Beverage package discounts?

[TedBar82]

Hello,

We are considering trying Princess cruise lines next year.

Does Princess offer a discount on beverage packages if purchased before the cruise?

[skynight]

2 minutes ago, TedBar82 said:

Hello,

We are considering trying Princess cruise lines next year.

Does Princess offer a discount on beverage packages if purchased before the cruise?

Have never seen this. On board price is the same as pre-purchase price.

[partybarbie]

This has been our experience also.  The main advantage to waiting is if you have a lot of shipboard credits to spend, otherwise I would pre-purchase.  It will be loaded to your cruise card, ready and available to use upon embarkation. 

[paul929207]

It is offered as a perk for early bookings. The promo is called Sip & Sail. It has been offered the last few years. It covered cruises at least one year out and you must have a balcony or higher cabin. No guarantee the same offer will be made next year, but we hope so.

[c-boy]

welcome my good  friends to the North. I believe the beverage package is the discount.  O p where ya planning to cruise to?

Edited November 4, 2018 by c-boy

[Hlitner]

One should consider that the beverage package costs over $130 a day for a couple.  While some can get their moneys worth on sea days it is a stretch on port days.  When included as a promo the cost of the cruise is increased....so it is often not a good deal

 

Hank

[dides]

Sometimes it is a good deal for guests who don't buy the cruise in US dollars as the pre-purchased beverage package is locked into the currency rate Princess uses at the point you booked the cruise. So it might be a better rate than the one you would get buying it in dollars onboard months later. Or it could be worse (just in case you being from Canada is a factor).

Edited November 4, 2018 by dides

[jwattle]

34 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

One should consider that the beverage package costs over $130 a day for a couple.  While some can get their moneys worth on sea days it is a stretch on port days.  When included as a promo the cost of the cruise is increased....so it is often not a good deal

 

Hank

Not always increased. Last year , we booked our 15 day Hawaii r/t SF during the sip and sail. After the promo came off, the price did not go down; it continued to go UP until the day of sailing. I was pretty happy, seeing that we paid less for our cabin WITH the beverage package than someone without it...

[paul929207]

I added S&S to several cruises during that promotion this past summer. The cruises were booked and the price was below that shown on Princess. We were able to add S&S with no price change.

[capriccio]

47 minutes ago, jwattle said:

Not always increased. Last year , we booked our 15 day Hawaii r/t SF during the sip and sail. After the promo came off, the price did not go down; it continued to go UP until the day of sailing. I was pretty happy, seeing that we paid less for our cabin WITH the beverage package than someone without it...

We've had the same experience with the 3 cruises we've booked under Sip 'n Sail:  LA to Valparaiso to Rio in 2016, Rome to Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale in 2017, and (so far) Southampton to Norway to Southampton next summer.  These were long cruises (31 days, 25 days and Norway will be 14 days) and there was no way we'd have bought the package independently.

Edited November 4, 2018 by capriccio

[Thrak]

Yep. Last year it was great. This year my cruises went up dramatically the day the Sip and Sail came out. $500 per person more on our 12 day cruise next year. I was appalled and didn't change to the "sale". It's gone up even more now. After the good experience last year I was very disappointed this year.

[crystalspin]

@paul929207

 

Thanks for explaining specifically that S&S applies only to balcony and up. We are below that category so I won't be holding my breath wondering if S&S will come back in time to switch to.

 

Feb1 2020 Emerald Princess

[paul929207]

The recent S&S  was for sailings about June, 2019 thru May, 2020. If Princess follows the pattern of the last few years, the next would be June 2020 thru May 2021

[Colo Cruiser]

On 11/4/2018 at 8:27 AM, TedBar82 said:

Hello,

We are considering trying Princess cruise lines next year.

Does Princess offer a discount on beverage packages if purchased before the cruise?

No and they are not proratable. Have to buy for the entire cruise.

[c-boy]

On 11/4/2018 at 9:36 AM, jwattle said:

Not always increased. Last year , we booked our 15 day Hawaii r/t SF during the sip and sail. After the promo came off, the price did not go down; it continued to go UP until the day of sailing. I was pretty happy, seeing that we paid less for our cabin WITH the beverage package than someone without it...

jwattle who's that fella with ya in your avatar 

[memoak]

Another piece of info on the sip and sail promo - at least for the last  2 years we have not be able to combine our casino rates with the sip and sail

[jwattle]

On 10/25/2018 at 7:09 PM, elliair said:

 

 

3 hours ago, c-boy said:

jwattle who's that fella with ya in your avatar 

c-boy, that, as you well know, is "the count! He is with all of the time, kind of like a stalker, but one that I'm married to. 

[Navancruiser]

Hi everyone! We are two couples who will be travelling from Ottawa and Toronto to go on this cruise. We have been spoiled in the past by complimentary alchohol packages on Norweigian and Celebrity, and are finding the per person cost for the alchohol package on this trip to be quite a lot of $$. Has anyone ever known Princess to reduce the cost of their package or put it on sale in any way? 

[Cruise_Ship_Vacations]

43 minutes ago, Navancruiser said:

Hi everyone! We are two couples who will be travelling from Ottawa and Toronto to go on this cruise. We have been spoiled in the past by complimentary alchohol packages on Norweigian and Celebrity, and are finding the per person cost for the alchohol package on this trip to be quite a lot of $$. Has anyone ever known Princess to reduce the cost of their package or put it on sale in any way? 

Nope.  They don’t put them on sale.  And you are limited to 15 drinks per day. 

[tanyaewa]

On 11/4/2018 at 7:27 AM, TedBar82 said:

Hello,

We are considering trying Princess cruise lines next year.

Does Princess offer a discount on beverage packages if purchased before the cruise?

 

No.  As explained there are ways to get a booking that includes beverages but unlike other cruise lines like RCCL the price is the same on board.  

Princess does allow 1 bottle of wine per passenger of legal drinking age without a charge ( more than that would incur $15 corkage ) and allows you to bring water and soda aboard  at embarkation and subsequent ports stops so I rarely find it worthwhile to purchase on Princess.

A few  benefit of pre purchasing is that you can lock in exchange rates, use OBC, budget spending and it will already be loaded on your card so you can walk straight to the bar.

hope that answers 

[lbfluffy]

On 11/4/2018 at 9:36 AM, jwattle said:

Not always increased. Last year , we booked our 15 day Hawaii r/t SF during the sip and sail. After the promo came off, the price did not go down; it continued to go UP until the day of sailing. I was pretty happy, seeing that we paid less for our cabin WITH the beverage package than someone without it...

 

It would have been nice to have it on that cruise. We booked a little too late. But we got a great deal, our agent gave us a group rate. It worked for  us because they had the buy one get one for $1, but I read those are gone. 

[Colo Cruiser]

8 hours ago, Navancruiser said:

Hi everyone! We are two couples who will be travelling from Ottawa and Toronto to go on this cruise. We have been spoiled in the past by complimentary alchohol packages on Norweigian and Celebrity, and are finding the per person cost for the alchohol package on this trip to be quite a lot of $$. Has anyone ever known Princess to reduce the cost of their package or put it on sale in any way? 

Did you read the entire thread?

Maybe the first 17 posts?  Lol

[caribill]

7 hours ago, Cruise_Ship_Vacations said:

Nope.  They don’t put them on sale.  And you are limited to 15 drinks per day. 

The 15 drink limit is for beverages with alcohol. Non-alcohol beverages that are included have no daily limit.

[crystalspin]

8 hours ago, Navancruiser said:

We have been spoiled in the past by complimentary alchohol packages on Norweigian and Celebrity, and are finding the per person cost for the alchohol package on this trip to be quite a lot of $$. 

Navan, I hear you! It is a lot -- almost equal to one person's fare for the two of us. OTOH, we do like to imbibe and there are EIGHTEEN seadays.

 

As we are sailing from our home port, I made a little spreadsheet to determine how bringing a quantity of wine (paying corkage on all but two) and buying some combination of the Silver and Gold wine packages plus coffee cards would compare to the PBP... and by predicted QUANTITIES, we would be ahead with the wine and cards (even with significant corkage).

 

However, when I asked dr'spin if he thought we'd be happy with "only" wine, or it being the South Pacific would we want to be drinking rum "boat drinks"... and he said RUM! He also enjoyed the "inclusive" feel of having HAL's beverage plan on our latest cruise, even just for espresso drinks.

 

I have no answer for you! If you drink five drinks a day at $12 apiece -- then the coffee drinks and anything else is gravy.