If you're on a long cruise, you might have access to a new Royal Caribbean drink package that seems to be the perfect middle ground for lots of cruisers.
There are drink packages to buy on any Royal Caribbean cruise, and they offer unlimited drinks for the entire duration of the sailing.
For a lot of people, having unlimited drinks is the perfect solution for a enjoyable vacation without worrying about running up a big bar bill.
But there are cruisers who want to enjoy some drinks, but find paying for an unlimited drink package is overkill for their needs.
Now there's a new option that seems to cater to that crowd, but there's a catch.
Refreshment + 10 Drinks package
Over the last week, cruisers have started posting screenshots of a new drink package option.
Known as Refreshment + 10 Drinks Package, it combines the Royal Refreshment package and 10 individual alcoholic beverages.
The Royal Refreshment Package is a non-alcoholic beverage package that pretty much includes every drink available on the ship that doesn't have any booze in it.
This includes:
- Coca-Cola Freestyle Machine beverages
- Can and fountain soda
- Bottled still water, sparkling water, and CocoLove coconut water
- Fresh-squeezed juices
- Smoothies and protein shakes
- Specialty coffees and teas
- Johnny Rockets® Shakes and Desserted Soda Floats
- Non-alcoholic spirits, wines and beers (only available to guests of legal drinking age)
- Frozen drinks (Non-alcoholic pina colada, etc.)
On top of that, this new package has 10 alcoholic beverages of your choice you can order throughout the duration of the cruise. It's not 10 drinks per day, simply 10 drinks total.
Royal Caribbean says, "this is the package for ultimate flexibility".
The onboard price of a Royal Refreshment package is usually $32 to $42 per person, per day. A cocktail usually costs between $10 - $14 each. Pre-cruise sales have had the Refreshment package as low as $29.99 per person, per day.
Prices for the Refreshment + 10 Drinks Package have been spotted at $36.99 per person, per day when purchased online.
An important rule to be aware of is the cruise line does seem to require all adults in the same cabin to be required to purchase it if one does, which is a rule found with the unlimited alcohol package.
There's a catch who can buy it
Before you run out to book the Refreshment + 10 Drinks Package on every sailing you have booked, you should know it's only available on select sailings.
Based on what cruisers have shared from their bookings, it's clear Royal Caribbean is only offering it on long sailings that exceed a week.
Most people are reporting it available on transatlantic, Panama Canal crossings, and other cruises that go well past 10 days.
As far as I can tell, it's not available on cruises that are a week or less. Or at least the people on them haven't shared any details of it yet.
Addressing a need cruisers have
In my opinion, it looks as though Royal Caribbean wants to satisfy a customer need on these types of sailings.
Long cruises that are more than a week are less likely to sell a full unlimited alcohol drink package because it's difficult to drink enough every day of the sailing to make it worthwhile.
I refer to this phenomenon as "drink package fatigue", where the novelty of having unlimited drinks runs out, and it seems almost like a chore to order drinks simply because you have the package.
The other factor is a drink package over 10 or more nights is going to have a high up front cost.
Even with pre-cruise sales, a cruise that is two weeks or more could have the Deluxe Beverage Package easily cost more than $1,000 per person.
Shifting drinking habits
I believe this particular drink package has more to do with bumping up drink package sales than anything else, but there's another factor at play.
Royal Caribbean is seeing a shifting demographic of younger cruisers going on ships. Half of Royal Caribbean cruisers are now Millennials or younger.
One trend among Millennials and Gen Z is more of them prefer non-alcoholic beverages than previous generations.
A recent study showed 23% of Gen Z and 24% of Millennials have tried these drinks more frequently than other generations.
Royal Caribbean has seen this trend and is already adopting to it.
They recently revamped their fleetwide drink menu, adding far more mocktails to it than ever before.
There are multiple pages of low-alcohol and zero-proof drinks to choose from.
