In all the years I have been working in Travel I never imagined that this would become one of my questions I would be regularly asking customers along with How many nights or What date can you travel?
But in recent months this is a question I seem to be constantly asking with the rise in popularity of Drinks Packages being offered by cruise lines.
Nobody likes to admit how much they do actually Drink Alcohol and whilst you might expect it to be a question your asked by your GP. It always seems to come as a surprise when your Travel Agent asks you, but its with all the best intentions of saving you money!
NCL where the 1st of the big lines to go All Inclusive back in 2017 and with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises having offers on with drinks included. They are now a big deciding factor in not only what line you cruise with but also what offer to go for. After a year of becoming the first All Inclusive cruise line NCL soon realised that they were losing loyal non drinking passengers and so have now introduced a new rate on a guarantee cabin with no added extras included.
With a beer costing around $7 and a Glass of Wine or a Cocktail $10 on Royal Caribbean taking advantage of the Free Drinks Packages being offered at the moment can be so beneficial if you where to drink more than 3-4 a day but for customers that don’t drink alcohol they often find themselves paying an inflated price for there cruise.
Celebrity Cruises offer a Free Drinks Package if you take an Ocean View cabin or higher but recently I have found prices between inside and outside cabins can be £1000pp difference……
P&O trialled Drinks Packages in the Summer on Azura last year and soon after announced they would also be introducing them onto there fleet but then ever since have not announced anything more..
So it looks like All Inclusive Drinks and my new Drinking habits question are here to stay as they become more and more popular but I personally think it should be something that should be added as a choice rather than an enforced FREE offer.