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First timer CHEERS question(please read, not your usual question)


C-Dawg2223
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Ok before any negative nannies get on here, I've looked and haven't found the answer. My wife and I are new to Carnival and have only cruised once(RCCL). We're getting the cheers package. I understand the 15 drink limit and I know why they do it($), so all those who call me an alcoholic(I'm not, they go to meetings) or judge me get your nose out of the air. On our Royal cruise I hit 15 drinks and I wasn't remotely hammered. Had my first drink at 9 had 4 before lunch, after lunch had 5 more before dinner. Had 2 drinks at dinner with my meal, had 3 more during activities then went to the casino and had 4 more playing blackjack. So that's 18 for those that aren't great at math(I'm with you had to use my fingers, I wrote this down because we chose Royal because of the drink limit. only reason I knew how many drinks I had), and I had a good consistent buzz all day, never plastered. Full disclosure I'm 6' and 230lbs.

 

Now my question can I drink 13 or 14 drinks and pay with my S&S card for 2 or 3 then buy the last one or 2 with my cheers program? How would that work? Thanks for any answers/feedback.

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No you can’t but if you want to buy your friends a drink 😉 before you hit 15  one will count against your count and the others will go on your sigh and sail.  My wife never drinks her limit so she just changes drinks later in the evening.

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13 minutes ago, Khunter3 said:

No you can’t but if you want to buy your friends a drink 😉 before you hit 15  one will count against your count and the others will go on your sigh and sail.  My wife never drinks her limit so she just changes drinks later in the evening.

I thought you could only buy one drink at a time? Yeah my wife will never drink 15 so I thought of that too but just wanting to cover all my basis before we cruise.

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I agree with you that you a person can reach the 15 drink limit and not be plastered or an alcoholic.

     The direct answer to your question will be:  it depends.  The bartenders and their computer screen will know what you're doing; some may not say anything, others may, and I speculate that the computer may be the ultimate authority on whether or not a purchase can go through.  Remember the bartenders have company policy to enforce, and it's their jobs on the line.  

    I would suggest the easier thing to do is be sure to bring your wine allotment on, if you like wine, and/or buy a bottle for the room ahead of time.

 

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6 hours ago, C-Dawg2223 said:

Ok before any negative nannies get on here, I've looked and haven't found the answer. My wife and I are new to Carnival and have only cruised once(RCCL). We're getting the cheers package. I understand the 15 drink limit and I know why they do it($), so all those who call me an alcoholic(I'm not, they go to meetings) or judge me get your nose out of the air. On our Royal cruise I hit 15 drinks and I wasn't remotely hammered. Had my first drink at 9 had 4 before lunch, after lunch had 5 more before dinner. Had 2 drinks at dinner with my meal, had 3 more during activities then went to the casino and had 4 more playing blackjack. So that's 18 for those that aren't great at math(I'm with you had to use my fingers, I wrote this down because we chose Royal because of the drink limit. only reason I knew how many drinks I had), and I had a good consistent buzz all day, never plastered. Full disclosure I'm 6' and 230lbs.

 

Now my question can I drink 13 or 14 drinks and pay with my S&S card for 2 or 3 then buy the last one or 2 with my cheers program? How would that work? Thanks for any answers/feedback.

That’s a genius question.  Smart to pay for a few less expensive drinks and save Cheers for more expensive after dinner liquors.

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I too think the answer is "it depends."  I've never been close to the 15 drink limit, but my daughter did her best to hit it everyday (lol).  I heard two different bartenders tell her that she was at 13 and "suggested" that if she thought that she would want more than 2 more, that she should purchase the next couple for "a friend" so that she wouldn't be cut off.  Not sure if that's typical or not.

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Depending on what you drink, you can order a bottle of wine at dinner and it will not count against your Cheers 15 limit. You can also buy a "tube" of draft beer from the Blue Iguana which is 100 ounces and it will not be counted against Cheers.  

 

If you have a "regular" bartender that you use, they will be glad to tell you where you are on Cheers if you ask.  You can then decide if you want to start buying drinks. 

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10 hours ago, C-Dawg2223 said:

I thought you could only buy one drink at a time? Yeah my wife will never drink 15 so I thought of that too but just wanting to cover all my basis before we cruise.

You can buy multiple drinks at a time (like a bucket of beer), but can only order one drink at a time on Cheers.  

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I'm sure this has been brought up before and I'm probably being "that guy", but it still puzzles me why they completely cut you off after 15. I understand having a limit for how many are included in the package, that's part of their bottom line and 15 is the number the bean counters decided was were the profit stopped, but you can't even purchase any additional drinks after that limit, although as others said, technically I could buy a dozen "for a friend" before the 15th drink, but not after. I mean, I'm assuming if I don't have Cheers, I have no such limit and could technically buy as many drinks as I want as long as I'm not cut off by the bartender for being obviously wasted. But, with Cheers, no matter my intoxication level, I'm automatically cut off after the 15. Makes no sense honestly.

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Yeah, I can definitely do 15 a day without even getting drunk. If I drank all 15 after dinner, yeah, I'd be plastered. But if you have a mimosa at brunch, a couple of beers at lunch, maybe a nice blended drink on serenity in the afternoon, it's easy to chew through that 15 in one day. I have had success "buying a drink for a friend" when I was getting close to my 15. I wouldn't do it right before 15 because it becomes a little obvious what you're doing. Some bartenders care, some don't. I usually try to find a bar and make friends with the bartender early on which makes life way easier as you get into the night.

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16 minutes ago, MikeMSD said:

I usually try to find a bar and make friends with the bartender early on which makes life way easier as you get into the night.

This is the best advice one can give.  Make friends with a bartender, tip them, and you will find that the bartender will not even have to ask what you want (if you have a regular drink), will add a little extra to a cocktail, and if they are working with another bartender who is not familiar with you, will ensure that bartender gets you taken care of 

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42 minutes ago, schazzy said:

I'm sure this has been brought up before and I'm probably being "that guy", but it still puzzles me why they completely cut you off after 15. I understand having a limit for how many are included in the package, that's part of their bottom line and 15 is the number the bean counters decided was were the profit stopped, but you can't even purchase any additional drinks after that limit, although as others said, technically I could buy a dozen "for a friend" before the 15th drink, but not after. I mean, I'm assuming if I don't have Cheers, I have no such limit and could technically buy as many drinks as I want as long as I'm not cut off by the bartender for being obviously wasted. But, with Cheers, no matter my intoxication level, I'm automatically cut off after the 15. Makes no sense honestly.

 

I'm not sure, it does seem somewhat arbitrary.  For some folks, 6 is going to be too much, even spread across the whole day, while I can get pretty close to 15 after a long day of "relaxing" and not be blotto.  And indeed, outside of the Cheers package there is no technical limit (just financial, and the bartenders do reserve the right to cut you off).

 

And I cannot believe that cost is an issue - I doubt Carnival would incur much in additional costs if the limit was 20, or 25, or infinity.  If anything, the number of people who might have 16 or 17 drinks might result in a good chunk of those people having a lot less to drink the next day, ifyaknowwhatimean, which would lower Carnival costs.

 

Maybe look at it from a lawyer's point of view (in retrospect, after reviewing what I have written, this is a stretch, but I'll leave it here for discussion):

 

Suppose Carnival let you buy drinks after you exhausted your 15 drink limit on Cheers.  If you have had those 15 drinks at no additional cost because of the drink package, and then you then spend money to buy more drinks after your 15th Cheers, there will be a non-zero population who will realize the next day or after the cruise that they spent too much additional money, and will claim they shouldn't have been served, they had impaired judgement, they want there money back, and compensation for pain and suffering, etc.

 

Maybe Carnival saw too many instances of this (either with their cruise lines or with competitors), and decided to impose the cutoff (no drinks after 15), knowing that if you go around it by buying "drinks for friends" that they will be able to claim that it isn't their responsibility that you drank those drinks "intended for others".

 

I dunno.  :shrug:

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41 minutes ago, serene56 said:

The buying drinks before the 15 is a current recent change-- so some one was able to do it last year but can not do it last week.    Its 15 alcohol drinks pp per day.  

Not true, we got off the Miracle 11/25 and were able to buy drinks as long as we did it before we hit 15.  And people with us that did not have cheers were allowed to purchase way more than 15.

 

Yes, I travel with a bunch of alkies.....

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Carnival's partner line Princess also has a 15 drink cut off but they will allow you to buy more after hitting the limit as long as the bartenders or managers agree that you are not drunk.  I think Carnival ships are worried about couples sharing the package more so than Princess

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1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

I'm not sure, it does seem somewhat arbitrary.  For some folks, 6 is going to be too much, even spread across the whole day, while I can get pretty close to 15 after a long day of "relaxing" and not be blotto.  And indeed, outside of the Cheers package there is no technical limit (just financial, and the bartenders do reserve the right to cut you off).

 

And I cannot believe that cost is an issue - I doubt Carnival would incur much in additional costs if the limit was 20, or 25, or infinity.  If anything, the number of people who might have 16 or 17 drinks might result in a good chunk of those people having a lot less to drink the next day, ifyaknowwhatimean, which would lower Carnival costs.

 

Maybe look at it from a lawyer's point of view (in retrospect, after reviewing what I have written, this is a stretch, but I'll leave it here for discussion):

 

Suppose Carnival let you buy drinks after you exhausted your 15 drink limit on Cheers.  If you have had those 15 drinks at no additional cost because of the drink package, and then you then spend money to buy more drinks after your 15th Cheers, there will be a non-zero population who will realize the next day or after the cruise that they spent too much additional money, and will claim they shouldn't have been served, they had impaired judgement, they want there money back, and compensation for pain and suffering, etc.

 

Maybe Carnival saw too many instances of this (either with their cruise lines or with competitors), and decided to impose the cutoff (no drinks after 15), knowing that if you go around it by buying "drinks for friends" that they will be able to claim that it isn't their responsibility that you drank those drinks "intended for others".

 

I dunno.  :shrug:

 

I dunno either, you make some interesting points though, I'm pretty sure there are financial and legal department reasons for the limit. What those reasons are or how they came to be, we may never know, but it is fun to shout into the dark about it.

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If two of us have Cheers, and one hits the 15 drink limit, can the other person buy drinks for the one who hit the limit? For example, I only had 10, I could buy a bucket of beer for him?  Or order 2 drinks and pay for one?

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If you really want to go by the letter of the rules...

 

you are only allowed 15 drinks. once you use up your 15 drinks, that's it until 6am the next morning.

you can buy a round of drinks for friends. one drink will be charged to cheers and you can buy the rest.

 

now reality

 

most bartenders will tell you when your close to 15 and will allow you to buy 'for friends' and not charge your cheers total. This is on them (their personal policy)  and not part of the documented rules

 

YMMV

 

 

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2 hours ago, nikki908 said:

If two of us have Cheers, and one hits the 15 drink limit, can the other person buy drinks for the one who hit the limit? For example, I only had 10, I could buy a bucket of beer for him?  Or order 2 drinks and pay for one?

  

 

it's easier just not get to 15 and buy at 12 or 13

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Think rumrunner bladders and byob ....for when you hit your limit. I have found the drink package is a total wste. We were just on a 14 day cruise. The package for 2 would have been 1900 bucks. We were off the ship 8 different ports. Best deal going was the pour your own red frog beer on the aft deck. 14 oz...4 bucks...but get a load of this *****.......it charges you a gratuity! We usually bring 2 bottles of wine and 3 litres of alcohol per trip. Problem solved.

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Wow thanks for all the responses guys!

 

So from what I’m gathering my best bet is either getting my wife to buy me one OR “buying one for a friend”. 

 

So on royal they they just swiped the sea card, I’m guessing if you have cheers you just tell the bartender “I’m buying this one/charge this to my account”? 

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