Royal Caribbean trialling rule changes for Drink Packages

[Topdeck, London]

With modern technology, you would have thought it quite simple to monitor the drinks distribution. I'm sure on more than one occasion on my recent Celebrity jaunt that I heard bar staff tell passengers one card, one drink!
Its not too difficult really is it? That is unless they don't trust their staff anymore.

On our last Celebrity cruise we upgraded one of the two included classics to premium and downgraded the other to a non alcohol.
it becomes almost impossible to pay for the extra drink for the OH one you establish your "regular" status, for out little group at times one or no card was sufficient to make the order.

The problem for the cruise lines if they use the tech to try and detect abuse it can become confrontational eg. you ordered 2 drinks in less than 5 mins you must be sharing or you have to wait to order another drink

Also you get places like the restaurants where the staff tend to bulk up the drinks, rather than put each drink through the till they focus on serving, then when it is a little quieter(desert) they put your 3-4 glasses of wine through at the same time, some bar staff will do the same if you hang out, they run a tab for you and you just sign once(if the ship still does that).

Staff are generally on the ball spotting potential sharing so will use the one card one drink as a preventative reminder

ON any line where sharing abuse is potentially seen as a problem the all/none approach helps solve that problem, on some lines it is not just per cabin it is per booking, so book multiple cabins/group and the rule extends to all.

[Topdeck, London]

I though that WAS the rule with all cruise lines.

If you don't have the rule, 2, 3 or 4 drinkers in one cabin need only by one package and the cruise line makes a loss on their package.

Often that is what UK TAs will tell you, but it has never been all lines