Carnival Cruise Line likes to say that its alcoholic-beverage limit of 15 drinks per 24-hour period is in place to protect its passengers.
Not everyone buys that thinking, however, because Carnival does not track the drinks served on its private islands. Those are not included in the cruise line’s drink packages and do not count toward the 15 limit.
Related: Royal Caribbean shares unpopular rule passengers must follow
Royal Caribbean, which does not place a daily limit on people who buy its Deluxe Beverage Package, will shut off passengers when they seem visibly intoxicated. So its beverage package truly has no limit except what each passenger can handle.
MSC Cruises recently adopted the 15-drink limit with a number of exceptions. But the cruise line recently tightened one of those.
The Facebook personality Jayson Judson recently shared a video about the changes.
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MSC Cruises makes a drink-package change
Transcript
Cruise passengers are furious as we have another beverage-package [change. MSC] Cruises recently changed their policy limiting their drink package to 15 alcoholic drinks per 24 hours but excluded Yacht Club passengers from this change.
The Yacht Club is an exclusive ship within a ship area on MSC ships that comes with a premium price. But MSC updated this policy this past weekend and it now includes Yacht Club passengers, and many are vowing never to sail with MSC again.
What do you think of all the beverage-package changes this year?
[MSC, unlike Carnival, does allow passengers to buy more drinks after they reach the 15 alcoholic beverages included in their drink packages.]
Cruisers’ opinions on 15-drink limits are mixed
People who can’t drink 15 alcoholic beverages in 24 hours generally seem to think it’s inconceivable.
“If 15 drinks a day is not enough, then you have a problem,” @Carl2724 responded.
That’s true in most cases, but the big guy who drinks beer and spreads them out all day is very different from a smaller person who starts drinking cocktails at dinner. The first might never be all that drunk while the second might be noticeably intoxicated after four or five.
Be that as it may, many respondents don’t understand why MSC passengers are angry,
“Not ‘cruisers’ — more like ‘beer drinking alcoholics’ are furious…This is also the result of people stealing and breaking the rules of the package, so I commend MSC for sticking up for their own business,” wrote @CoreyW-g8t.
Some commenters did take issue with the cruise line.
“Well, don’t call it unlimited if it’s not unlimited,” posted @SalvatoreCorleone1008.
@PaulRas01 made the case for consuming 15 alcoholic drinks.
“For those thinking 15 is too much already, it really isn’t on a sea day,” he wrote. “2 mimosas at breakfast, sit at the pool for 6 hours and have just one drink an hour, now you’re at 8.
“Shower and dress for dinner, then 2 cocktails before dinner, 2 glasses of wine with dinner, now you’re at 12. Then stay up 4 more hours at the casino, shows or lounges and just one per hour puts you at 16 and most people wouldn’t even feel a buzz. I barely drink and 15 is easy on a sea day,” he wrote.
Most people, it should be noted, would be highly intoxicated following that schedule, but some could likely handle it without appearing noticeably drunk.
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@QueenKay47 had a more measured answer.
“Even though 15 drinks are more than enough, but as much as you pay for the Yacht Club, and you are still restricted…That’s insane,” she wrote.
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