Princess Plus package price increase warning

[dsarah]

We have booked Sky Princess 7 day cruise in January 2025.  Currently booked Standard fare. Considering upgrading to Princess Plus but after reading posts, seems better to wait till later or even on the ship to avoid insurance increase cost, and possible use of OBC.  Main concern is price increase in the next 18 months. Does Princess normally give some "advance warning" when prices will increase?  If so will wait and see.

[Rick&Jeannie]

I have never seen an "advance warning" of a price increase.  If you were to book through a TA they might have insight. 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[memoak]

Since there have been 2 price increases over the last year I really sought that there will be another soon

[LACruiser88]

You never know when an increase is coming, but rest assured prices will continue to increase.  I was just shopping at big box store yesterday and I could not believe increases just over the past several weeks!

[Cruise Raider]

Princess Cruise Vacation Planners (CVP or PVP) always has advanced warnings and posts them on their pages on FB .. just in case you wish to book under the current pricing.  I’d say they usually come out with the notifications about a month ahead of time.  
And BTW, I haven’t seen a notification since the price increase back in February.  

[cr8tiv1]

Yes, they did give a warning before the February 20th increase from $50 to $60 plus.  I had enough time to prepay an October cruise.  Of course, my $50 Princess Plus package will not include the "delicious" over priced $12 sundaes/cakes nor will I be allowed to participate in their "included" 2 gym classes a day.  But I thought it was worth "saving" the extra $10 a day for a longer cruise.  Will I. pay the $60? probably not.  Will I pay any further increase?  I don't think so.  I so wanted to receive my medallion for free that I paid ahead.  

[MissP22]

Considering the popularity of the Plus and Premium packages, it wouldn't come as a shock to see them increase the price very soon. 

[cruisingrob21]

heard a rumor its going to $65 and $95 for plus and premium respectively.  No new perks.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic that they will make some room to bring a "plus light" plan around 30 or 35 but something tells me that's not going to happen.

 

Best thing to do is purchase a TA group rate as many of these include Plus for slightly less than the public Plus rate.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, cruisingrob21 said:

I'm cautiously optimistic that they will make some room to bring a "plus light" plan around 30 or 35 but something tells me that's not going to happen.

That would be great for passengers like myself since 3 or 3 drinks a day is more than enough.

I'm not optimistic about it since todays sailors are leaving lots of drinks unordered which means lots more profit for Princess. 

[memoak]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

That would be great for passengers like myself since 3 or 3 drinks a day is more than enough.

I'm not optimistic about it since todays sailors are leaving lots of drinks unordered which means lots more profit for Princess. 

Any 3 drinks a day $10 to $15 plus Wi-Fi and gratuities you are pretty close to breaking even on the plus package. Grab some waters sodas or coffees and you should break even. Then if you feel like an after dinner brandy you don’t even have to think about it

[MissP22]

11 hours ago, memoak said:

Any 3 drinks a day $10 to $15 plus Wi-Fi and gratuities you are pretty close to breaking even on the plus package. Grab some waters sodas or coffees and you should break even. Then if you feel like an after dinner brandy you don’t even have to think about it

Thanks.

Unless they begin to offer a cheaper package I've found my own way of tailoring a package to meet my needs.

The internet just isn't worth it to me. 

The drink package is way to many for me to break even.

Considering the amount of soda I drink, I'll bring my own & purchase more as needed in the ports. 

[Thrak]

13 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Thanks.

Unless they begin to offer a cheaper package I've found my own way of tailoring a package to meet my needs.

The internet just isn't worth it to me. 

The drink package is way to many for me to break even.

Considering the amount of soda I drink, I'll bring my own & purchase more as needed in the ports. 

 

It's really sad that they force one to pay for Internet access now rather than getting the free minutes we used to get. That was enough time for most folks and was an earned perk.

[MissP22]

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

It's really sad that they force one to pay for Internet access now rather than getting the free minutes we used to get. That was enough time for most folks and was an earned perk.

That change really ticked me off since those minutes were plenty for me. 

Now I have to buy the package in order just check email. 😡 Forget about it.

There's nothing so important that can't wait until I get to the next port to check. 

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

That change really ticked me off since those minutes were plenty for me. 

Now I have to buy the package in order just check email. 😡 Forget about it.

There's nothing so important that can't wait until I get to the next port to check. 

That was my initial response to the new WiFi payment structure but after our last cruise, I've definitely changed my mind.

 

WiFi (which worked great on our Coral Princess cruise) is now so much more than just email.  Our DD had emergency surgery with complications half way through our 28 day cruise.  Being able to FaceTime and text with her and her family was invaluable.  We did not have to worry about tracking minutes or dropped connections.  We had no trouble with connections at any time of day or night (there was a 14 hour time difference).  My DH also used it for streaming. 

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, capriccio said:

My DH also used it for streaming. 

I could not stream on the Crown Princess this past month. I tried.

 

Internet had improved but not that much. I still struggled to post my live post as CC lagged with the photos and it was causing me to go dizzy when I loaded the page to update.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, capriccio said:

That was my initial response to the new WiFi payment structure but after our last cruise, I've definitely changed my mind.

 

WiFi (which worked great on our Coral Princess cruise) is now so much more than just email.  Our DD had emergency surgery with complications half way through our 28 day cruise.  Being able to FaceTime and text with her and her family was invaluable.  We did not have to worry about tracking minutes or dropped connections.  We had no trouble with connections at any time of day or night (there was a 14 hour time difference).  My DH also used it for streaming. 

Understood. 

I've found that in my situation I just don't need an internet connection all the time. If any emergency does occur & I need to keep in contact with everyone I can certainly purchase a connection at that time. 

We mostly sail in the Caribbean & are within a connection almost every other day for email since T-Mobile covers just about everywhere these days. 

Streaming is nice but I've found that if I plan ahead it's another thing that's not totally necessary. 

[Thrak]

At home I'm online constantly. I get annoyed when I'm reading and have no connection as I read almost exclusively e-books anymore. I read a variety of things and often find myself long pressing a word to get the pronunciation or definition  or looking up some info that is referenced for more information. Even with cruise subjects I like to look up the proper pronunciation of places such as Cobh. I love having massive amounts of information at my fingertips. Having an "always on" connection on the ship is fine for me but I do think it was a nasty thing to force an "all or nothing" type of approach on people who had earned the free minutes and were quite happy with the allotted amount of time.

[charlie murphy]

5 hours ago, MissP22 said:

That change really ticked me off since those minutes were plenty for me. 

Now I have to buy the package in order just check email. 😡 Forget about it.

There's nothing so important that can't wait until I get to the next port to check. 

WORD! and what is a vacation without a little procrastination and the freedom to not sweat it --- procrastinate until the next port. FREEDOM that is what I call it! don't let it tick you off, embrace your new freedom! Maybe wait 2 ports! fuhgeddaboudit !!!!

[Thrak]

I have never felt the need to stream videos when cruising. I don't take my laptop and have never had the need or desire to connect to the TV to stream some movie I could watch at home. I realize some folks use the TV connection to view their pics or videos they take on the cruise but I can wait until I get home.

 

Actually, neither  of us really takes that many pics. Sometimes we see some great stuff that others are trying to peer at on their phone screens to get a pic or video. We would really rather just make the visual memories. When we're gone I doubt anybody else is going to treasure our vacation photos or videos. People are busy making their own memories.

[Coral]

10 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I have never felt the need to stream videos when cruising. I don't take my laptop and have never had the need or desire to connect to the TV to stream some movie I could watch at home. I realize some folks use the TV connection to view their pics or videos they take on the cruise but I can wait until I get home.

I was trying to stay away from sick people in the Theatre so I went back to my room and decided to try streaming on my iPad. It lasted all of 5 minutes because it didn't work.

[MissP22]

Steaming isn't a top priority for me but it would be great if the internet speed was fast enough for Zoom meetings. It worked on one trip and not another so until they upgrade their system I wouldn't count on it. 

[Expat Cruise]

21 hours ago, MissP22 said:

That change really ticked me off since those minutes were plenty for me. 

Now I have to buy the package in order just check email. 😡 Forget about it.

There's nothing so important that can't wait until I get to the next port to check. 

I wish we, too, didn't need the internet access. But the way our businesses are set up, without internet access, we could not be halfway around the World cruising, away from them. 

[SargassoPirate]

Princess is exercising the basic law of the marketplace - charge what the traffic will bear.

As long as people will pay higher prices, there is no incentive for them to lower the price.  

 

We, as the "traffic" or consumers can decide when and where to spend our money on what is important to us.  

 

I am happy that cruise lines have moved to the approach to lower the fare and then make their money on the ups and extras because I don't use the extras and the folks that do are helping to subsidize my cruising.

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

10 hours ago, Thrak said:

neither  of us really takes that many pics. Sometimes we see some great stuff that others are trying to peer at on their phone screens to get a pic or video. We would really rather just make the visual memories. When we're gone I doubt anybody else is going to treasure our vacation photos or videos. People are busy making their own memories.

While I have a few minutes, I'll play off a couple of your comments.  

 

First, I was surprised by how many photos I've taken over the past couple of years of cruising.  I like going to concerts, and those take up a lot of pictures. I'm averaging close to 1000 per cruise these days.

 

And second, no, I'm sure my collection of photos and videos will not be treasured by my heirs (if they can find them).  But I value them in the here and now to remind me of where I've been and what I've experienced.  Here's a super random picture I took on a cruise I did in early 2020, before the pandemic, that wasn't on Princess:

[MissP22]

3 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

 

 

Princess use to do something similar a long time ago.