Carnival Passenger Says Cruise Line Removed Her Balcony Handle After She Drank Too Much

Image: Carnival Cruise Line

There’s having a few drinks on a cruise. And then apparently there’s drinking enough that security takes away your drinks package and your balcony door handle.

A Carnival Cruise Line passenger has gone viral after claiming crew members revoked her CHEERS! beverage package and removed the handle from her cabin’s balcony door after she became heavily intoxicated onboard.

The passenger, who posts on TikTok as @juicyloveboo, shared footage showing three security staff walking with her through a ship corridor before filming the balcony door inside her cabin with its handle missing.

According to the passenger, both her access to the drinks package and her balcony had been taken away.

The video has since been picked up by several cruise and entertainment publications. However, the circumstances of the incident have not been independently confirmed by Carnival Cruise Line, so the details surrounding the balcony restriction remain based on the passenger’s own account.

The passenger wasn't particularly shy about explaining what led to the situation.

In the caption accompanying her TikTok, she said passengers should get the drinks package but probably shouldn't get 15 shots of Patrón Reposado.

Exactly how much alcohol she consumed, over what period, and whether all of those drinks were served through her own CHEERS! package hasn't been independently established.

What is clear is that Carnival's drinks package doesn't guarantee passengers 15 alcoholic drinks regardless of their condition.

Carnival's CHEERS! beverage package allows passengers to purchase up to 15 alcoholic drinks within the applicable 24-hour period.

But that number is a maximum, not a target.

Carnival specifically states that the 15-drink allowance is not an entitlement and that crew can stop serving a passenger earlier if they believe the guest is clearly impaired.

Bartenders are trained to watch for signs of intoxication, and Carnival says systems are also used to monitor alcohol consumption onboard.

So while Carnival hasn't confirmed what happened in this particular case, revoking or restricting someone's access to alcohol because they're considered too intoxicated is entirely consistent with the cruise line's published rules.

Carnival's broader Code of Conduct also allows measures including stateroom confinement where guest behaviour affects safety or wellbeing onboard.

That's where this story gets considerably more unusual.

The passenger's video appears to show that the handle used to open her balcony door had been removed, preventing her from accessing the balcony.

Other passengers have previously claimed similar restrictions were imposed after becoming heavily intoxicated, but Carnival does not appear to publicly list “we'll take your balcony handle” among its standard CHEERS! package rules.

And Carnival has not publicly confirmed that this is what happened in the latest incident.

Restricting access to a balcony would make sense as a potential safety precaution if crew were concerned about a heavily impaired passenger, but without a statement from Carnival, the reason for removing the handle in this particular case shouldn't be treated as confirmed.

The passenger herself, however, appears to have taken the whole experience with considerably more humour than outrage.

The viral video is also a timely reminder of something that occasionally gets lost in conversations about cruise drinks packages.

Buying CHEERS! doesn't mean Carnival has agreed to serve you 15 alcoholic drinks every day.

Carnival's current terms make that very clear. Staff can refuse alcohol service before a passenger reaches the daily maximum, and alcohol consumed while ashore may not be visible to crew monitoring onboard purchases.

For most passengers, presumably, none of this will ever progress to the point where someone arrives at the cabin with a screwdriver.

But if the passenger's account is accurate, we can apparently add “losing the handle to your balcony door” to the more unusual consequences of taking full advantage of a cruise drinks package.

Maybe stop a few Patrón shots before that point.