Many Royal Caribbean passengers face the question of whether to buy the cruise line’s Deluxe Beverage Package.
That’s not always a simple question to answer because the cruise line uses dynamic pricing, which makes the question of “Is the DBP worth it?” a moving target.
If you pay $60 a day versus $90 a day (plus an 18% gratuity in either case), that’s a substantial difference. Since a single cocktail can cost $15, that’s only four drinks each day at the lower price, but six a day to break even on the higher price.
The package includes, however, a lot more than just alcohol. It comes with unlimited bottled water, soda, specialty coffee, smoothies and milkshakes, as well as fresh juice on ships that offer it. The only place the deluxe package does not work is in the Starbucks locations and kiosks on some Royal Caribbean ships.
Many cruisers buy the Deluxe Beverage Package not because they expect to break even or get ahead every day but to have the peace of mind of not getting an added bill. Royal Caribbean’s deluxe package brings passengers cost certainty for the drinks portion of their cruise.
Come Cruise With Me Executive Editor Dan Kline and PostCard Travel Planning’s Dennis Post sat down to discuss the DBP at Mason Jar on Wonder of the Seas.
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Icon of the Seas has a number of drinks not found on other Royal Caribbean ships.
Image source: Dan Kline/ComeCruiseWith.com
Should you buy Royal Caribbean’s Deluxe Beverage Package
Transcript:
Daniel Kline: Hey there, cruisers. I am Dan Kline, executive editor of Come Cruise With Me. That is comecruisewith.com or, if you want, comecruisewith.me. We are on the Wonder of the Seas at the Mason Jar. I’m with Dennis Post. Dennis is our travel agent partner. He is the co-owner, along with his wife Amy, of Postcard Travel Planning.
They are my travel agents. They are the people that when I am stuck somewhere, I call. They are the people that when my mother couldn’t get to Florida literally offered to pick her up at the airport if she came in late.
Actually, to be fair, she couldn’t get to New York. She would have then met the ship the next day in Florida. So these are travel agents that I absolutely trust.
But we are going to answer today. Dennis, I think it’s fair to say this is the toughest question for everyone on their cruise. It’s not, ‘Where am I going?’ It’s not, ‘What ship do I pick?’ It is, “Should I buy the unlimited drink package?’ Now, drink packages work a little bit different on every cruise line.
We’re going to mostly talk about how it works on Royal Caribbean. I will just say, if you’re on Carnival, if you’re on MSC, it’s pretty similar, although the pricing on those is fixed, whereas on Royal Caribbean they use something called dynamic pricing.
What does dynamic pricing mean? It means you have to really pay attention because it might be $60 a day plus 18% gratuity on Monday, and then it might be $80 a day or $110. They don’t tell you the formula, so … a good travel agent can pay attention for you, but in the case of booking it on your own, you have to watch it.
And if you see the price go down, you’re allowed to cancel it and book it again. The problem is it takes about two weeks to get a refund. And when you’re talking something that’s $60 to $110, maybe even a little more, per day, that can add up.
But Dennis, what are your thoughts? You deal with clients on this all the time. Why do you tell them that they often want this?
Dennis Post: Because the first thing we get is they’re looking for the value. How much money am I going to save? And it’s not always just that, like, how many drinks per day, and it’s somewhere between five to seven drinks, and then you break even, or you make money, you save a little bit of money.
Kline: You’re not making money — they don’t actually give you the dollars — but you are in the bonus zone in terms of what you would have been spending.
Post: What it is is that a lot of people don’t understand that when you’re sitting at home, you live a certain lifestyle, right? You go to work, you go to bed, you do certain things. And you may have a drink on Friday nights, whatever you do.
But when you go on a cruise, it’s completely different. Your time is freedom, you’ve got a lot of things to do, and there’s so much more here to offer, so you want to try different things. That’s why we say the number one thing is that reason for there.
Because you’re on vacation with a place that’s got the best customer service and the best drinks.
Kline: It’s also important: A cocktail, like I’m drinking here at the beautiful Mason Jar, is about $15, $14 to $16. The limit for the drink package is right about there; it varies a little on ship. So if you’re a cocktail drinker or a wine drinker, and if you’re a wine drinker who doesn’t just say, ‘give me the cheapest, the house red wine,’ at five drinks you’re pretty much there every day.
But it’s not just drinks. You also get specialty coffee. So every morning, I know I have a latte.
Most nights at dinner, I have an espresso shot. Well, the latte’s five bucks, the espresso shot’s four, bottle of water $3.50, I’m not sure exactly. I drink 12, 15 bottles of water on the average cruise, and there is plenty of free water, but cruise ship water is desalinated, and I find that if I drink too much of it, it still has some salt content.
So I look at it as [now I] am Diamond Plus on Royal, and I drink free in the casino. So I get five free drinks every day. I can use those drinks to give my friends who I’m with, who don’t have a drink package, free drinks, and I usually buy the drink package.
And for me, it’s peace of mind. I don’t have to look at the app, oh my God, did I spend this much? And I can make the purchase months in advance, and then when I’m on the cruise, I’m on vacation, not thinking about it.
I will point out as we’re taping this, I am on vacation. So Sara, Justin, if you’re watching, I am off the clock as we drink and record this. Dennis, what’s the pushback you get? Because I know the drink package can sometimes cost more than the cruise.
Post: So, yeah, so the pushback is, well, first, is it makes a worry-free trip. You did comment on that. So that’s a big thing, because people will not necessarily try things.
They go to their menu and say, oh, how much is that? When you have the drink package, you don’t do that. You tend to try things and relax more.
The other big thing is there’s no bill at the end. We’ve had a lot of people with big bills at the end because they get happy. They enjoy themselves. Then they might have a few more drinks than they thought they had.
Kline: Yeah, I can’t tell you how many drinks I had last night. I got to be honest. I was in the pub. There’s a wonderful pub guitarist, Ellie Finnerty, on the ship. And like, did I have three? Did I have five? I am not entirely sure.
Editor’s note: Dan spent over five hours in and out of the pub that night.
Post: Right, exactly. And it’s our job is to lay it all out. So what we try to create with the drink package is basically an all-inclusive.
So now when you come on the ship, you’re not going to spend any more money unless you buy pictures or go to the spa or something. Your shows, your food, your drinks, going in and out of the ports, all included. You pretty much have a fixed bill.
And it makes it a lot easier for people. They can manage it six months out, eight months out. And, of course, as Dan was alluding to, as a travel agency, we monitor the cruise all the way through.
So if there’s a price drop, we’ll fix that. We’ll bring it back up. Same thing with the drink package.
We’ll monitor it and make sure that you’re getting the best value.
Kline: So the other thing, and we’ll close on this, that’s really, really important. Buy the drink package, if you’re going to buy it, before your cruise. Royal Caribbean used to regularly offer a buy one, get one, 50% off discount.
And that’s kind of a meaningless discount because there’s no fixed top price. Now they sometimes don’t even have that. And if you get on the ship, the drink package could be $110 per day, and every adult over 21 in your cabin has to buy it.
If you arrange before the cruise and there’s someone who’s not a drinker, has a medical condition, or is pregnant, or who knows what reason, they’re not someone who drinks regularly, if you call the cruise line or your travel agent calls the cruise line, you can book the refreshment package for those people.
But if you get on the ship, every person 21 and older has to buy it, and many times it will be $110 per day, when if you pay attention, finding it for $60 a day on a 7-day cruise is possible, but $70 to $75 is pretty reasonable. That is a lot of money very quickly.
I am Dan Kline. Come visit us at ComeCruiseWith.com. Thank you for watching.
Post: Yeah, thank you guys.
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Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me’s Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at [email protected] or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
