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Deluxe Drink Package now or Black Friday/Cyber Monday


True Gamut

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I booked a cruise aboard Symphony of the Seas to Mexico for five nights, March 4-9. Stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Drink package currently on sale for $67.99 per day per person, $72.99 last week, and $89.99 on board. Would it be best to purchase the package now or will there be anything better as a holiday sale?

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30 minutes ago, NotPayinExtra said:

I'm holding out for black Friday for my deals. 

If there wasn't a Black Friday deal and you would want to have it at today's price in that case, you should get it now and then just cancel on BF if the deal comes through.  That protects you from the case where the price goes up and BF does not offer a deal.

Bill

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6 hours ago, True Gamut said:

I booked a cruise aboard Symphony of the Seas to Mexico for five nights, March 4-9. Stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Drink package currently on sale for $67.99 per day per person, $72.99 last week, and $89.99 on board. Would it be best to purchase the package now or will there be anything better as a holiday sale?

Do you need another person to say buy it now? Buy it now! 67.99 is a good price to start with - I've cancelled and repurchased it and a few other things on my next cruise (and my last). I regret not getting the UDP on my last price when I first saw it because it never got anywhere close to that price again over a 6 month period. Have a great cruise!

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Ok Matt...I watched your video and the fact we can cancel and rebook is a good point. Also, given Starlink is coming, prices just might be going up and this way I have locked them in. 

Our three main addons has been the internet, 3 night dining and the non-alcohol bev package. Since we hit diamond we don't do the bev anymore.

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12 hours ago, Hutcherl said:

Also, Black Friday hasn't been good to me.  Only once did I benefit from it.

This. Black Friday sales for Royal just aren't that lucrative. There will be some people who will save money...just like every sale they have. But it's not going to be doorbuster specials across the board.

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I just saw this posted on a FB group... I cannot confirm accuracy, but allegedly, NCL is raising the cost of their top drink package to $138/pp (before gratuity) effective 1/1/23!

Unfortunately, I also don't see Royal offering pre-Covid level pricing for the DBP anymore... 🙄

Need to get to Diamond fast! 😆

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-drink-package-price-hike/?fbclid=IwAR37rO83Tr6P7bAIXRaCCWMM--9NrQcm1NFbIqaWlQYoyBUuDuUKboC9LeE

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10 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

I just saw this posted on a FB group... I cannot confirm accuracy, but allegedly, NCL is raising the cost of their top drink package to $138/pp (before gratuity) effective 1/1/23!

Unfortunately, I also don't see Royal offering pre-Covid level pricing for the DBP anymore... 🙄

Need to get to Diamond fast! 😆

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-drink-package-price-hike/?fbclid=IwAR37rO83Tr6P7bAIXRaCCWMM--9NrQcm1NFbIqaWlQYoyBUuDuUKboC9LeE

I don't think anyone actually pays the list price for the drink package on NCL though.  A lesser one is usually "included", but you have to pay the 20% gratuity as an extra fee.  I assume you can also pay the difference in order to upgrade to a better package, like on Celebrity.

 

So the "real" cost of the base drink package on NCL is probably more like 20% of $99 (e.g. $20/day), and I guess you can upgrade for an extra $39+20%/day.

 

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On 9/21/2022 at 10:13 AM, Ryan79 said:

Buy now and if it goes lower later, just cancel and repurchase. $68pd/pp is a good price. I haven’t seen these go much on sale for Black Friday since the glitch a few years ago. I don’t think my last cruise went below $70 for Black Friday 

I got that glitch, purchased the drink package for a 9 night cruise with gratuities came to 191 (just for me as i was sailing with my kids who cant drink) best deal ever.

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3 hours ago, JohnK6404 said:

I just saw this posted on a FB group... I cannot confirm accuracy, but allegedly, NCL is raising the cost of their top drink package to $138/pp (before gratuity) effective 1/1/23!

Unfortunately, I also don't see Royal offering pre-Covid level pricing for the DBP anymore... 🙄

Need to get to Diamond fast! 😆

https://thepointsguy.com/news/norwegian-cruise-line-drink-package-price-hike/?fbclid=IwAR37rO83Tr6P7bAIXRaCCWMM--9NrQcm1NFbIqaWlQYoyBUuDuUKboC9LeE

Reaching Diamond was a game changer for us.  We always purchased the DBP but didn't on our last cruise.  Still had to purchase a few drinks a day, most days, between my wife and I.  We saved several hundred dollars on not purchasing the drink package because of the Diamond drinks.  

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I consider myself a big drinker, and I would never buy a drink package if it was $138 a day plus gratuity.  I can't imagine many other people would either.  That sounds like just marketing on NCLs part, to make people feel like they are really getting something in their promotions when they offer free unlimited drinks, free specialty dining, free internet, etc.

The pricing of Royal's drink packages seem to keep pace with general market conditions.  5 years ago they could be had during sales for less than $60 a day, then it went to $60-$65.  Now it seems regular pricing is $72.99 with sales dropping it to $67.99.  It will be interesting to see what black friday / cyber monday sales bring.  A year or two from now I can see it being in the neighborhood of $75-$78.  It's all relative. 

I will say in my last few cruises, the prices of individual drinks on board seem to have held steady at $12-$13 for the more expensive blender drinks and top shelf mix blends, $7-$10 for beers, etc.  But the drink packages have crept up.  If the drink packages continue to creep up, I would expect the individual prices on board would have to go up as well.  Otherwise the drink package math changes.

Royal's pricing algorithms are smarter than me though.   

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32 minutes ago, JBC said:

 

I will say in my last few cruises, the prices of individual drinks on board seem to have held steady at $12-$13 for the more expensive blender drinks and top shelf mix blends, $7-$10 for beers, etc.  But the drink packages have crept up.  If the drink packages continue to creep up, I would expect the individual prices on board would have to go up as well.  Otherwise the drink package math changes.

 

 

I think the ceiling of $12/$13 has been around for a while, but more of the drinks are hitting that price point.  Many of the drinks advertised in the front of the menu were $13, but in the "fine print" there were slightly cheaper drinks.  A painkiller used to be $9.50, and was just listed in a boring area near the bottom of the Boleros menu.  Now it's at $13 with the rest of the drinks.  They are using pussers rum now, not sure if they did a few years ago.

 

 

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