First time Carnival Cruiser

[shiner6]

As a first time Carnival cruiser, I have a question about the Cheers package.  Since I purchased a Vista suite, I want to order drinks while sitting on the balcony. How does this work?  Do I order each drink separately, will they deliver to my room? Do I need to go to a bar and get it myself?  I would appreciate other's experience with this.  This is for a European cruise.  Can I get a bottle of beer unopened and take it back to my balcony?

[mz-s]

You can order drinks from any bar or bar waiter. Cheers cannot be used with room service.

 

Any bottles or cans served under Cheers should be opened when served.

[1025cruise]

You would need to go to a bar each time you'd like a drink. Room service is not included in Cheers.

In terms of getting an unopened bottle, technically no, but the bar tender might if you ask.

[shiner6]

58 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

You would need to go to a bar each time you'd like a drink. Room service is not included in Cheers.

In terms of getting an unopened bottle, technically no, but the bar tender might if you ask.

Soooo, maybe I am better off in not taking the drink package, if I want to sit on my balcony and have my drinks?

[mz-s]

1 minute ago, shiner6 said:

Soooo, maybe I am better off in not taking the drink package, if I want to sit on my balcony and have my drinks?

 

I would recommend against it if that is going to constitute a majority of your drinking. You are limited to 15 drinks a day no matter how they are consumed, so the drinks you pay for via room service are money out of your pocket in more ways than one (you're paying for them, and they're still deducting drinks out of your Cheers allotment).

[sgttami]

2 minutes ago, shiner6 said:

Soooo, maybe I am better off in not taking the drink package, if I want to sit on my balcony and have my drinks?

You can sit on your balcony and enjoy your drinks.  You just have to go to a bar to get them.

 

Bartenders won't open your beers if you ask them not to.  I only drink beer and never had an issue with that.  It helps if you go to the same bar on board and they know your preferences.

 

[mz-s]

14 minutes ago, sgttami said:

You can sit on your balcony and enjoy your drinks.  You just have to go to a bar to get them.

 

Bartenders won't open your beers if you ask them not to.  I only drink beer and never had an issue with that.  It helps if you go to the same bar on board and they know your preferences.

 

 

If you develop a rapport with a bartender and come to an understanding that's one thing, but bartenders are supposed to open all drinks served under Cheers to discourage hoarding.

[Guest BasicSailor]

Just buy a bucket of beer and ice it down 😉

[cruisinqt]

Cheers is 15 alcoholic drinks a day but it includes unlimited sodas, water, milkshakes, coffee, energy drinks, etc. We also like to drink on our balcony. I just order my beer in a can unopened so I can take it to my room for later and they never have a problem with that. I’ll do it several times throughout the day so I have a stash in my cabin fridge. I do the same thing with sodas. I love having lots of cold drinks available for some quiet time on my balcony. They also allow you to bring one bottle of wine per person on board. I love sipping wine on the balcony. You can make it work for you with a little planning. 

[ibarrio]

19 hours ago, shiner6 said:

As a first time Carnival cruiser, I have a question about the Cheers package.  Since I purchased a Vista suite, I want to order drinks while sitting on the balcony. How does this work?  Do I order each drink separately, will they deliver to my room? Do I need to go to a bar and get it myself?  I would appreciate other's experience with this.  This is for a European cruise.  Can I get a bottle of beer unopened and take it back to my balcony?

 

Study the deck plans and find the nearest bar to your room. Every morning of my June trip I plan to have a spiked coffee on the balcony so it's a trip from deck 9 to deck 5 

[staceyglow]

16 hours ago, shiner6 said:

Soooo, maybe I am better off in not taking the drink package, if I want to sit on my balcony and have my drinks?

If that's the main place you want to drink, and don't want to fetch them from the bar, then yes.

[kelkel2]

Yes, as others have stated, room service drinks aren’t included on cheers. But I thought it would be a real downer and it just wasn’t. We spent way more time sitting at the bars than we thought we would. And occasionally we did bring drinks back. But as others said, you can always do a bottle of wine or a bucket of beer and take that back to your cabin. 

[pinklucky61]

You can also preorder up to 2 alcoholic beverages to your cabin, such as 4 beers and bottle of whiskey.  Can order unlimited non-alcoholic mixers.

[Georgia_Peaches]

First Carnival cruise…ever?  You must be, what? 12?  Jk. Hope you enjoy!  🤪

[BoozinCroozin]

Room Service drinks aren't covered by Cheers, you will pay for those. On top of that, each of those count towards your 15 drinks per day regardless of how you get them. Just keep that in mind.

[d12j28]

3 hours ago, BoozinCroozin said:

Room Service drinks aren't covered by Cheers, you will pay for those. On top of that, each of those count towards your 15 drinks per day regardless of how you get them. Just keep that in mind.

This is not true. Have bought many buckets of beer on all my cruises and none of them counted against Cheers or drinks everywhere from the casino. Just tell them you are buying for friends.

[BobbiSox]

I thought the rules are pretty strict about buying drinks for others on your package. Better check the rules. Maybe that's no longer frowned upon. 

[mz-s]

8 minutes ago, d12j28 said:

This is not true. Have bought many buckets of beer on all my cruises and none of them counted against Cheers or drinks everywhere from the casino. Just tell them you are buying for friends.

 

multi-serve drinks like a bucket of beer or a pitcher of margaritas doesn't count against your 15, probably because like you said it's assumed you're sharing it. But single serve drinks will.

[d12j28]

24 minutes ago, BobbiSox said:

I thought the rules are pretty strict about buying drinks for others on your package. Better check the rules. Maybe that's no longer frowned upon. 

Strict how? Your not using Cheers to buy. You are paying what anyone else would for the drinks. 

[d12j28]

25 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

multi-serve drinks like a bucket of beer or a pitcher of margaritas doesn't count against your 15, probably because like you said it's assumed you're sharing it. But single serve drinks will.

Not exactly. I've bought shots  for the table in the MDR when they use to bring them around all the time and never counted. Just paid for them. Have also bought drinks of the day for people and didn't count. This is one of those rules that Carnival uses to protect themselves from people who can't handle their booze well. If there are 10 of us sitting by the pool and I want to buy everyone a drink they are more than happy to take the money. Of course they can see that I am not ordering just to get by the 15 limit. I'm sure they would count if I just went up and said I wanted to "buy" a beer when I'm at drink #14 though. LOL

[mz-s]

3 minutes ago, d12j28 said:

Not exactly. I've bought shots  for the table in the MDR when they use to bring them around all the time and never counted. Just paid for them. Have also bought drinks of the day for people and didn't count. This is one of those rules that Carnival uses to protect themselves from people who can't handle their booze well. If there are 10 of us sitting by the pool and I want to buy everyone a drink they are more than happy to take the money. Of course they can see that I am not ordering just to get by the 15 limit. I'm sure they would count if I just went up and said I wanted to "buy" a beer when I'm at drink #14 though. LOL

 

Yeah I don't know how far back your experience goes but this has somewhat recently changed. It used to be you could say "I want to pay for this drink" as you were getting close to your 15 Cheers drinks, and you'd pay out of pocket for the drink and it wouldn't count against your 15 included in Cheers. And people buying drinks a la carte could buy as many as they wanted.

 

Now, you are only served 15 single serve drinks per day. It doesn't matter if you order them via room service, from a bartender, or a roaming waiter. And it doesn't matter if you have Cheers or not, you only get served 15 drinks a day.

 

Limited exceptions - like buying a pitcher of margaritas or drinks purchased on private islands - apply.

Edited February 15, 2023 by mz-s

[d12j28]

7 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Yeah I don't know how far back your experience goes but this has somewhat recently changed. It used to be you could say "I want to pay for this drink" as you were getting close to your 15 Cheers drinks, and you'd pay out of pocket for the drink and it wouldn't count against your 15 included in Cheers. And people buying drinks a la carte could buy as many as they wanted.

 

Now, you are only served 15 single serve drinks per day. It doesn't matter if you order them via room service, from a bartender, or a roaming waiter. And it doesn't matter if you have Cheers or not, you only get served 15 drinks a day.

 

Limited exceptions - like buying a pitcher of margaritas or drinks purchased on private islands - apply.

Just did in October. Going again in 17 days and will let you know. 

[slavigne5577]

We had Cheers three weeks ago. At dinner we both got a shot and we bought a two shots for another couple. We were charged for two shot glasses  for our two shots and whole amount for other two shots. Only ours were counted toward our # of drinks toward 15. 

[slavigne5577]

If you drink wine, there is Cruising the Vineyards. Each adult can get their own package. 3 bottles or 5 bottles package and the bottles canbe brought back to room.