JimmyVWine

Hadn't thought about that, but I'll bet you are right. While the classes are not "two per day" the way the desserts are, I'll be the number of takers each day is a two-digit number.

If 2,500 people have the right to 2 desserts per day, then the opportunity exists for Princess to scoop out 5,000 per day. If they are scooping out 150, that is an embarrassingly small number.

Works.

And you can be assured that Princess has run the numbers too and came up with the same conclusion. They are counting on a future state where 80%+ of its passengers sail with a package. And for people who have a package, the mini-bar or its coffee package swap-out are both useless and it makes sense for a company intent on cutting costs to stop buying small, economically unsound bottles. So Princess needs to find a way to appease the intersecting Venn Diagram circles of people who are both Elite and who refuse to buy a package. That number is not zero, nor, in the future, will it be huge. Seems that a credit toward a few ounces of liquor that is already housed in larger, more economical bottles would make the most sense.

Because providing mini-bottles is going to go away. They are the "plastic straws" of the 2020's. The wave of the future is going to be to provide some sort of digital bar credit linked to the Medallion. But providing small, obsolete, costly, hard-to-recycle liquor bottles is going to end. Two weeks ago: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/boston-city-council-proposed-ban-on-nips-mini-bottles-of-alcohol/ Last year: https://liquorlicenseadvisor.com/2022/05/04/more-towns-banning-nips-miniatures-in-liquor-stores/

Maybe. Maybe not. What they could do is limit the amount of coffee that one can order in a day and count that. That would be apples to apples.

Of course. But that system was set up before Plus and Premier were introduced. Even though it was linked to the Medallion, it worked exactly the same way, counting digital punches.

The entire fleet is stuck on March 26, so it can't be an issue on any individual ship. This has to be systemic or a decision made back in the home office. Anyone have any insight?

I was just parroting back the previous calculation. If there is not hidden $10 charge in there, then the wine portion of the dinner goes up by $10 and the total cash value of the pours goes up almost $2 per course making the value even more dubious. Simple math. Wine Dinner for two = $280 Regular Dinner for two = $78 Regular Dinner for two + $202 bottle of wine = break even Your money is better spent selecting and purchasing your own wine. Any $202 bottle is going to be (way) better than Mer Soleil, Walking Fool and Sea Sun. Wine dinners are a great way to experience hard to find, limited production, or new to the market wines. This wine dinner is a mish-mash of wines that you can pull off the shelf in Publix. They are leveraging the opportunity to have a glass of Caymus Cabernet, which is admittedly a very nice wine, in the hopes that people will pay $101 ($202 for two people) over the price of a Crown Grill dinner. Go to Publix or Total; buy a bottle of Caymus for $75; pay the corkage fee; come out way, way ahead.

BINGO. The coffee card is an analog product and the Medallion is a digital one. Princess is not trying to ruin anyone's cruise. Instead, they came up with fairly priced packages that include alcohol and coffee and as a result, the alcohol/coffee setup that has been provided as a perk simply doesn't make sense any longer. They need to find a different way to present an Elite reward but so far they are stumbling. I suspect that after a while they will figure it out, and it would move faster if everyone told Princess what they would like to see as the replacement.

My advice is that people keep making comments on comment cards and in post-cruise surveys because Princess really, really, really, REALLY wants you to buy a package. You break even at 2 glasses of decent wine and a cappuccino. They would much rather you do that than continue to supply you with little uneconomical, environmentally disastrous bottles of liquor. Mark my words. Those will go the way of plastic straws within 2 years. So if you have ideas as to what you would consider to be a fair swap for those bottles, speak up. Because those bottles are going away, and there is no value to giving you a coffee card when coffee is already included in all of the packages. Your precious mini-bar setup is worth around $75. (If the comparison is the equivalent number of bar drinks those would replace. Much, much less if you went to Total and bought those bottles.). So become creative and vocal about what a fair trade would be. But stick within the fair market value of the Lilliputian bottles and don’t start insisting on free beverage packages that cost per day what the full cost of the mini-bar setup costs. Eventually Princess will get the message.

You skipped a pour. There are 5 wines, but for the charcuterie and cheese course, you get to select one of the previous wines to have a second time. So it is $15 per pour. Nevertheless, here is what you get: Mer Soleil Chardonnay-Readily available for $15-$18 per bottle. (I am using retail prices. Princess pays no more than 70% of these prices buying wholesale, in bulk.) For a multi-course dinner they are most definitely going to pour slightly smaller glasses of wine per course, so assume 6 glasses per bottle. $3 per pour. (rounding up). Walking Fool is $28-$33 per bottle. $5 per pour Caymus Napa Cabernet, around $70 per bottle. $12 per pour Sea Sun Pinot Noir is around $16 per bottle, and honestly, I wouldn't drink it for free. $3 per pour. Wine of Choice-You'd be foolish not to select the cab. $12 per pour. Emmolo Sparkling wine $30 (probably poured out into 8 glasses). $4 per pour. So you are being charged $91 for the wine which has a retail value of less than $40 (assuming that you double up on the Cabernet) and honestly, the only wines worth drinking are the Chardonnay and Cabernet. Better to go to Vines and get $50 worth of those wines and take them in to the Crown Grill yourself. $39 fee $10 filet upcharge $50 wine ---------------- $99

I’m using a current menu that shows $2.50 and $3.50 for the most commonly ordered drinks. (Espresso, Cappuccino, etc.). And I don’t see how OBC can be a “worthless perk”. It is quiet literally the opposite.

I don’t agree. You use the word “most”. But in truth, most will have a package making both the minibar AND the coffee card superfluous. Princess is providing OBC as an exchange for the minibar setup and that would seem to be a better solution for “most”. One can debate whether the amount of the OBC is sufficient, but the whole coffee debate has become mooted by the popularity of the packages.

NCL. And maybe Regent. But that’s it.

As compared to what? A traditional “chippie” in the UK? A pub? Sure. But compared to a white table cloth MDR? That doesn’t exactly scream “Pub Lunch Atmosphere!” Besides. In the buffet it is “all you care to eat” without having to choose between numerous options. Ordering off the menu, you have to choose what to order. In the buffet, it is: “I’ll try it all.”

Exactly. The Plus and Premier packages at the costs charged are proving to be very popular. And for people who consume alcohol, why wouldn’t they be? People are going on vacation and are inclined to splurge a little and drink a bit more (or a lot more) than when they have car keys in their pockets. For those who don’t drink alcohol the packages probably don’t make sense. So they buy coffee by the cup. Not sure what the problem is. It seems to be: “With the old coffee card/package I spent less for the card/package than 15 coffee drinks plus brewed coffees cost.” That was good for you, but not for Princess. With the debt Princess/Carnival is carrying, the days of “good for you, bad for Princess” are over. And it’s not like the difference is game-changing. The coffee card/package was around $36-$37 dollars. How much does it cost to buy 15 specialty coffee drinks plus brewed coffee by the cup? Two cappuccinos and one Americano per day is around $10 per day. For a seven day cruise that is $70, or $33 more than the old card/package price. Hardly worth going to war over.

I don’t recall a notice. We guessed that on the first Sea Day there might be Pub food somewhere on the ship and we had lunch in the buffet, and lo and behold, there it was. (Regal in October). Others have reported the same situation on other ships.

Wi-Fi is now $15 per person per day. So the fixed cost per day is: Gratuity=$16 Wi-Fi=$15 So you are at $31. The cost of Plus is $60. So all you have to do is figure out if you are going to consume $29 per day in beverages per day per person to break even or do better on the plan. If you consume 2 glasses of wine and one or two cups of fresh brewed coffee (as opposed to syrup concentrate coffee in pump urns) or maybe one or two specialty coffees such as espresso, cappuccino, or lattes, you break even. Any consumption beyond that and you come out ahead on the Plus plan. Unlike many other cruise lines where one must strain, or drink like a sailor on leave to break even, the Princess package is actually fairly priced.

Even easier is the setup that a number of ships are using in the buffet. Self-serve and many people don’t know that it is there. Usually a separate serving station where all of the pub offerings are consolidated into one area.

100%. It is irrational to complain about paying more than either the Drop and Go fare or a casino promotion fare.

Just checked. Owner’s Suite for $1948. This is a 5 day cruise. No way were Mini Suites $1948 when you booked.

Totally agree. But I am skeptical of the underlying premise.

Assuming it is the 7/1 departure, I am not seeing the big price drop that the OP is referring to, and no OS is showing as available.

The ship libraries seem to be holdovers from days gone by and exist only for nostalgic purposes. Very few people use them and Princess doesn’t seem terribly interested in maintaining them. 250 square feet of non-revenue generating space. Most people bring their reading materials on e-readers and play games on their phones and tablets. Or carry on travel-size versions of Yahtzee and Backgammon.