Princess 3 day sale? June 9th...thoughts, experience?

[liamur14]

Anyone have experience with this 3 day sale? What is the coupon booklet? Should I wait to book  Med cruise on this June 9th?😎 Thanks

[JimmyVWine]

I’m a little confused. Are you asking if anyone here, on June 5, has had any experience with a sale that starts on June 9?  Maybe you need to ask Dr. Who. 

[dog]

41 minutes ago, liamur14 said:

Anyone have experience with this 3 day sale? What is the coupon booklet? Should I wait to book  Med cruise on this June 9th?😎 Thanks

Never booked during 3 day sail, but saw fb ad from big box TA.

coupon books are sometimes given by TAs for discounts on-board ship..

there is a Roll Call forum you can search on cc for your cruise date.

[jimmieg]

On 6/5/2022 at 11:10 AM, liamur14 said:

Anyone have experience with this 3 day sale? What is the coupon booklet? Should I wait to book  Med cruise on this June 9th?😎 Thanks

It is a Princess sale conducted by a chain of franchised brick and mortar stores, claiming exclusive Princess rates. If you want to compare prices, they will be happy to quote you and you can decide.

My experience in past years is that they are better than Princess direct, but probably not as good as large online agencies. YMMV

[lx200gps]

We have routinely booked all our trips for the last few years during their 3 Day Sale.  Up until 2 or 3 years ago, it was very worth it for us, with good pricing, excellent OBC and perqs that made it worthwhile. In the last few years it's value, for us, has declined significantly to the point where it has little benefit over what we could get directly with Princess, and that includes pricing. We usually only benefit now from reduced deposits, much lower OBC and the coupon book, which has also gone way down in value.I have little doubt there are TAs out there who could beat the 3 Day Sale price and/or perqs easily.  Note that this year, Princess have not even released much of their itineraries out past next summer, so for the first time in years, we can't book during the sale as there is nothing for us to book. The only reason we stick with them is because our "personal" rep is a dynamite lady who is very helpful and responsive, and since the bookings are with her, she has to be the one who sits on hold for hours with Princess when issues arise.

Edited June 9, 2022 by lx200gps

[dog]

Princess website- price drop for my cruise today.

[mnocket]

9 hours ago, lx200gps said:

We have routinely booked all our trips for the last few years during their 3 Day Sale.  Up until 2 or 3 years ago, it was very worth it for us, with good pricing, excellent OBC and perqs that made it worthwhile. In the last few years it's value, for us, has declined significantly to the point where it has little benefit over what we could get directly with Princess, and that includes pricing. We usually only benefit now from reduced deposits, much lower OBC and the coupon book, which has also gone way down in value.I have little doubt there are TAs out there who could beat the 3 Day Sale price and/or perqs easily.  Note that this year, Princess have not even released much of their itineraries out past next summer, so for the first time in years, we can't book during the sale as there is nothing for us to book. The only reason we stick with them is because our "personal" rep is a dynamite lady who is very helpful and responsive, and since the bookings are with her, she has to be the one who sits on hold for hours with Princess when issues arise.

I agree.  I've booked during the 3-Day Sale in the past and the pricing was the lowest (I.e. couldn't find a lower fare to reprice right up to departure date).  However, the last couple of years the pricing/prerqs haven't been that special.

[sfaaa]

OBC is basically equivalent to free tip for two. Nice but prices are still pretty high for 2023. I am taking a pass.

[CaliforniaCruiseCocktails]

11 hours ago, lx200gps said:

We have routinely booked all our trips for the last few years during their 3 Day Sale.  Up until 2 or 3 years ago, it was very worth it for us, with good pricing, excellent OBC and perqs that made it worthwhile. In the last few years it's value, for us, has declined significantly to the point where it has little benefit over what we could get directly with Princess, and that includes pricing. We usually only benefit now from reduced deposits, much lower OBC and the coupon book, which has also gone way down in value.I have little doubt there are TAs out there who could beat the 3 Day Sale price and/or perqs easily.  Note that this year, Princess have not even released much of their itineraries out past next summer, so for the first time in years, we can't book during the sale as there is nothing for us to book. The only reason we stick with them is because our "personal" rep is a dynamite lady who is very helpful and responsive, and since the bookings are with her, she has to be the one who sits on hold for hours with Princess when issues arise.

 

[CaliforniaCruiseCocktails]

My agent sat on phone yesterday 4 hours trying to get our cruise credit from Covid cancellation 2 weeks ago. We’re rebooked in 3 weeks but not sure that’s going to happen. Princess suggested we pay again for the rebooking and perhaps we’d get our FCC by sailing🙄

[mvaldes140]

This is the first year I found out about it, but we're gonna use it. We have a panama canal cruise and we get 2 cabins since the 4 of us would be very uncomfortable in 1 cabin. We never got princess plus as we don't normally drink that much and are perfectly fine with the wine we're allowed to bring on board, but with the free upgrade from plus to premier we figured it'd be worth it for the ocasional as the rest of my family drinks coffe and my dad likes his beer. My mom also likes the idea of the photo package for 15 days Prices are the same as on Princess, but the extras are a nice incentive for a cruise we were already going to book

Edited June 9, 2022 by mvaldes140

[dreaminofcruisin]

I wish Princess had released their 2023-2024 cruises. Then I might consider looking at the 3 day sale. I already have everything booked that I want for next year....

[liamur14]

Just booked  for 2023 and we figure our  saves and gains were exceptional, thanks to our  amazing TA.🇨🇦

[Steelers36]

7 hours ago, mnocket said:

I agree.  I've booked during the 3-Day Sale in the past and the pricing was the lowest (I.e. couldn't find a lower fare to reprice right up to departure date).  However, the last couple of years the pricing/prerqs haven't been that special.

The 3DS was never better than our TA discount.  As others have mentioned, when I looked at it recently for this year, it was like NBD at all.

[Thrak]

Used the sale one year from the agency that offers it. The local person was totally pathetic and I knew more about booking cruises. Finally got the bookings made and then, by the time the cruises rolled around, I had actually gained nothing but a lot of hassle.

 

I'm watching 3 cruises for 2023 and checking pricing and cabin availability quite often. I checked on the Princess site today to see if there had been any price reduction but all 3 of them had gone up. The new price for each of them was only an additional $2 but it's moving the wrong way.

 

I spent 20 minutes on Live Chat trying to take advantage of the post-cruise FCD purchase and they finally told me I had to call. I called and spent 2 hours on hold before they disconnected me.

[Steelers36]

9 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I spent 20 minutes on Live Chat trying to take advantage of the post-cruise FCD purchase and they finally told me I had to call. I called and spent 2 hours on hold before they disconnected me.

You forgot on the Alaska voyage?

[dog]

19 hours ago, dog said:

Princess website- price drop for my cruise today.

Another price drop for my cruise today on princess website.

[Thrak]

15 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

You forgot on the Alaska voyage?

 

We were so upset when we found out the casino was closed and we couldn't get out money out that we totally spaced on getting more FCD. It was "in the plan" but we blew it. Stupid.

[darnoc23]

21 hours ago, CaliforniaCruiseCocktails said:

My agent sat on phone yesterday 4 hours trying to get our cruise credit from Covid cancellation 2 weeks ago. We’re rebooked in 3 weeks but not sure that’s going to happen. Princess suggested we pay again for the rebooking and perhaps we’d get our FCC by sailing🙄

Happen to come across your post.  Don't do it! We were in the same scenario on February when I basically "transferred" one of our passengers to another room.  Rep said I have to just pay again and the previous payment will be refunded.  It's now June and the refund is still not there despite several escalations. I would push for the cruise credit.  

[liamur14]

11 hours ago, dog said:

Another price drop for my cruise today on princess website.

what cruise?

[peachykiehn]

I would recommend anyone considering booking during this sale with this agency to carefully check prices yourself on the Princess website then get another TA. We have booked this sale in the past but this year is a joke. Had TA price cruises told we were getting Princess Plus for standard rate. Instead when we checked ourselves on Princess before booking found basic rate for 14 day cruise to be $3000 cheaper and we could have booked Princess Plus ourselves for $1500 less than quote. BUYER BEWARE!

[Steelers36]

23 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

We were so upset when we found out the casino was closed and we couldn't get out money out that we totally spaced on getting more FCD. It was "in the plan" but we blew it. Stupid.

Oh my - I always count on the casino for that.

[mvaldes140]

I'm upset with the promotion now because we wanted to get the upgrade from plus to premier and then we found out that because our cruise ends January 2nd 2023 it's considered a 2023 cruise and not a 2022 cruise even though everything except the last sea day and disembarkation is in 2022. It seems ridiculous to us

[Thrak]

10 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Oh my - I always count on the casino for that.

 

If your last port is Victoria and you will disembark in Vancouver they seem to close the casino that last night. I guess they don't sail far enough out to sea to open it. We had zero notice. Lesson learned. We not only got peeved enough to forget to buy the FCD we had planned to purchase but also failed to collect the $20 or so that we could have gotten back from Customer Service. D'Oh!  I hate it when it's MY fault. (Not the casino issue but the other two issues.)

[Steelers36]

Just now, Thrak said:

 

If your last port is Victoria and you will disembark in Vancouver they seem to close the casino that last night. I guess they don't sail far enough out to sea to open it. We had zero notice. Lesson learned. We not only got peeved enough to forget to buy the FCD we had planned to purchase but also failed to collect the $20 or so that we could have gotten back from Customer Service. D'Oh!  I hate it when it's MY fault. (Not the casino issue but the other two issues.)

Thanks for the tip if we are ever in the situation.  I believe you are correct - they probably never get to international waters in that situation.  You would think they would be posting in the Patter or promoting that guests hit the casino as there is no last night to wait for more gambling.