New today - Extra Stuff in Princess Plus & Premier

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, shipshape241 said:

We are going on a 21 day cruise in October .

So adding the Plus package  would cost us an extra US$ 2520 , or AUD $3757 at today's exchange rate. !!!

We've done three cruises with Princess previously , but think that this will be the final one .

 

Is it an overseas cruise? The Plus fare sold through Princess Australia is still $65pp per day even for overseas cruises, so it would only be AU $2730. Remember it covers internet, one device per person, which is worth $20pp or $10pp if you're Elite. Then it's just a matter of deciding whether you can use the rest of the value on drinks and the other included perks. If you like a cocktail or two, wine with meals, espresso-based coffees, bottled water, soft drinks, then it can still be good value for money. One thing it doesn't cover is the daily gratuities on overseas cruises unfortunately - they aren't included in the fare like they are on Australian cruises.

[LittleFish1976]

On 7/28/2023 at 5:18 PM, arxcards said:

Yes, $22 for plus, $30 for premier.

Are these the old or new $ limits (by old I mean pre 14th December, 2022)? I'm starting to get confused again about what my possible drinks package price limit will be in AUD for a Premier package purchased pre-Dec 2022.

 

My app says I have 'no package purchased' which is not correct. Should I chase this up woth the big box TA I purchased through or just assume it will all be okay on the day? My travel summary says I have the old premier.

 

This mess makes buying health insurance seem straightforward.

 

[arxcards]

8 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

Are these the old or new $ limits (by old I mean pre 14th December, 2022)? I'm starting to get confused again about what my possible drinks package price limit will be in AUD for a Premier package purchased pre-Dec 2022.

 

My app says I have 'no package purchased' which is not correct. Should I chase this up woth the big box TA I purchased through or just assume it will all be okay on the day? My travel summary says I have the old premier.

 

This mess makes buying health insurance seem straightforward.

 

The drink price cap applies for that package, regardless of the date it was purchased and the price paid.

Old, new & super new plus = $22

Old, new & super new premier = $30

 

It was only the newly minted items which were added on 14th December onwards that aren't included if you purchased before that date - desserts, smoothies, juice bar priority seating - then the most recent casual dining and Ocean Now delivery waivers.

 

I have only relied on the travel summary as a definitive guide. My understanding is that "packages" will only show add-on packages purchased through the personaliser, not plus/premier purchased as part of your fare. i.e. if you purchased an Ultimate Balcony Dining package, it would show there.

 

Insurance is evil. Recently, Princess may have turned from Fairy Godmother to Wicked Witch of the East, but they have a fair way to go to get into ipso facto insurance terms.

[LittleFish1976]

44 minutes ago, arxcards said:

The drink price cap applies for that package, regardless of the date it was purchased and the price paid.

Old, new & super new plus = $22

Old, new & super new premier = $30

 

It was only the newly minted items which were added on 14th December onwards that aren't included if you purchased before that date - desserts, smoothies, juice bar priority seating - then the most recent casual dining and Ocean Now delivery waivers.

 

I have only relied on the travel summary as a definitive guide. My understanding is that "packages" will only show add-on packages purchased through the personaliser, not plus/premier purchased as part of your fare. i.e. if you purchased an Ultimate Balcony Dining package, it would show there.

 

Insurance is evil. Recently, Princess may have turned from Fairy Godmother to Wicked Witch of the East, but they have a fair way to go to get into ipso facto insurance terms.

Thanks very much for that Geoff. I assume we have a different arrangement for our market then. On the Princess board people are discussing the different drink price limit for the old and new plus packages so I assumed it would be different for premier as well, and also in our market (they are discussing the limit in USD - $12 v $15 being the limit, old v new, for plus). Unless I've totally misunderstood which is very possible.

 

Thanks for clarifying the 'packages' on the app thing.

 

Insurance - the necessarly evil. Princess may not be quite ipso facto yet but they're almost as complex as.

 

This cruise had better be good to live up to all the faff surrounding it.

[OzKiwiJJ]

There are a lot of people on the main Princess forum that probably haven't taken much notice of the various "upgrades" to the packages so are just catching up with what is happening. 

 

We did a cruise in March, booked under one of the earlier Plus fares, so I can absolutely confirm the drinks price limits are the new ones. Of course they also put the drinks prices up, some (wines) to the point of ridiculousness - i.e. a glass costs twice as much as the retail price of a whole bottle! 🙄

[LittleFish1976]

51 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

There are a lot of people on the main Princess forum that probably haven't taken much notice of the various "upgrades" to the packages so are just catching up with what is happening. 

 

We did a cruise in March, booked under one of the earlier Plus fares, so I can absolutely confirm the drinks price limits are the new ones. Of course they also put the drinks prices up, some (wines) to the point of ridiculousness - i.e. a glass costs twice as much as the retail price of a whole bottle! 🙄

Thanks Julie. I've followed with interest your comments on the wines offerred on board. The wine lists look interesting but I've modified my expectations based on what has been reported as actually being available.

 

Thanks also for confirming your experience with the old plus fare.

[joejoe 59]

We have the old plus package , still haven't had any info from Princess regarding what's included or been taken away from us.

[resordanis]

4 minutes ago, joejoe 59 said:

We have the old plus package , still haven't had any info from Princess regarding what's included or been taken away from us.

We also have the old package. I have this morning contacted our PVP to find out what is included now for us!  Haven’t heard back as yet unfortunately, and cannot log in today to see if my travel summary is updated either!

[arxcards]

I recently watched a youtube clip from an experienced Canadian T/A who was really upset about the recent changes, and that customers were ringing him to say they now hate Princess and cancel. A coupe of the reasons he mentioned, which are apparently gospel, are:

- As Canadians, Princess hates you because they will not send you a medallion in the mail but are still going to charge you a delivery fee anyway. People in comments have tried to explain the delivery fee is for purchasing on the medallion app, but to no avail.

- As Canadians, they are being discriminated against. After filling out all of their info, they no longer have a green lane and the blue lane sucks, so they are going to cancel. Yep, but the blue lane is the one in which you collect your medallion prior to check-in. Even though we still had a green lane early this year, that is how they started doing it - down to a counter in the baggage hall to collect your medallion, then up the escalator for check-in. Worked really well for those that knew their cabin number, and perhaps the guides could ask people to have it handy before they file in. For anyone from the US that already have their medallion, there isn't much point in having them file past the medallion counters, so they will have a green lane. Princess needs to find a way of mailing these out.

 

I guess my point is, all this medallion and plus and premier is different to how things used to be and there is a lot of presumption out there, even from those who are normally in the know. Princess has rightfully copped a bagging, but partly because they haven't communicated anything directly to their passengers. If they communicated this properly, they would just be copping flack about charging for things that were free at the time of booking.

 

Alas, because they haven't communicated anything directly, I pity the staff at customer services as this will be all left to them to sooth the collective beast.

[arxcards]

2 minutes ago, resordanis said:

We also have the old package. I have this morning contacted our PVP to find out what is included now for us!  Haven’t heard back as yet unfortunately, and cannot log in today to see if my travel summary is updated either!

Anyone with the $50 or earlier Plus or the $85 premier will get what was available at the time they booked, as was already shown on the travel summary. From all I have heard, there will be no update. Anyone with these pre-2023 packages will now incur the Ocean Now charge and pay for meals at Alfredo's and other "casual" dining venues. You can only update from old to new by paying the price gap between what you paid and the current $65 or $95 price.

 

Anyone with the $65 plus or $95 premier will now get access to casual restaurants, ocean now service charge included and priority boarding if they hadn't already qualified for it. These new items are now inclusive to those packages instead of being complimentary.

 

 

[resordanis]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

Anyone with the $50 or earlier Plus or the $85 premier will get what was available at the time they booked, as was already shown on the travel summary. From all I have heard, there will be no update. Anyone with these pre-2023 packages will now incur the Ocean Now charge and pay for meals at Alfredo's and other "casual" dining venues. You can only update from old to new by paying the price gap between what you paid and the current $65 or $95 price.

 

Anyone with the $65 plus or $95 premier will now get access to casual restaurants, ocean now service charge included and priority boarding if they hadn't already qualified for it. These new items are now inclusive to those packages instead of being complimentary.

 

 

I have a Plus $60 package on the planner it says drinks package and wifi. I cannot log in today to find out it has changed!  I would like to think I had the service charges included. I am fine if that is all that is included, but would like to know. I am also having problems with the APP again, not blue lane/green lane, but keeps saying my husband is logged out, even though I know he is in the system somewhere! Guess live chat for me sometime!

My “beef” is with all cruise lines at the moment….is there is no loyalty to us! That is another topic I guess. Cheryle

[~*Lou*~]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but they still haven't updated their website:

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, LittleFish1976 said:

Thanks Julie. I've followed with interest your comments on the wines offerred on board. The wine lists look interesting but I've modified my expectations based on what has been reported as actually being available.

 

Thanks also for confirming your experience with the old plus fare.

There are some nice wines on the Australian wine list but most are only available by the bottle unfortunately. 

 

I'm so annoyed with Princess. We don't buy many expensive wines for home consumption, and usually manage to pick up very good quality wines from Dan Murphys. But Princess serms to have mostly gone for very low-budget wines thus downgrading the Princess experience accordingly. I always classed Princess, along with Celebrity (and possibly Cunard) as being a little above the rest of the mass market cruise lines, sort of deluxe lines but not luxury class. But sadly they are becoming very average.

[TommyH2006]

6 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

There are some nice wines on the Australian wine list but most are only available by the bottle unfortunately. 

 

I'm so annoyed with Princess. We don't buy many expensive wines for home consumption, and usually manage to pick up very good quality wines from Dan Murphys. But Princess serms to have mostly gone for very low-budget wines thus downgrading the Princess experience accordingly. I always classed Princess, along with Celebrity (and possibly Cunard) as being a little above the rest of the mass market cruise lines, sort of deluxe lines but not luxury class. But sadly they are becoming very average.

A bit off topic but on the subject of wine:

I really miss the old style "Vines" like they had on Golden Princess. 

It was a dedicated wine bar. The waiters knew the wines they were selling etc. They would have a conversation with you about various wines.   The wines on offer in the package were very acceptable. Sometimes I would have to pay an extra $1.50 to get the wine I wanted but that was ok.

The "Vines" on Majestic Princess is just another bar. It has lost all the "feel" of a wine bar. The waiters, barmen etc are too busy making cocktails or mixed drinks to have time to converse. 

Just another whinge, I know. 😁

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, resordanis said:

I have a Plus $60 package on the planner it says drinks package and wifi. I cannot log in today to find out it has changed!  I would like to think I had the service charges included. I am fine if that is all that is included, but would like to know. I am also having problems with the APP again, not blue lane/green lane, but keeps saying my husband is logged out, even though I know he is in the system somewhere! Guess live chat for me sometime!

My “beef” is with all cruise lines at the moment….is there is no loyalty to us! That is another topic I guess. Cheryle

When did you book Cheryle?

I thought plus went up from $50 to $65 in December last year.

 

If you booked last year, you will only get what was included in the package at the time (sorry, no desserts or fitness classes. If you booked this year on the $65 version, you will get it all, including the recent updates.

 

In a similar boat, we have premier and a suite on our next cruise on Majestic, but will need to pay for Alfredo's, Medallion Ocean Now delivery, and some of the room service features that were free. 

 

I get the loyalty bit, and Captain's Circle isn't changing. In this case it is on the nose that included items at the time of booking will be charged, and a total stinker that they are trying to market that we are getting more in the packages.

 

I am able to see what we are entitled to on 2 out of 3 booked cruises via the onboard services. tab. The other won't let me see that page, but if I go back to the check-in tab and click on the documents - print travel summary links, I can see the list of inclusions there.

[arxcards]

PS to above. For anyone discussing this with Princess, their PVP, their travel agent, or on Princess social media ..... now is the time to speak-up and tell them what you think. It isn't the fault of the person on the other end of the phone or chat, but we do need to get the point across.

 

Instead of encouraging the purchase of a package at the time of booking, we are now reluctant to buy a package at all. For any upcoming bookings, we are likely to take our wine & softies aboard and will make do with our mini-bar and a couple of drinks at dinner.

[resordanis]

9 minutes ago, arxcards said:

When did you book Cheryle?

I thought plus went up from $50 to $65 in December last year.

 

If you booked last year, you will only get what was included in the package at the time (sorry, no desserts or fitness classes. If you booked this year on the $65 version, you will get it all, including the recent updates.

 

In a similar boat, we have premier and a suite on our next cruise on Majestic, but will need to pay for Alfredo's, Medallion Ocean Now delivery, and some of the room service features that were free. 

 

I get the loyalty bit, and Captain's Circle isn't changing. In this case it is on the nose that included items at the time of booking will be charged, and a total stinker that they are trying to market that we are getting more in the packages.

 

I am able to see what we are entitled to on 2 out of 3 booked cruises via the onboard services. tab. The other won't let me see that page, but if I go back to the check-in tab and click on the documents - print travel summary links, I can see the list of inclusions there.

Hi Geoff, We booked in December, but I could be wrong it might be $65. I finally got into my booking and it shows,. Drinks and Wifi. So I guess, we will also have to pay for Alfredo’s and room service? With loyalty I feel it is being downgraded. Maybe on Royal Caribbean more. The Princess package seems fine though. Taking away priority boarding on Royal Caribbean is really annoying! Rant over🤣

[resordanis]

11 minutes ago, arxcards said:

PS to above. For anyone discussing this with Princess, their PVP, their travel agent, or on Princess social media ..... now is the time to speak-up and tell them what you think. It isn't the fault of the person on the other end of the phone or chat, but we do need to get the point across.

 

Instead of encouraging the purchase of a package at the time of booking, we are now reluctant to buy a package at all. For any upcoming bookings, we are likely to take our wine & softies aboard and will make do with our mini-bar and a couple of drinks at dinner.

When I hear from our PVP I will let him know! I also agree we will be taking the standard package in future. Just pay as we go. We did this with Majestic last year and worked well. I drank the wine. Husband the mini bar and paid for anything else. For the cruise currently in question, I had thought to change to the standard package as we have a sizeable OBC, but just read the fine print and we got $300 OBC for taking the package so will stay with it. Cheryle

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, resordanis said:

Hi Geoff, We booked in December, but I could be wrong it might be $65. I finally got into my booking and it shows,. Drinks and Wifi. So I guess, we will also have to pay for Alfredo’s and room service? With loyalty I feel it is being downgraded. Maybe on Royal Caribbean more. The Princess package seems fine though. Taking away priority boarding on Royal Caribbean is really annoying! Rant over🤣

If you paid $65, you will get 2 x sittings at Alfredo's covered in your fare. How generous of them, as you could have had it every day before the change. 

[resordanis]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

If you paid $65, you will get 2 x sittings at Alfredo's covered in your fare. How generous of them, as you could have had it every day before the change. 

Considering the cruise is 21 days, I won’t be eating there a great deal. The good thing about Alfredo’s was you could get a quick meal early or late, small or large. I won’t be paying for extras. It was ok, but not great. Dining room for us. I guess I will also have to pay for room service. Not that we use it that often, but on a long cruise, sometimes you just want something quick and easy.

We will definitely be looking at NCL and Celebrity a bit closer from now on. Loyal to Royal, Princess and Cunard, is not happening!

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 hours ago, arxcards said:

PS to above. For anyone discussing this with Princess, their PVP, their travel agent, or on Princess social media ..... now is the time to speak-up and tell them what you think. It isn't the fault of the person on the other end of the phone or chat, but we do need to get the point across.

 

Instead of encouraging the purchase of a package at the time of booking, we are now reluctant to buy a package at all. For any upcoming bookings, we are likely to take our wine & softies aboard and will make do with our mini-bar and a couple of drinks at dinner.

Remember the corkage has doubled for Australian cruises, from $15 to $30, which makes it too expensive to bring wine onboard. 🤬

[arxcards]

25 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Remember the corkage has doubled for Australian cruises, from $15 to $30, which makes it too expensive to bring wine onboard. 🤬

Trust me Julie, it will only be the 1 x bottle each. We have booked with plus for our 1/2 world in 2025, and are giving that a serious rethink. With no mention of sectors with this new stuff, our plus package could be giving us a whole 2 x meals each at Salty Dog in 62 nights.

 

Even with corkage, Dan's + $30 might would still be better off than Princess le plonke.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Trust me Julie, it will only be the 1 x bottle each. We have booked with plus for our 1/2 world in 2025, and are giving that a serious rethink. With no mention of sectors with this new stuff, our plus package could be giving us a whole 2 x meals each at Salty Dog in 62 nights.

 

Even with corkage, Dan's + $30 might would still be better off than Princess le plonke.

 

I crunched the numbers for our 2024 world cruise where we have the Plus fare at $40pp. It worked out marginally cheaper to buy the decent Princess wines by the bottle at the 25% discount than to buy the local wines we like and pay the $30 corkage, plus lugging dozens of bottles of wine onboard would be almost impossible. 

 

We'll still get our money's worth out of the Plus fare with cocktails, coffees, and bottled water etc, and we don't care about the other stuff. But that cruise may very well be the last we do on Princess. If there was another cruise line doing a world cruise out of Australia I'd cancel the Princess one.

[Tripmode33]

17 hours ago, TommyH2006 said:

A bit off topic but on the subject of wine:

I really miss the old style "Vines" like they had on Golden Princess. 

It was a dedicated wine bar. The waiters knew the wines they were selling etc. They would have a conversation with you about various wines.   The wines on offer in the package were very acceptable. Sometimes I would have to pay an extra $1.50 to get the wine I wanted but that was ok.

The "Vines" on Majestic Princess is just another bar. It has lost all the "feel" of a wine bar. The waiters, barmen etc are too busy making cocktails or mixed drinks to have time to converse. 

Just another whinge, I know. 😁

Absolutely agree. The Vines on Grand and Majestic are worlds apart. Loved the Grand concept, and our MDR waiters were happy to grab a bottle of our favourite ones from there in the evening to serve us on the Plus Package by the glass.  The Majestic Vines wasn't even worth visiting again after one short visit.  Sadly, our next Princess cruise is on Majestic and a bit late to change.

[Jules Syd]

I love a margarita. Anyone that has been onboard recently can they tell me the price. If we purchase plus with the drinks included to $22 will that cover a margarita?  I think the one I liked was a golden margarita. Thanks