Princess cruises

[UnaPeacock]

We've got a Princess Cruise booked for May half term to the Norwegian Fjords. My husband and I are upgrading to Princess Plus but we weren’t sure whether to bother doing this for the children (12 and 7) as it’s £50 per child per day (8 days), the upgrade is the same price for adults as it is for children. We were thinking ‘pay as you go’ for soft drinks and hot drinks for the children and wondered if anyone had any experience with this and whether or not it was sensible to pay as you go or upgrade them as well so that everything is included?
Thank you in advance. We’re cruise novices!!

I believe Princess do a non-alcohol drink package, which you could buy for the kids if they are likely to drink a few fizzy drinks or juices each day. If they don't really like soda, or won't drink that many then you will probably find that there's enough free drinks at the buffet to keep them going, buying the occasional soda as you go. There's usually juices and milks at breakfast, lemonade (American style) and iced tea available during the day, and you can get water at bars at any time, or drink the tap water. There's usually somewhere to get coffee, tea and hot chocolate as well.

Having cruised with our teens on NCL, we bought a soda packages for them, but turned out not to be really worth it, as most bar tenders would give us sodas for the kids without charging us. They'd just wave us away when we tried to hand over our cards to pay. I assume this is because me and DH had the full drinks package, which included sodas, so the bartenders weren't too bothered about letting us get them for the kids.

@budgiegirl Thank you so much for the reply. That’s really useful. They both love iced tea and I saw that that seems to be included in the basic package so that will keep them happy most of the time and a few drinks bought here and there will probably be more economical than paying for them to be upgraded.
Thank you :)

We’ve never bought drinks packages for the kids. We brought mini squashes with us to add to the water that you get with all meals. we got them from Aldi and home bargains. Easy to keep in your handbag and use when needed.

we also brought milkshake straws which the kids loved and used them with the included milk from the buffet. We got them in B&M.

Also, you are allowed to take 12 cans of soda and 1 bottle of wine each on board. We were departing from Southampton and drove there so worked for us as no luggage restrictions.

And finally 😂 I recommend joining the sky princess Facebook groups. All the tips I got from there really added to the enjoyment/making the most of our cruise.

We did PAYG on Princess, worked out best for us. We brought our own wine on board too as sailed from Southampton.

@Christmas789 thank you! That’s such a good idea about the concentrated squashes! I’ll pack a few of those :) and the milkshake straws. I’ll have a look at the Facebook group you mentioned too. Thank you! :)