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Suite Prices


dickinson

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Do suite prices ever go down? I have sailed Princess one time but the price never went down on my window suite (which is a full suite). I am booked again in a window suite for September 2013. In some thread a few weeks ago someone commented that suite prices never go down. Is that correct? I don't want to waste my time watching for price drops that won't happen.

 

Thanks.

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Only once have we had our price reduced. I had been reading about fares dropping on a cruise we were taking. I called my TA to see if perchance the fare had dropped for us and was stunned that it had. I think it rarely happens.

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Thanks! I'll keep checking then. My last cruise which I booked 2 weeks after the pricing came out never had a fare reduction (didn't go up either).

 

Another question - Do some TAs discount suite fares? My TA, which had discounted my last cruise, advised me at some point that Princess no longer discounts and they have to charge Princess prices. However on a couple of other threads I see people talk about discounts. Is it suite fares that are not discounted or is my TA just not discounting any longer? Because of what they said a few months ago before I took my last cruise I didn't even check around for better rates. I did get $140 obc . Thanks

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Thanks! I'll keep checking then. My last cruise which I booked 2 weeks after the pricing came out never had a fare reduction (didn't go up either).

 

Another question - Do some TAs discount suite fares? My TA, which had discounted my last cruise, advised me at some point that Princess no longer discounts and they have to charge Princess prices. However on a couple of other threads I see people talk about discounts. Is it suite fares that are not discounted or is my TA just not discounting any longer? Because of what they said a few months ago before I took my last cruise I didn't even check around for better rates. I did get $140 obc . Thanks

 

You need to find a new TA. We just booked another suite and the fare is almost $700 less than the published rate.

 

Mike:)

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You may have to question the veracity your current TA.

 

We booked a full suite for our late August cruise at a discount from our TA.

 

If our reading previous postiings is correct, TAs can no longer advertise discounts, but are not prevented from giving them.

 

P&J

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Thanks for the info. At the moment I will keep the current TA because I booked before July 15 which means I am grandfathered into the unlimited free internet. Also I don't have to purchase travel insurance right away with them and it will still keep me covered for pre-existing conditions (I don't have any but you never know what might come up between now and Sept 2013!!). It is one of those warehouse type places. Maybe instead of discounts they are instead just offering some obc and a good price on a good travel insurance policy.

 

When I have time I may check around for prices. Being a Window Suite I doubt I would save $700 though. they are priced at the same price as the lowest mini suite.

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We have never had a price drop on any of our cruises. We have five booked right now and all but the Royal are already sold out except the window suites. We must be booking popular cruises where suites go first. It is frustrating when so many people on my roll calls are talking about their $500 - $1000 price drops and we get nothing. I need a balcony and would never book a window suite but I have seen them as cheap as a mini. They seem to be the last to book and then they drop the price after final payment is due.

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Compozer- On my last cruise in June the Window Suite never went down in price nor up. At some point it was just not listed anymore which I assume means it was sold out. As this is just my second Princess cruise I am unsure of what the "trends" are. We have never had a balcony before so going to Alaska in a suite sounded great (and it was!). Next we are going to New England/Canada which is port intensive so we figured lets do the window suite again (although now it is S7). I just was curious to know what to expect.

 

Thanks all!

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dickinson,

We went to Alaska the first cruise of the season and had a ph suite. I also thought we would never use the balcony but it was 70 everyday and we spent the day at GlacierBay on the balcony in our swim suits. Now, New England might be different. Just looked at the September and October cruises and the window suites are still up there in price. I noticed them last year and they were really cheap. I wonder if they are going to upgrade people to them instead of marking them down? You never know what Princess is up to.

We are also going to NE in October and wonder how much we really will be in our cabins. I didn't book a suite on that one because it's so port intense - especially now with no more unlimited internet. The following 4 day cruise to Bermuda had their WS booked right away. People said they were $399 and many regulars on that yearly trip snapped them up.

 

I don't know what to say. If you don't have to worry about flights, you could wait until final payment is due and see if they come down.

 

Good luck.

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Compozer- On my last cruise in June the Window Suite never went down in price nor up. At some point it was just not listed anymore which I assume means it was sold out. As this is just my second Princess cruise I am unsure of what the "trends" are. We have never had a balcony before so going to Alaska in a suite sounded great (and it was!). Next we are going to New England/Canada which is port intensive so we figured lets do the window suite again (although now it is S7). I just was curious to know what to expect.

 

Thanks all!

 

On itineraries where the weather is warm such as the Caribbean or on scenic itineraries such as Alaska, balcony rooms are more desirable and window suites usually drop in price or are the same price as a mini suite for those sailings.

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One thing we had considered was if we should have our cabin marked as no upgrade. We did that on our Alaska cruise so we decided to do it on this Canada cruise too. We really loved the location on Fiesta deck right outside Passenger Services. I have no clue if there are any "bad" locations for the full suites with balconies.

 

It is possible that with only 7 cabins they don't change the price but instead upgrade people to them.

 

Oh, and our Alaska cruise it was cold so we would have rarely used the balcony if we had one. I guess we guessed correctly.

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This year, we booked E731 on the Grand which is a mini-suite with an extended balcony. However, Princess dropped the price on suites about a month before the cruise and we moved up to a Vista Suite (D736). Just paid the difference between what we had already paid and the discounted price on the suite. I intend to use this strategy again!

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This year, we booked E731 on the Grand which is a mini-suite with an extended balcony. However, Princess dropped the price on suites about a month before the cruise and we moved up to a Vista Suite (D736). Just paid the difference between what we had already paid and the discounted price on the suite. I intend to use this strategy again!

 

 

I never knew you could do that after final payment. Did you go thru a TA or Princess?

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This year, we booked E731 on the Grand which is a mini-suite with an extended balcony. However, Princess dropped the price on suites about a month before the cruise and we moved up to a Vista Suite (D736). Just paid the difference between what we had already paid and the discounted price on the suite. I intend to use this strategy again!

 

I think you were quite lucky as D736 and D737 generally tend to be some of the earliest full suites to book on the grand class ships.

 

Mike:)

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Out of curiosity, I checked the pricing of my 2013 cruise for the same week this September. My window suite category is much higher in price than what I am paying and I also notice that all of the suites are available. Seems like no one is booking them. They will probably upgrade people into them. The cruise I just sailed in June was sold out of them at least 4 or 5 months (if not longer) in advance of the cruise.

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Out of curiosity, I checked the pricing of my 2013 cruise for the same week this September. My window suite category is much higher in price than what I am paying and I also notice that all of the suites are available. Seems like no one is booking them. They will probably upgrade people into them. The cruise I just sailed in June was sold out of them at least 4 or 5 months (if not longer) in advance of the cruise.

The cruise for 2013 is over a year away. Princess starts out with a high brochure price and depending how the itinerary is selling the price will drop or in some cases increase. The itineraries I sail usually drop.

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The cruise for 2013 is over a year away. Princess starts out with a high brochure price and depending how the itinerary is selling the price will drop or in some cases increase. The itineraries I sail usually drop.

 

I think you have everything about what I said reversed. My cruise over a year away is LOWER than the one sailing in about 7 weeks. Also the cruise sailing in about 7 weeks seems to have not sold any window suites. Therefore... with the price high for a window suite and only about 7 weeks left I bet they will fill them with upgrades.

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I got a lower than published rate on my Vista Suite for the Panama Canal next February. Now all the vista suites are sold out and there is only 1 penthouse suite left. I think it depends on how popular the itinerary is because the suites sold really quick on our cruise.

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I think you have everything about what I said reversed. My cruise over a year away is LOWER than the one sailing in about 7 weeks. Also the cruise sailing in about 7 weeks seems to have not sold any window suites. Therefore... with the price high for a window suite and only about 7 weeks left I bet they will fill them with upgrades.

 

Yes I did misinterpret your post. Here is the thing with window suites. They are not very popular because they don't have a balcony. A person who booked the least expensive balcony could possibly be upgraded however they may consider that a down grade. How are the other categories selling? They may have raised the price of the window suite to fill those first. Last year I had the opportunity to book a window suite on a 7 day Carribean cruise for only $749. It was a reposition cruise positioning to New York. Unfortunately I had another commitment that week so I couldn't take advantage of that offer. Being that reposition cruises are not popular bookings and the fact that it was a Caribbean itinerary the window suite didn't sell which explains the drop in price

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Yes I did misinterpret your post. Here is the thing with window suites. They are not very popular because they don't have a balcony. A person who booked the least expensive balcony could possibly be upgraded however they may consider that a down grade. How are the other categories selling? They may have raised the price of the window suite to fill those first. Last year I had the opportunity to book a window suite on a 7 day Carribean cruise for only $749. It was a reposition cruise positioning to New York. Unfortunately I had another commitment that week so I couldn't take advantage of that offer. Being that reposition cruises are not popular bookings and the fact that it was a Caribbean itinerary the window suite didn't sell which explains the drop in price

 

WOW! $749! What a deal for the right person. We have never had a balcony so when we decided last year to take an Alaskan cruise and discovered window suites we figured let's go for it. We loved it and also loved the location. Now that we are planning on going to NE/Canada we were pleasantly surprised to find that ship the CB had window suites too. ( I hear only about 3 ships have them). It is port intensive so a balcony not so important to us (you don't miss what you don't have). Future cruises will be a let down because we probably won't be able to afford a suite with balcony. Loved breakfast in Sabatini's!

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WOW! $749! What a deal for the right person. We have never had a balcony so when we decided last year to take an Alaskan cruise and discovered window suites we figured let's go for it. We loved it and also loved the location. Now that we are planning on going to NE/Canada we were pleasantly surprised to find that ship the CB had window suites too. ( I hear only about 3 ships have them). It is port intensive so a balcony not so important to us (you don't miss what you don't have). Future cruises will be a let down because we probably won't be able to afford a suite with balcony. Loved breakfast in Sabatini's!

I only booked a balcony once and hardly used it. I usually book an obstructed view just for light but when I saw the Price of the WS which was on the CB I wanted to book it soooo bad.

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Can't wait til I retire and we can cruise when a good deal comes up! When we planned our Alaska cruise it was going to be our first one with a balcony. While planning I read a long thread about the window suites. My dh and I discussed it and decided to do that instead of the balcony as the price for the category of balcony I wanted (mid ship with cabins above and below) was slightly higher than the WS!. It wasn't bad at all going up on deck to get a panoramic view of the scenery! We loved the WS and the perks that came with it.

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We were booked in 2 AD minis for CB out of San Juan in January. Right before final payment, the window suites went on sale for $999, which was cheaper than the minis! We loved the window suites; the floor plan is roomier and nicely laid out. Since there was only one sea day during the week, we found having no balcony was no problem, esp. Since the promenade deck was so close.

 

We were booked for the CB Bermuda and repositioning cruise in Oct./Nov in AD minis (btb 4/10 day). The recent Sun-Drenched sale offered a 14-day Caribbean (btb 7/7) 12/1-15 on the Grand and we were able to get Vista D736 for about $200/person more than the repo. That was a deal price I have never seen before -- almost a 2-for-1 sale! Yes, we lost some $ on the ticket changes, but it was worth it! I love the atmosphere on the ship right before Christmas, and we have stayed in that suite on the Grand before, and we consider it our favorite. The balcony is wonderful!

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