Landmark Sale (May 1 – June 19, 2018)

[SteelMagnolia9]

What is the extra OBC for booking onboard? Does it depend on length of sailing and cabin category?

 

I purchased the Future Cruise Deposit for $100 dollars on a previous cruise. I was able to use that as my deposit on the Baltic Heritage cruise. I booked an inside cabin and received $75 OBC for using the FCD (also received $400 OBC from the Landmark sale). Yes, the OBC tied to the FCD is based on length of cruise and cabin category. Had I booked a balcony, it would have been more OBC, but beyond my price point for sailing solo.

[Thrak]

What is the extra OBC for booking onboard? Does it depend on length of sailing and cabin category?

 

As far as I know it's the same as just purchasing FCD and using them right away. I don't believe there is any other discount or credit involved. We always purchase FCD when on the ship but don't book at that time. Using FCD as your deposit definitely does get one OBC depending on the length of cruise booked.

 

 

OBC From FCD

3 - 6 Days $15 Inside, $15 Outside, $25 Balcony, $25 Suite

7 - 10 Days $25 Inside, $25 Outside, $50 Balcony, $50 Suite

11 - 16 Days $75 Inside, $75 Outside, $100 Balcony, $100 Suite

17 + Days $125 Inside, $125 Outside, $150 Balcony, $150 Suite

[Crystabel]

Our September 2019 cruise is included in the promotion, but unfortunately we don’t qualify. Our TA said because our cabin category is sold out, we cant get it. If she cancelled my cruise and then tried to rebook, I might lose the cabin if there is a wait list for that category of cabin. The only thing I can do is to check daily to see if someone cancels a like cabin during the promotion period. I would then have to call my TA to quickly have her do her magic. Is it worth $1000 OBC? Yep!

[Thrak]

Our September 2019 cruise is included in the promotion, but unfortunately we don’t qualify. Our TA said because our cabin category is sold out, we cant get it. If she cancelled my cruise and then tried to rebook, I might lose the cabin if there is a wait list for that category of cabin. The only thing I can do is to check daily to see if someone cancels a like cabin during the promotion period. I would then have to call my TA to quickly have her do her magic. Is it worth $1000 OBC? Yep!

 

I got it without changing cabins on one cruise because the price of the cabin was the same. On the other cruise that qualifies it wasn't worth the effort as I would have to rebook at the new pricing and that would wipe out the OBC. If you are just keeping the same cabin and if the price of the cabin is still the same as when you booked then they should be able to add the promo.

[FLCruise7]

The 4/14 Regal sailings are included in this sale, is that the one you are looking for? They may not yet show up on the website. My own sailing was not showing up on the website, but was in the flyer posted earlier, and I have already had the sale applied to my booking by calling directly.

 

Thanks for the heads-up cherry! My TA was able to get the Landmark sale applied to my booking ($1000 OBC for us) with no increase in fare - YAY! Now to keep an eye out for another promo that will help (probably the 3-for-free) - got that on this year's trip and it included a price drop, so the same deal would work for us (if we lose the Landmark sale OBC of $1000 but get free grats & $300 OBC it will be a wash -- the difference would be if the fare goes down or the cabin we can get is better) on this one next year.

[FLCruise7]

Our September 2019 cruise is included in the promotion, but unfortunately we don’t qualify. Our TA said because our cabin category is sold out, we cant get it. If she cancelled my cruise and then tried to rebook, I might lose the cabin if there is a wait list for that category of cabin. The only thing I can do is to check daily to see if someone cancels a like cabin during the promotion period. I would then have to call my TA to quickly have her do her magic. Is it worth $1000 OBC? Yep!

 

Wow - that must be a popular cruise to already be sold out in some categories. Just out of curiosity, which cruise it is?

[steveww48]

Our September 2019 cruise is included in the promotion, but unfortunately we don’t qualify. Our TA said because our cabin category is sold out, we cant get it. If she cancelled my cruise and then tried to rebook, I might lose the cabin if there is a wait list for that category of cabin. The only thing I can do is to check daily to see if someone cancels a like cabin during the promotion period. I would then have to call my TA to quickly have her do her magic. Is it worth $1000 OBC? Yep!

 

I might be mistaken about this, but my understanding is that there is no need to "re-book" to participate in this promotion. Ask for your existing booking to be "re-fared" so that you can take advantage of the promotion. Your cabin is never at risk of being lost because the process should not be one of cancelling your existing booking and then re-booking the cruise. With a re-faring, everything stays the same (cabin, booking code, etc) but you get the benefit of the promotion as long as you otherwise qualify for it. I'm not an expert on this but I'm not aware that the "cabin category being sold out" is a disqualifying factor.

 

If you haven't tried it yet, use the magic word re-fare and see if you get a better result.

[susiesan]

Three thoughts:

• Gratuties can eat a chunk of it for you.

• You can eat another chunk of it at the Crown Grill.

• Would you take a Princess excursion if it were free?

 

Spending I can do:

$24 a day in gratuities times 7 = $168

2 Crown Grill dinners =$60

2 happy hour drinks a day =$140

coffee card =$30

I would hate to use OBC on overpriced Princess excursions on big busses, which I despise. I only do small private excursions. I'll have to come up with something to spend the remaining money on.

[Astro Flyer]

I might be mistaken about this, but my understanding is that there is no need to "re-book" to participate in this promotion. Ask for your existing booking to be "re-fared" so that you can take advantage of the promotion. Your cabin is never at risk of being lost because the process should not be one of cancelling your existing booking and then re-booking the cruise. With a re-faring, everything stays the same (cabin, booking code, etc) but you get the benefit of the promotion as long as you otherwise qualify for it. I'm not an expert on this but I'm not aware that the "cabin category being sold out" is a disqualifying factor.

 

If you haven't tried it yet, use the magic word re-fare and see if you get a better result.

It’s been my experience that when refaring the new offer’s T&C apply.

 

For my cruise the increased cruise fare & limited availability makes refaring to this sale not cost effective for me even when adding the OBC.

 

This sale also contains the routine statement that even when cabins are available that not all cabins are eligible for this sale: “This offer has limited space regardless of cabin availability“.

[steveww48]

It’s been my experience that when refaring the new offer’s T&C apply.

 

For my cruise the increased cruise fare & limited availability makes refaring to this sale not cost effective for me even when adding the OBC.

 

This sale also contains the routine statement that even when cabins are available that not all cabins are eligible for this sale: “This offer has limited space regardless of cabin availability“.

 

That's a good point that I neglected to make-- a re-faring would result in a price increase if the fare has gone up since you originally booked so one always has to look at the overall result to see if the re-faring makes sense. Fortunately my fare had not increased so in my case I simply received an additional $1000 in OBC.

 

The phrase in the fine print about "...limited space..." is interesting. It suggests there is a quota (per cruise? per cabin category?) relating to the availability of the OBC in this promotion. So I guess it is possible that a sold-out cabin category could mean this is not available to someone already booked. Seems to me that this sort of marketing (just how much space is available in this promotion?) has the potential to disappoint a lot of people.

[Astro Flyer]

That's a good point that I neglected to make-- a re-faring would result in a price increase if the fare has gone up since you originally booked so one always has to look at the overall result to see if the re-faring makes sense. Fortunately my fare had not increased so in my case I simply received an additional $1000 in OBC.

 

The phrase in the fine print about "...limited space..." is interesting. It suggests there is a quota (per cruise? per cabin category?) relating to the availability of the OBC in this promotion. So I guess it is possible that a sold-out cabin category could mean this is not available to someone already booked. Seems to me that this sort of marketing (just how much space is available in this promotion?) has the potential to disappoint a lot of people.

That’s great that the sale was beneficial to you & to other passengers. My 28 day cruise can be booked as shorter cruises but haven’t found a way to get a lower net cost. And those shorter cruises are either sold out for my category or they’re guarantees only.

 

The Yield Management’s algorithm is very secretive about how many cabins are available for any promotion...it’s Top Secret. ;)

[umuva]

Booked on Sky for two 14 b2b in minis. No price change on first so got the 1000 OBC. But second leg had increased by 600x2 so no change for now.

 

 

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[caribill]

I might be mistaken about this, but my understanding is that there is no need to "re-book" to participate in this promotion. Ask for your existing booking to be "re-fared" so that you can take advantage of the promotion. Your cabin is never at risk of being lost because the process should not be one of cancelling your existing booking and then re-booking the cruise. With a re-faring, everything stays the same (cabin, booking code, etc) but you get the benefit of the promotion as long as you otherwise qualify for it. I'm not an expert on this but I'm not aware that the "cabin category being sold out" is a disqualifying factor.

 

If the category is sold out, then there is no fare to get re-fared to. No pricing is available at all in this case.

[Crystabel]

If the category is sold out, then there is no fare to get re-fared to. No pricing is available at all in this case.

 

That’s exactly right. We booked a S3 category which is now sold out. Unless another cabin in this category becomes available before the promotion ends, we lose out on a nice OBC.

[Mrs.Gosse]

Booked The really large transatlantic cruise that we had our eye on. The price was not different but we got $1,000 in OBC. She said that Suites Rarely go on sale and we wouldn't likely see a price change that will compare to that much OBC in the future so I feel like I got a pretty good deal and I'm glad I didn't wait.

 

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[omc329]

We have a 2019 British Isles booked out of Dublin. They have a stranglehold on the number of cabins they are releasing for that port. I had to play games to get the obc with the 3 cabins we had booked.

 

Cabin 1 - I had to change our cabin up one category to release our cabin, understanding that we might lose our cabin and be stuck with a slightly higher price and less desirable cabin. Before they finalized the details, I saw my old cabin pop up and asked to be put back. It was all a pain, and took an hour and half of my time, but for $1000, worth the effort and risk.

 

Cabin 2 - Minisuite, they refared with no issue. Took minutes.

 

Cabin 3- Minisuite, (same category as above), not a clue what went wrong. It took another hour and half to get this one cleared up. Instead of having us book up one, clear the cabin and rebook, they went to a supervisor to add the obc. When it finally came back, they had jerked the price way up. They had to call back, (we use a big box co), and start all over again. It was a mess and would have been easier to take a risk on losing the cabin and booking up one and then moving back.

 

Long story short, all the cabins are unchanged and all have the obc applied now. I seriously doubt we'll get any further deals applied to that trip given the stranglehold on cabins out of Dublin. Knowing this now, I would not have chosen that sailing, but with a group, it is hard to move plans around.

 

I'm thrilled in any which case. Now we have gratuities, drinks and a couple of excursions covered, and enough ta refundable to cover hotels precruise! :D:)

[susancruzs]

I cancelled a Grand Adventure on Crown leaving Dublin 2019. Cabins were available Plaza, both segments but not Grand Adventure. Sailing single, purchasing separate not an option. My TA is excellent, but Princess would not budge. I was on a cruise in March, checked then, no dice.

 

I found a cruise I've wanted but not in summer. Princess is doing Norway Fjords 10/19/19 so I switched. Great price, 500. OBC, plus a cabin on Plaza deck. Bucket list cruise, 1st time in Oct. might be a one shot deal if it doesn't work out. I'm happy but the way Princess handles cabins sometimes is crazy.

[firecrewcapt]

Without any long drawn out dialog here I saw the "Landmark" sale become available for our Sept. 2019 cruise, which we booked through Princess website when it was published, I just called Princess direct and ask them to add this sale to our sailing, bingo, bango, bongo no problem done in less than 5 minutes. I just don't understand why put a middle man into the equation, ie: Big box store or a TA.

[susancruzs]

Everyone has what works for them. I'll avoid the "long drawn out dialogue" here. I use a TA because I sail single, pay double, she handles a large volume and always gives me a better price than Princess.

[PoohUnderstands]

Without any long drawn out dialog here I saw the "Landmark" sale become available for our Sept. 2019 cruise, which we booked through Princess website when it was published, I just called Princess direct and ask them to add this sale to our sailing, bingo, bango, bongo no problem done in less than 5 minutes. I just don't understand why put a middle man into the equation, ie: Big box store or a TA.

 

There are good reasons to use TA's in certain circumstances, but I agree with you in the case of Princess Cruises. Their site is so easy to use and rebooking or refaring is relatively easy, sometimes very easy, and I can keep watch on sales and price decreases etc. But then I think I am a TA in my heart of hearts that I love doing my own research and work. Getting some OBC from a TA, or a slight price decrease that usually comes out of their commission, or flowers(which are nice don't get me wrong), is great, but not worth me giving up control of my bookings. Now, if I were doing a land trip like a safari to S. Africa, then I definitely would go with a TA or travel group. But I find booking Princess cruises so easy and I know my way around, that I, too, like doing the work myself. But if you are a busy person with life filling up your time, a TA can be a great help. But being retired, I have all the time in the world. So I can see both sides of the coin!!

 

Pooh

[PoohUnderstands]

Noticed that on May 1st my 2019 cruise had no sale on it and my other two cruises in 2018, beginning of 2019, still had the sales that had been there awhile. On May 2nd, same, but now my late 2019 cruise was added to the Landmark Sale. Today, May 3rd, I noticed that the prices of my two closer cruises had gone down some, but both no longer had sales on them so even though the fare went down $150-200pp, there were no free gratuities or OBC, so really a no win situation. I find it so interesting to watch what is going on with cruise pricing!!! And I am glad that by booking early and keeping a close eye on things, that I am able to get the best deal for my cruise by the time final payment arrives. So I hope you guys out there that had cruises you were thinking of booked yesterday as the sales are gone today!

 

Pooh

[voljeep]

what Pooh stated :D...except for that retired part...:(

 

but semi-retired and working for myself for 25+ years now certainly has it's perks and advantages ...;p

[susancruzs]

I'm retired, check all the angles, love researching! Princess has a great website, easy to use, finding what you want compared to other lines. Flowers? Whoa, never had flowers but a better price because of handling a large volume is helpful to me when paying double!

 

I don't feel I'm losing control of my booking, as I always get price drops if they happen after I book and the booking is visible online. It is a personal choice, and what works best for you.

 

I booked yesterday, got $500. OBC for my Oct. 2019 cruise. The Emerald Nov. TA I want to book has the sale, I better grab it, decided against the QM2.

Edited May 3, 2018 by susancruzs

[nukesubsailor]

Without any long drawn out dialog here I saw the "Landmark" sale become available for our Sept. 2019 cruise, which we booked through Princess website when it was published, I just called Princess direct and ask them to add this sale to our sailing, bingo, bango, bongo no problem done in less than 5 minutes. I just don't understand why put a middle man into the equation, ie: Big box store or a TA.

 

I can think of a reason to use a travel agent----clout.

If the Princess representative doesn't re-fare a cruise for a specific promotion when dealing directly with a passenger, that will be one unhappy passenger who might give Princess a bad review to a few friends.

If the Princess representative does the same to a travel agent, that agent can refuse to recommend Princess to hundreds of future customers.

[msualum]

Even though our cruise was listed under the Landmark sale and our TA contacted Princess, she was unable to get the obc added. She tried several different departments and supervisors but got nowhere. I even sent her a screenshot of the information from the website. Their reply is that we are on a land tour/cruise and this sale doesn’t apply to land tours. She’s bumping it up again today, but I’m not optimistic. I think Princess needs to hire IT employees who know what they are doing. I’m very disappointed with Princess. We have done several cruises with them and have a 30 day booked in February so we have lots of experience with them, some good and some not so good. Congratulations to those of you who were successful in getting this amenity.