Princess gratuities and Wi-Fi costs

[Drumbeat16]

Can someone please clarify for me if gratuities are charged extra for Australian Princess cruises or included in the base fare? Also I'd really appreciate an example of Wi-Fi charges.

I don't think the Plus package will be worth it for us as my husband is a non-drinker and I mostly drink wine so trying to work out what our extra costs would be.

[Aus Traveller]

35 minutes ago, Drumbeat16 said:

Can someone please clarify for me if gratuities are charged extra for Australian Princess cruises or included in the base fare? Also I'd really appreciate an example of Wi-Fi charges.

I don't think the Plus package will be worth it for us as my husband is a non-drinker and I mostly drink wine so trying to work out what our extra costs would be.

If an Australian or NZ'er books a cruise direct through Princess or with an Aussie TA, the gratuities are included in the fare. You might be offered an option to 'pre-pay gratuities' but this is a standard option available throughout the fleet. Just ignore it.

 

With your husband being a non-drinker, it might not be worth your while to pay for the Plus package. We don't go for it because we only drink around two glasses of wine each and don't spend a lot of time on the internet or email. We also take several bottles of wine on board with us and (hopefully) the usual practice of being allowed to take one bottle each, then being charged $15 per bottle for the rest means we buy very little on board. These bottles of wine are marked with a sticker and can be taken to the dining room without an extra corkage charge.

 

 On the subject of internet and emails, if you have your own laptop and are buying 'minutes', prepare your emails then log on to send. Download incoming mail, then log off before you read it.

Edited March 23, 2022 by Aus Traveller

[Drumbeat16]

7 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

If an Australian or NZ'er books a cruise direct through Princess or with an Aussie TA, the gratuities are included in the fare. You might be offered an option to 'pre-pay gratuities' but this is a standard option available throughout the fleet. Just ignore it.

 

With your husband being a non-drinker, it might not be worth your while to pay for the Plus package. We don't go for it because we only drink around two glasses of wine each and don't spend a lot of time on the internet or email. We also take several bottles of wine on board with us and (hopefully) the usual practice of being allowed to take one bottle each, then being charged $15 per bottle for the rest means we buy very little on board. These bottles of wine are marked with a sticker and can be taken to the dining room without an extra corkage charge.

 

 On the subject of internet and emails, if you have your own laptop and are buying 'minutes', prepare your emails then log on to send. Download incoming mail, then log off before you read it.

Thank you, that's really helpful.

I'm a very heavy Internet user but I'm sure I can restrict myself to mostly using it onshore when available or buy the minimum package.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I think it's $14 per day for the internet package, reduced by 50% if you're Platinum or Elite.

 

As far as the Plus package goes, it's $40 pp per day but if you've cruised with Princess before it's only $30pp per day under the current Three for Free deal. Take off the $14 internet cost and you only have to have $16 of drinks to break even. That's only 2-3 glasses of wine. Lattes are $3.50 or $4.50, the Fusions ices teas are $3.75 (they are great on a hot day), and mocktails are $6.50. On one of the last cruises we did they even had a zero-alcohol beer for $6.75. I'm not sure of the prices of bottled water or sift drinks though. So even for someone who doesn't drink alcohol the Plus package might be cost-effective.

[Drumbeat16]

12 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think it's $14 per day for the internet package, reduced by 50% if you're Platinum or Elite.

 

As far as the Plus package goes, it's $40 pp per day but if you've cruised with Princess before it's only $30pp per day under the current Three for Free deal. Take off the $14 internet cost and you only have to have $16 of drinks to break even. That's only 2-3 glasses of wine. Lattes are $3.50 or $4.50, the Fusions ices teas are $3.75 (they are great on a hot day), and mocktails are $6.50. On one of the last cruises we did they even had a zero-alcohol beer for $6.75. I'm not sure of the prices of bottled water or sift drinks though. So even for someone who doesn't drink alcohol the Plus package might be cost-effective.

It will be our first time with Princess so no extra status. If one person only could purchase Plus I definitely would but my husband is happy to drink tap water and the occasional coffee!

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, Drumbeat16 said:

It will be our first time with Princess so no extra status. If one person only could purchase Plus I definitely would but my husband is happy to drink tap water and the occasional coffee!

You might be able to purchase Plus for one of you and your husband go on the base fare. You can ask. 🙂

[Drumbeat16]

6 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

You might be able to purchase Plus for one of you and your husband go on the base fare. You can ask. 🙂

Yes, your right - no harm in asking.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, Drumbeat16 said:

Yes, your right - no harm in asking.

When the drinks package was sold separately, Princess allowed one pax in a cabin to buy it and did not insist that their partner did also. I think you have a good chance it will be permitted. 🤞

[Drumbeat16]

3 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

When the drinks package was sold separately, Princess allowed one pax in a cabin to buy it and did not insist that their partner did also. I think you have a good chance it will be permitted. 🤞

I have read that all passengers have to have it but I shall ask anyway.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, Drumbeat16 said:

I have read that all passengers have to have it but I shall ask anyway.

I suggest you ask anyway. Let us know how you go.

[rkmw]

2 hours ago, Drumbeat16 said:

I have read that all passengers have to have it but I shall ask anyway.

With 2 people both passengers have to buy the saver fare or the Princess plus fare 

[carlandlyn]

On 3/23/2022 at 7:45 PM, Aus Traveller said:

I suggest you ask anyway. Let us know how you go.

We have the same issue, my wife doesn't drink. So in the past, if I wanted the package, I have rung the company and explained my wife does not drink, and they will sell you a single package. I suspect the same should be in place for Princess. 🤞

[arxcards]

23 minutes ago, carlandlyn said:

We have the same issue, my wife doesn't drink. So in the past, if I wanted the package, I have rung the company and explained my wife does not drink, and they will sell you a single package. I suspect the same should be in place for Princess. 🤞

It still pays to do the maths.

Yes, you can book as value fares and one passenger can purchase the beverage package.

 

Looking at a few itineraries, the Princess Plus fare is approx $40pp extra per night. For that $80 per night twin, you each get wi-fi and a drinks package. The drinks package includes specialty coffees, bottled water & soft drinks as well as the alcoholic drinks.

 

If you book the value fare and purchase the drinks package separately, it costs $87 per night for one person.

Edited April 4, 2022 by arxcards
wrong number

[Aus Traveller]

10 hours ago, carlandlyn said:

We have the same issue, my wife doesn't drink. So in the past, if I wanted the package, I have rung the company and explained my wife does not drink, and they will sell you a single package. I suspect the same should be in place for Princess. 🤞

Even though your wife doesn't drink, she might enjoy a mocktail or specialty coffees. Arxcards has explained the maths very well.

[sewgood]

Doing the maths for us, it would be $60 a day as x 2 $30 for past passengers.

We are able to buy unlimited internet for half price so $7 a day between us for one device. That's all we need.

I don't drink even the mocktails and my husband would have no more than two drinks a night so no more than $30 a day.

We will trade in our mini bar for two coffee cards/packages (whatever it is called these days).

That comes to a total spend of no more than $37 a day.

Therefore for us doing the maths it is not worth taking the plus fare on cruises 10 days or shorter after that we start running out of specialty coffees. 😵

For couples who both drink and like their own internet device it's a bargain.

[Aus Traveller]

4 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Doing the maths for us, it would be $60 a day as x 2 $30 for past passengers.

We are able to buy unlimited internet for half price so $7 a day between us for one device. That's all we need.

I don't drink even the mocktails and my husband would have no more than two drinks a night so no more than $30 a day.

We will trade in our mini bar for two coffee cards/packages (whatever it is called these days).

That comes to a total spend of no more than $37 a day.

Therefore for us doing the maths it is not worth taking the plus fare on cruises 10 days or shorter after that we start running out of specialty coffees. 😵

For couples who both drink and like their own internet device it's a bargain.

I see your reasoning. The Plus package at $80 per day isn't cost-effective for us either. We drink two glasses of wine each and will take our one bottle each plus a few more bottles that we pay the corkage on. I think that is now $20, not $15 as it used to be. We might buy the internet at $7 per day (rather than the free unlimited that we had before).

[OzKiwiJJ]

28 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Doing the maths for us, it would be $60 a day as x 2 $30 for past passengers.

 

It's only $30 under the Three for Free promo. Unfortunately the new June-August itineraries don't come under that promotion so it's $40 for those.

[losfp]

We've never bought the drinks packages as we don't usually drink very much, if at all.

 

However, for our upcoming cruise (Majestic Princess to New Zealand, 3 Jan), I did the maths and we are taking the package. For $30pppn for us, it makes sense. wifi alone would be half of the cost, then we usually have 3-4 soft drinks a day and we have coffees and hot chocolates. On our first cruise back in 2002 we enjoyed trying cocktails of the day, so we will likely give them a go this time.  Normally we would bring on 3-4 cases of canned soft drinks, but this means we won't have to worry about it.

 

Absolutely wouldn't be worthwhile at the normal price of $87 pppn for the drinks package.

[sewgood]

6 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It's only $30 under the Three for Free promo. Unfortunately the new June-August itineraries don't come under that promotion so it's $40 for those.

That's even more reason for us not to take it for our August cruise. 😁

[OzKiwiJJ]

39 minutes ago, sewgood said:

That's even more reason for us not to take it for our August cruise. 😁

Except the fares are for those cruises are cheaper than normal so you'd still save on the deal.

[sewgood]

13 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Except the fares are for those cruises are cheaper than normal so you'd still save on the deal.

You're right, those fares were so cheap that we even booked a suite for the first time on Princess.

Of course it helped that not very much money has been spent from our travel budget in the last two years. 😃

[OzKiwiJJ]

24 minutes ago, sewgood said:

You're right, those fares were so cheap that we even booked a suite for the first time on Princess.

Of course it helped that not very much money has been spent from our travel budget in the last two years. 😃

So did we! Our "return to cruising" treat. 

[arxcards]

It is different for us all. 

If there was no drink package included, we wouldn't be buying it separately either. We have only ever got them as part of an inclusive deal.

 

We also paid less, as ours is a carry over from last years Royal Princess cancellation that was booked in 2020. But for two moderate social drinkers who like a decent morning coffee and a few drinks after dark,  today's pricing is still in our favour.

[valantine80]

Will the coffee cards still be available to purchase separately?

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, valantine80 said:

Will the coffee cards still be available to purchase separately?

Yes but they aren't cards anymore. They'll be connected to your Princess account and you can see how many coffees you have left through the Medallion app. They changed this before the pandemic but, of course, you had to use the Princess@Sea intranet site to check them. 

 

The downside is if you don't use all the coffees on the cruise where you bought the coffee package you lose them.