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Your cost of "non-included" dining is going up...

cruisedoctor

By cruisedoctor,
in Princess Cruises

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nzOdy

nzOdy

Posted
Posted

Here's another gotcha I've never noticed before,  not to say it's not always been there,  just never had reason to notice it.

 

On or last cruise we chose to eat at Sabatinis while docked in San Diego. To my surprise, as well as the speciality dining cover charge,  there was local San Diego sales tax added.

 

So lesson learned for me,  if you want to save that tax payment,  don't eat specialty while in port!!

 

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Catchum

Catchum

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, dickinson said:

Apparently because YOU drink these things you think others do too.  Not so!  We don't drink coffee and we don't drink any alcohol.  We are elite and exchange our mini bar for bottles of water so no need to purchase that either.  We save $$$ by booking standard.

Obviously if you don't drink coffee and alcohol you won't get the package (eye roll). My reply was to someone who did drink both coffee and alcohol but didn't get the value from the package.

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Crystaltipps67

Crystaltipps67

Posted
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4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We have sailed with and without a "package". The main cost of the package as I view it is the alcohol part. It's terribly hard to drink enough to justify when you're off the ship most of the day. Even if you stay on the ship we find it difficult to do.

Unless I've been calculating it wrongly we pay $60 a day for Plus. Take off the gratuities of $16 per day and ignoring all the other benefits I need to drink $44 worth to make it value for money. That's basically  a hot chocolate, a bottle of water, a pre-dinner cocktail and two glasses of wine with dinner. Whilst we wouldn't do that every day at home, we have no problem doing at least that every day on holiday. . We also do use the wifi as it's included, but we wouldn't buy it if it wasn't included.

 

Beng Brits we don't tip extra on board having paid the CA charge, so will not be using any speciality dining if they start charging an additional non-negotiable service charge on top of the service charge!!

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antsp

antsp

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Posted
33 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Oh, believe me, we tried our best to come close to the 15 drinks a day & never really hit it. We both drank multiple coffee's daily plus,  all the water & Perrier we could manage. We even treated others to drinks & still didn't hit the max.

They made plenty on us, that's for sure.

It's convenient, but you will pay the price for it and Princess sure has got it figured out in their favor. The days of gulping down drinks one after another are long gone for us. 

Maybe storing the extras in your Rumrunners is the only way to beat their system. 😜

I forgot about the internet which I only used to read the local news each day. Nothing changed much that I could care about. Another waste.

My Brother and Sister in law very often will go over the 15 limit, especially if they have a late night in the Casino, ourselves nowhere near, they use our quota early on in the day, and keep there 15 in reserve 

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shiner6

shiner6

Posted
Posted

It depends on who is in my group. When we travel with drinkers, we easily can reach our 15 drink limit. When we travel alone, we do not come close.  The extras are meaningless to us. Soo depends on itinerary and travel companions for us.

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MissP22

MissP22

Posted
Posted
8 hours ago, stoneharborlady said:

The meal or the service, or both?

The service was outstanding. 

It's was the main course that left us disappointed. We both ordered rack of veal and it was so tough my husband left a good portion of it on the bone. We should have spoken up & said something, but didn't.

Their grade of meat has gotten really bad in the Crown Grill, but the funny thing is that all our meals in the DR were excellent. 

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MissP22

MissP22

Posted
Posted
20 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

It's just a matter of time till MDR, buffet, and burgers and pizza cost something.  I can totally see them starting to charge for all food options soon. 

At which time they'll definitely have to increase the base price of the cruise. I just can't see them charging by the meal. 

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JimmyVWine Great Review Rare

JimmyVWine

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

It's just a matter of time till MDR, buffet, and burgers and pizza cost something.  I can totally see them starting to charge for all food options soon. 

Not a chance. Base fares will go up. But no major cruise line will ever transparently charge for basic food options. That would be the death of that cruise line. 

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hllwdcruiser Great Review Rare

hllwdcruiser

Posted
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2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

The service was outstanding. 

It's was the main course that left us disappointed. We both ordered rack of veal and it was so tough my husband left a good portion of it on the bone. We should have spoken up & said something, but didn't.

Their grade of meat has gotten really bad in the Crown Grill, but the funny thing is that all our meals in the DR were excellent. 

After a couple of disappointing meals at CG, we decided to not waste our OBC on it again. We discovered Winemaker's and found it to be phenomenal and a far better value for the money. Last year, on the Enchanted, we had OBC to spare and decided to try Sabatini's for the first time in years. We were pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I doubt we'll ever give CG another chance.
I'm really hoping that the powers to be at Princess reverse their decision to "upgrade" the Winemaker's to the Caymus, offering it at over triple the cost. 

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kywildcatfanone

kywildcatfanone

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

You are so right!  Unless the entire cruise industry turns upside down then there will always be “ included in fare”  MDR and outdoor grill options.  “The sky is falling!” Is extremely premature.

Have you forgotten that Alfredos and other venues used to be "included in fare"?

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memoak

memoak

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Have you forgotten that Alfredos and other venues used to be "included in fare"?

Those are not MDR or outside pizza and gtill locations. Alfredo’s is the only casual dining that was free unless you include tapas at Vines on some ships. Salty Dog Gastropub and sushi restaurant always had a charge   Alfredo’s is also not on all ships. Please note the plethora of other venues you seem to be alluding to

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Lady Arwen Holiday Sharing Rare

Lady Arwen

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Have you forgotten that Alfredos and other venues used to be "included in fare"?

I have not forgotten.  However, the MDR and outdoor grill are the mainstays of the cruise industry.  If they became extra charge, you can kiss cruising goodbye.  It will never happen.  

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Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, shiner6 said:

It depends on who is in my group. When we travel with drinkers, we easily can reach our 15 drink limit. When we travel alone, we do not come close.  The extras are meaningless to us. So depends on itinerary and travel companions for us.

 

You don't need to reach 15 drinks for the package to be a value to you. You just have to normally average a daily beverage cost which is greater than the cost of the Plus package. Which is basically $44 if the wifi and other minor perks hold no value to you. So, what maybe 5 drinks? Less if you're getting waters and coffees too.

 

(Admittedly, we probably don't reach that $44 some days, Therefore getting it is probably a slightly negative financial move for us, so we shouldn't buy it. But we usually do anyway.)

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Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim

Posted
Posted
On 12/1/2023 at 11:47 AM, Italy52 said:

If, Princess were to drop the standard fare option we would turn to another line.  We have done comparison shopping before and we would have no qualms about jumping ship.  We have cruised various lines many times and we are not loyal to any one of them as we are itinerary driven cruisers.

 

And Princess would probably be OK with that. If they went that route, it would mean it was a conscious decision to aim for higher profit passengers at the risk of losing lower profit standard fare passengers.

 

To be fair, some of those standard fare passengers might be very profitable if they spend in the spa, the shops, the casino, excursions, etc. But I think it's safe to say the average package buying passenger is going to be more profitable than the average standard fare passenger.

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