Princess Cruises runs meaningful promotional events throughout the year. Fares move significantly around these events, and the package inclusions sometimes shift alongside the fares — which means the same sale-window booking question that applies to Norwegian applies here, just with different package names and different value thresholds.
Two events consistently produce the best combination of fare discount, package availability, and inventory breadth: Wave Season in January through March and the Black Friday window in November. A third — Princess's Great Sale events — produces meaningful savings on a shorter cycle and is worth monitoring for passengers who missed the marquee windows or are watching a specific sailing.
Most guides to booking Princess Cruises focus on which itinerary, which ship, which cabin. Very few explain what the package economics actually look like across a sale window — or why the entry-price decision on Princess has downstream effects that don't exist on lines where ongoing repricing is available. That's what this covers.
The additional context specific to Princess: the Better Than Best Guarantee's booking windows create a structural incentive to book during certain periods not just for the fare discount but for the price protection that covers everything that follows. Booking during an active Better Than Best window locks in both the entry price and the coverage — two variables that matter more together than either does separately. It's the through-line of our complete guide to Princess price drops.
What Actually Matters
Wave Season (January–March) produces the broadest inventory availability across cabin categories with favorable fare and package combinations — the best window for passengers who want options on where and when to sail.
Black Friday (November) produces the most aggressive single-event fare discounts and has historically included incentives on packages — worth prioritizing for passengers who know their specific sailing.
The Better Than Best booking window context: if you're booking within an active promotional guarantee window, the entry price has ongoing downstream value through the full pre-payment period. Booking during a sale under Better Than Best terms compounds the benefit.
Princess Plus and Premier pre-purchase pricing is a separate decision from the cruise fare — watch for package promotions during sale windows, as Princess occasionally discounts packages alongside fares.
Captain's Circle Elite and Platinum members should check their loyalty communications separately from public sale announcements — exclusive advance access and member-specific pricing sometimes appear in loyalty channels before the general public sale opens.
Sun Princess and Star Princess on Sphere-class command premium pricing year-round. The biggest sale discounts tend to apply to the traditional fleet; Sphere-class discounts are real but typically less dramatic.
The post-booking monitoring window (within Better Than Best coverage): a sale booking doesn't eliminate the ability to capture any further qualifying drops after booking — file a claim each time a qualifying drop appears. The sale price is the floor, not the final word.
Wave Season: The Best Combination of Everything
January through March is Wave Season — the cruise industry's annual push to fill upcoming sailings. Princess participates with fare discounts across its fleet, package bundle offers, and OBC promotions. It's when the broadest slate of upcoming sailings is available at promotional pricing simultaneously.
The Wave Season advantage on Princess specifically is cabin availability. January is when popular cabin categories — balconies on Alaska sailings, mini-suites on Caribbean ships, verandah categories on Sphere-class — still have meaningful inventory before the spring booking surge fills them. For passengers targeting a specific ship, itinerary, or cabin location, booking early in Wave Season captures both the promotional pricing and the selection that may not exist if they wait.
Princess's Wave Season typically includes some combination of: fare discounts across the fleet, Princess Plus or Premier bundle incentives (sometimes at no additional charge or with enhanced terms), OBC offers, and reduced deposit promotions. The specific structure varies year to year — the consistent element is that January produces the most favorable overall entry conditions across the broadest range of sailings.
For Captain's Circle Elite and Platinum members, the loyalty email around late December and early January sometimes surfaces Wave Season access before the public opening. Checking the loyalty channel specifically around that window avoids missing early access that produces the best cabin selection at promotional pricing.
Track your Princess cruise price and get an alert when there's a fare drop — CruiseAlert.com
Black Friday: The Highest Single-Event Discount Window
Princess has run Black Friday promotions in early-to-mid November in recent years, with fares discounted meaningfully across Caribbean, Alaska, and European sailings. The 2025 Black Friday window included fare reductions on a wide range of departures plus package incentives — Princess Plus and Premier pre-purchase promotions that made the package more favorable than standard pricing.
The Black Friday window is most valuable for passengers who have already identified their specific sailing and are waiting for the best entry-price moment. Unlike Wave Season, where broad inventory availability is the key variable, Black Friday is the price event — the time when the headline per-person fare is most likely to be at its lowest on a specific sailing.
The Sphere-class distinction matters here: Sun Princess and Star Princess command higher base fares year-round. Black Friday discounts on these ships are real but typically smaller in percentage terms than on the traditional fleet. If the goal is maximum fare savings on a specific sailing date, the traditional fleet during Black Friday often produces the better math.
For already-booked passengers: if Black Friday produces a lower fare on your sailing that falls within your Better Than Best booking window, submit the Guarantee Claim Form. The sale event timing is irrelevant to the claim — if you booked within the qualifying window, found a lower fare on princess.com, and you're before final payment, the claim is valid.
Great Sale Events: The Mid-Year Opportunity
Princess runs Great Sale events at various points in the calendar beyond Wave Season and Black Friday — typically in spring and occasionally mid-summer. The format varies but has included OBC offers per stateroom, fare discounts on select sailings, and package bundle promotions.
Great Sale events tend to produce the best outcomes on itineraries that haven't sold as strongly as expected — Caribbean sailings in the shoulder season, longer itineraries on the traditional fleet, repositioning voyages. If you're monitoring a specific sailing and it falls into the "not filling as expected" category, a Great Sale event is when meaningful fare movement is most likely to appear.
For passengers already booked within a Better Than Best window: Great Sale launches are worth monitoring specifically. A sale that drives the fare on your sailing below what you paid is a claimable event — 120% OBC on the difference. Sale-event fare drops that hold for the duration of the promotion give you a reasonable window to document and submit.
The Package Promotion Angle
Princess occasionally runs promotions specifically on Plus and Premier pre-purchase pricing — not on the cruise fare, but on the package add-on. These appear in the Princess app, in Princess's email promotions, and sometimes as limited-time offers during sale events.
For passengers already booked who haven't yet added a package, these promotions can produce package pricing below the standard pre-cruise rate. For passengers who already have Plus and are considering upgrading to Premier, a package promotion during a sale window is the best time to make that upgrade at the lowest available price.
Because packages can typically be added or modified up to 96 hours before departure, the window for capturing a package promotion is longer than the cruise fare window — it extends closer to the sailing date. Checking the Princess app periodically in the 60-to-30-day pre-sailing window specifically for package pricing changes is worth doing even after the formal guarantee has closed.
The Better Than Best Booking Window: Why It Changes Sale Timing
Unlike most other lines where price protection is a standing policy, Princess's Better Than Best Guarantee has operated with defined booking windows. If the current window is active — which it has been continuously for qualifying bookings for 2025, 2026, and 2027 departures — booking during Wave Season or Black Friday under an active guarantee window creates a compound benefit:
Lower entry price from the sale, plus full price protection coverage through final payment under the Better Than Best terms.
A sale booking without the Better Than Best coverage has the lower fare but no ongoing protection. A sale booking within an active Better Than Best window has the lower fare and can capture any further drops through the guarantee — each one producing 120% OBC. The second scenario compounds the value of the sale entry price over the entire booking-to-final-payment window.
This is the argument for timing a Princess booking specifically to coincide with both an active sale event and an active Better Than Best booking window. When those two conditions align — which they have during recent Wave Season and Black Friday events — the result is the most favorable booking scenario on this line.
→ Monitor your Princess sailing at cruisealert.com
Find your sailing and let the calendar work for you. Search your ship and date on CruiseAlert to research itineraries and ports, compare departures, and set a free alert so every Wave Season, Black Friday, and Great Sale drop on your cruise reaches you in time. Explore sailings and set an alert →
When to Watch for Each Sale
Wave Season: starts in early January. Monitor princess.com and Captain's Circle communications from late December. The opening days of Wave Season tend to carry the best inventory across all upcoming sailings — particularly on Alaska and European departures where popular cabin categories fill quickly.
Black Friday: has run in early-to-mid November in recent years. Monitor from late October. The Black Friday window sometimes extends through Cyber Monday and into early December — watch the opening days for the best inventory on specific sailings, but the full window typically runs several weeks.
Great Sale events: no fixed schedule. The Princess email newsletter and the deals section of princess.com are the best advance signals. Monitoring Cruise Alert for qualifying fare drops on your sailing automatically covers any Great Sale impact without requiring you to track each promotion launch.
Package promotions: check the Princess app and website in the 60-to-30-day window before sailing, even after the formal guarantee has closed. Package pricing changes and promotions appear in this window.
Common Questions
Is Wave Season or Black Friday better for booking Princess?
They serve different needs. Wave Season offers the broadest inventory across upcoming sailings — better for passengers with flexibility or targeting specific cabin categories that sell out. Black Friday produces the deepest single-event fare discounts — better for passengers who know exactly which sailing they want at the lowest possible entry price. Both events fall within the Better Than Best booking window when it's active, making either a strong booking moment.
Can I rebook at a lower fare if a sale launches after I've already booked?
If your booking is within the Better Than Best window and the sale produces a lower fare on princess.com, submit the Guarantee Claim Form. The sale timing doesn't affect your eligibility — the qualifying conditions are your booking window, your sailing's departure year, and whether the lower fare is publicly available at review time.
Does booking on a Sphere-class ship during a sale still make sense?
Yes — just with calibrated expectations on discount depth. Sphere-class ships (Sun Princess, Star Princess) command premium pricing year-round. Sale discounts on these ships are real but typically 10–15% of fare rather than the 20–30% sometimes available on traditional fleet sailings. If the Sphere-class experience is the priority, booking during a sale is still the right approach — just run the specific fare comparison rather than assuming the same discount depth as the traditional fleet.
I missed the Wave Season and Black Friday windows. Is there any other time worth booking?
Great Sale events, typically in spring and occasionally mid-summer, produce the next best discounts on select sailings. If your sailing is one of the covered itineraries, Great Sale timing can produce meaningful entry-price savings. If it isn't covered, booking at a standard promotional rate with the Better Than Best protection intact is still the right approach — the ongoing monitoring captures any subsequent drops.
Are there Captain's Circle exclusive sale fares beyond general public pricing?
Yes, periodically. Captain's Circle Platinum and Elite members receive advance access to some sale events and occasionally exclusive rate codes that produce pricing below the general public sale rate. These come through Carnival Corporation's loyalty email systems — checking the dedicated Captain's Circle email channel around known sale periods (late December for Wave Season, late October for Black Friday) captures these before they appear in general marketing.