Have Princess Cruise Prices Gone Up

[mcrcruiser]

 It seems that every time we book a cruise the per day pricing keeps going higher  .Then ass the port fees ,taxes ,tips ie .Well perhaps not only Princess but tother cruise lines are doing the same . 

 

 In difference to taking a cruise ,we now find that our time share is far less costly in one of  the many resorts we can travel . The only thing we don 't have is food included

 

 What is your opinion

[weedpindle]

Best bet is to not cruise if you feel it is too expensive. It  ain't always about the money.

[jennybenny]

I find if I book far in advance the pricing works for us.  I find the best time for us is when the itineraries are released. Of course I always monitor pricing but it's still doable when we plan in advance.  

[leck57]

I find the exact opposite - at least in this Country. Launch fares seem very high compared to later, although Europe seems to stay pretty stable. Now that I can travel anytime I just wait and see what happens but if it is a cruise I don't want to miss, then I book earlier. We have just received an email from Princess where a number of cruises for late this year through to April are at half of the cost of the launch fares.

[satxdiver]

Princess has raised prices this year.  We were cruising on Princess last year for considerable less money.  We usually book as soon as the cruise is offered and then monitor the price for sales and/or reductions in price.  

[lx200gps]

Absolutely agree. We only started cruising in 2011, and if I had to SWAG it, I'd say Princess prices have risen about 6-7% per year for the classes of cabin we usually book (balcony or Mini), well beyond inflation. And yes, we find doing a land trip for two to a resort is often cheaper than a week in a tiny balcony cabin. Will the rising prices stop us from cruising? Not yet.

[majortom10]

Never book early on Princess in the UK as the prices are always high and wait until closer to the sail date and prices start to drop. Of course in the UK once we have booked we have to pay the cruise fare unless we cancel and lose the deposit we cannot "refare" as you can in US.

Edited July 27, 2019 by majortom10

[antsp]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Never book early on Princess in the UK as the prices are always high and wait until closer to the sail date and prices start to drop. Of course in the UK once we have booked we have to pay the cruise fare unless we cancel and lose the deposit we cannot "refare" as you can in US.

At long last, It’s cheaper to book in the UK than the USA, maybe because the £ is weak, I don’t but for 12 or so years I would almost exclusively book with US agent, now it’s just UK

[Geoffa30]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Never book early on Princess in the UK as the prices are always high and wait until closer to the sail date and prices start to drop. Of course in the UK once we have booked we have to pay the cruise fare unless we cancel and lose the deposit we cannot "refare" as you can in US.

 

You can usually re-fare once but have to pay £50 admin charge per person.

[Jeter02]

I don't think they've gone up all that much in particular. It also depends on what ships you're looking so for example like when I went to book myself on the new sky and a chance it of course those prices are going to be higher because it's a newer ship. Keep in mind a lot of the other ships are getting The Medallion at it so they're raising the cost on that. But overall if you book early you can do, like everybody else has said fare. I always say a cruise is a luxury experience you're paying for a keep in mind you're paying for room and board and ports of calls. Something that's naturally not going to come cheap unfortunately. but in general to keep in line with competition I feel like everyone's also kind of raising prices all around but yet again that's because everyone's going bigger and better and more high quality of service.

[antsp]

We have a UK travel agent doing the sky transatlantic in April for £749 or $930. All inc taxes. If you want to sail the new Sky for 14 nights you cannot go wrong

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Geoffa30 said:

 

You can usually re-fare once but have to pay £50 admin charge per person.

Yes but in US they can do it for free if a lower price is advertised or better offers i.e Sip n Sail or extra OBC.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, antsp said:

We have a UK travel agent doing the sky transatlantic in April for £749 or $930. All inc taxes. If you want to sail the new Sky for 14 nights you cannot go wrong

That will be without flights. There is one sailing from Ft Lauderdale to Copenhagen  for 14nts from £849pp in inside cabin but that doesnt include flights so if you were to book that cruise and fly to Ft Lauderdale from UK one way and then from Copenhagen to UK it would make it very expensive.

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree prices are getting higher.

[antsp]

Cruise £749, flight to Miami is £404, flight from Copenhagen £60. Unless you only sail from Southampton I thinks it’s a good deal. The cruise itself is only £53 pppn

[jondfk]

What I really notice is the 'premium' associated with the new ships.  A great example are the fares for the '21 Europe voyages which open in a couple weeks.  We're looking for a fall TA, the voyages on Sky and Crown while differing greatly for route and port calls are similar in length and depart six weeks apart (insignificant this far out).  

 

However, pricing, across all cabin classes are about 40% higher on Sky (example:  Balcony $3300 on Sky / $2400 on Crown, CC Mini $4900 on Sky / $3200 on Crown).  The Crown voyage is 1 day shorter so that explains 5 or 6% of the difference the remainder though seems to be related to a 'new ship' premium.  Looking at a still older ship, Island makes her TA passage in December and is far cheaper in every category than even Crown.

 

I think the perception that Princess is raising prices is at least in part related to the rate of new additions to the fleet.  This is good news on one level as all ships age and the number of Royal class berths being added surely signal future 'value' cruises, at least that's what I tell myself . . . 

 

 

[antsp]

30 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I agree prices are getting higher.

They are in the US, Princess UK prices are holding steady if not cheaper. 

[mcrcruiser]

13 hours ago, weedpindle said:

Best bet is to not cruise if you feel it is too expensive. It  ain't always about the money.

The point here is that Princess prices have  been getting more costly each year .Comparing their prices to a  high end Time Share Resort  with entertainment ,it is less costly at the Time share  

[JF - retired RRT]

26 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

The point here is that Princess prices have  been getting more costly each year .Comparing their prices to a  high end Time Share Resort  with entertainment ,it is less costly at the Time share  

But...don't you have to "buy in" to the time share and pay an annual maintenance fee whether you use it or not?  And may not be able to get rid of it if you tire of it or your circumstances change?

When that's factored in, is it still cheaper for a time share?

[tntornadox]

Princess fares are notably higher than they used to be. I mean, you can often find HAL to be cheaper! Even their new ships often price less than Princess. But ultimately it's a supply/demand situation.

[maggie777]

How do you see fares for 2021 before they are released?

 

[neverbeenhere]

Those darn timeshares never seem to move during the week. 

I’m happy to see prices rising, it should drive some folks away from the Princess brand to brands they want to afford. After years of stagnate pricing and somewhat declining standards aboard ship this money hopefully will be used to improve the Princess brand experience.  —- I know.... Dreamer. 

 

 

[Cruise Junky]

2 hours ago, maggie777 said:

How do you see fares for 2021 before they are released?

 

They’re posted here on the Europe 2021 thread 

[EMS8]

We booked two 10 day B2B cruises on Sky Princess for March 2021.  We booked them the day they opened up and now the same cruises and stateroom are $500 and $600 more than we paid.  

[pjrockman]

4 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

Those darn timeshares never seem to move during the week. 

I’m happy to see prices rising, it should drive some folks away from the Princess brand to brands they want to afford. After years of stagnate pricing and somewhat declining standards aboard ship this money hopefully will be used to improve the Princess brand experience.  —- I know.... Dreamer. 

 

 

Agree.  And maybe some of the standards/amenities/decorum that we originally chose Princess for will return.  Sorry, but one of my biggest pet peeves is some who choose to be in the dining area and elevators in swimsuits....sometimes even wet.  I’m not talking about kids, either.  Just my personal opinion, but that really does remind me of a different cruise line.

 

This isn’t meant to be elitist in any way, just an acknowledgement that there are a variety of cruise lines for many different types of cruisers.  After trying the different ones, we chose Princess because of the particular types of atmosphere, amenities, decor and decorum.

 

I am merely agreeing with neverbeenhere in his observation that the recent stagnant, even decreasing, prices on Princess have contributed to the changing standards.

 

Safe Journeys, Paul