Paid M&G price increase. Wow!

[carsastic]

Wow 11.50'for a one hr open Bar

That was a incredible value. I'm sure they lost money on that one

Let alone with a cruise critic crowd!

On one of my dream sailings. They had a broken water pipe that resulted in no hot water for 6 -8 hrs

They had an open bar for 45 mins

Almost got trampled by a 70 yo granny also watched people order straight up and pour it into water bottles for later consumption

20 bucks is about right for an hr

[LargeCornGyro]

Well, like I said, a year ago I can assure you that people were consuming WELL over the value of the $11.50 per person! For every person who doesn't attend for the sole purpose of getting drunk, there are probably three who DO attend to do so!!

 

Sure, it's nice to meet some Cruise Critic "friends" but it's more like the PG parties. Do we still go every year to witness the introduction of the staff and watch the corny video and cheer for our past ships?

 

Or do we go do pound down as many free drinks as we can?

 

C'mon now. Be honest! :p

 

No food? Seriously? You're somewhere that there is pretty good food available 24/7 and you're going to complain that there's no food during your 1 (or 2) hour party? You can't find something to consume before you attend?

 

Yes, I'm thinking like both a shareholder and an accountant. I'm not going to apologize for trying to see this objectively.

 

Yes, as noted, it is a big increase. But 2 x almost free still isn't very expensive.

 

It's $25 people. Is this going to break your cruise budget? Yes? Then don't attend. Schedule a "free" M&G. Carnival has the right to not lose money on these functions!

 

And we have the right to complain about it.

[Noel182002]

On our meet and greet it was awesome! But people got their money's worth but we paid about 21 pp for two hours !! That's a great deal

[jwjax]

Wow! A huge increase IMHO! But when I checked the math, at $7.95 ~ avg price for cocktails, it now takes about 6 drinks to break even for a 2 hour Open Bar Party (OBP).

 

I know for sure the last two, 2 hour OBP's I attended, and hosted one of them, that the 35-40 ppl there all consumed more than 6 drinks each. Probably more like 10-15 from what I saw.

 

Now as far a prepaying, that is still not clear to me. If it says all attendees must pay full deposit? Is that for the cruise, or is that for the OBP? The problem with prepaying, is that some people may back out at the last minute, so it will require a host to secure all the funds, and cutoff the addition/deletion of others well prior to the cruise? In the past, I added/deleted people at the Guest Service counter onboard prior to and after the OBP?

 

I will contact the group events planners and get the full new price list emailed to me. The posted one here, cut's off at the morning thing.

[firemanbobswife]

Wow! A huge increase IMHO! But when I checked the math, at $7.95 ~ avg price for cocktails, it now takes about 6 drinks to break even for a 2 hour Open Bar Party (OBP).

 

I know for sure the last two, 2 hour OBP's I attended, and hosted one of them, that the 35-40 ppl there all consumed more than 6 drinks each. Probably more like 10-15 from what I saw.

 

During our M&Gs, the glasses were smaller than the ones you get if you pay full price at the bar. Although, that may not be the case all the time I suppose.

 

Sorry I couldn't post the whole PDF on here, the file was too large.

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Georgiagolfer]

Well, like I said, a year ago I can assure you that people were consuming WELL over the value of the $11.50 per person! For every person who doesn't attend for the sole purpose of getting drunk, there are probably three who DO attend to do so!!

 

Sure, it's nice to meet some Cruise Critic "friends" but it's more like the PG parties. Do we still go every year to witness the introduction of the staff and watch the corny video and cheer for our past ships?

 

Or do we go do pound down as many free drinks as we can?

 

C'mon now. Be honest! :p

 

No food? Seriously? You're somewhere that there is pretty good food available 24/7 and you're going to complain that there's no food during your 1 (or 2) hour party? You can't find something to consume before you attend?

 

Yes, I'm thinking like both a shareholder and an accountant. I'm not going to apologize for trying to see this objectively.

 

Yes, as noted, it is a big increase. But 2 x almost free still isn't very expensive.

 

It's $25 people. Is this going to break your cruise budget? Yes? Then don't attend. Schedule a "free" M&G. Carnival has the right to not lose money on these functions!

 

DW and I have attended 2 pre-paid M & G parties, both at $12.00 pp (1 hour party). Both of these were at 1 pm. We had 2 drinks each, as did most of those in attendance, while a few people may have had more. At neither of these did it appear people came with the intent of getting drunk, especially 3-1 ratio trying to get drunk as you stated. There were over 60 people in attendance at each event, and with only 2 bartenders, would have been difficult to get enough drinks in 1 hour to get "slammed." We did have dry snacks provided by CCL, which people like when they are at a party.

 

Either way, still a significant price increase. Too much for me, but hey, you think it is the right amount, so be it.

[jwjax]

During our M&Gs, the glasses were smaller than the ones you get if you pay full price at the bar. Although, that may not be the case all the time I suppose.

 

Sorry I couldn't post the whole PDF on here, the file was too large.

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

 

No Problem, about the PDF.

 

As for smaller glasses, we have not experienced that before. I know for sure that CCL was losing money on OBP's, hence the price increases. Or maybe, they are trying to discourage them, and promote the Cheers prgm instead?:confused:

[firemanbobswife]

No Problem, about the PDF.

 

As for smaller glasses, we have not experienced that before. I know for sure that CCL was losing money on OBP's, hence the price increases. Or maybe, they are trying to discourage them, and promote the Cheers prgm instead?:confused:

 

No doubt it wasn't profitable at those prices. I was surprised they kept them that low for so long. It just shocked me that it would more than double. Maybe they would have been better off gradually increasing it.

 

If you want I can email you the whole PDF.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Noel182002]

I hosted two... At the one I totally got my money's worth and killed it and even had one to go... On the 2nd one I wasn't feeling well and nothing tastes right but I know that both of our parties we definantly got our money's worth we had three bartenders and three servers...

[jholderbaum]

Is this the same M&G mentioned on the dec 1st conquest roll call?

 

It so, who/how do I pay for us to attend?

[Georgiagolfer]

Is this the same M&G mentioned on the dec 1st conquest roll call?

 

It so, who/how do I pay for us to attend?

 

Not being ugly, but you can get that answer from your roll call. Most on the open forum don't know the answer as to whom you should pay.

[ready2cruzagain]

Is this the same M&G mentioned on the dec 1st conquest roll call?

 

It so, who/how do I pay for us to attend?

No, our roll call on the Conquest for Dec. 1, 2013 is not having this type of M & G. We are just doing an informal one on embarkation day.

[13607]

We have a 2-hour open bar party on the Sunshine for next month. We have already reached our limit of 80 people. Our location is the Piano Bar.

I'm not a big drinker....I enjoy it more for the social aspect

 

We have been on the Sunshine - no way are you getting 80 people in that small completely closed piano bar. It is very small. We had 41 people and there were not enough seats, and you were pretty much stuck where you were (no mingling) due to the room being wall to wall people. I don't know how many Carnival says fit in that piano bar, but it is way over what actually fits in there. I would ask for a different room

[wrigley80]

We have been on the Sunshine - no way are you getting 80 people in that small completely closed piano bar. It is very small. We had 41 people and there were not enough seats, and you were pretty much stuck where you were (no mingling) due to the room being wall to wall people. I don't know how many Carnival says fit in that piano bar, but it is way over what actually fits in there. I would ask for a different room

 

There's no other rooms available. Carnival has told us that there is seating for 64 people.

We will just have to make due with what we have. There's nothing else we can do

[UpstateCruizer]

We have enjoyed several of the open bar cocktail parties over the years. We had 5 of them on our Hawaii 15 day cruise which kept the bar bill quite low. We just had one on the Liberty which was organized and paid for on the planners S&S card. When I had organized one on the Freedom several years back I had to pre-pay the entire party on my credit card prior to sailing. It wasn't a big deal as I collected the money then paid.

 

We were just talking about how we would probably decline future cocktail parties when sailing on 7 day cruises as it cuts into time we'd have probably spent lounging at the pool. It is what it is and I'm betting Carnival will be relieved to not have the headache of staffing these parties.

[UpstateCruizer]

See if this is better. The originals were put up here from my cell phone. I just took the important parts from the whole emails because the size of the pdfs were too big to post here.

 

Hope this helps someone who is thinking (or not) about having a paid M&G.

 

 

So now it looks like you'd have to actually pay the $22 per hour to have the open bar option. The cheaper option has a choice of 3 cocktails which most likely wouldn't go over very well with a large group. I wouldn't pay for a cocktail party where my only drink options were limited.

[firemanbobswife]

So now it looks like you'd have to actually pay the $22 per hour to have the open bar option. The cheaper option has a choice of 3 cocktails which most likely wouldn't go over very well with a large group. I wouldn't pay for a cocktail party where my only drink options were limited.

 

Exactly my feelings. It's $22 PLUS 15% gratuity.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[tinkerbell_82]

Wait what? I have a private party booked for our wedding cruise! So I have to pay the new price or am the old since I booked months ago?

[Gig103]

To me the biggest problem with the price is that it's approx $25/HOUR, but the Cheers drink package is approx $50/DAY. Isn't it also true that the Cheers package ($50/day) can't be used during an M&G?

[BananaAnna]

DH has arranged 2 M&Gs for each of our last 2 cruises. If we would have had to prepay for 20 people we would not have done it. Will not be doing another one in the future either.

 

The folks that headed this up on our Oct. cruise booked it AFTER they had received first 20 payments.

[rrraydon]

The folks that headed this up on our Oct. cruise booked it AFTER they had received first 20 payments.

 

That's what I would do. I already have the money in my paypal account from my roll call mates. So, if they wanted me to pay now for our reservation, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I am already confirmed for our M&G open bar, so I am at the old price for this one.

 

For those who keep posting what is the big deal between getting the open bar at the old prices and having each person paying with their S&S card per drink, I say the difference is obvious. Let's see, approximately $15pp for an open bar for an hour at 3 drinks would be at least half price..common sense, I enjoy half price. So, am I bummed about the increase????...OBVIOUSLY...smh.

Edited November 3, 2013 by rrraydon

[NCTribeFan]

Our group is so large on Conquest that they've moved us to a different venue (don't remember where; I'm sure I'll find it though!). I believe we have 100 people signed up. Our Roll Call is huge, probably because it's a one-off sailing. Too huge to keep track of what everyone is doing. I need a spreadsheet! ;)

 

I never said people don't have the right to complain. After all, this is Cruise Critic and many people seem to think that means they can only be Critical. :p

 

It's an increase. So now that people know what the new prices are, they simply decide if they want to do this or something informal. Not the end of the world as we know it, folks!

[firemanbobswife]

Wait what? I have a private party booked for our wedding cruise! So I have to pay the new price or am the old since I booked months ago?

 

If you're already booked, you'll have the old prices.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[firemanbobswife]

To me the biggest problem with the price is that it's approx $25/HOUR, but the Cheers drink package is approx $50/DAY. Isn't it also true that the Cheers package ($50/day) can't be used during an M&G?

 

Never thought of the price difference that way! It's true you can't use the Cheers or Bottomless Bubbles packages at the parties. It has always been that way, so no change there.

 

 

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[mcwebber]

How many years had they held the previous price? If you average it out it's not that big an increase.