Is the upcharge from Plus to Premier worth it?

[fluffybunny22]

I have a hold on a cruise with the plus pricing but was just looking and for 16 nights it's only $320 more per person for the first and second person. I'm pitching this tonight so I need opinions. Caribbean Princess for a midnight sun sailing next June. We are moderate drinkers. Husband likes wine and I like fruity and frozen cocktails. On Celebrity I like to upgrade to the premium package because I really like knowing there isn't anything on the menu I can't order. We would do the specialty dining anyway so having it included and only having to pay for our son's meal would be a bonus. There are 5 sea days so I think the drink package will get a good amount of use. My husband doesn't like being nickle and dimed. I currently have a similar but shorter cruise booked on MSC but what I've read has me concerned because we don't have Yacht Club booked and I feel like he's going to feel nickle and dimed. The Princess cruise isn't much more expensive than the MSC one and the Princess one gives me a better gut feeling. I really want to switch to the Princess sailing so can you guys help me out? 

[Potstech]

Only you can make that decision.

[Techwizardress]

We have found that it is not worth it for us.  

In order to break even, you need to drink too much.

 

 

[memoak]

1 hour ago, Techwizardress said:

We have found that it is not worth it for us.  

In order to break even, you need to drink too much.

 

 

The limits of 15 drinks a day is the same in plus and premier plans. The difference is the cap on price and with premier you get 2 specialty dinners and photos. For us the plus works great we sail in suites so always get first night specialty dinner plus we book casino deals most of the time which gives us $200 each OBC from our deposits which we use for a few bottles of good wine and after 50 cruises we could care less about photos

[Techwizardress]

2 minutes ago, memoak said:

The limits of 15 drinks a day is the same in plus and premier plans. The difference is the cap on price and with premier you get 2 specialty dinners and photos. For us the plus works great we sail in suites so always get first night specialty dinner plus we book casino deals most of the time which gives us $200 each OBC from our deposits which we use for a few bottles of good wine and after 50 cruises we could care less about photos

We have found that with our OBC - (FCD, plus my Stockholder OBC, and my Princess CC OBC) plus the two bottles of wine you can take onboard at embarkation have worked for us.  I do not drink alcohol but my boyfriend does. I enjoy a couple of fancy mocktails while BF has several glasses of wine.  We no longer get the photos.  We pre-pay our tips as well. the internet if half price.

We have been able to take our last couple of voyages with about $20 that we owe at the end.

 

To each his/her own.  One needs to do the math to see if it is worth it.  For us it does not add up.  If your voyage has lots of port days, you may not get your money's worth.  A trans-Atlantic with lots of sea days may make it worth it.

[Alifay]

We had two specialty dinners booked already, and planned to pay the difference for our favorite cocktail (peach tea smash $22) multiple times daily. When we did the math, it ended up being very inexpensive to upgrade to Premier with that money considered already spent. Now we are planning on talking multiple stretch labs, eating lots of gelato (I LOVE gelato!) and playing Princess Prizes at our door. Oh, and better wines at dinner too. Super excited!

[roadster08]

If wine is important, premier is best  but for a modest upcharge  you can get a glass of premier wines on plus. 

 

Of course  that assumes they don't "run out" of the premier wines everyone wants. 

[FrankieJayIII]

Here was my math...  for you.

 

640 difference...    $160 in specialty dining...  $480 left over. 

 

Do you use the pay fitness?     How many times would you do it?   The classes are $20 pp/pd.  its unlimited with premier.

Do you eat crazy ice creams?   This one was funny to me!  They are $10-15 each. unlimiited...  YIKES!

Do you like photos?  You get 3 pp hard copies 8x10 etc. and unlimited digital.   TAKE AS MANY AS YOU CAN...  Its worth about $150 in photos (ship pricing).    You would be the person who knows if you'd like this.

Princess prizes-  you can either pay $20/per day to be a part of this which when you open the stateroom its an instant drawing, when the casino is open, to win prizes.   People win things from OBC, to $25 to free wine, to $500, $5000 or even lifetime of cruising!?     Doing that alone on your cruise would be $320...    

 

Alright the fun part-  higher end drinks.    The good wines that are named are included... with plus its unnamed wines on the menus.   or drinks under $15.

 

Myself- I like my wine to be named... and some of the nicer stuff is $17/18/glass...   which isn't much upcharge over the plus... but then again- no number at the end.    Also, whiskies and scotches and some of the higher end tequila drinks are $18-20 and UP...     Lets say you went for $18 glasses of wine or high end drinks the whole time....   well i don't know what moderate drinker means?  Is that 5, 10, 15?   per person per day...   That could be like $5 per drink x however many?   per day!   

 

I am not trying to sell you, but when I started analyzing everything, I paid an extra $400 for 10 days to go from plus to premier... and I already forgot about the money.   The cruise is coming up; but we have EVERYTHING... and since i rarely cruise- I want all the things...  life is short, cruises are shorter.   🙂

 

 

[FLAlaska]

For me it is not. I would rather put the extra money into OBC that I can use as I please and have it refunded if not used.

 

 

[Ellipooh]

The value of (1) doing what you know you really want to do irrespective of practical reality esp on a close call, and (2) the freedom and undoubtedly well-deserved indulgence that comes with the upgrade - - these things cannot be quantified in dollars. I say go for it. 
 

At least, these are the points I’m using to rationalize my way to Premiere. For me, I want to try some cocktails and whiskies beyond the ordinary. So screw it, I’m going to upgrade. 

[TN-Mountains]

Will you have any onboard credit?  If so, maybe you should book the basic fare and then use your OBC to pay for the Plus or Premier onboard.  That will also give you 14 months to think about it. 😉 

[rheathslc]

We upgraded to the Princess Premier for our 7-day Alaska cruise last September (before the price hike and new inclusions) and I really enjoyed it. I did the math and based on what we would likely pay for anyway - specialty dining, photos, multi device WiFi specifically - it was a good deal for cruises that are 7-days or fewer. Anything more than that I think it starts to make sense to pay a la carte for the pieces you want. But I also like wines that are now on the Premier list so that was another factor. Having the peace of mind that I could order anything I want was nice.

 

I'm booked solo on a 3-day cruise in two weeks and opted for the Premier package even though I don't really NEED it because the extra $60 it will cost ($20/day more than Plus) is what it would cost for one specialty dining reservation and the Prizes enrollment. Because I really did end up liking the Prizes. We won a $250 statement credit and a few other small things which basically covered the extra cost over the "Plus" package for our 7-day cruise. And it was fun to check the door to see if you won. We don't really gamble so we don't ever go to the casino but the Prizes added a little extra fun. 🙂 

 

An earlier commenter said something about the Prizes enrollment costing $20/day which I don't think is correct. They have changed the language since the last time I looked and I couldn't find the official info but on our last cruise it was just $20 one time to enroll the stateroom for the entire cruise. But I might be mistaken. 🙂

[FrankieJayIII]

Hi, this is a cut and paste- this is where I had read it.. who knows?

 

According to the cruise line, Princess Prizes involves a one-time entry fee per cabin of $20 per day (included with Princess Premier). For that fee, each time an adult guest enters their stateroom, they can look at the “door portal” to see if they’ve won a prize.

[rheathslc]

2 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

Hi, this is a cut and paste- this is where I had read it.. who knows?

 

According to the cruise line, Princess Prizes involves a one-time entry fee per cabin of $20 per day (included with Princess Premier). For that fee, each time an adult guest enters their stateroom, they can look at the “door portal” to see if they’ve won a prize.

 

Well there you go. I stand corrected. I guess they changed it since our last cruise. Which was almost 8 months ago so that's not surprising. They've been making all kinds of changes lately.

[kayelbee]

FrankieJayIII,

Which drinks, especially wines and whisky, do you recommend included in the Premier Package?

Cheers 

[FrankieJayIII]

i think that's up to person preference but the duck horn paraduxx for wine; the mcllelan lumminosa scotch,  the princess woodford bourbon, watermelon margarita.

 

life's too short to drink, and it's really too short to drink less than the best 

[memoak]

37 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

i think that's up to person preference but the duck horn paraduxx for wine; the mcllelan lumminosa scotch,  the princess woodford bourbon, watermelon margarita.

 

life's too short to drink, and it's really too short to drink less than the best 

The Woodford Reserve is available on the Plus Package. That is one of my go to bourbons for my pre dinner Manhattans 

[FrankieJayIII]

the regular woodford is great in a manhattan; they had a private label which in 2022 before the price increase was $18; not sure what it is now.   but who really dan tell a difference? 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

18 hours ago, fluffybunny22 said:

I have a hold on a cruise with the plus pricing but was just looking and for 16 nights it's only $320 more per person for the first and second person. I'm pitching this tonight so I need opinions. Caribbean Princess for a midnight sun sailing next June. We are moderate drinkers. Husband likes wine and I like fruity and frozen cocktails. On Celebrity I like to upgrade to the premium package because I really like knowing there isn't anything on the menu I can't order. We would do the specialty dining anyway so having it included and only having to pay for our son's meal would be a bonus. There are 5 sea days so I think the drink package will get a good amount of use. My husband doesn't like being nickle and dimed. I currently have a similar but shorter cruise booked on MSC but what I've read has me concerned because we don't have Yacht Club booked and I feel like he's going to feel nickle and dimed. The Princess cruise isn't much more expensive than the MSC one and the Princess one gives me a better gut feeling. I really want to switch to the Princess sailing so can you guys help me out? 

I just posted bar menus on your previous thread. You should pencil it out for yourself. I think you’ll like Princess