Black Friday "UP TO 50% off" ...

[back-at-it]

I followed this cruise to where you put in a credit card and there was exactly 0% off this cruise that was part of UP TP 50 % off.  

I called Princess and they said look at the wording.  "UP TO".  Well I guess 0% off is still "UP TO 50 %", just on the low end.

I also called a Travel Agent that my neighbors used to book this same cruise with and he confirmed that was the normal price for the cruise.  He also laughed when I asked about the 50% off on Princess web site.

 

So customer beware of the written Special Offers for Black Friday.

PS, I went onto Princess Facebook page and there is no way to message them, so I just commented on their Black Friday ad.

[voljeep]

just checked my current booking - UP $13 from my current price.

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

just checked my current booking - UP $13 from my current price.

 One of mine is the same price but got the additional OBC added .. but the other one, also on sale has gone up by $1400.  
 

[Mud_Shark]

If you have been at this long enough, you become jaded against just about all "sales".  This is the same for all major cruise lines.  They play games with the word "sale".

[Cruise Raider]

3 minutes ago, Mud_Shark said:

If you have been at this long enough, you become jaded against just about all "sales".  This is the same for all major cruise lines.  They play games with the word "sale".

It is just marketing!  

[TheDawg79]

This is very common knowledge and is done by almost all the major cruise lines all the time. Nothing to see here folks….move along. 

[kywildcatfanone]

Black Friday means nothing to most retail businesses anymore.  Most do like Princess, and follow the Kohls model.  Mark something up 40%, list it for 50% off, and make a ton of profit on it.  Most all princess sales are exactly the same, they just word stuff different.

 

Book  the cruise you want at a price you are willing to pay, then watch it and you may or may not see a price change before sailing.

[rj59]

50% off doesn't mean anything if you don't know what price it's based on, as with cars or anyone else trying to create the illusion of getting a deal. It's like seeing 2-for-1 advertised in a grocery store, but then they push the price of each so it ends up costing you more than 1 somewhere else. Never trust a cruise or auto advertising, because nothing matters except what you end up paying for it and are comfortable with (although cruises are different in that they expect to make their profits off you once on board). The reason they have to resort to such gimmicks is that they claimed they won't drop cruise prices going forward, so if they actually create lower cruise prices or give a last-minute deal to fill a ship, then it will violate their stated goal. That may be possible at times and on routes with high demand, but it doesn't make a lot of sense if low-demand or oversupply routes like Pacific coastal ones and N/S Alaska routes, particularly early Spring/late Fall are sailing half-empty. It's even more foolish as a cruise business because a drop-and-go rate that would get solos, price-conscious, and impulsive cruisers would allow them to make up for the low fare by onboard spending and future cruise deposits/loyalty, where as an empty cabin doesn't help them at all.  I monitor Princess prices constantly for routes I'm interested in, and there's absolutely nothing of value for me now, with no solo discounts or prices that I would consider reasonable. Even on low-demand cruises like Pacific coastal ones I found that I can get steep HAL discounts close to cruising time, whereas Princess used to do the same but evidently no longer will do so. So they're at least losing business from me, because I've booked several other cruises from lines that offer legitimate deals, both last-minute and as far out as 2025 (like a couple of Celebrity transatlantic cruises for $40/nt). Black Friday gimmicks don't affect me, no matter what they call their sales, because their cruises now are too expensive for what I get out of them.