Princess Now Soliciting Families w/Children

[Daniel A]

I just received a flyer from Princess soliciting "Make your next family vacation special"   The promotion offers "up to 35% off plus kids sail free!"  Offer ends 8/30/22.  It sure looks like an experiment to see how going after a younger demographic would work out.  The fine print in the flyer states the offer is "on a limited availability, and is capacity controlled (regardless of stateroom availability)"   What are your thoughts?  Is this good or bad?

[geoherb]

It's fine. There are enough areas of the ship for children as well as adults. Plus I tend to take longer cruises that don't appeal as much to families with school-age children.

 

[franktown]

They are looking at everything they can to fill there ships.  The problem they face is that besides the kids club they do not offer the type of things that cater to families that RCL, Disney and Carnival do.  Personally it doesn't bother me.

[Paula_MacFan]

Discussed on a similar recent thread as well.

 

[Steelers36]

13 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

I just received a flyer from Princess soliciting "Make your next family vacation special"   The promotion offers "up to 35% off plus kids sail free!"  Offer ends 8/30/22.  It sure looks like an experiment to see how going after a younger demographic would work out.  The fine print in the flyer states the offer is "on a limited availability, and is capacity controlled (regardless of stateroom availability)"   What are your thoughts?  Is this good or bad?

No bother at all to me.  The fine print is all about the tendency of families with young kids to book quad rooms and I have read there is typically only so many of those they will see to full occupancy.  The kids only sail free in the same cabin.  This would not have been of interest to us as we got a separate cabin for the kids when they were young.

[Coffeeluvr05]

Personally, I like the idea.  It's the best of both worlds.  I get to sail on my preferred line and bring my grandkids.  Of course, they would have to skip school because we cruise during times they are typically in school.  So much more enriching though! lol

[Daniel A]

I'm not anti-child, I'm anti parents who fail to supervise their children and let others deal with the kids while the parents are napping in the sanctuary.  I remember being on a non-Princess cruise where there were young children occupying all of the hot tubs for most of the day.  Although there was nothing to prevent it, I wasn't about to spend time in a hot tub with some young pre-teen children.  Certainly, wouldn't have been a good optic for me.  I never got to relax in a hot tub on that cruise, something I had been looking forward to.  😒

 

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

I just received a flyer from Princess soliciting "Make your next family vacation special"   The promotion offers "up to 35% off plus kids sail free!"  Offer ends 8/30/22.  It sure looks like an experiment to see how going after a younger demographic would work out.  The fine print in the flyer states the offer is "on a limited availability, and is capacity controlled (regardless of stateroom availability)"   What are your thoughts?  Is this good or bad?

 

If they want more families, they'll have to serve the northeast a lot better... not everyone wants to pay airfare for all of their kids to get to Florida.

[Guest ldtr]

I seem to recall that they have done similar programs in the past as well.  I expect that they would like to get more 3-4 people per cabin, since some of their cabins are tied up with quarantine, so it is one way to get occupancy up.

 

Have been on Princess cruises in the summer in Europe where there was 300+ children on board on week, the next cruise it was 45 due to schools restarting.  Children on Princess during holiday and summer break periods is not unusual.  For the longer cruises, especially those during the school year numbers are pretty low.

 

All cruise lines need to keep appealing to younger demographics if they do not want their customer base to age out over time.

[Sprocket]

Vaccines for those under 12 were not available for most of the start up.  Now that they are and even for the littles under 5 I can understand families wanting to travel and cruise.  Never had any issues with kids on board and used to enjoy seeing them on scavenger hunts etc when we were on HAL.

[MileHighAko]

An entire section of the Princess website is dedicated to families and kids: https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/onboard-experience/kids-and-teens/

 

I love seeing families on board together. 

[4x4bob]

One of the best short cruises that we were lucky enough to go on was a one day from Vancouver down to Seattle.  The Kid to adult ratio was about 2 to 1 or maybe more.  And some of those kids were special needs kids.

They were were having an outstanding time being able to go on a cruise. Some of them even participated in some of the lounge shows.

Bob

[harryfat1]

 

Depending on the kids age and cruise background, they may not be that happy on a Princess ship versus RCI/Carnival/NCL. 

 

If they are younger and never cruised before, they will be happy with any kids camp as that's way better than sitting with grown ups at a long dinner at MDR.  However, as they get older or have experienced other cruise lines built in attractions like rock climbing/water park/zip lines/go karts and other venues, having to be on a more sedate Princess style ships will be a hard sell.

 

We have been cruising with our kids the past 20 years since they were born.  When they were younger, they had no clue so HAL and Celebrity kids camps were super fun for them even though neither cruise lines are really know to cater to kids. As they got older and been on more kids friendly ships, now I can't bribe them enough to drag them onto a HAL ship.

 

We will be on the Majestic Princess in couple of weeks and it was a not easy to convince them that they could enjoy themselves on a Princess cruise when they rather be on other more exciting ships.

 

Princess calls this a "kids promotion" but if you read the detail, the free discount can be ANY 3rd or 4th passenger in same cabin regardless of age.  So it could be any 4 people together in a guys/gals only cruise.

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

 

Princess calls this a "kids promotion" but if you read the detail, the free discount can be ANY 3rd or 4th passenger in same cabin regardless of age.  So it could be any 4 people together in a guys/gals only cruise.

This is exactly correct. I wonder if those folks that take issue to the "kids sail free" marketing would take the same offense if it was marketed as "BFFs sail free." This is not unique to Princess - HAL currently has a Kids Sail  Free promo, too...and their ships offer even less for the younger ones!

[AtlantaCruiser72]

Princess has been marketing to families with children as far back as the launch of the Grand Princess. That is nothing new. 3rd/4th guest “kids” sail free offers have been done pre pandemic as well….. Princess spent a large sum of money well before the Covid shutdown redoing the kids/teens centers fleetwide to modernize them with Discovery Channel and Animal Planet branded experiences. Princess merely does not add all the “toys” that Royal, Carnival, Disney, and NCL have slapped on the top of their ships.

 

Want to sail w/o kids? Viking, Oceania, Virgin, etc will all gladly take you vacation dollars. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

One of the reasons DH and I favor Princess is the limited number of children onboard. Having children running around cutting you off, splashing you in the pool, and sticking their hands in the cookies in the buffet is not what we are seeking for a relaxing vacation. (These things occurred on Princess cruises we were on that had a higher than typical number of children onboard.) We like kids and don’t mind some being aboard; we just appreciate the tranquil atmosphere of a mainly adult oriented ship. 

[pjwaz]

I wish the kids sail free would apply to a single parent and child in the same cabin. Looking to take my daughter and grandson on Alaska cruise in June. 

[getting older slowly]

Agreed  no real biggie.... one takes longer cruises  and does not travel in school holidays.... they can go to the pool.... as it is something i do not use..... I shudder at the thought of me in bathers......

 

Cheers Don

[RSS from SF]

14 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I just received a flyer from Princess soliciting "Make your next family vacation special"   . . . . 

It sure looks like an experiment to see how going after a younger demographic would work out. . . . 
 

What are your thoughts?  Is this good or bad?

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--  LOL -- Have you also seen the latest Princess commercial that premiered around the time of the ESPY Awards (approximately 7/20/2022)?  The commercial still is airing now, at least in my area.

In the 30 second clip I know of, there's not a single family nor kid shown there . . .  nor a single senior either.

---

 

14 hours ago, franktown said:

They are looking at everything they can to fill there ships.

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This!

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-- I'll see if I can dig the commercial up and post the link in a separate thread (if allowed), so that others can comment on that other demographic.

 

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[RSS from SF]

38 minutes ago, RSS from SF said:

-- I'll see if I can dig the commercial up and post the link in a separate thread (if allowed), so that others can comment on that other demographic.

---

 

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[Over from NZ]

6 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

One of the reasons DH and I favor Princess is the limited number of children onboard. Having children running around cutting you off, splashing you in the pool, and sticking their hands in the cookies in the buffet is not what we are seeking for a relaxing vacation. (These things occurred on Princess cruises we were on that had a higher than typical number of children onboard.) We like kids and don’t mind some being aboard; we just appreciate the tranquil atmosphere of a mainly adult oriented ship. 

I would rather have kids than senior citizens. If there's kids that means there's 30-50 year old parents.. and hopefully a bit more lively atmosphere and maybe some better entertainment pitched at them. 

[amajaa]

I just tried looking to see if we had this offer in the UK and couldn't find anything. Has anyone else seen this for UK customers?

[villauk]

30 minutes ago, amajaa said:

 Has anyone else seen this for UK customers?

 

No.

[JillK]

16 hours ago, Daniel A said:

I'm not anti-child, I'm anti parents who fail to supervise their children and let others deal with the kids while the parents are napping in the sanctuary.  I remember being on a non-Princess cruise where there were young children occupying all of the hot tubs for most of the day.  Although there was nothing to prevent it, I wasn't about to spend time in a hot tub with some young pre-teen children.  Certainly, wouldn't have been a good optic for me.  I never got to relax in a hot tub on that cruise, something I had been looking forward to.  😒

 

 

I feel the same way and I am a parent of four! We have taken many different configuration of cruises, some with all the kids, some with just our daughters or just our sons and some without any of them (thank you mom and dad). 

 

A cruise is not a vacation from parenting. We had three of our kids on our cruise a few weeks ago and if they weren't playing at the splash pad/using the slides, they were with us either in the pool, hanging out on deck, doing a ship activity or in the cabin. There were over a thousand kids aboard but the only time you could tell was when you would see small groups of pre-teens/teens hanging out. I didn't see any untoward behaviour from those groups so didn't have any issues personally. 

 

We are cruising over Christmas with all of our kids in three cabins so no 3/4 pax free for us (doubt that would be on offer over Christmas anyhow though). It will be our first time with Princess since 2008 and our kids' first time with the line. They are older now (11, 12, 16 & 18) and I have already told them not to expect the same type of activities they have on NCL (the line they've cruised the most with) but do hope my sons (the younger two) will take advantage of the kids' club which we've heard is excellent. 

 

I personally like a mix of passengers when cruising and that's exactly what we experienced a few week ago on the Panorama - lots of multi-generational cruisers, young families, young couples, old couples.

 

The only cruise where I felt out of place was on the Celebrity Silhouette where we were with all our kids and my parents. We had taken advantage of a kids sail free promo so they were trying to attract families. A lot of fellow older passengers didn't get the memo and they would openly scowl at my sons in particular (3 & 4) even though they were always supervised and extremely well behaved. It made me feel very uncomfortable and I have not been back to the brand since. I just hope that any families giving Princess a try don't have a similar experience as I have very good memories of some fantastic cruises with Princess and have high expectation for December.

[amajaa]

23 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

No.

 

We always seem to miss out on these offers.