The plus and minus of the drink package?

[DramaQueen22]

38 minutes ago, nyhitmen said:

 

 

Are you charge 18% on every drink you get or just 18% per day on the total at the end of the day you spend?

 

Also who gives you your bill at the end of the cruise to review? do they slide it under the door like hotels?

Sorry if that was confusing.  You don't get a bill per se.  Each time you get a drink, you will receive a receipt for that purchase.  You can also check your purchases across the ship on the Hub app, or on your stateroom tv.  Hubby and I know what we can spend, and we just keep track each day.  By the end of a 7 day cruise, the most we've spent strictly on bar purchases was just under $200.

[Crazy4Camping]

21 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

IIRC, I did not get an itemized list of the Cheers purchases, only a list of the charges (if any), like added gratuity and in-port taxes.  So it would say something like (again, IIRC):

Alchemy Bar 1 Apr 2018 7:12pm 

Cheers $0.00

Added Grat $1.00

Taxes $0.60

 

Taxes are only collected when "in port" at a US port - your departure port, San Juan, US V.I., etc.  usually that is zero.

Thank you for letting me know this.  Will I be able to see my purchases on the app? Or do I  need to keep track myself?  

[Schoifmom]

14 hours ago, James4me said:

That’s too bad as it will not work for my husband.  He likes his beers on ice nice and cold.

 

You know that he can get them one at a time as he drinks them and they will be cold.  The only advantage to getting a bucket is that they are discounted.  With Cheers, you don't need to be concerned about that.

[kdawg954]

45 minutes ago, Crazy4Camping said:

We're leaving on our first and only cruise this Sunday and we decided to purchase Cheers.  We used Carnival GCs purchased at a discount through AARP as well as some regular GCs.  We don't care if we break even.  We bought it for peace of mind.  We want to get top shelf and craft cocktails from Alchemy.  Don't want my husband to feel guilty if he wants a couple Cokes with dinner.  I drink tons of water so extra bottled water is a perk with this package.  I don't drink much coffee but if I'm going to have one, it's going to be a good one from the coffee bar.  Knowing that I can go grab whatever whenever it's just worth it for me.  We will see at the end of the week how it worked out.  Hoping they keep track even though it's paid for and give us an itemized receipt at the end.

 

Literally the one departure port where I know I would never get Cheers.

 

I mean its always great to have it if cost is not a concern . . . . But with all of the drinking you will be doing off ship, you could Pay as You go and spend $600 and still bank another $300 to use that for drinks onshore.

 

Literally found no time to drink anything in the mornings on this itinerary

 

 Buy a couple of 12 pack bottled waters, get a 1 L bottle of your favorite liquor for the room and in San Juan bring on multiple bottles of wine and canned beverages/mixers.  Probably cost you $200 total

 

Budget $500 for Pay as You go.  You really don’t drink coffee, you have the bottled water and soda in the cabin already . . . .$500 to really cover your nights.  Hell thats a good 7 Alchemy bar drinks every night between you 2 . . .(not forgetting the 1 L bottle u have in the cabin and the bottle you can order for final night delivery from purchases).

 

And take that other $200 and use it for bar drinks in St. Kitts and wherever else.

 

Just a suggestion . . .trust me if you “can drink” you’ll still be fine but you can do well without it on this itinerary and really still have a bunch of beverages.

[deanaw72]

We just had this conversation this morning. We are doing a 4 night over Labor Day weekend, taking our grandson on his first cruise. With 3 adults in the room, each one of us would have to get the package for a total cost of $551. My daughter doesn't drink much, and the 4 year old is more of a juice man, so it doesn't make sense for us this time. We've gotten it before on a longer cruise when it was just the grown ups and it was more economical. 

[Crazy4Camping]

36 minutes ago, kdawg954 said:

 

Literally the one departure port where I know I would never get Cheers.

 

I mean its always great to have it if cost is not a concern . . . . But with all of the drinking you will be doing off ship, you could Pay as You go and spend $600 and still bank another $300 to use that for drinks onshore.

 

Literally found no time to drink anything in the mornings on this itinerary

 

 Buy a couple of 12 pack bottled waters, get a 1 L bottle of your favorite liquor for the room and in San Juan bring on multiple bottles of wine and canned beverages/mixers.  Probably cost you $200 total

 

Budget $500 for Pay as You go.  You really don’t drink coffee, you have the bottled water and soda in the cabin already . . . .$500 to really cover your nights.  Hell thats a good 7 Alchemy bar drinks every night between you 2 . . .(not forgetting the 1 L bottle u have in the cabin and the bottle you can order for final night delivery from purchases).

 

And take that other $200 and use it for bar drinks in St. Kitts and wherever else.

 

Just a suggestion . . .trust me if you “can drink” you’ll still be fine but you can do well without it on this itinerary and really still have a bunch of beverages.

We contemplated the whole bring your own stuff on board thing.  Decided we didn't want to be limited to just what was in our room and didn't want to have to go back to the room every time we wanted another drink(including bringing cans of pop to the MDR for hubby to have with dinner).  It's just convenient that's all.  

[nyhitmen]

We most likely will NOT buy the cheers package. If we drink 2 drinks per day plus 1 additional non adult beverage each for 3 days each I doubt the total for said drinks will be over $130 total so to pay $100 for two people for one day would be crazy. 

 

So we will pay as we go

 

But I do think its crazy on every drink you buy they tag 18% per drink 

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 hour ago, Crazy4Camping said:

Thank you for letting me know this.  Will I be able to see my purchases on the app? Or do I  need to keep track myself?  

 

I don't recall seeing the details of each order, just total "cost".

 

So you'd need to keep track yourself.

[kdawg954]

13 minutes ago, Crazy4Camping said:

We contemplated the whole bring your own stuff on board thing.  Decided we didn't want to be limited to just what was in our room and didn't want to have to go back to the room every time we wanted another drink(including bringing cans of pop to the MDR for hubby to have with dinner).  It's just convenient that's all.  

 

Understood.

 

It is definitely the most enjoyable way to cruise and if you are only doing this cruise . . . Hell may as well go all out.

 

i definitely would of drunk more if I had it on my Fascination cruise, but I was pretty content with my alcohol consumption as is lol.

 

Did a ton of island drinking.

 

But we had no sea days so I mean I realized that despite me usually being a club guy on cruises, I was usually in the room before 1 am and usually off the ship from 9-4. So for 15 hours (including sleep) I would not have any real access to Cheers.

 

And honestly, some of those excursions on that itinerary they take care of you so well on the alcohol that I didn’t really care to have something alcoholic until I was dressed for the evening.  Several times I went to the cabin just to relax and reenergize and thats where having that bottle of your favorite alcohol and mixers/sodas come in handy if you need a little something.  Or even just getting back from the island, dropping off a few things, making a nice drink in my trusty Tervis cup and relaxing poolside (my room steward had fresh ice for me every day I returned).

 

Dinner rolls around I make a nice sized drink or pour a full glass of wine and carry it into the dining room.  Heck bring a soda if that is your choice..  Now its like 8:30-9:00 after dinner and I literally bought 0 drinks on the ship . . . .just utilized my boarding options, in room options and the island drinking.

 

I would then take the final 3-4 hours of the night and mix in PAYG drinks and potentially swing by the cabin and make a drink (DW would change shoes and the ship is much smaller than the big boys that you are never that far away).

 

Trust me, not trying to ruin any fun, but its probably less of a hassle than you are thinking.  If money is not an option than by all means do your thing . . .but if you are utilizing AARP giftcards then it suggests you wouldn’t mind saving a few bucks lol

 

Either way have fun, I am so tempted to do the Fascination again in May.

 

 

 

[kdawg954]

40 minutes ago, nyhitmen said:

We most likely will NOT buy the cheers package. If we drink 2 drinks per day plus 1 additional non adult beverage each for 3 days each I doubt the total for said drinks will be over $130 total so to pay $100 for two people for one day would be crazy. 

 

So we will pay as we go

 

But I do think its crazy on every drink you buy they tag 18% per drink 

 

I mean its standard gratuity.  Really a mental thing . . .they could raise the drink prices and include the gratuity or have them lowered and state there is gratuity to be added as well.  

 

Just looks more attractive on the menu to have the lower price.

 

That being said at 18% I never give the bartender anything extra (unless the service is outstanding and he/she has looked out) . . . .if it was only 10 to 15 percent, I would almost always tip a dollar extra per drink but I’m sure I am in the minority with that.

 

I agree I don’t believe Cheers is for you and that is perfectly fine.

 

 

 

[schazzy]

1 hour ago, Crazy4Camping said:

We contemplated the whole bring your own stuff on board thing.  Decided we didn't want to be limited to just what was in our room and didn't want to have to go back to the room every time we wanted another drink(including bringing cans of pop to the MDR for hubby to have with dinner).  It's just convenient that's all.  

 

That's why we get Cheers, convenience, not feeling limited and not having to stick to a budget or keep track of it. We are very thrifty in our daily lives, and we could be just as thrifty on a cruise as well and save money, but we don't want to sacrifice our enjoyment of our vacation to do it! I know without even trying, we get our money's worth out of Cheers and I don't mind paying the price for it to not have to lug our own drinks on board and honestly so we don't have to spend a part of our vacation running back to the cabin every time we want something and playing bartender and mixing our own drinks; or be limited to what we brought or to the included beverages.  

[Joebucks]

Marketing has done a great job creating a value perception with this offering. That is what marketing does. Here's where it boils mostly down to:

 

- Consumers love alcohol 

- Consumers love having a good time on vacation

- Consumers love unlimited offerings (yes there are limits, from a matter of perspective, it's still the same thing).

 

Combine those things, and often we start to think less objectively. I mean, how can you go wrong? No one dares to admit that they would spend many times more on a package than they would on the dreaded "nickle and dimes". They don't want to prove the point, it's "MY vacation". Sometimes if we do want to prove the point, to either ourselves or others, we force down as much stuff as possible to feel smarter about our choice. Fancy water at dinner, bottled water on the go, bottled tea with lunch. Now we're talking. That does not mean everyone buying the package making a poor choice. Even if it they don't come out financially ahead, if they're happy, that's all that matters. I believe for some, it is a great experience to try things you might not otherwise try. Plus, it has its benefits to the rest of us when others are paying for high-margin items on the ship.

 

All of these drinking schedules seem reasonable on the smallest unit of one person, for one day. How does it really look? If I was a betting man, I would say the average schedule is not a representation of what the couple drinks, every day. There are also many different factors to consider in all of it. As someone who does not usually go for Cheers, if I had gotten it on one of my 4 day Bahamas cruises, it would have been a far better choice than for my 7 day Fascination cruise. That one would have been the most colossal waste of vacation spending ever in my life.

 

For me, I don't like it for a few reasons. My other half barely drinks. I think bottled water is a waste, especially when perfectly fine free water exists. I want to drink in port far more than most other scenarios except for a few at night time, and can sometimes find cheaper drinks in port. I've gotten $1-$2 beers in gift shops. I also try to take my health more into account as I get older. Between the food and drink, the gluttony is dangerously unhealthy. I love the alchemy. I can't sit there all night to force feed myself sugars.

[nyhitmen]

6 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

Marketing has done a great job creating a value perception with this offering. That is what marketing does. Here's where it boils mostly down to:

 

- Consumers love alcohol 

- Consumers love having a good time on vacation

- Consumers love unlimited offerings (yes there are limits, from a matter of perspective, it's still the same thing).

 

Combine those things, and often we start to think less objectively. I mean, how can you go wrong? No one dares to admit that they would spend many times more on a package than they would on the dreaded "nickle and dimes". They don't want to prove the point, it's "MY vacation". Sometimes if we do want to prove the point, to either ourselves or others, we force down as much stuff as possible to feel smarter about our choice. Fancy water at dinner, bottled water on the go, bottled tea with lunch. Now we're talking. That does not mean everyone buying the package making a poor choice. Even if it they don't come out financially ahead, if they're happy, that's all that matters. I believe for some, it is a great experience to try things you might not otherwise try. Plus, it has its benefits to the rest of us when others are paying for high-margin items on the ship.

 

All of these drinking schedules seem reasonable on the smallest unit of one person, for one day. How does it really look? If I was a betting man, I would say the average schedule is not a representation of what the couple drinks, every day. There are also many different factors to consider in all of it. As someone who does not usually go for Cheers, if I had gotten it on one of my 4 day Bahamas cruises, it would have been a far better choice than for my 7 day Fascination cruise. That one would have been the most colossal waste of vacation spending ever in my life.

 

For me, I don't like it for a few reasons. My other half barely drinks. I think bottled water is a waste, especially when perfectly fine free water exists. I want to drink in port far more than most other scenarios except for a few at night time, and can sometimes find cheaper drinks in port. I've gotten $1-$2 beers in gift shops. I also try to take my health more into account as I get older. Between the food and drink, the gluttony is dangerously unhealthy. I love the alchemy. I can't sit there all night to force feed myself sugars.

 

Everyone keeps mentioning the Alchemy is this a bar or something? And is it hard to find seating?

[Joebucks]

1 minute ago, nyhitmen said:

 

Everyone keeps mentioning the Alchemy is this a bar or something? And is it hard to find seating?

 

It is a bar with higher-end cocktails. Probably the best you will find on Carnival. Depending on the time of day and ship, it can be crowded there. It is definitely a treat.

[pacruise804]

On 1/29/2019 at 7:27 AM, schazzy said:

Since this is your first cruise, and you feel you will only have a couple drinks a day, I wouldn't get Cheers. Basically you should do as we did when we went on our first cruise after taking a 7 year hiatus, we weren't sure how much we would drink or if we would even spend that much we on drinks for the week. So, did the "pay as you go" thing and figured that depending on how much we spent, it would help us decide for future cruises if Cheers would be worth it or not. We decided that it was worth it considering we spent almost as much as Cheers would have costed us, and that was with trying to be conservative.

 

So, basically, you can get others opinions, you can study the menus and use the calculators, but the only way to truly find out for certain how much you will drink and spend on a cruise is to go on one and see for yourself.      

 

This is one of the better posts I've seen on really getting a feel for how much you would drink.

 

1 hour ago, nyhitmen said:

We most likely will NOT buy the cheers package. If we drink 2 drinks per day plus 1 additional non adult beverage each for 3 days each I doubt the total for said drinks will be over $130 total so to pay $100 for two people for one day would be crazy. 

 

So we will pay as we go

 

But I do think its crazy on every drink you buy they tag 18% per drink 

 

The 18% gratuity/service charge is on the total bar purchase.  If you purchased Cheers, it is on the total amount of Cheers.  If you buy a la carte, it is assessed on each drink.  The math works the same if they charged 18% of the days purchases or 18% per drink: two $10 drinks with 1.80 gratuity each is the same as $20 in drinks total with 3.60 gratuity.  I get that it "feels" different seeing it each time.

 

Something to keep in mind with any ship purchase is if gratuity is already added you shouldn't feel like you need to add another gratuity on top of it - although many do for extra service.  You may also find that you drink more at sea than you expect.  Since we don't have to worry about either of us driving (plus having a drink or two in the afternoon), we tend to drink more at sea than on land.  That said we still never come close to Cheers, a heavy bill is about $300 for 7 days for two of us.

 

1 minute ago, nyhitmen said:

 

Everyone keeps mentioning the Alchemy is this a bar or something? And is it hard to find seating?

 

Alchemy is a martini bar (among other drinks).  They use higher end ingredients - no frozen drinks, beers, or wines - and the bartenders are called mixologists.  Most people love them, but a few of us have been disappointed.  I can't speak much to seating since we didn't go there during peak times, but it seemed to have a reasonable amount both at the bar and in the open seating area on the Pride.  I did the sampler one day and found 1 drink good, 2 ok, and 1 awful.  The server was very arrogant/stuck up too.  I wanted to like them based on the favorable reviews here, but in my case they didn't live up to the hype.

[schazzy]

18 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

Marketing has done a great job creating a value perception with this offering. That is what marketing does. Here's where it boils mostly down to:

 

- Consumers love alcohol 

- Consumers love having a good time on vacation

- Consumers love unlimited offerings (yes there are limits, from a matter of perspective, it's still the same thing).

 

Combine those things, and often we start to think less objectively. I mean, how can you go wrong? No one dares to admit that they would spend many times more on a package than they would on the dreaded "nickle and dimes". They don't want to prove the point, it's "MY vacation". Sometimes if we do want to prove the point, to either ourselves or others, we force down as much stuff as possible to feel smarter about our choice. Fancy water at dinner, bottled water on the go, bottled tea with lunch. Now we're talking. That does not mean everyone buying the package making a poor choice. Even if it they don't come out financially ahead, if they're happy, that's all that matters. I believe for some, it is a great experience to try things you might not otherwise try. Plus, it has its benefits to the rest of us when others are paying for high-margin items on the ship.

 

All of these drinking schedules seem reasonable on the smallest unit of one person, for one day. How does it really look? If I was a betting man, I would say the average schedule is not a representation of what the couple drinks, every day. There are also many different factors to consider in all of it. As someone who does not usually go for Cheers, if I had gotten it on one of my 4 day Bahamas cruises, it would have been a far better choice than for my 7 day Fascination cruise. That one would have been the most colossal waste of vacation spending ever in my life.

 

For me, I don't like it for a few reasons. My other half barely drinks. I think bottled water is a waste, especially when perfectly fine free water exists. I want to drink in port far more than most other scenarios except for a few at night time, and can sometimes find cheaper drinks in port. I've gotten $1-$2 beers in gift shops. I also try to take my health more into account as I get older. Between the food and drink, the gluttony is dangerously unhealthy. I love the alchemy. I can't sit there all night to force feed myself sugars.

 

I understand where you are coming from, and that Cheers is not worth it to you. And while I don't know about everyone else who gets Cheers, I do know our "drinking schedule" is pretty much what we would do every day on the cruise. We don't drink much at home, every so often we will open a bottle of wine to go with dinner or maybe have a cocktail one night, but it's not very often. Heck, we still have 4 bottles of liquor we bought on our cruise in 2017 and 2 of them haven't even been opened, and two of them are still over half full. But, when we are on the cruise, we enjoy having drinks every night. I drink sparkling water at home everyday, so yes, I'm going to drink it on the cruise. We both drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day at home, and we will do that on the cruise as well, we have tried to drink the ships coffee, we don't like it, so we are going to buy the good stuff. We both drink plenty of water and tea and such through the day at home, but we do not like the metallic taste of the water or the swamp water they call iced tea on the ship, so we buy the bottled drinks. We would at minimum spend the cost of Cheers on these things alone, the milkshakes and other things are occasional, but just make the package that much more of a value to us.          

 

 

 

[robertlanajean]

Carnival would make this debate so much easier if they sold digital ticket books - 10 beers for $50, 10 mixed drinks for $100 or so - Or do a bronze-silver-gold drinks packages with the current Cheers being the gold level. 

 

[DramaQueen22]

3 hours ago, robertlanajean said:

Carnival would make this debate so much easier if they sold digital ticket books - 10 beers for $50, 10 mixed drinks for $100 or so - Or do a bronze-silver-gold drinks packages with the current Cheers being the gold level. 

 

I love this idea!  I would think you could pre pay, then have it automatically loaded to your Sail and Sign.  I would definitely consider something like that.  The full CHeers package just isn't worth it for us, but something like that would be awesome.

[BENHANDEL]

On 1/29/2019 at 5:36 PM, nyhitmen said:

Just to add to this thread I am getting the idea lots of people drink on cruises. Do we have to worry about out of control people or do the cruise ships do a good job with security and making sure people who are out of control from drinking are dealt with?

 

I was worried about that before our first CCL cruise, at Christmas. My takeaway is that if out-of-control people were on the ships,  the partiers/heavy drinkers must hang out at different spots than us lighter drinkers. I hate smoke so never set foot in the casino, and thanks to the drink package, we were usually ready for bed by 11, lol. 

[pacruise804]

On 1/29/2019 at 6:36 PM, nyhitmen said:

Just to add to this thread I am getting the idea lots of people drink on cruises. Do we have to worry about out of control people or do the cruise ships do a good job with security and making sure people who are out of control from drinking are dealt with?

 

You are correct that there is a lot of drinking on cruises, but I don't think you need to worry about a lot of drunks.  Maybe it is where we hang out (or don't hang out) but I've rarely seen extreme drunkenness.  We have seen a few people who were obviously feeling their alcohol but mostly it is slower, casual drinking rather than sloppy drunks.

 

Being on vacation with no responsibilities and no worries about a designated driver make it very easy to drink more than you might at home.

[1019throw]

On 1/30/2019 at 1:41 PM, schazzy said:

 

That's why we get Cheers, convenience, not feeling limited and not having to stick to a budget or keep track of it. We are very thrifty in our daily lives, and we could be just as thrifty on a cruise as well and save money, but we don't want to sacrifice our enjoyment of our vacation to do it! I know without even trying, we get our money's worth out of Cheers and I don't mind paying the price for it to not have to lug our own drinks on board and honestly so we don't have to spend a part of our vacation running back to the cabin every time we want something and playing bartender and mixing our own drinks; or be limited to what we brought or to the included beverages.  

Excellent point and basically how we are with respect to watching money. On the cruise, we want to relax and have the peace of mind not having to look at drink prices.

[hakko808]

Cheers does not seem a good fit for many.  In order to make it worthwhile you need to drink a lot, and the true chronics whom can drink that much run up against the 15 drink minimum.

[PhillyFan33579]

On 1/30/2019 at 10:51 AM, Crazy4Camping said:

Thank you for letting me know this.  Will I be able to see my purchases on the app? Or do I  need to keep track myself?  

 

The app will track every drink you order, what time you ordered it, what bar you ordered it at, and how much each drink cost, although under Cheers you aren’t charged the cost of the drink. The app also updates in real time. When you order a drink, you will usually see it on your app within 30-60 seconds.  I always check the app the next day to see how much money my wife and I would have spent without Cheers. 

[PhillyFan33579]

53 minutes ago, hakko808 said:

Cheers does not seem a good fit for many.  In order to make it worthwhile you need to drink a lot, and the true chronics whom can drink that much run up against the 15 drink minimum.

 

If you drink wine, champagne or drinks at the Alchemy Bar, it only takes 3-5 drinks a day to make Cheers worthwhile.  And that doesn’t count all the non-alcoholic drinks that are included too. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

10 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

If you drink wine, champagne or drinks at the Alchemy Bar, it only takes 3-5 drinks a day to make Cheers worthwhile.  And that doesn’t count all the non-alcoholic drinks that are included too. 

 

I'm not trying to put a damper on the benefits of Cheers!, but just want to clarify when it starts to make sense for a light to moderate drinker. 

 

I would say, based on your description of "wine, champagne or drinks at Alchemy" that would be five (5) drinks or more:

 

Alchemy drinks are probably the most expensive in that list, at $11.95, IIRC, so four of them is ~$48 (before grat).  Compare to Cheers at $51.95 per day, before grat.  So you need that fifth drink to push you into "worthwhile" territory.  For wine (usually ~$10 a glass, though some are at $13) it easily becomes a sixth drink.

 

Yeah, a specialty coffee, couple bottles of water, or a few sodas will also get you there. But I know lots of folks who would never be able to handle four Alchemy drinks in a day, so they'd have to consume a lot more coffees etc to make up for it.

 

Or if you drink the most expensive Scotch (or whatever) you can find, maybe you only need to drink four to make it worthwhile.  The only time three drinks would cover it is of you found the $18 to $19.99 high-price liquor, which I honestly don't recall seeing even in the Steakhouse on my last cruise.

 

I use Cheers, and exercise it well beyond 5 drinks every day, but I don't want folks to think that 3 drinks is typically enough to cover it.

 

A potential Cheers user should really analyze how much they typically drink, or expect to drink, on a daily basis on board the ship.  It is a great package for those that drink socially and throughout the day.  For those where having a third glass of wine at dinner is tantamount to being in danger of calling themselves a raging alcoholic, then Cheers is not for them.