Princess Future Cruise Letter - $100 AUD

Have just returned from the Sydney to Dover Section of the Dawn Princess World Cruise and don't know if information about Future Cruise Letters for Australians has been discussed recently.

Previously we did not have to pay any money to obtain a letter from the Future Cruise Sales Consultant onboard. The cost is now $100 AUD each and the benefits are much the same (4 years to use, fully refundable, OBC etc.). The advantage now is that it can be used as the deposit! When we were onboard we booked the 49 day South American Cruise (January 2013) and have only paid $100 deposit each with the remainder of the fare not due until July 2012. Under the previous arrangements because of the length of the cruise, we would have had to pay $1500 each, at the time of booking. We received $250 OBC and have the option of transferring the booking to a travel agent for an even better cruise price. We were also given a letter each to use for any future cruise. The exception seems to be for full World Cruises or any World Cruise Segment where the doposit is reduced to 5% of the cruise fare and a fare discount of 3% is provided.

So even though you now have an initial outlay of $100 whilst onboard one cruise, if you are planning another cruise, in some cases that is all that is needed for the full deposit.

NOTE: We booked the South American cruise on the second day of the World Cruise and were told it was 50% sold out. Within a week, it was completely sold out and waitlisted. With this new system and the fact that the fares started from under $100 per day (compared with the World Cruise at approximately $200), no wonder the ship will be filled with a lot of Aussies!

This is good news. Interesting though that you have to pay in full 6months before the S.American cruise.

It certainly is a popular cruise. There were plenty of move-over offers on our Feb 2011 S.A. cruise to cut down the wait list.

Hope you enjoy the cruise as much as we did.

I bought two recently and they are sitting on my cruise personaliser :D Very handy if your one of those that hates having bits of paper lying around.

Yes, Princess has now made the Australian FCC letters the same conditions as the Princess US ones. This is a good thing IMHO. It is a start with being able to have the $100 deposit instead of the ridiculous amounts they required previously.

The only thing I query is why do you have to pay the balance of your SA cruise 6 months ahead. On our Ruby Princess cruise in April 2012 we are due to pay the final balance on 13 Jan 2012 - that is only 3 months ahead. We used a US FCC Letter for this booking and booked it with a US TA. Big difference with them getting the interest on your money for an extra 3 months. Seems there are still some differences with the FCC letters between countries. I wonder what is happening in the UK.

Has anyone else that has used the AU FCC letters come across such a long time between final payment and sail date?

Has anyone else that has used the AU FCC letters come across such a long time between final payment and sail date?

Have just checked our booking confirmation and realise that I previously gave the wrong date! Final payment is due 28 October 2012 which is only 3 months before sailing. The July date is when the cancellation schedule starts - for our booking it would be $1,500.00 per person.

Have just checked our booking confirmation and realise that I previously gave the wrong date! Final payment is due 28 October 2012 which is only 3 months before sailing. The July date is when the cancellation schedule starts - for our booking it would be $1,500.00 per person.

That is good news!:D