Coffee cards on Caribbean Princess

[homedepot124]

Does Princess still sell the 15 drink coffee cards on Caribbean Princess?  We are doing the 16 day Canada and Greenland cruise in August.

[Doug R.]

No longer cards but are available to reserve on website. They are loaded to your account and are accessed with the medallion when you pay.

[Guest ldtr]

15 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

No longer cards but are available to reserve on website. They are loaded to your account and are accessed with the medallion when you pay.

Princess did away with the program back at the end of February.  Some that had purchased before that date have been able to get the purchased honored after that date, though others have reported just getting a refund on board.  As of that time no longer available for sale neither on the website or onboard.

[DallasGuy75219]

17 minutes ago, Doug R. said:

No longer cards but are available to reserve on website. They are loaded to your account and are accessed with the medallion when you pay.

Princess no longer sells coffee packages. 

[Buckeye10640]

2 hours ago, Doug R. said:

No longer cards but are available to reserve on website. They are loaded to your account and are accessed with the medallion when you pay.

Not anymore......

[Doug R.]

12 hours ago, ldtr said:

Princess did away with the program back at the end of February.  Some that had purchased before that date have been able to get the purchased honored after that date, though others have reported just getting a refund on board.  As of that time no longer available for sale neither on the website or onboard.

Ouch, my bad for not checking after a few months! Now the zero alcohol package is where the coffee is offered at $35+ a day.

 

 

[loving2cruise]

On 6/10/2023 at 8:19 PM, homedepot124 said:

Does Princess still sell the 15 drink coffee cards on Caribbean Princess?  We are doing the 16 day Canada and Greenland cruise in August.

 

On 6/11/2023 at 8:57 AM, Doug R. said:

Ouch, my bad for not checking after a few months! Now the zero alcohol package is where the coffee is offered at $35+ a day.

 

 

 

On 6/11/2023 at 8:57 AM, Doug R. said:

Ouch, my bad for not checking after a few months! Now the zero alcohol package is where the coffee is offered at $35+ a day.

 

 

I was wondering the same thing...about the coffee card, but then noticed the "Specialty Coffees" are all included in the "Princess Plus" plan...along with other beverages.. 

[Roberto256]

2 hours ago, loving2cruise said:

 

 

I was wondering the same thing...about the coffee card, but then noticed the "Specialty Coffees" are all included in the "Princess Plus" plan...along with other beverages.. 

Princess drops the coffee card to induce customers to purchase the more expensive packages.

 

 

[Buckeye10640]

2 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

Princess drops the coffee card to induce customers to purchase the more expensive packages.

 

 

Sad....but very true.

[judyjudy56]

This is such a shame.  We are elite and do not drink alcohol so we always traded our mini bar for coffee cards.  It seems that with Princess they want you to purchase the additional add on fares.  In March some people were able to get a $50 OBC instead of the coffee card.  Just another elite perk that is being changed.

[Guest ldtr]

12 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

Princess drops the coffee card to induce customers to purchase the more expensive packages.

 

 

Or they dropped it because a X number of drinks package, was not working well with a software system where all of the other packages were per day. There were some issues with the coffee card creating some confusion with the hand held devices. 

Edited June 17, 2023 by ldtr

[Roberto256]

8 hours ago, ldtr said:

Or they dropped it because a X number of drinks package, was not working well with a software system where all of the other packages were per day. There were some issues with the coffee card creating some confusion with the hand held devices. 

Don't most of the other packages have a limit to the number of drinks per day?

To enforce that limit, their system has to be able to count drinks 'used'.

Just as it would with a coffee card.

 

On the other hand, it your saying, it was too complicated for the ocean innovators make work,

I completely get that.

[Guest ldtr]

4 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

Don't most of the other packages have a limit to the number of drinks per day?

To enforce that limit, their system has to be able to count drinks 'used'.

Just as it would with a coffee card.

 

On the other hand, it your saying, it was too complicated for the ocean innovators make work,

I completely get that.

they do. The problem with the coffee card was not in getting coffee. It was when you ordered a soft drink at some of the lounges, the hand held devices would show the coffee card the same way that it did a drink package. On multiple cruises I had to tell the waiters that no I did not have a drink package, so I wanted to pay for a can not get a fountain glass. When they would bring a glass a coffee punch would go away.

 

Also noticed with the advent of packages the IC did not charge the card most of the time. Had one 14 day cruise. Had atleast 1 coffee peer day, and at the end of the 14 days had 8 punches left.

 

So there were issued with rhe card and their system.

[Barry H]

20 hours ago, judyjudy56 said:

This is such a shame.  We are elite and do not drink alcohol so we always traded our mini bar for coffee cards.  It seems that with Princess they want you to purchase the additional add on fares.  In March some people were able to get a $50 OBC instead of the coffee card.  Just another elite perk that is being changed.

We don't drink enough to buy PLUS

Past cruise we brought Tim Hortons French Vanilla Cappuccino pouches. Barry made them up with decaf coffee and we enjoyed them for a fraction of the cost.

Princess is losing out on us.

[Guest ldtr]

22 hours ago, judyjudy56 said:

This is such a shame.  We are elite and do not drink alcohol so we always traded our mini bar for coffee cards.  It seems that with Princess they want you to purchase the additional add on fares.  In March some people were able to get a $50 OBC instead of the coffee card.  Just another elite perk that is being changed.

The perk is still the same the minibar.  The only change is the option to swap for a program which no longer exists.  Just as the internet minutes went away for a discount of unlimited when it because obsolete due to the entire internet system being changed to a per day system instead of a metered per minute system.  At that time they also added the 10% excursion discount.  

[DallasGuy75219]

On 6/16/2023 at 5:59 PM, judyjudy56 said:

This is such a shame.  We are elite and do not drink alcohol so we always traded our mini bar for coffee cards.  It seems that with Princess they want you to purchase the additional add on fares.  In March some people were able to get a $50 OBC instead of the coffee card.  Just another elite perk that is being changed.

 

6 hours ago, ldtr said:

The perk is still the same the minibar.  The only change is the option to swap for a program which no longer exists.  Just as the internet minutes went away for a discount of unlimited when it because obsolete due to the entire internet system being changed to a per day system instead of a metered per minute system.  At that time they also added the 10% excursion discount.  

Exactly.  The coffee card was never a perk; the minibar was.  They let people swap the minibar for the coffee card as a courtesy, but stopping that courtesy because the coffee card went away isn't a cut to perks, because it was never an official perk in the first place. 

[MissP22]

On 6/17/2023 at 3:31 PM, Barry H said:

We don't drink enough to buy PLUS

Past cruise we brought Tim Hortons French Vanilla Cappuccino pouches. Barry made them up with decaf coffee and we enjoyed them for a fraction of the cost.

Princess is losing out on us.

Same with us. It's a mighty expensive add on just to enjoy unlimited coffee's and soda's. 

[pompeii]

Has anyone been on a ship recently that has the new Lavazza coffee?  The Lavazza partnership was supposed to roll out this spring.  I’m wondering if you get Lavazza just at the IC or everywhere on the ship. 

[Buckeye10640]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:45 AM, ldtr said:

they do. The problem with the coffee card was not in getting coffee. It was when you ordered a soft drink at some of the lounges, the hand held devices would show the coffee card the same way that it did a drink package. On multiple cruises I had to tell the waiters that no I did not have a drink package, so I wanted to pay for a can not get a fountain glass. When they would bring a glass a coffee punch would go away.

 

Also noticed with the advent of packages the IC did not charge the card most of the time. Had one 14 day cruise. Had atleast 1 coffee peer day, and at the end of the 14 days had 8 punches left.

 

So there were issued with rhe card and their system.

So yeah I understand what you are saying, but perhaps they could have  fixed the system to recognize the coffee package, just like it recognizes all other packages. Its smart enough to know I dont get free alcohol if I have a soft drink package and its smart enough to know to charge me something for my $18 drink if I have Plus.  I do software development, support, testing for a living,  its not rocket science to recognize the pkg gets free coffee and count up to 15 specialty coffees. I dont buy the complexity theory. More likely a desire to drive people to purchase more expensive packages. 

[Guest ldtr]

13 hours ago, Buckeye10640 said:

So yeah I understand what you are saying, but perhaps they could have  fixed the system to recognize the coffee package, just like it recognizes all other packages. Its smart enough to know I dont get free alcohol if I have a soft drink package and its smart enough to know to charge me something for my $18 drink if I have Plus.  I do software development, support, testing for a living,  its not rocket science to recognize the pkg gets free coffee and count up to 15 specialty coffees. I dont buy the complexity theory. More likely a desire to drive people to purchase more expensive packages. 

From their point of view cost to fix the system for a one  off program (one that did not fit into their future direction and was used less as a higher percentage  of passengers went with packages) or just get rid of the program and have no cost to fix the issues.