Swapping elite complimentary mini bar choices now that coffee card has gone

[Cbtours]

Can anyone currently on board tell me what you can swap your elite mini bar set up to now that coffee cards are gone. We don’t drink alcohol and the only soda we drink is ginger ale. What are princess now offering?

[lois1112]

is coffee card completely gone or part of the premier beverage package?

[Sea Hag]

5 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

Can anyone currently on board tell me what you can swap your elite mini bar set up to now that coffee cards are gone. We don’t drink alcohol and the only soda we drink is ginger ale. What are princess now offering?

A few weeks back, we swapped out everything for sparkling water. We got 20 or 24 of those. Hubby thought 20; I thought 24. He's probably right. That was a nice option, but not as nice as the two coffee packages.

[Sea Hag]

2 minutes ago, lois1112 said:

is coffee card completely gone or part of the premier beverage package?

The coffee card, as it has been in the past, is gone right now. You can get coffees on the plus or premier packages. They're also selling a "zero alcohol" package that's a per person, per day cost. Don't remember what that was.

[lois1112]

5 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

The coffee card, as it has been in the past, is gone right now. You can get coffees on the plus or premier packages. They're also selling a "zero alcohol" package that's a per person, per day cost. Don't remember what that was.

thank you our Princess travel person gifted us the plus package

[Cbtours]

34 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

A few weeks back, we swapped out everything for sparkling water. We got 20 or 24 of those. Hubby thought 20; I thought 24. He's probably right. That was a nice option, but not as nice as the two coffee packages.

 

36 minutes ago, lois1112 said:

is coffee card completely gone or part of the premier beverage package?

It’s part of the zero alcohol package now

[Siouxland Cruiser]

We swapped ours for $50 on board credit

[Cbtours]

2 minutes ago, Siouxland Cruiser said:

We swapped ours for $50 on board credit

Who did you arrange that with?

[coo359a2]

Just got off the Regal and had 8 small liquor bottles, 2  beers, 2 plain water, 2 tonic water, 2 perrier, 2 diet coke and 2 Sprite . Alcohol and non alcohol drinks  can all be exchanged for either soda (may have Ginger Ale) or any type water. DH changes to have 8 of same type alcohol, keeps the beer and i get 10 diet Coke.  

[Cbtours]

Just now, coo359a2 said:

Just got off the Regal and had 8 small liquor bottles, 2  beers, 2 plain water, 2 tonic water, 2 perrier, 2 diet coke and 2 Sprite . Alcohol and non alcohol drinks  can all be exchanged for either soda (may have Ginger Ale) or any type water. DH changes to have 8 of same type alcohol, keeps the beer and i get 10 diet Coke.  

We are Aussie’s on the grand doing vancouver return 6-20 may.

[Siouxland Cruiser]

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

Who did you arrange that with?

 

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

Who did you arrange that with?

 

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

We are Aussie’s on the grand doing vancouver return 6-20 may.

We

 

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

We are Aussie’s on the grand doing vancouver return 6-20 may.

 

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

We are Aussie’s on the grand doing vancouver return 6-20 may.

3 hours ago, Cbtours said:

We are Aussie’s on the grand doing vancouver return 6-20 may.

 

[Siouxland Cruiser]

To switch from the mini bar set up to$50 OBC, we went to guest services and stated we didn’t want the mini bar setup so what could we get to replace it.  Guest Services said “You can have $50 OBC” and we took it

[love2relax]

I’m not on a ship now, but my last Princess cruise was at the end of February 2023. We still swap the mini bar for “virtual” coffee cards. As soon as we get to our cabin we call room service and tell them we want to make the swap. Instead of physically giving us the cards, they put it on our accounts. We just flash our medallions at the IC when we order our coffee: very simple. They usually don’t come to collect the mini bar for a few days, but if we wait until evening on the first night, even though we still have the minibar we can get our coffees. Usually I see some kind of charge like we have purchased the card, but it disappears later at night. Once the charge appears we are good to go. I usually ask room service for an approximate time when it will be on my medallion. It’s usually about 1 to 3 hours.

On one cruise when I was traveling with a non-coffee drinker, we swapped out for bottled waters.  

[Guest ldtr]

46 minutes ago, love2relax said:

I’m not on a ship now, but my last Princess cruise was at the end of February 2023. We still swap the mini bar for “virtual” coffee cards. As soon as we get to our cabin we call room service and tell them we want to make the swap. Instead of physically giving us the cards, they put it on our accounts. We just flash our medallions at the IC when we order our coffee: very simple. They usually don’t come to collect the mini bar for a few days, but if we wait until evening on the first night, even though we still have the minibar we can get our coffees. Usually I see some kind of charge like we have purchased the card, but it disappears later at night. Once the charge appears we are good to go. I usually ask room service for an approximate time when it will be on my medallion. It’s usually about 1 to 3 hours.

On one cruise when I was traveling with a non-coffee drinker, we swapped out for bottled waters.  

That is no longer an option.  The virtual coffee card program is gone entirely.  You can no longer purchase them or swap the minibar for them.

 

 

[Cbtours]

Just now, ldtr said:

That is no longer an option.  The virtual coffee card program is gone entirely.  You can no longer purchase them or swap the minibar for them.

 

 

Thanks. Well I guess I’ll know the answer this question in a months time 😊

[rlt1]

I just got off the Discovery Princess and we didn’t get a bar set up at all. When we complained to the front desk they said they would send us a bottle of wine, when we said we didn’t drink they said they were sorry but that’s the new rules from corporate. We were also told besides the changes to the bar set up and taking away the 250 minutes for internet they are also discussing making changes to the free laundry for elites. We were also told by an officer that on the sailing before us that were charging a sur charge for Luigi/Alfredo’s pizza restaurant in the piazza. He said there were so many complaints that they decided not to change on our sailing.

[DallasGuy75219]

1 hour ago, rlt1 said:

We were also told by an officer that on the sailing before us that were charging a sur charge for Luigi/Alfredo’s pizza restaurant in the piazza. He said there were so many complaints that they decided not to change on our sailing.

Sounds like ship management going rogue, because Princess' web page for Discovery does not say "Additional charge applies" like for example Gelato and does not list Gigi's as a specialty restaurant.  And the dining page for the whole fleet lists Alfredo’s/Gigi's under "What's Included."

[caribill]

10 hours ago, lois1112 said:

thank you our Princess travel person gifted us the plus package

 

I bet you paid for it even though the Personalizer may show it as the source being your booking agent.

 

Princess has three fare categories: standard, plus and premier. Plus costs $60/person.day more than standard.

 

Go to the Princess web site and check the current pricing for your room type on your cruise. See if the price you are paying is closer to the standard fare or the plus fare. If it is close to the standard fare, then the package is really a gift from your booking agent. If it is close to the plus fare, then you did indeed pay for it.

 

For a 7-day cruise, the extra cost for two people for the plus package is $420 each for a total of $840.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, rlt1 said:

I just got off the Discovery Princess ...... We were also told by an officer that on the sailing before us that were charging a sur charge for Luigi/Alfredo’s pizza restaurant in the piazza. He said there were so many complaints that they decided not to change on our sailing.

 

If I remember correctly, when the current Royal Princess had its maiden voyage they also tried to charge for Alfredo's food (I think is was $10/person). Then a massive negative passenger reaction led to that fee being eliminated.

[Guest ldtr]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

If I remember correctly, when the current Royal Princess had its maiden voyage they also tried to charge for Alfredo's food (I think is was $10/person). Then a massive negative passenger reaction led to that fee being eliminated.

It was the Regal. The Royal was the introduction of Alfredos  and was free. When the Regal was launched they tried to charge. That lasted about 2 cruises.

[555]

On 3/27/2023 at 1:29 PM, ldtr said:

It was the Regal. The Royal was the introduction of Alfredos  and was free. When the Regal was launched they tried to charge. That lasted about 2 cruises.

Good to here. If more people would speak with their wallets maybe the prices wouldn't be like they are today. 

[pompeii]

Just off the Enchanted and we also received $50 pp (both of us are Elite) to replace the coffee package so we could treat ourselves to coffees (their words.)  They also left the minibar "for us to enjoy" and since we don't imbibe, we traded it out for sodas.  

 

I think this was just a solution on our particular sailing since the coffee package option had just been eliminated prior to our embarkation and we had no real advanced notice of the change.  I think future cruises will probably offer only trades for sodas, waters, or a bottle of wine with no obc option.  

[555]

7 hours ago, pompeii said:

Just off the Enchanted and we also received $50 pp (both of us are Elite) to replace the coffee package so we could treat ourselves to coffees (their words.)  They also left the minibar "for us to enjoy" and since we don't imbibe, we traded it out for sodas.  

 

I think this was just a solution on our particular sailing since the coffee package option had just been eliminated prior to our embarkation and we had no real advanced notice of the change.  I think future cruises will probably offer only trades for sodas, waters, or a bottle of wine with no obc option.  

It sounds as though you lucked out. 

Enjoy. 

[PrincessLuver]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:17 PM, rlt1 said:

I just got off the Discovery Princess and we didn’t get a bar set up at all. When we complained to the front desk they said they would send us a bottle of wine, when we said we didn’t drink they said they were sorry but that’s the new rules from corporate. We were also told besides the changes to the bar set up and taking away the 250 minutes for internet they are also discussing making changes to the free laundry for elites. We were also told by an officer that on the sailing before us that were charging a sur charge for Luigi/Alfredo’s pizza restaurant in the piazza. He said there were so many complaints that they decided not to change on our sailing.

 

If they take away the free laundry too then what is the point of being an Elite or any level in the Captain's Circle program.  We will definitely being going to other cruise lines then because we do fairly long cruises and the free laundry is what keeps us coming back to Princess.

[Ombud]

Website still says (& a friend confirmed on a cruise last month):

But we've all experienced a delay in updating that. I'd rather have the 50 OBC @Siouxland Cruiser and @pompeii got. As to laundry, someone mentioned elsewhere on CC that they got tokens to cover it from GSD. That's ok as I can then cold water wash and skip pin holes