No exchanges anymore for mini bar to coffee?

[AE_Collector]

18 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

The coffee package was $36.58 per package, so for 2 it was $73.16.  They gave us $50 pp OBC.  Better deal for us the first cruise.  The 2nd cruise, the bottle of wine value was only $44 total. Not so great, neither was the wine. 😆 

No consistency here.

The swap for a bottle of wine always had a limit of something like $40 something for the one bottle. It wasn’t close to the value of two coffee cards.

[PacnGoNow]

42 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

The swap for a bottle of wine always had a limit of something like $40 something for the one bottle. It wasn’t close to the value of two coffee cards.

Yes, correct.  

[pink845]

Well, I spoke to Princess today and Princess confirmed there is no more swapping out the Elite mini bar for coffee cards. A thing of the past.  This agent was soooo new. He had never heard of such a little perk.  He had to confirm it with a supervisor.  Also, no OBC to be offered in its place.  That is not in their little handbook of responses.  So those of you that got a OBC credit after playing dumb, consider yourselves lucky as I am sure the bean counters will be scolding those onboard representatives for caving in to the crying passengers (that would have been me if I had been on board of recent).   However, the agent sang the praises of the all new Zero Alcohol Beverage package for passengers who enjoy brewed coffee and specialty coffee drinks.  Who cares if we are not interested in overly sweet mocktails and pop.  This is from an agent trying to sell a product who has probably never set foot on a cruise ship giving me advice on the phone from Guatemala or the Philippines.    Now for the kicker:  Cost would be for Canadians on a 7 day Alaskan cruise:   CDN$45.65 per day plus 18% gratuities (total CDN$53.86) or USD$35.99 including gratuities.

 

I am sorry Princess, but $377 CDN dollars per person for specialty coffees, brewed coffee and pop (we do not drink pop and, as as such have wonderful teeth!!).  No need for mocktails on a cold cruise either (again full of sugar).  No thank you.  I will bring my Nescafe and get hot water from the buffet and maybe pay for a specialty coffee each day $USD5.00.  Again, $377 CDN. Oh, he mentioned if I chose the Princess Plus Beverage Package, I would get free internet.   Not interested.  My husband has free internet and phone calling due to the nature of his occupation internationally, so we do not need this either.   We really used to like those 15 free specialty coffees.  And we did not take advantage of the cards because in the last few years, they did have an expiry date on them which was the end of each cruise.  Yes, I do remember the JOKER cards had no expiry on them.  But they were go with the dodo birds.    On another note, I checked to see if I could bring my little slim Keurig on board and was told no.  Okay, I asked about whether there would be a kettle on a few British Isles cruise and Princess checked the Regal Princess sailing and confirmed no.  I said I read on Cruise Critic that there were kettles on the Enchanted Princess Transatlantic and agent could not confirm.  Will do the next couple of cruises with Princess, but they have tested my loyalty.  Time to continue sailing with Royal Caribbean until they too eliminate their perks.    I know a lot of cruisers enjoy paying the $600 to $700 CDN dollars more per person to buy the fancy drink packages and spend the day trying different concoctions of beverages but on our last cruise I saw so many of these fancy drinks half finished by the pool.  So sad.  What a waste of money and so very toxic to one's health to drink so much sugar in any given day. My opinion. 

[Micahs Grandad]

We complained about this on the comment card I sent back yesterday but think the day of the coffee card is gone forever.

 

Now the game is getting us to spend more on the ship.

[pink845]

Micahs Grandad, thanks for putting it on the comment card. They gotta pull more money out of us to build up their war chest in case of another pandemic.   This time, they will have more money in their kitty complements of everyone buying those pricy drink packages.

[Happiest when cruising]

1 hour ago, pink845 said:

Well, I spoke to Princess today and Princess confirmed there is no more swapping out the Elite mini bar for coffee cards. A thing of the past.  This agent was soooo new. He had never heard of such a little perk.  He had to confirm it with a supervisor.  Also, no OBC to be offered in its place.  That is not in their little handbook of responses.  So those of you that got a OBC credit after playing dumb, consider yourselves lucky as I am sure the bean counters will be scolding those onboard representatives for caving in to the crying passengers (that would have been me if I had been on board of recent).   However, the agent sang the praises of the all new Zero Alcohol Beverage package for passengers who enjoy brewed coffee and specialty coffee drinks.  Who cares if we are not interested in overly sweet mocktails and pop.  This is from an agent trying to sell a product who has probably never set foot on a cruise ship giving me advice on the phone from Guatemala or the Philippines.    Now for the kicker:  Cost would be for Canadians on a 7 day Alaskan cruise:   CDN$45.65 per day plus 18% gratuities (total CDN$53.86) or USD$35.99 including gratuities.

 

I am sorry Princess, but $377 CDN dollars per person for specialty coffees, brewed coffee and pop (we do not drink pop and, as as such have wonderful teeth!!).  No need for mocktails on a cold cruise either (again full of sugar).  No thank you.  I will bring my Nescafe and get hot water from the buffet and maybe pay for a specialty coffee each day $USD5.00.  Again, $377 CDN. Oh, he mentioned if I chose the Princess Plus Beverage Package, I would get free internet.   Not interested.  My husband has free internet and phone calling due to the nature of his occupation internationally, so we do not need this either.   We really used to like those 15 free specialty coffees.  And we did not take advantage of the cards because in the last few years, they did have an expiry date on them which was the end of each cruise.  Yes, I do remember the JOKER cards had no expiry on them.  But they were go with the dodo birds.    On another note, I checked to see if I could bring my little slim Keurig on board and was told no.  Okay, I asked about whether there would be a kettle on a few British Isles cruise and Princess checked the Regal Princess sailing and confirmed no.  I said I read on Cruise Critic that there were kettles on the Enchanted Princess Transatlantic and agent could not confirm.  Will do the next couple of cruises with Princess, but they have tested my loyalty.  Time to continue sailing with Royal Caribbean until they too eliminate their perks.    I know a lot of cruisers enjoy paying the $600 to $700 CDN dollars more per person to buy the fancy drink packages and spend the day trying different concoctions of beverages but on our last cruise I saw so many of these fancy drinks half finished by the pool.  So sad.  What a waste of money and so very toxic to one's health to drink so much sugar in any given day. My opinion. 

I’m also Canadian, and I won’t be booking with any packages either. I can’t imagine spending that kind of money for 7 days.

I try to think like I was at home. Would I be willing to spend that much on having coffee out somewhere?
 I have no problem paying for my morning coffee at the IC. It’s pretty good and only a couple of dollars, or so. 
I am with you on all those sugary drinks, too. But, everyone has a different idea of vacation and I think that it is  great there are options for us to choose, or not to. 
 

I haven’t bothered with the math of what that would cost for the 22 days we’ll be on board for, but I’m sure it’s a no from me. It would be a ridiculous amount. 

I’ll pay my gratuities and maybe get the internet. But… I’m thinking of going cold turkey for that, too. I can just catch up with all the social media sites when I get home. 

Thanks for calling Princess to get the newest information. 

 

[JimmyVWine]

My advice is that people keep making comments on comment cards and in post-cruise surveys because Princess really, really, really, REALLY wants you to buy a package. You break even at 2 glasses of decent wine and a cappuccino. They would much rather you do that than continue to supply you with little uneconomical, environmentally disastrous bottles of liquor.  Mark my words. Those will go the way of plastic straws within 2 years. So if you have ideas as to what you would consider to be a fair swap for those bottles, speak up. Because those bottles are going away, and there is no value to giving you a coffee card when coffee is already included in all of the packages. Your precious mini-bar setup is worth around $75. (If the comparison is the equivalent number of bar drinks those would replace. Much, much less if you went to Total and bought those bottles.). So become creative and vocal about what a fair trade would be. But stick within the fair market value of the Lilliputian bottles and don’t start insisting on free beverage packages that cost per day what the full cost of the mini-bar setup costs.  Eventually Princess will get the message. 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

Your precious mini-bar setup is worth around $75.

Aren't 10 beers about $60 (or more with 18%)?

And say 10 Perrier are maybe $25??

Of course, wholesale cost to Princess isn't near what the menu prices are.

 

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

My advice is that people keep making comments on comment cards and in post-cruise surveys because Princess really, really, really, REALLY wants you to buy a package. You break even at 2 glasses of decent wine and a cappuccino. They would much rather you do that than continue to supply you with little uneconomical, environmentally disastrous bottles of liquor.  Mark my words. Those will go the way of plastic straws within 2 years. So if you have ideas as to what you would consider to be a fair swap for those bottles, speak up. Because those bottles are going away, and there is no value to giving you a coffee card when coffee is already included in all of the packages. Your precious mini-bar setup is worth around $75. (If the comparison is the equivalent number of bar drinks those would replace. Much, much less if you went to Total and bought those bottles.). So become creative and vocal about what a fair trade would be. But stick within the fair market value of the Lilliputian bottles and don’t start insisting on free beverage packages that cost per day what the full cost of the mini-bar setup costs.  Eventually Princess will get the message. 

As I have mentioned in other posts, I suspect that the reason for the coffee card going away was not due to just a desire to increase profits, but instead because it had issues working correctly with the medallion system and the per day packages. During my last 5 cruises over the last 6 months. I repeated ran into waiters trying to say that I had a package when all I had was a coffee card.  There also seemed to be issues with the IC staff correctly charging the card.  I would finish the cruise with most few drinks being subtracted, even though I had used most if not all.  Basically a card of X drinks did not integrate well when all of their other packages were x dollars per day.  I suspect that they did not want to take the effort to fix the problems so they got rid of the card entirely.

 

In some ways kind of the same thing when they changed internet from a per minute system to unlimited per day.  Instead of spending the effort to run a per minute system in an unlimited per day world, they dropped the minutes and went the discount route.

[caribill]

5 hours ago, ldtr said:

In some ways kind of the same thing when they changed internet from a per minute system to unlimited per day.  Instead of spending the effort to run a per minute system in an unlimited per day world, they dropped the minutes and went the discount route.

 

And then in December raised the Internet rates by 50% (or more depending on options).

[MissP22]

41 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

And then in December raised the Internet rates by 50% (or more depending on options).

People just seem oblivious to these rate increases. 

[pompeii]

7 hours ago, ldtr said:

As I have mentioned in other posts, I suspect that the reason for the coffee card going away was not due to just a desire to increase profits, but instead because it had issues working correctly with the medallion system and the per day packages. During my last 5 cruises over the last 6 months. I repeated ran into waiters trying to say that I had a package when all I had was a coffee card.  There also seemed to be issues with the IC staff correctly charging the card.  I would finish the cruise with most few drinks being subtracted, even though I had used most if not all.  Basically a card of X drinks did not integrate well when all of their other packages were x dollars per day.  I suspect that they did not want to take the effort to fix the problems so they got rid of the card entirely.

I agree that they seemed to have a hard time tracking specialty coffees on the coffee package.  Since you couldn't check for yourself how many "punches" you had left, you had to ask at the coffee bar or passenger services.  I always got a different number, sometimes by a lot. I remember asking at the IC and was told I had 5 left (which couldn't be correct because it was only 2-3 days into the cruise and I knew I hadn't used that many) so I then went to the psd and was told 13.  And many times, I had more later in the week than I had earlier in that same week. 

 

I think, though, that the demise of the coffee card could be linked to the new partnership with Lavazza.  Lavazza is too expensive to offer unlimited Lavazza brewed coffee for $36.  

[pompeii]

10 hours ago, Micahs Grandad said:

We complained about this on the comment card I sent back yesterday but think the day of the coffee card is gone forever.

 

We're just off the Enchanted and dh and I both complained about losing the coffee package on our comment cards.  Also about Princess thinking so little of their passengers to have them believe that a $39/day package is in any way an acceptable replacement for a $36/cruise package.  

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, pompeii said:

I agree that they seemed to have a hard time tracking specialty coffees on the coffee package.  Since you couldn't check for yourself how many "punches" you had left, you had to ask at the coffee bar or passenger services.  I always got a different number, sometimes by a lot. I remember asking at the IC and was told I had 5 left (which couldn't be correct because it was only 2-3 days into the cruise and I knew I hadn't used that many) so I then went to the psd and was told 13.  And many times, I had more later in the week than I had earlier in that same week. 

 

I think, though, that the demise of the coffee card could be linked to the new partnership with Lavazza.  Lavazza is too expensive to offer unlimited Lavazza brewed coffee for $36.  

What I did like on the Enchanted, was that I received a comment paper twice from the General Hotel Manager for comments about what would make our cruise more enjoyable while OB.

 

I did appreciate that gesture.

[billco]

10 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

My advice is that people keep making comments on comment cards and in post-cruise surveys because Princess really, really, really, REALLY wants you to buy a package. You break even at 2 glasses of decent wine and a cappuccino. They would much rather you do that than continue to supply you with little uneconomical, environmentally disastrous bottles of liquor.  Mark my words. Those will go the way of plastic straws within 2 years. So if you have ideas as to what you would consider to be a fair swap for those bottles, speak up. Because those bottles are going away, and there is no value to giving you a coffee card when coffee is already included in all of the packages. Your precious mini-bar setup is worth around $75. (If the comparison is the equivalent number of bar drinks those would replace. Much, much less if you went to Total and bought those bottles.). So become creative and vocal about what a fair trade would be. But stick within the fair market value of the Lilliputian bottles and don’t start insisting on free beverage packages that cost per day what the full cost of the mini-bar setup costs.  Eventually Princess will get the message. 

On a recent cruise on the Discovery Princess they were unable to stock the mini-bar, so they put a bottle of Pinot Noir in it. I don't know what it was they came up short, but I suspect it was the small bottles. We usually swap out for a bottle of wine or beer and water anyway.

Edited April 4, 2023 by billco

[kywildcatfanone]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Of course, wholesale cost to Princess isn't near what the menu prices are.

I'm sure they are paying pennies for their drinks based upon their volume.  Drinks of any kind of a cruise ship, like hotels, etc, are just cash cows.

 

 

Anyway, as I posted, I can go packageless, bring what I want on board and it doesn't cost me much.  Now if they start charging me for ice......

[JimmyVWine]

9 hours ago, ldtr said:

Basically a card of X drinks did not integrate well when all of their other packages were x dollars per day.  I suspect that they did not want to take the effort to fix the problems so they got rid of the card entirely.

BINGO.  The coffee card is an analog product and the Medallion is a digital one.  Princess is not trying to ruin anyone's cruise.  Instead, they came up with fairly priced packages that include alcohol and coffee and as a result, the alcohol/coffee setup that has been provided as a perk simply doesn't make sense any longer.  They need to find a different way to present an Elite reward but so far they are stumbling.  I suspect that after a while they will figure it out, and it would move faster if everyone told Princess what they would like to see as the replacement. 

[MissP22]

48 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

What I did like on the Enchanted, was that I received a comment paper twice from the General Hotel Manager for comments about what would make our cruise more enjoyable while OB.

 

I did appreciate that gesture.

They must have been overwhelmed with responses as they never acknowledged receiving any input. 

[pompeii]

58 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

BINGO.  The coffee card is an analog product and the Medallion is a digital one.  Princess is not trying to ruin anyone's cruise.  Instead, they came up with fairly priced packages that include alcohol and coffee and as a result, the alcohol/coffee setup that has been provided as a perk simply doesn't make sense any longer.  They need to find a different way to present an Elite reward but so far they are stumbling.  I suspect that after a while they will figure it out, and it would move faster if everyone told Princess what they would like to see as the replacement. 

The coffee package was digital and attached to your medallion. Actual physical cards have been gone for a while now. 

[JimmyVWine]

2 minutes ago, pompeii said:

The coffee package was digital and attached to your medallion. Actual physical cards have been gone for a while now. 

Of course.  But that system was set up before Plus and Premier were introduced.  Even though it was linked to the Medallion, it worked exactly the same way, counting digital punches.

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, billco said:

On a recent cruise on the Discovery Princess they were unable to stock the mini-bar, so they put a bottle of Pinot Noir in it. I don't know what it was they came up short, but I suspect it was the small bottles. We usually swap out for a bottle of wine or beer and water anyway.

On the Discovery now, b2b, and we've had the regular minibar setup both cruises. Looks like they received their mini delivery. The benefit is of no use to us though, as we have the plus package.

[pompeii]

23 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Of course.  But that system was set up before Plus and Premier were introduced.  Even though it was linked to the Medallion, it worked exactly the same way, counting digital punches.

But don't they count the daily number of drinks on Plus and Premier?  I'm truly not intending to be argumentative; but why would the system would be different between tracking the number of coffees and tracking the number of alcoholic drinks?  Seems like if the system can handle one, it can handle the other.  

Edited April 4, 2023 by pompeii

[caribill]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

BINGO.  The coffee card is an analog product and the Medallion is a digital one.  Princess is not trying to ruin anyone's cruise.

 

If they can count 15 alcohol beverages a day, they can count 15 coffees a cruise.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

Instead, they came up with fairly priced packages that include alcohol and coffee and as a result, the alcohol/coffee setup that has been provided as a perk simply doesn't make sense any longer.  They need to find a different way to present an Elite reward but so far they are stumbling.

 

19 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

The benefit is of no use to us though, as we have the plus package.

 

I won't argue the fairness of pricing beverage packages, as they are probably pretty fair still for those who have enough drinks.  For us, would not want to lose mini-bar completely as it is useful to us (and I should think anyone else who books Standard fares). 

 

In other situations, Princess has T&C that indicate nothing due to guest who doesn't use everything available to them (para-phrasing in general here).  IDK whether they will come up with a new substitute for Elite/Suite guests who have a beverage package.  Right now, I gather some of those excess beverages are being gifted to others or to staff.  Otherwise, I can see some convenience to pop open a drink while in cabin without having to wait for an order to arrive.  

 

Maybe they could offer some of those new fancy dessert items in exchange.  Kind of like "Let them eat cake!".

Edited April 4, 2023 by Steelers36

[Steelers36]

1 minute ago, caribill said:

 

If they can count 15 alcohol beverages a day, they can count 15 coffees a cruise.

Perhaps easier for them to undertake a change such that the coffee count is also by the day.  However, if we talk about a mini-bar exchange for X coffee per day, then the value of the mini-bar can vary by a LOT (5-night cruise versus 15-night cruise, versus 50-night cruise).