Originally Posted by platbrownguy

Don't get me wrong, if your goal is to drink for a few hours a day, then the $190 per day per couple is not a bad price. There is perfectly serviceable booze available and you can "get your money's worth" if that's your thing. Fifteen years ago I would have signed up for it if I were in the Maldives. But fifteen years ago, if I were on my own dime, I would have been in Cozumel instead of the Maldives.

We were fairly active each day (excursions, snorkeling off our portion of the beach, spa, etc.) and, IIRC, we didn't have any booze before 5 p.m. on any of our 6 days. I think we started with the free globalist cocktail each day except Saturday (when we had the management cocktails), and ended up spending probably $250/day on average on alcohol -- essentially a couple more ($14-16) cocktails at the bar after the freebie, then a $100-200 bottle of wine with dinner (suck up the markup, it's part of the deal!), then maybe a glass of port with dessert or a nice cognac or whiskey at the bar, and then perhaps later in the evening, a drink or two each back at home using the minibar and the amply available ice.

All that was really afterthoughts though. We saw sea turtles on our first snorkeling excursion and after that all we were really thinking about was when we were getting back in the water! (ended up seeing at least 8 sea turtles, swimming with a couple of them for ages, also swimming with reef sharks and an eagle ray, and seeing dolphins on our ride back to Kooddoo).