Drinks package questions on Princess cruises from Australia

[lhayler]

Hi everyone

We are booked on a Princess Cruise of NZ, leaving Sydney 3rd Jan. 

I have two questions about drinks on our cruise, if anyone can help?

 

We are 3 generations, 2 kids, mum, dad and 3 grandparents, split between two mini suites.

When we booked we received two plus beverage packages per room, so have the drinks package for 4 out of the 5 adults. My mother does not have the drinks package.

 

My first question is this: If we buy bottles of wine at dinner (at a 25% discount due to the drinks package) will my mum be able to have a glass, or will she have to order her wine separately as she does not have the package?

 

Second question: I would like to buy a softdrink/coffees etc package for mum and the kids but in our cruise personalizer there are only packages for alcoholic drinks. Do I need to call Princess for the softdrinks package or will these appear in our personalizer at some point? Can anyone else see these non alcoholic drinks package in their personalizers?

 

Thanks everyone. We are counting the days!

[OzKiwiJJ]

If you buy wine by the bottle you can share it with your mum. 

 

Buy the soft drink packages onboard, it will only take a few minutes.

[MicCanberra]

Each cabin can bring 2 bottles of wine on as well, although  corkage would need to be paid if brought to the MDR.

[lhayler]

Thanks Mic. Do you have any idea how much the corkage is?

[Aus Traveller]

7 minutes ago, lhayler said:

Thanks Mic. Do you have any idea how much the corkage is?

We were on the Coral Princess on 26th June. Corkage is still quoted as AUD$15, but we weren't charged even though we took a bottle of wine to the dining room every evening. It is possible the waiters didn't know they had to charge us.🙂

[Russell21]

16 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

We were on the Coral Princess on 26th June. Corkage is still quoted as AUD$15, but we weren't charged even though we took a bottle of wine to the dining room every evening. It is possible the waiters didn't know they had to charge us.🙂

The corkage charge is usually paid immediately after the carry on bags are scanned just before you board. You are lucky that the head waiter for your dining area didn't check for a sticker on the bottles, they are usually fairly vigilant in a surreptitious way so as not to offend.

[Aus Traveller]

9 minutes ago, Russell21 said:

The corkage charge is usually paid immediately after the carry on bags are scanned just before you board. You are lucky that the head waiter for your dining area didn't check for a sticker on the bottles, they are usually fairly vigilant in a surreptitious way so as not to offend.

On cruises pre-COVID, we paid the corkage immediately after the security scanning but that was then. I don't know if you have been on a Princess cruise since cruising re-started, but it appears that things have changed. Previously, when the person manning the scanner noticed bottles in a person's hand luggage, the person was escorted to the table to pay the corkage (with one of the staff carrying the hand luggage). However, on our June cruise this didn't happen and we didn't see a table with Princess stewards waiting to process the corkage fee. We came to the conclusion that we would be charged when we took the bottles to the dining room, but that didn't happen either.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Aus Traveller

[MicCanberra]

On 8/10/2022 at 6:28 PM, lhayler said:

Thanks Mic. Do you have any idea how much the corkage is?

As mentioned $15 per bottle