Drink Packages

[HMSDingy]

If I understand it correctly, the Premier Package at $84.99/day for a 20 day cruise would total $1700. What if you only want a wine package, does Princess have one?

[roadster08]

No wine package and the selections on the premiere are pretty good, but if you go down to the plus package you'll be drinking a lot of frat house wine.

 

A better option is you can bring two bottles of wine per person on board. However, there will be a corkage fee if you drink them in the dining room. In addition, for a fee you can bring on additional bottles of wine with the same corkage fees.

 

My wife drinks only one wine so we bought a couple of bottles at a liquor store near the port and brought them on board.

Edited June 21, 2023 by roadster08

[CruisinFinsUp]

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/beverages/

 

Princess' beverage packages are explained on their website.   Click on the terms and conditions for specifics.   

 

Sample menus are posted on this thread quite frequently.  Unfortunately the wines by the glass included in the "Plus" package have become "no name".  They have them listed by type only and they pour whatever they have of that type.  Some of it is awful, some ok.   I'm not a wine snob, so for a week or two onboard it is "fine".  If I really don't like what I'm poured, I just order something else.  The food onboard is certainly not excellent enough to worry about the wine pairing.  

I don't think any of their "Premier" wines by the glass are that much better to bother upgrading the package for the money.   

 

Their "sold by the bottle" menu selection is more comprehensive if you prefer that route (assuming they have any of it in stock).  But there are no longer any packages of "buy xx bottles and save" as there were in the past.   

 

The "Plus" and "Premier" cruise pricing packages include other stuff such as wifi and gratuities, making the drink package portion less overall.  Depending on your needs, the pricing packages may be a better deal that just the beverage package alone, then paying gratuities separately.    

[cbfb]

If you have the plus package can you buy a drink or glass of wine that is more expensive and just pay the difference? 

[Dee_Jay]

8 minutes ago, cbfb said:

If you have the plus package can you buy a drink or glass of wine that is more expensive and just pay the difference? 

Yes.  You pay the difference plus 18% gratuity.

[cbfb]

15 minutes ago, Dee_Jay said:

Yes.  You pay the difference plus 18% gratuity.

Thank you!!!! 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, roadster08 said:

A better option is you can bring two bottles of wine per person on board.

 

When did this change? As far as I know you can only bring on 1 bottle per person without paying corkage at boarding.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, roadster08 said:

No wine package and the selections on the premiere are pretty good, but if you go down to the plus package you'll be drinking a lot of frat house wine.

 

A better option is you can bring two bottles of wine per person on board. However, there will be a corkage fee if you drink them in the dining room. In addition, for a fee you can bring on additional bottles of wine with the same corkage fees.

 

My wife drinks only one wine so we bought a couple of bottles at a liquor store near the port and brought them on board.

I have always thought it was 2 bottles per cabin 

[Thrak]

58 minutes ago, memoak said:

I have always thought it was 2 bottles per cabin 

 

Yes. 2 bottles per stateroom if there are two booked in that stateroom but only one bottle per person. From the passage contract:

 

Guests agree not to bring alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages on board for consumption or for any other use except as follows:

• For Guests of legal drinking age, an allowance of one (1) bottle of wine or champagne (750 mL in volume or less) per Guest per Voyage may be presented to security during embarkation. A US $20.00 corkage fee will be charged should Guests wish to consumer their wine or champagne in the ship’s public areas.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Thrak

[roadster08]

55 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Yes. 2 bottles per stateroom if there are two booked in that stateroom but only one bottle per person. From the passage contract:

 

Guests agree not to bring alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages on board for consumption or for any other use except as follows:

• For Guests of legal drinking age, an allowance of one (1) bottle of wine or champagne (750 mL in volume or less) per Guest per Voyage may be presented to security during embarkation. A US $20.00 corkage fee will be charged should Guests wish to consumer their wine or champagne in the ship’s public areas.

Yes, thanks. Only 2 without the fee if consumed in non public area, but additional bottles within reasonable limits are allowed but have a mandatory 20 dollar corkage fee. That's also in the passage contract I saw online. It did not mention a restriction on where those additional bottles can be consumed and since it is called a  corkage fee you would think it could be consumed anywhere.

 

Seems like a reasonable option for those who drink wine only. Although I wonder if its enforced consistently across all Princess ships. 

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, HMSDingy said:

If I understand it correctly, the Premier Package at $84.99/day for a 20 day cruise would total $1700. What if you only want a wine package, does Princess have one?

You do NOT!!! want to be doing this!!!  

 

Are you aware of the Cruise Fare options of Plus Fare and Premier Fare?  These are the ways to go because you are just throwing money away to buy the separate beverage package.

 

You can add the Plus or Premier FARE package to your booking pre-cruise or purchase it on-board on Day 1. 

 

PLUS is $60/pp/day and Premier is $80/pp/day.  The Cruise Fare package includes Crew Appreciation and MedallionNet (internet access for 1-device each at a time).

 

Don't even think about purchasing the standalone drink packages.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, roadster08 said:

A better option is you can bring two bottles of wine per person on board.

Probably a typo as the free limit is 1 bottle per guest.  You can also bring another one or two bottles on at a port stop and they don't bat and eye.

[Steelers36]

34 minutes ago, roadster08 said:

Yes, thanks. Only 2 without the fee if consumed in non public area, but additional bottles within reasonable limits are allowed but have a mandatory 20 dollar corkage fee. That's also in the passage contract I saw online. It did not mention a restriction on where those additional bottles can be consumed and since it is called a  corkage fee you would think it could be consumed anywhere.

 

Seems like a reasonable option for those who drink wine only. Although I wonder if its enforced consistently across all Princess ships. 

Yes, you can consume wine anywhere - whether corkage pre-paid or not.  When bottle is newly opened, they can charge you a corkage fee if not already paid.  Another thing to know is if you take a bottle to dinner and don't finish it and take it back to DR the next night, there is no more corkage fee.

 

If you are regularly bringing wine to dinner and you have same table and same waiters each night, you may find they don't charge you all the time for corkage.  😉

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by Steelers36

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Another thing to know is if you take a bottle to dinner and don't finish it and take it back to DR the next night, there is no more corkage fee.

 

It's been widely reported that, if you don't finish the bottle in MDR, they will hold it for you so you don't need to carry it back and forth. They simply retrieve it for you the next time you dine. I don't know how the "phabulous" new dining scheme affects this - or if it even does affect it at all.

[Steelers36]

19 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

It's been widely reported that, if you don't finish the bottle in MDR, they will hold it for you so you don't need to carry it back and forth. They simply retrieve it for you the next time you dine. I don't know how the "phabulous" new dining scheme affects this - or if it even does affect it at all.

They store by cabin number, but they also used to store somewhere near to where guest was seated.  Now they might have to go further if guest in another DR.  But IDK this for a fact.

 

I always prefer to have it with me which has three advantages:

(1) I can have some in the cabin anytime.

(2) I don't have to potentially wait while the Assistant Waiter chases down my bottle.

(3) It cannot get accidentally lost.

[Thrak]

14 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

They store by cabin number, but they also used to store somewhere near to where guest was seated.  Now they might have to go further if guest in another DR.  But IDK this for a fact.

 

I always prefer to have it with me which has three advantages:

(1) I can have some in the cabin anytime.

(2) I don't have to potentially wait while the Assistant Waiter chases down my bottle.

(3) It cannot get accidentally lost.

 

Very good points. Personally, my wife and I have never failed to finish a bottle at dinner. 😁

[HMSDingy]

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

You do NOT!!! want to be doing this!!!  

 

Are you aware of the Cruise Fare options of Plus Fare and Premier Fare?  These are the ways to go because you are just throwing money away to buy the separate beverage package.

 

You can add the Plus or Premier FARE package to your booking pre-cruise or purchase it on-board on Day 1. 

 

PLUS is $60/pp/day and Premier is $80/pp/day.  The Cruise Fare package includes Crew Appreciation and MedallionNet (internet access for 1-device each at a time).

 

Don't even think about purchasing the standalone drink packages.

Ok but my booked cruise would go up by about $2000 CAD at $60 US per day. The cruise we're booked is for 20 days. I'm just interested in having bottled wine with my supper, as we did in the past on our other Princess cruises.

[HMSDingy]

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Probably a typo as the free limit is 1 bottle per guest.  You can also bring another one or two bottles on at a port stop and they don't bat and eye.

Does that mean I can pick up bottles at each port we stop at? 

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Does that mean I can pick up bottles at each port we stop at? 

Sure.

[Steelers36]

15 minutes ago, HMSDingy said:

Ok but my booked cruise would go up by about $2000 CAD at $60 US per day. The cruise we're booked is for 20 days. I'm just interested in having bottled wine with my supper, as we did in the past on our other Princess cruises.

The point was not whether to have an all-inclusive package or not. Your original post discussed purchasing the standalone beverage package - not the Plus fare option.

 

The point was it would be wrong to purchase the stand-alone beverage packages over the Cruise Fare Plus package due to simple cost effectiveness.

 

We don't purchase the Plus or Premier option as it doesn't work for us.  Sounds like you are the same, but were at least looking into it.

[HMSDingy]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Sure.

Sorry if I didn't ask this before or even searched it, but how much is the corkage fee?

[HMSDingy]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

The point was not whether to have an all-inclusive package or not. Your original post discussed purchasing the standalone beverage package - not the Plus fare option.

 

The point was it would be wrong to purchase the stand-alone beverage packages over the Cruise Fare Plus package due to simple cost effectiveness.

 

We don't purchase the Plus or Premier option as it doesn't work for us.  Sounds like you are the same, but were at least looking into it.

Right you are sir. Most of the extras in these options we wouldn't use so its a mute option for us. Too bad Princess doesn't have wine packages as some of the other lines do. Our last cruise was with HAL and they offer a wine package. 

[memoak]

14 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

You do NOT!!! want to be doing this!!!  

 

Are you aware of the Cruise Fare options of Plus Fare and Premier Fare?  These are the ways to go because you are just throwing money away to buy the separate beverage package.

 

You can add the Plus or Premier FARE package to your booking pre-cruise or purchase it on-board on Day 1. 

 

PLUS is $60/pp/day and Premier is $80/pp/day.  The Cruise Fare package includes Crew Appreciation and MedallionNet (internet access for 1-device each at a time).

 

Don't even think about purchasing the standalone drink packages.

There are people for whom the standalone beverage package works better. That would be people who don’t want Wi-Fi and your cabin mate does not drink anything but tap water

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, HMSDingy said:

Sorry if I didn't ask this before or even searched it, but how much is the corkage fee?

$20/btl.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, memoak said:

There are people for whom the standalone beverage package works better. That would be people who don’t want Wi-Fi and your cabin mate does not drink anything but tap water

Sorry, but not exactly as the Plus costs almost $77.  Crew Incentive is $16 for most cabins.

 

PASS 1        $77 + $16 = $93

PASS 2         $16          = $16

TOTAL                          = $109

 

PLUS for PASS 1 & 2 = $120

 

So, I do disagree with your proposition.  Are you seriously suggesting $11 is enough to make the choice you suggest?  There really is no circumstance the standalone beverage package is a good idea.  It is highly unlikely such a scenario exists that it is not worth consideration IMO.   If one is also a savvy cruiser, they will be booking with a TA that discounts the cruise fare in some manner and that $120 ought to cost under $109.