Sailaweigh

We've crunched the numbers many times and Princess still hasn't convinced us to get the Plus or the Premium plus package for several reasons...

1) we get a lot of shipboard credit. We don't enjoy Princess Shore Excursions and we don't need more stuff to buy, so where would we spend it this SBC? 

2) Princess advertises the package costs $60/pp, but did you realize that they roll the cost into the price of the cruise? So you paying 9% (almost $10/day/cabin) more for Vacation Protection due to the added package.  So now the cost of the package is actually $130/day for the two of you.   Princess is essentially increasing the cost of the Vacation insurance for people who buy the packages.

3)We are elite, so we get the stocked bar set up on every cruise.

4) Since we are elite, the wifi fee is $12.50/per day.  We might get it on sea days if we're board.  When we do buy it, we get a single device and my hubby and I share a hot spot. On port days, our Tmobile plan has us covered.

5) We've noticed that the selection of wines in the plus package are limited, so we prefer to bring our wine onboard.  When we are going to foreign ports, we enjoy trying the local wines.  We pay the extra $20/bottle "corkage fee" for the extra wine and bring it to dinner.  A bottle of wine usually lasts us for 2-3 dinners.

6) We go on lots of longer cruises where at least one of us will catch a virus on the ship and be out of commission for a day or 2 or 3.  So on those days, we don't drink (if one of us gets sick, the other one tends to also lay low).

7) And most important reason is that we consciously try not to drink too much. When our doctors ask us how much we drink, we usually respond with " 1 or 2 drinks on weekends and while on vacation". Well, it seems like we're on vacation all the time! Lately, we've been on a cruise ship about 100 days/year and cruising on our own boat about 50days/year.  If we got the drink package, we know that we would try to get our money's worth.  So for the sake of our liver and to prevent other illnesses associated with alcohol, we are very aware of what and how much we drink.

In addition, there are all those empty calories that go along with the package.

A tip for people who want to decrease their alcohol on a cruise, I pick up a couple of the fruit smoothies at breakfast and put them in my refrigerator.  Then I pick up a couple glasses at one of the bars.  Add a little ice and I have a healthy mocktail for Happy Hour. 

Princess loves the packages because they are a profit source that they can count on. With the package, they know that "Jane & John Smith" have committed to spend $60pp/day and Princess can count on that revenue.  Princess knows that the Smiths have committed to buy 2 wifi plans(which costs little to operate) and Princess also knows that the Smiths will be "buying" drinks (which cost Princess less than probably $1 each), even if the Smiths normally wouldn't have bought any or as many that day. Drinks have a huge profit margin. 

Then Princess has guests like us who don't buy the package. Princess doesn't know if we will sign up for the 1 or 2 or no wifi plans.  Princess doesn't know how much we may or may not drink every day thus they can't count on how much of a profit they will make on us.

We travel with friends that always get the drink package. They love it, they use it, and they feel that they get their money's worth.  For us, the numbers, among other things, don't work.

6 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Other possible user fees so you do not have to pay for amenities you do not use:

 

o Attending a show in the Princess Theater

o Using a swimming pool

o Taking an elevator

o Watching MUTS

 

Funny.  That would be an idea.  But that wouldn't bother me. We go to maybe 2 shows a cruise (seen all the production shows and many of the guest entertainers are repeats). We never use the swimming pool (heck, we have a pool that I rarely use), never take the elevator (I prefer the exercise of walking) or have watched a MUTS (we prefer to watch them in my own cabin).  Now, I'm wondering to myself what I Do I do?  

We are US citizens and wondering if we need a visa when we stop at Kuşadası and visit Ephesus on a private tour.  On the US state department site it says

"U.S. citizens traveling on cruise ships can enter visa-free for a maximum of 72 hours with permission from authorities at the port of entry." but on e-visa site is says "Tourists who arrive in Turkey on a cruise ship do not need a visa if they are only planning to visit the city that their ship docks at."  Since Ephesus is only 6 miles from the port, do we need a visa? Has anyone been there lately and has taken a private tour and needed a visa?  

Princess is getting a lot of dependable revenue with the plus packages and not paying out a lot for the products. They know that they will be getting $60/day everyday from that person. Where as, since we get the standard package, they don't know if we will drink or not that day (maybe we don't feel well that day). They don't know if we will purchase the Internet plan, etc. They can't anticipate our spending.

They push the Plus & Premium packages, because it's cash in hand with little expense to them.

Most people have no more than 5 or 6 drinks/day. Each drink probably costs them $1-$3.

Now, they will offer the free casual dining venues to entice people to eat there. People love stuff for  "free" so Princess is hoping that people will opt to eat a cheaper to prepare meal ( ie pasta, sandwich, etc) instead of going to the MDR and having a full meal. In addition, it will also lighten the load that the busy MDR usually experiences while the casual dining options are like ghost towns.

And BTW... you do realize that when you purchase the plus package $120 ($60x2) and also get the princess insurance, that you are paying the 8% insurance premium on that additional amount for a total of almost $130/day.

After hearing this news and reading all the comments,  initially I was mad because generally I  don't like nickle & diming. But then I again, I  don't want the cruise fares to go up. I'm a big believer in "user fees", and I guess that is what these are. People that use the amenities should pay for them. 

We always go standard fare. We would drink too much if we got the package. This way,  with the Elite bar set up and a drink at the Elite lounge  before dinner, we feel that's enough alcohol for us for the day.

After 36 cruises on Princess, we have never gone to the casual dining venues ( not even Alfredo's) We never have ordered from the Medallion and have never order RS ( except for the occasional carafe of coffee for breakfast).  So this is no change for us.   

Everything is costing more, and we like everyone grumbles about costs going up and package sizes getting smaller. But when I look back to our first cruises in the 80's, we were paying $1200 for an inside cabin for a 7 day on Carnival and it puts things into perspective.

Hi,

My question is if I should book 2 14 day cruises back to back or book the longer 28 day cruise  (It is the same cruise).

Will I get 2 stockholder benefits if I book the cruises separately?

Does anyone have any experience doing this?

If Princess accepts your bid and you don't like the location. Can you decline it?

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

With the "crew appreciation" now being shared across the fleet, your individual contribution to your cabin steward is about 1 cent a day and the same to your waiter. And of course, you are contributing that penny to each of the other eligible staff on the ship and across the fleet.

 

When you give them a little extra for good service, they get to keep all of that extra.

Just wondering if the staff still expects them. When we went to first services on the last day of the cross a few weeks ago and asked for envelopes, the staff person looked at us confused. I said for tips and all that they could find were larger envelopes with windows. And then, when we were giving the extra tip to the waiter, he took it ( of course) but emphasized what he would like was a very good review.

It seemed like less and less people are giving the extra tips 

Does anyone know how the tips are divided up? Specifically, how much of it does the Cabin Steward and dining room waiters get? We usually give them a little extra, so with the increase, we plan to lessen or forgo that, unless they did something really special for us.

Sue

If you purchase wifi before boarding, can you use your SBC to buy it?

Hi,

Been a loyal Princess cruiser for the past 10+years and are reaching the 25 cruises or 250 days at sea with Princess mark. 

Does Princess still give SBC for the guests with over 25, 50 and 75 cruises?  I remember at one time, it was $25 SBC after 25, $50 per cruise after 50 cruises, etc.  Do they still do that?  A girl's gotta have a goal. 😁

Thanks, Sue

19 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We also have T Mobile for the first time cruising. 

I'm happy to hear that you could text at various ports. 

Did you happen to make any calls to home from the Caribbean?

yes $0.25/min is charged to your T mobile account

20 hours ago, nini said:

 

Have you considered getting the "Princess Plus" package? When you break down the math, it is worth it. It costs $40.00 per day per person.

 

Below is what these things would cost if you pay for them separately WITHOUT Princess Plus.

I think $40.00 per day per person is a good deal.

 

14.50   Crew Incentive (gratuities)

 9.99    WiFi

26.00  2 glasses of wine with gratuity

   5.00  Fabulous caramel latte'

55.49

 

 

 

 

 

Just getting off the Enchanted Princess without the drink package, I crunched some numbers.

We are elite, so we get the bar set up which we switch to all beer (10 beers) and 10 waters. We can't drink a whole lot.

I brought 6 bottles of wine onto the ship, paying $60 corkage fee (2 bottles no charge). All six bottles were previously gifted to us.

Most days, I would have a glass of wine and my hubby would have a beer on the balcony for pre-Happy Hour. Then we would go to the Elite lounge for 1-2 beers or ciders. At dinner, we shared one of the bottles of wine that we brought aboard. We both only drink 1 glass of wine with dinner, so the 4 bottles lasted the 10 days.

As far as internet goes, we have the Tmobile senior rate and get free data and text at all the ports, so we were able to check our messages from home.

It came out that we averaged $9.00 pp/per day (including the corkage charge) for alcohol, 14.50 for crew and $0 for wifi. Or $50 per day for the 2 of us. We drank as much as we wanted and saved a total of $300 by going a la carte.

That being said, some of our friends had the Princess Plus package for that cruise and Princess definitely lost money on them. So Princess Plus may be better for you or it may not be. 

3 hours ago, big al said:

A question about the 2 dining rooms, Capri & Amalfi.. what is the difference between the 2? I see Amalfi is aft & must have a better view of the sea..Capri is mid ship.. I can only guess Capri must be easier to get to because of their weird elevator & location on the decks situation..I saw a guy on YouTube do a review & mentioned that the Amalfi was more difficult to get to..advise? Thanks..we sail Feb. 28...hopefully some of the production shows will be back by then..both shows were cancelled on the NCL Encore, which we just got off of Jan. 16th...BUT The Beatles's show & Frankie Valli tribute were great...

 

Big Al 

We just got off the ship. Since we had 10 people in our group, we were in the Almafi. The Capri couldn't accommodate 10 people together. We had a long table off to the side in a separated area. We loved it.   

We thought that being harder to get to, the Almafi would be less crowded. It did seem to have a lot of larger tables. We went to the Capri for breakfast, and noticed many more smaller tables.

Have fun

Played on the Island Princess last month. About 20 people were playing regularly and only one court, so a lot of social time while waiting. It was a fun time. Doing the Caribbean Princess TA in a couple weeks, plan on bringing our own paddles (even though there was nothing wrong with Princess's equipment).

Got off her Feb. 19th and it was definitely listed a couple times in patters.

Thanks for that info

Does anyone know if they are playing pickleball on the Caribbean Princess? Just came off the Island Princess and the pickleball court was always busy. There even was a couple tournaments. Simone (the cruise directer) was very helpful in making this happen. Wondering if the Caribbean Princess has it too.

It's funny that people can be on the same cruise and experience a different cruise.

Except for 1 day and night, I didn't think the boat was rocking at all. We were on the upper deck a lot playing pickleball and there was only one day that the wind (not the ship rocking), made it impossible to play.

Our group dined on second sitting (7:45). Our waiter had us done with dinner and on our way by 9:00 and he was serving 12 from our group plus 2 other tables. We noticed that when we arrived at the dining room at 7:45, some people were already on their main course. Apparently, they would serve you early if you arrived early.

One thing I wish they had done differently was to have the port speaker do each presentation two times. His talks were very good but always very crowded. Yes, we could watch it on our cabin TV later, but we never knew when it was starting, and we always hit the same part of the talk.

I really never saw the crowds and lack of seats that you all are talking about . One of the reasons that we do second sitting is that if gets us off the schedule that the early and anytime dinners are on ( and thus less crowds). We eat lunch a little later and we go to the later shows. We have found that this works on all the cruise ships that we've been on.

Happy Hour was very busy...so we would get our drinks and head to a place that wasn't crowded and enjoyed our own Happy Hour. That was about the only place (other than the theater) that we had trouble getting seats. In all the other venues, it sometimes was difficult to find a place for all 12 of us to sit to together, but there were always places for 4 or 8 of us.

For the people headed out on the Island Princess soon...Enjoy!

I was on that cruise. I thought it was a great ship (one of my favorites and we've been on 47 cruises...15th Princess cruise). Liked the smaller venues with a small boat feel. Didn't have a problem finding a place to eat in the Horizon for breakfast or lunch, but it was a little noisy in there during "rush hour". The staff was great and the Cruise Director, Simone, was very helpful in us being able to play pickleball. The staff moral and guest seemed to be very positive with hardly a complaint heard throughout the cruise. Really enjoyed the lotus covered pool area. It was always very peaceful in there. Would go back on the Island Princess in a second.

Does Ruby Princess have hair dryers in room? We are staying caribe deck balcony

Yes they do

I'd be concerned in case someone bumped into me on the way into the MDR and the wine spill ruined my outfit (especially if you enjoy a red).

Learned this a couple cruises ago and will share it with you. If you get a red wine spot on your outfit, immediately dab a little white wine on it. The red stain disappears. This little trick can come in handy.

Thanks for to info. This will make life much easier.

Sue

When we go on a B2B cruise, can my husband & I bring all 4 bottles (1per person per cruise) of wine on board when we go on the first cruise?

We booked the Ruby Princess ( Dec. 14th sailing) last week. Yesterday, I called and asked if we would get the credit that was being offered this week. She said everyone on the ship will be getting it and it will be done automatically. This is the best deal to date..paid $129 for a 4 day cruise and got upgraded to a balcony. And now I have leverage to convince my hubby to go on another Princess cruise later in the year.

Never went on a 4 day cruise before, always on longer ones. Wanted to know if they sell the FCC on the shorter cruises? Don't know if we should use it on this shorter cruise or save it for another cruise. Does anyone know?

Thanks for the info

Sue