Come Aboard the CC Group Cruise on the Caribbean Princess- August 19, 2006!!!

[montgomeryfamily]

Join us on the Cruise Critic group cruise on the August 19, 2006 sailing of the Caribbean Princess!!! Great group rates, $50 per cabin shipboard credit, a photo voucher, and both cabin and individual goodie bags filled with goodies and coupons!!!! :)

 

The rates are combinable with Future Cruise Credits and also for those who have never sailed on Princess, the referral credit! The Princess Star vouchers can also be used for those who had to miss their cruises on the Star.

 

While we received great rates initially, which are posted on the Caribbean Princess member cruise site, there are even lower rates now which cannot be posted! So be sure to check with the CC group TA for those lower rates. Also, the group TA agency has a low price guarantee, so be sure and let him know if you have other quotes. And unlike some other agencies, the TA also has no agency cancellation fees (so only the Princess cancellation policies apply) and no other fees such as booking or name change fees.

 

This is a great itinerary, sailing to St. Thomas, St. Martin, and Princess Cay!! We are scheduled to dock at St. Thomas and St. Martin, so you can avoid the tendering hassles of the western Caribbean itinerary and get to spend more time actually on the islands enjoying the duty free shopping, great beaches, watersports, and other activities! :) While we tender at Princess Cay, this is the beautiful private Princess island and ours will be the only ship there!

 

For more information or questions, contact me at kacruiser@ ev1.net or click on the links in the banner below.

[montgomeryfamily]

I received an email regarding how the the Future Cruise Credit can be used for this group cruise and thought I should also clarify it on this thread too.

 

If you have an open booking that you made on a past Princess cruise, that is a Future Cruise Credit. You can use the Future Cruise Credit to book this cruise and only have to pay a deposit of $100 per person rather than the standard deposit. One Future Cruise Credit can be used to book two people in stateroom and both get to take advantage of the reduced deposit. In addition, you will receive a shipboard credit of $50 per person, so that if you are using the Future Cruise Credit for two people, this will give a total of $100 shipboard credit for the cabin. This shipboard credit is IN ADDITION to the $50 shipboard credit for the cabin--so you can actually get $150 shipboard credit by using the Future Cruise Credit.

 

The referral credit is $25 per person off of the final payment price of the stateroom. It is not shipboard credit. The referral credit is only for people who have never cruised on Princess. It can be used with the group cruise and the group TA doesn't discount it due to being in the group-- you get the full credit. We have some friends cruising with us who have never cruised on Princess and we gave them a referral so they would get the credit and they received the full credit.

 

Please feel to email me at kacruiser@ev1.net with any questions or for more information.

[montgomeryfamily]

As mentioned earlier, in addition to super rates, you get $50 per cabin shipboard credit, a photo voucher, and both cabin and individual goodie bags!!

 

These goodie bags are great! :) The cabin goodie bags include a Cruise Critic magnet, a Cruise Critic door sign, and port guides for St. Thoms and St. Martin/St. Maarten jampacked with lots of useful info including info about the beaches, local sites of interest, shopping, transportation/taxis!! There are also coupons for discounts on various shore excursions,shops, and dining and promotional offers which give a free gift with purchase or buy one get one drinks!

 

In addition, each cabin goodie bag includes a certificate for a free charm bracelet at Diamonds International, a certificate for a free color change gift from Touched by the Sun, and a certificate for up to 1 carat "Topaz from the Islands" gemstone!!

 

The individual adult goodie bags include a Cruise Critic lanyard, a water bottle, a koozie, a lei, and some other surprises. :) There are also coupons for St. Thomas and St. Martin/St. Maarten for discounts and promotional offers for shore excursions, car rental, shops, and dining similar to that in the cabin goodie bags. (Included are various two for one coupons such as two for 1 BBCs (Baileys Banana Coloda--a famous St. Martin bar drink). :cool:

 

In addition, there are coupons for free drinks at three St. Thomas beach bars and a certificate for a one day shopping membership at the Price Smart Warehouse!!

 

For St. Martin/St. Maarten, there are coupons for free drinks at seven St. Martin bars, a certificate for a free beach lounge chair at La Playa Beach Bar (for which one of the coupons mentioned above is for a free rum punch here), and a coupon for a complimentary tasting and free gift at Pyrat Rum!!!

 

Plus for St. Martin/St. Maarten there are certificates for a free topaz or amethyst gemstone, a free pair of tanzanite earrings, and free gifts from Effys, DK Gems International, and Ballerina Jewelry!!

 

The chidren's goodie bags also include the lanyard, a kids water bottle (special shape/straw), a koozie, a lei, and some water toys and surprises. There is also the certificate for the free beach chair rental and some of the other coupons mentioned above in the adult goodie bag but which are appropriate for children!!

 

There have been threads posted regarding the Princess coupon book, which is supposed to be worth $120. This Princess coupon book is not included unless you booked during one of the promotions the group TA has previously offered. However, the Princess coupon book does not give any free items outright--you must purchase something to get something. The value of the coupon book is based on the value of the items you would receive if you made the requiste purchase. :rolleyes:

 

Using that same methodology, the coupons and certificates in the goodie bags are worth HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. But unlike the Princess coupon book, there are a number of certificates and coupons in the goodie bags for completely free items!! :)

 

So you get the charm bracelet at Diamonds International and the other free items without spending anything!! And there are lots of coupons for discounts and promotional offers offering a free gift with purchase so that if you were intending to make a purchase in port anyway, this will give you a bonus.

 

BTW, Princess has been putting a Passport to Savings booklet in every cabin which has coupons and promotional offers for purchases and services on shipboard. So this should be in every cabin regardless with whom you book (unless Princess discontinues the book in the future). The coupons, promotional offers, and certificates in the cabin/indivdual goodie bags are separately offered and IN ADDITION to that Princess Passport to Savings booket.

[montgomeryfamily]

Bert Stratton, considered to be one of the top cruise ship entertainers, will be onboard the Caribbean Princess during our CC group cruise!! :)

 

He is a regular performer on the Caribbean Princess and many on the Princess forum have written rave reviews of his performances. He will be on vacation from August 5 to August 18 so all of those on the two cruises before ours will miss him.

 

He comes back onboard on August 19 for our cruise!! :)

 

So come aboard our group cruise--its not a true Caribbean Princess cruise experience without Bert!!!!: cool:

[jerseygirl3]

I received an email regarding how the the Future Cruise Credit can be used for this group cruise and thought I should also clarify it on this thread too.

 

If you have an open booking that you made on a past Princess cruise, that is a Future Cruise Credit. You can use the Future Cruise Credit to book this cruise and only have to pay a deposit of $100 per person rather than the standard deposit.

 

Just to clarify something you posted. You said if you have an open future booking with Princess you can use it for this group cruise and then you only have to pay $100 per person deposit. I've booked a group cruise in the past using a future cruise booking with Princess, and I didn't have to put down any additional deposit. The $100 pp deposit we put down for the open future booking while onboard a Princess cruise was simply transferred over to the group booking. So there was no need for any additional deposit. Unless I misunderstood what you said, it sounded like anybody booking this group cruise who had an open booking with Princess would still be required to put down an add'l $100 pp deposit.

 

We also got the benefit of the SBC for the onboard booking and the group booking.

 

I'm hoping to use another open booking I currently have for a group cruise next winter.

[montgomeryfamily]

Thanks for clarifying this. What you said is what I meant. If you have a Future Cruise Credit, you have already paid the $100 deposit and so this only has to be applied to your booking and no other deposit is required for you.

 

There is a possiblity that you may have to pay for the deposit of the 2nd person in your cabin if you don't use a Future Cruise Credit and do what I did. I used the Future Cruise Credit that I had and my $100 I had paid for the Future Cruise Credit acted as the deposit. So no additional deposit for me. However, no Future Cruise Credit was used for the 2nd person in the cabin. But because I was using the Future Cruise credit, the 2nd person in the cabin only had to pay a $100 deposit, which he paid to the TA. In addition, we both got the shipboard credit for the Future Cruise Credit. This being a 7 day cruise, the shipboard credit for that is $50 per person for our balcony (outside) cabin--with a max of $100 for the cabin.

 

This was combined with the $50 per cabin we had for the group booking. Plus we also had a $200 cabin credit from a Princess promotion. So this gives us a total of $350 of shipboard credit for the stateroom. :)

 

In addition we will receive the photo voucher and gift bag goodies of water bottles, koozies, lanyards, and several other items and port coupons. With the coupons for St. Thomas and St. Maarten/St. Martin in the gift goodie bags, we are going to get several free drinks and souvenir gifts such as the Diamonds International charm bracelet. Plus the coupons include discounts for some stores we were going to go to anyway, such as Rimas.

 

With all of this, we could probably go on this cruise and not spend any money. :D But we are going to go with our original budget and just have an even better time being able to splurge. :cool:

[montgomeryfamily]

The TA handling the booking for the group cruise is having a special promotion for bookings beginning on Monday. There is a reduced $100 deposit, which given the proximity to final payment date, may not be that attractive. But there is also a Princess onboard coupon book valued at $120 given for each booking. This is in addition to the shipboard credit, photo voucher, and goodie bags.