Cheers for us...

[NavyCruiser]

Been getting those nagging emails from Carnival about the "Cheers to You" promo.  Finally decided to pull the trigger & got it.

It added $120 more total to our 5 day cruise fare for us 2, but guess it's a great deal for $60 pp.

Figured normal price is $52/day pp + grats = $61.36/day pp x 5 days x 2 people = $613 value...

So that extra $120 already includes the 18% gratuities & we'll just give extra cash tips, it's a great deal.

Is this right, or am I missing something....?

[Elaine5715]

41 minutes ago, NavyCruiser said:

Been getting those nagging emails from Carnival about the "Cheers to You" promo.  Finally decided to pull the trigger & got it.

It added $120 more total to our 5 day cruise fare for us 2, but guess it's a great deal for $60 pp.

Figured normal price is $52/day pp + grats = $61.36/day pp x 5 days x 2 people = $613 value...

So that extra $120 already includes the 18% gratuities & we'll just give extra cash tips, it's a great deal.

Is this right, or am I missing something....?

Not all "Free Cheers" offers are the same.  Mine would be $784.00 increase per person for a 7 day Alaska cruise. Yours is a deal, mine is not. 

FYI-That 18% is $9.36 divided per drink so one drink $9.36 tip, 15 drinks 62 cents per drink.  

[ULCajunCruiser]

2 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

FYI-That 18% is $9.36 divided per drink so one drink $9.36 tip, 15 drinks 62 cents per drink.  

Really confused why the gratuity on Cheers is suddenly a hot discussion topic???   Its pretty simple, you buy the package at a $/day cost, add in 18% extra to cover the gratuity and then multiply that out by number of nights you're on the ship, and voila; that's your total cost for CHEERS.   The number of drinks you have is of no consideration.   If you eat in the steakhouse, you pay for the meal with gratuity added.   Doesn't matter if you eat 1 pea or 100 peas.   

[Earthworm Jim]

1 hour ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Really confused why the gratuity on Cheers is suddenly a hot discussion topic???   Its pretty simple, you buy the package at a $/day cost, add in 18% extra to cover the gratuity and then multiply that out by number of nights you're on the ship, and voila; that's your total cost for CHEERS.   The number of drinks you have is of no consideration.   If you eat in the steakhouse, you pay for the meal with gratuity added.   Doesn't matter if you eat 1 pea or 100 peas.   

 

I don't think the gratuities was the OP's point. He was just calculating how much the "free" (for $120) Cheers is saving him compared to paying for the Cheers package.

 

To Navy Cruiser, you're numbers sound right, assuming you would have bought the Cheers package anyway. If you would have paid by the drink, then you'd compare that additional $60 pp to get "free" Cheers to whatever your best guess is on how much you'd spend on drinks. You'd have to be an awfully light drinker for this not to be a good deal though.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Earthworm Jim

[TNcruising02]

The free Cheers promo only cost an additional $140 total on my August cruise with two people.  Considering the package covers alcoholic drink, virgin drinks, soda, bottled water, and a few other items, it was definitely a good deal for us.  We have never purchased Carnival's drink package, but have purchased the soda package in the past.

[Elaine5715]

4 hours ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Really confused why the gratuity on Cheers is suddenly a hot discussion topic???   Its pretty simple, you buy the package at a $/day cost, add in 18% extra to cover the gratuity and then multiply that out by number of nights you're on the ship, and voila; that's your total cost for CHEERS.   The number of drinks you have is of no consideration.   If you eat in the steakhouse, you pay for the meal with gratuity added.   Doesn't matter if you eat 1 pea or 100 peas.   

Because it is the cost to the wait staff.  In your example, one set wait staff share that steakhouse gratuity.  With the CHEERS, some people are under the impression that somehow crew get an 18% tip on every drink you get on CHEERS.  While you are limited to 15 alcohol drinks, you can get an unlimited number of non-alcoholic drinks  per day. Crew can end up getting pennies per drink since your daily grat paid on CHEERS is $9.35 total divided up between every server you use.  

[MRVEGAS711]

Everyone is getting different deals. My "Free Cheers" adds about $500 total to my cost.

 

 

[Bgcruising]

Those first cruises will be real booze cruises

[ULCajunCruiser]

9 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Because it is the cost to the wait staff.  In your example, one set wait staff share that steakhouse gratuity.  With the CHEERS, some people are under the impression that somehow crew get an 18% tip on every drink you get on CHEERS.  While you are limited to 15 alcohol drinks, you can get an unlimited number of non-alcoholic drinks  per day. Crew can end up getting pennies per drink since your daily grat paid on CHEERS is $9.35 total divided up between every server you use.  

Way off topic, and BTW I believe OP has gotten his answer.   But your argument, while accurate, is self fulfilling.   Why this sudden concern for the person who hands you a drink??  Your 18% is indeed dumped into a pool, a very large pool.  For every person who orders that 14th and 15th drink (and only a few of those from a server) there are 3 to 4 other people who only order 4.   Why no concern for the line cooks and chefs??  For the maintenance workers??  For the MTD waitstaff?? 

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, ULCajunCruiser said:

Way off topic, and BTW I believe OP has gotten his answer.   But your argument, while accurate, is self fulfilling.   Why this sudden concern for the person who hands you a drink??  Your 18% is indeed dumped into a pool, a very large pool.  For every person who orders that 14th and 15th drink (and only a few of those from a server) there are 3 to 4 other people who only order 4.   Why no concern for the line cooks and chefs??  For the maintenance workers??  For the MTD waitstaff?? 

Not a sudden anything..  

[NavyCruiser]

2 Clarifications:

This is not about the 18% grats, so pls get off that subject.

This is a "Cheers to you" promo & I'm glad that Carnival did not advertise anywhere that this is a "Free" perk.  There is a cost to it.  I just didn't know that it's VIFP cruiser specific & a different cost for each cruiser.  A lot of promos are totally worthless to us, since there's always a cost to "Free" things.  Thanks for your inputs, now this promo at this time makes sense for us on this sailing...

[Joebucks]

When the math makes sense, it makes sense. Unfortunately, the words "free" and "included" tend cause a lot of other logic and fact to be ignored. There is often more to a deal than a flashy headline. There are many reasons why some receive different offers than others. Maybe be a marketing test, maybe certain customers are big spenders, etc.

 

Either way, it does seem that the offer overall has generally been a savings vs what Cheers has cost in the past. 

[kids1stcruise]

Our past 4 cruises we paid to have CHEERS..rescheduled our cancelled cruise to may2022. Cheers right now added $800 so I booked without Cheers. I have time to see if any price changes happen but at least my cruise is booked

[kids1stcruise]

🛳️

Edited January 23, 2021 by kids1stcruise
Delete

[pamesacruisin]

We've also been getting the Cheers Included offers and the extra cost varies depending on what cruise I'm looking at.  It's definitely not "free".  The big concern for us is the non refundable $500 per person deposit if we were to book the Cheers package.

[SNJCruisers]

11 minutes ago, pamesacruisin said:

 The big concern for us is the non refundable $500 per person deposit if we were to book the Cheers package.

If I got a RU1, RU2 or RU3 with a 500.00 NRD, I would book it every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Never cancelled a cruise yet, but I always hedge my bet and book group space that's refundable.  I keep holding out hope that once the RU9 code I keep getting changes once it expires at the end of January, but I know it won't.

[momof3cruisers]

On 1/22/2021 at 8:10 AM, MRVEGAS711 said:

Everyone is getting different deals. My "Free Cheers" adds about $500 total to my cost.

 

 

My husband and I got different codes. His was a good deal, mine was $300 more pp on a 7 day cruise.

[SNJCruisers]

25 minutes ago, momof3cruisers said:

My husband and I got different codes. His was a good deal, mine was $300 more pp on a 7 day cruise.

His was possibly RU1 and yours was probably RU3.  Both are better than the RU9 that many including myself received. 

[pamesacruisin]

21 hours ago, SNJCruisers said:

If I got a RU1, RU2 or RU3 with a 500.00 NRD, I would book it every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  Never cancelled a cruise yet, but I always hedge my bet and book group space that's refundable.  I keep holding out hope that once the RU9 code I keep getting changes once it expires at the end of January, but I know it won't.

I got an RU2 code. I don't even drink alcohol, but I like the foo foo virgin drinks, milkshakes, bottled water etc. so even for me I think it would be a good deal if the deposit wasn't so high.  We have never cancelled a cruise either, but right now there are so many "if's" and "unknown's".  Will be so glad when we can all get back to normal......whatever that is🙄

[lindya]

We just rebooked (for the second time) our April 2021 cruise on Breeze out of Galveston...It added $114 to our total, but that added the Cheers package for both of us and an upgrade to a spa room..Our $300 OBC can now go for something other than the bar bill!.. We rebooked to Jan 31, 2022....fingers crossed..