Following a technical glitch that miscalculated the cost of the Cheers! beverage program on August 25 and 26, Carnival Cruise Line has extended a discount offer as compensation for the confusion.
The offer is a non-transferable, limited-time opportunity and while it can be a nice saving, it is nowhere near the great deal the glitch seemed to create.
Carnival Offering Drinks Discount
Carnival Cruise Line has reached out to guests who booked the inadvertently discounted Cheers! drink package over the weekend. A technical issue inaccurately priced the drinks package upon checkout, calculating the total price for only a single day, regardless of the length of the cruise the package was being purchased for.
As a matter of interest, Cheers! can only be booked for a full cruise and may not be purchased for individual days. Because of this calculation error, checkout prices were showing astonishingly low rates for Cheers! – as much as an 86% off for a 7-night sailing.
While the prices were clearly an error, many eager travelers quickly booked their packages in the hopes that the cruise line might honor the inadvertent pricing, as happened with a similar Royal Caribbean International error in July 2019.
Carnival, however, is not honoring the very obviously erroneous price, but is offering a discount to impacted guests all the same.
All guests who had booked the wrongly-priced packages are having those transactions refunded back to the original form of payment, but can rebook Cheers! with a one-time, non-transferrable 10% discount code. “We apologize for the confusion and thank you for your understanding,” the notification email read.
Guests must act quickly to redeem the 10% discount, however, as the codes will only be valid for a limited time. Codes are also only valid for adults in the impacted staterooms, and the discount cannot be applied to other drink package options or onboard purchases.
Guests should also be aware of the complete transactions with the faulty Cheers! pricing have been cancelled and refunded, even if other items such as Wi-Fi packages, spa treatments, or shore tours were purchased simultaneously.
“If you purchased any other items in the same transaction as Cheers!, you will need to return to Carnival.com and place your order for these items again,” the email explained.
No discounts are being offered for anything other than the Cheers! package, even if other items were cancelled on the same transaction.
How the Savings Compare
While a 10% discount code is certainly less outstanding than what could have been a discount of as much as 86%, it is still a nice savings on the Cheers! beverage package.
The package rate is currently $59.95 (USD) per day when purchased before cruising, or $64.95 per day when purchased on a Carnival ship. An 18% service charge is added to the package.
As it appears the discount is only valid for pre-cruise purchases, over the course of a 7-night cruise, guests using the code would save $41.96 if the discount is applied prior to the gratuity service charge, or $49.52 if the discount is also applied to the service charge.
