Carnival Cruise Line has a reputation for being a party-heavy cruise line. That reputation is well earned in a positive way, although sometimes things can get a bit ugly.
It's not fair to paint Carnival passengers as drunks pounding their drinks and starting fights. Incidents happen, and when they do the fight videos tend to go viral. but the vast majority of cruises feature people simply indulging a bit and having fun on what Carnival has dubbed its "Fun Ships."
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Carnival, unlike Royal Caribbean, MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, limits its passengers to 15 alcoholic drinks per day. That holds whether you buy the Cheers drink package or you purchase alcohol a la carte. Once you have purchased your 15th alcoholic drink, you're shut off until the next day.
Many passengers who buy the Cheers package think the 15-drink limit is unfair because the price of 15 beers is way different from that of 15 cocktails. Still, the cruise line has pushed back on any attempts passengers have made to eliminate the limit.
Carnival also reserves the right to shut off a passenger at any time. How that works is something the company has rarely talked about, but Carnival Chief Communications Officer Chris Chiames recently outlined some insider info on the cruise line's alcohol and passenger policies.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival has its eyes on you
Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald reached out to Chiames for some clarification around its alcohol consumption and intoxication policies.
“Some of John’s readers seem fixated on how we monitor alcohol consumption and whether the Cheers! package treats guests differently than guests who do not purchase the Cheers! package," Chiames wrote.
The communications executive seemed a little annoyed at how people might think that way.
"I’m going to post this once, and only once, and this is all I will have to say about this," Chiames added. "We monitor the alcohol consumption of all guests. The actual consumption is combined with other monitoring tools where servers, bartenders and security are trained to look for behavioral signals that a guest has reached his/her limit of safe consumption."
Chiames also made clear that the cruise line knows the tricks of the people trying to beat the system.
"Not all 'consumption' is equal," he wrote. "Guests who purchase alcohol ala carte have options like buying a bucket of beers for the table. Or a bottle of wine that some guests may share, and another guest may consume entirely by themselves. There are also shared cocktails."
The cruise line knows how to keep an eye on its passengers to keep them safe.
"That’s why we use a combination of factors to monitor consumption," he wrote. "Now some guests might be creative and figure out ways to drink and never or rarely interact with a server or bartender. That’s why the security team is also part of this plan. If you ever have a concern about someone’s alcohol consumption, please quietly point that out to a member of the security team."
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Carnival passengers share their drink-limit thoughts
Most of the responses to Heald's post were personal experiences, not really an answer to what Chiames wrote.
"I always get the cheers package, hit my 15 drinks without getting smashed," wrote Stephanie Carter. "I scatter my drinks breakfast, lunch, dinner, casino, and nightclub. I've seen people who hit their drink maximum by noon, those are the ignorant ones, too much too fast. I don't hit everyday the whole cruise but sometimes I do, everyone's tolerance level is different."
Some passengers clearly trust Carnival's security team.
"I get the Cheers package, as do my travel companions," posted Rachel Tatro. "Sometimes the magic 15 limit is hit, rarely. I trust the bartenders, servers and security to monitor and deal with the alcohol consumption and resulting behaviors of others, and mine (if I get obnoxious)."
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One post said that security does not always get things right.
"I remember being ‘cut off’ in the casino one time because me and my sister-in-law (plus a few other patrons nearby) were having entirely too much fun in the casino…laughing, rubbing our machines, hooting and hollering for each other, celebrating the small wins (and some bigger ones) as if we’d won the jackpots…and they thought we’d had too many, but we definitely were not even close to drunk or tipsy for that matter - we are just always like that in the casinos," wrote Belinda YG.
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