Princess Cruises has put the wonders of Alaska on sale with a new “Denali on Sale” cruise deal, offering fares as low as $99 per day for a cruisetour vacation plus up to $300 in air savings. The sale, which begins today, features special rates on land and sea vacations to the state’s most popular attractions – Denali National Park and Glacier Bay National Park.

Combining a 7-day Voyage of the Glaciers Alaska cruise with a land tour to the best of Alaska’s interior, Princess cruisetours begin at just $989 per person for a 10-day vacation. Travelers will enjoy accommodations at Princess’ own wilderness lodges and exclusive rail car service as they explore the Alaska wilderness to see the majesty of the Denali area, particularly Mt. McKinley, North America’s tallest peak. Those booking air transportation through Princess eZAir can also save up to $300 per couple off the price of their ticket.

Examples of Denali on Sale fares include:

• 10-night Fairbanks/Vancouver On Your Own cruisetour: $989 interior (was $1,370).
Air savings $200

• 11-night Anchorage/Vancouver On Your Own cruisetour: $1,149 interior (was $1,587).
Air savings $200

• 11-night Fairbanks/Vancouver On Your Own cruisetour: $1,099 interior (was $1,773).
Air savings $300

• 13-night Anchorage/Vancouver Off the Beaten Path cruisetour: $1,599 interior (was $1,965).
Air savings $200

• 15-night Fairbanks/Vancouver Off the Beaten Path cruisetour: $2,199 interior (was $2,526).
Air savings $300
All fares are per person based on double occupancy and include all applicable fees and taxes. Air savings are for two people.

Denali on Sale begins February 5, 2013, and runs for a limited time. Sale prices are available to residents of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Air savings available to passengers booking roundtrip Princess eZAir flights in conjunction with the cruisetour. Princess eZAir gives passengers easy and full control of their flights and the ability to seamlessly coordinate them with their cruise itinerary. Featuring real-time pricing and flight availability, immediate flight confirmation, competitive airfares, and next port protection in the event of flight delays, the program provides passengers and their travel agents the ease of a single booking source for both air and cruise reservations.

Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS, or by visiting the company’s website at www.princess.com.

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Cruise vacations to Alaska, the California coast, Hawaii, Mexico and the Panama Canal are on sale during the Princess Cruises “5-Day Super Sale,” running from January 31 through February 4.

With more than 150 West Coast cruises on sale, the event offers savings of up to $1,100 per person, plus the opportunity to get up to $100 in free spending money per stateroom.

Passengers can choose from a variety of cruise itineraries where they can enjoy the magnificent scenery and wildlife of Alaska, the tropical warmth of the Hawaiian Islands, the wonder of engineering that is the Panama Canal, the best of the Golden State on a California Coastal or the colorful culture of Mexico.

In addition to special fares, passengers booking balcony staterooms or above will receive an onboard credit of $50 (cruises up to nine days) or $100 (for sailings 10 days or longer), and those booking interior or oceanview staterooms can get credits of $25 (cruises up to nine days) to $50 (cruises 10 days or longer).

More information about the cruise sale and pricing can be found at princess.com/sale.

Examples of special Super Sale fares include:

• California Coastal cruise – 7 days: $684 interior (was $834); $1,084 balcony (was $1,184)

• Inside Passage Alaska cruise – 7 days: $749 interior (was $899); $1,149 balcony (was $1,399)

• Gulf of Alaska cruise – 7 days: $854 interior (was $1,004); $1,304 balcony (was $1,454)

• Hawaiian Islands cruise – 14 days: $1,090 interior (was $1,790); $1,690 balcony (was $2,690)

• Panama Canal – 14 days: $1,499 interior (was $2,399); $2,049 balcony (was $3,149)
All cruise prices are per person, based on double occupancy and include government fees and taxes. The Super Sale runs from 12:01 a.m. PST on January 31 through 11:59 p.m. PST on February 4, 2013 and is available to residents of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS, or by visiting the company’s website at www.princess.com.

Reported by © www.expertcruiser.com - Your online consumer guide for cruise travel and information.

Princess Cruises is celebrating National Cruise Vacation Week with an Escape Completely Sale offering cruise deals throughout the week of October 22-29. More than 200 cruise departures are on sale, and passengers can enjoy a free balcony upgrade as well as 50 percent off their cruise deposit.

Featured destinations include Caribbean cruises as well as cruises to Alaska, Europe, Hawaii and the Panama Canal. Cruise departures run from January to July, 2013. More information about the sale details and pricing can be found at www.princess.com/sale.

Examples of cruise deals include:

• Caribbean cruise – 7 days: $784 balcony (was $1,184); $584 interior (was $784)
• Alaska cruise – 7 days: $1,344 balcony (was $1,544); $894 interior (was $944)
• Greek Isles cruise – 12 days: $2,479 balcony (was $3,029); $1,779 interior (was $2,129)
• Hawaiian Island cruise – 14 days: $1,694 balcony (was $2,690); $1,094 interior (was $1,790)
• Panama Canal cruise – 14 days: $1,896 balcony (was $2,996); $1,296 interior (was $2,246)

All cruise prices are per person, based on double occupancy and now include government fees and taxes. The Escape Completely Sale runs from 12:01 a.m. PDT on October 22 through 11:59 p.m. PDT on October 29, 2012 and is available to residents of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent, by calling 1-800-PRINCESS (1-800-774-6237), or by visiting the company’s website at http://www.princess.com.

Reported by © www.expertcruiser.com - Your online consumer guide for cruise travel and information.

Princess Cruises has released recently discovered video footage of a rescue at sea of a small boat adrift for nearly a month in the Pacific Ocean that conclusively confirms the adrift boat, the Fifty Cent, was not the small boat spotted and photographed by three Princess passengers several weeks earlier.

The story, which broke last April, received extensive press coverage with Princess and the ship’s captain widely criticized for not coming to the rescue of the men onboard, two of whom subsequently died.

Princess has been sued six times by the survivor and relatives of fishermen on the adrift boat. The lawsuits claim the cruise ship Star Princess passed within several miles of the Fifty Cent, but failed to rescue them despite three cruise ship passengers spotting them and reporting they saw a boat that might be in distress. The ship’s bridge staff did not see signs of distress and therefore did not stop or notify the ship’s captain.

The Princess passengers, a group of bird watchers with sophisticated telescopic camera equipment, photographed the small boat they had spotted. Their photos depict a small white boat similar to Panga boats used by local fishermen in Central America. In contrast, the video footage of the Fifty Cent’s rescue shows a markedly different boat.

Princess had the newly discovered video and the original bird watchers’ photos analyzed by Michael Snyder, a retired photo analyst and photogrammetry expert from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Mr. Snyder concluded that “the small boat photographed by the passengers onboard Star Princess is clearly not the small boat called Fifty Cent that Adrian Vasquez was found adrift on.

Princess began searching for photographs or video of the Fifty Cent after hearing recorded statements by plaintiff Adrian Vasquez that were inconsistent with his allegation that Star Princess had passed him by, and which were also inconsistent with the bird watchers’ reported sighting. The captain of the fishing boat that rescued Vasquez has provided a sworn statement confirming that Vasquez gave a detailed account of his ordeal at the time he was rescued, but never mentioned any cruise ship passing him by.

Further supporting the fact that Star Princess did not cross paths with the Fifty Cent is a drift analysis which charted the movement of the two vessels taking into account ocean current, wind and wave data. Conducted by Weather Routing, Inc., a private meteorological consulting firm, the analysis concluded “that it is not likely the boat sighted by the guest passengers was the same boat rescued on March 23rd and identified as the Fifty Cent.

“While this remains a tragic story, we are gratified to have scientific confirmation that Star Princess was never in the vicinity of the adrift boat and that the boat photographed by our passengers was not the adrift Fifty Cent,” said Alan Buckelew, president and CEO of Princess Cruises. “Nevertheless, we have used this as a valuable learning opportunity and have strengthened our bridge reporting procedures to ensure that all messages of concern from passengers or crew are carefully evaluated by our senior bridge officers.”

According to Princess, the ship’s captain, Edward Perrin, had been devastated by allegations his ship might have ignored a vessel in distress. Ironically, Captain Perrin was praised last month by Canadian authorities after his ship diverted to act as a wind block assisting Canadian authorities in a dramatic helicopter rescue of two sailors from a boat that was floundering in stormy conditions off the coast of British Columbia. Princess ships have come to the aid of persons or ships in distress more than 30 times in the past decade and it is fairly common for Princess ships to divert to render aid when they receive distress calls.

Princess Cruises has demanded the lawsuits be immediately dismissed and has offered to waive its right to seek recovery of legal costs,citing sympathy for the victims of the Fifty Cent’s ordeal.

Reported by © www.expertcruiser.com - Your online consumer guide for cruise travel and information.

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