Anyone with plans to take a Royal Caribbean cruise has been issued an urgent reminder for a core part of the experience: Drinks packages.
Many of the packages allow you to drink as much as you want, and who doesn’t want to be travelling along in the beautiful Caribbean Sea with a pint or cocktail in hand?
Where the warning comes in, however, is around the cost, as one specific tip could save customers as much as £100s off their drink packages.
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The cruises have several drinks packages, ranging from ones that provide you with just Evian water bottles or soft drinks all the way up to ‘Deluxe Beverage’ packages that can in some cases entitle you to unlimited alcoholic drinks.
One savvy cruiser took to Reddit to share their tips on how to get the best value for money, posting on r/RoyalCaribbean.
They posted a picture of various drinks packages they had come across ahead of a cruise they were set to take which would have lasted just over two weeks.
Whilst they booked the cruise itself ‘over 600 days ago’, they actually waited till the very last minute to book the drink packages part of their voyage.
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The poster said: “Here is why you should always check prices for the drink package all the way until the day you sail.
“Booked cruise over 600 days ago. Saved $332 by checking drink package price about once a week.
“The final purchase was made today, the cruise sails a week from now. Black Friday was purchase #3 so not the cheapest at all.”
They showed five drinks packages, with the most expensive and first one they came across being $79.99 a day (£62.55), coming out to a total of $1321.
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The following packages are then $74.99, $69.99, $64.99, and $54.99 a day with the cheapest having cost them a total of $991.
Various commenters commended their advice, with the most popular comment saying: “Check prices on everything! Our inaugural sailing on star has dropped almost $2000!
“Always cancel and rebook Excursions, drink packages. I wish there was an option to not have to cancel completely and rebook but I'll take any savings I can get!”
Another said: “Very very true!! We got our drink package at 62$ a day Coming up in November I don’t think it will go lower than that.
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“But we will keep checking lol. You never know.”
The lesson seems to be, if you’re planning a cruise soon with Royal Caribbean, make sure you check, double check, and triple check – or you might be leaving money on the table.
Topics: Royal Caribbean, Travel, Reddit, Cruise Ship
Michael Slavin