OzKiwiJJ

@Tranquility Base a quick question if you don't mind. Are onboard accounts charged to your credit card at the end of each sector or at the end of the full cruise?

We still have a cheque book somewhere but haven't used it in a couple of years at least.

There are three wines I can drink on the Plus wine list - the rose, the pinot noir, and the merlot. There is no way I'm an doing a 110 night cruise with just those wines to choose from. I put up with them last year but struggled to enjoy them on the cruise we did in March. I want decent white wines, more variety in reds and a reasonable sparkling. OK, we got the Plus package for $40pp per day for that cruise so that at least covers all our non-wine drinks but we booked that cruise in good faith expecting a decent selection of wines by the glass as per the 2019 wine list. To get reasonable wines we will have to buy wines by the bottle and/or bring some of our own wines onboard and pay the outrageous $30 per bottle corkage. That is going to add another $5000+ to the cost of that cruise. NOT HAPPY!!! 🤬 Our budget is very tight for that cruise. If anything else goes up in price we might reach the last straw!

Princess doesn't have four digit cabin numbers so did they offer you B714 which would be aft, or B147 which would be forward?

HAL has nicer cabins, Princess is nicer overall. We did a cruise on HAL last year and would never cruise on them again. The food was very average, service was poor except in one bar, entertainment was very limited and/or repetitive. However our Signature Suite cabin was really lovely. We are regular cruisers on Princess. The minisuites and suites are nice. Service is always good with rare exceptions. The food quality has slipped slightly since Covid but is still very good and there is plenty of variety. Entertainment is excellent with great production shows in the theatre and music to suit most tastes in the various bars.

Oddly enough the markup isn't so high on one of the more expensive wines. The Henschke Henry's Seven GSM on the Premier wine list only has around 400% markup on the retail price.

Very, very, very over-priced! And that's the old wine list. These ones have the new prices: I have no objection to a reasonable mark-up on wines. After all they have to get the wine delivered, load it onboard, store it, ensure the various bars have supplies, chill the white wines, provide glasses, and serve it. Not much different to land-based restaurants and bars. However the Princess mark-ups are obscenely high. The Willowglen Semillion/Sauvignon is occasionally found in bottle form at just under $6 a bottle. It's normally sold in casks for around $20-22 for four litres. At five 150ml glasses to a bottle that makes it a $1.20 a glass retail price, and Princess would get it at much less than retail price. Princess are charging $14 for a glass. That's 11.6 times the retail price so roughly 1160% markup. Normal restaurant markups are around 300% , high end restaurants may be up to 500% - 600%. 🤬🤬🤬

Which policy type was that? They do have different levels of cruise cover.

Friends have just printed out their luggage tags for their upcoming Alaska cruise. It shows US$20 / AU$30 for corkage.

Someone who clearly doesn't understand Australian wine trends. The current wines by the glass, both Plus and Premier, seem to me to be tailored more to American tastes than current Australian tastes, especially the white wines. There are only two Plus white wines (I don't count rosè or moscato as still white wines) - the semillon/sauvignon is essentially the basic dry white and the chardonnay is heavily oaked. Where is the dry riesling? The pinot grigio? The unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnay? The Plus reds are a bit better. A nice merlot, although straight merlot isn't as popular here as in the US. A drinkable pinot noir and two cabernet blends. But again, a more American selection than modern Australian where straight shirazes, sangiovese and other Italian varietals, even tempranillo, have become more popular in recent years.

The difference is that in the past it was $15 irregardless of the onboard currency. Then they upped it to $20 and now some bright spark at Princess has decided to convert USD to AUD giving $30 without even thinking of whether that is a reasonable charge. There would be a major outcry if Austalian restaurants tried to charge that for corkage. It's the same with their wine prices. They'd taken what they perceive to be a good USD price for wine then converted it to AUD, again without checking what local wine prices in restaurants are like. That why a de Bortoli wine costs twice as much by the glass than a bottle costs at retail prices. Princess have lost the plot totally.

Yes, AUD, and yes, now it's $65 it's not really viable for those who don't drink alcohol, especially Platinum/Elites where less of the value is taken by the internet.

The Plus fare is an extra $65pp per day, which includes internet as well as drinks (and a few other things) so is actually good value even if you just drink mocktails, juices, soft drinks and coffees. The Plus drinks package on it's own might be dearer - edit: I just checked and it's AU $110 per day, that's just crazy! It's confusing having them called similar names. Internet is worth about $20pp per day, or $10pp per day if you're Platinum or Elite, so the Plus fare is the way to go if you want internet and drinks.

The Plus package was exceptionally good value when they first brought it out at $40pp per day but the wines are rubbish and there are only 9 by the glass instead of the promised 25. But you get 25% off the price of wine by the bottle so that helps give a better variety of wine. . Even so, when it went up to $50 it was still good value. At $65 it's not such good value especially as the wine prices have been hiked to ridiculous levels making it more expensive to pad out the pathetic selection of wines by the glass with bottles or Premier wines at extra cost - and the Premier wines aren't that much better. The new "extras" are ridiculous - crappy ice cream sundaes more suitable for children and fitness classes. Luckily we got the Plus fare at this price for the world cruise so will break even on the cost with just our pre- and post-dinner drinks, coffees, and bottled water. But having to pay extra for decent wine will add a few thousand dollars onto our budget. It hasn't quite reached "the straw that broke the camel's back" stage but it's getting close.

Would that be legal?

I checked the wine list photos I took on Grand in March and the cheapest was $51. Their mark-ups are excessive - over 1000% in some cases from the bottle store price and I'm sure they get them a lot cheaper than that.

As far as I can see, after reading through my world cruise Passage Contract, the amount of corkage specified in that contract should apply. Note I am not a lawyer but the contract is fairly clearly written. 1. The contract is binding once the first payment is made: "YOUR AGREEMENT WITH US These, and Your Booking Confirmation, are the terms and conditions under which You book Your cruise holiday and travel on any Princess Cruises product We sell You. Once We have received the first payment towards Your cruise holiday, a legally binding agreement on these terms and conditions becomes effective between all guests on Your booking(s) and Us or where applicable, the Carrier. By making a payment, You represent that You accept and have authority from all guests (or their parent/ legal guardian) on Your booking(s) to accept on their behalf, Our Passage Contract. Parents/legal guardians accept these terms and conditions on behalf of their children. It is important that You and all Guests in Your booking read them carefully and understand them. If You were not aware of these terms and conditions when either You or Your Travel Agent made this contract, You ratify and accept that you are bound by these terms and conditions by the act of boarding the vessel for the cruise that You have booked." 2. There is no provision in the section that mentions corkage for changes in the fee: "ALCOHOL & GAMBLING We are committed to the responsible service of alcohol. There may be times when We consider it appropriate to refuse the service of alcohol to a guest for any reason. To consume alcohol or gamble onboard, the following minimum ages and corkage charges apply: Departing from and returning to Australia/New Zealand and cruising China, Europe and Singapore, unless voyage falls into column 3 Japan All other Princess Cruise departures - including sectors of longer international relocation voyages which may otherwise fall into columns 1 or 2 Minimum age 18 years 20 years 21 years Corkage $ (per bottle)* 15 15 15 *Corkage charges apply to wines and/or champagne brought onboard and consumed in the dining room or alternative restaurants, including additional bottles irrespective of where they are intended to be consumed, as outlined in the Bringing Alcohol Onboard section below. Corkage charge is in the operating currency on the ship." Note: the section in italics is a table in the Passage Contract but the corkage is the same for each cruise type. So who is going to be the first to challenge this with Princess?

Yes. Hopefully that is the case. Our next cruise is in Japan so USD and anyway we won't be bothering to take wine onboard. Hopefully someone will challenge Princess on this during the next lot if cruises once Coral returns from the world cruise.

This is their new wording. The test will be whether the contract from the time of booking applies or the latest version.

If AU onboard costs are essentially US prices converted to AUD then Princess is throwing away the slight advantage they had over the cruise lines with USD onboard costs. Add this to all the other cutbacks and price increases on Princess and other options, ie Celebrity or even the luxury lines, become more vost effective.

Yes. The new Passage Contract on the Princess Website, which can be found right at the bottom of the Home page, actually mentions AU $30 and US $20. I believe the USD change happened a month or so ago and at that time it didn't specify currency. Now it does and they've converted the USD to the nearest rounded AUD.🤬

Keep an eye on the passage contract that comes up in the app. I just checked mine for our October Japan cruise and it has a 2021 date on it. The emailed version I got when I booked the cruise is as at December 2022. Both show $15. I haven't gone through the whole contract in detail though.

I don't think you'll win that one but please let me know if you do. Somewhere in that Passage Contract fine print it probably says prices are subject to change without notice.

That doesn't necessarily mean that will happen now though, and sometimes it depends on the ship. Usually you can bring a bottle or two onboard at no cost as long as you pour it in your cabin but buying wines overseas can be expensive. We were considering bringing about four dozen wines with us when we do the world cruise next year and would want to take the bottles to the MDR as we prefer to match our wines to what we are eating so often need a white and a red during dinner. But at $30 a bottle corkage it won't be worth it.

Given Princess have just increased the corkage for bringing own wines onboard to AU$30 would someone currently onboard please check the prices for speciality dining, Chef's Table, Ultimate Balcony Dinner/Breakfast, and Sanctuary. The AUD prices for these aren't always shown on the Princess website.