I'm Adrian, The Cruise and Travel Guy. I’m an independent cruise reviewer, video creator and cruise expert. Subscribe for cruise reviews, news, ship tours, cabin tours and more.
We have always been able to refare with Princess before final payment date. Replacing this with onboard credit, unless that credit is refundable, costs the cruise line practically nothing.
I recently completed a cruise on the Pacific Encounter. I have a personal connection to P&O and made a video about it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sQ8fjwT59kU.html
Isn’t the price guarantee standard practice for most cruise lines in the US? I’ve been jealous of them for this. It removes pricing uncertainty and allows you to book with confidence not fearing a better sale next week.
Princess’ cancellation terms are some of the best in the industry. You can generally cancel with a deposit refund if it’s more than 180 days before departure, so realistically, if the price dropped significantly you’d just cancel and rebook if they didn’t price match. The difference here is that you’ll get the price match, apparently of *any* publicly available rate and 120% of the difference back as an onboard credit. That hasn’t been available ever before.
Just a question. Princess have said that the double points for cruises taken between September and December is applied to those voyages already booked with the Plus package but when they announced this price matching it seems they only count it if you book between certain dates. So what if you are already booked on a cruise for 2026? Do we not get the opportunity to have any lower fare price we see matched?
Sounds like you don’t, as for that price match promotion they really made a point of mentioning the booking window. However, this is where it’s worth knowing your booking terms - Princess generally allows free cancellation as long as it’s 180 days before departure (check your specific details with Princess or your TA) so you can realistically just cancel and rebook anyway!
@@TheCruiseandTravelGuy Thanks for your reply. It seems weird that they would backdate one offer but not the other. We are sailing November with Plus so we will get the double points but we also have booked February 2026 and it seems we will not get the price matching. I do keep an eye on our two booked cruises to see how the prices are going. Our NZ one in November is up more that $2000 for a balcony cabin compared to what we paid over a year ago. I am pleased about that. The South Australia one in February 2026 is hovering around the same price we paid last November. It is not going up in a huge way like the NZ one has.
Loyalty programs dont matter to me (and yes, im a long time cruiser with "high" status on some). People who start their chat with status talk have inflated egos and are dull. Why not entice some cruisers with a couple of benefits. Good luck to them. Fire on icon - this ship gives me bad juju vibes. Greece - good on them for considering their own communuties. If you want to see lots of Greek islands, go and stay there for 2 weeks. I think im hangry lol... 🤭
The double the cruise credits , double the love, applies to me but I have not received any notification of this. I tried talking to the Princess online chat and they said they do not have any information regarding this deal 👀😳
The Princess loyalty program is already devalued by the ability to add P&O sailings. Elite is virtually meaningless now days, 2-3 days to have the laundry done, wasn’t like this years ago.
There is plenty of live entertainment throughout each cruise from production shows to set entertainers like comedians and musicians. All will be available to view once you’re onboard in the Princess app. Packing isn’t my forte, but check out the Cruise Tips channel and you’ll find plenty there.
Cruising is no longer a cheap holiday. The advertised cost is immediately increased if you want a cabin with a window or a balcony. Before you even get on the boat you’ve got at least $100 in taxi or parking, unless you can get someone to drop you off and pick you up. Then there’s the alcohol package, coffee & soda package, specialty dining, shore excursions and tipping. To top it off the slots are set to pay considerably less than anywhere else and the spa treatment prices are inflated. I think I’ve had my last cruise, I’d rather just go to the Gold Coast.
Awesome! Did you watch my ship tour of Spirit? I’m coming out with a cruise review very soon - still working through it at the moment. Here’s the tour: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Oh1sln2WCkg.htmlsi=WKoGH2r5rhIFFhtj
Thanks! Government petition for Australian residents/citizens is here www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN6353 And Change petition for everyone is here: www.change.org/LowerPortFees
State governments pay millions to attract football games, all sorts of sports, and concerts from international artists but charge cruise ships for bringing people and money to our state. Doesn't make any sense.
Unfortunately I don't think it will change.. much like airports, the passenger fees are essentially a pass through. Our high minimum wages means higher costs to operate these facilities.
I was considering doing a P and O cruise due to Carnival taking over....will stick with Carnival or Royal Carribean now. It's part of the fun of a cruise that most thing are included.
Congratulations on your proactive project. We agree and didn't realise our port fees and lack of facilities were so prohibitive for cruise ships. It's refreshing to see an Australian addressing our issues. We live in Brisbane with a relative new port that is hardly used. Our last three cruises were from Sydney adding both time and money onto out trips. Liked and subscribed ❤
Never vote for Labor Party ever again keep destroying our country. I’m going on a 5 days Pacific Adventure cruise to Moreton island tomorrow it will be our second cruise in a year I hope Carnival Cruise won’t shut down in Sydney port.
Thank you for this review. I booked a cruise on the Sun for 2025. I've never been on any Princess ship. I only cruised once before and that was on Carnival. Do you think this is a ship the entire family can enjoy? I have kids in their late teens and early, mid- twenties.
Just signed and shared on a Princess forum with 7k members. Directly affect by Princess repositioning the Grand next year and loosing our Hawaii and Tasmania cruise.
I'm from Hong Kong. I still have very fond memory of the 5-day stay at Superstar Leo back in Christmas 2002 when I was 13 years old. Always hope my parents could have brought us back there again.
