Booking a "Princess Hotel"

[ghia007]

If I book a Princess hotel precruise does it include transfer from airport to the hotel and transfer to the ship for the cruise?  Thank you.

[LeeW]

If you book through the cruise line it will include transfers unless you specifically request not to.  Note that the cruise line charges roughly the room rack rate per person, so for two expect to pay double the rack rate.  They can easily afford the costs of transfers.

[Paula_MacFan]

Per the Princess website:

 

https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/cruise-ports-and-hotels/

 

 

[ghia007]

As much time I spent searching that web site I do not know how I missed that. Thank you so much for the help. Greatly appreciated.

[Rick&Jeannie]

We very often book either a pre-cruise or post-cruise hotel through Princess simply because of the ease and convenience of the transfers.  Yes...many will tell you that you can "save so much money" by doing it yourself...but we just prefer to sit back and let Princess do all of that detail work!  We just consider it as part of the cost of cruising...

[essmeier]

The hotels that Princess offers for pre or post-cruise stays are usually nice and well-located.  We like staying in them.   That said, you'll likely pay roughly twice as much by booking through Princess as you would if you booked it yourself.

 

Last fall in Barcelona, we booked a room for two for $952 and that price included an upgraded room and private transportation by car from the ship and to the airport (arranged ahead of time through the hotel.)

Princess wanted $1600 for the room and transfer by bus.  That room had a shower; ours was larger and had a bathtub....for 60% of the price.

 

We did the same thing in Santiago this winter and saved about half.  The only issue there was that I had to negotiate a taxi ride from the airport to the hotel via my bad Spanish, but it worked out.  I didn't understand the driver's Spanish, but fortunately, he understood mine.

 

In October, we'll be staying at the Hyatt in Sydney, booked with Hyatt points instead of through Princess.  We'll just take a taxi from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the ship.  Better - a taxi will leave when I'm ready to go, a Princess shuttle bus will not.

Bonus - Princess often has a desk at the hotel to help the people who have booked rooms through them.  They'll still answer your questions and offer what help they can with whatever issue you might have.   In Santiago this past winter, they were able to save us a taxi ride.  We'd booked on our own and had purchased a transfer from the airport to the ship, so we thought we'd have to go back to the airport by taxi to get to our bus to the ship.  They told us if we could show them proof that we'd purchased a transfer from the airport, they'd let us take the bus to the ship directly from the hotel instead.

 

Check the cost of booking it yourself and arranging your own transportation.  Compare the two.  Make a choice.  Not everything works for everyone.

[Reina del Mar]

If we are travelling to somewhere we have never been before, or has a language we don’t speak/understand, we tend to use the Princess hotel and transfer. -the first time we went to Santiago for example.

 

The second time in South America,(again via Santiago to San Antonio) we booked our own hotel and taxi transfers as we knew where we were going…worked out just fine.

 

The cost, as someone mentioned upthread, was about half of booking with Princess.

[rocklinmom]

Yes you can look at the hotels Princess uses in your embarkation city and then just book it yourself. Most likely it will be cheaper. And as someone mentioned above, there is usually a Princess rep in the hotel lobby for questions and you will be with fellow cruisers.