Lanaki Posted March 11, 2009 #1 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Checked the pricing on our balcony cabin this weekend and it had gone down again. Called our agent Monday and were re-fared at the new price. Saved another $750! In total our cruise has been reduced by over $1500 since booking last October. Between that and the TourSaver book (almost $900 saved so far) Alaska is becoming much more affordable for us. This is all thanks to our fellow CC members. Malaho for helping us make the most of our Alaskan adventure!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichTraveler Posted March 12, 2009 #2 Share Posted March 12, 2009 I checked a few days before my final payment and my price had gone down. While it only went down a little, my TA always beats the Princess price, so I figured she could do even better. My TA could not see the reduction online, so she called. They didn't want to give it to me, but finally said they would either reduce the price or upgrade with no price change. So I chose upgrade 5 levels ("II" inside to "F" obstructed). Then I asked her to have the OBC for FCC increased since I would now be outside and it is more :-) My cabin number has now been assigned with another upgrade to "D" outside not obstructed. This may be my best value to AK in years! Thanks to CCers for advising us to check prices often! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris2597 Posted March 12, 2009 #3 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Checked the pricing on our balcony cabin this weekend and it had gone down again. Called our agent Monday and were re-fared at the new price. Saved another $750! In total our cruise has been reduced by over $1500 since booking last October. Between that and the TourSaver book (almost $900 saved so far) Alaska is becoming much more affordable for us. This is all thanks to our fellow CC members. Malaho for helping us make the most of our Alaskan adventure!!! What is a Tour Saver Book? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanaki Posted March 12, 2009 Author #4 Share Posted March 12, 2009 The TourSaver book is a coupon book with 2-for-1 coupons. The web page is http://www.toursaver.com/index.php/home/. There is another coupon book called the Northern Lights. It is about 1/2 the price of the TourSaver and there are a lot of the same coupons. Just depends on what you need or want to use. The web page for this other book is http://www.alaska-discounts.com/index.htm. I actually ordered both but probably won't use the Northern Lights. You can also do a search on CC and see many posts about these books and how they have, or have not, helped other Alaska visitors. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRUISERSWITHKIDS Posted March 12, 2009 #5 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Checked the pricing on our balcony cabin this weekend and it had gone down again. Called our agent Monday and were re-fared at the new price. Saved another $750! In total our cruise has been reduced by over $1500 since booking last October. Between that and the TourSaver book (almost $900 saved so far) Alaska is becoming much more affordable for us. This is all thanks to our fellow CC members. Malaho for helping us make the most of our Alaskan adventure!!! I was able to upgrade from an AD mini on dolphin deck to an AB mini on Caribe and had a savings of over $1000.00 per person. (there are 4 of us) I called my princess cruise vacation planner just to ask a question about the complimentary upgrades and she was able to offer me this! We had already made final payment as well. She said it was a special they were running on certain cruise tours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dj127 Posted March 12, 2009 #6 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Called our TA earlier in the week and saved an additonal $800 on our booked Alaskan cruise for Sept. DJ127 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ceilidh1 Posted March 12, 2009 #7 Share Posted March 12, 2009 No such luck here. I hadn't expected a price drop as we got a killer deal with the 2-for-1, but I called last night to ask about price difference to upgrade from a balcony to a mini. When they had the special on there was only about $400 difference in price. Last night I was quoted an additional $5000!!!!!! Needless to say, I stuck with my balcony and will keep my fingers crossed for a free upgade from Princess - I can dream, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamomo Posted March 12, 2009 #8 Share Posted March 12, 2009 We were so fortunate to be offered the 2-for-1 pricing. I just looked and the BB cabin we habe booked on the Star on the September 13th sailing has gone UP by $367 per person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanaki Posted March 12, 2009 Author #9 Share Posted March 12, 2009 I was able to upgrade from an AD mini on dolphin deck to an AB mini on Caribe and had a savings of over $1000.00 per person. (there are 4 of us) I called my princess cruise vacation planner just to ask a question about the complimentary upgrades and she was able to offer me this! We had already made final payment as well. She said it was a special they were running on certain cruise tours. That is amazing that you got that after final payment. Good for you! Our agent and Princess (who was on the other line with the agent) tried to give us an upgrade to a mini. But the mini's they were offering were not anything I wanted. Thanks to Tom's page with the pictures of the Coral's balconies and the diagrams I knew what I wanted and what I didn't want. So when they would offer so-and-so mini I would look at Tom's pictures/diagrams and tell them no. :) They could not believe I knew what balaconies were covered and which were not. I even had to email the pics to the agent. A mini would have been nice, but getting exactly what I want, and knowing exactly what I am getting, is so nice. It pays to be prepared. So we are saving another $750 vs. getting an upgrade. I can live with that. At this point our balcony is almost a 2-for-1 since we are paying close to 1/2 of what we initially were going to be paying. And I will keep watching... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajwu Posted March 12, 2009 #10 Share Posted March 12, 2009 I was able to upgrade from an AD mini on dolphin deck to an AB mini on Caribe and had a savings of over $1000.00 per person. (there are 4 of us) I called my princess cruise vacation planner just to ask a question about the complimentary upgrades and she was able to offer me this! We had already made final payment as well. She said it was a special they were running on certain cruise tours. Just being curious, did 2 for 1 sale applied to your booking prior to your last price adjustment? Which day will you sail with Princess? Did your package include land tours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShibaInuMom Posted March 12, 2009 #11 Share Posted March 12, 2009 CeiliDH1...I would like to e-mail you about your trip last year to Alaska. We are doing the same trip this year, sailing the Pacifiic Princess on June 11. Please e-mail me at ShibaInuMom@hotmail.com with critiques about anything you encountered on your trip. Please include info on the ship, ports, restaurants, anything. I look forward to hearing from you!:):) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRUISERSWITHKIDS Posted March 12, 2009 #12 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Just being curious, did 2 for 1 sale applied to your booking prior to your last price adjustment? Which day will you sail with Princess? Did your package include land tours? The booking we had prior was a balcony bonanza special. The one we just received was a special on certain land tours for new bookings only. (we are doing the LA7:explore kenai). What she did was cancel the booking in my name and rebooked using my husbands name. And our sail date is July 6th on island out of Vancouver. Anybody that sees this that is on that sailing join our roll call! (Dont know if I was supposed to say that or not on here:confused:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan51 Posted March 12, 2009 #13 Share Posted March 12, 2009 How do you find out if the price has dropped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanaki Posted March 12, 2009 Author #14 Share Posted March 12, 2009 How do you find out if the price has dropped? You can either call your TA or look up your cruise through the cruise line or on line company you booked through. See if your class of cabin is the same price as what you paid. If it is lower contact your TA or the cruise line and let them know. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budget Queen Posted March 13, 2009 #15 Share Posted March 13, 2009 How do you find out if the price has dropped? Always, keep track of pricing trends YOURSELF. Do not leave this to a TA to "do it for you". Get on several emails of cruise discounters, and check out several online cruise discount booking agencies. Immediately when you see a price drop, contact your booking agent and request an adjustment. Be AWARE, that most of the time, the "final payment" date given to you is NOT the actual cruiseline date, count back yourself and pay at the last minute. Be especially agressive in your searching for drops, since this is an active time of cancelations and returned block space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budget Queen Posted March 13, 2009 #16 Share Posted March 13, 2009 You can either call your TA or look up your cruise through the cruise line or on line company you booked through. See if your class of cabin is the same price as what you paid. If it is lower contact your TA or the cruise line and let them know. Good luck! For the most potential of price drops, your search needs to be much more than this recommendation. It pays to compare, Several online cruise discounters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanaki Posted March 14, 2009 Author #17 Share Posted March 14, 2009 For the most potential of price drops, your search needs to be much more than this recommendation. It pays to compare, Several online cruise discounters. What I stated has worked very well for me and I have already saved over $1500. I was just sharing MY experience and what worked for us. This may work for others as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.