One of the biggest challenges facing anyone booking a cruise is whether or not to buy the drink package. Royal Caribbean makes that even harder because it uses dynamic pricing.
That means that there is no set price. The cost goes up and down based on a formula that only the cruise line knows. You can buy the Deluxe Beverage Package (DBP) and cancel it, then buy it again if the price goes down.
Related: Royal Caribbean now enforcing a rarely charged fee
That’s tricky, however, as you may not get a refund on your credit card for a couple of weeks. Given that the DBP costs anywhere from the mid-50s to over $100 a day, you could be tying up a lot of money.
The package, of course, comes with unlimited alcohol, bottled water, fresh juice, soda, milkshakes, specialty coffee, and more. In most cases, if you are going to drink more than five cocktails or glasses of wine per day, then buying it probably makes sense.
When you consider that each drink can cost $14, the value piles up quickly.
The price for the DBP, however, has gone up high enough that some people are clearly skipping it. To make up for that, Royal Caribbean has been testing different offers.
Not every offer appears on every ship, but it does seem like some mix of these offers has been used on most ships.
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Image source: Daniel Kline/ComeCruiseWith.com
Royal Caribbean offers drinks deals
Just because someone does not get the DBP does not mean they won’t drink.
Many people buy drinks a la carte and traditionally Royal Caribbean has had only one daily special for them: the drink of the day. That’s usually a tropical drink sold at most bars, but pushed at the pool bar at a good price.Â
Generally, that would save people a few dollars, but it was a very limited promotion. Now, Royal Caribbean has bee testing a variety of different bar promotions.Â
Not every ship has these offers and just because a ship has the offer on one sailing does not mean it will be on the next.Â
On a recent Freedom of the Seas sailing over a week that was spring break for some Florida K-12 schools. There were a lot of adults who were there with kids and the bars were not as crowded later in the evening as they might usually be.
Royal Caribbean offered a $6 margarita happy hour in most bars from 4-6 p.m. It did not offer the $5 beers in the pub all day deal that has been seen on other ships nor did it offer any sort of wine deal (multiple of which have been seen).
Royal Caribbean wants to maximize salesÂ
Royal Caribbean has improved the tools that help it make decisions like when to offer certain deals like the rarely-seen 10 drink beverage card. These choices are made by complicated algorhythms that the cruise line does not disclose.
CEO Jason Liberty spoke vaguely about his cruise line’s backend improvements during its fourth-quarter earnings call.
“We continue to invest in our commercial and vacation experiences flywheel. In 2024, we expanded our capabilities across distribution channels to create a digital experience that connects the dots across all aspects of the consumer journey,” he shared.
That has delivered a better experience for customers while also making more money for Royal Caribbean.
“Guests have been seamlessly planning and booking their dream vacations, reducing the amount of time to book a cruise by half. We launched over 300 new digital capabilities across channels in 2024, improving the overall experience and reducing friction points while increasing spend,” he added.
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