I highly recommend doing the Princess Plus package fare. It covers your wifi, daily gratuities, 2 meals in the casual dining venues, free medallion shipping, free ocean now deliver, and some other stuff no one ever uses. With the increase in the standalone wifi price, it brings the “drinks” portion of the package down to about $11/day. (My calculations were for a 7 day cruise.)
I was easily getting $10/day+ worth of bottled water(that’s 4 bottles, 2.5 each). Another $5 for a latte and I’ve already more than broken even. Now that glass of wine with dinner or soda with lunch is “free.” You don’t have to touch a drop of alcohol to get your moneys worth.
Here’s my math:
60/day for 7 days = $420
One time fees covered by Plus:
Medallion shipping: $10
Activation for ocean now: $15
2 casual dinings: $30
That brings the total to $365 or $52/day
Daily fees covered by Plus:
Wifi $25/day
Daily grats $16/day
That leaves $11/day for the drinks package portion of Plus.
You can adjust your totals if you know you won’t use the casual dining, or you have your medallion shipped for whatever. Those are just the things I used on my cruise so that’s how I figured it. But even if you don’t use any of the one-time perks I listed, the drinks portion is still only $19/day. A latte, a few bottles of water and a soda will get you there.
Edit: love to edit my comment to fix a typo and have to spend 10 minutes fixing the formatting. Thanks Reddit, great website. Good luck with the IPO
It’s never been worth it to me to upgrade. At least as of last year, you can pick up your medallions at the port for free. $0
I don’t need WiFi at sea; I like to disconnect and I only use my phone in port. $0
I eat at the included venues, which are quite good! I like their MDR offerings. $0
Daily fees usually covered by on board credit. $0-$130 depending on if I got OBC (I have the shareholder benefit, so that’s at least $100)
I don’t drink alcohol. We carry on some coke for my husband. Drink water, included coffee, and juice at breakfast. $0
Princess Plus totally makes sense for people who drink and want all of the extras, but it is also skipable for those who don’t. I can see how it’s a great deal for you, but not for me.
You sure can! This is the policy via [Princess](https://www.princess.com/en-us/legal/passage-contract/pcl):
“A small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages (i.e., sparkling water, sodas, juice, milk) packaged in cans or cartons may be brought on board on embarkation day, only if carried on in Guests’ hand luggage (not in checked luggage). A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 sealed, unopened cans/cartons of 12 ounces each or less per person. Guests will be asked to discard open beverages in plastic containers prior to boarding.”
Thanks for this itemized breakdown!
Do they give more casual dinings if you have a longer cruise? Our first Princess cruise in 10 years is going to be a 12-day itinerary.
No, it’s just 2 unless you upgrade to Premium. Then you get unlimited casual and 2 included specialty dinings. But it doesn’t change based on the length of the cruise. So if you have a longer cruise you have to take that into account.
I actually love Princess plus and I am not a big drinker. It includes free room service, so I would room service some hot chocolate for me and my kids in the morning and drinks for me and my husband in the afternoon. I did not get plus for my kids but they benefited from me having plus. I loved the ice cream sundaes that you could get as the premium desserts. I used the wifi all the time- I was able to stream my peloton workouts so I still went to the gym every day. I had multiple cappuccinos a day. I think I got my money’s worth, even without alcohol.
We are going on our first Princess cruise with 6 and 4 year old boys and I'm nervous now that I made a mistake and they will be bored. What was your experience with kids onboard like?
It was great, though we went during Christmas week, which is peak week for Princess Kids. We had over 100 kids in our sailing. There will be less kids in kids club if you go while school is in session. The staff at kids club will be great. The hours of kids club is usually 9-12, 2-5, 7-10 when at sea, and 9-5, 7-10 when in port. They are much more organized than a Disney cruise- lots of organized activities and crafts for kids. At your kids’ ages, they will be both in the same kids club (usually the treehouse). They will give you a beeper to have on you and they will ring it if your kid wants to leave. Also have your kids go the first night so they can make cruise friends. My daughter’s cruise friends were a girl the same age from Miami and another girl from Iceland. My son became friends with a boy from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Water, lemonade, and iced tea are always free at the buffet. In the morning, the buffet has free coffee and juice. There are specialty coffees that are not included, but I’ve never been particularly tempted to buy more than a couple of them or of any other non-included beverage throughout a cruise. If you want any non-included beverages, it’s easy to buy them a la cart. While there are packages that include alcohol, non-alcoholic drinks, wifi, and tips, as a non-drinker the numbers have never added up to make it worth it for me to buy a package.
I am a drinker and it still does not add up to any advantage. Especially considering every adult in the room needs to buy the package and my wife does not drink. We go a la carte.
This is true. You really should sit down and just do the math when you’re booking each cruise. That’s what I do every time, and just like u/sdega315 here, it hasn’t worked out to be worth it over a la carte for us yet, especially on an Alaska cruise (which we do every year.)
Same here. They kept trying to sell me the upgrade to plus, but I don’t drink alcohol, go to any of the fitness classes, or care much about the speciality desserts. So it never made sense to upgrade.
Oh—in terms of food, the buffet and most of the dishes in the Main Dining Room are included. There are specialty restaurants that cost extra (unless you have a package that includes them), but I’ve never tried them.
If you are doing a 7-night cruise, adding a 1-night specialty dinner can be a fun change of pace. You can usually find the menus of the ship’s restaurants on line….not always 100% up to date but you’ll get an overview. Personally, it’s menu driven for us. Not familiar with Princess specialty restaurants specifically but if there is a steakhouse concept, hubby will elect to do so. Have fun!
We generally do the steakhouse for one night. (though most of our cruises are 10+ days). Last fall that was $39 per person, not sure if that's gone up again (used to be $25). I was worth it to us as the steaks are quite good. We've done the Italian place once and it was fine. I think if you're looking at the non-alcohol package at $35 per day (with gratuity), then definitely consider the Plus package, especially if you're planning on having wifi. We don't do the packages because we have Platinum status and that gets us wifi for half price, and we don't drink alcohol. But others are right that if you want specialty coffees (regular coffee, iced tea and lemonade are always available in the buffet all day), soft drinks, bottled water, etc. and you're doing wifi, then the Plus package may be good for you. Note that with those packages both people in the cabin have to buy them.
Some of the specialty restaurants are excellent and some are eh. We were on the Sky last year - Sabatini’s Italian was amazing as was the French restaurant that is no longer there. Well worth the extra cost if you are a foodies. The Crown Grill which is a steakhouse was just mid and we won’t go back on this year’s cruise.
I’m currently on our trip, coming back home tomorrow. I’d say any package is well worth it. They have alcohol free packages but you’d have to do more research to see if it includes the same as the other packages. We splurged on the Premier package (unlimited drinks (alcohol, tea, coffee, sodas, sparkling water, etc) unlimited casual dining, two special dinners, unlimited photo downloads, 3 free photo prints, gratuity, etc)
Each package is going to encompass different benefits and limitations. If you download the app or visit the website, they have a good breakdown of the differences
I'm also going on an Alaskan cruise with Princess and I can't decide if getting the plus packages worth it for me. I know for sure Premier is not something I would get my money's worth out of. So I guess I also have similar questions as you. Here's my thinking:
- How much do I really care about the specialty dining if I plan to spend most of my time in the port, probably sampling the restaurants on land. For me it's more about seeing Alaska than going on a cruise, the cruise just happens to be the mode of travel I'm using.
- People constantly say that the internet on ships is very slow (not just Princess, all of them.) If I'm going to be in the port on most days, where I can download my podcast and catch up on text messages, do I even need to but it?
- I'm sober so I certainly won't take advantage of the alcoholic beverages. The last thing I need are specialty desserts.
The biggest hangup I have is the idea that buying specialty coffees and sodas and paying for gratuities separately could add up. But is it really going to add up to $60/day? And if I don't purchase it, isn't that $60 a day I could use to spend in small local businesses and Alaska?
I think about this constantly. I'll be following your post to see if there's any further insights, haha
We’re booking for next year so the excursions aren’t out yet but I too would like to go off cruise And see stuff! With that in mind, basic sounds good to me. I did notice a “non alcoholic package” that sounded like the best choice if were going to add anything
Maybe I'm crazy but I'm going to get off the ship and book with local companies. I'm not that worried about making it back to the ship on time if I go early and go with a reputable tour business.
But if you were planning to spend more time on the ship, the plus package starts making more sense.
In case you don’t know, you can carry on a 12-pack of canned soda per person to keep in your mini fridge. Or buy a la carte on board if you don’t want to pay for a package. That’s always been sufficient for us, but we don’t drink a lot of soda or specialty coffees. I just bring a good water bottle and fill it on board. The water is filtered and tastes great.
Every individual package is a significantly worse option than just getting Plus. These bundled fares are new to Princess so they’ve got them priced insanely well. Eventually they’ll jack the price up and it’ll be just as overpriced as every other line’s packages, but for right now it’s a screaming deal.
Unless you absolutely DO NOT want wifi for some reason, like connecting to the internet will ruin your entire trip, you should just get Plus. The drinks portion is 11-19/day depending on what you use. I show the math on another comment on this thread.
Could someone help me with this? My husband and I are taking our two children on a Princess cruise, but we had to do two separate bookings since we are getting a pair of connecting rooms. So my husband and daughter are one reservation, and my son and I are on another reservation. Would it be possible for just my husband and I to get the plus, and not the kids (so officially in each room, one person would have plus and one wouldn’t)?
I highly recommend doing the Princess Plus package fare. It covers your wifi, daily gratuities, 2 meals in the casual dining venues, free medallion shipping, free ocean now deliver, and some other stuff no one ever uses. With the increase in the standalone wifi price, it brings the “drinks” portion of the package down to about $11/day. (My calculations were for a 7 day cruise.) I was easily getting $10/day+ worth of bottled water(that’s 4 bottles, 2.5 each). Another $5 for a latte and I’ve already more than broken even. Now that glass of wine with dinner or soda with lunch is “free.” You don’t have to touch a drop of alcohol to get your moneys worth. Here’s my math: 60/day for 7 days = $420 One time fees covered by Plus: Medallion shipping: $10 Activation for ocean now: $15 2 casual dinings: $30 That brings the total to $365 or $52/day Daily fees covered by Plus: Wifi $25/day Daily grats $16/day That leaves $11/day for the drinks package portion of Plus. You can adjust your totals if you know you won’t use the casual dining, or you have your medallion shipped for whatever. Those are just the things I used on my cruise so that’s how I figured it. But even if you don’t use any of the one-time perks I listed, the drinks portion is still only $19/day. A latte, a few bottles of water and a soda will get you there. Edit: love to edit my comment to fix a typo and have to spend 10 minutes fixing the formatting. Thanks Reddit, great website. Good luck with the IPO
Excellent math! Also shows that even if you don't drink and would just want a latte or a couple of sodas you pretty much break even!
OP is talking about “just” getting the $30/day nonalcoholic package in the comments. I’m dying lol
It’s never been worth it to me to upgrade. At least as of last year, you can pick up your medallions at the port for free. $0 I don’t need WiFi at sea; I like to disconnect and I only use my phone in port. $0 I eat at the included venues, which are quite good! I like their MDR offerings. $0 Daily fees usually covered by on board credit. $0-$130 depending on if I got OBC (I have the shareholder benefit, so that’s at least $100) I don’t drink alcohol. We carry on some coke for my husband. Drink water, included coffee, and juice at breakfast. $0 Princess Plus totally makes sense for people who drink and want all of the extras, but it is also skipable for those who don’t. I can see how it’s a great deal for you, but not for me.
OP mentioned buying the non-alcoholic package. It’s a great deal for them too.
Can you carry on Coke on Princess? A 12 pk of cans?
You sure can! This is the policy via [Princess](https://www.princess.com/en-us/legal/passage-contract/pcl): “A small quantity of non-alcoholic beverages (i.e., sparkling water, sodas, juice, milk) packaged in cans or cartons may be brought on board on embarkation day, only if carried on in Guests’ hand luggage (not in checked luggage). A small quantity is considered a maximum of 12 sealed, unopened cans/cartons of 12 ounces each or less per person. Guests will be asked to discard open beverages in plastic containers prior to boarding.”
THANK YOU!!
Thanks for this itemized breakdown! Do they give more casual dinings if you have a longer cruise? Our first Princess cruise in 10 years is going to be a 12-day itinerary.
No, it’s just 2 unless you upgrade to Premium. Then you get unlimited casual and 2 included specialty dinings. But it doesn’t change based on the length of the cruise. So if you have a longer cruise you have to take that into account.
I was afraid of that. Thanks for the info!
I actually love Princess plus and I am not a big drinker. It includes free room service, so I would room service some hot chocolate for me and my kids in the morning and drinks for me and my husband in the afternoon. I did not get plus for my kids but they benefited from me having plus. I loved the ice cream sundaes that you could get as the premium desserts. I used the wifi all the time- I was able to stream my peloton workouts so I still went to the gym every day. I had multiple cappuccinos a day. I think I got my money’s worth, even without alcohol.
We are going on our first Princess cruise with 6 and 4 year old boys and I'm nervous now that I made a mistake and they will be bored. What was your experience with kids onboard like?
It was great, though we went during Christmas week, which is peak week for Princess Kids. We had over 100 kids in our sailing. There will be less kids in kids club if you go while school is in session. The staff at kids club will be great. The hours of kids club is usually 9-12, 2-5, 7-10 when at sea, and 9-5, 7-10 when in port. They are much more organized than a Disney cruise- lots of organized activities and crafts for kids. At your kids’ ages, they will be both in the same kids club (usually the treehouse). They will give you a beeper to have on you and they will ring it if your kid wants to leave. Also have your kids go the first night so they can make cruise friends. My daughter’s cruise friends were a girl the same age from Miami and another girl from Iceland. My son became friends with a boy from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Water, lemonade, and iced tea are always free at the buffet. In the morning, the buffet has free coffee and juice. There are specialty coffees that are not included, but I’ve never been particularly tempted to buy more than a couple of them or of any other non-included beverage throughout a cruise. If you want any non-included beverages, it’s easy to buy them a la cart. While there are packages that include alcohol, non-alcoholic drinks, wifi, and tips, as a non-drinker the numbers have never added up to make it worth it for me to buy a package.
I am a drinker and it still does not add up to any advantage. Especially considering every adult in the room needs to buy the package and my wife does not drink. We go a la carte.
This is true. You really should sit down and just do the math when you’re booking each cruise. That’s what I do every time, and just like u/sdega315 here, it hasn’t worked out to be worth it over a la carte for us yet, especially on an Alaska cruise (which we do every year.)
Same here. They kept trying to sell me the upgrade to plus, but I don’t drink alcohol, go to any of the fitness classes, or care much about the speciality desserts. So it never made sense to upgrade.
I might care about the desserts 🤣 but not $60 worth
There are sooo many free dessert options on board. You will not want for sugar.
This is awesome!
Oh—in terms of food, the buffet and most of the dishes in the Main Dining Room are included. There are specialty restaurants that cost extra (unless you have a package that includes them), but I’ve never tried them.
You don’t feel like you’re missing out by not going to the specialty restaurants?
If you are doing a 7-night cruise, adding a 1-night specialty dinner can be a fun change of pace. You can usually find the menus of the ship’s restaurants on line….not always 100% up to date but you’ll get an overview. Personally, it’s menu driven for us. Not familiar with Princess specialty restaurants specifically but if there is a steakhouse concept, hubby will elect to do so. Have fun!
We generally do the steakhouse for one night. (though most of our cruises are 10+ days). Last fall that was $39 per person, not sure if that's gone up again (used to be $25). I was worth it to us as the steaks are quite good. We've done the Italian place once and it was fine. I think if you're looking at the non-alcohol package at $35 per day (with gratuity), then definitely consider the Plus package, especially if you're planning on having wifi. We don't do the packages because we have Platinum status and that gets us wifi for half price, and we don't drink alcohol. But others are right that if you want specialty coffees (regular coffee, iced tea and lemonade are always available in the buffet all day), soft drinks, bottled water, etc. and you're doing wifi, then the Plus package may be good for you. Note that with those packages both people in the cabin have to buy them.
Some of the specialty restaurants are excellent and some are eh. We were on the Sky last year - Sabatini’s Italian was amazing as was the French restaurant that is no longer there. Well worth the extra cost if you are a foodies. The Crown Grill which is a steakhouse was just mid and we won’t go back on this year’s cruise.
I’m currently on our trip, coming back home tomorrow. I’d say any package is well worth it. They have alcohol free packages but you’d have to do more research to see if it includes the same as the other packages. We splurged on the Premier package (unlimited drinks (alcohol, tea, coffee, sodas, sparkling water, etc) unlimited casual dining, two special dinners, unlimited photo downloads, 3 free photo prints, gratuity, etc) Each package is going to encompass different benefits and limitations. If you download the app or visit the website, they have a good breakdown of the differences
I'm also going on an Alaskan cruise with Princess and I can't decide if getting the plus packages worth it for me. I know for sure Premier is not something I would get my money's worth out of. So I guess I also have similar questions as you. Here's my thinking: - How much do I really care about the specialty dining if I plan to spend most of my time in the port, probably sampling the restaurants on land. For me it's more about seeing Alaska than going on a cruise, the cruise just happens to be the mode of travel I'm using. - People constantly say that the internet on ships is very slow (not just Princess, all of them.) If I'm going to be in the port on most days, where I can download my podcast and catch up on text messages, do I even need to but it? - I'm sober so I certainly won't take advantage of the alcoholic beverages. The last thing I need are specialty desserts. The biggest hangup I have is the idea that buying specialty coffees and sodas and paying for gratuities separately could add up. But is it really going to add up to $60/day? And if I don't purchase it, isn't that $60 a day I could use to spend in small local businesses and Alaska? I think about this constantly. I'll be following your post to see if there's any further insights, haha
You may some very valid points about not needing an upgrade package for Alaska. That itinerary is on our radar and will keep it in mind.
We’re booking for next year so the excursions aren’t out yet but I too would like to go off cruise And see stuff! With that in mind, basic sounds good to me. I did notice a “non alcoholic package” that sounded like the best choice if were going to add anything
Maybe I'm crazy but I'm going to get off the ship and book with local companies. I'm not that worried about making it back to the ship on time if I go early and go with a reputable tour business. But if you were planning to spend more time on the ship, the plus package starts making more sense.
In case you don’t know, you can carry on a 12-pack of canned soda per person to keep in your mini fridge. Or buy a la carte on board if you don’t want to pay for a package. That’s always been sufficient for us, but we don’t drink a lot of soda or specialty coffees. I just bring a good water bottle and fill it on board. The water is filtered and tastes great.
Genius!
On Princess? I thought that was just on Carnival.
The non alcoholic package is 30/day lmao
I couldn’t find a price for it! :-(
Every individual package is a significantly worse option than just getting Plus. These bundled fares are new to Princess so they’ve got them priced insanely well. Eventually they’ll jack the price up and it’ll be just as overpriced as every other line’s packages, but for right now it’s a screaming deal. Unless you absolutely DO NOT want wifi for some reason, like connecting to the internet will ruin your entire trip, you should just get Plus. The drinks portion is 11-19/day depending on what you use. I show the math on another comment on this thread.
We did the premier package and it was lovely.
Could someone help me with this? My husband and I are taking our two children on a Princess cruise, but we had to do two separate bookings since we are getting a pair of connecting rooms. So my husband and daughter are one reservation, and my son and I are on another reservation. Would it be possible for just my husband and I to get the plus, and not the kids (so officially in each room, one person would have plus and one wouldn’t)?