BrandiGreg

Please don't become one of those people who start frothing at the mouth when they disagree with the 'correct' answer. ;)

Most all staff running trivia make it very clear that the "correct" answer is what they say is the correct answer. People are free to disagree after the game is over and scored, but in terms of getting the point toward your team score, the only correct answer is what the person running the game says it is. That is made pretty clear, and people who argue are frowned upon by all the other people. Examples of trivia not run properly that I have seen is either a person reading the questions who does not speak English well enough to understand or they arrive late (like 15 min late) or who allows cheating (ie use of internet, teams of greater than 6, etc) or allows people to correct their own answer sheets. The best trivia is when the question reader is entertaining and makes everyone feel like they are having fun, despite the competitive nature. :o

From what were you upgraded from? What loyalty level are you? Just curious. We got upgraded from interior guarantee (lowest price) to the highest price interior. Guess that is better than nothing. Congrats on your good fortune!

Are there many drinks that cost more than $10?

I checked out the current bar menu and most mixed drinks are 7.95. The only drinks over 10.00 are cognac type drinks. Anything made with rum, vodka, tequila, gin, etc are covered (we like Captains Bounty, Rum Punch, pina coladas, and bloody marys.) ALSO for us a big benefit will be the 40% off all wine and champagne. If you have a bottle of wine at each dinner, your savings on wine alone will pay for a big chunk of the card (and in our case, we will only get one card, since my spouse is the one who drinks, however I will share her bottle of wine at dinner, which is fine since it is not free). All specialty coffee drinks are included as well, plus dessert drinks like amaretto, lemoncello, etc. We looked at our average beverage consumption on board, and we will come out ahead. Some will not though.

If you spend lots of time on the ship as we do, you obviously have more time to consume the beverages (and pass out more....LOL)

If the price for a balcony was the same or close to an inside, we would take the balcony. Of course, it is usually not even close and more likely twice as much, so for us, after 5 Alaska Inside Passage cruises, we prefer the VALUE of an inside cabin and viewing the sights from the public decks because 1. On the inside passage cruise, from a balcony, you only see half the sights (there is shore on both sides of the ship most of the time), whereas on deck you are free to look and move from either side, 2. you get to hear the narration easily, if any, and 3. if it is raining and your balcony is not covered, there is no where to take cover (as there is on promenade deck). But, it is like deciding to dine in the specialty restaurant, if the quality of the experience is worth the extra cost, go for it. We are content in our little dark "womb" of an inside cabin at night, rarely spend daytime in our room, never order room service, and don't mind being with others on the other decks. Isn't it great to have options?

After 22 Princess cruises, I dont think I have ever seen early seating that early. Usually it is 6 or 6:15. We always have late seating, because we don't like to have to rush to get ready for dinner, especially if in port. There is usually a show at 10pm or 10:15, though sometimes we go to a 7pm show before dinner. The only things we miss are the 9:15 or 9:30 events, usually in Explorers, that are game-based events. Another advantage of late seating is that the wait staff has less pressure to finish quickly and get you booted out to make way for the next seating. Also (for us) usually less kids at late seating, which may be a problem if they are noisy or fussy (yes, adults can be noisy as well). Finally, if you like a pre-dinner drink in the Platinum/Elite lounge, which opens at 5pm, there would be no rush to get out of there to get to your 5:30 dinner. Lots of choices for different preferences. Enjoy!:D

You can easily sell coffee cards on Ebay, by the way, for about 80% of new value and cost of a postage stamp (and ebay/paypal fees) if you don't anticipate going on another Princess cruise. So, for an unused card costing about $35 onboard after gratuity charge added, you can probably get $30 for it on ebay and net about $26 after sellers' fees.....if you need the cash. People also buy used coffee cards with punches remaining. I have never sold any, but I have bought a couple on ebay. We both have a iced caramel mocha with whipped cream each morning....at about $2 each, much cheaper than Starbucks for sure! :cool:

You will see sales tax on drinks on your itemized folio. I believe we saw it when docked in California ports. Only about 8%, but still it is there. Since shops are closed in port, I don't know if it applies to other ship purchases while in port.

22 Princess cruises with all dinners in the main dining room, do not recall a bad dinner ever. We are easy to please however and I do know that if it did not taste good they wait staff would quickly replace it with another choice. They work hard to try to please. I always order the seafood choices, and all are great. As far as alcohol, a few things to keep in mind in comparing prices with what you pay at your local restaurant 1. Bottles of Bud on land are normally 12 oz but the Buds on board are 16 oz. Also, if you buy a "bucket of 5 beers", they only charge you for four of them. So, it is about $4.50 per 16 oz Bud when bought that way. You can take the bucket back to your cabin if you want and store unused bottles in the fridge. 2. The mixed drinks are stronger than I have experienced at local restaurants (in my estimation) and 3. For a cocktail costing $7.95, most people like me would round it up to $10 to include the tip. With the 15% autotip, the drink on board comes to about $9.14. Thus you are most likely tipping less than at a restaurant or bar. In certain cities, this is a bargain. Try Manhattan or Las Vegas. You will pay at least twice this in many places. If you drink wine frequently at dinner, you are better off buying a bottle and having them keep the wine for you for the next night. Also remember that any alcohol you buy anywhere can be taken anywhere on the ship. (bar to room, bar to show, dinner to room, dinner to show, dinner to nightclub or casino, lunch to pool, etc. Try walking out of most bars or restaurants with your unfinished bottle or glass back home.....probably a law against that.

Just to add, for those who don't know, if you buy a drink on the ship while it is in port, and that port's city has a sales tax, you are taxed on the drink. At sea, no tax.

With the alcohol beverage package of $49 per day that includes 40% off all wines (at least those under $100 a bottle), you will save if you buy more than $130 of wine per day. You can take bottles that you buy back to your cabin to enjoy as well. Of course, you also save on all the other free drinks, sodas, coffee drinks, dessert liquers, water, etc.

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Crown next saturday for Alaska. We have made 22 Princess cruises, so obviously we are happy with the value. I suppose there is better food on other lines but it suits us fine. We always have traditional seating and never eat dinner in the buffet. We like the set time with no waiting (except the chaotic first night of course), so we can know exactly when to start getting ready and when, approximately, we will be done with the dinner, for planning our time before and after dinner. I guess we are used to the Princess ship layouts by now, so really does not bother us. But we are not in a rush to get anywhere, and we don't have mobility challenges, so we don't mind. $550 each for a 7 night balcony sounds like a steal. I would be happy with McDonalds each night if that was the rate!

We like escargot on French Night. One cruise, they did not have it on the menu. I told the head waiter I was disappointed because we always look forward to it. She said she would try to find some for the next night, and lo and behold it was brought out to us the next night. If they have it on the ship, and you ask for it in advance, they are pretty good about getting it to you.

Per the Princess website the cost is higher.

But based on your DH's typical day it sounds like he would save with the card.

The actual card cost is $49. Cost does not include the 15% gratuity, which is added to all drink cards purchased, whether before the cruise or during the cruise. Also, just curious why you assumed my spouse was a male? I was careful not to specify. LOL

We are cruise only back-to-back northbound May 10 then southbound May 17. Have done this itinerary 5 previous times. One of our favorites. We have always done it in May or September (better prices), never really cold any of those times (about 50 high during the day, give or take) but rainy/misty many days. Weather is crazy lately though, so hard to predict for sure. Have a great time!

Are all the after-dinner dessert drinks, such as lemoncello or amaretto, covered by the drink card? (minus the special shot glasses of course)?

Are cocktails included on this unlimited package , or they wouldn't be a they now cost over the $10 single drink cost? Sorry just been a few years since our last cruise

Here is a link to a video review of the Princess Bar menu, I believe it is fairly recent. Most mixed drinks are $5.95 to $7.95. Only a couple of drinks (cognac, for example) are slightly more than $10. Bud Light is $5.50, but in a 16 oz aluminum bottle. I hope the limes are still free! LOL Drinks are actually fairly cheap on Princess compared to many US tourist places, and usually stronger, in our opinion.

Limit on wines.

 

Per my DH you need to purchase $95 per day in bottled wine to break even. You have no savings until you buy more wine or drinks each day.

The wines we buy are the cheaper ones (Woodbridge White Zin at 27 per bottle, Korbel sparkling wine for 29). Keeping it under 100 per bottle is no problem. If you bought $95 in wine and get a 40% savings, your savings is only $38. The card costs $49 per day. SO to get only the benefit from the wine, you would need to buy $122.50 worth of wine each day to break even (ie where your savings equals the price for the card). But figure in the other drinks and it could be a good deal, depending on how much you drink of ALL liquids and how much time you are on the ship each day. Remember, if you use the coffee card and/or soda card, you don't need to buy those because the all-inclusive drink card includes those too. Here is how I am figuring for my spouse, who does most of the drinking in the family and based on past experience:

1 Iced Flavored Coffee Drink each morning

1 Bloody Mary for morning, trivia game

1 Beer with lunch

1 Diet Coke in the afternoon, or frozen drink in warm weather

1 Cocktail at afternoon trivia game

2 Elite/Platinum lounge drinks

1 Glass wine before dinner (late seating)

1 Bottle of wine or champagne at dinner (will split with me....pretty much the only time I drink)

1 Cocktail at the show if we go

1 Champagne bottle on ice at nightclub late night, split with me.

At Sail-Away, a couple of rum punches.

Probably drink more in hotter climates, so consider that.

Plus, in most ports, we just walk into town for a couple hours and spend most of the time on the ship. So, this schedule would pretty much apply to all days of the cruise for us most of the time. Those who like time off the ship obviously would be challenged to drink enough during the day using the card. I would buy my own drinks of course, I am just looking at spouse savings. This is way more than my spouse normally drinks by the way, but on vacation we eat and drink more than usual for sure!

For me it's not the fact that I believe bottled water is purer. Evian spelled backwards is Naive. It's the convenience of being able to dispose of the empty water bottles when done and getting a fresh cold bottle when needed. Before someone flames me about mother earth and land fill think about what we purchase in the grocery store now. Everything from soft drinks to household cleaning products comes in a plastic bottle. I don't think the few water bottles that a toss every few years on a cruise is going to matter in the long run. I don't buy into those Brita commercials either.

If you throw it away properly on the ship, Princess recycles...so that helps.

The biggest determinant of noise heard in your cabin is if the people in your adjoining cabin(s) let the door slam each time they go through it. One cruise we had a family next to us that slammed it on average every 3 minutes. Also, for tender ports, the aft cabins near the anchor chain hole (don't know the official term) can be noisy as they drop or pull anchor.

After 22 cruises, best upgrade we have had is outside obstructed to a balcony. We always get lowest category upgrade to higher category, because we always book guarantee (inside or obstructed outside). We will choose outside obstructed instead of inside if the price is no more than $10 per person per day.

We do have an upcoming Alaska cruise in a couple weeks that, when I check unsold cabins, is very undersold, so it would be nice to get a balcony upgrade, but we don't count on it. Especially in Alaska, we would not want a balcony, due to cooler weather and limit on what is viewable from only one side of ship.

I think it's a great deal, as it also includes bottled water. One less thing I have to "lug" on the ship with me. I might have a few more latte's :D

We just "lug" a couple of empty water bottles on board, then fill from the bathroom tap and place in fridge for the next day. Many people don't realize the ship water is actually purer than bottled water.

So, if only one spouse buys the card and buys bottles of wine or champagne, it doesn't matter who shares those bottles. And the bottles can be taken back to the cabin as well (once purchased at a bar or dining room). Seems like a wine drinking couple could come out ahead with that 40% discount if the value of the wine bottles per day is more than about $130. And that is just the wine savings. Add a couple of bloody marys or pina coladas for that one spouse, and you are coming way out ahead. Looks like you really would need to examine your drinking habits first to see if it can be worthwhile. Without the wine savings, we would not save anything. (Am I missing something in my calculation??)

We have taken 5 Princess cruises to Alaska, one was Seattle RT, the other from Anchorage to Vancouver or vice versa. One of these was our honeymoon in 1995. We never get a balcony (though we would take it if upgraded) only because the extra cost is not worth it to us (though it is worth it to many). We like to take in the views from the upper decks. With a balcony, you miss 50% of the view. Yes, it may rain, but we just put up our hoods and smile. We are also "laid back" and do cruises "economically", probably spending much less than the average cruiser. Though if this is your honeymoon, obviously it is not a time to "cut corners" too much (we did helicopter to top of glacier on our honeymoon). Whale watching and the Railroad in Skagway are also must do's. However, for us to afford the 22 cruises we have taken, we save money by usually taking an interior or obstructed outside cabin and 90% of the time arranging our own tours online (avoids larger groups and costs lots less). Our biggest expense is our bar/wine tab. Most ports we just do on our own, walking around and visiting gift shops, etc, unless there are some "must-see" things to do. In Alaska, we have already done all the excursions we want to do, so for our upcoming Alaska cruise we are just walking around the port and going to the local bar where the other tourists go (Red Dog in Juneau and Red Onion in Skagway). Ketchikan is great for walking as well. Our favorite onboard activity is the team trivia twice a day, but not all people like that. If we are not too tired after our second seating dinner (which is never longer than 2 hours, always in the main dining room late seating, and always the highlight of the day for us), we will go to the nightclub area to get a bottle of champagne and dance or watch the dancers (depending on how lively it is). We always go to the comedians or magicians if on board. We have never had a bad cruise! It is what you make it, we feel. And it is not for everyone. Congratulations and may you make some great memories on your honeymoon!:cool:

We have done the 7 day Princess Alaska cruise (no land portion) five times since 1995. One was RT Seattle, the other were either north or south bound between Seward (now Whittier) and Vancouver. It doesn't matter to us which ship it is, they all have the same view....we just choose on price and (before I retired) date. We have always done May or September to get the better prices and avoid lots of kids (I love kids, but not on my alone time as a couple). Your situation sounds like easiest to go RT from Seattle, though those cruise fares may be a little higher. But you will save on airfare and hassle. We are doing a back to back for the first time next month, starting in Vancouver. Hope you have a great time! I never tire of it.

With 20 plus cruises with Princes...my DH always wears a tux on formal night. We are not dressy people at home, but we both enjoy dressing up on formal nights for cruises...

Same with us. Formal night dressing up is a big part of the cruise experience and something we don't do in our ordinary lives. I just wish they would enforce the dress code more than they do. Otherwise, why have a code? The Horizon Court is always open for anyone.