Elite mini-bar on long cruises

[KevintheIrishDJ]

We booked a 14 day cruise in April; however, it is also sold as 7 day cruises.  It will be interesting to see if we get one or two.  Our stockholder credit is based on a 14 day cruise.

[SargassoPirate]

14 hours ago, Thrak said:

Our last cruise was our first as Elite. I had to hassle them for the mini bar. When they delivered it they said they were out of cognac and vodka so they delivered scotch and gin plus a bunch of beer. GAH!!!

 

Overall our first cruise as Elite had the worst cabin, the worst Steward (BY FAR!!!), the worst Internet service and the worst CD staff (again, BY FAR!!!) we have ever encountered. Oh, yeah, we did try out the laundry service but the steward took my wife's pants and returned a pair of 24" x 29" "Skinny" jeans. Nope, nope, nope. Not her size. Not even close. It took 3 days to get that straightened out. Welcome to your "super snazzy" Elite status. <sigh...>

 

Sorry to hear about your other problems on the cruise, but it seems to me that none of those are actually Elite issues. For example, did the Elite program assign your cabin or did you choose it?  The cabin steward comes with the cabin, not with your Captain's Circle status.  Standard internet service with the free minutes is really no better for Elite than anyone else. Elites get free laundry, but it's not a separate laundry.  Elites do not get their own cruise director, so again not an Elite issue.

 

I think you just had some problems with your cruise.  Look at it this way, it'll be better the next time.

 

[Rudy888]

As has been stated if you book a 28 days cruise and their are segments to the cruise you get a mini bar setup for each segment even though it was book as one cruise. We did the British Isle in September ending in FLL. It could be booked as  one or 2 cruises. We booked as one cruise and got 2 mini-bar setups. Just completed 20 days in the Carribean, booked as one cruise but could be booked as 2 10 day cruises. We received 2 setups.

[memoak]

The crew that staffs the bar setups only knows that a new cruise has started and that an Elite member is booked in the cabin so they will deliver another setup

[jagoffee]

45 minutes ago, memoak said:

The crew that staffs the bar setups only knows that a new cruise has started and that an Elite member is booked in the cabin so they will deliver another setup

There will be some interesting discussion if and when Princess closest that loophole.  

[polmcs]

20 hours ago, Thrak said:

Sadly, Dewar's white label is not good scotch. (Malt if you are from Scotland.). Dewar's 12 is fine with me but the White Label... not so much. It's drinkable but one may want to mix it with something which, to my mind, defeats the purpose of scotch whisky.

And beefeater gin is not good gin and skyy vodka is so-so vodka (don’t drink cognac, so no option on that) and the beers are usually Dos Equis (at least it’s not Bud), so the overall quality of the mini bar is not wonderful. I typically have a PBP whilst onboard and I don’t max out my daily alcohol limit, so I tend to stick to the better stuff that you can get from the bars. I might drink the sparkling water and the other bottled water, but that is about it. I would also drink the mini splits of bubbles, but they have gone by the wayside 😞 I usually end up giving the contents of the mini bar to the room steward at the end of the cruise. I did check that it was OK to do so.  

[Busy Mum]

On 2/26/2020 at 11:34 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

 

I wish they'd put it in the Personalizer.

It would certainly be a great ‘time saver’, for everyone! Don’t know why they haven’t thought of it, would be so easy to do! 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[KevintheIrishDJ]

Can you trade in for Jamenson's (Irish) or Annizette (sp)?

Edited February 28, 2020 by KevintheIrishDJ

[Thrak]

33 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

Can you trade in for Jamenson's (Irish) or Annizette (sp)?

 

No. They only offer specific items. Period.

[jagoffee]

33 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

Can you trade in for Jamenson's (Irish) or Annizette (sp)?

Not in my experience.  Princess only has a small number of small bottle choices.  No rum as well.

[SargassoPirate]

What works for She Who Must Be Obeyed and me is to exchange the mini bar setup for two coffee cards for her and then I order several bottles of spirits, depending on the length of the cruise, before the cruise for delivery to the cabin.  The per-bottle price is reasonable and I am always tickled that Princess offers it. 

[KevintheIrishDJ]

22 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

No. They only offer specific items. Period.

How about all beer?

[Thrak]

5 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

How about all beer?

 

You can't trade the non-alcoholic items for beer but I'm about 99.99999% certain you can trade the liquor for beer. On our last cruise they were out of the vodka and cognac and gave us more beer instead. They gave us Heineken which my wife doesn't like.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Thrak

[MickeyandLV]

Our next cruise (whenever it may be) will be our first cruise as Elite.  Thank you all for the information about the mini-bar set up.  We do not drink alcoholic beverages, so we will be having it all traded for soda and bottled water.  I wish we were able to take care of the trade before we arrive.

[Astro Flyer]

4 minutes ago, MickeyandLV said:

I wish we were able to take care of the trade before we arrive.

That recommendation has been made often on this forum.
 

It would be better to pre-order the elite minibar items through the MedallionClass system. That would reduce crew workload by delivering the minibar one time & would minimize contact between passengers & crew. I’ve made that recommendation & got a form letter emailed reply that it would be passed on to management.

[trvlwrld]

We were on the Crown in Oct 2019..several of us booked it as 2B2B...we got our 2nd set-up on turn around afternoon.  Upon returning from dinner we all found out it had been removed!!!   complained all the way up the chain of command and were told NO..NO...NO...only one set-up if you don’t disembark....really???  That was not the way it was previous to that cruise, but got tired of banging my head against the counter at passenger services so gave up🤬🥴

[taznremmy]

38 minutes ago, MickeyandLV said:

Our next cruise (whenever it may be) will be our first cruise as Elite.  Thank you all for the information about the mini-bar set up.  We do not drink alcoholic beverages, so we will be having it all traded for soda and bottled water. 

FYI, you used to be able to exchange it for 2 specialty coffee perks, if you are into the fancy coffees and teas.  They used to issue two cards, 15 drinks per card.  Now they load it onto your  room key  Check with the Captain's Circle desk when you get on board.

[trbarton]

I’m aware that this won’t help for now but on my next cruise I’ll photograph the elite offerings plus the card that shows the options plus prices & post what I have. Perhaps someone might have both. 
 

Tom😀

Edited January 2, 2021 by trbarton

[Astro Flyer]

52 minutes ago, taznremmy said:

FYI, you used to be able to exchange it for 2 specialty coffee perks, if you are into the fancy coffees and teas.  They used to issue two cards, 15 drinks per card.  Now they load it onto your  room key  Check with the Captain's Circle desk when you get on board.

I’ve done that several times & most recently on the Sky a year ago. I just called room service who quickly added it to our Medallion account & they removed our minibar.

 

On a B2B cruise we’ve been allowed to use the coffee program on both cruises. ☕️

Edited January 2, 2021 by Astro Flyer

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

That recommendation has been made often on this forum.
 

It would be better to pre-order the elite minibar items through the MedallionClass system. That would reduce crew workload by delivering the minibar one time & would minimize contact between passengers & crew. I’ve made that recommendation & got a form letter emailed reply that it would be passed on to management.

 

I am not sure that would reduce the crew workload.

 

It is extremely efficient to deliver the same thing to 500+ cabins. Having to to figure out for each cabin what should be delivered can greatly increase the amount of work required.

 

I am assuming that only a small percentage of recipients actually call to have items exchanged.

 

On the other hand, being able to say in advance you want the coffee "card" option could reduce the workload.

[skynight]

Mini Bars are pre shrink wrapped and delivered in bulk by room service. It's probably easier to make exchanges then to try to pre sort and mark 300 to 700 cabin deliveries. 

On b2b's we have been able to call room service the day before disembarkation day to change to coffee packages which are loaded onto our accounts on embarkation day.

For over 10 years we have been booking two, three, four cruises b2b. On turn around day we always received a new mini bar. Never experienced what is posted in post #41. 

 

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

For over 10 years we have been booking two, three, four cruises b2b. On turn around day we always received a new mini bar. Never experienced what is posted in post #41. 

Same here.

[Jadn13]

On 2/27/2020 at 8:58 AM, KevintheIrishDJ said:

We booked a 14 day cruise in April; however, it is also sold as 7 day cruises.  It will be interesting to see if we get one or two.  Our stockholder credit is based on a 14 day cruise.

Normally in order to get the benefits you would need to book it as 2. We often book longer as separate   to get the benefits on each portion. 

[Astro Flyer]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

I am not sure that would reduce the crew workload.

 

It is extremely efficient to deliver the same thing to 500+ cabins. Having to to figure out for each cabin what should be delivered can greatly increase the amount of work required.

 

I am assuming that only a small percentage of recipients actually call to have items exchanged.

 

On the other hand, being able to say in advance you want the coffee "card" option could reduce the workload.

Both of us can only speculate about which way would be more efficient because neither of us know the percentage to definitively know which is the most efficient procedure.

 

I always exchange the contents of our minibar & everyone I know does the same thing. Thus I’m presuming that a high percentage of passengers make exchanges that require 2 trips to 500+ cabins.
 

Although if the majority of passengers don’t make exchanges then your assumption would apply.

 

On B2B cruises I call room service the day before the current cruise ends to provide my preference for the next cruise...10 beers & 10 Diet Cokes or to add a coffee program to our accounts.

 

 

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Jadn13 said:

Normally in order to get the benefits you would need to book it as 2. We often book longer as separate   to get the benefits on each portion. 

It appears that you’re replying to Kevin’s question about minibars. It’s been my experience every time that the number of minibars is based on the number of shorter cruises included within a single longer booking. Our most recent experience was on the Sky in November 2019...booked as 28 days but received 3 minibars & 3 cruise credits because it could be booked as 7/7/14 days.

 

Shareholder OBC is based on how a cruise is booked so our 28 day cruise received one $250 OBC. Like others we crunch the numbers to decide how to book to get our best net price.

Edited January 2, 2021 by Astro Flyer