Princess Sales

[Desertliving]

We are looking to book a cruise for February 2024.  What are the best Princess sales to watch for, to try to get the best price and what time of year do they have them?  Thanks so much.

[Ombud]

You can refare / rebook up to final payment date if a better deal comes along as long as you pick your own room (no guarantee bookings) and book a refundable fare. I always pick my own and forego the $50 pp savings. (Thats $50 total not $50 per day)

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ombud
Typo

[Desertliving]

Thank You!  So on any offered sale, you can refare?  There aren't any sales that are for New Bookings only?  

[Ombud]

I don't pay attention to that @Desertliving as my CVP would then just rebook instead of refare and lift & shift everything (ezair, shareholder obc, excursions, dining, same room). 

 

Refare = same booking #

Rebook = new booking # but it's all there

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ombud

[Redwing55]

24 minutes ago, Ombud said:

You can refare / rebook up to final payment date if a better deal comes along as long as you pick your own room (no guarantee bookings) and book a refundable fare. I always pick my own and forego the $50 pp savings. (Thats $50 total not $50 per day)

 

Why do you say that one has to pick cabin?  We've went GTD and rebooked.  How is having a cabin or GTD impact rebooking?  Curious for future reference.

[Ombud]

3 minutes ago, Redwing55 said:

Why do you say that one has to pick cabin?  We've went GTD and rebooked.  How is having a cabin or GTD impact rebooking?  Curious for future reference.

New GTD Cabin bookings are now nonrefundable deposits. It's new

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ombud

[mtnesterz]

If you booked with a free perk, lets say a specialty dinner for two and the fare drops $100, be sure you wouldn't lose your dining when making a change.

Mostly though, if you watch the, "sales," for awhile, you'll see they shuffle the numbers around, but the bottom line stays the same. Our Cruise Vacation Planner says his slow months are January and February. If you see something you want, this being March, book sooner than later.

The occasional dollar deposit specials are nice for first timers, but once you've sailed, the best thing to do is buy a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD) onboard. That is not only your next cruise deposit, but some Future Cruise Credit (FCC) credit for your next cruise.

Presume from your name you live in the USA Southwest. In some countries, there is a substantial charge for a rebook/refare.

Edited March 22, 2023 by mtnesterz

[Redwing55]

1 minute ago, Ombud said:

GTD Cabins are now nonrefundable deposits. It's new

Good to know.  We just booked late Feb and have a refundable fare...with a GTD cabin.

[Desertliving]

Thanks everyone! Really helpful info.  Now I just need to figure out the best way to book (Who to use).  I do have some FCC and OBC but this is all pretty new to me.  My last cruise I called Princess and the person that helped me didn't seem very helpful.

 

[wallyj]

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

New GTD Cabin bookings are now nonrefundable deposits. It's new

I believe this only applies to categories that have the second letter being ‘F’, as in usually the lowest interior ‘IF’ or balcony ‘BF’. I think I saw a post where someone said minisuites do not have ‘MF’ , so do not apply to minisuites?

 

So, if you are booking GTY(guarantee) in a category that ends with ‘F’, your deposit will probably now be non refundable. Refundable deposits still available for GTY as long as cabin category does not end in a ‘F’.
 

For a 2024 sailing, if I booked GTY category’IF’ it was non refundable deposits , but if I booked GTY ‘IE’ , it was refundable and qualified for reduced $50 deposit promo, and have option to add $100 Princess FCD to get OBC associated with using a FCD as long as it is added to booking before final payment.

[Desertliving]

I like to pick my cabin so that won't be an issue.  Thanks for the info!  Always love to learn how things work.  Gives all the options!

[Ombud]

@wallyj yeah but whenever I pick "Princess chooses the cabin" I see this .... no option for anything other than BF

If I go to pick a room then I have to select a particular room among the available options. Oh & on this example to savings ate more than $50. But it was $50 on numerous test sites earlier. So I stand corrected on that

 

But off topic : OP wants to pick the room

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ombud

[wallyj]

Hi @Ombud, the Princess websites seems to ‘default’ to ‘F’ if available if you select Princess chooses your cabin, but other categories besides ‘F’ are usually available as GTY, so it is still possible to book a GTY cabin with refundable deposits. The Princess booking process does not make this easy to understand. A passenger may want to book a non ‘F’ GTY cabin since those are usually the farthest forward or aft cabins.

 

Each passenger should decide if choosing ‘GTY’ is a risk they are willing to accept.

 

There is a popular YouTuber who states he will not book GTY cabin as he is very particular about his cabin location and always marks ‘no upgrade’. We also know marking no upgrade does not guarantee the Cruiseline will not move you.

[Ombud]

Yeah .... I've been moved even when I mark "meta upgrade only"

[smelmel]

20 hours ago, Ombud said:

You can refare / rebook up to final payment date if a better deal comes along as long as you pick your own room (no guarantee bookings) and book a refundable fare. I always pick my own and forego the $50 pp savings. (Thats $50 total not $50 per day)

 

Is there a chance of losing your selected cabin when rebooking? Would any TA be able to do this or only a Princess agent? TIA

[Ombud]

Just now, smelmel said:

Is there a chance of losing your selected cabin when rebooking? Would any TA be able to do this or only a Princess agent? TIA

I've never lost my original room when rebooking unless my CVP found me a better one. Like going from E414 to E425 (larger balcony) on a royal class ship. As to whether a TA or only CVP can do this .... no idea. I only use a CVP. Perhaps someone else can answer that part

[smelmel]

3 minutes ago, Ombud said:

As to whether a TA or only CVP can do this .... no idea. I only use a CVP. Perhaps someone else can answer that part

In the past, I’ve been told (by an agent I no longer use) that the current booking has to be released in order to free-up the cabin & in the time it takes to rebook, the cabin can be gone (we like aft balconies, deck 10-12- not many choices available) 

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, smelmel said:

In the past, I’ve been told (by an agent I no longer use) that the current booking has to be released in order to free-up the cabin & in the time it takes to rebook, the cabin can be gone (we like aft balconies, deck 10-12- not many choices available) 

Though I think good agents have multiple windows open so that once the cabin is released in one window, they quickly grab it in the new booking in another window.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Coral

[smelmel]

10 minutes ago, Coral said:

Though I think good agents have multiple windows open so that once the cabin is released in one window, they quickly grab it in the new booking in another window.

I will definitely talk to my new agent about this - Thanks!

[FrankieJayIII]

On 3/22/2023 at 8:19 AM, Ombud said:

You can refare / rebook up to final payment date if a better deal comes along as long as you pick your own room (no guarantee bookings) and book a refundable fare. I always pick my own and forego the $50 pp savings. (Thats $50 total not $50 per day)

 

How does this work?  How do you refare/rebook a cruise through princess?  Do you call? Is it online?  What is the process?

[Ombud]

32 minutes ago, FrankieJayIII said:

How does this work?  How do you refare/rebook a cruise through princess?  Do you call? Is it online?  What is the process?

2 ways:

> If refaring I'll use the chat line but CVP'd do it as well. I keep promos, ezair, shareholder obc, excursions,  and add-ons as well as current booking #. 

> if rebooking because fare only applies to new bookings (this is becoming more common): I call my CVP to make sure that everything is lifted and shifted over so I don't lose anything in the process (ie: fare only applying to new bookings). I will lose previous promo but usually get a little OBC (although often less than before). Others use 1800Princess or their TA. I've never been able to do this on chat as it requires 2 bookings / same room until completed / guess it's complicated bc they need to also contact EZAIR & manually transfer everything

 

So I call her and say something like: " hi ××! I see that ×××× dropped in price can you adjust it? "

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Ombud