Va4fam Posted March 9, 2022 Report Share Posted March 9, 2022 We just had our first Diamond sailing and didn't spend a cent on drinks (except Starbucks for my wife). We brought two bottles of wine, a 6 pack of soda and refillable water bottles to cut down on the regular drinks. We also drank more at port stops. Beer drinkers, another great way to cut down expenses is to order a pitcher of beer at Playmakers for $18. Basically getting 5 beers for the price of two. EmptyNestTravels and Swar 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac66 Posted March 9, 2022 Report Share Posted March 9, 2022 When we made diamond we stopped getting the drink package. We don't drink pop. We fill our water bottles from the tap. Regular orange juice is fine. Don't drink foo-foo coffees, regular coffee is fine, iced tea makes up what else we drink. We bring two bottles of wine with us. We've found that limiting our drinks to 4 a day, plus the wine is plenty. IRMO12HD and EmptyNestTravels 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseGus Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 7 hours ago, mac66 said: When we made diamond we stopped getting the drink package. We don't drink pop. We fill our water bottles from the tap. Regular orange juice is fine. Don't drink foo-foo coffees, regular coffee is fine, iced tea makes up what else we drink. We bring two bottles of wine with us. We've found that limiting our drinks to 4 a day, plus the wine is plenty. plus if you are tipping well your vouchers don't always get hit, just my experiance. Yes it depends on the ship and the bar tender you use Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWDW1204 Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 7 hours ago, Va4fam said: Beer drinkers, another great way to cut down expenses is to order a pitcher of beer at Playmakers for $18. Basically getting 5 beers for the price of two. Can you walk around the ship with the pitcher? Swar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobroo Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 Back to the original posters question, why would you buy a DBP if you are D+? Because I have a hard time counting to 5. And as easy as “counting to 5” sounds there have many days both in port and at sea where I’ve screwed that up. Ugh! I’m so worthless…. fmzsep12, KristiZ, WAAAYTOOO and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted March 10, 2022 Report Share Posted March 10, 2022 8 hours ago, RWDW1204 said: Can you walk around the ship with the pitcher? That's a good question. We typically fill up our glasses and walk around with them. Haven't tried taking the pitcher yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miTR Posted March 13, 2022 Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 On 2/23/2022 at 1:45 PM, Swar said: Throw in Prime and you really do not need the UDP. Interested how Diamond lounge is on the Explorer? It has been many years since we have been on the explorer, so just curious if it has been improved. Have a great cruise. TR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swar Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 8 hours ago, miTR said: Interested how Diamond lounge is on the Explorer? It has been many years since we have been on the explorer, so just curious if it has been improved. Have a great cruise. TR Nothing special. Same as on the Mariner. Room for about 25-30 peeps. An outdoor area that is noisy due to looking out over the basketball court. The staff is amazing though and very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattG Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 On 2/23/2022 at 10:54 PM, RWDW1204 said: 164 charged drinks for the 2 of us. Talk about leveling up That's almost 12 drinks a day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Templecruiser Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 After my cruise, all I can say, boy I’m glad I didn’t buy the drink package. I saved about $1100. My wife and I had about 70 drinks total. We drank more on sea days and went a little over our vouchers, but not much. Island stops we broke even or didn’t even use them up. In Aruba we didn’t get back on ship until 7pm. Then we had 4 glasses of wine at 1/2 off and the casino gave us a bottle of wine and we don’t gamble. So with all that, I only spent about $150 on drinks. Granted I’m not a huge drinker, but I don’t think I held back if I wanted one thinking I would need to pay as I had over $900 in OBC due to cabin price change, so money wasn’t a issue. But as I was thinking about my last cruise on Allure in November with the drink package, I felt sometimes I was getting drinks to make me feel like I was getting my money’s worth, but really didn’t need it. So for me being a Diamond member, the UDP is not worth it. on a side note tho, it seemed staff wasn’t to excited that I was a diamond member by there expressions, and it seemed like all my drinks we very weak almost virgin like. Yet on Allure with package, tasting the booze wasn’t a issue. Even on CocoCay, I found drinks very weak Maybe it’s just in my head. I guess I’ll find out again in December on Harmony. Marc, Pooch and KristiZ 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlohaLivin Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 The beauty of drinking very little is alcohol is that we never need the drink package and only occasionally indulge in the SL. But as we go from Diamond to Diamond + at least our cruise friends are getting free drinks fairly often KristiZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter D Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 Has anyone used the Diamond+ onboard drink package 30% off discount? Does it stack at all with other offers? For example, on Symphony of seas last month, ship was offering buy one, get one 50% off to everyone. The ship price was $88 for one and $44 for second ($132 for two + gratuities). If both are diamond plus, can you get an additional 30% off? If not, then assumption is $88 pp less 30% for both ($123 for two +gratuities). It basically makes the D+ perk useless. It would be great if Royal translated the drink vouchers into an equivalent dollar value discount to incentivize UDP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pattycruise Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 A solo Diamond+ cruiser had 30% off on Anthem, price was $430 for the week (total) Her deal was better than her friend who purchased in the cruise planner and thought he had a good deal. ungortunately I don’t have 2 key items for your equation…price per day onboard what her friend paid in cruise planner. If you are a mathematical person I know you can figure out her cost per day m/week easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not easy being green Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 We always get the drink package, we are not heavy drinkers at all however sometimes doing a bottle of wine during dinner and or after dinner drinks it really adds up. Also sometimes RC gives a really great price for the Deluxe drink package. Lastly we drink a lot of water and having extra bottles in the room is wonderful. When we cruise we go all out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 Prior to our Harmony cruise I was team DBP. I knew I could easily drink enough to make it worth it. Well…….. I did cover the cost of the plan but can’t lie. I did have a few I probably didn’t want or need. Once we hit Diamond in October, I will NOT need a package. Sucks to get old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac66 Posted April 5, 2022 Report Share Posted April 5, 2022 One thing about the drink package....it makes you want to drink. We stuck to our diamond vouchers last Dec, no problem. Was recently on an Celebrity cruise where the drink package was included in the cost. Bloody Marys (sometimes two) in the morning, beer and burger at lunch, a couple frozen drinks around the pool in the afternoon. Wine and/or a pre dinner cocktail. At least a couple glasses of wine at dinner. An after dinner drink or drink at the show and perhaps a night cap. That happened every day and night for 12 days. Am now practicing Dry April. AlohaLivin and 4ensic 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWDW1204 Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 4 hours ago, mac66 said: One thing about the drink package....it makes you want to drink. We stuck to our diamond vouchers last Dec, no problem. Was recently on an Celebrity cruise where the drink package was included in the cost. Bloody Marys (sometimes two) in the morning, beer and burger at lunch, a couple frozen drinks around the pool in the afternoon. Wine and/or a pre dinner cocktail. At least a couple glasses of wine at dinner. An after dinner drink or drink at the show and perhaps a night cap. That happened every day and night for 12 days. Am now practicing Dry April. Having the DBP doesn't make us want to drink, it gives us the ability to drink without having to worry about a big drink bill at the end of the cruise. We're Diamond (Diamond Plus after our next cruise) and could go through our vouchers easily by lunch just with getting fresh o.j. and water bottles. We're usually in a suite too but not going to go to the suite lounge, if available, every time we want a drink. It's just a convenience we're willing to pay for. There may come a time where it's too expensive but it's not there yet. WAAAYTOOO and not easy being green 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRMO12HD Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 On 2/24/2022 at 3:05 PM, XtremeGK said: I'm taking a points run cruise this May to get DW and I to Diamond. 100% unquestioned that I'll have the DBX for that. For next year's 9-night cruise once we're Diamond, we won't be getting it (it's part of the justification to take the points run cruise this year -- spend under $500 on my solo fare to save over $1000 on our 2 drink packages next summer). We bring refillable water bottles that we fill using cups at the water station (bring on a 12-pack of waters to bring ashore at ports), our 2 bottles of wine. We may end up buying a drink each some days, but many days, our 4 drinks will be enough to cover us. Would we get additional drinks (alcoholic or otherwise) if we had the DBX or Refreshment package? Probably. Do we need them? Not really. We'd end up with the fresh squeezed juice and specialty coffee drinks just to get our money's worth. DW drinks regular coffee every day at home (I don't drink coffee at all) and we drink whatever OJ is on sale at the grocery store. I agree with you, @XtremeGK. Used a Solo B2B in January on Navigator to reach Diamond; I actually reached it after the first part of the B2B, and coordinated with the Loyalty Ambassador to achieve/use my Diamond status on the second part -- to include my 4 free drinks. Like you, I fill my refillable water bottles at the water station (love it when they add ice!), and enjoyed my carry-on bottle of wine. I figure the 4-drink vouchers are good for one experimental drink, one morning/day drink, and two with/before/after dinner. And then there are the discounted drinks as well. I'm not a huge soda drinker, and habitually drink tap water at home, and brewed coffee is my go-to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac66 Posted April 6, 2022 Report Share Posted April 6, 2022 Another thing to consider is that cruise lines have modified their BYOB policies. On our last cruise we picked up a couple bottles of infused vodka at the first port stop at the request of some friends. It is only available on certain islands. We walked back on board with the bottles in hand. No confiscation. We could have tapped into them if we wanted. The cruise before we bought a couple bottles of bourbon on board the second day. They let us take it back to our cabin. Again, we could have tapped into them to supplement our D vouchers. Never occurred to us at the time but maybe in the future. And of course there are always Rum Runners or airline sized minis that are easy to bring aboard if one is so inclined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.