Free sip & sale not

[Cruise Junky]

I actually thought that the TA cruises seemed to be pretty good deals. There was a 14-day TA in April that made me take a second look. ;)

 

I just (5 mins ago) got a price increase alert on a TA I was watching for fall of 2017. Balcony prices are up anywhere from $150 to $250 us pp.

[kjg46]

All the sip and sale prices are inflated that I have checked. They inflate some prices before the sale is announced and it looks like it is free. So you paid more for your cruise then you should have and they bring out the package, which they new they were going to do and your price stays the same and you think you got a deal. These promos are planned a long time in advance, they don't give anything away.

 

Yesterday I checked the Princess web site to compare the current price for our already booked cruise on the Royal 2017. Yes, the cruise did qualify for the S & Sale. However, the cost of our cruise went up by $60PP. I called Princess and inquired about getting the S & Sale OPC . The Rep repriced our cabin BD category and said the price actually went down for that category by $40 PP. So we repriced and got a $80 reduction and a $400 OPC for our 10 day Cruise. BOTTOM LINE: Make that call to Princess if you are interested in the S & Sale and repricing an existing booking inquire about the category price. Never hurts to ask.

 

All the best!

[Thrak]

I just (5 mins ago) got a price increase alert on a TA I was watching for fall of 2017. Balcony prices are up anywhere from $150 to $250 us pp.

 

One reason we booked - but didn't finalize with deposit - the day before the sale started. We were afraid prices might go up. Now that we have our cruise locked in and deposit made if the price goes up we won't have to deal with it.

[DrivesLikeMario]

It really is a case-by-case basis depending on when you booked and what the price is now. In our case, it cost us $100 more but I know we'll spend more than $100 in drinks in one week, so we changed to the Sip & Sail.

 

Just know what you're doing before you jump and if it's not advantageous to you, check out the Red, White & Blue Sale for free gratuities. That promo worked better for us on another cruise. ;)

[partybarbie]

It does pay to do your homework. If you are booked on a cruise that is selling really well, you won't get as much of deal.

 

I have a 12-day Australia/New Zealand cruise booked for Feb. 2018. I can keep my inside room, at $1200.00 per person, and buy AIBP for $675.00 per person, for a total of $1875.00 per person. Or I can choose a balcony for about $2150.00 per person. So for two of us, the balcony will cost me an additional $550.00. For me personally, it's not worth it to pay the extra cost, but if you really like a balcony then it might be worth it to someone else.

[nanabananna]

It worked out for us on our Alaskan cruise for next year, no price increase and now 150.00 obc p/p and our third person gets the free soda pkg.

 

 

Hey! This is Sandra. I believe we are on the same cruise. Did you have to rebook your cruise? I am trying to see if the new deal is good for us. decisions, decisions. :eek:

 

I like the onboard credit idea bc that could be used for excursions. I do not drink so I could just buy the soda package and still come out ahead. DH said, it did not matter to him either way. :)

 

I am going to do a mock reservations and see if the price has gone up...I hope not. ;)

[elliair]

It wouldn't work for us, I prefer to have the "free tips" instead of the sip and sail. We always buy the wine package and don't drink the heavy stuff. We enjoy a bottle of wine on our balcony and the S&S you only get a discount on bottles of wine so it isn't worth it for us. We could have got the free tips on our Caribbean Princess cruise in October - however, we would had to give up our $900 OBC. Not worth it.

[triptolemus]

Creative pricing to make you think your getting a deal.

 

Not always.

 

Our booking for 2018 was $2049 pp before the sip and sail promotion started. Yesterday, I rebooked it with sip and sail for... $2049 pp.

[TracieABD]

Not always.

 

Our booking for 2018 was $2049 pp before the sip and sail promotion started. Yesterday, I rebooked it with sip and sail for... $2049 pp.

 

That works!

[karena1]

I love it. We got the cruise really for a good price $899 pp for a balcony plus the Sip & Sale. Cannot go wrong with it!!!

[Nhsaltshaker]

Hey! This is Sandra. I believe we are on the same cruise. Did you have to rebook your cruise? I am trying to see if the new deal is good for us. decisions, decisions. :eek:

 

I like the onboard credit idea bc that could be used for excursions. I do not drink so I could just buy the soda package and still come out ahead. DH said, it did not matter to him either way. :)

 

I am going to do a mock reservations and see if the price has gone up...I hope not. ;)

 

Hi nana,

 

No, you don't have to rebook. The price did not change. You and I are on the same cruise and I called and got my SnS promotion yesterday, which I posted on our roll call.

 

Call Princess or your TA!!! :) :) :)

 

p.s. If you see a $100 difference on your mock booking and you are a past passenger, it's because you are not logged in while trying to mock book. It will show a price of $100 more because it doesn't automatically recognize your loyalty if you're not logged in.

[iceleven]

Just by changing my California Coastal from April to October '17 I saved $333 plus got the SnS. In the exchange we lost a total of $100 OBC but that is no biggie because in the process, we now also have two free dinners added to the package.

 

Just curious, if you don't take the Sip n Sail, how is the OBC option figured out?

[nanabananna]

Nhsaltshaker and friends,

My Travel agent just called me with Princess on the other line to ask what did we want to do? I decided to go with OBC since I don't drink. I will buy the soda package and my husband the coffee card and we can still have close to

$ 200. to spend on excursions!! :D

[Nhsaltshaker]

Happy Dance!

 

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[lucksak]

If your cruise price didn't go up after switching to the sip & sale you paid to much for your cruise to start with. They inflate the prices before they advertise the sip and sale. Then you think your getting a deal. Just because you didn't have to pay more doesn't mean you got a deal. These cruise prices will drop more then the sip and sale will cost as it gets closer the the cruise.

 

We booked our TA last year with the Sip & Sail. The price has gone up $1000.00 per person. The beverage package is a total bonus.We did get a great deal. I think it's all about supply & demand.

 

Ciao

Ollie

[4cats4me]

As a long time Princess cruiser (over 25 years) I think there are a couple of good deals on the current "Sip and Sail", but the majority are way over priced.

 

 

 

For example, this past April, I was able to secure a nice balcony cabin, on a 10-Day Mex Riv cruise out of San Pedro, for $999.00 per person. If I were to buy an AIBP, at about $560.00 per person, this gives me a total of $1559.00 per person. Under the current "sale" the same cabin is going for $1699.00 per person. How is this a sale?

 

 

 

The only way to determine if one is getting a good deal or not is to look at the price per day. In the $1699.00 per person, per day example, the price equals about $170.00 per day. I then subtract the amount of the AIBP, or $56.00 per day, equaling $114.00 per day for the balcony. Now, I think that $114.00 per day is a good price for a balcony, but only if you were planning on buying a drink package anyway. If you don't drink that much, or don't normally buy a drink package, it's not a very good deal at $170.00 per day.

 

 

 

Just my opinion...

 

 

 

This is precisely my scenario, too. We have a 10-day MEXICO booked and got a deal similar to yours, around $949 pp for a balcony when all was said and done,

And $600 OBCs. Same thing, the new cost under sip sail would be a minimum of $1,699 pp

They never give anything away for free, and I tend to agree with the poster who said if the price didn't go up much after the sip and sail promo, then some are already paying more for their cruise than they should have. Just because some people think they got a good deal doesn't mean that they actually got a good deal.

I am also astounded by the comment that I've read frequently on many cruise boards how people are so happy to have the AIBP because it is "nice to not to have to sign for anything." Sorry, but if I am saving a ton of money, then it won't pain me to sign for the occasional drink receipt if it means saving (in my case for the next cruise) over $1,300 [emoji33]

 

 

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Edited June 23, 2016 by 4cats4me

[Cruise Junky]

This is precisely my scenario, too. We have a 10-day MEXICO booked and got a deal similar to yours, around $949 pp for a balcony when all was said and done,

And $600 OBCs. Same thing, the new cost under sip sail would be a minimum of $1,699 pp

They never give anything away for free, and I tend to agree with the poster who said if the price didn't go up much after the sip and sail promo, then some are already paying more for their cruise than they should have. Just because some people think they got a good deal doesn't mean that they actually got a good deal.

I am also astounded by the comment that I've read frequently on many cruise boards how people are so happy to have the AIBP because it is "nice to not to have to sign for anything." Sorry, but if I am saving a ton of money, then it won't pain me to sign for the occasional drink receipt if it means saving (in my case for the next cruise) over $1,300 [emoji33]

 

 

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Completely agree. I looked at a coastal and they want over $1,600 Canadian pp for a balcony. Our favourite condo in Hawaii is open the same week for $1,200 for the week, I can buy a lot of booze at Costco thank you. Obviously the Canadian dollar isn't helping, but the day I pay over $3,000 for a coastal will be a cold day in hell.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Cruise Junky

[partybarbie]

This is precisely my scenario, too. We have a 10-day MEXICO booked and got a deal similar to yours, around $949 pp for a balcony when all was said and done,

And $600 OBCs. Same thing, the new cost under sip sail would be a minimum of $1,699 pp

They never give anything away for free, and I tend to agree with the poster who said if the price didn't go up much after the sip and sail promo, then some are already paying more for their cruise than they should have. Just because some people think they got a good deal doesn't mean that they actually got a good deal.

I am also astounded by the comment that I've read frequently on many cruise boards how people are so happy to have the AIBP because it is "nice to not to have to sign for anything." Sorry, but if I am saving a ton of money, then it won't pain me to sign for the occasional drink receipt if it means saving (in my case for the next cruise) over $1,300 [emoji33]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Yes, Princess had problems with selling those 10-day Mexico cruises. We also got a last minute balcony on a January cruise out of San Francisco for pretty cheap.

 

I see that you are in the Bay Area. Sometimes it's just easier to wait for the last minute west coast discounts. I could have picked up a 15-day Hawaii cruise in March, that started at $999.00 for the inside cabins, but DH couldn't get anymore time off work. :) We would have had $700.00 in OBC too. I'm still kicking myself for passing on that one.:rolleyes:

[tgmtgm]

I'm assuming that since the Sip n Sail is a limited time promotion, any repricing down the road will result in forfeiture of the perk? For instance, 9 months from now an early 2018 cruise drops $500pp in price. Will attempting to take advantage of the decrease be met with loss of the package? Celebrity allows pricing adjustments without loss of drink packages as long as the perk is still being offered. (Which is perpetually nowadays...)

 

Tony

[partybarbie]

I'm assuming that since the Sip n Sail is a limited time promotion, any repricing down the road will result in forfeiture of the perk? For instance, 9 months from now an early 2018 cruise drops $500pp in price. Will attempting to take advantage of the decrease be met with loss of the package? Celebrity allows pricing adjustments without loss of drink packages as long as the perk is still being offered. (Which is perpetually nowadays...)

 

Tony

 

Yes, you almost always need to re-book before final payment to get the price drops and you would lose the drink promotion, unless Princess was still offering it (not too likely).

[caribill]

When I checked prices today on a 10 day cruise the cost had gone up by over $1000 per person. They are not giving anything away, although they are not in that business.

 

All the sip and sale prices are inflated that I have checked. They inflate some prices before the sale is announced and it looks like it is free. So you paid more for your cruise then you should have and they bring out the package, which they new they were going to do and your price stays the same and you think you got a deal. These promos are planned a long time in advance, they don't give anything away.

 

Supply and demand causes the cabin prices to fluctuate.

 

There is another thread on this subject. Most people posted that they were able to rebook for the AIBP package with no change in price and in some cases at a lower price.

 

Some posted they had a slight increase in price.

 

And a few posted that the price (compared to when they had originally booked) was high now to the point it made no sense to rebook.

 

One person could not rebook because no cabins were available in their category and if no cabin is available, you cannot switch to this promotion even keeping the same cabin.

 

Another posted that they could not keep their free upgrade and had to switch back to their original category if they wanted the package.

 

I see no conspiracy here to raise prices just because the package is now offered.

Edited June 23, 2016 by caribill

[caribill]

This argument seems to have merit.

 

We booked the Regal September 2017 Transatlantic a while back with our TA. She does a lot of volume with Princess and as a result provides significant discounts.

 

When I inquired yesterday about switching to the Sip n Sail promotion I was told her price would increase by $179 per pax. However, the drink package would cost us $1576 for the two of us. Considering this is a TA with lots of sea days it was a no brainer that we would easily spend more on drinks than $358 ($179 X 2) if we went a la carte.

 

But the clincher is her new price is still significantly less than the Princess website price. I'm very happy. :D

 

Reason the TA had to charge more:

 

o Some or all of the discount you are getting is from the TA's commission.

 

o Although the list price for the cruise may not have changed, the fare amount that the commission is based on did get reduced based on the value of the drink package amenity.

 

o So with less commission (even at the same list price), the TA could not give you the same price reduction as before.

[californiaamy]

sorry to be a neophyte at this, but how do I tell if the cruise I'm interested qualifies for the sip'n'sail?

[paul929207]

sorry to be a neophyte at this, but how do I tell if the cruise I'm interested qualifies for the sip'n'sail?

Call your TA or Princess.

[pompeii]

Call your TA or Princess.

 

Or just look on the website. They're pretty clearly marked;)

 

And if you're double checking prices, as a previous poster noted, be sure to sign in if you're a past passenger so you see the price with your past passenger discount. If not, you might think the fare has gone up when it hasn't.