BrandiGreg

If you buy bottles of wine at dinner, and the trip does not offer a separate wine package, you save 40% on each bottle. We drink wines under $30 a bottle, so not as much of a savings for us, but it may be something to consider if you like the higher priced wines. Only one of you needs the sticker to order the wine and of course you can share it with any or all people at the table.

We just got off the Crown to Alaska last month and only my wife bought the sticker, since she drinks more than I do on a cruise (likes a bloody mary in the morning). Plus, one of the main benefits to us is the 40% off wine bottles, it would not make sense for us to both have the wine discount. We just showed her card to the asst waiter at dinner and the cabin bill had the discounted price on it. For a $40 bottle of wine, that was a $16 nightly savings. However, one thing that happened is that every morning we went to the coffee bar at the International Cafe to have our iced carmel mochas, they did not charge me for mine, even though I presented my coffee card to be punched and told them I did not have the beverage stamp. This happened every morning, so essentially they never punched my card even though I reminded them each time I had not purchased the package. The staff just kind of waved it off. I felt a little guilty (just a little), but that's what they kept doing. We would have drank more if the weather was warmer, so I think we just broke even on the deal. The following week (we did a back to back) we decided not to buy the package, since it was not a big bargain for us in the colder weather (plus we had the Elite mini-bar set-up which provided enough alcohol and sodas for us).

I would still consider $6 a reasonable price. The drinks are consistently not diluted down like in some (non ship) bars. The view/coziness/atmosphere of Skywalkers (if that is the locale) is very nice. And, you have some nice appetizers at no extra charge (shrimp or smoked salmon is better than bar peanuts). I have been to some places in Las Vegas that charge twice that price. Unless you are at an Applebee's happy hour or such, it is quite reasonable (and no sales tax!):D

Because of the fact that he was a "most travelled passenger", I suspect he handled the situation behind the scenes rather than make a scene.

It was a bottle of room temp red wine and yes, once my spouse found out about it, she mentioned it quietly to the head waiter and it was taken care of discreetly. This was a gentleman who, I assume, just had too much pride to make a fuss, although it did seem to irritate him a little inside (if you know what I mean)..... I will chalk it up to some wait staff not reading the memo on gifted wine corkage fees.

The only free wine I know of on Princess is a free wine tasting for Elite members of the Captain's Circle and at the captain's cocktail party, which is usually held the second formal night. You can carry your glass from one venue to another--from a bar to the dining room. What you're not supposed to do is drink the wine from the bottle each adult is allowed to carry on in public spaces. That wine is supposed to be enjoyed in your cabin.

Usually the first formal night, there is also the Captain's Welcome Party in the atrium (different than the Captain's Circle Party which is second formal night and usually in Vista Lounge, you will get an invite if you have been on Princess before) with the champagne waterfall, open to everyone.....plenty of free drinks continually brought around for about 45 minutes starting about 7:15 (check the Patter).

We are elite on Princess, so can't speak about other lines. But we are happy for the perks we get and would miss them, especially on longer cruises, if we did not have them (we are probably spoiled). The free unlimited laundry/pressing/dry cleaning is great....sometimes we unload almost our whole suitcase into the laundry bag the first day just to get the wrinkles out and get them on hangers. (I know, probably bordering on abusive....we had $300 worth of laundry done on one cruise!). The mini bar set up can be exchanged for two coffee cards that cost about $33 each (after gratuity figured in). More than enough internet for us. Plus the other stuff (chocolate covered strawberries in our room). 10% off in shops. Tender and check-in priority......It fits our preferences well.

As far as drink prices, depending on where you live the drink prices will be too high or very low. Try getting a mixed drink in a Vegas or Manhattan hotel bar for $6 or even $8. And they are not watered down. Nor do they offer sweeping ocean views like you get in Skywalkers. One "Chairman of the Board" and I am semi-looped! Love the shrimp and the smoked salmon. I like economizing like anyone else (we always do inside cabin), but a dollar rise in drink prices is not a deal-breaker for me.

I just want to get off my chest something that happened on our last cruise a couple weeks ago. An elderly gentleman who just happened to be our tablemate at late seating had been presented a bottle of wine at the Captain Circle Party for being the Most Traveled Passenger (over 1000 days on Princess). He brought it, in its gift bag, to dinner to share with the rest of us at the table and the wait staff charged him a $15 corkage fee, even though he said it was a gift from the Captain. He was clearly upset but, gentleman as he was, did not make a big ruckus out of it. Has anyone else experienced something like this? We agreed that Princess should have not treated their Most Traveled Passenger that way. (and yes, it was very clearly explained to the staff the circumstances under which the wine was given....their answer was "we have our rules we have to follow"):(

What we didn’t get were the card with the dinner “dress code” schedule for the cruise (ie which nights are to be formal) and the Elite Happy Hour drink of the day and hor’s douvers schedule.

Our last 3 cruises, we did not get the Elite/Platinum Lounge schedule either. We even asked the stewards, and they had no clue what we were talking about. So we just went and took our chances.

One of the big draws of cruising is the unlimited food included in your cruise fare. For tightwads like me, I don't have to look at the prices on the menu like at regular restaurants.....and I can order unlimited Lobster tail/shrimp combos on lobster night :D

I would doubt that tax will be charged on the package. You are not purchasing an actual product, just buying a right to have unlimited drinks during the cruise and a 40% discount on wine purchases. It would be like taxing a Costco Membership, I would think. But instead of a Costco card, you get a tiny sticker placed on your card. But, alas, I am not certain of this.:confused:

However, as a Californian, I say hell yes, tax the hell out of them.:eek:

We consider the auto-tip as our tip. When we pay an additional service charge for the specialty restaurant, that is a charge for the extra service, so no more tip is expected. If it was not, then they would call it a "Food charge" or something other than service charge. I find the service in specialty restaurants as good as in main dining room.

My trophies from my Carnival cruise last summer are sitting on my window sill.

We played trivia on the two Carnival cruises we have taken and unfortunately each team graded their own paper. Needless to say, there were a lot of perfect papers, including one by a team of two teenagers. (who could have been super bright of course, but I had my doubts.....).

It is like any amateur sport, like golf or bowling. You do it to have fun, but there is still an element of competition....nothing wrong with that! (as long as you are not choking the opponent)

We did have a cocktail party on the 5 dayer, but nothing on the 4 dayer.

Just curious, what time is the cocktail party and where is it usually? Finally, I assume the drinks and hors d'oeuvres are much better than the Captains Circle party? Have not been invited yet, but look forward to our first luncheon or cocktail party some day (222 sea days now)

There is no limit for soda or water on Princess

Though if you are a heavy water drinker, the tap water is tasty and pure on Princess, so rather than lug a case of bottled water, just a few bottles to refill may save you some trouble.

On 4 and 5 night cruises out of Fort Lauderdale, are there really formal nights in the dining room? Tux and gown? Have done most of our cruising on Regent and Oceania and formal nights have faded. What happens here?

Have never been on a cruise less than 7 days, but after 22 Princess Cruises over the past 19 years, I have not noticed that they have faded in terms of popularity, though I have no reliable way to measure that . Seems like at the Captain's Welcome Party and Captain's Circle Party (usually held on formal nights), 99% of the people are dressed in suit and tie or in tux (or kilts) and the ladies look pretty good too. Since we dress like slobs in our normal day to day life, we like formal nights because it is special for us. To others, not so much, but people have choices to fit their preferences. I don't see formal nights disappearing on Princess in my lifetime. :D

Thanks for posting this. It confirmed that the package isn't worth it to us. Even with my wildest estimation of how much we could drink in a day (3 mixed drinks, 1 beer, 2 glasses of wine, a liqueur after dinner, and juice and specialty tea), it's still cheaper to buy them à la carte. We did not come close to drinking that much any day on our March cruise on the Ruby.

A lot of it depends on how much time you spend OFF the ship on port days. Lots of days at sea would obviously give you more time to drink at a reasonable rate. Also, the first day is less than 12 hours (embarkation day), but then you would probably load up on multiple sail-away drinks anyway. One thing not mentioned is the 40% discount on bottles of wine and champagne......which can be quite a savings if you buy a bottle each night at dinner and/or to take to your cabin to drink or a champagne bucket in the nightclub. The wine savings alone will make up most of our savings (only my spouse will buy the package as she drinks more mixed drinks than I do). I don't need to purchase the package to share the wine she purchases.

Trivia is held 2 or 3 times a day. Usually, late morning (11:15am or so), late afternoon (4pm or so) and some evenings 9pm or so.

 

We usually participate in two daytime ones. Usually there are teams of up to 6 people. There are usually 20 questions. Papers are exchanged for grading. Occasionally there are people who take it more seriously than I would prefer. Most of the time the staff member will say that their answers are the correct one. Some will buckle when they get abuse about an answer

I agree 100% with all of this. Trivia is our favorite thing to do on the ship for an activity and we rarely miss one, even on port days (we go into port after the AM one and return in time for the PM one, if we are just going in for a few hours). We take it seriously but are not cutt-throat. If we have already won the prize on a previous cruise, we will give ours away to the second place team or other teams that we notice have not won, to spread the fun. Some of the questions are repeated on other cruises, so if you are a frequent Princess trivia player like us, you will have an advantage (if you remember the answers of course!). If a tie (often) there is a tie-breaker that usually asks you to come up with a number (for example, the person running it may ask to guess his age). Out of 20, the winning score is usually 15 or better. Some longer cruises they keep track of team scores and award a grand prize at the end for the highest cumulative score. It usually has an American bias, but there are perhaps 20% of the questions related to British or Australian or Canadian topics. I think the best team has a mix of old and young and different nationalities and professions, if you can find that mix. I find those under 25 or so do not do as well, simply because most of the pop culture type questions are not about real current music, stars, shows, etc. You certainly do learn quite a bit with each quiz! Have fun, meet interesting people, and win a trinket now and then!

This is what I do. The ship's tap water is probably just as good as bottled water.

We think it is better. And it is purer than most bottled water, as they use osmosis on the ship to create it with no minerals added.

Thanks All, I appreciate the help.

 

Since it is an Alaskan cruise in May, I suspect I won't be in my swimsuit very much.;)

 

Actually, one of our favorite moments was a late night hot tub session under the stars during a May Alaska cruise. Very quiet and only got down to the 40's, which is perfect hot tub weather.:o

We always book the Anytime dining. Love the flexibility to eat when we want to. Usually eat around show times or other stuff we want to do. Hopefully Ruby fixed their issues with Anytime from Jan when we were on her. We have never on any line waited as long to get a table as we did on Ruby. Love have the flexible dining, but they were having some huge issues on that ship in Jan. When we first did Anytime on Princess it was really smooth, so hopefully when we go in Dec it will be the same

If you have to wait for a table, you are not really eating when you want to. That is why we don't like anytime dining. It is more like "start waiting anytime" (no, really the main reason we like traditional is the consistent wait staff and table mates). But whatever works I suppose!:cool:

My wife has brought her plug-in 6 inch fan on all of our 22 Princess Cruises and it has never been confiscated. I think that is ridiculous. No more dangerous than a hair dryer (and hers is the size of a small leaf blower). We bring an extension cord as well, in case room configuration does not allow the fan cord to reach the sole outlet in the cabin by the phone (we run it under the bed to her nightstand). Over 20 years, I have learned to sleep even though our bed is like an airport tarmac.:eek:

Wow, I'm really hoping the package is available for my upcoming 3 day coastal cruise on the Star Princess. We are going with friends and without kids so this would be a good deal for us.

If it is a 3 day cruise, that means only 2 nights and your first and last day are less than 12 hours technically. So, you will have to pay $49 x 3 but two days are short......so drink lots of sailaway drinks and then tons of bloody marys and mimosas the morning of debarkation!:eek: (and even with kids it may be a good deal, unless they think you are saints)

For it to be an accurate poll you must call a minimum of 6 times over a 2 day period.

Interesting. I called Princess and they said an accurate poll is calling 8 times over a 3 day period.:eek:

Getting a little confused after reading several threads on the beverage package....I'm assuming any package is not required, but optional. I only want a coffee card, period! My 17 year old son doesn't drink soda or any other drink for that matter other than water which can be tap. Please tell me these are optional :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

And, by the way, the tap water on Princess is as pure or purer than any bottled water you can buy. (per studies I have read). Tastes good too! We drink a lot of ice water in the dining room!

TA is telling me that I must still purchase a coffee card for the cappacinos, espressos, lattes at the coffee place (International?) What's that card cost?

This bar all-inclusive package would include coffee specialty drinks like Irish coffee, Kaluha n coffee, etc.

The TA is wrong. It includes all drinks including specialty drinks like you mentioned. So soda card or coffee card would not be needed.