Are drinks really not included??

[sambycat]

can anyone point me to a link showing what the choices are? like, when you say premium coffee (starbucks) included, i'm (sadly) assuming this is just straight coffee, not a latte or cappuccino right? and are the wines by the glass weird gross noname boxed wines?

 

[bumbershoot]

You mean in the packages?

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

I don't like to call it premium coffee. It's espresso based drinks. Go to the espresso bar, order what you want, it's included in replenish and ultimate packages. Frappucino, mocha, hot chocolate (not the packets you mix with water but the kind you'd get at an espresso place), chai, etc.


I know nothing about the wines by the glass.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

I just returned from a week on the Oasis. I had bought a twelve pack box of sodas at the grocery store, taped a luggage tag on the side and dropped it off with my luggage at the pier. The box of cans made it to my cabin just fine, although one of the cans was slightly dented (it might have come that way).

I asked my cabin attendant for ice in my cabin (which was refilled twice daily) - and I did not need to buy the soda package.

Excellent advice and idea.

Also you're basically paying the soft drink package when you board Disney - RC just separates the cost for people who don't want to pay for soda. Bring your own though, save some money put it towards another cruise!

 

[sambycat]

i'm sure their pricing is such that if one had one or two lattes/espressos, a cocktail, a glass of wine or two with dinner and say sparkling water all day every day, that ultimate package ($55/day) is cheaper? it's weird to think we may pay another $800 for beverages? usually we do (I do ha!) a wine package and then may have a cocktail each day and a coffee, but the husband drinks lots of soda and that stuff. i'll have to do the math but i can't imagine they haven't priced things so that the packages are the better deal

 

[Denise W]

Excellent advice and idea.

Also you're basically paying the soft drink package when you board Disney - RC just separates the cost for people who don't want to pay for soda. Bring your own though, save some money put it towards another cruise!

When DCL started they charged for soda like all the other cruise lines do (we were on the sixth sailing of the Magic). It took them a while, but they then installed the self service areas and rolled the price of soda into the cruise price. At least on other lines you have different choices on which beverages to buy, if any.
Denise

 

[bumbershoot]

i'm sure their pricing is such that if one had one or two lattes/espressos, a cocktail, a glass of wine or two with dinner and say sparkling water all day every day, that ultimate package ($55/day) is cheaper? it's weird to think we may pay another $800 for beverages? usually we do (I do ha!) a wine package and then may have a cocktail each day and a coffee, but the husband drinks lots of soda and that stuff. i'll have to do the math but i can't imagine they haven't priced things so that the packages are the better deal

Value depends on your usage. I have maybe a drink per day, so the alcohol containing packages will never be a good deal for me. Even Replenish doesn't really work, since I have to change my coffee habits to get a second latte in etc.

Royal did recently raise the price of booze (along with some other lines) so it's easier to make it work.

Remember that you would be paying extra for all the same drinks on Disney (in case you are comparing) except for soda.

 

[Madame]

When DCL started they charged for soda like all the other cruise lines do (we were on the sixth sailing of the Magic). It took them a while, but they then installed the self service areas and rolled the price of soda into the cruise price. At least on other lines you have different choices on which beverages to buy, if any.
Denise

Yes. & if you only drink root beer like my kids you end up paying oop for your root beer & the rolled-into the price soda for everyone else

 

[dashofsunshine]

We did the alcohol package on our honeymoon on the Freedom last year. I urge you to price it out and really think about how much you will need to drink every day in order to justify the cost. We were pretty heavy drinkers (I had surgery in November, so no longer - but anyway), but we don't drink soda - so all we got the package for was alcohol and water. That being said, 6-7 drinks a day is so much. At least, it was for us. The first few days were great, but by the third or fourth day of our seven day cruise, I was dehydrated, hungover, and had heartburn never wanted to see alcohol again, haha! But we had paid so much for it, so... You see the dilemma. Just remember that by the third or fourth day, you may be totally sick of alcohol!

 

[bumbershoot]

Dash, they have raised drink prices in the meantime, while keeping package prices basically the same, so you have to drink fewer drinks to break even. Which is sort of a bad news good new situation lol.




I do want to state that officially we are not supposed to bring water or soda on board royal. It's unlikely to be a problem outside spring break time cruises, but officially the only drinks we can bring are two normal-sized bottles of wine per stateroom.



Oh, and I was sick of lattes, trying to break even with Replenish. Bottled waters and lattes were my staple, but I don't normally drink two lattes per day. Having a caff in the morning and decaf at night (though buying a shot of Baileys for it one night was nice) was just too much milk for me.

In the future I will get a water package and buy everything else a la carte.