Has anyone been offered discounts to stay on the ship?

Morning,

There is a reason I am curious about this question but not going to bore all of you with a long story.

To keep it short. Has anyone disembarked off their cruise, got back to their house / hotel, and decided "Hey the boat is leaving in 3 hours for another 4 nights lets go back on it".

Then called Princess and received any special discount price to jump back on the boat?

EDIT - What I mean by special discount is not the price that has been displayed for over a month online. Just a last minute deal. Like they have a few interior rooms left. They know there not going to fill them with anyone else as it's close to cutoff time and decide to offer a cheaper rate to get back on.

Thanks

I don't think you can do that, I think the cruise line has a cut off. However a few years ago, can't remember which cruise line, we did receive a flyer in our cabin a day or 2 into our cruise with a great offer to stay on the ship for the following week. Of course a lot of people cannot do that, we could not. It was a 7 day cruise.

No, but we have gone to the desk while on board with 2 or 3 days left in the cruise and asked about staying on board, and each time they have said that the ship is full.

Perhaps, at the time, they just couldn't be bothered really checking.

I don't think you can do that, I think the cruise line has a cut off. However a few years ago, can't remember which cruise line, we did receive a flyer in our cabin a day or 2 into our cruise with a great offer to stay on the ship for the following week. Of course a lot of people cannot do that, we could not. It was a 7 day cruise.

Will try to keep this short :)

We were able to - We called Princess, they had a few interior rooms left, our vacation home is about 15 min from the port and we would have been back at the boat at 1:30pm (boarding time). The customer service rep was very polite was willing to book us again but no special price (same price as what was online for a month and for 3 sea days and Princess Cays it was not worth it otherwise we would have already booked it in advance).

Story is longer but the CS rep fully understood and completely agreed that "if she had the power to offer a slight discount she definitely would". She then went through Guest Relations to see if they could do anything on the price and the guy there was extremely rude, arrogant, sounded like he hated his job.

He was not rude "because he would not offer a discount" he was simply just an old mean man. Spoke rudely, interrupted, spoke over you, would not listen to anything, would not even pull up our account. It was simply "if you want back on this is it final".

After such a wonderful cruise, our first to, we were so happy with the whole experience and loved it so much that we wanted to get right back on the boat. In away this guest relations guy kind of ruined the whole experience. Again NOT because he would not offer a discount, just his whole attitude. In the end we jumped on a Carnival ship the next day and had another excellent trip, with better ports and a cheaper price.

I was just curious if others received a discount or offer to stay on board. I'm not sure if this is common practice for Princess to treat people with such attitude after they just stepped off the ship and already want to get back on for another go.

There is a reason I am curious about this question but not going to bore all of you with a long story.

I have received a flyer in the cabin prior to the end of the current

cruise inviting me to stay onboard for the next cruise at a (very)

discounted rate.

I have read here of the same happening on Carribbean recently.

It puzzles me why princess keeps scheduling short cruises that

it can't sell...

Morning,

 

There is a reason I am curious about this question but not going to bore all of you with a long story.

 

To keep it short. Has anyone disembarked off their cruise, got back to their house / hotel, and decided "Hey the boat is leaving in 3 hours for another 4 nights lets go back on it".

 

Then called Princess and received any special discount price to jump back on the boat?

 

EDIT - What I mean by special discount is not the price that has been displayed for over a month online. Just a last minute deal. Like they have a few interior rooms left. They know there not going to fill them with anyone else as it's close to cutoff time and decide to offer a cheaper rate to get back on.

 

Thanks

Yes, Princess did make an offer similar to what you're looking for, albiet not exactly as you describe.

Prior to sailing last month on Carribean Princess many passengers received an email offer to stay for the next cruise.

I was booked on the 09/29/14 four-day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Ten days prior, on 09/19, I received an email with subject:

Re: your 9/25 Sailing

It explained: "Add 5 days for as little as $199 plus get $200 to spend on board" It explained the price and OBC was per person.

I get just a little too many Princess emails, so I didn't read it until I got home; I heard about it when speaking with a couple who acted on the offer. For them, it meant changing flights, which they still did.

I live close to the port, so it would have been easy to accept the offer, but I already had two more trips booked.

I'd speculate that given security/TSA issues, last minute travel can't be so very last minute as you described.

There is a way for you to sign-up for what they call their "Stand-By Program" Find this in the right margin when logged-in on the Captain's Circle Program page on the website.

It puzzles me why princess keeps scheduling short cruises that

it can't sell...

And I won't book a 14 day cruise on a ship that returns to Ft Lauderdale after seven days.

And I won't book a 14 day cruise on a ship that returns to Ft Lauderdale after seven days.

Personally, I wouldn't even call that a 14 day cruise!

The turn-around day is a waste, and you get 7-days of everything

repeated. On a true 14-day cruise, must less menu repetition, etc.

I have received a flyer in the cabin prior to the end of the current

cruise inviting me to stay onboard for the next cruise at a (very)

discounted rate.

 

I have read here of the same happening on Carribbean recently.

 

It puzzles me why princess keeps scheduling short cruises that

it can't sell...

It could be that since theses cruises were in the making from last year and if they cancelled them today there are so many people booked right now it's easier to just continue with the trip. I'm thinking that these short cruise won't occur again unless it just 1 or 2 to aline the schedule for a holiday.

I'm pretty sure they have to provide a manifest a certain period before departure. Easy enough to do if you are already on board, they have the info, but that may limit options for those who would disembark and come back on.

We were once offered an amazing deal to stay on the ship when it returned to Southampton. It was something crazy like $299 pp for a week in a balcony.

Unfortunately we were still working and had already booked our return tickets to the USA, but we were sorely tempted and, had we already been retired, would probably have sucked up the cancellation fee on our airfare if we had been able to rebook.

It puzzles me why princess keeps scheduling short cruises that

it can't sell...

From what I gather, 2014 was an experiment: offering Caribbean cruises all 12 months of the year.

As it turns out, it seems that to fill those ships they had to resort to marketing extremes: 100% FCC, $400 OBC for fares of about $400, etc.

I think they learned their lesson: try finding ANY Caribbean cruise in 2015 after the April 11th 7-day sailing of Caribbean Princess until October!

It doesn't take too much thinking to realize that itineraries are contracted with ports far in advance, followed by marketing of the cruises to the public. There probably would have been a greater NEGATIVE impact were they to decide at some point: "This just isn't working... let's pull the plug and cancel these cruises." So they were stuck with it, and those of us that could, benefited.

Personally, I'm sorry it didn't work out for them. I just discovered Princess Cruises this year when friends asked if I wanted to join them for Ruby Princess cruise sailing February 2014.

Thanks to CC, I learned about the promos when I started my research in December 2013, so I did a January cruise for the 100% FCC.... which I probably won't use at this point. But I did my part to help out Princess this year: tomorrow I will sail on my 8th four-day cruise this year. And I was lucky enough to receive a Suite Upsell offer, so I will disembark to hit Elite Status since most of my cruises were in a cabin solo. Yep, blue to Elite in 10 months. With the upsell, my final cruise booked this year, a 5-day on November 3rd on Ruby Princess, where I originally intended to complete my 15&16 cruises, will now be my first sailing as Elite, since it will count as cruises 16&17. It was an offer I couldn't pass up: $559 all in for Obstructed OV with a $400 OBC!

Thank you, Princess, for a great year!

B

From what I gather, 2014 was an experiment: offering Caribbean cruises all 12 months of the year.

Princess does this every few years -- Emerald was in Ft. Lauderdale

all summer in 2010. (might have been 2011)

It's like sticking your finger in a light socket ever few years,

to see if it still hurts....

Actually we don't know the long term gains that they might have achieved with the short cruises. They could have very well introduced cruising to a whole new batch of cruisers that may very well be back in the future for another trip but at the same time created hundred of new Elites. :D

The manifest must be submitted 60 minutes before sailing. On some cruise lines, you can call in the morning and sail in the afternoon. Carnival for sure. Some require you book the day before. EM

Actually we don't know the long term gains that they might have achieved with the short cruises. They could have very well introduced cruising to a whole new batch of cruisers that may very well be back in the future for another trip but at the same time created hundred of new Elites. :D

The problem is that there were already a large number of 3 and 4 day cruisers, but they were cruising on other cruise lines.

Princess wanted to get a good share of the short cruise business but has been unsuccessful in luring enough people from the competition to make a profit.

Late discounts can become available when there is some kind of situation where many people that are booked are not expected to make the next sailing.

In Jan this year there was a major storm that closed several north-east cites for a few days making many people miss their embarkation. We were already in Florida but once on board we met one couple that had just completed the previous cruise. They had disembarked, gone to the airport, found out it would take 3 days to get home so called Princess and were able to go right back to the ship - it was cheaper than a hotel for the 3 days.

...Has anyone disembarked off their cruise, got back to their house / hotel, and decided "Hey the boat is leaving in 3 hours for another 4 nights lets go back on it". Then called Princess and received any special discount price to jump back on the boat?

Ours is an unusual case, but falls into this category in some ways. On 2 March 2010, we arrived at Valparaiso (the port for Santiago, Chile) on the Star Pr. after a "round the Horn" cruise from Buenos Aires (B.A.). This was 3 days after the great Chilean earthquake (magnitude 8.8) that occurred a few hundred km south of Valpo and Santiago. It was so strong that it caused some tsunami damage to the port in Valpo and (more importantly for cruise pax) earthquake damage to the international part of Santiago airport. Fatalities in Chile were estimated to be about 525 -- tragic, but an impressively low figure given the magnitude of the earthquake. For details of the earthquake, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Chile_earthquake

When Princess realized that only a small fraction of the pax for the next cruise (Valpo back to B.A.) would be able to get to the ship in the absence of a functioning airport, the disembarking passengers (including us) were given the option to remain aboard, at a low price per day. For us passengers, the idea was to avoid disembarking in Valpo/Santiago where the international airport was shut down, and where there was rumoured to be other damage in Santiago (details unknown aboard the ship at the time). Instead, we could travel on the Star Pr. back toward (or perhaps even all the way to) B.A., to a port where there was a functional airport. No doubt Princess was to some degree trying to help us, but in doing so they presumably also aimed to fill some cabins that would otherwise have been empty due to the inability of most incoming pax to get to Santiago and to the ship.

A few hundred of us did opt to stay aboard for part or all of the return trip to B.A. Unfortunately, Princess did not make the offer to "stay aboard" until the morning of disembarkation, after everyone's luggage was already ashore in Valpo. Retrieving luggage from the cruise terminal, and cancelling post-cruise tour and hotel arrangements with essentially no notice, was a minor adventure. In addition, a few hundred "new" pax did manage to get to Santiago and eventually got to the ship despite the airport and port problems. However, both groups combined totalled only about a half-full ship. Inevitably, there were a lot of last-minute cancellation, travel disruption, communication, insurance, cabin-assignment, and related problems, especially for the incoming passengers -- vigourously discussed on CC at the time. However, from a broader view, these problems were all minor compared with the troubles that many Chileans had to endure.

The Princess offer to disembarking pax to "stay aboard at low cost" did work out well for some of us. In our case, we travelled about half way back to B.A. on the Star, disembarked at Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego, and flew home from there relatively painlessly. Some other CC members stayed aboard all the way back to B.A. If nothing else, missing out on our planned post-cruise stay in Santiago gave us an excuse to repeat the trip in 2013, with much less drama.

John

They could have very well introduced cruising to a whole new batch of cruisers that may very well be back in the future for another trip :D

I think the 'new batch' are probably the people who don't wish to

spend a dime of their own money on the ship.

Exactly the demographic they don't want to attract.

I think the 'new batch' are probably the people who don't wish to

spend a dime of their own money on the ship.

 

Exactly the demographic they don't want to attract.

I wouldn't quite put it that way; I am an RCI Diamond member with my family ranging from Emerald to Diamond Plus. Many are booked for Princess cruises out of Fort Lauderdale with a good amount of OBC. It is not that they don't want to spend money on vacation, it is that when you compare the loyalty perks to no perks (bottom of rung starting out) on Princess and you are looking at a 3 or 4 day itinerary, well, even a seemingly more expensive RCI cruise can actually be a lot less when you factor in free evening drinks.

So the Princess come on gets people onboard and whets their appetite for more. Now I'm coming around more to Princess and looking at longer itineraries that aren't such "deals" but I am more comfortable with the product even without the RCI style perks.

Every good seller knows the first one is on the house; then you get them hooked good. :D

The manifest must be submitted 60 minutes before sailing. On some cruise lines, you can call in the morning and sail in the afternoon. Carnival for sure. Some require you book the day before. EM

My husband and I sailed on the Caribbean Princess Monday, September 1 thru Saturday, September 6, 2014.

We had an amazing time. Thursday night we decided how great it would be to remain on the ship for the next sailing.

Friday morning we were at the Future Cruise Office when it opened. We spoke to the Department Head and we were informed that even thou there were cabins available, it would not be possible for us to sail as all paperwork for the ship was sent in.

We were not aware of or did we inquire if there were discounts. We just wanted to continue our cruise.

Many many years ago (over 10) I can remember seeing a sign at the Pursers toward the end of the cruise advertising VERY low rates for any one wishing to continue on. I had to get back to work...but was really tempted to call in....Never seen it since.

On the topic of short cruises, I sailed Princess for the first time earlier this year on a short Ruby itinerary out of FLL. My wife and I were looking for a short cruise and would not have taken Princess otherwise. We are now booked on another short Princess cruise on the CP next month. When we have more time we will look at the longer Princess cruises. We are relatively young (40s) and cruise 2-3 times a year, so we (hopefully) have a lot of cruises ahead of us. The shorter cruise definitely turned us on to Princess, which we liked. I do not think we would have sailed Princess if not for the shorter cruise intro. Did Princess make a lot on us on the first go around? Probably not, but I bet in the long run it turns out to be a good investment. The fact that we are sailing Princess again within 9 months tells you something ...

Yes, Princess did make an offer similar to what you're looking for, albiet not exactly as you describe.

 

Prior to sailing last month on Carribean Princess many passengers received an email offer to stay for the next cruise.

 

I was booked on the 09/29/14 four-day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. Ten days prior, on 09/19, I received an email with subject:

 

Re: your 9/25 Sailing

 

It explained: "Add 5 days for as little as $199 plus get $200 to spend on board" It explained the price and OBC was per person.

 

I get just a little too many Princess emails, so I didn't read it until I got home; I heard about it when speaking with a couple who acted on the offer. For them, it meant changing flights, which they still did.

 

I live close to the port, so it would have been easy to accept the offer, but I already had two more trips booked.

 

I'd speculate that given security/TSA issues, last minute travel can't be so very last minute as you described.

 

There is a way for you to sign-up for what they call their "Stand-By Program" Find this in the right margin when logged-in on the Captain's Circle Program page on the website.

That's the same pricing that anyone can get on their website.