Should you buy a Royal Caribbean drink package?

The Street

It's not an easy decision given how expensive the Royal Caribbean Deluxe Beverage Package has gotten.

Transcript

00:00Hey there, cruisers. I am Dan Klein, executive editor of Come Cruise With Me. That is comecruisewith.com

00:10or if you want comecruisewith.me. We are on the wonder of the seas at the Mason Jar. I'm

00:15with Dennis Post. Dennis is our travel agent partner. He is the co-owner, along with his

00:19wife Amy, of Postcard Travel Planning. They are my travel agents. They are the people

00:24that when I am stuck somewhere, I call. They are the people that when my mother couldn't

00:29get to Florida, literally offered to pick her up at the airport if she came in late.

00:34Actually, to be fair, she couldn't get to New York. She would have then met the ship

00:37the next day in Florida. So these are travel agents that I absolutely trust. But we are

00:41going to answer today. Dennis, I think it's fair to say, this is the toughest question

00:45for everyone on their cruise. It's not where am I going? It's not what ship do I pick?

00:50It is should I buy the unlimited drink package? Now, drink packages work a little bit different

00:56on every cruise liner. We are going to mostly talk about how it works on Royal Caribbean.

01:00I will just say, if you are on Carnival, if you are on MSC, it's pretty similar, although

01:05the pricing on those is fixed. Whereas on Royal Caribbean, they use something called

01:10dynamic pricing. What does dynamic pricing mean? It means you have to really pay attention

01:14because it might be $60 a day, plus 18% gratuity on Monday, and then it might be $80 a day

01:21or $110. They don't tell you the formula, so you have to, a good travel agent can pay

01:27attention for you, but in the case of booking it on your own, you have to watch it. And

01:32if you see the price go down, you are allowed to cancel it and book it again. The problem

01:36is it takes about two weeks to get a refund. And when you are talking something that's

01:40$60 to $110, maybe even a little more, per day, that can act up. But Dennis, what are

01:47your thoughts? You deal with clients on this all the time. Why do you tell them that they

01:51often want this?

01:53So because the first thing is we get is, you know, they're looking for the value. How much

01:57money am I going to save? And it's not always just that, like how many drinks per day, and

02:01it's somewhere between five to seven drinks, and then you break even, or you make money,

02:07you save a little bit of money.

02:08You're not making money. They don't actually give you the dollars, but you are in the bonus

02:13zone in terms of what you would have been spending.

02:16Yeah, so and then what it is is that a lot of people don't understand that when you're

02:21sitting at home, you live a certain lifestyle, right? You go to work, you go to bed, you

02:24do certain things. And you may have a drink on Friday night, Saturday, whatever you do.

02:28But when you go on a cruise, it's completely different. Your time is freedom. You've got

02:32a lot of things to do, and there's so much more here to offer, so you want to try different

02:36things. That's why we say the number one thing is that reason for there, because you're on

02:41vacation with a place that's got the best customer service and the best drinks.

02:46It's also important. A cocktail, like I'm drinking here at the beautiful Mason Jar,

02:52is about $15, $14 to $16. The limit for the drink package is right about there. It varies

02:58a little on ship. So if you're a cocktail drinker or a wine drinker, and if you're a

03:03wine drinker who doesn't just say, give me the cheapest, the house red wine, at five

03:08drinks, you're pretty much there every day. But it's not just drinks. You also get specialty

03:13coffee. So every morning, I know I have a latte. Most nights at dinner, I have an espresso

03:18shot. Well, the latte's five bucks. The espresso shot's four. Bottle of water, $3.50, I'm not

03:24sure exactly. I drink 12, 15 bottles of water on the average cruise, and there is plenty

03:30of free water. But cruise ship water is desalinated, and I find that if I drink too much of it,

03:36it still has some salt content. So I look at it as, and now, I am Diamond Plus on Royal,

03:42and I drink free in the casino. So I get five free drinks every day. I can use those drinks

03:47to give my friends who I'm with, who don't have a drink package, free drinks. And I usually

03:51buy the drink package. And for me, it's peace of mind. I don't have to look at the app,

03:57oh my God, did I spend this much? And I can make the purchase months in advance, and then

04:03when I'm on the cruise, I'm on vacation, I'm not thinking about it. I will point out

04:07as we're taping this, I am on vacation. So Sarah, Justin, if you were watching, I am

04:11off the clock as we drink and record this. Dennis, what's the pushback you get? Because

04:15I know the drink package can sometimes cost more than the cruise.

04:20So yeah, so the pushback is, well, first is, it makes a worry-free trip. You did comment

04:25on that. So that's a big thing, because people will not necessarily try things. They go to

04:30their menu and say, oh, how much is that? When you have the drink package, you don't

04:33do that. You tend to try things and relax more. The other big thing is, there's no bill

04:37at the end. We've had a lot of people with big bills at the end, because they get happy.

04:42They enjoy themselves. Then they might have a few more drinks than they thought they had.

04:45Yeah, I can't tell you how many drinks I had last night. I got to be honest. I was in the

04:49pub. There's a wonderful pub guitarist, Ellie Finnerty, on the ship. And like, did I have

04:53three, did I have five? I am not entirely sure.

04:55Right, exactly. And it's our job is to lay it all out. So what we try to create with

05:00the drink package is basically an all-inclusive. So now when you come on the ship, you're not

05:05going to spend any more money unless you buy pictures or go to the spa or something. Your

05:10shows, your food, your drinks, going in and out of the ports, all included. You pretty

05:14much have a fixed bill. And it makes it a lot easier for people. They can manage it

05:19six months out, eight months out. And of course, as Dan was alluding to, as a travel agency,

05:24we monitor the cruise all the way through. So if there's a price drop, we'll fix that.

05:29We'll bring it back up. Same thing with the drink package. We'll monitor it and make sure

05:32that you're getting the best value.

05:35So the other thing, and we'll close on this, that's really, really important. Buy the drink

05:40package, if you're going to buy it, before your cruise. Royal Caribbean used to regularly

05:46offer a buy one, get one 50% off discount. And that's kind of a meaningless discount

05:52because there's no fixed top price. Now they sometimes don't even have that. And if you

05:57get on the ship, the drink package could be $110 per day. And every adult over 21 in your

06:03cabin has to buy it. If you arrange before the cruise, and there's someone who's not

06:08a drinker, has a medical condition, or is pregnant, or who knows what reason, they're

06:12not someone who drinks regularly. If you call the cruise line or your travel agent calls

06:16the cruise line, you can book the refreshment package for those people. But if you get on

06:20the ship, every person 21 and older has to buy it. And many times it will be $110 per

06:26day. When if you pay attention, finding it for $60 a day on a 7-day cruise is possible,

06:32but $70 to $75 is pretty reasonable. That is a lot of money very quickly.

06:38I am Dan Kline. Come visit us at ComeCruiseWith.com. Thank you for watching.

06:42Yeah, thank you guys.

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