Princess Price Hike....

My wife and I were considering a Southampton to Singapore 38 night cruise on Sapphire for October/November 2019.

On the Princess website, a BD cabin (using B722 as an example) is currently available for A$9839 (the lowest price in comparison to 3 other sites) for 2019.

However, on comparing the 2018 cruise with 2019, Princess have bumped up the price for the same stateroom by $2141.00...!!

Princess are entitled to raise their prices, but that's a fair old hike for the same itinerary ..!!

Why do you think this is? Any thoughts?

(Unfortunately, we can't do the 2018 cruise as we are on Golden at the time).

Put it on hold and hope the price drops.

That's some price hike !!

Think I might wait a few weeks and see if it is a glitch in system. Could be 2018 cruise isn't selling, so supply and demand comes in.

Having said that, the lower price does seem an excellent price for 38 days.

What a shame we don't have the same terms and conditions as USA, where you can re rate if price drops! ( I mention this at every opportunity, hoping Princess will one day take note)

We have booked our last few cruises directly with Princess. The most recent, we booked with a high street, worldwide agent though; as the price they could offer us was £500 per person cheaper for 19 nights Sydney to Hong Kong, BB grade balcony.

They always start high. If the cruise doesn't sell well, the price decreases. This is not unusual. On the flip side, the price can go up if the cruise does sell well.

On my ship this summer, the same cruise is $2000 more next year. I have had several price reductions recently.

Supply and demand. Happens all the time. As the ship fills, prices go up. Airlines, hotels, etc. all do the same thing.

Often, the lowest price is when the itinerary is released. Prices go up after that.

 

Often, the lowest price is when the itinerary is released. Prices go up after that.

The logic is totally correct, but we've also seen prices drop on Princess cruises. If you want to be on the cruise, book it. Then follow the prices and have the price adjusted (whether this requires a cancel and rebook or simply a refaring) if you see a price drop. However, be sure to incorporate the value of any perks you may have with the current pricing.

Example--we have an Alaska cruise booked. The price recently dropped by about $200, but our current booking includes an onboard credit and specialty dining with a value of more than the price drop....as well as comp. gratuities which may or may not carry over if we re-book. Bottom line, we are better off with our existing booking.

The October 2018 started out about $1700 US higher than what it is going for now....that doesn’t necessarily predict what will happen for 2019, but if you can, you may want to consider your timing or booking options since the rules are different for your bookings.

Prices do go down sometimes and in our case our fall 14 day cruise in the Caribbean. We book as soon as it is available and then watch the price. We have had two price reductions with the final being $700 less than the original.

Most of our cruises where we booked over a year ahead the price dropped significantly. However our AK sailing only went up and sold out quickly. It’s all about demand! Just book and wait for price drop.

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for our upcoming cruise in a couple of weeks, showing as sold out, we booked back in October on a $ 1 deposit day. I had been following the cruise and there was a decent price drop ( 110 pp ) and free grats

couple of days later, the price was back up and no free grats, where it ended the last time I checked before it "sold out"

pretty sure it's our first cruise that we are actually sailing at the original booked price

I booked a month ago a cruise that was heavily booked. Only insides and outsides available. Within the month, I have had $580 in reductions (price just went up on the 15th) and $600 reductions in air.

The price for the same cruise is $2000 more for next year for the cabin. Prices change. It helps if you are not tied to a specific cabin or category. For example - there are other categories in the same type of cabin that didn't change.

Well, my cruise which is in final payment done period has just dropped again--$270pp less than what we paid. Last time it dropped, I posted and asked the group what could happen. This time, I jumped right on it and called the TA. She was well aware that they wouldn't adjust the price but might offer some OBC as compensation....I rather hinted that I'd love to see enough OBC to cover the grats at least since we got no perks on this cruise.

SO, I'll let you know what happens.

If you really want to do that cruise then book it. You have until the end of April 2019 to change your mind without incurring any penalties. Meanwhile check regularly (at least once a week) for price drops. Rumour has it that Tuesday evenings (Aussie time) is a good time to check.

That cruise is also being sold as several shorter sectors so it's hard to just how well the full cruise you're looking at is selling.

We often book cruises as soon as they come on offer and have almost always been able to refare to a lower price. The Med cruise we did last year dropped significantly at one stage and we were able to secure that price drop.

Well' date=' my cruise which is in final payment done period has just dropped again--$270pp less than what we paid. Last time it dropped, I posted and asked the group what could happen. This time, I jumped right on it and called the TA. She was well aware that they wouldn't adjust the price but might offer some OBC as compensation....I rather hinted that I'd love to see enough OBC to cover the grats at least since we got no perks on this cruise.

 

SO, I'll let you know what happens.[/quote']

And what happened was that they raised the price again. I returned from an afternoon meeting and looked; the price was the increased rate it had previously been. Princess told the TA that it had never dropped, but I have a screen shot to prove that it had. Too strange. I have no idea what is happening, but currently OVs are higher than balconies.

Many people think cruise pricing is similar to the way a jug of milk is priced at the grocery store. It isn’t.

Your comparison would be valid if the price of the 2018 cruise was from 1 year ago maintaining the “year and a half” before the actual cruise date comparison but it isn’t. You are comparing the price of two similar Cruises, one 6 months away and the other 18 months away.

Prices change constantly with the end game being to have the ship sold out about one or two weeks before the sailing date. Sell it out too soon and they discounted too much at some point. Fail to sell it out and they didn’t discount quite enough.

We virtually never book a cruise before final payment date for this reason.

AE_Collector

Thank you for this valuable information folks.

I will take the general tenor of the advice and book using FCD's, and check the pricing at regular intervals.

Again, thank you.