Drinks Packages on Princess Cruises

[Thrak]

While I can't say for certain and others may know for sure, I THINK if you buy the package before you leave port, you get hit with a sales tax.

 

That being said, we had the package the last cruise which finished up last week. It was a promotion so we didn't actually "pay" for it separately.

 

I found the something/mixer (bourbon and water; scotch and soda, etc) were really watered down. How do I know besides appearance? Many more trips to Ladies than at home and I mix "weak" drinks at home (lol). A friend got a Bloody Mary and, if there was any vodka in it, it was well disguised. Don't know if it was because it was in the package or not but even a $1 tip on top of the tip included in the package didn't help. Some of our group would watch them mix the "fou fou" drinks to see what was going into them. Others would order a "double on the rocks" and a mixer as a side and mix their own if they didn't want to go to the bar. My sail companion figured she needed to order 8 alcoholic drinks a day to make it "pay." She had no problem and I never saw her "tipsy."

 

What was really nice was getting wine at dinner delivered to the table (done promptly and refills offered when empty glass noticed) and the non-alcoholic drinks of specialty coffee/tea and other "pay for": treats at the International Cafe. When you combine those with alcoholic drinks, you can make the "break even" price.

 

Very odd. I just did 28 days on Emerald and noticed none of these issues. While I mostly drank straight Scotch when I did get mixed drinks (Bloody Mary, Pernod and OJ, and Chairman of the Board martini) they were always mixed correctly. As for ordering a "double on the rocks" one isn't allowed to order a double with the beverage package. I had excellent service and great drinks throughout the cruise. Even the freebie drinks handed out at the Captain's Circle thing were normal drinks. Although I would normally order a Tanqueray and Tonic rather than taking one of the offered drinks I did have a couple of their pre-prepared drinks this time and both were definitely made with the full amount of liquor.

[Tucker in Texas]

I was on the Star. Some bars were different than others. Bloody Mary's at one bar were excellent. I had no problem ordering double rye on the rocks as did the others in my group so maybe "different strokes for different folks" applied. The drink problems occurred mostly in one lounge rather than ship wide. Unfortunately, that was the lounge the World Series games were being shown in where we spent a lot of time (lol). Go Astros!