Cheers and Onboard Credit

[xostacylee]

Hi my trusty knowledge-filled friends! 

 

Question regarding OBCs & Cheers package. It's looking like I may earn $200 OBC from my Carnival Credit card by the time we board the Liberty in September.

 

My question is ... can I apply my OBC to my room, and then pay for Cheers? As in can I use the OBC to partially pay for cheers? Or do we pre-pay for Cheers and then we'd have an additional $200 OBC to use? I could also just use the points to pay myself back post-cruise if necessary. 

 

We're torn between Cheers & no-cheers. I've done the $$ crunching and it doesn't make sense BUT we're far enough out that we can pay for it and allocate the budget just to make the experience easier in terms of drinking. 

 

Would love your opinions!

 

Thank you!

[RHilla619]

If you have a $200 OBC it can be "used" for the Cheers package if you purchase it while on board. Meaning lets say the package cost you $400 and your account starts + $200 because of the OBC; when the Cheers charge hits your account the account will now show - $200, meaning you only owe $200 for the cheers package because of your OBC. Hope this makes sense.

 

The only down side is buying the package onboard, the only way to use OBC for it, does cost more per day. I think about $5 more a day.

 

Personally I won't cruise without Cheers. Besides the 15 drinks it also includes bottled waters, sodas, sports/energy drinks, and coffees from the coffee shop. Not hard to "break even" on the daily cost when you factor in the non-alcoholic drinks and what they cost a la carte too.

 

[xostacylee]

3 minutes ago, RHilla619 said:

If you have a $200 OBC it can be "used" for the Cheers package if you purchase it while on board. Meaning lets say the package cost you $400 and your account starts + $200 because of the OBC; when the Cheers charge hits your account the account will now show - $200, meaning you only owe $200 for the cheers package because of your OBC. Hope this makes sense.

 

The only down side is buying the package onboard, the only way to use OBC for it, does cost more per day. I think about $5 more a day.

 

Personally I won't cruise without Cheers. Besides the 15 drinks it also includes bottled waters, sodas, sports/energy drinks, and coffees from the coffee shop. Not hard to "break even" on the daily cost when you factor in the non-alcoholic drinks and what they cost a la carte too.

 

Thank you, makes perfect sense! That's what I was wondering.

 

We didn't realize all the additional elements it includes, though we were planning on bringing on the case of soda + two bottles of wine between us to offset some of the cost. But we love our energy drinks and coffee, so that may be an added benefit. 

 

Appreciate your insight!

[thehappierhomemaker]

I normally buy cheers ahead of time and use the OBC to pay towards my gratuities.

[lasvegascruising]

Me too. I purchase Cheers ahead of time at 51.95 plus 18%=61.30 vs. on board purchase 56.95 plus 18%=67.20.   This calculates out to $5.90 per day at 7 days equals $41.30.  Times this by two people and you have eaten up almost half of your $200.   I would use the OBC to cover gratuities also.

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, thehappierhomemaker said:

I normally buy cheers ahead of time and use the OBC to pay towards my gratuities.

 

That’s what I do. Save $5/day on cheers buying it ahead of time. Save another $5/day on cheers using 10% off gift cards. Let the OBC cover grats.

[pacruise804]

12 hours ago, xostacylee said:

Hi my trusty knowledge-filled friends! 

 

Question regarding OBCs & Cheers package. It's looking like I may earn $200 OBC from my Carnival Credit card by the time we board the Liberty in September.

 

My question is ... can I apply my OBC to my room, and then pay for Cheers? As in can I use the OBC to partially pay for cheers? Or do we pre-pay for Cheers and then we'd have an additional $200 OBC to use? I could also just use the points to pay myself back post-cruise if necessary. 

 

We're torn between Cheers & no-cheers. I've done the $$ crunching and it doesn't make sense BUT we're far enough out that we can pay for it and allocate the budget just to make the experience easier in terms of drinking. 

 

Would love your opinions!

 

Thank you!

 

Another thing to consider: you said the numbers don't make sense but might be worth it - how much is it worth to you?  If Cheers is around $840 for your cruise (7 nights X 2 pax X $60) but you think your tab would be closer to $500, is it worth over $300?  It wouldn't be to me, but if it is to you that's fine (and those might not be your numbers).  If you think your tab would be closer to $750 (if you factor all the extra included items that you may or may not want) then $100 for peace of mind might be reasonable.

 

It's all a matter of personal preference.  If you want the experience of no bill at the end and have the $ allocated ahead but don't want the extra cost (and some limitations) of Cheers you can apply the same amount in cash to your account when you board (or purchase a similar amount in discounted gift cards).  You would still have no bill at the end, but would get funds back if you were correct that you didn't drink enough to justify the cost.

[CruisingViper]

13 hours ago, RHilla619 said:

If you have a $200 OBC it can be "used" for the Cheers package if you purchase it while on board. Meaning lets say the package cost you $400 and your account starts + $200 because of the OBC; when the Cheers charge hits your account the account will now show - $200, meaning you only owe $200 for the cheers package because of your OBC. Hope this makes sense.

 

The only down side is buying the package onboard, the only way to use OBC for it, does cost more per day. I think about $5 more a day.

 

Personally I won't cruise without Cheers. Besides the 15 drinks it also includes bottled waters, sodas, sports/energy drinks, and coffees from the coffee shop. Not hard to "break even" on the daily cost when you factor in the non-alcoholic drinks and what they cost a la carte too.

 

 

13 hours ago, xostacylee said:

Thank you, makes perfect sense! That's what I was wondering.

 

We didn't realize all the additional elements it includes, though we were planning on bringing on the case of soda + two bottles of wine between us to offset some of the cost. But we love our energy drinks and coffee, so that may be an added benefit. 

 

Appreciate your insight!

I also think an underappreciated aspect of Cheers is that it includes all alcohol, so you can try all the "high end" liquors you might usually not try since they cost so much more than your regular liquor you drink. The "highest end" stuff can be found at the bar in the steakhouse. 

[Brittanynichole]

I will say this as two people who can definitely hold their own drinking that we have always gotten cheers and besides maybe our first cruise of power drinking we never feel we get our money’s worth but I also felt the guilt that I had to get alcohol because we paid $700+ for the package. It was just always hard to hit on port days because we also drank at the port, etc. We are going on a short cruise and aren’t getting the package the first time so we will see if I’m crazy. I do like the peace of mind of paying a number and then not worrying however. 

 

So just the other side of things, everyone is right in saying financially it’s a great deal! But will you be drinking all the drinks/alcohol/coffee/energy drinks because you want to or because you feel like you need to because you already paid x amount. If you want to, go for it!! It’s great to already know your total for the end of the cruise. 

[xostacylee]

Thank you guys! This is great feedback. Luckily this is only a 4-day cruise so it's sitting at $250 per person vs the $700-800. If we're able to use the $200 that will make a significant difference. We just need to sit down and crunch numbers including water & soda (the Excel template I found on here doesn't include those) and see if it's worth it to just have peace of mind and peace of wallet on the ship. We're also 6 months out, so we can definitely plan & budget for it since everything except a hotel & car rental are already paid for LOL. 

[krehberg]

On 3/4/2019 at 10:53 PM, Saint Greg said:

 

That’s what I do. Save $5/day on cheers buying it ahead of time. Save another $5/day on cheers using 10% off gift cards. Let the OBC cover grats.

 

This ^  - Pre buy and pay with discounted gift cards and the daily cost becomes $55.17 after gratuity.  Or $46.75 pre gratuity.  If you have a specialty coffee, 2 glasses of wine, a cocktail at the Alchemy Bar, a couple bottles of water and a sports drink, you'll pretty much be there at break even.  Doesn't take much.  We always get it (and bring on nice bottles of wine too) just so I know my cost in advance and knowing it doesn't really take much for it to be a good deal.

[xostacylee]

39 minutes ago, krehberg said:

 

This ^  - Pre buy and pay with discounted gift cards and the daily cost becomes $55.17 after gratuity.  Or $46.75 pre gratuity.  If you have a specialty coffee, 2 glasses of wine, a cocktail at the Alchemy Bar, a couple bottles of water and a sports drink, you'll pretty much be there at break even.  Doesn't take much.  We always get it (and bring on nice bottles of wine too) just so I know my cost in advance and knowing it doesn't really take much for it to be a good deal.

 

I like this! So we pre-paid the grats for the cruise - are there other ones (i.e. tipping on top of the 18% applied grat)?

 

We're also thinking of pre-buying Cheers on my Carnival Credit card and using the double points towards additional OBCs. 

 

At this point we've decided we ARE going to do it. We crunched the #s and for us even if we lose $20-30, it's worth the peace of mind going on the ship and not stressing about the bill.