To buy or not buy the drink and wifi package, that is the question. For every cruise, we struggle with this query. We have been on many cruises where we have purchased the drinks and wifi, and we have been on equally many where we don’t purchase it. Often, the cost of the drinks and wifi package for 2 can be above $1000, which adds on a big expense that may not be worthwhile. While I definitely feel that there are ways around needing the drink package, there are some cruises where we feel like it is still worth it to purchase. For our latest cruise on the Celebrity Millennium around Japan, which was planned to be 12-nights, we decided to splurge and go ahead and get the package, but was it worth it?
One reason we decided to go ahead and purchase the drinks and wifi was because we had booked the cruise well over a year in advance and were able to take advantage of some great deals. During Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) sales, along with some other add-ons, we went ahead and purchased the drinks and wifi package at what would turn out to be the lowest price it was being offered. We knew that we could always cancel it if we changed our mind about needing it. The dilemma for us was mainly that since we have status with Celebrity that we would receive complimentary drinks during various happy hours and events throughout the cruise. Also, while we find that we do like having the internet during our cruises so that we can stay in touch with family and watch the occasional video in our stateroom, having an internet package is not mandatory for an enjoyable cruise (sometimes it is nice not to have one).
One major reason that we decided to keep the drinks and wifi package for our cruise was that this was a 10th anniversary cruise for us so we were prepared to splurge on add-ons. For us, the major pro to having the drinks package is that you have already paid for it and don’t have to worry about the cost of every single drink that you order. Having the drinks package gives you the freedom to try cocktails or beverages that you may have never had before. If you like them, then you can order more and, if you don’t like them, then you can easily abandon it for another one. We also appreciate that the drinks package comes with bottles of water, sodas, fancier juices and coffees and smoothies. We enjoyed quite a few smoothies in the mornings, and we probably would have skipped them altogether if we had to pay for them a la carte. As far as the internet is concerned, we would have probably only purchased just one wifi package and shared it if it didn’t already come combined with the drinks package.
We did find that the internet was really not that great on board the Celebrity Millennium. It worked well enough for FaceTime calls, emails and some videos, but for bigger longer videos the internet didn’t work that well for us. And, I was trying to upload reels and articles to various social media platforms and found that the internet was extremely slow for those purposes. Since I have only been on one other Celebrity cruise, the Celebrity Beyond, and never on a cruise to Asia, I can’t say if the internet performance was related to the Celebrity Millennium’s age, or if it had to do more with the cruise being in Southeast Asia, or perhaps a combination of the two.
As for the drink package, we both feel that the bars, the bartenders and servers and the quality of the drinks on board the ship were top notch. As we got to know that bartenders at the martini bar, they got to know our drinks orders and could also make recommendations of drinks that they knew we would enjoy. In the main dining room, the sommelier and bar server learned what we liked and made sure that our glasses always stayed full. This added a sense of elegance to our meals that we greatly appreciated. And, every morning we would get a fancy coffee and delicious danish thanks to our drink package (and status), which we really enjoyed.
The issue that we experienced was that we encountered an itinerary change that impacted our trip so much that we decided to get off the ship for four days. Due to an impending typhoon, the captain decided that for the safety of everyone on board that we would anchor in a safe space for 3 days thus skipping Kyoto and creating 3 consecutive sea days. We decided that we didn’t want to be stuck on the ship for 3 days, so we instead opted to get off the ship and tour parts of Japan on our own for 4 days. Because of this, not only did we lose the value of the cruise fare for those 4 days but we also lost 4 days of use of the drinks and wifi package, which we calculated to be $856. The cruise contract that we signed when booking the cruise plus the fact that “any unused portion [of the drinks and wifi package] resulted from [our] decision to leave the voyage” meant that we would receive no compensation for the loss. This was understandable but disappointing as it meant a total loss for us to the tune of above $2500.
So, if we had to do it over again, would we decide to purchase the drinks and wifi package for our 12-night cruise around Japan? Well, we had such a good time touring around Hiroshima, Osaka, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji on our own, that I would think that next time we would probably skip the cruise all together. But, it seems that on East Asian cruises that you are more at the mercy to weather systems and other issues such as gas prices, so that you can’t just easily go around the weather or just pick another port (like you can often do in the Caribbean). We never could have predicted that we were going to leave the ship for 4-days, and we wouldn’t be able to predict it as far out that would help us to make the decision of to buy or not to buy. So, honestly, I don’t know what we would do. The drinks and wifi package was great to have, but it was also a great loss for those four days off of the ship. I guess I would say, don’t purchase it if you can’t afford to lose it.