Back to Cruising after a 5 year break - Drinks Package Princess Cruise

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Elorac123 said:

I have a cruise in November and didn’t book the plus package but now I’m thinking I might u til I saw this which I have copied and pasted 

w much is a Princess Plus beverage package?

 

 

Princess values the Plus beverage package at $65 plus 18% service charge, or $76.69 per person per day which would be equivalent to roughly 4 alcoholic drinks, a specialty coffee, and a soda each day.16 Feb 2024
So what’s with the service  charge ?

Cheers Carole 

Is the 'Plus fare' different from the 'Plus beverage package'? I understood that the Plus fare costing $65 pp pd (no service charge on top) includes alcohol, unlimited coffee, wifi, desserts etc. etc.

 

Could the '$65 plus 18% service charge' be the US price that also includes gratuities???

 

There have been comments that the alcohol package alone costs more than the Plus fare but I haven't checked into this thoroughly.

[Elorac123]

2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

 

Could the '$65 plus 18% service charge' be the US price that also includes gratuities???

Maybe, I need to look in to it 

Cheers Carole

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, Elorac123 said:

Maybe, I need to look in to it 

Cheers Carole

Carole, where did you see the info '$65 plus 18% service charge'?

 

Another way to check is to have a look at the relevant prices for the cruise you have booked - the 'standard' price and the 'plus fare'. That will indicate if the difference is a flat $65 per day.

[Elorac123]

 

Another way to check is to have a look at the relevant prices for the cruise you have booked - the 'standard' price and the 'plus fare'. That will indicate if the difference is a flat $65 per day.
 

 

yes already confirmed difference that way $65 

Cannot find the page I copied now though

Cheers Carole 

[arxcards]

The drinks package, purchased separately, is more expensive than the plus fare.

 

Good news is you can upgrade your fare to a plus package after boarding, or you can upgrade to a plus fare via Princess or your T/A prior to sailing. Either option is currently $65 per day on an Aussie based ship, with no additional gratuity. Upgrading after boarding on a $US ship could be more difficult, as you would be paying more for a package that contains daily grats which you already pay with your fare.

[Sparky74]

A friend is doing the World Cruise on the Crown Princess next year. He says that he’s continually receiving emails trying to sell him the Plus or Premier package. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, arxcards said:

The drinks package, purchased separately, is more expensive than the plus fare.

 

Good news is you can upgrade your fare to a plus package after boarding, or you can upgrade to a plus fare via Princess or your T/A prior to sailing. Either option is currently $65 per day on an Aussie based ship, with no additional gratuity. Upgrading after boarding on a $US ship could be more difficult, as you would be paying more for a package that contains daily grats which you already pay with your fare.

If you're cruising on a Princess US$ ship booked in Australia you pay gratuities whether you have a Plus/Premier fare or not. Note: the US Plus fare is US$60, around AU$90, against the AU Plus fare of AU$65. It works out about the same in AU$ give or take a few dollars.

Edited June 25 by OzKiwiJJ

[arxcards]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

If you're cruising on a Princess US$ ship booked in Australia you pay gratuities whether you have a Plus/Premier fare or not. Note: the US Plus fare is US$60, around AU$90, against the AU Plus fare of AU$65. It works out about the same in AU$ give or take a few dollars.

Ah yes, I was caught up with all those other lines that make you pre-pay your $US cruise grats at booking. 

 

Locally, we can still pay the $65 for a plus package after boarding. I wonder how that works for us if we upgrade to plus after boarding a $US ship. The plus package available to book after boarding would be $US60 and surely include daily grats. Like you say, much of a muchness unless there is an increase in grats or a currency shift.

[arxcards]

There is plus or premier package, that you can add at the time of booking, by upgrading your booking prior to boarding, or by purchasing on the ship on embarkation day. Plus is $65, Premier is $95. They are inclusive prices, with no additional gratuity added.

 

Princess also sell a separate premier drinks package, but I don't know why anyone would ever buy one separately. I wonder if anyone still gets caught with these separate drink packages? Even there, there is price confusion saying $140 per day in the script as if it is $US, while there are $AU references as well. 

 

Diamond Princess - next Feb

 

Crown Princess in July

[arxcards]

8 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

A friend is doing the World Cruise on the Crown Princess next year. He says that he’s continually receiving emails trying to sell him the Plus or Premier package. 

I am doing the WC on Crown next year. I get the occasional email. I am glad they are generated per cruiser and not per cruise and I am not getting 4 x emails for 4 x cruises. Currently, I am getting more emails from Celebrity and I have nothing booked with them.

[Elorac123]

Thanks all for your input.

Cheers Carole

[stewart_oz]

We are Australians  sailing on Diamond Princess out of Melbourne in Nov 2024.

 

So here  is a different one for somebody to possibly answer.

 

I found an exceptional cruise price via a couple of UK TA's.  Made enquirers and they said they can book for us.  Which we have done.  Have booking confirmation with Princess  etc  so all good on that front.

 

The issue is , if I want to upgrade to Plus package is wants it in GBP  i.e pounds and is 55 pounds.  Equivalent to the $65USD.

 

My question  is ,  if we pay onboard would we be paying the Australian price of $65AUD or the $65USD

 

My understanding is the ship is in AUD

[Aus Traveller]

As the ship operates in AUD, my guess is that the extra charge to up-grade to Plus, would be in AUD.

 

I doubt very much that a booking through a UK travel agent would include gratuities unless you book the Plus fare through the TA. You would be charged gratuities daily.

[stewart_oz]

Think that will be the interesting part.   As on Australian cruises they don't charge Gratuities.  So will find after sailing if they do charge us. 

 

We got an exceptional fare deal.  So  can't really complain if they do.

[Aus Traveller]

5 minutes ago, stewart_oz said:

Think that will be the interesting part.   As on Australian cruises they don't charge Gratuities.  So will find after sailing if they do charge us. 

 

We got an exceptional fare deal.  So  can't really complain if they do.

Princess ships operating out of Australia are not part of Princess' fleet-wide tips pool. On Australian-based cruises the crew are paid at a much higher rate that takes the 'loss' of gratuities into account. Gratuities that are added to accounts of people who book in other parts of world (such as yourselves), are sent to the fleet-wide pool, not distributed on board your ship. If you wish, you can remove the gratuities by going to the Passenger Services Desk, then hand money directly to your cabin steward, dining room waiter etc. They will be permitted to keep it.

[aussiebossyboots]

34 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

If you wish, you can remove the gratuities by going to the Passenger Services Desk, then hand money directly to your cabin steward, dining room waiter etc. They will be permitted to keep it.

 Interesting that you can remove gratuities if cruising with Princess outside Australia.  We had a similar experience with Cunard when we cruised with them out of Rome and Southampton.  Cunard had no issues with us removing the gratuities.

 

Is this confirmed for Princess?  TA

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, aussiebossyboots said:

 Interesting that you can remove gratuities if cruising with Princess outside Australia.  We had a similar experience with Cunard when we cruised with them out of Rome and Southampton.  Cunard had no issues with us removing the gratuities.

 

Is this confirmed for Princess?  TA

The cruise I was commenting on is out of Melbourne on the Diamond Princess.🙂 However, I am pretty sure that passengers on cruises in other parts of the world can also remove the gratuities from their on-board account.

 

I will add, that in my opinion, it is better to pay the gratuities on cruises where gratuities are automatically charged to everyone and the crew rely on gratuities to make a reasonable wage. This isn't the case on cruises out of Australia where the crew are paid a much higher set remuneration.

[MicCanberra]

I would expect you would be paying for gratuities daily for your cruise which would explain why the prices were much cheaper. As for the plus package, buy it onboard.

[Ozwoody]

On 6/25/2024 at 3:19 PM, aussiebossyboots said:

Thanks again for the further comments.  I think we will just PAYG, take the 2 bottles of wine and 12 cans of soft drink.

 

It will be a good experiment over 10 days, because wifi and causal dining, gym and the other stuff just does not bother us if we don't have it.  And I only have one coffee per day.  It will also ensure that I limit the number of alcohol drinks I consume which is really good for me as I don't really drink as much at home.

In case your not aware, you can take your carry on wine to the dining room to have with dinner.

However they do charge a $30 fee per bottle corkage. Unless you are taking an expensive wine, it's still cheaper than buying a bottle on board, which I am told generally cheap wines anyway.

[Ozwoody]

On 6/25/2024 at 5:04 PM, Aus Traveller said:

Is the 'Plus fare' different from the 'Plus beverage package'? I understood that the Plus fare costing $65 pp pd (no service charge on top) includes alcohol, unlimited coffee, wifi, desserts etc. etc.

 

Could the '$65 plus 18% service charge' be the US price that also includes gratuities???

 

There have been comments that the alcohol package alone costs more than the Plus fare but I haven't checked into this thoroughly.

 

Even the Soda & Coffee package ($69.75) is dearer than the plus package. 🤷‍♂️

 

[cruiser3775]

15 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

they do charge a $30 fee per bottle corkage. Unless you are taking an expensive wine, it's still cheaper than buying a bottle on board, which I am told generally cheap wines anyway.

It's always better to BYO wine, mainly because the selection offered by Princess is appalling. They are charging more than $50 a bottle for plonk you can get at Dan Murphy for $5.99 a bottle.