OBC or cruise price reduction

[gvre]

We are booked on the Sapphire Princess for a 19-day cruise/tour around South America in February 2025. We booked PHS under promotion and got $2300 OBC.  I checked the price today and I can get the same cruise/tour for $2100 less and no OBC. I was planning to go to the casino and get back the OBC in cash but not sure if they would give it back as cash.

What would you do?

[cr8tiv1]

I would take the reduced fare and skip the hassles. Are you planning on taking any Princess excursions?  Or buying Plus on board.  Or independent internet?

$2300 is mega bucks that will probably be “non-refundable”.

 

Do you have military/share holder OBC?

Edited February 6 by cr8tiv1

[cruzsnooze]

PHS?

[racj846]

PentHouse suite??

[Steelers36]

52 minutes ago, gvre said:

I was planning to go to the casino and get back the OBC in cash but not sure if they would give it back as cash.

You cannot just go in there and ask for cash.  So, you are right in thinking they won't just give you the cash.  I'd rather have the lower fare because we virtually always book independent tours.

[gvre]

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I would take the reduced fare and skip the hassles. Are you planning on taking any Princess excursions?  Or buying Plus on board.  Or independent internet?

$2300 is mega bucks that will probably be “non-refundable”.

 

Do you have military/share holder OBC?

I do but that did not include that

[gvre]

37 minutes ago, racj846 said:

PentHouse suite??

37 minutes ago, racj846 said:

PentHouse suite??

36 minutes ago, racj846 said:

PentHouse suite??

Yes

[gvre]

1 minute ago, gvre said:

I do but that did not include that

 

3 minutes ago, gvre said:

I do but that did not include that

 

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I would take the reduced fare and skip the hassles. Are you planning on taking any Princess excursions?  Or buying Plus on board.  Or independent internet?

$2300 is mega bucks that will probably be “non-refundable”.

 

Do you have military/share holder OBC?

 

1 hour ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I would take the reduced fare and skip the hassles. Are you planning on taking any Princess excursions?  Or buying Plus on board.  Or independent internet?

$2300 is mega bucks that will probably be “non-refundable”.

 

Do you have military/share holder OBC?

Have Plus but was planning to buy  Premier on board...for some reason it seems cheaper to buy it on board based on our last couple of cruises

[cr8tiv1]

Buying Plus or Premier on board IS cheaper.  You aren’t adding it to your insurance cost (8%).   You do run the risk of the rate going up between now and cruising.  

[skynight]

Let's try to do the math. Assume $2,100 less is a total for two. If you keep the current fare you will be trading $2,100 cash for $2,300 non refundable OBC a difference of $200. Upgrade to the Premier fare will be 14 days on board x $20/ per person = $560 total. You will then have to pay for everything else on board, any pre-booked or booked on board port tours from your credit card. If you keep the current fare you would have $1,740 to use for these purposes. Regarding the casino. You can charge casino play to your on board account. The amount(s) are added to the account and net against any debit or credit (OBC) balance. The key word here is play. You can not just charge an amount to your on board account play a few pulls on a slot and then cash out. If you do this your casino account will be locked. You have to really play win or lose. It's the same at the tables. You really have to play some before cashing out your chips. Figure on maybe a 30% to 40% lose against the initial OBC. $1,000 may yield you $600 at cash out. Of course this is very flexible. I've done this on both slots and table games. There have been times I disembarked with more cash than the OBC I started with. But most times it's less than the OBC. It's still a win. What's the math. If you start with $1,740 OBC after the upgrade to premier, and you wager all of that in the casino you may walk away with around $1,200 to $1,300 cash. The difference is now somewhere in the $400 to $500 range well down from the original $2,300. It's your call and you can calculate your math. For me I would 100% keep the $2,300 if I were booking Princess port tours. If I booked no Princess port tours I would still keep the OBC, do the casino thing, have some casino enjoyment, and probably walk away with some cash at the end.  

[jagoffee]

On 2/5/2024 at 6:56 PM, gvre said:

We are booked on the Sapphire Princess for a 19-day cruise/tour around South America in February 2025. We booked PHS under promotion and got $2300 OBC.  I checked the price today and I can get the same cruise/tour for $2100 less and no OBC. I was planning to go to the casino and get back the OBC in cash but not sure if they would give it back as cash.

What would you do?

Is the $2300 OBC from Princess or your TA?
 When I book a Celebrity cruise by TA gives me an additional OBC (always refundable) since Celebrity does not allow an equivalent discount on the price.  When I book a Princess cruise with the same TA, I get the equivalent as a discount in the price.