Last Minute Cheers Debate

[Joebucks]

20 hours ago, Caps_Shield said:

IMO, if you can drink 5 drinks in a 24 hour period then the CHEERS! package makes a lot of sense.

 

This is the kind of over-simplification that marketing wants you to think of. Well who wouldn't want 5 drinks in a day on vacation? (The number to balance the cost would actually be closer to 6). Day 1 is not equal to all other days.

 

Now do that for 4-7 days. For 2 people. Factoring in ports. How many couples would honestly have 80 alcoholic drinks on the ship alone? For me, it is completely absurd to think Cheers offers some huge value over bringing a bottle of wine and buying a bottle of whiskey. 

 

If you would otherwise have a $800 bar tab, then perhaps it's a good deal. I've sailed with more than enough people to know that Cheers is excessive for most who feel like they are financial advisors because they purchased this savings. The fear of individual charges and obsession with "unlimited" overrides most other logic.

[sparks1093]

I had this internal debate before our cruise at the end of February. I looked at our bar bill from November's cruise and was 😲 and needed to decide if Cheers would be worth it when we had a 6 year old along. I determined that a couple of specialty coffees in the morning and a drink every hour or so starting at noon would make it worthwhile. That coupled with the fact that I had set a budget of $50 a day for drinks (just under Cheers price point) sealed the deal. We didn't make Cheers worth it every day because of port days but averaged out over the cruise then yes, we saved a bit of money. Would have saved more had the 6 year old not been along, but that's next cruise.🤪

[sparks1093]

4 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

This is the kind of over-simplification that marketing wants you to think of. Well who wouldn't want 5 drinks in a day on vacation? (The number to balance the cost would actually be closer to 6). Day 1 is not equal to all other days.

 

Now do that for 4-7 days. For 2 people. Factoring in ports. How many couples would honestly have 80 alcoholic drinks on the ship alone? For me, it is completely absurd to think Cheers offers some huge value over bringing a bottle of wine and buying a bottle of whiskey. 

 

If you would otherwise have a $800 bar tab, then perhaps it's a good deal. I've sailed with more than enough people to know that Cheers is excessive for most who feel like they are financial advisors because they purchased this savings. The fear of individual charges and obsession with "unlimited" overrides most other logic.

DW could do it by herself. Blindfolded. 🤣 But this is an excellent point that everyone needs to take an honest look at what they will really consume and remember- these packages are sold to make Carnival money, not to save the passenger money (although they are marketed that way). Carnival is banking on the law of averages that for everyone who makes the package worth it there will be many others that won't.

[cruiserbrianj]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

 

This is the kind of over-simplification that marketing wants you to think of. Well who wouldn't want 5 drinks in a day on vacation? (The number to balance the cost would actually be closer to 6). Day 1 is not equal to all other days.

 

Now do that for 4-7 days. For 2 people. Factoring in ports. How many couples would honestly have 80 alcoholic drinks on the ship alone? For me, it is completely absurd to think Cheers offers some huge value over bringing a bottle of wine and buying a bottle of whiskey. 

 

If you would otherwise have a $800 bar tab, then perhaps it's a good deal. I've sailed with more than enough people to know that Cheers is excessive for most who feel like they are financial advisors because they purchased this savings. The fear of individual charges and obsession with "unlimited" overrides most other logic.

I actually do think it's that simple and it's not so much you "have to" drink x amount of drinks per day, it's the cost of those drinks.  Drinks in the Alchemy run $13....a frozen drink by the pool, $10...it adds up quickly imo.  Yes, the cost is ridiculous, especially when you pre pay and say to yourself "that's a lot of money on booze" but for us and my family, it's vacation and that's just what it is...and for us, Cheers has always been "worth it" over the course of the cruise.  

[Schoifmom]

19 hours ago, AMediator said:

This part was lame. It should just be an account credit at this point. Especially since now I'm sure it'll take two or three days to get the credit back on my credit card..

Are you calling my answer lame?  It's simply the truth.

 

[AMediator]

20 minutes ago, Schoifmom said:

Are you calling my answer lame?  It's simply the truth.

 

Good morning. Absolutely not. The last thing that I ever would want to do is engage in negativity online. I am here to celebrate that we are all going on a vacation tomorrow. This board has been an incredible resource for me for many years. And I always appreciate everyone's input and sometimes their opinions.   

The lame comment is directed solely at carnival

I was just simply stating that I prepaid some of my packages including the bubbles and alcohol to the room. I did that several months ago. And now that we are two days out from the cruise it would have been preferred to have that issue as a credit on my account to put towards the cheers package. Rather than wait now for three or four or maybe a week to get a refund on my credit cards.

It would have been nice to have the choice.  

[AMediator]

I just realized that basically we're more like a day out from cruising. Exciting 😄

[wesorbeth]

Day one is a short day however the day you debark you can also get drinks, I am not driving so I always have a few spiked coffees that morning.  

[klfhngr]

I like to drink, wife has about 3 or so a day. We didn't get Cheers in Oct., our friends did. In my opinion, we made out. Our friends tried to drink more than normal, would get others drink on their package and they BARELY broke even. Our tab was about 300 or so, and again, I enjoyed my drinks w/o hesitation. I would NOT get package in Carnival in the future.

[Joebucks]

4 hours ago, cruiserbrianj said:

I actually do think it's that simple and it's not so much you "have to" drink x amount of drinks per day, it's the cost of those drinks.  Drinks in the Alchemy run $13....a frozen drink by the pool, $10...it adds up quickly imo.  Yes, the cost is ridiculous, especially when you pre pay and say to yourself "that's a lot of money on booze" but for us and my family, it's vacation and that's just what it is...and for us, Cheers has always been "worth it" over the course of the cruise.  

 

Obviously, if you're going to drink a ton of drinks by the alchemy and pool, then it makes sense. The real question is, are you going to?

 

What many of you don't hear is the people who fueled their decision on this same logic. Then end up getting as many drinks as roughly half the cost of cheers. They'll still defend the purchase to the death. It's peace of mind to overspend on alcohol, because alcohol is the center of the universe.

 

You'll often hear the argument of "you can easily do 5 alchemy drinks in a day!" but will rarely hear "the both of you can easily do 70 alchemy drinks in a week." Why is that?

 

 

[cruiserbrianj]

4 minutes ago, Joebucks said:

 

Obviously, if you're going to drink a ton of drinks by the alchemy and pool, then it makes sense. The real question is, are you going to?

 

What many of you don't hear is the people who fueled their decision on this same logic. Then end up getting as many drinks as roughly half the cost of cheers. They'll still defend the purchase to the death. It's peace of mind to overspend on alcohol, because alcohol is the center of the universe.

 

You'll often hear the argument of "you can easily do 5 alchemy drinks in a day!" but will rarely hear "the both of you can easily do 70 alchemy drinks in a week." Why is that?

 

 

I guess you sorta lost me there.  I mean, when we cruise we like to let loose a little and enjoy our cocktails and some people are like us and some aren't. I don't come across a lot of discussions where people are defending their Cheers purchase to the death either but that's fine.  Cheers works for us and I don't find us drinking more to "make it worth it".  We can just move along tho, no need to beat this horse any more 🙂 

[AMediator]

Well we went ahead and purchased it.  But we are  not thinking we need to drink 15 alcoholic drinks a day to make it worth it.

 

It was more the comparison. We know we will be drinking many alcoholic drinks in a day on a vacation.  But this also for us includes coffee and soda, etc.  We had preorders of $300+ without the cheers package without coffee, and drinks.  

 

Which means that really we paid another $300 not think about it for 5 days and do what we want. 

 

Worth it already. 

[famof4togo]

4 minutes ago, AMediator said:

Well we went ahead and purchased it.  But we are  not thinking we need to drink 15 alcoholic drinks a day to make it worth it.

 

It was more the comparison. We know we will be drinking many alcoholic drinks in a day on a vacation.  But this also for us includes coffee and soda, etc.  We had preorders of $300+ without the cheers package without coffee, and drinks.  

 

Which means that really we paid another $300 not think about it for 5 days and do what we want. 

 

Worth it already. 

Good Choice the less worry and fun of trying new drinks is worth it!  ....See you onboard tomorrow....we also have Cheers so likely at the bar LOL....

[Benwar]

The wife and I did the Cheers package for the first time last December for a six day cruise on the Freedom and thought it was well worth the money.

 

It was nice to be able to try new drinks at dinner and elsewhere that we probably wouldn’t buy if we didn’t have it.

 

I reached my 15 drink  limit all six days and the wife fell a little short a couple days and I have to say we never felt like we had too many. We would start around 11:00 and have four or five on the serenity deck and maybe take a power nap before dinner and start up at dinner again.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Benwar
Spell

[Wanna_Cruize]

On 3/22/2022 at 11:56 AM, cruiserbrianj said:

This is just my opinion but the whole port day thing is overrated in regards to Cheers.  I"m speaking for only Caribbean-ish cruises I've been on but the vast majority of the time we are back on the ship by 3pm (sometimes earlier due to the short time they keep you in port).  If we're back on by 3ish....have a couple of drinks before dinner and a few during/after dinner....if you're just going by the per day thing it's still worth it imo...and that's just the alcohol, not including the bottles of water or coffees we get here and there after we get back on.

Agree. We took an 8 night cruise out of Puerto Rico with 6-7 port stops, and still Cheers made sense for us. We would have a specialty coffee and mimosa (or two) in the mornings before getting off the ship, and took bottles of water from the bar to take with us. Then, add in a couple of pre-dinner drinks, and wine with dinner, and it's' more than paid for. You also don't need to then book the all inclusive port excursions just for the free drinks. 

It also frees up the choice of which wine to order for dinner, go ahead and splurge on the glass of the really good stuff you normally might not pay for. And, not having the internal debate about how much you've spent already when deciding if you want a drink while you're waiting for the production show to begin, go ahead and order it. It really takes so much of the stress away, it's worth it for that, even if you DON'T hit the break-even point on any given day. 

 

[Ralphinsc]

18 hours ago, klfhngr said:

I like to drink, wife has about 3 or so a day. We didn't get Cheers in Oct., our friends did. In my opinion, we made out. Our friends tried to drink more than normal, would get others drink on their package and they BARELY broke even. Our tab was about 300 or so, and again, I enjoyed my drinks w/o hesitation. I would NOT get package in Carnival in the future.

 

If your bar tab was only $300 for an entire cruise, you don't "like to drink" as much as you think you do. 😜 LOL. $300 is probably a low point for a single sea day drink tab for us, and we have never gotten "hammered" on a cruise. 

[AMediator]

2 hours ago, Ralphinsc said:

 

If your bar tab was only $300 for an entire cruise, you don't "like to drink" as much as you think you do. 😜 LOL. $300 is probably a low point for a single sea day drink tab for us, and we have never gotten "hammered" on a cruise. 

Exactly 

 

Cheers away!  Heading to the ship shortly 

 

Thank you everyone for the advice. I will have a follow-up comment when I return to let you know how it goes. 

[Caps_Shield]

19 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

Obviously, if you're going to drink a ton of drinks by the alchemy and pool, then it makes sense. The real question is, are you going to?

 

What many of you don't hear is the people who fueled their decision on this same logic. Then end up getting as many drinks as roughly half the cost of cheers. They'll still defend the purchase to the death. It's peace of mind to overspend on alcohol, because alcohol is the center of the universe.

 

You'll often hear the argument of "you can easily do 5 alchemy drinks in a day!" but will rarely hear "the both of you can easily do 70 alchemy drinks in a week." Why is that?

 

 

Not to be rude but your math is way off.  5 in a day is not 70 in a week.  5 times 7 days is 35 drinks a week.  I can, and so can a lot of people, handle that.  Again.  it is also more than drinks.  You get other stuff too.  You seem so dead set against this.  No one is asking you to do it.   Why rain on others parade??  But again, I hope you understand my math lesson and you can somehow understand better.

[sparks1093]

43 minutes ago, Caps_Shield said:

Not to be rude but your math is way off.  5 in a day is not 70 in a week.  5 times 7 days is 35 drinks a week.  I can, and so can a lot of people, handle that.  Again.  it is also more than drinks.  You get other stuff too.  You seem so dead set against this.  No one is asking you to do it.   Why rain on others parade??  But again, I hope you understand my math lesson and you can somehow understand better.

I think he was adding the two people together, which would be 70. If one in a couple is a light drinker and the other a bit heavier drinker than the light drinker may not make the package "worth it", but the other makes up for it. If we get back to the ship at 5pm I can easily have one drink an hour until 11 and that is the break even point, even on a port day.

[klfhngr]

3 hours ago, Ralphinsc said:

 

If your bar tab was only $300 for an entire cruise, you don't "like to drink" as much as you think you do. 😜 LOL. $300 is probably a low point for a single sea day drink tab for us, and we have never gotten "hammered" on a cruise. 

300-400. And as I mentioned, wife doesn't drink a lot. So that's mostly me. Mostly beer and harder drinks at night.

[Caps_Shield]

28 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

I think he was adding the two people together, which would be 70. If one in a couple is a light drinker and the other a bit heavier drinker than the light drinker may not make the package "worth it", but the other makes up for it. If we get back to the ship at 5pm I can easily have one drink an hour until 11 and that is the break even point, even on a port day.

Could very well be that you are correct.  The problem I see with adding them together is that one side can not drink for the other.  Meaning that if I have 7, my wife does not need to drink 3.  She still needs 5.  So adding the amount together just makes it look larger than it is.  It is 5 drinks, could be less if you use discount cards and other ways to prepay.  I never understand why people try to make CHEERS! out to be more/harder than it is.  

[crooooze]

Some other consideration points in favor of purchasing Cheers:

• No need to waste time going to the lame Platinum/Diamond reunion for the free drink(s). Unless you like sitting in a lounge with 500 people waiting for the server to eventually pass by with a tray *not* filled with dirty empty glasses…. Or unless you like watching the exciting slide show of the Carnival ships for the umpteenth time.
• No need to rush to the steakhouse on the first or second night for the free bottle of house wine which may or may not taste like vinegar.
• No need to sit through an art auction for the free glass of Champagne while observing people bid on pictures that honestly don’t look right on anyone’s living room wall… seriously nobody really buys that pastel painting of dogs in heaven or picture of animated olives smoking cigars on a martini glass.
• No need to worry about missing that narrow timeframe opportunity when you are able redeem your free VIFP drink coupon.

 

😂

 

[sparks1093]

30 minutes ago, Caps_Shield said:

Could very well be that you are correct.  The problem I see with adding them together is that one side can not drink for the other.  Meaning that if I have 7, my wife does not need to drink 3.  She still needs 5.  So adding the amount together just makes it look larger than it is.  It is 5 drinks, could be less if you use discount cards and other ways to prepay.  I never understand why people try to make CHEERS! out to be more/harder than it is.  

I think it's appropriate for a couple to average their drinks together when deciding whether or not Cheers is worth it for them, so if one couple only drinks 3 per day and the other 9 that averages out to 6 per day each, which is roughly the break even point. 

[sparks1093]

14 minutes ago, crooooze said:

Some other consideration points in favor of purchasing Cheers:

• No need to waste time going to the lame Platinum/Diamond reunion for the free drink(s). Unless you like sitting in a lounge with 500 people waiting for the server to eventually pass by with a tray *not* filled with dirty empty glasses…. Or unless you like watching the exciting slide show of the Carnival ships for the umpteenth time.
• No need to rush to the steakhouse on the first or second night for the free bottle of house wine which may or may not taste like vinegar.
• No need to sit through an art auction for the free glass of Champagne while observing people bid on pictures that honestly don’t look right on anyone’s living room wall… seriously nobody really buys that pastel painting of dogs in heaven or picture of animated olives smoking cigars on a martini glass.
• No need to worry about missing that narrow timeframe opportunity when you are able redeem your free VIFP drink coupon.

 

😂

 

Even without Cheers I wouldn't do any of those things. 😲

[Joebucks]

On 3/22/2022 at 2:56 PM, cruiserbrianj said:

This is just my opinion but the whole port day thing is overrated in regards to Cheers.  I"m speaking for only Caribbean-ish cruises I've been on but the vast majority of the time we are back on the ship by 3pm (sometimes earlier due to the short time they keep you in port).  If we're back on by 3ish....have a couple of drinks before dinner and a few during/after dinner....if you're just going by the per day thing it's still worth it imo...and that's just the alcohol, not including the bottles of water or coffees we get here and there after we get back on.

 

On my last cruise a few months ago, there were beers in shops on every corner for $1. I had quite a few of those on the beach. It was hard to come back and start the plan for how I'm going to fit in a bunch of other drinks for the rest of the night (and every night at that). It's just too much. Not to mention already having bottles of wine. It was 1-2 extra drinks each night, if that.

 

20 hours ago, Caps_Shield said:

Could very well be that you are correct.  The problem I see with adding them together is that one side can not drink for the other.  Meaning that if I have 7, my wife does not need to drink 3.  She still needs 5.  So adding the amount together just makes it look larger than it is.  It is 5 drinks, could be less if you use discount cards and other ways to prepay.  I never understand why people try to make CHEERS! out to be more/harder than it is.  

 

The other person absolutely matters. I would think it's somewhat helpful in making the decision to understand what the pair of you would like drink in a week vs "can you do 5 in one day?" One is trying to justify the purchase. One is comparing your actual trends to your needs.

 

In my case, I don't think my SO has ever hit 5 paid drinks throughout the entire cruise, including specialty coffee. That's some pretty heavy hitting on my part to to be able to break even or give me peace of mind. $800 is $800, no matter how much you put it into different silos or the way it makes you feel. 

 

For $300 I had carry-on wine, thirstyfrog cans in the room, drinks at port, bottle of whiskey in the room, coffees for her, and a few cocktails for us. Honestly didn't need anything else.