Princess gift cards- anyone use them?

[WallyNDiane]

A local grocery store owns gas/convenience stores. They sell Princess Cruise Lines gift cards. Buying gift cards lower the price of gas at those gas/convenience stores. We paid our deposit via credit card. Has anyone used Princess gift cards to either pay for the cruise or to pay your final settlement after excursions, drinks, specialty restaurants, etc?

 

Being retired, getting a fuel discount is a nice perk. But I don't know if there are any pitfalls in using Princess gift cards? Any advice?

[DrippinCruiser]

We were given a gift card for our cruise last March.  We had already paid for the cruise so we applied it to onboard credit.  We had to go down to Passenger Services and they applied it to our account.  But you can also use it as a payment towards your cruise if you haven't finished paying.  

Edited October 3, 2019 by Schmoopers

[Thrak]

I've used quite a few. I bought them a few years ago and again last year. If you bought Princess gift cards you got free "e-cards" that had to be used within a short time. I used the e-cards to apply as OBC - the last time they applied the first couple and then, when there was a second promotion, I got a Princess rep with absolutely no clue who screwed them up and only managed to apply 1 out of 4 and screwed up the other 3 totally.

 

Mostly though, the gift cards have gone through fine. I have applied several $100 cards and several $1,000 cards with no problem. It was only the "bonus" cards that got screwed up and that was only once with one totally pathetic and idiotic Princess rep. Seriously, this was not a normal experience and other Princess reps were pretty much mind boggled by the incompetence of this one and the bizarre way she managed to mess up the bonus gift cards.

 

Even though I had the weird experience with one rep screwing up 3 out of 4 bonus e-cards I won't hesitate to purchase Princess gift cards in the future. They are definitely "real" and (for the most part) easy to apply to your cruises. I recently gave my TA the info for 4 $1,000 gift cards and he applied them to my booking without a hitch.

[caribill]

No problem using them pre-cruise to either pay for the cruise itself or for paying pre-cruise for items such as shore excursions when on the cruise.

 

Also no problem turning them in on the ship to be applied to the onboard account.

[voljeep]

12 hours ago, WallyNDiane said:

A local grocery store owns gas/convenience stores.

Kroger ? ... sometimes they offer double or even 4 times fuel points with gift card purchases

 

we don't have a local one, but our son does and we just send him money to get ours so he can get the discount

 

never a problem using them ... and he gets a nice discount when he fills up "the beast" (Excursion)

[Paula_MacFan]

Yesterday I had my TA apply 3 cards worth $1,500 towards our upcoming cruise.  Very easy, no problems!  

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

Kroger ? ... sometimes they offer double or even 4 times fuel points with gift card purchases

 

we don't have a local one, but our son does and we just send him money to get ours so he can get the discount

 

never a problem using them ... and he gets a nice discount when he fills up "the beast" (Excursion)

Yes, we also have used multiple Princess gift cards for cruise payment.  When Krogers is giving 4X gas points, we usually get a $500 card.  With 2 cars, it is a no-brainer.  Never a problem with our TA applying the cards to our booking.

 

Stan

[BlueCO102]

Are there any issues using the gift cards through the website? I’m looking toward buying gift cards to use to purchase excursions etc prior to our trip.

[cruzsnooze]

I just bought $10,000 on the AARP site before they discontinued their current program and eliminated all our points. It was for a 10% discount which is pretty good, I saved a thousand dollars. I applied it to our next 2 cruises and it was easy, no problem.  Be aware of this.............if you have to cancel a cruise it comes back to the card (NO REFUNDS of cash) so DO NOT throw the cards away after you use them. I'm hoping the AARP comes back with Princess cards again, right now they only have Carnival, and it's 10% discount. My Japan Cruisetour (with ezair) is close to $20,000 so I am happy to save a significant amount. 

[WallyNDiane]

5 hours ago, voljeep said:

Kroger ? ... sometimes they offer double or even 4 times fuel points with gift card purchases

 

we don't have a local one, but our son does and we just send him money to get ours so he can get the discount

 

never a problem using them ... and he gets a nice discount when he fills up "the beast" (Excursion)

I live in western Pennsylvania. Giant Eagle is the grocery store that sells gift cards and Get-go is the gas stations where you get the discounted gas at.

 

 

May I ask, is there any advantage in using credit cards for cruise payments? I.E., vacation insurance protection, etc. We always buy travel insurance that covers the trip plus some medical evacuation services which we all hope are never needed.

[Paula_MacFan]

12 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

I just bought $10,000 on the AARP site before they discontinued their current program and eliminated all our points. It was for a 10% discount which is pretty good, I saved a thousand dollars. I applied it to our next 2 cruises and it was easy, no problem.  Be aware of this.............if you have to cancel a cruise it comes back to the card (NO REFUNDS of cash) so DO NOT throw the cards away after you use them. I'm hoping the AARP comes back with Princess cards again, right now they only have Carnival, and it's 10% discount. My Japan Cruisetour (with ezair) is close to $20,000 so I am happy to save a significant amount. 

Good advice about not throwing away the cards -- thanks!  I too am hoping AARP gets more Princess gift cards.  I looked last night on their 'new' rewards page and wasn't impressed with the offers they have so far.  

[CountryCruiser]

Just recently bought $7,000 of cards through Allstate at a 10% discount.  Saved $700 less shipping.  Applied them to my bookings online easy peasy.  One thing of note.  Be sure to not mess up the 4 digit code.  Almost lost out on $500 because we couldn't read it.

[neverbeenhere]

Kroger, target red card , Allstate, aarp have done them all. Almost never make a payment towards a cruise without it being a gift card. 5% savings on red card still isn’t bad. 

[cruzsnooze]

3 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Good advice about not throwing away the cards -- thanks!  I too am hoping AARP gets more Princess gift cards.  I looked last night on their 'new' rewards page and wasn't impressed with the offers they have so far.  

I am hoping that too.  I charged the cards on a credit card that gives me back 2% so I netted 12% plus the OBC the big Box company gives me it's a really BIG win win. 

[Thrak]

For those who purchase their Princess gift cards through AARP can you tell me how often this offer comes up? I don't belong to AARP and am wondering if it would actually be worth it for me to join. If they offered Princess cards at a 10% discount it would only take one purchase to way more than pay for AARP membership.

[neverbeenhere]

Just like the Princess BOGO $1, the AARP program just ended. And a new program is going to be announced soon. (I haven’t checked to see if they already announced it in the last couple days) 

[Paula_MacFan]

33 minutes ago, Thrak said:

For those who purchase their Princess gift cards through AARP can you tell me how often this offer comes up? I don't belong to AARP and am wondering if it would actually be worth it for me to join. If they offered Princess cards at a 10% discount it would only take one purchase to way more than pay for AARP membership.

As someone up-thread noted, right now they don't have Princess gift cards available, just Carnival.  They are re-launching their Rewards program so hopefully they will be adding more redemption offers.  Right now what I see on their website is underwhelming.  Having said that, we find the $16 a year more than worthwhile for the other benefits.  

[JimmyVWine]

9 hours ago, BlueCO102 said:

Are there any issues using the gift cards through the website?

I actually think that this is the easiest way to use them. No issues or problems at all. 

[BlueCO102]

15 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I actually think that this is the easiest way to use them. No issues or problems at all. 

Thanks! 

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, Paula_MacFan said:

As someone up-thread noted, right now they don't have Princess gift cards available, just Carnival.  They are re-launching their Rewards program so hopefully they will be adding more redemption offers.  Right now what I see on their website is underwhelming.  Having said that, we find the $16 a year more than worthwhile for the other benefits.  

 

Yes. I was wondering how often they might make this particular offer. Even once would be of great value.

[Yehootu]

7 hours ago, CountryCruiser said:

Just recently bought $7,000 of cards through Allstate at a 10% discount.  Saved $700 less shipping.  Applied them to my bookings online easy peasy.  One thing of note.  Be sure to not mess up the 4 digit code.  Almost lost out on $500 because we couldn't read it.

Got me beat, I only bought $6000 but our next cruise isn't till March. Keep adding points and checking for next Princess offer ( currently only CCL and RCCL ). I check the CCL board all the time for new codes to build points. 3000 this week so far.

[silversneakers]

How do you get gift cards through Allstate?  Also, does anyone know if the Princess Visa card points offer a Princess gift card or just Carnival gift cards?

[cruzsnooze]

11 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Yes. I was wondering how often they might make this particular offer. Even once would be of great value.

It's hard to know if and when they will offer Princess cards again but they just revamped their rewards program 9/24 and everyone was reset to zero points. As they roll new things out for rewards I'll watch for Princess cards and post it for you and anyone who's interested.

[voljeep]

14 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

It's hard to know if and when they will offer Princess cards again but they just revamped their rewards program 9/24 and everyone was reset to zero points. As they roll new things out for rewards I'll watch for Princess cards and post it for you and anyone who's interested.

do you have to 'earn points' first ...then exchange the 'points' for the right to buy discounted cards ?

[Paula_MacFan]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

do you have to 'earn points' first ...then exchange the 'points' for the right to buy discounted cards ?

Yes, that's how the AARP Rewards program works.