New promotion

[seasickgirl]

Just received this from my Princess agent:  

As your Cruise Vacation Planner with Princess, I am excited to share with you our new offer to save money on your cruise and receive onboard spending money. For a limited time when you pay for your booking in full, you will receive additional savings of 10% plus Free onbaord spending money. This is the perfect time to pay for your cruise and take advantage of these savings. Call me to apply this special offer to your booking before you make a payment.

 

[JF - retired RRT]

Great way to tie up $$ when you don't know if the cruise will actually happen.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

I also received this. It doesn’t state how much OBC. I tried to find it on the Princess website, but didn’t see anything. My first thought is that Princess is strapped for cash and is doing this to help see them through the shutdown. That led me to wonder how safe it would be to handover my money to Princess at this time. I’m not worried about tying up my cash as the 10% savings on the cruise would far exceed any interest earned on savings. 

[Cruise Raider]

2 minutes ago, seasickgirl said:

Just received this from my Princess agent:  

As your Cruise Vacation Planner with Princess, I am excited to share with you our new offer to save money on your cruise and receive onboard spending money. For a limited time when you pay for your booking in full, you will receive additional savings of 10% plus Free onbaord spending money. This is the perfect time to pay for your cruise and take advantage of these savings. Call me to apply this special offer to your booking before you make a payment.

 

 

Wow!  They just went there!  I saw Holland America had that same promotion just a couple of months ago and I thought it was a good marketing idea at the time.  However, I'm not confident in putting any more money down on my cruises until they have resumed sailing.  I had 5 cruises canceled so far this year and waited way too long for my refunds.  I know they need the revenue to stay afloat (pun intended) but, it just won't come from me.  

Not only that but, I don't see the possibility of any price adjustments down the road ... not to mention, wouldn't you have to also pay for the insurance at that point?  I suppose 10% might seem like a deal for some and maybe it would have even been something I'd have jumped on in the past .... pre-CoVid days ... it's just not tempting enough at this point in time IMO.  

[cruising deacon]

Princess couldn't offer enough OBC to ever get me to hand over more of my money to them.

I noticed that the German cruise ship MEIN SHIFF was the first to sail since the PAUSE started in March.  I have always thought that the Germans were smart, but now it appears that I was right.  The ship can hold 2900 passengers, but they advertised the cruise limiting it to 60% of capacity (1740 passengers), BUT only 1200 took the bait and went on the cruise.  I guess the Germans weren't as 'addicted to cruising' as American are.

[seasickgirl]

Just found out that the OBC is $100.00 per person.

[oskidunker]

Not worth tying up large sums of money when some analysts are thinking Carnival may declare bankruptcy if the virus is not solved in the next year.  Deposits,ok. Thousands of dollars, no. Especially when we know how long it will take to get the money back. 

[fluffybunny22]

11 minutes ago, seasickgirl said:

Just found out that the OBC is $100.00 per person.

They want me to give them 9k to hold in exchange for $300? No thanks.

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

6 minutes ago, fluffybunny22 said:

They want me to give them 9k to hold in exchange for $300? No thanks.

It’s more than $100 OBC pp. It’s also a 10% reduction in the cruise fare. We only have a seven day Caribbean cruise scheduled for May. For my wife and me, we would save $335 in cruise fare plus $200 OBC. At least for us, it’s worth considering. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Poulsbo Cruisers
Added text

[Paula_MacFan]

1 hour ago, cruising deacon said:

Princess couldn't offer enough OBC to ever get me to hand over more of my money to them.

I noticed that the German cruise ship MEIN SHIFF was the first to sail since the PAUSE started in March.  I have always thought that the Germans were smart, but now it appears that I was right.  The ship can hold 2900 passengers, but they advertised the cruise limiting it to 60% of capacity (1740 passengers), BUT only 1200 took the bait and went on the cruise.  I guess the Germans weren't as 'addicted to cruising' as American are.

 

And the German cruise was only a weekend cruise to nowhere -- not really a 'full return' to regular cruising.  

[oskidunker]

53 minutes ago, Poulsbo Cruisers said:

It’s more than $100 OBC pp. It’s also a 10% reduction in the cruise fare. We only have a seven day Caribbean cruise scheduled for May. For my wife and me, we would save $335 in cruise fare plus $200 OBC. At least for us, it’s worth considering. 

 

4 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

 

And the German cruise was only a weekend cruise to nowhere -- not really a 'full return' to regular cruising.  

If this amount of money is that important to you, you should Consider how it would effect you if bankruptcy were declared and you lost it all or if it will take 4-5 months for you to get the money back if the cruise were cancelled. If the money is not an issue and you are a gambler, go for it. I bought more carnival cruise line stock at 18. It is now 15. I am ok if I lose the money as I think I will make money. But I Could be wrong. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Thanks for the heads up @seasickgirl. Just sent an email to our TA to see if this sale is applicable to our Jan 2021 bookings and, if so, what are the exact details. Worst case is, we get 10% off our 2 cruises and if they get cancelled, we get 125% FCCs to put on our future Princess cruises we already have booked. Really don't see a downside as we were already planning to pay for them before the FPDD.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[sfaaa]

1 hour ago, oskidunker said:

Not worth tying up large sums of money when some analysts are thinking Carnival may declare bankruptcy if the virus is not solved in the next year.  Deposits,ok. Thousands of dollars, no. Especially when we know how long it will take to get the money back. 

I agree with the small deposit comment. Limited risk and low downside. In fact, I booked a 2021 cruise last week with only $98 NRD and received a $100 OBC in return. I think it's worth the gamble.

[Potstech]

Cruise lines will get no more of our money until they restart.  Way too many unknowns at this time.

[Ken the cruiser]

I haven't heard back from my TA yet, but it would sure be nice to see the sale's T&C details. For example, if we apply the FCCs we have accrued so far from cancelled cruises to our next bookings in January and pay the remainder in cash, would we get 10% off the entire base cruise fare or just that portion, if any, that we used cash to pay it off?

[63 Super Sport]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks for the heads up @seasickgirl. Just sent an email to our TA to see if this sale is applicable to our Jan 2021 bookings and, if so, what are the exact details. Worst case is, we get 10% off our 2 cruises and if they get cancelled, we get 125% FCCs to put on our future Princess cruises we already have booked. Really don't see a downside as we were already planning to pay for them before the FPDD.

Let me know what you hear from your TA. We also have a Jan 2021 cruise booked.

[Georgie562]

[Shaver John]

Still waiting for refund from 3-19-2020 cruise which Princess cut short in South America.....Have a cruise to Austrailia booked for March 2021but will not pay until it seems it might go.....

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Georgie562 said:

Can you possibly post the two footnotes referenced in your post following "cruise fare" and "spending money"?

[Georgie562]

27 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Can you possibly post the two footnotes referenced in your post following "cruise fare" and "spending money"?

Here ya go 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

29 minutes ago, Georgie562 said:

Here ya go 

 

Thanks!

[pms4104]

Bottom line is

 

This is a gimmick

 

To get money in the door

 

Because 

 

Princess cannot issue refunds

 

If they don't have funds 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

9 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

Bottom line is

 

This is a gimmick

 

To get money in the door

 

Because 

 

Princess cannot issue refunds

 

If they don't have funds 

 

Of course it is just like most promotional sales are. In our case if we can use our accumulated FCCs from cancelled cruises to pay for our two Jan 2021 bookings and get an additional 10% off the cruise fares, we don't see a downside. Worst case the cruises also get cancelled and then we load the resulting 125% beefed up FCCs on our next cruise or two.

 

For us we're feeling somewhat optimistic, especially after the news recently about multiple stage 3 trials starting this week, that multiple vaccines may very well be available by the end of 2020 and we will all start cruising again in early 2021.

 

BUT, as well all know, there are a wide variety of opinions on that subject.

[pcur]

This promotion is unreal timing for us.  I will get my new Chase Sapphire card in a few days.  I have to spend a certain amount to qualify for bonus points, plus any purchases for travel are double points.  I am planning to take all the points and convert them to a statement credit. 

 

I have a Princess cruise booked that would qualify for this promotion, and the combined statement credit, 10% discount from this promotion, and $200 obc is $1,170.  

[pris993]

Received as well, either Princess is desperate or thinks repeat passengers are crazy/stupid.  We do not have a cruise til Jan 2022, would not pay in full at this time or any time.  

 

Good lucky Princess.