Cruise lines usually do a good job communicating changes to passengers.
Sometimes there’s not much time to communicate, such as when weather forces a change of port. In such cases the cruise line will make an announcement and share a printed explanation in your cabin.
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When a change is made that’s not forced by weather, but rather is a choice of the cruise line, every company has different ways to communicate. For anyone booked on a cruise or on a cruise line’s email list, the changes can be blasted out.
There’s no guarantee people will read or even open those emails, but the cruise lines can do only so much.
Cruise lines can also share changes on their social-media pages, and many use a variety of channels to tell passengers what’s coming. In many cases, for example, when a cruise line raises daily gratuity rates, it will post that news via email and social media.
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When a set price goes up, a cruise line usually will allow booked passengers a period in which they can prepay at the new rate. In some cases everyone will get time to book the old prices.
That’s not how Carnival handled the recent increase in the price of its Cheers beverage package. The cruise line simply raised the price with no notice. Passengers were angry about that and blasted the move to Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald.
Now, the cruise line is coming under fire for making another Cheers change, a more subtle one.
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Carnival faces more beverage questions
Carnival Cruise Line has a strict limit of 15 alcoholic beverages per person daily. Once you hit 15 in a 24-hour period, which runs 6 a.m. through 6 a.m., you are shut off.
Once a passenger has imbibed 10 alcoholic drinks, the cruise line traditionally has printed the number the passenger has drunk on drink receipts. That serves two purposes.
First, the passenger won’t be surprised when they reach 15 and gets shut off. In addition, the server knows that the passenger has had a heavy day, which enables them to scrutinize things a little more deeply before serving.
Carnival can shut off a passenger (or slow them down) if they appear intoxicated at any point.
One passenger wrote to Heald to point out a policy change the cruise line has made without any public notice.
“We are currently on the Vista and are wondering why the drink receipts no longer tell you when you have hit 10+ drinks?” Barbi and Eddie Mills inquired.
“Not having that information show takes so much extra time from the already crazy busy bartenders. When people want to know where they are in their allotted drinks for the day and have to keep asking the bar staff, that’s just unnecessary extra work for them IMO.”
Other passengers verified that this happened.
“We see/hear people asking pretty much every time we are at a bar this whole cruise so far,” this passenger wrote. “The number of alcoholic drinks printed once we hit 10 on our last cruise in September, so this must be a fairly new change.”
Carnival acknowledges the change
Heald addressed the complaint and verified that the change was made. He did not explain why the cruise line made the decision.
“Thank you so much. I will share this once again with my colleagues to see if it’s something they would consider returning to. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and most important. I do hope that you’re having an absolutely brilliant time,” he wrote.
Many cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, do not offer paper receipts for beverages served unless a customer specifically requests one. A passenger can use a printed receipt to add a tip charged to their card.
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While Carnival has not explained why it no longer shows drink totals after 10, some passengers and staff have theories.
“One of the guesses from a bartender was that Carnival was trying to discourage people from posting their 15-drink receipt as a challenge,” posted Eric Thomas.
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