My friend said I'm "stingy" am I ? Aibu ?

[sarahlou55k]

Me and my friend are going to Manchester tomorrow.
We are going for 2 nights for shopping /food and drinks.
We love a cocktail and said we will have to have a couple of cocktails.

She messages me a hour ago telling me she's booked some fancy place with a skyline view ??
And she's paid for a cocktail tree
It's 8 pornstar martinis and it's £120
So it's £60 each

I told her that was expensive and she really should have asked first
She said "oh stop being stingy it will be fab"

So I've paid £60 for 4 pornstar martinis
£15 each !!
Please someone tell me they agree that £60 for 4 drinks is ridiculous?
I was thinking revolution /slug and lettuce 2 for £10 or 2for £12
Not £60 for 4

I'm annoyed
Aibu ?

Id maybe get a pornstar cocktail tree for a group night out that’s a lot of cocktail: you are of course paying for the view too although cloud23isn’t as hyped as it was. I’d be annoyed she didn’t ask though

I’d be concerned about making sure I had places booked is it’s pride and bank holiday weekend. Town will be busy!! I think £60 a night for drinks and food is a small budget for a city break, but can easily be done if you go to cheaper places especially now!

I paid around £15 is what I paid for drinks in manhattan roof terrace and I was on holiday. However I’m local I can get lovely cocktails in Manchester for less in nice places too. ( I’m not talking sky bars or revs)

Have a nice trip!

She should have asked first.
In principle I'm happy to pay £15 a cocktail but I wouldn't want 4 the same, and would probably realistically prefer to have 2, then go for dinner with good wine.

@Classica I love a Negroni 🥃

What is a 'Pornstar Martini'?
I asked around at the care home and nobody knew. One man fell out his chair at the mere words!!!
Anyway I have some gin and thong and I thought I could 'mash one up' (as I believe the vernacular is today.)
So once I've found the talcum powder and my Chocolate body I got at Christmas i'll be down in tbe Day Room swingin' 'em about!!! If you know what I mean.
Actually I'm so excited Id think I'm on the wrong thread, and I'll have to change my socks.

This isn’t aimed at the op and I’m sure she will have a nice evening.

But Cloud 23 isn’t as high end as people in this thread are thinking it is… it was a place to go/be seen years ago. Lots of offers pop up for it now as they didn’t retain the hype. It’s ok and has a view etc.

But nicer bars and restaurants have popped up all over the place over the years. Plenty of places do lovely cocktails with a better atmosphere bar the view. I don’t frequent expensive places, but I associate cocktail trees with cheesy nights out rather than a high end place. ( I may be wrong!)

Previous poster was right about manchester: lots of high rise buildings being built so while a nice view it’s not an amazing view.

I think you can see how excited I am by my spelling! Just stabbing away at anything that takes my fancy...

Looks like a guaranteed window package at £55 per person and she has swapped the 2 bottles of champagne for cocktails instead.

@burnoutbabe

Looks like a guaranteed window package at £55 per person and she has swapped the 2 bottles of champagne for cocktails instead.

I think the champagne deal is one bottle per 2 people at £55 each so based on that, 8 cocktails is actually a much better deal

That's a lot for pornstars, they're generally about £10 in most bars in Manchester. There's nothing you can do about it now though. I don't think £120 would've got you far for food and drink though, it can get quite pricey.

Come on I’m sure it could be cancelled! It is worth going there for your first drink of the night but I would want to be moving on after one cocktail, two at a push!

I wouldn’t pay that. It wouldn’t matter if I had the money I just couldn’t bring myself to pay it. Ridiculous prices.

I wouldn't be paying that !

I'm on TikTok and regularly see bottomless drinks offers at London bars for far less.

She should’ve checked and not wanting to pay £15 for a drink, four times, is NOT stingy. YANBU

Your friend should have checked if you fancied it but you high clearly gave different ideas of what you want from a night out

Cloud 23 is likely to be lacking in atmosphere but is a nice bar. It used to be swanky but if they are selling pornstar trees they have definitely downgraded. I thought they were the star attraction if places like dirty martini

What's done us done, it's clearly unrefundable, it's a very busy weekend, you'll have a great time whatever you do

I live in the city centre, you can get cocktails cheaper than cloud 23 but Manchester lacks rooftop/sky bars so you are paying for the views and experience.

Just enjoy it for a chance to dress up and have fun 🍸

Actually I'd quite like a cocktail tree to hang my mugs from. Mug trees aren't big enough.

Cloud 23 is very nice, have had cocktails and also afternoon tea. You must get more than just the 4 drinks each on the "tree" as the individual Pornstar martini's are £13 each on the menu.

@fitflopqueen

Cloud 23 is very nice, have had cocktails and also afternoon tea. You must get more than just the 4 drinks each on the "tree" as the individual Pornstar martini's are £13 each on the menu.

It's effectively a fixed charge to have a particularly good window spot with champagne (or choice of one cocktail) thrown in.

www.cloud23bar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Cloud-23-FAQs-1.pdf

It was really nice when we used to go.
£15 isn't bad for a good cocktail and they are good there.

£120 is horrendous, I’d be really cross that she’d done it without asking.

More money than sense.

@thriftyhen

That’s a very subjective statement. I’d be more than happy to spend that on cocktails (and have done!) and I can afford to do so.
I also spent £200 on a day trip for my dc last week - my money, my choice!

In this case the poor OP didn’t hace much choice but your snarky comment isn’t generally true!

For all the posters telling the OP that she's only going to get a view of Manchester from shock, horror a Manchester skyscraper, Is it only me that's reminded of the scene in Fawlty Towers where the grumpy guest complains of the view of Torquay from her bedroom window and Basil says what did you expect to see "A herd of wildebeest crossing the Serengeti?" 😀

I’d assumed their point was just that they wouldn’t expect a view of Manchester to command more of a premium than you’d pay at cocktail bars in mega-cities like London, New York or Hong Kong rather than that they’d expect a view of Hong Kong harbour in a bar in Manchester.

The thought of 2 people sitting at a table with 8 cocktails all at once is pretty funny, aren’t they meant for a group of people? Won’t they get a bit warm by the time you get round to drinking the 4th one?!

@tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz

Oooh another vote for a Negroni.

Or a Vespa Martini if you want to sleep very well half an hour later

Lol, I hate to do a spag, but it's Vesper, as in evening prayer, not Vespa as in wasp!

I wouldn’t spend £60 on 4 of the same drink. I’d want to try different cocktails if I spent that much. I can barely drink just 1 Pornstar martini. They are so sickeningly sweet.