Most cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, offer unlimited beverage packages that include all the alcohol you can safely consume.
You will get slowed down or shut off if you are visibly intoxicated or slurring your words, but if you have the tolerance, they will keep serving you.
That's not to say that Royal Caribbean, its sister company Celebrity Cruises, and lines including Norwegian and MSC Cruises, want to get you drunk. They just don't want to set a limit on something that's unique to each individual.
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Someone might try to fight a bartender after two glasses of wine, while another passenger can line up tequila shots all day long without ever seeming all that drunk. Bartenders and security will slow people down to make sure they're not getting too drunk before the effects hit.
They will also try subtle tactics like leaving the passenger a bottle of water or just finding different people to serve. Every cruise line wants to keep its passengers safe and coherent, but of the major cruise lines, only Carnival (CCL) places a daily limit on alcoholic beverages served to passengers.
Whether you buy the Cheers unlimited beverage package or are paying a la carte, Carnival will let you consume only 15 alcoholic beverages in a day. That's a hard limit and there's no way to get around it.
Some passengers are angry about the rule, according to the cruise line's brand ambassador, John Heald.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival asks about its drink limit
By most standards, 15 drinks in a single day is a lot, but some Carnival cruisers see the limit as motivated by profit, not safety. Someone who gets up early and drinks beer, mimosas and hard seltzers could, in theory, start at 7 a.m., have one drink an hour, and get shut off for the day at 10 p.m. without being overly inebriated.
That may not be the healthiest of ways to approach your day, but some Carnival passengers say their alcoholic-beverage intake should not be subject to a cap.
"Threat and demand for unlimited alcohol in a 24 hour period? Thank you 'J' but surely 15 alcoholic drinks in a 24-hour period is enough," Heald shared on his Facebook page,
He followed that by asking his followers how they felt about the rule.
"Is it for you? Please answer yes or no."
The responses, of which there have been over 2,100, mostly did not stick to a simple yes or no format.
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Carnival passengers react to drink limit question
Some of the posters thought the tone of "J" was not appropriate.
"If you're threatening people BEFORE drinking, you're the reason there's a limit at all," wrote Carl Choinere.
A few of the respondents saw both sides of the issue.
"Honestly, there are days that I think I could go over the 15, especially since I ordered some drinks that I really didn’t care for at all. But, we saw some really sloppy drunks and a holes on our last cruise, and they definitely didn’t need anymore drinks, so that makes me understand why there is a limit," posted Tiffany Eckley. "We saw a lady fall multiple times on our last full day, and the next day we saw her fall out of her chair at the airport! She definitely didn’t need more."
Some passengers said that the limit actually made them drink more.
"Most times 15 is enough, but on a few occasions I run out. On another cruise line that has unlimited drinks I tend to drink less because I don’t have the goal of 15 set by Carnival. It is strange but true," shared Max Garcia.
That was echoed by Giuseppe Lanotte.
"By having a limit of 15 drinks, it’s kinda like people are trying to reach 15 as a goal, but having it just unlimited, maybe people won’t try as hard to reach? Idk just my opinion, 5-6 drinks is good enough for me," he added.
There are, however, people who agree with "J," but perhaps not how he asked the question.
"Definitely not enough! Should be unlimited like every other cruise line," wrote Stephen Fudge.
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"Sad thing here is some folks can't handle their alcohol and have to have someone tell them they've had enough and cut them off, which in return causes the folks that has a higher tolerance level to be cut off as well. We are all different and tolerate alcohol differently," Ronnie Gunter added.
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