Drew B 58

WiFi is actually something I really value. I like to wake up and check my email, my Facebook, the news…. If I’m not getting it on the ship, I feel pressured to spend a lot of time on port days looking at those things. And a LOT of time catching up when the cruise ends. It’s much easier and less stressful if I just keep up for a few minutes here and there while sailing. Also, it does wonders for my patience if I can pull out my phone and futz around when I’m waiting for anything. If I don’t have internet and am stuck waiting (say for my travel companion to get ready), I get bored and frustrated. On my first twelve cruises, I got no WiFi and on the next three, I shared a plan. That was better, but I still sometimes had to wait my turn or get bumped when my friend wanted to use it. This time, thanks to the package, I will have my own and I’m really happy about it!

Would you or would you not get WiFi? That seems to be the big difference maker. If you would pay for gratuities and WiFi, then it’s less than a $20 difference per day to go with Plus. It seems to me it is easy to make up that $20 with just one alcoholic drink and a couple of nonalcoholic drinks a day. Even on port days, I can’t imagine that being an issue. And that’s not even considering casual dining, Ocean Now activation, medallion delivery, etc. And if one day you DON’T happen to “break even” and only get $50 in value, you’ll probably more than make up for it on another day when you get $70/$80/$90 value. And if, at the end of the cruise, you figure out that you paid $560 (assuming it’s 7 days) and you only got $535 in value, is that really a big enough “loss” to stress you out? Now if you WOULDN’T otherwise purchase the WiFi, then you’d have to get over $40 per day in value from the other benefits (drinks in particular), and that is considerably harder to do if you’re not a big drinker…

Forget “value”. The COST of their WiFi is $25/day. If you would get it without the plan, then you are acknowledging a $25/day value. And I would get it, although without the package I may try for a loophole and share the plan with my cabin mate. If you would not get it, then you are assigning it a $0 value…

It is definitely relative. I prefaced my statement by saying once gratuities and WiFi are factored in. That presupposes that those are charges you would otherwise pay for. If not, then that changes the calculus completely. However, with that caveat in place, Plus is <$20/day more and Premier is <$40-day more. While I’m not saying that is nothing, from my perspective it IS “only a little bit more” in the bigger picture…

Reservations are made!

That’s my point. Once you factor in the tips and the WiFi, the remaining amount isn’t a lot. Without the package, I probably would NOT “splurge” on an extra drink, fancy coffee or fancy dessert (not to mention the casual/specialty dining). Or if I did, it would involve torturous deliberation to justify it. That’s just my personality. With the package, I am free to “splurge” as little or as much as I like, within the parameters of the package I choose. Having one, I will probably “splurge” enough to cover the difference. However, even if I don’t, I imagine I won’t regret the decision to buy the package. That freedom from having to deliberate over what I choose to get has enough value in and of itself to make it worthwhile for a reasonably small cost difference. This is based on a 7-day or shorter cruise. For a significantly longer cruise, the calculus would change, as it would no longer be a reasonably small cost difference…

That’s exactly how I feel about Cheers on Carnival, which costs the same as Plus but ONLY includes the drink package. It would be unlikely I would drink enough to break even. However, on Princess with the tips and the WiFi included (along with other perks), it really doesn’t take too many drinks to make it worthwhile. Generally two alcoholic beverages per day or one alcoholic beverage, a specialty coffee and two bottles of water gets you to the break-even point. now if you’re someone who wouldn’t want WiFi, then it really does become more about the drinks…

If you would have any specialty coffees, sodas, or bottled water, then even fewer alcoholic beverages would be needed to “break even”!

Yes, I did the math. However, what the math tells me is that I will spend more on the package than I would have spent without it. Conventional wisdom would then suggest that it would NOT be prudent for me to get a package. My “new way” of looking at it is suggesting that despite the fact that I will spend more, I will [hopefully] have a better cruise as a result.

Princess’s is just so much better than Carnival’s or Royal Caribbean’s where you only get drinks but still have to pay for WiFi and gratuities…

Totally agree. I don’t like that about the plan. It should be one specialty dining meal for every 3-4 days of the cruise. On a long cruise, though, I would probably forego Plus as well. Drinking more than I usually would (and not just alcohol) is fun for a week but would get sad over a longer time period. For me at least…

It depends how you define justifying it financially. For my seven night cruise, Premier will cost me $560. Will I get more than $560 in expenditures? Absolutely. I will make sure of it! Would I spend that much without the package? Absolutely not… So is that financially justifiable? I guess that’s up to each person to decide…

So the cost differential between Plus and Premier is $140 pp for a seven day cruise. The two specialty dining meals cover $92 of that ($39 + 18% x2). If we do casual dining more than twice, that will cover more. What tipped the scales was the photo package. You get 3 prints plus ALL of the digital copies. This seems like a bargain for < $50… Again, I have never actually SPENT $50 on cruise photos. However, getting them as part of the package adds a lot of value… Also, I drink whiskey and it might be nice to try some higher-end brands! 🥃

When people are looking into getting the Plus or Premier package, the advice I invariably hear is to “do the math”. If what you would otherwise spend on what is covered by the package comes out to more than $60 per day, then they say Plus is worth it. If it comes out to more than $80 per day, then perhaps Premier would be worth it (although Plus may still be the better choice). There is nothing wrong with this approach to the question, but I’d like to suggest another way to look at it: if I were sailing on the Standard package, there is NO WAY I would spend more than $60/$80 on these things. I’m too in the habit of denying myself indulgences, and I am basically cheap at heart. Each purchase would be a struggle. I WOULD pay the gratuities. IMO, those are not discretionary. I would split one internet package with my cabin mates, even if that meant I could only use WiFi at restricted times. I would probably splurge on 12-15 alcoholic beverages over the course of a week-long cruise (which is not to say that I wouldn’t WANT more). I would probably not buy a single specialty coffee/soda/juice/mocktail. I like these things, but couldn’t justify the money. I wouldn’t spend to eat at casual or specialty restaurants (in my fifteen previous cruises, I’ve never paid for upcharge food), even though I would love to try some of them. I probably WOULD pay to activate Ocean Now because I would really feel like I was missing out if I never tried that. I would definitely not pay for premium desserts or fitness classes. So if you take a look at all of that, it makes for a pretty basic no-frills cruise experience. I would be fine with it. I have been fine with it or something very much like it on every previous cruise I’ve taken. However, by making one simple choice - to buy one of the packages - the cruise immediately switches from basic and utilitarian to bountiful and indulgent. I will be able to eat what I want (to an extent), drink what I want, surf the net when I want, etc. Yes, it is hard for me to make the decision to spend that kind of money. However, once I do, I am suddenly not only free to but actually incentivized to treat myself to an experience I never would otherwise have had! That feeling of being spoiled has a value that is not necessarily simple to plug in to a simple math formula… Is this a good decision? I don’t know yet. I’m getting ready to take my first Princess cruise under the Premier plan. I will let you know after if I made the right choice!

I would strongly recommend this one for Haines! Best excursion I ever took, anywhere!