Whine Wednesday: Princess Cruises Excludes Canned Drinks From Their Most Expensive All-In Packages

This week’s Whine Wednesday is about a change that Princess Cruises implemented last week: it has removed canned drinks such as soda from the inclusions, even when purchasing the most expensive beverage packages.

The change, which was adopted on April 26, 2025 (coincidentally exactly the date that I got off the SUN Princess in Barcelona), has incensed cruisers and caused an outcry among cruisers who prefer canned beverages.

You can access Princess Cruises here and see what their packages entail.

Whenever a cruise line makes changes people complain, that’s almost in the nature of things, but this change is really unreasonable.

It affects even guests who have the most expensive packages, such as the Princess Premier, which includes almost everything on board, including top-shelf alcohol and drinks up to $20—but apparently no longer a can of Coke.

The Princess Premier package is great and provides excellent value even if it comes at a steep cost (unless you’re in a suite where it’s already included).

But with these new policy changes… I don’t know what Princess is thinking.

The T&C of the beverage packages now say:

What’s included in the Plus Beverage Package? The Plus Beverage Package includes beer, spirits, wine by the glass and cocktails up to $15 USD / $22 AUD, all non-alcoholic beverages including bottled water (500ml only), fountain sodas, the new Juice Bar, plus fresh juices (if available), specialty coffees and teas, frappes at Coffee & Cones, milkshakes (if available) and Red Bull energy drinks. Bar service charges are included in this package. The package includes the additional benefit of a 25% discount on the following excluded items: all bottles of wine, one-liter bottles of water and bottled juices. The package has a daily limit on alcoholic beverages of 15 beverages over a 24-hour period (6 a.m. to 6 a.m.).

What’s included in the Premier Beverage Package? The Premier Beverage Package now includes an unlimited premium selection of beer, spirits, wine by the glass and cocktails up to a $20 USD / $30 AUD value each, all non-alcoholic beverages including bottled water (500ml only), fountain sodas, the new Juice Bar, plus fresh juices (if available), specialty coffees and teas, frappes at Coffee & Cones, milkshakes (if available) and Red Bull energy drinks. Bar service charges are included in this package. The package includes the additional benefit of a 25% discount on the following excluded items: all bottles of wine, one-liter bottles of water and bottled juices.

Some people have mentioned that this was amended in 2023, but so far, cans were readily served to passengers with both of these packages, and limitations were never enforced – until this week.

When I sailed on the SUN Princess from Rome via Athens to Barcelona, I still had everything available to me, especially my favorite drink that I didn’t even know prior to this trip:

I must have had 30 of these over the course of the two weeks plus plenty of others. As far as alcohol is concerned, I had maybe 4-5 alcoholic beverages per day, ranging from cocktails to wines and spirits.

Furthermore, as I was in a suite, there was a minibar included that was always restocked, and obviously that is all cans and bottles:

There was so much stuff in my cabin at some point that I had to ask them to remove it because my room was at times better stocked than some of the bars onboard.

I’m often watching Don’s cruise coverage, and he summed it up well in this video:

I think this situation perfectly sums up the greed of the cruise industry. Cruise lines always did that but these packages were designed to charge people a hefty sum of money so they don’t have to deal with this nonsense of individual charges.

I covered this topic previously:

Should You Buy Expensive Beverage Packages When Going On A Cruise?

For many it might actually be time to go back to pay one by one rather than relying on all included packages, especially as you have to work really hard to make them work out in your favor financially.

Not sure that soda is really the hill the companies wanna die on. Fountain soda is horrible, just gross. Yes, I can do it if it’s a proper (clean) freestyle soda machine, but given that these machines also require water from the tap line… this isn’t a great solution for ships, and with all the concerns about viruses onboard cruise ships, I simply prefer a closed can.

Conclusion

Is Princess bleeding this badly? They allow you to have unlimited specialty dining and drink yourself to oblivion with expensive alcohol, but now they charge you for a can of soda?

To add insult to injury, many advertised items aren’t even available on board. The SUN Princess had no fresh juice bar, no fresh juices at all, even though this was advertised as part of the premier package. Plenty of spirits and wines were unavailable, and even bottles of sparkling water, such as Pellegrino or Perrier, weren’t stocked.

Cruise lines have gotten cocky and people seem to put up with it for whatever reason. It’s really a mystery to me why cruisers are so complacent rather than ripping these companies a new one whenever this happens.

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