Great review and in no way misleading! The non- alcoholic prices on celebrity are expensive, so with a few coffees, smoothie, fresh juice and evians before you start with the alcohol, the premium package is fabulous! Being a martini bar lover the premium is the way to go! However, our next cruise is this month from Hong Kong. It’s 12 days with long days off the ship sightseeing. For the first time ever we have no package 😮. We have prepaid for some bottles of wine in their sale, will bring on one each too. Coupled with the elite happy hour, we will just pay as we go. If I were as talented as you guys, I should you tube my experience!! Wish me luck with no package 😂
Thank you Corina. We are glad you enjoyed and agreed with our review 👍😁 We do think it is a package, that if you like a drink or three, it can be fantastic value for money, especially as part of an offer or cheaper upgrade, because as you said, Celebrity are not cheap when it comes to the drinks. It'll be really interesting to see how your pay as you go options goes on the Hong Kong cruise (Wow by the way), as if you are off the ship from early until late, as others have commented, it is not always as easy to get full advantage of the packages, and we'd be like you in Hong Kong, wanting to see as much as possible. We are not always as inspired when we pull up at some other ports though. Normally on the next cruise of the same line (so our next celebrity) we don't take it, so we can do a true comparison, as we did on P&O and Cunard, but if we didn't have a port intensive cruise we don't know if we could cope with doing that on Celebrity as we know full well we'd be worse off 🤣 You should definitely do a vlog and share the experience with us and the rest of the world. Have a lovely day, Linzi & Mark
I couldn’t believe the prices for drinks packages on my American cruises last year! I found Royal would usually have a promotion on embarkation day, which actually made it cheaper to buy the package onboard in the US than in advance from the U.K.! Personally, I tend to stick to the standard drinks packages, because I’m happy with a beer or a wine off that menu - loved seeing all your fancy cocktails in this review though - great video as always!
Thanks Fraser. The drinks packages on Royal are so expensive, not that Celebrity isn't, after all, it is the same parent company, so we shouldn't be surprised. BUT both companies packages work well, if you drink enough (obviously) and you get an offer. The drinks on Royal and Celebrity are some of the most consistently good we've had on any cruise line, with only Virgin comparing really, and they don't have a traditional drinks package. We will get you onto cocktails when we meet up on land, or absolutely when we are on a cruise together, we will get you off the beer and wine Fraser 🤣 Linzi & Mark
brilliant review. We were on Beyond last year, and like you, made our way through the cocktail menu in the martinin bar one night. Wasnt too good the next day. Agree about Eden too. Cocktails there are amazing. But despite all of this, my favourite drink was from the sunset bar.....the Dill- icious. Lets just say on sail away day, Neither me or my wife could remember going for our first meal. I worked out that we saved well over £1000 by the end of the cruise.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. If you do like a drink, and have the premium package it is not hard to save money at all on Celebrity compared to paying as you go, as the drinks onboard are not cheap at all. They are great, but not cheap. $17 a Martini is a lot, but more fun if you have the package.
Black Friday deals on drinks packages can be absolutely amazing. We know people who upgraded to the premium drinks package for essentially nothing. One drink and you are up. Even better if you had the basic package included too :) and with the price of drinks on Celebrity, it is absolutely worth it (as far as we are concerned).
I never upgrade to the top drinks package on NCL, and always do it on Celebrity. I do the "All included" package which doesn't include gratuities any more BTW, and upgrade to premium for less than half price when there is a special. I can't be bothered drinking at home, but on a cruise, I easily get my money's worth. I have been on Holland America and 15 a day was not nearly enough. Not even close.
oh my goodness!!! What an awesome tip regarding the drinks package and then upgrading. The amount you have save is insane. Im smiling at Linzi with the Martinis. Every single cruise, we say that we will NOT over indulge on the first night, we have seven or so more nights to go..we dont have to try and drink the ship dry in 24 hours...However, every single cruise, we get blathered that first night! haha Love and hugs to you two, and thanks once again for a class vlog..love it x
The savings on this particular cruise line were eye watering, could you have imagined that bill at the end of the cruise. We would have had to stay on an wash dishes in the galley ;) Next cruise we promise not to get blathered on the first night. Honest. Linzi & Mark
We are booked for the Summit cruising to Alaska in June 2025 and, unfortunately, I do not see any sort of all inclusive options. So, it looks like this plan doesn't work for us. I am so bummed! It only offers purchase of the classic, premium or non-alcoholic beverages. I guess our best bet is to wait for a black friday deal. Wouldn't you agree? Great video, by the way.
Thank you Heather, and yes, keep an eye out on Black Friday, we know last year Celebrity had some stunning drinks package deals then, keep an eye from about three days before. If we see anything we will put it in our Facebook group.
We got a great deal on upgrading up to the Premium Package during the Black Friday sale which was 50% off. We have just got off a NCL Antarctica cruise it was our first cruise with them (and last) but the one good thing about them was the standard drinks package was up to $15 so a lot of brands were included whereas on Celebrity many drinks we had to have cheaper unbranded versions of spirits or pay the extra.
The black friday sales appear to have had some amazing deals on drinks packages for them this year, unfortunately for us, we had just got off the ship when Black Friday arrived :( but we were happy with the price we paid, but paying less would have been even better. That's a good limit on NCL, what was wrong with the cruise Peter? Linzi & Mark
Thanks for this, really useful. We are on our first celebrity 12 night cruise in feb from India . We did what you did and got the £39 pp classic and WiFi package all included via an agent. And I’m a bit of an aperol freak which doesn’t seem to be in the classic package. But I don’t see an option to “upgrade” my classic package in the celebrity website. There is a “modify” button which would allow me to add more people or remove people, but not an “upgrade”. How would I do that if we get to Black Friday eve and there is a great deal on?
Wow 12 nights from India sounds amazing Clare. When the deals come on, you will then normally see an option to click upgrade (even if it isn't there now) but worse case scenario, you can ring customer services and they will do the upgrade for you on the phone. Also worth noting, if you have any On Board Credit, you can use this towards the cost of the upgrade too.
The two we enjoy most were the Veldt and Forbidden, both were fantastic. We really wanted to try Pea too, but they didn't have the ingredients onboard during our cruise (we are assuming it wasn't the peas they were short of 🤣). The wow ones are Veldt & Sharman.
In our experience, the best way is to look for offers on Black Friday (today), or from time to time (usually just after Christmas), where they have some great offers on. We've seen it as low as $5 per person per day in the past few years
That’s very expensive!!! We are off on the Edge in a couple of weeks and had the classic package “included “ in our price . However we have upgraded pre cruise at $6 a day which we used our onboard credit . Looking forward to trying all the premium drinks 🥤 🍹🍸especially at Eden .
When they do the offers like the $6 upgrade per day, the package becomes a must do for us, compared to the classic package. We were pleased with £18 a day, we'd have been ecstatic at $6 a day. Being able to use onboard credit in advance for things such as this, or excursions, is another big plus for Celebrity, as most cruise lines don't let you do this. Have an amazing time on Apex and let us know what you think of those Eden cocktails. Linzi & Mark
I have got the premium one for my 12 night cruise. I figured it is expensive but it's my holiday so want to enjoy it. Want to try all the bars. Eden looks fab.
You are going to make good use of that package working around the bars Emily. Just don’t follow our mistake and try and do the full martini bar menu on the first night 🤣 Eden is fab and the drinks are well worth pay $1-3 dollars extra for at least once to try them. Have a lovely evening. Linzi and Mark
We have got our premium drinks package for our cruise next month even cheaper. We took the everything included package at £39 pppn and then bought the upgrade to premium on Black Friday for only £6.80 pppn. Total of £45.80 pppn ($58.40). Look out for the Black Friday deals if they happen before your cruise.
Great video, as usual! ❤ We sailed on Arvia last September without a drinks package. We had what we wanted, when we wanted and over 14 nights spent a grand total of £355 ... Which I was still annoyed about as I didn't think we'd had that much! 😂 Neither of us are big drinkers so I don't think any drinks package on any cruise ship would be good value for us.
Thanks Andrew 😀 A drinks package is never likely to be right for you unless it's included of course at no extra charge. The P&O one is a difficult one to make work at the best of times 😂
Same here. We were on a recent Celebrity cruise and neither of the packages made sense tonight us. There was no way for the classic package - I’d never during the low quality offerings on that package and the premium package would have had me over my two drinks per day habit.
Thanks Rio, being able to try so many different drinks, and not worrying about, one the money, or two, whether you'll like them or not, opens up such a world of different cocktails to try and we love a drinks package for that.
We managed to grab an upgrade from Classic which was included in the offer cruise fare to Premium for around $6 per night in the Celebrity sale for our Alaska cruise so there are bargains to be had - not sure we would pay $109 as a stand alone
That’s a bargain at £6 a day on top of the included classic offer. It seems so expensive at $109 and we are glad we paid far less than that but even at full price because of the cost of drinks on celebrity, we would have still be better off 😂
Whenever there is an offer on Lianne, so normally around the Black Friday period there are some stunning offers. If we see any we will post them on our facebook group page.
Loved your video… very informative! We have a couple of questions. We’ve heard that the prices are different from bar to bar, a lot more expensive on the Magic Carpet for instance. Is this true? We’ve not heard any mention anywhere of the types of things we drink and the prices. We are looking to find out how much the fancy cocktails and frozen drinks are? Would you happen to know that? We are looking to upgrade our classic included package to the premium. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much Jacqueline 😀 The same drink is the same price in every bar, magic carpet included, you don’t pay a premium for the location. However some bars have specialities such as Martini bar and Eden where they have more expensive drinks on top of the usual ones. If you like cocktails upgrade to the premium. There is so little choice of cocktails that are included in the classic package now. Of course you can just pay the difference instead between the classic package and the more expensive drink rather than upgrade to the premium. But if you are going to go over that limit often you might as well just upgrade especially if there is an upgrade offer on! Hope this helps. Have a lovely day. Linzi and Mark
Hello, coming soon i ll be on celebrity edge. I bought the basic drink package as i love coktails, but i dont know if i dit it right..watching your video, i think the choice is very little. Can you help me please. Thank you for your funny videos and keep travel arond the world!
Hi Susana. Firstly thank you ❤️ On the classic / basic celebrity drinks packages cocktails are VERY limited. Nearly all of them are over the basic limit and included on the Premium package. However don't worry. On Celebrity if you go over the package limit you just pay the difference. So if your limit was $12 and your drink was $15 you'd just pay $3 plus gratuity. Alternatively keep an eye out for an upgrade to premium offer. They have them a LOT and you can often upgrade from as little as $10 per day. Hope this helps. Linzi and Mark
@@susanacabral697 from our recollection and looking at the menus we had to hand, not really no. Well, that's not true, you can have anything, but you have to pay the difference between the package allowance the the drink price. We couldn't see a Margarita or Mojito within the package price on an edge class ship.
You can’t beat a Pina Colada sat besides the pool Marecia. Buying the Celebrity one via the upgrade path worked out pretty much the same price as P&Os deluxe drinks package
I am not much of a drinker but found it worth it for all the top shelf non alcoholic drinks which are not covered by classic, like vitamin water, evian water, smoothies, it just not alcoholic drinks
Absolutely right Shelley, it is all those extra non-alcoholic bits that make such a difference.. We got sparkling water for bed every night, then coffees and smoothies in the mornings which really add up
My wife and I are novice cruisers and only been twice before both with Virgin where almost everything is included and we received $950 bar tab each time. We have fallen in love with cruising and are about to book again for August. I want to go with Celebrity Apex from Southampton on a 13 night cruise because I want to try something different but Virgin seem such better value. We are both drinkers me mainly beer, wine with dinner and my wife cocktails although I drink much more than her. Watching your video albeit very informative (thankyou) it makes me think that Virgin is such better value as I think by the time I add the premium drink package, WIFI, gratuities and by the look of it having to pay extra for the restaurants that we will probably want to go to if could probably double our initial actual cruise cost! All of this is included with Virgin, in your opinion is Celebrity worth paying so much more for compared to Virgin? Thanks for your great informative videos btw.
Hi Peter, that's a tricky one as Virgin & Celebrity are very different experiences. However we have Virgin in the same Premium Cruise line level as Celebrity, and like for like, Celebrity is much more expensive. If you put us on the spot, is it worth double Virgin, then no, it's not. But you can get bargain Celebrity breaks, where the drinks packages, wifi & gratuities are included and then a cheaper option to upgrade to the premium package, which to be honest if you like good wine and your wife the cocktails, then the classic package is not going to be as good value. The other bit is that Virgin often has offers on which include free Bar Tab too, which makes it even better value. On our four night Virgin cruise in August, we have over $1000 of included bar tab, which will mean we will spend practically nothing onboard. Hope this has helped at least a bit. Linzi & Mark
@@SuiteNatured Thanks for your reply. As I say we are novice cruisers and only sailed with Virgin so have no comparables. When you say they are both very different cruises what would you say makes them so different? Is there that big a difference between cruise companies regarding vibe etc? I am not particularly into the Virgin "We Are So Cool and Anything Goes bit) at the same time Im definitely not into wearing a tux or suit and tie and meeting the captain bit either! I would love to know from someone who has obviously cruised with many companies is there that big a difference and what it is?
Blimey, that’s a lot of money! We do love Celebrity but….. this is getting a bit out of hand. Trouble is Mr drinks but Mrs doesn’t really much. We were due to do Oceania last year (sadly, health issues caused us to cancel) allowed one person in a cabin to have a package but the other didn’t need to. Not sure if that’s still the case.
It is on the pricey side Mike but with the upgrade path it is actually not that bad. Cheaper than Cunard and P&O that way. We do wish that more cruise lines would allow split package options, not for us but we do know others where one wants it in a cabin and the other doesn’t. Hope the health issues are okay now. Linzi and Mark
We generally take Princess’ packages to avoid a surprising bill at the end of the cruise but if there was an option for one of us to take a non alcoholic option I’d definitely take it.
How can nearly $1000 dollars per week on alcohol be considered "good value", appreciate that it's a holiday but we all aught to be calling Celebrity out on what is essentially price gauging a captive audience. That $17 martini in any regular bar costs approx $9, that $14 IPA costs approx $7.50 (including the tip), until customers wake up and stop accepting this pricing practice nonsense then cruise companies will continue to increase the cost of the package as there appears to be no level that customers won't accept. Makes P&O drinks pricing look almost charitable. To add insult to injury Celebrity (Royal Caribbean) have now removed gratuities from the All included package.
Completely agree on the pricing (remember we are from Yorkshire). And whilst we might want them to bring the drinks pricing down, right now it is at the level it is and you are right, they will probably continue to increase them, as long as we are buying them. The drinks package for us though does represent good value, especially with us essentially just paying for the upgrade as the all included package was part of the special deal at the time. £456 worked out for our 13 nights at £17 a day each. Really not sure why they removed the gratuities for the All included package though, that seems a bit daft, as it makes it not all included anymore. Linzi & Mark
With premium package, are we charged an additional 20% of the $109 per day per person at the end of the cruise? We paid for the premium package when we booked the cruise.
We are only 4 months into 2024 and the drink prices are WAY higher than your video shows. Many wines that were included in the premium package (up to $17) are now higher than $17. Celebrity is now nickel and diming. Doing that to a premium package is disgraceful! Even the classic drink package only offers a couple of cocktails that are below the $10. limit. What else is Celebrity going to surprise us with? The included gratuities are no longer which puts the hard working crew in a position of not getting the appreciation they deserve by passengers that choose to remove them.
We get that things change Keith, and we are not saying that Celebrity should always keep every drink option (wine or others), especially if the wholesale price of that one increases beyond what they were charging (or close to it) but to move most wines that were on the premium package above $17 seems unreasonable on first hearing. We've always found celebrity to not be a cruise line to nickel and dime, so this would be very sad if they were moving more this way. We will be keeping a close eye on this, especially with having Xcel booked next year.
I was also disappointed to see most wines and premium cocktails 17.00 and over, even a relatively cheap Prosecco that typically costs 12.99 a bottle is 17.00 a glass. First time sailing celebrity. I buy premium in retreat so I don’t have to worry about paying for 3 drinks s day.
Seriously, your calculation is for most cruisers quite misleading. Most cruises are port/excursion intensive with relatively few sea days. If you intend to drink some 8-10 drinks during afternoon and evening after a port call you will simply get drunk unless you are already overconsuming by habit, in that case you are borderline alcoholic. In addition that sort of consumption will also increase obesity and bad health in general. From the mathematical perspective: if the cruise line is heavily promoting drinks packages at any prize - does anyone seriously think they are doing that out of generosity?
Hi Johan, Thanks for your comment, it is always interesting to hear others takes or opinions on these type of subjects. Drinks packages are always the most subjective of any of the reviews we do, as whilst it is our review, based on our experience, and our usage of it; it is a guide to help you decide if a package is right for you, value for money or not. However ultimately, it has to come down to your own habits and requirements on board. From all our cruising experiences, most of the cruises tend to have (based on a 7 night cruise) 4 Ports Days To 3 Sea Days. This is obviously itinerary specific though. We've been on seven night cruises with 7 port days, and 18 night cruises with only 5 port days. Some areas & itineraries are more port intensive than others, and others less so, you should always decide on anything you are going to spend on a cruise that is extra to the fare that it represents value for money to you. This last cruise, was a 13 Night Transatlantic crossing, with 6 port days and 7 sea days. It is also worth considering how long you are in port (our shortest stay on this cruise was from 7am to 1pm in Gibraltar), and how much time you are planning on being off the ship. For us, we have days were we spend the full day off, others a few hours, and some ports we stay on the ship. We know this mix is pretty much what most passengers we speak to tend to do. The maths was right and in no way misleading, as it was saying this is what WE did, and if this wasn't clear in the text and our voice-over then our apologises. We know we drink more than some other passengers, we also know we drink far less than others. For us, having two coffees, a juice/smoothie, and three drinks between 7am and 6 pm was very normal, and seemed similar for lots of others too. In the evening, we would have a pre-dinner cocktail, then a couple of glasses or wine with our meal (or cocktail), maybe then something like a port or brandy, or other after dinner drink. On top of that we took a couple of 330ml bottles of sparkling water with us up to bed each night (which we didn't include in the maths to be fair, so our cost would have been higher without the package). We know some people do over-indulge to excess when they have packages, and short "booze cruise" itineraries tend not to offer the packages for this reason. However the cruise lines are good (in our experience) of stopping people drinking when they can see they have had too much. We completely agree on the health issues of continuous excessive drinking or alcoholism, we don't think the vast majority of passengers, drink like they do when they are on holiday (cruise or otherwise) when they are home, nor do we think they eat to the same level either. From a personal point of view, we are now in Dry January until our next cruise in mid-Feb (10 Nights, 6 Port Days, 4 Sea Days), and we do not drink during the working week at home either, and usually only a few drinks at the weekend, but when we are on holiday, if we want a drink, we have one, and a drinks package can or cannot make this more affordable. We don't always say take a package, look at our P&O vs Pay As You Go, we proactively say it is poor value, or our Cunard Pay As You Go Comparison too. The simple fact is, because Celebrity drinks prices are on the more expensive side compared to other cruise lines (or land), and that we upgraded to this package cheaper too, we felt it worked perfectly for us, hence the review and score. We've subsequently spoken to others since (see other comments on this video) where they have got the upgrade for just $6, after having the classic package already included in their fare. So for a 7 Night cruise they've only paid $42 for the package! Have a lovely day, Linzi & Mark
But it''s not just about the alcohol ... specialty coffees, juices, smoothies, water - it's easy to drink a lot over the course of each day so a package that covers all of that without individual gratuities is always worth it in my book
we were lucky and had the classic drinks, wi fi ,along with all gratuities in with the price on an offer when we booked last september ,along with free parking for our cruise to iceland this September , on the apex. we did decide to upgrade to premium,in the flash sale recently which has cost us a total of 199 quid for the 11 nights.
Great review and in no way misleading! The non- alcoholic prices on celebrity are expensive, so with a few coffees, smoothie, fresh juice and evians before you start with the alcohol, the premium package is fabulous! Being a martini bar lover the premium is the way to go! However, our next cruise is this month from Hong Kong. It’s 12 days with long days off the ship sightseeing. For the first time ever we have no package 😮. We have prepaid for some bottles of wine in their sale, will bring on one each too. Coupled with the elite happy hour, we will just pay as we go. If I were as talented as you guys, I should you tube my experience!! Wish me luck with no package 😂
Thank you Corina. We are glad you enjoyed and agreed with our review 👍😁
We do think it is a package, that if you like a drink or three, it can be fantastic value for money, especially as part of an offer or cheaper upgrade, because as you said, Celebrity are not cheap when it comes to the drinks.
It'll be really interesting to see how your pay as you go options goes on the Hong Kong cruise (Wow by the way), as if you are off the ship from early until late, as others have commented, it is not always as easy to get full advantage of the packages, and we'd be like you in Hong Kong, wanting to see as much as possible. We are not always as inspired when we pull up at some other ports though.
Normally on the next cruise of the same line (so our next celebrity) we don't take it, so we can do a true comparison, as we did on P&O and Cunard, but if we didn't have a port intensive cruise we don't know if we could cope with doing that on Celebrity as we know full well we'd be worse off 🤣
You should definitely do a vlog and share the experience with us and the rest of the world.
Have a lovely day, Linzi & Mark
Thanks for the heads up! I have all included booked for my 8 days in May and secured the upgrade for £9.21 per day.
You are welcome Phil, and wow, £9.21 for the upgrade is a bargain, well done. Where are you going on the May cruise on Celebrity?
I couldn’t believe the prices for drinks packages on my American cruises last year! I found Royal would usually have a promotion on embarkation day, which actually made it cheaper to buy the package onboard in the US than in advance from the U.K.!
Personally, I tend to stick to the standard drinks packages, because I’m happy with a beer or a wine off that menu - loved seeing all your fancy cocktails in this review though - great video as always!
Thanks Fraser.
The drinks packages on Royal are so expensive, not that Celebrity isn't, after all, it is the same parent company, so we shouldn't be surprised. BUT both companies packages work well, if you drink enough (obviously) and you get an offer. The drinks on Royal and Celebrity are some of the most consistently good we've had on any cruise line, with only Virgin comparing really, and they don't have a traditional drinks package.
We will get you onto cocktails when we meet up on land, or absolutely when we are on a cruise together, we will get you off the beer and wine Fraser 🤣
Linzi & Mark
brilliant review. We were on Beyond last year, and like you, made our way through the cocktail menu in the martinin bar one night. Wasnt too good the next day. Agree about Eden too. Cocktails there are amazing. But despite all of this, my favourite drink was from the sunset bar.....the Dill- icious. Lets just say on sail away day, Neither me or my wife could remember going for our first meal. I worked out that we saved well over £1000 by the end of the cruise.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. If you do like a drink, and have the premium package it is not hard to save money at all on Celebrity compared to paying as you go, as the drinks onboard are not cheap at all. They are great, but not cheap. $17 a Martini is a lot, but more fun if you have the package.
We got the premium drink package on the black Friday sale saved heaps
Black Friday deals on drinks packages can be absolutely amazing. We know people who upgraded to the premium drinks package for essentially nothing. One drink and you are up. Even better if you had the basic package included too :) and with the price of drinks on Celebrity, it is absolutely worth it (as far as we are concerned).
But what people don’t realize is the drink package prices vary between ships. Not all are the same across the board. This is misleading.
I never upgrade to the top drinks package on NCL, and always do it on Celebrity. I do the "All included" package which doesn't include gratuities any more BTW, and upgrade to premium for less than half price when there is a special. I can't be bothered drinking at home, but on a cruise, I easily get my money's worth. I have been on Holland America and 15 a day was not nearly enough. Not even close.
oh my goodness!!! What an awesome tip regarding the drinks package and then upgrading. The amount you have save is insane.
Im smiling at Linzi with the Martinis. Every single cruise, we say that we will NOT over indulge on the first night, we have seven or so more nights to go..we dont have to try and drink the ship dry in 24 hours...However, every single cruise, we get blathered that first night! haha
Love and hugs to you two, and thanks once again for a class vlog..love it x
The savings on this particular cruise line were eye watering, could you have imagined that bill at the end of the cruise. We would have had to stay on an wash dishes in the galley ;)
Next cruise we promise not to get blathered on the first night. Honest.
Linzi & Mark
We are booked for the Summit cruising to Alaska in June 2025 and, unfortunately, I do not see any sort of all inclusive options. So, it looks like this plan doesn't work for us. I am so bummed! It only offers purchase of the classic, premium or non-alcoholic beverages. I guess our best bet is to wait for a black friday deal. Wouldn't you agree? Great video, by the way.
Thank you Heather, and yes, keep an eye out on Black Friday, we know last year Celebrity had some stunning drinks package deals then, keep an eye from about three days before. If we see anything we will put it in our Facebook group.
We got a great deal on upgrading up to the Premium Package during the Black Friday sale which was 50% off.
We have just got off a NCL Antarctica cruise it was our first cruise with them (and last) but the one good thing about them was the standard drinks package was up to $15 so a lot of brands were included whereas on Celebrity many drinks we had to have cheaper unbranded versions of spirits or pay the extra.
The black friday sales appear to have had some amazing deals on drinks packages for them this year, unfortunately for us, we had just got off the ship when Black Friday arrived :( but we were happy with the price we paid, but paying less would have been even better.
That's a good limit on NCL, what was wrong with the cruise Peter?
Linzi & Mark
Thanks for this, really useful. We are on our first celebrity 12 night cruise in feb from India . We did what you did and got the £39 pp classic and WiFi package all included via an agent. And I’m a bit of an aperol freak which doesn’t seem to be in the classic package. But I don’t see an option to “upgrade” my classic package in the celebrity website. There is a “modify” button which would allow me to add more people or remove people, but not an “upgrade”. How would I do that if we get to Black Friday eve and there is a great deal on?
Wow 12 nights from India sounds amazing Clare. When the deals come on, you will then normally see an option to click upgrade (even if it isn't there now) but worse case scenario, you can ring customer services and they will do the upgrade for you on the phone. Also worth noting, if you have any On Board Credit, you can use this towards the cost of the upgrade too.
Have you done a longer cruise with Virgin? Would like to know they adapt events and activities vs the party weekend.
Which of the Eden cocktails do you most highly recommend? Which ones “wowed” you the most? I sail at Easter time and look forward to Eden.
The two we enjoy most were the Veldt and Forbidden, both were fantastic. We really wanted to try Pea too, but they didn't have the ingredients onboard during our cruise (we are assuming it wasn't the peas they were short of 🤣). The wow ones are Veldt & Sharman.
What's the best way to upgrade from Classic all included drinks please?
In our experience, the best way is to look for offers on Black Friday (today), or from time to time (usually just after Christmas), where they have some great offers on. We've seen it as low as $5 per person per day in the past few years
Great information thanks for making another great video
You are welcome John, and thank you for taking time to leave a comment :)
Your commentaries are always so pleasant and lots of information. Thanks!
Thank you so much Denise we are so happy you are enjoying them,
Linzi & Mark
That’s very expensive!!!
We are off on the Edge in a couple of weeks and had the classic package “included “ in our price . However we have upgraded pre cruise at $6 a day which we used our onboard credit .
Looking forward to trying all the premium drinks 🥤 🍹🍸especially at Eden .
When they do the offers like the $6 upgrade per day, the package becomes a must do for us, compared to the classic package. We were pleased with £18 a day, we'd have been ecstatic at $6 a day. Being able to use onboard credit in advance for things such as this, or excursions, is another big plus for Celebrity, as most cruise lines don't let you do this.
Have an amazing time on Apex and let us know what you think of those Eden cocktails.
Linzi & Mark
I have got the premium one for my 12 night cruise. I figured it is expensive but it's my holiday so want to enjoy it. Want to try all the bars. Eden looks fab.
You are going to make good use of that package working around the bars Emily. Just don’t follow our mistake and try and do the full martini bar menu on the first night 🤣
Eden is fab and the drinks are well worth pay $1-3 dollars extra for at least once to try them.
Have a lovely evening.
Linzi and Mark
We have got our premium drinks package for our cruise next month even cheaper. We took the everything included package at £39 pppn and then bought the upgrade to premium on Black Friday for only £6.80 pppn. Total of £45.80 pppn ($58.40). Look out for the Black Friday deals if they happen before your cruise.
Oh those black Friday deals are amazing and at that price it is so easy to get value for money.
Have an amazing cruise.
Linzi and Mark
Great video, as usual! ❤
We sailed on Arvia last September without a drinks package. We had what we wanted, when we wanted and over 14 nights spent a grand total of £355 ... Which I was still annoyed about as I didn't think we'd had that much! 😂
Neither of us are big drinkers so I don't think any drinks package on any cruise ship would be good value for us.
Thanks Andrew 😀
A drinks package is never likely to be right for you unless it's included of course at no extra charge. The P&O one is a difficult one to make work at the best of times 😂
Same here. We were on a recent Celebrity cruise and neither of the packages made sense tonight us. There was no way for the classic package - I’d never during the low quality offerings on that package and the premium package would have had me over my two drinks per day habit.
Loved the drink package , well worth it if you want to try any and all drinks. Just off the Ascent ship and loved it.
Thanks Rio, being able to try so many different drinks, and not worrying about, one the money, or two, whether you'll like them or not, opens up such a world of different cocktails to try and we love a drinks package for that.
We managed to grab an upgrade from Classic which was included in the offer cruise fare to Premium for around $6 per night in the Celebrity sale for our Alaska cruise so there are bargains to be had - not sure we would pay $109 as a stand alone
That’s a bargain at £6 a day on top of the included classic offer.
It seems so expensive at $109 and we are glad we paid far less than that but even at full price because of the cost of drinks on celebrity, we would have still be better off 😂
When is the best time to upgrade to the Premiumm package?
Whenever there is an offer on Lianne, so normally around the Black Friday period there are some stunning offers. If we see any we will post them on our facebook group page.
Loved your video… very informative! We have a couple of questions. We’ve heard that the prices are different from bar to bar, a lot more expensive on the Magic Carpet for instance. Is this true? We’ve not heard any mention anywhere of the types of things we drink and the prices. We are looking to find out how much the fancy cocktails and frozen drinks are? Would you happen to know that? We are looking to upgrade our classic included package to the premium. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much Jacqueline 😀
The same drink is the same price in every bar, magic carpet included, you don’t pay a premium for the location. However some bars have specialities such as Martini bar and Eden where they have more expensive drinks on top of the usual ones.
If you like cocktails upgrade to the premium. There is so little choice of cocktails that are included in the classic package now. Of course you can just pay the difference instead between the classic package and the more expensive drink rather than upgrade to the premium. But if you are going to go over that limit often you might as well just upgrade especially if there is an upgrade offer on!
Hope this helps. Have a lovely day. Linzi and Mark
@@SuiteNatured Thank you so much for your response, it’s very helpful. We really enjoyed your video.
How do you find an upgrade offer? And are there drinks package sales on Black Friday?
Hello, coming soon i ll be on celebrity edge. I bought the basic drink package as i love coktails, but i dont know if i dit it right..watching your video, i think the choice is very little. Can you help me please. Thank you for your funny videos and keep travel arond the world!
Hi Susana. Firstly thank you ❤️
On the classic / basic celebrity drinks packages cocktails are VERY limited. Nearly all of them are over the basic limit and included on the Premium package. However don't worry. On Celebrity if you go over the package limit you just pay the difference. So if your limit was $12 and your drink was $15 you'd just pay $3 plus gratuity. Alternatively keep an eye out for an upgrade to premium offer. They have them a LOT and you can often upgrade from as little as $10 per day.
Hope this helps.
Linzi and Mark
@@SuiteNatured Help very much! Thank you and keep going!
@@SuiteNatured can i drink margaritas, mojitos and others whith my classic drink package?
@@susanacabral697 from our recollection and looking at the menus we had to hand, not really no. Well, that's not true, you can have anything, but you have to pay the difference between the package allowance the the drink price. We couldn't see a Margarita or Mojito within the package price on an edge class ship.
@@SuiteNatured you are very kind. Thank you so much.
We are used to p&o price so this is very expensive in comparison. Granted there are many more cocktails but the only one i like is a pina colada.
You can’t beat a Pina Colada sat besides the pool Marecia. Buying the Celebrity one via the upgrade path worked out pretty much the same price as P&Os deluxe drinks package
I am not much of a drinker but found it worth it for all the top shelf non alcoholic drinks which are not covered by classic, like vitamin water, evian water, smoothies, it just not alcoholic drinks
Absolutely right Shelley, it is all those extra non-alcoholic bits that make such a difference.. We got sparkling water for bed every night, then coffees and smoothies in the mornings which really add up
My wife and I are novice cruisers and only been twice before both with Virgin where almost everything is included and we received $950 bar tab each time. We have fallen in love with cruising and are about to book again for August. I want to go with Celebrity Apex from Southampton on a 13 night cruise because I want to try something different but Virgin seem such better value. We are both drinkers me mainly beer, wine with dinner and my wife cocktails although I drink much more than her. Watching your video albeit very informative (thankyou) it makes me think that Virgin is such better value as I think by the time I add the premium drink package, WIFI, gratuities and by the look of it having to pay extra for the restaurants that we will probably want to go to if could probably double our initial actual cruise cost! All of this is included with Virgin, in your opinion is Celebrity worth paying so much more for compared to Virgin? Thanks for your great informative videos btw.
Hi Peter, that's a tricky one as Virgin & Celebrity are very different experiences. However we have Virgin in the same Premium Cruise line level as Celebrity, and like for like, Celebrity is much more expensive. If you put us on the spot, is it worth double Virgin, then no, it's not. But you can get bargain Celebrity breaks, where the drinks packages, wifi & gratuities are included and then a cheaper option to upgrade to the premium package, which to be honest if you like good wine and your wife the cocktails, then the classic package is not going to be as good value.
The other bit is that Virgin often has offers on which include free Bar Tab too, which makes it even better value. On our four night Virgin cruise in August, we have over $1000 of included bar tab, which will mean we will spend practically nothing onboard.
Hope this has helped at least a bit.
Linzi & Mark
@@SuiteNatured Thanks for your reply. As I say we are novice cruisers and only sailed with Virgin so have no comparables. When you say they are both very different cruises what would you say makes them so different? Is there that big a difference between cruise companies regarding vibe etc? I am not particularly into the Virgin "We Are So Cool and Anything Goes bit) at the same time Im definitely not into wearing a tux or suit and tie and meeting the captain bit either! I would love to know from someone who has obviously cruised with many companies is there that big a difference and what it is?
Love the channel, hope you keep on my "ribbon" and "churn" out many more vids.
You do pay the gratuity if you order a drink over $17.
Blimey, that’s a lot of money! We do love Celebrity but….. this is getting a bit out of hand. Trouble is Mr drinks but Mrs doesn’t really much. We were due to do Oceania last year (sadly, health issues caused us to cancel) allowed one person in a cabin to have a package but the other didn’t need to. Not sure if that’s still the case.
It is on the pricey side Mike but with the upgrade path it is actually not that bad. Cheaper than Cunard and P&O that way.
We do wish that more cruise lines would allow split package options, not for us but we do know others where one wants it in a cabin and the other doesn’t.
Hope the health issues are okay now.
Linzi and Mark
We generally take Princess’ packages to avoid a surprising bill at the end of the cruise but if there was an option for one of us to take a non alcoholic option I’d definitely take it.
How can nearly $1000 dollars per week on alcohol be considered "good value", appreciate that it's a holiday but we all aught to be calling Celebrity out on what is essentially price gauging a captive audience. That $17 martini in any regular bar costs approx $9, that $14 IPA costs approx $7.50 (including the tip), until customers wake up and stop accepting this pricing practice nonsense then cruise companies will continue to increase the cost of the package as there appears to be no level that customers won't accept. Makes P&O drinks pricing look almost charitable. To add insult to injury Celebrity (Royal Caribbean) have now removed gratuities from the All included package.
Completely agree on the pricing (remember we are from Yorkshire). And whilst we might want them to bring the drinks pricing down, right now it is at the level it is and you are right, they will probably continue to increase them, as long as we are buying them.
The drinks package for us though does represent good value, especially with us essentially just paying for the upgrade as the all included package was part of the special deal at the time. £456 worked out for our 13 nights at £17 a day each.
Really not sure why they removed the gratuities for the All included package though, that seems a bit daft, as it makes it not all included anymore.
Linzi & Mark
Cheers😂🎉!!
Cheers to you too Ken
With premium package, are we charged an additional 20% of the $109 per day per person at the end of the cruise? We paid for the premium package when we booked the cruise.
No, the 20% gratuities are built into the cost so once you've paid for the package you do not get any other gratuity charges at all.
@@SuiteNatureddo you pay for this upgrade before departure ?
@@MaddsySteviewe did yes, we had the basic one included and then bought the upgrade to the premium drinks.
That's perfect, we are planning our first cruise and want to avoid a big unexpected bill 👍
We are only 4 months into 2024 and the drink prices are WAY higher than your video shows. Many wines that were included in the premium package (up to $17) are now higher than $17. Celebrity is now nickel and diming. Doing that to a premium package is disgraceful! Even the classic drink package only offers a couple of cocktails that are below the $10. limit. What else is Celebrity going to surprise us with? The included gratuities are no longer which puts the hard working crew in a position of not getting the appreciation they deserve by passengers that choose to remove them.
We get that things change Keith, and we are not saying that Celebrity should always keep every drink option (wine or others), especially if the wholesale price of that one increases beyond what they were charging (or close to it) but to move most wines that were on the premium package above $17 seems unreasonable on first hearing. We've always found celebrity to not be a cruise line to nickel and dime, so this would be very sad if they were moving more this way. We will be keeping a close eye on this, especially with having Xcel booked next year.
I was also disappointed to see most wines and premium cocktails 17.00 and over, even a relatively cheap Prosecco that typically costs 12.99 a bottle is 17.00 a glass. First time sailing celebrity. I buy premium in retreat so I don’t have to worry about paying for 3 drinks s day.
I just got offboard celebrity there was not one cocktail for under 12.00 dollars
That is disappointing for those on either no package or the classic package Shelley.
The classic is useless. Often limited to only one red and one white.
That seems to be the growing opinion on the Classic package Barry, really not geared up to wine and cocktail drinkers at all.
Seriously, your calculation is for most cruisers quite misleading. Most cruises are port/excursion intensive with relatively few sea days. If you intend to drink some 8-10 drinks during afternoon and evening after a port call you will simply get drunk unless you are already overconsuming by habit, in that case you are borderline alcoholic. In addition that sort of consumption will also increase obesity and bad health in general. From the mathematical perspective: if the cruise line is heavily promoting drinks packages at any prize - does anyone seriously think they are doing that out of generosity?
Hi Johan,
Thanks for your comment, it is always interesting to hear others takes or opinions on these type of subjects.
Drinks packages are always the most subjective of any of the reviews we do, as whilst it is our review, based on our experience, and our usage of it; it is a guide to help you decide if a package is right for you, value for money or not. However ultimately, it has to come down to your own habits and requirements on board.
From all our cruising experiences, most of the cruises tend to have (based on a 7 night cruise) 4 Ports Days To 3 Sea Days. This is obviously itinerary specific though. We've been on seven night cruises with 7 port days, and 18 night cruises with only 5 port days. Some areas & itineraries are more port intensive than others, and others less so, you should always decide on anything you are going to spend on a cruise that is extra to the fare that it represents value for money to you.
This last cruise, was a 13 Night Transatlantic crossing, with 6 port days and 7 sea days. It is also worth considering how long you are in port (our shortest stay on this cruise was from 7am to 1pm in Gibraltar), and how much time you are planning on being off the ship. For us, we have days were we spend the full day off, others a few hours, and some ports we stay on the ship. We know this mix is pretty much what most passengers we speak to tend to do.
The maths was right and in no way misleading, as it was saying this is what WE did, and if this wasn't clear in the text and our voice-over then our apologises. We know we drink more than some other passengers, we also know we drink far less than others. For us, having two coffees, a juice/smoothie, and three drinks between 7am and 6 pm was very normal, and seemed similar for lots of others too. In the evening, we would have a pre-dinner cocktail, then a couple of glasses or wine with our meal (or cocktail), maybe then something like a port or brandy, or other after dinner drink. On top of that we took a couple of 330ml bottles of sparkling water with us up to bed each night (which we didn't include in the maths to be fair, so our cost would have been higher without the package).
We know some people do over-indulge to excess when they have packages, and short "booze cruise" itineraries tend not to offer the packages for this reason. However the cruise lines are good (in our experience) of stopping people drinking when they can see they have had too much.
We completely agree on the health issues of continuous excessive drinking or alcoholism, we don't think the vast majority of passengers, drink like they do when they are on holiday (cruise or otherwise) when they are home, nor do we think they eat to the same level either. From a personal point of view, we are now in Dry January until our next cruise in mid-Feb (10 Nights, 6 Port Days, 4 Sea Days), and we do not drink during the working week at home either, and usually only a few drinks at the weekend, but when we are on holiday, if we want a drink, we have one, and a drinks package can or cannot make this more affordable.
We don't always say take a package, look at our P&O vs Pay As You Go, we proactively say it is poor value, or our Cunard Pay As You Go Comparison too.
The simple fact is, because Celebrity drinks prices are on the more expensive side compared to other cruise lines (or land), and that we upgraded to this package cheaper too, we felt it worked perfectly for us, hence the review and score. We've subsequently spoken to others since (see other comments on this video) where they have got the upgrade for just $6, after having the classic package already included in their fare. So for a 7 Night cruise they've only paid $42 for the package!
Have a lovely day,
Linzi & Mark
@@SuiteNatured excellent reply.
But it''s not just about the alcohol ... specialty coffees, juices, smoothies, water - it's easy to drink a lot over the course of each day so a package that covers all of that without individual gratuities is always worth it in my book
It covers other drinks also not just alcoholic drinks
we were lucky and had the classic drinks, wi fi ,along with all gratuities in with the price on an offer when we booked last september ,along with free parking for our cruise to iceland this September , on the apex. we did decide to upgrade to premium,in the flash sale recently which has cost us a total of 199 quid for the 11 nights.
What is that beautiful drink in the chest?
It is called Veldt, and it was a Mezcal based cocktail and VERY tasty