El Cheapo Cruises Thread

[Aus Traveller]

Thanks for posting the information about this sale. I am looking at a cruise, or (maybe) two ......... Have to discuss it here. 😊

[GUT2407]

3 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Thanks for posting the information about this sale. I am looking at a cruise, or (maybe) two ......... Have to discuss it here. 😊

Mrs Gut has me banned again😫😱

[windsor26]

I wish they were offering a PNG cruise next year 2020 from Sydney  then I would grab it

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, GUT2407 said:

Mrs Gut has me banned again😫😱

We booked another cruise yesterday afternoon, but that doesn't mean we can't book another one. 🙂 My 'other half' just had to dash out for a medical appointment (nothing serious). I have my list of cruises to discuss......

[phoenixx]

5 hours ago, phoenixx said:

Ooh I got all excited reading this as I'm on Alaska cruise in 2020, so called Princess and mine had gone down.....drumroll.... a grand total of NZ$40 each 😁

Oh well every little helps!

To much excitement too quickly. So I got my new booking confirmation but the price was the same, not $40 less pp. Back to Princess I go, took me speaking to 3 different people to then discover that the first person had made a mistake, apparently because we have upgraded one of our day tours (and paying the full price for it) we don't qualify for this price drop. I asked her to explain the rationale but she couldn't! So basically if we had not upgraded one tiny element of our cruisetour we would get the price drop. This doesn't make sense to me, has anyone come across this before? 

Edited June 21, 2019 by phoenixx

[Esilef]

23 hours ago, icat2000 said:

I put a hold on majestic sailing out of Auckland on 27 December. Going to see if we can get offship in Melbourne rather than Sydney saves us flights from Sydney if possible. Just book inside guaranteed. Fingers crossed Pete work lets him have time off otherwise might have to go solo. Haha

 

sarah

 

 

I am very tempted by this cruise, can you get off the ship in Melbourne? My issue is airfares to Auckland are expensive at that time. We are also cruising on ovation in feb & hoping to do Europe cruise Xmas 2020

[icat2000]

4 hours ago, Esilef said:

 

 

I am very tempted by this cruise, can you get off the ship in Melbourne? My issue is airfares to Auckland are expensive at that time. We are also cruising on ovation in feb & hoping to do Europe cruise Xmas 2020

We decided not to get off at Melbourne as we have to leave our car at Airport when we fly to NZ. So just get off at Sydney fly home pick up car and then drive home to Ballarat. 

[MicCanberra]

I am glad some are getting some savings. No luck for us on our couple of Princess cruises.

[Esilef]

6 hours ago, icat2000 said:

We decided not to get off at Melbourne as we have to leave our car at Airport when we fly to NZ. So just get off at Sydney fly home pick up car and then drive home to Ballarat. 

 

Thats a good point. Enjoy your cruise.

[Kangakid]

Sarah, I know you have changed your mind, but you can debark in Melbourne we did last year, although no reduction in cruise cost, but as we had the whole fam bam we saved over $2K in fares from Sydney to Melbourne, so for us arranging car service from Port Melbourne to home was the cheaper option by far.

Cheers Vicki

[Sallyandtex]

Back to back Arctic circle and Baltic 30 nts island Princess 9 June 2020 with bonus 2 nights London and return flights $6990

I am keen but worried about this online agent large $1100 pp deposit and again $2000 pp 10th August and  paid in full by 3rd Feb 

[MicCanberra]

28 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

Back to back Arctic circle and Baltic 30 nts island Princess 9 June 2020 with bonus 2 nights London and return flights $6990

I am keen but worried about this online agent large $1100 pp deposit and again $2000 pp 10th August and  paid in full by 3rd Feb 

Sounds like a nice deal, read the T&Cs and then decide if you can trust them, Make sure you have travel  insurance as well.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Sallyandtex said:

Back to back Arctic circle and Baltic 30 nts island Princess 9 June 2020 with bonus 2 nights London and return flights $6990

I am keen but worried about this online agent large $1100 pp deposit and again $2000 pp 10th August and  paid in full by 3rd Feb 

I don't know if it is the same on-line TA we booked with: it sounds similar. Our package includes flights to New York, 3 nights in a hotel, cruise on Island Princess to Europe including Iceland and Greenland. In the UK we call into Edinburgh at the time of the Military Tattoo. The package ends with 2 nights in a hotel in London and return flights. The TA was the 1st we saw with this package. The price is good and I am confident that the TA is reputable. We used our FCD with Princess to reduce the up-front deposit, but we have to pay a sizeable amount in August when airfares are booked.

[MicCanberra]

11 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I don't know if it is the same on-line TA we booked with: it sounds similar. Our package includes flights to New York, 3 nights in a hotel, cruise on Island Princess to Europe including Iceland and Greenland. In the UK we call into Edinburgh at the time of the Military Tattoo. The package ends with 2 nights in a hotel in London and return flights. The TA was the 1st we saw with this package. The price is good and I am confident that the TA is reputable. We used our FCD with Princess to reduce the up-front deposit, but we have to pay a sizeable amount in August when airfares are booked.

We have booked and used that same TA a few times, it ahs worked well so far, hence the future bookings.

 

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

14 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

We have booked and used that same TA a few times, it ahs worked well so far, hence the future bookings.

We have three cruises over the next 14 months booked with them so I hope they are OK. 🙂 Their service on the phone is good so that is a start.

[Sallyandtex]

28 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We have three cruises over the next 14 months booked with them so I hope they are OK. 🙂 Their service on the phone is good so that is a start.

I think I know yhe one you are referring to. My Cruise might be a different one 😉

Included 2 nights London and HOHO bus there with flights for much cheaper than my usual agent can get. Don't know how they do it, seemed too good to be true!

 

[Aus Traveller]

24 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

I think I know yhe one you are referring to. My Cruise might be a different one 😉

Included 2 nights London and HOHO bus there with flights for much cheaper than my usual agent can get. Don't know how they do it, seemed too good to be true!

 

The TA we booked the package with said they got a special price from Princess for the cruise component. I enquired if we could add the free drinks that are available at the moment, but the answer was that we couldn't get it because of the reduced fare on the ship.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

The TA we booked the package with said they got a special price from Princess for the cruise component. I enquired if we could add the free drinks that are available at the moment, but the answer was that we couldn't get it because of the reduced fare on the ship.

That was a shame but at least you have got a great deal.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, MicCanberra said:

That was a shame but at least you have got a great deal.

It would've been nice to have the drinks package, but we don't drink that much - less than one bottle of wine every evening between the two of us. Maybe if we had the package, we would drink more than would be good for our health.

[MicCanberra]

1 minute ago, Aus Traveller said:

It would've been nice to have the drinks package, but we don't drink that much - less than one bottle of wine every evening between the two of us. Maybe if we had the package, we would drink more than would be good for our health.

That has been my experience, packages ensure that I drink more, which is not good for me, especially drinking everyday.

[Sallyandtex]

2 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

The TA we booked the package with said they got a special price from Princess for the cruise component. I enquired if we could add the free drinks that are available at the moment, but the answer was that we couldn't get it because of the reduced fare on the ship.

Ok,  so i am thinking Princess might do this with My cruise online agent too, good to know. No problem without drink package here as 1 bottle usually lasts me 3 days. I will have to check on gratuities but I think they included too.

Its the Island Princess, just came off Pacific Explorer old Princess ship and the cabins and bathroom tiny, hope the  Island Princess has larger cabins would be a problem for 30 days I think.

[ninjacat8]

I think you will find that the cabins are the same size. Go on to deck plans and the size of the cabins is usually there

good luck and enjoy 

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Sallyandtex said:

Ok,  so i am thinking Princess might do this with My cruise online agent too, good to know. No problem without drink package here as 1 bottle usually lasts me 3 days. I will have to check on gratuities but I think they included too.

Its the Island Princess, just came off Pacific Explorer old Princess ship and the cabins and bathroom tiny, hope the  Island Princess has larger cabins would be a problem for 30 days I think.

Unless it is offered as part of the 'deal' we have to pay gratuities on cruises based somewhere other than Australia. I know that gratuities can be 'adjusted' but it is fair to pay them because the crew rely on them to make a reasonable wage.

 

Pacific Explorer is the old Dawn Princess. The Sun class ships (Sun Princess, Sea Princess, the former Dawn P and I think the Ocean P) have small cabins. I don't think we will find cabins that small on other ships including the Island. We have done long cruises (several of six or seven weeks) on the Sea P or the Sun P and we are OK with the small cabins. We travelled around in a motor home for many years and are used to living in a small space. When we started motorhome travelling many decades ago, I told my husband that we HAD to keep everything tidy. Everything had to be put away otherwise we would find living in the small space difficult. I find that it helps. We do this on board ship as well.🙂

[Esilef]

Travel marvel European river cruise. Amsterdam to Budapest 15 days in a window cabin $5990 per person. Dates in 2020. New ship not built yet. Launching in mid 2020. Flights not include at this price but if you want flights included your paying another $2400.

 

i booked this for my father, brother, son and I.

[SinbadThePorter]

Ruby Princess, 24th September 2019, 20 days, Los Angeles to Auckland via Hawaii, Tahiti and Pago Pago.

 

Inside $1819

Window $2059

Balcony $2924

 

Captain's Circle.

Edited June 28, 2019 by SinbadThePorter