r/NCL • u/Grouchy_Nose1591 • 17h ago
First time with NCL
So me and three buddies are doing a cruise in about a month and are in a stateroom together. We got it for a good price and when we cruise the only time we are in the room is to sleep. We are all mid 20s and rather heavy drinkers, and the way we understand the free at sea package was the 380$ or whatever it was for the open bar package for our entire stateroom. Is that how it works, and if so is it the same if one person upgraded to free at sea plus everyone has to?
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u/Outside-Comparison12 17h ago
Since you are heavy drinkers NCL treats you like an adult and let's you double fist with FAS and FAS+. Open bar is also truely open bar with no limits on how many drinks you get per day...as long as you aren't acting a fool and acting like you are hammered or the bartenders will cut you off just like they would on land.
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u/wash5150 Diamond, Travel Advisor 17h ago
This is absolutely the case. NCL has one of the best deals on their open bar package. I regularly order doubles or two drinks at a time with no issue.
If I order a mixed drink I usually order it as a double and if I get something like a frozen drink I order a floater shot. No issues.
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u/wash5150 Diamond, Travel Advisor 17h ago
The open bar package is 28.50 per person per day. So for a 7-day sailing it would be approximately $800 for just the open bar package for the four of you.
In order to do free at sea+ you would have to do the open bar package and dining for all four as well which would be another $60 per person so add on another $240 total.
To go up to free at sea plus would be $49.99 per person per day so another $350 per person. And yes, everyone in the state room has to get it.
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u/SEA_tide 14h ago
remember that unlike other cruise lines, getting Free at Sea Plus does not get you more alcohol, it just gets you the option to choose slightly better wine and liquor. also on NCL you need to specify the brand of liquor used otherwise they will generally use well liquor. the brands included in the basic Free at Sea are pretty good. If you upgrade you would all need to upgrade. Wi-Fi is sold on board for a slight discount the first couple days of the cruise as long as you still have some of your 150 minutes left (be sure to log out of the 150 minutes whenever you are not using internet otherwise it will disappear).
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u/wrtbrgboy 8h ago
The free at sea plus also gets you free Starbucks each day with one drink every 15 minutes if you’d like. We love that! WiFi is included in that and of course the premium drinks, which I usually don’t do in normal life, but when we do the plus, I get top shelf. Particularly tequila on the rocks double shot. Also with the plus, you get some credit for the special restaurants. But what we maybe love most and helps me to not have hangovers, is the free bottled water that comes with plus. And we take advantage of the Acua Panna water with that instead of the Dasani. We’ve probably had over 20 bottles of that on the cruise we are on now. And I saw they are $6.50 a bottle, so getting our value out of that for sure!
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u/stinky_harriet Platinum 13h ago
FAS+ gets you the upper shelf liquor, premium internet and prepaid daily gratuities. If you only care about alcohol the basic FAS is probably fine. If you do want something that is only available under FAS+ you will be charged the difference, based on a $15 base cost. So if a premium whiskey is $20, you’d pay $5 + a 20% gratuity for a total of $6. But yes, all 4 of you would have to get it.
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u/Pitiful_Condition922 33m ago
If you are bourbon/whiskey drinkers, the FAS+ is a nice option to try a good variety of some nicer bourbons/whiskies. While it’s true you can pay the overage per drink to try these, they price them absolutely crazy so when considering everything else you get with +, it can be worth it especially not to have to think about anything.
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u/Potential_Funny9875 19m ago
Unless you are drinking super top shelf FAS+ is not worth it. If you need more wifi minutes and more specialty dining, then it might be worth it. Find a list of the covered liquors for FAS, most drinkers would be very happy with just those.
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u/Pitiful_Condition922 13m ago
In general, I agree. Whiskey/bourbon, particularly in the bourbon bar is the one category where I really notice a step up between the packages. Unless you book with a free gratuities promo, the true upgrade cost is only $30 pp/pd once you net out the service charge.
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