Princess Premier vs Plus: 2026 Prices Compared

Most Princess cruisers pay more than they need to, simply because they pick the wrong package.

When you book with Princess Cruises, you’re faced with three options: the standard fare, Princess Plus, or Princess Premier. On paper, the upgrades look like no-brainers. Drinks. WiFi. Gratuities. Extras bundled neatly together.

But here’s what most people don’t realise before they click “upgrade”. Depending on how you cruise, one package can be incredible value… and another can quietly cost you hundreds more than necessary.

I’ve run the numbers, compared the inclusions, and looked at the 2026 changes – and the answer isn’t as obvious as Princess makes it seem.

Before you choose Plus or Premier, there’s one key detail about the pricing structure that can completely change the maths…

The 3 Princess Cruises Packages

Let’s take a look at exactly what’s included in a Princess cruise with each of the packages.

Read more: What’s Included in Princess Cruises (And How Much is Everything Else?)

Princess Plus and Princess Premier Are Worth Considering IF You’ll Use All the Perks

For 2026, Princess Plus costs $65 per day, and Princess Premier costs $100 per day. Princess markets both as offering significant savings – often claiming you’ll save 50–70% versus paying for drinks, WiFi and other perks individually.

So, at first glance, it seems like these packages offer great value, right?

Well yes, they do, but only if the extras are things that you want and would have purchased anyway.

So, with that in mind, let’s break down exactly what’s included in each package and how much those extras usually cost. Then, you can decide which package to go for.

To keep things simple, we’ll use the US dollar pricing throughout this article. Bear in mind, though, that if you live in the UK, you can expect to pay for both your cruise and the package in pounds sterling.

Princess Plus – Worth It If You Drink Alcohol

Princess Plus costs $65 per person, per day. It includes drinks, tips and faster WiFi, as well as 4 casual dining meals.

However for sailings on Sun Princess or Star Princess, add an extra £5/$5 per person, per day to the cost.

For most people who drink alcohol, the package is worth it, but it’s not for everyone.

I can say one thing immediately. If you want a Princess Plus Beverage Package, then the Princess Plus cruise fare is 100% worth buying.

That’s because it costs virtually the same amount to buy a Princess Plus fare as it does to get a Princess Plus Beverage package, even though the fare includes the same drinks package AND other benefits.

The Plus Beverage Package is $64.99 per day, which already includes the 20% service charge – previously this was added on top at checkout, but it’s now built into the headline price.

It doesn’t really make sense, but there is no benefit to buying the beverage package on its own.

Purchasing Drinks Individually

Of course, you may want to pay for your drinks individually, in which case you’ll want to check the prices of the drinks on the menu.

For the exact pricing of all drinks, check out these photos of Princess Cruises drinks menus.

Princess Plus May Not Be Worth It If You Don’t Drink Much

Perhaps you just like a glass of wine with dinner or maybe the occasional beer in the afternoon. Is the Princess Plus package still worth it?

I’ve made a drink package calculator tool that will work out exactly how much your drinks bill will be without a package. Just pop your email address below and it will be sent straight to your inbox.

Depending on how much you drink, it could still be worth getting the Princess Plus package, as you could break even with just the WiFi and a few drinks per day, depending on what drinks you like.

And If You Don’t Drink At All…

If you don’t drink alcohol, then you need to work out whether Princess Plus is worth it for you.

The easiest way to do that is for you to add together the value of the parts of the package you would use, and find out whether that comes to more than the $65 for the package.

If it does, save the money and get the package.

If you aren’t going to want the beverage package, then instead, you need to look at the other perks and decide whether it’s worth buying them individually or getting the Princess Plus fare.

Tips Are Included Too

On a Princess cruise, everyone must pay tips, which the cruise line calls ‘crew appreciation’, to recognise the efforts of the crew members. This is automatically added to your onboard account.

While you can change the amount at the guest services desk if you have a bad experience, this isn’t recommended as the crew members work very hard and rely on these tips as part of their income.

The price of tips on Princess Cruises has risen by $1 per person, per day as of 8th March 2026. The new rates are $18 per person, per day for guests staying in Interior, Oceanview and Balcony cabins. For Mini-Suites, Club Class or Reserve Collection balconies, and Cabana staterooms, the rate is $19. In Suites, it is $20.

WiFi Costs Are Significant If You Don’t Get Plus

Princess Cruises WiFi costs $24.99 per day for the one-device package. If you want the multi-device package, it’s $44.99 per day.

WiFi can be handy if you want to use your mobile phone to access the internet while at sea. Depending on your phone contract and the destination, you may be able to use 4G or 5G data at no extra cost while the ship is in port.

Many people prefer not to buy WiFi on a cruise and instead only use their phone in a port. Be sure to read my guide to avoiding cruise roaming charges to make sure that you don’t get caught out.

Princess now offers two WiFi tiers. Standard fare guests receive the regular MedallionNet service, while Princess Plus and Princess Premier guests get access to the faster MedallionNet Max. That upgraded speed is only included with the Plus and Premier packages, making it another incentive to upgrade rather than stick with the basic fare.

Plus Now Includes 4 Casual Dining Meals

Princess Plus now includes 4 casual dining meals per guest, per cruise (an upgrade from the 2 previously offered in the 2025 package).

But you may be wondering what these are actually worth?

If you were paying separately, casual dining costs $14.99 per meal, plus an 18% service charge. That brings each meal to roughly $17.70.

So on a 7-night cruise:

• 4 meals × $17.70 = $70.80 total value
• Spread across 7 nights = around $10 per day

Room Service & OceanNow Fees

On a standard fare:

• OceanNow activation costs $14.99 (one-time fee)
• Room service delivery costs $5 per order

If you ordered room service twice during a 7-night cruise, that would normally cost:

• $14.99 activation
• $10 in delivery fees
• Total = $24.99

Spread across 7 nights, that works out at around $3.57 per day in added value.

As a reminder, here are the different elements listed with their value:

Included Perk	Daily Value (For Perks With A Total Cost, Estimated Against A 7 Night Cruise)
WiFi	$25
Tips	$17-19
OceanNow Food Delivery (One-Time Activation)	$2.14
Casual Dining Meals (4 Per Cruise)	$10.11
Room Service Delivery (2 Deliveries per cruise)	$1.43
Total Estimated Value	$55.68 to $57.68

Remember, that’s the value without the drinks package. So you have to ask yourself:

• Would you normally pay for all of these perks anyway?
• Would you spend more than $8-10 per day on alcoholic drinks?

If you would, then get the Princess Plus fare. You’ll then get the Plus Beverage Package included. If you wouldn’t drink alcohol, then it makes sense to cruise on a standard fare and pay for the tips separately, along with anything else included in the package that you would actually use.

Princess Premier – Worth it for Some People

Princess Premier costs $100 per day. It includes drinks, tips, WiFi, speciality and casual dining, reserved theatre seating and photos.

But whether it’s worth it depends on whether you would normally pay for these things and how long your cruise is.

If you want the Premium Beverage Package, Princess Premier is usually still the smarter option. The standalone Premium Beverage Package now costs $84.99 per day (including service charge), while Princess Premier costs $100 per day.

It used to be the case that the drinks package alone cost more than Premier, but Princess has adjusted its pricing so that’s no longer true. Even so, for roughly $15 extra per day, Premier also includes WiFi, casual and speciality dining, photos, room service delivery and more – which is where the real value comes in.

If you don’t want the Premium Beverage Package, then you need to look at the value of everything else you get instead.

Tips Are Covered Again

As we’ve already worked out, tips (also known as gratuities or crew appreciation) cost between $18 and $20 per day, depending on what type of room you book. Those staying in a balcony or below – that’s most people – will pay $18.

WiFi for Four Devices

Princess Cruises’ four-device wifi package costs $44.99 per day. My guess is that most people definitely don’t need four devices per person on a cruise. But for those who need to do some work on a laptop and also want to use WiFi on their phone by the pool, it could be handy.

For most people, the $24.99 one-device WiFi package that you get with Princess Plus is enough, so this Princess Premier perk isn’t worth any extra.

Unlimited Casual Dining

Casual dining costs $14.99 per meal for a prix fixe menu, plus a 20% service charge (up from 18% as of 8th March 2026) if you’re paying separately. I covered the list of venues in the Princess Plus section above, so if you skipped it, scroll up for the full breakdown.

With Princess Premier, casual dining is completely unlimited. So if you’re someone who likes variety and plans to eat at these venues regularly, the value can add up quickly. Even just one visit per day would normally cost around $17.70 – so that alone starts covering a big chunk of the upgrade.

And Unlimited Speciality Dining Too…

Speciality dining on Princess now typically carries a cover charge of around $39–$55 per person, and for most ships, a 20% service charge is added on top if you’re paying separately. That means eating at a venue like Crown Grill can total about $65 per adult without a package – another reason many cruisers find Princess Premier (which includes speciality dining) appealing.

There are a few restaurants like The Chef’s Table Lumiere and Spellbound which are classes as fine or experiential dining, so they’re not included in the Princess Premier speciality dining credits.

Read more: Princess Cruises Dining Explained

Get Snap-Happy with a Photo Package

At the time of writing, Princess Cruises doesn’t offer the package with three prints and unlimited digital photos that you get with the Princess Premier Package. The nearest is the 5-photo package, which costs £64.08 (around $86).

The unlimited digital photo package is a strong offer, and I would estimate this to be worth around $100. While this has slightly more value on a longer cruise because you’ll have more opportunities to pose for photos, this is definitely outweighed by the fact that the Princess Premier Package is charged on a daily basis.

Shore Excursion Credit

One of the new perks for Premier, brought into effect in 2026, is the shore excursion credit. The amount you get varies depending on your sailing length:-

• $100 of shore excursion credit for sailings of 6-9 days
• $200 of shore excursion credit for sailings of 10-20 days
• $300 of shore excursion credit for sailings of 21+ days

The real value of this perk depends entirely on how you cruise.

If you normally book your shore excursions independently or prefer to explore ports on your own, then this credit doesn’t add much value at all. You can’t cash it out, and you can’t transfer it – it only works against excursions booked through Princess.

However, if you were planning to book cruise line excursions anyway, this can be a genuinely useful perk. A $100 credit on a 7-night sailing will often cover most, or sometimes all, of a shorter half-day tour. On longer sailings, $200 or $300 can take a significant chunk out of the cost of multiple excursions.

So it’s not “free money” – but if you were already budgeting for Princess excursions, it can meaningfully reduce your out-of-pocket spend.

Reserved Seating – No Value, But Nice to Have!

Reserved seating in the theatre doesn’t really have a set monetary value; it’s not something you can buy separately. The real benefit is convenience. You can secure a good seat in advance without having to rush out of dinner early or queue up just to make sure you’re not stuck at the back.

Princess Premier – The Total Value

Let’s add up everything that’s included, without the drinks package:

Included Perk	Daily Value (For Perks With A Total Cost, Estimated Against A 7-Night Cruise)
WiFi	$45
Tips	$17-19
OceanNow Food Delivery (One-Time Activation)	$2.14
Casual Dining Meals (5 Per Cruise)	$12.64
Speciality Dining Meals (4 Per Cruise)	$37
Room Service Delivery – 2 Deliveries	$1.43
Photo Package	$14.29
Shore Excursion Credit	$14.29
Total Estimated Value	$143.79 – $145.50

*Note: For this estimate, I’ve assumed 5 casual dining meals and 4 speciality dining meals on a 7-night cruise. That’s a realistic usage pattern for many cruisers, but both perks are unlimited with Princess Premier. If you chose to dine at these venues more frequently, even every day, the effective daily value would be significantly higher.

The total value, when averaged out across a 7-day cruise, is around $144 per day without the drinks package! So if you would use all of the above, then the Princess Premier package would be better value than buying everything individually.

And if you want to drink a lot, it is definitely worth it!

But, let’s say that you only order drinks worth under $15 (that’s still a great choice) and you only have one device using wifi. This is the case for most people. And remember that everyone has to cover the tips regardless.

In that case, for the extras that come with the Princess Premier Package, you are paying an extra $35 per person, per day, on top of the Princess Plus Package.

Is that worth it? Well…

Really, it depends on how much variety you want in your dining. If you want to eat at a different casual venue each day, and you’ll make the most of the speciality dining options, then it could save you money to go for a Premier package.

But you can also pay for occasional meals, and then dine for free in the complimentary venues for others.

In reality, Princess Plus is the best option for most people, unless you really enjoy special food and drinks, and the freedom of no limits on those.

Because the packages offer so many extras, you need to work out exactly what you’d use.

The Verdict – Which Package Should You Choose?

If you want a drinks package, Princess Plus is usually the obvious starting point. The Plus fare costs $65 per day and includes the Plus Beverage Package, gratuities, WiFi, and a handful of dining perks. Buying the drinks package on its own rarely makes sense when Plus is priced so close and includes extra benefits on top.

Princess Plus is best for:

• Anyone who wants a drinks package (even if you’re not a heavy drinker)
• Anyone who’d otherwise pay for gratuities and WiFi anyway
• Cruisers who’ll use a couple of the small extras like casual dining and delivery

Princess Premier is a bigger jump at $100 per day, and it’s only good value if you’ll actually use the upgrades. The biggest difference isn’t the drink limit – it’s the unlimited casual dining, unlimited speciality dining, the photo package, and the new shore excursion credit. If you’ll use those properly, Premier can work out great. If you won’t, it’s an expensive upgrade that looks better on paper than it feels onboard.

Princess Premier is best for:

• Foodies who plan to use speciality dining multiple times
• Anyone who’d buy a photo package anyway
• Guests who book cruise line excursions and will use the excursion credit
• People who genuinely want the “no limits” style of cruising

If you’re still unsure, start with this simple question: what would you genuinely pay for if these packages didn’t exist? Add those costs up and compare them with the daily package price. That one step will usually make the right choice obvious.

If you’re not sure of the value of your drinks, be sure to grab a copy of the drink package calculator.

For more information about Princess Cruises’ drink packages, you can refer to my guide: Princess Cruises Drink Packages Guide.

I also have an in-depth review of Princess Premier.

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