First timer on Princess with some questions

[CruisinNewb]

Hello all 🙂

 

I've recently booked out first cruise with Princess (British Isles - 12 nighter). We booked a midship mini suite in one of the angled balconies on Deck 10 on the Regal Princess. We've pretty much sailed with Celebrity up till now and are excited to give Princess a try.

I have been reading through the Princess forums trying to pick up as much information as we really don't know anything about the ship, bars, entertainment, etc.

 

There are two questions I couldn't find the answers to and I thought I'd ask here.

 

1) Is there any place onboard where they have ballroom dancing in the evening? On Celebrity they has a lounge on one of the upper decks which had a sizable dance floor and a DJ several evenings during the cruise. From reading old threads it looks like on Princess most of the dancing occurs during dance parties on the promenade or by the pools. Are there any lounges where there is dancing?

 

2) We purchased the Princess Plus package and understand that covers alcoholic drinks up to $15. I'm a bourbon and vodka drinker, usually drinking them straight. My wife enjoys craft beers, lemon drops and chocolate type martinis. Would they be covered under this package or do you think it would pay to upgrade to the Premium package?

 

Thanks for your help and if there are any other suggestions or advice you can give to a Princess newbie it would be greatly appreciated.

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, CruisinNewb said:

Hello all 🙂

 

I've recently booked out first cruise with Princess (British Isles - 12 nighter). We booked a midship mini suite in one of the angled balconies on Deck 10 on the Regal Princess. We've pretty much sailed with Celebrity up till now and are excited to give Princess a try.

I have been reading through the Princess forums trying to pick up as much information as we really don't know anything about the ship, bars, entertainment, etc.

 

There are two questions I couldn't find the answers to and I thought I'd ask here.

 

1) Is there any place onboard where they have ballroom dancing in the evening? On Celebrity they has a lounge on one of the upper decks which had a sizable dance floor and a DJ several evenings during the cruise. From reading old threads it looks like on Princess most of the dancing occurs during dance parties on the promenade or by the pools. Are there any lounges where there is dancing?

 

2) We purchased the Princess Plus package and understand that covers alcoholic drinks up to $15. I'm a bourbon and vodka drinker, usually drinking them straight. My wife enjoys craft beers, lemon drops and chocolate type martinis. Would they be covered under this package or do you think it would pay to upgrade to the Premium package?

 

Thanks for your help and if there are any other suggestions or advice you can give to a Princess newbie it would be greatly appreciated.

Your drinks should be be covered if you are happy with the brands allowed. I drink bourbon manhattans and I can get Woodford Reserve, Makers Mark or Buffalo Trace on most ships. My wife dinks Grey Goose and it is also covered

[snoozecrooze]

6 minutes ago, CruisinNewb said:

1) Is there any place onboard where they have ballroom dancing in the evening? On Celebrity they has a lounge on one of the upper decks which had a sizable dance floor and a DJ several evenings during the cruise. From reading old threads it looks like on Princess most of the dancing occurs during dance parties on the promenade or by the pools. Are there any lounges where there is dancing?

For Regal Princess, most ballroom/ballroom-ish dancing tends to happen on the floor of the Piazza (deck 5) when a band or other guest musician is playing. It's a type of marble/tile. There is also a very small area by the Wheelhouse Bar (really just for slow dancing). Additionally, the Vista Lounge and/or Princess Live could be open for ballroom dancing during dinner-ish hours with piped in ballroom music and the empty floor for ballroom dancers. Your circumstances may vary.

[cr8tiv1]

The New Royal Class builds (Regal) has pretty much eliminated "ballroom dance floors".  Currently, the dancing is allocated to the Piazza when the party band plays.  It is NOT the best dance floor.  Mosaic on concrete, and not smooth.  

 

Even the Grand/GEM class ships have moved away from ballroom dancing venues.  They used to have them in the Explorer's Lounge and/or the Wheelhouse.  Pretty decent wooden dance floors.  They would even have canned music during the first hour of dinner time in Club Fusion.  Super great dance floor.  Horrible lighting and not the classic Ballroom music.  I did manage once to find the ED and asked him for waltz's, foxtrots, and swing music.  He was so kind to oblige.   

 

Back to the Regal, you will find some die hards (maybe 5 couples) who will dance for the public.  If you are a traditional ballroom dancer, you will not find this conducive to your taste.

[luv2kroooz]

Recently sailed Emerald, they had prerecorded ballroom dancing in a lounge between 6 and 730 every evening.

 

Yes, most decent alcohols are included ...Bulleit, Grey Goose, Belvedere.

[satxdiver]

I don't remember any drinks more than $15 other than better selections of wine.  If the wine is more then they will charge you the difference. All gratuities are included in the package.  We just left the Emerald and did order a nice wine in Sabatini's that was ~$4 more than $15.  I drink Woodford on the rocks and always get a double.  

[memoak]

18 minutes ago, satxdiver said:

I don't remember any drinks more than $15 other than better selections of wine.  If the wine is more then they will charge you the difference. All gratuities are included in the package.  We just left the Emerald and did order a nice wine in Sabatini's that was ~$4 more than $15.  I drink Woodford on the rocks and always get a double.  

If the drink is over $15 you pay the difference plus 18%

[CruisinNewb]

Many thanks for the info.

[J13C85]

On 11/16/2023 at 4:14 PM, CruisinNewb said:

 

2) We purchased the Princess Plus package and understand that covers alcoholic drinks up to $15. I'm a bourbon and vodka drinker, usually drinking them straight. My wife enjoys craft beers, lemon drops and chocolate type martinis. Would they be covered under this package or do you think it would pay to upgrade to the Premium package?

 

Depending on the length of your cruise there is value to the upgrade regardless of if you choose drinks that exceed the $15 "Plus" package price point. The cost to upgrade from Plus to Premier is $20 per person per day. For a 7D cruise (assuming two of you) that cost is $280 total ($40 × 7). There are a lot of benefits to the Premier package but there are 2 useful ones that more than cover this.

 

First for this upgrade you get 2 free Specialty dining meals and those would cost you $156. The second is the unlimited photo package (3 prints and all digital). This is only available through the Premier package but when Princess sold this they charged $200 for it (last time we bought it we had 88 pictures, lol). We had fun posing at the various stations.

 

These 2 features alone have value of $356 and that more than covers the cost of the upgrade. There are other less expensive amenities but those also add up and some of the benefits are of no use to us (neither of us will be booking a fitness class and we each only have 1 device so the 4 device per guest wifi is no help). That said, the Ocean Now setup will run you $30 ($15 per person) ahat is waived w/ Premier. Not sure how much room service you would use but $5 per time will add up.

 

Where the upgrade lacks value is on longer cruises as the benefits don't increase but the cost does. In our case, we are on a 14D (it's 2 7D cruises booked as one 14D cruise). Our upgrade cost is $560 ($40 x 14) and we don't get enough value to cover the upgrade. For us, the values are the 2 things I mentioned above ($356) and the Ocean now setup ($30) so that puts me at close to $400. It will come down to casual dining.

[Guest Michael4650]

9 minutes ago, J13C85 said:

Depending on the length of your cruise there is value to the upgrade regardless of if you choose drinks that exceed the $15 "Plus" package price point. The cost to upgrade from Plus to Premier is $20 per person per day. For a 7D cruise (assuming two of you) that cost is $280 total ($40 × 7). There are a lot of benefits to the Premier package but there are 2 useful ones that more than cover this.

 

First for this upgrade you get 2 free Specialty dining meals and those would cost you $156. The second is the unlimited photo package (3 prints and all digital). This is only available through the Premier package but when Princess sold this they charged $200 for it (last time we bought it we had 88 pictures, lol). We had fun posing at the various stations.

 

These 2 features alone have value of $356 and that more than covers the cost of the upgrade. There are other less expensive amenities but those also add up and some of the benefits are of no use to us (neither of us will be booking a fitness class and we each only have 1 device so the 4 device per guest wifi is no help). That said, the Ocean Now setup will run you $30 ($15 per person) ahat is waived w/ Premier. Not sure how much room service you would use but $5 per time will add up.

 

Where the upgrade lacks value is on longer cruises as the benefits don't increase but the cost does. In our case, we are on a 14D (it's 2 7D cruises booked as one 14D cruise). Our upgrade cost is $560 ($40 x 14) and we don't get enough value to cover the upgrade. For us, the values are the 2 things I mentioned above ($356) and the Ocean now setup ($30) so that puts me at close to $400. It will come down to casual dining.

The plus package also covers the cost of Ocean Now and Room Service calls. We sail in full suites so embarkation night is comped in a specialty restaurant. We haven’t had pictures taken on board for at least for over 20 years and mostly travel in Grand Class ships which have few casual dining areas. The Plus package fits us to a “T”

[KKB]

On 11/16/2023 at 5:14 PM, CruisinNewb said:

Hello all 🙂

 

I've recently booked out first cruise with Princess (British Isles - 12 nighter). We booked a midship mini suite in one of the angled balconies on Deck 10 on the Regal Princess. We've pretty much sailed with Celebrity up till now and are excited to give Princess a try.

I have been reading through the Princess forums trying to pick up as much information as we really don't know anything about the ship, bars, entertainment, etc.

 

There are two questions I couldn't find the answers to and I thought I'd ask here.

 

1) Is there any place onboard where they have ballroom dancing in the evening? On Celebrity they has a lounge on one of the upper decks which had a sizable dance floor and a DJ several evenings during the cruise. From reading old threads it looks like on Princess most of the dancing occurs during dance parties on the promenade or by the pools. Are there any lounges where there is dancing?

 

2) We purchased the Princess Plus package and understand that covers alcoholic drinks up to $15. I'm a bourbon and vodka drinker, usually drinking them straight. My wife enjoys craft beers, lemon drops and chocolate type martinis. Would they be covered under this package or do you think it would pay to upgrade to the Premium package?

 

Thanks for your help and if there are any other suggestions or advice you can give to a Princess newbie it would be greatly appreciated.

We are doing Regal British Isles in April!

There are numerous options for dancing from musicians in a bar to parties.

I have never had an issue w/ the regular package on Princess (I upgrade on Celebrity). 

Occasionally a drink can be more & I believe they just charge the difference.

 

Of 36 cruises, have done Celebrity & Princess each about 10 times--including Island Princess last month & Celebrity Beyond next month. They are our 2 fav lines, with a small edge to Celebrity, tho their price point is making it a struggle to justify them much anymore.

 

Have a wonderful time!