New Princess Money Grabber Water Package Now $24.00

[dog]

If Princess doesn’t want us standard fare penny pinchers, like the Mouse suggests, then they will go to all inclusive only. Meaning no standard. No Plus.

 

 

[travellingnana]

5 hours ago, memoak said:

Things do change which is why we have prepaid for the Plus package for our next 8 cruises through May 2026. When they change packages they have always honored the plans that were paid for

Nope. When we went on the Eclipse cruise this last April we had paid for Plus at $50. By the time we sailed it was $60 and included the Alfredo’s dining etc. Princess would not grandfather us in. 

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, travellingnana said:

Nope. When we went on the Eclipse cruise this last April we had paid for Plus at $50. By the time we sailed it was $60 and included the Alfredo’s dining etc. Princess would not grandfather us in. 

No you can’t grandfather you get what you paid for. The $50 plus never said free Alfredo’s. because it was free for all prior to. Unless you think standard passengers should get free Alfredo’s as well

Edited 10 hours ago by memoak

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

They seem to complain so much. There are other ways go spend their vacation money. Maybe they should explore those.

 

Good luck buying a bottle of water at a hotel for under $2.

 

Princess wants people who spend money to book cruises. Not penny pinchers on a standard fare. 

 

I don't really consider myself or DH penny pinchers at all. I just prefer not to pay for things we don't value, and since we consume minimal alcoholic beverages and no specialty coffees, I don't really want to pay for a package that gets a great percentage of its value from those items, especially as we still get the half price on Internet. We always just count gratuities as part of our cruise fare and generally prepay those, so not even a consideration.

 

Everyone values different things on a vacation. I value the shore experience - so we are very liberal in our spending on excursions. DH loves the Casino, so he invests heavily there - return on investment varies! 😄 However, because of that we get a lot of perks that make the packages even less necessary, including specialty dining and for him often beverages, which get comped as perks, along with other nice benefits.

 

So, just because someone isn't buying a package doesn't mean they aren't forking over plenty of money and it doesn't make them a penny pincher - just a consumer who knows what they value most.

 

And for those, like my daughter and her husband, who are just starting out cruising on their dime instead of mine - they love to cruise thanks to the privileged upbringing - they really do have to do it on a budget now that the bank of Mom and Dad has closed. No shame in that at all and I defy anyone to call my little princess a penny pincher - she and her husband, however, are a young couple learning to enjoy life within their budgetary limitations. 

 

Little benefits like the water package cost Princess nothing and are a nice service that was reasonable and convenient. There is no value now - just buy water as needed onboard. It won't change how we cruise, but it is more the blatantly obvious effort to overvalue the packages so people will fall in line that I find annoying. 

[memoak]

Tap water is free even at bars. When I go to a restaurant at home I drink tap water when I am home I drink tap water. Why would I change on board a ship ?  Before packages that is all I drank as far ss water goes

Edited 10 hours ago by memoak

[dog]

“Just a consumer who knows what they value most!”

 

Thanks, well said.

 

The name calling- penny pincher is uncalled for.

 

 

[hpeabody]

31 minutes ago, dog said:

“Just a consumer who knows what they value most!”

 

Thanks, well said.

 

The name calling- penny pincher is uncalled for.

 

 

 I agree, Dog

[Coral]

I look at how much I have spent with Princess since the late 90's. There is no way they could call me a penny pincher. They have gotten a good % of my vacation money in my adult life.

[kywildcatfanone]

4 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Princess wants people who spend money to book cruises. Not penny pinchers on a standard fare. 

That's obvious with the direction they are going.

 

I don't consider myself steerage, but don't really care if others do.  I book a cabin category that suits what we like, and spend money on the things we want to spend money on.

 

The cruise lines no longer value loyalty and are focused on squeezing as much money out of you that they can. 

 

[startedwithamouse]

Consider this: if you are a standard fare guest, what is better now than pre pandemic?

Plus or Premier bundles are the future. Pre bundle, we'd get the drink package, and it was more than our fare. The bundle options are much better today. IMO they should just raise fares to Plus for all, and be done with it. You can have the option to go with Premier for extra money. 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by startedwithamouse

[memoak]

2 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Consider this: if you are a standard fare guest, what is better now than pre pandemic?

Plus or Premier bundles are the future. Pre bundle, we'd get the drink package, and it was more than our fare. The bundle options are much better today.

 

Try pre drink plans. In the 1990’s we used to have to budget over $50 per person per day to pay for drinks and this is when drinks cost about $8

[dog]

23 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Consider this: if you are a standard fare guest, what is better now than pre pandemic?

Plus or Premier bundles are the future. Pre bundle, we'd get the drink package, and it was more than our fare. The bundle options are much better today. IMO they should just raise fares to Plus for all, and be done with it. You can have the option to go with Premier for extra money. 

 

 

So, non alcoholic drinkers, non sweets eaters, non fitness class users, non wifi users will be subsidizing those who use Plus packages to the limit?

 

I am grateful that Princess still offers us a choice, and that tells me they are not ready to dump Standard fares, like us YET.

 

 

[Need-a-vacation]

I remember several years ago on Carnival  it was really cheap to pre-order a case of water for your cabin.  The hypothesis then was they wanted people to stop bringing flats of water through embarkation because it was gumming up the works and they could manage their water inventory better by encouraging people to pre-order instead of just buying on board. And making it cheap slowed the revolt from passengers when they tried to limit how much people brought on board.

 

I can see where that approach may lead to a lot of waste.  I know we bought more than we needed "just in case", and had bottles left at the end of the week that we couldn't take with us since we were flying home.  Perhaps they realized they were throwing away a ton of unused bottles and want to cut down on the waste they have to discard? And they like to make money on what they sell! 

 

Perhaps a good compromise would be to sell fairly priced, but larger containers? People could have "bottled" water available in their rooms to pour themselves a glass or refill containers? When we bought water on NCL last year, it came in 1 liter cartons with a screw-top lid.  It was still expensive, but it was a manageable amount to drink in a day, but they weren't as easy to just carry around in your hand or pocket. We did see plenty abandoned around the ship though!

[TRLD]

5 hours ago, SCX22 said:

I would argue otherwise.  Princess is still looking for penny-pinchers.  They keep adding and adding to their packages and only minimally raising the prices.  As of recent, they add unlimited SD to their Premier package.  They have to keep draw attention to how much value is in their packages.  IMO, they are trying to lure others from competitor cruise lines to Princess through their cheaper value package pricing. 

 

 

Of the 3 north america adult focused lines (HAL, Celebrity, and Princess) Princess is the one that is the most value focused in their pricing. 

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, startedwithamouse said:

Consider this: if you are a standard fare guest, what is better now than pre pandemic?

Plus or Premier bundles are the future. Pre bundle, we'd get the drink package, and it was more than our fare. The bundle options are much better today. IMO they should just raise fares to Plus for all, and be done with it. You can have the option to go with Premier for extra money. 

 

 

Celebrity tried that a number of years back. It failed very quickly. Even with the premium lines trying to force people into packages has issues. Oceania just backed away from its simply more fare, which forced eveyone into a package.

 

While package consumers might be the target audience, those of us that do not buy them still comprise a substantial percentage of the passenger base.

Edited 4 hours ago by TRLD

[SCX22]

11 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Of the 3 north america adult focused lines (HAL, Celebrity, and Princess) Princess is the one that is the most value focused in their pricing. 

 

Forgot Virgin Voyages, who, IMO Princess is trying to mimic.  They technically have no SD, but all the dining venues are included in the price, which is is what Princess did to the Premier package.  Also, Virgin tends to lean with more premium alcohol brands in their all inclusive pricing, which are covered under Premier.  
 

Also think they are trying to lure some NCL and RC folks to try Princess and mix up the age demographic.  

Edited 4 hours ago by SCX22

[TRLD]

2 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

Forgot Virgin Voyages, who, IMO Princess is trying to mimic.  They technically have no SD, but all the dining venues are included in the price, which is is what Princess did to the Premier package.  Also, Virgin tends to lean with more premium alcohol brands in their all inclusive pricing, which are covered under Premier.  

Virgin Voyages does not fit into the NA aduly focused mass market category. They are kind of like Cunard, a d Disney. Pricing above mass market, but do not really match the premium category. 

 

 

[SCX22]

 

7 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Virgin Voyages does not fit into the NA aduly focused mass market category. They are kind of like Cunard, a d Disney. Pricing above mass market, but do not really match the premium category. 

 

 

IMO, Princess sees VV as direct competition.

[TRLD]

5 hours ago, dog said:

“Just a consumer who knows what they value most!”

 

Thanks, well said.

 

The name calling- penny pincher is uncalled for.

 

 

All in how one takes it. I consider myself to be a penny pincher. Its why I was able to retire at age 55, spend 1/3 to 1/2 of the year traveling the world on cruises and staying in very nice properties as i do so. Currently in the Intercontinental next to Parklane in London as I type this. I take advantage of any opportunity to get the best value in what i purchase.  Quite willing to save over $1000 per 14 day cruise on Princess from various OBC (usually around $700) and Elite benefits (around $450). Our out of pocket on board spend, never anywhere close to what a package would add to the cost of our cruises. Certainly not in the targeted marketing audience of any cruise line these days.

 

Do find the angst over relatively minor changes in pricing, such as this change in the water package  to be rather comical though.

Edited 4 hours ago by TRLD

[TRLD]

5 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

IMO, Princess sees VV as direct competition.

Opinions vary. 

 

Princess main competitive focus on Celebrity and to some degree Royal and NCL. Princess more value focused than Celebrity, perfectly willing to attract passengers looking for more adult focused cruise experience, but not willing to pay Celebrity prices from Royal as well. Celebrity started the package concept to a large degree. RCL lines tend to be more innovative, CCL lines tend more towards value.

Edited 4 hours ago by TRLD

[Seacruise]

1 hour ago, Need-a-vacation said:

I remember several years ago on Carnival  it was really cheap to pre-order a case of water for your cabin.  The hypothesis then was they wanted people to stop bringing flats of water through embarkation because it was gumming up the works and they could manage their water inventory better by encouraging people to pre-order instead of just buying on board. And making it cheap slowed the revolt from passengers when they tried to limit how much people brought on board.

Yes  it all started with Carnival, but further to this the gumming up of the works was the fact that many flats of water were splitting open and bottles crushed. This caused leaking onto luggage and wet clothes inside the case. Because of this Carnival had to pay for the cleaning of the clothes because the owner of those clothes did not cause their clothes to get wet.
When Carnival realized the problem they decided to start off with flats being sold for $5.00 ion the early days. This pretty much got rid of the problem. This policy came along on all brands under Carnival.

A few weeks back Carnival made an announcement that they were raising prices but did not say if all the sub brands would follow. I guess it now has.
Further to all this most people don't understand that some bottled water has different items added to the water like minerals and salt.
Try contacting a cruise line and ask this question and they can not tell you. So many prefer to buy their own water without the additions.

I was on HAL (39 day cruise) a year ago and they had carton water onboard. The reason was they didn't want any plastic onboard anymore. I was coming up the gangway with some bottle water in plastic and was told no I could not bring it aboard as it was plastic.
Many crew members were coming up the gangway at the time all carrying plastic 4 litre jugs of water. It just so happened the Environmental Officer was their and I asked him what gives? The next thing I hear is carry on with my water.

I see it this way if they don't ban flats of water Princes and the likes will end up with the same problem they had a few years back.

To me it is a 300% increase that isn't needed or wanted.

Edited 4 hours ago by Seacruise
wrong word changed

[Need-a-vacation]

8 minutes ago, Seacruise said:

To me it is a 300% increase that isn't needed or wanted.

I agree.  Seems like it would have made more sense to phase it in a few dollars at a time every few months over a year.  Boil the frog, if you will.

 

That's what makes me wonder if there's a different motivation behind the big price hike besides just making more money.  That's a big enough jump that many people won't just absorb it and keep buying like they have and they will find work arounds.

[Happiest when cruising]

On 9/17/2024 at 3:36 PM, dog said:

And in the future, an empty water bottle will be in my suitcase to refill for free. No need to tie up $$$ for months.

We have always just done that. I do wonder when they will stop selling or including water (if in a pkg.) in plastic bottles. 

[Happiest when cruising]

On 9/17/2024 at 1:13 PM, dog said:

Was under $10 CAD for me.

Just cancelled my order, and will buy plus on the ship.

 

$32.40. CAD now!!

Why did you cancel it, if it was already ordered?  It would have been paid for, at the time you ordered it, wouldn’t it ? 

[Happiest when cruising]

On 9/17/2024 at 3:25 PM, Renmar said:

$0,21 Canadian per bottle at our local super market. Princess is probably paying less for these than we pay.

When bought on board the ship it would cost us $3,20 Canadian (incl. the 18% gratuity) or an 1500 % upcharge 🙄. It is probably the biggest money maker by percentage. It is also a big motivator for guests to buy the package. No wonder we choose the package.

 

Theo

It is not a motivator for me, it just is a reminder not to forget my reusable water bottle. I wonder what other increases are coming next…