P&O and Cunard go All Inclusive

With so many drinks packages around are they really worth it?

Finally P&O And Cunard have released details of an All Inclusive drinks package. Cunard is not cheap at $69 per person per day. P&O is £39.95 per person per day.

The P&O price is similar to the Royal Caribbean Deluxe package however the drinks prices on P&O are generally cheaper than Royal Caribbean. Given this I think the P&O price seems a little high over £1000 for a 14 night cruise for 2 adults. (Remember you need to both purchase the package) Personally I like a drinks but we would normally spend around £800 on drinks over 2 weeks so it really wouldnt be of any benefit for us.

Whilst the American cruise lines offer the All Inclusive packages at similar prices the on board drinks prices are way higher than P&O and we have always felt we have had our monies worth. Have a read of some of my personal experiences with drinks packages.

We had the Classic package when we cruised with Celebrity and even had a soft drinks package thrown in for my son Charlie.
Once on board we took a look at the menu with the included drinks. There were lots however my hubby and I are partial to a Martini!! These are not included on the Classic package however they were included on the premium package. At $13 + service charge per Martini it was a much better option for us to upgrade to the premium package on board. This was only $12 per person per day including the service charge. What the hell we were on holiday!!

I can honestly say we really did get our monies worth. Every morning we would get a speciality coffee from Café Al Bacio, bottled premium water and juices at breakfast, nice wine at lunch and dinner, cocktails by the pool in the afternoon and a Martini after dinner. I sound like I drinks a lot!! Not really but I like a nice drink!!

My only niggle really though is although we had the premium package we had to really ask for the good stuff!! So if I asked for a vodka cranberry juice I would be given the cheapest vodka option which may have even been unbranded. I would have to actually ask for a grey goose and cranberry. Same for Chris if he asked for a rum and coke he would get Myers rum and not the top shelf stuff. We soon figured this out though and made sure we asked for the good stuff.

If we had paid for our drinks separately we would have been more cautious with how much we were drinking but saying that we never went crazy. If we paid for all we drank day by day we would have easily spent $150 per day for the 3 of us.

Now you do need to be careful as there are various different drinks packages out there. Celebrity offer a standard, classic and premium package make sure you are clear what your package includes. Some only include wine and beer or local drinks as I found out on our recent cruise with Fred Olsen. Normally the Fred Olsen all inclusive package can be added for around £10 – £15 per person per day if you pre purchase the package. The cruise we were on never gave the option to pre purchase and on board they wanted £25 per person per day and we also had to pay for Charlie. At 6 years old I honestly thought this was a rip off! There was no way he would drink £25 each day so we decided not to bother with the package. I was certainly glad too. The drinks package is the worst I have encountered there were NO branded spirits included and if you wanted a branded spirit or even a cocktail you still had to pay 50%. Maybe if the package was £10 per person we may have bought it just for the wine but as it was we spent less on the cruise buying what we wanted when we wanted it.

The Royal Caribbean package is another good one. We had this on our cruise last year and it included Wines, beers, soft drinks, cocktails, bottled water and specialty teas and coffees. It was really all inclusive but at £39 per person per day its not the cheapest. We loved the fact we were never worried about what we were spending though.

Does this make the cruise ships rowdy though? I never experienced any rowdy passengers on Celebrity but that doesn’t mean you won’t get any on your cruise. There will always be someone that likes a drink a little too much!

What do you think of drinks packages? Do they encourage people to drink too much? Cause bad behaviour? Maybe you like having a drinks package pre arranged. You know what you are spending and don’t get hit with silly taxes and service charges.