Famous 3 Day Sale

[Duffysmom]

The long awaited 3 day sale on an unnamed site is taking place September 24-26, 2020.  

[voljeep]

what's the point now with Princess Plus ?

[drsel]

The long awaited 3 day sale on an unnamed site is taking place September 24-26, 2020.  

Is this a discount on all Princess Cruises?
How will we find out which site?

[Abercrombie2019]

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

what's the point now with Princess Plus ?

The 3 day sale has 6 items:

Premium Drink Package (same as Princess Plus)

Gratuities (same as Princess Plus)

On Board Credit 

Unlimited onboard wifi (same as Princess Plus)

Coupons

Reduced deposits

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Abercrombie2019
correction

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

The 3 day sale has 6 items:

Premium Drink Package (same as Princess Plus)

Gratuities (same as Princess Plus)

On Board Credit 

Unlimited onboard wifi (same as Princess Plus)

Coupons

Reduced deposits

 

is the pricing discounted from the Princess Plus pricing - or does the OBC offset that ?

[Abercrombie2019]

Good question.  

[Abercrombie2019]

5 minutes ago, voljeep said:

is the pricing discounted from the Princess Plus pricing - or does the OBC offset that ?

 

I know that I tried to move one of my bookings over to this company during their 3 day sale last year and they had the same price as Princess on my cabin, but this was before Princess Plus.  I wasn't able to switch, however, because I was beyond 60 days from the time of booking.  I was able to get Princess Plus added to my booking when it became available, but the cruise was ultimately cancelled anyway. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Abercrombie2019

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

The 3 day sale has 6 items:

Premium Drink Package (same as Princess Plus)

Gratuities (same as Princess Plus)

On Board Credit 

Unlimited onboard wifi (same as Princess Plus)

Coupons

Reduced deposits

 

 

The only extra perks here, are the OBC, coupons and reduced deposit.

My TA offers a discounted price and OBC 365 days a year, not just for 3 days.

Reduced deposits mean nothing if you are using FCDs, and the coupons are mostly worthless, so what's to get excited about?

[Av8tor]

3 hours ago, Duffysmom said:

The long awaited 3 day sale on an unnamed site is taking place September 24-26, 2020.  

I saw nothing about the upcoming sale on their web site.  Where did you get your information about it?

 

Nevermind - Found it!

 

Thanks

Edited September 18, 2020 by Av8tor

[Paula_MacFan]

I booked last year under this special -- figured we'd forgo our usual TA and give them a shot.  Never again!  I specifically asked if there were any cancellation fees and was told 'no'.  Then when we got our invoice & confirmation, buried in the small print was a $100 cancellation fee.  We also got a horrible agent who was never available and didn't respond to emails.  I had to contact their corporate headquarters to get him to respond and that happened in about 10 minutes after corporate reached out.  

 

Now that Princess offers Princess Plus I will stick with that and not worry about the extra OBC.  It wasn't worth the headache to me.  But good luck to anyone else who can find a better agent option.  

[sfaaa]

Book online and there is no fee.

[Island wannabe]

I got a price from my TA at the agency for my Enchanted Sailing that I have already booked direct with Princess (and we paid for Princess plus).  All things considered, we are just slightly ahead with keeping our booking with Princess.   I know we booked under this 3 day sale a couple of years ago (for the Sky) and the price with the TA was much better so I had been hopeful this time, but to no avail.

[Schonert]

Thanks for the heads up, I have sent my TA who works for this company an email

[Thrak]

We booked under this promo last year. As time went on things changed to the point that the only real plus we ended up with was some OBC and then, eventually, we cancelled the cruises. Shortly after that Princess cancelled them as well. We booked at a local brick and mortar location. The "agent of record" was totally clueless and worthless but his wife stepped in and was great. I saw a price reduction on one cruise and asked her to change things and she did. While she was at it she checked the other two cruises as well and got us a tiny (something like $9 per person) price drop. I knew about that one but hadn't asked her to mess with it as it was such a small reduction but she saw it and made the change for us.

 

Like I said above, we booked at a local brick and mortar location. There was no cancellation fee. While things worked out for the most part we will stick with our regular TA. We currently have 6 cruises booked with him. (Hey, a guy can dream...)

[caribill]

15 hours ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

The 3 day sale has 6 items:

Premium Drink Package (same as Princess Plus)

Gratuities (same as Princess Plus)

On Board Credit 

Unlimited onboard wifi (same as Princess Plus)

Coupons I assume that this is the standard coupon book that every TA offers now and then.

Reduced deposits Using an FCD gets you this plus onboard OBC

 

 

So for many people, the only real extra is OBC. How much is offered?

 

(Not including using their credit card benefits.)

[drsel]

 

So for many people, the only real extra is OBC. How much is offered?

 

(Not including using their credit card benefits.)

My US travel agent offers between 8 to 10% of the basic Cruise fare as OBC anyway.

 

 

 

 

[drsel]

If you wish, you can have many different travel agents bidding for your business by offering more and more OBC or discounts from the 10 to 16% commission that they receive.

That is provided you know exactly which Cruise you want and you don't expect them to hold your hand and spoon feed you.

Of course, some of them are so nice, they may even do that and answer all your questions on call, (provided they know the answers)

[caribill]

5 minutes ago, drsel said:

That is provided you know exactly which Cruise you want and you don't expect them to hold your hand and spoon feed you.
 

 

I suspect that many of the posters on Cruise Critic, like myself, pick their itinerary, ship and cabin location and then contact a TA to make the booking.

 

What I expect from my cruise TA:

a) A great price when discounts and amenities are factored into it

b) Someone to go to battle for me if there is a problem with the cruise company

c) No fees for changes that must go through the TA and no fee if I have to cancel the cruise

[Abercrombie2019]

I purchased FCD’s once back in 2010 because we thought we were going to cruise more, but life happens and we didn’t get to use them.  The FCD’S expired (and this was when they were good for 4 years.)  The money was returned in the form of a cheque - so no complaints.  
Our issue was that the pricing for every cruise we looked at was higher for us (by the exact amount of the onboard credit that we would receive from the FCD) than it was for one of my coworkers.  We live in the same city, and had similar cruise histories.  If we both signed into the Princess website, we would get different prices for the same cabin type on the same voyage.  The only difference was that I had FCD’s and my coworker did not.  

When the FCD’s expired, the cruise pricing returned to normal.  I could suddenly get the same price as my coworker.

I’ve never bothered with FCD since that experience.  I guess that the lower deposit is the real advantage to the FCD, but until recently we’ve been unable to cruise enough to use them before they expire (I know they can be extended if you request it.)

[susancruzs]

Exactly!  I've had the same agent 20 years, can tell from posts, many here use her, too.  Small 3 person office but part of a larger network, her price beats Princess.  I can cancel, change, without charges. plus talk to the same person all the time.

 

Addition:  I always use the FCD, I haven't paid over $100. for a cruise deposit in years plus my travel agent has $100. specials, too.  When Covid started, very close to final payment on a long cruise, cancelled it and 3 others.  I received my deposit refunds very quickly.

Edited September 19, 2020 by susancruzs
addition

[Abercrombie2019]

29 minutes ago, susancruzs said:Addition:  I always use the FCD, I haven't paid over $100. for a cruise deposit in years plus my travel agent has $100. specials, too.  When Covid started, very close to final payment on a long cruise, cancelled it and 3 others.  I received my deposit refunds very quickly.

We also paid $100 for our FCD.  The issue was the $100 OBC that comes from using the FCD was getting added into the price of the cruise (so it wasn’t really free OBC).  We noticed this was happening when a coworker was looking at the same cruise as us and he was being quoted a fare that was exactly $100 less per person.

[drsel]

We also paid $100 for our FCD.  The issue was the $100 OBC that comes from using the FCD was getting added into the price of the cruise (so it wasn’t really free OBC).  We noticed this was happening when a coworker was looking at the same cruise as us and he was being quoted a fare that was exactly $100 less per person.

Thanks, so that implies that the free OBC offered is a gimmick and is used as a marketing tool to sell more fcds and guarantee more business in the future.

[Abercrombie2019]

1 minute ago, drsel said:

6 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

We also paid $100 for our FCD.  The issue was the $100 OBC that comes from using the FCD was getting added into the price of the cruise (so it wasn’t really free OBC).  We noticed this was happening when a coworker was looking at the same cruise as us and he was being quoted a fare that was exactly $100 less per person.

Thanks, so that implies that the free OBC offered is a gimmick and is used as a marketing tool to sell more fcds and guarantee more business in the future.

That was our experience almost 7 years ago.  It might be different now.  I know the OBC amounts with the two year FCD’s is less than it was for the 4 year ones.

[drsel]

That was our experience almost 7 years ago.  It might be different now.  I know the OBC amounts with the two year FCD’s is less than it was for the 4 year ones.

So what are the different types of FCDs and their salient features?

[Abercrombie2019]

5 minutes ago, drsel said:

19 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

That was our experience almost 7 years ago.  It might be different now.  I know the OBC amounts with the two year FCD’s is less than it was for the 4 year ones.

So what are the different types of FCDs and their salient features?

I think there is only one type.  A few years ago Princess change how long they were good for (2 years instead of 4) and changed the amount of OBC they give.  I’m not sure what the amounts are now because I don’t bother with them anymore.