Princess Plus Program

[shay1]

Trying to find information on the "Princess Plus" Free Premium Drinks, Free WiFi and Free Gratuities. Would appreciate anyone who has booked this with their cruise to tell us your experience and if you thought it was worth the extra cost. Please explain how it works.

Thank you,

Shay1

[weedpindle]

Works exactly like you described in your post. (15 drinks/day)

[LACruiser88]

If you have at least 2 alcoholic drinks per day, it is a great deal!  A no brainer.

[capriccio]

Check out the Princess website: https://www.princess.com/cruise-deals-promotions/princess-plus/

 

Don't miss the FAQs at the bottom of the page that explain the program in detail.

[geoherb]

It's great if you will drink a few alcoholic drinks and specialty coffees a day if you can get it for $40 a day. For some of us, though, the price is considerably more. It was going to cost me more than $90 a day to add Princess Plus to my cruise. That was not worth it. I could actually book the Premium Beverage Package, pay the automatic gratuities, and prepurchase the internet for less than that amount. 

 

The reason the price varies is that the $40 a day is usually offered before final payment date. After the final payment date, when Princess discounts the base fare when necessary, the price with Princess Plus doesn't change as much. For my upcoming cruise, I didn't start tracking prices until after the final payment date. It started out at $1,096 for an inside cabin (solo) and $1,476 for the cabin with Princess Plus. A week later, the prices had dropped to $958 and $1,338, respectively. The price later dropped three weeks later to $686 without but remained at $1,338 with Princess Plus. That's why I'm not getting it. I purchased the internet ahead of time and will use my shareholders credit to pay for the automatic daily gratuity charges.

[trbarton]

4 hours ago, shay1 said:

Trying to find information on the "Princess Plus" Free Premium Drinks, Free WiFi and Free Gratuities. Would appreciate anyone who has booked this with their cruise to tell us your experience and if you thought it was worth the extra cost. Please explain how it works.

Thank you,

Shay1

I’m cruising on Sunday on the Ruby & this will be my 4th cruise with the plus added. Once it’s add to your booking you won’t see any charges for Gratuities or Internet charges.  You can price these things up if you paid for them separately & then see the difference. There is nothing that you need to do but to enjoy your cruise. I enjoy be able to have a drink with my meals or other times without having to worry about the charges. 
 

I would go for it as long as it’s not an absurd price.  
 

For my next cruise it’s a value on $550. If I price just the drink package it would have cost me $630 & that’s not adding on the gratuities or internet charge so it’s a great deal for my cruise. 
 

Tom😀

Edited October 27, 2021 by trbarton

[tanyaewa]

I always factor in the type of cruise, my cruise companions, how many ports I will be spending the day in, whether it’s a relaxing vacation or adventure itinerary before I add the plus or drink package for any cruise.  When I cruise with my kids and my mom… I dont bother.  Just my hubby? Maybe yes….  Europe with a new country every day? Nope. I want to be out and busy every minute.  Sunny sea days? Maybe that cruise….

[skynight]

Normally the additional fare has been $40/day/pp. This includes the $14.50 to $16.50/day/pp gratuity that you would pay anyway. Net additional charge is around $25/pp/day. Assuming you would use some sort of wi-fi that charge could range if purchased separately from $5/pp/day to $10/pp/day. Therefore the additional charge for beverages is around $20/pp/day.

Two alcoholic beverages a day you break even and you also receive the benefit of unlimited specialty coffee drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages. If you drink at all it would be difficult not to break even.

On board you order whatever beverage you enjoy. Any beverage menu priced $12 and under is covered. This is about 90 to 95% of all beverages sold. If a drink is menu priced higher than $12 you will be charged the difference plus 18% of the difference. Beverages must be ordered one at a time.

There are no special lines, locations, times, selections for the beverage package. Order any where on the ship. Anything on the menus anytime of day is included within the generous terms and conditions. There is no additional per drink gratuity added. Alcoholic beverages are limited to 15/pp/day, 6am to 6am. 

https://www.princess.com/html/global/personalizer/ssv/beverages/disclaimer/

 

[kevinyork]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

Normally the additional fare has been $40/day/pp. This includes the $14.50 to $16.50/day/pp gratuity that you would pay anyway. Net additional charge is around $25/pp/day. Assuming you would use some sort of wi-fi that charge could range if purchased separately from $5/pp/day to $10/pp/day. Therefore the additional charge for beverages is around $20/pp/day.

Two alcoholic beverages a day you break even and you also receive the benefit of unlimited specialty coffee drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages. If you drink at all it would be difficult not to break even.

On board you order whatever beverage you enjoy. Any beverage menu priced $12 and under is covered. This is about 90 to 95% of all beverages sold. If a drink is menu priced higher than $12 you will be charged the difference plus 18% of the difference. Beverages must be ordered one at a time.

There are no special lines, locations, times, selections for the beverage package. Order any where on the ship. Anything on the menus anytime of day is included within the generous terms and conditions. There is no additional per drink gratuity added. Alcoholic beverages are limited to 15/pp/day, 6am to 6am. 

https://www.princess.com/html/global/personalizer/ssv/beverages/disclaimer/

 

A pretty perfect description.  We had it on our 10 day round U.K. Sky cruise a couple of weeks back.  It’s an excellent deal at £30 pp.  We use wifi a lot which was excellent.  Never got to 15 drinks per day but still a massive saving for us. 

[TM]

You need to do the math.  For an upcoming 15 night Hawaii cruise Princess Plus would be $40 per day per person which works out to $1200 total for the cruise.  With FCCs, shareholder credit, and credits from my TA I'll have over $600 in onboard credit.  I'll use that for gratuities at about $450 total and then whatever beer I drink, usually 4-5 per day on a cruise.  My wife will probably only have a few drinks over the course of the cruise.  In addition we will have 2 mini-bar setups.  For me it just doesn;t make sense to spend $1200 and still have all the onboard credit to use up on stuff we really don't need from the shops.  And we always do excursions on our own at a much cheaper price than those offered by Princess.

[Redwing55]

I know we were thinking of adding to our Hawaii cruise AFTER we booked it.  I keep asking our TA if we can add and although we can, we'd have to rebook.. at the new much higher cabin rate.  So I'll keep asking, but if you're thinking of getting it, book it when you initially book.

[marne-c]

Thanks, Skynight, for a great explanation.  I followed your link (thanks again!) to learn how bottles of wine at dinner are handled in PrincessPlus.  Sadly, bottled wine is expressly excluded.

 

And yes, I know that on board I will be offered packages of bottled wine.   I'll consider those as presented.

 

 

--Marne

[capriccio]

16 minutes ago, marne-c said:

Thanks, Skynight, for a great explanation.  I followed your link (thanks again!) to learn how bottles of wine at dinner are handled in PrincessPlus.  Sadly, bottled wine is expressly excluded.

 

And yes, I know that on board I will be offered packages of bottled wine.   I'll consider those as presented.

 

 

--Marne

In the FAQ section of the Princess link I quoted in post #4 and the link Skynight provided it says:  The package includes the additional benefit of a 25% discount on the following excluded items; all bottles of wine, one liter bottles of water, canned soda and bottled juices.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by capriccio

[marne-c]

2 hours ago, capriccio said:

In the FAQ section of the Princess link I quoted in post #4 and the link Skynight provided it says:  The package includes the additional benefit of a 25% discount on the following excluded items; all bottles of wine, one liter bottles of water, canned soda and bottled juices.

 

 

 

 

 

Capriccio:  Wow!  Many thanks for THAT info!  

 

I guess I read post #4 before I was sufficiently caffeinated.

 

 

--Marne

[capriccio]

7 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I just don't understand the people who are drinking 10-15 cocktails a day.  I know there are many ladies (and men) who seem to do this.  That's like a few thousand calories just on the alcohol drinks before we even consider food.  

Drinking 2 cocktails a day and a specialty coffee is enough to 'get your monies worth' from the beverage package.  No one is forcing anyone to drink 10 - 15 cocktails a day!  I would hazard a guess that relatively few people use their entire alcoholic drinks allowance in a day. 

Edited October 29, 2021 by capriccio

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Drinking 2 cocktails a day and a specialty coffee is enough to 'get your monies worth' from the beverage package.  No one is forcing anyone to drink 10 - 15 cocktails a day!  I would hazard a guess that relatively few people use their entire alcoholic drinks allowance in a day. 

I have never used the 15 drinks  I think my tops was 12 and that was a stretch with morning drinks and casino cocktails till 2am

[The Greater Fool]

11 hours ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I just don't understand the people who are drinking 10-15 cocktails a day.  I know there are many ladies (and men) who seem to do this.  That's like a few thousand calories just on the alcohol drinks before we even consider food.  

What are these 'calories' of which you speak?

[kevinyork]

11 hours ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I just don't understand the people who are drinking 10-15 cocktails a day.  I know there are many ladies (and men) who seem to do this.  That's like a few thousand calories just on the alcohol drinks before we even consider food.  

It’s a vacation!  No calorie counting is allowed. 

[JanetGofWI]

We have an upcoming cruise in late November on Sky Princess and this will be our first cruise with the plus package. Is there anything special we have to do once on board or do they just look you up via the medallion to see that we have the package?

[matrixman48]

To the original post...As others have clarified in their daily accounting, it is not "FREE". A great value if you enjoy a few drinks a day, but no "free".

[pompeii]

On 10/27/2021 at 8:29 PM, TM said:

You need to do the math.  For an upcoming 15 night Hawaii cruise Princess Plus would be $40 per day per person which works out to $1200 total for the cruise.  With FCCs, shareholder credit, and credits from my TA I'll have over $600 in onboard credit.  I'll use that for gratuities at about $450 total and then whatever beer I drink, usually 4-5 per day on a cruise.  My wife will probably only have a few drinks over the course of the cruise.  In addition we will have 2 mini-bar setups.  For me it just doesn;t make sense to spend $1200 and still have all the onboard credit to use up on stuff we really don't need from the shops.  And we always do excursions on our own at a much cheaper price than those offered by Princess.

I agree with you entirely, this is how I approach the Plus package as well.  Our obc more than covers tips and internet, and trading the minibar for coffee packages covers our caffeine needs, so I don't see any reason to pay an additional $40/day.

 

But I have a "just curious" question...it sounds like you are taking one Hawaii cruise.  How do you have two minibar set ups?  If you're elite and sail in a suite, do you get two?  Otherwise, it's one per cabin even with two elites sailing, am I correct?

[capriccio]

42 minutes ago, pompeii said:

 If you're elite and sail in a suite, do you get two?  Otherwise, it's one per cabin even with two elites sailing, am I correct?

Yes and yes.

[cruzsnooze]

If two people don't need the wifi and either one doesn't drink more then a glass of wine or two it's not for you. One wifi as an elite tier is $5 daily and I generally reduce my gratuity to a balcony priced cabins gratuity, I resent paying 4 times more then the cheapest cabin ( in a suite) and then asked to double up on gratuity too. So for some of us it's a waste of money, but for some it's worth it. Do your own math and decide what's a better value for you. 

  As an elite tier in a full suite I get 2 mini bars set ups which I exchange for  diet cokes, water and Perrier. That's 40 drinks of my choice. 

Edited October 29, 2021 by cruzsnooze

[cruzsnooze]

56 minutes ago, pompeii said:

 

 

But I have a "just curious" question...it sounds like you are taking one Hawaii cruise.  How do you have two minibar set ups?  If you're elite and sail in a suite, do you get two?  Otherwise, it's one per cabin even with two elites sailing, am I correct?

One elite set up per cabin even though there may be 2 or 3 elite tier passengers. One set per FULL suite so yes you get 2 set ups of mini bars. One will already stocked when you board and you merely call room service for the second one. You can trade alcohol for alcohol, soft drinks for soft drinks. If you doing a B2B you get two more sets on the second part of the cruise. 

[trbarton]

1 hour ago, JanetGofWI said:

We have an upcoming cruise in late November on Sky Princess and this will be our first cruise with the plus package. Is there anything special we have to do once on board or do they just look you up via the medallion to see that we have the package?

You don’t have to do anything. They know what you have when they use their computer. 
 

Tom😀