Box of Chocolates ( 19-piece ) "Promotion"

[Lady Arwen]

1 minute ago, CineGraphic said:

 

Yes, he works for me, but he works for tons of other folks as well. In the past when I needed something done, he's put everything else on hold and take care of me quickly, and I'd like to keep it that way. Every time the fare goes down, so does his commission. I call him when the fare reduction warrants it, but I spare him from the nickle & diming. His attentiveness and extra service to my bookings is worth more than the 40 bucks.

Again, to you $40.00 is nickel and diming, but to other hard working people it’s not.  How lovely for you not having to be concerned  about such paltry things.

[MrBill64]

My cruise price stayed the same, so I rebooked for the free box of chocolates promo. Took all of 5 minutes.  Not a monumental life changing promo, but I should be able to parlay that box of chocolates into a surprise gift for my better half 😉.

[Lady Arwen]

4 minutes ago, MrBill64 said:

My cruise price stayed the same, so I rebooked for the free box of chocolates promo. Took all of 5 minutes.  Not a monumental life changing promo, but I should be able to parlay that box of chocolates into a surprise gift for my better half 😉.

Great idea!  I don’t eat much chocolate, but my DH will treat himself to a couple at bedtime.  Enjoy!

[Earthworm Jim]

7 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

Thank God someone else thinks like this. I often can't fathom what people do to get a few crumbs. Just what you need on a cruise where there is food everywhere - chocolate. 

Just waiting for some nark to say you can take them home on not eat them onboard in 4...3...2...1

 

If it took you 15 minutes to get that $40, that works out to $160/hour pay rate if you look at it that way. Of course, it's $160/hour with a quarter of an hour maximum, so it's not a huge windfall, but it still seems worth 15 minutes. And it probably won't even take that long.

[Markanddonna]

My April 2022 cruise has been reduced three times now and this will be #4 plus a box of chocolates. I wonder if a TA would be as responsive as the agent at Princess?  She has been totally on top of it for us.

 

[billco]

Buy a Princess Cruises gift card for $1000 by February 16 and you get a $100 bonus gift card you could use to buy a couple of boxes of chocolate and still have a little left over.

[dog]

23 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

My April 2022 cruise has been reduced three times now and this will be #4 plus a box of chocolates. I wonder if a TA would be as responsive as the agent at Princess?  She has been totally on top of it for us.

 

Reduced fare is worth a call!

[voljeep]

21 hours ago, Thrak said:

Yes, I had to call them but I could jump right on it and make changes without having to send email to the TA and wait for him to take care of things. I liked being in control.  At my income level a $454 price drop is something to jump on quickly. (The chocolates are a bonus.) Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

just curious - how often do you, and others, check prices on booked cruises

 

with my home office, it seems like I check daily as part of my early morning, and sometimes evening routine ...

[jennybenny]

I was able to add it to 1 of the 3 cruises we have booked. Same price, now includes chocolates.

why not?! I wouldn’t have even realized it was a thing.
the other two cruises are hundreds more, so we left those as is ☺️

 

Oh, and I think I check pricing maybe once a week? 

Thanks for sharing @voljeep

Edited February 12, 2021 by jennybenny

[Katjoy]

I just checked the price of our Mini Suite and it went up $280 from our amazing deal we snagged two days ago, so I will not go for the Chocolate Deal.  My twin sister and I switched from an Obstructed View Balcony to a Mid Ship Mini Suite for almost the same price.  I cannot imagine the price will drop lower, but I check daily. 👩

[janice2348]

I had to do a google search to bring up the promotion.  Since the price of my cruise has increased, and I can get free chocolate onboard, I’ll pass.  

[PoohUnderstands]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:12 AM, voljeep said:

just saw this when checking fares for a way future cruise ( 4/2022 )

 

fares increased by $ 35 per person since this was added 

 

no thanks this time,  Princess 

Our cruise dropped $250pp and added on specialty dining and now got the box of chocolate added onto my booking too.  So I was able to get these added onto my existing booking which had also dropped in price!  Guess it all depends on the cruise!

 

Pooh

[PoohUnderstands]

On 2/11/2021 at 1:37 PM, Thrak said:

Holy cow!  I had no idea about this so I just checked to see if we qualified for the freebie. We currently have 4 cruises booked. Three of them qualify for the chocolates at the same price we have booked. One of them not only qualifies for the chocolates but the price has gone down by $227 per person. Talk about a sweet deal! Not only do we qualify for 4 boxes of chocolates (not sure if that's actually such a good thing) but we also qualify for a $454 price drop. Thanks for posting this!

 

Edit: I just finished sending email to our TA. I wish Princess hadn't changed the "transfer to a TA rules" though. I used to be able to just do this stuff myself and transfer the booking at final payment time.

I have engaged a Princess TA to help me and it is the perfect answer.  I still do all the checking etc. and when I book a cruise I just put it on hold.  I then call my Princess TA and she books it and even gets me the best deposit(i.e. lowest) she can.  Also when, like the chocolates popped up as a freebie, all I did was email my Princess TA and she got them added to my bookings.  Same for refaring if price goes down.  And sometimes I get a response from her within literally 4-5 minutes!  So much easier and better than having to call yourself and wait on hold sometimes.  I love my Princess TA and our relationship.  With a Princess TA you still have control over your bookings etc.

 

Pooh

[Markanddonna]

3 hours ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

If it took you 15 minutes to get that $40, that works out to $160/hour pay rate if you look at it that way. Of course, it's $160/hour with a quarter of an hour maximum, so it's not a huge windfall, but it still seems worth 15 minutes. And it probably won't even take that long.

The reduction ended up being $248. Not $40. I'm happy!

[ringers0815]

We saved $650 (and got the chocolates!) on one cruise thanks to this promotion. 

[Lady Arwen]

16 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

I have engaged a Princess TA to help me and it is the perfect answer.  I still do all the checking etc. and when I book a cruise I just put it on hold.  I then call my Princess TA and she books it and even gets me the best deposit(i.e. lowest) she can.  Also when, like the chocolates popped up as a freebie, all I did was email my Princess TA and she got them added to my bookings.  Same for refaring if price goes down.  And sometimes I get a response from her within literally 4-5 minutes!  So much easier and better than having to call yourself and wait on hold sometimes.  I love my Princess TA and our relationship.  With a Princess TA you still have control over your bookings etc.

 

Pooh

Sounds like our Princess consultant.  She’s on the ball, for sure.  I always do my daily price and promo checking and then email her if any applies to our booking and it’s done.  For the chocolates, it was there in our booking before I’d even heard about it.

[Markanddonna]

We check the price probably every other day but also rely on people from our roll call to let us know. Actually, I'm typically the person to announce a reduction and hope to collect on those promises to buy me a drink!

 

[Lady Arwen]

16 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

We check the price probably every other day but also rely on people from our roll call to let us know. Actually, I'm typically the person to announce a reduction and hope to collect on those promises to buy me a drink!

 

I called to upgrade our cabin because of the price reduction on Thursday.  Lost our chocolates, but got a very good price on a mini suite!

[Fat Albert]

On 2/12/2021 at 6:29 AM, CineGraphic said:

My concern is about my TA's time, not mine.

You are a Good Man, You think of others. I appreciate very much having folks like you on the planet.

[iancal]

Really, a $10 box of chocolates is going to push me over the edge to booking a Princess cruise?  ' Cannot even think of bothering our TA over a box of chocolates.

 

Why not a welcome aboard drink, priority check in, two bottles of water gratis for our cabin or something else of equal value.

Edited February 22, 2021 by iancal

[Thrak]

21 minutes ago, iancal said:

Really, a $10 box of chocolates is going to push me over the edge to booking a Princess cruise?  ' Cannot even think of bothering our TA over a box of chocolates.

 

Why not a welcome aboard drink, priority check in, two bottles of water gratis for our cabin or something else of equal value.

 

It's actually a $29 box of chocolates. About the cost of two premium drinks plus two bottles of water. I doubt it's meant to "push one over the edge" to book a cruise. It's an extra perk that was tossed in for Valentine's Day. I was always surprised when someone would call me at work and apologize for "bothering me". It wasn't "bothering me" - it  was my job. I was being paid.

Edited February 22, 2021 by Thrak

[dog]

I never called about adding this, but my cruise fare and taxes have a price drop. 3 calls later I got no where. First 2 agents in Process of making changes when line went dead 3 rd one could not find the lower fare. Frustrating. 

[Steelers36]

I was just back checking on reports on the chocolates.  I do periodically login and check for fare drops.  We have not had that happen recently, but I did manage to miss the chocolate promo add-on by not checking the DEALS page on Princess.com.  I actually found out about it on here - quite late at the expiry.

 

On a lark, I did fire off an email to the TA (new TA for these cruises, which is another story).  He did get the email and responded that couldn't do it.  I did read that others may have got this info back from a Princess rep and you have to get another one or push the issue.  Due to the lateness of the time (evening of last day), I just let it go and chalked it up to experience.  You have to be monitoring on CC as the Princess community is tops at keeping folks informed.  Also, to watch the Princess promos.  And even be smart and just PRESUME that the Love Boat company just MIGHT have something added at Valentines.  DOH!!!

 

 

The other story is that our current TA for our 2022 fall voyages is new.  My previous agency of several years must be having some challenges and has significantly reduced (to lower single digits) what was the best discount percentage of any agency that I am aware of.  We are now booked with an agency I used once a number of years back (before finding the agency with best discount).  Their 12% discount rate is also very good and quite close to the 15% we were getting.  It was not easy to move away from an agent I really like and an agency that has been good for us, but when looking at the significant difference in net cost over FOUR cruises booked as one long voyage, loyalty only goes so far.  If they return to their former ways, I will return to them.  It pays to shop and check, whether with Princess direct or a TA.

 

[donaldsc]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:30 AM, cr8tiv1 said:

I checked on a cruise and all that was offered to me was to order (purchase) chocolate covered strawberries....that used to be free on formal night or free to suite passengers anytime.  Even though it was "at a reduced price", I chose not to place that order.  

 

 

I have never been able to figure out why people get so excited about chocolate covered strawberries.  Give me a piece of really good dark chocolate over strawberries any time.  Not crap cheap chocolate but really good stuff.

 

DON

Edited February 22, 2021 by donaldsc

[dog]

3 hours ago, dog said:

I never called about adding this, but my cruise fare and taxes have a price drop. 3 calls later I got no where. First 2 agents in Process of making changes when line went dead 3 rd one could not find the lower fare. Frustrating. 

Fourth time got through and received price drop