Booking a Princess cruise holiday isn’t as simple as picking a date, picking a room and then paying. There’s an added layer of complexity thanks to the different cruise fare options available, and choosing the right one for you is important.
They each impact what’s covered by your fare, and you need to make sure that you understand exactly what the price of the cruise is paying for, and how much extra you’re going to need to budget to pay for everything.
So, in this guide, I’ll take you through what you get with your Princess Cruises fare, what you need to pay extra for, and make it as easy as possible for you to work out how expensive your cruise will actually be.
Standard Vs Plus Vs Premier – An Overview
Exactly what you get included in your cruise depends on whether you choose a standard fare, or you upgrade to Plus or Premier.
Plus and Premier are packages that offer a wide range of extras for a set fee. Plus costs £50 ($60) per person, per day, while Premier costs £75 ($90) per person, per day.
Each cover your tips, a drinks package, WiFi internet access and more, with potential savings of up to 69% compared to buying everything separately.
However, you might not use everything within a package. If you’re not someone who drinks alcohol, or you don’t plan to use the WiFi, it’s important to price up what each element costs and decide whether it’s cheaper for you to upgrade to one of those fares, or stay with Standard and then add on the extras individually.
The extra inclusions of these packages are loved by cruisers who say tha they’re among the best things that Princess Cruises offers.
Read my full guide to Princess Plus vs Princess Premier to learn more.
What’s Included in a Princess Cruise and What Costs Extra..?
1. Accommodation
Regardless of which cruise fare you choose to pay for, your accommodation is always included. Whether you choose Standard, Plus or Premier has no impact on the stateroom or suite you book.
You’ve got five main options when you book a room with Princess Cruises:
- Interior – rooms without a window, always the cheapest option
- Oceanview – rooms with a window
- Balcony – rooms that have their own private balcony
- Mini Suite – larger than a Balcony with a small number of extra perks
- Suite – the biggest rooms, with a longer list of extras
You also have the option of choosing a guarantee cabin, where Princess Cruises will pick your cabin for you, or you can pay a little extra to choose the exact cabin you want.
Picking a guarantee cabin can save money, but risks you getting the worst cabins in your chosen class – an Interior room that’s a long walk from anything, or a Balcony stateroom with an obstructed view, for example.
If you pay extra for a Mini Suite, you’ll get a few extra benefits:
- A separate sitting area with sofa bed and coffee table
- A curtain to separate the sofa bed sitting area from the main bed
- An extra TV
- An enhanced bathroom with bathtub and massage shower
- A luxury mattress topper and better pillows
- Up to four chairs on the balcony (compared to the standard two)
- A glass of sparkling wine when you board
If you pay for a Suite, you get a much longer list of perks. The best features include priority boarding and disembarkation, welcome Champagne, an upgraded room service menu and reserved dining areas.
Here’s the full list of Princess Cruises suite perks
2. Food
On a Princess cruise, you’ll always be able to eat for free. You get to enjoy all your meals in the Main Dining Room, or you can eat casually at the buffet restaurant whenever it’s open.
There’s also an International Cafe serving lighter bites, and you can enjoy snack items from a poolside venue too, and none of these cost any extra.
There are some Premium Dessert options served in the Main Dining Room which cost extra – these are extra to the regular desserts.
If you’re a Plus guest you can enjoy two of these every day (surely that’s enough?) while Premier guests get as many as they want.
Then there are paid-for dining venues available too. These are split into two categories – Casual Dining, and Speciality Dining.
Casual Dining includes a range of different relaxed venues, such as Alfredo’s pizza, the Salty Dog Pub and more. These all have either a la carte pricing or a fixed fee, but they aren’t super-expensive – fixed-fee dining is $14.99 per person.
If you choose the Standard package, you’ll always have to pay for these. On the Plus package, you get two Casual Dining meals included in your cruise. On the Premier package, they’re completely unlimited.
Speciality Dining venues are more formal restaurants onboard, serving a range of cuisine. These cost more – typically around $29 per person for dinner.
Standard and Plus guests always have to pay for these, whereas Premier fare guests can enjoy these unlimited at no extra charge – the only exception is at the Chef’s Table Lumiere which is considered fine dining, and so will always cost extra.
| Cruise Fare | Main Dining Room, Buffet, International Cafe | Casual Dining | Speciality Dining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Always included | Charged | Charged |
| Plus | Always included | 2 included, then charged | Charged |
| Premier | Always included | Always included | 2 included, then charged (UK) Always included (US) |
3. Drinks
On a Princess cruise, you get eight different types of drinks included as standard – tap water, lemonade, ice tea, hot tea, standard coffee, hot chocolate, milk, and fruit juice.
But you can’t get all of those from the bars – some are only available for free in the buffet, and some only at breakfast.
The rest of the day, you’re going to have to pay for your drinks. Expect to pay in the region of $7 for a beer, $10+ for a glass of wine or a cocktail, and $2.50 for a fountain soft drink, to give you an idea of how much you’re likely to spend onboard.
You can see the Princess Cruises drinks menus with prices here.
Like most cruise lines, you can also choose to pay for a drinks package. There are four you can choose from:
| Drinks Package | Daily Cost | What It Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Premier Beverage Package | $84.99 per day + 18% service charge = $100.29 per day | All drinks up to a value of $20 |
| Plus Beverage Package | $64.99 per day + 18% service charge = $76.69 per day | All drinks up to a value of $15 |
| Zero-Alcohol Beverage Package | $29.99 per day + 18% service charge = $35.39 per day | Wide range of non-alcoholic drinks |
| Classic Soda Package | $14.99 per day + 18% service charge = $17.69 per day | Limited range of non-alcoholic drinks |
If you choose the Standard fare, you can pick any drinks package if you want one – but you don’t have to. Remember that you can’t have a drinks package for just a few days, you need to pay for it for the duration of your cruise.
If you book your cruise with the Plus package, you get the Plus Beverage Package included. And the same with the Premier cruise fare – you get the Premier Beverage Package included.
Here’s what’s weird – the Plus and Premier packages are cheaper than buying the drinks packages separately!
There’s no catch – it literally makes zero sense to buy a Plus or Premier Beverage Package. If you want them, then buy the Plus or Premier cruise fare.
There are only two reasons that the prices could be weird in this way:
- It’s an oversight by Princess Cruises (unlikely, as it’s been like this for a while)
- Having the drinks package prices this much higher means they can claim bigger percentage savings for the Plus and Premier cruise fares
The Plus fare is advertised as saving you 57% instead of buying each bit separately.
The Premier fare apparently saves you 69%. But those percentages would be a little bit lower if the drinks packages cost less than the cruise fare packages.
A bit sneaky? Maybe.
Regardless – you need to work out whether a drinks package is right for you, and then budget for the package you want or for the drinks you’ll buy individually. My drinks package calculator can help you work it out.
4. Room Service & Ocean Now
Princess Cruises offer a room service menu with a wide range of food items you can enjoy. There’s a great breakfast selection, and plenty of snacks and simple food items served throughout the rest of the day.
There’s a $5 delivery fee every time you use room service, although this is waived if you’ve paid for the Plus or Premier cruise fares.
Princess also does something cool called OceanNow, which is essentially room service but for almost anywhere on the ship.
You might be sat by the pool, or in a bar, or in the theatre and decide you’re feeling peckish – just use the app on your phone and you can order food to be delivered to you.
If you want to use this, you’ll need to pay a one-off activation fee of $15 for your cruise but this is again waived if you’ve gone for the Plus or Premier cruise fare.
5. Entertainment
Princess Cruises offers a range of entertainment during your cruise, from Movies under the Stars on the pool deck to immersive theatre shows, live comedy, bar singers and so much more.
And it’s all included at no extra cost – you’re welcome to enjoy the entertainment in any of the venues no matter which fare you’ve chosen for your cruise.
However, there is one little catch. If you’ve paid for the Premier cruise fare, you get to enjoy reserved seating in the theatre for any production shows, meaning you’re guaranteed to get one of the best seats. Otherwise, you’ll need to queue up and hope you get a good seat.
6. Activities
There are a lot of activities available during your cruise with Princess, including organised sports games, leisurely swimming in the pool, fitness classes, cookery classes, casino gaming, shopping and more.
Some of these – the sports, the pool etc. are free and can be enjoyed as much as you want to, but most of the activities require you to spend your own money. You don’t get a casino budget as part of your cruise fare, unfortunately!
The only impact on activities from the cruise fares comes with the fitness classes. Plus fare guests get two free classes per cruise, while Premier fare guests can enjoy unlimited fitness classes.
7. Kids’ Clubs
Princess Cruises has a range of kids’ clubs that offer exciting activities throughout the day, and guests are welcome to use these at no additional charge.
Infants and toddlers under 3 must be accompanied by parents, but children aged 3 to 7 can stay in The Treehouse, while those aged 8 to 12 can enjoy The Lodge. There are also dedicated teen lounges too.
These are open into the evening, but then at night from 10 pm there is a charge for babysitting, and only for kids aged 3 to 12. It costs $5 per hour, per child.
8. Service Charges
There are two types of service charge that you’ll need to pay on your Princess cruise. The first are the daily gratuities, which cost between $17 and $19 per person, per day depending on which class of stateroom you have booked.
They’re included in the fare if you’ve chosen Plus or Premier fare packages, but anyone with a Standard cruise fare has to pay the gratuities separately.
Suggested read: Can you opt out of gratuities on a cruise?
The other charges are a set rate of 18% applied to any purchases of speciality dining, drinks, drinks packages, spa services and a couple of other features onboard.
If you get the Plus or Premier packages then the service charge is covered for anything included, but you’d need to pay it for anything you buy on top of that – so if you booked Premier, you wouldn’t pay the 18% service charge on the two included speciality dining meals, but you would pay it on any further speciality dining meals you paid for.
9. WiFi
WiFi is another feature which isn’t included on a Standard cruise fare, but that you do get if you pay for the Plus or Premier fare.
It costs from $24.99 per day for one device, but you can also get a four-device plan for $44.99 per day. The speeds are the same, it just affects how many devices you can connect.
The Plus cruise fare gets you the one device package included, while the Premier cruise fare includes a four-device WiFi package for your cruise.
10. Laundry
If you’re on a longer cruise, you might want to use the laundry services instead of packing enough outfits for every single day. Princess gives you two options, and neither are included in the fare – so make sure you budget for laundry if you plan on using it.
The self-serve laundry facilities are the cheapest option, but they take more effort. It costs $3 for a washload, $3 for drying, and you can buy detergent for $1.50.
If you’d rather have your laundry done for you, you can pay for the service instead. You’ll pay by the item, with the option for laundering or for dry cleaning. Expect to pay between $1 and $4.50 per item for washing and pressing, and between $2.75 and $11.50 for dry cleaning.
11. Flights and Transfers
The advertised cruise fares for Princess on their website won’t include your flights by default, but you can add them on through the cruise line if you prefer. If you do, you’ll also get your overseas transfers included too.
You don’t have to use the cruise line’s flights though. If you book via a travel agent, they’ll typically price flights separately and get you a better deal, or you can always book your own.
Just make sure you don’t forget to budget for (or book) your transfers from the airport to the cruise port, and leave plenty of time too. If your cruise port is more than half a day away, travel the night before and pay extra for a hotel so that you definitely don’t miss the ship.
Cruising from a port in your own country, like Southampton for UK guests?
Factor in cruise parking costs, or the cost of your coach or train to get to the port as well when putting together your cruise budget, as that won’t be included in the fare.
12. Shore Excursions
One last thing that you won’t get included in your fare – even if you book a Premier fare – is shore excursions.
If you want to go on tours when you’re in port, you’ll need to pay for them – either via the cruise line, or with a third party if you want to save money.
Suggested read: How I Find Affordable Shore Excursions
You don’t always have to. Some ports are walkable or there may be free shuttle buses to get you into the main town. Just be careful if you aren’t on a cruise line excursion – you have to make it back to the ship in time or you will be left behind.
NEW DEALS JUST RELEASED!
See the latest Princess Cruises offers…
To Conclude
There you have it – everything you get included with your cruise fare with Princess, whether you choose Standard, Plus, or Premier, and all the extras you’ll need to pay for.
It can be tough working out what the best deal is for you, so try to work out what you would want to pay extra for, and then see if either the Plus or Premier fare offers better value. They definitely do if you want one of the drinks packages, but not everyone drinks enough to justify that cost.
At least now you know everything that will cost more, and it should be much easier to work out how much a Princess cruise will actually cost you.
NEW DEALS JUST RELEASED!
See the latest Princess Cruises offers…
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- Princess Cruise Ships Ranked From Best To Worst (Using Real Reviews)
- How Early Can You Board A Princess Cruise?
- These Are The Newest Princess Cruises Ships
Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.
