Coincidence? Best Sale Ever Price Increase

[rebeltech8]

We are booked for a cruise early this nest year and since we have not hit the payment date yet, I check the web site for lower costs on cabins regularly. This morning, I checked and the price of the cabin in the same category went up $780 pp.

 

This increase coincides with the launch of The Best Sale Ever.   A benefit for us since we have booked already.  However, a lesson to book early and ride the fare reductions down rather than wait for a later “deal”

[pms4104]

There is no free lunch

[franktown]

Did you expect something different.  My cruise in 2021 went up $440 per person from sip and sale price.   Not a sale for me.

[cruising deacon]

I when I checked this morning, one of the cruises that I am booked on in May went up $275 per/person with this new sale, compared to yesterday.  A cruise that I had been watching (that is not selling very good) for April, went up 63% over yesterday.

 

Sounds to me that t is a 'Best Sale Ever' deal for Princess.

[joe d]

Huge price increases for the cruises that I am looking at.  

[mattswiss]

Actually it worked for us. We had the s&s promotion for a 2021 S.America cruise and saved with the new promotion $450 per Person!

[lx200gps]

Same results here. I checked our three booked trips (all under the big box TA's Sip N Sail from last June) Simple balcony cabins, 7 day trips. Prices under the new sale are anywhere from $350 to $600 more for essentially the same cabin. No deals here for us. 

[fluffybunny22]

$700 increase for our 11 night cruise. We already have the drink package so refaring is worth anything to us.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

56 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Same results here. I checked our three booked trips (all under the big box TA's Sip N Sail from last June) Simple balcony cabins, 7 day trips. Prices under the new sale are anywhere from $350 to $600 more for essentially the same cabin. No deals here for us. 

same here.

[rocklinmom]

Our 2020 cruise went up $198pp and $400pp on the 3rd and 4th passengers (!) and our 2021 cruise went up a whopping $425pp and $560 on the 3rd/4th. That is crazy. No thanks. 

[frugaltravel]

Sounds to me like it really is the Best.Sale.Ever - - - for Princess' bottom line 😁

[satxdiver]

I checked our August 2020 cruise which is booked at $8520 which includes gratuity and $400 OBC under a previous sale.  Now for $8890 we can get gratuities, PBP and Wifi included.  Therefore for $370 more we can get PBP and WiFi added but lose the $400 OBC.  This is a 16 day cruise so the PBP for both of us makes the additional money worth it. 

[Cruise Junky]

I think the value of this "Sale" is going to be very dependent on how much value you get out of the drink package. 

[capriccio]

If you have an existing booking you shouldn't re-fare!  Instead, just add the perks (wi-fi, beverage package, and.or gratuities) that weren't included in your original booking.  We have a booking under the cyber event sale and kept our perks and OBC.  I just added the beverage package and gratuities - which we would have paid for anyway - for $30 per day/per person.  So $15.50 for the beverage package was a no brainer for us.  These tables are from the longer thread (posts 112 and 115) here on cruise critic:

 

 

 

 

[rebeltech8]

Totally agree with you Capriccio... this new sale as an add-on to an existing booking is the right thing to do for most people.  
 

the point of my post is to state that in most cases, a person is better off booking early and getting the cabin you want.  Then depend on fare drops to get a better deal on the overall value of the cruse.  As opposed to waiting for a sale to book the cruise you want to go on.

 

The ability to now add on features to your cruise reinforces the value of this process. 

[electricguy]

I refaired our British Isles cruise this morning with our big box TA.  Saved $1268 from sip and sail.  Adds gratuities and internet and keeps the beverage package.  We did lose $120 in TA OBC.

Good sale for us.

[voljeep]

40 minutes ago, Cruise Junky said:

I think the value of this "Sale" is going to be very dependent on how much value you get out of the drink package. 

$ 30.00 - 14.50 grats = 15.50 pp pd for a PBP - book it , but alas … our little cruise is not included … 😢

[Jnsplace1]

By doing the bev/wifi addon, I saved about $500 (since I was going to pay for it anyway).  I call it a great deal.

I'm working on comparing for a cruise in 2021, it might be dead even from previous to new sale.  

 

I agree the largest part of the "is this a deal", do you drink?  If so, then it'll likely be a good deal.

[Cruise Junky]

2 minutes ago, voljeep said:

$ 30.00 - 14.50 grats = 15.50 pp pd for a PBP - book it , but alas … our little cruise is not included … 😢

That's too bad.  I just booked a Trans Atlantic with the package. Not sure my liver can last 15 days :)

[RMMariner]

Sounds like Princess is swamped today and there seems to be some confusion as to how to just add the perks on. We will not rebooking as all three of our cruises have gone up considerably.

 

I think we will phone tonight and talk to our Princess Planner, but if she is busy, we will get a hold of her in the next week or so. No rush.

[PMGS247]

yeah the promotion runs for a while.  I think I read through end of Feb?  I got on 3 for free a while back.  From a refare standpoint it was basically a wash, but the add-on is an absolute no brainer.  see voljeeps' math on the add-on a few posts up.  Slam dunk.  for me it's adding the drinks/Wi-Fi since grats are already part of 3 for free.  The add-on is a pretty staggeringly good deal.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

There are still times when it pays to re-fare rather than do the add-on upsell they are allowing - I had a client booked under "Sip and Sail" and re-fared them under "Best Sale Ever" and their total went down by $636 - this was for the May 30th 2020 sailing of the Golden in a B4 aff balcony.  His parents room however (MD mini-suite) was booked under the landmark sale with $500pp onboard credit.  Re-faring would increase booking substantially and they would lose the onboard credit.  They are instead better to take the Landmark Sale upsell of $40pp/day and get the extra perks (bev, wifi, grats) if they want it. 

 

You have to look carefully and see which offer, if any, is best for you

[Italy52]

I think I booked/refared my reservation under the May sale --- just not sure.  Is there any where I can check the promo code associated with my reservation?

[rocklinmom]

It could be on your Booking Confirmation that would have been emailed to you when you booked.  Look in the smaller print in the center of the first page, underneath your final payment due date. 

[Italy52]

12 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

It could be on your Booking Confirmation that would have been emailed to you when you booked.  Look in the smaller print in the center of the first page, underneath your final payment due date. 

Thanks, I looked and it is not there.  I used a big box store so the information they provide to me is different than what I would normally get if I booked directly with Princess.  I think it was the May sale just not 100% sure.  In any event, I was ooking at the numbers for the new sale and it is not worth it to change as the cost would be about $700 more.