The cruise industry has been slowly making its way back from the pandemic, and for Carnival that means raising some key price points.
Cruise lines -- at least Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) and Royal Caribbean (RCL) -- sort of intentionally obscure the price of your cruise. The advertised base fares do not really include everything a passenger needs.
Some items are not negotiable. You have to pay taxes and port fees, so arguably those should be included in the base fares. They aren’t.
Other items are a little murkier. Mandatory gratuities, for instance, aren’t entirely mandatory. You’re supposed to pay these built-in tips for the crew (basically your room attendant and the waitstaff), but you can get them removed if your service is bad.
Still other fees are truly optional, but some consider one item to be essential to the enjoyment of a cruise: the Cheers unlimited drink package. With that package, adults aged 21 and over get unlimited -- actually, a maximum 15 per day -- alcoholic beverages. They also get all the water, specialty coffee, juices, milkshakes, and any other nonalcoholic drinks served onboard (there can be exceptions) that they want in unlimited quantities.
You don’t need a Cheers package to enjoy a cruise, and drinks can be purchased individually if you'd rather do that. Still, many passengers consider a drinks package essential. For those people (as well as anyone else considering the Cheers package), the price has gone up, as have the prices of a variety of onboard extra-fee specialty restaurants, and gratuities.
Image source:Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Raises Key Prices
Carnival handles its alcoholic-beverage package differently from Royal Caribbean. First, it actually does offer unlimited adult beverages. Bartenders can cut off customers if they are visibly intoxicated, but they don’t otherwise limit what anyone drinks.
In addition, Royal Caribbean uses flexible pricing. What you pay for the package varies based on a number of factors including the length of your sailing, the ship you sail on, and how many other passengers buy drink packages.
That’s not how Carnival sells Cheers. It uses a fixed price for its all-inclusive drink package. It varies only based on whether you buy it onboard or before you sail.
Carnival now charges the same price for its Cheers package no matter how long your cruise is. It used to offer discounts for longer cruises. Now, it will charge $59.95 per person, per day for packages booked pre-cruise, while the onboard price will be $64.95 per person. Passengers also pay an 18% gratuity. That’s an increase of $8 per day on the package over previous prices.
Specialty restaurants are also seeing prices rise, Cruisehive reported. These include:
- Steakhouse Fahrenheit 555 increasing from $38 to $42 per person
- Steakhouse Selections in main dining rooms increasing from $20 to $23
- Cucina del Capitano increasing from $15 to $18 per person
- Bonsai Teppanyaki increasing from $32 to $35 per person
- JiJi’s Asian Kitchen increasing from $15 to $18 per person
- Rudi’s Seagrill is increasing from $38 to $42 for adults and $12 to $13 for kids
- Green Eggs and Ham event breakfast increasing from $6 to $7
- Chef’s Table premium dining experience increasing from $80 to $99 per person
“Internet prices will also go up; the Social plan will increase to $8.50 per day when pre-purchased, increasing 25%. The Value plan rises to $11.05 when pre-purchased, an increase of 8%. The Premium plan, priced at $13.60 per day, is not anticipated to increase,” the website reported.
Customers had the option to lock in the old prices if they purchased before the end of April. That was extended to midnight on May 1 due to technical difficulties on the Carnival website,
Carnival Also Raises Gratuities
While the above fees are all optional, Carnival has also raised its daily gratuities, which are sort of mandatory. These are tips for crewmembers -- mostly your room attendant and the waitstaff -- that get added to your bill per person. You can technically adjust these down or ask for them to be removed, but they are added to all passenger bills.
Carnival shared the new rates with passengers:
Effective with all cruises departing on or after May 1, 2022, we are making adjustments to our recommended onboard gratuity guidelines, as follows:
- Standard staterooms: $14.50, per person, per day
- Suites: $16.50, per person, per day
These amounts are automatically added to your onboard Sail & Sign account as a convenience. However, while on board, you are free to adjust gratuities at your discretion. No adjustments will be made after the cruise.
Passengers can adjust their gratuity rates while cruising by going to guest services. These are relatively modest increases: Carnival previously charged $13.99 per person per day for standard staterooms and $15.99 per person per day for suites.
Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCLH) raised its gratuity prices earlier this year. Royal Caribbean has not followed and has not suggested that it will.
