Princess Plus or Princess Premier for a wine drinker?

[lahlah57]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

We tried Premier on our December Sky Princess cruise and it turned out to be a great decision.  The reason?  On our particular cruise they had some decent wines and excellent booze that fit within the package..and there were a couple of other wines where we had no issue paying a few dollars over the Premier limit.  

 

Unless one can get a good deal that saves them some money, it might be wise to buy the lesser package and only upgrade to Premier once aboard.  Why?  Having a list (pre cruise) of wines and booze may not be helpful.  The onboard inventory can often vary, big time, from the expected products.  If you are buying the upgrade primarily for wines, you might want to first find out what wines are aboard (and available by the glass) before you commit the extra money for Premium.  Many of the other Premium perks were not of major interest, to us, but finding items like Remy Martin XO (priced at the $20 Premium limit) quickly sold me on the package.

 

Hank

That Remy Martin XO is what my husband was drinking but not all bars had it and my husband would tell them he would wait right here until they go get it from where it is currently sitting. 

You and he may have emptied their stock out! 😆🥃

Edited March 3 by lahlah57

[triple7tahoe]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

The Crown has a really nice Zin for $15. Our hard liquor tastes run to Woodford bourbon, Grey Goose vodka and Sambucca all of which fit in plus

Do you happen to remember the Zin? My wife has found that most reds in the plus package are not very good and often pays to upgrade to Sergisio and Chronology. WE will taking relatives on an upcoming cruise to Hawaii and I keep telling my wife to let them make their own decision. As somebody said "Wine is subjective"

[memoak]

48 minutes ago, triple7tahoe said:

Do you happen to remember the Zin? My wife has found that most reds in the plus package are not very good and often pays to upgrade to Sergisio and Chronology. WE will taking relatives on an upcoming cruise to Hawaii and I keep telling my wife to let them make their own decision. As somebody said "Wine is subjective"

I cannot remember the name but it was exactly $15 and only found in Vines. The menu in Vines is not all that long. At dinner there is usually an excellent old vines Zin for $18 so just a few extra dollars 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 2/27/2024 at 12:42 PM, Catchum said:

Make friends with the bar tender at Vines two double doubles will arrive in no time.  We had the plus package and were more than happy, but we are not picky with wine.  Coffee and Champagne are another matter entirely. 

Just off Discovery and if we got a double pour we were charged for 2 drinks. It was OK for us as we never came close to the 15 drinks/day.  

[JimmyVWine]

We took two cruises using Plus and never ordered a single glass of wine that was a "Plus Selection" other than an undrinkable glass of red at Alfredo's.  Every glass we ordered was above that allotment, and we paid the difference.  Our final tally had us a few dollars to the better compared to what our cruise would have cost with Premier.  But now that they have placed a limit on Casual Dining visits we booked our next cruise with Premier.  If you are a wine lover, you are rarely going to order the Plus wines, as they are sold as generic wines with no producer or vintage noted on the list.  You just order "Pinot Noir" and you have no idea if it will be a wine from Sonoma, Oregon, Burgundy, New Zealand or Uzbekistan.  No thank you. 

Edited March 4 by JimmyVWine

[memoak]

22 hours ago, lahlah57 said:

That Remy Martin XO is what my husband was drinking but not all bars had it and my husband would tell them he would wait right here until they go get it from where it is currently sitting. 

You and he may have emptied their stock out! 😆🥃

At 1:00 am you may have to wait a very long time for them to find a bottle

[Projunior]

I like Italian red wine. It is surprising and disappointing to me that there are none by the glass on either the Plus or the Premier list. 

[lgar88]

The premier package states 15 drinks a day. Does that includes the coffees and bottled water and juice?

[JimmyVWine]

1 minute ago, lgar88 said:

The premier package states 15 drinks a day. Does that includes the coffees and bottled water and juice?

Not unless you add alcohol to them!  The 15 is for adult beverages only.  Everything else is "drink until your bladder bursts."

[lahlah57]

7 hours ago, memoak said:

At 1:00 am you may have to wait a very long time for them to find a bottle

.......and he would wait. 😙

[suzyluvs2cruise]

18 hours ago, Projunior said:

I like Italian red wine. It is surprising and disappointing to me that there are none by the glass on either the Plus or the Premier list. 

Sabatini's, on Discovery, has Italian Red Wines by the glass 

[Cruisingawayfromthesnow!]

On 2/27/2024 at 5:44 PM, ggprincess2004 said:

No, they give you a sticker for the bottle so that when you take it to the dining room it indicates corkage has already been paid.

Is it still the little blue and white round sticker?

[suzyed]

On 3/3/2024 at 3:34 PM, lahlah57 said:

That Remy Martin XO is what my husband was drinking but not all bars had it and my husband would tell them he would wait right here until they go get it from where it is currently sitting. 

You and he may have emptied their stock out! 😆🥃

We (our friends and us) emptied out the American Airlines first class lounge of all the champagne!  On our return flight visit to the same lounge they told us they no longer serve champagne!  LOL!

[suzyed]

On 3/5/2024 at 11:23 AM, suzyluvs2cruise said:

Sabatini's, on Discovery, has Italian Red Wines by the glass 

Love your quote!  In fact I am stealing it!  LOL!

[greenbeanie]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:26 AM, Hlitner said:

We tried Premier on our December Sky Princess cruise and it turned out to be a great decision.  The reason?  On our particular cruise they had some decent wines and excellent booze that fit within the package..and there were a couple of other wines where we had no issue paying a few dollars over the Premier limit.  

 

Unless one can get a good deal that saves them some money, it might be wise to buy the lesser package and only upgrade to Premier once aboard.  Why?  Having a list (pre cruise) of wines and booze may not be helpful.  The onboard inventory can often vary, big time, from the expected products.  If you are buying the upgrade primarily for wines, you might want to first find out what wines are aboard (and available by the glass) before you commit the extra money for Premium.  Many of the other Premium perks were not of major interest, to us, but finding items like Remy Martin XO (priced at the $20 Premium limit) quickly sold me on the package.

 

Hank

Where does one go to find the list of what inventory is on board?  Visit every venue? or is there a grand master of all wines/liquor?

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, greenbeanie said:

Where does one go to find the list of what inventory is on board?  Visit every venue? or is there a grand master of all wines/liquor?

We have never found such a list.  Inventory can even vary from one bar to another.  I will usually walk around the ship, early on the cruise, and check out the visible inventory at all the bars.  Chatting with bar tenders can uncover hidden items.

 

They do have wine lists, but it is not uncommon for a ship to not have multiple wines that are on the list.

 

Hank

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

We get Plus for the internet, coffees, bottled water, cocktails,  liqueurs/digestifs, and the 25% off wines by the bottle as that's the only way you're going to get decent wine. 

[rosevew]

We've done some on Plus and never paid an upcharge. However, on our last and next cruise we have opted for Premier as the wines are so much better, plus there's the unlimited casual dining. If we weren't wine drinkers, we'd stick to plus.

[memoak]

51 minutes ago, rosevew said:

We've done some on Plus and never paid an upcharge. However, on our last and next cruise we have opted for Premier as the wines are so much better, plus there's the unlimited casual dining. If we weren't wine drinkers, we'd stick to plus.

The casual dining really only helps on Royal class ships and above most older ships only have maybe 2 options and we really dislike the Gastropub so we stick to plus. If I have an $18 glass it is no big deal to pay the $3 plus tip