A Different Way of Looking at Plus/Premier

[RenieRaider]

4 hours ago, ldubs said:

IDK, I understand and agree with the justification the OP is sharing. What I don't fully understand is why, if I don't have a package, I must keep a tally of expenditures to avoid overspending.  I purchase what I want.   No tally necessary.  To be sure, we would check the folio from time to time for errors.

That's how it used to be. I purchase what I want.  At the end of your Cruise Vacation, the bill for indulging in the Spa, Playing Bingo, Enjoying FooFoo Drinks...... would be a shocker!!!!! 

With a package, I like that I won't have much of a bill IF I don't go crazy playing Bingo or book a lot of Spa appointments! 

This makes our cruise, All Inclusive to us.

Edited April 18 by RenieRaider

[Mara4166]

I want an all inclusive trip where I know exactly what I am spending.  Getting the package does this for me.  I may have a few extras from shopping or bingo, but everything else is all inclusive and I have no worries about how much I am spending, it was budgeted and spent up front.

[bumble_b62]

10 hours ago, blizzard44ca said:

You could just buy it once onboard for $60/day, and then it will include your gratuities.

 

Updated post..
Princess reply

I am very sorry that you were advised of wrong information. You will be charged $65 Australian dollars per person per day. There will be no service fee charged. Crew appreciation is automatically added to the guest shipboard guest folio.

[ldubs]

11 hours ago, RenieRaider said:

That's how it used to be. I purchase what I want.  At the end of your Cruise Vacation, the bill for indulging in the Spa, Playing Bingo, Enjoying FooFoo Drinks...... would be a shocker!!!!! 

With a package, I like that I won't have much of a bill IF I don't go crazy playing Bingo or book a lot of Spa appointments! 

This makes our cruise, All Inclusive to us.

 

The convenience of paying up front is understandable.  We are on vacation and know we will be spending, so have yet to be shocked over a bill.  I do remember those old days when the bills were delivered over the last night.  Can't say I actually heard gasps, but I bet there were a lot of them.   These days it is easy to check the folio, if a concern.  

[Drew B 58]

On 4/17/2024 at 7:22 AM, insidecabin said:

"only a little bit more"  that's relative.

Looking at our upcoming cruise the deal was good(very) so we have an obstructed balcony in a good location.

 

Considering the options for this one

 

Base fare for an inside in a decent location aft.

The balcony upgrade was 12% premium over the base fare

(over a midship inside it was just 3%)

to add plus was 75% premium

to add premier was a 97% premium

If we add the full cost of the CA to our base then doing the balcony and adding Premier was 80% premium(still very reasonable), that's nearly another cruise. 
 

If we were mid ship mini people the uplift to add premier over mini with CA)  would have been 45%

for the penthouse it was 18%

 

I suspect most experienced cruisers have a fairly good idea of their normal cruise habits to work out the value of any package over the PAYG totals without an in depth spread sheet.
 

As said some items may change value depending on cruise eg. Internet on a Europe cruise has little value to us as we can get enough roaming data for £2 and it will work for enough hours to do us(sometimes on sea days), a transatlantic with loads of sea days it's worth something.  

 

We do some trips boozy and some with heavy use of the paid food options(some both) which swings it towards the package, with premier the main benefit is 2 meals that has diminishing return on length of trip and we don't always fancy them anyway on short trips.

For now I work on

Full price plus and premier do not work for us.

Half price Plus is a no brainer and premier is a maybe. 

 

If the offer is somewhere in the middle(like premier for plus) I would have to think about it.

 

It is definitely relative.

 

I prefaced my statement by saying once gratuities and WiFi are factored in.  That presupposes that those are charges you would otherwise pay for.  If not, then that changes the calculus completely.  However, with that caveat in place, Plus is <$20/day more and Premier is <$40-day more.  While I’m not saying that is nothing, from my perspective it IS “only a little bit more” in the bigger picture…

[voljeep]

3 minutes ago, Drew B 58 said:

It is definitely relative.

 

I prefaced my statement by saying once gratuities and WiFi are factored in.  That presupposes that those are charges you would otherwise pay for.  If not, then that changes the calculus completely.  However, with that caveat in place, Plus is <$20/day more and Premier is <$40-day more.  While I’m not saying that is nothing, from my perspective it IS “only a little bit more” in the bigger picture…

Princess 'values' wifi at $750 pp per month (for reference) 30days x $25 pd

 

I value it at $0 on the ship ... but will grant P about $3 per day 'per cabin' when factoring in the package on board value.

 

For us - the drink portion of PLUS is $40 pp pd ... disregarding the 'fluff' 

[Drew B 58]

54 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Princess 'values' wifi at $750 pp per month (for reference) 30days x $25 pd

 

I value it at $0 on the ship ... but will grant P about $3 per day 'per cabin' when factoring in the package on board value.

 

For us - the drink portion of PLUS is $40 pp pd ... disregarding the 'fluff' 

Forget “value”.  The COST of their WiFi is $25/day.  If you would get it without the plan, then you are acknowledging a $25/day value.  And I would get it, although without the package I may try for a loophole and share the plan with my cabin mate.  If you would not get it, then you are assigning it a $0 value…

[weregoingcruising]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:42 PM, MTNest93 said:

We had the Plus package on our 1st cruise last year. For us it was a no-brainer.  I budget tightly at home (YNAB for the win!) and we splurge on vacation.  On that cruise we had 2 specialty dinners and bought a $99 photo package on the last day.  Photos aren’t usually our thing, but they got some great shots of us that would be nice to use at our funerals some day (we know our youngest daughter has secretly started a folder). We booked our 2nd cruise a week after returning home and got 2 other couples to join us.  We’re all excited to try out the new Sun Princess.  This time we purchased Premier because we know we’ll want to do a couple specialty dinners again as well as casual dining (which wasn’t available on the CB last July), plus we’ll have a lot of fun with the photographers with this group, and my BFF and favorite sister-in-law will drag me to the fitness classes daily, something I never managed to get to last time.  We also accidentally exceeded the Plus pkg drink prices a few times last year, but dang those Old Fashioneds were worth it!  Premier math made sense for this trip, and we liked walking off the ship last year with a tiny bill (thank you TA OBC, and stock benies). Personally we would never not do a package but we all cruise differently so it’s nice to have options! 

I know the Old Fashioned is  the Wisconsin state drink but what is the state bird?😀

[MacMadame]

 

3 hours ago, Drew B 58 said:

Forget “value”

 

 

I can see that, if there is something you will do because it's included in the package but wouldn't do it if it's not included, you might want to assign it the value to you. But if you aren't going to use it no matter what even if it's included, then it doesn't have a value. And if you are going to use it, whether it's in the package or not, it has the value that Princess charges you even if you don't think it should cost that much.

[wish_I_was_a_mermaid]

My two sisters and I will be traveling to the Carribean on Enchanted Princess this Summer. I suggested we book plus packages for ourselves. My sisters decided to go all out and get the Premium packages. I've cruised before and first couple of cruises I did ala carte payment for extras. The last few cruises I did basic packages, and I liked that, paying one price for the basic things I wanted without doing math every day. This time I did end up booking the premium package for myself though. Partly it does make my frugal bone ache, as I usually don't like to spend money for luxuries when it may be better spent for needs rather than wants. I admit engaging in activities with my sisters was a deciding factor because hanging out with them all week means I will want to go where they go when we do things together. We definitely will want pictures, something I don't usually buy. Hopefully getting into fitness classes will be available, another thing I'd love to try but won't pay for on a cruise when there's a gym available. I will use wifi even though it's just one device, not four. The humongous Premium desserts look overwhelming. If I can't get a simple scoop of unadorned gelato this is the extra that will go unused. 

[NavyVeteran]

2 hours ago, wish_I_was_a_mermaid said:

My two sisters and I will be traveling to the Carribean on Enchanted Princess this Summer. I suggested we book plus packages for ourselves. My sisters decided to go all out and get the Premium packages. I've cruised before and first couple of cruises I did ala carte payment for extras. The last few cruises I did basic packages, and I liked that, paying one price for the basic things I wanted without doing math every day. This time I did end up booking the premium package for myself though. Partly it does make my frugal bone ache, as I usually don't like to spend money for luxuries when it may be better spent for needs rather than wants. I admit engaging in activities with my sisters was a deciding factor because hanging out with them all week means I will want to go where they go when we do things together. We definitely will want pictures, something I don't usually buy. Hopefully getting into fitness classes will be available, another thing I'd love to try but won't pay for on a cruise when there's a gym available. I will use wifi even though it's just one device, not four. The humongous Premium desserts look overwhelming. If I can't get a simple scoop of unadorned gelato this is the extra that will go unused. 

You could possibly get by with the Plus package. It includes one-device wifi which is all you would use. Even if you wanted more, you could use one of your sisters, since they will have four each. The wifi is one part of the Plus or Premier that you are allowed to share.

For pictures, your sisters will get digital copies of every picture that they are in, and they can share those digital copies with you. So you would get copies of all of the group pictures. The only pictures you wouldn't get would be solo pictures of you.

[suzyed]

On 4/11/2024 at 12:49 PM, Drew B 58 said:

When people are looking into getting the Plus or Premier package, the advice I invariably hear is to “do the math”.  If what you would otherwise spend on what is covered by the package comes out to more than $60 per day, then they say Plus is worth it.  If it comes out to more than $80 per day, then perhaps Premier would be worth it (although Plus may still be the better choice).  There is nothing wrong with this approach to the question, but I’d like to suggest another way to look at it:

 

if I were sailing on the Standard package, there is NO WAY I would spend more than $60/$80 on these things.  I’m too in the habit of denying myself indulgences, and I am basically cheap at heart.  Each purchase would be a struggle.  I WOULD pay the gratuities.  IMO, those are not discretionary.  I would split one internet package with my cabin mates, even if that meant I could only use WiFi at restricted times.  I would probably splurge on 12-15 alcoholic beverages over the course of a week-long cruise (which is not to say that I wouldn’t WANT more).  I would probably not buy a single specialty coffee/soda/juice/mocktail.  I like these things, but couldn’t justify the money. I wouldn’t spend to eat at casual or specialty restaurants (in my fifteen previous cruises, I’ve never paid for upcharge food), even though I would love to try some of them.  I probably WOULD pay to activate Ocean Now because I would really feel like I was missing out if I never tried that.  I would definitely not pay for premium desserts or fitness classes.

 

So if you take a lookI se at all of that, it makes for a pretty basic no-frills cruise experience.  I would be fine with it.  I have been fine with it or something very much like it on every previous cruise I’ve taken.  However, by making one simple choice - to buy one of the packages - the cruise immediately switches from basic and utilitarian to bountiful and indulgent.  I will be able to eat what I want (to an extent), drink what I want, surf the net when I want, etc.  Yes, it is hard for me to make the decision to spend that kind of money.  However, once I do, I am suddenly not only free to but actually incentivized to treat myself to an experience I never would otherwise have had!  That feeling of being spoiled has a value that is not necessarily simple  to plug in to a simple math formula…

 

Is this a good decision?  I don’t know yet.  I’m getting ready to take my first Princess cruise under the Premier plan.  I will let you know after if I made the right choice!

I see your points and I think you are making a good decision to upgrade, but Boy! you jumped right in with Premier!!  WOW!

Enjoy!

[Auntiejo]

Personally I agree with the OP. We do mostly specialty dining and casual dining and greatly value premium wines and spirits. At the end of the day we probably break about even with premiere but that zero balance on our folio upon checkout and the zero concerns of what things cost make our vacation all the better so we are all in on Premiere. 
 

If you’re content to eat in the buffet and MDR and don’t drink much it’s not worth it. It completely depends on how you cruise. It’s not a one size fits all situation!

[ldubs]

2 minutes ago, Auntiejo said:

 

If you’re content to eat in the buffet and MDR and don’t drink much it’s not worth it. It completely depends on how you cruise. It’s not a one size fits all situation!

 

I also agree with the OP if that is how you are wired.  I'm sure you realize many of us will use the casual or specialty restaurants without the package and without any concerns at checkout.  

[suzyed]

On 4/11/2024 at 4:10 PM, satxdiver said:

I agree.  I am vacation even thought it is endless and appreciate the one price which in my case is plus.  I can order whatever drinks I want in any quantity and we both get the internet access.  To me gratuities are an added cost of the cruise and would never delete them.  I have bought plus ever since it was introduced.  I hope they keep it and not increase it anymore with gym classes (at my age?), the special desserts (just looking at them adds calories!) and other benefits.  I do drink a bit but nowhere near the limit of 15/day.  I have been known to penny pinch and keep frequent tabs on my folio several times a day but to me plus is worth it. 

Agree with all your points!

[suzyed]

On 4/11/2024 at 4:54 PM, Muffinz said:

We have got the plus package on our cruise in December - we did the math and it made sense to have the package.

We're not huge drinkers, but knowing you can go to a bar and get a beer / wine / cocktail without worrying about the cost is great.... We tend to drink more when we're on holiday relaxing anyway

And we get wifi and that's a big plus

We're not too fussed on the premium deserts and probably won't use the free gym classes, but the package still makes sense to us

 

As long as they don't start raising the prices after seeing all our thoughts on here!

 

[suzyed]

On 4/12/2024 at 4:06 PM, EclipseChaser9 said:

 

We visit the juice bar frequently, which I would skip if it wasn’t included in the Plus package. It’s very good, they use fresh fruit and make it in front of you.  But I wouldn’t pay $8 or $12 for fresh juice if it wasn’t included.

 

We also get bottled water and some canned sodas so we always have some available in our refrigerator. 

We enjoyed the Juice Bar on our last sailing and I agree, I would never splurge on that without the package. We don't drink soda but we drink plenty of water.

[Traderboy]

Does basic WiFi allow you to send a photo via WhatsApp?

[memoak]

55 minutes ago, Traderboy said:

Does basic WiFi allow you to send a photo via WhatsApp?

What does basic WiFi mean ?  WiFi on board is the same no matter how you pay for it 

[dreams_of_travel]

On 4/18/2024 at 6:24 AM, bumble_b62 said:

Updated post..
Princess reply

I am very sorry that you were advised of wrong information. You will be charged $65 Australian dollars per person per day. There will be no service fee charged. Crew appreciation is automatically added to the guest shipboard guest folio.

Please clarify:  the Princess Plus cost is $65AUD/day which includes drinks, wifi, and gratuities? or did you mean Princess Plus cost is $65AUD/day which is only drinks and wifi? TIA

 

I have considered buying Princess Plus once on board the ship, but I am still trying to work out the costs for everything for my cruise in Australia in November.

[bumble_b62]

10 hours ago, dreams_of_travel said:

Please clarify:  the Princess Plus cost is $65AUD/day which includes drinks, wifi, and gratuities? or did you mean Princess Plus cost is $65AUD/day which is only drinks and wifi? TIA

 

I have considered buying Princess Plus once on board the ship, but I am still trying to work out the costs for everything for my cruise in Australia in November.

$65AUD no gratuities included on sailings not in Australia &NZ.

Australia and NZ cruises have gratuities built into our price.

 

 

[MyriamS]

I kinda agree and disagree. I also like the feeling of an all inclusive holiday and don't want to obsessively keep track of my spending. But on the other hand, would the packages give me a more luxurious holiday? I don't really think so. They include: 

- Gratuities: I always pay them, so that would be useful for me to have it included. 

- Wifi: since all my itineraries are in Europe and port intensive, I don't need the Internet package. Actually I would even go farther and say I don't want one. It's good to disconnect while on holiday.

- Fitness class: You'd have to pay me to go there. 🙂

- Room service/Ocean now: I might upset some people but I think OceanNow is kinda gimmicky. I mean, if I had it included, I would probably try it once out of curiosity, but I don't think it would enhance my holiday. If I want a drink, I can more easily and quickly order one at a bar rather than send a waiter to my location (also I'm not really comfortable with the medallion being used to track my movements throughout the ship). As for room service, I don't like eating in my room except for small odourless snacks. 

- Premium dessert/casual dining/speciality dining: Ok this one I have to admit I would use if I had the package. But it's definitely not a must for me. I almost never book any premium food options on cruise because the way I see it, it will 90% of the time be better and cheaper on land. I'm sure Alfredo's pizza is good, but there are tons of even better pizzerias close to me. The MDR is the experience I look forward to: not exceptional but very good food, as many courses as you like, made to order, served by lovely, attentive wait staff. 

- And finally the drinks: I don't like wine. I don't like beer. I don't like (gasp!) coffee. I can enjoy a good cocktail, but would never have one a day. More like one a week (alcohol makes me woozy). I don't really drink fruit juice or soda either. So if I had the package I would use it only for the occasional cocktail and specialty tea (I do love tea, but the basic kind is often all I need).

I know I sound like some kind of weird ascetic, but water and tea are genuinely the only beverages I would drink every day based on personal taste. So I'm not depriving myself by opting out of the drink packages. On the contrary, if I paid for one, I would feel bad for not getting my money's worth. 

 

Considering the high prices of drinks on cruise ship, if you like alcoholic drinks and/or speciality coffees, I would definitely go with the OP's approach of "book the package and relax". But for me and many other non-drinkers, it makes no sense, even from a pure enjoyment perspective. 

[555]

The OP has displayed my comments on the subject but I still can't justify it in the long run. Sure, it's nice to have it all but in the past we've never longed for all those items in the amounts they include with either package and would probably never even break even, all things considered.

 

[Cruisemeister2002]

I see your point and like yourself have never had a package before, although I have indulged in what on P&O they call a Celebration package which doesn't include an allowance of drinks, fitness classes, casual dining. But does include a champagne breakfast in your cabin, bathrobes and slippers, presentation champagne flute, formal photo and frame, 2 x Speciality restaurant visits, a facial or 50 minute massage and two desserts in your cabin for around £400. However this year we are cruising onboard Sky Princess and have ordered the Princess Plus package. As with yourself I do question whether I am doing the correct thing as neither myself or wife drink huge amounts, neither of us participate in going to a gym and although I like ice cream, my wife can take or leave them. As for gratuities until they became as they are now we only tipped our cabin steward and main dining room table waiters.

[555]

1 minute ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

As with yourself I do question whether I am doing the correct thing as neither myself or wife drink huge amounts, neither of us participate in going to a gym and although I like ice cream, my wife can take or leave them.

At home we're basically considered only sociable drinkers, so faced with a max of 15 drinks is out of the question (and they realize that). 😄

What's wrong with getting your fill of ice cream in the DR?

Surely it's sufficient for most people.