Princess Specials

If any of you have a cruise booked before the end of the year you might want to check the Princess site for their specials. I went to their site yesterday to get some information and noticed the specials. My October cruise to Bermuda was on there. The price was about the same as I had been quoted but I had booked an inside and the price was for an outside. My TA told to hold the phone while he called Princess. When he returned he told me I was upgarded 7 categories to an outside and the reservation was left open for further upgrades.

It's a wonderful life!

Wow! Congratulations for catching it!!

Unfortunately the Regal's 10 day round trips out of San Francisco to Alaska are purportedly sold out so no specials for it. That being the case, I don't understand why Princess is abandoning this cruise next year? They will have an overabundance of large ships in Alaska but none doing this round trip out of SF that there seems to be an obvious market for.
Frank-in-CA

[Abby]

Blackrobe, I just can't thank you enough for the heads up on this special!!! I checked the site for our date in November and it showed a special price for a mini-suite that was only $37 more per person than what we are paying for an outside w/balcony! I called my travel agent and she was able to get it for us for only $22 more per person. We went from a Cat. BC cabin up to a Cat. AA !! Oh, I'm so excited! Thanks again so much!

[Tedson]

Frank, I second your question regarding trips leaving from S.F. As a resident of the Bay Area, doing a roundtrip cruise out of SF would save quite a lot in airfare and therefore is a determining factor in how soon I'll be able to cruise again.

Along those lines, I have a question for any longtime cruisers: has there ever been any Panama Canal cruises leaving and ending in San Francisco?

Tedson

[Vacationer]

I can't thank you enough. I have just noticed (thanks to you) that our cruise also has specials (Grand to the Carribean in August). I called Princess and they took $604 off the price of my cruise there and then!!! This more than pays for 2 nights in a nice hotel prior to the cruise.
Thanks again.

Vacationer

Blackrobe you are so right. We booked a 2 cabins (catagory BE) on the Pacific Princess to Bermuda on 7/21 of this year and was so surprised to see that they were offering mini-suites for less than we were paying for our outside deluxe. I called our TA and sure enough we got the mini-suites as well as $90 additional for each cabin. Cant beat those results. Almost $200 and upgrades to mini-suites. Although this ship does not have balconies the mini-suite square footage somewhat makes up for it. Excess of 300 sq ft!
Linda

I was booked in an inside quad for the 5/26 PP cruise. I also saw the the special price for outsides that was about the same price I paid for my inside. I called my TA (Buycruises) and they told me the only quad cabins left were the suites and that Princess would never upgrade me to that. Well I called Princess on my own about 3 weeks before my cruise. Princess told me the same thing, about the suites being the only outsides thay had left that would accomadate the 4 of us. The rep told me he couldn't give me one of those cabins, but that he would write this up and hand it over to the inventory management group. Well 3 days before we sailed someone from inventory management called and upgraded us to the owners suite. Of course I accepted and it was a fantastic cruise. Bottom line it never hurts to ask.

Instead of SFO round trip to Alaska, Princess will be doing RT - Seattle in 2003. Better air than Vancouver!

Princess Di wrote:

> Instead of SFO round trip to Alaska, Princess will be doing
> RT - Seattle in 2003. Better air than Vancouver!

That is not an improvement for me since we live in the SF Bay area. I look for cruises that either start or end in SF to minimize or eliminate flight segments. It also makes packing simpler.

BTW, what makes you think that stating Seattle doesn't still mean being bused to Vancouver? Is this just PR or are they really embarking in Seattle? I think the Vancouver BC airport is better than SeaTac too. The only thing I don't like is leaving from Vancouver BC - that's when they tack on that $10 fee.
Frank