Princess Cruises has announced an increase in its daily gratuity charge for all voyages departing on or after May 21, 2019. The gratuity amount varies by stateroom category, with suites at $19.00 USD per person per day, mini suites, cabanas, and club class at $18.00 USD per person per day, and all other stateroom types at $16.50.
Guests in standard staterooms pay $18 per guest per day, while Penthouse, Oceania, Vista, or Owner’s Suites with Butler Service receive gratuities at $23 per guest per day. Interior, oceanview, and balcony cabins pay $16 per person, while mini suites and club class pay $17 per person. A discretionary gratuity of $18.00 per guest for suites, $17.00 per guest for mini-suites and club class, and $16.00 is also included.
The updated rates for staterooms such as balcony, ocean view, and interior cabins are $17 per person per day. Gratuities can be prepaid and currently stand at $16 to $18 per person per day, depending on the type of accommodation booked. Princess Cruises has added $1 to all daily gratuities, meaning guests in most staterooms will now pay $17 per person per day.
The automatic gratuity charge, which Princess calls its “Crew Appreciation” amount, is $14.50 per person per day for interior, oceanview, and balcony cabins. The cruise line has not officially announced the increase in gratuity charges for these staterooms.
In summary, Princess Cruises has increased its daily gratuity charge for all voyages departing on or after May 21, 2019, with the option for guests to prepay gratuities in U.S. dollars.
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Can I refuse to pay cruise gratuities?
You can refuse the automatic gratuity charge and compensate cruise staff on your own terms, but you must inform the front desk. This will appear on your bill when your cruise ends and be charged to your credit card on file. Before automatic gratuities, cruise lines provided guests with tip envelopes and suggested daily amounts for each person they served. For example, cabin stewards and main dining room waiters would receive $3 per day, Maitre D $1 a day, and tour guides $5.
Can you decline gratuity on cruise?
It is possible to pay the bill without tipping on a cruise ship, in a manner similar to that which would be observed at a reputable restaurant. Nevertheless, this conduct is perceived as an affront to the staff who provided service.
How much are gratuities on a 7 day cruise?
Norwegian offers a complimentary open-bar drinks package for its Free at Sea promotion, costing $109 per person, per day. However, the mandatory gratuity of $20 makes the package nearly $22 per day. Two people sharing a room on a seven-night cruise would pay $308 in tips for an otherwise free drinks package. Cruisers should also bring cash to tip porters, tour guides, and piano bar regulars. A cash tip increases the chances of the pianist choosing and performing your song request. For cruise line policies on automatic gratuity charges, a line-by-line look is provided. The rates listed are per person, per day and were accurate as of the publishing of this story.
How much do you tip cabin steward princess?
Princess Cruises has introduced an automatic gratuity charge of $17 to $19 per person, per day, for most cabins. This charge is referred to as a “crew appreciation” charge, while passengers in minisuites, cabanas, and Club Class cabins pay $18. Despite some cruise lines adding daily service fees onto passenger bills, many travelers still give out additional cash gratuities for exemplary service. The extra cost can be a shock to first-time cruisers, as some lines charge as high as $25 per day.
At big lines like Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, it is common for a family of four to see more than $70 a day in service fees added to their bills, which can amount to around $500 on a typical seven-night cruise.
Is it cheaper to prepay gratuities on a cruise?
Cruise ship employees often rely on gratuities as part of their income, and cruisers often have to decide whether to prepay their gratuities before sailing. Most major cruise lines have a recommended amount for each traveler to pay to the crew in gratuities, except for Virgin Voyages and some ultra-luxury cruise lines. There are two main options for paying gratuities: prepaying them before sailing or having them charged to your onboard account.
While neither option is necessarily bad, it might be better for your personal finances to pay ahead of time. Prepaying gratuities before sailing can help save money during your trip and lock in the current rate.
Can you remove gratuities on Princess cruises?
In order to eliminate the practice of automatically adding gratuities to bills, it is necessary to turn in and distribute any cash tips given to crew members in accordance with the percentages they are entitled to receive. It is important to note that these individuals are not permitted to retain all of the tips. This guarantees equity and transparency in tipping practices.
How much do I tip my stateroom attendant?
Cruise lines like Carnival, Celebrity, Cunard, Disney, Holland America, Princess, Norwegian, MSC Cruises, and Royal Caribbean include gratuities for stateroom attendants and dining room staff in onboard charges on a passenger’s stateroom account. The amounts range from $11. 50 to $16, and vary among cruise lines and stateroom categories. These lines also add gratuities as a percentage to specialty dining, bar, and spa charges, which cannot be adjusted.
Onboard casino staff are not part of the larger tip pool, so passengers should tip as they play, either in cash or chips. Many cruise lines suggest tipping separately for room service deliveries, a few dollars per person. Most tips are cashless, so passengers can sign the receipt and add their tip amount on the line provided. Shoreside porters are not cruise line employees, and many ports have signage indicating it is not necessary to tip them.
How much are the gratuities on Princess Cruises 2024?
Princess Cruises has increased its “crew appreciation” fee to $17 per person, per day for the majority of its cabins. This represents a 6. 25% increase from the previous rate of $16, which is more than twice the rate of inflation in the United States over the past year. Furthermore, the service charge for passengers occupying suites has been increased to $19 per person, per day, representing a 5. 6% rise from the previous rate of $18.
How much are gratuities per day on Princess?
The Crew Appreciation policy at the cruise line outlines a daily amount for each guest, based on the stateroom category. This amount is automatically added to the guest’s onboard account to acknowledge the efforts of various crewmembers who contribute to the guest experience. The crew members work in various departments and rotate among different ships. The amount is shown in USD, but guests operating in AUD will pay the equivalent amount. Crew appreciation can be adjusted during onboard, but it is not refundable post-cruise and cannot be adjusted prior to disembarking the ship.
Can you remove gratuities on Princess?
In order to eliminate the practice of automatically adding gratuities to bills, it is necessary to turn in and distribute any cash tips given to crew members in accordance with the percentages they are entitled to receive. It is important to note that these individuals are not permitted to retain all of the tips. This guarantees equity and transparency in tipping practices.
Are gratuities mandatory on Princess Cruises?
Tipping is a method of expressing gratitude for the exemplary service provided by the crew members on board the vessel.
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I highly recommend the balcony dinner. We did it on the Emerald Princess on the Panama Canal cruise. The food was amazing & the service was fantastic. Do if you have something special for us it was our 50th wedding anniversary & worth every penny. But just make you are extra hungry because you really do get a lot of yummy delicious foods.
We have our 6 princess cruise booked this April to Hawaii we have never had issues with drinks finding us in a timely manner we have also order pizza to the sky walker lounge and finding us in a timely manner Renewer when your in port at lot of the staff are also getting leave so they may go to port and get personnel supplies so yes expect delivery may be a little slower and this may be the days you walk to the bar and get a drink or go to the buffet for your food We have cruised Princess Celebrity Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Princess has always made our vacation perfect fun relaxing and memorable
Good tips to know! I totally agree with the drink delivery. As you said, you have to plan on being in one spot for a long time, which is not something you normally do on a cruise ship. One thing I learned is that when you belly up to a bar, your medallion links to the bartender’s computer and your name and picture both come up on a screen in front of them. If you are the paranoid type, you may not like being this closely tracked while on board.
Wow. I am sorry for your experiences. We love Carribbean Princess. One of our favourite ships. Until recently, we could not have our medallions delivered, (we are in Canadian) and never once have we had to wait more than a few minutes to pick them up. We also never had bad internet. Compared to other cruise lines, we always found Princess to be better overall. We love Alaska and wouldn’t sail with anyone else. When we did our research, almost everything we read said, Princess is the best cruise line for Alaska for many reasons. One being best overall itineries that are offered. Of course a lot of things you mentioned are subjective and we are all allowed our opinions. So I just shared ours. Happy cruising⚓️🛟🛳
I found this really helpful as I’m going to be on the Caribbean Princess Cruise next week. There are sooooo many changes from the last time I went on a cruise that I’m not really happy about. What I used to Have when I signed up for this cruise I Don’t Have now. I truly feel I (actually there are 12 of us going on this cruise) should have been able to Keep what I/we signed up for and everyone else signing up after the changes were made would abide by the new changes, that would have been fair. This is like a Bait and Switch deal. Once again, I liked all the information you gave and found it very informative. I signed up to watch your articles and look forward to perusal more of them 😊
Just got off Caribbean princess everything was good but honestly the medallion is a joke concept it does not work opening your cabin door and getting on of ship is ok but ordering anything is ridiculous and they don’t tell you that it’s not compatible with every phone. Princess scrap the medallion it’s not working
I’ll give you another lesson on princess cruises. Princess cruises employ their crew on slave labour rates. For example I was employed as a bar steward with other passenger safety/security duties, working at least 12 hours a day. For this work I was paid 50 dollars A MONTH and expected to make up a decent wage selling cocktails of which I recieved 15%. Keep in mind when you cruise next that the service crew are slaves and are paid slaves wages. I’m speaking from experience.
Been on 12 Princess cruises and I am Platinum too. One thing to know about the Princess ships: they vary in service(s) and the staff know this. When Princess started the process of installing the Medallion equipment on the ships, it was very buggy, now it works very well, but mostly on the newer “regal / royal class” ships. This is because the newer ships were designed with the medallion and internet accessibility in mind. Princess used the pandemic time to upgrade the older ships as much as possible, unfortunately, the smaller ships just aren’t amenable to all this new technology. After the pandemic, we have cruised on the Enchanted, the Crown, the Discovery and the Sky. Amazingly the medallion services, internet, service have all been excellent. Our next cruise this fall will be back on the Enchanted. Even the Crown, which is an older ship, had great medallion services. Looking forward to the new “sphere class” ships. Should be interesting. From the start, I could not agree with about 50% of what Jayson was saying; and I finally figured out what the problem was when he finally mentioned the fact that this whole post was about the Caribbean Princess which is one of the oldest ships in the fleet and not the best one to use to talk about the overall Princess experience. 1. Always have the medallion mailed to your home. After the medallion experience, our onboard process is usually less than ten minutes from the parking lot / cab stand to our cabin or lunch in one of the casual dining restaurants.
I just finished a webinar for Princess (I am a travel consultant for Expedia Cruises) and they were saying they have improved the Wi-fi a lot over the past year. I hope you’re able to see the improvement. Caribbean Princess was our very first cruise, and I loved it then, so I’m sure the 2019 update is great!
Hi Jayson, Great recommendations. For the Sanctuary I book it the moment I board, I’ve had no trouble getting a reservation. My Medallion wrist band I purchased through Princess, it’s made from recycled plastic bottles and comes in a cool Caribbean blue color. I have to admit, the buffet on Princess’s is pretty bad. Really. Salty dog was great. I think it’s more cultural for me. I’m Latin, many cruises we take out of Miami have a number of us on, Carnival, Royal Caribbean seem to be able to read the room, lol. They have buffet food with a bit more Sabor, lol Great article Jayson. I look forward to them. Funny we are booked on the Caribbean Princess in January.
I thought Princess was the best of the best for Alaska. But now, learning there’s no covering on the pool deck for the Discovery, no more room service included, zero arcades for rainy days and I’m unsure how movies under the stars even works in cold climates! I don’t know whether to cancel and try another line or what. These are helpful tips if we stay booked!
I didn’t find out about this stupid Medallion until I paid for my Dec 2023 cruise. I only used my phone for calls because I couldn’t get a regular phone any more. I never liked so call text or dumb apps and I couldn’t see the small text any way. I had hard time to find some one to help me with this crap and Princess customer service never answered my calls. It was not fair for us senior citizens. I will not choose Princess again on future cruise because of this stupid Medallion.
The problem for me is the rollout. I paid for the previous terms of service and now the rules are changing. If this applied to future bookings, I might grumble about it but ultimately, I’d understand. The fact that this applies to the cruise I’m sailing on in 14 days from now and that’s not the terms of service I signed off on when I booked… that’s extremely frustrating and infuriating.
I’ve purchased both Standard and Plus fare on past cruises, but these minor changes will not stop me from purchasing Standard fare on future cruises. My husband doesn’t drink alcohol at all, nor do either of us drink soda. We refill our water bottles at the Horizon Court buffet tap. I drink one glass of wine at dinner but am not even fond of the wines Princess offers. I drink one or two other drinks per day but only because I paid for the Plus package. Otherwise, I wouldn’t drink liquor at all. Instead, I purchase 2 bottles of good wine to take on board at embarkation. Wi-Fi and crew appreciation packages are purchased separately. We always pick up our Princess Medallions at port, don’t order food to the room nor eat at specialty restaurants. I’ve done the math and the Standard package will always be less expensive by hundreds of dollars. To save further, I purchase our cruises through Costco. Call us boring, but my husband and I primarily cruise for the port destination experiences and not for the onboard experiences, so that’s probably why these changes won’t affect us much.
We prefer Standard pricing since we cruise to avoid working on devices and don’t drink alcohol. It’s much more affordable to purchase a coffee or Sprite as we want one. All of the extras in plus pricing don’t matter to us-extra desserts? Delivery? Yoga? No thank you. So when I did the math, standard makes much more economical sense for us. We love Princess because of the service we’ve received over the years with them. Great job explaining the differences in this rollout!
I do think that all cruise lines are having to make changes due to inflation/staffing challenges, but I think Princess is making a lot of changes quickly frustrating people even more. We just took out first cruise, chose a different line, but have been looking at Princess as a possibility going forward because of positive feedback and they offer some good deals. This is about the 6th change Princess has announced in the 8 months since I started researching cruise options. I think if they had either grandfathered in all that had already paid for the packages or announced/implemented the changes with enough time to allow people to change before final payment date, this would have been better received. How it was handled feels too much like a bait and switch.
For me personally, I will probably sail on standard for future Princess cruises. I have only used room service once, in all my sailings. I enjoy a glass of wine or two with dinner, but would never drink as much as would be required to make the package worth it. I’ve never ordered wifi on a cruise, but I know so many who pay for it and still cannot get a strong connection. So, for me, the packages are not of value. I’m not pleased with the removal of standard amenities, but I think we can still have a lovely cruise without paying $60-$80 more per person per day (realizing of course that $15 of that cost is our gratuities). Our first cruise was in 1999. Everything except alcohol was included. There was no such thing as specialty dining. You could have steak and lobster in the main dining room, and take an extra dessert back to your cabin. I understand things change, but charging more for every little thing becomes annoying.
We are booked on a 15-day Panama Canal cruise in Oct 2023 on Ruby. We chose the Plus package to eliminate/reduce further costs on the ship. I don’t feel these changes will have a negative impact on our cruise. We are still excited for the cruise!! Thank you for breaking down the changes and your opinion of them.
Going on our first Princess cruise in September and was looking forward to Alfredo’s but not so much now at $14.95 per visit after the 2 complimentary with Princess Plus. Princess should allow those passengers who have made final payment keep the services they purchased and not be able to take them away.
Finally, an explanation that is detailed and easy to understand. Personally, I don’t mind change, however it is much more palatable when the change can be explained clearly and accurately. I have been on the phone with Princess, several times regarding this matter and unfortunately get a different answer each time. It seems s likely to me, that this is due to a rushed rollout and the telephone (frontline) staff are basically as confused as us. My trip coming up on October 18th on the Enchanted, has been booked and paid for over a year, under the old Princess Plus program, in a Club Class Mini-STE. Last week I got an email that said we don’t qualify for some of the benefits of that program anymore and needed to upgrade. It’s possible we had the PP50 package. After perusal your article, I have decided to move up to the premier plan, which will certainly simplify decisions and reduce stress our lives. My wife and I are retired, and we spent our working life on a very tight budget so we could actually enjoy our retirement. After perusal your article, simplifying Princess vacation decisions and reducing stress in our lives is now our top priority. Thank you again, Life Well Cruised
We just did our first cruise ever. Alaskan 7 day from Whittier to Vancouver aboard the Majestic Princess. First off, we planned it only 5 days before the cruise departed, so this website was invaluable in helping to make quick, smart decisions. Thank you for all your content!!! We chose the Premier package. Our fav drinks were $20, so we definitely used that part. The premier desserts were amazing and worth it. The photo package was great. The specialty dining at Catch by Rudy was some of the best food we have ever had anywhere. The included pizza place, Alfredo’s, we ate at 4 times and it was amongst the best pizza we have had….. certainly classiest, as it is a 3 course meal, not just pizza. The room service we used while doing the scenic cruising of the glacier from our balcony room…. it was very slow… 30 – 45 minute wait and items were mildly warm upon arrival. The only items in the premier package we felt were useless for us was the reserved seating….. didn’t like where those 4 rows of seats were…. bottom left, flat 4 rows of the theatre…. way better seats elsewhere and getting to any of the shows 30 minutes before there was tons of selection. The juice bar was useless as it has crazy limited hours…. one bar only on the ship and from 11 – 2 during at sea days only (not open when in port)…. so we never actually were able to time it to get any of the juice bar items. Used the gym for working out, but not any of the fitness classes. The 4 device wifi….. we could connect just our phones, our other devices like our ipads we could not get connected to wifi.
We had plus last year and felt it was a great value. Compared to other cruise lines, it is cheap for drinks, gratuities and Wi-Fi. For our cruise next year, we chose plus again, but our travel agency gifted us an upgrade to premier. I thought I would have to pay extra for the other casual eateries except Alfredo’s, but now it will include sushi! Even if we had just the regular fare, $14.99 is cheaper than the $18 – $20 we would have paid without this change.
Excellent presentation. We originally booked standard but soon realized that Plus was more cost effective. Not sure that it was wise on the part of Princess to change pricing in the middle of the sailing year. Would have been more palatable to many to change at the beginning of the season. Thank you for your excellent articles.
We booked and paid a year in advance for a Princess cruise in September 2023. Our Plus package apparently was the old $50 per day package. We found this out from guest services after being charged for several items we thought were included. Princess told us we should have received an email offering an upgrade to the updated Plus package for an additional $10 per day. I’m sure we got it but didn’t pay much attention as we constantly receive “deals” from Princess. The communications were frustrating and some ships decided to honor the updated Plus package for guests that booked in the gap…ours did not. We have voiced our anger to our travel agent and Princess. Now that we know our next cruise will have the current Plus package, we will be well equipped to take advantage of the benefits. Your articles are very much appreciated.
The Plus package costs less per day than the wifi plus crew gratuities plus non-alcoholic drink package (plus its gratuities), so it’s a no-brainer for me to just take it going forward as I did on my two previous Princess sailings. I’m a solo cruiser and appreciate that it’s charged per person and not per couple (looking at you, Celebrity).
I always cruise with the standard package. I don’t drink alcohol or soda, so most of the value of the packages are lost on me. I wish more lines were like Norwegian, where you can customize your package. That allows me to get specialty dining or shore excursion credit instead of a drink package, which fits me better.
We only sailed Princess once. We upgraded to Plus and would do so again, as we thought drinks, tips, and wifi were worth it. If you compare the drinks package alone to RCCL (our next booking), $60 per person per day with Princess is a steal. Considering the add-on costs with RCCL, I think we’ll get back on Princess next time.😅
I enjoyed my first cruise with Princess very recently, when I booked we went with Standard but upgraded about a week before we left to Plus. Prior to setting sail I did not think room service would be something we would make the most of, after all we weren’t going on a cruise to be in our cabin very much, but we hit some bumpy seas and that room service was fantastic, I was able to order some light food for my seasick teenage daughter and my elderly mum that made such a difference. On the good days I loved being able to order a drink and/or a snack to any place on the ship, was great for a cocktail for me, coffee for my mum, whatever my daughter fancied. If i did the math, was it worth it or not? if you added up dollar for dollar may be not but the convenience when everyone was feeling unwell or on good days having a glass of sparling wine delivered to cabin while dressing for dinner was such a bonus. The real downside is that I just booked a 10 day cruise and if I upgrade to plus it is 2 casual dining meals per guest, but on the cruise we just completed it was 5 nights and 2 casual dining meals per guest, should this not increase for length of cruise?
We booked the the brand new Sun Princess Grand Mediterranean cruise in March, our first cruise of any kind in 17 years. Our cruise agent found us a great deal that included the Premier package. It’s our anniversary, so we will definitely use the specialty dining at the Crown Grill. We also like not having to worry about what kind of tab we’re running up, so more than happy to have the Premier package.
As an Elite Princess Cruiser who has been brand loyal for over 15 of our 30 years of cruising, I feel the ‘extras’ like free room service, Ocean Now and free medallion delivery (for usa) and the free wifi should be included. For those that don’t drink alcohol or need two fancy desserts or want to go to an organized exercise class, paying $60 per person per day for Plus is a bit much but maybe I need to take a moment to do the math. After cruising RCL this summer we are confident Princess is ‘our line’ but this is frustrating to have services cut.
Please consider this a re-write of a post from yesterday. If you are a non-drinker the packages are a total waste of money. That being said everything else that was included now becomes a takeaway! On board credits used to be used for excursions and gratuities. If they are used for the takeaway things all it means is more out of pocket money. That being said if Princess wants to improve the bottom-line profit, they need to begin by raising the cruise price for everyone across the board instead of taking away things that were previously enjoyed at no charge. That way everyone is treated the same and increased costs involved become a valid reason for the rate increases. Why stir up such a huge hornet’s nest. If all the cruise lines did this there would be no need for bad feelings and all of this discussion! By the way thank you Ilana for your extremely well-done YouTube website. Please keep up the great service you provide!
We always buy the Plus package on Princess and I still feel that’s it’s a good value and well worth the extra cost. We recently sailed on NCL for the first time and found their drink package to be way higher than Princess Plus and it didn’t include the gratuities or wifi like Princess Plus does. We love Princess and this won’t affect our future travel plans.
Princess Premier now makes financial sense for us. With the additional WiFi devices, the specialty/casual dining, the desserts (we limit ourselves to only one per day!) and the photos will saves us money. We don’t drink a lot of alcohol with the exception of a glass or two of wine at dinner and rarely use room service so those are not a big deal. We’ll just factor the cost into our cruise fare.
I agree with the others who pointed out that the changes after booking a cruise are unfair. We booked our cruise to Alaska last fall, and we don’t sail until September, so we’ve seen two big changes implemented during the wait time. Luckily we booked the Premier package just because we didn’t want to worry about every little purchase during the trip. But I think Princess is making a big mistake by changing the included items for existing customers. It will definitely make me look more closely at their competitors for my next cruise. Rule #1 in business: Don’t alienate the customers you already have!
I typically buy the drink package on other cruise lines. This will be my first Princess cruise and will be doing the standard. We won’t be on the ship the 3 days in port in Alaska so I don’t see the value in the plus or premier for us. In addition the cost of Plus is more than I paid for 1 person to cruise with a mini suite with a balcony so I can’t logically see the cost benefit when we are not big drinkers and will have internet while in ports. It does feel like a bit of a bait and switch to me.
This is my first cruise with Princess. We took the standard because we rarely drink alcohol and never juice and don’t care for fitness classes or premium desserts. We never used room service with other cruise lines (yay extra steps/ exercise for us) plus I’ve read many times OceanNow food delivery has not been reliable. If we want room service, we can use the door hanger one which will still be free delivery. I’m just bummed that Alfredo’s/Gigi’s is no longer free and unlimited. I will pay for it for my upcoming trip to Alaska in September though since I’ve heard great things about their pizza. Honestly, I will have plenty to eat from the buffet, MDR, IC, poolside pizza, and grill. Anyone booking standard can always use onboard credit if you have it to cover the extra charges. You can think about that when booking future cruises with Princess or any other cruise lines.
It really all depends on what a cruise means to you. The inclusions in the base fare works for us. Bring on our 12 pack of drinks that the cruise line doesn’t carry anyways. The MDR and buffet options are better than what we eat most days with take out. Never been on Princess before so no idea what we are missing with the casual and specialty restaurants. Plenty of better land options to choose from before and after the cruise anyways. We are on vacation so why do we want WIFI and Fitness Classes? The Specialty Desserts are not what we thought they would be, just a sugar overload. We do splurge on a balcony cabin and a few cases of water delivered to our stateroom. Excursions are mostly overvalued but you can find a gem or two well worth the cost but we are paying for the ship experience and always plan to maximize on that.
We usually just get Plus package because we don’t have any need for photos or additional specialty dining. We really like that WiFi, drinks and gratuities are all included in the Plus package and make it a value for us. I’m a little disappointed that Alfredo’s is now considered an upgrade when it used to be a standard.
Booked the standard after penciling it out. I do not drink alcohol and rarely soda. You can still get breakfast delivered free of charge to your room by filling out thr door card at night, which the only meal I would desire to be delivered. Even with paying the extra fee for oceans now and a time or two at Gigi`s it is still less expensive. Going to Alaska in September so will have internet at each port which all I need.
Cruising sporadically but repeatedly over the past 30 years or so, I used to always cruise standard and purchase a wine package. It worked well, and I always enjoyed myself and the feeling of luxury cruising brought to my life. With the pricing changes, and shifts in more recent years, my sister and I chose to opt for Princess Plus on our cruise this summer. We loved it! Neither of us are huge drinkers at home, but we loved the freedom to choose a mid-afternoon cocktail or an after dinner drink, mid-morning specialty coffee etc. without factoring in any additional cost. Having the beverage package, wifi, and gratuities rolled into one price worked well for us. Had things stayed as they were…we would have stuck with the Plus package for our next cruise because we really don’t use the fitness classes, and flet we could easily do without the photography, extra desserts, and prizes. This shift with casual dining has changed all of that for us. We are booking Premier on our next trip because we don’t want to have to be considering costs or limitations when we decide we would like to lunch at Alfredo’s or sit in Vines etc. so….Princess will have more $$ from us, because of the switch in casual dining additional costs. Still…good value when compared across lines and now we are looking forward to some professional photos. 🙂
We just cruised Regal Princess 12 night British Isles cruise. We only had 2 sea days and port stops were full days without lounging by the pool, craving fruity cocktails. We had the regular package and didn’t miss WiFi or drinks. We brought before VPN service before the cruise and used WiFi in port. Our cellular company included calls for 25 cents per minute with free unlimited texting and data. We bought a few beers and wine and gelato. We were allowed to buy 1.5 liter bottles of Pepsi in ports and bring them onto the ship. We didn’t use Ocean Now or room service. We did love Alfredo’s and will have too decide if we will pay for it on a future cruise. We chose Princess because of the itinerary and because it is closest to our favorite cruise line, Celebrity, but we will sail Princess again for the right itinerary and fare.
You bring up very valid points about Princess following what other similar cruise lines have already been doing. Inflation aside, my thoughts about some of these changes are also driven by staffing issues. Room service can put a strain on services and pull staff away from more populated areas. In our post-pandemic world staffing is still challenging in all industries. These new fees may deter some travelers from utilizing room service. This is our first time trying Princess Premier. We sail in 13 days, we are mostly excited for the photos, additionally Wi-Fi devices, and included speciality dining. We previously have booked Princess Plus.
14:12 thanks for this article! I actually just spoke to a princess cruise consultant yesterday, and he appeared to be unaware of these changes. After I mentioned it to him, he did check with the supervisor who confirmed the changes, but it is a little disturbing that he had no idea. We generally book the standard fee because we are not big drinkers. But after reviewing the charges, we are going to upgrade to princess plus. We want Wi-Fi – one device each. Plus the gratuities. Plus the soda package. And we are likely to have a few drinks, so I think it would be worthwhile. We are looking forward to our first princess cruise in a few weeks.
I already paid in full the Standatd fare for my October, 2023 Cruise with Princess. I will pay extra for the few drinks that I want, the Specialty dinnings, etc. As a Loyal Princess Cruiser, I feel deeply disappointed on how Princess management promoted the changes, that is, “additional perks” ( not for the Standard fare) and the timing for the implementation that will be an additional cost for soon to be Cruisers that had paid in full the Standard fare. I understand and accept that Princess can increase the cost of their services due to the increase in cost for doing business. But what frustrate me is the timing, why not implement it several months out for Cruisers to decide if they will pay in full for their booking or cancel it? TRUST is one of the main values for successful business. I have been a Loyal Customer that had trusted Princess a 100%. I sugest that Princess management reconsider the timing for the implementation of these changes.
Being elite with the mini bar setup for a seven day cruise with obc, we simply book standard. Once they eliminate the mini bar then the plus makes sense (casual drinks). Now, when they change the laundry services other cruise lines come into play. I can see 2 free laundry services with the plus while we gorge on our deserts. Great info, thanks 😂.
After looking at a few “explanations” of the Princess roll-outs, yours was by far the most understandable! Now here is my feeling on the subject. We just booked on Princess (10-night New Years Cruise); we took the princess plus option. We were looking for pre-paid tips, beverage package, and Wi-Fi. We don’t go to specialty restaurants, and while we love Alfredo’s, we went there once on a cruise, and never used room service. So, we actually gained from the changes. However, I can see where those who stayed with the Standard option are upset. But, and this is a big but, the Cruise lines need to make up for two years of NO business, so you’ll see this trend more and more. I bet any cruise line that doesn’t succumb to the quick revenue fix, is going to see an increase in sales.
I’m thankful that we are trying Princess for the first time with these changes already implemented. I’m sure we would feel disappointed but when we were looking at booking and we saw the three packages, it didn’t surprise us. Other lines we sail are doing the same thing and have been for awhile. With that said, we know what kind of cruisers we are so we chose the Plus package. Hopefully i will learn all tricks to it so i can get the full value since we will be rookies to Princess.
We sailed on our first ever cruise last year and chose Plus as it seemed to be a good value and I didn’t want to worry about added costs during the cruise. For our cruise coming up in Dec we have premier but only because there was a promotion when I booked- premier for the price of plus. It seems to be an even better deal now but can completely understand frustration of others.
We’re cruising with Princess twice next year. I have to admit I was disappointed to see a charge for room service, but I was surprised it was free for as long as it was. We didn’t use it very often, but it was nice when we did. For the convenience, I don’t think $5 is too much for the service since it is per delivery…even if you have multiple orders for multiple guests in each cabin. We probably will pay the one-time fee for OceanNow delivery. That also seems a reasonable fee. I’m not sure we would even take advantage of the Casual Dining venues. On previous cruises, we ate at the MDR, the buffet and once at the Crown Grill. (I can’t remember there being an Alfredo’s or Gigi’s on the last Princess cruises we took, so maybe our ships didn’t have them.) We are not buying either the Plus or Premier because they add a huge amount to the bill for services we most likely would not use. We drink very little alcohol, we don’t need the Wifi, we’re not juice drinkers and we don’t need specialty desserts (I’ve seen pictures of those and I don’t think they look very appealing at all) or fitness classes (there is plenty of opportunity to be active without taking a class). The same is true for photos and prizes. Those aren’t anything we need to enjoy our cruise.
We cruise 2 to 3 times a year so I try to keep the cost down. We’re going on the Discovery Princess to Alaska in September. We usually order12 packs of water, 6 packs of soda and 375ml bottles of liquor to the room before the cruise and it delivered to the room on the 1st day. Even with the internet this saves money over Princess Plus
I really like your articles. You have the most current and definitive information on cruising. I am still a bit confused. Do we have to pay for the buffet, the pool side burgers and the dinning room meals or are they still free? Thanks again. Great job. Also this $14.99 fee. Is it a one time charge per person or is it each time?
I really appreciate you doing this article, Ilana! I did an Alaska cruise on Princess in May, and I have a New England one booked for fall of ’24. I cruised Plus and honestly, it included everything I wanted and needed that would have been extra. I only search Plus fares anymore, just because it has what I want. I’ll be interested to hear if the reach out with the changes, but THANK YOU for the awareness!
We cruise with Princess Plus – It’s always been a great value. We were a little disappointed about the earlier change of removing the complimentary special dining and replacing with desserts and exercise class. But as you stated so well, change is inevitable. I’m sad to hear about Alfredo’s as that is our most favorite dining on the ship, so we will get our 2 free and then perhaps use some onboard credit to still enjoy on our upcoming 12 day cruise of the British Isles! Thank you so much for the heads up and doing such a great job of explaining the changes!
Thank you so much for the article update! We are headed out on an Alaskan cruise on the Royal Princess on August 5. So just in a few days! Booked the premium package so as you explained I don’t think there’s a lot of changes for us. I’m wondering that one of the reasons this may have changed is a lot of reviews are saying that the ocean now option isn’t really working very well. I’m wondering if removing this option from the standard package will open up some of the delivery load the staff is currently making. I’m also wondering about the Wi-Fi package as that has also been a complaint in some of the reviews we’ve read. I also know being a resident of Washington who has the highest gas prices in the nation… I’m sure that’s a big part of the changes.We are very excited for our cruise and if I experience any thing from these changes I will report back. Thanks again for all of your advice!
Honestly, I kind of expected this change. Having Alfredo’s/Gigi’s included was great, but this move was inevitable IMO. I like the fact that Salty Dog is moved to the casual dining group. I’ve done Plus and Premier both before. I think Plus is worth it, if you take full advantage of all the included services. Premier wasn’t really worth it, but it is nice not to have to think about any costs.
We have a cruise from Sydney, Australia around New Zealand in November on princess and will keep it at the standard rate. We have been on 12+ cruises with different cruise lines and have always cruised at standard level. We will not add those additional charges. If there were ever to be charges added for dining in the main dining room or buffet or the poolside venues, we would have to reconsider our vacation decision to choose cruising. We enjoy your vlogs and have picked up some great tips!!! Thank you!!
I’ve never cruised with Princess, but I do like the value proposition that Plus adds. As a solo cruiser I might pay almost that much per day just for wi-fi and gratuities, so having them rolled into a package that also includes drinks seems like a really good value for me. I might now consider Princess for my next cruise.
I was very pleased with Plus package. I didn’t want to worry about gratuities, service fees, calculating wether I can have one more drink or not, etc. Overal, you are getting quite a lot and I think it is worth the price and peace of mind. What is a bit annoying for me is that people always think of the package in terms of how many drinks they have to drink a day to break even, completely forgeting about all the other things that are covered in the price of package.
My problem is with the changes Princess has made and how it impacts my wife and I. Since neither of us drink alcohol, both of these packages would be a total waste of money for us. We have however enjoyed having room service, pool side delivery, Gigi’s and Alfredo’s. These have always been at no charge until now. This means that we have to think about how we are spending our money on the ship before everything we choose to do. Yes, we could use our onboard credits, but we use those for excursions and shopping on board. Bottom line, more money out of our pockets due to nickel and diming. Everyone knows things are going up and I could live with that, however being non-drinkers, we are being penalized for not purchasing a package we don’t want and would not benefit from. Drink packages are fine but raise the cost of the cruises to cover other expenses that used to be included. I do understand prices going up, but do not penalize everyone by taking away things that used to be included. If Princess needs to improve the bottom-line profits, start by raising the cost of the cruise.
The golden age of cruising (before the pandemic) is over across all the lines. Even land based resorts have service fees and upcharges. I guess they have to recoup their money somehow, but it seems especially painful. It seems easier to me for Princess to raise their prices across the board than to do this switching around of services and perks. For example, i would gladly give up the desserts and the exercise classes for Alfredos or better food, services, or better conditions for employees. Their empyees are overworked. They need to be compensated and need more employees to share the workload. The food and services they are providing are suffering. I hope that Princess (and all the other cruiselines as well). Listen to their customers as customer satisfaction is just as important as the bottom line.
Princess has screwed me twice. I booked in June 2022 a Plus cruise for late August 2023. First last December, Princess increased the Plus category from $50 to $60. Did they grandfather in those of us who booked before this change? NO!! Now Princess takes benefits away that were included when I booked last June. So those of us who booked previously need to be very upset with Princess. SHAME ON THEM!!
I always take Princess Plus. I am very unhappy that Alfredo’s/Gigi’s have added the surcharge. I often eat there more than twice, especially on long cruises. I may have to move up to Premier, but it’s already pricey for me since l don’t drink! I like the sodas, mocktails, and specialty coffees, so Plus is reasonable-ish.
We always get the standard fare. I’m more than a little irritated with these changes. Princess isn’t the cruise line it used to be. Our last two cruises on Princess were not great. The condition of the Grand class ship had been terrible. I’m tired of having to ask for a new mattress. Other than the newest ships, we always have a worn out mattress. BTW, the last one was in a Vista Suite. Unless the passenger drinks alcohol (and not just a little), anything but the standard fare doesn’t make sense. Princess is just using nickel and dime tactics to squeeze money out the passengers while delivering less service. They have been our favorite cruise line and we have sailed with them a lot. Come on Princess, just raise the fares to cover the costs rather than trying to hide it with endless fees!
We usually get Princess Plus. The problem we have with this is we have a booked cruise with Plus, but it was booked before the last change. So now we don’t get our Medallions shipped free of free deliveries of food and drinks. So, we will have to pay to upgrade to the “New” plus Pkg to include things that we had already paid for. Don’t think that is fair that after we booked, they changed what we get for the extra we paid for the Pkg.
We always book the standard cruise fare and are elite status. We booked a cruise prior to these changes and are very disappointed with all the complimentary take aways. We also miss the coffee card, complimentary wifi minutes and complimentary dining at Sabatinis. We will be booking with another cruise line in the future.
I have Princess Elite status, so here is why the standard package makes sense for me (my examples are in comparison to the Plus and not Premier) I get wifi at 1/2 off, so 1 device is just a few dollars a day. I am not a big drinker and get a mini bar for free. I use the treadmill every day at the gym, so I could care less about 2 exercise classes. I would not eat 2 premium deserts a day. I sailed 72 days on Princess in the past year and never used OceanNow delivery when it was free. I only order room service for breakfast, which remains free (for now!). I do enjoy Alfredo’s, but I will not pay a cover charge for it and will not miss eating there if it costs extra. I don’t mind picking up my Ocean Medallion at the port. Just one more note – I cruise solo, so could not afford to cruise as often as I do if I paid for the Plus or Premier plan, so for me days cruising is far more important than extras I do not need or want.
After almost 50 cruises on multiple lines, we have never booked a package and have been perfectly content. We are not drinkers. The changes on Princess will not affect us that much. We are used to paying extra for specialty dining and Alfredo’s has never been a go to place for us. Even if we order room service each day on our 16 day cruise to Hawaii and back, that is less than $100 instead of paying almost $2000 for the plus package. We choose standard unless it is on Norwegian. Their Free at Sea is definitely worth it, but we decline the drinks part of it. Love your articles! Thanks so much! God bless you!
I’ve always been forced to be on Standard because no one drinks alcohol in my family of three. The gratuities and wifi just cannot justify the additional $180pp per day for us. There is no lesser package that would work for my family and I. Canadians will ALWAYS be in the Blue Lane at embarkation because we do not have our medallions until we reach the port. What is the point of booking the packages in my case then?
They took Plus and added deserts and exercise classes, then jacked the price. I would say most people could not care less about paying for classes or premium deserts. I am an elite tier and I have notice the service decline as stewards and given more and more rooms. Finding a waiter on deck is hard. It is like they won’t make eye contact. They used to be all over the guests. The big killer for me is the fact you can no longer combine the Military credit and the Shareholder credit. This will cost me $250 on a 14 day. These credits are also no longer refundable. Loyalty is a 2 way street.
My husband and I sailed on Princess in March. This was my husbands first trip w Princess. Imagine my glee when I won a cruise w Princess. Now I did win an inside cabin. I PAID extra for an upgrade to a balcony cabin. I PAID EXTRA for the beverage package also. On the first day of the cruise we didn’t have the beverage package nor air conditioning in our room. They couldn’t say who canceled our package. We repurchased the beverage package. They fixed the air conditioning on Tuesday. We wrote a letter to the cruise line but haven’t heard back from them. I’ve cruised w Princess multiple times before this cruise. What a horrible first impression my husband has of Princess!! I will not sail with them anymore!
I’ve been considering a Princess cruise and looked at the plus and premiere packages and find that they don’t have value for me personally. Yes, you get your gratuities/crew appreciation and Wi-Fi ($16.50 and $15.00), but unless you also drink either alcohol, specialty coffees or sodas it is hard to make up the $60 fee; my wife and I, being diabetics, would likely not. We have always found the main dining room, buffet, pizza by the slice and grill to be more than satisfactory, usually the MDR has been excellent, especially when we had fixed time dining. The service at those times was excellent as the servers really got familiar with our desires and had things like our drinks ready for us without asking. And I can just imagine the parent who had premiere for their child with unlimited specialty desserts, well can you say sugar high? 😜🤣🤪
I bought my cruise package in February and now, 6 weeks before we sail, they change things. I don’t think that’s right. We didn’t order the special Princess packages because we don’t drink alcohol or coffee/tea and are not interested in the extra desserts. Yes, we’re dull. I did buy the wifi package for 1 device and the crew appreciation package. We’re not cheap, we just didn’t think that the $840 versus the $105 wifi + $240 crew appreciation was actually worth it if we won’t use it.. We did order water bottles and some soda.
We always travel on the standard fare. We aren’t big drinkers or desert eaters, so those packages wouldn’twork for us. I have found since we started crusing over a decade ago, we always got the coffee card, and when we got the platinum status, some limited internet, also boarding privileges. We also received free upgrades several times and loved them. Now we have found Princess taking all the reasons we like to use them away. We hate that they are charging for things that we used to get for free. We arenot as enamored as we used to be. If they keep up on this path of taking what we love away, we will look at others cruise options. Love your articles.
Not happy about change to Princess standard. Hubby is handicapped and legally blind and we used food delivery a lot. We don’t need Wi-Fi or anything in the higher level packages. Now instead of room service I’ll have to carry multiple dishes from the buffet to our room or pay more for something that should and has been free.
1) Definitely not acceptable for those who have already paid. 2) to force a cabin of 2 guests to each have to pay for a pkg is also wrong. Not all guests are a couple. I will be traveling with a group of single friends, some of us will be doing our own thing. Cruise lines were bailed out after covid & are making a profit, maybe not to their satisfaction, however they are. Unfortunately I believe this will also take away from the extra tips some were leaving for the crew
This does give me pause. I was already on the fence about Princess because their ships are predictable and food mediocre, and there’s never room in the common areas to sit and listen to musicians. All seats are always taken. And, although I’m 63, the activities seem somewhat geriatric to me. What would make me loyal to a cruise line? Bring back dance hosts, have more structured singles activities, and bring back the midnight buffet…at least for one night.
Have cruised with Princess for years… always the standard fare… we don’t drink specialty drinks/alcohol, nor eat at the premium restaurants…so none of the perks of the other tiers are of value to us. We enjoy not having wifi as an escape… and just simply enjoy being on the ship with the basic quality. We pay our gratuities separately.
Fresh off British Isles cruise with Princess Regal. First thank you for the article’s, I was well prepared and packed. We made the most at each stop and they were all great. Ship was beautiful and well maintained. The tip change though seems to have destroyed the hospitality moral in the dining rooms. We made a standing reservation but it was changed by the staff, we never had the same service staff, table not ready and always sat in different places, and over all but only one waitress was exceptional. The food was sub par, the buffet was better but again, the staff seemed miserable to be there. I have a hospitality background and this is a fatal decision by Princess to pool tips. The food was lunch room material, several dishes and desserts were inedible. Additionally the coffee was absolutely terrible at the morning buffet, but if you purchased coffee it was good. The Crown Grill was excellent, food and staff, but we paid extra and tipped. Honestly I will not cruise again with them because of food/service. We chose this cruise because of the ports and they were all great. The one tour sponsored by the ship to Mont Michelle was seriously overpriced and tour bus was dirty and guide was arrogant Frenchman, unfortunately lived up to that stereotype. We booked several walking tours with Civitas and they were all excellent! The onboard entertainment was pretty good in the evening. Oh and the wifi medallion app was useless other than opening the door.
My wife and I sailed on Crown Princess (11 day Alaska out of Vancouver) in early July. Pre-cruise I had some difficulties with there client support phone team (our booking agent at Princess suddenly went incommunicado) but was able to resolve our issues eventually through another agent. We booked the Standard fares: Neither my wife or I would possible use 15 drinks of alcohol per day and the fee for the drink service on an 11 day cruise was impossible. Princess needs another; lower price more limited consumsion plan. One unexpected perk to recommend; The first night dining we both wanted a glass of wine with the meal, our table steward suggested ordering a bottle which they tagged with our room number and thus we had wine for 6 days at an overall cost saving ($12.00 each by glass while the $59.00 bottle rendered 8 glasses for us). So keep that in mind if you are only moderate or occasional drinkers.
We are on the Ruby right now. We have Premiere because this the whole fam damily cruise and we wanted the photo package. The young adults have made full use of the booze part too….the cousins don’t get together to often so….. 🤣🥴 Like I said, special cruise so we’ve done the speciality dining plus Chef’s Table. (TOTALLY worth the per person cost. That would be at least twice the price land side. I know. We’ve paid it….) Ruby doesn’t have Alfredo’s or anything like that so that’s not on my radar. Salty Dog, yes. But we have not availed ourselves. We haven’t premium dessert-ed either. There’s just so much stomach space!
Just booked a 15 day Panama Canal from Ft Lauderdale for March 24. 2024. I understand costs are rising however for those of us who have already paid for the cruise in full, it is a slap in the face to not get what we paid for. We purchased Plus so the only real change is that we now have only 2 free casual dinings. This is not a good look for Princess, in my opinion they should have set a date for price increases for anyone booking after that date. If I order a new car with certain options and it arrives without those options I would expect the dealer to make it right. I am sure the executives at Princess would feel the same way. This is very short sighted on their part. Princess should take the high road.
My husband and I don’t drink very much but most of the Plus package work for us. Considering that I get comped cruises, I don’t mind paying for it. I can understand why those that pay full fair would be upset about these changes. Every industry is raising rates all around. Hopefully they don’t continue increasing.
My husband and I are cruising Princess Sapphire in September 2023 and have Plus. I believe Plus is the best value, especially for those drinkers out there. I do believe Princess should honor benefits that have already been paid for for future cruises. Seems to me that those terms are part of a contract and Princess should not be able to change the terms after the fact.
I have just booked my first cruise and found your articles very useful and informative. I was wondering why you managed to get the message across so succinctly and efficiently and THEN you let the cat out of the bag CANADIAN ! should have guessed, Hi from Toronto Now a question, does anyone know if I can get the medallion shipped to my daughter’s in the USA even though I am cruising alone. I have already filled out everything and I am “green laned”
Another well put together article( still going through it but paused real quick 😁)Amazing work!! Thank you ☺️ Still a newbie with cruising lingo and all of the ins and outs… do you have a article about “THE KEY” benefits with Royal Caribbean and wondering if there are other similar benefits like this with your other cruise lines you have traveled as well? Just a thought for a future article. You probably already have so many questions and recommendations from your community but I thought I’d put this one out there. 🎉
Imagine the people on a B2B on Sapphire heading North right now as we speak. What a shock they’ll find halfway through their trip. No business in any industry should conduct themselves in this manner. I get to experience this is a couple weeks and ive got one book for January. Not only do i think I’ll likely look at other options moving forward I may just sell my position in CCL stock.
Never cruised before. I booked a standard package for my family of 6 (yes, 6!) in February 2024. It’s a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise. I did SO much research before booking this cruise. I loved that all the dining was included and that it would be a quieter, not as roust experience for my family full of introverts. 😅 of course I hate that they took away so many options for us, particularly Alfredo’s/Gigi’s. It’s annoying. So now we’re looking at paying $4150 just for room & gratuities for interior rooms and limited dining options. I’m not super excited about it. And since my final payment day is a few months away, I’m looking at other cruises and might cancel. It’s just that at this price, to not have the experience I was hoping for, I’m not sure if it’s worth going through with it. If anyone has advice here, I’d appreciate it.
We started with the Plus package when it first rolled out for $40 a day. It was just the basic internet for 1 item. gratuities and drink package. I think that came out in 2019. Then the following year or so it went to $50 a day and recently in 2022 it switched to $60 a day with extras. So, if I know business plans, they rolled out to see how receptive passengers would be to it and it must have been good because they kept tweaking and raising cost. We still think it’s a good plan ~ I call it the no worries plan. Thanks for sharing!