Carnival Cheers Package

[ShipHappens2018]

First of all, I'm sorry if this is a repeat question, I have searched but maybe I'm not doing it right.

 

This will be my first cruise and my husband and I are looking at the Cheers drink package, I am not a big drinker I may have a glass of wine or fruity cocktail with dinner but otherwise I'm a water drinker, My husband can drink a beer for everything and be good.

 

So my question is this, Is the drink package worth getting? is the 15 limit drink just for alcohol or is it 15 drinks per day and then you buy the rest? I may sound snobby (I promise I'm not) but I only drink bottled water when I'm traveling, so I know if water is included then I will be purchasing a lot of those.

 

Please help a first timer out with your thoughts and opinions on the Cheers Package :)

 

Thanks!! <3

[honestguy]

15 alcoholic drinks unlimited other drinks

[TEXSUN46]

15 drink limit is only for alcoholic beverages only. If you think you and your husband together would spend more than $100 a day on beverages then cheers would be a good deal, if you wouldn't spend that much then it would not be a good deal. My wife only drinks water and does not matter to her if bottled or from fountain, I might drink 4 alcoholic drinks a day on a cruise so it is not worth it for us. I would not consume enough specialty coffee or milkshakes, juice or whatnot to make up the difference so we don't ever get the cheers package.

[bury me at sea]

Cheers is a little over 50.00 per person per day. Only alcoholic drinks count toward the 15 per day limit.

 

You can order a 12 pack of 16 ounce bottles of purified water to be delivered to your cabin for about 5.00.

 

It is hard to see how Cheers would be advantageous to you.

 

Happy sailing.

[schazzy]

Cheers is a little over 50.00 per person per day. Only alcoholic drinks count toward the 15 per day limit.

 

You can order a 12 pack of 16 ounce bottles of purified water to be delivered to your cabin for about 5.00.

 

It is hard to see how Cheers would be advantageous to you.

 

Happy sailing.

 

This! My In-laws don't drink much in the way of alcohol or soda, but drink plenty of water, so we got them 2 12pks of water and they spent just shy of $100 on drinks on a 7 day cruise.

[LakeWobegon]

No one has ever asked this question before. : O : ) JK, obviously. Search the forum using the search function and you will find a spreadsheet evaluator tool has even been created. But you can do the basic math. If you and your spouse both have a couple of glasses of wine at dinner, 3 or more cocktails or fruity drinks during the day, and some specialty coffees and waters, you at least break even. We've found we can do that even on most port days so we've bought Cheers for our upcoming cruise. We like that we can also try many new drinks and not feel guilty not finishing them if we don't want to. Just get another one.

 

My best advice though is to take your best guess, do it, and if that means buying Cheers, casually jot down what you drink each day on a notepad and add it all up with a glass of wine some cold winter evening when planning your next cruise!

[ricew001]

I always offer this It's a spreadsheet to see if it's personally worth it for you.

As far as the price - if you book it online ahead of time you get a discount. I always use the 10% off discount cards too so to me that's an additonal 10% off.

Carnival Beverage Package Evaluator (2).xls

[LakeWobegon]

Another great point. If you accept the risk that buying the gift cards means you ARE going on a cruise with Carnival, no other way to spend it, you can save a lot. We've saved $700 with the gift cards and an AMEX credit (another good deal) on an upcoming cruise for 4 people in a balcony cabin. That nearly pays for our Cheers. But rereading your post, if you are going to have a few drinks max, then I'd say its not worth it and the spreadsheet tool could help determine.

 

My wife is the same as you btw, EXCEPT on cruises. She probably has more alcoholic beverages on a cruise than she does the rest of the year total. I kid you not. She isn't stumbling around, just will go with months without any drink other than water or coffee. But when we go on a cruise, she tells me to sign up for the package so she can try lots of things and will only drink half the drink often.

[maryred]

See by the glass or bottle prices below in (red).

 

...

This will be my first cruise and my husband and I are looking at the Cheers drink package, I am not a big drinker I may have a glass of wine (house wine starts at $7, better labels rarely exceed $12.75) or fruity cocktail ($8.50-9.25) with dinner but otherwise I'm a water ($1.95) drinker, My husband can drink a beer (starts at $4.95 for a 12oz can, most domestic 16oz bottles are $5.75 and imported or craft 16oz bottles are $6.25-6.50, but buckets of 4 bottles can be purchased at a discount of $2 off combined price) for everything and be good. ... <3

 

Just remember CHEERS purchased prior to boarding is $51.95/person/day and if you wait till onboard it's $56.95/person/day. Both the package total purchase and individual purchases of beverages will tack on a 15% auto-gratuity.

[Joebucks]

I wouldn't do it if I were you. It is about $120 a day between the both of you. Let's say your wine and bottled water costs $20 a day. That leaves your husband to buy $100 worth of beer just to "break even" every day.

 

Instead, I wouldn't worry about the individual charges, and just buy as you go. You can also buy a 12 pack of water for $4.50. Beers are about $6 each.

 

For those who talk about saving 10% on Cheers with gift cards, remember you can also save 10% a la carte.

[bar1068]

I

 

For those who talk about saving 10% on Cheers with gift cards, remember you can also save 10% a la carte.

 

 

^^^^THIS!!!^^^^....Did exactly that on our 8 day Sunshine cruise this past May. We had considered Cheers...we'd done Cheers a couple time in past, along with the beverage package on an RCI cruise. Those times we pretty much broke even..may have come out a little ahead on RCI. But we thought we would get Cheers this past May and pay with discounted gift cards.....wife was ready..but something was nagging me about handing over close to $1000 of the gift cards we had just to pay for drinks...all types of drinks. We decided not to get Cheers...funded our S&S account only with discounted gift cards, and boarded the ship with the mind set of, we'll drink as if we had Cheers. Kept track of drinks...totaled them up at cruise end...even adding in a "fudge factor"...we came up hundreds short of what Cheers would have cost us. As long as discounted gift cards are around, this will be our go to "method" of funding our onboard expenses

[ShipHappens2018]

Another great point. If you accept the risk that buying the gift cards means you ARE going on a cruise with Carnival, no other way to spend it, you can save a lot. We've saved $700 with the gift cards and an AMEX credit (another good deal) on an upcoming cruise for 4 people in a balcony cabin. That nearly pays for our Cheers. But rereading your post, if you are going to have a few drinks max, then I'd say its not worth it and the spreadsheet tool could help determine.

 

My wife is the same as you btw, EXCEPT on cruises. She probably has more alcoholic beverages on a cruise than she does the rest of the year total. I kid you not. She isn't stumbling around, just will go with months without any drink other than water or coffee. But when we go on a cruise, she tells me to sign up for the package so she can try lots of things and will only drink half the drink often.

 

 

This is a good idea. I will have a social drink here and there. But I never find somethings no I love. So I never thought of it this way. I have no doubt my husband can drink his share :)

[treasurespast]

Where does one buy these discounted gift cards you mention?

[watermelonqueen99]

For people like hubby and I, who like to drink, and I mean drink on a cruise, :D Cheers is 1000% worth it. For "light drinkers", not so much. But if you think you'll have 5-6 drinks per day, you'll break even.

[SNJCruisers]

Where does one buy these discounted gift cards you mention?

AARP and Allstate have them. Do a search on the boards and multiple threads will come up. You earn points and then redeem points for the 10% discounted cards. The cards come in 100 or 500 denominations and are also ecards that you get via email or hard plastic cards that arrive via USPS or UPS. Have purchased 5000 worth, saving 500 in the process along with another 500 via 100 in OBC from credit cards for Celebrity, NCL, and RCI as well as 200 in OBC on Carnival. Each time I used the free credit card once, paid it off and then redeemed the OBC on a following cruise.

[SNJCruisers]

For people like hubby and I, who like to drink, and I mean drink on a cruise, :D Cheers is 1000% worth it. For "light drinkers", not so much. But if you think you'll have 5-6 drinks per day, you'll break even.

A round of drinks for two people at the Alchemy bar is just over 25.00 including tip. If you have two during happy hour and another two post dinner anytime before it closes at 100 am, that's just over 100 towards your 120 per day outlay, which of course can be reduced by using discounted cards from AARP or Allstate to save 10%. Daytime drinking as well as all of the non alcoholic options put you over the top. And remember to get large format bottled water in the MDR or specialty to take ashore on a port stop.

[Alaskan Joe]

First of all, I'm sorry if this is a repeat question, I have searched but maybe I'm not doing it right.

 

This will be my first cruise and my husband and I are looking at the Cheers drink package, I am not a big drinker I may have a glass of wine or fruity cocktail with dinner but otherwise I'm a water drinker, My husband can drink a beer for everything and be good.

 

So my question is this, Is the drink package worth getting? is the 15 limit drink just for alcohol or is it 15 drinks per day and then you buy the rest? I may sound snobby (I promise I'm not) but I only drink bottled water when I'm traveling, so I know if water is included then I will be purchasing a lot of those.

 

Please help a first timer out with your thoughts and opinions on the Cheers Package :)

 

Thanks!! <3

 

For the situation that you have described the answer would be NO. I put you down for 1 drink p/day which means you have to drink 34 bottles of water a day:eek: and you would be $6 ahead of the game.:cool:

[ShipHappens2018]

For the situation that you have described the answer would be NO. I put you down for 1 drink p/day which means you have to drink 34 bottles of water a day:eek: and you would be $6 ahead of the game.:cool:

 

I am taking all of these very serious but I feel like this needs to be a challenge now ;p 34 Bottles of water I would never leave the restroom :') :')

[ShipHappens2018]

I'm going to read all of these posts to the Hubby tonight. I thank everyone for your Help :)

 

Happy Cruising!

[pacruise804]

First of all, I'm sorry if this is a repeat question, I have searched but maybe I'm not doing it right.

 

This will be my first cruise and my husband and I are looking at the Cheers drink package, I am not a big drinker I may have a glass of wine or fruity cocktail with dinner but otherwise I'm a water drinker, My husband can drink a beer for everything and be good.

 

So my question is this, Is the drink package worth getting? is the 15 limit drink just for alcohol or is it 15 drinks per day and then you buy the rest? I may sound snobby (I promise I'm not) but I only drink bottled water when I'm traveling, so I know if water is included then I will be purchasing a lot of those.

 

Please help a first timer out with your thoughts and opinions on the Cheers Package :)

 

Thanks!! <3

 

 

Do the math, but I suspect you would need to drink a lot of bottled water;).

 

If you are willing to carry a few bottles around with you, ordering waters for room delivery is much cheaper than getting a water from a bar.

 

My husband and I shared cider buckets rather than beer, but similar pricing. You save $2 per 4 beers and they are served in a bucket of ice. I don't remember if they opened the first one or two, but know they did not open the other two - so you can take un opened cans/bottles to your room for later if desired.

 

If you use your cabin fridge you will want to crack the cabinet door a little (drape a wash cloth) for added ventilation.

 

 

^^^^THIS!!!^^^^....Did exactly that on our 8 day Sunshine cruise this past May. We had considered Cheers...we'd done Cheers a couple time in past, along with the beverage package on an RCI cruise. Those times we pretty much broke even..may have come out a little ahead on RCI. But we thought we would get Cheers this past May and pay with discounted gift cards.....wife was ready..but something was nagging me about handing over close to $1000 of the gift cards we had just to pay for drinks...all types of drinks. We decided not to get Cheers...funded our S&S account only with discounted gift cards, and boarded the ship with the mind set of, we'll drink as if we had Cheers. Kept track of drinks...totaled them up at cruise end...even adding in a "fudge factor"...we came up hundreds short of what Cheers would have cost us. As long as discounted gift cards are around, this will be our go to "method" of funding our onboard expenses

 

This is our approach too, except we will use cash on our next cruise (not sure when our next cruise will be on Carnival and don't want the funds tied up or mess with the casino).

 

If you can't find the 10% off cards on-line, some grocery stores also sell them and offer gas or store perks. Not quite as good, but still some savings.

[bar1068]

Do the math, but I suspect you would need to drink a lot of bottled water;).

 

 

 

If you are willing to carry a few bottles around with you, ordering waters for room delivery is much cheaper than getting a water from a bar.

 

 

 

My husband and I shared cider buckets rather than beer, but similar pricing. You save $2 per 4 beers and they are served in a bucket of ice. I don't remember if they opened the first one or two, but know they did not open the other two - so you can take un opened cans/bottles to your room for later if desired.

 

 

 

If you use your cabin fridge you will want to crack the cabinet door a little (drape a wash cloth) for added ventilation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is our approach too, except we will use cash on our next cruise (not sure when our next cruise will be on Carnival and don't want the funds tied up or mess with the casino).

 

 

 

If you can't find the 10% off cards on-line, some grocery stores also sell them and offer gas or store perks. Not quite as good, but still some savings.

 

 

 

Yea, we considered the “what if’s” committing to the Carnival gift cards...our view was...we’ll use them at some point on a Carnival cruise were something to occur we would have had to postpone or cancel our most recent cruise we funded with gift cards.....cruise fare as well as s&s account...but...we’d be ok having those funds committed to Carnival...we even “messed” with the casino to cash out our balance in May.

 

Thanks for pointer to stores offering perks if purchasing gift cards...we’ve 2 stores very close to us that offer that, though that’d be a “last resort”. If we could not get discounted cards via AARP or other outlets...we’d probably just find s&s with cash or a rewards credit card if discounted cards could not be found.

 

 

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