Drink Prices

To clarify, it US$20 and under per drink for Cheers.

Not sitting at a bar yet, so OK.

I will usually purchase a drink package for both of us on a 7-8 day cruise, or just me on a 10 day cruise.

Any longer than that, I cannot keep up (or afford) so I pay per drink. If the drink package is thrown in with the fare, though, I would not complain.

KENN...I enjoy trying to cypher that stuff too..but how many folks d'you think do to that kind of higher math? Especially ahead of time? Discussing how much one drinks was a verboten subject back in the day whilst sitting at the bar...hehehe

Carnival is one of those lines which nicks everybody in the cabin for a beverage package, you can't get by just buying one. We have looked hard at the "Princess Premier Beverage Package". With Princess, only one need to buy the package, but no sharing, exception, sharing allowed for a bottle of wine in the dining room or bar. "The Premier Beverage Package is US $59.99 per day plus 18% service charge (totaling $70.79 per day) for all itineraries except Australia." Trouble we have is that even at $70.79 for one of us it doesn't pencil. If they required us both to buy the package for over $140. per day it would be ridiculous.

The deal breakers for us are that the 25% discount on a bottle of wine is relegated to bars and the dining rooms, you do not receive this discount when ordering a bottle of wine from room service for consumption in your cabin or balcony. All your drinking using the package must be in public venues. I guess you can take the bottle of wine from the dining room to your cabin, we do that all the time but I'm not certain how that would play out if we paid for the wine using the package. You are relegated to purchase drinks with a maximum menu price of $12.00 or less. I'm told that if you order a drink that cost more you can not pay the difference, you must pay the full cost and not use your package. That really would put a crimp in my ordering an exceptional glass of wine to enhance our dining experience or when I visit the Princess Vines Bar.

We are both elites and both drink a little. We do like to drink before dinner and during sail away time in our cabin and on our balcony. I'm a vino nut and wife likes cocktails and shares my wine in the dining rooms sometimes. We get a free mini-bar setup per segment to start with as elites. On a two week cruise, if we averaged a bottle of wine a day total in the dining rooms including that brought to our cabin by room service, it would amount to about $500 (A bottle a day is high as we don't drink that much wine). Plus, if we bought two bottles of the ship's whiskey or whatever on the voyage that would be another $100.00 (Approx.). As elites we get half off of all special cocktails served throughout the cruise in the elite lounge each evening before dinner, so if we went every night, add another $150.00. That would be about a $800.00 max total booze bill. What little soda and beer we might drink we get free in the mini-bar setup and we don't do the fancy coffee bit.

A liquor package for just one of us would be $995.00. A lot of which is of no use to us, as we would have to pay full price for wine and other liquor for consumption in the cabin plus, if we had cocktails, only one would get the free one, the other would pay full price. Roughly figuring we would be about $300.00 to $400.00 ahead to not purchase the package for even one of us. For wine on the longer voyages, Princess offers wine cards, which, depending upon the number of bottles on the card, provide a decent discount and when you order bottles in the MDR you can even have them delivered to your cabin.

Either way, it becomes a factor in your cruise budget. That "everyone in the cabin rule" is something that needs to be factored in...and given ALOT of weight. That's why its important to read the actual "rules" from the line itself. I've noticed folks drinking more than they ever would in an attempt to "get their moneys worth"..its easy to spot it when you drink at the "adults only" section of the ship. People who have been actually sitting at or very near the bar all week suddenly stop and lay around drinking soda or ice tea. they're "alcoholed out", to coin a phrase. Not to mention we've been BSing all week..I usually chill out for the day before disembarkation. Nobody cares, you won't see them again anyway.

Generally, if you drink 6 or more alcoholic beverages a day, you will break even.

The package also includes bottled water, sodas and coffee, but I am not sure about the break even point on those.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1106/~/cheers%21-beverage-program

Hope this link works. if it doesn't, merely google cheers!beverage program ..its got the prices and a chart to hep determine if its worth it to you. bear in mind if one person in the cabin buys it, all must.

I searched drink prices in the photo section here on Cruiseline and found a few snapshots of drink menus. You can decide for yourself if it cost effective. Hope this helps: https://cruiseline.com/search?qtype[]=pic&keyword=Cost%20of%20drinks%20on%20Carnival