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Funnily enough, my parents have also been cruising with Princess since Sitmar days. And those Princess Promotions folks can see that. Someone here said that they target people of a certain age. Maybe that's true? Who knows? I bet they target cruisers with 'Elite' status. If I went on a cruise next week, I could probably hang around the FCD all day and they wouldn't waste their time on me. 😅 I wouldn't say that my parents were cocky, but they were complacent. They were on a cruise, having a good time, eating nibblies at the Elite lounge. Someone asked to see their credit card and they handed it over. 🤷‍♀️

This is, hopefully, my last update on this topic. My dad was going to follow-up with Princess Promotions again this morning, but, when he was checking his online banking to make sure he had the amounts correct, he noticed that the "monthly installment" of $250 USD had also been refunded. I didn't mention it previously, but there was also a mysterious charge last week of $179 in Canadian dollars (I don't know what it was in USD before the conversion). We thought my mom, who is currently floating off the coast of Alaska somewhere, had gone rogue and gone back to the FCD. But the $179 has also now been refunded. No clue what that was charge was for. I'm going to mention this one last time because my dad said that, if he had known this at the time, it would have made a difference - the Future Cruise Desk staff do not work for Princess Cruises. They work for Princess Promotions (aka O.N.E.). As someone in this thread said, 'forewarned is forearmed'. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links here so I won't, but, if you're reading this and thinking of purchasing one of Princess Promotions packages, you might want to first watch the video on this topic by 'Don's Family Vacations' on YouTube from March 2023. I'm sure these packages are a good deal for someone, but please just have your eyes wide open when you hand over your credit card. If it was me, I would be loudly talking about what happened everywhere that I went on the ship! 😆Actually, I would have started while at the pier, waiting to board!

@Chefaleslie Are you sure that you didn't accidentally purchase a package with Princess Promotions? If you buy one of their packages, you have to pay a large amount upfront and it comes with OBC and hotel credits. My parents were just bamboozled by them so this is sounding familiar.

Update: My parents did receive a refund on their credit card for the initial charge of $3000 USD! It was on Tuesday - so it took exactly 7 days as the Princess Promotions guy had suggested. Of course, they haven't heard anything back about the second charge of $250. The only person at Princess Promotions who seems capable of doing anything should be back from his vacation next week and my dad will follow up then. At least they have the bulk of the money back. My mom is on a cruise right now with some of her friends and my dad told her that she's not allowed within 10 feet of the future cruise desk.

Celebrated too soon . . . My dad noticed that the $6000 in FCC had disappeared from his Princess account so he thought everything had been processed and that he would see a refund on his credit card. Still no refund and, today, they were charged a further $250 USD! And, for the first time, they received an email from Princess Promotions. It was to thank them for their monthly installment. My dad called Princess Promotions again. He says the rep who answers the phone there now knows him because he keeps calling. The rep confirmed that the plan/package was cancelled two days ago (the day after my dad last spoke to them.) However, for some reason, the payment for the monthly installment still went through. The nice guy who was able to help my dad earlier in the week is now on vacation, of course. The rep is going to send that guy an email and it's not clear if there's someone else there who can fix it or my dad has to wait for this guy to get back from his vacation. Even if the refund for the first charge ($3000) does come through in the next couple of days - they said that it would take up to 7 days - my dad is going to have chase after them for a refund of the $250. Persistence is going to be the key.

An update! My dad called again yesterday (Monday), spoke to a rep, got the same story about the issue being escalated etc., etc. But, lo and behold, later in the day, he was able to speak to someone higher up the food chain! The man was very nice, very sympathetic, wanted to know exactly what happened. My dad spoke to him for nearly an hour. My dad explained that he never saw any paperwork or anything that detailed the various packages, and that, to this day, he's not sure what he allegedly purchased, etc., etc. The man said that he had never heard of anything like this happening before. He said that, as has been mentioned here, there was generally a 7 day cancellation period, but a situation like this would override that. I guess that he isn't able to authorize refunds himself because he said something like "we have to resolve this for you", but that he would call back today. Another phone call from him today. . . He apologized, said it never should have happened and that my dad would see a refund on his credit card within 7 days! Very relieved. I thought they were going to be difficult about it - say that my parents must have realized that they were purchasing something when they handed over their credit card etc. My dad said that it was quite the opposite. The only other thing that I might have expected is some sort of explanation of what they think happened. It was a busy night at the FCD, another couple before or after parents had purchased the package and the paperwork was mixed up? Whatever. Something. So that's, hopefully, it all now resolved, but I think my parents will be staying away from the FCD for a while. 😬 (To be clear, the phone calls were to/with Princess Promotions (aka O.N.E.) not Princess itself!)

My dad called Princess Promotions again today. The woman said that she could see that he had already called on Monday and that no one had returned his call. As the first rep had said earlier in the week, she said that their service standard (if that's the right word?) is 48 hours. 🤨 She said that she would check if there was a manager available to speak to him right away and put him on hold. Well, surprise, surprise, there was no one available. My dad told her that he was going to keep calling back until it was resolved. I'll post an update if he ever manages to speak to someone in a position of authority. They're closed on weekends so, if he doesn't hear from them tomorrow, then we're looking at next week. As someone earlier in this thread said, I won't hold my breath. If anyone is reading this thread in the future and is considering one of Princess Promotions' packages, just know that this is the service that you'll receive once they've hoodwinked you out of your money.

@Ombud Nope, Princess Promotions did not call back. Probably too busy cold-calling other members of this forum. My dad is going to call them again tomorrow. I figure, if they won't even talk to him, it just makes his case better when he is disputing the charge with his credit card company. @Kay S When I asked my parents if they had seen any brochures/pamphlets etc. that explained the different Princess Promotions packages, they said that the only papers on the table were the FCD forms - so the forms were still available as of 2 weeks ago.

No update to give. Based upon the timeframe they themselves set, Princess Promotions has about 12 hours to call my dad back . . . and, for most of that time, it will be the middle of the night in our time zone.

The update. . . My dad called Princess yesterday and was given a phone number for Princess Promotions. They were, of course, closed on Sunday so he had to wait until today to speak to someone. The Princess rep also confirmed that the staff at the FCD do not work for Princess (as has been stated here). He called Princess Promotions this morning. Their rep said that the issue had been "escalated" and he would receive a call back within 48 hours. . . So now we wait. . . He also called his credit card company and explained the situation. They said that he should call back in 10 days or so if he could not resolve the issue with the vendor. While the charge is disputed, he does not need to pay that portion of his bill. Re the Starbucks/Safeway analogy above. . . This situation is definitely different. The guy at the FCD was wearing a Princess shirt and name tag. Starbucks is also a well-known company in their own right. Who the heck are these O.N.E. people? They're just trading on Princess' reputation. If I thought my parents, after a 10 min chat, had willingly handed over $7499 (Remember that we're Canadian so it would actually be over $10,000!) to some company that I'd never heard of, I would be seeking some sort of Britney Spears-style conservatorship for them both. 😅 @PescadoAmarillo You make a good point. My parents didn't get the WiFi package on this cruise. (Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don't.) That's why he told the FCD guy that he would "look into it" when he got home. He didn't have WiFi to search any of this.

I should have mentioned. . . They were on a 16 day cruise and they visited the FCD in the first week. By the time they returned home and saw the charge on their card, they were already outside Princess Promotions' 7 day cancellation period.

Thanks everyone for your responses! They went to the FCD to book a particular cruise that they were interested in. They didn't go there to buy FCC. It was only after the cruise was booked that the guy started talking to them about hotels. As I already mentioned, my dad initially said they had it covered, they had been to London before and were going to stay at the same hotel. The guy started scrolling through hotels on a computer screen and told them that, through this program, there were hotels available in London for $59/night, white glove concierge service, blah, blah, blah. Upselling hard. Yes, @lahlah57!My dad remembers saying to the guy at one point that it sounded too good to be true. As several people said, yes, it should have been a red flag when they were asked for their credit card. But they were on a Princess ship and they thought that they were talking to a Princess employee. Thanks to @memoak and others who have posted to this forum previously on this topic, they now know that the future cruise desk is staffed by O.N.E. employees. My dad also specifically asked the guy why he needed their credit card as Princess already had it. The guy did not say that it was because they were about to charge them a few thousand dollars. He said that it was to register them so everything would be in place, Princess Promotions would have their info and they could book a hotel once they got home. @skynight They didn't sign anything. Last night, I sent my parents a link to a video about this on Youtube by that Don guy and, when I spoke to my dad this morning, he said that he was calling his credit card company today. (They've watched his videos before, but, sadly, not that one.) There is actually $6000 of FCC in their Princess account - not $3000. It appears that they were actually signed up for the $7499 package, not the $3499 package as I suspected yesterday. The amount already charged must have been a deposit/first payment and they need to make sure that O.N.E. isn't able to charge their card for the rest! I know social media often gets a bad rap, but if it wasn't for forums like this, we wouldn't have been able to figure out what had happened.

I know my parents and they would have definitely walked away if they thought someone was trying to sign them up for some sort of vacation club. We are also Canadian. It seems like they have the smallest package based upon the amount charged to their credit card (which, of course, was over $4000 once it was converted to Canadian $$.) From what I've read, most of the $3499 is FCC so, worst case scenario, they can put it towards the European cruise that they just booked? They didn't even know that the amount included FCC until we googled it. I wasn't there so I don't know what was said, but I also don't know how both of them could have completely misunderstood what was going on. My mom is also the kind of person who comes home with printed versions of the Princess Patter so, if they received any paperwork from the future cruise desk that explained how it all worked, she would still have it. It's a mystery.

I'm not a cruiser myself. (Please don't hate me.) My parents are frequent cruisers - always with Princess. I've been reading through some of the other posts about Princess Promotions here, but no one seems to have had a similar experience to my parents. They just returned from a cruise this week. While they were onboard, they booked a European cruise. The Future Cruise Desk guy asked if they would be staying in Europe after their cruise and started telling them about a company affiliated with Princess that could offer them great deals on hotels. My dad told him that they already had a hotel picked out and they didn't need anything fancy. He assured them that through this program they could get an even better deal. My dad said that he would check out the website when they got home to see if there was something suitable. The guy said that he needed their credit card info to register them and then they would be able to book through the 1-800 number when they got home. After they got home, my dad logged into his online banking and noticed that, during their vacation, there had been a large, unexpected charge to his credit card from a company that he didn't recognize. He was about to call their bank to tell them that his card was compromised when he realized that the charge was from the same date that they had visited the Future Cruise Desk. He called Princess and asked for the charge to be cancelled. Their customer service person insisted that the cost of Princess Promotions would have been explained to them on board and that this charge would have also been noted in their paperwork. My dad was equally insistent that buddy from the future cruise desk never told them about the cost of the program and never gave them any paperwork. It was only when talking to her that he realized they had signed up for some sort of timeshare-esque program. After some discussion, Princess told him that someone from the ship would be calling him about cancelling the charge. (Why would it be someone from the ship? Theories?) As you can guess, so far, no phone call from the ship or from anyone else. My parents are in their 70s, but they haven't lost their marbles. I can readily believe that they missed some of the details of the program, but I can't understand how they both missed the part when the guy told them that he would be charging thousands of dollars to their credit card AND that they then also lost the paperwork that he had given them. Someone on Reddit mentioned a laminated Princess Promotions brochure at the Future Cruise Desk, but my parents say they never saw one. I think my dad should call his bank now and dispute the charge on his card. He wants to wait a couple of days. TL;DR My parents were signed up (and charged) for Princess Promotions at the Future Cruise Desk, but the cost was never explained to them. I'm sure someone will ask - this happened on the Ruby.