we have a reservation to go to Alaska on this ship. I heard the soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are not included. is this true?
how much should we budget for this?

Welcome to cruise-chat rosita! That is true, although I don't know how anyone can set you a budget for this as everyone will have differnt habits. If you can drink coffee, juice, lemonade and tea throughout your cruise you'll need no add'l budget. Cokes are going to be a couple of bucks each time (you can buy a fountain card if you know you'll be drinking several a day) and alcahol will vary by the drink. There are daily drink specials, usually rum or tequilla mixers that will be served on the pool dack and in the casino among other places. You control the budget by simply understanding each time you order you'll get a tab for your order with a 15% gratuity added and will sign for each one that'll be added to your onboard charge account. You'll get a statement the last couple of nights so you can review all your charges.

Cheers, Neil

quote:

I heard the soft drinks and alcoholic drinks are not included.

Hello rosita, and welcome to cruise-chat.

It is true, a large part of the revenue for mainstream cruise lines is the bar sales. It has been that way for several years now. Only the high-end cruise lines have soda and liquor included in the price - but then they charge a lot more than Celebrity so you are still paying for it no matter which line you cruise with.

Go conservative on the budget and figure $2 per can of soda, $4 per beer, and $7 per cocktail. These are ballpark figures but if you use these numbers you should be close on average to the total bar tab.

Did they tell you about the gratuities for the dining room and cabin staff? You will need to budget for those too since it is not included in the cruise price, and it is essentially the only income these great workers get.