cruisingewbiemark

I had the All inclusive package on my last cruise. The wine you buy with the 40% discount can most certainly be shared with who ever you are with.

 

I bought wine in Vines, Crown Grill, Explorers etc and sharing with my travel companions was not a problem. The waiter asked if it was for everyone and brought the required number of glasses. When I asked about sharing, I was told it was not expected that one person sit there and drink the whole bottle by themself, hence the 40% discount. As you are still paying an amount you can give it to whoever you want.

 

What I did have trouble with, was when I wanted to buy people who did not have the package a drink. By 'buy' I mean pay for on my card i.e. charge me the $ amount. It took some waiters quite a long time, and multile explanations that I did not want to use my package to buy the drink for them, but to pay money.

 

The concept of someone with the package wanting to physically have the cost of other peoples drinks charged to my card seemed alien.

Many thanks. I can imagine the torment of trying to persuade that you wanted to pay for a drink!

My spouse purchased the package (not me) on our Alaska cruise on the Crown in May. We bought a bottle of wine at dinner each night at 40% off and shared it with no problem. There is also no problem if one person buys a wine package (when available, usually on longer cruises). In both cases, there are no "free" drinks involved, just discounted wine, so why would they care? They still make a huge markup of a profit, even if you buy 10 bottles a night at 40% off each. The bottle we buy is $28 onboard but only $4 at our local grocery store.

Thanks for all the input - very reassuring. Does anyone know if bottles of wine on the discount are only avsilable in the restaurants or if you can get them from other bars and the buffet?

I'm glad I came to this group and didn;t rely on Princess CSD! :eek:

Thanks for the input so far - much appreciated.

To be fair it was email from CSD and no name was given however it clearly said sharing not allowed and wine purchased could be for my consumption only. Purchasing another wine package was therefore recommended for my beloved. :)

New to cruising and new to here so please forgive me if this is a dumb question or one that is already answered elsewhere..... I am cruising soon and was going to take the ultimate package for me who drinks a fair bit but not for my fiancé who only has a couple of glasses of wine with a meal. I thought (perhaps stupidly) that the 40% discount you get on a bottle was for people in such a situation or, say, if you were sharing a table with non package holders and you wanted to buy them a drink. BUT princess customer services have today told me that I cannot give her or anyone else a glass of wine from a bottle so purchased and that it is for me and me only. I of course expected this for the 'free' drinks taken under the package but not for the bottle of wine.:confused:

I am wondering if either I've been naïve or they've given me the wrong answer. Does anyone know anything different or does anyone have experience of buying bottles at the 40% discount and sharing with another non package holding pax either at a meal or anywhere else like a deck bar?

Thanks for your input and your patience if I'm the dumb one. ;)