Newbie has questions about Princess Plus

[Cajuntraveler]

DH and I usually cruise HAL and X (15 cruises).  I have put an April 2023 cruise on hold on the Ruby Princess out of Galveston.(Payment due today!)

I'm having trouble deciding whether to purchase the" Plus" package at $60 pp/pd.  I may have 2 alcoholic drinks per day and DH doesn't imbibe at all.

The package looks like a good value if you have several beverages per day, but not sure it's worth it for us.

 

Can I add the package once on board the ship and use my OBC as partial payment?

Any help deciding will be appreciated!

 

 

[pathi]

Not sure about buying on board. You may consider that it includes wifi, tips and things like specialty coffee, Soft drinks and Milk shakes.

[BamaVol]

Not my firsthand experience, but I have read here that it can be purchased on board, possibly only on day 1.  As an accountant, I always run the numbers.  It would not make sense for my wife and I if we did not drink 2+ alcoholic beverages a day.  Internet and gratuities are worth $10 +16 daily PP.  You would need to obtain $34 a day in value from two exercise classes per cruise, unlimited juice and soda, bottled water, specialty coffee and 2 “premium” desserts a day. Saving $10 on medallion shipping is meaningless as you can pick them up at embarkation with minimal effort, I am told.

[memoak]

It really comes down to beverages. Does your partner or yourself drink specialty coffees, soft drinks or many bottles of water. They would all be covered as well. If the answer is no then you might be better of just paying for your 2 drinks a day 

[gotolv]

What is the daily limit on alcoholic drinks included in Princess Plus? I was told by a Princess rep that the number is 15.  That's a lot of alcohol.  

[BamaVol]

14 minutes ago, gotolv said:

What is the daily limit on alcoholic drinks included in Princess Plus? I was told by a Princess rep that the number is 15.  That's a lot of alcohol.  

Correct on both statements. The count begins and ends at 6:00 am daily.  
 

which leads to the question (asking for a friend) - is there a bar open 24/7? Or does my friend need to order drink #15 before some particular closing time?

[Tedferg]

I am like a broken record on this question. How important is WiFi to you. We do not use it when cruising and use WiFi in ports for a periodic check of email. I do understand that some people need to be in regular contact using WiFI.

[memoak]

18 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I am like a broken record on this question. How important is WiFi to you. We do not use it when cruising and use WiFi in ports for a periodic check of email. I do understand that some people need to be in regular contact using WiFI.

I use WiFi daily on a cruise to check emails and catch up on news since Princess TV does not include any real news stations just commentary outlets

[roxievegas]

We do not get the princess plus (even at the old price) unless it comes with our offer (we get casino offers)

 

If princess plus is not included, then I pay for the gratuities about two weeks in advance of cruising.  I purchase the wifi for one device and I order two cases of water.  I bring powder gatorade and lemonde to make drinks for our cabin.  If we want a glass of wine with dinner, we order and it may cost $25 per day for that.  My coffee is free - regular brew and my husbands runs $1.75 each day.

 

We save a lot not getting the princess plus.  I have read that 60 - 70% of cruisers get a package, so the ships are getting a lot of extra money.

 

Even when we have the drink package provided to us (free with our casino offer) - we never drink more than two drinks per day - we mostly benefit from not paying the gratuities.

[KKB]

35 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

 

 

If princess plus is not included, then I pay for the gratuities about two weeks in advance of cruising.  I purchase the wifi for one device and I order two cases of water.  I bring powder gatorade and lemonde to make drinks for our cabin.  If we want a glass of wine with dinner, we order and it may cost $25 per day for that.  My coffee is free - regular brew and my husbands runs $1.75 each day.

 

We save a lot not getting the princess plus.  I have read that 60 - 70% of cruisers get a package, so the ships are getting a lot of extra money.

 

 

If your wine is $25/day, you bought water & mixers...plus DH has coffee...you are running about a wash on the cost of drinks/day.

 

On Discovery last Sept, DH's aunt & uncle weren't going to get the Plus package as they don't drink much anymore. It was only $50/day total then. We convinced them they should. They got their moneys worth even on a  couple drinks/day.

 

I'm going to say that those who get Princess Plus (us included) EASILY get their moneys worth.

 

We just did a 2 week Carnival cruise & went back & forth as to whether we should get the drink package. We were able to snag it before the price increase, and had about 25% of it covered with OBC.

We still thought of cancelling the week before.

Well, even tho we both had several days of seasickness & I was in bed for 2 days with the flu, we got out $s worth. I was surprised.

 

We figure if we break even (or even close) it is worth it--no signing of tickets! 

(tho that is NOT the case on Carnival--had to sign every time!!🤬)

 

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by KKB

[nini]

It is worth it for us; this is per person

$16.00 per day/ Crew gratuities

$10.00 per day for internet

$5.00 per day for my special coffee drink (tip is included)

$25.00 per day for 2 glasses of wine in evening

$4.00 per day for 2 bottle of water

$60.00

 

This is just a simple breakdown and allows us to drink whatever we wish and not worry about it.

 

[roxievegas]

3 hours ago, nini said:

It is worth it for us; this is per person

$16.00 per day/ Crew gratuities

$10.00 per day for internet

$5.00 per day for my special coffee drink (tip is included)

$25.00 per day for 2 glasses of wine in evening

$4.00 per day for 2 bottle of water

$60.00

 

This is just a simple breakdown and allows us to drink whatever we wish and not worry about it.

 

16.00  grat

   5.00 internet

    0 coffee

 12.00 one glass of wine, not everyday

      .60 bottle water  ($7.08 for case of 12 delivered to room)

 

total   $33.60  per day per person   - new plus price is $76.69 per day per person now

 

it all depends on your alcohol consumption more than anything else and since I don't drink at home, I don't need to drink on the ship.  So my daily cost can be $21.60 per day and I am saving $50.00 per day not getting the package (per person) - $100 per day for 7 days = $700.00 not spent on a package.

[memoak]

38 minutes ago, roxievegas said:

16.00  grat

   5.00 internet

    0 coffee

 12.00 one glass of wine, not everyday

      .60 bottle water  ($7.08 for case of 12 delivered to room)

 

total   $33.60  per day per person   - new plus price is $76.69 per day per person now

 

it all depends on your alcohol consumption more than anything else and since I don't drink at home, I don't need to drink on the ship.  So my daily cost can be $21.60 per day and I am saving $50.00 per day not getting the package (per person) - $100 per day for 7 days = $700.00 not spent on a package.

The plus package is generally for those of us who 1-2 beers or glasses of wine with lunch, 2 pre dinner cocktails, wine with dinner and 2-3 drinks in the casino   That plus waters, specialty coffees, gratuities and WiFi make it a no brainer for us. If some one does not drink at all they probably would not want to have the package

[nasa1974]

It's still a lot cheaper than Royal Caribbean.

[caribill]

9 hours ago, roxievegas said:

new plus price is $76.69 per day per person now

 

 

 

??? 

 

$60 USD per day per person.

[BamaVol]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

??? 

 

$60 USD per day per person.

I think the $76.69 referenced is the drinks only package?  Which doesn’t make sense compared to the Plus package which offers much more at a lower price. I wonder how long they will continue to offer it.

[Musky Ike]

43 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

I think the $76.69 referenced is the drinks only package?  Which doesn’t make sense compared to the Plus package which offers much more at a lower price. I wonder how long they will continue to offer it.

So they can inflate the "value" of the plus package. 

[BamaVol]

33 minutes ago, Musky Ike said:

So they can inflate the "value" of the plus package. 

A reasonably intelligent purchaser assigns value based on personal use and experience.  I don’t think most people would be convinced that a motor vehicle offered for sale at $100,000 was a bargain just because the sticker said $150,000 when comparable vehicles sell for $50,000.. 
$76 for a drink package is a bargain compared to other lines.  But it fails when compared to a $60 package that includes more than drinks. The irony is that both are offered by the same line. 
No matter what Princess tells the consumer, a drink package is worth how many drinks I purchase at the per drink prices.  Two beers a day at $8 each is still only worth $16.  And ten fancy drinks at $15 each is worth a whopping $150.  I assume most people can still do basic math.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, BamaVol said:

I think the $76.69 referenced is the drinks only package?  Which doesn’t make sense compared to the Plus package which offers much more at a lower price. I wonder how long they will continue to offer it.

 

It certainly made more sense for the passenger when the Plus package cost $40/day/person than now when it cost 50% more.

 

They will continue to offer it. Princess still makes $$$ on selling the package. With the Plus and Premier packages, Princess said 75% of passengers will get one of the packages (at least this was before the December price increase). That is a lot more income than they had pre-Plus/Premier from those paying the price of a beverage package alone. (Remember, Princess pays no state or Federal taxes when purchasing alcohol beverages, but maintains in many cases shore-side pricing.)

 

Carnival Corp has been reporting significantly higher onboard spending. These packages are for accounting purposes onboard spending.

[Musky Ike]

23 minutes ago, BamaVol said:

A reasonably intelligent purchaser assigns value based on personal use and experience.  I don’t think most people would be convinced that a motor vehicle offered for sale at $100,000 was a bargain just because the sticker said $150,000 when comparable vehicles sell for $50,000.. 
$76 for a drink package is a bargain compared to other lines.  But it fails when compared to a $60 package that includes more than drinks. The irony is that both are offered by the same line. 
No matter what Princess tells the consumer, a drink package is worth how many drinks I purchase at the per drink prices.  Two beers a day at $8 each is still only worth $16.  And ten fancy drinks at $15 each is worth a whopping $150.  I assume most people can still do basic math.

It is called marketing. It happens all over the place because it works. Some people just accept what a retailer tells them. I see "bargains" all the time where the price was increased (inflated) so the can offer a "sale" price of what it was before, or sometimes more. You are correct that true value is based on individual usage, not what they tell you it is worth.  

[JeffT237]

12 hours ago, nasa1974 said:

It's still a lot cheaper than Royal Caribbean.

 

Our first cruise with Princess was May 2022, when we booked the Princess Plus was its original price of $40pp.  Our last several cruises were all on Royal Caribbean and we have never even considered buying a drink package due to the cost vs how much we consume.  When I found out the $40pp was for drinks, tips and WiFI I thought it was a typo or a mistake.  Unbelievable value at that price for us, we purchased it again for our October Discovery cruise at $50pp, and would still purchase it at the current $60pp price point. 

 

As a comparison for our upcoming March cruise with Royal Caribbean the cost of the drink package, WiFi and gratuities comes out to $116.50pp or $1631 for both my wife and I.  We never purchase the drink package with Royal, we'll continue to purchase the WiFi separately, pre-pay gratuities and pay for drinks individually.

[nasa1974]

Not sure where the $76.00 comes from. The "Princess Plus" comes out to $420 per person for a 7 day cruise. That is $60.00 per day and when you subtract the $15 for internet and $17 for crew appreciation that makes the drinks per day come out to $28 per day per person. 

On Royal Caribbean just the drink package averages $79.00 per person per day plus an 18% gratuity.

[Tedferg]

4 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I think the $76.69 referenced is the drinks only package?  Which doesn’t make sense compared to the Plus package which offers much more at a lower price. I wonder how long they will continue to offer it.

Bev Package can be bought for just one person. So, $76.69 might be better than 2*$60.

[nini]

19 hours ago, roxievegas said:

16.00  grat

   5.00 internet

    0 coffee

 12.00 one glass of wine, not everyday

      .60 bottle water  ($7.08 for case of 12 delivered to room)

 

total   $33.60  per day per person   - new plus price is $76.69 per day per person now

 

it all depends on your alcohol consumption more than anything else and since I don't drink at home, I don't need to drink on the ship.  So my daily cost can be $21.60 per day and I am saving $50.00 per day not getting the package (per person) - $100 per day for 7 days = $700.00 not spent on a package.

 

The Plus Package is $60.00 per day, not $76.69. The Premier is $80.00 per day. You might have status on Princess to be getting internet for $5.00 per day? Depending on the length of you cruise, you may want more water than that.

Bottom line, do what you think is best for you.

[nasa1974]

I must be missing something because I don't see an option just for an Alcohol package. It's either Plus or Premium. Then you have the non-alcohol, beverage or coffee packages. I think after subtracting the internet and crew appreciation from the Plus or Premium packages it's still a pretty good deal to get all your drinks for $28 or $48 per day plus 18% gratuity. Just my opinion.