Princess Plus/Premier Experiences

[Cruise Raider]

11 minutes ago, Suncitycruiser1925 said:

Thanks for letting me know.  They were a good value.

We also used them in the past and they were great.  Now, we always just purchase the plus or premier packages.  

[coo359a2]

posted previously

Edited February 29 by coo359a2

[shiner6]

We purchased the Premier package on the Ruby last week and felt that it was well worth the extra cost. The drink selection alone was impressive.  We did not care for the desserts or use the gym, but everything else was used. Would have liked to have another casual dining experience available, but only Gastropub at Salty dog available on the Ruby. (I do not count charcuterie at Vines, a meal).

[Thrak]

If you are going to be onboard (or even if you are not) don't forget that March 3rd is International Irish Whiskey Day. (You can bet I will celebrate the day... 😉)

 

https://nationaltoday.com/international-irish-whiskey-day/

[katmigordon]

On 2/22/2024 at 2:14 AM, Muffinz said:

so are you saying it's up to the passengers to know the cost of each drink?

we have the plus package on our Crown cruise in December and the last thing we want is to find out we've been charged extra for a drink(s)

Surely the barperson serving you should be able to tell if you have a plus or premier package and if you order a drink that's abuve the plus package $$ limit they should tell you

 

also I assume the 15 drinks a day applies to each person - e.g.wife and I both have the plus package, so we could get 15 drinks each?

Is this 15 drink limit for adult drinks only or does it include non alcohol based drinks?

[coo359a2]

10 minutes ago, katmigordon said:

Is this 15 drink limit for adult drinks only or does it include non alcohol based drinks?

alcoholic drinks only count toward the 15 drink limit

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

1 hour ago, coo359a2 said:

alcoholic drinks only count toward the 15 drink limit

Worth noting that speciality coffee that includes an alcohol component also counts towards the 15 🙂 

[memoak]

15 hours ago, shiner6 said:

We purchased the Premier package on the Ruby last week and felt that it was well worth the extra cost. The drink selection alone was impressive.  We did not care for the desserts or use the gym, but everything else was used. Would have liked to have another casual dining experience available, but only Gastropub at Salty dog available on the Ruby. (I do not count charcuterie at Vines, a meal).

For us the charcuterie board plus veggies and truffles is more than enough for a meal even sharing it. Especially when Vines is open for lunch on sea days

[2Long2NxtCrz]

I'm glad I read these boards as I wasn't aware that the "casual" dining now included a fee. We've only been on one Princess cruise and I just booked a cruise on Enchanted Princess for November 2025 and only got the Plus package because I didn't think the Premier made sense, but now I might be re-thinking that since we loved Gigi's and ate there more than a few times.

 

Can I still upgrade to Premier? Any idea what that costs? Our cruise will be 12 nights so the unlimited "casual" dining and a couple of specialty dining nights might make a lot of sense for us. I also like fine wine and that was the one place where Discovery Princess let me down.

 

Last question, is there a list somewhere of what is included dining, what is "casual", and what is considered specialty? Since things have changed it would be good to know what's what.

 

Thanks.

[Thrak]

7 minutes ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

Can I still upgrade to Premier? Any idea what that costs?

 

Yes, you can upgrade if you like. You can do it in advance or when you board the ship. The cost is the daily difference between the packages. Plus is $60 per day and Premier is $80 per day so just multiply the number of days in your cruise by $20 (each) and that is your cost to upgrade. Princess is more than happy to take your money for the upgrade.

[2Long2NxtCrz]

Just now, Thrak said:

 

Yes, you can upgrade if you like. You can do it in advance or when you board the ship. The cost is the daily difference between the packages. Plus is $60 per day and Premier is $80 per day so just multiply the number of days in your cruise by $20 (each) and that is your cost to upgrade. Princess is more than happy to take your money for the upgrade.

Thanks! Now I have to do the math to see if it is actually worth an extra $480. Ouch. Maybe not.

[rheathslc]

1 minute ago, 2Long2NxtCrz said:

I'm glad I read these boards as I wasn't aware that the "casual" dining now included a fee. We've only been on one Princess cruise and I just booked a cruise on Enchanted Princess for November 2025 and only got the Plus package because I didn't think the Premier made sense, but now I might be re-thinking that since we loved Gigi's and ate there more than a few times.

 

Can I still upgrade to Premier? Any idea what that costs? Our cruise will be 12 nights so the unlimited "casual" dining and a couple of specialty dining nights might make a lot of sense for us. I also like fine wine and that was the one place where Discovery Princess let me down.

 

Last question, is there a list somewhere of what is included dining, what is "casual", and what is considered specialty? Since things have changed it would be good to know what's what.

 

Thanks.

The cost difference between Plus and Premier is $20/person per day and you can upgrade online or with your TA or Princess Cruise Vacation Planner if you have one.

 

I really like Premier for cruises that are 7 days or fewer. For me and what I like to eat and drink it makes sense financially for shorter cruises. Once you get beyond 7 days the extra cost might or might not be worth it dependingon what parts of the package you'llmake use of. I made a calculator using google sheets to check because I'm an accounting nerd.

 

I would probably still get Premier for an 11 day cruise even though it might be a little more expensive in the end than paying a la carte because I like not having to worry or think about how much I'm spending on board, especially now that they added the charges for casual dining. Before that change I might have gone with Plus for anything over 7 days.

 

Casual now includes Alfredo's/Gigi's Pizzeria, Ocean Terrace sushi, Salty Dog Gastropub (or Vines depending on the ship). I think that covers it but others can correct me if I missed any. 🙂

[memoak]

3 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Yes, you can upgrade if you like. You can do it in advance or when you board the ship. The cost is the daily difference between the packages. Plus is $60 per day and Premier is $80 per day so just multiply the number of days in your cruise by $20 (each) and that is your cost to upgrade. Princess is more than happy to take your money for the upgrade.

We have never felt that the $20 per day per person is just more than we can justify especially since almost all our cruises are 2 to 3 weeks. Our regular drinks are all covered by the plus and since we mostly sail on Grand Class ships where there is only Vines and Salty Dog Gastropub (which we really do not care for. I can pay a few extra dollars when I want a glass of wine at Vines

[Thrak]

2 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

I would probably still get Premier for an 11 day cruise even though it might be a little more expensive in the end than paying a la carte because I like not having to worry or think about how much I'm spending on board, especially now that they added the charges for casual dining. Before that change I might have gone with Plus for anything over 7 days.

 

The casual dining is not worth it to us. At Alfredo's or Gigi's we just want to split one pizza as that is about as much as we can comfortably eat. On our last trip they insisted on both of us having the pre fixe meals which was way too much food. They acted offended when we didn't finish the meal and skipped dessert. It was stupid. Go ahead and gig us each for the included $14.95 meal and let us just split a pizza. We had quite a few "included" meals due to the structure of our trip but only ate at Alfredo's once and never had the charcuterie board at Vines as we don't want that much dang food. We sometimes used to just have the included sushi at Vines and skipped dinner. Not everybody thinks that "more" food is "better".

[memoak]

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

The casual dining is not worth it to us. At Alfredo's or Gigi's we just want to split one pizza as that is about as much as we can comfortably eat. On our last trip they insisted on both of us having the pre fixe meals which was way too much food. They acted offended when we didn't finish the meal and skipped dessert. It was stupid. Go ahead and gig us each for the included $14.95 meal and let us just split a pizza. We had quite a few "included" meals due to the structure of our trip but only ate at Alfredo's once and never had the charcuterie board at Vines as we don't want that much dang food. We sometimes used to just have the included sushi at Vines and skipped dinner. Not everybody thinks that "more" food is "better".

On the Crown we were able to split the charcuterie platter and only use 1 casual meal. So in reality we can get 4 meals there

[Thrak]

6 minutes ago, memoak said:

On the Crown we were able to split the charcuterie platter and only use 1 casual meal. So in reality we can get 4 meals there

 

Different ship, different crew. Princess - what can one say?

[rheathslc]

7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

The casual dining is not worth it to us. At Alfredo's or Gigi's we just want to split one pizza as that is about as much as we can comfortably eat. On our last trip they insisted on both of us having the pre fixe meals which was way too much food. They acted offended when we didn't finish the meal and skipped dessert. It was stupid. Go ahead and gig us each for the included $14.95 meal and let us just split a pizza. We had quite a few "included" meals due to the structure of our trip but only ate at Alfredo's once and never had the charcuterie board at Vines as we don't want that much dang food. We sometimes used to just have the included sushi at Vines and skipped dinner. Not everybody thinks that "more" food is "better".

That's good to know. I haven't cruised since before the casual dining change. We mostly like to have Sushi several times on the Royal Class ships with Ocean Terrace. I do miss the included Sushi at Vines. I'm not a fan of the charcuterie boards they serve now. 

[Thrak]

13 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

That's good to know. I haven't cruised since before the casual dining change. We mostly like to have Sushi several times on the Royal Class ships with Ocean Terrace. I do miss the included Sushi at Vines. I'm not a fan of the charcuterie boards they serve now. 

 

My wife and I are not big fans of prosciutto which is always included on the charcuterie boards everywhere. It seems that others love the stuff but neither of us cares for it at all.

[memoak]

18 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Different ship, different crew. Princess - what can one say?

We will be on the Ruby next month for 16 days and will see what happens. Two different bartenders on the Crown both encouraged sharing. We saw one group of 4 sharing one board

[LACruiser88]

3 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

My wife and I are not big fans of prosciutto which is always included on the charcuterie boards everywhere. It seems that others love the stuff but neither of us cares for it at all.

We are pescatarians, so it's usually extra cheese for us on those boards!  And, lots of vino!  🍷

[rheathslc]

3 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

My wife and I are not big fans of prosciutto which is always included on the charcuterie boards everywhere. It seems that others love the stuff but neither of us cares for it at all.

I like it in smallish quantities on a pizza or baked in a croissant (our fave local patisserie has prosciutto and gruyere croissants - super yummy) but yeah, a heap of floppy, slightly rubbery, room temp meat is not appealing to me at all.

[coo359a2]

20 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

Different ship, different crew. Princess - what can one say?

We lucked out with better(?) service than you on the Grand.  They made sure to let us know on our first segment (no Plus) that we would be charged for our pizza.   On Segments with the  Plus, we had no trouble just ordering a pizza for each of us.  They even fixed  a pizza to go for me and DH  when we were in quarantine at separate times.  The pizza really made the cabin smell good.

[coo359a2]

11 minutes ago, memoak said:

We will be on the Ruby next month for 16 days and will see what happens. Two different bartenders on the Crown both encouraged sharing. We saw one group of 4 sharing one board

We might be on the same cruise - Ruby to Hawaii in April.

[memoak]

16 minutes ago, coo359a2 said:

We might be on the same cruise - Ruby to Hawaii in April.

Yep. Sailing on the 14th.  It will be our 7th Hawaii cruise. My mother was born and raised on Maui so it will be great to finally get back to that island. We were not able to go there last year

Edited March 1 by memoak

[ExploringTheGlobe]

54 minutes ago, rheathslc said:

That's good to know. I haven't cruised since before the casual dining change. We mostly like to have Sushi several times on the Royal Class ships with Ocean Terrace. I do miss the included Sushi at Vines. I'm not a fan of the charcuterie boards they serve now. 

If you haven't cruised since before the casual dining change, how do you know you aren't a fan of the new option in Vines?  They didn't have it before.