Possible New Drink Promo in the Future?

Saw this post and hope it happens:

Carnival Cruise Line is reviewing it's current beverage program after its rival companies are offering free drinks and other incentive programs to lure passengers on their ships, according to inside sources.

However, this doesn't mean Carnival will begin handing out free ultimate beverages to all guests once their onboard. What most people don't realize that these promotional "free drinks" aren't usually free at all. The costs are hidden somewhere in the invoice.

Carnival offers the CHEERS! Beverage Program as an all-inclusive drink program that allows guests 21 years or older to pay a flat daily rate on all their cruises. The program looks good, similar to most other cruise lines, but the cost is $49.95 USD per person, per day plus 15 percent gratuity. So, unless you drink more than $50 plus 15 percent gratuity, it might not be worth paying the for the whole program.

But then many cruisers mention that the Norwegian Cruise Line offers unlimited beverages that keep passengers consuming all the free drinks they want. Well, it's free, but not free. Guests can select the free package as part of their price for the trip. And, you have to book a balcony room or better.

Norwegian offers the Free Ultimate Beverage, and it's promoted as "Drink for free on your cruise." But once you select the package, about $200 is automatically added to the total price of your trip as a "CHOICE PROMO SRVC CHRG." Then you have the gratuities. The program is probably one of the best marketing campaigns we've seen where people feel good about drinking for free on a cruise, although the costs are hidden.

Also, Norwegian offers a special sea rate for those who don't select the free packages, and that rate is approximately $500 cheaper in one example when comparing the balcony rooms, with or without the package. So, are cruise lines really offering free drinks?

Carnival wants to offer free drinks because customers have responded quite well to similar programs, as long as their called "free" and unlimited. Cruise passengers feel appreciated when they think they're getting something for free. It also brands the cruise line's image with magical powers because guests keep talking about the drinks. Yes, you've heard us talk about it too!

Our guess is that Carnival will offer a similar beverage program by marketing it as a free drink package, but don't think it's really for free. Somewhere in the itemized statement will surely include a few costs.

I don't know about this, but I will say,it was really nice when they had the Welcome Aboard Party for all guests with free drinks, and the Captains party on formal night, with free drinks.

OH, and another thing I liked was on the first night of the cruise, at least in the casino, they had a Rum Swizzle party... free Rum Swizzles! Very nice touch...

And i would love for them to add the Hurricane glasses back... the fun ones like they used to have...

just my opinion on the drink thingy:D

Would be nice if they did but the writer of this article should get their facts straight.

1. You don't have to get a balcony to get the UBP on NCL. We are in an inside and have the UBP as a promo.

2. They do charge a "CHOICE PROMO SRVC CHRG."which is about $90pp but that is the gratuities on the beverage package. There is NO $200 charge PLUS another charge of gratuities.:rolleyes: Carnival charges 15% on their price for gratuities.

3. Sometimes you can find the cruises with NCL cheaper if you do not take the package, but it is not $500 cheaper. The most I have seen is around $100 cheaper.

We booked a cruise with NCL with the free drink package, and it was totally free. When we booked gratuities on the drink packages were included and our 3rd and 4th passengers got the soda package free as well. We had a balcony room for 4 for a 7 day cruise on the Breakaway with free drinks for $2,200. Our first cruise on the Pride was $500 more than that without Cheers (though that cruise was during the brief time they dropped the Cheers price to $35/day so we did buy it).

Well I just booked Princess free drink promo. I always wanted to sail from SF and it was 10 days :D. So the free drink promo cinched the deal for me. I canceled my Vista cruise to book this one.

I don't see Carnival doing this, at least not without a lot of fine print.

As long as people are saying Cheers is completely worth the price (2 people 7 days is about $800 with grats?) then why would they give it away for even half that?

If they increased the fare and limited price guarantees, or something like that, then maybe...but if it doesn't make economical sense to Carnival it is not going to happen. :)

When we sail on Carnival, we like to purchase a bottle of liquor for our cabin for about $90, carry on our 12 pack of soda and a bottle of wine each. We pack our special drink cups. That way we have drinks in our cabin when we want them and we can carry them around the ship as well. We'll still buy a drink from the bar once in a while but it really save us $ on the beverage portion of our S&S account. So much cheaper that then the Cheers package. :D

I sailed MSC in the fall and they had better "drink options" in the Med than Carnival. If you didn't want a package (bc they state it's people dining together, not in the same cabin) you didn't have to. Prices were lower than Carnival's drinks overall AND they often offered pretty decent beer/draft/drink specials less than Carnival. I liked the idea of their beer/wine package and then the everything package. However, they also had a pretty decent equiv $20 per day wine/beer at dining room eating time packages.

We booked Princess yesterday for seven days in a Mini Suite with the Sip and Sail promo. The total fare on Princess was only $350 more than what we have paid for our upcoming Carnival cruise in an OS suite without Cheers. Cheers for six days of the seven-day cruise out of Galveston is $700, so I'm saving $350 on Princess if I am a passenger who prepays for Cheers.

Norwegian seems to change the standards and the other cruise lines seem to follow sooner or later. The free drink package has been a big impact on some of the cruises we have chosen. Similar ships, similar itinerary, similar cost to get to ship... I'm going to chose NCL.

At the time I was looking in February, I compared NCL Epic & Carnival Magic. Same port, date (thanksgiving) & balconies. NCL was $50 more pp for the entire seven day cruise. But, I'm saving $100.00 (my wife & I with Cheers, not including gratuity) a day with that ultimate beverage package, plus four (it's three now) free specialty dining restaurants.

When we booked we were only charged the gratuities for the Epic free drink package is all.

I'd say it's free just paying grats.

Would be nice if they did but the writer of this article should get their facts straight.

 

1. You don't have to get a balcony to get the UBP on NCL. We are in an inside and have the UBP as a promo.

 

2. They do charge a "CHOICE PROMO SRVC CHRG."which is about $90pp but that is the gratuities on the beverage package. There is NO $200 charge PLUS another charge of gratuities.:rolleyes: Carnival charges 15% on their price for gratuities.

 

3. Sometimes you can find the cruises with NCL cheaper if you do not take the package, but it is not $500 cheaper. The most I have seen is around $100 cheaper.

And would be even nicer if the writer of this article could get their grammar straight:

Carnival wants to offer free drinks because customers have responded quite well to similar programs, as long as their called "free" and unlimited.

:rolleyes:

Would be nice if they did but the writer of this article should get their facts straight.

 

1. You don't have to get a balcony to get the UBP on NCL. We are in an inside and have the UBP as a promo.

 

2. They do charge a "CHOICE PROMO SRVC CHRG."which is about $90pp but that is the gratuities on the beverage package. There is NO $200 charge PLUS another charge of gratuities.:rolleyes: Carnival charges 15% on their price for gratuities.

 

3. Sometimes you can find the cruises with NCL cheaper if you do not take the package, but it is not $500 cheaper. The most I have seen is around $100 cheaper.

Agreed. This past April we decided to slip a budget cruise in since we already have a Vista 8 nighter on the books for January. We did a 7 night NCL, Unlimited Beverages (which was truly unlimited, no specified number per day) with an inside cabin. We had the service charge (gratuities) totalling $149.00. It was a complete bargain. Our inside cabin on deck 12 was $350 pp.

We won't cancel our Vista cruise, but we won't be purchasing the bev package either. For an 8 night cruise with grats it would be around $900. That's more than we paid for our entire cruise in April.

This article was written based on a rumor which was edited recently saying that carnival isn't considering this ☹️

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I'm sailing on the Sky next month.

I'll be six in by 10 AM.

This article was written based on a rumor which was edited recently saying that carnival isn't considering this ☹️

 

 

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Where did the article even come from?:confused:

I hope Carnival is considering this!

I wish Carnival would consider a Cheers Light program for us lightweight drinkers - I would pay 1/2 price of Cheers for 1/2 number of max drinks...makes more sense for us!

Well a co worker is cruising in a few weeks on carnival...got a great price for 2 people balcony 6th deck with cheers is 2200.... Score!!

Where did the article even come from?:confused:

It was on another cruise site

I found the original article here

http://www.cruiserschoice.com/news/carnival-cruise-line-pondering-free-drinks-on-ships-r1196/

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I'm just mad that they don't offer the Cheers package on charter sailings Not sure /why/, other lines do, but Carnival doesn't. Very bummed for my upcoming cruises.

I just don't like that everyone 21 and older have to purchase it that are in the same cabin

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I/we don't need a 15 drink limit package. I'd like to see a smaller package because we need to leave a little room for the great food. For us a 5-7 drink per day pkg would be perfect.

I wish Carnival would consider a Cheers Light program for us lightweight drinkers - I would pay 1/2 price of Cheers for 1/2 number of max drinks...makes more sense for us!

I'll love this idea!!!