Cheers Package conclusions

[alleghator]

Well, we’re just waiting to disembark the Pride and I just went through our S&S account. Looks like even with our AARP 10% discounted gift cards paying for it, we didn’t quite break even on Cheers. Needed another 6-8 drinks over the week. 

 

We started out drinking pretty heavily (for us), but started feeling kind of ragged after two sea days of that. My husband, particularly, cut back his day drinking quite a bit by about Thursday. 

 

In the future we won’t be getting the package again. We liked the flexibility of trying new things we might not have otherwise and the convenience of prepaying. But — for these moderate drinkers — it started to feel like an obligation to try to get our money’s worth. No regrets at all! But it would make more sense for us to just prepay shipboard credit and save some money from the full Cheers package. 

 

Your mileage may vary. 

[Bases5]

  We had the same results.  I really don't drink at all at home and the DW drinks some wine.  We do drink a little on vacation.

We start off the first few days OK but we just don't keep up that pace.  I know they say 5-6 drinks a day break even plus coffee but at the end of the day we are usually $100-$200 short of Cheers on a 7 day cruise. 

  I think its a great option for many people but just not that great for us.

Hope you had a great cruise!!

[Butterbean1000]

I find this is the case with us, also.  We start off crazy, but towards the end of the cruise., we're forcing down the two bottles of wine we brought on board.  We discuss getting Cheers every cruise, but always decide against it. Thank you for sharing.

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for posting your comments.

Sometimes, it's not about "breaking even" but being able to try new drinks without being concerned about the cost.  (as you mentioned)

 

[livingthedream1]

We have only purchased for the 4 and 5 night cruises and always come out ahead but I do not think we would purchase the Cheers for a cruise longer than that. 

[tallnthensome]

Did you take advantage of the specialty coffees, water, vitamin waters, milkshakes? If not you missed out on a significant portion of the Value Cheers can offer. That can be $50 a person per day of value on top of alcohol. 

[livingthedream1]

We do take advantage of all the above. I just get tired of drinking after 4 to 5 days of it. 

[ah4sail]

Thanks for posting this.  My husband and I have debated doing Cheers for our 8 day cruise in September.  We typically have a drink before dinner and wine with dinner.  We are not milkshake, specialty coffee drinkers.  At almost 1k for the two of us for Cheers, we’ve decided to pass.  We will bring wine and get the wine package and pay for incidental drinks.

[desiree741]

I am also on the fence. I rarely drink at home but I do like getting a daiquiri or something and sitting on my balcony. I am also interested in going and trying new drinks. I don’t think I would do this is I had to buy individually. But I do like specialty coffee, soda, and bottle water. I think we are leaning towards staying on the ship in port, or possibly walking around the shops for a little bit.

The questions I have is, do you pay for disembark day?  

Can you order your drinks virgin or light handed? It’s juts going to me and my 15 year old daughter so I really don’t need to be a lush all day lol

[livingthedream1]

You can also purchase a bottle of alcohol and have it delivered to your room.  It is a pricey though.

[livingthedream1]

2 minutes ago, desiree741 said:

I am also on the fence. I rarely drink at home but I do like getting a daiquiri or something and sitting on my balcony. I am also interested in going and trying new drinks. I don’t think I would do this is I had to buy individually. But I do like specialty coffee, soda, and bottle water. I think we are leaning towards staying on the ship in port, or possibly walking around the shops for a little bit.

The questions I have is, do you pay for disembark day?  

Can you order your drinks virgin or light handed? It’s juts going to me and my 15 year old daughter so I really don’t need to be a lush all day lol

You do not pay for disembark day. And yes you can order virgin and light handed drinks.

[HeyNowMama1315]

Thank you for posting this. My husband and I just agreed not to get it for our upcoming 8 day sailing. With 4 ports and at around $1000 for the two of us we just don't believe we can make it worth it. We are going to put a few gift cards on our account, order drinks as we want and at the end, see how much we spend and confirm if we made the right choice. 

[sc4125]

I have purchased CHEERS for 4 and 5 day cruises - however, I only purchase it because my 32 year old daughter who I normally room with on these shorter cruises wants to purchase it.  She gets her $$'s worth, but I never do.  I, like many others, start off having 4 - 5 drinks a day & specialty coffees, but after the first couple of days, I'm down to maybe 3 drinks a day.  I've never purchased it on the 7 - 8 day cruises because my daughter doesn't typically go on those with us & it's normally just me and my sister.

 

I will be sailing next month on the Breeze and will not be purchasing CHEERS.  I plan to really keep track of what I actually spend - order what I want, when I want - and I can almost guarantee my bar bill will be less than $300. 

[bury me at sea]

I think it's a great option for a lot of people but it would make no sense for us.  I have never yet had a beverage bill for two people that hit the price of Cheers for one.

[Bases5]

50 minutes ago, desiree741 said:

I am also on the fence. I rarely drink at home but I do like getting a daiquiri or something and sitting on my balcony. I am also interested in going and trying new drinks. I don’t think I would do this is I had to buy individually. But I do like specialty coffee, soda, and bottle water. I think we are leaning towards staying on the ship in port, or possibly walking around the shops for a little bit.

The questions I have is, do you pay for disembark day?  

Can you order your drinks virgin or light handed? It’s juts going to me and my 15 year old daughter so I really don’t need to be a lush all day lol

  You can bring 1 bottle of wine pp and 12 sodas pp for your cabin  Also Carnival offers water cheap thru the fun shops for your room. That could cover some of the cost.

[Shaded Lady]

On our 8-day cruise in June, my bar bill was $8.95. Total. I paid for one drink, got one free as a Gold cardholder. 

 

I think that if I had Cheers, I'd probably drink more, but even with the specialty coffees (I had several of those!) and other non-alcoholic drinks, I don't think I'd come anywhere near breaking even.

 

Having said that, this is specific to my hubby & me. If you're on the fence and think you might break even, I'd suggest you try it, keep track as the OP did, and determine at the end if it is worth it for future cruises.

[patrice1]

Dh and I have always used Cheers, but he has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, so there's no more drinking for him. We are sailing for the first time on MSC because CCL offered no European cruises this year and we live in Lisbon, Portugal. They have a Non-alcoholic package that includes specialty coffees and teas, all mineral waters, juices, sodas, their soft serve, and mocktails. Both passengers in the cabin must get it. I like that he can join me at the bar and I can order a shot for my drink. It's everything you get with the Cheers package, less the alcohol. It's @$80/person for European cruises. I would love to have the same package on CCL next year when they're back in Europe.

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

4 hours ago, alleghator said:

Well, we’re just waiting to disembark the Pride and I just went through our S&S account. Looks like even with our AARP 10% discounted gift cards paying for it, we didn’t quite break even on Cheers. Needed another 6-8 drinks over the week. 

 

We started out drinking pretty heavily (for us), but started feeling kind of ragged after two sea days of that. My husband, particularly, cut back his day drinking quite a bit by about Thursday. 

 

In the future we won’t be getting the package again. We liked the flexibility of trying new things we might not have otherwise and the convenience of prepaying. But — for these moderate drinkers — it started to feel like an obligation to try to get our money’s worth. No regrets at all! But it would make more sense for us to just prepay shipboard credit and save some money from the full Cheers package. 

 

Your mileage may vary. 

I have posted this in other topics. Depending what you like for drinks this is what I do. I also do not drink a lot other than sodas. The soda package is perfect for me. My favorite is Coke Zero. When they announce shooters special which is a great price and they are 2oz shot glasses. I go get my coke and buy a rum shooter. A shooter can be just about any liquor you like. I also enjoy an OJ with gin. OJ is included in the drink package. So doing it that way is very inexpensive even if you pay full price for the 2 oz shooters. If I might want a frozen drink. I will just purchase one. Still the over all cost is really low.

[Eliot Ness]

We've done the Cheers package twice, and on our 8 day cruise last February I just barely broke even, and I was a good customer at the Shake Spot and even had some shots to up some of my drinks and I tried a lot of drinks I normally would not have ordered.   I really don't regret buying the package because now I realize that for us, we can try just about anything we want, and not go broke without buying cheers.  We don't drink a lot at home so after a couple of days hitting the package pretty hard we tend to slow down like many others have mentioned. 

 

We have a two week Panama cruise coming up and the package would be pretty expensive for both of us, but we'll just allocate some AARP gift cards for our drinks and come out OK.  On a shorter cruise I might consider it again and I'm sure for many it is a great way to go, and maybe anyone who is considering it should give it a try at least once.

[JohnSpo]

I have not gotten the Cheers pkg because of what happened to you of not being able to keep up with the daily amount to drink to at least break even.  I could handle it for a few days but not everyday.  A shame you cannot buy it for the days you want.  Maybe in the future they will let you buy it each morning on the days you will actually use it.  I would get more use of a deal like that.😎

 

[jsglow]

We have never gotten it.  Most typically we'll do a wine package and purchase a bottle for our cabin.  I actually find that we have a better time on a cruise if we keep our consumption in check somewhat.

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, JohnSpo said:

I have not gotten the Cheers pkg because of what happened to you of not being able to keep up with the daily amount to drink to at least break even.  I could handle it for a few days but not everyday.  A shame you cannot buy it for the days you want.  Maybe in the future they will let you buy it each morning on the days you will actually use it.  I would get more use of a deal like that.😎

 

 

You are missing the point that Cheers is designed to benefit Carnival, not the passenger. They will never offer it on a daily basis. 

[tallnthensome]

11 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

You are missing the point that Cheers is designed to benefit Carnival, not the passenger. They will never offer it on a daily basis. 

It certainly is .... It's kind of like a Casino as the odds are always in house's favor but when you into people like my wife and I we get way more than our monies worth. 

[daisymay1960]

Could you tell me if the price shown on the drinks menus is before or after tax

Thank you

[tandemcruzr]

17 minutes ago, daisymay1960 said:

Could you tell me if the price shown on the drinks menus is before or after tax

Thank you

It's before tax. You will only pay tax in the home port and maybe a few others. The price listed does not include the 18% gratuity either.