Getting by no drink plan questions

mousefan73

Germans are faster at dubbing
Joined
May 9, 2012
We are doing our first RCCL cruise. June 13th Med on the Oasis. DH, me and our kids 13 and 12.
I did the math and about fell over what a drink plan will cost us. Especially now they are raising 2019 prices. Yes, DH and I love a few adult drinks, but do not need to hit up every bar for a cocktail. So my initial though was just doing the soda package and tossed the idea of the upgraded plan for coffee, water etc.. I did my math on 7 days.

Soda is 364 for the week
other plan is 840 for the week.

since our trip is port heavy.. We only have one sea day.. I am wondering if paying OOP is better.
Knowing that water, tea, coffee juices are covered for free at breakfast ( we might get the coffee card). I am wondering how "free" drinking works around the ship...

Questions:
1. I am used to DCL where you have drink stations.. Does RCCL have these for free drinks? Where can one just get water to drink. or does one have to be in a dining room?

2. If I order a diet coke at dinner, do I get free refills for that entire dining experience?

3. Where can one just buy bottled water or cans on board? Only the bars?

Where does one get something to drinnk say... I need water at 11pm?

I think between the 2 bottles of wine we bring on board and paying OOP for 2 drinks each a day we should come out way ahead of any package..
 
if Windjammer is open (which is almost always) you can get 'free' ice water, ice tea, certain flavored waters by the glass and during meal times juices and milk typically (and coffee)

This also applies to 'wipeout cafe' as I recall.

every outside bar will have large dispensers of ice water at the server station with cups, self serve & free. Bring your Yeti and fill er up.
(for sanitation reasons you should dispense to a ship cup/glass and then you your cup to prevent cross contamination)

bottled water (regular filtered water) available for purchase at any bar as are soft drinks

for midnight water I just ask room attendant to keep my ice bucket filled and move to my own cup/glass as needed. (water from the tap is the same water btw)

I believe you'd get soda refills at dinner but it's a long time since I sailed RCL w/out a package
 
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we never get a drink package, you can always find iced tea, lemonade, iced water, coffee, milk. any bar will give you iced water or will have a iced water dispenser.
 
On our Anthem cruise last month, I carried on sodas/bottled water at almost every port. We had asked our stateroom attendant to give us ice daily - so they were always cold (although the chill box did a good job of keeping them cool). It worked well for me and we plan on doing that again on our next cruise.
 


On our Anthem cruise last month, I carried on sodas/bottled water at almost every port. We had asked our stateroom attendant to give us ice daily - so they were always cold (although the chill box did a good job of keeping them cool). It worked well for me and we plan on doing that again on our next cruise.
I thought that was a no-no... do they not check while at port?
 
I thought that was a no-no... do they not check while at port?
They probably do, but it’s not alcohol,so I guess they felt generous.

if Windjammer is open (which is almost always) you can get 'free' ice water, ice tea, certain flavored waters by the glass and during meal times juices and milk typically (and coffee)

This also applies to 'wipeout cafe' as I recall.

every outside bar will have large dispensers of ice water at the server station with cups, self serve & free. Bring your Yeti and fill er up.
(for sanitation reasons you should dispense to a ship cup/glass and then you your cup to prevent cross contamination)

bottled water (regular filtered water) available for purchase at and bar as are soft drinks

for midnight water I just ask room attendant to keep my ice bucket filled and move to my own cup/glass as needed. (water from the tap is the same water btw)

I believe you'd get soda refills at dinner but it's a long time since I sailed RCL w/out a package
Park Cafe and Promenade cafe have Seattle’s Best areas, which cost money. Starbucks is also extra, although people have said that they can use their Starbucks cards to pay.

I think Oasis has Freestyle machines, and while you wouldn’t be able to get drinks from the machines you can get ice from there if there’s a line at the other ice machines.

Agreed about using a cup to fill your bottle. Since you are not drinking from the cup it should be ok to reuse to refill ice (I know my bottle takes a few cups to fill).
 
I thought that was a no-no... do they not check while at port?

They changed their policy recently (although is was generally allowed before). As long as you carry it on you can bring on non-alcoholic drinks for the stateroom.
 


No free refills for soda at dinner, you will be charged by the can. You can go to any bar and ask for a cup of water if it is not out for self service.

You do not have to buy a soda package or refreshment package for everyone in the cabin if one does not need it. You can buy the soda package for one or both kids and two refreshment package for the adults. With both packages, you will get a freestyle cup to get soda from the freestyle machines. You do not need the cup to get soda from a gun at the bars and restaurants. They will ask to see your seapass to make sure you have a drink package. With drink package, you can get drinks at main dining room or specialty restaurants. The refreshment package allows you to get bottled water from any bar or venue that has them for sale. Evian bottled water is not included.
 
The more I read up on this, the more peeved I get. Why are they serving CANS! In a MDR?? For one it‘s cheap. And mainly the environment. Sure cans are recylable. But the environmental costs of transporting and processing. And still using a glass with ice that needs to get washed. On DCL it‘s fountain.
 
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The more I read up on this, the more peeved I get. Why are they serving CANS! In a MDR?? For one it‘s cheap. And mainly the environment. Sure cans are recylable. But the environmental costs of transporting and processing. And still using a glass with ice that needs to get washed. On DCL it‘s fountain.
It’s a good point. The only reason I can think of for not switching is the cost of doing so.

(I didn’t say it was a great reason)
 
I may be wrong but from what I remember my kids always received fountain soda when ordering in the MDR. They've always had the soda package. From my understanding if you have a package you get a glass of soda. If you are purchasing a soda you get they give you a can.
 
Makes sense as then you cant complain I only paid for ice. Though refills would solve that issue. Though that will never hsppen
I may be wrong but from what I remember my kids always received fountain soda when ordering in the MDR. They've always had the soda package. From my understanding if you have a package you get a glass of soda. If you are purchasing a soda you get they give you a can.[/QUOTE
 
Just got off, on Sunday, an 8 day Carnival cruise with 4 port days. We had drink package and the only way I broke even was using it to get a specialty coffee every morning and a few bottles of water. And I left a lot of drinks half drank. It was just too much. And then on our 4 port days, we were hesitant to sit on those lovely islands and enjoy a few beers because we had the free drinks back on the ship. I have a Royal Caribbean cruise booked in January and we had the drink package purchased but I cancelled it yesterday. I also don't need the soda package as they have free iced tea and non-bottled water which suits me just fine. Another thing I felt was awkward was tipping. I know tips are supposed to be included with the drink package but we felt the need to tip an extra $1 on each pair of drinks (DH and I would order together). It would be easier, and likely cheaper, to just pay as we go. The positive was that I could try every drink they had but I did find that the most drinks I wanted in a day (from noon to 11pm) was about 6 or 7...and a couple days I wanted zero....and port days I wanted like 2-3 at night. So I'd say I average about 4/day and 1 coffee...5 drinks doesn't really make the package worth it.
 
As for water...on the ship I was just on, the CCL Horizon, they had a water cooler thing at the Havana bar and pool, which was like 8 steps from our cabin. So we'd get a cup of water on our way to bed. They also stocked our room with 2 big water bottles (we got 2 free for being gold members...having been on 9 CCL cruises). And with the drink package, the dining room servers would offer us the same big bottles of water since they were included on our drink package. We'd take them back to our cabin. On past cruises, with no drink package, we'd pre-order a case of water to be in our cabin and we'd bring 2 bottles of wine on the ship. We'll do that on January cruise too.
 
Just got off, on Sunday, an 8 day Carnival cruise with 4 port days. We had drink package and the only way I broke even was using it to get a specialty coffee every morning and a few bottles of water. And I left a lot of drinks half drank. It was just too much. And then on our 4 port days, we were hesitant to sit on those lovely islands and enjoy a few beers because we had the free drinks back on the ship. I have a Royal Caribbean cruise booked in January and we had the drink package purchased but I cancelled it yesterday. I also don't need the soda package as they have free iced tea and non-bottled water which suits me just fine. Another thing I felt was awkward was tipping. I know tips are supposed to be included with the drink package but we felt the need to tip an extra $1 on each pair of drinks (DH and I would order together). It would be easier, and likely cheaper, to just pay as we go. The positive was that I could try every drink they had but I did find that the most drinks I wanted in a day (from noon to 11pm) was about 6 or 7...and a couple days I wanted zero....and port days I wanted like 2-3 at night. So I'd say I average about 4/day and 1 coffee...5 drinks doesn't really make the package worth it.
Do you know the approximate cost of mixed and frozen drinks on Carnival.From the menus I've found online the drinks look cheaper than RCCL and the Carnival package costs a little more.I always get my money's worth out of the package on RCCL. I'm going on my first Carnival cruise in a few months and I'm debating whether I need a package or not.
 

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