please educate me re: deals on Princess

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

Well, first of all: 1) sign up for the Princess emails so you're notified of sales.

2) Read more posts on this forum using the "search" feature.

3) Get a good travel agent.

Happy cruising!

It is difficult to predict what special will be offered between now and next summer. Yes, there are specials offered that include onboard credit, beverage packages, grats, specialty dining, and various combinations of these. You just have to keep your eyes open.

If either of you have cruised Princess before, you can "refer" the other family and collect a $25 OBC for each of you. I think this is by cabin.

You can "stack" onboard credits on Princess. OBC can be part of your booking deal, a shareholder credit if you own stock in Carnival Corp., a military credit if you are a veteran or active duty person, etc.

Thoughts/strategies I've seen...

• book months early for the best room choices/availability. An upgrades would be considered savings.
  
• With a busy and unpredictable work schedule. I book last minute (less than a week). I skip on the cancellation insurance and can watch weather forecasts before committing.
  
• As mentioned Princess offers discounts throughout the year with mailouts. Late Spring/early summer has an annual blowout to fill unsold cabins.
  
• May and September sailings will be cheapest time in the Alaskan season. Then again, many are willing to pay more in July for dry warm weather for excursions. I'm one of them.
  
• Does it need to be a balcony? I look for the biggest available oceanview window cabins.
  
• for Vancouver pre/post-cruise... look to hotels a few blocks away from the cruise terminal for savings.
  
• for those not paying in USD.... look for seasonal currency swings
  

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

OK....'Alaska' and 'summer' being the key words here ... it is kind of hard to find a 'deal' but they are out there. For a better deal, have you considered the shoulder season -- May or Sept. I even see some lines traveling up there as early as April. September would be my choice, though. I would doubt if you see many significant price drops after final payment on cruises to Alaska in the summer months (June - August) as they seem to sell out before they have to drop the price by a lot. Princess now usually sends out upsell offers for any of the better empty cabins (balconies and above) so that would mostly (not always) only leave inside cabins towards the sailing anyway.

For this summer, they had a promotion -- 3 for free. It included free gratuities, free onboard credit and free 'within the category' upgrades available ... so the rooms, forward, aft, midship were offered at the same price. We also got a free specialty dinner and a voucher for a bottle of wine as well as some additional onboard credit from our TA.

The promotion changed and not sure what promotion was valid at the time I called in for a price drop but we were able to keep our free gratuities but the pricing was lowered and we got a lot more onboard credit. The only thing we lost was the specialty dinner but our savings more than made up for that. It was no problem changing our promotion as we were before final payment date.

Right now, they are running their Red White and Blue sale ... I believe it includes free onboard credit and gratuities ... maybe a little something else.

They did have a sip and sail promotion going on previously, which included the 'free' beverage package but you had to book a balcony or higher to receive this perk. The pricing on their balcony cabins seemed really high if you ask me. We've taken to sailing in a nice non-obstructed 'obstructed' oceanview room -- use Renmar's site to find a good one without a view of solid orange (lifeboats / tenders). We like the Emerald Deck location anyway and that is really the only way we've found to save a lot of money on many cruises. We book a good one early on and upgrade to a balcony if reasonable. On our next cruise up to Alaska (in the summer), this never happened and they are almost sold out.

PS -- I have called in before after final payment when I have seen room prices drop drastically. We weigh the cancellation fees against our savings to see if it is worth it. Sometimes it is ... other times, they might allow you to upgrade without having to cancel ... even though it states 'for new bookings only'. If final payment has been made and that is usually the only time you will see this offering, it is very doubtful that they will return any of your money.

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

Princess has a "special" on now that offers paid gratuities but specials do not apply to all sailings and some are more special than others.

Check out several high Princess volume travel agencies and let them compete for your business. You can usually find better deals than booking direct but you must contact them to get the deals.

Yes Princess honors price drops prior to final payment. The better specials will have a non-refundable deposit and often are for new bookings only. So make sure your chosen agency does not charge there own rebooking fees.

If either of you have cruised Princess before' date=' you can "refer" the other family and collect a $25 OBC for each of you. I think this is by cabin.

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I refer people all the time. One $25 credit goes to the person that refers a new Princess cruiser and the other $25 goes to the person that is referred. You can refer up to 2 people per household so that would be $50 for each.

The person you refer can even be someone you share the cabin with ... with the only stipulation being they can not have sailed on Princess before.

You are also able to use several referrals per sailing if you are the one that sends out the referral. There is a limit but I think it is more than 2. I referred another 2 couples on my next sailing ... each passenger gets $25 and I get $100.

Go to the Princess website and sign up for email/snail mail specials. I booked a Caribbean Princess repo off a snail mail flyer, and I have booked both Alaska cruises from email specials. I book whatever I can afford at the time, and it is often an inside cabin. Going in an inside cabin is better than not going at all. EM

Alaska fares are usually higher than others due to the high demand.

Price Drops, if any, will be honored up to final payment. After final payment, possible but unlikely. You may be offered an upsell to a better category of cabin, for a very discounted rate. Don't count on it, however.

As for buying liquor, you can buy 375 ml bottles from room service.

Good luck, it really is fantastic!

Thanks for posting the question, I have been wondering the same.

Appreciate the responses, never knew about the referral OBC.

Travel agents can discount princess cruises

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

Regarding Alaska, our strategy has always been to book from 4-6 months out, depending on which itinerary. Factors include how easy would it be for us to get an airline ticket closer to sailing date, that type of thing We don't book far out because we've been able to take advantage of great prices closer to sailing date. However, this year I notice that there aren't any real deals compared to what I've been able to get on my other four Alaskan cruises.

Regarding price drops, yes, you can get those before final payment.

Regarding upgrades after final payment, on our last cruise we paid for our upgrade since we had booked a reg balcony cabin but then the mini suites were then priced cheaper than our regular balcony, so I contacted my TA and Princess offered us a mini for an additional $129 pp so we took it since we felt it was a very fair deal overall

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I skimmed through the other posts but some Princess "sales" have included a nonrefundable, nontransferable deposit which could make it more difficult to get a price reduction before final payment so check the terms & conditions.

In the past we'd book well in advance & watch for price reductions however too often cruises we're interested in sailing are now much more expensive to book early. Our schedule is flexible & we're okay with any cabin so we now watch for prices near final payment or later. We get some great prices & being retired we have the option to wait unlike many who are working with limited vacation time.

My advice is, if you want to take the cruise, book it now and then watch to see if the price drops and, if it does, rebook. If the current price is too high for you to be comfortable with it then don't book as it may well go up later rather than down.

I book at a price I'm willing to pay. If it goes down that is a bonus. If not, I knew what I was getting when I booked the cruise.

Note: We are booked for a 13 day connoisseur cruise tour to Alaska. We fly to Fairbanks on June 23rd. I booked this the first day it became available in March of last year. There have been a number of "sales" but the best deal offered has still come out to more than $200 per person more than the price I booked. Like I said, book now and hope it goes down but it is more likely to go up despite whatever "sale" they may offer at a later date. Alaska seems to be like that.

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

Price/night: You will find fares/night higher to Alaska when compared to Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii. They are more in line with Europe.

Lower the price: Travel Agents are permitted to discount fares, look for a T.A. that deals in lots of Princess Cruises. They receive larger commissions, thus can offer additional perks or lower fares.

Specials: Yes Princess does run specials. They are currently in their Red, White & Blue promo cycle, but 2017 Alaska is not included in this sale. Keep looking.

Other than a few times Princess has not had promos that included a drinks package. Most drinks on Princess are under $10, and straight shots are normally in the $7 range.

Princess has recently offered "free gratuities" as part of promos.

New promos: If the fare drops or a new promo is offered you can get it up to the time of final payment.

On Board Credit: Besides any OBC that may be available through a promo or T.A. additional OBC is available if you are active or discharged military and for owners of at least 100 shares of Carnival Corp. stock. All OBC is stackable.

If your friend sailed Princess before they can recommend you and you will receive $25 OBC.

Yes, you can purchase liquor on board by call room service. Each passenger 21 and older is also allowed to carry on at no charge 1x750ml bottle of wine for use in the cabin. Additional bottles of wine can be carried on but will be charged a $15 corkage fee. Look up Princess Cellars on the web for more details regarding beverage purchases and packages.

I don't know what sailings you are looking at. The strength of Princess in Alaska are their cruisetour packages. They have been there a long time, and have their own lodges. Suggest you look into a 7 day northbound or southbound voyage connected to a land package that can be from 4 days and up.

I refer people all the time. One $25 credit goes to the person that refers a new Princess cruiser and the other $25 goes to the person that is referred. You can refer up to 2 people per household so that would be $50 for each.

The person you refer can even be someone you share the cabin with ... with the only stipulation being they can not have sailed on Princess before.

You are also able to use several referrals per sailing if you are the one that sends out the referral. There is a limit but I think it is more than 2. I referred another 2 couples on my next sailing ... each passenger gets $25 and I get $100.

But you have to refer the people before they actually book right? I am a 1st time Princess cruiser sailing with friends who have sailed Princess before...but reading the FAQ on the website it looks like we miss out because I am already booked...:(

Thank you to all that have posted so far - you have given me $$$'s worth of advice - esp. the referral OBC and stockholder's. We are cruising with friends that have already chosen a date so that puts us into the high fare season - we usually cruise "shoulder" season.

More tips are always welcome - I will sign up for sale notices - I'm sure my email inbox will soon be even fuller than it already is with promos from lines that we have sailed on before. Thanks again to those of you willing to share your tips and booking strategies.

Alaska fares are usually higher than others due to the high demand.

This is likely a big factor. The market is good enough that Princess can justify sending 6-7 ships to Alaska yearly. With ~6800 lower berths on weekly runs north/south, ~6200 lower berths on weekly round-trips from Seattle, and ~2600 lower berths on 10-day round-trips from San Francisco for next year, that's about 225k passengers served per season. They've also adjusted capacity to suit; there were 4 ships on NB/SB runs, now it's 3, and they've swapped out the smaller ships on Seattle runs to larger ones. Much like the airlines, they've adapted to suit demand, and therefore don't have to discount to fill the spots. Good them, bad for our wallets.

But you have to refer the people before they actually book right? I am a 1st time Princess cruiser sailing with friends who have sailed Princess before...but reading the FAQ on the website it looks like we miss out because I am already booked...:(

I recently referred friends who had already booked their first Princess cruise for October & all of us qualified for the referral OBC. :)

I referred them however they did not initially reply to the Princess email to verify their participation. After they responded the Referral OBC was added to their reservation & my OBC was added to my Captain's Circle account to be usable after their cruise.

I recently referred friends who had already booked their first Princess cruise for October & all of us qualified for the referral OBC. :)

 

I referred them however they did not initially reply to the Princess email to verify their participation. After they responded the Referral OBC was added to their reservation & my OBC was added to my Captain's Circle account to be usable after their cruise.

Thanks....I will have my friend give it a try...we don't sail until Sept.

Princess allows a TA to discount fares. They cannot advertise the discounts, but they can give them if ask for a quote by phone, email or internet.

Also look very carefully at any sales. Often a $1000 fare becomes $1200 with $200 OBC. You cannot mix and match and take the fare from one offer and the perks from another

I recently referred friends who had already booked their first Princess cruise for October & all of us qualified for the referral OBC. :)

 

I referred them however they did not initially reply to the Princess email to verify their participation. After they responded the Referral OBC was added to their reservation & my OBC was added to my Captain's Circle account to be usable after their cruise.

I also sent in a referral after the ones I referred had already booked....but not by a long time. They seem to be pretty flexible with this. If they see people are taking advantage, they may change things but as of now, I think it is worth a try.

Thanks....I will have my friend give it a try...we don't sail until Sept.

I also sent in a referral after the ones I referred had already booked....but not by a long time. They seem to be pretty flexible with this. If they see people are taking advantage, they may change things but as of now, I think it is worth a try.

I agree that it's best to do it as soon as possible.

I was showing our friend how to navigate the Princess website & other ways I've discovered throughout the years to prepare for a cruise when we discovered the referral program & thankfully it worked.

Go to the Princess website on a regular basis, current sales should be listed at the top. We booked late summer/early fall last year for the Sip&Sail promotion for our British Isles cruise this spring ----- prices only went up, and it saved us $1400 for our 12 day cruise (plus a free specialty restaurant.) Just be aware that if you call for a price drop before final payment, you generally lose any perks and go with whatever is being offered at the time of repricing.

We have sailed many times on another line and know the machinations that brand employs re: pricing. Friends want us to do a Princess Alaska NEXT summer. When looking at pp / per night, the price seems a bit high. Can you give me suggestions to help me lower the price? Does Princess run specials that include a drinks package? grats? can you purchase liquor onboard to put in your stateroom to make your own mixed drinks? Also I assume Princess honors pre- final payment price drops....after final payment can you upgrade if there is a large price drop that is advertised as "new bookings only"? THANKS!

I'm glad you've gotten some good answers here. I'll just add a few things that I haven't seen mentioned:

1. You say Princess prices "seem a bit high." I agree, but I think you get a bit more than some other lines. Princess is one of the longest-serving cruise lines in Alaska and has permits to Glacier Bay which some lines don't have. They also have more educational effort than I saw on Norwegian, our only other Alaska cruise.

2. If you're accustomed to Celebrity, I sometimes think their main promo is free booze. Princess runs specials, but it's rarely free drinks. Once I saw free drinks, but lots of times you'll see free gratuities and even more often you'll see on-board credit being offered.

3. When people talk about signing up for email notification, let me just throw this in: You can sign up, but that won't assure you of getting what you want. I've been signed up for years and rarely get anything. Others have reported getting targeted emails. In other words, I think they send you what they think you may respond to (just guessing here). The best way to keep abreast of what Princess is offering is to go to their website a few times a week.

Jim