Looking for answers to Sun Princess questions please

[hockeymom21]

Thank you in advance for your help. It has been 10 years since my husband and I have cruised on Princess. We cruised 6 times on Princess and jumped to Celebrity. The Sun Princess has sparked our interest. Question #1- I have read that you are only “allowed” 15 drinks per day on the upgraded beverage package. Is this true? What happens when you reach 15?  Back in the day we would stop at Total Wine- pick up a case- hand it to the porter and take glasses of wine to dinner. Celebrity Premium Beverage packages is unlimited and we do tend to start early with Mimosa’s! It is vacation after all. Question #2- we are Suite Retreat guests on Celebrity. I’m researching rooms on the Sun. I was looking at a Reserve Cabana on deck 9- but not on the “freeway” part of deck 9. I see rooms that are beyond the point where people would walk by you. Has anybody stayed in one of these “freeway” rooms? Are they better than I’m thinking? Question #3- Has anybody reading this been on a Suite with the Retreat Deck /lounge AND in a Reserve Collection Cabana suite? Thank you so much!

[Moondogy]

I can only half answer #1. Yes you are limited to 15 alcohol drinks in a 24 hour period. 6am to 6am I believe. Can't tell you what happens after that because I never really tried to drink 15 in 1 day in a long time 🤣

Edited March 27 by Moondogy

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, hockeymom21 said:

Thank you in advance for your help. It has been 10 years since my husband and I have cruised on Princess. We cruised 6 times on Princess and jumped to Celebrity. The Sun Princess has sparked our interest. Question #1- I have read that you are only “allowed” 15 drinks per day on the upgraded beverage package. Is this true? What happens when you reach 15?  Back in the day we would stop at Total Wine- pick up a case- hand it to the porter and take glasses of wine to dinner. Celebrity Premium Beverage packages is unlimited and we do tend to start early with Mimosa’s! It is vacation after all. Question #2- we are Suite Retreat guests on Celebrity. I’m researching rooms on the Sun. I was looking at a Reserve Cabana on deck 9- but not on the “freeway” part of deck 9. I see rooms that are beyond the point where people would walk by you. Has anybody stayed in one of these “freeway” rooms? Are they better than I’m thinking? Question #3- Has anybody reading this been on a Suite with the Retreat Deck /lounge AND in a Reserve Collection Cabana suite? Thank you so much!

I honestly don't think I've heard *anybody* here on CC complain about *only* getting 15 drinks per day.  You certainly have a stronger tolerance for booze than I do! 😄

[beg3yrs]

The package includes 15 alcoholic drinks per day per person. Non-alcoholic drinks like specialty coffees and sodas are unlimited. After one uses their 15 alcoholic drink limit it is up to the discretion of the bar staff if you will be served more. If you are served more you simply get the drink charged to your onboard account.

 

The days of taking a case of wine onboard are now limited. You get one bottle per person for cabin consumption at no fee. Anything over that there's a corkage fee. Last I knew it was $15 per bottle. "Corkaged" bottles can be consumed anywhere. This may have changed recently as with the advent of the "packages" the economics of bringing wine onboard have changed. IMHO (and I haven't done the math) it's only good to bring wine onboard if it's a high-end wine you must have and can't get on the ship,.

[dforeigner]

9 hours ago, hockeymom21 said:

Thank you in advance for your help. It has been 10 years since my husband and I have cruised on Princess. We cruised 6 times on Princess and jumped to Celebrity. The Sun Princess has sparked our interest. Question #1- I have read that you are only “allowed” 15 drinks per day on the upgraded beverage package. Is this true? What happens when you reach 15?  Back in the day we would stop at Total Wine- pick up a case- hand it to the porter and take glasses of wine to dinner. Celebrity Premium Beverage packages is unlimited and we do tend to start early with Mimosa’s! It is vacation after all. Question #2- we are Suite Retreat guests on Celebrity. I’m researching rooms on the Sun. I was looking at a Reserve Cabana on deck 9- but not on the “freeway” part of deck 9. I see rooms that are beyond the point where people would walk by you. Has anybody stayed in one of these “freeway” rooms? Are they better than I’m thinking? Question #3- Has anybody reading this been on a Suite with the Retreat Deck /lounge AND in a Reserve Collection Cabana suite? Thank you so much!

The package will cover 15 alcoholic drinks (Plus is $15 or under; Premier is $20 or under).  If you  end up drinking more than 15, then you will be charge the additional drinks.  This often happens when the crew add two drinks to the same person rather than to each account holder.

 

Additionally, if the price of your drink is higher than what the package covers, you pay the difference plus they add 18% gratuity to the amount it went over.

[phonejock]

Hi Just a suggestion  There were a couple of threads on this board of the first two sailings of the Sun. The one by @CanadianBurger was especially good.  As DH and I like to book Reserve Collection minis, I was interested to see different configurations between the cabana and plain RC versions. The cabana one looks very narrow with a smaller bathroom.

If we ever decide to book the Sun, I will be googling like a madwoman to research the room that would work best. All the best.

 

[KKB]

17 hours ago, hockeymom21 said:

Thank you in advance for your help. It has been 10 years since my husband and I have cruised on Princess. We cruised 6 times on Princess and jumped to Celebrity. The Sun Princess has sparked our interest. Question #1- I have read that you are only “allowed” 15 drinks per day on the upgraded beverage package. Is this true? What happens when you reach 15?  Back in the day we would stop at Total Wine- pick up a case- hand it to the porter and take glasses of wine to dinner. Celebrity Premium Beverage packages is unlimited and we do tend to start early with Mimosa’s! It is vacation after all. 

Yes, 15 alcoholic drinks per person. If you go over, you then pay for them.

One tip--on port days when you are less likely to get to 15, get some unopened beer/cider/seltzers to keep in your fridge to help on those long sea days--you can even order them on the app to be sent to your room.

You could also bring a bottle of wine aboard each to help stretch.

 

But I'll be honest--DH starts his day early. Only ONCE did we both go over 15 drinks...luckily our friends hadn't so ordered one for us...server knew us well (and we tip a dollar or 2 each order along the way), so was fine with that. 

[JimmyVWine]

18 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

IMHO (and I haven't done the math) it's only good to bring wine onboard if it's a high-end wine you must have and can't get on the ship,.

Here's my math.

Assume the purchase of Premier at $80 per day.  Even though the package comes with lots more stuff, all we really care about is the value of the wine/cocktails, coffee drinks, crew appreciation, wi-fi and Specialty dining Credits.  Adding all those up, about $35 per day per person of the $80 fee is allocated to the 15 alcohol drinks per day.  So for a 7 day cruise, two people would be paying $490 for 15 drinks per day, and the wine that you get for that money is pretty average stuff.  Nothing to get excited about.

 

Compare that to bringing your own wine on that 7 day cruise.

Assume that you bring on 10 bottles of wine that you purchase for an average of $30 per bottle.  This is going to get you into the realm of the quality that you would get from the ship.  Belle Glos Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel Rose, Silverado Cabernet.  So your sunk cost of purchase is $300.  Two bottles get on for free and the others get assessed the corkage fee.  I have seen both $15 and $20 as the fee.  Let's use $15.  8 corkage fees is $120.  So for $420 you've got your wine covered.  But those 10 bottles might not be nearly enough to drink over a full week, especially on Sea Days.  And we haven't accounted for coffee drinks.  So let's say that each person adds two more drinks and some coffee each day, on average, to their drinking total and those cocktails average $12 per drink and you spend $5 per day on coffee drinks. After the 18% gratuity, those drinks over 7 days will cost about $480.  So the new total for the couple is $900 as compared to $560 for the Package.  And you haven't elevated your game, as the bottles that you brought on board are on par with what the ship is pouring for the Premium Package.

 

So your assumption is spot on.  If you want to drink about as well as you would with the ship's wine, you do much better with a Package.  If you want to raise your game, you can bring on your own wine, but you are going to spend far more.  If the average price per bottle is $50 instead of $30, you are now up to $1,100 compared to $490.  But again, this assumes that you are supplementing your wine consumption with an average of 2 additional cocktails per day plus some coffee.  If you forego all other alcohol and coffee, the even-up comparison for better wine would be $620 for better wine versus $490 for the package.     

[Esprit]

18 hours ago, KKB said:

But I'll be honest--DH starts his day early. Only ONCE did we both go over 15 drinks...luckily our friends hadn't so ordered one for us...server knew us well (and we tip a dollar or 2 each order along the way), so was fine with that. 

I confess to starting early too!

When I've been close to the 15 I use my wife's allowance👍🙂

[olvrxyzh]

21 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Here's my math.

Assume the purchase of Premier at $80 per day.  Even though the package comes with lots more stuff, all we really care about is the value of the wine/cocktails, coffee drinks, crew appreciation, wi-fi and Specialty dining Credits.  Adding all those up, about $35 per day per person of the $80 fee is allocated to the 15 alcohol drinks per day.  So for a 7 day cruise, two people would be paying $490 for 15 drinks per day, and the wine that you get for that money is pretty average stuff.  Nothing to get excited about.

 

Compare that to bringing your own wine on that 7 day cruise.

Assume that you bring on 10 bottles of wine that you purchase for an average of $30 per bottle.  This is going to get you into the realm of the quality that you would get from the ship.  Belle Glos Pinot Noir, Whispering Angel Rose, Silverado Cabernet.  So your sunk cost of purchase is $300.  Two bottles get on for free and the others get assessed the corkage fee.  I have seen both $15 and $20 as the fee.  Let's use $15.  8 corkage fees is $120.  So for $420 you've got your wine covered.  But those 10 bottles might not be nearly enough to drink over a full week, especially on Sea Days.  And we haven't accounted for coffee drinks.  So let's say that each person adds two more drinks and some coffee each day, on average, to their drinking total and those cocktails average $12 per drink and you spend $5 per day on coffee drinks. After the 18% gratuity, those drinks over 7 days will cost about $480.  So the new total for the couple is $900 as compared to $560 for the Package.  And you haven't elevated your game, as the bottles that you brought on board are on par with what the ship is pouring for the Premium Package.

 

So your assumption is spot on.  If you want to drink about as well as you would with the ship's wine, you do much better with a Package.  If you want to raise your game, you can bring on your own wine, but you are going to spend far more.  If the average price per bottle is $50 instead of $30, you are now up to $1,100 compared to $490.  But again, this assumes that you are supplementing your wine consumption with an average of 2 additional cocktails per day plus some coffee.  If you forego all other alcohol and coffee, the even-up comparison for better wine would be $620 for better wine versus $490 for the package.