6/20/24: Double Cruise Credits for Captain's Circle Guests with Princess Cruises' New Loyalty Accelerator Program

[Mississippian]

Does any significant portion of guests not buy Princess Plus?

[Grego]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:41 AM, Cruise Raider said:

I am neither of fan or critic or Padgett, but I certainly do understand what he’s doing. To be blunt, many of the most traveled passengers are aging out and it’s only right to keep the business financially stable by attracting a younger crowd.  
 

.......yes, and he is overlooking the fact that us, the "aging" group are the ones that have and do spend the money and more importantly, we are the ambassadors who promote and suggest sailing with Princess to the "younger crowd".

Our loyalty help make possible to get the cruise line up and running after the pandemic because we have the stakeholder interest in sailing with the cruise line we most enjoy.

We will enjoy our 60th voyage with Princess in about 30 days and look forward to being thanked for our loyalty as much as we will enjoy being together with the family we have with Princess.

[555]

12 hours ago, TRLD said:

Except if they are buying a package the wifi is included and with drinks included not much need for the minibar.

Just exchange the setup for a bottle of wine to take home.

[rosevew]

2 hours ago, 555 said:

Just exchange the setup for a bottle of wine to take home.

That's an option but really not an incentive to want to reach Elite status.

[555]

7 minutes ago, rosevew said:

That's an option but really not an incentive to want to reach Elite status.

We view it as the only option when we buy into the plus package. 

I only wish they would return to issuing coffee cards.

[billco]

2 hours ago, 555 said:

Just exchange the setup for a bottle of wine to take home.

We did that on our cruise last April on the Discovery Princess. Unfortunately, it took 3 days and several phone calls for them to get around to it.

[Cruise Raider]

3 hours ago, Grego said:

.......yes, and he is overlooking the fact that us, the "aging" group are the ones that have and do spend the money and more importantly, we are the ambassadors who promote and suggest sailing with Princess to the "younger crowd".

Our loyalty help make possible to get the cruise line up and running after the pandemic because we have the stakeholder interest in sailing with the cruise line we most enjoy.

We will enjoy our 60th voyage with Princess in about 30 days and look forward to being thanked for our loyalty as much as we will enjoy being together with the family we have with Princess.

I don’t feel like my loyalty is being overlooked just because the cruise line is adding new loyalists.  
 

[Cruise Raider]

7 hours ago, Mississippian said:

Does any significant portion of guests not buy Princess Plus?

I believe so but I think it may depend on the demographics you see on certain itineraries.  
We mostly cruise out of San Francisco and was surprised to hear that they would be happy if 30% of the passengers bought one of the packages.  
Perhaps it is higher in the Caribbean?  

[ecs66]

On 6/20/2024 at 4:03 PM, HikaruTsuki said:

Well shoot. My cruise departs just days after the Dec 1st cut-off. 

Ditto.  Dec. 6 for us.  Besides, I don't understand any of this.  And I don't for a minute Princess is doing this to honor "valued guests"; it's a business decision.  That's free enterprise, they can do it if they want to, and more power to them.  Cruise lines aren't charities.  It might please their shareholders.  (I don't know; just my perspective.)

[PescadoAmarillo]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

I don’t feel like my loyalty is being overlooked just because the cruise line is adding new loyalists.  
 

Nor do I. But I do feel like my loyalty is being overlooked when the price to me of purchasing a package is exactly the same as it is to a first time cruiser.  The 50% discount on WiFi that I’m entitled to basically disappears. I would feel my loyalty is further acknowledged if I could forgo the minibar for a further package discount. 

[LACruiser88]

3 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I would feel my loyalty is further acknowledged if I could forgo the minibar for a further package discount.

Amen, Sister!

[memoak]

9 hours ago, Mississippian said:

Does any significant portion of guests not buy Princess Plus?

I think there is a large portion of cruisers who do not drink or carry a phone all the time who would really not get full value with a package. In the bars most people who congregate there have packages but that is a minority of passengers. We sail on longer cruises for the most part and many people do not lay out $60 per day per person over 21 days or so. Also on cruises with lots of families and kids less people seem to have them

 

[Cruise Raider]

28 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Nor do I. But I do feel like my loyalty is being overlooked when the price to me of purchasing a package is exactly the same as it is to a first time cruiser.  The 50% discount on WiFi that I’m entitled to basically disappears. I would feel my loyalty is further acknowledged if I could forgo the minibar for a further package discount. 

I think a $10 discount per day pp on the package for elites would go a long way, even though I never feel as though my loyalty is being overlooked.  I’d be even happier if they upgraded us from the plus to the premier package for $10 a day pp. 

But, I always buy the package and make good use of the little mini liquor bottles they give us .. if our steward or one of our favorite crew members doesn’t drink, we’ve been known to take a box of them to our annual family white elephant gift exchange.  They haven’t quite caught onto it yet what 50 mini bottles of liquor feels like in a package.  😂 
 

[memoak]

47 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I think a $10 discount per day pp on the package for elites would go a long way, even though I never feel as though my loyalty is being overlooked.  I’d be even happier if they upgraded us from the plus to the premier package for $10 a day pp. 

But, I always buy the package and make good use of the little mini liquor bottles they give us .. if our steward or one of our favorite crew members doesn’t drink, we’ve been known to take a box of them to our annual family white elephant gift exchange.  They haven’t quite caught onto it yet what 50 mini bottles of liquor feels like in a package.  😂 
 

Change out the liquors you don’t drink for something you do and pour what you don’t use into empty water bottles and pack carefully yo take home. We change out everything vodka and then take the so so vodka home to use in Bloody Mary drinks

[Cruise Raider]

22 minutes ago, memoak said:

Change out the liquors you don’t drink for something you do and pour what you don’t use into empty water bottles and pack carefully yo take home. We change out everything vodka and then take the so so vodka home to use in Bloody Mary drinks

We really never drink hard alcohol at home.  

[MsSoCalCruiser]

32 minutes ago, memoak said:

Change out the liquors you don’t drink for something you do and pour what you don’t use into empty water bottles and pack carefully yo take home. We change out everything vodka and then take the so so vodka home to use in Bloody Mary drinks

I must be missing something… Why would you open the little liquor bottles and pour them into a water bottle?

[Cruise Raider]

3 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I must be missing something… Why would you open the little liquor bottles and pour them into a water bottle?

I couldn’t figure that out either.  The look on the faces of the recipients of the person who opens a package of small liquor bottles is priceless.  It is a white elephant gift exchange, after all.  😂 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

Nor do I. But I do feel like my loyalty is being overlooked when the price to me of purchasing a package is exactly the same as it is to a first time cruiser.  The 50% discount on WiFi that I’m entitled to basically disappears. I would feel my loyalty is further acknowledged if I could forgo the minibar for a further package discount. 

The packages are really the only target Princess has left for providing discounts.  It eliminated lower prices with the early booking best price guarantee; it eliminated the "Three for Free" option of giving guests gratuities, drinks and a Specialty Dining credit for fee when it introduced the packages.  So all that is left is discounting the packages themselves and so far...crickets.  Would love to see the $60/$80 pricing go down 10% for Ruby; 15% for Platinum and 20% for Elite, or something like that.  At the Platinum level, a 15% savings on Premier would be $12 and would basically give back the half-priced WiFi.  At 20% for Elite, that would drive the price of Premier almost all the way down to the current price of Plus.  Seems doable, and frankly necessary now that the packages have leveled the field and removed whatever daylight there was between a first-time cruiser and an Elite cruiser.   

[555]

16 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

We really never drink hard alcohol at home.  

Neither do I but does Kahlua or Chambord count? 😄

[memoak]

15 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

I must be missing something… Why would you open the little liquor bottles and pour them into a water bottle?

So I can pack just a few bottles instead of like 30 + small bottles. We are doing a b2b in a suite so 4 mini bars. Also some of the bottles can be glass so breakage is possible

[memoak]

9 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

The packages are really the only target Princess has left for providing discounts.  It eliminated lower prices with the early booking best price guarantee; it eliminated the "Three for Free" option of giving guests gratuities, drinks and a Specialty Dining credit for fee when it introduced the packages.  So all that is left is discounting the packages themselves and so far...crickets.  Would love to see the $60/$80 pricing go down 10% for Ruby; 15% for Platinum and 20% for Elite, or something like that.  At the Platinum level, a 15% savings on Premier would be $12 and would basically give back the half-priced WiFi.  At 20% for Elite, that would drive the price of Premier almost all the way down to the current price of Plus.  Seems doable, and frankly necessary now that the packages have leveled the field and removed whatever daylight there was between a first-time cruiser and an Elite cruiser.   

Laundry is still the biggest elite benefit especially on long cruises. On a 14-21 day cruise we pack as if it is a 7 day cruise and send out laundry every 3 days

[JimmyVWine]

5 minutes ago, memoak said:

Laundry is still the biggest elite benefit especially on long cruises. On a 14-21 day cruise we pack as if it is a 7 day cruise and send out laundry every 3 days

And "biggest" is quickly becoming synonymous with "only".

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

And "biggest" is quickly becoming synonymous with "only".

If I had to pay for 7 loads of laundry it would cost a bundle or I could fight for washing machines on board. Sometimes the laundry rooms feel like battlegrounds. We also like the mini bar when I feel like a soda or beer without leaving the cabin or having to wait for room service or the app

[PescadoAmarillo]

2 hours ago, memoak said:

Change out the liquors you don’t drink for something you do and pour what you don’t use into empty water bottles and pack carefully yo take home. We change out everything vodka and then take the so so vodka home to use in Bloody Mary drinks

We actually have a box in the basement and a smaller box under the kitchen island of mini gin bottles, and they are all at least three years old and, in fact, starting to evaporate in the bottles. We used to bring home gin thinking we’d drink it or serve it to others, but it just doesn’t happen. We now just give the minibar items away, but even that’s harder because so many people purchase drink packages. But if we can find someone who drives to the port, they’ll often take them home with them. In general, the minibar is really quite a PITA to get rid of and creates work on our part and even more work on Princess’s part to handle. 

[Kay S]

7 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 In general, the minibar is really quite a PITA to get rid of and creates work on our part and even more work on Princess’s part to handle. 

Trading out the minibar for something else has become a problem, too.  (Maybe it's just me, but it has taken three phone calls to get that accomplished since covid.)  Our bar cabinet at home has cute little bottles lined up behind the glass doors and now I see the minibar as a decorative device. 🙂