Another Princess Sale begins June 6th

[PunkiC]

I didn't see anything that was exciting enough to book. The prices are just too high.

[cruznliz]

I'm looking at the mailing. There are NO Royal Princess cruises listed and the Emerald Princess cruises are only November and December 2013. Most everything is Oct. - Dec. The link seems the same as the mailing. ;)

[Vexorg]

Hmmm.. I've been looking at possibly doing a balcony on the December 14th Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Crown Princess (which is on the sale, and does seem to have some markdowns) but it looks like we could get an interior on the December 9th 10-day on the Emerald for just about the same price and get the free gratuities and a bit more OBC for using FCCs, but then I'd have to take another week off work. Decisions, decisions...

[CruizLvr]

Hopefully this link will help you all see if your sailing date is included on the sale:

http://www.crucon.com/RoyalFarechart_0531.PDF

[mafig]

What incentive is a free bottle of champagne? Do they think people will say "I've been waiting to book and now that I get a bottle of champagne, I will." :confused:

The free gratuities for cruises over 8 days is OK, as long as they didn't raise the prices before this.

[MCC retired]

The 11/09/13 Emerald is on the list .

However , most Balcony,Mini & Suites are already sold out on this sailing .

A few OV and lots of Insides remain.

 

No Caribbean sailings beyond Dec. on the list .

[JimmyVWine]

What incentive is a free bottle of champagne? Do they think people will say "I've been waiting to book and now that I get a bottle of champagne, I will." :confused:

 

You really have to wonder what went on in the conference room during that marketing strategy meeting. Assuming that the "Champagne" is the same swill that they pour for mini-suite passengers, you are talking about a barely swallowable bottle that cost the ship $5-$10. Now, if it were a bottle of 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil, that might grab my attention. But I'd still rather have them chop $500 per person off my cruise fare than have a "free" bottle worth $1,000.

[PunkiC]

You really have to wonder what went on in the conference room during that marketing strategy meeting. Assuming that the "Champagne" is the same swill that they pour for mini-suite passengers, you are talking about a barely swallowable bottle that cost the ship $5-$10. Now, if it were a bottle of 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil, that might grab my attention. But I'd still rather have them chop $500 per person off my cruise fare than have a "free" bottle worth $1,000.

 

Since Princess seems to be moving more and more in the direction of Carnival and NCL, maybe they are shooting for a crowd that doesn't know the difference between really good champagne and barely drinkable champagne. :p

[cruisingram1]

And Princess raised the prices on those cruises, then give you the free gratuities. Is this really a sale. Just checked a couple of our cruises that we already booked and the prices for this sale are more than what I paid.

 

Indeed.. that seems to be the case. I booked a cruise on Sunday through a TA. I called this morning to see if Princess would let me use the free gratuities promotion although it was not a "new" booking. And the answer was ... YES.. they would do it .. HOWEVER.. they needed to reprice using today's prices based on non-Captain's Circle fares. Turned out .. or so I'm told... that my price was better. While there is some consolation that the past cruiser rate was better, it's a little annoying knowing that Princess plays around with prices and semantics to draw people into their sale. Even if I had not booked already, it appears the price as a former passenger was better than their "sale" even with free gratuities. It should have read promotion good for "new to Princess" rather than "new booking".

[Dudleydog73]

From the quick glance it says not combinable with other OBC. Does that include Military, Shareholder, FCC, TA gift, etc? Sounds like a crappy deal if it is a take it or leave it offer.

[petlady7]

Hi

Had already booked the southern caribbean medley for next April and phoned Princess UK cruises to ask about the sale although in the blurb earlier in this post it seemed to only apply to the USA market.

The price of the cruise had gone up by $9 pp but I could change bookings to get the free gratuities and champagne , a saving of $202 but I had to pay a higher deposit (no problem just less to pay at the end) but this offer does tie you in and you would lose all your deposit if you cancelled , even within the normal 6 months cancellation policy , hope this helps any UK cruisers out there and clarifies the price hike a little

[melody hounddog]

Bringing back up to top .

Sale starts Thursday .

Contact your TA or PCL.

 

Thanks so much MCC retired! You saved us $720! Our TA is making the change on our existing cruise.

[Happy2cruise]

Thanks so much MCC retired! You saved us $720! Our TA is making the change on our existing cruise.

Great savings....glad it worked out for you;);)

[cruiserdru]

From the quick glance it says not combinable with other OBC. Does that include Military, Shareholder, FCC, TA gift, etc? Sounds like a crappy deal if it is a take it or leave it offer.

 

My TA just told me that this will not impact my OBCs (TA, FCC, and shareholder).

[ritaly]

Melody would you mind telling us how you saved 700+ dollars, it seems to me that prices have been increased to a higher rate than before the "sale" and the gratuities are built into a higher price than was available previously. They raise the price then give you something worth what they raised and call it a sale. That is the case with my cruise!

[yenta]

That's also the case with ours. Price went up, $485 pp.

[Vexorg]

On the one I ended up booking (10-Days on Emerald Princess in December) the prices did actually go down by about $50pp over the regular prices. Between that and the free gratuities, I ended up changing plans from a 7-day to a 10-day for not much more money.

[KruzPrincess]

I'm still $500 down from the going price today for my Canal cruise, so it's not worth it to try for free gratuities for me. Besides, I have a solo cabin and I'm not sure if this would apply to me. Oh well.

[iancal]

We booked our first Princess cruise in a little while-SA. We usually narrow our cruise choices down to two or three ships-we are not married to a specific cruise line.

 

Over the past two years we have noticed two things about Princess. The first is they were considerably more expensive than like for like on our two past Med cruises. Second, we have found that most of their so called sales are not sales-just a rejigging of the price and gimmes.

 

Our recent booking was competitive so we booked it. At the same time, they offered us a special sale price of $350. discount on our air. When I checked, their return air prices were about 60 percent higher that I could access on several airlines via Kayak. The air prices and discount may have been special for Princess, but they were certainly not special for us.

[melody hounddog]

Melody would you mind telling us how you saved 700+ dollars, it seems to me that prices have been increased to a higher rate than before the "sale" and the gratuities are built into a higher price than was available previously. They raise the price then give you something worth what they raised and call it a sale. That is the case with my cruise!

 

You must have booked at a better (cheaper) time then I did. These prices that I am seeing are better than what we booked at and the free gratuities would save our family of 4, $720. Unfortunately, my TA is not returning my call and I may cancel with him and book directly with Princess.

[melody hounddog]

You must have booked at a better (cheaper) time then I did. These prices that I am seeing are better than what we booked at and the free gratuities would save our family of 4, $720. Unfortunately, my TA is not returning my call and I may cancel with him and book directly with Princess.

 

Just found out that the price goes up if you get the "free" gratuities so they are not really free after all!

[cruisingram1]

Just found out that the price goes up if you get the "free" gratuities so they are not really free after all!

 

That seems to be the consensus. Princess is using NON-discounted fares for the free gratuities promotion. I have cruised with them before and when I log in, the fare for my cruise is $175 p/p less than if I just price the cruise on their website and not log in. So if you've never cruised with Princess, this might be a deal. But if you're a Captain's Circle member, you're probably better off going with the past passenger discount. OR.. watch the website for a true cruise reduction, not some flyer promo.

[ritaly]

Guess we are finding out the same thing about this bogus sale! Very disappointed and made my feelings known to the Princess supervisor....I know they are in business to make money but this feels like sleazy bait and switch to me

[cruznliz]

Maybe I just have a great TA (which I do) but the promo worked like a charm for me. The TA said I could take a $100 reduction pp or re-book at our original rate and get the OBC for the gratuities and the champagne. I took the gratuities and champagne and I'm delighted! She also said the champagne is not the cheap stuff but worth $62 per bottle.:D

 

I agree the promos can be worthless, but if you read the fine print and have a good TA, it might just save some money.

[azdmelani]

I called my TA on this, but it wasnt applicable for our regal cruise next August. Guess I'm too early?