Is Princess really worth this cost?

[Coral]

I don't think this will make a difference but Princess allows agents to discount Princess. You can save about 10% in cruise fare (not taxes) by going with an agent who discounts.

[Bill B]

"Is Princess worth the cost?"

 

That depends on what you're willing pay. There are a multitude of variables to consider and these vary for different people.

 

In a nutshell -

Cruise pricing is based on supply and demand. The lines (all) will charge what the traffic will bear.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

I don't think this will make a difference but Princess allows agents to discount Princess. You can save about 10% in cruise fare (not taxes) by going with an agent who discounts.

While this is true in North America, there are different rules for those on the other side of the pond (the OP is from England).  We are still able to get some great deals on Princess, but it comes from shopping around, using the right cruise agent, and taking advantage of all the various OBC options.  Some of this is not an option in England.

 

Hank

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

While this is true in North America, there are different rules for those on the other side of the pond (the OP is from England).  We are still able to get some great deals on Princess, but it comes from shopping around, using the right cruise agent, and taking advantage of all the various OBC options.  Some of this is not an option in England.

 

Hank

Sorry - I missed OP is from UK. Thanks for adding this.

[paul929207]

13 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

Hi, we always booked really early for any cruises - as soon as they are out. We have done this with P&O and Celebrity and it saves us a lot of money. These lines always have extra perks.

Have looked at Princess now for 2020 and the prices are just sky high and no perks .......

I have several cruises booked to 2020. I expect that next summer (2019), Princess will offer the Sip & Sail package. In the past (living in the US), I have been able to at the S&S at no extra cost to these bookings that are in a balcony or higher.

[Presto2]

Having reread all of the above:

 

Thanks for your many replies and for those of you who have recognised that we are from the UK :-)

 

We really would love to sail with Princess but we simply can not afford the prices. As a professional couple we have a good income but just can not justify the prices that the cruise line is asking for with NO perks and NO discounts at all.

 

Once upon a time any points from P&O counted towards Princess but they have now stopped that too so we have lost those perks as well.

 

We do our research and are very aware that Princess looks like a great cruise line. Also admit that Celebrity is no longer what it once was and P&O is not perfect. Imagine that no cruise line is.

 

I just don't get the high prices at all .... they can't be that much better than Celebrity !!! Can we justify spending £6,500 on a cruise, plus £1000 flights, plus £1400 for a drinks package and then any speciality restaurants. Add the cost of excursions on top of all of this.  All for just a 2 week holiday? They must be having a laugh !!! NO chance on our decent wage.

 

PS If we got the name of the ship wrong, sorry, and thanks for those of you who knew what we meant :-)

[GSLMOM]

On 11/14/2018 at 7:31 AM, paul929207 said:

With Princess, we usually book in advance and get the Premier Beverage Package included at no cost. In addition, we get $500 to $700 per cruise OBC. With that, we have an onboard bill that is nearly nothing.

Would you mind sharing how you get these deals??  

[paul929207]

2 hours ago, GSLMOM said:

Would you mind sharing how you get these deals??  

I book 1 to 2 years in advance and get a balcony cabin. Under the terms of the Sip & Sail, my TA adds the PBP to our reservation. We did it for 1 cruise last year and 3 this year. We have also done it for 4 cruises next year and 4 in 2020. In every case, S&S was added at no additional cost.

 

Note that you must have a balcony or higher cabin to get the S&S

[Geoffa30]

10 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Having reread all of the above:

 

Thanks for your many replies and for those of you who have recognised that we are from the UK 🙂

 

We really would love to sail with Princess but we simply can not afford the prices. As a professional couple we have a good income but just can not justify the prices that the cruise line is asking for with NO perks and NO discounts at all.

 

Once upon a time any points from P&O counted towards Princess but they have now stopped that too so we have lost those perks as well.

 

We do our research and are very aware that Princess looks like a great cruise line. Also admit that Celebrity is no longer what it once was and P&O is not perfect. Imagine that no cruise line is.

 

I just don't get the high prices at all .... they can't be that much better than Celebrity !!! Can we justify spending £6,500 on a cruise, plus £1000 flights, plus £1400 for a drinks package and then any speciality restaurants. Add the cost of excursions on top of all of this.  All for just a 2 week holiday? They must be having a laugh !!! NO chance on our decent wage.

 

PS If we got the name of the ship wrong, sorry, and thanks for those of you who knew what we meant 🙂

 

Any P&O cruises booked before 13 December 2017 would count towards the Princess loyalty programme.

[villauk]

11 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Having reread all of the above:

 

Thanks for your many replies and for those of you who have recognised that we are from the UK 🙂

 

We really would love to sail with Princess but we simply can not afford the prices. As a professional couple we have a good income but just can not justify the prices that the cruise line is asking for with NO perks and NO discounts at all.

 

Once upon a time any points from P&O counted towards Princess but they have now stopped that too so we have lost those perks as well.

 

We do our research and are very aware that Princess looks like a great cruise line. Also admit that Celebrity is no longer what it once was and P&O is not perfect. Imagine that no cruise line is.

 

I just don't get the high prices at all .... they can't be that much better than Celebrity !!! Can we justify spending £6,500 on a cruise, plus £1000 flights, plus £1400 for a drinks package and then any speciality restaurants. Add the cost of excursions on top of all of this.  All for just a 2 week holiday? They must be having a laugh !!! NO chance on our decent wage.

 

PS If we got the name of the ship wrong, sorry, and thanks for those of you who knew what we meant 🙂

 

 

We have a totally difference experience to you. Next year, we are sailing 13 nights on Princess for less than 7 nights on Edge (whose pricing has been ridiculous, IMHO); it was a no brainer for us. We also obtained discounts for the Princess cruise too. Now we have 2 X placeholders to use, but I’m not using them just for the sake of it when the price difference is so big. 

 

I’d compare options across the board of all the different cruise lines. Ensure you do take all the offers into consideration when you are comparing pricing though (I think there was a large OBC offer on the U.K. pricing for booking Europe and low deposits 🤔). The release prices are sometimes eye-watering and you need to take that into consideration as well. 

[Cathygh]

Hi

I am also in the UK looking to book a Princess cruise in August 2020. I have just been quoted over £4k ($5250) for 3 day Denali Explorer and 1 week cruise, flights and midship balcony cabin. On the tour we would need to buy food as well.It seems excessively high to me. Would I be better waiting? I wouldn't mind paying that much for a suite. TIA

[cabin4three]

Hi OP, 

we are also from UK, sailed Princess, P&O and Cunard.  Booked on Princess next year to Norwegian Fjords.  For  the next few years we need a no-fly cruise in school holidays, so quite restricted!  

We price compared  P&O, Princess and Cunard, similar itinerary, school summer holidays, similar positioned cabin etc and included the daily service charge into our costing (P&O are "removing" it as an extra from next year - so included in the price).

We found that Cunard was the cheapest by a large margin, but my partner isn't keen on Cunard.  P&O was the most expensive.

 

The cost of cruise can fluctuate quite a bit so don't write a cruise line off based on one cruise, especially when its a maiden voyage.   Many travel agents, even the  "standard" high street ones can typically offer 10% discount and Princess do often offer OBC.  

 

HTH

 

 

 

[Presto2]

On ‎11‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 8:03 AM, villauk said:

 

 

We have a totally difference experience to you. Next year, we are sailing 13 nights on Princess for less than 7 nights on Edge (whose pricing has been ridiculous, IMHO); it was a no brainer for us. We also obtained discounts for the Princess cruise too. Now we have 2 X placeholders to use, but I’m not using them just for the sake of it when the price difference is so big. 

 

I’d compare options across the board of all the different cruise lines. Ensure you do take all the offers into consideration when you are comparing pricing though (I think there was a large OBC offer on the U.K. pricing for booking Europe and low deposits 🤔). The release prices are sometimes eye-watering and you need to take that into consideration as well. 

 

Hi, we always book early and do the 'like for like' thing but on this one there are no offers at all. I did e-mail a Princess Cruise Specialist and he could not give me any offers, just to tell me they are a premium line (I know) and that they tried they AI package once an nobody wanted it. He then said that an AI package is about £50 pppd which, for how much we drink is not worth it at all.

 

If I thought that Princess was in the same league as Oceania etc I could understand the price but from doing some research it doesn't seem to be. Oh well, will keep looking and see if any of those offers appear :-)

 

Thanks to everyone for responding to my original question, may be hanging around on here more often :-)

[Hlitner]

As we already pointed out, pricing is somewhat different for those in the UK/EU then it is for those of us in North America.   We are always doing price/value comparisons and it has an impact on how we book.  Those that keep a very open mind (forget all this loyalty stuff) there are some amazing deals on both mass market and even ultra luxury lines.  But one can also use some "innovation" to keep cost within reason.  For example, we just (yesterday) booked our first Seabourn cruise in Alaska, because the cost was very reasonable considering the type of product that Seabourn delivers.  But when it came to both hotels in Alaska and visiting Denali, we simply did this on our own for a fraction of the cost charged by any cruise line.  We have generally found that cruise lines charge at least double the cost for land packages, then if you do similar stuff on your own.  In the case of Denali it is a simple matter to rent a car at Anchorage and drive yourself to a hotel in the Denali area.  At that point you can either tour the park on your own (they even have free buses within the park) or can book day tours with various tour providers.

 

It is the same with nearly all cruise lines.  Take a look at what any cruise line charges, per night, for a pre or post cruise hotel (making sure to look at the cost for two persons) and then price-out the same or similar hotels/transfers on your own.  You will usually be able to halve the cost of what is charged by the cruise line.  And the little things really add up.  Last week we disembarked the Regal in Port Everglades.  Princess charged $19 per person for transfers to FLL.  A taxi (much faster then using a Princess transfer) cost us $17 (which included tip) for that same transfer....which is $8.50 per person or less then half the cost of the Princess transfer.  And we did not have to sit around a bus until it was ready to go, or make the long walk at the airport from the bus drop point to our airline.  It is the same in most ports around the world (there are some exceptions to the rule).

 

Hank

[brian1]

Hi,we are platinum on Princess and have been lucky enough to see most of the world with them.We sail purely on itineraries and our last 3 cruises have been on P&O,Cunard and Marella.We were researching Iceland ,14 days from Southampton next year and Marella worked out 2000 quid cheaper than Princess.Even with our FCC and shareholder OBC.Marella,although the food is not as good as Princess,but IMO better than P&O,being AI with no grats is a no brainer for us.Plus their "new" ships are bigger and better than the old ones,cheers,Brian.

[Colo Cruiser]

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

Hi, we always book early and do the 'like for like' thing but on this one there are no offers at all. I did e-mail a Princess Cruise Specialist and he could not give me any offers,

As you discovered Princess vacation planners are no different than the rep you get on the phone when you call reservations. They have no "clout" as far as pricing. They may get some OBC credit but that's pretty much it.

Some Brits (at least here on CC) seem to work around the pricing issues so I am pretty sure there may be another avenue that you can pursue.

 

[voljeep]

agree - my 'assigned' pvp is worthless

[rockdoctor]

This thread is curious to me. I consider Princess to be less expensive than Celebrity for similar value and similar itenerary and only sail Celebrity for an special itenerary. Maybe prices are very different outside the US.

[daka]

On 11/13/2018 at 9:40 PM, OCruisers said:

 Comparing "apples to apples"  (cabin catorgory, ship, itinerary, etc. ) we've found Princess to be the best deal for us.   

Not only that, but we have found that the food on PRINCESS is superior to CELEBRITY... (we are just off ROYAL) and loved the food everywhere....We quit CELEBRITY because we feel that they have started "nickle and diming".

[luckyinpa]

i know its not quite apples to apples but here's a real life comparison as far as worth

 

the princess canada 5 nighter i just took wanted 2400 for a suite. since this is a princess forum i'm assuming most people know what those perks are. 

 

for comparison 2 years ago i paid 2499 for a haven spa suite on the NCL breakaway. however that included 3 specialty dinners, some kind of internet, drink package (you pay the grats on it), and i think a small amount toward excursions. however what the big allure was, was the haven itself. a totally separate area of the ship and your own bar/restaurant and a 'baby pool' to soak your feet as well as 2 hot tubs. you get your own sundeck and you get a butler who will bring you what you want to your cabin.  also the thermal spa is sooo much bigger than the regal princess offering. i'm not a spa kind of guy but i have to say it was nice in the sauna and the thermal pool. 

 

strictly on the math i'm pretty sure NCL is a better bargain than princess if you want those perks. however you have 4500 customers and a very very crowded ship and you pray theres no rain because it was not fun on the rain days being stuck inside. regal on the other hand had crappy weather for us but being inside there we found so much more pleasant with more to do. also i felt regal was more elegant and definitely never crowded except muster. 

 

so while spreadsheets can tell you on paper what is the better deal, you have to prioritize what you want. 

[GSLMOM]

On 11/15/2018 at 7:40 PM, paul929207 said:

I book 1 to 2 years in advance and get a balcony cabin. Under the terms of the Sip & Sail, my TA adds the PBP to our reservation. We did it for 1 cruise last year and 3 this year. We have also done it for 4 cruises next year and 4 in 2020. In every case, S&S was added at no additional cost.

 

Note that you must have a balcony or higher cabin to get the S&S

Thanks!!  We always sail in balcony or higher so that’s easy. But I’ve never received such a large OBC!