New Grounds Coffee pkg /Soda pkg question

[Buckeye10640]

First off, a good deal on last minue pricing means I am sailing without Princess Plus this time. Looking at options,  can the soft drink or the New Grounds Coffee pkg (15 specialty drinks) be purchased on board or only pre-cruise? For anyone who has used the New Grounds pkg recently did it  include the frozen coffee drinks, iced tea fusion drinks,  etc from IC? Basically just  excludes drinks that are in cans or bottles at IC?  Info on website is a little unclear. TIA!

Edited February 24, 2022 by Buckeye10640

[Ombud]

Yes coffee grounds can be purchased at IC and includes everything from IC. Drip coffee, tea, and cocoa will not count against the 15 beverage count 

[skynight]

You mention soda package in your heading. Yes you can purchase on board. It is a separate package from the coffee package

 

[annlee]

I drink black coffee. Does the IC charge for that? If they do I'll buy a coffee card. I don't imagine there's much difference between the price of a "card" purchased in advance vs onboard. The 15 drink "card" is less than $40, fine by me. I know coffee is avail other spots on board but from reading posts I get the feeling the IC has the best coffee on the ship.  I do not have any sort of drinks package - booze or otherwise, by choice. I'm happy to pay as I go for alcohol, and I don't drink soda.

[JF - retired RRT]

1 hour ago, annlee said:

I drink black coffee. Does the IC charge for that? If they do I'll buy a coffee card. I don't imagine there's much difference between the price of a "card" purchased in advance vs onboard. The 15 drink "card" is less than $40, fine by me. I know coffee is avail other spots on board but from reading posts I get the feeling the IC has the best coffee on the ship.  I do not have any sort of drinks package - booze or otherwise, by choice. I'm happy to pay as I go for alcohol, and I don't drink soda.

All drinks are a charge item at the IC. If you get the coffee pkg., the non-alcoholic beverages are included with unlimited "plain" coffee.

[skynight]

2 hours ago, annlee said:

I drink black coffee. Does the IC charge for that? If they do I'll buy a coffee card. I don't imagine there's much difference between the price of a "card" purchased in advance vs onboard. The 15 drink "card" is less than $40, fine by me. I know coffee is avail other spots on board but from reading posts I get the feeling the IC has the best coffee on the ship.  I do not have any sort of drinks package - booze or otherwise, by choice. I'm happy to pay as I go for alcohol, and I don't drink soda.

All ships have free coffee. If you are on a Royal Class ship they have free coffee in the buffet brewed from grounds. You might want to try it. Other ships have free coffee prepared from a liquid concentrate. Not real good.

Brewed coffee is available at the IC. By the cup is around $2. If you buy the coffee select package, around $36, it comes with 15 specialty coffees plus unlimited brewed coffee, special tea and hot chocolate. 

By the way free tea available in the buffet and DRs. Royal class ships have free hot chocolate in the buffet.

Edited February 24, 2022 by skynight

[annlee]

Thanks to all for for your answers. For the convenience alone (my cabin is one deck above IC)  I'll buy the 15 coffee program when I get onboard, even if I don't drink anything but black. For $40 for the entire 16 days I'll consider it my "all the black coffee from the IC that you can drink in 16 days" card. 😄

Edited February 24, 2022 by annlee

[annlee]

9 minutes ago, skynight said:

coffee prepared from a liquid concentrate

Eew.

[roxievegas]

I am trying to find a copy of coffee menu for the speciality coffees.  We do not have a drink package and wanted to see if it is worth it to get the coffee package.

 

my husband likes Americana and I drink Latte

[Retirement2016]

 

Yes they have Americana and Latte.  You can have Lattes made with almond, oat, along with regular and non-fat milk.  I picked one up at IC before going to breakfast.  They even have iced smoothie type drinks.

[cr8tiv1]

6 hours ago, annlee said:

Thanks to all for for your answers. For the convenience alone (my cabin is one deck above IC)  I'll buy the 15 coffee program when I get onboard, even if I don't drink anything but black. For $40 for the entire 16 days I'll consider it my "all the black coffee from the IC that you can drink in 16 days" card. 😄

 

You can "gift" your specialty coffees to other passengers (in front of/behind you).  I generally find a staff (ID with badge) to gift a coffee.  

[Thrak]

If you are really into "black"coffee try a Red Eye (regular black coffee with a shot of espresso added) or a Black Eye (regular black coffee with a double shot of espresso added). The baristas should know what you are asking for. They've know when I asked for those drinks. (I did get some "odd" reactions from some folks in the line though 😄)

[United_11]

26 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

You can "gift" your specialty coffees to other passengers (in front of/behind you).  I generally find a staff (ID with badge) to gift a coffee.  

That's a great idea about gifting! I only drink tea and hot chocolate, so it never made sense to do the package for specialty coffee. But I always get at least one specialty tea per day and I'm thinking on a 10 day cruise to Alaska the price of tea and HC would add up and it might be worth doing the package.

 

Do you (or anyone else) know if you can order two of the non-charged drinks at the same time (e.g. one hot tea and one brewed coffee)?

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

You can "gift" your specialty coffees to other passengers (in front of/behind you).  I generally find a staff (ID with badge) to gift a coffee.  

 

We sailed for 28 days with some great people. We had the beverage package as a perk. I had two mostly unused coffee cards. I gave them to one of the people who was really happy. She ended up finishing both cards. When the cards were being discontinued I bought coffees for a young couple behind me in the line. They seemed a bit "unsure" about a total stranger buying them snazzy coffee drinks but did end up accepting them with thanks. It's can be nice to be nice.

[ellenb23]

As I also drink mostly black coffee, i bring good quality instant coffee with me, Starbucks Via or the equally good and less expensive Mount Hagen. The coffee in the buffet is not up to my finicky standards. 🙂

[justafem]

I'm buying the coffee *card* for our 5 day April cheapo cruise.  Princess plus package tripled the price, so nope. 

 

Coffee card gives us 3 specialty coffees per day and I love their vanilla bean tea. 

 

It was such a weird fare. Cheaper to do 1 person per cabin, than double occupancy, with double the on-board.  So we did. 

 

The $125 on-board we got will almost cover grats (72.50), coffee card ($36) and 1 device unlimited internet ($25).  

 

Now if Princess had offered Princess plus for $250, I would have gotten it, but at $500, huge nope. I don't feel I could possibly utilize $360 in booze, coffee, nonalcoholic and/or bottled water in 5 days. We'll drink our room wine. 4 bottles between 2 people over 5 days is perfect.  

 

So Princess lost $125 by trying to weird price us. Ehhh, it'll get me to elite for more important cruises.

[Buckeye10640]

2 hours ago, justafem said:

I'm buying the coffee *card* for our 5 day April cheapo cruise.  Princess plus package tripled the price, so nope. 

 

Coffee card gives us 3 specialty coffees per day and I love their vanilla bean tea. 

 

It was such a weird fare. Cheaper to do 1 person per cabin, than double occupancy, with double the on-board.  So we did. 

 

The $125 on-board we got will almost cover grats (72.50), coffee card ($36) and 1 device unlimited internet ($25).  

 

Now if Princess had offered Princess plus for $250, I would have gotten it, but at $500, huge nope. I don't feel I could possibly utilize $360 in booze, coffee, nonalcoholic and/or bottled water in 5 days. We'll drink our room wine. 4 bottles between 2 people over 5 days is perfect.  

 

So Princess lost $125 by trying to weird price us. Ehhh, it'll get me to elite for more important cruises.

Yeah this was a really weird fare.  Regal March 7?  I will still buy a few drinks but pay as I go, along with the coffee *card*

[justafem]

3 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

Yeah this was a really weird fare.  Regal March 7?  I will still buy a few drinks but pay as I go, along with the coffee *card*

Nope, Ruby April 11, SanFran.  Only needed 1 cruise credit for elite, but got a spare.  

[waldocruise]

Just wondering what everyone thinks of the Premier Coffee and soda package as opposed to the 15 coffees.  I'm leaning towards the Coffee and Soda package so I don't have to worry about my drink mood at any particular moment.  If someone goes on the Regal Princess before May 21, can we get an upload of the menu with pricing to help make the choice a bit clearer for me (and anyone else who might find that info useful)?

[Redwing55]

21 hours ago, waldocruise said:

Just wondering what everyone thinks of the Premier Coffee and soda package as opposed to the 15 coffees.  I'm leaning towards the Coffee and Soda package so I don't have to worry about my drink mood at any particular moment.  If someone goes on the Regal Princess before May 21, can we get an upload of the menu with pricing to help make the choice a bit clearer for me (and anyone else who might find that info useful)?

I admit to being on the frugal side, but I find the cost of the coffee/soda package priced too high.  I'd get the soda and then purchase the 15 coffees separately.  I say this since I've never had so many specialty coffees to warrant that.  If that's your style, by all means spring for it.  I'm unclear as to how long your cruise is so that factors in.  Also, I do get the unlimited coffees at the IC... which comes with the coffee "card."