Third person rate

[123vonChes]

Does anyone know why the rate for a third and fourth person changes based on your room category on Princess? The rate for our son as the third person in our mini suite is not only more than the rate for a third person in a lower cabin category, but is also more than the per person rate for an inside cabin. This is only my second cruise, first with Princess, and first with my husband and son, but I always thought the charge for the third and fourth person in a room was to cover the extra cost for food and service outside the room, so the extra person rate should be the same regardless of what room the person is sharing. It seems odd that if you had two children you are planning to share a mini suite with (which we don't, we only have one) it would be cheaper to book an inside cabin you never used than to pay the 3rd and 4th person rate for the mini suite.

[Colo Cruiser]

Does anyone know why the rate for a third and fourth person changes based on your room category on Princess? The rate for our son as the third person in our mini suite is not only more than the rate for a third person in a lower cabin category, but is also more than the per person rate for an inside cabin. This is only my second cruise, first with Princess, and first with my husband and son, but I always thought the charge for the third and fourth person in a room was to cover the extra cost for food and service outside the room, so the extra person rate should be the same regardless of what room the person is sharing. It seems odd that if you had two children you are planning to share a mini suite with (which we don't, we only have one) it would be cheaper to book an inside cabin you never used than to pay the 3rd and 4th person rate for the mini suite.

 

 

The days of the cheap 3rd and 4th are long gone.

 

They are now almost as much as the first 2 in the cabin. :eek:

[paul929207]

The bottom line is "because they can".

[Toto2Kansas]

Princess rarely charges a low third/forth person rate. And as you found, the rate is based on the category stateroom you book.

 

As to your observation about being able to book a third and forth passenger in their own lower category stateroom for about the same, if not a less expensive rate, as a third and forth in a mini suite, yes, many do exactly that.

 

I have always wondered if Princess did do this because of children being booked with their parents, and kids don't spend anywhere near onboard as much as adults do? Could be wrong here, but it's a thought. Guess if that is why, sinks that old 'family friendly cruise line' myth. :(

[hubofhockey]

Princess rarely charges a low third/forth person rate. And as you found, the rate is based on the category stateroom you book.

 

As to your observation about being able to book a third and forth passenger in their own lower category stateroom for about the same, if not a less expensive rate, as a third and forth in a mini suite, yes, many do exactly that.

 

I have always wondered if Princess did do this because of children being booked with their parents, and kids don't spend anywhere near onboard as much as adults do? Could be wrong here, but it's a thought. Guess if that is why, sinks that old 'family friendly cruise line' myth. :(

 

Princess may be family friendly. But not when it comes to this issue. We would have booked our kids in an inside cabin accross from us if they had been a bit older. The next time they cruise with us, that's exactly what we're going to do.

[cdngrl]

my young adult daughter is cruising with 2 friends. the third young woman's rate was MORE than the first two for an obstructed ov.

[taxatty]

On our last few cruises, we have booked an inside cabin for our teenage kids across from our mini-suite or balcony cabin--it's often cheaper than 4 in our cabin, and you get an extra bathroom and privacy--a much better arrangement.

 

Les

[Toto2Kansas]

Princess may be family friendly. But not when it comes to this issue. We would have booked our kids in an inside cabin accross from us if they had been a bit older. The next time they cruise with us, that's exactly what we're going to do.

 

I would think that Princess would rather have kids in the same stateroom as their parents (for supervision if nothing else), and do not understand why they are pricing that third and forth person rate so high (unless it is for the reason I said previously, money spent onboard or actually, lack of money spent onboard by these passengers)? I have seen some put very young children (by my standards) in a stateroom by themselves because of this very reason. It just boggles my mind I guess. :eek:

 

Family friendly is indeed services offered to families onboard, but I also look at it as family friendly when it comes to pricing also.

[hyperplanner]

This is why we also booked two cabins. It didn't make sense to pay the third person rate , when it was the same as the first person. Did that make sense?

[kooljamming]

We travel with 2 kids (ages 10, 13) They are too young to be in a cabin by themselves. The quads fill early so we have to book before major discounts. Our on-board spending is more because we buy the soda cards, purchase more pics, pump money in the arcade, and opt for ship sponsored excursions. If they start to whine about anything then I might need a few more drinks from the bar to calm the nerves:p. The excursions can be more excessive than normal. Even when the adult rate is OK compared to booking it on your own, the kid's rate is out of wack. Again, you don't want to take any chance when kids are tagging along so it's less hassle doing it with the ship. The cruise lines know some of these kids promised us nice nursing homes and we are going to take them no matter what:D

 

My DS cliff jumping in Jamaica and DD doing the rope at YS Falls.

[chipmaster]

Does anyone know why the rate for a third and fourth person changes based on your room category on Princess? The rate for our son as the third person in our mini suite is not only more than the rate for a third person in a lower cabin category, but is also more than the per person rate for an inside cabin. This is only my second cruise, first with Princess, and first with my husband and son, but I always thought the charge for the third and fourth person in a room was to cover the extra cost for food and service outside the room, so the extra person rate should be the same regardless of what room the person is sharing. It seems odd that if you had two children you are planning to share a mini suite with (which we don't, we only have one) it would be cheaper to book an inside cabin you never used than to pay the 3rd and 4th person rate for the mini suite.

 

You don't question why the first two peopler per/person is more expensive then / person in the lower cabin do you? Why should the 3rd/4th be cheaper? Mini suite is bigger all around, its a seperate discussion about whether its more of a value to book the 3rd / 4th in a much lower class cabin to save $.

[hubofhockey]

You don't question why the first two peopler per/person is more expensive then / person in the lower cabin do you? Why should the 3rd/4th be cheaper? Mini suite is bigger all around, its a seperate discussion about whether its more of a value to book the 3rd / 4th in a much lower class cabin to save $.

 

My take on this is that other lines offer discounts on third and fourth because the cruiselines prefer four in a mini or junior suite because it frees them to book an additional cabin (making more money). It might make sense for Princess to do what hotels do and charge less for 3rd and 4th if 3rd and 4th are children.

 

Our next cruise with the kids will be in three years when my daughter is 14. The kids will either be in an inside accross from us or, if they're not ready, perhaps we'll book a junior suite on RCI. Tough choices.

[Iamcruzin]

I am glad someone posted this question. I have 2 boys who will be 14 and 17 on our next family cruise. I thought I was doing something wrong when I was trying to get price quotes. I couldn't believe that it works out to be more cost effective to book 2 rooms than to squeeze 4 in a mini suite. We are all past passengers and are eligible for the past pax rate. I would rather we be in the same room for parental reasons but it just doesn't make sense for financial and privacy reasons. I don't buy the idea that kids don't spend as much as the parents. We don't spend much on drinks or the casino but we do buy the ultimate kids card. We do book excursions through Princess because of the kids. My wife and I will be cruising without the kids this time. We are not booking excursions so I can't wait to see what we save traveling by ourselves.

[kendon]

I can even understand the 3rd and 4th at the same rate as the 1st and 2nd, but higher.....? That I don't get at all. We have the same issue for our August cruise on the CB, so of course we got two rooms. This discourages the "pack 'em in" mentality, which I would think would be their objective.

[springfire]

My family of four is also getting two rooms. I too found on some rooms that the rate was even higher for third and fourth person. The first two passengers were cheaper on Princess, so I just booked two rooms. Funny thing is Princess cabins are bigger than most of the other lines and we would have all fit more easily in one cabin on Princess. Now I get to pay the additional $15.00 a bag on the airlines because I can bring more stuff because we have more room in our cabin.

[manxstaff]

We normally travel as a family of 4 and book 2 cabins but my daughter is off to uni and wants to go it alone so we decided to book 3 in one cabin for summer 2010. I had heard it was often more expensive to do this but phoned princess to check their policy, We got 35% off the full adult fare for the 3rd person as is stated in the uk brochure.

Just got to decide what to treat myself to with the 35% extra i have in my pocket.

:)

[jff50]

The days of the cheap 3rd and 4th are long gone.

 

They are now almost as much as the first 2 in the cabin. :eek:

I would say cheap 3rd and 4th passenger rates on Princess are an endangered species, but not quite extinct yet. They are certainly available on other cruise lines. From a cost standpoint, it doesn't make any sense. The most valuable/limited thing that any cruise line is selling is space. It really doesn't cost the cruise line a lot more to have a 3rd/4th person in a room. However, from the standpoint of the cruise line maximizing revenues, Princess must believe that its' pricing model (high rates for 3rd/4th passengers) generates the greatest revenue. Not sure why Princess' pricing model differs so much from other cruise lines (including sister lines such Carnival) when it comes to 3rd/4th passengers. Hard to believe that Princess' customer base is so much different that the other lines.

I have been on about 20 Princess cruises, and they are my favorite line. However, their pricing structure for my daughter (3rd person in the cabin) is generally such that we find it hard to justify Princess' additional cost. We have an upcoming 12 day Mediterranean cruise with NCL. NCL's (3rd person) price for my daughter is less than $200. With Princess, the 3rd person price for a comparable cruise would have been about $1700. Love Princess, and enjoy the perqs of elite status--but a $1500 cost differential can offset a lot of perqs.

It is not unusual to find a good deal with Princess for the first 2 passengers, and discover that the 3rd/4th persons cost more than the first 2.

[Colo Cruiser]

I would say cheap 3rd and 4th passenger rates on Princess are an endangered species, but not quite extinct yet. They are certainly available on other cruise lines. From a cost standpoint, it doesn't make any sense. The most valuable/limited thing that any cruise line is selling is space. It really doesn't cost the cruise line a lot more to have a 3rd/4th person in a room. However, from the standpoint of the cruise line maximizing revenues, Princess must believe that its' pricing model (high rates for 3rd/4th passengers) generates the greatest revenue. Not sure why Princess' pricing model differs so much from other cruise lines (including sister lines such Carnival) when it comes to 3rd/4th passengers. Hard to believe that Princess' customer base is so much different that the other lines.

I have been on about 20 Princess cruises, and they are my favorite line. However, their pricing structure for my daughter (3rd person in the cabin) is generally such that we find it hard to justify Princess' additional cost. We have an upcoming 12 day Mediterranean cruise with NCL. NCL's (3rd person) price for my daughter is less than $200. With Princess, the 3rd person price for a comparable cruise would have been about $1700. Love Princess, and enjoy the perqs of elite status--but a $1500 cost differential can offset a lot of perqs.

It is not unusual to find a good deal with Princess for the first 2 passengers, and discover that the 3rd/4th persons cost more than the first 2.

 

 

I agree but I was referring to Princess, I know the other lines give deep discounts for the 3rd and 4th. :)

[LegalEagle2012]

Perhaps another US/UK anomaly here too? When I booked our BD Balcony for four persons I was quoted £699 for 3rd person - 16 year old daughter and £579 for 4th person - 10 year old daughter.

 

Certainly at £1278 combined this was nowhere near enough to cover the costs of booking them into their own inside cabin at all.

 

I would also add that when looking at prices, although the adult price differed from Agent to Agent the prices for the children did not - so I assume they are not usually discounted? I looked at prices from UK Agents as well as UK online and High Street Agents too.

 

K

[Colo Cruiser]

Perhaps another US/UK anomaly here too? When I booked our BD Balcony for four persons I was quoted £699 for 3rd person - 16 year old daughter and £579 for 4th person - 10 year old daughter.

 

Certainly at £1278 combined this was nowhere near enough to cover the costs of booking them into their own inside cabin at all.

 

I would also add that when looking at prices, although the adult price differed from Agent to Agent the prices for the children did not - so I assume they are not usually discounted? I looked at prices from UK Agents as well as UK online and High Street Agents too.

 

K

 

 

Seems like you are at the agents mercy in the UK, the prices seem to go from one end of the spectrum to the other. :eek:

Not good when you are shopping as I would bet its hard to tell whether your price is truely a good deal?

[Toto2Kansas]

Perhaps another US/UK anomaly here too? When I booked our BD Balcony for four persons I was quoted £699 for 3rd person - 16 year old daughter and £579 for 4th person - 10 year old daughter.

 

Certainly at £1278 combined this was nowhere near enough to cover the costs of booking them into their own inside cabin at all.

 

I would also add that when looking at prices, although the adult price differed from Agent to Agent the prices for the children did not - so I assume they are not usually discounted? I looked at prices from UK Agents as well as UK online and High Street Agents too.

 

K

 

3rd and 4th passenger rate will be the same no matter what the ages. Princess does not offer discounts for children, even babies would pay the same rate as an adult.

[jff50]

I agree but I was referring to Princess, I know the other lines give deep discounts for the 3rd and 4th. :)

My reference to low 3rd/4th passenger rates being endangered, but not yet extinct was related to Princess. Sometimes you can find good deals on 3rd/4th with Princess--but they are rare. Low 3rd/4th rates appear to still be alive and well on other lines.

[lovespositano]

For our daughter, her husband and two small children - we book 2 cabins, an adult and one child in each cabin, making sure that one of them is a quad or a mini-suite. Then they all sleep together. Works for us and is much cheaper.

[seb530]

I got 45% discount on both adults and 2 x free kids places in a balcony cabin. :D:D:D

 

 

Guess there are offers out there if you look hard enough and time it right!

 

I think Princess are offering the same deal for some Grand cruises in 2010

[MTElkwhistle]

We have a mini suite booked for a 7 night cruise during the school holidays here in the UK - the "children" (14 and 12 years) ie 3rd and 4th pax were £105 each. If we had taken an inside they would only have been about £50 - I can hardly feed 2 teenage boys for that amount!

 

We had booked for myself and 2 children to go and added DS onto the booking as it was only 105 more - just in case he can get time off. At that price it was worth the risk. Lets hope he can make the hay before 11th July.

 

We also have a P&O cruise booked in the October school holiday where 3rd and 4th in a cabin go free.