When Carnival Cruise Line raised the price of its Cheers beverage package earlier this month, many passengers were outraged.
One reason was that the cruise line did not provide any advance notice of the higher cost.
With prev, the cruise line had warned passengers who had booked cruises that an increase was coming. This time, not only did the cruise line give no warning but some passengers had held off buying the package, hoping for a holiday sale.
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Here's just a small sampling of the outrage directed at Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald about the increase.
"Please address the insane increase on Cheers with no warning and right before Christmas," wrote Marsha Smith. "This is the second increase in a year. And the last one we were given a heads up if already booked. This time, we were blindsided during the holidays. And here I was hoping for a Black Friday or Travel Tuesday deal for it and BAM!"
Andrea Linda was also upset.
"I'm sorry to add to the fuss, but I'm also really upset Carnival raised the Cheers package cost without warning," she posted. "I have two cruises booked. I just spent over a thousand dollars on shore excursions, and I was about to purchase Cheers.
"I know y'all don't have to warn us, but it just wasn't a nice surprise. We know you didn't do it, but it was really badly done. They should have let people with booked cruises have a chance to buy it before the raise in price. That would have been decent."
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Heald was diplomatic in his response.
"I do understand your disappointment that I did not advise you of the increase in some of the services that we are offering such as the Cheers program. I have scheduled comments with my colleagues and The Beards," he posted.
"We’re proud of the quality and value a Carnival cruise vacation provides our guests. Recent nominal price adjustments to help cover higher costs and our investments in on-board offerings allow us to continue providing the high-quality experiences our guests know and love."
("The Beards" is Heald's term for Carnival's top management.)
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Carnival says price is not value
The Cheers beverage package includes 15 alcoholic beverages and unlimited water, soda, juice, specialty coffee and milkshakes each day. Because of the alcohol cap, which rival cruise lines don't have, many people put an asterisk next to the word "unlimited."
Before the Dec. 5 increase the cruise line offered Cheers at $70.74 a 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.
Heald repeated many times that if people drank only alcohol, the new higher price with advance purchase worked out to $5.50 per drink.
Determining value, however, depends upon what you drink.
Here is what Carnival charges for an individual drink on its ships.
- Beer: starting at $6.50 (mostly 16 ounces)
- Wine by the glass: starting at $9.50
- Mixed Drinks: $7.50 - $20
- Specialty Cocktails: starting at $10.50 (excluding souvenir glassware and premium selections)
- Soft Drinks: $2.75
- Specialty Coffees: $2.50 - $4.25
- Energy Drinks: $4.95
- Water (San Benedetto bottled water and Coconut Water): $1.50 - $5
If you assume the average mixed drink is $14, then you exceed the cost of the Cheers package when you consume six drinks in one day. That does not count any water, soda or specialty coffee you may buy.
For beer drinkers, let's assume $8 as the average price per beer. If that's the case, you get close to the $82.54 daily cost of the package after 10 beers.
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Most passengers know what they like to drink, and the question on Cheers isn't "How much does it cost?" but "Will I drink enough to make buying the package a deal compared to what I would spend without buying it?"
There's also the peace of mind of not having to worry about a rolling bill. That likely makes the package worth buying for anyone who figures to come close to achieving its value each day.
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