Plus vs. Premier Drink Package

[ILgirl]

Hi!  I know the packages include drinks up to $15 and $20.  Is there anywhere on the Princess website that shows the price of individual liquors and wines by brand  so we could determine the best fit for us?  Thx!

[JimmyVWine]

6 minutes ago, ILgirl said:

Hi!  I know the packages include drinks up to $15 and $20.  Is there anywhere on the Princess website that shows the price of individual liquors and wines by brand  so we could determine the best fit for us?  Thx!

If you do an image search on Google you will find lots of published drink menus.  Princess complicates things by having different menus at each bar, and even then, the menus you see don't always reflect what the bar is pouring.  But as a general rule, most cocktails fall within the $15 limit as do the vast majority of spirits.  There are a few high end exceptions but not many.  Unless you have super high end needs for spirits, you won't go over the $15 mark.  But even if you do, it might be by a buck or two.  Even at 5 drinks a day, you won't spend the daily difference between Plus and Premier.  You only would want to level up to the higher plan if you truly covet the additional perks it comes with.  You would never need to level up to the higher plan just on account of alcohol purchases.  It would be hard to spend the $20 difference every day, each day, for both people in a cabin.  

[Thrak]

This may help:

 

https://profcruise.com/new-princess-drink-prices-2023/

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-oceannow-menus-2023/

 

We will always book with Plus but will never book with Premier.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Thrak

[memoak]

I am a bourbon drinker and I can choose my Manhattan usually from either Makers Mark, Buffalo Trace or Woodford under the Plus package. My wife’s Grey Goose martini also fits under the plus. That works fine for us

[ILgirl]

Sounds great!  Thx to all for your responses!

[JimmyVWine]

3 minutes ago, Thrak said:

This may help:

 

https://profcruise.com/new-princess-drink-prices-2023/

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-oceannow-menus-2023/

 

We will always book with Plus but will never book with Premier.

Was just about to post the exact same thing!!

[voljeep]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

This may help:

 

https://profcruise.com/new-princess-drink-prices-2023/

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-oceannow-menus-2023/

 

We will always book with Plus but will never book with Premier.

 

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

This may help:

 

https://profcruise.com/new-princess-drink-prices-2023/

 

https://profcruise.com/princess-oceannow-menus-2023/

 

We will always book with Plus but will never book with Premier.

 

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

Was just about to post the exact same thing!!

2024 5 day cruise on the SUN currently booked with PLUS ... with no/little OBC will prolly upgrade to PREMIER for $100 each - with most of that eaten up by 2 specialty dinners ... and DOOR PRIZES🤑

 

Never say never 🦄

 

now on longer cruises - nah, PLUS works just fine

[memoak]

53 minutes ago, voljeep said:

 

 

2024 5 day cruise on the SUN currently booked with PLUS ... with no/little OBC will prolly upgrade to PREMIER for $100 each - with most of that eaten up by 2 specialty dinners ... and DOOR PRIZES🤑

 

Never say never 🦄

 

now on longer cruises - nah, PLUS works just fine

We only book short cruises if they are part of a back to back so only go for plus. Games from your door do not interest us and we only do Sabatini’s. The crown grill has become too much food for us

[Thrak]

39 minutes ago, memoak said:

We only book short cruises if they are part of a back to back so only go for plus. Games from your door do not interest us and we only do Sabatini’s. The crown grill has become too much food for us

 

Like you, we don't book short cruises unless they are part of a longer series. We booked a 7 day cruise but it hooked onto a 19 day cruise immediately afterward. Likewise, we currently have a 4 day cruise booked next fall but it is bracketed by two 14 day cruises so we will have 32 days in a Caribe deck balcony. We also only do specialty dining if it's an included perk as it's just too much food for us.

[voljeep]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

We only book short cruises if they are part of a back to back so only go for plus. Games from your door do not interest us and we only do Sabatini’s. The crown grill has become too much food for us

just a long weekend ... and I get the lamb chops and she gets the lobster - we're not 'plate cleaners'

 

an easy 4 hour drive to our current homeport

[Eglesbrech]

The big difference in my opinion is with the wines provided. The wines on plus were not great at all, generic and no idea what you were being served other than the grape variety.  While you can pay up by the glass the decent ones were nearer the $20 mark.

 

You also need to be very specific when you order as if you just say for example Pinot noir, you will get the cheap and nasty one. Same with champagne by the glass, several times we asked for it and were served Prosecco which went back immediately wasting everyone’s time.

 

If you are not a wine drinker then plus is probably great for you.

[Plato123]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

The big difference in my opinion is with the wines provided. The wines on plus were not great at all, generic and no idea what you were being served other than the grape variety.  While you can pay up by the glass the decent ones were nearer the $20 mark.

 

You also need to be very specific when you order as if you just say for example Pinot noir, you will get the cheap and nasty one. Same with champagne by the glass, several times we asked for it and were served Prosecco which went back immediately wasting everyone’s time.

 

If you are not a wine drinker then plus is probably great for you.

I agree. I was also disappointed that when you ordered wine in a dining room you never saw the bottle unless you bought the whole bottle.  In bars that was not an issue and you often would find some unlisted better wines in the Premier package served in bars and lounges.  I also liked that we could get a Courvoisier XO cognac in the Wheelhouse bar as part of the Premier package. It is too bad that Princess only has the Cattier Champagne in their Premier listing, no Cava at all nor any decent Californian sparkling wines.  Another oddity was that there was only one decent Chianti in the Premier package, a Nippozano, yet on our cruise there were two decent Italian venus, Alfredo's and Sabatini's.

[zackarykeef]

Does Princess carry any other champagnes by the glass, or is the Cattier the only option? We are pretty big champagne drinkers and have never sailed Princess, but are considering it and weighing our package options.

[memoak]

6 hours ago, zackarykeef said:

Does Princess carry any other champagnes by the glass, or is the Cattier the only option? We are pretty big champagne drinkers and have never sailed Princess, but are considering it and weighing our package options.

On the last 4 cruises I have been on no champagne by the glass on plus package just Procesecco. 

[Hlitner]

Just beware that the bar menus are more "advisory" then real.  On our last few Princess cruises it was not uncommon for various menu items not to be stocked at a particular bar or even on the ship (always blamed on supply chain issues).  This is not just an issue on Princess but has also happened to us (in the past year) on both HAL and Seabourn (along with Princess these are all part of the HAL Group).

 

Hank

[JimmyVWine]

8 hours ago, zackarykeef said:

Does Princess carry any other champagnes by the glass, or is the Cattier the only option? We are pretty big champagne drinkers and have never sailed Princess, but are considering it and weighing our package options.

On Regal, Veuve Clicquot was available by the glass for $24 

[voljeep]

7 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

On Regal, Veuve Clicquot was available by the glass for $24 

with Premier - we'd prolly pay the $4.72 upcharge ... 5 pours? - $120 for a $40-50 retail bottle...

[JimmyVWine]

3 minutes ago, voljeep said:

with Premier - we'd prolly pay the $4.72 upcharge ... 5 pours? - $120 for a $40-50 retail bottle...

Bottles of Champagne usually get get poured out at 6 per bottle, but the point remains the same, just figure in a slightly higher price tag. 

[JimmyVWine]

On 5/18/2023 at 6:14 AM, Eglesbrech said:

While you can pay up by the glass the decent ones were nearer the $20 mark.

I think it is actually a bit less than that.  We just got back from an 8 day cruise and our wine consumption consisted 90% of Whispering Angel Rose; Boekenhoutskloof Chocolate Block, (a Rhone Blend from South Africa), Seghesio Old Vine Zfinfandel, Silverado Cabernet and Belle Glos Pinot Noir.  All of these wines are above the $15 limit except for the Chocolate Block which was $15, and all of these wines came from Vines or the MDR.  For the entire week, our average "overage" was $4.87 per person per day.  That was for three people, with a total bar bill of $116.82.  If we had the Premier Package we would have ordered these exact same wines and our bar tab would have been $0.00.  But our upfront cost would have been $20 x 8 days x 3 people, or $480. Our total consumption was 116 glasses of wine which averaged 14.5 per day, or just under 5 glasses per person per day.  It is difficult to assess a "typical day" because some days were port intensive and we returned to the ship at 5:30 so wine consumption was just a couple of glasses at dinner and maybe one afterwards.  Days where we were on the ship all day were different.  Just as an example, here is what our Embarkation Day looked like when we boarded the ship by 11:00 a.m.

 

Whispering Angel x 5 glasses at $1 over Plus for a total of  $5.90

Nipanzano Chianti x 2 glasses included in Plus

Unknown Sauvignon Blanc x 1 glass included in Plus. (And it wasn't bad)

Belle Glos Pinot Noir x 3 glasses at $2 over Plus for a total of $7.08

Chocolate Block x 3 glasses included in Plus

Silverado Cabernet x 3 glasses at $3 over Plus for a total of $10.62

 

Total cost for the day = $23.60 for three people consuming 16 glasses of wine, or $7.86 per person.  And that was a day without a port stop and was a "high end" day.  There were port days where our total was half of that.  We went to Sabatini's on a port day and our wine consumption for that day was:

 

Chocolate Block x 3 glasses included in Plus

Nero d'Avola from the wine list x 3 glasses included in Plus

Barolo from the wine list x 3 glasses at $2 over Plus for a total of $7.08 or $2.36 per person.

 

That night, like most nights, we tended to switch to cocktails, Scotch, Bourbon and Rum after dinner. On Sea Days, we stuck to tropical type specialty cocktails or Espresso Martinis in the afternoons, all of which are included in Plus.

 

In other words, we drank perfectly good wine, almost none of which was within the Plus price range except for the Boekenhoutskloof Chocolate Block, (South Africa remains a good value play) and never came close to paying the equivalent of what Premier would have cost us.  In my experience, Premier only works if:

 

--You drink exclusively wine and never add in some cocktails

--Hone in on "familiar" names that tend to be overpriced (I'm talking to YOU Jordan Cabernet!)

--Drink at least 4 glasses every day.

--Or get value out of the rest of the perks that are included in Premier such as photos and "prizes".

 

Otherwise, you may find that your busy days of port touring coupled with your Martini or Captain's Bounty consumption will have you drinking fewer $19 glasses of wine than you think.  You can still have those $19 glasses of wine.  But if you have "only" four of them, your daily total is still less than the price difference to level up to Premier.  

 

 

[Eglesbrech]

21 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

You drink exclusively wine and never add in some cocktails

That tends to be me, I’m a wine drinker, not a spirit drinker and have an odd cocktail. I like what I like and I wasn’t keen on any of the plus level wines included and we did try them. Also we were only being credited with $12 so it was actually cheaper to upgrade than pay the difference per glass. People on the “old” plus beware (and on the “old” premier you lose out quite a few items as well)

The “prizes” are a waste of space imo, the complimentary speciality restaurants were nice and we got the 3 photos and a memory stick with the rest. The reserved seats in the theatre on the “production show” nights were a god send as on our cruise it was standing room only.

 

You are absolutely correct, it won’t work for everyone. Depends on personal drinking habits and how much the upgrade is offered for.

 

[JimmyVWine]

4 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Also we were only being credited with $12 so it was actually cheaper to upgrade than pay the difference per glass. People on the “old” plus beware

That is obviously a deal changer, but shouldn't be happening.  We were also on "Old Plus" and all of our pricing was based off of the $15 limit.  

 

Also, as my screen name suggests, we are a wine-intensive family.  I have bottles of gin and vodka on my bar at home that date back to the Clinton administration.  But on a cruise ship, at 1:00 in the afternoon, there is something about a tropical cocktail (rum based, usually) that draws me in more so than a glass of wine.  

Edited May 26, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[Eglesbrech]

30 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

That is obviously a deal changer, but shouldn't be happening.  We were also on "Old Plus" and all of our pricing was based off of the $15 limit.  

 

Also, as my screen name suggests, we are a wine-intensive family.  I have bottles of gin and vodka on my bar at home that date back to the Clinton administration.  But on a cruise ship, at 1:00 in the afternoon, there is something about a tropical cocktail (rum based, usually) that draws me in more so than a glass of wine.  

We are wine people as well but also love good whisky. There are very few decent whisky’s on any cruise ship (and they charge a fortune for the odd one they do have). I have a better collection at home than most ships.

 

We usually buy one bottle of good whisky to drink and one to lay down. We also have some good Chateux Margaux vintages put aside for special occasions.

[gah_cruise]

24 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 but also love good whisky.

what do you consider to be good whisky...I note that you have spelled it without an "e".
just curious and not judgemental...maybe learn a bit as well 🙂

 

[Eglesbrech]

6 hours ago, gah_cruise said:

what do you consider to be good whisky...I note that you have spelled it without an "e".
just curious and not judgemental...maybe learn a bit as well 🙂

 

As you will know because you picked up on it, Whisky is the Scottish spelling, whiskey is for the Irish / other varieties, Anything from Scotland won’t have the “e”. I tend to drink the Scottish variety hence no e.
 

Ships usually carry the big commercial brands. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, they offer a good consistent dram, personally I prefer something with a different flavour profile. Most of the brands ships have come from big business like Diageo, Pernot Ricard etc who have been scooping up distilleries over the years.

 

A good whisky is the one that you personally enjoy, I should have been more explicit and said ships don’t tend to carry what I personally enjoy. Everyone’s taste is different (and we all taste the same dram slightly differently to add to the mix).

 

I tend to buy one of bottling of cask strength and older whisky. While aging is no absolute guarantee of quality, older whisky is generally a bit smoother and for me has more complex flavours taken up from the barrel. The problem with that is once the individual cask bottling is done you can never get the same whisky again, hence buying two at a time.

 

I like to try before I buy and rarely purchase blind, it’s pointless buying a bottle I won’t eventually drink if I don’t like the flavour or wouldn’t want to serve to a guest at home. I am no expert and you won’t particularly learn anything from me but that would be my best advice, try many drams and that way find a few bottles that suit your personal taste.
 

That can throw up some surprises for example I have just tried a dragons milk stout cask finished lowland whisky and really enjoyed it. I would rarely pick up one of the lowland ladies but this one was very pleasant and surprisingly cheap for the flavour punch.

 

So back to ships that’s why for personal taste they don’t provide anything exciting for me to try.

 

[ExploringTheGlobe]

On 5/25/2023 at 11:42 AM, JimmyVWine said:

 But our upfront cost would have been $20 x 8 days x 3 people, or $480.  

 

 

The $20 extra for the Premier package isn't just for drinks.  The Premier package also includes 2 specialty dinners ($39 each), additional wifi connections, the desserts, the fitness classes, door prizes, etc so this isn't an apples to apples comparison.