Royal Caribbean has traditionally offered very few adult beverage deals for people who opt not to buy its Deluxe Beverage Package (DBP).
The DBP offers unlimited alcoholic beverages as well as soda, specialty coffee, fresh-squeezed juice, milkshakes, and bottled water. It has generally gotten more expensive, although it’s priced in a very wide range.
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On a short 3 or 4-day cruise, it might cost $80-100 per day plus an 18% gratuity. On longer cruises, it tends to be closer to $60-80 per day, although that can vary.
But, with most cocktails costing $14, beer coming in at $8-10, and wine being on the higher end of that scale as well, the DBP proves a deal for many passengers. Some, however, opt not to buy the DBP before their cruise (or don’t realize they should), and that puts them in a difficult situation.
On many ships, Royal Caribbean no longer offers any sort of deal on the DBP once you board. In other cases, it offers buy one, get one 50% but at a top-level price of $110 per person per day before the discount plus an 18% gratuity.
For people who don’t buy the package, there have traditionally been very few ways to save money on drinks.
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Here’s how Royal Caribbean has handled drink discounts
Royal Caribbean offers members of its Crown and Anchor loyalty program free drinks each day. Diamond members get four drinks up $14 in price each day while Diamond Plus members get five, and Pinnacle members get six.
In addition, there are some minor drink discounts on bottles of wine and other beverages offered based on your loyalty tier.
Casino Royale players get free drinks in the casino when they hit Prime (which requires earnings 2,500 points in the casino year). Those drinks can be claimed any time the casino is open, but only in the casino bar. You don’t have to be playing to have free casino drinks.
Other than that, Royal Caribbean has generally only offered one other drink deal. Usually, at the pool bars, and sometimes select other bars, it offers a drink of the day. That’s usually a tropical beverage sold for between $8-12, a slight discount over the typical $14 cocktail.
Royal Caribbean, however, has two new adult beverage deals that have appeared in select bars on select ships.
The Cask & Clipper Pub hosts events like trivia during the day and has a live guitarist at night.
Image source: Daniel Kline/ComeCruiseWith.com
Royal Caribbean tests a new deal
On the Jan. 5 sailing of Wonder of the Seas, the Cask & Clipper Pub displayed the two beverage deals shown above.
One offered $6 Happy Hour Margaritas from 4-6 p.m. while the second offered 2-for-1 draft beets in the pub “all day.” Both are massive savings compared to the typical deals Royal Caribbean offers with its “Drink of the Day.’
The beer offer only excluded the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale while the margarita offer specified that it was house margaritas “with no exceptions.”
Cask & Clipper, which is found on the Royal Promenade on Deck 5 tends to be a very quiet spot during the day. In the morning, it serves as overflow seating for people getting coffee and pastries at the nearby Cafe Promenade. In the afternoon, it might host a guest-led meeting for Alcoholics Anonymous, solo travelers, or LGBTQ+ cruisers.
At night, before the pub guitarist plays their sets of acoustic music, it’s a venue largely filled with people eating pizza from Sorrento’s.
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This deal might be an attempt to draw traffic to an often-underused spot before 8/8:30 when the pub guitarist plays. The beer deal was still being offered at night when the pub on Wonder of the Seas was packed to see Ellie Finnerty, one of Royal Caribbean’s most popular pub guitarists.
Royal Caribbean did no immediately return a request for comment on the new beverage offer.
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