We've crunched the numbers many times and Princess still hasn't convinced us to get the Plus or the Premium plus package for several reasons...
1) we get a lot of shipboard credit. We don't enjoy Princess Shore Excursions and we don't need more stuff to buy, so where would we spend it this SBC?
2) Princess advertises the package costs $60/pp, but did you realize that they roll the cost into the price of the cruise? So you paying 9% (almost $10/day/cabin) more for Vacation Protection due to the added package. So now the cost of the package is actually $130/day for the two of you. Princess is essentially increasing the cost of the Vacation insurance for people who buy the packages.
3)We are elite, so we get the stocked bar set up on every cruise.
4) Since we are elite, the wifi fee is $12.50/per day. We might get it on sea days if we're board. When we do buy it, we get a single device and my hubby and I share a hot spot. On port days, our Tmobile plan has us covered.
5) We've noticed that the selection of wines in the plus package are limited, so we prefer to bring our wine onboard. When we are going to foreign ports, we enjoy trying the local wines. We pay the extra $20/bottle "corkage fee" for the extra wine and bring it to dinner. A bottle of wine usually lasts us for 2-3 dinners.
6) We go on lots of longer cruises where at least one of us will catch a virus on the ship and be out of commission for a day or 2 or 3. So on those days, we don't drink (if one of us gets sick, the other one tends to also lay low).
7) And most important reason is that we consciously try not to drink too much. When our doctors ask us how much we drink, we usually respond with " 1 or 2 drinks on weekends and while on vacation". Well, it seems like we're on vacation all the time! Lately, we've been on a cruise ship about 100 days/year and cruising on our own boat about 50days/year. If we got the drink package, we know that we would try to get our money's worth. So for the sake of our liver and to prevent other illnesses associated with alcohol, we are very aware of what and how much we drink.
In addition, there are all those empty calories that go along with the package.
A tip for people who want to decrease their alcohol on a cruise, I pick up a couple of the fruit smoothies at breakfast and put them in my refrigerator. Then I pick up a couple glasses at one of the bars. Add a little ice and I have a healthy mocktail for Happy Hour.
Princess loves the packages because they are a profit source that they can count on. With the package, they know that "Jane & John Smith" have committed to spend $60pp/day and Princess can count on that revenue. Princess knows that the Smiths have committed to buy 2 wifi plans(which costs little to operate) and Princess also knows that the Smiths will be "buying" drinks (which cost Princess less than probably $1 each), even if the Smiths normally wouldn't have bought any or as many that day. Drinks have a huge profit margin.
Then Princess has guests like us who don't buy the package. Princess doesn't know if we will sign up for the 1 or 2 or no wifi plans. Princess doesn't know how much we may or may not drink every day thus they can't count on how much of a profit they will make on us.
We travel with friends that always get the drink package. They love it, they use it, and they feel that they get their money's worth. For us, the numbers, among other things, don't work.