Swapping items in your Elite mini bar setup

[ddvgww]

I know we get 8 miniature spirits and a number of cans of soft drinks.  Does anyone know if you can swap your cans of soft drinks for cans of ginger ale?  

[VibeGuy]

Yes.  It’s usually Seagrams or Canada Dry.  Rarely it’s been Gosling’s Ginger Beer. 

[RRFan]

We’ve been Elite for many years but have only cruised PCL once since Covid and wasn’t happy. So we’re going to give them one more try in November. We don’t drink alcohol and usually no soda. We’ve always exchanged the mini bar for coffee, which is no longer an option. Can we exchange all alcohol for water or Ginger ale?  Thanks in advance. 

[Sea Hag]

9 minutes ago, RRFan said:

We’ve been Elite for many years but have only cruised PCL once since Covid and wasn’t happy. So we’re going to give them one more try in November. We don’t drink alcohol and usually no soda. We’ve always exchanged the mini bar for coffee, which is no longer an option. Can we exchange all alcohol for water or Ginger ale?  Thanks in advance. 

We always swap out all of ours for sparkling water. I'm sure they'll swap for still water. And ginger ale is soda, so I'm sure you can swap for those as well.

Edited Wednesday at 04:42 PM by Sea Hag

[Treasure Hunter]

Yes just call room service and tell them what you want. We don’t drink alcohol so swap out one for one with water and Diet Coke 

[dreaminofcruisin]

48 minutes ago, Treasure Hunter said:

Yes just call room service and tell them what you want. We don’t drink alcohol so swap out one for one with water and Diet Coke 

 

I would ask your steward if it is them or room service who does the swap.

On the Royal in July, I called room service and they told me to talk to my steward.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

Either one if the steward it’s too busy. We’ve had both do it at different times. 

[Treasure Hunter]

If in a suite and you made a presidential visit ( tip) ask the steward as he/she will be hovering. If you can’t find them then call room service. 

[Reina del Mar]

We just give the steward a list of our requests…ice, robes etc and a list of items we would like to exchange from the mini bar. Steward did say he was busy on sailing day in July and would we mind if he did it the next day..which was no problem for us.

[Scottdalfonso]

We asked our steward on day one, he told us we should call room service. So we called them and asked to have the whole thing wiped out for a bottle of wine, they told us it was a bit busy but they would do it by lunch time on day 2, which we were fine with. By the time we got back from dinner on night one, we had the wine (and they didn't take any of the mini bar items!) 

Edited Thursday at 12:44 PM by Scottdalfonso

[LeeW]

Last cruise called on first day and actually got through to Room Service!  In the past have had to list each item to exchange for Diet Coke, this time just told them entire minibar and that was enough.  They also brought the three 6 packs we had ordered pre-cruise at the same time, a whole cartful.

 

Note that buying soda pre-cruise is a pretty good deal, far better than paying the zero-alcohol package if you just drink soda and not the specialty coffees/teas.

[rj59]

Have your room steward do it, because room service is constantly swamped by OceanNow delivery, so minibar swapping is low on their priority. The last time I used room service, when nobody appeared by the second day of a 4-day cruise I had to go to customer service and get them to write an email to room service, so not at all worth the frustration and uncertainty to use room service. Just take out everything you want replaced and write a list of what you want. The reason you can't get coffee is because coffee cards no longer exist. If you do a search on here, people have spelled out what you can swap for what, like booze for beer, or booze/water/soda for water or soda. You can't demand certain types or brands of liquor or beer, and you're also limited by soda options, so I've never been able to get Coke Zero, only Diet Coke, and never Sprite Zero, just Sprite. So be polite and reasonable, especially since your steward has had a rough embarkation day, working from before dawn. I keep it simple by swapping out all waters and sodas for diet coke, and then I drink the beers, and most of the minibottles go home with me.

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, LeeW said:

Last cruise called on first day and actually got through to Room Service!  In the past have had to list each item to exchange for Diet Coke, this time just told them entire minibar and that was enough.  They also brought the three 6 packs we had ordered pre-cruise at the same time, a whole cartful.

 

Note that buying soda pre-cruise is a pretty good deal, far better than paying the zero-alcohol package if you just drink soda and not the specialty coffees/teas.

We had a similar experience on our recent Ruby Princess cruise. We also had ordered the three six packs for Diet Coke. We were able to get through to Room Service shortly after getting in our room and by that evening they had switched out our mini bar and delivered our six packs. 
 

However, on our cruise before that on Sky we finally had to use Crew Chat to Guest Services to get Room Service to respond. 

[memoak]

I have never had an issue getting swap outs within 24 hours

[cruisermsoon]

It's probably better to wait until Day 2 until you put through your swap request to room service.

[Lidolounger]

Yes, you may swap for all water and pop.  Or you. Can add to it

 

For example I like gin, Rum, tequila.    You can fine tune. upon your preference 

If your preference is Whiskey that can  be provided.   All you have e to do is ask.

[arizonaperson]

On 9/17/2024 at 11:52 PM, ddvgww said:

I know we get 8 miniature spirits and a number of cans of soft drinks.  Does anyone know if you can swap your cans of soft drinks for cans of ginger ale?  

Yes as long as ginger ale comes in cans you can swap.
Here’s what comes as Elite set up. ( brands may vary) Here is the sodas usually onboard,so you can swap for those as well.
So if you want all ginger ale you may swap for that. If you don’t want gin, can swap it one for one - for let’s say vodka. If you don’t want any small bottles of alcohol and want all beer,swap one for one. Many choices. Just can not get what they don’t have. Pretty sure you can not swap for more than 10 alcohol bottles. Can remove all alcohol and get a mix of water,soda, etc.

yes 8 -50 ml bottles of alcohol and 2 beers in initial set up.

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 06:09 AM by arizonaperson

[RRFan]

13 hours ago, rj59 said:

The reason you can't get coffee is because coffee cards no longer exist.

Actually no. We traded our minibar for coffee for a couple of years after the coffee cards were phased out. They put 15 digital coffees on each of our cabin cards/medallion (happened with both). They’d swipe my cabin card and tell me how many coffees were left. When we did B2B’s and hadn’t used all 15 for the first week, the left overs stayed there and 25 more were added. They removed the coffee option when they slashed the other Elite loyalty benefits after Covid restart. I would think their cost on the coffee is less than their cost on the minibar. Just another poor management decision. 

[cruising.mark.uk]

21 minutes ago, RRFan said:

They put 15 digital coffees on each of our cabin cards/medallion (happened with both). 

They gave you a 'digital' coffee card.  Those no longer exist either.

Edited yesterday at 12:18 PM by cruising.mark.uk

[RRFan]

43 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

They gave you a 'digital' coffee card.  Those no longer exist either.

Of course! That’s what I said. They certainly could still put the digital credit on your medallion. That was my point. Poor management decision. 

[startedwithamouse]

7 hours ago, Lidolounger said:

Yes, you may swap for all water and pop.  Or you. Can add to it

 

For example I like gin, Rum, tequila.    You can fine tune. upon your preference 

If your preference is Whiskey that can  be provided.   All you have e to do is ask.

We've never seen rum in the minibar. 

[arizonaperson]

In my opinion- for quite some time now- the reason why you can’t swap your elite minibar for specialty coffee is because there is no longer a standalone coffee package .You either purchase the plus or the premier  cruise package that includes special coffees or zero alcohol package……

That’s why they can’t swap it one for one. Yes it was a nice perk while it lasted. But things change and evolve. I still think the coffee prices on Princess for specialty coffee without any package is not a bad price.( average $4.)

How many of you go to your local coffeehouse / Starbucks/ Dutch Bros, etc. every single morning and pay way more than what Princess is offering?

There are reasons why you can’t swap certain items -it’s just not possible to do it one to one for the minibar and a specialty coffee.

Thank goodness there are choices to be made in the World. Yes, give your vacation $ to another cruise line or land based operator/ hotel, airline. Etc. It’s okay.

Edited 21 hours ago by arizonaperson

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, arizonaperson said:

In my opinion- for quite some time now- the reason why you can’t swap your elite minibar for specialty coffee is because there is no longer a standalone coffee package .You either purchase the plus or the premier  cruise package that includes special coffees or zero alcohol package……

That’s why they can’t swap it one for one. Yes it was a nice perk while it lasted. But things change and evolve. I still think the coffee prices on Princess for specialty coffee without any package is not a bad price.( average $4.)

How many of you go to your local coffeehouse / Starbucks/ Dutch Bros, etc. every single morning and pay way more than what Princess is offering?

There are reasons why you can’t swap certain items -it’s just not possible to do it one to one for the minibar and a specialty coffee.

Thank goodness there are choices to be made in the World. Yes, give your vacation $ to another cruise line or land based operator/ hotel, airline. Etc. It’s okay.

Princess IC is much cheaper than land coffee. 

[Italy52]

On 9/18/2024 at 2:51 PM, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

I would ask your steward if it is them or room service who does the swap.

On the Royal in July, I called room service and they told me to talk to my steward.

 

We were on the Royal in May and August and were told the same -- talk with the room steward about swapping out the mini-bar.

[kywildcatfanone]

7 hours ago, RRFan said:

Actually no. We traded our minibar for coffee for a couple of years after the coffee cards were phased out. They put 15 digital coffees on each of our cabin cards/medallion (happened with both). They’d swipe my cabin card and tell me how many coffees were left. When we did B2B’s and hadn’t used all 15 for the first week, the left overs stayed there and 25 more were added. They removed the coffee option when they slashed the other Elite loyalty benefits after Covid restart. I would think their cost on the coffee is less than their cost on the minibar. Just another poor management decision. 

Yep, this is the right answer.   They offered a digital package at one time.