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New Applicable Hours for Drink Vouchers


WAAAYTOOO

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3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Just got this notice regarding a change to applicable hours for drink vouchers.  Does this mean that we have to consume all of our first day's vouchers by 5:00 PM....and that after 5:00 PM you are now on the next day's allocation ?

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No, they reset at 4:59 AM, so you will basically loose the first and last day's vouchers.  Nice that they tried to spin it as a positive though.  

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28 minutes ago, MrMarc said:

No, they reset at 4:59 AM, so you will basically loose the first and last day's vouchers.  Nice that they tried to spin it as a positive though.  

My first reaction was this is a cost saving move as well regarding last cruise night vouchers not resetting at midnight.    I doubt it will impact me as it's not uncommon for me to have unused vouchers some nights and I never am out and about after midnight on the last night of the cruise.    

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29 minutes ago, MrMarc said:

No, they reset at 4:59 AM, so you will basically loose the first and last day's vouchers.  Nice that they tried to spin it as a positive though.  

Actually, you don't. I would assume they would start when you board. I use mine on the last day to get some specialty tea/coffee and waters. The WJ opens at 6am usually on the last day and they have a bar. 

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I can't see where anyone loses anything.  
I think this addresses those who are a late night person and midnight comes around and you've not used your vouchers they are still there to use.
I know there were times I still had vouchers left at midnight and had to debate with myself use "tomorrows" vouchers now, suck it up and pay for a drink or just call it a night.
The last day of the cruise you would still have vouchers that begin at 5am.
 

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21 minutes ago, Pattycruise said:

I can't see where anyone loses anything.  
I think this addresses those who are a late night person and midnight comes around and you've not used your vouchers they are still there to use.
I know there were times I still had vouchers left at midnight and had to debate with myself use "tomorrows" vouchers now, suck it up and pay for a drink or just call it a night.
The last day of the cruise you would still have vouchers that begin at 5am.
 


It's this exactly. The edge case where people were burning their last few vouchers after midnight on the last night of a cruise is probably not large enough to warrant trying to save $40 a cruiser (I'd bet this actually made them money on people buying drinks after their vouchers run out). 

This is the second update to make the voucher program into a real benefit for Diamond rather than a conciliatory afterthought.

This doesn't save them money on drinks - it saves them money on customer service staff.

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I know that all the D and above here will be well, well past their free allotment of 4, 5, or 6 when they sail this New Years Eve. 
 

But….there are a lot of Diamond newbies these days and I think this new policy may come as a surprise to them after the ball drops in the Viking Crown disco.

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14 minutes ago, bobroo said:

I know that all the D and above here will be well, well past their free allotment of 4, 5, or 6 when they sail this New Years Eve. 
 

But….there are a lot of Diamond newbies these days and I think this new policy may come as a surprise to them after the ball drops in the Viking Crown disco.

It shouldn't come as a surprise if they read their emails.  It's not as though Royal is trying to hide it.

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24 minutes ago, bobroo said:

I know that all the D and above here will be well, well past their free allotment of 4, 5, or 6 when they sail this New Years Eve. 
 

But….there are a lot of Diamond newbies these days and I think this new policy may come as a surprise to them after the ball drops in the Viking Crown disco.

Knowing in advance how the timing works everyone can adjust their voucher consumption to suit their individual needs. 

Before the shutdown there would be no NYE drinks to be had once happy hour ended at 8pm so every NYE after eight beverage back then would mean paying per drink.  That's 4 hours of buying drinks just to reach midnight plus anything you drink after midnight.    

I feel like people are splitting hairs trying to find some small way that this is a disadvantage.  

If NYE was last week, you had 4/5/6 drink per day.  Now?  You have 4/5/6 drinks per day.  Last week you'd have to strategize how to play the system to get make sure you didn't drink anything past midnight on the 30th to maximize drinks on the 31st. 

With the new rules you can drink past midnight on the 30th (if you have remaining vouchers from the 30th) and not impact your NYE drinks.  

It's just time shifting, they are not taking drinks away.  

It's like this is ruining NYE somehow.  It's NYE folks, one night of the year pry open that wallet and buy a few drinks if you need more than 4/5/6.  

Last night of the cruise?  That's maybe a sore point for some, but for me, by the last night of the cruise I'm near done drinking and I'm in bed before midnight.  Old person syndrome.  

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2 hours ago, Jill said:

I’d rather they just load my drinks to my sea pass right off the bat. When they’re gone, they’re gone. 
 

Agree 100%.

Load the vouchers on the card, and use them as we see fit.

And exactly right, when they're gone, they're gone.

Too much admin, too much 'control management'.... RC should just load and forget, its up to the user to manage their drinks.

 

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I like the new way of doing this.  Lot less confusing.   More reasonable and simplistic. As someone said above, you still have the same # of drinks, you just have to manage it a little differently to maximize it to your individual tests.  4/5/6 drinks is still a fantastic deal.  Shelling out a little more if need be isn't such a bad thing but we now have options and for me will be easier to remember and maximize to my advantage.  The last night if I am up I can still drink.  After 7 days, it sometimes happens but sometimes I'm partied out.  

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Our Odyssey cruise in Jan will be the first time I'm going without the DBP. With my four and my wife's four vouchers I'll need to manage my drinks. When you have the DBP it's quite easy to have a couple Mimosa's at breakfast and several other drinks throughout the day, one maybe two glasses of wine at dinner, then some evening drinks and during a show. I'll just need to pay a bit more attention. This will be a learning experience as I'm cruising in May without my wife so will be down to just my four, but I'll have five on the second week of a B2B.

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Just because you don't need the DBP @KevinJdoesn't mean you need to manage your drinks.  Just drink and enjoy your cruise and if you pay for some full price then that's what you do, but you'll still come out ahead of DBP.

I hear this notion often regarding DBP that if someone calculates an estimate and it is below the threshold to get the DBP there is a feeling that they can't just drink what they want.  The calculation should be based on generally drinking what you want and if you come close to DBP price or go a little over by cruise end, then there's a better frame of reference for the next time you need to calculate.

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1 hour ago, KevinJ said:

Our Odyssey cruise in Jan will be the first time I'm going without the DBP. With my four and my wife's four vouchers I'll need to manage my drinks. When you have the DBP it's quite easy to have a couple Mimosa's at breakfast and several other drinks throughout the day, one maybe two glasses of wine at dinner, then some evening drinks and during a show. I'll just need to pay a bit more attention. This will be a learning experience as I'm cruising in May without my wife so will be down to just my four, but I'll have five on the second week of a B2B.

Remember on the 1st cruise of your B2B to let the C&A person know that you will reach D+ on that cruise; so that you'll et the D+ awards on the 2nd cruise of the B2B.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just thought I would drop a quick note regarding drink vouchers since this is our first cruise where the new policy is in place…

We are now on day 4 (of 7) and have yet to use even 1 drink voucher.  Our D+ “gifts” include a half dozen sodas and a half dozen bottles of water so that has certainly helped.  Dan smuggled a couple of Coronas from our stash in the Star Loft Suite (last week) and we drink for free in the casino…so I’m sure these mitigations have reduced the need for ala carte drinks, considerably. 
 

I have 1 cruise remaining for which I had purchased the DBP (SY 2-11-23) but judging from this sailing’s  “trial”, I am fairly sure I will cancel it.

At first I was a bit self conscious about carrying a can of Coke into a restaurant but that concern quickly diminished and now I do it, routinely.

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43 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Dan smuggled a couple of Coronas from our stash in the Star Loft Suite (last week) and we drink for free in the casino…so I’m sure these mitigations have reduced the need for ala carte drinks, considerably. 

Your Genie didn't tell you to take the entire minibar? Ours let us put the cooler with our luggage to be delivered to our non-SC room for the second leg of our B2B 😂

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2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

No.  I felt like a bandit just agreeing to let Dan take 2 Coronas from the fridge !  Lol

😂 ours was all you paid for it..take it! He also set up our reservations for the entire second leg and decorated our cabin door. If I can't do both legs in SC, sure gonna make sure the first leg is the SC one in the future!

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1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

😂 ours was all you paid for it..take it! He also set up our reservations for the entire second leg and decorated our cabin door. If I can't do both legs in SC, sure gonna make sure the first leg is the SC one in the future!

Allan did make all of our UDP reservations for this week, which was a huge deal since all of the dining pkgs had been sold out for some time.  We were very grateful for that help.

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On 12/15/2022 at 3:01 PM, MrMarc said:

No, they reset at 4:59 AM, so you will basically loose the first and last day's vouchers.  Nice that they tried to spin it as a positive though.  

You can use your vouchers the first day of embarkation and also the morning you disembark.  

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