Pre-purchase liquor??

[Need-a-vacation]

I have read several comments indicating you can pre-order alcohol for your cabin at prices comparable to buying on-shore and not have to worry about carrying it on, getting caught, etc. But when I go to the "Gifts" section on the princess site, I see liquor/mixer packages, but the prices are WAY more than on shore. For example, a 375mL bottle of white rum and 3 cans of coke for $17. Maybe booze is just cheap here, but I'd normally pay < $15 for a 750mL bottle of Bacardi and $1 or so for 2L bottles of coke. So buying this through princess is at least double what I'd pay off ship. Am I simply looking at the wrong place on the web site??? Or is my definition of "comparable" too narrow?

 

And is $34 for a bottle of Beringer Chardonnay a good price anywhere? I'm pretty sure it's < $10 at the store.

 

Thanks!

[Decoydonna]

When I went to Alaska during July I pre-paid for a litre of Bacardi Rum. It was list on their website. I'm sailing in January and noticed they only have the drink mixes and wine/champ. I remember a previous post saying that you can call and order liquor over the phone. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know.

[RBCal]

I recommend against pre-ordering liquor. I did this and didn't receive it until the day after we sailed.

You can order the same liquor directly from room service when you are on the ship at the identical price and you won't have to wait an extra day to receive it.

[many cruises]

We have pre-ordered a bottle of Vodka for our room every time we have sailed on Princess. I believe I paid about $22.00 for Schmirnoffs. I just call 1 800 PRINCESS & tell them I want to order Vodka for my cruise & they take my information & charge card info. It is charged immediately to my charge card & they have always delivered it to my room on the first day. We never had any problems.:):):)

[Host CJSKIDS]

We've also never had any problems and neither have any of our friends. On one of our cruises both bottle of liquor were waiting for us in our stateroom and on our last cruise it was there within a short time of being onboard.

[Need-a-vacation]

I found the instructions to the form in another thread.

 

http://www.princess.com/answer/Celebrations_Order_Form.pdf

 

Are they actual 1L bottles, or the tradition 750's you normally buy at the grocery?

[pegathaw]

I agree that the prices are higher but I guess I'd rather pay for the convenience of having it waiting in my room than attempting to smuggle it on board. I faxed my order last week and then called today to confirm that they received it and the kind gentlemen said they had! We sail on the Sapphire on 12/24 so I'll let you know when we return if it worked! I'm planning on carrying on a few bottles of wine though...

[cynbar]

We have also ordered bottles from room service and it has arrived quickly, usually in just a few minutes. The prices have always been less than what we pay here in Massachusetts, also. The only negative I can think of is that they don't carry all the brands, but they seem to have a choice of each kind of liquor.

[A Sixth?]

I ordered a few bottles of rum for our ten day and it was charged to my VISA right away. I've haven't sailed Princess yet, this ten day'r will be my first, but did the same on NCL and the booze was there in our cabin when we got there.

 

I think the Princess girl said we'd have to take a 'coupon' to get our bottles.... anyone know if the bottles ordered before the cruise are left in your cabin or not?

 

BTW The litre bottles that we ordered aren't too much more through Princess than we'd be able to buy it here in Montreal for

[RBCal]

When I sailed the Sapphire a month ago they sent a voucher for the liquor. You then called room service to have the liquor delivered and gave them the voucher.

 

Can someone please tell me what the advantage of this is? You pay for the liquor a month before you sail, and you then call room service for the delivery once you are on the ship. Thus it takes longer and you pay more for it (since you don't get the interest off the money from a month ago).

[chrysalis]

This was posted on any front page thread.....

 

"I just called Princess at about 1:00PM Pacific, trying to order liquor for our cabin. After another long hold time the girl got on and said that the computer server system just switched over and they were no longer offering liquor for stateroom consumption other than the mixer packages. I replied that I knew of someone who ordered liquor on the 14th of December and she said that yes, they had just changed the system over the weekend. Who knows if anybody over at Princess really knows what is going on.:rolleyes: "

[cherylandtk]

Can someone please tell me what the advantage of this is? You pay for the liquor a month before you sail, and you then call room service for the delivery once you are on the ship.

Apparently, they used to just place the bottles in the room, which was nice to have when you first boarded. But a few not-so-nice passengers hid the bottle and then claimed it was never delivered, and demanded, and got, a 'replacement'. With the voucher system they have your signature acknowledging receipt. There is no longer much of an advantage to the passenger to pre-order so go ahead and just order it from room service once you are on the ship. The only risk (slight) is that they might run out of the available stock, and if you pre-order they will have enough bottles stocked in case everyone decides they all want the same thing.

[senior lady]

interest on a $20.00 bottle of liquor?? Pleeeeeeeeeeese:rolleyes: It's more for convenience and I think the reg bottles are litre size.

[critterchick]

I was looking on the Princess website and noticed that they no longer list the full bottles of liquor, so the person you spoke with may actually have known what she was talking about. It will be interesting to see if you can buy it onboard or whether they've just done away with selling full bottles altogether.

[zydecocruiser]

I ordered a liter of JW Black a week or so ago for $40. Not a horrible price but certainly not duty free. Beats the heck out of NCL where they charge $55 + $3 for the same item.

 

If you cruise from Tejas on a Sunday - and perhpas other parts - they won't deliver until after you are in internerational waters due to some strange state laws.

 

You can still find the order form on their website...

http://www.princess.com/answer/Celebrations_Order_Form.pdf

[cactusrose]

You can just call room service and order a bottle after you board. We have always done this and it's delivered promptly. I hope they haven't done away with the ability to order a full litre as they will just be promoting more people smuggling liquor on board.

[KreinKrunker]

Called yesterday about 5:00 pm EST to order liquor. Was told that you could no longer order before sailing, but you could order once you were on board. A friend ordered over the phone last week. For those that can't find the listing, it is on the website, but not very easy to find. Prices for a liter are a little more than what we pay for 750 ml bottles here.

[hot cookie]

I've found that pre-ordering liquor beforehand was a great way to "save" space in your suitcase. The NCL cruise we took in Sept. was soooo much more expensive (liquor-wise) than Princess..... I took 3 bottles on board the NCL cruise - actually tried to buy the stuff from NCL, but because of their poorly trained staff, was told they could not deliver any alcohol to our cabin beforehand!! :eek: ) And the best part was.....it would have cost me $55 + per bottle!!! Ok, thanks, NCL, for saving me some money!

 

Princess, on the other hand - made it extremely convenient for me to preorder booze beforehand......at less than $25 per bottle!!!! - much similar to what I'd actually pay at home! There's no sense bringing alcohol along with you when you can buy it reasonally priced on board.

[Grego]

So what is the current policy with Princess?

 

Can you order ahead of time, full bottles, to be delivered to your cabin once underway? Does this also apply to voyages in the Mediterranean?

 

Does the other policy still exist where you can order full bottles from room service?

 

Seems to be some confusion on this thread as to what is actually the policy. I would hate to see Princess go to a strict policy of purchases by the glass.

[jbrambach]

I would also not like to see Princess do way with pre-prchasing liquor and/or ordering from the room service menu. We always order a bottle of Grey Goose to our room for a cocktail in the evening. We also were able to pre-order for our upcoming Jan 06 cruise, guess we got in before they made the change. But it doesn't make sense for them to do away with this service b/c as others have stated it will lead to more smuggling and in turn a loss in revenue.

[ptptpt]

Here's a hint. If they don't have your brand offered for room service, walk down to a bar and purchase the bottle there. I did this on my last cruise and remember that the price was reasonable.

[seattlecruisers]

Agree. We bought a bottle of vodka and some cans of tonic last week on CB and it worked great. We bought it at the Lobby Bar and they were most helpful. My husband commented that the price was way cheaper than in WA state and oh so much more convenient. Hope that helps.