Labor Day sale: Change reservation?

We have reservations using FCC on the Emerald Princess June 3 Scandinavia and Russia cruise in a MA minisuite on Dolphin deck. Are there any disadvantages to changing the reservation to take advantage of the lower cost ($200 pp) in the Labor day sale? Thanks

We have reservations using FCC on the Emerald Princess June 3 Scandinavia and Russia cruise in a MA minisuite on Dolphin deck. Are there any disadvantages to changing the reservation to take advantage of the lower cost ($200 pp) in the Labor day sale? Thanks

My recent experiences with Princess sales requiring a 'non-refundable, non-transferable' deposit limits my ability to get future non-sale price reductions without losing my deposit. Due to this restriction, I may not book a sale price for future cruises but that's just how I feel about it. If you don't currently have a NR-NT deposit, is the $200 savings worth that restriction for you? How much OBC would each booking option provide? With it being a new reservation you could loose your dining room choice.

I cannot answer your question whether to change your reservation or not because what is best for me may not be best for you.

If you later decide to cancel the cruise, or move to a different date, you lose your FCC deposit. That's the downside.

The upside is you get the lower price if you rebook during the sale plus whatever OBC is offered, and you do not lose your FCC deposit if a later sale comes along with a lower price. I rebooked my upcoming cruise 4 times to get the lower price each time there was a new sale. Still have my FCC as the deposit, still have my FCC related OBC, still have my sale OBC.

If you later decide to cancel the cruise, or move to a different date, you lose your FCC deposit. That's the downside.

 

The upside is you get the lower price if you rebook during the sale plus whatever OBC is offered, and you do not lose your FCC deposit if a later sale comes along with a lower price. I rebooked my upcoming cruise 4 times to get the lower price each time there was a new sale. Still have my FCC as the deposit, still have my FCC related OBC, still have my sale OBC.

Thanks fellow New Mexican! I think I can deal with the non-refundable FCC deposit with the large savings offered.

I had a look at the Labor Day promo and the pricing is actually higher then we are currently booked at for our January cruises. We did reprice during a sale back around Memorial Day which did save us some serious coin.

I'm a little unhappy with this promotion. I noticed that the price for a BB cabin on my cruise was $20 less, not much, but I called reservations to get price drop. In the past whenever there was a price drop on my cruise, I'd call and get it no problem. This time, after some initial confusion about my booking which had me concerned, Princess rep said she can change booking to get price drop but deposit would become non-refundable. I went back and reviewed terms of promotion and sure enough, deposit for promotion is non-refundable.

I've cruised with Princess for 5 years and this is something new. Why are they doing this? Are they unhappy with people working promotions to get cheaper fares on their existing bookings? I think it's a win/win situation. Existing customers are happy with price drop and I don't see how it interfers with agressive price promotion to fill cruise. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. :mad:

The special non-refundable deposit promotions are nothing new. There are discussions about them every time Princess has a sale and one unhappy poster or two vents a bit. Sorry you're unhappy but I usually ignore these sales because I'm usually paying less to start with.

If you later decide to cancel the cruise, or move to a different date, you lose your FCC deposit. That's the downside.

 

The upside is you get the lower price if you rebook during the sale plus whatever OBC is offered, and you do not lose your FCC deposit if a later sale comes along with a lower price. I rebooked my upcoming cruise 4 times to get the lower price each time there was a new sale. Still have my FCC as the deposit, still have my FCC related OBC, still have my sale OBC.

Just to confirm that you got lower new sale prices by rebooking even with a NR-NT deposit?

That would be great however I wasn't able to do that but realize that how they enforce this 'sale' price NR-NT restriction seems to vary. Shortly after the restriction was added last year they waived the restriction to get me the lower price but several months ago wouldn't waive it. Recently I had a NR-NT deposit 'transferred' to a better non-sale price for a better cabin without losing my FCC deposit. It is the same booking number but no longer a 'sale' price & thus is no longer a NR-NT deposit.

With others having different experiences there's no way to know for certain how Princess continues to deal with their NR-NT restriction which is sometimes waived & other times enforced. :confused:

I'm a little unhappy with this promotion. I noticed that the price for a BB cabin on my cruise was $20 less, not much, but I called reservations to get price drop. In the past whenever there was a price drop on my cruise, I'd call and get it no problem. This time, after some initial confusion about my booking which had me concerned, Princess rep said she can change booking to get price drop but deposit would become non-refundable. I went back and reviewed terms of promotion and sure enough, deposit for promotion is non-refundable.

 

I've cruised with Princess for 5 years and this is something new. Why are they doing this? Are they unhappy with people working promotions to get cheaper fares on their existing bookings? I think it's a win/win situation. Existing customers are happy with price drop and I don't see how it interfers with agressive price promotion to fill cruise. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. :mad:

I noticed the NR-NT 'sale' restriction late last year & it was probably added to make fare reductions more difficult to get. It's still better than the restrictions placed on airfare but they're trying to get it closer to those types of restrictions.

As you can read in other posts, 'cherylandtk' had different experiences than me with how it's enforced & I've had the same experience as you with them refusing to waive the NR-NT deposit. I don't know whether their enforcement is changing or if it is based on how a particular Princess agent decides whether to enforce it...or not. :confused:

The special non-refundable deposit promotions are nothing new. There are discussions about them every time Princess has a sale and one unhappy poster or two vents a bit. Sorry you're unhappy but I usually ignore these sales because I'm usually paying less to start with.

Pam,

This has always confused me. My new TA got me a fairly good discount fare with an OBC. When looking for reduced fares, do you have to look for and ADVERTIZED price less than the discounted price you got? For example, let me make up a situation. Let's say the original cost for a return customer is posted for $1000 and your TA gets you a price of $800. A sale comes along from Princess and advertises the same room for $800. Does that mean there is no benefit to you to change the booking? Or does the TA take the new price and maybe give you less of a discount but based on the new $800 fare.

The non refundable deposit sale prices have been more prevelent this year. I THINK though that if the prices drop, you can pay the difference and upgrade yourself to a new category. I haven't done this on a nonrefundable cruise, so would be interested if anyone has? Don't see why they would have a problem with this as long as you are paying more than your original price.

TIA

Mark

Just to confirm that you got lower new sale prices by rebooking even with a NR-NT deposit? :confused:

Two others on my Roll Call also rebooked at the sales, also had no trouble. One used a TA, not sure about the other.

Pam,

This has always confused me. My new TA got me a fairly good discount fare with an OBC. When looking for reduced fares, do you have to look for and ADVERTIZED price less than the discounted price you got? For example, let me make up a situation. Let's say the original cost for a return customer is posted for $1000 and your TA gets you a price of $800. A sale comes along from Princess and advertises the same room for $800. Does that mean there is no benefit to you to change the booking? Or does the TA take the new price and maybe give you less of a discount but based on the new $800 fare.

The non refundable deposit sale prices have been more prevelent this year. I THINK though that if the prices drop, you can pay the difference and upgrade yourself to a new category. I haven't done this on a nonrefundable cruise, so would be interested if anyone has? Don't see why they would have a problem with this as long as you are paying more than your original price.

 

TIA

 

Mark

I recently changed my sale priced NR-NT deposit oceanview cabin to a non-sale priced balcony which didn't cost much more. Our previous NR-NT deposit was 'transferred' to our new booking & is now refundable. Although that may be subject to change & possibly not the norm because as you can read enforcement of the now standard NR-NT deposit for 'sales' promotions varies but in my situation they did waive losing my deposit to pay for an upgrade. ;)

Yes. Booked directly with Princess, never had any trouble at all with getting the lower price. Just called up. All the sales were NR-NT deposits. Three of the times they had to give me a new booking number, but once I kept the same booking number.

 

Two others on my Roll Call also rebooked at the sales, also had no trouble. One used a TA, not sure about the other.

My experience has been like cherylandtk. I never got new booking numbers, Princess just gave me price drop. I never had Princess rep mention NR-NT deposit. If NR-NT deposit on sales are not new , I've never seen it. I usualyy book cruises almost a year in advance with Princess direct and catch one or two significant price drops during year. I used TA once and was not happy and didn't get any great pricing initially.

I booked a BF which included some OBC. This was not a NR-NT booking. At one point, I noticed a particular BB cabin come open. I wanted it. I called Princess to pay to upgrade to that cabin. They said I would have to pay the difference (I knew that) but I would have to give up the OBC as well. I've never encountered that when I wanted to pay for a better cabin.

My experience has been like cherylandtk. I never got new booking numbers, Princess just gave me price drop. I never had Princess rep mention NR-NT deposit. If NR-NT deposit on sales are not new , I've never seen it. I usualyy book cruises almost a year in advance with Princess direct and catch one or two significant price drops during year. I used TA once and was not happy and didn't get any great pricing initially.

This is also the way we book, directly, a year or more out & have the price drops honored (that we check often). So far it has worked out very well for us.

Being a Aussie I don't get the chance to see alot of the US sales (geoblocking).

But this is a SALE and the purpose of a sale is to get people to buy. So the price drops for a limited time but there are conditions for you to get that Special Reduced Fare. That's why it's a non refundable deposit to keep you on the cruise and to help to ensure the sale goes ahead.

We have three cruises booked and can't cancel any of them without penalty. The first one is in October so that's that.

The second one is in December and we did catch a sale that dropped the price to $1,599 for a balcony for a 14-day cruise to Hawaii. I don't think it will drop any lower than that. If it does, good for the people who get that price.

The third one is a Western Caribbean where we got a very good balcony price, plus $100 OBC. The price would have to drop at least $200 per person, giving us $400 savings to justify our chaning and forfeiting our onboard credit and our FCC. I can't see that happening.

There have been a lot of times when we refused to book a sale price because it wasn't low enough and we wouldn't run the risk of losing our FCC if a better price came along somewhere down the road.

We always set a price which we can live with and then book. So far the price has never dropped lower after we have booked and we have always gotten the cabins and cruises we wanted.

Yes. Booked directly with Princess, never had any trouble at all with getting the lower price. Just called up. All the sales were NR-NT deposits. Three of the times they had to give me a new booking number, but once I kept the same booking number.

 

Two others on my Roll Call also rebooked at the sales, also had no trouble. One used a TA, not sure about the other.

Thanks for the info & obviously Princess isn't consistent about how they're managing their 'non-refundable, non-transferable' restriction. Apparently some get it waived while others are stuck with its limitations. And how it's booked doesn't seem to determine it either...maybe each Princess booking agent decides whether it's enforced...or not??? :confused:

I noticed the NR-NT 'sale' restriction late last year & it was probably added to make fare reductions more difficult to get. It's still better than the restrictions placed on airfare but they're trying to get it closer to those types of restrictions.

 

You can still easily get fare reductions you are eligible for without loss of deposit.

The restrictions are Princess' attempt to have a penalty if you do wish to cancel the cruise before final payment date.

I booked a BF which included some OBC. This was not a NR-NT booking. At one point, I noticed a particular BB cabin come open. I wanted it. I called Princess to pay to upgrade to that cabin. They said I would have to pay the difference (I knew that) but I would have to give up the OBC as well. I've never encountered that when I wanted to pay for a better cabin.

Your OBC was likely from a sale which was no longer in effect when you decided to change categories and your BB pricing was likely not what was in effect at the time of the sale.

You can still easily get fare reductions you are eligible for without loss of deposit.

 

The restrictions are Princess' attempt to have a penalty if you do wish to cancel the cruise before final payment date.

Yes and also to make it more difficult to get a fare reduction anytime after booking with a NR-NT deposit. :rolleyes:

You may think that "You can still easily get fare reductions you are eligible for without loss of deposit." however that is not what many of us have experienced. We've been told we'd loose our NR-NT deposit in order to get a fare reduction which certainly isn't an easy fare reduction. :rolleyes:

Your OBC was likely from a sale which was no longer in effect when you decided to change categories and your BB pricing was likely not what was in effect at the time of the sale.

Yes, I agree. That never happened in the past though and like all of us here, I watch the fares like a hawk. Now I need to come up with a completely new purchasing strategy...which is probably going to be book last minute only. I have recently retired so I no longer have the restrictions of vacation time only cruising.;)

Yes, I agree. That never happened in the past though and like all of us here, I watch the fares like a hawk. Now I need to come up with a completely new purchasing strategy...which is probably going to be book last minute only. I have recently retired so I no longer have the restrictions of vacation time only cruising.;)

I agree. This new "non-refundable" policy on sales is pushing me to last minute bookings as well. Our last-minute bookings are certainly where we have received the best deals.

Our last minute strategy is that we find a smoking deal, check for available award flights, and, if we find them, we know that God really wants us to go on that cruise. :p We still work, but we own our and have competent staff to run it when we are gone, so that is not a problem.

There is also something very exciting about not knowing where you will be going in the next couple of months and being open to great deals. At the moment, we have three cruises already booked out through March and no FCC left. While on one hand I am excited about the cruises we have booked, on the other hand it makes me sad when really amazing deals come up that are in conflict with our previously booked cruises.

I think I am the type of person who really enjoys making last-minute deals.