Carnival Cruise Line surprised passengers on Dec, 5 when it raised the price for its Cheers Beverage Package.
The cruise line previously offered Cheers at $70.74 per night for cruises six nights or longer and $82.54 per night for trips five nights or less. If you waited until you were on board to purchase, the price rose to $76.64 per night on the longer cruises and $88.54 per night for the shorter ones.
Related: Carnival Cruise raises beverage package price with no warning
All packages now include taxes and an 18% gratuity in the advertised prices.
Carnival has dropped the lower pricing for longer cruises and now only offers the $82.54 pre-cruise and the $88.54 onboard price.
The move was not expected and the cruise line handled it differently than previous increases. In many cases, when a cruise line raises a key price it will give people who have already booked a cruise a grace period where they can book the item at the old price.
That did not happen here and many people are up in arms about it.
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald recently tried to defuse the situation on his popular Facebook page.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival passengers mad over lack of warning
Many Carnival cruisers who posted Heald’s page seemed more mad about how the cruise line announced the price increase than the actual increase itself.
“When it comes to the Cheers increase, I think what people are most upset about is the fact that there was no announcement when Carnival usually announces their increases. The last time cheers was increased, Carnival not only announced it, but gave people the opportunity to pre-purchase it ahead of Carnival’s scheduled date of the increase, so they can lock in the current rate," posted Alex Suero.
He, however, did not seem too bothered by the price going up.
"I still think it’s definitely worth the money for those who take advantage of it, but an announcement, like it’s been done in the past, would have been greatly appreciated by many of your guests," he added.
Others were not as kind to the cruise line.
"Yes, it definitely left a very bad taste for Carnival Cruise Line in my mouth. I am trying to get past feeling very deceived by them. We are locked into our cruise and cannot get our money back so we will go but probably will never sail on them again. Not the fact that they raised the price but by doing it without any kind of notice. 12 dollars a day is a lot of money and adds up when you have three or four adults in a cabin," posted Laurie Eller.
Heald defended the cruise line and pushed back on her claims.
"Thank you, we didn’t deceive you. I do understand that you would’ve liked to have known ahead of time, but I don’t think it’s deception. But I absolutely understand your point and so now you have to decide whether the program is still value for money for you," Heald wrote.
He also pointed out that the program was still a very good value and his math only assumes the person gets 15 alcoholic drinks and nothing else.
"It works out at $5.55 per drink, which is still a great deal considering you have unlimited soda and coffee and milkshakes, etc. Anyway, I hope to see you very soon and I will always be here if you need anything at all," he added.
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Julianne Ferguson did not agree with that logic at all.
"It is deceitful since it has ALWAYS been announced and gave passengers the ability to purchase right away or wait for the increase. If that was not the norm and it always just increased when you felt like it, nobody would be half as mad as we are now! Especially right before Christmas when I had a budget for a drink package that I now need to add another $200 to it," she shared.
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