktails
• Beer
• Premium wines by the
glass (up to $12 value)
• Non-alcoholic cocktails
• Bottled water still (500ml)
• Fountain soda with
Coca Cola® souvenir cup



SELECT:

$40 per person, per day
Includes:
• Beer
• Wines by the glass
(up to $8 value)
• Non-alcoholic cocktails
• Fountain soda with
Coca Cola® souvenir cup


ROYAL REPLENISH:

$20 per person, per day
Includes:
• Premium coffee
• Premium tea
• Bottled water: Sparkling
(375ml) or Still (500ml)
• Fresh squeezed
orange juice
• Non-alcoholic cocktails
• Fountain soda with
Coca Cola® souvenir cup



In addition, "Enjoy 20% off bottles of wine with the Select, Premium and Ultimate package."



OK I have to run to the Y now but I'll be back to continue.
ETA I'm back from the Y to find out that I was dating this as of last year. Whoops!

 

[bumbershoot]

There are other packages as well.


Royal Refreshment:

17 and under:
$4.50
18 and over:
$6.50

Includes:
• Unlimited fountain soda with
Coca Cola® souvenir cup.


On a ship with the Freestyle machines, you use that. If it doesn't have the machines, I believe you get sodas from a bartender. Anyone who knows is welcome to give the info.


BOTTLED JUICE PACKAGE:

Pre-purchase several bottles of juice at
a savings up to 25% over regular price.

6 for 20.15
8 for 25.25
12 for 35.55


BOTTLED WATER PACKAGE:

Pre-purchase bottles of water at a
savings of up to 28% over regular price.

8 for 28.45
12 for 40.30
16 for 50.55
24 for 71.10

Note: these are 1 Liter bottles of Evian.



And there is also the Wine&Dine package:

Pre-purchase your favorite wines with
savings up to 25%.

3-4 night cruises:
3 for 99
4 for 130
5+ nights:
5 for 165
7 for 220
10 for 300
12 for 335

 

[bumbershoot]

Thoughts and tidbits.



The water package.

Like I mentioned, they are 1L bottles.

Someone recently mentioned on CC that the ship was out of liter bottles, so they gave double the 500 mL bottles.

When I ordered for our January cruise and by the time we got to the ship, I didn't realize they were Liter bottles. (though I had apparently learned it on CC in between ordering and our cruise, then promptly forgot!) It was an overwhelming amount of water (the 24 bottle package) because it was for my son. DH and I each had Replenish, which had water included. When I talked to Guest Services, they said it was supposed to be 750 mL bottles.

Confusing.



Replenish:

DH and I each had this. We needed our espresso drinks and our bottled water. When the new packages were created, we were hoping for Evian, but the ships stopped giving that pretty quick. Kinda funny but also kind of annoying. We got Crystal Geyser, which is spring water same as Evian, so that was fine. DH and I are incredibly sensitive to sodium (we have the weirdest things in common) and the desalinated water on cruise ships just seems to mess with us. Once we started to drink bottled water on ships we stopped swelling.

It also includes the fresh-squeezed OJ at breakfast.

We totally forgot that it included sparkling water; that would have been a nice difference sometimes. I wish I could remember everything while on vacations!

There were a lot of weird questions about the non alcoholic cocktails included with Replenish, and what that meant...some said you could get virgin frozen drinks, some said no... I just wondered "if it's not the virgin frozen drinks, what IS IT, then?" Because if it's not those,then it's just...a soda. Some grenadine. Maybe tomato juice or OJ. KNow what I mean? Those aren't anything special, and they are already included (well maybe not the grenadine or tomato juice). So what else *could* they mean if they didn't mean the frozen drinks? As it turned out, they DID mean those. Turns out RCCL tends to use Island Oasis mixes for virgin and boozey frozen drinks; IO has a website with nutrition info and ingredients. Very helpful.



Tips:

Since the packages include a 15% tip, you don't have to *worry* about tipping. If you want to give more you can. But you've already included 15%. During our cruise I started to wonder how that worked, since for waters they kept putting 0.00 down on the receipts. But you know what? It's not my business how exactly they get tipped for the waters... We got great service before we tipped a bit more, we got great service after. On our first night I went into the English pub on Freedom with DH and my seapass cards and asked for two waters with the Replenish package, and then I paid out of pocket for a beer. I didn't see that bartender until the second to last evening of the cruise. I ordered a beer and as he got it, he asked if we would like our two bottles of water, and he called me by name BEFORE I gave the seapass card. How do they do that? How?


That's all I can think of for now.

 

[rammh]

Thank you so much for the drink info. We ordered the replenish package for DH and myself and our kids, 9 and 14. I think it felt more "inclusive" that way. I think we will get non-alcoholic frozens but I am wondering if we really will spend $20 per day. I think I want to keep getting bottles of water so we have them to take with us to Cococay and into Nassau. Any tips on how to make sure we take advantage of the $ of our package?? Our kids will drink soda because it is limited at home. I like tea but only brewed. I will get coffee but probably not more than one a day. Kids will drink hot chocolate if those are available somewhere. I keep second guessing myself with this package. I think we wanted to be sure we could get enough bottled water, but now knowing they are liters, the water price feels more doable. Although we leave next monday so I guess I should just leave well enough alone

One other question, we have also prepaid tips so should we feel obligated to tip when DH gets an alcoholic drink or can we feel like between the royal replenish and pre-paid tips, that we are covered? Thanks!

 

[bumbershoot]

Yay I had a reader!


The bottled water in the water packages comes in liters

The bottled water you get with Replenish and the highest package comes in half liters. We did not realize it on cococay, but we could have gotten the waters on the island. Silly us.

Normal brewed coffee is free and self-service at Cafe Promenade (and dinner). If you want the espresso drinks that where the charges come in.

I'm still not clear on specialty tea. It might be that tea bags are right there next to the brewed coffee area, and specialty refers to more upscale like Tazo tea bags.

I believe packets of hot chocolate mix are available free near the coffee service area, so if the kids drink they they are covered.

Since there will be soda consumed, if you think each kid will have two a day (remember the cups are big) that's definitely a package that might work for your kids. And maybe the adults if you would drink it though it costs more for older folk and therefore requires more consumption to make it worth it.

For us we knew we would be getting two espresso drinks per adult per day. DH likes OJ so the fresh squeezed in the morning was good for him. At the time of our cruise the frozen mocktails were still being debated as included (they are) and we were nervous about ingredients and diet have any. Because I forgot about the water package being liters, we were helping DS drink those and therefore didn't max out our waters with Replenish. We also didn't realize the package worked on cococay.

It did feel more inclusive but I wish we had gotten more of money's worth. Maybe next time; we like to give things a second try.

 

[bumbershoot]

Tips! With the packages you have paid 15% more than the packages cost. That tip is filtered down to those that serve you in some way (that I have decided to not concern myself with lol). So you have already given the equivalent of 15% with each beverage you order from a barista or bartender etc. any further tip is solely up to you.

That's the same with ben&jerrys ice cream by the way, and alcohol ordered without a package; they will include a tip in the total. You can tip extra but watch how much, since 15% is already in there.

 

[rammh]

Your info throughout the entire RC forum has been helpful~thank you!
I'm not going to change our package because DH would freak since I change my mind "too often" I think if we each get a frozen drink or two and a couple bottles of water, and my specialty coffee (*might* even let DD14 get one) we will even out. I'm afraid I will be drinking a lot of calories on this trip
I am going to keep track of what we get though in case we go in the future it will be good to know if it was worth it for us.

Do you know if they have frozen non-alcoholic on Cococay? Good to know they have bottled water. I tried calling RCCL for some of these questions but apparently no one who answers the phones has ever been on these cruises before!!!
Again, thanks for your info!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Your info throughout the entire RC forum has been helpful~thank you!
I'm not going to change our package because DH would freak since I change my mind "too often" I think if we each get a frozen drink or two and a couple bottles of water, and my specialty coffee (*might* even let DD14 get one) we will even out. I'm afraid I will be drinking a lot of calories on this trip
I am going to keep track of what we get though in case we go in the future it will be good to know if it was worth it for us.

Do you know if they have frozen non-alcoholic on Cococay? Good to know they have bottled water. I tried calling RCCL for some of these questions but apparently no one who answers the phones has ever been on these cruises before!!!
Again, thanks for your info!!

Thanks so much.

They sell decaf espresso items, so if you don't want the 14 year old hopped up on caffeine that is an option. And they do have skim milk as a place to lower the calories.

YES the frozen no-booze drinks are available. Note: the ones the servers carry around for immediate service are in souvenir cups. I'm not sure if you would cover the drink with Replenish and then pay extra dollars for the cup, or if it's something that can't be covered at all with Replenish. But to save that issue (and to get a FRESH drink) just go to the bar.

Keeping track...not long into our trip, they stopped giving us receipts at the coffee place and for the waters. Also for the OJs, unless that's just an issue with DH not handing them over. You might want to bring a little pad of paper to write it down. Also, the coffee place just put everything at zero dollars, instead of entering in the coffee amount and zeroing it out. So write down the costs of what you get. ALSO, the price entered (when they did enter a price) for the waters varied!

All of this just boggled me, and really brought to mind "HOW are these people getting their tips if one puts 70 cents for water, another puts 3.75, another puts 0.00?" and that's when I decided to not worry about it. If they aren't, I won't.

But the point for record-keeping is to look at menus and find out prices on your own, and maybe have a little tally sheet or something.



Now what I wish I had a frequent-buyer card for was the Ben&Jerry's.

 

[fizbobunny]

You get unlimited bottles of water with replenish?

 

[bumbershoot]

You get unlimited bottles of water with replenish?

Yes. Now, you can get only one at a time, but you can go from venue to venue collecting them if you wish. Or I imagine you could go out then back in, if you wanted to. They just won't give you several at once on the one card. (though I was able to take DH's card in and get one for each of us at the same time, and he did the same thing with my card at different times)

Now, it is NOT Evian. It's going to be something like Crystal Geyser, but that's also spring water (vs tap water that has been filtered), so for me that's still OK. I get the bottled spring water because my system cannot handle many tap waters, no matter how many times it's filtered. Local bottling areas tend to put things in their water that I cannot deal with, so I avoid them everywhere. Also, I swell up when drinking the tap water on ships, and I don't when drinking spring water.

 

[princess333]

If you don't purchase a soda package on board, what sort of prices would we expect to pay for a soda? Plus are there any beverages that are free at breakfast time?

 

[Arkum]

if you don't purchase a soda package on board, what sort of prices would we expect to pay for a soda? Plus are there any beverages that are free at breakfast time?

$2.25-$2.50

 

[princess333]

Thank you.

 

[bumbershoot]

Normal coffee, boxed type juices from a dispenser (I think), flavored waters, tea...those are available at no cost at breakfast.

 

[Hernandez6060]

..... On a ship with the Freestyle machines, you use that. If it doesn't have the machines, I believe you get sodas from a bartender. Anyone who knows is welcome to give the info. ...

Thank you for sharing all this current info.
Does Freedom and Independence have the freestyle coke machines with all the custom favors?

 

[Feisty Fairy]

One other question is regular coffee available for free all day and from what places? My husband can drink coffee at midnight. What about milk. And juice is only available at breakfast, what flavors?

 

[bumbershoot]

There are coffee machines at Cafe Promenade that are self-serve.

As to the other questions, including how late that coffee is available, I'm going to have to defer to others if they would be so kind as to answer.

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

I am trying to decide which package to get. Not sure they will have the coffee drink I like. I am looking for something like McDonald's Carmel frappe our Starbucks vanilla bean frapichino. Then getting the package that contains coffee drinks would be worth it.

Is there a Starbucks on the explorer???

 

[WhitGB]

Does anyone know if the freestyle soda machines are like the ones in the US, where they also serve fruit punch type drinks. I have a child that will not drink carbonation but I would purchase the soda package for the lemonaid and fruit punch so she has the same location to grab beverages as the other kids in our party.

TIA

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

Does anyone know if the freestyle soda machines are like the ones in the US, where they also serve fruit punch type drinks. I have a child that will not drink carbonation but I would purchase the soda package for the lemonaid and fruit punch so she has the same location to grab beverages as the other kids in our party.

TIA

I thought lemonade was free