Thoughts on Princess new Future cruise credits packages

[NthernLgts]

We are live on the Sky right now, with a couple we met on our last cruise to Cabo.  The four of us are planning a Mediterranean cruise on the Sun next year.  Typically do not book direct with Princess, but their new future cruise credit program has us interested. Basically, for $5099 you get $4500 in Princess Cruise Credits, $200 in shipboard credit, a 2 night one city hotel stay, 7 night premium hotel stay certificate, plus $600 in hotel credits.  As some of you are no doubt already familiar with this package…. what are your thoughts?  Our intent would be to use it next year for the Barcelona to Rome cruise.  Overall cruise rates are basically within a few dollars to what our TA quoted. Thanks in advance.

[memoak]

I would take that offer with s very large grain of salt and look really really close at the fine print. I assume you are getting this from the on board 3rd party future cruise people 

[Jaymuxman]

I know someone "that bought into the package" and she says trying to use it has been an absolute nightmare. Hotel rooms are not just any hotel you wish to book but a selective group of hotels and the hotels rooms are not free but just a discounted room. She said she would NEVER do it again. I am not speaking from my personal experience, only what she has related to me.

 

[walkingsoon]

I got this offered by phone. I considered it and rejected it, feeling that I wouldn't get the full value out of the hotel package parts of the deal. Looking at at the numbers...

 

You pay $5099 and the $4500 cruise credits and $200 shipboard credit. These are the only "hard" (imo) value components that you'll very likely get back at a 1:1 value.

 

That means you're paying $399 for the rest and I felt that these "soft" value parts of the deal might not yield a worthwhile payout. I suspect that the 7 night premium hotel stay certificate comes with a whole bunch of strings. The $600 in hotel credits reminded of my "free" $200 hotel credit that I get with my Amex Platinum, but which are only applicable at super high priced hotels that already have that amount baked into their base price and are effectively useless because I'd never book there.

 

Anyway, I looked and said no. Your mileage may vary.

 

Walkingsoon

[SCX22]

One of my biggest peeves with these packages is that they are completely non-refundable after the grace period.  Even if you were to cancel your cruise before final payment you're money is stuck as an FCC with a firm expiration date.  There's no such thing as a cold hard refund.

 

Then there's the problem of using the hotel portion, which seems a lot like timeshare.  Also, remember Princess isn't the one taking your money it's a 3rd party.  You're not dealing directly with Princess.

[donswife]

They had an info card with this offer at the future cruise desk on Discovery,  but the planner didn't even mention it to us when we were booking our new trip.

[Rick&Jeannie]

When this offer first came out everybody here on CC thought it was a scam!  There are several threads in the way back machine regarding this.  Search for "Princess Promotions".

 

Personally, I wouldn't touch it.

[NthernLgts]

6 hours ago, Jaymuxman said:

I know someone "that bought into the package" and she says trying to use it has been an absolute nightmare. Hotel rooms are not just any hotel you wish to book but a selective group of hotels and the hotels rooms are not free but just a discounted room. She said she would NEVER do it again. I am not speaking from my personal experience, only what she has related to me.

 

What we are seeing are three separate hotel credits. One is a 2 night “city stay” certificate. The other is a 7 night “premium stay” certificate. Then there is the $600 Hotel credit (this part I AM discounting completely). I will be honest and say that I am considering this knowing that the $600 hotel credit is probably a minimal benefit if any. I’m going to talk to them again tomorrow, We may wind up being a test case. The one thing and all of this that has been a bit surprising is that booking direct with Princess, at least on this cruise, has been extremely competitive with TA pricing.

[sunnypm]

I'm in the process of using this. I bought the lowest package,  $3499, onboard because I was already planning a father son cruise. So far so good, but I couldn't book with the entire credit online. However, the phone contact was fantastic. So I used $3000 up on the cruise, have a $100 onboard credit, and now have to see if I get more than i $399 worth of hotel credit. Btw, it works with the casino offer I had, which was a worry after first. I'll keep you posted, as this cruise is July 14.

[KYBOB]

The latest wrinkle on these is you cannot use them on a cruise if you made the reservation for the cruise prior to buying the credits. It was sold to me as I could use them on an upcoming cruise that I had made the reservation 4 months prior to being sold the FCC's. No where in the online information unless some obscure place does it clearly state these terms. My issue is now I am out for the cruise credits and now have to pay for the up coming cruise on top that. But OH I can book another cruise and use the credits on that one. I do have one booked but here is another kicker the FCC's expire one month prior to that one.

 

The hotels I found you have to look in two places but it is possible to find most name brand hotels. For the hotels I was looking at it was a only discounted rate.

 

So will not buy another one of these FCC's and thinking about these might be the last two cruises I will take with Princess.

[NAP79]

I can’t speak to other people’s experiences with this, and I do hope someone has had good luck with it, but we did not. We were looking at booking a Princess cruise for 2025 and were contacted by a Princess Cruise Travel Expert (I don’t know their official title). We asked for best pricing he could offer on the cruise and he gave it and then told me how we could save even more by buying a FCC package before booking, showed us samples of the hotel website and broke everything down. He kept trying to push the higher priced packages but they made zero sense for the cruise we wanted to book, but the $3499 with $3000 FCC package did make sense. We would be booking two rooms on a specific cruise and we priced it all out and talked about how the full $3000 from two FCC packages would be able to be applied (one to each room since my husband and I would each buy one and we would each be assigned to the associated staterooms). I had read this board and asked him flat out if the full credit could be applied to each of the rooms based on the price and whether it was applicable to the full room fee or just the portion for the person who’s name was on the FCC. He told me it applied to the full room fee as long as the FCC holder was in that room. He said it applied to all costs associated with booking the room including Princess Plus and travel protection and that we could use the FCCs the same way whether booking through Princess or with a different travel agent/company of our choosing. And we could cancel within 7 days if we changed our minds (this he did not tell me but I found it on their website before we purchased the packages). On Tue we bought two of the $3000 FCC packages, one in my name and one in my husband’s name. Tonight (3 days later) I went to book the cruise we wanted with the very rooms we discussed and, surprise surprise, even with one room cost of $4400+ they would only apply $2300 of the one $3000 FCC to that room. Hmmm. Not what I was told. The $4400 rate quote included Princess Plus and taxes only for the room with double occupancy. Even if taxes and fees are excluded, they are nowhere near the remaining $2100 of the room rate we were quoted. After a long discussion with Princess Cruises themselves, I find out that the $2300 really was the absolute max they would apply to the $4400 room. I finished with Princess (and DID NOT book the cruise) and immediately called the number listed online to cancel both FCC purchases. Those requests have been submitted (3 days after purchase and well within the 7 day cancelation grace period). Of course, the person they have you talk to to cancel can’t actually issue the refund, they just submit the request. We’re supposed to be contacted by the department who can issue the refund on Monday where they want to ask questions and find out why we’re cancelling. We’ll see how it goes. If they drag their feet or give me the run around in the refunds, I’ll file with my credit card company and will never sail with Princess. Fingers crossed it won’t come to that. Like I said before, I hope our experience is not representative of the experiences of others but the Princess Travel “expert” flat out lied, repeatedly and to very direct questions. I really hope they all aren’t doing that. Not ok.

Edited yesterday at 02:21 AM by NAP79