Anyone else notice??

[Sea and Me]

I was just looking at several cruises that we are interested in one on the Crown Princess for December and the other ones on the Caribbean Princess both in October. The Crown has gone down $135pp. It is a 10 day. The Caribbean Princess 14 day went down $61pp and the 10 day $50pp. These prices are for obstructed view cabins.

 

When checking the prices I always sign in to the Princess website. I was surprised to see the prices lowered from a couple of days ago and then again could it be the cruises just “are not selling”? Whatever the reason I think it is time for a call to my TA:) Have a good day everyone.

[SquishTheWhale]

I'm on a 10 day Crown in December... guess I'll have a look if the price has gone down! Although I'm in the UK and we don't see the same pricing. It was cheap in the first place so I'd be surprised to see it go much cheaper.

 

Edit: Yup still the same price for me. Maybe it's the other 10 day Crown that went down!

[paul929207]

Thanks for the info

[weedpindle]

I have a 25 day booked, check it at least every other day. Found a 1100 price drop, called immediately, got rebooked. 2 hours later the fare was 'Not Available'. Next day went up 550.

[moki'smommy]

That's all you can do. I check a couple times a day and have seen changes, literally hourly. Unfortunately, none have affected the category I have booked.

[tere247]

My Nov 9th Royal Princess cruise increased from $1,549 for a mini to $3469 per person

[geoherb]

I used to track prices of the cruises that fit DH's vacation schedule when he taught at a community college. I'd see them fluctuate every week for one cruise or another. I'd be tracking prices on up to a dozen cruises and doing so on inside, obstructed view, and balcony cabins for each one. Sometimes prices would go up on one category and down on another for the same cruise. It's all part of the game the cruise lines play to fill their ships.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Since the most recent promotion began February 22, I’ve had nearly all our future cruises re-fared. We’ve seen thousands in savings (lower fares, free tips and much improved EZ Air fares). I know people believe that if you book with a good TA, you get the best fare available but, in my experience, that is not nearly enough. You have to check frequently for price fluctuations. No TA has the time (or the motivation, as it costs them commission) to do that for you.

[plane2port]

Since the most recent promotion began February 22, I’ve had nearly all our future cruises re-fared. We’ve seen thousands in savings (lower fares, free tips and much improved EZ Air fares). I know people believe that if you book with a good TA, you get the best fare available but, in my experience, that is not nearly enough. You have to check frequently for price fluctuations. No TA has the time (or the motivation, as it costs them commission) to do that for you.

 

And especially in your case where you have multiple cruises on the books. No one else can keep track of those cruises the way you can. You are doing the exact right thing for your situation--booking with the cruise line early so that you know you can get cabins on ALL the cruises, and then checking back for the price drops.

 

 

BTW, what are you looking at doing next winter? Pacific isles? Back to Europe? Aust/NZ? or the tried and true Caribbean?

[Thrak]

I'm a bit boggled that our cruise leaving on March 18 hasn't had huge price drops. Only suites are showing as sold out but the balcony cabin we have booked is only showing at $400 per person less than we paid - and we got the beverage package included as a perk. Of course at one point the cabin was showing at a crazy $1,000 per person more than we paid so, compared to that, I guess this is a huge price drop but it seems crazy to sail with a bunch of empty cabins rather than lowering the price a ton. Maybe they will drop them for the last few days or something.

[nukesubsailor]

We re-fared a 7-day Norway cruise and saved $2,882.58 in fares, insurance, etc. The only downside was having to pay a 10% non refundable deposit instead of the $200 Future Cruise deposit and the loss of the Sip & Sail promotion. With our drinking habits, the beverage package was not worth its retail value to us anyway.

[caribill]

I'm a bit boggled that our cruise leaving on March 18 hasn't had huge price drops. Only suites are showing as sold out but the balcony cabin we have booked is only showing at $400 per person less than we paid - and we got the beverage package included as a perk. Of course at one point the cabin was showing at a crazy $1,000 per person more than we paid so, compared to that, I guess this is a huge price drop but it seems crazy to sail with a bunch of empty cabins rather than lowering the price a ton. Maybe they will drop them for the last few days or something.

 

Not a surprise. Princess, as well as other cruise lines, wants passengers to book early with the certainty that booking at the last minute will not result in sizable savings. They would rather cruise with a few cabins empty than sail with many more cabins booked at lower rates.

 

Most sales keep the basic price about the same, but the sale is really what perks are included suich as gratuities, beverage packages, OBC, etc. The next result when purchasing during a sale is a lower overall cost, but the cruise line retains "price integrity" instead of just lowering the price intead of providing amenities.

[PescadoAmarillo]

BTW, what are you looking at doing next winter? Pacific isles? Back to Europe? Aust/NZ? or the tried and true Caribbean?

We have three potential destinations and would love to (and planned to) do two of them but when we returned home in February to bitter cold and snow decided we can’t repeat next year. That means leaving home in September is likely not an option since being gone four months is our comfortable limit. Which leaves one probable destination and a fall back. I will know more medically next week and we can start making more serious plans.

 

First world problems, doncha know?;)

[smarks]

I have a 25 day booked, check it at least every other day. Found a 1100 price drop, called immediately, got rebooked. 2 hours later the fare was 'Not Available'. Next day went up 550.

 

Hi weedpindle, I have booked my first Princess cruise. It's for 27 days in April 2019. How far out was your cruise when you saw the price drop? I'm hoping the price will drop enough for me to be able to upgrade to a balcony. I'm not sure if the British Isles in April is a good time to have a balcony.

 

Thanks for any info you can share with me.

 

Sandra