Drink prices vs pakage deal if not big drinkers

1st time cruisers leaving in October for a 4 day trip to Bahamas. Trying to figure it out if purchasing the package would be cheaper than buying drinks. Don't know what drinks run on the Carnival Victory. We don't drink a lot so any advise would be nice.

Thanks,

Lots of good info on this thread,but if you don't drink much, I would skip Cheers. Enjoy your first cruise! :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2368521

Thanks cruisin*tigger , your link helped a lot.

We just got off the Victory Sunday and did the cheers program. It is $50 a day so you would have to drink 7-8 beers or 5-6 high end drinks to break even. It also includes bottled water, soda (I think), and specialty coffees at the coffee bar. We got our money's worth but I couldn't do it for a longer 7 day cruise. I'm glad we tried it though.

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Here you go, the Carnival Bar Menu! You can see what you will pay for alcoholic drinks! ;)

http://www.zydecocruiser.net/Carnival-Bar-Menu/CarnivalCruiseBarMenu.htm

thanks, great info..

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

We also don't drink a lot and did a little math on our own. Definitely the drink packages are not for us. We would lose money on the deal.

We are big partiers on vacation but it was tough for us to get our money's worth out of the package.

Package was not for us either, just went with what the ship offered for free. We couldn't drink enough to make it worth it either!

Happy Planning:D

It all comes down to what, and how many of them you drink.

Some think it's great value, others think it's a waste and in all honest without knowing exactly what you would buy every day without the package no one can tell you.

I love it, I don't want to have to think "will I won't I, should I leave it for a while to save a dollar or two".

I also use it as a chance to try something different, does that mean sometimes a drink goes to waste? yep sure does.

As above, it depends on how much and what you plan on drinking. With my normal drinks anything over 4 a day puts me in the ballpark. I never worry about 'breaking even', as long as what I drink puts me close it is worth it to not have to worry about a bar tab and be free to order what I want when I want.

If you're not big drinkers but enjoy soda pop you might be more interested in Carnival's soda package. You'll break even if you drink more than 3 glasses of pop a day.

When doing your math deciding if any beverage plans offered are a fair value to you for the way you drink consider that you are on vacation and will likely drink more than you would at home.

Example: Perhaps you might enjoy a Mamossa or Bloody Mary at breakfast? How about a beer or maybe a glass of wine while eating lunch? There is a good chance that you'll have one or two drinks in conversation with new friends before dinner and then during your dinner order a glass of wine or a beer as you dine. Before retiring for the night you might wrap up your day by having a drink or two in one of the many ships bars after watching a show or dancing. Add at least two more drinks celebrating your huge win in the casino, ha ha.

The above consumption example represents five drinks per day for a single traveler. That number is easy to increase with little or no risk of becoming 'over served'. At an average of $6.00 per drink (which is pretty price conservative) plus the automatically added gratuity of 18% (you will be spending $7.08 for each $6.00 drink) your alcohol beverage bill will cost you $35.40 a day and likely more.

Multiply that figure by seven and you've spent $247.80 for alcohol on your seven day cruise. There's a good chance that you will be adding the cost of a few sodas, specialty coffees or bottled waters to your tab over the week so that $247.80 number represents a price floor. Expect to spend more.

To frost your cake wait until the end of the cruise bill is slid under your cabin door. Like a chorus, you'll hear guests exclaim, "I drank that much, man, I should have checked into that beverage plan thingy a bit more than I did". Keep in mind that the stress of trying to keep tabs of what you've imbibed and sorting through all your drink receipts during your at sea vacation doesn't exist if you've bought a beverage plan. Not all surprises are good.

While a package might make sense on a sea day - it could be tough to "use it up" on one re more days spent ashore at ports.

A beverage or 'three' topside after a full days tour while departing port before dinner, a few glasses of wine with dinner followed by 'chewing the fat' with other passengers in one of the ships bars after dinner can quickly get a well seasoned traveler back on track to "using it up".

As an ex Navy man you must have played catch up on shore leave a few times (ha!). Nothing to it. I'm an ex Ground Pounder and believe me, I never had trouble catching up.