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Happy hour is back


antsp
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Grand Princess is sailing 10 night cruises with only four port calls, two of which are half a day.

 

This sure looks like a decision made by one ship's F&B department that is desperate to boost flagging sales.

 

When reports are the BOGO/1 has returned on seven night Northern Europe or Caribbean cruises, then I will believe it has been officially reinstated by the company.

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just had a report fron the Grand to say that happy hour, buy one get one for $1 is back on 9:30to 10:30.

 

9:30 pm - 10:30 pm? I'm in bed by then sleeping off some wine. Too late for me. Even the 3:30 pm was too early for me, but we went and had a good time.

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On our cruise last October Wheelhouse was jam packed twice a day and people were there both before and after the BOGO. They did a crazy amount of business. Compare that with our cruise this March where Wheelhouse was almost completely empty all the time. My wife and I were regulars in the evening as we enjoyed the performer there but there were usually no more than maybe 8 or 10 people when it was "packed" and many of those didn't stay. It was pretty much a graveyard. I can't imagine Princess is doing better financially with that model than with the BOGO.

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Grand Princess is sailing 10 night cruises with only four port calls, two of which are half a day.

 

This sure looks like a decision made by one ship's F&B department that is desperate to boost flagging sales.

 

When reports are the BOGO/1 has returned on seven night Northern Europe or Caribbean cruises, then I will believe it has been officially reinstated by the company.

 

When it started it was just a few sailings & ships and then it grew...how many years ago did it start?

If I remember correctly.....less than five...someone correct me if I am mistaken...

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When it started it was just a few sailings & ships and then it grew...how many years ago did it start?

If I remember correctly.....less than five...someone correct me if I am mistaken...

Your memory is correct. I'm pretty darn certain Happy Hour started around 2012/2013... Before the Beverage packages started, which was late 2013...

And it was always at odd hours, mainly to drive business to bars that would otherwise be empty.. And it turned out to be a success..

Will be interesting to see if it makes a comeback fleet-wide.

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On our cruise last October Wheelhouse was jam packed twice a day and people were there both before and after the BOGO. They did a crazy amount of business. Compare that with our cruise this March where Wheelhouse was almost completely empty all the time. My wife and I were regulars in the evening as we enjoyed the performer there but there were usually no more than maybe 8 or 10 people when it was "packed" and many of those didn't stay. It was pretty much a graveyard. I can't imagine Princess is doing better financially with that model than with the BOGO.

 

 

We've done the Happy Hour everyday on our last two Princess cruises and it was jam packed but so much fun. We were fortunate to never run into drunk and obnoxious people. It was nice to sit in the afternoon with our extended family and catch up on the day and have a few drinks. I couldn't believe when they stopped it.

 

Like you said, how are they doing better financially when Wheelhouse is empty now. What were the bean counters thinking? :rolleyes:

I hope they realize this and bring it back.

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We are going to be on a 14 day cruise this fall and we will see if the BOGO$1 is back for that cruise. They had a 10 PM - 11 PM BOGO$1 in Skywalkers besides the one at 3:30 or so. The late night one was not very busy however. I did manage to make several particularly when I did not have to get up early the next day for an excursion. I will probably hit the BOGO$1 if it shows up on our cruise. We have 5 sea days.

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I saw someone had posted the patter and that BOGO$1 did indeed show up on the Grand starting yesterday.

Antsp is correct that it’s 9:30 through 10:30 in the Wheelhouse bar.

 

I agree with fishywoods, sales must be lagging in that bar at night so they are trying to bring in customers.

 

It’s good news for the bartenders and guests!

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so at that time, do people leave other bars where they are paying full price to go to the bobos+1?

 

does that encourage people to buy a beverage that they normally wouldn't because they are getting a second for $1?

 

will Princess limit it to 2 bogo's per person per session to prevent the buy six beers get six more for $ 6 ?:confused:

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so at that time, do people leave other bars where they are paying full price to go to the bobos+1?

 

Yes... if they have any brains and are planning on having more than one drink.

 

 

does that encourage people to buy a beverage that they normally wouldn't because they are getting a second for $1?

 

Probably.

 

 

will Princess limit it to 2 bogo's per person per session to prevent the buy six beers get six more for $ 6 ?:confused:

 

No... remember, 90% of the price of booze is tax. Cruise lines buy their booze essentially 'tax free'... and don't pay the bartenders and waiters - the pax do through the mandatory 15% 'gratuity'. Princess could sell the first drink for a dollar and still make money.

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will Princess limit it to 2 bogo's per person per session to prevent the buy six beers get six more for $ 6 ?:confused:

 

Princess was starting to limit the drinks you could purchase unopened ... so getting 6 additional open beers just doesn't sound that attractive. I guess, just like the coffee card abuse, Princess comes up with a solution for those problems. I sure do miss the afternoon happy hour ... hope they bring that one back as well. Fingers crossed.

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Princess was starting to limit the drinks you could purchase unopened ... so getting 6 additional open beers just doesn't sound that attractive.

 

To that, I have a one-word reply -

Grolsch. ;)

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To that, I have a one-word reply -

Grolsch. ;)

 

Probably why they run out Grolsch when they offer the BOGO $1. (They did on our cruise)

I am sure Princess realizes that some cruisers abuse the program. This might be the reason that Princess is rethinking this particular program.

It might be better to have a happy hour with discounted drinks/beers.

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Great news! I hope this is not ship specific. We're cruising September on the Emerald, and I'd stay up late for Happy Hour. We also have never seen drunken bad behaviour during BOGO$1. It did get crowded and a little noisy, but I never saw the rowdiness some write about on here.

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The late night one is of no appeal to us personally - what we missed was the afternoon Happy Hour in Crooners.....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Always liked meeting friends at happy hour just before dinner. Drink of the day in the elite, platinum lounge has gotten a bit weird for us

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