When deciding whether to get the drinks package (which Carnival calls Cheers), one of the questions is how much individual drinks cost. It isn’t that simple, of course. There is also the convenience of budgeting and paying in advance, and drinks packages typically include non-alcoholic specialty drinks as well. However, cost is obviously one of the considerations. In addition, it is good to start the cruise knowing where to find your favorite drinks. Happily, we have several Carnival bar menus from our July 2022 cruise on the Vista.
Let’s start with the bad news. As on Royal Caribbean, embarkation day drinks are limited until you clear Texas waters. That ends at roughly dinner time on the first day, however. Carnival bar menus have many standards which are available at pretty much any bar after that, but they also do something I enjoy. Specifically, the themed bars on Carnival do a good job of having specific drinks I am looking for. For example, the Havana Bar has several Cuban themed drink, the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar has some high end tequilas, and the Red Frog Pub and Red Frog Brewery both have ship-made beers as well as excellent rums. So what are some of the options? These menus are from Carnival Vista in July 2022.
Galveston Embarkation Drink Menu
Texas-Welcome-MenuSky Box Sports Bar Menu
Sky-Box-Sports-BarHavana Bar Menu
Havana-BarRed Frog Pub and Brewery Menu
Red-Frog-PubAlchemy Bar Menu
Alchemy-MenuBlue Iguana Tequila Bar Menu
Blue-Iguana-Tequila-BarRed Frog Rum Bar (Pool Deck) Menu
Red-Frog-Rum-BarCarnival bar menus and drink packages
As you look at the Carnival bar menus, keep some things in mind. First, several things are not included. Examples of not included drinks are samplers, double shots, and things served in souvenir glasses. Still, we always found a wide range of things we enjoyed. Also, we got a lot of value from the non-alcoholic drinks. I like my specialty coffee a couple of times a day, for example.
There is another thing I really enjoyed about the Cheers drink package. Carnival does a great job keeping many high-shelf liquors under the $20 limit. That meant, for example, that I could have as much Flor de Cana 18 year old rum as I wanted while still trying several other things. There were things on this cruise that I was not impressed by, and I will comments on those in other posts. However, the Carnival bar menus were genuinely excellent. The bar service was good, too, and that was a fun part of my cruise. Want to see what these spaces looked like? You can check out our video walk-through here.
