Princess Plus and Princess Premier are two packages that offer a more all-inclusive experience for cruise passengers… but they come at a price. So are the deals worth it?
For years, some cruise passengers have complained about the “nickel and diming” that takes place on a ship. Between gratuities, drinks, specialty restaurants, wi-fi, and more, the costs can add up.
In fact, the average person can expect to spend about 35-40% of what they paid in cruise fare as onboard spending.
But some luxury cruise lines — including Princess — are making a change. Instead of charging additional amounts for many items, the cruise line is giving passengers the option of including the costs in the fare with a special add-on.
The program is called “Princess Plus” and was rolled out in 2020 during the pause in sailing. Since then, it has been a hit and the cruise line rolled out a higher tier offer known as “Princess Premier.”
In the most basic terms, passengers booking the Princess Plus program have gratuities, wi-fi access, and a drink package included with their cruise fare instead of having to pay extra for these on the ship (there are additional perks included as well, which we will get into).
Those booking Princess Premier have the same benefits, but an upgraded drink package, specialty restaurants, shore excursion credits, a photo package and lots more.
That said, there are plenty of questions you might have about the Princess deals, including if it’s worth it. Here’s what you need to know.
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What Is Princess Plus?
Princess Plus is an offer from the cruise line that provides a number of amenities included already with your cruise fare, instead of having to pay for them separately.
Specifically, guests who take advantage of the program pay one extra charge when they book their cruise receive all of the following:
- Crew gratuities
- Wi-fi access (one device)
- 15 drinks per day (up to $15 each)
24 casual dining meals- Shipwide delivery (OceanNow)
- Free room service
Unlimited juice barPremium desserts (2 per day)Fitness classes (2 per cruise)
Note: Following an update in July 2025, the package no longer includes premium desserts juice bar, or fitness classes, but upgraded from two casual dining meals to four.
Instead of having to shell out for these during the cruise, they are included, providing a more “all-inclusive” experience on the ship.
What Is Princess Premier?
The cruise line started with Princess Plus only, but has added another tier to their offer with Princess Premier. It works the same is the lower-tier program in that you pay an extra charge when you book, and then get a basket of extras included with your cruise.
This package includes everything included with Princess Plus, and more…
- Crew gratuities
- Wi-fi access (four devices)
- Unlimited drinks (up to $20 each)
- $100-300 per guest shore excursion credit (depends on trip length)
- Photo package (3 prints)
- Unlimited casual dining meals
2Unlimited specialty dining meals- Reserved theater seating
- Shipwide delivery (OceanNow)
- Free room service
Unlimited juice barPremium desserts (unlimited)Fitness classes (unlimited)Princess Prizes
Note: Following an update in July 2025, the package no longer includes premium desserts juice bar, fitness classes or Princess Prizes. It was upgraded from two specialty dining meals to unlimited and a new shore excursion credit was added.
How Much Are Princess Plus and Princess Premier Worth?
It’s actually difficult to put an exact price tag on what the packages are worth. Since they have unlimited access to some items, the worth increases depending on how many times you take advantage. Still, we can get in the ballpark.
With the Plus plan, passengers receive several benefits. These include:
- Gratuities: $17.00 per person, per day ($18.00 for mini-suites, $19.00 for suites)
- Plus Beverage Package (drinks up to $15 per glass): $64.99 per person, per day ($76.69 after gratuity)
- Wi-Fi for once device ($25 per day)
- Four casual dining meals ($15 each)
- Shipwide delivery (one-time fee of $15)
- Free room service (~$5 per order)
Added together, the items with daily charges (gratuities for typical room, beverage package, and wi-fi) add up to the value of $133 per person each day. This doesn’t include the extras that are not daily fees (e.g. shipwide delivery) that may not be used regularly.
With the Princess Premier deal, passengers receive the follow and more:
- Gratuities: $17.00 per person, per day ($18.00 for mini-suites, $19.00 for suites)
- Premier Beverage Package (drinks up to $20 per glass): $84.99 per person, per day ($100.29 after gratuity)
- $100-$300 shore excursion credit
- Wi-Fi for four devices at once (>$25 per day)
- Four specialty restaurant meals ($45 per meal)
- Unlimited casual dining meals ($15 each)
- Shipwide delivery (one-time fee of $15)
- Free room service ($5 per order)
- Photo package
This package also includes reserved seating at production shows.
When we consider those items with daily charges only, we see a value of at least $202 per person each day, but this doesn’t include savings on things like shore excursion credits, the photo package, shipwide delivery and more. In other words, the overall value should be much higher.
Considering the cost of the program (see below), booking the package seems to be a tremendous value if you plan to buy the amenities anyway.
How Much Does Princess Plus and Princess Premier Cost?
At the time of this writing, the Princess Plus package costs an extra $65 per person, per day over the standard base rate if booked ahead of time. On Sun Princess and Star Princess, it’s $70 per person, per day when booked ahead. (Booking on the ship sees a $5 per day higher charge.)
So for a 7-day cruise, Princess Plus would cost $455 (7 days x $65) per person with the Princess Plus offer on most ships.
Another way to think about it is that with gratuities included (which passengers must pay if they get the package or not), the $65 per day paid for the offer is actually $48 more than a passenger would pay otherwise. For that extra $48, you a drink package, wi-fi, and all the other perks.
Princess Premier, which offers more benefits, is priced at $100 extra per person, per day. ($105 per day on Sun Princess and Star Princess.) So a 7-day trip would be $700 per person with the Premier deal included.
Is This a Limited-Time Sale?
Of course cruise offers can change at any time. At this point, however, it appears that this is simply a new way of doing things for the cruise line, and it will be around for a while. In fact, Princess first started the offer in 2020 and in 2022 added the higher-tier Princess Premier offer. It shows no signs of going away.
Which Drink Package Is Included?
Princess is including the Plus Beverage Package with the Princess Plus offer. This drink package normally costs $64.99 per day, or about $77 once the 18% service charge is added on.
With this package, you get all beer, liquors, and wines prices $15 or under. It also includes bottled water, soda, fresh juices, energy drinks and more. Another nice feature is that the package extends to the cruise line’s private islands.
Note that Princess recently changed this package from 15 alcoholic drinks per day (but unlimited non-alcoholic drinks) to a flat 15 drinks per day no matter what they are.
If you opt for the Princess Premier offer, then the Premier Beverage Package is included instead. This includes everything in the lower-tier drink package, but it includes beverages up to $20 per glass. It is valued at $84.99 per person, per day, plus gratuity ($100.28 in total each day).
The Premier Beverage Package has no drink limit like the lower-tier package.
What Are the Wi-Fi Details?
Princess ships now have MedallionNet, which offers unlimited wi-fi. You simply login to your account and activate the device you’re using. The service included in the Plus offer is limited to one device at a time per passenger. With the Premier Package, you get wi-fi for up to four devices at once, per passenger.
Do I Have to Buy the Princess Plus or Princess Premier Package?
No. When you book, you’ll see the option to include the Princess Plus or Princess Premier offer. You can opt to just keep the regular pricing without the packages if you’d like.
Does Everyone Have to Buy the Deal One Person Does?
In most cases. If you are traveling as a couple, then the offer applies to both people in the room — even if one person doesn’t drink or simply doesn’t want the deal.
That said, Princess says that if you have a third or fourth passenger in a cabin, then you can opt in/out of the deal for them by calling the cruise line.
What if a Passenger is Underage or Doesn’t Drink Alcohol?
As part of the offer, the Plus or Premier Beverage Package is included. However, some people travel with kids, or they might have a travel partner that doesn’t drink.
First, if you book this offer and are traveling with someone underage, then they will automatically receive the Zero-Alcohol Package. This offers non-alcoholic drinks around the ship, including mocktails, energy drinks, soda, coffee, and teas.
If someone is over 21 but doesn’t drink, then they will still receive the beverage package that includes alcohol. One thing to keep in mind is that the package also includes tons of non-alcoholic beverages. So they can still get just about anything to drink on the ship that they want.
Our Experience With Princess Plus
When we cruise, we always look to be smart with onboard spending. Prices can quickly add up, and the bill at the end of the trip can be shocking if you aren’t careful. That said, we aren’t big drinkers (maybe 2-3 drinks per cruise) and almost never purchase a drink package.
So when we sailed a Princess cruise with the Princess Plus package offered, we originally defaulted to thinking it wouldn’t be good deal. However, doing the math, we found it to be well worth the money given that everyone has to pay gratuities anyway and we planned to purchase wi-fi. That essentially gave us a drink package for pennies on the dollar and other perks included.
Now, we have to say that many of the smaller perks weren’t of interest to us and we never used them on the cruise. So we’d suggest that you do the math on the options that you’d actually use on your trip. Even if something is included, it’s not worth anything if you don’t use it.
Overall, however, we found that the numbers were so easily in favor of upgrading to the Princess Plus offer that we were happy we bought it. In particular, it was nice to be able to grab a drink of whatever we wanted without having to worry about the final bill.
Are Princess Plus and Princess Premier a Good Deal? Are They Worth the Money?
For many cruise offers (such as drink packages), we find that they often straddle the line of being a good deal versus costing you more money. That’s not the case here.
With a current price of $65 per day, we feel that just about everyone will get their money’s worth with the Princess Plus offer.
At $65, you’ll get gratuities included, which run $17 per day for most cabins. Since you have to pay this charge anyway, you’re really paying an extra $48 for the program.
For that extra charge, you get wi-fi, which is a $25 per day charge. That means you essentially get a drink package — and everything else — for $23 per day. For that amount, just a couple of drinks per day will get your money’s worth. You could even get your money’s worth easily with non-alcoholic beverages.
The math behind Princess Premier isn’t as clear cut, but works if you’re typically a big spender on your cruise. At $100, it definitely offers more perks and a lot of value with everything included. The only question is if you would buy these anyway without the offer. For instance, the wi-fi included covers up to four devices per person. We doubt many people that would use all those connections.
But there are some nice perks like specialty dining meals, casual dining, and shore excursion credit. If these are things you normally purchase, then the package can save you money. As well, the drink package is a good value for people that enjoy drinking on the cruise.
In fact, if you want the higher-end drink package, then it’s cheaper to opt for Princess Premier than to purchase the drink package alone. Princess Premier costs $100 per day, while the Premier Beverage Package is slightly more than $100 per day when including gratuity.
If the standard drink package would be enough for you, however, then the Princess Plus offer may be better suited for your cruise.
Now if you’re someone who doesn’t want internet access and plan to stick only non-alcoholic beverages on the ship, then you won’t come out ahead on this deal. For the average cruiser, however, we think Princess Plus is definitely worth it. Those wanting higher-end drinks will enjoy Princess Premier.
You can read more details about the offer on the Princess website.
I almost JUST did this same thing!! I tried to make my reservations ahead of time, but after you choose you our date/time, the app is asking for my credit card info to pay the regular reservation fees. I couldn’t find a way to remove the charges showing or to let the app know I’m making a premiere pkg perk reservation. I called PC instead and after confirming my Premiere pkg, I had THEM manually put in my reservation. Whew! Dodged a bullet.
I booked my first cruise with Princess and decided to try the Princess Premier add-on which includes two meals at specialty restaurants.
After making my final payment 92 days before embarkation, I reserved two specialty meals using the Princess iOS app. I was surprised to see that my credit card had been billed for the two reservations.
Thinking that I had done something wrong, I called customer support. I was told that Princess bills all specialty restaurant reservations, even for customers with the Princess Premier add-on, and reverses the charge after the customer dines at the restaurant. I unwittingly gave Princess a 90-day interest free loan and will have to exercise due diligence to be sure the loan is repaid after I dine 93 days from now.
As I said, this is my first booking with Princess, and I feel like I must be on high alert for other scams and misrepresentations.