Vista suite balcony and "Cheers", How can you make this work?

[shiner6]

We have the "Cheers" package for our Norweigian 9 day cruise.  I am now wondering if this is the best choice, since I booked an aft Vista Suite to be able to enjoy the balcony while cruising the fjords.  I recently realized that drinks ordered from room service to enjoy on the balcony are not included in package.  My question is this: Has anyone who sailed on the Pride in a Vista Suite enjoyed the Cheers package on the balcony? Did you have to get up and go to a bar for each drink and bring it back to your cabin?   I mostly enjoy wine and beer with an occasional cocktail.  My husband likes the same, but also includes fine whiskies.  I have been reading about bringing bottles of wine on board in European ports and it appears that you can bring on more than 1 bottle each/ or does Carnival offer a bottled wine package like Princess and HAL? Would it be better to cancel the package and just order from room service?  Thank you for sharing your experience with this issue.

[kdr69]

Guess it would depend on number of hours you intend to spend on your balcony vs out and about the ship.  If you dont intend to ever leave your balcony then go with room service but if you do intend to go for meals or walk around the ship then grab a drink before you head back to the room.  With Cheers though you can only order 1 per person every 15 min with room service i think you can order morre than 1 at a time.  We would grab a beer or cooler before we went back to our room and stocked up our fridge that way every day.

[pcvtmom]

Carnival does offer a "Cruise the Vineyard" wine package.     https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1358/~/cruise-the-vineyards-wine-packages-program

[bigdog1958]

53 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

Guess it would depend on number of hours you intend to spend on your balcony vs out and about the ship.  If you dont intend to ever leave your balcony then go with room service but if you do intend to go for meals or walk around the ship then grab a drink before you head back to the room.  With Cheers though you can only order 1 per person every 15 min with room service i think you can order morre than 1 at a time.  We would grab a beer or cooler before we went back to our room and stocked up our fridge that way every day.

cheers  is 5 min betwwen drinks

[kdr69]

2 minutes ago, bigdog1958 said:

cheers  is 5 min betwwen drinks

sure felt like 15 lol

[BlerkOne]

In Europe just carry on bottles of whatever you like and cancel Cheers. Make your own.

[shiner6]

Thanks to everyone for responding. I appreciate your candor. Learned something new today.

[Eli_6]

I cruise in Europe on a vista suite. I would skip the drink package and just carry on whatever alcohol you want or order it through the fun shops.

[shiner6]

1 hour ago, pcvtmom said:

Carnival does offer a "Cruise the Vineyard" wine package.     https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1358/~/cruise-the-vineyards-wine-packages-program

I looked this up and it states "to be consumed at dinner". So, I cannot take a bottle to use on my deck?

[Cruising_Addict]

9 hours ago, pcvtmom said:

Carnival does offer a "Cruise the Vineyard" wine package.     https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1358/~/cruise-the-vineyards-wine-packages-program

Which specifically states that the wine can only be consumed in the dining room. 

[jsglow]

18 hours ago, shiner6 said:

I looked this up and it states "to be consumed at dinner". So, I cannot take a bottle to use on my deck?

No idea about any fine print.  We we ALWAYS do is take our unfinished bottle from dinner back to the cabin. Probably done it 25 times now. NEVER a problem.

[Joebucks]

That's a lot of drinking. 

[dallasdan]

What are the rules for carrying on alcohol for a European cruise?

[mz-s]

7 minutes ago, dallasdan said:

What are the rules for carrying on alcohol for a European cruise?

 

The same as American cruises. The rules don't change. Just the enforcement is different - the workers in Europe aren't going to stop you from carrying on alcohol generally.

[latebloomer56]

Interesting post, we never had any issue or fee taking wine on Princess. Didn't bother last cruise as we did the package because water and specialty coffees are included. NCL we never do a package and do pay a $15.00 corkage fee. Now question we don't plan on the Cheers package not worth it for us, hubby doesn't drink anything but soda and without specialty coffees and water not for me.

Now my question as haven't sail Carnival in many years. Do we have a corkage fee for a bottle of wine I will be bringing on board to drink on the balcony pre dinner. I will just pay for anything I drink turning the cruise. If a fee is required is there a separate line for this when leaving NY?

Thanks

[mz-s]

24 minutes ago, latebloomer56 said:

Interesting post, we never had any issue or fee taking wine on Princess. Didn't bother last cruise as we did the package because water and specialty coffees are included. NCL we never do a package and do pay a $15.00 corkage fee. Now question we don't plan on the Cheers package not worth it for us, hubby doesn't drink anything but soda and without specialty coffees and water not for me.

Now my question as haven't sail Carnival in many years. Do we have a corkage fee for a bottle of wine I will be bringing on board to drink on the balcony pre dinner. I will just pay for anything I drink turning the cruise. If a fee is required is there a separate line for this when leaving NY?

Thanks

 

The only time Carnival charges a corkage is if you bring a bottle of wine from home to dinner. You would not pay corkage if you served the wine yourself in your cabin etc.

[latebloomer56]

23 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

The only time Carnival charges a corkage is if you bring a bottle of wine from home to dinner. You would not pay corkage if you served the wine yourself in your cabin etc.

This is perfect, just in the cabin (hope they have a fridge) purchase wine or after dinner drink in MDR or specialty dining.

Thanks

[kelkel2]

I think it just depends on how close your room is to the closest bar. My husband and I took turns going to pick up drinks. They had no problem with him getting a drink for each of us as long as he brought both cards. It wasn’t as inconvenient as we expected it to be. 

[xitappers2bx]

On 3/30/2023 at 1:40 PM, shiner6 said:

We have the "Cheers" package for our Norweigian 9 day cruise.  I am now wondering if this is the best choice, since I booked an aft Vista Suite to be able to enjoy the balcony while cruising the fjords.  I recently realized that drinks ordered from room service to enjoy on the balcony are not included in package.  My question is this: Has anyone who sailed on the Pride in a Vista Suite enjoyed the Cheers package on the balcony? Did you have to get up and go to a bar for each drink and bring it back to your cabin?   I mostly enjoy wine and beer with an occasional cocktail.  My husband likes the same, but also includes fine whiskies.  I have been reading about bringing bottles of wine on board in European ports and it appears that you can bring on more than 1 bottle each/ or does Carnival offer a bottled wine package like Princess and HAL? Would it be better to cancel the package and just order from room service?  Thank you for sharing your experience with this issue.

You'll have to go to a bar in order to get drinks for your balcony, but the Vista Suite on the Pride is a great spot, and totally worth the walk to get the drink to then enjoy it.  I haven't cruised Europe on CCL, so can't speak to the wine, but on another cruise line we saw people bringing wine on board and they were not forced to give it up.  Carnival has a cruise the vineyards package, which isn't the worst, very similar to Princess and HAL.  The last CCL cruise I did was Jan 2022, and I will say, I was disappointed that after I bought the package most (all) of the wine that I wanted (that was part of the package) wasn't available anywhere on the ship, someone finally took pity on me and gave me a "better" bottle, and even when I offered to just pay for it they didn't make a big deal over it.  

As for cancelling Cheers... are you going to drink enough that it's worth it?  There's a ton of websites with calculators to help figure that out.  Are you going to just want to order off room service instead of walking to the bar?  Then I would cancel and just do that if that's what would bring me joy.  It's your vacation, make it exactly what you want 🙂

[Crusin Karen]

12 hours ago, jsglow said:

No idea about any fine print.  We we ALWAYS do is take our unfinished bottle from dinner back to the cabin. Probably done it 25 times now. NEVER a problem.

Just to be clear: that's the bottle you had from the Cruise the Vineyards package?  No problem taking unfinished open bottle back to your cabin?

[jsglow]

12 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

Just to be clear: that's the bottle you had from the Cruise the Vineyards package?  No problem taking unfinished open bottle back to your cabin?

Correct and no problem whatsoever. Sometimes we'll only have one glass apiece at dinner.  The MDR waiters can also store it for you for the next night but we always take it. What I don't think is allowed in practice is to ask for a bottle of wine (opened or unopened) at a ship bar using 'Vineyards'.

Edited April 1, 2023 by jsglow

[pinto18]

13 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

Just to be clear: that's the bottle you had from the Cruise the Vineyards package?  No problem taking unfinished open bottle back to your cabin?

we get the cruise the vineyards package every time. They give you vouchers to use..you can use the vouchers to pick up an unopened bottle of wine at any bar to take back to cabin, or you can give to dining room staff to get for you. We

always just get the bottle , take back to cabin and either drink it there or take glasses of wine up to dinner

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by pinto18

[jsglow]

2 hours ago, pinto18 said:

we get the cruise the vineyards package every time. They give you vouchers to use..you can use the vouchers to pick up an unopened bottle of wine at any bar to take back to cabin, or you can give to dining room staff to get for you. We

always just get the bottle , take back to cabin and either drink it there or take glasses of wine up to dinner

 

 

Perfect.  I've never done that but good to know.