Princess Plus Packages

[babs135]

I'm sure I've seen a comparison table based on whether or not it's worth taking either of the two packages but I can't find it.  Maybe I imagined it, but if not, I'd be grateful if someone could repost it.

Thank you.

[Sea Hag]

36 minutes ago, babs135 said:

I'm sure I've seen a comparison table based on whether or not it's worth taking either of the two packages but I can't find it.  Maybe I imagined it, but if not, I'd be grateful if someone could repost it.

Thank you.

I've seen that here, but I can't remember where. This is the easy math I run every time. I add up the things I'll actually use in the packages and see how that compares to what it costs. For us, it's never financially attractive, so I don't buy the packages. But I do run the math every time I book.

[skynight]

Basically there are 3 main components and a few minor components.

Crew Appreciation - Worth between US$16 & US$18 depending on cabin category

Unlimited wifi internet connection - Worth US$25/day/pp, or US$12.50 if you are elite loyalty status

Beverage Package - 15 alcoholic beverages/day US$15 or less for plus fare and US$20 or less for Premier fare.

Looking at the plus fare, if you are not elite, if you leave the Crew Appreciation in place and if you require unlimited internet then the daily value is US$16 + US$25 = $36/pp/day. That leaves a value of US$24/pp/day for all beverages which is equal to around 3 cocktails or a few more if you drink beer to break even.

If you are a serious wine drinker then many of the better wines are prices between $15 and $20. If you have the plus fare and order one of these wines you will be charged the excess over $15 + 18%.

Hope this helps.

[AZaTaz]

To add also think about coffee drinks and bottle water which is unlimited on package. $5 for coffee, $2.50 for soda, and $2.95 for small water. My numbers may be slightly off but not by much for calculation. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

16 minutes ago, skynight said:

Unlimited wifi internet connection - Worth US$25/day/pp, or US$12.50 if you are elite loyalty status

for Platinum as well.

 

16 minutes ago, skynight said:

Beverage Package - 15 alcoholic beverages/day US$15 or less for plus fare and US$20 or less for Premier fare.

 

plus unlimited sodas, waters, mocktails, specialty coffee and premium teas.

There are other perks as well.

 

Edited June 18 by Itchy&Scratchy

[skynight]

2 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

for Platinum as well.

Yes, correct. I forgot about platinum.

[geoherb]

I thought the rule of thumb was it would be worth it if you wanted the internet and had three alcoholic drinks a day. I kept track of my drinks on my recent Island Princess cruise. It turns out only two alcoholic drinks a day plus a few bottles of water and a cup of tea made having Plus worthwhile.

 

That said, I managed fine on a 16-day cruise two summers ago without Plus. I took on two bottles of wine, traded in my minibar for things I wanted to drink, and purchased the internet (at $5 a day then). My total bar bill was under $80. 

[Cruisemeister2002]

Can't say I have seen any comparisons. Our next cruise will be the first we have ever taken out a package, the Plus one. We will then decide during the cruise if it is worth paying the extra.One thing it does do is do away with me having to calculate what I spend. Yes I will still have money to spend along with OBC, but we recently had an email stating due to a couple of ports being deleted from our cruise that Princess were giving us an extra $100 OBC, so with the $300 we already have and a bit more to come from being Elite tier and the 10% we will get for excursions already booked we will have maybe around $450 OBC. Given that a large proportion of past cruises are taken up by the drinks bill and staff gratuities a few visits maybe to the Specialist restaurants and duty free, perfume and probable a handbag for the wife my bill shouldn't be anything to worry about. 

[burnabyjean]

Someone posted a spreadsheet a while ago that allows you to do a really clear comparison. I can't remember who it was, so I can't credit them. If the person who posted this spreadsheet sees this post, take a bow! I've attached it, with one small change I made to allow for Platinum/Elite internet.

Plus vs pay as you go 3.xlsx

[555]

47 minutes ago, geoherb said:

thought the rule of thumb was it would be worth it if you wanted the internet and had three alcoholic drinks a day. I kept track of my drinks on my recent Island Princess cruise. It turns out only two alcoholic drinks a day plus a few bottles of water and a cup of tea made having Plus worthwhile.

To me that sounds like a total waste of money. 

[Cruisin Kay D]

Burnabyjean -- Thanks for that link to that spreadsheet!!   It says based on 8/2023 pricing.  Wonder what has changed since that was created?  Noticed several cruise lines have bumped the daily gratuities from $16 to $18 per day.....has Princess?   Any changes in pricing of beer, wine etc?  

[akaCruiser]

If you read the fine print on the T&C for the Plus and Premier packages, the biggest advantage for me is the fact that if you have 4 passengers in a cabin all of the gratuities are covered by the Packages. That means that for Plus at $60 per day - $25 Wifi - $32 Gratuities (2 people) =  $3 Drinks. The math means it's worth getting the packages. Even if you get the Wifi at 50% off (for the Elite or Platinum), the Drinks minimum would be $15.50 which is easy to do (even for a non-drinker - a few coffees, couple cans of pop, a mock-tail and a couple of bottles of water).

[Itchy&Scratchy]

19 minutes ago, akaCruiser said:

If you read the fine print on the T&C for the Plus and Premier packages, the biggest advantage for me is the fact that if you have 4 passengers in a cabin all of the gratuities are covered by the Packages. That means that for Plus at $60 per day - $25 Wifi - $32 Gratuities (2 people) =  $3 Drinks. The math means it's worth getting the packages.

you are not mathing right.

Plus/Premier package only covers grats for the person with the package, not everyone else in the cabin. The first two people in the cabin must both have Plus/Premier package. Not just one.

 

So, if there are 2 people in the cabin, Plus is $120 per day: $32/36 for grats, $50 Wifi (unless Platinum/Elite, in which case it's half off) and the rest is for drinks/desserts/casual dining.

 

If there are 4 people in the cabin, of which only 2 have Plus/Premier, then you must pay separate grats for the second 2.

 

I know this for a fact because we've just traveled with a Premier package for each adult, while our minor kid cruised without a Package. We paid $112 for his gratuities. 

Edited June 18 by Itchy&Scratchy

[PR-Texas]

The main benefit to us is Pay it and Forget it.  We drink very few alcoholic beverages so crew appreciation, wifi, sodas, water, coffee and mocktails are the primary things we would spend on without the package.  We chose to have the Plus package included in our fare and I won't be checking to see if we get our money's worth.  Like I said, Pay it and Forget it.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, geoherb said:

I thought the rule of thumb was it would be worth it if you wanted the internet and had three alcoholic drinks a day. I kept track of my drinks on my recent Island Princess cruise. It turns out only two alcoholic drinks a day plus a few bottles of water and a cup of tea made having Plus worthwhile.

 

That said, I managed fine on a 16-day cruise two summers ago without Plus. I took on two bottles of wine, traded in my minibar for things I wanted to drink, and purchased the internet (at $5 a day then). My total bar bill was under $80. 

In my normal drinking pattern $80 would not cover one day at the bar

 

[Drew B 58]

3 hours ago, skynight said:

Basically there are 3 main components and a few minor components.

Crew Appreciation - Worth between US$16 & US$18 depending on cabin category

Unlimited wifi internet connection - Worth US$25/day/pp, or US$12.50 if you are elite loyalty status

Beverage Package - 15 alcoholic beverages/day US$15 or less for plus fare and US$20 or less for Premier fare.

Looking at the plus fare, if you are not elite, if you leave the Crew Appreciation in place and if you require unlimited internet then the daily value is US$16 + US$25 = $36/pp/day. That leaves a value of US$24/pp/day for all beverages which is equal to around 3 cocktails or a few more if you drink beer to break even.

If you are a serious wine drinker then many of the better wines are prices between $15 and $20. If you have the plus fare and order one of these wines you will be charged the excess over $15 + 18%.

Hope this helps.

Just a slight correction to your math:

 

$16 + $25 = $41 (you said $36)

 

$60/pp/day (daily cost of Plus) - $41/pp/day (value of gratuities & WiFi) = $19/pp/day

 

So all it takes is ONE $15 cocktail plus one $4 specialty coffee to break even each day.

[voljeep]

21 minutes ago, Drew B 58 said:

Just a slight correction to your math:

 

$16 + $25 = $41 (you said $36)

 

$60/pp/day (daily cost of Plus) - $41/pp/day (value of gratuities & WiFi) = $19/pp/day

 

So all it takes is ONE $15 cocktail plus one $4 specialty coffee to break even each day.

for us - the $25 pppd wifi/internet would NEVER be purchased - so our 'value' is 60-16=44 for PLUS - or $60 if standard booked, so ...😉

[akaCruiser]

2 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

you are not mathing right.

Plus/Premier package only covers grats for the person with the package, not everyone else in the cabin. The first two people in the cabin must both have Plus/Premier package. Not just one.

 

So, if there are 2 people in the cabin, Plus is $120 per day: $32/36 for grats, $50 Wifi (unless Platinum/Elite, in which case it's half off) and the rest is for drinks/desserts/casual dining.

 

If there are 4 people in the cabin, of which only 2 have Plus/Premier, then you must pay separate grats for the second 2.

 

I know this for a fact because we've just traveled with a Premier package for each adult, while our minor kid cruised without a Package. We paid $112 for his gratuities. 

As I mentioned, when I sailed last Aug 2023, all four passengers gratuities were covered by Passengers 1 and 2 Princess Plus package.

 

In the fine print on the website it even states that everyone in cabin is covered..."Crew Appreciation paid on behalf of the guest varies based on stateroom type (up to 4 guests per stateroom). " 

I even have it detailed on my next three bookings, so I don't think I'm wrong. 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

2 hours ago, memoak said:

In my normal drinking pattern $80 would not cover one day at the bar

 

and for my normal drinking pattern $80 would cover the entire week's worth of cruising. 🙂

[Itchy&Scratchy]

6 minutes ago, akaCruiser said:

As I mentioned, when I sailed last Aug 2023, all four passengers gratuities were covered by Passengers 1 and 2 Princess Plus package.

 

In the fine print on the website it even states that everyone in cabin is covered..."Crew Appreciation paid on behalf of the guest varies based on stateroom type (up to 4 guests per stateroom). " 

I don't think it means what you think it means.

CA varies from $16 to $18 pppd depending on the stateroom type.

Edited June 18 by Itchy&Scratchy

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I don't think it means what you think it means.

"think"?  it's a fact for akaCruisers that happened!

[memoak]

22 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

and for my normal drinking pattern $80 would cover the entire week's worth of cruising. 🙂

Even in the 1990’s when drinks were cheap and you paid by the drink we budgeted $50 per person per day for bar bills

Edited June 18 by memoak

[Itchy&Scratchy]

9 minutes ago, akaCruiser said:

I even have it detailed on my next three bookings, so I don't think I'm wrong

could you please show us where it says that Plus package for people 1 and 2 covers gratuities for the 3rd and 4th person in the cabin who do not have Plus?

 

Here is my proof from a week ago: as you can see, we had Premier package for adults 1 and 2 in the cabin, but didn't have it for our minor child. So, he was charged for his gratuities.

 

 

 

[MacMadame]

4 hours ago, Cruisin Kay D said:

Burnabyjean -- Thanks for that link to that spreadsheet!!   It says based on 8/2023 pricing.  Wonder what has changed since that was created?  Noticed several cruise lines have bumped the daily gratuities from $16 to $18 per day.....has Princess?   Any changes in pricing of beer, wine etc?  

Gratuities haven't changed since last year. The drink prices look right too.

[akaCruiser]

32 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

could you please show us where it says that Plus package for people 1 and 2 covers gratuities for the 3rd and 4th person in the cabin who do not have Plus?

 

Here is my proof from a week ago: as you can see, we had Premier package for adults 1 and 2 in the cabin, but didn't have it for our minor child. So, he was charged for his gratuities.

 

 

 

 

 

For me, initially they added to the gratuities to the third and forth passenger, but you need to go to the Guest Services and notify them that you have the Plus or Premier package and they will then remove it.

 

As I mentioned when I go to the website for my coming cruise it clearly says it's covered:

 

At the end of the day, I'm just providing my experience in using the Plus Package and what benefits I was able to leverage. Your experience may be a bit different, but as I mentioned before I read the T&C and was able to take advantage of the terms as written.

 

Edited June 18 by akaCruiser