Nitpicky Questions Before Purchasing Cheers

Greetings people of Cruise Critic. My wife and I booked our 6th cruise for later this summer, and it will be our second cruise on the Breeze (our favorite ship).

Anyway, we will likely be purchasing the Cheers program for the first time on this cruise, but I had a few questions I wanted to pick your brains about. Regardless of the answers, we will still purchase it, but I wanted to avoid any embarrassing "Oops that's not covered" moments on the ship. I read the description of the drink package, and know in general what is and is not covered, but I there were a few gray areas. I may be overthinking it, but the wannabe lawyer coming out.

1) I know that the standard drinks are covered. I am assuming this means everywhere on the ship that serves alcohol except for the mini-fridge, room service, and in room packages. Does this include specialty venues as long as they are single drinks under $50? I am specifically thinking about Punchliner, Alchemy, Bonsai, Piano Bar, Casino, etc?

2) I know that "full bottles," e.g. of wine, are not covered. Last time on the Breeze, I used to love to grab a sake and a tuna roll at Bonsai. Would sake count as a bottle since it is normally served in a little mini carafe, or would it be covered? (I guess I am asking if any sake lovers can verify).

3) Lastly, I know there is a 15 drink per day limit. Since the plan also covers pop (soda for folks outside the Midwest), Powerade, large format water bottles, fancy coffee, etc., do those count toward the 15/day limit, or is it only for alcoholic beverages?

Anyway, thank you for reading my nit-picky post, and let me know what your experiences have been. I tend to overthink things, but would love to know for sure :D

Greetings people of Cruise Critic. My wife and I booked our 6th cruise for later this summer, and it will be our second cruise on the Breeze (our favorite ship).

 

Anyway, we will likely be purchasing the Cheers program for the first time on this cruise, but I had a few questions I wanted to pick your brains about. Regardless of the answers, we will still purchase it, but I wanted to avoid any embarrassing "Oops that's not covered" moments on the ship. I read the description of the drink package, and know in general what is and is not covered, but I there were a few gray areas. I may be overthinking it, but the wannabe lawyer coming out.

 

1) I know that the standard drinks are covered. I am assuming this means everywhere on the ship that serves alcohol except for the mini-fridge, room service, and in room packages. Does this include specialty venues as long as they are single drinks under $50? I am specifically thinking about Punchliner, Alchemy, Bonsai, Piano Bar, Casino, etc?

 

2) I know that "full bottles," e.g. of wine, are not covered. Last time on the Breeze, I used to love to grab a sake and a tuna roll at Bonsai. Would sake count as a bottle since it is normally served in a little mini carafe, or would it be covered? (I guess I am asking if any sake lovers can verify).

 

3) Lastly, I know there is a 15 drink per day limit. Since the plan also covers pop (soda for folks outside the Midwest), Powerade, large format water bottles, fancy coffee, etc., do those count toward the 15/day limit, or is it only for alcoholic beverages?

 

Anyway, thank you for reading my nit-picky post, and let me know what your experiences have been. I tend to overthink things, but would love to know for sure :D

I can answer 1 and 3 for you.

Yes it includes those places

Only alcoholic beverages count towards the 15.

I'm almost positive sake is included but Dont have experience with it to give you definite answer

See my answers in bold

Greetings people of Cruise Critic. My wife and I booked our 6th cruise for later this summer, and it will be our second cruise on the Breeze (our favorite ship).

 

Anyway, we will likely be purchasing the Cheers program for the first time on this cruise, but I had a few questions I wanted to pick your brains about. Regardless of the answers, we will still purchase it, but I wanted to avoid any embarrassing "Oops that's not covered" moments on the ship. I read the description of the drink package, and know in general what is and is not covered, but I there were a few gray areas. I may be overthinking it, but the wannabe lawyer coming out.

 

1) I know that the standard drinks are covered. I am assuming this means everywhere on the ship that serves alcohol except for the mini-fridge, room service, and in room packages. Does this include specialty venues as long as they are single drinks under $50? I am specifically thinking about Punchliner, Alchemy, Bonsai, Piano Bar, Casino, etc? Yes, you can even get a drink in the steakhouse bar

 

2) I know that "full bottles," e.g. of wine, are not covered. Last time on the Breeze, I used to love to grab a sake and a tuna roll at Bonsai. Would sake count as a bottle since it is normally served in a little mini carafe, or would it be covered? (I guess I am asking if any sake lovers can verify). Don't know

 

3) Lastly, I know there is a 15 drink per day limit. Since the plan also covers pop (soda for folks outside the Midwest), Powerade, large format water bottles, fancy coffee, etc., do those count toward the 15/day limit, or is it only for alcoholic beverages? These do not count

 

Anyway, thank you for reading my nit-picky post, and let me know what your experiences have been. I tend to overthink things, but would love to know for sure :D

From what I understand, Cheers does not cover the dispense your own wine machines in the Library Bar on the Breeze but they weren't working on the May 28 sailing.

Otherwise, Cheers covered our drinks at every bar and restaurant on the ship. I couldn't find any single drink that was anywhere near $50 though, even at the steakhouse bar. We still had our money's worth though.

Anything non-alcoholic is unlimited, including milkshakes and specialty coffee.

As I recall, the mini-fridges have been emptied, so those are no longer an issue.

Thanks for the help everybody! If anyone else wants to chime in, go for it, I linger around on these threats for a while.

JaniceB, I didn't even think about the fancier drinks in the steakhouse. We usually do the steakhouse on the first night, but since we are sailing out of Galveston and cannot activate cheers until Day 2, we might need to reconsider. Can you go to the Steakhouse bar even when not eating in the steakhouse?

Sspectre, The serve yourself wine machines weren't working last time I was on the Breeze either, maybe that was 2013. Not really interested in those anyway, but good to know!

Tef43, do they empty all the min-fridges now? I always prefer to have extra space to store an unfinished dessert :D

With the Cheers program you receive 25% off the menu price ON Spirits, cocktails or wine by the glass cost above $50 and 25% off menu price for wine and champagne by the bottle. You can check out the Cheers program on the Carnival web site, FAQ

Don't forget with Cheers you can "upgrade" the alcohol in mixed drinks too! My husband loves Rum and Pineapple juice but hates Bicardi. He had it made with Appleton Estate Rum instead.

We love it and will continue to purchase it on every cruise. To us the best part is not having a bill at the end of the cruise. Plus it's great to be able to grab a milkshake or bottled Powerade and not have it all included. The alchemy bar is our favorite place to grab drinks and at $10-$12 a pop we definitely get or money's worth

Also make sure once you get on board to sign up for the 15 max competition. If you max out your entire cruise you get a free shot of your choice the last evening ;)

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2) I know that "full bottles," e.g. of wine, are not covered. Last time on the Breeze, I used to love to grab a sake and a tuna roll at Bonsai. Would sake count as a bottle since it is normally served in a little mini carafe, or would it be covered? (I guess I am asking if any sake lovers can verify).

Curious about this as well. Was looking forward to some Sake onboard the Dream with my Sushi. Sake is typically a shared experience though. My GF and I both have Cheers, so sharing shouldn't be an issue, but curious how that's handled. I know other shareable drinks are typically not covered.

Don't forget with Cheers you can "upgrade" the alcohol in mixed drinks too! My husband loves Rum and Pineapple juice but hates Bicardi. He had it made with Appleton Estate Rum instead.

Forgot to mention this. I usually would do this, but some of the drinks (Red Frog Pub is where I experienced this) are pre-made and poured out of jugs. If you order one of these, at least in my experience they won't make one for you with better liquor.

 

JaniceB, I didn't even think about the fancier drinks in the steakhouse. We usually do the steakhouse on the first night, but since we are sailing out of Galveston and cannot activate cheers until Day 2, we might need to reconsider. Can you go to the Steakhouse bar even when not eating in the steakhouse?

 

Don't forget, if you eat in the Steakhouse the first night of the cruise you get either a free bottle of house wine, or 50% off any bottle of wine from their menu. Also, yes, you can go into the Steakhouse bar when not eating - I read a tip to go in and have a nice glass of Champagne there, before dinner in the MDR, which I have scribbled down on my planning notes :)

Anything you're not sure of, once on the ship, simply ask the bartender if something you're considering is "covered"...they will be happy to answer you.

Forgot to mention this. I usually would do this, but some of the drinks (Red Frog Pub is where I experienced this) are pre-made and poured out of jugs. If you order one of these, at least in my experience they won't make one for you with better liquor.

They will if you ask them too. If they say they will not, ask to speak to the beverage manager. The pre-mixed drinks are only for the special drinks they sell lots of, if you wish to have a drink made out of a higher shelf spirit, they are supposed to honor that request.

I had this happen once, and when I mentioned I would like to speak to the beverage manager to find out why this was, the magically could suddenly make the drink as I asked.

Curious about this as well. Was looking forward to some Sake onboard the Dream with my Sushi. Sake is typically a shared experience though. My GF and I both have Cheers, so sharing shouldn't be an issue, but curious how that's handled. I know other shareable drinks are typically not covered.

It should be covered with cheers. You are not getting the bottle, you are getting a larger serving. I have not tried it using cheers, so I could be wrong. I did order one and the receipt did not indicate it was a bottle, just a larger serving..

Tef43, do they empty all the min-fridges now? I always prefer to have extra space to store an unfinished dessert :D

I've been seeing for quite a while that they've emptied the fridges now. Even if they haven't, just ask your steward to remove the drinks in there to make room for your own stuff. That's what we did last year. He told me to just set it all aside and he'd get it the next day. He never actually did, but it wasn't in our way, so no big deal.

I just got off the Dream and we had Cheers. Here are a couple of tips that I didn't know beforehand.

You can order both bottled water and a drink at the same time. The 5 minute wait is only between alcoholic drinks.

Our waiter in the dining room started bringing us 2 of the large bottles of water each evening to drink with our meal in addition to our drinks. It was nice having the bottled water since I'm very picky about water. Then we could take whatever was left back to our cabin to drink later. This also included the specialty waters at the steakhouse.

Enjoy your cruise!

You can order both bottled water and a drink at the same time. The 5 minute wait is only between alcoholic drinks.

 

not entirely true from what I have read. It appears you can get an alcoholic drink and water at the same time but you can not get 2 milkshakes, 2 sodas, 2 coffees, etc.

Its not only between alcoholic beverages. But they have allowed water and an alcoholic drink at the same time

not entirely true from what I have read. It appears you can get an alcoholic drink and water at the same time but you can not get 2 milkshakes, 2 sodas, 2 coffees, etc.

 

Its not only between alcoholic beverages. But they have allowed water and an alcoholic drink at the same time

On the Sunshine in March we couldn't get both water and alcohol at the same time which seemed silly but we also couldn't get bigger bottles of water so next time I'll just also order a case of water for the room to have larger bottles. Best part of cheers is having it paid in advance but even without trying we came out ahead too.

On the Sunshine in March we couldn't get both water and alcohol at the same time which seemed silly but we also couldn't get bigger bottles of water so next time I'll just also order a case of water for the room to have larger bottles. Best part of cheers is having it paid in advance but even without trying we came out ahead too.

as always with carnival... YMMV

Went on Sunshine last July with the cheers package. Every night before going to the main dinning room we would stop at the steakhouse bar and have a glass of champagne (i think was about $20 per glass) and then a glass of wine to bring with us to dinner so that we had our wine without having to wait for the main dinning room bar staff to come around. We were they only ones in the steakhouse bar most nights had a great time experience with the bartender.

not entirely true from what I have read. It appears you can get an alcoholic drink and water at the same time but you can not get 2 milkshakes, 2 sodas, 2 coffees, etc.

My experience last week on the Dream was I could order a bottle of water along with a drink, both alcoholic or nonalcoholic. I got 1 water and 1 milkshake at the same time. I used common sense and would not even try to order 2 milkshakes, 2 waters, etc.

It was the waiters and bartenders who gave me all of my information or I would not have even tried to order both at the same time. I also remember reading somewhere that you can get the larger bottles of water at dinner. I'll have to see if I can find where I read that info.

not entirely true from what I have read. It appears you can get an alcoholic drink and water at the same time but you can not get 2 milkshakes, 2 sodas, 2 coffees, etc.

 

Its not only between alcoholic beverages. But they have allowed water and an alcoholic drink at the same time

I was just about to ask if you could do this. I'd read someone say it's a 5 minute wait between any beverage purchase but that didn't seem right. I'd want to grab a bottle of water every time I grab a drink to keep myself in balance :)

Just remember the drinks in the souvenir glasses aren't included in Cheers.