Anniversary Sale not impressive...

Hello:

The latest promotion by Princess is not particularly impressive. We are booked for the Royal next summer, and this latest promotion is more than $350 more expensive pp than the last promotion...

I agree. The price on both of my qualifying cruises went up enough that the "deal" isn't worth it. Princess seems to raise prices on many cruises whenever they offer a new "deal." Bait and switch. :(

And how does this make Princess different from NCL, RCCL, or any cruise line, airline, or any business. It doesn't.

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Not necessarily.

Our Sapphire Asia cruise that we booked on Sunday fell over $2500 + add'l $600 OBC + 1 specialty dining trip...so total saved was around $3200 or about 30% off of fare 3 days ago (and not a suite)

In case anyone new reads this thread, it is good to keep checking, and keep track of the perks and their value to you.

In my case, the "net" price of my planned cruise went down $382. By "net" I mean after accounting for the change in perks. I counted 3*$29 for the specialty dining perk (three people), though that is "bonus" to us not a savings, because we would not normally do it. Without that perk, we still save a net of $295.

We previously booked with the "three for free" sale, so we lost prepaid gratuities for two, but increased OBC and added the specialty dining. It can get confusing!

Edited to add context: Ours is a 10-night cruise in a mini-suite, but the price of a balcony fell even more on that cruise on the Royal Princess.

And how does this make Princess different from NCL, RCCL, or any cruise line, airline, or any business. It doesn't.

No one said it did. Why would you post this?? :confused:

This is the Princess board so that's why the OP commented on the latest Princess promo. Deals for NCL, RCCL or other lines can be discussed on their boards. The comment was appropriate and in the right place.

I would post this because Princess is not unique in its sales. If you read any of the boards, there often comparisons between the various cruise lines on food, itineraries, cabins, etc. So get off your high horse.

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Hello:

The latest promotion by Princess is not particularly impressive. We are booked for the Royal next summer, and this latest promotion is more than $350 more expensive pp than the last promotion...

We just refared our Med cruise on the Royal. Gave up: free gratuities (259) Gained OBC +200, Gained Specialty Dining for 2 +58, Gained fare reduction +920 for the both of us. This was the third time we requested a relook at our fares. 1. free drink Promo 2. free gratuities Promo and now 3. Anniversary sale. Each one in our case, better than the previous.

So get off your high horse.

Now, that comment IS inappropriate! Try being kind; it will come back to you.

And the OP wasn't making any comparison of cruiselines so you must have misread it. Have a nice day!! :D

I agree. The price on both of my qualifying cruises went up enough that the "deal" isn't worth it. Princess seems to raise prices on many cruises whenever they offer a new "deal." Bait and switch. :(

This is not called the "Bait and Switch" its called Marketing. One of the tricks in marketing is making the consumer feel like he/she got a great deal. I have to agree with this thread Princess did not do that with the anniversary sale.:(

Princess seems to raise prices on many cruises whenever they offer a new "deal." Bait and switch. :(

Nothing wrong with this. It's up to the buyers to do their homework and spot the difference. Cruise line's job is to entice consumers to buy their products with catchy slogans. That's it.

Depends on deals offered, if any, when current booking was made. Got a better one before on my March 2017 booking than what is offered now.

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Sorry some of you did not get a better deal on your cruise for the Anniversary Sale.

My sailing of the Royal this summer did have a price drop. Several of us saved over $1000 per cabin.

The only thing I look at is the cost per day.

Marketing promos with beverage packages and specialty restaurants included are making it more and more difficult (but hardly impossible) to figure out the 'true' cost per day. If something I would not normally buy is included in a promotion, it does not enter into the equation eg. I would not 'subtract' a specialty restaurant cost. I might subtract part of an AIBP because I will have a bar bill at the end of a cruise (but nowhere equal to $56.35 per day).

I know exactly what it has historically cost me to cruise. Newbies don't... but the marketing is designed to make them think they got a deal.

I haven't been impressed with Princess sale pricing in a long time. This could explain why I have been sailing on other lines.

A big part of whether or not any particular sale is a good deal for "you" often depends on your priorities.

For many on our Regal TA next September they saved a lot of money due to lower fares and increased OBC.

However, for many of us, our previous booking included the drink package which has a retail value of $789 per pax for our cruise and of course would be forfeited if you re-fared.

So that brings us back to priorities. While it's true for many that the free drink package is a nice extra but not a necessity and something they would not have purchased on their own, for us, especially on a TA with many sea days it's a great value. So combine the $1579 retail value of the drink package for two, plus the OBC we were already receiving, plus the discounted fare from our travel agent it was a no brainer to stay put. However others jumped on it.

Is it a good sale or a bad sale?? ;)

With the new promotion we had a price drop of $220 each for our stateroom. We called to get the lower price and were told we would lose the 3-for-free perks and had to take the Anniversary promotion in its place. Instead, we lost the $270 in pre-paid gratuities we had, but gained an additional $200 in OBC plus a specialty dinner for two one night. I figure the dining is worth about $60. So, we end up losing $10 with the new promotion, but then gained $440 in lower fare, for a net gain of $430 in savings.

This is "bait and switch" I can live with. ;)

By the way, this is the second time we have taken advantage of a price drop on this cruise. Both price drops happened at the same time as a new promotion. Both times the promotion was different. and we had to change to the new promo. And both times we saved money even when comparing the different perks that either went away or were gained and the price differences taken into account.

The only thing I look at is the cost per day.

 

Marketing promos with beverage packages and specialty restaurants included are making it more and more difficult (but hardly impossible) to figure out the 'true' cost per day. If something I would not normally buy is included in a promotion, it does not enter into the equation eg. I would not 'subtract' a specialty restaurant cost. I might subtract part of an AIBP because I will have a bar bill at the end of a cruise (but nowhere equal to $56.35 per day).

 

I know exactly what it has historically cost me to cruise. Newbies don't... but the marketing is designed to make them think they got a deal.

This!! My thoughts exactly...once you cut through all the fluff and drill down to figure out the cost per day, that is the best way IMO to determine the "true" cost. This is the best way for me to figure out if a cruise is a good deal for me or not. :)

We just rebooked our Mediterranean cruise for next summer also. We gave up the 3 for free so lost our free tips, but our fare dropped from $2799 pp for a deluxe balcony to $1899 pp for a mini suite. This rebooking is saving us more than $1500 and we upgraded our cabin as well. I sure don't see it as a bait and switch.

In case anyone new reads this thread, it is good to keep checking, and keep track of the perks and their value to you.

 

In my case, the "net" price of my planned cruise went down $382. By "net" I mean after accounting for the change in perks. I counted 3*$29 for the specialty dining perk (three people), though that is "bonus" to us not a savings, because we would not normally do it. Without that perk, we still save a net of $295.

 

We previously booked with the "three for free" sale, so we lost prepaid gratuities for two, but increased OBC and added the specialty dining. It can get confusing!

 

Edited to add context: Ours is a 10-night cruise in a mini-suite, but the price of a balcony fell even more on that cruise on the Royal Princess.

I agree with psumatt, you have to keep checking to see what serves you best. I usually find early booking is best for me and I wait until a sale shows up that gives me the perks I want and then I jump in.

The one I don't understand is the cabin upgrade with the 3 for free. Is that the lowest mini, ME you get an MA for the same price, as long as it's not the club class?

I usually find early booking is best for me and I wait until a sale shows up that gives me the perks I want and then I jump in.

I book all my cruises 1-1.5 yrs ahead. For the past 5 booked cruises, the prices all went up when a promo deal was rolled out. The offered perks weren't good enough to offset the increase in cruise fare. I'm wondering if only the inside, oceanview and balcony cabins are getting price drops? I book minisuites or full suites.

I'm going back and forth on whether it's worth it to take this price drop or not.

Our cruise (BI Aug 2017) dropped $100 PP, but that's for the lowest category balcony. I don't know how much it will cost to keep my current (upgraded in the 3 for free) room which is in a location that works for me.

I'd lose my grats (on a 12 night cruise that's a good amount of $) but get a $400 SBC and a free meal.

Regardless my cruise is still selling for WAY more than it did for final payment in 2016 so I'm hoping this isn't the last time I have to ponder this.

I book all my cruises 1-1.5 yrs ahead. For the past 5 booked cruises, the prices all went up when a promo deal was rolled out. The offered perks weren't good enough to offset the increase in cruise fare. I'm wondering if only the inside, oceanview and balcony cabins are getting price drops? I book minisuites or full suites.

Minisuite prices dropped a couple hundred on our June Alaska cruise. That made it attractive and we upgraded from a deluxe balcony for not much more than our original fare for the deluxe.

To a large extent, calling it a sale is just marketing and gives them a way to make price adjustments. Like any business, Princess adjusts prices based on demand. If a cruise is selling better than expected, prices go up. If not as well as expected, prices go down. It's no different than anything else in travel industry - airfares and hotel rates do the same thing.

For us, we re-fared yesterday (but then decided a different room gave us an even better value) as the new sale looked to give us a better than $100 reduction (net of the value of the sale perks) than what we had (this was for a Deluxe Balcony on Regal's TA next September). But people value the perks differently. For the old 3 for 3, I considered the gratuities just to be more OBC ($189 pp for a 14 night cruise). Plus we had the $150 pp OBC (the third perk, the within category upgrade, was already accounted for in the base fare). So $339 pp OBC before OBC not tied to this promotion (FCC and Shareholder).

The new is $300 pp OBC plus one specialty dining. Now we've never had any desire to do specialty dining so to us, it's value is $0 (but we'll do since it's included). Now is the $300 pp OBC worth $300 to us? No, not if it forces us to spend it on things we wouldn't otherwise. To the extent it covers gratuities and drinks we would purchase anyway, it's worth 100%. But once it goes beyond that, it needs to be valued at only a percentage of its nominal value (in other words, given a choice between $300 OBC and a $300 reduction in base fate with no OBC, I will definitely take the reduction in base fare - since for this cruise, after FCC and shareholder OBC are added in, we're looking at $1000 in OBC, I'd probably give up the $300 pp OBC from the current promotion for a $250 reduction in base fare).

Some people are saying the new promotion is not worth because they have AIBP and they value it highly. We don't value it that highly as we don't drink a lot. If we spend $30 on beverages a day between the two of us, that's on the high side. When we first booked, it was on a promotion with AIBP but we opted for the OBC in lieu ($250 pp) as I do not expect us to get $250 pp of value (including all it covers including the discount on wine bottles) out of the AIBP on a 14-day cruise. But many others do value it much higher. So someone else could have been booked in the same category with an included AIBP promotion and concluded the new promotion is a bad deal just when I concluded it was a good deal. Likewise, someone who knows they're going to do specialty dining will value the current specialty dining perk at $29 while I'm valuing it at $0.

For me, it all comes down to what I think the bottom line fare is - that is the base fare less how I value the promotion perks. And, since we're going to value the perks differently, we'll reach different conclusions. Not really any different than people who do not value balconies or oceanviews very highly so they're quite happy in an inside which for others, the balcony is a must have. And there's really nothing wrong with that.

Hello:

The latest promotion by Princess is not particularly impressive. We are booked for the Royal next summer, and this latest promotion is more than $350 more expensive pp than the last promotion...

It's another non sale.