Princess Plus drink package and ordering through the medallion app

[PaperSniper4]

6 hours ago, caribill said:

 

On a recent Ruby cruise, the Explorers Lounge was packed and the bar staff was only taking orders from waiters who were going around the room, taking the requests from the passengers.

 

Some found it quicker to the the app to order a drink as it came from elsewhere and was delivered faster than if ordering after a waiter finally came to where you were to take down your order.

 

I suppose that's another "cost cutting" measure by the cruise lines....make it impossible to get your "included drinks" on the their overpriced drinks package.😝 I can foresee the popularity of Rum Runners increasing! Oh my..........how things change......sometimes going back to the way it was years ago.....

 

I sure liked the convenience of the drinks packages on our last several cruises, but there is a limit to what we will tolerate, right?😎

 

 Doug

 

[caribill]

3 hours ago, PaperSniper4 said:

I suppose that's another "cost cutting" measure by the cruise lines....make it impossible to get your "included drinks" on the their overpriced drinks package.😝

 

 

It was not due to cost cutting.

 

The bar staff in the room were just overwhelmed by the large number of orders from people in the room. They were working very hard to fill the orders the waiters took, but could not keep up. There were two bartenders preparing all the drinks, the normal size of the staff there.

[JimmyVWine]

18 hours ago, memoak said:

But it would be pretty impossible for bartenders to figure out which liquors go to who

I don't think this falls on the bartenders at all.  Either iteration, (the one we are assuming will happen and the modified one that is suggested in kevey's email) have the bartenders doing the exact same thing.  The difference runs to the desserts and health classes.  The bartenders don't play a role there.  Both the posted terms and conditions and the email in question show the drink portion of the package as being identical. 

[JimmyVWine]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

It was not due to cost cutting.

 

The bar staff in the room were just overwhelmed by the large number of orders from people in the room. They were working very hard to fill the orders the waiters took, but could not keep up. There were two bartenders preparing all the drinks, the normal size of the staff there.

Exactly.  There is a simple math/logistics issue at play here that Princess no doubt did not account for.  When you push the Plus and Premier Packages as great deals, your hope and expectation is that people will bite on them.  The more people who bite, the better for Princess' bottom line.  But the corollary to that is, the more people who bite, the more drinks will be ordered.  We used to be BYO only on Princess cruises with perhaps a single after dinner Scotch or Rum added to our consumption.  One drink per person per day for us.  With Plus, we skipped bringing our own wine and drank strictly from what Princess offered.  We averaged 6 or 7 glasses of wine/cocktails per day.  Granted, half of that was consumed at the dinner table, but the other half was not.  So instead of one drink per day from the bars, we were up to 3 or 4 from the bars. Per person. Per day.  Now, if 1,000 other people change their drinking habits the way we changed ours, that is 3,000-4,000 more bar drinks ordered per day.  So what does that mean from a logistics standpoint?  You need to hire more bartenders and more people to transport the drinks around the ship.  And when you add in the convenience of mobile ordering where your drink will come to you anywhere on the ship, the "more people to transport the drinks around the ship" becomes an even greater need.  So Princess probably needs twice as many bartenders as before the Packages were rolled out, and probably three times as many people to transport the drinks around the ship.  Do you think that Princess hired a bigger staff to account for the behavioral change that the Packages would bring?  I seriously doubt it.  

Edited February 8, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[jagoffee]

8 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I don't think this falls on the bartenders at all.  Either iteration, (the one we are assuming will happen and the modified one that is suggested in kevey's email) have the bartenders doing the exact same thing.  The difference runs to the desserts and health classes.  The bartenders don't play a role there.  Both the posted terms and conditions and the email in question show the drink portion of the package as being identical. 

I am confident that you are correct after 2/20.  I just wondering if anyone paid the $60 a day for the Plus Package after the December date and cruised before 2/20.  They would certainly be getting a bad deal.  
I purchased my package before the introduction of the Plus for $40 a day for a cruise in January. My drink limit stayed at $12.

[JimmyVWine]

27 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I just wondering if anyone paid the $60 a day for the Plus Package after the December date and cruised before 2/20.  They would certainly be getting a bad deal.

Impossible.  They only sold Packages at $60 per day for cruises that departed on or after 2/20.

[caribill]

48 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 You need to hire more bartenders and more people to transport the drinks around the ship. 

 

There were two bartenders preparing the drinks at the bar in the Explorers Lounge. If there was an additional bartender, he/she would just be in the way.

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

There were two bartenders preparing the drinks at the bar in the Explorers Lounge. If there was an additional bartender, he/she would just be in the way.

The logistics don’t call for more bartenders at the bars. If someone wants a drink delivered to their cabin or to the Piazza, it doesn’t need to be made (and shouldn’t be made) at a bar. Those drinks should be made behind the scenes. That’s part of the whole problem. The bartenders at the bars are fully occupied with making drinks for the people standing in front of them. Requiring them to also make drinks that will be transported to remote locations just doesn’t work. The introduction of the Packages calls for drinks being made efficiently in a back bar without any flair, and without the bartenders being distracted by customers in their face demanding service. 

[jagoffee]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

Impossible.  They only sold Packages at $60 per day for cruises that departed on or after 2/20.

So anyone buying a package was able to get it for $50 a day even after the December date for all cruises departing prior to 2/20?  That is good and it does make sense.

Edited February 9, 2023 by jagoffee

[caribill]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

The logistics don’t call for more bartenders at the bars. If someone wants a drink delivered to their cabin or to the Piazza, it doesn’t need to be made (and shouldn’t be made) at a bar. Those drinks should be made behind the scenes. That’s part of the whole problem. The bartenders at the bars are fully occupied with making drinks for the people standing in front of them. Requiring them to also make drinks that will be transported to remote locations just doesn’t work. The introduction of the Packages calls for drinks being made efficiently in a back bar without any flair, and without the bartenders being distracted by customers in their face demanding service. 

 

My point was a person could not walk up to that bar and order a drink because the bartenders were much too busy making drinks for waiters who had been walking around the room getting orders.

 

Rather than waiting for a waiter to come and ask for your order and then wait a long time until the overwhelmed bartenders could prepare it and then for the waiter bring it to you, it was quicker to use the app to have the beverage made elsewhere and then delivered to the Explorers Lounge.

[PaperSniper4]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

....Rather than waiting for a waiter to come and ask for your order and then wait a long time until the overwhelmed bartenders could prepare it and then for the waiter bring it to you, it was quicker to use the app to have the beverage made elsewhere and then delivered to the Explorers Lounge.

Is that how drinks ordered via the app are made? Not always at the bar in which you  happen to be? Interesting, I was not aware of that. But then I have never used the app to order a drink except on our first Medallion cruise years ago before we had the beverage package. It was an introductory deal; one free drink if ordered with the app. I never turn down anything free......😉

 

 Doug

[lx200gps]

5 hours ago, caribill said:

 

My point was a person could not walk up to that bar and order a drink because the bartenders were much too busy making drinks for waiters who had been walking around the room getting orders.

 

Rather than waiting for a waiter to come and ask for your order and then wait a long time until the overwhelmed bartenders could prepare it and then for the waiter bring it to you, it was quicker to use the app to have the beverage made elsewhere and then delivered to the Explorers Lounge.

FWIW, on the Sky a few month back, we liked to sit in Take 5 as it was always peaceful and quiet during the day. Its bar only opened at 4PM, so I had to order drinks via the app for delivery. Some never showed up, despite the fact that there are two bars on Deck 6 literally feet away from Take 5, the Casino bar and Bellinis.  I never did discover a way, in the App, to specify where I wanted the drink to come from, though that would be a great functionality.

 

Also, you make a valid point about overwhelmed bartenders being far too busy making drinks for waiters. I would take the controversial position that bartenders are also overwhelmed by all the passengers who insist on sitting at the bar instead of sitting in comfortable chairs elsewhere in the  same bar. They frequently bother and distract the bartenders and make it more difficult for them to prepare drinks. On the Enchanted last summer, we sat in the new-look Crooners and were amazed at how crowded the bar area was, with waiters picking up drinks, passengers sitting at the bar distracting the bartenders, and other passengers trying to order drinks so they could carry them elsewhere in Crooners because wait times to hail a waiter were so long. At times, it was quite the zoo.

[disneyochem]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:40 AM, ChanaC said:

 

And off this question, on the medallion app can you add notes and requests about the drink? For example, would I be able to ask for a matcha latte with a milk alternative instead of dairy milk, or ask for a plain hot tea to come with some honey?

Yes, you can order alternative milk for the specialty coffee and teas.  I only ordered lattes and cappuccinos with almond milk.  Once you select an item, you have the ability to customize milk (low fat, nonfat, soy, almond, coconut) as well as different sweeteners and drink temperatures.  I don’t drink tea but hubby ordered hot tea through the medallion and received honey with it.

[clarky213]

On 2/7/2023 at 3:12 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I have always found that it will be MUCH quicker to just walk up to the bar.  It is not unheard of to wait up to 20 minutes for a medallion order...maybe longer with a food order.  Others will likely chime in and say "Oh no...I get mine in 5 minutes or less!"  Well...how long does it take to walk up to a bar 50 feet away and just order?

I tried ordering at the bar recently on Sky, the barman told me to sit down and he would send the waiter over, which he did. We then had to wait 20 minutes for our drink as they had a lot of orders and only 1 barman. This was their way of stopping people jumping the queue. 

[memoak]

5 hours ago, lx200gps said:

FWIW, on the Sky a few month back, we liked to sit in Take 5 as it was always peaceful and quiet during the day. Its bar only opened at 4PM, so I had to order drinks via the app for delivery. Some never showed up, despite the fact that there are two bars on Deck 6 literally feet away from Take 5, the Casino bar and Bellinis.  I never did discover a way, in the App, to specify where I wanted the drink to come from, though that would be a great functionality.

 

Also, you make a valid point about overwhelmed bartenders being far too busy making drinks for waiters. I would take the controversial position that bartenders are also overwhelmed by all the passengers who insist on sitting at the bar instead of sitting in comfortable chairs elsewhere in the  same bar. They frequently bother and distract the bartenders and make it more difficult for them to prepare drinks. On the Enchanted last summer, we sat in the new-look Crooners and were amazed at how crowded the bar area was, with waiters picking up drinks, passengers sitting at the bar distracting the bartenders, and other passengers trying to order drinks so they could carry them elsewhere in Crooners because wait times to hail a waiter were so long. At times, it was quite the zoo.

We always sit at the bar so we can interact with other passengers just like we do in restaurants on shore. I have never noticed any bartenders being distracted. Also personally like to let them them know how I like my drink prepared as in old fashion with a little bit of vermouth and stirred not shaken. We do not like sitting in the lounge chairs much prefer a bar stool

[lx200gps]

22 minutes ago, memoak said:

We always sit at the bar so we can interact with other passengers just like we do in restaurants on shore. I have never noticed any bartenders being distracted. Also personally like to let them them know how I like my drink prepared as in old fashion with a little bit of vermouth and stirred not shaken. We do not like sitting in the lounge chairs much prefer a bar stool

To each his own of course, but it was very clear to us that the massive crowd, sometimes at least a dozen people, all crowding around the bar, standing and sitting,  absolutely were disrupting the bartenders.  While I'm sure you don't bother the bartender when you sit at the bar, I can assure you that other passengers do. It's not that way in all bars at all times of course, but it does happen.

Edited February 9, 2023 by lx200gps

[jagoffee]

22 hours ago, caribill said:

 

My point was a person could not walk up to that bar and order a drink because the bartenders were much too busy making drinks for waiters who had been walking around the room getting orders.

 

Rather than waiting for a waiter to come and ask for your order and then wait a long time until the overwhelmed bartenders could prepare it and then for the waiter bring it to you, it was quicker to use the app to have the beverage made elsewhere and then delivered to the Explorers Lounge.

Interesting.  Where do you suppose that your drink was made?

[caribill]

2 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Interesting.  Where do you suppose that your drink was made?

 

This was by and for another person at the table we were at. All the other person said is that it came from "downstairs."

[jagoffee]

9 hours ago, caribill said:

 

This was by and for another person at the table we were at. All the other person said is that it came from "downstairs."

Thanks.

[killsport]

On 2/10/2023 at 11:20 AM, jagoffee said:

Thanks.

Any idea how to see how many beverages you’ve ordered towards the 15 limit? I’ve seen conflicting info on whether specialty coffee is unlimited. Or bottled water. Thanks!

[jagoffee]

1 minute ago, killsport said:

Any idea how to see how many beverages you’ve ordered towards the 15 limit? I’ve seen conflicting info on whether specialty coffee is unlimited. Or bottled water. Thanks!

I have never had the need to count alcoholic drinks as I never get close.  I can assure you that non alcoholic drinks like bottled water and speciality coffees are unlimited and not part of the 15 per day limit.

[killsport]

10 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

I have never had the need to count alcoholic drinks as I never get close.  I can assure you that non alcoholic drinks like bottled water and speciality coffees are unlimited and not part of the 15 per day limit.

That’s reassuring but weird. The bartender said my wife had 4 drinks and the only way we got there was by including the two bottles of water. I don’t want to ask them (super busy) all the time so I was hoping to find it in the app. 
My count was correct (alcohol only) at 2. 
 

[jagoffee]

2 minutes ago, killsport said:

That’s reassuring but weird. The bartender said my wife had 4 drinks and the only way we got there was by including the two bottles of water. I don’t want to ask them (super busy) all the time so I was hoping to find it in the app. 
My count was correct (alcohol only) at 2. 
 

They do sometimes make mistakes.  Someone else might have experience about seeing the Alcoholic drink count in the AP.   I never saw it, but I was not liking for it.  I woukd also think the bartender would mention it if you were over your limit.  
 

[jagoffee]

29 minutes ago, killsport said:

That’s reassuring but weird. The bartender said my wife had 4 drinks and the only way we got there was by including the two bottles of water. I don’t want to ask them (super busy) all the time so I was hoping to find it in the app. 
My count was correct (alcohol only) at 2. 
 

They do sometimes make mistakes.  Someone else might have experience about seeing the Alcoholic drink count in the AP.   I never saw it, but I was not looking  for it.  I would also think the bartender would mention it if you were over your limit.  
 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, killsport said:

Any idea how to see how many beverages you’ve ordered towards the 15 limit? I’ve seen conflicting info on whether specialty coffee is unlimited. Or bottled water. Thanks!

 

I've been told that you can now see the count in the app. I know I saw a post somewhere here on CC with a screenshot of the app showing that info.