Cruise line passengers often have almost ritualistic behavior toward the beverages they drink onboard. That's at least partially because beverages are an expensive part of a cruise and some people who earn free drinks have specific ways they like to enjoy those free beverages.
Royal Caribbean passengers can get drinks in a number of ways. First, they can buy them a la carte and pay as they go. They can also buy an all-inclusive drink package, and the cruise line sells two. There's one that offers everything except alcohol and the Deluxe Beverage Package (DBP), which is all-you-can-drink (as long as you can handle your booze).
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There are also two ways to get free drinks. Diamond-level Crown & Anchor members get four free drinks up to $14 each day, while Diamond Plus members get 5, and Pinnacle Club members get 6. Those free drinks are virtual vouchers loaded onto your SeaPass Card, which can be shared with other people.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) also gives free drinks to members of its Casino Royale loyalty program (a program that's completely separate from Crown & Anchor) who reach Prime or higher while the casino is open. The cruise line has always been vague about whether those free drinks are supposed to be for people actually playing in the casino.
If that's the rule, it's not one that has been enforced, and Prime and higher members often take drinks to go.
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Royal Caribbean makes an unpopular bar change
Many Royal Caribbean members who get free drinks like to ask for unopened beers, sodas, or bottles of water to take back to their rooms. For people using Diamond vouchers, that actually seems like a benefit to the cruise line because those drinks are much cheaper than the $14 cocktails they could be using their vouchers for.
Casino players do that as well and that's a little more in the grey area of what's allowed. Royal Caribbean generally (but not always) allows casino players to take drinks to go.
Now, many people on social media have been sharing that Royal Caribbean has changed its beverage policy. Instead of offering passengers unopened drinks, bartenders have only been serving them open.
Some people have reported that this is a ship-wide policy, while others have said it has only been enforced for people using their free Prime casino drinks.
In theory, the policy is that all drinks should be served open, but the reality is that enforcement has been mixed; many ships' casinos, however, have stopped serving unopened beers, wines, and sodas.
That does make some sense for free Prime casino drinks, as those are not meant to be shared. In theory, the person getting one could be bringing it back to their cabin to enjoy later, but they could just as easily be sharing it with people who are not entitled to free drinks.
Free casino drinks cannot be shared.
Royal Caribbean appears to be trying to curb abuses
Opening drinks served in the casino makes sense as those beverages are really supposed to be for the casino player who earned the perk. It's reasonable to make an effort to curb sharing of those beverages.
Some ships, however, have been enforcing the open cans and bottles policies at all bars, including on Diamond drinks. That's a more questionable policy given that those drinks are earned, and the rules allow the passengers who have achieved the required loyalty status to share them.
One angry passenger posted on a Royal Caribbean Facebook page about being impacted by the change calling it Royal Caribbean "taking away another benefit."
"Currently on the Utopia of the Seas. Last night my wife and I went to the Trellis Bar to use up our D+ drink vouchers for the day and bring back a couple cans of beer and a couple cokes for our room. When we asked for the items we were told that Royal has made a new rule that all items must be opened at the bar. The beverage manager happened to be at the bar and explained that this was a new rule that Royal started Dec 1st," the poster shared.
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Many others reported the same thing, while some said that on their sailing, Diamond drinks were an exception with beverage package, casino, and even a la carte purchases being opened.
Royal Caribbean has always struggled with having consistent drink policies across its ships, but the rule appears to be that all cans and bottles must be opened. Multiple bar managers confirmed that, but what rule will actually apply will vary (at least for now).
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