Stateroom Liquor Purchasing is BACK!!!

[crewsweeper]

11 hours ago, Riles34 said:

Just penny pinching at this point! I will be bringing my own booze. I have a way....

Good luck on that.

 

These prices are ridiculous.  You can buy 24 year old single malted Macallan Scotch at Total Wine for the cost of the lowest quality rum they're selling here.🤐

[sparks1093]

Inflation sucks, that's for sure (plus they are probably trying to encourage folks not to purchase in the first place). I'll have to ask DW if she can make do with carried on wine and beer from Funshops. 

[cruisingguy007]

56 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Inflation sucks, that's for sure (plus they are probably trying to encourage folks not to purchase in the first place). I'll have to ask DW if she can make do with carried on wine and beer from Funshops. 

 

Can't really blame inflation for this, alcohol has been one of the items that has not really went up in price, sure some items have been raised $1 or even less, but the majority of stuff is the same prices as it's always been. This is just a flat out money grab. Carnival must have hired some disney consultants for the price schemes lol. They sure are out of touch with the base core passanger if they think folks are going to pony up at these prices. $90 for a $10 (or $12.50 for a liter) bottle of bacardi was hard to swallow already, $135 is nuts. It also seems they tacked on a bit to the delivery fees. After the inflated prices, delivery fees and taxes the prices are sky high. 

 

They may be trying to discourage folks from purchasing it but the same folks who will balk at these prices will also balk at $600 for cheers for a week cruise and $15 individual drinks as well. All this money grabbing is going to backfire. Consumption brings money, they should be running more specials/promotions (on board at least) instead of pricing folks out, encouraging folks to opt out entirely, and/or discouraging spend. Some cruise markets might be used to high prices/taxes/government stores etc, but others arn't. This is a disneyfication of Carnival. 

 

[Riles34]

4 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Can't really blame inflation for this, alcohol has been one of the items that has not really went up in price, sure some items have been raised $1 or even less, but the majority of stuff is the same prices as it's always been. This is just a flat out money grab. Carnival must have hired some disney consultants for the price schemes lol. They sure are out of touch with the base core passanger if they think folks are going to pony up at these prices. $90 for a $10 (or $12.50 for a liter) bottle of bacardi was hard to swallow already, $135 is nuts. It also seems they tacked on a bit to the delivery fees. After the inflated prices, delivery fees and taxes the prices are sky high. 

 

They may be trying to discourage folks from purchasing it but the same folks who will balk at these prices will also balk at $600 for cheers for a week cruise and $15 individual drinks as well. All this money grabbing is going to backfire. Consumption brings money, they should be running more specials/promotions (on board at least) instead of pricing folks out, encouraging folks to opt out entirely, and/or discouraging spend. Some cruise markets might be used to high prices/taxes/government stores etc, but others arn't. This is a disneyfication of Carnival. 

 

I 100% agree with the Disneyfication! Cheers is $988 or so for my wife and I which we will not drink enough to make it worth it. I guess we will just have a drink here and there. I won't be surprised when they take away bringing anything on. And drinks will go up 20% in the next 6 months. If they go slow, people will forget about the changes and focus on the current one. 

[cruisingguy007]

3 minutes ago, Riles34 said:

I 100% agree with the Disneyfication! Cheers is $988 or so for my wife and I which we will not drink enough to make it worth it. I guess we will just have a drink here and there. I won't be surprised when they take away bringing anything on. And drinks will go up 20% in the next 6 months. If they go slow, people will forget about the changes and focus on the current one. 

 

More like $1200 ($990 + additional tips), I budget for $600 per realistically . Makes you wonder if the whole "taking it away & brining it back" just wasn't a ruse to attempt to soften the blow of these jacked up prices? I suspect it may have been, wouldn't surprise me. They've done things like this before and tried to spin it as a "customer demand" type spin. If they are aiming for cheers or nothing, they will succeed, just not how intended.  

[Riles34]

1 minute ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

More like $1200 ($990 + additional tips), I budget for $600 per realistically . Makes you wonder if the whole "taking it away & brining it back" just wasn't a ruse to attempt to soften the blow of these jacked up prices? I suspect it may have been, wouldn't surprise me. They've done things like this before and tried to spin it as a "customer demand" type spin. If they are aiming for cheers or nothing, they will succeed, just not how intended.  

Great point! Forgot about the gratuity. It is just insane to think about! I paid $1600 for 4 of us on the Celebration in an extended balcony coming up in February. I do like how MSC offers their reservations. Room is one price or upgrade for a couple hundred dollars for free wifi and drinks. I would consider that! We shall see how things pan out but it will just continue I am sure. 

[sparks1093]

23 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Can't really blame inflation for this, alcohol has been one of the items that has not really went up in price, sure some items have been raised $1 or even less, but the majority of stuff is the same prices as it's always been. This is just a flat out money grab. Carnival must have hired some disney consultants for the price schemes lol. They sure are out of touch with the base core passanger if they think folks are going to pony up at these prices. $90 for a $10 (or $12.50 for a liter) bottle of bacardi was hard to swallow already, $135 is nuts. It also seems they tacked on a bit to the delivery fees. After the inflated prices, delivery fees and taxes the prices are sky high. 

 

They may be trying to discourage folks from purchasing it but the same folks who will balk at these prices will also balk at $600 for cheers for a week cruise and $15 individual drinks as well. All this money grabbing is going to backfire. Consumption brings money, they should be running more specials/promotions (on board at least) instead of pricing folks out, encouraging folks to opt out entirely, and/or discouraging spend. Some cruise markets might be used to high prices/taxes/government stores etc, but others arn't. This is a disneyfication of Carnival. 

 

Could be. Only time will tell. I haven't been tracking alcohol prices but figured they were going up along with everything else and Carnival was adjusting for prior hikes and planning for future ones but if that isn't the case it isn't. We have Cheers and even at the somewhat higher prices will get our use out of it.

[sparks1093]

Just now, Riles34 said:

Great point! Forgot about the gratuity. It is just insane to think about! I paid $1600 for 4 of us on the Celebration in an extended balcony coming up in February. I do like how MSC offers their reservations. Room is one price or upgrade for a couple hundred dollars for free wifi and drinks. I would consider that! We shall see how things pan out but it will just continue I am sure. 

Princess offers the same thing, the base fare or a slightly higher price with several things included (drink pkg, wifi, etc.). And if you are paying a couple hundred dollars it certainly isn't free ("included" is the better word to use).

[cruisingguy007]

4 minutes ago, Riles34 said:

Great point! Forgot about the gratuity. It is just insane to think about! I paid $1600 for 4 of us on the Celebration in an extended balcony coming up in February. I do like how MSC offers their reservations. Room is one price or upgrade for a couple hundred dollars for free wifi and drinks. I would consider that! We shall see how things pan out but it will just continue I am sure. 

 

They bundle on Princess with Princess+ (as well as other cruise lines), they could do it on Carnival too. They need to figgure out a way to add more value to coax the spend, having various drinks, tips, wifi, dining and excursion bundling is a great way to do that. 

[cruisingguy007]

7 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Princess offers the same thing, the base fare or a slightly higher price with several things included (drink pkg, wifi, etc.). And if you are paying a couple hundred dollars it certainly isn't free ("included" is the better word to use).

 

Wow! You read my mind lol.

[sparks1093]

14 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

They bundle on Princess with Princess+ (as well as other cruise lines), they could do it on Carnival too. They need to figgure out a way to add more value to coax the spend, having various drinks, tips, wifi, dining and excursion bundling is a great way to do that. 

That's what made us look at Princess. When you factor in what they include with Princess+ versus what one pays on Carnival (if one buys all of those things, of course) then Princess works out to be about $300 more. We're willing to pay that much more to try a different line. (And I did double check with DW, we will not be paying the asking price for a bottle. She's happy using the wine we're allowed to bring on.)

Edited December 2, 2022 by sparks1093

[hard_eight]

Wow, when I posted yesterday they had Skyy Vodka for $75, Brugal Rum for $85. Now neither are on the list. I should have ordered then. Yikes. Rum runners it shall be. 

[hard_eight]

$135 for MALIBU🤣

[Theosprey247]

is Brugal Rum any good?

[hard_eight]

9 minutes ago, Theosprey247 said:

is Brugal Rum any good?

I enjoy it, had it for the first time on our 10th anniversary All Inclusive in the Dominican. Been a favorite since.

[crewsweeper]

20 minutes ago, hard_eight said:

$135 for MALIBU🤣

Well, Carnival said "we'll let you BYOB for your cabin vs drinking at our bars, but you'll pay for it.😅

[donkey33]

It’s funny because one of the solutions people liked in the thread about them taking it away was that they should just jack the price up so less people do it. Well here we are

[sparks1093]

9 hours ago, donkey33 said:

It’s funny because one of the solutions people liked in the thread about them taking it away was that they should just jack the price up so less people do it. Well here we are

Carnival does listen. 😄

[TrinaLC]

On his FB page John Heald is saying basically suck it up, you are paying approximately the same per drink as at the bar(s). 
 

But that is apples and oranges. Their bar prices are roughly comparable to land bar prices when a la carte, and lower when using Cheers.  But buying a bottle is now a gigantic mark-up plus a delivery fee that no where near approximates the cost of the service.  
 

[Joebucks]

The prices did get a bit steep for the bottles. I would have gravitated towards the Woodford. $165 + fees is indeed starting to get a bit too high.

 

We get it that you can identify how much a bottle costs in the store. Alcohol is marked up on vacations. News @ 11. Show us a bar that will give you a (1 liter bottle at that) for cheaper than these prices. A 1 liter bottle is 22 drinks worth of alcohol. 

[sparks1093]

1 hour ago, Joebucks said:

The prices did get a bit steep for the bottles. I would have gravitated towards the Woodford. $165 + fees is indeed starting to get a bit too high.

 

We get it that you can identify how much a bottle costs in the store. Alcohol is marked up on vacations. News @ 11. Show us a bar that will give you a (1 liter bottle at that) for cheaper than these prices. A 1 liter bottle is 22 drinks worth of alcohol. 

When we first started buying a bottle it was to stretch our budget. Then it became a matter of convenience so we could have nightcaps on the balcony. We could certainly afford it but it's just too steep for convenience. Since we have 5 adults in our party we'll be able to bring enough wine so that's what we'll do.

[staceyglow]

5 hours ago, TrinaLC said:

On his FB page John Heald is saying basically suck it up, you are paying approximately the same per drink as at the bar(s). 
 

But that is apples and oranges. Their bar prices are roughly comparable to land bar prices when a la carte, and lower when using Cheers.  But buying a bottle is now a gigantic mark-up plus a delivery fee that no where near approximates the cost of the service.  
 

Ever seen the prices for bottle service at a nightclub?   It's unreasonable to expect a place that sells liquor by the drink to sell you the whole bottle at the liquor store price.

 

That being said, we were regular buyers of bottled liquor from Carnival in the past, but we won't be doing it based on the current prices.  If others do, more power to them.  I am all for Carnival making money as possible off of other passengers. 🙂

[silvercrikhix]

Ridiculous. Period. 

[ray98]

Wow....they took that to the extreme.  Might as well just buy the drinks at the bar.

[ninjacat123]

I usually buy a bottle of rum and now it's at $125 before gratuity.  Make 22 drinks out of it at $5.68 per drink.  Cocktails on board go between $10.95 - 13.95 so there is savings there.  Cheers at 15 drinks for $59.95 (if you drink all 15) is $3.99.  To come out even cost-wise between Cheers and the bottle in the room, one would need to drink a little over 10 drinks a day on the Cheers program.  I didn't add in gratuity since it is a constant.  Now my head hurts from all the math and I need a cocktail😉