Best Sale Ever - am I thinking about it the right way?

[Baby_Bear]

Happy holidays to everyone! We are thinking about a Caribbean cruise in May on Caribbean Princess.  I was wondering if the Princess experts could help me with some questions:

 

1) The BSE promotion works out to $280 pp or $40 pp/pd for a 7-day cruise.  I was thinking that of the $40, $15.50 would be gratuities daily (mini-suite) and the internet would be around $8.50/day (comparing it to the pre cruise cost of $60). So that means the drinks package is effectively $16/day.  We usually drink no more than one adult beverage (cocktail/wine) per day each, but do like a fresh glass of OJ in the mornings and probably a couple of specialty coffees per day, so I figured we would still come out slightly ahead if we took the BSE promo.  Is this correct in your view?  I figured the juice and coffees would run $3-5 each.  

 

2) If we decided to pay as you go for drinks and pre-paid our gratuities and internet, do you think we could share one $60 net package across 2 devices?  It"ll be me and my mom on the cruise.  We would be using it for the usual stuff like social media posts, emails, etc. As long as one device is logged in at a time, its fine if we share that, right?  The cruise we are thinking about has 2 full sea days and access to fast internet is a definite nice-to-have.

 

3) Finally - it has been over 2 years since we were last on Princess - any key changes we have missed?  Besides the Ocean Medallion which looks like a great innovation, that is.

 

Thanks!  Looking forward to returning to Princess.  We were on the Carnival Horizon last year and while it was a great experience to sail out of our home port of NYC, the cruise experience itself was.....lets just say, we plan to stick to Princess for now!

[kywildcatfanone]

We had a Sky Princess cruise booked for March 28th 2020 (just off the Sky from 2 weeks yesterday).  We decided to cancel that booking and move to the Regal a couple of weeks later.  The Sky cruise had free gratuities, but the Regal cruise does not.  The price for an interior room on the Regal with BSE was $879, and $549 with no promo.  That's $350/pp difference, so $700 for 2 people.  If you are a big drinker and would buy the drink package, then it make sense, but for us, we don't drink at all, the value of the package  is not that useful, as I can pay for the gratuities and wifi and still save over $100/pp. 

 

You do have to run the numbers and see what makes sense for your personal habits.  

[skynight]

Basically gratuities use up $15.50 of the $40 leaving $24.50 balance. 2 drinks/day plus some coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages will cover the cost of the $24.50. The internet becomes free and anything above the 2 drinks plus coffee is also free. Not all Princess ships have fresh OJ. I don't remember it on the Caribbean.

[Hlitner]

I will not go into the complex math, but we had two Princess bookings (16 day and 28 day) that were booked at pretty decent prices (without many perks).   I sent an e-mail to our trusty cruise agent and ask her to explore what it would cost to reprice our current bookings with the BPE perks.  Within a day she was back to me with the pricing and her own analysis.  After making all the math adjustments I realized that we would be getting the unlimited Internet plus Drink package for about $25 per person/day.  The Internet package is not very important to us because we get lots of free minutes (about 1000) on any long cruise.  But getting unlimited Internet and essentially unlimited drinks for $25 per person/day is a terrific deal (for us).  The drink package alone has a value of about $40 per person/day based upon on own drink habits.  

 

I suspect the BPE package is a good deal for just about anyone who indulges in adult beverages.  Otherwise, perhaps not!

 

Hank

[azbirdmom]

1) Would a coffee card cover the amount of specialty beverages you would drink for the week?  If so, use that in your calculation instead of the individual price of the coffee drinks.

 

2) Yes, two people can share one internet package.  You would use the same log in and password on each device.  When someone logs in on their device, it automatically logs the other person off.  As long as it is acceptable that both of you can't be on line at the same time, this should work for you.

 

3)  I think the changes around the pool and food venues have changed on the Caribbean Princess in the past two years.  Also the biggest change is Ocean Medallion as you have mentioned.  The best thing about OM to us is being able to find your traveling partner on the ship by using your Smartphone.  Note: you would have to log in under your own ID to do this so if this is any important feature to you, factor having to log in / log out as needed to make both this function and sharing the internet to work.

[Ombud]

It might not be worth it for me. 

$40 day

- 14.50 gratuities 

- 0 ..... trading minibar for coffee card

- 0 ..... I get 250 minutes which is plenty

$25.50 for 1 glass wine MAX

 

less next 2 cruises since I'm carrying on & paying $15 -$45 corkage (1 cruise is 18 days + Sydney Au)

 

[Married15]

We are booked on a 10 day in the fall. I already had free wifi, however to add the drinks and gratutity would be an extra $300pp or $600 total. I figured gratuities would be approx $300, so for $150pp or $15 per day, we would have unlimited coffee, water, juices and cocktails. We went for it. Not saying that if another promo comes along where I will save a bundle, I won't switch, but for now I am happy. Kept all of my perks from the Anniversary sale as well.

[rocklinmom]

Also check the specifics of the BSE promo with your particular cruise. On our cruise in June it is now showing $100pp OBC in addition to the other BSE perks. It only shows for minisuites so I'm guessing that the other available cabin categories are at their max capacity for this promo. So I would check the cruise you are interested in and look at the listed BSE perks for all cabin categories. 

[memoak]

40 minutes ago, Ombud said:

It might not be worth it for me. 

$40 day

- 14.50 gratuities 

- 0 ..... trading minibar for coffee card

- 0 ..... I get 250 minutes which is plenty

$25.50 for 1 glass wine MAX

 

less next 2 cruises since I'm carrying on & paying $15 -$45 corkage (1 cruise is 18 days + Sydney Au)

 

This promo is not targeted to non drinkers. 

[voljeep]

my drink package is $15.50 pd under BEST2DG after allowing 14.50 for the grats

my wife's package is $ .50 pd since this is booked under the Getaway promo and the 2nd person is 50% off (BSE added to fare)

 

pretty sure we'll get our monies worth from that … and while we could have added unlimited internet 10 + 5 $ 15/day, we'll either just use our 'free' 150 each or maybe upgrade the first day for 1 of us

[lbfluffy]

1 hour ago, Married15 said:

We are booked on a 10 day in the fall. I already had free wifi, however to add the drinks and gratutity would be an extra $300pp or $600 total. I figured gratuities would be approx $300, so for $150pp or $15 per day, we would have unlimited coffee, water, juices and cocktails. We went for it. Not saying that if another promo comes along where I will save a bundle, I won't switch, but for now I am happy. Kept all of my perks from the Anniversary sale as well.

We did not get our anniversary perks, but price was lower with best cruise ever sale. The agent gave us a coupon book as well. 

[hapster85]

The price for an interior room on the Regal with BSE was $879, and $549 with no promo.    

How are you seeing prices with and without the promo? When we booked our 2021 Alaskan cruisetour yesterday, and again just now, I didn't see any way to look at price with and without. But I certainly could have missed it. This was on the Princess website.

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[emairs]

We booked a Sept. 2020 TA on Sky Princess  (S3 suite) in March/19. No perks were included at the time.

In June, we took advantage of a sip n sale promotion, and the price had come down by $484. cdn.

Last week, we found out about the BSE promotion and were able to add the gratuities and wifi, including an additional price reduction of $2,892 cdn for the two of us!

it pays to keep checking!

[candydane]

Does the unlimited drink package include the gratuities or is that an additional cost (like NCL charges)?

[CanICruiseSoonPlease]

I am still on the fence as a solo.  $898 without perks or $1298 with the BSE.  If I factor in the tips at $101.50 and unlimited internet at about $54.  Would spending $250 for the drink package be worth it (not a huge drinker). I trade my mini bar for coffee pkg, so I would not be using the drink pkg for coffee. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by CanICruiseSoonPlease

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, candydane said:

Does the unlimited drink package include the gratuities or is that an additional cost (like NCL charges)?

included in price

[sun&sea]

2 minutes ago, candydane said:

Does the unlimited drink package include the gratuities or is that an additional cost (like NCL charges)?

They are included!

[Cruise Raider]

7 hours ago, Baby_Bear said:

Happy holidays to everyone! We are thinking about a Caribbean cruise in May on Caribbean Princess.  I was wondering if the Princess experts could help me with some questions:

 

1) The BSE promotion works out to $280 pp or $40 pp/pd for a 7-day cruise.  I was thinking that of the $40, $15.50 would be gratuities daily (mini-suite) and the internet would be around $8.50/day (comparing it to the pre cruise cost of $60). So that means the drinks package is effectively $16/day.  We usually drink no more than one adult beverage (cocktail/wine) per day each, but do like a fresh glass of OJ in the mornings and probably a couple of specialty coffees per day, so I figured we would still come out slightly ahead if we took the BSE promo.  Is this correct in your view?  I figured the juice and coffees would run $3-5 each.  

 

2) If we decided to pay as you go for drinks and pre-paid our gratuities and internet, do you think we could share one $60 net package across 2 devices?  It"ll be me and my mom on the cruise.  We would be using it for the usual stuff like social media posts, emails, etc. As long as one device is logged in at a time, its fine if we share that, right?  The cruise we are thinking about has 2 full sea days and access to fast internet is a definite nice-to-have.

 

 

 

So, I was informed it works a little differently than that from my travel agent.  If you already booked, you can add the extra three perks on for the additional charge of $40 a day per person under your previous promotion.  If you haven't booked yet (and it sounds like you haven't), you will book outright under this promotion and probably realize a bit of savings on top of that, as well. You would not book the bare fare plus the $40 per day pp.  

I don't think they've ever had a better sale than this one ... but, we do imbibe more than you, so that would have to be a consideration for you.  

 

As far as the alcohol, one glass of wine (approx $9 to $15 a glass) and specialty coffee is anywhere from $3 to $5 per cup.  I don't know about the fresh squeezed OJ ... do they have that?  Not something I can answer but you can get OJ for no charge at the buffet or via room service.  

If the gratuities increase between now and your cruise, you will be covered.  I only mention this as Celebrity just announced they are raising their gratuities and usually the other lines follow suit shortly afterwards.    

I still think you would be ahead if you just book the cruise under the BEST EVER SALE promotion.  

 

[kywildcatfanone]

1 hour ago, hapster85 said:

How are you seeing prices with and without the promo? When we booked our 2021 Alaskan cruisetour yesterday, and again just now, I didn't see any way to look at price with and without. But I certainly could have missed it. This was on the Princess website.

If the sailing you are looking at has the promo, it should show you two prices when you make your selection.

 

[kywildcatfanone]

33 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

If you already have a coffee package and you're not a huge drinker, apart from spending $7.08 to have a dozen bottles of water set up in your cabin, I'm not sure what else you would need.  It seems like a clear cut case of pay as you go as it doesn't sound at all like you would be utilizing enough of it to make it worthwhile. 

This is how I viewed it as well.  If you aren't a big drinker, it's not a better deal.

33 minutes ago, CarelessAndConfused said:

I personally think the cruise lines give so much of the premium beverage packages because it costs them so little but they bill it as a $80 per day per person benefit when in reality I'd be shocked if most people got more that $20-25 or so worth of benefit out of it.

The cruise lines are making a lot of money on alcohol sales, wifi, anything they charge additional for really.  Truth be told, they probably make all or most of their profit from suite sales, drink and alcohol sales, and wifi. 

[hapster85]

If the sailing you are looking at has the promo, it should show you two prices when you make your selection.
 

Just checked again. Oddly enough, if I only look at an Alaskan cruise, it gives 2 price options, just as you indicated. But if I look at an Alaskan cruisetour, it doesn't. I went all the way through to the payment page. A pop-up with the promo details came up at one point, but the only option was to click "Ok". At the end, you can click a link to see included promos.

So I guess it's a good time to book an Alaskan cruisetour?

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[Baby_Bear]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Lots of great information. I am definitely inclined towards booking under the BSE as it just means no hidden expenses when we board. Being covered in case of any subsequent increase in gratuities is important as well. 

[bugsy43]

On 12/29/2019 at 12:26 PM, Ombud said:

It might not be worth it for me. 

$40 day

- 14.50 gratuities 

- 0 ..... trading minibar for coffee card

- 0 ..... I get 250 minutes which is plenty

$25.50 for 1 glass wine MAX

 

less next 2 cruises since I'm carrying on & paying $15 -$45 corkage (1 cruise is 18 days + Sydney Au)

 

Do you drink anything else like soda, bottled water (especially when in ports)?

 

maybe you could try a new wine or dare I say go nuts and have 2 glasses or really mix it up and have a frozen, fruity drink (even virgin if you want). 
 

We don’t drink much at all either but we did the same calculation and decided that just being able to have as much as we wanted if we did feel daring one day and to try different things we otherwise might not. 
 

 

[Ombud]

I don't like soda ... never have. I think it's the sugary effervesents. And I use my own water bottle. I also get 250 internet minutes and 2 coffee pkgs as perks. That said, I did get the BSE pkg on my TA because it was listed at the same price as the best price fare. Glitch in system? For some of us it doesn't make financial sense. I'm just saying to price it out to see if it works. Now if they included $10 per day casino instead of either internet or alcohol I'M IN!!

[bugsy43]

On 12/30/2019 at 10:35 PM, Ombud said:

I don't like soda ... never have. I think it's the sugary effervesents. And I use my own water bottle. I also get 250 internet minutes and 2 coffee pkgs as perks. That said, I did get the BSE pkg on my TA because it was listed at the same price as the best price fare. Glitch in system? For some of us it doesn't make financial sense. I'm just saying to price it out to see if it works. Now if they included $10 per day casino instead of either internet or alcohol I'M IN!!

LOL!