The end of last year went on a cruise and got a balcony for the first time and loved it. One thing I wish I could have a set up was to have drinks in the room without having to run to the bar each time. We usually would just have our morning coffee on the balcony, but I would have liked to end the evening with a couple of drinks out there or , maybe a break during the day. Getting ready to book another cruise with a balcony, and hope I can figure this out before I go.
Ok that last one is pretty brilliant. Cheers!
On HAL if you have a fridge it's stocked with beer, wine, canned cocktails, and Coke. If you're 4 star, it's all 1/2 price, which makes it very reasonable.
Yes, but all fridge/mini-bar items are an additional (high) charge. I doubt most of us are 4-star Mariners, so that's a full-price premium.
I asked my steward to remove the items so I could stock it myself with water and soda from my drink package.
Yes, but no more costly than stopping at a bar, getting a couple of drinks, and putting in a cup to take to your room. Unless I misread (always a possibility, lol) OP was not asking about the cheapest options or how to smuggle booze on, just how to have drinks in their room. Minibar is a good alternative. Even the canned cocktails aren't bad.
You're right, OP didn't mention the cheapest option. I am a very cost-conscious person, and always try to avoid spending extra money. My original response assumed OP would have a drink package, therefore no additional cost for drinks at bars, while a bar setup or mini-bar use would incur charges. I also assumed that people that want to drink in their rooms consume as much alcohol as I do, which warrants a drink package - cruise lines lose money on me!
Ah, got you. Thx. I am cheap ass person. I never get the drinks package. I am at least 4 star. I get my morning latte 1/2 price, go to the one bar with the 1/2 price happy hour (not star level related) and get wine packages for 1/2 price. If I get a decent offer for a last-minute upgrade from my cheap interior (all but 2 of my cruises), I get the 1/2 price minibar. Even before I hit the right level, I didn't buy the package. I just drank less.
No one gave smuggle suggestions, I just see options to have drinks in your room without callling room service I guess'
Because of our cruise level we get a free bar set up. Once that is gone I do this with spirits and keep them in a water bottle in the fridge. I also get unopened mixers so I can have a drink when it suits. There are also soft packs you can buy to smuggle spirits on in your suitcase. These are great
Princess!
Agreed! On Princess you can order through the app and you’ll get your drinks delivered anywhere you are, including your cabin. I have a Princess cruise booked in October (with Princess plus) and I’m excited to try out room service while on our balcony.
It's still quicker to walk and get a drink, but if you time it right it's great.
My wife doesn’t drink much, so on Princess, she orders bourbon and cognac to the room first thing in the morning. Instant mini bar for me.
Nice!
If your cruise line allows wine from home you could bring a bottle. I also like drinks on my balcony at night so I just grab a glass of wine to take back to the room at the end of the night. Some cruise lines offer an option to set up a mini bar in your room, I have no clue what the fee for that is. Also some cruise lines sell bottles of wine and liquor and they will usually post the menu in your planner and you can order ahead of your cruise. Aside from your own bottle of wine, there is no way to do it without an additional cost above and beyond a beverage package that I know of. There have been many posts about this online.
On Holland, if you go on a wine excursion, you can purchase a bottle of wine to open in your room, in addition to the bottle you can bring with you.
Wow that is unusual and very nice.
I will say, a wine excursion you purchased with them, but that was nice when we visited New Zealand.
Is there an issue with just ordering drinks through room service?
Well if you have a drink package anything you order through room service isn’t included in your drink packages.
On Princess if you have Plus Package you have free delivery anywhere on the ship. They know where you are with your medallion (aka tracking device)
An interesting. Seems they are the exception.
Virgin has room service too.
Virgin doesn’t have drink packages so not relevant to what I was talking about.
This has not been my experience. I have definitely ordered after dinner drinks delivered to the cabin as part of my drink package.
On which line? I know royal, NCL, and msc all have where room service drinks are not included in the drink package.
It's included on Princess with the package. We had drinks delivered to our room every night for free.
Yes, on Princess. And I believe your Butler will bring you drinks on the luxury lines, and in the MSC Yacht Club. This summer we will be Concierge level on Oceania. I’m pretty sure they will bring us drinks, we have their premium package…I will report back. I know the Butler will bring you drinks/your own bottle in the Oceania Penthouse suites. My dad checked before booking!
No, just not too familiar with cruising. Went on one cruise as a teen, another almost 15 years ago, and the last one just last year, so still fairly new.
You can order beer, wine, and hard liquor for your mini-fridge.
Never seen that on Royal - pre ordering 375ml bottle(s) of rum, gin or vodka with 4 mixers (limit two package per room per sailing), yes but there is not a minibar option.
I've never cruised on Royal. Mainly Princess. We did a couple Carnival cruises.
We've cruised enough on Princess that we get a free mini fridge filled with beer and soft drinks and a bunch of liquor minis on a tray. It a waste for me because I don't drink. I have turned the mini hard liquors in for soft drinks before. Last cruise I just gave them away to our friends who were cruising with us. They were happy.
I remember Royal having a minibar option on Liberty last year. There was a paper next to the breakfast menu you could fill out, and they would deliver it.
Celebrity has drinks ready to go in the mini fridge
Suites only
No balconys too
We get buckets of beer and bring them back to the room.
Pick a room close to a bar. Go to bar, walk back, drink. You can get two drinks each visit.
Room close to a bar can help.
Suite/line with bar set up. Off the top of my head no clue which options have this. Like, sometimes it is just the top suite on a ship. Some lines it will be all of X suites, etc.
Order booze for the room.
NCL Haven makes it pretty easy to have booze in the room. Plus the bar is right there.
In short, can be done but it is going to cost a bit of money.
MSC in the Yacht Club. They give you a fully stocked minibar and a full size bottle of booze of your choice, except tequila, in your stateroom. The vodka was Absolut, so mid shelf offerings.
With the option to swap it to Belvedere for free. Seems to be a standard selection between the two, based on what I found and from others. But they of course offer Absolut first. Crazy but true. We were YC interior.
Thanks for the heads up. The Belvedere will be my choice on our sailing next February
You do know that vodka is the same, no matter the label, right? It’s just ethanol and water…
I ordered a bottle of gin to my room on a Carnival cruise and brought on a 12pak of tonic when I boarded. It cost $90. I'm going on a Celebrity and could have that same set up but the cost is $150. I guess it depends how bad you want it. I know I can't do justice to the drink package so I don't get it.
If your in a suite with Celebrity, your butler will stock your fridge with your preferred drinks!
I bring my yeti soft sided cooler onboard as a carry on. Give to steward and have them fill with ice. It is loaded by end of day 1.
Every time I go off ship loaded to go, return refill and repeat.
Easy--cruise on Princess and get the plus package, which uses your Medallion to deliver drinks to wherever you are on the ship, including your room. If you don't get the package, which includes wifi, tips, and drinks, as well as some extra dining like their pizza restaurant, you can pay $15 for the cruise to get unlimited food/drinks delivery to your room or anywhere on the ship. So if you want a snack to go with your drinks on the balcony, it's very easy on Princess. There are probably a hundred different drinks you can order on their app, including espresso ones, basic liquor with mixers, sodas, cocktails, and beer/wine. You never have to visit a bar on Princess, and unlike every other cruise line, they don't make you sign a receipt that usually asks for an additional gratuity beyond the included 18%. Another option is to cruise Cunard, which allows you to bring any alcohol you want on board.
Get yourself some of those insulated stainless steel mugs with lids that seal up tightly if you don't already carry them with you on cruises. Get drinks before you head to your cabin at some point. Usually you can even put them in your mini fridge for later as long as the cups fit. Voila, solved.
We usually travel with two larger cups and two of the smaller ones usually described as wine tumblers since we like to relax with cocktails on the balcony after we get ready for dinner, and then sip wine on the balcony after dinner. We also have found often if you take the large ones to the pool and the cruise line private islands they will fill it for you so you can sit and sip without needing to go back to the bar or hunt for a waiter.
Bring those “shampoo bottles” and hide them in your luggage. We did and enjoyed many drinks in our room.
I order a Truly (unopened) and put in fridge for later
NCL has the Brewhouse and you can buy a growler for like $7. If you have the drink package, they will fill it for you to go.
Find out if the cruise has room service. Carnival does have it!
On the way to our room at the end of each day, we like to stop at the bar and get a few shots of Baileys or Kahlua to carry back and put in our fridge for the next morning’s coffee. Perfect on the balcony!
I am taking my GF on HAL in a few weeks. We are both drinkers. This is her first cruise and she gets anxiety in big crowds so I am sure she would rather be chilling on our balcony. She drinks beer so I am going to order some beer to have in our room. It is pricey, about $8/can. I drink liquor so I will probably have to make the runs up to the bar and back.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean both have a pre-purchase in cabin liquor purchase. Prices are crazy (RCI was $44 for 375 ml of Absolute vodka and four cans of Sprite, with no options to sub tonic for Sprite). 750 ml of gin on Carnival was about $95, with about six mini cans of tonic. Order the liquor and carry on your own cans of mixer.
My UO Unsignificant other. Purchased some Transparent bladders from Amazon. And put hard liquor in them. Then wrapped them within his clothing. Because the liquor is transparent. The cruise ships will say that they go through the luggage which they do. And do random searches for liquor that is not to be on the ship. So If they find it, they will confiscate it from you and give it back to at the end of the Cruise.
The first cruise that we took. We bought some liquor from the island and went to bring it back on the ship because we thought it would be cheaper to drink that way and they confiscated it from us till the end of the cruise. At that time, the liquor was half price. What? You could buy it on the shop and the bottles were much larger. The same is true related to liquor sold in the United States as well.
They said a lot of people at that time were putting liquor into water bottles. So the cruise ship started banning people bringing open water bottles onto the ships. But what they were doing was putting it on YouTube and telling people how it was done. So the cruise ships apparently were watching what people were doing on YouTube and they started banning the water bottles. Through the TSA services. So you can stand in line and drink liquor up until the point that you enter into the cruise terminal. Be that an alcoholic beverage or just water. But if it's open, you have to throw it away.
I had one lady who was T. S.A. In Charleston. And she took a water bottle from me. That was not even opened. This was after I had passed out from heat exhaustion At my home of residence. I don't know why they can't pass out water to people standing in line waiting to get on the ship.
So when you are on the Islands, the cruise ship will have free water and juice for you. When you get off the ship and get back on the ship. They will also have free lemonade.
We usually get one bottle of liquor for the room. It’s pricey but cheaper than the bar and so convenient to have a nightcap in the balcony! Plus another reason to enjoy time away from the crowds watching the view.
The three options I've found:
Some cruise lines allow you to bring on your own wine or champagne, generally 2 bottles per cabin or 1 per person. Ask your room attendant for a corkscrew and glasses (if not already in the room).
Some lines, such as HAL, have a bar setup option you can purchase beforehand. It's pretty pricey for what you get - a small bottle of liquor plus a few cans of soda - but if you're not a wine drinker, that's your option.
What I do: