New Carnival Beverage Package?

[Organized Chaos]

12 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

You don’t have to drink $61/day alcohol. It’s $52...I don’t know why people think they need to drink the gratuity to get their moneys worth. I pay with the 10% off gift cards so for me that would be more like $47. But I’ll play along with $52 since most people are blue or red cards and don’t do that. Domestic beers are $6.25. I’d have to drink 8.3 beers to get to $52. But really less than that because I’d have a specialty coffee and 3-5 waters. I think that’s another $7-10 on NA beverages.

 

$61...$52, who cares. And by the way, I mentioned about 10 domestic beers because, yes, I was using the $61 figure and going off the $5.95 price I paid for Miller Lite. If those have gone up to $6.25, I was unaware. So fine, 8.312 domestic beers per day. That wasn't my point. The argument from several people against a $30/day mid-level NA package was that people won't drink that much of it per day. So what, because hundreds of people who buy Cheers don't drink that much alcohol per day. It's not why they buy Cheers, so it doesn't have to be why they'd buy this package either.

[mapman_2004]

2 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

Typically, people drink 2 cups of Coffee a day, followed by 2 smoothies/milkshakes, and then Powerade/premium juices. Throw in a couple of sodas for dinner, and perhaps a mocktail during the show. This could be a possibility!

I don’t think that’s typical at all!  That’s a huge caloric intake that leads to weight gain. 

[mapman_2004]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Do they add auto gratuity to every drink when you’re on a NA beverage package? I know they don’t on cheers but I’ve never had a NA beverage package.

Yeah, how are the tips shared on the packages?  Carnival would lose money if the paid their bartenders the tip based on the cost of the drink normally. 

 

They might use an algorithm that calculates it at the end of the cruise based on the number of drinks the package people drank. Pro rated by drink cost, number of uses,etc

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, lottiegreen56 said:

It takes FOREVER to get a "fancy" coffee or smoothie on Carnival. I realize they aren't in the coffee business per se but this package could produce one hour wait times for my irish coffee in the morning. My friend in management said the coffee bars are a lot of times tests of new or inexperienced bartenders and bar servers (and sometimes punishment) so they'd need to do some better training or have full-time baristas imo

On Celebrity they have Cafe al Bacio.  There are two locations.  A stand alone, similar to the Coffee bar on Carnival and a second location inside the buffet area where they serve all of the fancy coffees, with and without alcohol as well as pouring fresh squeezed OJ and Grapefruit juice.  In the morning rush, each location has 3 employees.  During the daytime, the main location has 1 or 2.

[SNJCruisers]

Celebrity has two different non alcoholic packages for adults.  One is priced at 18.00 per day (classic) and consists of soda, juice, premium coffees and teas and basic bottled water.  The other is priced at 22.00 per day (premium) and consists of the classic package plus premium water (Evian and San Pellegrino), smoothies, energy drinks, vitamin water, bottled iced tea and coconut water.  The 22.00 package does not include milkshakes. 

The 30.00 price proposed would thus seem a little high since Celebrity has a non alcoholic package without the milkshakes for 22.00.  Since Celebrity and Royal have this as an option, why shouldn't Carnival?

[Saint Greg]

4 hours ago, mapman_2004 said:

Yeah, how are the tips shared on the packages?  Carnival would lose money if the paid their bartenders the tip based on the cost of the drink normally. 

 

They might use an algorithm that calculates it at the end of the cruise based on the number of drinks the package people drank. Pro rated by drink cost, number of uses,etc

 

I assume it’s divided evenly amongst the bartenders. Or they could do it like pooled dealer tips in a casino. Add all of the pooled tips together and divide it by the total number of bartender hours worked by all bartenders. Then however many hours you worked that week, you get that tip rate for them on top of your pay rate and personal tips.

 

But the reason I asked the question is someone said the bartender would love to open a soda for 45 cents. My point is if it’s one of those drink packages, they may not get an auto tip for each drink...so they wouldn’t get one unless the kid wrote in a tip which I doubt they do.

[Saint Greg]

3 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

On Celebrity they have Cafe al Bacio.  There are two locations.  A stand alone, similar to the Coffee bar on Carnival and a second location inside the buffet area where they serve all of the fancy coffees, with and without alcohol as well as pouring fresh squeezed OJ and Grapefruit juice.  In the morning rush, each location has 3 employees.  During the daytime, the main location has 1 or 2.

 

At least some carnival ships have two locations for coffee though I don’t think most know about it. I had a day on Dream that the machine to make my mochas wasn’t working in the coffee shop. I knew they had one in the atrium bar so I got it there. Also had a day on Dream where I had an early excursion and the coffee bar line was long so I went to the atrium...no wait..

 

On Vista one morning I got my coffee at the coffee shop and walked down to the ocean plaza bar to sit down. The ladies there gave me a hard time about sitting there but getting my coffee elsewhere...they had the coffee machines as well.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Saint Greg

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I asked this before, but didn't get a response. Several people keep suggesting that such a package would require everyone in the cabin to buy it. Why? That's not how Bottomless Bubbles works, so why would a mid-level non-alcoholic package be any different? It doesn't have to be like Cheers.

For the same reason that they do it allow one cheers per cabin.  People share (breaking the rules).  Adults do it and kids would do it, there is a NEED to get their monies worth.  Seen it many many times.

[schazzy]

9 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I had one of those milkshakes once...and couldn’t eat dessert that night. I can’t see having two of those every day.

 

Yeah, we had them as a meal substitute one day after coming back from port starving and the lines for food were too long. we were both pretty full after those. 

[Joebucks]

6 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Celebrity has two different non alcoholic packages for adults.  One is priced at 18.00 per day (classic) and consists of soda, juice, premium coffees and teas and basic bottled water.  The other is priced at 22.00 per day (premium) and consists of the classic package plus premium water (Evian and San Pellegrino), smoothies, energy drinks, vitamin water, bottled iced tea and coconut water.  The 22.00 package does not include milkshakes. 

The 30.00 price proposed would thus seem a little high since Celebrity has a non alcoholic package without the milkshakes for 22.00.  Since Celebrity and Royal have this as an option, why shouldn't Carnival?

 

While it seems like a fair comparison to say Celebrity offers it and at this price, therefore it's possible, there is a lot wrong with that statement. There is a lot of context that the average person never sees. What is the cost of the offerings? Would they need more staff? What are the actual demands of the market? Would it cannibalize offerings like Cheers? What else is unknown? Some cruise lines makes more money in their upsells. Some make more in their casinos. Some make it all in their fare. Royal Carribean has this similar offer at $29. Yet you can sometimes get their alcohol package cheaper than Cheers. Every alcohol package has different terms and exclusions. There's all sorts of factors at play.

 

If I were to take a stab in the dark, I would say there is at least some difference in consumption/purchasing habits between the average Carnival and Celebrity cruiser. I would also assume that it is all priced accordingly. But who knows, maybe there is a business for this with Carnival. I sincerely doubt it isn't something they've considered though.

[Joebucks]

9 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I asked this before, but didn't get a response. Several people keep suggesting that such a package would require everyone in the cabin to buy it. Why? That's not how Bottomless Bubbles works, so why would a mid-level non-alcoholic package be any different? It doesn't have to be like Cheers.

 

Generally, a corporation will study and test this stuff to death. The cost of a fountain soda to Carnival is probably about 25 cents a cup, give or take a little change. This makes Bubbles very profitable. By forcing everyone to buy it, I wouldn't doubt if you lost sales of Bubbles. Perhaps the sharing isn't as much of a problem, or even if it does happen, the cost is negligible to the profit.

 

With this, who knows. It could go either way. I do know that once you start getting more expensive, and labor-intensive drinks like milkshakes, smoothies, and coffees, you will turn a lot more corporate heads than a fountain soda pour. 

[mapman_2004]

6 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

I assume it’s divided evenly amongst the bartenders. Or they could do it like pooled dealer tips in a casino. Add all of the pooled tips together and divide it by the total number of bartender hours worked by all bartenders. Then however many hours you worked that week, you get that tip rate for them on top of your pay rate and personal tips.

 

But the reason I asked the question is someone said the bartender would love to open a soda for 45 cents. My point is if it’s one of those drink packages, they may not get an auto tip for each drink...so they wouldn’t get one unless the kid wrote in a tip which I doubt they do.

 

Sounds about right, as is your point on the auto-tip on a beverage package.   Bartenders may get a little weary when an adult or kid keeps coming in for more drinks, but don't add extra tip.  Not that it should be expected, they already paid too much for the package, and the tips were added (although, depending on the number of drinks they get a day, their actual tipping may be closer to 5% than the normal 15-25%).

[Organized Chaos]

10 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

Celebrity has two different non alcoholic packages for adults.  One is priced at 18.00 per day (classic) and consists of soda, juice, premium coffees and teas and basic bottled water.  The other is priced at 22.00 per day (premium) and consists of the classic package plus premium water (Evian and San Pellegrino), smoothies, energy drinks, vitamin water, bottled iced tea and coconut water.  The 22.00 package does not include milkshakes. 

The 30.00 price proposed would thus seem a little high since Celebrity has a non alcoholic package without the milkshakes for 22.00.  Since Celebrity and Royal have this as an option, why shouldn't Carnival?

 

Everyone's stuck on this $30/day price point. Let's not forget that that was merely a suggested price by the OP for this suggested package we're talking about. Some people are using the $30/day price to shoot down the entire idea, but Carnival could set it at whatever they want. The idea of a mid-level non-alcoholic package is the meat of the matter, not the price. And it's certainly viable and profitable considering other lines currently offer similar packages. Although, I'd sure love to see something that includes milkshakes. Since Cheers includes them, it'd be nice for a package like this to as well.

 

6 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

But the reason I asked the question is someone said the bartender would love to open a soda for 45 cents. My point is if it’s one of those drink packages, they may not get an auto tip for each drink...so they wouldn’t get one unless the kid wrote in a tip which I doubt they do.

 

I thought that comment about 45 cents was the person being sarcastic, because a couple people were talking about how bartenders wouldn't want to "waste their time" serving kids with a package like this. There wouldn't be an auto-tip on each drink, but these packages do include 18% per day gratuity in addition to the base price per day, so the bartenders are being tipped for these drink packages.

[Organized Chaos]

Some are getting stuck on the idea that this won't work because some of the items that would be offered in this package, like milkshakes, would be a "huge caloric intake that leads to weight gain," or would ruin your meal. Just because you have a package that allows you to drink a bunch of milkshakes doesn't mean everyone's going to do it. Cheers allows you 15 drinks/day, but that doesn't mean everyone does it. The biggest point being missed here is that hundreds of people on a cruise, thousands throughout any given year, purchase these drink packages for reasons other than pounding down $X worth of drinks per day.

 

4 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

For the same reason that they do it allow one cheers per cabin.  People share (breaking the rules).  Adults do it and kids would do it, there is a NEED to get their monies worth.  Seen it many many times.

 

Using blanket logic like that, they'd make everyone in a cabin get Bottomless Bubbles. You don't think people share with that package? Of course they do. But a company studies the dollars & cents and weighs the pros and cons, both when they're developing a new package like these and after they implement it. Then assess whether it's worth it or not. In the end, they assessed the risk that came with sharing they knew would happen with BB and determined it'd still be profitable. The same assessments would have to be made with a mid-level, non-alcoholic package. Neither you nor I can say this would be a profitable venture if Carnival were to pursue it.

[SNJCruisers]

2 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

...there is a lot wrong with that statement.

 

2 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

The cost of a fountain soda to Carnival is probably about 25 cents a cup,

Since when does Carnival have fountain soda?  They have Coke products in cans.

[jimbo5544]

25 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

Some are getting stuck on the idea that this won't work because some of the items that would be offered in this package, like milkshakes, would be a "huge caloric intake that leads to weight gain," or would ruin your meal. Just because you have a package that allows you to drink a bunch of milkshakes doesn't mean everyone's going to do it. Cheers allows you 15 drinks/day, but that doesn't mean everyone does it. The biggest point being missed here is that hundreds of people on a cruise, thousands throughout any given year, purchase these drink packages for reasons other than pounding down $X worth of drinks per day.

 

 

Using blanket logic like that, they'd make everyone in a cabin get Bottomless Bubbles. You don't think people share with that package? Of course they do. But a company studies the dollars & cents and weighs the pros and cons, both when they're developing a new package like these and after they implement it. Then assess whether it's worth it or not. In the end, they assessed the risk that came with sharing they knew would happen with BB and determined it'd still be profitable. The same assessments would have to be made with a mid-level, non-alcoholic package. Neither you nor I can say this would be a profitable venture if Carnival were to pursue it.

I did not say it would not be profitable, what my point was is that it would be less profitable (without a  doubt).  On your previous point, the price point makes all the difference in the world (from both view points).  Carnival’s would most likely be higher soas to maintain a profit.  We can leave rule breaking for another discussion.

[Saint Greg]

57 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

Everyone's stuck on this $30/day price point. Let's not forget that that was merely a suggested price by the OP for this suggested package we're talking about. Some people are using the $30/day price to shoot down the entire idea, but Carnival could set it at whatever they want. The idea of a mid-level non-alcoholic package is the meat of the matter, not the price. And it's certainly viable and profitable considering other lines currently offer similar packages. Although, I'd sure love to see something that includes milkshakes. Since Cheers includes them, it'd be nice for a package like this to as well.

 

 

I thought that comment about 45 cents was the person being sarcastic, because a couple people were talking about how bartenders wouldn't want to "waste their time" serving kids with a package like this. There wouldn't be an auto-tip on each drink, but these packages do include 18% per day gratuity in addition to the base price per day, so the bartenders are being tipped for these drink packages.

 

I took the comment as serious. Crack open a can, 50 cents...easy money all day. Not on a beverage package though.

 

They are being tipped but only on the package. So on a soda package it’s what? $2/day split between every bartender on the ship? If i’m a bartender and I’ve got a group of alcohol consuming adults that I know are going to give me an additional tip...and I’ve got a group of kids that I know aren’t. I know where I want to spend my time. So do I think they want to spend more time making mocktails, smoothies whatever you want to call them and not filling their pockets? Probably not. And as an alcohol consuming customer I probably don’t want to add to the wait time. 

 

Maybe get a couple icee machines so these people don’t have to mix and blend stuff. I think that’s a good compromise.

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Saint Greg

[crow03]

And I cannot believe that I spent 15 minutes reading this 4 page spread!! LOL

Drink on my friends, drink on

[1st4our25th]

I'm not a huge soda drinker, although I do drink it occasionally and I don't drink alcohol. So this could be perfect depending on price. I love frozen na beverages, smoothies and specialty coffees, don't really care much for milkshakes, but I would most likely purchase a package like this if it was available. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by 1st4our25th

[Purvis1231]

18 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Do they add auto gratuity to every drink when you’re on a NA beverage package? I know they don’t on cheers but I’ve never had a NA beverage package.

no additional tip on the Bubbles but I sometimes add one to keep up the service- but I was referring to those who are paying the regular price of $2.50 for a soda. 

[CanWeGoYet?]

I've purchased the classic non alcohol package on Celebrity.  It was absolutely worth it to me.   Premium coffees, soda, bottled water, and back then the standard package included freshly squeezed juices, any of the frozen drinks without alcohol, and smoothies.  I also got smoothies on the room service menu included booking a concierge cabin.  Not sure if the classic non alcohol package still includes the fresh squeezed juices & frozen drinks, but in any case the premium non alcohol is only $22 a night.  To me that's worth it to just walk up and get a good coffee from the bistro any time I want.  The alcohol packages on celebrity are not as expensive as carnival - the standard is $49 a night.   They must make money on these drink packages, doubt they would offer it if they didn't.  

[Purvis1231]

18 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

 

Since when does Carnival have fountain soda?  They have Coke products in cans.

A can drink wholesale is less than $.25 in the quantity Carnival purchases.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Purvis1231
typo

[Jdfireman]

You lost me at Y'all

[Jenjer]

We have enjoyed that kind of plan. My  Fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, Shirley temple drinking teen loved it. My I don't like soda and pretty much only drink water teen didn't really use it. Not to mention pain for bartender to blend virgin frozen drinks more often.

But it seemed like the most likely drink plan that was a loss leader when you add in the fact Royal puts it on sale I got it for the kids at around $20 a day.  Not to mention it got complicated with which drink plan you actually had what was covered and what was not covered and the bar tenders had to be the ones to tell someone that the drink they thought was "free" was not.  Saw it every day.

[Theosprey247]

19 hours ago, crow03 said:

And I cannot believe that I spent 15 minutes reading this 4 page spread!! LOL

Drink on my friends, drink on

You can double up and waste an other 15 reading the one on no more pens....