Keeves

Thank you [and JLMoran, of course!] for the tip, I wouldn't have thought of that!

I totally agree. Some people choose to be addicted to the latest Candy Crush or Angry Birds or whatever, and others NEED to be in touch with their coworkers. Next week I will be one of over 3 dozen relatives on the Mariner as part of a family reunion. (Some of these second-cousins I haven't seen in 50 years, and some I've never seen!) I had presumed that we would use WhatsApp to find each other and coordinate what we're doing, but a sizable number of them -- including some supposedly tethered millenials -- are planning to unplug. It will be very interesting to see how the information flows among us, and when something happens, who won't "get the memo". We'll see!

First off, EVERYTHING is available a la carte. Getting the wrong beverage package will NOT lock you out of anything. The only concerns are wasting money, and convenience. That said... You like bottled water a lot, but alcohol not so much. Okay, but that's not enough info yet. How much soda and fancy coffee do you drink? If very little, you should consider just buying the bottled water. I don't remember the price, but they'll deliver cases of Evian to your cabin, and that's got to be cheaper than the soda package. You can still buy anything else whenever you want. Other useful info: There's free tap water, coffe, tea, iced tea, etc, all over the place. Some people are fine with that and get nothing else. One word about "premium coffee": Most packages include premium coffee, but none of them include Starbucks. So then what IS premium coffee, if Starbucks is excluded? Answer: Premium means things like lattes and frappucinos, which are made at lots of places, not just at Starbucks. Non-premium coffee (free everywhere) is a name brand, but it is comparable to the setup you'd have in a convenience store.