Icon of the Seas - which drink package to get chai?

[halfmonkey]

We're looking at the drink packages and I assume the Deluxe Beverage Package will get us everything including the specialty coffee drinks such as chai. Are there any other packages that will allow me to get chai while on board? My app shows the following non-alcoholic packages available: refreshment package, classic soda package, Evian water package, and cafe select coffee card. Obviously soda and water package won't have it but wondering if refreshment package will have it. I assume Cafe Select Coffee Card would have it but that's an assumption.

Does anybody have any confirmed intel on this or where I might be able to find some information? Searching the forum seems to mainly discuss chai and the deluxe package and we don't want to spend the money on the deluxe package as we don't think we'll be able to drink that much each and every day.

Also, if chai is available in the Cafe Select Coffee Card, does everyone need to buy the package? The app doesn't say that the price is per night so I'm thinking it's a set price of 1 package per person. Here's the kicker though. My wife and I will be staying in one room and the kids will be in a separate room. Does my wife and I need to each buy the same Coffee package or can only 1 of us buy it or does all 5 (us and 3 kids) need to buy it?

From what I'm reading about the coffee package, it looks like it might fit our needs as it says it allows for up to a total of 15 specialty coffee drinks. It seems for a 7 night cruise, that's basically 2 drinks a day which is good for us.

 

[FreeTime]

Just used the cafe select coffee card last week. What they don’t tell you or I failed to notice ahead of time, is that it is two punches for iced drinks of any sort as they consider it to be a larger size. The card can be shared amongst guests.

On a prior trip I used the refresh package which worked out to get bottled water for excursions, coffee drinks, fresh orange juice and soda.

The top level package I have never found cost effective.

 

[sam_gordon]

My understanding is the Deluxe is everything (Except if the ship has an actual Starbucks kiosk).
Refreshment is everything BUT alcohol (again, excluding Starbucks)
Soda is just soda
Water is just water bottles delivered to your stateroom.
Coffee Card is described in my cruise planner as "a card that entitles you to any 15 specialty espresso-based coffees throughout your vacation"

So my guess is you'd need either the Deluxe or Refreshment **OR** pay for each drink (ALWAYS an option)

 

[halfmonkey]

Just used the cafe select coffee card last week. What they don’t tell you or I failed to notice ahead of time, is that it is two punches for iced drinks of any sort as they consider it to be a larger size. The card can be shared amongst guests.

On a prior trip I used the refresh package which worked out to get bottled water for excursions, coffee drinks, fresh orange juice and soda.

The top level package I have never found cost effective.

Oh, I didn't realize they did such a thing. I thought it was one punch = one drink. So all ice drinks are two punches. Are there any hot drinks that are two punches or are all hot drinks one punch?

Thanks for the info everyone else.

 

[FreeTime]

What was explained to me is that the iced drinks were all venti or larger in size which is why they were two punches. I don’t remember seeing any teas on the menu but I wasn’t looking for them. I did see a guy get a teabag and they punched his card. He must have really wanted that kind as they had free tea bags with the fake juices and water dispensers.

 

[kae11]

Used the Cafe select card on Jewel over the summer. In my experience, I was able to get the smallest size chai tea latte for a single punch, but larger sizes required more punches. I read reports of others getting larger sizes for a single punch but that wasn’t my experience. There were free vanilla chai tea bags by the coffee/hot water dispensers.

You can also buy a single card and share between multiple people. They allowed us to get more than one drink at a time, and just punched the card for the number of drinks we ordered. We were also told if you don’t use all your punches you can save the card for future cruises, but we have not tried that.

 

[halfmonkey]

So I originally thought that at $31 for 15 "drinks," this would be a killer deal as that would break down to a little over $2.00 a drink. Of course it was too good to be true because of what I'm reading here with them charging two punches for iced drinks and sometimes two punches for hot drinks.

That would make more sense as that basically comes out to a little over $4.00 a drink which would still be cheaper than buying the same Starbucks drink on land. This is assuming the drink is exactly the same on ship and on land in terms of size and being able to customize like with oat milk, etc. Frankly, I'm surprised with inflation and the way prices are going that they're not charing 3 punches for some drinks.

Of course these little tidbits aren't mentioned on any of the info that I read about the coffee drink package. It's not like it says that there's a disclaimer that some drinks will require more than 1 hole punch and maybe up to 2 or 3 punches. I suppose it may still be a better deal to still get the coffee package even if they do 2 or 3 punches than buying individually without the coffee package.

 

[FreeTime]

I kept track of my spending. I had iced lattes and fraps. I had one punch remaining. I saved $13 over paying out of pocket. There were only two places on the ship to use the card and they were always busy. They were quick though.