Carnival Is About to Stop Charging One Price for Its Drink Package

Carnival Cruise Line will introduce dynamic pricing for its drink packages and Wi-Fi packages beginning December 1. Instead of a standardized daily rate, prices will shift with the season and the itinerary a guest is sailing. A Carnival spokesperson told Travel Weekly the change “creates more flexibility and accounts for seasonality.”

To see what is changing, look at today’s flat pricing. The popular Cheers! drink package covers up to 15 alcoholic beverages a day. It costs $69.95 per day when bought in advance and $5 more per day, or $74.95, when bought onboard. Under the new approach, those figures will no longer be fixed across the fleet, and the same package could cost different amounts on different sailings.

Several things are not yet clear. The announcement did not say how wide the price ranges will be, what the new Wi-Fi prices will look like, or whether guests who have already booked will be affected. Dynamic pricing in travel often means prices rise in peak periods and ease off-peak, but Carnival has not published the formula, so it is too early to say who will pay more.

For cruisers who like to lock in extras before they sail, the practical lesson is to compare prices as the date approaches. If the advance-purchase discount survives under the new system, buying early may still beat paying onboard. Travel advisors will probably be the first to see how the new price tiers behave once they appear in booking tools.

Sources: Travel Weekly