Plus package insurance cost increase?

[Thrak]

How much does the Plus package increase the cost of the Princess insurance? I'm guessing it is a percentage but how does it actually work? I would like to have an idea how much adding Plus to a booking will increase the cost of the Princess insurance so I can decide if it's really that big a deal to wait and buy Plus the first day onboard.

[Abercrombie2019]

24 minutes ago, Thrak said:

How much does the Plus package increase the cost of the Princess insurance? I'm guessing it is a percentage but how does it actually work? I would like to have an idea how much adding Plus to a booking will increase the cost of the Princess insurance so I can decide if it's really that big a deal to wait and buy Plus the first day onboard.

Vacation Protection is calculated as 9% of the cruise fare.  If you buy the Plus package when you book you will also be paying 9% x the cost of the package.

[cr8tiv1]

I thought it was 8%

[voljeep]

Just now, cr8tiv1 said:

I thought it was 8%

was, now 9%

[Thrak]

Many thanks. I knew this info was buried somewhere in this forum but didn't find it. 9%. Wowie Zowie!

 

Edited June 12 by Thrak

[Thrak]

Second question: Buying Plus separately is more expensive than booking Plus in the beginning. Does an upgrade to Plus cost the more exorbitant price?  For instance, if booked with Standard can one "upgrade" to Plus onboard for the same fee as if they had booked Plus in the first place or are they charged the outrageous "stand alone" price for Plus?

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Many thanks. I knew this info was buried somewhere in this forum but didn't find it. 9%. Wowie Zowie!

 

at least it can be paid for with the discounted AARP gift cards, huh?

[voljeep]

Just now, Thrak said:

Second question: Buying Plus separately is more expensive than booking Plus in the beginning. Does an upgrade to Plus cost the more exorbitant price?  For instance, if booked with Standard can one "upgrade" to Plus onboard for the same fee as if they had booked Plus in the first place or are they charged the outrageous "stand alone" price for Plus?

currently $60 pppd for PLUS, on board or Pre-cruise ... dependent upon price increases, of course

[t&atravel]

Make sure you are buying the Plus fare package and not the Plus beverage package.  The prices are the same pre cruise or onboard.

[SCX22]

Also worth checking to make sure if Plus/Premier is being charged at $60 and $80 per day, respectively, when opting for these packages.  My parents and my friends that book the packages have done the calculation and have figured out that they are sometimes being charged more than $60 per day for Plus when making it part of the booking (that's taking into account the increase in insurance). 

 

I say always buy Plus on board.  But there have been posts that have stated that they've been denied due it being at capacity.  Personally have never experience this when cruising with my friends or my parents.  If you know of an imminent price increase, then you can add pre-cruise at that time.

[wallyj]

6 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Second question: Buying Plus separately is more expensive than booking Plus in the beginning. Does an upgrade to Plus cost the more exorbitant price?  For instance, if booked with Standard can one "upgrade" to Plus onboard for the same fee as if they had booked Plus in the first place or are they charged the outrageous "stand alone" price for Plus?

A little confused, as my understanding is the pricing when you bundle plus or premier when you initially book you cruise, it is $60/$80, same as if you decide to buy on board on day1, what do you mean by outrageous ‘stand alone’ price? Are you referring to the Beverage pkg as the stand alone product opposed to the ‘bundle’? If you were thinking of buying the standalone beverage package, the cost is higher then the bundled ‘plus’ or ‘premier’, but you do not have to buy for passenger2.

[Thrak]

19 minutes ago, wallyj said:

A little confused, as my understanding is the pricing when you bundle plus or premier when you initially book you cruise, it is $60/$80, same as if you decide to buy on board on day1, what do you mean by outrageous ‘stand alone’ price? Are you referring to the Beverage pkg as the stand alone product opposed to the ‘bundle’? If you were thinking of buying the standalone beverage package, the cost is higher then the bundled ‘plus’ or ‘premier’, but you do not have to buy for passenger2.

 

Yes, I am worried that, by waiting until I'm onboard, they will charge me the Plus beverage package at the inflated price rather than simply upgrading my booking to Plus. It's quite a big difference in price. I thought it would just be the same price as booking Plus in the first place but then got worried that maybe I was "outsmarting myself".

[cr8tiv1]

Princess gives some warning when they are going to raise their prices.  I have "waited" to purchase the $40 and then $50 Plus.  But when they announced increase, I reserved it before the increase.  Of course, I was "limited" to older package rather than all the bells and whistles.  

 

Now, I just buy it when I book the cruise.  I'm getting too old to worry about keeping up with the times.  Book it and forget about the cruise.  If it is a short cruise, I do without.  

[voljeep]

7 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

If it is a short cruise, I do without. 

nope - that's an upgrade to Premier! - 5 day cruise - $200 increase (plus 9%) - offset by $180 in specialty dinners we wanted to do anyway ... wait, where have I heard that???

[wallyj]

19 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Yes, I am worried that, by waiting until I'm onboard, they will charge me the Plus beverage package at the inflated price rather than simply upgrading my booking to Plus. It's quite a big difference in price. I thought it would just be the same price as booking Plus in the first place but then got worried that maybe I was "outsmarting myself".

I believe a majority of passengers who will be buying on Day1 or Day2 are adding the ‘bundled’ Plus or Premier and NOT the standalone beverage packages. If you are worried the ‘wrong’ package might be added, just verify with the crew member doing the upgrade. A clue will be if the upgrade amount is not an even number and there are ‘cents’ since there should not be, but with the stand alone packages the added 18% usually produces an amount with ‘cents’.

 

Also you probably will have calculated what the upgrade amount should be and if the crew member says his device is saying the amount is not what you calculated, you can question are they adding the correct requested package.

 

I think the only passengers adding the stand alone beverage package on board are those who are traveling with another passenger who does not want a package and they have calculated this makes more sense or they are bad at math.

[Thrak]

Thanks again for the replies. I "thought" this is how it worked but was suddenly unsure of my info. It would make financial sense to upgrade on the first day of the cruise. We have a 14 day cruisetour but only the last 10 days are onboard so I would have to upgrade on embarkation day. After that we have a couple of days in Southampton and then a 15 day TA to Florida and I would need to do the plan upgrade on embarkation day for that cruise as well. I don't "think" there should be a problem with the package being sold out although it is listed as "capacity controlled". It would be a bummer to find that we were unable to upgrade on the ship. (However, one the cruises we have taken, we have always (so far) seen crew members offering the package on the first day.)

[wallyj]

@Thrak, the only reports I have read where passengers could not ‘upgrade’ on Day1 was for a short sailing and the specialty venues were fully booked, so they reached ‘capacity’. I believe the passenger said that’s ok, I will forego the specialty dining, but was still denied. 

[Yehootu]

4 hours ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

Vacation Protection is calculated as 9% of the cruise fare.  If you buy the Plus package when you book you will also be paying 9% x the cost of the package.

The Platinum Insurance is 9% of cruise fare. Elites and Platinum members get the free upgrade to Platinum when booking the Standard Insurance. To upgrade on your own if not Elite or Platinum, or if you are on certain fares ( Interline for one ) that aren't eligible for the free upgrade the cost is 12%. I'll be booking onboard for the next few cruise after doing the Insurance comparison. If on the free upgrade and paying 9% of the total fare in insurance, the package price would have to go above $65.40 a day and $67.20 a day if on higher premium payment. And for further savings, top off your OBC using 8% off AARP cards, reducing your daily from $60.00 to $55.20. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

If I remember correctly, our insurance went up around $70 when we added Princess plus.

[CCJack]

New to Princess,  I have a similar question.....   with independent travel insurance you really only need to insure non-refundable costs.   So my question is ... are the plus or premier packages refundable if you cancel your cruise.    Port fees and taxes are refundable, I am wondering if the plus or premier packages are refundable if you cancel late (but before departure).

[NavyVeteran]

29 minutes ago, CCJack said:

New to Princess,  I have a similar question.....   with independent travel insurance you really only need to insure non-refundable costs.   So my question is ... are the plus or premier packages refundable if you cancel your cruise.    Port fees and taxes are refundable, I am wondering if the plus or premier packages are refundable if you cancel late (but before departure).

The Plus or Premier fare (not the separate beverage packages) are part of the cruise fare. They are subject to the same cancellation penalties as the rest of the cruise fare.

[startedwithamouse]

On 6/12/2024 at 12:25 PM, Thrak said:

 

Yes, I am worried that, by waiting until I'm onboard, they will charge me the Plus beverage package at the inflated price rather than simply upgrading my booking to Plus. It's quite a big difference in price. I thought it would just be the same price as booking Plus in the first place but then got worried that maybe I was "outsmarting myself".

They'll be crew everywhere when you board selling the Plus and Premier bundles. $60 or $80 per person, and no additional insurance. They'll know what package you have (or haven't) purchased. When we get Plus, they'll be after us to get Premier. 

Edited June 17 by startedwithamouse

[Cruise Raider]

If you get the Princess Vacation Protection, only then will your insurance increase by a rate of 9% if you purchase the package ahead of time.  
From what I understand, you can purchase the plus or premier packaged fare on day one or two (if purchased on day two, we were told it was prorated) and you can use OBC to pay for it and your insurance doesn’t reflect any change.  

A couple of things to consider:  

If you purchase it when onboard, your insurance also won’t pay out if you need to leave the cruise early (such a rare occurrence, though).  
Also, if you receive a move over or move down offer (again, a rather rare occurrence), it will be for the stand alone fare only, no other perks included.  Of note, I think you may be more likely to get one of these offers with the cheaper fare.  

You can still purchase your fare package onboard and have guest service apply the AARP gift cards to pay your folio balance.  At least they were able to do that for us a couple of years ago.  

On the cruise where we met you, I upgraded from the $50 plus package to the then $80 premier package ahead of time and it cost $54 extra on my Princess insurance.  I did have a lot of OBC on that cruise so I wondered if I should have just upgraded once we were onboard.  But, we were lucky on that sailing with Princess Prizes so, I have no regrets.  
I’ve since upgraded to an annual insurance policy as it made financial sense for us to do so, at least for the upcoming year of travel that we have planned.  That way, it makes no difference when you buy the package.  
 

[Ken the cruiser]

This increase reenforces our decision to no longer book a cruise with the Plus package since we made Elite. Here are the reasons why. Once we made Platinum we are able to book a 4-device package with the 50% discount for less than two 1-device packages. We can use our Elite 10% excursion discount OBC to help pay for the daily gratuities. We can use our Elite complimentary mini-bar setup to load up on 10 waters and 10 beers per leg plus we can purchase another 12 bottles of water pre-cruise for $7.09.
 

But then I will have to pay for my 2 glasses of Moscato at dinner, as my DW only drinks water and hot chocolate. 
 

All this and we get free laundry! It took a while, but we are so happy to have finally made Elite. 😁
 

Edited June 17 by Ken the cruiser

[that]

@Cruise Raider

 

may I ask what company you selected for annual insurance policy?

Edited June 17 by that