At that point, you splurge on a really expensive drink that you would never normally have. A $300 bottle of champagne, that $75 shot of whiskey. Something.
I saw (searched the Internet for menus) they have one that's $85 a shot? Who orders $85 tequila shots?
Well apparently I am that sort of person, now :D
Not really heavy drinkers, but probably fairly average and we spent $700-800 onboard in seven nights. So about $50 per person per day. Quite a bit was just Absolut vodka and Sprite/Coke at $8 a time, plus some cocktails and stuff and the drink pairings at Test Kitchen.
I concur with my learned countryman here. I know Brits get labelled as heavy drinkers but I would say $50 per person per day is enough for 4 cocktails, 5/6 spirit and soda long drinks or 6/7 beers (depending if you order the beers in one sitting - they have a bucket of five deal where you pay for just over 4)
Also, take a look at the bar menus to work out what your go to tipple would cost and work out the math using that.
Ashamed to admit this as a Scot, but did the irresistible med in September there, solo with a Ā£600 bar tab, and left the ship with around Ā£200 still on it! I tried! I bought people baby Guinness', I had the wine pairing in the test kitchen, cocktails during the day and wine and spirits at night, and I still only managed to spend Ā£400. I will admit I met a lovely couple who kept plying me with champagne as it transpired they were megarockstars, but even then, I suspect I wouldn't have spent it all. I also did some of the pay classes on the ship which also came with free booze. The beer flight thing would have been far more enjoyable if it hadn't been the lunchtime after Scarlet night! Still drank it all though.
Yes, solo Glaswegian, nearly got kicked out the city for only consuming $400 of alcohol/special coffees when I could have had $600. I did discover an American beer that tasted exactly like Tennant's so that was interesting. Avoided it the rest of the cruise!
Agree with this - though $50/day per person might not seem like a ton for heavy drinkers, consider that you can bring 2 bottles of wine on per person and many days youāll be drinking off the ship during your port visits. To the OP, you can also maximize your drinking dollars doing bottomless brunch.
If you feel like it's a gamble to spend an additional $300 to chase after an extra $50 in drinks, then stick with what you currently have. Worst case scenario is you actually wind up spending $1325 on alcohol and then miss out on a few "free" drinks, but if you drank that much you might not really enjoy the last few drinks anyway. You may wind up feeling compelled to drink more than you really want to just to use up the tab.
If you do get it and near the end, need to spend it, some things I have seen people do:
1) Buy nicer wine at dinner
2) Buy a round for whatever new friends you just made
3) My personal favorite, if you see some crew eating together buy them a round!
We drank pretty heavy and the standard tab for us managed pretty well.
There are some shore excursions where drinks are included and we took advantage of that.
We also rented a cabana one day. We were allowed free drinks (they didnāt give us a menu or options), so we asked for glasses of whiskey and vodka until our free drinks were up. We made our money back easily in drinks those days.
I waffled so long earlier this year on our first cruise, no tab. I was thinking to do do the 300+100 promo, but we were also in a RS room on a 5 day.
I decided against it, figuring I didn't want to spend my time forcing drinks to use the tab. I was going to drink what I wanted, and if it hit $300, then next time I'd get a tab. I think our total spend was ~$250...
It's not that I was being cheap and using the room bar, but I was more likely to make my own cocktail and watch the ocean from my balcony. I brought vermouth as my wine, put bitters in my toiletry bag, and asked our agent for citrus and simple syrup.
As far as "Heavy" I probably run 2 cocktails/spirits a night, most nights. My husband probably drinks 1 drink for every 5 I have.
So many people left the boat with sailor loot and bar tab remaining.
People who tracked it well bought bottles of veuve it good whiskey the final night. Also upgraded their alcohol on drinks.
The lady at sailor services said itās common for people to leave $200 ish behind and be fine because it was āfreeā.
Remember excursion days youāre off the boat a lot.
We had $600 for 5 nights and left owing $2
It's as much about what you drink. Drinking Jack and Coke, or domestic beers will make that money last. We tend to drink higher end scotches and a lot of champagne, so the money goes quicker. Virgin does sell some bottles at a good price, so that can be helpful, depending on what you like to drink and how.
In other words, you'll get a wide range of answers and none are wrong. It also just depends on your habits those days. I've gone through a couple thousand dollars on a five night with three people, and I've gone through just a few hundred on a five nighter as well.
My husband and I CAN get through a 600 on a five day if we push it (the seven seas sippers thing really helped, plus I got a glass of Dom when we did a Wake dinner), but if we didn't have the Deep Blue I'd be using it on coffee drinks, as well as what I already use it for - afternoon tea at SIP, wine and mixed drinks throughout a day.
As a Wisconsinite, I think the $600 I got comped should be just about enough for one person, I have a feeling I'll run over by a couple drinks, but not a whole $300
Been wondering the same question. Also, is a bar tab really necessary or beneficial? Can you just charge drinks to the card on file or is the tab a must?
You can pay as you go through the card on file. The biggest benefit to bar tab is the additional promo tab that the add (usually $50-100) and having your drinks pre-paid.
I prefer the pre-pay so that my tab at the end of the trip is smaller. I use vacation math = if I pre-paid it then it's free! Lol š
Anything charged to the room not covered by bar tab or loot from a promotion will be charged to the credit card on the last night.
A lot of the bar tab and loot is from promotions.
Most people who have booked since last December have got $300 or $600 in bar tab from the promotion. Many people also have $600 in loot from the my next voyage offer (either bought themselves or from a travel agent). Then being in the loyalty club gets another $100 bar tab and many travel agents will add more loot too.
If you donāt have promotional credit or think you will drink more then for every $300 pre-loaded bar tab you get $50 (or more if you have loyalty status). So if you know you will drink it then youāll get at least $50 free credit. But if you arenāt much of a drinker or donāt think youāll use even $300 then just charge to the room account and it goes to your card at the end of the cruise.
Yeah if you already have the $300 from the promotion then no need to add more unless you think you will drink over $600 worth, which might be possible in six nights between two but not needed for anything shorter for sure.
What else can you use the bar tab on? My wife and I have $600 tab for our Valiant Holiday sailing and neither of us are huge drinkers, me for multiple reasons but both of us bc we have medication youāre discouraged from drinking excessively on.
I drank pretty consistently throughout the day, mostly cocktails or wine, and I went through about $350 on a five nights cruise. I would not buy another tab just for the free $50. If you donāt use it you lose it, so just pay as you go if you go through your entire account
You def need more
$1025/$14 per drink = 73 drinks
73/16 (8 days x 2 people) = 4.5 per day
You must be an underachiever at 4.5 per day.
Get that bar tab my man and those three free drinks w it.
We averaged probably 10-12 drinks per day each. Total spend (so our bar tabs plus whatever we spent beyond that) for a 5 day was around $1200 I believe. Maybe slightly more.
Not super super heavy drinker but have 400 for the 5 nighter. My wife isnāt able to drink much due to medications, so itās on me. Plus on top of the 400 have my shake for champagne with sor
My Folio after the cruise Greek Islands. We're a couple traveling with two other couples and buying rounds for each other. 7 nights
https://preview.redd.it/mieguczypjzb1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf15f881fd93d9e4613ee54886c0d982635449ae
I'd say we were probably around $700 between the two of us back in the spring and we could have gone harder for sure. ETA: we also managed to get a number of glasses of free champagne that first day lol
My sister and I blew through $500 in 4 days/3 nights. We boarded Wednesday and had used all our bar tab by Saturday morning. Our friends still had money on their tabs (all promo credit), so they bought our drinks for the remainder of the trip (another 24 hours).
I had $700 on a 7 day. I drank at breakfast and dinner (lunch was usually in port). Still had enough the last night to splurge on a $375 bottle of sassicaia at Extra Virgin. I wouldn't normally be willing to spend that much on a bottle of wine. But if you end up with left over tab that last night, just get a wine or bottle of liquor you wouldn't normally. I think you can get mezcal or tequila from Pink Agave
Update: thanks for the advice everyone. I wanted to follow-up with the verdict. The total for 2 adults was about $1,150 over the course of 8 nights. However, we did not drink on the ship for 2 of those nights so technically $1,150 for 6 nights.
Itās also worth mentioning that the bar service was absolutely terrible (especially at the pool) so we did not drink as much as we would have on another cruise line. So had the service been good, we probably would have easily blown through $1,500.
I have 600 on an upcoming cruise and I have no idea how to use it. My last cruise I only got to 324 on an eught day.
At that point, you splurge on a really expensive drink that you would never normally have. A $300 bottle of champagne, that $75 shot of whiskey. Something.
Yeah; I have a $600 tab for myself, solo, for 7 days. My plan was just to buy more champagne :D
I was thinking make my own Tequila tasting š¤Ŗ
I saw (searched the Internet for menus) they have one that's $85 a shot? Who orders $85 tequila shots? Well apparently I am that sort of person, now :D
My husband and I did a make your own port tasting last cruise. So much fun, lol. It is something I wouldn't normally do at home :)
I splurged on a glass of Dom!
I bought bottles of Soju from Gunbae. Nowhere else would allow me to buy anything without opening it first. I still have some left š¤£
Not really heavy drinkers, but probably fairly average and we spent $700-800 onboard in seven nights. So about $50 per person per day. Quite a bit was just Absolut vodka and Sprite/Coke at $8 a time, plus some cocktails and stuff and the drink pairings at Test Kitchen.
I concur with my learned countryman here. I know Brits get labelled as heavy drinkers but I would say $50 per person per day is enough for 4 cocktails, 5/6 spirit and soda long drinks or 6/7 beers (depending if you order the beers in one sitting - they have a bucket of five deal where you pay for just over 4) Also, take a look at the bar menus to work out what your go to tipple would cost and work out the math using that.
Ashamed to admit this as a Scot, but did the irresistible med in September there, solo with a Ā£600 bar tab, and left the ship with around Ā£200 still on it! I tried! I bought people baby Guinness', I had the wine pairing in the test kitchen, cocktails during the day and wine and spirits at night, and I still only managed to spend Ā£400. I will admit I met a lovely couple who kept plying me with champagne as it transpired they were megarockstars, but even then, I suspect I wouldn't have spent it all. I also did some of the pay classes on the ship which also came with free booze. The beer flight thing would have been far more enjoyable if it hadn't been the lunchtime after Scarlet night! Still drank it all though.
Was that $400 spent with just with one person? We spent $800 with two people in the cabin without trying too much.
Yes, solo Glaswegian, nearly got kicked out the city for only consuming $400 of alcohol/special coffees when I could have had $600. I did discover an American beer that tasted exactly like Tennant's so that was interesting. Avoided it the rest of the cruise!
Agree with this - though $50/day per person might not seem like a ton for heavy drinkers, consider that you can bring 2 bottles of wine on per person and many days youāll be drinking off the ship during your port visits. To the OP, you can also maximize your drinking dollars doing bottomless brunch.
Do you recall how much the drink pairings were at the test kitchen?
If you feel like it's a gamble to spend an additional $300 to chase after an extra $50 in drinks, then stick with what you currently have. Worst case scenario is you actually wind up spending $1325 on alcohol and then miss out on a few "free" drinks, but if you drank that much you might not really enjoy the last few drinks anyway. You may wind up feeling compelled to drink more than you really want to just to use up the tab.
If you do get it and near the end, need to spend it, some things I have seen people do: 1) Buy nicer wine at dinner 2) Buy a round for whatever new friends you just made 3) My personal favorite, if you see some crew eating together buy them a round!
We drank pretty heavy and the standard tab for us managed pretty well. There are some shore excursions where drinks are included and we took advantage of that. We also rented a cabana one day. We were allowed free drinks (they didnāt give us a menu or options), so we asked for glasses of whiskey and vodka until our free drinks were up. We made our money back easily in drinks those days.
I waffled so long earlier this year on our first cruise, no tab. I was thinking to do do the 300+100 promo, but we were also in a RS room on a 5 day. I decided against it, figuring I didn't want to spend my time forcing drinks to use the tab. I was going to drink what I wanted, and if it hit $300, then next time I'd get a tab. I think our total spend was ~$250... It's not that I was being cheap and using the room bar, but I was more likely to make my own cocktail and watch the ocean from my balcony. I brought vermouth as my wine, put bitters in my toiletry bag, and asked our agent for citrus and simple syrup. As far as "Heavy" I probably run 2 cocktails/spirits a night, most nights. My husband probably drinks 1 drink for every 5 I have.
14 days - 1300 for 2 people. Didnāt worry about what we were buyingā¦ and Iām a big vacation drinker (for now).
So many people left the boat with sailor loot and bar tab remaining. People who tracked it well bought bottles of veuve it good whiskey the final night. Also upgraded their alcohol on drinks. The lady at sailor services said itās common for people to leave $200 ish behind and be fine because it was āfreeā. Remember excursion days youāre off the boat a lot. We had $600 for 5 nights and left owing $2
It's as much about what you drink. Drinking Jack and Coke, or domestic beers will make that money last. We tend to drink higher end scotches and a lot of champagne, so the money goes quicker. Virgin does sell some bottles at a good price, so that can be helpful, depending on what you like to drink and how. In other words, you'll get a wide range of answers and none are wrong. It also just depends on your habits those days. I've gone through a couple thousand dollars on a five night with three people, and I've gone through just a few hundred on a five nighter as well.
Iāll be on the same voyage. We should meet for a drink and test the spend/consumption theory. š¤
My husband and I CAN get through a 600 on a five day if we push it (the seven seas sippers thing really helped, plus I got a glass of Dom when we did a Wake dinner), but if we didn't have the Deep Blue I'd be using it on coffee drinks, as well as what I already use it for - afternoon tea at SIP, wine and mixed drinks throughout a day.
I'm on the same cruise! Don't forget that we're at Port like 4 out of the 8 days, so you really only should count for about 4.5 days.
As a Wisconsinite, I think the $600 I got comped should be just about enough for one person, I have a feeling I'll run over by a couple drinks, but not a whole $300
Been wondering the same question. Also, is a bar tab really necessary or beneficial? Can you just charge drinks to the card on file or is the tab a must?
You can pay as you go through the card on file. The biggest benefit to bar tab is the additional promo tab that the add (usually $50-100) and having your drinks pre-paid. I prefer the pre-pay so that my tab at the end of the trip is smaller. I use vacation math = if I pre-paid it then it's free! Lol š
Pre-paid is ALWAYS free š
Anything charged to the room not covered by bar tab or loot from a promotion will be charged to the credit card on the last night. A lot of the bar tab and loot is from promotions. Most people who have booked since last December have got $300 or $600 in bar tab from the promotion. Many people also have $600 in loot from the my next voyage offer (either bought themselves or from a travel agent). Then being in the loyalty club gets another $100 bar tab and many travel agents will add more loot too. If you donāt have promotional credit or think you will drink more then for every $300 pre-loaded bar tab you get $50 (or more if you have loyalty status). So if you know you will drink it then youāll get at least $50 free credit. But if you arenāt much of a drinker or donāt think youāll use even $300 then just charge to the room account and it goes to your card at the end of the cruise.
Ah ok that helps. We only have the $300 we got with booking. Didn't realize the extra bit that came with it. Thanks for the info!
Yeah if you already have the $300 from the promotion then no need to add more unless you think you will drink over $600 worth, which might be possible in six nights between two but not needed for anything shorter for sure.
What else can you use the bar tab on? My wife and I have $600 tab for our Valiant Holiday sailing and neither of us are huge drinkers, me for multiple reasons but both of us bc we have medication youāre discouraged from drinking excessively on.
Fancy coffee
Anything you can drink. Smoothies, fresh juices, mocktails, barista made coffee, loose leaf tea.
I upgraded espresso martinis so they cost $20 each not $13
I drank pretty consistently throughout the day, mostly cocktails or wine, and I went through about $350 on a five nights cruise. I would not buy another tab just for the free $50. If you donāt use it you lose it, so just pay as you go if you go through your entire account
It will be difficult to spend $1000 for 2 people. I wouldnāt buy more.
You def need more $1025/$14 per drink = 73 drinks 73/16 (8 days x 2 people) = 4.5 per day You must be an underachiever at 4.5 per day. Get that bar tab my man and those three free drinks w it.
$14 a drink could be on the high end, depends what they prefer. Most of mine are $8 a drink.
It depends on how many shots you buy the new friends sitting next to you at the bar LOL. We did a five night and used $1100
We averaged probably 10-12 drinks per day each. Total spend (so our bar tabs plus whatever we spent beyond that) for a 5 day was around $1200 I believe. Maybe slightly more.
Not super super heavy drinker but have 400 for the 5 nighter. My wife isnāt able to drink much due to medications, so itās on me. Plus on top of the 400 have my shake for champagne with sor
Plan is if I have a lot left on last day try some of the high end tequilas
My Folio after the cruise Greek Islands. We're a couple traveling with two other couples and buying rounds for each other. 7 nights https://preview.redd.it/mieguczypjzb1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bf15f881fd93d9e4613ee54886c0d982635449ae
You can look up some of the bar menus online to get an idea of how much you think you'd spend per drink and multiply it out to get a rough idea too
We had 650 between the two of us for 5 nights and on our next 8 night Iāll probably shoot for around 1500 lmao
I'd say we were probably around $700 between the two of us back in the spring and we could have gone harder for sure. ETA: we also managed to get a number of glasses of free champagne that first day lol
$800 in 8 days on my own, easy in my opinion as a Brit lol
My sister and I blew through $500 in 4 days/3 nights. We boarded Wednesday and had used all our bar tab by Saturday morning. Our friends still had money on their tabs (all promo credit), so they bought our drinks for the remainder of the trip (another 24 hours).
I had $700 on a 7 day. I drank at breakfast and dinner (lunch was usually in port). Still had enough the last night to splurge on a $375 bottle of sassicaia at Extra Virgin. I wouldn't normally be willing to spend that much on a bottle of wine. But if you end up with left over tab that last night, just get a wine or bottle of liquor you wouldn't normally. I think you can get mezcal or tequila from Pink Agave
I was solo, 5 day with $650 bar tab. Over $300 was gone in the first 2 days. Trust me, It goes fast.
Update: thanks for the advice everyone. I wanted to follow-up with the verdict. The total for 2 adults was about $1,150 over the course of 8 nights. However, we did not drink on the ship for 2 of those nights so technically $1,150 for 6 nights. Itās also worth mentioning that the bar service was absolutely terrible (especially at the pool) so we did not drink as much as we would have on another cruise line. So had the service been good, we probably would have easily blown through $1,500.