Cheers / Beer

[mommag3boys]

I hate to the person who asks again or even brings up Cheers because just from my search results I know it comes up alllllllll the time but it also comes up with 325807520 results and it's hard to find the right answer.

 

Hubby and I are going on a 5 day cruise in July. I'm trying to decide to if Cheers is worth it or not for us. My husband is mostly a beer drinker and on an average afternoon can drink 3-4 beers while doing yard work.. I tend to drink beers also but if I'm in a drinking mood I average 4-5 beers and a few mixed drinks (and shots if I'm making a night of it). Someone told me that unless you each exceed 12 beers in a day it's not worth it and unless you exceed 9 mixed drinks (not top shelf) it's not worth it. The great to get or not get Cheers debate is going on. Any opinions on this matter? I just don't see how we'll spend $575 on drinks!?

 

I guess I should add that I'm only expecting 2 days that we may actually drink more on our higher end (him max 10, me maybe 4 beer and 3-4 mixed drinks). Our excursion days we would probably just have a few when we get back because we enjoy a beer at dinner but we are not heavy drinkers.

Edited April 26, 2017 by mommag3boys

[sturderick]

I hate to the person who asks again or even brings up Cheers because just from my search results I know it comes up alllllllll the time but it also comes up with 325807520 results and it's hard to find the right answer.

 

Hubby and I are going on a 5 day cruise in July. I'm trying to decide to if Cheers is worth it or not for us. My husband is mostly a beer drinker and on an average afternoon can drink 3-4 beers while doing yard work.. I tend to drink beers also but if I'm in a drinking mood I average 4-5 beers and a few mixed drinks (and shots if I'm making a night of it). Someone told me that unless you each exceed 12 beers in a day it's not worth it and unless you exceed 9 mixed drinks (not top shelf) it's not worth it. The great to get or not get Cheers debate is going on. Any opinions on this matter? I just don't see how we'll spend $575 on drinks!?

 

Don't forget to count out the time you are spending in port. Beer is usually a lot cheaper in port. We are beer and wine drinkers and it is not worth it to us.

[d12j28]

I hate to the person who asks again or even brings up Cheers because just from my search results I know it comes up alllllllll the time but it also comes up with 325807520 results and it's hard to find the right answer.

 

Hubby and I are going on a 5 day cruise in July. I'm trying to decide to if Cheers is worth it or not for us. My husband is mostly a beer drinker and on an average afternoon can drink 3-4 beers while doing yard work.. I tend to drink beers also but if I'm in a drinking mood I average 4-5 beers and a few mixed drinks (and shots if I'm making a night of it). Someone told me that unless you each exceed 12 beers in a day it's not worth it and unless you exceed 9 mixed drinks (not top shelf) it's not worth it. The great to get or not get Cheers debate is going on. Any opinions on this matter? I just don't see how we'll spend $575 on drinks!?

 

You need about 6-7 beers each to break even. Less if you get mixed drinks, water, soda, etc. Remember, it's not just about the alcoholic drinks. Put it this way, 2 buckets of Bud Light (not sure what you drink, just an example) is $48. That puts one of you almost even.

[Dilligaff]

We just got back from a 4 day on the Triumph and had cheers. Keep in mind to think about the coffee energy drinks milkshakes bottled water and sodas are all included with cheers. And you have to pay taxes on the drinks the first day till you get to international water and same for the return trip. And can not use cheers on the first day if you sail from Texas or New York.

 

Sodas are $2.25

 

These prices are from our trip. Beers are about $6 16 oz cans. Mixed drinks are $8-$11 based on the drink you get. You can order any drink from any bar or at least we could.

 

Now if you prefer bottled water cause we didn't like the water on tap they are $1.25 each which is included tap water was nasty.

 

If you drink coffee, cappuccino, ice coffee, or milkshakes their normal coffee was not something we liked I tried it the first morning at breakfast good think I had gotta a cup from the "Vienna Cafe" on our way. coffee drinks are $4-$6 rockstar drinks are are $4.95

can't remember the price on the shakes.

 

So that will help give you an idea to see if it's worth it for your trip. Keep in mind they could be more of less based on the ship and the bar you get them from. And you can get a bottle of water every time you order a drink and stock up on them for in your room and to take with you to ports. For us we didn't get to 15 but when you factor in all of it we still think it was worth getting cheers and will get it on the next cruise.

 

Also all the drink are unlimited and have to wait 5 mins to order another drink no matter the kinda drink you get. Alcoholic drinks are the only drinks that count toward the 15.

 

I'm including all the other drinks and info to help out because on the second and third day people thought they could only get alcoholic drink and didn't even realized the other drinks was included.

[heffy2]

Thanks for posting this, I've been trying to decide the same thing, and I'm mainly a beer drinker too. It'll be interesting to see the responses.

[MandyMooToo]

You have to factor in the non alcoholic beverages too, such as bottled water, coffee, juices Gatorade/Powerade, etc.

[crewsweeper]

And depending on the ship, for beer drinkers, Cheers is a great time to step up from the cheap swill to good craft beers, or higher end swill from InBev and Miller. Sorry my beer bias is showing;p

[ray98]

I find myself drinking more on vacation than I do at home doing yard work since the entire day is put aside for relaxing and entertainment so using that to measure consumption may not be valid. Now that the specialty coffee and energy drinks and such are included it also adds value to the package.

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

You need about 6-7 beers each to break even. Less if you get mixed drinks, water, soda, etc. Remember, it's not just about the alcoholic drinks. Put it this way, 2 buckets of Bud Light (not sure what you drink, just an example) is $48. That puts one of you almost even.

 

 

You can't get buckets on cheers and have every beer count toward the program

[d12j28]

You can't get buckets on cheers and have every beer count toward the program

Thanks, I know that. I was comparing what it would cost to buy without Cheers vs what Cheers would cost per day.

[CharlesKru]

Something to look at, you dont have to buy CHEERS the first day. Assuming you are not sailing from NY or Texas, you can get it the second day.

 

So, you can drink like you want on the first day... look back on it the morning of the second day ( get a print out of your bill from guest services or the kiosk that are on the ship) and decide if it would have been worth it. Then decide if you think you will continue to drink that much or not...

 

If you buy it the second day, all the drinks up to 15 from day one will be changed to CHEERS drinks. and you wont be charged for them.

 

Based on your suggested drinking pattern at home, I would guess CHEERS will either not be worth it, or it will be really close.

[Ajat0921]

We decided to go with cheers for our 8 day cruise. We are also beer drinkers, but I like a mixed drink once in a while. I do plan to drink my old stand by of Blue Moon (with orange slice), but I really want to try new stuff too. The thirstyfrog red is calling my name, and if it tastes anything like the SJ Sharks Chum beer, that will be my go to the whole cruise. Plus breakfast mimosas are a requirement on any vacation. I can drink a 6er at night no problem, so that's why I am doing it. And I do plan to run while on the ship (middle of marathon training and need to log 10-15 miles on both Sundays) and cheers offers coconut water.

 

So there you have my reasonings.

[figdu]

Two glasses of wine and a bottle of san pellegrino at dinner and I have just about spent half the daily cost. Cheers is very easy for us to justify outside of a med cruise.

[beerman2]

And depending on the ship, for beer drinkers, Cheers is a great time to step up from the cheap swill to good craft beers, or higher end swill from InBev and Miller. Sorry my beer bias is showing;p

True there are more and more "hop heads"!

 

The "swill" from Miller and working in the beer industry has allowed me to retire at 62. So couldn't have been all that bad.

[pmb0602]

Two things that haven't been mentioned yet. On our last cruise we definitely got our money's worth on sea days and were pretty darn close if not on point during port days, especially considering specialty coffee's, pop and water bottles! But even if we didn't quite drink enough to break even it was nice to know that we didn't have to worry about how much we drank - we would not have bar bill to pay at the end!! And even though we are both pretty much beer drinkers, not having to worry about wasting money gave us an incentive to try new drinks. If we didn't like them we just ordered something else. I can't remember what it was called but we found some short of chocolate drink that was to die for!!!

[mommag3boys]

Based on your suggested drinking pattern at home, I would guess CHEERS will either not be worth it, or it will be really close.

 

That is my opinion too. My guess is the 2 days at see we will exceed the $50 but the two days we have ports we won't. The day we set sail we may come close or even hit the $50. We are not heavy drinkers but I do want to enjoy myself (hey it's the first vaca for more than an overnight without kids for us).

 

I can put back way more than my husband can but I'm a social drinker and he's not so if the crowd and moods night right I won't drink as much. I just can't fathom that we will spend more than $575.

 

If you buy it the second day, all the drinks up to 15 from day one will be changed to CHEERS drinks. and you wont be charged for them.

 

I didn't know this. I thought the drinks from the prior days didn't count? If they do count then this is what we may very well do. Our cruise is 4rth of July and our 10 year anniversary (both of those days at sea) so I think it's really going to all depend on if my husband wants to be social or not ;)

[mommag3boys]

Two things that haven't been mentioned yet. On our last cruise we definitely got our money's worth on sea days and were pretty darn close if not on point during port days, especially considering specialty coffee's, pop and water bottles! But even if we didn't quite drink enough to break even it was nice to know that we didn't have to worry about how much we drank - we would not have bar bill to pay at the end!! And even though we are both pretty much beer drinkers, not having to worry about wasting money gave us an incentive to try new drinks. If we didn't like them we just ordered something else. I can't remember what it was called but we found some short of chocolate drink that was to die for!!!

 

My words to my husband exactly! If we don't get it I'll be putting us on a budget and be paying attention to what we drink which will put a damper in the whole trip for me. However, it's not refundable and being that we are a may advantage from it or may not the thought of spending the $575 and consuming way lower drives me bonkers. I work in accounting for a living so I pay attention to where the $$ goes ;p

 

I guess I should have also mentioned I'm not really concerned about the drinks other than alcoholic drinks. I can live off water and tea. My husband needs soda so instead of purchasing the bubbles package I just had a 12 pack set up for our state room so he'd have a soda or two each day. I've heard it's worth it for the coffee but we're both plain coffee drinkers with a shot of creamer.

[rdemn]

Also beers are 16oz not 12 oz

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[crewsweeper]

The thirstyfrog red is calling my name, and if it tastes anything like the SJ Sharks Chum beer, that will be my go to the whole cruise..

 

Well out side the fact that they are both considered red ales, unless you're sailing on the Visita and getting their craft brews made on board, TRF is from Bud and probably tastes like every "house brand red ale" in every chain restaurant in the country. SJChum is from Gordon Biersch and probably tastes similar but not necessarily the same as any GB red ale found in any GB restaurant (in sum--better).

 

Beerman2...glad you did swell by the "swill":')

[CharlesKru]

I didn't know this. I thought the drinks from the prior days didn't count? If they do count then this is what we may very well do. Our cruise is 4rth of July and our 10 year anniversary (both of those days at sea) so I think it's really going to all depend on if my husband wants to be social or not ;)

 

You might want to double check on the ship. One more thing to think about though, right now if you pre-purchase ( no refund) you get the price at $49.95 per person. On the ship it costs $5 more per person per day, $54.95. so in your case another $50.

 

On my Feb cruise on the Ecstacy, the second day purchase was explain to us by two different bar servers as covering day ones drinks, when they were surprised that we did not have Cheers.

 

We tend to front load... day 1 is over the min to break even, day 5 not even close, So it is really not worth it to us.

[sternfanla]

and with Cheers you get to try drinks you would normally not purchase.

[Dilligaff]

Something to look at, you dont have to buy CHEERS the first day. Assuming you are not sailing from NY or Texas, you can get it the second day.

 

So, you can drink like you want on the first day... look back on it the morning of the second day ( get a print out of your bill from guest services or the kiosk that are on the ship) and decide if it would have been worth it. Then decide if you think you will continue to drink that much or not...

 

If you buy it the second day, all the drinks up to 15 from day one will be changed to CHEERS drinks. and you wont be charged for them.

 

Based on your suggested drinking pattern at home, I would guess CHEERS will either not be worth it, or it will be really close.

They do not do it that way. Seen somebody try that on the cruise I was just on. And they told them they cheers starts when you get it and previous drinks do not count

[Dilligaff]

We took the time on the last night and got a print out of our bill. On the bill print out it shows $0.00 for anything used with cheers. So we used the carnival hub app and seen the prices on it and wrote them down on the sheet so we could see if it was worth it. I figured them up when we got home and was relaxing.

 

Day 1= 142.7

Day 2= 146.3

Day 3= 141.4

Day 4= 154.4

Total= $584.80 for 2 people

 

That is what it would have cost us for every drink we got. So we saved money and we didn't drink 15 alcoholic drinks a day.

 

This does not include the auto gratuities that's added or we tipped.

Edited April 26, 2017 by Dilligaff

[jdemps]

Something to look at, you dont have to buy CHEERS the first day. Assuming you are not sailing from NY or Texas, you can get it the second day.

 

So, you can drink like you want on the first day... look back on it the morning of the second day ( get a print out of your bill from guest services or the kiosk that are on the ship) and decide if it would have been worth it. Then decide if you think you will continue to drink that much or not...

 

If you buy it the second day, all the drinks up to 15 from day one will be changed to CHEERS drinks. and you wont be charged for them.

 

Based on your suggested drinking pattern at home, I would guess CHEERS will either not be worth it, or it will be really close.

 

Have you actually done it where you by cheers on day 2 and your drinks from day 1 get rolled into cheers price? I have seen many, many conflicting responses on this exact question.

[carib1]

It just depends. We have never done cheers, we also do not drink soda, coffee, milkshakes, energy drinks...etc. We are mostly beer drinkers. I may start my day with a Bloody Mary, then we will switch to buckets of Corona, usually 2-3 on a sea day, then I will have a glass of wine with dinner (we bring the wine).

 

We always do our drinking in port. I never worry about how much $ I spend on drinks and we have never went over $400 in drinks on a 7 day cruise between the 2 of us.

 

I have noticed, ( just in the last couple cruises) that the bartenders typically give us 2-4 (between the 2 of us) free drinks a day. I'm not sure why......the only thing I can think of is I am a very good tipper!