Background

We are Darren and Cindy in our late 40’s and early 50’s from Great Falls, Montana. We have been on 8 cruises to the Caribbean, Alaska, and a California Pacific Coastal. We began looking for cruises in the late fall of 2018 for January 2019. Montana can be very cold and dark in the winter months and late January was an ideal week for us to travel in 2019. We were pretty set on this last week in January yet decided to wait until after the “final payment” date to seriously consider a cruise. In early December we narrowed it down to a couple of “last minute” options. The deals were pretty good for a 7-night Caribbean cruise with a variety of companies, but the airfare per person from Montana to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, FL was going to be more than the cruise. OUCH!! We generally prefer Celebrity Cruises, yet we also were considering a Mexican Riviera cruise with Princess since the price of the cruise was excellent and the airfare was going to be less than A THIRD of the cost to fly to LAX compared to Florida ports. Eventually about December 17 we committed to the January 26 Ruby Princess. The “Drop and Go” deal was the lowest price we have EVER paid for a balcony stateroom cruise (no perks included). We purchased a “Balcony Guarantee”, made our airline reservations, and a pre-cruise night at the Hilton LAX the same day. This was our third cruise with Princess. In the past we have always had a good experience with them. Admittedly, when booking a “guarantee” cabin, you need to be prepared to be satisfied with the worst cabin in your category. For us, the worst possible balcony cabins would have been a cabin under the fitness center/treadmills or a cabin with the balcony just above or near a smoking section. About two weeks later, we were assigned R-504, a perfectly acceptable balcony stateroom mid-ship.

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