Military and shareholders OBC no longer combinable soon.

[PescadoAmarillo]

The next thing to go will be FCD OBCs not being combinable with either CCL or military OBC. Other cruise lines have had that rule for years. 
 

Meanwhile, am I right in saying we have not yet had confirmation about whether it is one OBC per cabin, or per person?

Edited June 16, 2023 by PescadoAmarillo

[that]

No confirmation 

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

4 hours ago, Princessfan20 said:

It really is a form of discrimination because no other group on Princess is having to make this choice except Veterans.

Of course one could also say that it was a form of discrimination because only veterans (including myself ) received the benefit.  Their is still an advantage for veterans in that they still receive the equivalent of the shareholders benefit without having to buy stock.

 

I do not consider this as an insult.  Merely a change that impacts the value of sailing on Princess vs another cruise line.  It now costs me $250 dollars more to take a 14 day cruise.  Just that simple.

[Guest ldtr]

2 hours ago, jwattle said:

How about before getting the pitchforks out, we wait to hear from more than one source? 🤔

Nothing was said about this yesterday on the TA call. Granted, it was all about the Sun, but I'd rather not rush...

My vacation planner confirmed the change yesterday.  Said that they had just received notice and was still waiting for details. So still no definitive word if it is per person or per cabin.

Edited June 16, 2023 by ldtr

[damiross]

I buy shares of a stock for a return.  If I have a choice of either the shareholder or military OBC, I will go with the military. My CCL stock will be sold and the proceeds invested in a dividend paying stock.  

[Guest ldtr]

3 minutes ago, damiross said:

I buy shares of a stock for a return.  If I have a choice of either the shareholder or military OBC, I will go with the military. My CCL stock will be sold and the proceeds invested in a dividend paying stock.  

Works as long as Princess is the only CCL lines you cruise on. Since I sail on others such as HAL, I will keep mine.

[Mud_Shark]

Sent in 3 more requests for Shareholders benefit this morning.  Two are for Summer of 2025.   Would have waited a year or so, but if they are going to grant them until the end of the month and allow both benefits to stick, had to jump early.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, dreams_of_travel said:

The only reason I have been booking more with Princess is for the military and shareholder OBC.   I am disappointed they have decided to go this route.  I am hoping to get my shareholder OBC attached to my 2024 cruises soon, and hope that that sticks when the new notice date rolls up.  

FYI if you're over 50, you can also purchase Princess Gift Cards from AARP at a 10% discount to help pay for your Princess cruises. So there is also that huge benefit when booking a Princess cruise to consider before moving on.

[PrincessLuver]

20 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

FYI if you're over 50, you can also purchase Princess Gift Cards from AARP at a 10% discount to help pay for your Princess cruises. So there is also that huge benefit when booking a Princess cruise to consider before moving on.

 

This is no longer offered when I checked this week.  Let's see what happens and how people feel when they say you either can use your CCL stock OBC with FCD OBC but not both....this is just Princess going to a new low for nickeling and dining people....time to check out the other lines and just go with best deal now.

Edited June 16, 2023 by PrincessLuver

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, PrincessLuver said:

 

This is no longer offered when I checked this week.  Let's see what happens and how people feel when they say you either can use your CCL stock OBC with FCD OBC but not both....this is just Princess going to a new low for nickeling and dining people....time to check out the other lines and just go with best deal now.

They fixed the temporary issue AARP ran into on June 1. We just bought $5000 worth (10 cards) last week, and I just checked 2 minutes ago and they were there (about half the way down on this link).

 

AARP Rewards: Explore Ways to Reward Yourself

 

[travellingnana]

Frankly, I don’t see how it could be per cabin. Let’s say I want to cruise with a friend, and we decide to share a cabin. I have shareholder credit. She has military credit. Which one of us would have to give up the credit?

 

[cr8tiv1]

27 minutes ago, travellingnana said:

Frankly, I don’t see how it could be per cabin. Let’s say I want to cruise with a friend, and we decide to share a cabin. I have shareholder credit. She has military credit. Which one of us would have to give up the credit?

 

 

This has always been the case for Shareholder.  Only one OBC per cabin regardless if there are two unrelated individuals.  Singles (and now veterans) are being sidelined.  

 

@PescadoAmarillo...Princess has already reduced the benefit of buying FCDs when they lowered the time to one year.  They want you to cruise every year.  I can do it, I'm retired.  I doubt that the "new generation" will use up their valuable vacation time to cruise every year.  Yes, the benefit to holding a cruise for $100 FCD still outweighs 10% of the cruise deposit.  But even that $25 return is nice.

 

And @ldtr (I think), I did not exclude the the other veterans, I was just saying that we haven't had a "large" war in 50 years, since the draft.  Those that came after that volunteered their services and should be acknowledge.  Heck...even Lowe's gives discounts to military.  Hawaii includes military in their Kama'aina rates.   

[Astro Flyer]

8 hours ago, jwattle said:

How about before getting the pitchforks out, we wait to hear from more than one source? 🤔

Nothing was said about this yesterday on the TA call. Granted, it was all about the Sun, but I'd rather not rush...

Agree…I appreciate the author sharing the info & there should be a definitive answer by 6/29 & to have answers to questions being brought up here such as can one person get SOBC & the other person MOBC.

 

I am very thankful for both OBCs but if I can only receive one per cabin would likely sell our shares. As you know some benefits & options are already gone such as loyalty OBC, some free internet minutes & the coffee program…could MOBC could be the next lost benefit. We’ll weight all of these changes against other cruise lines such as when we sailed Celebrity late last year and having two Oceania cruises booked…both for the first time as we explore other cruise lines.

 

Then Princess President Alan Buckelew (a Vietnam Army combat vet) implemented the MOBC in 2010 and I’ll always be thankful to him for this way to thank veterans.

 

Like you, for now I’ll wait & see…standing by for a definitive answer.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[Mike07]

Eh, I'm not too terribly surprised that Princess made the veteran benefit non-refundable. The shareholder benefit no longer being stackable is disappointing. Princess definitely got some of my business purely for these promos.

 

My 100 share lot is down $5 overall... So, 5 cents a share.... hahahahahahahaha. I'll be selling that off since there's no point in keeping it.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Mike07

[CruiseVA]

No-one has posted any links to a credible source for this rumor - it's rampant on the FB groups as well.  I'm calling **** until I see a real source, not just a "my PVP told me so".

 

[suzyed]

I'm not saying I'm happy about how CCL issues OBC for shareholders but at least they give it to us even if it's just one per cabin.   I have RCI shares and have sailed with them enough to have Diamond status but have NEVER been able to get the shareholder OBC.  If one had gotten any type of "deal" or  comp, you are not entitled to any OBC....they won't "stack" them.

Edited June 17, 2023 by suzyed

[dreams_of_travel]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

FYI if you're over 50, you can also purchase Princess Gift Cards from AARP at a 10% discount to help pay for your Princess cruises. So there is also that huge benefit when booking a Princess cruise to consider before moving on.

Thanks.  I'm already a partaker. 😉  10% is better than nothing.

 

I am curious to see if it is one OBC/per type/per cabin especially since I cruise with unrelated/different households friends as opposed to couples.  I would fine to just keep military, and allow my friend to keep her shareholder if we both can have our OBC.  In the past we have "shared" the shareholder, split it, so we both would have some OBC instead of one having it all.  Of course, we didn't have to do that but when they decided there could only be one shareholder OBC per cabin we decided to do that.    Come on Princess, send out a proper notification so us planning types can decide if we are staying, going and/or dumping stock.  LOL!

[Guest ldtr]

3 minutes ago, dreams_of_travel said:

Thanks.  I'm already a partaker. 😉  10% is better than nothing.

 

I am curious to see if it is one OBC/per type/per cabin especially since I cruise with unrelated/different households friends as opposed to couples.  I would fine to just keep military, and allow my friend to keep her shareholder if we both can have our OBC.  In the past we have "shared" the shareholder, split it, so we both would have some OBC instead of one having it all.  Of course, we didn't have to do that but when they decided there could only be one shareholder OBC per cabin we decided to do that.    Come on Princess, send out a proper notification so us planning types can decide if we are staying, going and/or dumping stock.  LOL!

Officially they have not yet sent out any notification, yet.  Only informal cases of PVPs notifying some of the passengers they work with.  I think this is a case of the internal notice to let customer service and the PVPs know what is coming ended up leaking out.  I expect some kind of notice to the Travel Agents will come next.  After that you might see the public notice to passengers.

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, suzyed said:

I'm not saying I'm happy about how CCL issues OBC for shareholders but at least they give it to us even if it's just one per cabin.   I have RCI shares and have sailed with them enough to have Diamond status but have NEVER been able to get the shareholder OBC.  If one had gotten any type of "deal" or  comp, you are not entitled to any OBC....they won't "stack" them.

So getting a little off topic since you brought it up, but a few years ago, RCI used to reduce your shareholder benefit with your other OBC’s, in essence, the maximum you would get most likely is shareholders. Now they allow ‘stacking’, so your other OBC’s and promos will not reduce your shareholder benefit. 
 

Occasionally, RCI will have an extra discount for military but only for specific sailings, unlike Princess which is available for most sailings.
 

Have you applied for RCI shareholders since July 2021?

Edited June 17, 2023 by wallyj

[Ken the cruiser]

30 minutes ago, wallyj said:

So getting a little off topic since you brought it up, but a few years ago, RCI used to reduce your shareholder benefit with your other OBC’s, in essence, the maximum you would get most likely is shareholders. Now they allow ‘stacking’, so your other OBC’s and promos will not reduce your shareholder benefit. 
 

Occasionally, RCI will have an extra discount for military but only for specific sailings, unlike Princess which is available for most sailings.
 

Have you applied for RCI shareholders since July 2021?

We’ve cruised on 14 Celebrity cruises since cruising started back up and have received SHB OBC on each of them totaling over $1600 so far, over half of what we paid for the stock in June 2020 when all the cruise line stocks tanked. 
 

Unfortunately, we bought the CCL stock when it was in the high 40s, so we won’t be getting rid of it anytime soon. But we’ve also made most of it back on the HAL and Princess cruises we’ve taken since then, and who knows, we one day may start cruising with HAL again if they have some unique longer cruises that look interesting. That’s one thing about the CCL shareholder benefits, they can be applied to any of their cruise lines. 😁

[Pluto_fan]

We embark on our first Princess cruise on Wednesday, five days from now.  So the military OBC we have credited to our onboard account is refundable if we don't use it?  I did not know that!  We have Princess Plus so I was wondering what we would use all that OBC for.  Guess we should enjoy getting it refunded just this once 🙂

[HaveDogWillTravel]

11 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

The next thing to go will be FCD OBCs not being combinable with either CCL or military OBC. Other cruise lines have had that rule for years. 
 

Meanwhile, am I right in saying we have not yet had confirmation about whether it is one OBC per cabin, or per person?

This is what my Princess CVP replied regarding this question"

 

On Jun 16, 2023, at 7:24 AM, ________wrote:

I am interpreting it that a single cabin can get only ONE of EITHER the Shareholder Benefit OR Military OBC.

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

5 hours ago, CruiseVA said:

No-one has posted any links to a credible source for this rumor - it's rampant on the FB groups as well.  I'm calling **** until I see a real source, not just a "my PVP told me so".

 

I don’t post trivial information.  I don’t post rumors.  If you took a minute to look at what I post you’d find I only post when I feel I genuinely have something credible to add to the conversation that’s worthwhile.  My Princess CVP is a long time veteran with a stellar reputation that I’ve worked with for many years.  The New Yorker in me has more to say but the Californian in me will stop here. 

[CruiseVA]

42 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

I don’t post trivial information.  I don’t post rumors.  If you took a minute to look at what I post you’d find I only post when I feel I genuinely have something credible to add to the conversation that’s worthwhile.  My Princess CVP is a long time veteran with a stellar reputation that I’ve worked with for many years.  The New Yorker in me has more to say but the Californian in me will stop here. 

Please - that's nice to know, the NYer in me wants to say more, but the Virginian in me says to not reply. Still, where's the link to the credible source?

[MissP22]

.