Next Princess Promo - Anniversary Sale Nov 1-Dec 10

[rocklinmom]

1 minute ago, jarofmar said:

Thank you! Can I still switch if I do a non refundable deposit, or am I better off paying extra and doing the refundable deposit?

I would stay away from a nonrefundable deposit. Luckily the current 3FF promo is a refundable deposit (and only $100pp). And the Anniversary promo looks to be the same. 

[rocklinmom]

Looking over the new Anniversary Sale promo today and am considering if the (slight) fare drop and loss of free gratuities would be worth it for us. We don't drink wine so the free bottles of wine would be useless but in the fine print it does say that "nonalcoholic options are available". I assume since you get these vouchers in your cabin that they could be exchanged for something other than wine, so that would be appealing for us. If we did switch to this promo I might also move us to cheaper cabins, but that would require moving my parents a few cabins down to be next to family members. They want to keep their current 3 for Free promo and fare...does anyone know if you can switch to another cabin (in the same category and location, literally two cabins down) without being forced to change to the current fare and promo? IdahoSpud, perhaps you would know? 

[paradiselivin1]

My cruise was basically the same and will keep my 3FF+specialty dining...

[Steelers36]

49 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

does anyone know if you can switch to another cabin (in the same category and location, literally two cabins down) without being forced to change to the current fare and promo?

Yes.  I recently moved us to a nearby cabin on a cruise leaving Nov 6.  Well after final payment.  As long as another open cabin in your category, you can request a swap.  I moved from a B3xx to another B3xx (but would not necessarily have had to stay on same deck).

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by steelers36

[Steelers36]

Looks like Princess has abandoned the NRD experiment with both 3FF and Anniversary being presented on the website with default RD option.  Good for them!

 

Anniversary Sale not good for us (B2B 2021 bookings on SKY).  Although cabin price is now $60 less pp (Princess list price).  We already had the two Specialty Dining credits with our 3FF booking.  The $60 fare reduction (less with our TA discount taken into account), plus two wine credits (value $64) do not make up for the free gratuities with 3FF, so a change would cost us a bottom-line net of $124 per cruise.  No brainer - I am sticking with 3FF booking.  

 

And besides, if I think about it, the wine credit isn't of much use to me as I bring on my own wine - especially in Fort Lauderdale.  Hoorah for Total Wine!!

 

[rocklinmom]

Thank you Steelers36!  So it is possible to do a simple cabin swap apparently. 

And yes I agree that Princess was smart to dump the nonrefundable deposit thing. That was not a good idea. 

[PoohUnderstands]

This sale is really not that much better than the previous.  Unless you like inexpensive wine and food better than free gratuities.  Grin.  With the slight difference in room rates (on my 5 booked that are eligible for this sale) the rooms are only $40pp less for a suite and $30pp less for mini.  So I would save literally about less than $5pp if I were even able to rebook (some of my class staterooms are sold out already).  The big clincher for me is even with the air sales attached, airfares today are more on sale than when I booked when they first came out under the 3 for free.  Anywhere from $75-475 more!  So am sticking with my three for free or limited time sales for now!  Also on a couple of my bookings OBC is $150pp not, $100, so there is that too.

 

Pooh

[fluffybunny22]

We would have seen a small drop in our fare but that and the other assorted things weren't enough to convince my husband to drop Sip and Sail. It seems he values not having to pay for individual drinks and feeling like he's being nickle and dimed over saving money.

[sfaaa]

It's an OK promo but 3 For Free is still a better deal.

[nukesubsailor]

The details of the promotion state that you will receive two vouchers for a bottle of wine and each voucher has a value of $32.    If I want a bottle of wine with a Princess price of $34, can I use the voucher and pay only the $2 price difference or must I use the voucher only on wine priced $32 or below.

[Steelers36]

4 minutes ago, nukesubsailor said:

The details of the promotion state that you will receive two vouchers for a bottle of wine and each voucher has a value of $32.    If I want a bottle of wine with a Princess price of $34, can I use the voucher and pay only the $2 price difference or must I use the voucher only on wine priced $32 or below.

You can buy a $100 bottle and pay $68.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

even with the air sales attached

And the airfare credit only applies to Europe and Japan areas.

[cruisequeen4ever]

The fares dropped a bit for us, but with the loss of free gratuities from the 3FF, it would have cost us more to go with the new sale. 

[BoopTennis]

Boring sale. Keeping my Sip n Sail deal

Edited November 2, 2019 by BoopTennis
Typo

[Chowchows]

On 11/1/2019 at 12:35 PM, rocklinmom said:

Looking over the new Anniversary Sale promo today and am considering if the (slight) fare drop and loss of free gratuities would be worth it for us. We don't drink wine so the free bottles of wine would be useless but in the fine print it does say that "nonalcoholic options are available". I assume since you get these vouchers in your cabin that they could be exchanged for something other than wine, so that would be appealing for us. If we did switch to this promo I might also move us to cheaper cabins, but that would require moving my parents a few cabins down to be next to family members. They want to keep their current 3 for Free promo and fare...does anyone know if you can switch to another cabin (in the same category and location, literally two cabins down) without being forced to change to the current fare and promo? IdahoSpud, perhaps you would know? 

Does anyone have an idea what the nonalcoholic options are?

[trbarton]

Since I’m traveling solo to Hawaii I want to check on prices. My benefit now is free gratuities plus room location. I’m in a inside stateroom. I would get double the credit for a balcony, $400, plus I already have T/A credit plus Military & Stock credit. I’m curious to see the balcony price difference along with my credit. 
 

I don’t remember what the gratuities are per day but I’m thinking that I would come out ahead plus the speciality dinning & wine voucher since I enjoy wine with my dinner if I keep my inside stateroom. . 
 

Princess web site is down now. 
 

Tom🤔

[Ken the cruiser]

The price for our Penthouse on the Grand dropped $3,000 pp on our 30 day Asia cruise in 2020. We hated to give up the $490 pp free gratuities perk that came with 3FF, but we definitely couldn’t turn down this big of a price drop. 

[Redwing55]

Interesting differences with the different itineraries.  We checked our Feb/21 trip and after figuring all the perks in and out, our costs were up over $100/per if we switched.  Staying with 3FF.

[jpom18]

On 11/2/2019 at 9:48 PM, Chowchows said:

Does anyone have an idea what the nonalcoholic options are?

I'm waiting for a reply from my PVP to double check, however I am on the CB right now and checked with the future cruise office.  Initially they did not know, in fact that wording about non-alcoholic options available is not included in the paper copy of the sale that they have it's only on the website.  I asked them to look into it and let me know, yesterday they informed me that the non-alcoholic options are dependent on the ship.  In other words it's up to each individual ship as to what they want to offer in exchange for the wine vouchers and there is no-way to know what you are going to get for them until you get on the ship and find someone who will exchange it for whatever they decide it is worth, no idea who or what that might be though.

 

My suggestion is that if you are going to take this offer and plan on trying to exchange wine vouchers to print off the terms and conditions of the sale and take them with you so you can prove that it says you can exchange for non-alcoholic options.  I mean if there is no set option for the exchange then what's to stop the ship from not exchanging it at all, not likely you'll be able to easily fine the terms and conditions at the time of sailing so maybe having a copy it will help in that case.

 

Maybe someone else will be able to get more (better) info.

 

 

[Jnsplace1]

Friday I was on a call with Princess as I really wanted the air sale. 

However, she (agent) went through the pricing of my Sky cruise 3F compared to the Ann sale, and it was dead even.  I just had to choose which "perk" I wanted to keep.   I kept the 3F.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Jnsplace1

[crystalspin]

For five people in two mini-suites, 14-day Alaska next June: base fare up $20pp, except third person down $200, however trading free grats (for all five) for 4 bottles of wine is in no way a good deal. 

 

I'm good with that. I knew when I got the second 3FF adjustment, it was unlikely to get any better. We are saving over $8000 from launch fares already!

[Bizzie07]

I know that Princess have not released details of Alaska 2021 but is it better to purchase straight away or do they reduce prices after the initial launch?  We are in the UK so don't get price drops once booked.

[crystalspin]

8 hours ago, Bizzie07 said:

I know that Princess have not released details of Alaska 2021 but is it better to purchase straight away or do they reduce prices after the initial launch?  We are in the UK so don't get price drops once booked.

Hi Bizzie!

 

My experience, as cited above, has been a *series* of reductions! I've refared six times with savings and/or perks on each. My best deal came half-way through the Three-For-Free promotion, when I didn't even suspect there would be another fare decrease over the start of that promo. (Yes I know you can't refare! But the trend of the fares would probably follow.)

 

My thought is that Alaska must be over-saturated (too many cabins), else why such drops? But I'll take them for sure!

 

I know not all promos are offered internationally, but the over-all price dropped $1260pp (for the primary passengers, not the triple) even before adding in perks. My recommendation for you is to run "dummy-bookings" frequently, all the way to choosing a room... balance the fare over the availability of cabins you would be happy in. Jump when your cabins get thinned out!

 

By the way, if you are also considering Holland America, their website has NOT been showing all available cabins, by a lot. I don't know what the reason or reasoning is! But it's been that way for months. I would recommend working with a HAL Personal Cruise Consultant (or a travel agent? DNK if they can see the full correct deck plan, either). My PCC even had to call "inventory" to make sure my cabin was available!

[Bizzie07]

53 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Hi Bizzie!

 

My experience, as cited above, has been a *series* of reductions! I've refared six times with savings and/or perks on each. My best deal came half-way through the Three-For-Free promotion, when I didn't even suspect there would be another fare decrease over the start of that promo. (Yes I know you can't refare! But the trend of the fares would probably follow.)

 

My thought is that Alaska must be over-saturated (too many cabins), else why such drops? But I'll take them for sure!

 

I know not all promos are offered internationally, but the over-all price dropped $1260pp (for the primary passengers, not the triple) even before adding in perks. My recommendation for you is to run "dummy-bookings" frequently, all the way to choosing a room... balance the fare over the availability of cabins you would be happy in. Jump when your cabins get thinned out!

 

By the way, if you are also considering Holland America, their website has NOT been showing all available cabins, by a lot. I don't know what the reason or reasoning is! But it's been that way for months. I would recommend working with a HAL Personal Cruise Consultant (or a travel agent? DNK if they can see the full correct deck plan, either). My PCC even had to call "inventory" to make sure my cabin was available!

Thank you very much for the info.  We are intending to do a Cruise Tour (we are from Scotland so need to make it worthwhile).  Do you know if the same happens with these prices?

[crystalspin]

No, I don't know, but you could track this year's (2020's that is) to get a feel for it. We self-drove for two weeks after our first 7-day northbound cruise, and Denali is very worth it! The Yukon (as seen from the Skagway train) is also spectacular, but I would choose more time in Denali if it were me.