Good deals for regular Princess cruisers?

[ilovetotravel1977]

A co-worker of mine sails HAL and gets really good deals on pricing.  Does anyone sail Princess regularly and do they give good deals for loyalty?  We are going to be cruising again soon and I would like to start on a line with hopes of better pricing over time. 

[JustCruzin77]

I've never sailed on HAL or Princess, but I am pretty sure all of the Cruise lines have Loyalty Programs with different benefits, however you need to sail several times to climb in status.

 

Some Lines like MSC have a Loyalty Match program, so if you have a high status with a different Cruise Line or even Hotel Chain, MSC will match it.

 

Carnival is not for everyone, but I know they have a Sailing Loyalty program as well as a Casino Loyalty program, so if you are a big gambler you can climb the Casino status much faster and get added discounts and offers.

 

If you sign up for Celebrity's Captain's Club, and opt in for Captains Club emails you can earn bonus points by watching videos, or answering questions. It's not a lot of points, but ever bit helps.

 

Finding a good travel agent is also a good way to get some deals and on board credits.

Edited October 13, 2023 by JustCruzin77

[rodndonna]

16 minutes ago, ilovetotravel1977 said:

A co-worker of mine sails HAL and gets really good deals on pricing.  Does anyone sail Princess regularly and do they give good deals for loyalty?  We are going to be cruising again soon and I would like to start on a line with hopes of better pricing over time. 

 

Do you know the source of the good deals? Are they Casino discounts?

 

We have been sailing mostly HAL since Covid  and have been receiving great HAL Casino deals (including 2 "free" cabin cruises) for relatively low play. We are still getting a good discount through the Casino with HAL although I fully expect the "freebies" to be a thing of the past now that cruising is getting back to normal and perhaps our discounts to become reduced (tried to "up" our play a bit on our last cruise to hold our discount)

 

We have sailed Celebrity since Covid (no deals there but I really liked them) and are sailing Princess for the first time n April. 

 

We've previously sailed Carnival  pre-Covid and get offers with them still (same Casino club as HAL), but honestly it seems HAL prices out better for us when taking into account their Have it All pricing option (drinks, specialty dining, wifi and some excursion credit). Our next cruise is NCL which we have not sailed in many years, but I don't see much in perks or price advantages there.

 

I think you should consider a few things in addition to pricing - 

 

• Are you looking for more family or less kids ?
• Where you are most cruising - Caribbean (HAL not good there), West Coast,  Europe?  they each focus more on some itineraries than others so options could be limited depending on when and how often you travel
• Are you generally looking for shorter cruises (example HAL pretty limited for 7 day options ) or longer cruises ?
• Do you like smaller ships (HAL) or larger ships (Princess going this way more)?
• Would you typically book (or want) a drinks package? I find the lower priced ones like Carnival or RCL seem cheaper, but if you prefer more "all-in" type experience, Princess, HAL and maybe NCL come out better priced.

 

Anyway - Have fun planning and ask everyone you know (who cruises) their opinion because we all have one, and they're all different 😃

 

 

[burnabyjean]

I know Princess usually has a "Canadian at par" sale. I checked my emails and it came out in February this year. I haven't really paid attention to the time of year when these offers arrive and if they're the same time every year, so I can't speak for timing coming up.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

It probably best to ask on the Princess board 

I know our TA get good pricing / OBC on Celebrity 

This is more a general section and not cruise line specific 

[lx200gps]

5 hours ago, ilovetotravel1977 said:

A co-worker of mine sails HAL and gets really good deals on pricing.  Does anyone sail Princess regularly and do they give good deals for loyalty?  We are going to be cruising again soon and I would like to start on a line with hopes of better pricing over time. 

You seem to be asking two different questions, one concerning pricing on Princess cruises, and another on whether Princess gives pricing breaks based on loyalty. We're in the top "loyalty" tier on Princess and are not aware of any pricing deals for cruises based on that fact alone. Like other loyalty programs we get deals on things like on board purchases, priority boarding etc, but not relating to our loyalty level. I'm vaguely aware that some folks get big deals on casino packages, but I know nothing about that. As to getting deals on Princess  cruises, a lot will depend on who you book with. Like many others, we prefer to use a travel agent (who cannot be named per the Cruise Critic TOS) and are very happy with them. They have an annual sale which confers significant OBC to us, which can add up to about a 10% savings. Others have TAs who may give even a bit more, but the good old days of perqs like free booze packages etc are long gone.

 

As to comparing the different lines for pricing, we find that things have changed very significantly over the last few years, post-COVID. In searching out the best deals for us, I've found that X and HAL have significantly increased their pricing even more than Princess, and in doing an apples to apples comparison (same cabin type, same itinerary etc) I find Princess to be a much better value with lower pricing. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

I just book a Celebrity 12 night TA in Nov 2024 with our TA , in a balcony for 2 under $2000 CAD  including taxes and ports fees , with 500 OBC 

so there are deals to be found 

[Heidi13]

8 hours ago, ilovetotravel1977 said:

A co-worker of mine sails HAL and gets really good deals on pricing.  Does anyone sail Princess regularly and do they give good deals for loyalty?  We are going to be cruising again soon and I would like to start on a line with hopes of better pricing over time. 

 

The only Princess deals I knew of were their "Friends & Family" program, but you need to know someone that works for them to be signed up.

[broberts]

Doesn't Princess offer $100 off balcony prices for returning cruisers?