I believe anyone can purchase soda cards, but I don't think there is anything like that for alcoholic drinks. If you get the drink coupons from the Carnival website before you cruise, I believe they do save you some money. My husband and I took two bottles of champagne, one large bottle of Grand Marnier (sp?) liqueur and also a bottle of Shnapps (sp?). We took a collapsable cooler, which our room steward kept full of ice the entire two weeks we were sailing (back-to-back) on the Paradise. No one ever said anything to us. In Nassau and St. Thomas, we got off the ship and used one of the many people on the dock that offered tours of the ports. In Nassau, we had a more than two hour tour of all the highlights including Paradise Island, the fort, the water tower, etc. for $20 per person. We wanted to snorkel after, so he dropped us at a local beach close to the ship, and we walked back when we were done (it was through the town, so we did some shopping also). The walk alone was around ten to fifteen minutes. I had my hair braided on the beach, sixteen braids for $12. Since that was the first port of our two-week vacation, it was the best thing I did for ease of hair care for the remainder of the trip. We saw all the same highlights as the ship tours for a fraction of the price. In St. Thomas, we took a van off the dock into town for $3 per person, and met up with a fellow right there where they drop you off, and he took people in his open van for tours of all the highlights of St. Thomas. He gave us all the option of being dropped off at Megan's Bay, Coki Beach or Saphire Beach for two hours. He highly recommended Saphire Beach, which everyone decided to do. Saphire Beach is a private resort, and the beach had all the facilities (shops, showers, food and drink) you could want, and it wasn't crowded. The snorkeling was one of the best of our trip, and I highly recommend it. His tour was also around $20 per person, and much better than anything you could have done on a similar ship tour. Both of those towns are good for doing your own thing. We did not get off the ship in Casa Del Campo since we had six other ports to visit. I heard from most people that it's a good idea to take a ship tour in this port. Have fun, we loved the Paradise and Paradise crew.
