Hazelnut1106 Posted September 5, 2014 #1 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We are looking at a 2016 cruise departing from Buenos Aires. I just noticed that this cruise can be booked as a cruisetour beginning in Rio with a 5 day pre-cruise land tour. It sounds perfect except for the price. Booking the 19-day cruisetour would at current prices cost almost $4000 per person more than just booking the cruise portion! Has anyone had any experience with cruisetour price drops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigenna Posted September 5, 2014 #2 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Wow, that is almost $1600 per day for a couple! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrak Posted September 5, 2014 #3 Share Posted September 5, 2014 Cruise tours are notoriously expensive. My wife and I would love to do an Alaskan cruise tour but the land portion adds soooooooooooo much more $$$ to the equation. We decided to do a 17 day Panama Canal cruise instead due to the cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole_T Posted September 5, 2014 #4 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We currently have a cruisetour booked for South America/Machu Picchu and I'm crossing my fingers that we see a price drop! I also watch the cruise portion and if I see it drop I'll notify my TA and maybe we can cash in on it even with an OBC. As expensive as the cruisetour is, it does provide 5 * hotels and a top-notch tour guide service! For a once in a lifetime trip, we're biting the bullet AND taking a year and a half to pay for it!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare geoherb Posted September 5, 2014 #5 Share Posted September 5, 2014 The big drops in cruise tours tend to happen after the final payment date and are good for new bookings only. It's a matter of supply and demand. Most of the time, the demand is there. You'd probably be able to come out a lot cheaper doing the land portion on your own. You'd lose the coordination that Princess provides, especially in Alaska, where they have it down to a science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruzsnooze Posted September 5, 2014 #6 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I just booked the Canada New England Fall Foliage cruisetour for next year and it was pricey on the Regal. I thought maybe that was because of the new ship. There did away with outside cabins on this ship which didn't matter to me since we always take a balcony but it seems that since they go from Inside to balcony it was a bigger jump them when they have ocean view cabins in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunkie4 Posted September 5, 2014 #7 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We have booked several cruisetours with Princess. All have been wonderful. We have never experienced a price drop until after final payment. Then, the offer is for new bookings only. Although expensive, it's well worth the price. Shirley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carole_T Posted September 5, 2014 #8 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We have booked several cruisetours with Princess. All have been wonderful. We have never experienced a price drop until after final payment. Then, the offer is for new bookings only. Although expensive, it's well worth the price. Shirley Shirley, Have you ever requested OBC when price dropped after final payment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrak Posted September 5, 2014 #9 Share Posted September 5, 2014 The big drops in cruise tours tend to happen after the final payment date and are good for new bookings only. It's a matter of supply and demand. Most of the time, the demand is there. You'd probably be able to come out a lot cheaper doing the land portion on your own. You'd lose the coordination that Princess provides, especially in Alaska, where they have it down to a science. This is pretty much the case for most cruises. If you are retired and can book at the drop of a hat you can score some truly amazing price drops. Of course you can't be super picky about your cabin but the savings can be incredible. My wife and I are sooooooooooooo looking forward to retirement to, perhaps, be able to snag some of the fantastic price drops we've seen but haven't been able to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clmom Posted September 5, 2014 #10 Share Posted September 5, 2014 We are looking at a 2016 cruise departing from Buenos Aires. I just noticed that this cruise can be booked as a cruisetour beginning in Rio with a 5 day pre-cruise land tour. It sounds perfect except for the price. Booking the 19-day cruisetour would at current prices cost almost $4000 per person more than just booking the cruise portion! Has anyone had any experience with cruisetour price drops? We are about to embark on a Grand Asia cruise tour. There were price drops along the way for the cruise but we got zero benefit. Princess does not break down the prices between the land portion and the cruise portion, everything is grouped into one price. Therefore, when the cruise portion has a price drop, Princess says there is no way to extend that to those of us who have booked the cruise tour. It was very frustrating to say the least and I am now wary of booking another combination. I know we will have a fabulous trip but I feel we were taken advantage of as far as the price. Just my .02, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CA Posted September 6, 2014 #11 Share Posted September 6, 2014 clmom is correct. Princess will not re-fare a cruisetour combo if the cruise portion price drops. The tour portion doesn't drop... that's a fixed price. You have two choices: book a cruisetour and accept that's going to be the price; or, wait to see if the cruisetour price drops. The problem with the latter is that there are usually limits to the number of passengers on a cruisetour so if you wait to book, you may very well be SOOL. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazelnut1106 Posted September 8, 2014 Author #12 Share Posted September 8, 2014 We have booked several cruisetours with Princess. All have been wonderful. We have never experienced a price drop until after final payment. Then, the offer is for new bookings only. Although expensive, it's well worth the price. Shirley Thank you for posting your experience. In reading posts on the So America port site, I think that we would plan to see Iguazu Falls on our own pre-cruise and skip the Princess land tour due to the expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_r_a Posted September 8, 2014 #13 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Hi H, It's not all dark and gloomy. Princess just came up with a Three-for-Free special for our August 2015 AK Cruisetour. The cruise portion price was dropped $250 pp + • $50.00 ONBOARD CREDIT + $100.00 SHORE EXCURSION CREDIT May the Promo Fairy sprinkle you with gifts. Ira Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brreid Posted November 22, 2014 #14 Share Posted November 22, 2014 We just had a 150.00 drop with the NCL cruise tour we booked in June 2015. That includes the drop in corresponding 10% OBC. Saw the price drop on the NCL site and our agent was able to get the reduction for us no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommypig Posted November 22, 2014 #15 Share Posted November 22, 2014 We are looking at a 2016 cruise departing from Buenos Aires. I just noticed that this cruise can be booked as a cruisetour beginning in Rio with a 5 day pre-cruise land tour. It sounds perfect except for the price. Booking the 19-day cruisetour would at current prices cost almost $4000 per person more than just booking the cruise portion! Has anyone had any experience with cruisetour price drops? Check out the Trafalgar tours. We are doing two weeks of land tour in Peru for $6000 for both us us in between two cruises. Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted November 22, 2014 #16 Share Posted November 22, 2014 We are looking at a 2016 cruise departing from Buenos Aires. I just noticed that this cruise can be booked as a cruisetour beginning in Rio with a 5 day pre-cruise land tour. It sounds perfect except for the price. Booking the 19-day cruisetour would at current prices cost almost $4000 per person more than just booking the cruise portion! Has anyone had any experience with cruisetour price drops? Is that the flight to the Iguazu Falls and then the flight on to Buenos Aires? We flew to Buenos Aires on our own and did the Iguazu tour on our own. Was easy to do and we don't speak Spanish. We prefer mid price hotels in central locations. The hotel in BsAs stored our large suitcases. We took only our carry-ons on the local flight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brismarg Posted November 22, 2014 #17 Share Posted November 22, 2014 We are looking at a 2016 cruise departing from Buenos Aires. I just noticed that this cruise can be booked as a cruisetour beginning in Rio with a 5 day pre-cruise land tour. It sounds perfect except for the price. Booking the 19-day cruisetour would at current prices cost almost $4000 per person more than just booking the cruise portion! Has anyone had any experience with cruisetour price drops? No price drop on expensive cruise tours. We did China and the Sapphire in September and watched our cabin price drop by hundreds as the ship had so few passengers. Our TA approached Princess to no avail and we were very disappointed with some aspects of the land content - never again. Our 8 day land was dearer than the 17 day cruise. Margaret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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