Group Cruise Discounts?

Can anyone tell me what kind of discount Princess offers for a group booking? Some cruise lines give free fare to the 10th person booked for example.

Does Princess do this?:confused:

Yes Princes will give one free berth for every 8-10 revenue berth depending on the agencies status in terms of sales...also they will give onboard cruise credits and other amenities as well to group bookings...Sometimes group bookings are the lowest priced, but be carefull as sometimes these bookings are not combinable with other Promo's...you gotta do the math to see if you come out ahead.

Thanks HR!

By berth, do you mean PERSON or CABIN???

Thanks!

Berths=Cabins ...cruise lines always talk in terms of "berths".....hope the above helped....find a good TA that knows the ins and outs on group rates and combinability!

Berths=Cabins ...cruise lines always talk in terms of "berths".....hope the above helped....find a good TA that knows the ins and outs on group rates and combinability!

Berth does not equal cabin. Normal "tour conductor" credit is one free berth for every 16 double occupancy berths. A qualifying berth is a passenger paying at least the group double occupancy rate. A single occupancy cabin would equal only one berth and a triple occupancy cabin would equal only two berths to be credited to the number needed to qualify for the free berth. The reduced-rate third passenger would not count.

Thus, it's possible that it takes as many as sixteen cabins to meet the 16 berth minimum (16 passengers, all single occupancy) or as little as eight cabins (16 passengers, all double occupancy). And you can have a group of 28 passengers and still not qualify for the TC credit if they're all in 7 quad occupancy cabins -- you'd still only have only 14 qualifying berths.

Different sailings have different numbers of berths to qualify for a TC credit. On longer cruises the number might fall from 16 down to 10 or 12.

I believe your math and long explanantion confirms my 8 berths to one free cabin...in any event this wasn't the OP's original question which I believe has been answered by my initial post....but thanks anyways.

Berth = Bed. So 16 berths/8 cabins (3rd and 4th berths don't count) = 1 free berth, not one free cabin.

2 berths = 1 cabin therefore 8 cabins = 16 full paying passengrs. In this case 15 pay and # 16 goes free. You can either give this free berth to the group organizer or divide by 16 and subtract a given amount from each passengers total. 3rd and 4th passengers in a cabin do not count towards the group discount.

Barbara

Depends on the line and the agency. We have been doing a "Friends and Family cruise every winter for the past 20 years. Usually, for every 15 paying passengers, the 16th is free (not including taxes/govt fees/air) Last year, we were offered one free for every 10 paying passengers. Not Princess, don't know if it was because of the agency or the line we were on.

However, a few years ago we were on Costa. We had 24-ish people booked. I asked if we had one free fare and was told "No, because you all booked a minimum guarantee rate". Does this sound ligit, or do you think the agent pocked the $$$ for what whould have been the free cabin.

Marco Friends and Family is completly different as you know they are similar to TA rates and Interline rates...I am suspect too believe the variance on free berths depends on the agency and/or sailing and wether or not they are IXL or IXL Gold.

So just to recap group cruises are not a gold mine, they have to be substantial in size and whatever benefit that is received is probably offset by the subtantial time involved in getting all the ducks in a row to get aboard. If you have a large group already by all means get something out of it but it won't be a huge windfall, more like a polite thank you.

We often get "group space" credits from our ta which is the equivalent of splitting the free ride up and do nothing more than book with a big TA agency.

So just to recap group cruises are not a gold mine, they have to be substantial in size and whatever benefit that is received is probably offset by the subtantial time involved in getting all the ducks in a row to get aboard. If you have a large group already by all means get something out of it but it won't be a huge windfall, more like a polite thank you.

We often get "group space" credits from our ta which is the equivalent of splitting the free ride up and do nothing more than book with a big TA agency.

Actually, sometimes you can get lucky. Many travel agencies will block group space on a variety of ships and sailing dates a year or so in advance hoping to sell it later -- basically on a "spec" basis. And many times they're sitting on this unsold space at low contracted rates while the rates for new bookings may have increased by several hundreds of dollars. If your needs match the TA's available unsold space you can get a great deal.

Great group deals are hard to come by on the ships and dates that are going to sell out easily anyway. The best group deals go to those that are willing to book on the sailings that the cruise lines historically have trouble filling. They need the help and can often be willing to offer some great perks to get groups on board.