Drinks on a Back-to-Back Cruise: Wine Bottles and Drink Packages Across Two Legs

Royal Caribbean lets you bring one bottle of wine for each leg and delivers the extras one at a time. Drink packages are sold for the length of one voyage. Here is the detail.

Royal Caribbean counts each leg of a back-to-back as its own sailing for wine, and its drink package pages talk about one voyage at a time. You may bring one bottle of wine or champagne for each leg. A drink package is sold for the full length of a voyage. Nothing we found says one package carries over to the next leg, so plan to deal with it again when leg two begins.

Wine and champagne: one bottle for each leg

Royal Caribbean has a rule written for guests on consecutive sailings. Guests of drinking age may bring one 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne for each individual sailing. Extra bottles are stored by the ship and delivered to your stateroom one bottle at a time, on the first day of each new voyage.

• Two legs, two bottles each. Each guest of drinking age may bring one bottle for each leg. On two legs that is two bottles each, one in hand on boarding day and one held for leg two.
• Bring proof. If you bring more than one bottle on the first day, the line says to have documentation for the later sailings ready for security. Your booking confirmation for leg two is the obvious thing to carry.
• Only wine and champagne. Beer and hard liquor are not allowed on board. If security finds them on boarding day, the line returns them at the end of the voyage only if they are in the original sealed package.
• Sealed bottles only. The line says boxed wine and other containers are not allowed.
• Bottles you buy on board or in port are stored by the ship too, and returned on the last day.
• Charter sailings may follow other rules. Ask the charterer.

The page also points to a corkage policy for drinking your own wine. It does not give a fee, so ask before you plan a dinner around it. The drinking age is 21 on ships sailing from the United States, according to Royal Caribbean’s Crown and Anchor Society terms.

Drink packages: sold for one voyage

Royal Caribbean’s page on selected days says plainly that a drink package cannot be bought by the day: packages are sold for the full length of your voyage rather than by the day. A package becomes active the moment you step on board. The rules the pages give for buying one:

• Everyone of drinking age in the stateroom. If one guest buys an alcoholic package such as the Deluxe Beverage Package, the line requires it for all guests of legal drinking age in the same stateroom. Packages are for one guest and cannot be shared.
• Before you sail. You can buy through My Royal Cruise up to 72 hours before departure. Orders cancelled up to 2 days before the sail date are fully refundable, according to the line’s cancellation page.
• On board. The line’s pages do not agree on how long you have. One says the first day of the cruise. Another says the first two days, with the window only the first day on a 2 or 3 night cruise. A third says on board for any sailing with at least 4 days left. Ask at any bar on boarding day instead of counting on a date.
• Gratuity. The page says an 18% gratuity is added automatically, unless local law prohibits it. You can change it at Guest Relations until the morning you get off.
• What a Deluxe package covers. Any single drink up to $14 is included, with no daily limit, and 40% off bottles of wine priced up to $100. Room service and the minibar are not included.
• Partly used. If you cancel on board, the page says any part you have consumed is charged at full price.

Does it carry over to leg two?

We could not find a Royal Caribbean page that says it does, or that says it does not. The pages tie a package to the length of a voyage, and they say a Coca-Cola Freestyle cup is valid only for the sailing on which it is issued. Our reading: each leg is a separate sailing with its own booking, so expect to buy a package again for leg two. We could not confirm that, so ask Guest Services on turnaround day before you buy, and ask what happens to a package already on your account.

That makes a package two purchases on a back-to-back, one for each leg. We do not show package prices, because the pages do not give one and it varies by ship.

Turnaround day

Your Sea Pass card is replaced between legs, as we explain in Luggage and Sea Pass Between Back-to-Back Legs. The package sticker goes on the Sea Pass card, and bar staff ask to see it. Royal Caribbean’s page does not say how that moves to the new card, so look at the card you are handed and ask at the first bar. The wider day is in our turnaround day guide.

Plan for it

1. Decide how many bottles each adult will bring. One in hand, one stored for leg two, if that suits you.
2. Carry the leg two booking page, in case security asks about the extra bottle.
3. Before you sail, decide whether a package pays for the legs you are booked on. Cancel free up to 2 days before the sail date if it does not.
4. On turnaround day, ask Guest Services about a package for leg two and what happens to the one you have.
5. Use legtolegcruises.com to find the two legs.

Sources

The legtolegcruises.com Logbook is independent editorial and is not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International or Club Royale. Offers, fares, and program rules vary and change often; confirm every detail with Royal Caribbean before you book.