For many people, a cruise means a chance to behave in ways they never would when not on vacation.
Most people, for example, don't eat full meals in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That, however, is not uncommon on a cruise nor is topping off your five-course dinner with a late-night pizza.
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Going on a cruise, for many people, also means staying up much later than they ever would on land, spending an unhealthy amount of time in the sun, and perhaps some excessive drinking. Royal Caribbean (RCL) -), Celebrity, Norwegian Cruise Line, and MSC all offer unlimited alcoholic beverage packages,
Passengers pay a somewhat hefty price per day to consume all the alcohol they want. The only limit any of these four cruise lines place on how many adult beverages someone can drink is how they hold their booze.
If you can drink whiskey shots all day and never slur your words or act openly inebriated, then unlimited truly means unlimited. (And, if you can't, all four cruise lines will politely offer you water, coffee, or a soda as a way to sober you up, and escort you back to your room if you don't take the message).
Carnival Cruise Line's (CCL) -) Cheers Beverage Package offers unlimited non-alcoholic beverages. You can drink 30 specialty coffees and 12 milkshakes washed down by endless freshly squeezed orange juice, but when it comes to alcohol, you are capped at 15 drinks.
Once you have ordered 15 alcoholic beverages, it's not just that they are no longer covered by your Cheers package. You actually are not allowed to order anymore. Carnival has a hard limit of 15 adult beverages per day for its passengers.
That's something that has been regularly criticized by passengers who believe that unlimited should truly mean "all they can drink." Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald recently addressed the topic on his Facebook page.
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Carnival Cruise Line
Will Carnival change its 15-drink limit?
Heald addressed the beverage policy limits in response to a message he received.
"Message: 15 drinks in 24 hours is pitiful John. 15 drinks is easy to hit for most of us. Spiked coffee, Mimosa, and a Bloody Mary and you are already at 3 by 10 a.m. 2-3 beers at lunch, some after lunch frozen drinks on the deck and that's already 8 by 2-3 p.m. This is America. It should be unlimited or at least raised to 20 drinks," D wrote.
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That's generally the argument people make when they argue against Carnival's policy — that spaced-out drinking of lower-alcohol beverages does not lead to excessive intoxication. That's an argument that drinkers on rival cruise lines can actually help customers make.
Heald both shut down any possibility of a change and opened up his feed for comments.
"We had someone who had 15 drinks go to dinner in the dining room on the Carnival Celebration. He tied all of his spaghetti together. Ended up skipping dinner," he wrote. "OK, seriously, we are not going to be raising the limit but I have to ask, is 15 enough for you? Could you manage 15 drinks in 24 hours?" he posted.
That question led to 1,800 comments.
Carnival cruisers have beverage plan ideas
Many of the comments called for different tiers of the beverage package. Both MSC and Celebrity offer different unlimited plans, but the tiers are based on the price of the drink, not have many you can have.
Carnival cruisers seem to want to pay for different amounts of daily alcoholic drinks.
"I like the idea of tiered packages, I could never hit 15 but I have some close friends that definitely could hit the 20 when you include wine, etc.," Veromica Welcher posted.
Many posters also called for a new beverage package level that includes everything but alcohol. (Royal Caribbean offers that, but Carnival does not.)
"I’m praying for the days when Carnival does a tier package for Cheers. I don’t drink alcohol but, I'll drink all the coffee and soda," Alexandra Skipper shared.
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Deborah Bissett Davis's comment fell in the middle.
"I never came close to my 15 but my husband did. It was plenty for both of us but I can see where they get used up quickly if starting in the morning," she wrote.
