South America

[Heyref]

Considering a South American cruise in January 2025. 
 

NCL has their cruises ready to book, but not Princess. 
Yet Princess has Jan 2025 Caribbean cruises ready for booking. 
 

Is Princess not doing SA after 2024??

[Steelers36]

6 minutes ago, Heyref said:

Considering a South American cruise in January 2025. 
 

NCL has their cruises ready to book, but not Princess. 
Yet Princess has Jan 2025 Caribbean cruises ready for booking. 
 

Is Princess not doing SA after 2024??

Someone else asked this within the past week or so.  I really doubt PCL is exiting S.A. after cruising there for years and years.  I guess just be patient.  I see HAL has their offerings on website.  No idea why Princess is not ready, unless they are trying to sell more cabins for Winter 2024 first.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Someone else asked this within the past week or so.  I really doubt PCL is exiting S.A. after cruising there for years and years.  I guess just be patient.  I see HAL has their offerings on website.  No idea why Princess is not ready, unless they are trying to sell more cabins for Winter 2024 first.

Funny you should mention that. On our upcoming Jan 20, 2024 16-day Antarctica cruise, there are 21 Balcony and 43 mini-suites still available while all of the OV, M1 mini-suites and full suites (except for 1 Premium suite) are sold out.

 

On the Jan 4, 2024 Antarctica cruise, there are 93 balcony and 44 mini-suites with only 1 OV, 1 M1 and no suites available.

 

OTOH the initial Dec 19, 2023 Antarctica cruise that goes over the holidays is more balanced with 1 OV, 15 balcony, 7 mini-suites, 2 VS, 1 Premium, 1 Penthouse, and 1 Owners suite still available.

 

As you suggested, they probably want to get a lot more of their Jan 2024 balcony and mini-suites booked before putting the 2025 itineraries out there.

 

[Heyref]

Be patient?  I am trying to book a cruise more than 18 months before travelling….

 

Patience May not be my strongest quality 

[Steelers36]

But, Ken, we also do not know how many GTY's are booked and waiting assignment.  Hard to tell and I was just speculating.  @Ken the cruiser

[Steelers36]

1 minute ago, Heyref said:

Be patient?  I am trying to book a cruise more than 18 months before travelling….

 

Patience May not be my strongest quality 

You do have a point there.  

 

However, Princess is fairly repetitive with the same voyages over and over - until they decide to come up with something new. 

 

The Sapphire has been doing the S.A. voyages for some time now.  The only thing booked for Sapphire in 2025 is April 8 big trip from LA to South Pacific and back.

 

Looking at 2024, the same trip for Sapphire is on the schedule for April 5 from LA.  Just prior to that, Sapphire returns to LA for the final time from S.A. tripping. 

 

There is a large gap in the Sapphire schedule for late Sep right thru April 2025.  You would have to see if anyone in Princess sales department knows anything or will investigate for you.  It does seem odd and I guess if I were in your shoes, I'd be curious as well. 

 

At least you can get an idea of the S.A. itineraries by checking out the 2024 voyages on Princess.com.  Meanwhile, the Sapphire seems to be a ghost for about six months at this point.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

But, Ken, we also do not know how many GTY's are booked and waiting assignment.  Hard to tell and I was just speculating.  @Ken the cruiser

True. I just noticed there was quite the disparity between the December itinerary and the two January ones. BTW I’ve always heard January is the prime time to visit that part of the world as that’s when the young penguin chicks are hanging out in their new fur coats. 😁

[Steelers36]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

True. I just noticed there was quite the disparity between the December itinerary and the two January ones. BTW I’ve always heard January is the prime time to visit that part of the world as that’s when the young penguin chicks are hanging out in their new fur coats. 😁

We didn't have a choice of dates in 2018 when we elected to take a 60-nighter around the continent.  We left in late JAN and were way down south later in FEB.  I think it was a mixed situation where some molting was still going on and it depended on location.  We saw penguins in various places.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

We didn't have a choice of dates in 2018 when we elected to take a 60-nighter around the continent.  We left in late JAN and were way down south later in FEB.  I think it was a mixed situation where some molting was still going on and it depended on location.  We saw penguins in various places.

We were on the HAL Zaandam in Jan 2018 on a 22-day Antarctica cruise, with 4 days cruising around the peninsula, from Buenos Aires to Santiago and had an awesome time and and saw a bunch of penguins, not only hanging out on the Antarctica peninsula, but also when we visited the Falkland Islands, and various ports in Argentina and Chile. It was definitely an awesome cruise which was one of the big reasons we’re going back in January! 😁