DCL - Drinks Package

[sweetpee_1993]

Maybe the frequent cruisers that have experience with other cruise lines can answer this, but isn't the cost of a drink package around $350 give or take per person? If so, that seems to work out to an average of about 6 to 7 drinks per day on a week long cruise. So that's probably why that amount because they figure that's where the average probably is. Some will drink less, some more. They also factor in that odds are some people won't be feeling well on some days and not drink, so that's where they make the money.

For my upcoming Anthem of the Seas cruise if I were to purchase the package it'd be just shy of $400 with 18% gratuity. If you do the math based on $11/drink (that's an average price as some are less, some more, drink + gratuity) it breaks down to roughly 5 drinks per day. I love martinis. They tend to cost slightly more. 5 drinks in a day is easy to do without being inebriated. A Bloody Mary or Mimosa in the morning, a frozen something by the pool, a cocktail pre-dinner, a glass of wine with dinner, a drink at the show, maybe 2 at the adult show later on. I know when I cruise I do have at least a couple days I don't feel like drinking. Then on port days you aren't onboard all day to drink. More often than not you won't drink the full value of the package. The cruise lines are smart with where they price the packages. By charging what they do they guarantee themselves x amount of bar sales from those who buy in. Remember, we're basing our figures on the bar prices. That's not the cost of each drink to the cruise line. It's not that common to drink the entire value at the bar prices. Total win/win for the cruise line.

I'm perplexed as to why Disney wants to leave money on the table. Not what they typically do. And since they do seem to make a lot of moves toward industry standards...

Yes, you used to could have any/all alcohol as long as you carried it onboard. That was nice but even then I would've rathered a package. It's not convenient to constantly return to your room to pour another drink. I'd rather set on a bar stool and let someone else fix them for me.

There's always the mixologies and tastings. Although when I go to those it always takes me a little aback when the bartender says, "Don't worry, we're going to get you drunk". That's not why I go to those. I genuinely like to try other things I normally wouldn't.

 

[Neptune's Fork]

For my upcoming Anthem of the Seas cruise if I were to purchase the package it'd be just shy of $400 with 18% gratuity. If you do the math based on $11/drink (that's an average price as some are less, some more, drink + gratuity) it breaks down to roughly 5 drinks per day. I love martinis. They tend to cost slightly more. 5 drinks in a day is easy to do without being inebriated. A Bloody Mary or Mimosa in the morning, a frozen something by the pool, a cocktail pre-dinner, a glass of wine with dinner, a drink at the show, maybe 2 at the adult show later on. I know when I cruise I do have at least a couple days I don't feel like drinking. Then on port days you aren't onboard all day to drink. More often than not you won't drink the full value of the package. The cruise lines are smart with where they price the packages. By charging what they do they guarantee themselves x amount of bar sales from those who buy in. Remember, we're basing our figures on the bar prices. That's not the cost of each drink to the cruise line. It's not that common to drink the entire value at the bar prices. Total win/win for the cruise line.

I'm perplexed as to why Disney wants to leave money on the table. Not what they typically do. And since they do seem to make a lot of moves toward industry standards...

Yes, you used to could have any/all alcohol as long as you carried it onboard. That was nice but even then I would've rathered a package. It's not convenient to constantly return to your room to pour another drink. I'd rather set on a bar stool and let someone else fix them for me.

There's always the mixologies and tastings. Although when I go to those it always takes me a little aback when the bartender says, "Don't worry, we're going to get you drunk". That's not why I go to those. I genuinely like to try other things I normally wouldn't.

I don't know that they're really leaving that much money on table. The math seems to ballpark the cost fairly close, so big deal if you prepay or just pay as you go. If you want to talk about leaving money on the table then that would be not having a casino. That's where these cruise lines roll in some $$$. But I would think Disney wants to keep their uniqueness in that regard and not have them.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I don't know that they're really leaving that much money on table. The math seems to ballpark the cost fairly close, so big deal if you prepay or just pay as you go. If you want to talk about leaving money on the table then that would be not having a casino. That's where these cruise lines roll in some $$$. But I would think Disney wants to keep their uniqueness in that regard and not have them.

That's basing the math on the bar prices. Cost to make the drinks is a fraction of those prices. They charge us say $13 for a martini (those tend to cost more). Their total cost to make that drink is easily less than half. We aren't talking about something that would require investments in new space, setup, equipment, labor, supplies, etc. Everything is already there. It would take very little to implement drink packages with plenty of profit to be had.

 

[thornton0511]

I find with the drink of the day, it's pretty reasonable, it's only $6/drink which seems reasonable and the drinks are so good! I do think the wine packages are overpriced but grateful for them as I can't imagine spending $80 for a bottle of wine per night

Is this the thing you can get in the souvenir cup and keep the glass to get 1/2 price drinks (of the day) for the length of your cruise, or something like that?

 

[hanscarlet]

Is this the thing you can get in the souvenir cup and keep the glass to get 1/2 price drinks (of the day) for the length of your cruise, or something like that?

Yes there's a souvenir cup and ou can get cheaper refills if you get them to fill the cup vs a new cup and I believe if you bring it back from cruise to cruise you can keep using it... I think drinks of the day are like a $1 off if you use the refill cup

 

[Amanda129]

Yes there's a souvenir cup and ou can get cheaper refills if you get them to fill the cup vs a new cup and I believe if you bring it back from cruise to cruise you can keep using it... I think drinks of the day are like a $1 off if you use the refill cup

I just did this on the Dream this week. It was about $9-10 for the plastic souvenier cup, and refills for the drink of the day were about $5.50 (including the auto gratuity). They will either wash your cup or bring you a new one when you get it refilled ( I witnessed both with mine - I started with a clear cup and ended up with a yellow one). Unless they change the cups, you could easily bring your old one back for the discount - they haven't changed the cups since my first Disney cruise 11 years ago.

If you're a beer drinker, the beer mug is really nice - heavy glass with a handle. $15 for the mug with your first fill and the refills are at the smaller beer size price (I don't know the cost on that though).

 

[Flossbolna]

The drink of the day costs the same, whether you get it in the souvenir cup or in a normal cup. However, some people say that the souvenir cup is a larger volume. So the "discount" is more drink of the day than in the normal cup. I have never measured the difference in volume, but to me it does not seem to be much. I think the souvenir cup mainly appears larger because of its shape.

 

[thornton0511]

I just did this on the Dream this week. It was about $9-10 for the plastic souvenier cup, and refills for the drink of the day were about $5.50 (including the auto gratuity). They will either wash your cup or bring you a new one when you get it refilled ( I witnessed both with mine - I started with a clear cup and ended up with a yellow one). Unless they change the cups, you could easily bring your old one back for the discount - they haven't changed the cups since my first Disney cruise 11 years ago.

If you're a beer drinker, the beer mug is really nice - heavy glass with a handle. $15 for the mug with your first fill and the refills are at the smaller beer size price (I don't know the cost on that though).

So essentially if I purchase the drink of the day, in the souvenir cup, on day one, I will pay $9-10 for that first drink. Then if I keep the glass the drinks for the remainder of the cruise will be $5.50, as long as I get whatever the drink of the day is? Just trying to make sure I am getting this correct. Thank you for your response

 

[PAGA2003]

One of the things my husband and I are looking forward to on our upcoming Celebrity cruise is the included drink package. I think it is a great bonus. Now Celebrity did increase their price a little when they made it so you always get an included perk but when I researched prices on our Bermuda cruise the price only went up by about $100 from the year when they weren't offering the package compared to what we paid so obviously a drink package is well worth that amount! I understand the argument about people drinking to excess but I really think that is the minority. I know for us we're looking forward to having the option to have a mimosa and specialty coffee at breakfast, bottled water throughout the day, a pre-dinner cocktail, wine with dinner and then an espresso to end our meal without thinking about additional cost. It definitely makes us see more value in the cost of the cruise but unfortunately as others have said as long as everyone keeps paying the Disney prices they will never see a reason to increase the perceived value (and of course many already think there is enough value there).

 

[hanscarlet]

So essentially if I purchase the drink of the day, in the souvenir cup, on day one, I will pay $9-10 for that first drink. Then if I keep the glass the drinks for the remainder of the cruise will be $5.50, as long as I get whatever the drink of the day is? Just trying to make sure I am getting this correct. Thank you for your response

Yes. So long as it's the drink of the day the cost should be $5.50 but they usually add $1 on for the tip. If you look at the navigators for your cruise or a similar cruise, you can see the drinks of the day... usually there's a green one, an orange one and a yellow one.... they are super tasty and you can't really taste the alcohol imo
one of my favorite things to do is sit on the verandah and sip the drink of the day!

 

[Amanda129]

So essentially if I purchase the drink of the day, in the souvenir cup, on day one, I will pay $9-10 for that first drink. Then if I keep the glass the drinks for the remainder of the cruise will be $5.50, as long as I get whatever the drink of the day is? Just trying to make sure I am getting this correct. Thank you for your response

Yes - they 're all rum drinks, and I found them all to be tasty. Strength is going to depend on who makes it. I walked up to one of the bars and they just poured it out of a container (pre-mixed), but ordered one from one of the servers, who made it from scratch (I could see the bar from where I was lounging) and he made it a bit stronger - probably hoping for an added tip.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

So essentially if I purchase the drink of the day, in the souvenir cup, on day one, I will pay $9-10 for that first drink. Then if I keep the glass the drinks for the remainder of the cruise will be $5.50, as long as I get whatever the drink of the day is? Just trying to make sure I am getting this correct. Thank you for your response

You can also just not purchase the souvenir cup and ask for the drink of the day in a regular cup and pay the $5.50. As Flossbolna mentioned above, the difference is some people believe the souvenir cup is larger than the regular cups. If it is larger, then it is only a little larger, and I thought someone posted in the past few months that they tested the theory and the souvenir cup held the exact same amount as the regular plastic cup.

 

[AquaDame]

hey

Do you think Disney will ever start drinks packages. To include all your cocktails etc

As a young couple this is something we would really be interested in and most cruise lines do offer this

It's a shame Disney don't, wonder if they will one day

I kind of hope they don't personally... not that I don't like the idea of it or think that people can't be responsible/shouldn't drink on vacation but just because I would fear for the quality of the drinks. Currently I've liked almost every single one I've had on DCL - they are tasty, midrange ingredients or better. Conversely the mixed drinks we had on another cruise line were just awful in our opinion. The bartender had to look up how the make their Captain's Mai Tai - it was prominently featured in the menu - and a different bartender in another bar had to look up another. We stuck with beer and wine after that..!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I don't care for 99% of the drinks of the day. I don't drink frozen drinks at all. On NCL 3x I've watched drinks being made with Grey Goose and Tito's vodka, neither of which are cheap crappy grade. I've never had any cocktails made with low-grade ingredients on their ships. In fact, I find the cocktail & beer selection far better on NCL. Considering all I paid for that drink package was the 18% service fee which came to about $130 or so (if I remember correctly), I don't think DCL offering a package for $300/pp on a 7-night would hurt the quality of liquors used.

 

[Flossbolna]

I don't care for 99% of the drinks of the day. I don't drink frozen drinks at all.

I never had a drink of the day that was a frozen drink? They all had been on the rocks. However, I think some are far better than others and they all tend to be on the sweeter side, so I can see why someone would not like them.

 

[hanscarlet]

yup I don't remember them being frozen but they are definitely sweet, many of them

 

[Fyrefly]

I really enjoyed the skyline passport on my 7 night Fantasy. I just prepaid and had a drink between the show and dinner every night without worrying about it! Since fancy martinis tend to be my splurge it worked well and I think the only other thing I grabbed was some konk coolers on CC day.

I'll be on the Wonder next year, first time on the classic ships. It would be nice if they did a similar punch card there too if they don't already. A little discount, a way to prepay so I don't care as much, but not such a big package as leaves people sloppy.

 

[jonslawiu]

Yes. So long as it's the drink of the day the cost should be $5.50 but they usually add $1 on for the tip. If you look at the navigators for your cruise or a similar cruise, you can see the drinks of the day... usually there's a green one, an orange one and a yellow one.... they are super tasty and you can't really taste the alcohol imo
one of my favorite things to do is sit on the verandah and sip the drink of the day!

The only way we cruise DCL! I've always found CMs to be great about washing or switching them out too

 

[KalamityJane]

I would fall over and cry tears of joy if Disney finally rolled out a per day all-inclusive adult beverage package that included bottled water. Would I drink enough to make it "worth it"? Probably not. The time I paid for the package on Allure I think maybe the bottled water got us close. Our first NCL cruise on the Getaway in Sept 2015 (no kids) we got the drink package for "free". I did save every bar receipt because I wanted to see what our total would be if we drank all the things we wanted to. $886. Nope, not once were we ever sloppy drunk or drunk at all. We had a blast. I want the convenience. All the soda drinkers like having the ability to sail without having to worry about buying sodas. I don't drink soda. Let me pay for the convenience of not having a fat bill at the end of my cruise. It's a convenience I'd *love* to have on Disney.

^^^^^^This!!! I don't want to worry about my bar bill at the end, I want to kick back and relax and just show my card. I don't drink soda, I want good coffee and sparkling water and a few drinks here and there.

 

[Partyof4LA]

I would love to see a drink package offered as well. DH rarely drinks alcohol and I have wine with dinner and maybe another 1-2 drinks during the day if I'm in the mood for it. But we love espresso drinks and rang up quite a tab ordering them after lunch and dinner. And we spent a lot at cove cafe. I know it would still be hard to "break even" but would make for a much more relaxing time and I wouldn't hesitate so much to order what I want when I want it if it were all pre-paid.