PaperSniper4

Thanks for that. I may have missed it, but how long ago was that? It would simplify just calling once on board as opposed to trying to order pre-cruise. However, if I can afford the Princess Plus, I will continue to do so just because it's convenient. But once Princess raises the price too high, it's back to alternate plans! <g> Doug

Was this for ordering a single drink, or for one of those small .375l bottles of liquor? I have done the former, but not the latter. Doug

Never hurts to be friendly with a bartender. <g> But I was talking about ordering those small .375l bottles for cabin delivery, not an individual drink. Doug

Yes, I've heard that, but never done so nor seen that option on any paperwork in the cabin. I suppose one just calls Cabin Service and puts in a request? Sort of one of those "we do it, but we don't advertise it" things? Doug

It might not be a solution for you, but one can always order those .375l bottles for cabin consumption from Princess. We did that for years after we tired of the hassle of RumRunners and before the advent of Princess Plus at what we considered a reasonable cost. The problem with those small bottles is the choice is very limited, and ordering them is never easy, especially when I've done that before we sailed. It's a real chore to find the place to order them at Princess.com, and I think when you can order them depends on sailing date. I've heard one can order them from Room/Cabin service once on board, but I've not done that. Doug

Ah, good point. I'd forgotten about that. Luckily my wife is usually content with 90% of the wine she's had in the dining room. But then we usually have our pre-dinner cocktails in one of the bars anyway, and if she orders wine in the MDR it's her second glass. Me, I'm a scotch and martini drinker, and pretty easy to please, at least with the gin. Doug

Ah, I understand. I hope our Ruby Princess cruise is better that that. We were spoiled on our last two Celebrity ships this year. There was a small bar located near the MDR with excellent (self) service. I mean I went up to the bar to order; I didn't wait for a waitstaff. But those two Celeb ships were smaller than the Ruby. Either way, we are looking forward to sailing with Princess again. Our last was the fall of 2019! Doug

Can't you order a glass of wine at your MDR table, with or without the drinks package? We've only sailed on Celebrity with their beverage package, so my understanding of Princess' package is not much. But with Celebrity that was possible. Doug

I like the Rum Runners over a rigid bottle because they take up no room when empty. They are difficult to dry out after being used however. We can order drinks for cabin delivery to the cabin? I did not know that, thanks for that. Doug

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, "they" might be reading this! 😲

I suppose with passenger counts lately the cruise lines can afford to make cruising just too expensive for many of us. It's still a decent price if one can choose options (perks) to keep the price appropriate, but once it comes "all included" at horrendous prices, many of us will choose another way to be "on vacation". There seems to be a lot of couples willing to pay $4000 for a balcony cabin for a typical 7 day cruise. We are not, but I know the cruise lines are not pricing for my benefit. I still think they could charge around $75 for me to bring a bottle of scotch <etc> on board with me, and still make enough money to stay in business. But that's just me. If we were big drinkers, which we are not, the current direction of pricing perks would be okay, but as it is, I really have to question those costs when I compare prices now. Doug

Roger that on all....and especially about the new pricing! I do like the convenience of the "included perks" packages, but there is a limit to what I'll pay for convenience. On our last Celebrity cruise, the cost was about $100 per day for the two of use I believe. Not too bad considering the cost of their "gratuities" which have crept up over the years. I recently checked a Carnival cruise from NOLA that I though might be a quicky/cheapy next fall; Holy Cow! I think it was around $800 (for two) for just the beverage package unless I read it wrong! That's hard to justify when we would each probably have only 3 drinks in a day. We like NOLA for cruises because it's a drive instead of a flight. But only NCL and Carnival are there except for a few RCIs. Yep, gonna have to strongly consider dusting off the ol' RumRunners for cruises from now on. I still wish cruise lines would allow me to bring a bottle of scotch (etc) as most do with a bottle of wine. I have no problem paying for that, at least I could bring my preferred brand. Doug

Yeah, I used Rum Runners for years and years for their intended purpose, until I learned I could order a bottle onboard for cabin consumption. But someone suggested this new use for them when I mentioned we usually only have our pre-dinner cocktail in our cabin, on our balcony, so the beverage package didn't appeal much to us. Before that suggestion, I was getting a couple of scotches at the bar after lunch and hiding them in the cabin until that evening. I hid them so the steward wouldn't think they were unfinished drinks needing to be tossed. Doug

As others have said, yes. And that's true also on NCL and Celebrity at least. BTW, If I am going to the bar to get a drink for both my wife and me, I try to remember to always have both cards/medallions with me. However, rarely has the barkeep wanted to see both cards. Usually on the first couple of days of a cruise, on the way back to our cabin after lunch I stop by a bar and get two double scotches, neat, for us, then carefully carry them back to our cabin, where I deposit them into a Rum Runner. That way we have a little scotch in the cabin if we don't feel like going to a bar for our pre-dinner cocktail, and we can have our scotch on the balcony. Fifteen drink limits? Holy cow, my wife and I try to always have 4 per day to justify the high cost of the beverage package in our minds! 😉That's a push for us, as we generally have one drink prior to dinner at home, nothing during the day.

What he said. Doug😎

I'd not take one person's experience on that. Many have been able to get a cruise card, just ask. If you can get one, great, if not, so be it. Nothing is perfect. Adapt and survive,eh?😎

It amazes me what a great source of information is CruiseCritic. I learn something new everyday. Often it's of the "trivial pursuit" variety, but it's information nonetheless. No offense intended, I like learning new things, painful as it is at times!😎 Doug

Dang, wouldn't you know it? Our refrigerator's big, wide stainless steel front door is not magnetic, and the one side that would work is already <over> full!😩 Nah, I prefer the cards. I plan to use them instead of painting my office wall in another year or so....I might have enough by then............🤔 Doug

Ah, trust me, she probably already knows!😉

Some of us old fogies collect cruise cards. On our last Princess cruise I was able to get a card from the purser's office. I told the purser what I had planned for the card, it didn't need it to actually work.....I have no idea if if would have worked, I used my Medallion while on the ship....but the card came home with me. The Medallions are handy and have many uses; but collecting them isn't one of them IMHO.😎 Doug

I believe it's 45 days. Doug

We had an odd situation. I canceled our Feb 2022 Princess cruise which gave me a FCC good until December 2022. I figured I could not use it based on our existing schedule. Then September 2022 we got an email extending that FCC until the end of September 2023. That added 9 months allowed us to schedule a Princess cruise next March. Doug

Even a non-attorney like me will say if it ain't in writing, it ain't binding. Of course, the attorney in me would say if there is no end date in the length of the FCC credit, it's valid forever. 😉

My attitude is that NOTHING I did online toward my booking will "be there" when I check in at the pier, so I always have a printed copy of cruise related items that are less than about 10 pages. This includes things like airline and ship boarding passes, hotel confirmations, ground transportation confirmations, luggage tags, etc. In addition, I have an electronic (JPG or PDF) copy of those plus any document that is larger than 10 pages, which is usually my notes on the cruise and our insurance papers, along with military ID, Medicare Card, drivers license, passports, shot cards and the like. I keep those JPG and PDF files on my tablet and my phone. I have seen enough people at the airline boarding gate fiddling with the brightness of their phone's boarding pass to always have my own paper copy! I don't want to slow down the line. FWIW, Princess is not alone in their push to get everyone to use those flaky phone apps. Our last two Celebrity cruises had their own app burps and stumbles. Thank goodness most of the "check in" documents we need, like copies of the passports, were uploaded years ago on my PC and I don't need to spend time trying to figure out how to do that with a stupid phone!😉 Doug

Thanks very much! I see it now. Here's the link, but naturally one would have to be logged onto their own account: https://book.princess.com/cruisepersonalizer/printTravelSummary.page?r=170 Doug