I think going with the premium package is the best. After having two specialty coffees in the morning, sodas or beer for lunch, two more drinks by the pool, martini before dinner, after dinner cocktail or coffee, and a nightcap after losing my money at the casino…. What was the the question???? Oh yeah… I like cruising. 😊❤🍹🍸
Just got back from a celebrity cruise. My wife and I don't drink much we opted not to get the drink package and glad we didn't. We spent a total of 85 dollars on drinks for the whole cruise..... We had multiple port days and would get a drink in port. But there was no way we could ever meet the minimum drink requirement per day to make it worth it. Now we worked the system by getting drinks in the casino and stuff like that. Also we paid for wine pairing event and a mixology event and got about 3-5 full drinks each during that time also. But the drink package is convenient the fact you can get water bottles and coffees is nice. But remember you can also bring a case of water and two bottle of wine onto the ship with screw tops to avoid a corkage fee. We saved 800 dollars by not doing the drink package and that paid for multiple excursions.
I am glad you were able to save some money. Smart moves! Thank you for sharing the tips about water and screw top wines. Appreciate your insight, JT! Cheers!
Thanks for the kind words James! Nice to meet you. Im really glad you find the videos helpful. I'll continue to work hard on them. If you have any questions, let me know. Alaska sounds like a great trip! Are you sailing on the Eclipse?
Great Info. All these calculators overhype the Tip portion, personally I think it should be excluded from the Analysis. Mainly because you will pay it regardless of the package or a la carte. The turning point on go / no go for the Drink packages is still always the # of drinks per day. Also influenced by the port heavy aspect of the cruise. Multiple sea days and even a light drinker can hit 7 drinks without much problem from afternoon into the evening also including if you are a specialty coffee drinker in the morning and those waters add up. Nice video and good clean drink calculator spreadsheet.
You forgot to add sodas in on this one ..... people can add that cost on and figure it out. Excellent job on how you wrote this all down. Very nice. Thank you very much.!
I called X & they canceled my classic drink package for $671 & added the premium drink package for $621. I also had X cancel my premium wifi for $209 & rebrought it for $146.😊 Make you have the sale price on your app so you get the best price. You can use it for 35% OFF excusions, too.
This was a really good video. But I disagree that you have to drink a lot of alcohol if you get the premium package. Just drinking 3 or 4 bottled waters, a couple of juices and/or smoothies, a couple of glasses of wine, a couple of specialty coffees, and a couple of special cocktails in the evening is a lot without a lot of alcohol. And that's not even counting any sodas or sparkling waters you may want. So I think even the people who aren't heavy drinkers can benefit from the premium package. Especially if you watch for the sales when some are 35% off.
I’ll be boarding my first Celebrity cruise on Thursday. Thanks for this video. I have the Premium Package, if you have to pay the difference in the drink cost, do they also add the gratuity to that? I heard you say no, but just checking to be sure.
This is a very good question. I believe tips are added as percentage to anything you buy from the bar. So they most likely will charge you for that. Since you are on the ship, can you verify this to keep me honest?
Premium package is about 100 dollars per day. So, in order to make it worth it, you will need to have at least 4-5 mixed/specialty (alcohol) drinks per day on top of your premium water/coffee/juice. That's just to break even. If you drink less than that, I don't suggest getting the premium package. It will be a waste of your money.
You are right. Sorry about that. Here is the info. Soda falls into the soft drink category. They are 3 dollars per drink. Soda in included in all of the packages. If you don't drink alcohol, you would need to have at least 5 of them with your coffee, water and juice to make the zero proof package worth it. If you have any other questions, please let me know. Cheers!
Very good question. I don't believe they are included in the classic package but i will try to double check this for you on my next cruise in about a month. Ill get back to this comment once I get the details. Cheers!
Just came off celebrity beyond the Classic package is good you do get pinot grigio and other wines and you get plenty of very good cocktails, I would not bother upgrading to the perier package u can pay the difference if you want a malt, a think it was $2 more per jack daniels made sense not to upgrade
I would rather spike my own juice or tonic water as the drinks tend to be too sweet or too weak (or both). Would they allow me to buy a shot of rum, for example) so that I can put it in my own soda and would that be cost effective?
I believe that is possible. You can bring your own soda, buy a shot and mix it yourself. I don't think it will be cost effective but I am not sure. I will do the math for you on my next cruise (sailing at the end of this month) and get back to you with the exact specifics.
Why would anyone book the classic package, if you are going to get the drink package you buy the all inclusive which is cheaper than the drink package by itself but includes gratuities and wifi.
That is a great question Dan. I actually made a whole video breaking down the all inclusive. At times, it is cheaper but most of the time it's priced about 100 dollars more than the classic package total. If you are going to drink, all inclusive is a good option.
Actually I guess the problem is that you don't know how much the drink package will be at the time of booking and Celebrity is playing a lot of games with drink package prices..I have a 16 day cruise coming up later this year where they list the normal price for the classic package at $129 a day and they have say 50% flash sale now $63.99 + 20% gratuity. I however paid a bit more than $200 less for all inclusive.
Unfortuantely no alcoholic beverages may be brought onboard for consumption, with the exception of two bottles of wine at embarkation. When consumed in any shipboard bar or dining venue, there's a corkage fee of $25 per bottle. However you are allowed to bring soda and water on board. I heard guests bringing 12 pack of canned soda and water with no issues. Don't quote me but I believe you are allowed to bring unlimited non-alcoholic beverages on board. I suggest verifying this with customer service.
Had to laugh at I hope Celebrity fixes that. It's just not fair. Followed by beverages exceeding $17. (Do you get to keep the glass?). Spare me. An Elite plus who has had enough. Waiting for the next $2 cookie. What will it be? I love surprises. Surprises that delight me. Not piss me off.
The only question I have it’s if the non-alcoholic beer is included, I suppose yes, because celebrity says all non-alcoholic beverages are included, but I read some people on Facebook who said it wasn’t.
Im pretty sure that non-alcoholic drinks do not inlcude beer/wine. I believe its just sodas, waters, coffees, teas, juices and bar drinks. Non-alcoholic bar drinks are a combination or juices, sodas and seltzer water. I hope this helps.
