Plus to Premier Package Upgrade

[MattnTricia]

We have a 15 day cruise booked for this December on the Panama Canal and I am kicking myself now that I didnt pay the $450 total to upgrade to Premier at the time of booking.  At the time we realized we would have a decent chunk of OBC for drink upgrades so we didn't bother.

 

Fast forward a few months and we want to upgrade this package.  We realize now that we will drink the wine at dinner a decent amount and we will use the specialty dinners and picture package. We also like the thought of reserved seats for the shows . 

 

1)What are the chances of any type of sale on this upgrade between now and sailing. Thinking July 4, Labor Day.....

2)current rate is $600 total for 15 days but there is a note that concerns us.  The note says package upgrade could impact your overall cruise fare.  We do not want to increase our cruise fare to get this package. How do we find out what will happen to our fare without having to book and cancel the upgrade?

 

TIA

MattnTricia

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, mattnday said:

We have a 15 day cruise booked for this December on the Panama Canal and I am kicking myself now that I didnt pay the $450 total to upgrade to Premier at the time of booking.  At the time we realized we would have a decent chunk of OBC for drink upgrades so we didn't bother.

 

Fast forward a few months and we want to upgrade this package.  We realize now that we will drink the wine at dinner a decent amount and we will use the specialty dinners and picture package. We also like the thought of reserved seats for the shows . 

 

1)What are the chances of any type of sale on this upgrade between now and sailing. Thinking July 4, Labor Day.....

2)current rate is $600 total for 15 days but there is a note that concerns us.  The note says package upgrade could impact your overall cruise fare.  We do not want to increase our cruise fare to get this package. How do we find out what will happen to our fare without having to book and cancel the upgrade?

 

TIA

MattnTricia

Just wait and upgrade on board.  If you have any OBC, that will go towards paying for it.

 

[Coral]

When I went to upgrade to Plus pre-cruise - it said it would be $60 per day for 11 days so one would think $660. But it was slightly over $700. The difference was that the $660 was going to be added to the cost of the cruise and the different of $40-$60 was the increase in the cost of insurance.

 

Hopefully this makes sense. If you don't have insurance, then I wouldn't worry about it.

If you bought 3rd party insurance and have to cancel - you would need to increase that as well to have the full amount covered by insurance.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Coral

[memoak]

1 hour ago, mattnday said:

We have a 15 day cruise booked for this December on the Panama Canal and I am kicking myself now that I didnt pay the $450 total to upgrade to Premier at the time of booking.  At the time we realized we would have a decent chunk of OBC for drink upgrades so we didn't bother.

 

Fast forward a few months and we want to upgrade this package.  We realize now that we will drink the wine at dinner a decent amount and we will use the specialty dinners and picture package. We also like the thought of reserved seats for the shows . 

 

1)What are the chances of any type of sale on this upgrade between now and sailing. Thinking July 4, Labor Day.....

2)current rate is $600 total for 15 days but there is a note that concerns us.  The note says package upgrade could impact your overall cruise fare.  We do not want to increase our cruise fare to get this package. How do we find out what will happen to our fare without having to book and cancel the upgrade?

 

TIA

MattnTricia

It would increase your overall price only if you have Princess insurance since the price of insurance is s percentage of the cruise fare

[Coral]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

It would increase your overall price only if you have Princess insurance since the price of insurance is s percentage of the cruise fare

Though if you have 3rd party insurance, and have to cancel, I don't know how they will treat this extra amount (add to cruise fare?)...... You may not get the extra money back from 3rd party insurance unless you increase that insurance as well.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Coral

[Steelers36]

Right, @Coral.  Insurance covers a cost of a trip.  If Plus increases the cost beyond the insurance premium max coverage, you need to adjust the coverage - or eat it.

[Cruise Raider]

I would just wait and upgrade your package once you are onboard.  That way, if a does occurs (which I doubt), you can grab it in between now and then.  
But also, you won’t pay the extra insurance costs for upgrading beforehand.  
You will also be able to use any OBC you may have available on your booking, if you wait until you are onboard.  On your app, you can just upgrade online onboard but it seems like there is a push for employees to get you to upgrade and I think they get points for it.  It will either be $20 or $30 per day pp, depending on when you booked your cruise, so if you are in a double occupancy cabin, you will both have to upgrade which will cost you either $600 or $900 .. again, depending on if you booked your cruise under the $50 pppd or the $60 pppd plus package.  
On a longer cruise such as you are on, I would always wait until I’m onboard as I would want to check out what wines are available under each package before I upgraded.  You still only get 2 specialty dinners, regardless of how long long your cruise is. You could still get two specialty dinners, which is $78 per meal for two.  For a 4 day cruise, we upgraded for $80 each, so basically, our upgrade fee for our two specialty dinners at Crown Grill was all it cost us and we got better wines, photos, prizes, etc.  

You just have to do the math … if there are no wines that please you in the Plus package, it may be worth it to upgrade if you are looking at buying specialty dinners anyway.  
you will have through day 2 to upgrade while onboard (current policy as of last month).  

With that being said, a decent travel planner or agent should be able to do it ahead of time with just the upgrade price if you contact them.  I would only do this if I saw the costs were going up before your cruise started.  

 

[Thrak]

You can upgrade at Customer Services or in the App when you board and it will use OBC if you have it available. I have no desire to "upgrade" but, if I did I would certainly do it on the ship rather than in advance.

[Coral]

56 minutes ago, Thrak said:

You can upgrade at Customer Services or in the App when you board and it will use OBC if you have it available. I have no desire to "upgrade" but, if I did I would certainly do it on the ship rather than in advance.

I think waiters/bar staff were selling it as well. I assume they can do upgrades.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Coral

[J13C85]

We are on a 14D cruise (booked as a 14 but it is in reality a pair of 7D cruises that are going  B2B.  We opted against the upgrade because of math and what you get.  According to Princess, b/c this is booked as a 14D, we only get 2 Specialty dining dinners.  If this were a 7D cruise, it would cost appx $280 to upgrade, and between the 2 dinners and the photo package, it nearly pays for itself.  At $560, the value is not there as I am in a sense paying double to get exact same things is my cruise were a week shorter.  Funny thing is next year, we are booked on a 7D and we took the Premier package.

[Expat Cruise]

On 6/5/2023 at 4:17 AM, mattnday said:

1)What are the chances of any type of sale on this upgrade between now and sailing. Thinking July 4, Labor Day.....

2)current rate is $600 total for 15 days but there is a note that concerns us.  The note says package upgrade could impact your overall cruise fare.  We do not want to increase our cruise fare to get this package. How do we find out what will happen to our fare without having to book and cancel the upgrade?

 

TIA

MattnTricia

A sale is not going to happen because no reason for Princess Cruises to do so. They already have your business if they do offer a sale on the packages, it most likely be for new bookings only. 

 

But it is very possible they will have another price increase before you cruise on the packages. Princess Cruises wants to get everyone using these packages because they make more money with them.