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Cheers to $20 max drink?

JaxsMama

By JaxsMama,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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SNJCruisers

SNJCruisers

Posted
Posted
How do you choose to do the Cheers ? We are on a 7 Day with ports daily. We don't plan to be off the boat the entire time in port. Probably 5 hours each day. Do you think it is worth the package ? I am having a hard time deciding!
Assuming that you don't start your day with a mimosa or bloody Mary, then all of your drinking would be after your 5 hours of exploring your port of the day. So that would give you from say 200 pm to midnight or so to drink. If you have a drink every 75 minutes, that's 8 drinks. If you go to the Alchemy Bar, you break even at 5 drinks. And remember, all of the included non alcoholic options are unlimited such as espresso based coffee drinks, cold brew coffee, bottled water, vitamin water, bottled iced tea, energy drinks and milkshakes.
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BlerkOne "Live from...." Rare

BlerkOne

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We are on a 7 day with three ports and purchase the package. While I don't plan on being drunk every day (light weight here), if I want it, I can have it and I don't have to worry about surprises later. I love my fancy coffees and bottle water and they are included as well. Having to worry about what I spend on-board is not on my vacation agenda.

 

Three $20 drinks and you are golden. Or a couple of glasses of wine, a specialty coffee, a few bottles of water, a virgin frozen drinks. You don't have to get stuck in a rut.

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beerman2

beerman2

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Not before Royal and NCL crack the barrier. Don't their drink programs have lower $ limits?

NCL is $15.00 limit, with Super Premium brands 16.95. So you pay $1.95 + 20% gratuity.

 

Chocolate Martini is 17.95. So an extra $3.54 for it.

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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NCL does have drinks in the $20-$30 range, but you only pay the difference above $15... If and when Carnival decides to raise some drink prices over $20, you only get a 25% discount on the full amount...

Not before Royal and NCL crack the barrier. Don't their drink programs have lower $ limits?
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ProgRockCruiser

ProgRockCruiser

Posted
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Quite wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood!! Pure spec. Needless worry.

Ah, I am considering this more of a thought experiment in the combination of cruise-line finances, sales tactics, managing customer expectations, and how Carnival manages the overall roll-out of changes to their "services". Sort of a case-study, if you will.

 

My musings are very unlikely to affect the final outcome, (un)fortunately - otherwise I might feel obligated to actually attempt some influence (not sure how, but I'd try!)

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zookeeper

zookeeper

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We are on a 7 day with three ports and purchase the package. While I don't plan on being drunk every day (light weight here), if I want it, I can have it and I don't have to worry about surprises later. I love my fancy coffees and bottle water and they are included as well. Having to worry about what I spend on-board is not on my vacation agenda.

 

 

My sentiments exactly. Used to be always worried about how much my husband spent of drinks and then I'd get irritated. Now I don't have to feel that way. Granted it comes at a $ cost but well worth the peace between us!

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zookeeper

zookeeper

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When I was on RC last December the I believe the limit was $13. I am not a big drinker and don't know a lot of fancy, expensive drinks but I do know that the Chocolate Martini I so loved on Carnival Sunshine in 2017 was over RCs price limit!

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SNJCruisers

SNJCruisers

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This "break even" mentality on drinks that are horribly overpriced to begin with makes me laugh.
Out of all of the mainstream lines, only MSC has cheaper prices than Carnival. NCL is really high on some of their drinks. Dark and Stormys used to be 16.95 when they were only 8.50 on Carnival.
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ProgRockCruiser

ProgRockCruiser

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This "break even" mentality on drinks that are horribly overpriced to begin with makes me laugh.

Well, I'm going to drink while I cruise. So regardless of Carnival's drinks being "horribly overpriced" or not, I want to calculate whether I am generally better off buying the drink package or just individual drinks.

 

Since I will drink well over 6 alcoholic drinks in a day while cruising, and many of those will be Alchemy bar martinis and the like, the Cheers! package is something I will "break even" with very easily, without even trying to "get my money's worth".

 

Others, like my Mom, not so much. I should have gone individual with her, and skipped the package. But it did mean peace of mind, I suppose, and she wasn't tempted to settle for the cheaper drink just to save a buck or two.

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Badfinger

Badfinger

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Please, I love a good laugh as well. Could share which drinks are "horribly" over priced?

 

 

 

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

 

All of them is the simple and obvious answer. But drinkers will disagree. You can buy one of those airplane size bottles of whiskey at the local liquor store for 0.99, but pour that over ice on ship and you are paying what...$8 plus tip? And what is one of those aluminum bottles of bud light beer on ship...$6.25 plus tip? Seems to me a 6-pack is about that price at the local grocery, so over $7 for one cheap beer... Yeah, where can I sign up for that bargain of the century?

 

And the cheers package..is what $52 per day plus 15%..or about $420 for a 7-day cruise. $420...are you kidding me? Think how many hours you have to work at your job to NET that much. And then most even tip the waiter even more to ensure prompt service. Yikes! If I was going to drink that much, I was just hang out on my back patio and drink until I passed out. After 6-7 drinks, do you really care where you are..on a ship, patio or in some smokey dive bar?

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

Luckily I am one that does not need to drink to enjoy myself, or make anything I am doing even more enjoyable, so I can easily refrain from such ridiculous prices in these types of situations I do drink on occasion. In fact, I will have a 22 oz draft tall-boy later today when we have our Fantasy Football draft. Of course, I will get there during happy hour prices and pay about $3 plus another $1 tip. Then they will comp me free soft drinks the rest of the night.

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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jimbo5544 "Live from...." Rare

jimbo5544

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

 

 

 

All of them is the simple and obvious answer. But drinkers will disagree. You can buy one of those airplane size bottles of whiskey at the local liquor store for 0.99, but pour that over ice on ship and you are paying what...$8 plus tip? And what is one of those aluminum bottles of bud light beer on ship...$6.25 plus tip? Seems to me a 6-pack is about that price at the local grocery, so over $7 for one cheap beer... Yeah, where can I sign up for that bargain of the century?

 

 

 

And the cheers package..is what $52 per day plus 15%..or about $420 for a 7-day cruise. $420...are you kidding me? Think how many hours you have to work at your job to NET that much. And then most even tip the waiter even more to ensure prompt service. Yikes! If I was going to drink that much, I was just hang out on my back patio and drink until I passed out. After 6-7 drinks, do you really care where you are..on a ship, patio or in some smokey dive bar?

 

 

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

 

 

Luckily I am one that does not need to drink to enjoy myself, or make anything I am doing even more enjoyable, so I can easily refrain from such ridiculous prices in these types of situations I do drink on occasion. In fact, I will have a 22 oz draft tall-boy later today when we have our Fantasy Football draft. Of course, I will get there during happy hour prices and pay about $3 plus another $1 tip. Then they will comp me free soft drinks the rest of the night.

 

 

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

 

 

I must have missed the local grocery in the ship...where is that?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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BlerkOne "Live from...." Rare

BlerkOne

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Posted
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....

 

 

Luckily I am one that does not need to drink to enjoy myself, or make anything I am doing even more enjoyable, so I can easily refrain from such ridiculous prices in these types of situations I do drink on occasion. In fact, I will have a 22 oz draft tall-boy later today when we have our Fantasy Football draft. Of course, I will get there during happy hour prices and pay about $3 plus another $1 tip. Then they will comp me free soft drinks the rest of the night.

 

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

 

Luckily we will be on a cruise while you are stuck on land playing make believe with other lost souls.

 

How you like me now?

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Joebucks

Joebucks

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My go-to drink is a Jack and Coke, which I believe is $6.25 on the ship. If that is overpriced, then every bar is, which is the model they need to survive. I can barely get them for that price at normal bars.

 

But, I don't care what kind of Patron I "can" drink, I don't care if it's golden unicorn blood. $840 for a couple for a week is a lot of money.

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LakeWobegon

LakeWobegon

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If you expect the worst, your dreams may come true. NCL is the king of nickel and diming their clients to death. There are no facts to that wold suggest that Carnival would implement this and then raise prices. It has Area 51 and building 7 written all over it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Can you be more specific? On what drinks were phased out on NCL? Which and how many? Seems to be a generalization without real specifics.

 

For us, Carnival is more expensive overall than NCL in every comparable cruise we've researched these past two years. Usually hundreds to a thousand dollars or more expensive comparing Carnival Vista or Horizon to Escape and Bliss. And that's after all the nickel and diming I hear about. True NCL may charge you $6.95 (when we sailed) for the whole cabin to have a hot room service breakfast, but I didn't even have that option on Carnival from what I could figure out.

 

That said, I now prefer the Carnival product. But generally, in my experience, NCL is now cheaper for us. They just use a different "fee" model than Carnival who charges more up front and then spreads the costs across all passengers who may or may not use certain products or services.

 

One other thing that dawned upon me recently in respect to all those commenting that "I wish I could purchase Cheers, but my spouse or partner doesn't really drink," have you considered booking two rooms? We are a family of four. In looking at future cruises on Horizon and Panorama, it appears as if booked a balcony and interior room across the hall, it would typically be about $200-$300 more than just booking a balcony. More space and if I put myself and a child in one room and my wife and a child in another room, she doesn't have to buy Cheers if I do.

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