Friday, March 20, 2015

YEAH - All Inclusive Drink Package Deals


Many of you know we are sailing in the Fall on the Island to the Mediterranean.  



Yesterday we got an email with some Princess specials where they were offering things like All Inclusive Drink Packages as well as free tips and the likes.

After scanning the dates for this special I saw that the first leg of our Island cruise was part of the deals.

So this is how it worked out.

Sometime after we booked Princess had a special where we got more on board credits and Travel Agent Connie from Best Price Cruises got us $200 extra on board credit for the first leg.

Then when she checked into yesterday's special we would have to basically loose those on board credits (as this deal was for new bookings only) and the price of the cruise would of gone up by $75 per person or $150 total.  But we would get the All Inclusive Drink Package for basically $350 total for a 12 night cruise.  

That is a steal.

When Connie called me back she had even better news.  Princess will honour our original pricing and would not raise the cost of the cruise to reflect current prices, but we would loose the $200 on board credit.  So now the package is costing us basically the $200 obc we forfeited.  That works out to $8 per day for 12 days each person. 

Consider the All Inclusive Drink Package includes beverages that are $10 or less.  Includes bottled water, espresso drinks, sodas, mocktails, beer, wine, cocktails and even 40% of a bottle of wine if you choose.  

So for us all we need to drink is one drink a day to recoup the money we are loosing from the on board credit.  I am pretty sure that can be accomplished.

Normally the All Inclusive Drink Package costs $49 per person per day plus gratuity.  So we got it for a steal for $200.

Moral of the story, sign up for your Travel Agent's email sales promotions.  Sign up for cruise line email sales promotions.  Follow your Cruise Critic Roll call cause often price reductions and special are posted by others.  Join my facebook fan page cause I often share sales there too.

Happy Sailing Everyone.  

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Too Good A Deal ?

I knew that this year would be a year we would struggle.

We had the cruises in Jan/Feb and then we knew our next cruise was not "technically" booked until late October.

Would we survive that long of a drought?  

Who are we kidding we knew we wouldn't.

Within a week of getting home from the Royal we started getting emails from Princess with amazing deals for West Coast Cruises.

They came almost daily and we were pulling our hair out trying to think, can we do something?  What could we do?  

Finally a deal for a 7 day Repositioning cruise came up on the Crown and we jumped.

We love the Crown and to get the opportunity to sail home was a definite perk.

So we booked.  $499 for an inside with stops in Catalina, San Francisco (overnight), Astoria (new port for us), and Victoria (all day).

We scooped up a flight with our air miles and the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro on Priceline for $85.  

So stay tuned for blog reports from that trip.