Premier Beverage Plan - Rehashed

[dreaminofcruisin]

I think it will be really interesting to see how well this goes over for Princess.

Just from reading posts it seems there a lot of people (like us) who REALLY like Princess Plus and though I don't like the increase in price, I can 'probably' still cost justify it.

 

Then it seems like there are a lot of people who went with Princess Plus at the old price, but were just going to try it out and see if they can justify it. This also might include those who don't drink or only drink very lightly. For them, the price increase might be too much. 

 

I guess there are a few who would go for the Premier plan, but I think Princess got so excited about the number of people who found value in the Plus plan, that they wanted to add another option. I can't cost justify it. Like others, don't need photos, rarely do specialty dining and think the contests are very strangely designed (even if I had any interest which I really don't). Maybe this would be a good 'sale' option for Princess? Buy Plus, but get Premier during the Sale!

 

Anyway....it will be interesting...

My biggest fear is them degrading the value of the Plus plan in the process. As both a customer and stockholder, I think that would not be a good thing.... ☹️

 

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

Then it seems like there are a lot of people who went with Princess Plus at the old price, but were just going to try it out and see if they can justify it. This also might include those who don't drink or only drink very lightly. For them, the price increase might be too much. 

I think that there are a lot of people like me who bought their first Plus Fare during the Best Sale Ever and who haven’t even had a chance to try it out yet. Our first post-pause cruise isn’t until October. I think it is odd that they are changing up the program and perhaps devaluing it before people have even had a chance to give it a try. There is no way that I am going to bump up to the Premier Package until I have field tested the Plus Package to see how it fares (pun intended). My guess is that I won’t miss the photos, the lottery or the extra specialty dining, and that 70% of the time I will be satisfied with the $12 and under drinks. The other 30% of the time I will opt for higher quality wines by the glass and pay the overage. If my math is correct, I will come out better keeping Plus and paying $10 or so more each day for upgraded wine. But I won’t know until I try. 

[Thrak]

Why was I not surprised to find that, with the introduction of the new Premier plan, Princess Plus has gone from an extra $40 a day up to an extra $50 a day. I blame John Padgett. I totally blame John Padgett. He is a marketing puke through and through.

[Steelers36]

19 hours ago, cruzin4us said:

Now that Princess has officially posted the Premier Beverage Plan, I thought I'd mention one of the things a lot of us were concerned about.   

 

If you have the PLUS Package which limits your beverages to $12 and you order a drink for $14, you will ONLY pay the difference of $2.00 plus the 18% gratuity.

 

You must purchase any of the beverage packages within 4 days of sailing or you are SOL.....you can't purchase them 3 days before or on the ship

 

I'm also posting a picture of the price difference for a 16 day Iceland/Greenland cruise (standard balcony) so you can see the price difference and determine if it would me worth it.   I found it odd how they just reworded the packages and didn't put them in the same chronological order so you could do a comparison.    Bottom line, you are getting drinks up to $18, Wifi for up to 4 devices, Photo Pkg and a chance to win a prize.     The coffee & sodas are included in both packages.

 

Let the discussion begin

 

 

 

 

This set of fares does not fully compute in my mind.  I have not been shopping fares since the changeover, so IDK if this is an outlier or not.

 

The fare difference from Standard to Plus is $800 - $50/day which is correct.

 

The fare difference from Plus to Premier is $650 - >$40/day which is wrong as it is supposed to be a $25 upcharge, or $75 over the Standard.  This is >$90 over, so Princess is doing a nasty here for sure.  Or they have a fare error in the system (which I have seen a number of times in the past).

 

No one is going to be booking Premier if this is typical of other cruise fares.

 

[latebloomer56]

We got a good deal when we booked. Hubby doesn't drink but likes his soda so we would get him a package, I do drink but never bothered with a drink package as only have 1 or 2 a day, but I do like my lattes so would get a coffee card. Throw in the DSC for a mini plus water and it is a bargain for us without the other items in this premium package.

I do have a question though. We already get the platinum specialty dinning will we now have additional dinning? We are on a 15 day in Oct. would normally purchase an additional specialty dinner. If we get this plus our platinum no extra purchases for these.

Thanks

[stjohncruisers]

Has anyone seen a list of what spirits make up the Premier drink package? I was extremely satisfied with what was offered in the Plus package.

[tonit964]

24 minutes ago, stjohncruisers said:

Has anyone seen a list of what spirits make up the Premier drink package? I was extremely satisfied with what was offered in the Plus package.

This is what I'm waiting to see as well. I have a feeling that instead of raising the prices of the drinks, they will just move most of the brands to Premium and leave the bottom shelf ones for Plus, in hopes more people will upgrade.

I suppose we won't know until it actually rolls out and someone can post.

[JimmyVWine]

28 minutes ago, stjohncruisers said:

Has anyone seen a list of what spirits make up the Premier drink package? I was extremely satisfied with what was offered in the Plus package.

I doubt that we will see anything much before June 25, and the most important information will be forthcoming from people onboard ships on that date, many of whom will be quick to tell us either not to panic as our old favorites are still included within the Plus Plan, or to get out the torches and pitchforks because all the good stuff is now $12.01-$18.00.

[roxievegas]

We are have a B2B scheduled for September.  Two 10 day trips

 

cruise one - no princess plus - we had it on the booking, then cancelled it.  Saved $800 total.  We will have to pay out of pocket for the gratuity, but we have $500 OBC.  We will use the internet everyday when we get off the ship - we do not drink alcohol at home, hubby will get a diet soda when needed.

 

cruise two - offer came with the princess plus, so we will have it.  

 

We did a 28 day LA round trip to Tahiti with no princess plus package.  We survived just fine.

[memoak]

2 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

We got a good deal when we booked. Hubby doesn't drink but likes his soda so we would get him a package, I do drink but never bothered with a drink package as only have 1 or 2 a day, but I do like my lattes so would get a coffee card. Throw in the DSC for a mini plus water and it is a bargain for us without the other items in this premium package.

I do have a question though. We already get the platinum specialty dinning will we now have additional dinning? We are on a 15 day in Oct. would normally purchase an additional specialty dinner. If we get this plus our platinum no extra purchases for these.

Thanks

As far as I know there is no such thing as a “platinum” specialty dining. Full suites get a specialty dining on embarkation night and some sales included a specialty dining but there is no special dining based on loyalty status

[JerseyGirlatHeart]

On a 14 Day in January with Plus--drinks/wifi/tips/OBC, called for curiosity on price to upgrade to Premium ... $350 per person, for total of $700.  IMO this is way too much for what you get.  

Edited May 26, 2022 by JerseyGirlatHeart

[Steelers36]

37 minutes ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said:

On a 14 Day in January with Plus--drinks/wifi/tips/OBC, called for curiosity on price to upgrade to Premium ... $350 per person, for total of $700.  IMO this is way too much for what you get.  

There should have been no need to call in.  Princess is clearly stating folks who are already on PLUS Fare can upgrade to PREMIER Fare for $25/pp/day (which is the upcharge difference in pricing for the two promotions).

[MommyOTwins]

21 hours ago, BettyCruiser said:

 

Paying the per drink difference could add up to more than the per day difference between packages. 

Well but remember the top tier package goes up to $18, and the plus is $12, so even if every drink you had is $18 or more, the maximum benefit of the premier package over the plus package $6 per drink. With a $25 price difference between packages, that means 5 drinks a day have to be $18 or over for you to see savings based on drinks alone. Unless princess really ratchets up drink prices (the million dollar question), most drinks are not priced high enough for that to happen.

[jagoffee]

47 minutes ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said:

On a 14 Day in January with Plus--drinks/wifi/tips/OBC, called for curiosity on price to upgrade to Premium ... $350 per person, for total of $700.  IMO this is way too much for what you get.  

Yep, $25 a day per person.  
 

I wish it was lower and just included the drink package.  It wonder how much value people will place on a four device package, two speciality restaurant fees, and the raffle tickets/prizes.  
I could see some value in two devices, but who needs four per person?

 

i would most likely pay $10-15 a day for the upgraded drink package.

Edited May 26, 2022 by jagoffee

[voljeep]

16 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

There should have been no need to call in.  Princess is clearly stating folks who are already on PLUS Fare can upgrade to PREMIER Fare for $25/pp/day (which is the upcharge difference in pricing for the two promotions).

how long do I have to decide if we want to upgrade to Premier from an existing Plus package cruise?

[pris993]

22 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Well, to be fair, (and I say this as someone who NEVER gets suckered in to upcharges), at $40 pp/pd, the Plus Package when bundled with the Plus Fare that includes wi-fi and gratuities was a no-brainer for anyone who consumes even the most modest amount of specialty coffees and alcohol.  It was really hard to come out on the wrong side of that price equation. A cocktail either before or after dinner and a glass of wine with dinner and you were at the break even point. At $50 pp/pd, you have to add an average of one and a third drinks per day to that tally, more or less, to get to the same value level.  So at the current price, people still need to do the math.  

No extra charge for water, special coffees, wine, beer, cocktails, wifi, or tips daily does add up on a cruise.   With tips one glass of wine can be $15, plus tips on a mini suite cabin nearly cover the cost of the plus package.  The math does add up to be a good value plus the freedom to have as much or little as you want.     

[BettyCruiser]

54 minutes ago, MommyOTwins said:

Well but remember the top tier package goes up to $18, and the plus is $12, so even if every drink you had is $18 or more, the maximum benefit of the premier package over the plus package $6 per drink. With a $25 price difference between packages, that means 5 drinks a day have to be $18 or over for you to see savings based on drinks alone. Unless princess really ratchets up drink prices (the million dollar question), most drinks are not priced high enough for that to happen.

We're martini drinkers. In December on Regal the best we could get on the Plus pkg was Tito's which to me is more of a mixing vodka not a martini vodka. I have upgraded our next cruise and hope we can get Belvedere or Stoli Elite for martinis within the upgraded pkg. Along with access to nicer wines without an upcharge and no more nickel and diming at Bellini's. 

 

And remember the upcharge is the difference plus gratuity. 

[suekel]

12 minutes ago, BettyCruiser said:

We're martini drinkers. In December on Regal the best we could get on the Plus pkg was Tito's which to me is more of a mixing vodka not a martini vodka. I have upgraded our next cruise and hope we can get Belvedere or Stoli Elite for martinis within the upgraded pkg. Along with access to nicer wines without an upcharge and no more nickel and diming at Bellini's. 

 

And remember the upcharge is the difference plus gratuity. 

Really?  I could get Gray Goose, Ketel One, Chopin and Absolut Elyx.  

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, suekel said:

Really?  I could get Gray Goose, Ketel One, Chopin and Absolut Elyx.  

Same here just off the Majestic and my wife’s martini was with Grey Goose and my Manhattan was with Buffalo Trace and all were included in the plus package

[lx200gps]

3 hours ago, stjohncruisers said:

Has anyone seen a list of what spirits make up the Premier drink package? I was extremely satisfied with what was offered in the Plus package.

I did manage to find a website that claims to post up-to-date Princess bar menus, good as at May 4, 2022. Looks pretty comprehensive, and shows that there is currently very little over the magic $12, though these posted prices may soon rise with the new Premier tier

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-bar-and-drink-menus-2022/

[memoak]

1 minute ago, lx200gps said:

I did manage to find a website that claims to post up-to-date Princess bar menus, good as at May 4, 2022. Looks pretty comprehensive, and shows that there is currently very little over the magic $12, though these posted prices may soon rise with the new Premier tier

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-bar-and-drink-menus-2022/

Those menus are for standard drinks and you can get different brands of liquor which will change the price. If you want Woodford Bourbon in a Manhattan that usually puts the drink over the threshold

[BettyCruiser]

21 minutes ago, suekel said:

Really?  I could get Gray Goose, Ketel One, Chopin and Absolut Elyx.  

None of these are better than Tito's IMO

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

how long do I have to decide if we want to upgrade to Premier from an existing Plus package cruise?

Beats me.  Hopefully someone else knows - or a TA.  I thought there was something about a limited time for current bookings to upgrade from Plus to Premier, but I do not recall the expiry (we don't book the PLUS).  This means folks can get the Premier for $65/pp/day total since they originally booked at $40/pp/day.

[pris993]

4 hours ago, suekel said:

Really?  I could get Gray Goose, Ketel One, Chopin and Absolut Elyx.  

 Agree, I also got Gray Goose and Ketel One Martini's.  When we went to the Crown Grill our waiter easily suggest a red wine that was covered by the Plus package that we enjoyed.   

[pris993]

4 hours ago, BettyCruiser said:

None of these are better than Tito's IMO

lol, personal taste, enjoy your Tito's.