Princess Cruises Increases Value of Plus and Premier Packages at the Expense of Everyone Else

Yesterday, Princess Cruises put out a press release detailing changes to its package pricing. While it’s good news for those who purchase premium packages, it’s more nickel and diming for guests who book the standard package. We try to decipher the press release below.

Princess Cruises’ Packages

When you book a cruise with Princess Cruises, you have three options of packages, Princess Standard, Princess Plus, and Princess Premier. These packages aim to make it cheaper to add things like wifi, daily gratuities, and drink packages to your cruise. By bundling all the extras, they report you’ll save up to 85% of the retail value. 

As part of this new announcement, Princess Cruises has added new features to their Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages without increasing costs. 

Princess Plus

This package is $60 per person, per day which translates to an extra $840 for a 7-day cruise for 2. 

• Plus Beverage Package (covering drinks up to $15, specialty coffees, smoothies and bottled water, as well as 25 percent off bottles of wine)
• NEW! Unlimited MedallionNet 2.0 with Fleetwide Starlink and 5G for single device
• Daily crew appreciation (e.g., gratuities)
• NEW! Two prix fixe meals at any casual dining location per voyage
• NEW! Free OceanNow Delivery Service Activation
• NEW! Complimentary Room Service
• NEW! “Green Lane” Express Boarding (Free Medallion device delivery included)
• Two boutique fitness classes per voyage (e.g., Pure Barre, YogaSix, StretchLab)
• Two premium crafted desserts per day
• Unlimited premium fresh juices

Princess Premier

This package is $80 per person per day, which comes out to $1,120 for a cabin for a 7-day cruise. 

• Premier Beverage Package (covering drinks up to $20, champagne by the glass, specialty coffees, smoothies and bottled water, as well as 25 percent off bottles of wine)
• NEW! Unlimited MedallionNet 2.0 with Fleetwide Starlink and 5G for up to 4 devices
• Daily crew appreciation (e.g., gratuities)
• Two nights of specialty dining
• NEW! Unlimited prix fixe meals at any casual dining location
• NEW! Free OceanNow Delivery Service Activation
• NEW! Complimentary Room Service
• NEW! “Green Lane” Express Boarding (Free Medallion device delivery included)
• Reserved seating in the Princess Theater
• Unlimited boutique fitness classes per voyage (e.g., Pure Barre, YogaSix, StretchLab)
• Unlimited premium crafted desserts
• Unlimited premium fresh juices
• Unlimited Digital Photo package / Princess Prizes
• Complimentary Medallion accessory

The casual dining benefit that was added includes the following restaurants: Vines, Salty Dog Pub, O’Malleys, Ocean Terrace, Planks, Steamers, Alfredo’s, and GiGi’s. At many of these, they’ve added three-course, pre-fixed menus. For Princess Standard guests, casual prix fixe dining will be $14.99 and individual selections will continue with a la carte pricing.

New charges for Princess Standard cruisers

While the press release detailed some of the great savings associated with the “Princess Plus” and “Princess Premier” packages, they hid the fact that they’re increasing costs for “Princess Standard” cruisers. 

For example, standard package guests have to pay $10 per stateroom to have the Ocean Medallion shipped to their home. The Ocean Medallion is Princess’ RFID band that serves as your room key/account while on board. It’s similar to Disney’s Magic Bands. Plus and Premier packages will not have to pay for this. Guests can still pick it up when boarding the ship for free, but they will have to wait in line. 

Princess Cruises has a delivery program called “OceanNow” that allows guests to order food and drinks to be delivered anywhere on board. For standard guests, it will now cost a “nominal” $14.99 per guest, per voyage to activate the ability to use this feature. The fee is waived for Princess Plus and Princess Premier packages. 

On top of that, Princess Cruises is now charging standard guests to eat at their pizzeria on board, GiGi’s and Alfredo’s. These two restaurants have been complimentary so far. 

Are the Princess packages worth it?

That depends on how you cruise. The “savings” Princess promises are based on if you purchased everything in that package at “list price.” Not going to use the fitness classes? Then it’s not as good of a deal. Same goes for non-drinks or if you will never use the delivery service or room service. 

While veteran sailors of Princess Cruisers may understand the differences, first-time cruisers may be underwhelmed with the choices and not fully understand them. Princess is likely banking on that, hoping these packages will increase their bottom line by having people pay for things they don’t need. 

Our take: Princess pricing is a confusing mess

Remember the days of understanding what you were getting on a cruise ship. Well, that’s no more. Want a drink? You pay full price if your standard; it’s covered up to $15 for the Plus guests and up to $20 for Premier. Want a casual meal? It’s an extra charge for standard, you get two included meals for Plus, and it’s completely free for Premier. Have fun keeping track of all that while you’re on vacation.