Best drink deals, can we make a list?

[Dicecatt]

Can we have a list of where to get deals on drinks or free drinks while cruising?  

 

I know many will say "Cheers" but I can't see spending $858 plus extra tips for a week for 2 people on beverages. I think if I drank enough liquids, alcoholic or non,  to break even or come out ahead I'd be floating away! I also don't want to be trashed, just a nice buzz is good 😁. I do like the idea of prepay but I also don't want to be consumed with getting my money's worth,  especially on port days.  

 

I know Cheers is great for some,  but what if it's not a fit?  What are your best tips for Carnival for enjoying beverages without paying as much as one person's cruise fare? Bar deals,  your favorite mixes you bring onboard? 

[crzndeb]

Check the casino bar when you board. Not sure every ship offers this, but it’s worth a look.

 

 

[Joe817]

My wife & I discussed this in length, and we both agreed that the cheers package is not a good fit for us, fiscally speaking. We've more or less decided to limit ourselves to 4 drinks per day, per person, when at sea, and less than that during port days. The drinks in port are much less expensive than on ship. And if we get our 'fill' while in port, we won't be so  apt to drink on the ship after it sails. That's the plan anyway. YMMV.

[Alwayzcruisin]

First cruise night in the Steakhouse, free bottle of wine

[ober134]

On Magic this past April, the Red frog pub offered half price fish bowls on Embarkation. I think there was one other port day same deal was offered.

[ober134]

We 

[Joebucks]

If you are a "jack and coke or similar" type guy, buy the bottle and bring some mixers. You can get a 1 liter bottle for about $110 which is far more alcohol you are going to get by spending $110 anywhere else on board. 

 

Other than that, the Casino happy hour drinks during port times are the best. I'm just rarely there for those.

[ed01106]

Free sparkling wine at the art museum.  Just don’t buy any of the art.

[May1cruiser]

7 hours ago, crzndeb said:

Check the casino bar when you board. Not sure every ship offers this, but it’s worth a look.

 

 

What ship was this on? I have yet to see one of these specials...

How recent was this?

thanks

[crzndeb]

50 minutes ago, May1cruiser said:

What ship was this on? I have yet to see one of these specials...

How recent was this?

thanks

I don’t know which ship this pic was taken, but my daughter did see it on the Dream in March. I had mentioned it to her beforehand.

Edited July 25, 2019 by crzndeb

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

If you are a "jack and coke or similar" type guy, buy the bottle and bring some mixers. You can get a 1 liter bottle for about $110 which is far more alcohol you are going to get by spending $110 anywhere else on board. 

 

Other than that, the Casino happy hour drinks during port times are the best. I'm just rarely there for those.

Just an FYI to this...they also add 18% gratuity and tax to it. I remember, before it was advertised in Fun Shops, and was one  of Carnival’s best kept secrets, liters were $40-50 and there was only tax added. I am still debating it for my 31 days coming up on Splendor (B2B).

Edited July 25, 2019 by crzndeb

[wardamnweagle]

1 hour ago, ed01106 said:

Free sparkling wine at the art museum.  Just don’t buy any of the art.

 

Haha, wife dragged me to one of these. Ended up “winning” a piece of art in the raffle. They really want you to flip it on something more expensive and give you some assigned value for the art you won. Ended up sticking with the piece we won as it matched colors in our bathroom. 

 

But the sparkling wine was good. 

[Frank12]

If you gamble, I have found that the pit bosses seem to be much more generous on the first night. Last cruise we played blackjack for several hours and had every drink comped on the first night.

[wesorbeth]

Frank12 for me it would be cheaper to buy drinks than to gamble 😁

[Frank12]

2 minutes ago, wesorbeth said:

Frank12 for me it would be cheaper to buy drinks than to gamble 😁

LOL. The night I referred to we actually won about $300.00...plus free drinks!

But it doesn't always work that way.😉

[wesorbeth]

That is FANTASTIC!

 

[Joebucks]

1 hour ago, crzndeb said:

Just an FYI to this...they also add 18% gratuity and tax to it. I remember, before it was advertised in Fun Shops, and was one  of Carnival’s best kept secrets, liters were $40-50 and there was only tax added. I am still debating it for my 31 days coming up on Splendor (B2B).

 

Bottle is $95 before fees. $112 if you add the 18%

[CruisingViper]

I remember the dance club will usually have a ladies get free sparkling wine thing on embarkation night.

 

One the second night I think, Alchemy will have a Guess the Martini thing where you can spend around $20 or less and get to try 4 of their martinis.

 

Other than that, buying a bottle of liquor from the funshop before the cruise starts is probably the cheapest deal on alcohol.

[Darwal]

It’s not a special but a long island iced tea gives you probably the most alcohol for the same price as most typical frozen drinks.   

[Chervil]

Art Auction has free "sham-pagne".
There are usually several times the jewelry/watch store has the "sham-pagne" as well.
The liquor store does a few tastings, and the samples are about half a shot in size, but you can get samples of several different kinds of liquor.

The Red Frog brewery had a pour your own tap, with different beers. They were priced lower than the ones at the bar, so it was a good deal.
One time we used it and the machine malfunctioned (wouldn't stop pouring) so not only did we get the couple of glasses we stuck under there while it was running, but they refunded us our original (since it charges it to your SnS card). Free beer! Yay!

 

18 hours ago, Alwayzcruisin said:

First cruise night in the Steakhouse, free bottle of wine

Not only that, but our server also gave us 50% off almost any other bottle on the list.
We ended up buying 3 more bottles in addition to the free one, since you can either take them to your room or have them stored and brought to the table in the MDR on other evenings!

[sra12574]

Thanks  for  creating  this  thread  . My  wife  and  I  drink  a  little  on  our  cruises  but  not  enough  to  justify   the   cheers  for  the  whole  trip. We  also  like  to  get  drinks  in port . We   dont  drink  every  day  but  one  of  the  deals  we  do  is  pitchers  at  the  comedy  club .

[Eli_6]

The Red Frog Pub on shore days had drinks super cheap...like only a couple of dollars.  

 

They also made this one drink that was huge. They let me take it without me because it took a couple of hours to drink and I just had to bring the glass back later.  I think it was technically made for multiple people.

[ober134]

1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

The Red Frog Pub on shore days had drinks super cheap...like only a couple of dollars.  

 

They also made this one drink that was huge. They let me take it without me because it took a couple of hours to drink and I just had to bring the glass back later.  I think it was technically made for multiple people.

This is the Fish Bowl I posted a picture of earlier in this thread. Yes it's "supposed" to be for multiple people... 😉  but we shared a couple of them. I think they were $10 or 12 each. Probably 8 shots (or more) each. Yummy and Buzz inducing. 😃

[SNJCruisers]

7 hours ago, ober134 said:

This is the Fish Bowl I posted a picture of earlier in this thread. Yes it's "supposed" to be for multiple people... 😉  but we shared a couple of them. I think they were $10 or 12 each. Probably 8 shots (or more) each. Yummy and Buzz inducing. 😃

You are living in Fantasyland if you think you got a drink with 8 shots in it and only paid 12 bucks.  That is the price of a martini at the Alchemy Bar with 3 shots of liquor.  I know the Margarita 40 oz pitchers used to be 24.95, they may have gone up in price.

[ober134]

If you saw my post... it was HALF OFF SPECIAL. Embarkation day only. No fantasy land here. Totally sane and sober.