Move down offer - opinions sought

Hello collective cruise brains.

Tonight we got an email from our TA asking us to call them. We received and offer from Princess relating to our next trip on Sapphire 22nd Sept - 14 night southern med cruise. We booked a Full Suite guarantee category S6 - we got it for a song and were super smug about as our fave location is aft.

Tonight they have offered us a move down - they stated it was a Mini Suite category BL and we would keep our club class dining for a 50% refund in OBC of £1708 - not quite 50% if truth be known by the time you take in tax etc. But its basically one free. We might lose out a little more as they state it will be in dollars.

So we are a bit confused as we can't see a category BL, we are a wee bit choosy about location - if its a balcony we'd only be interested in an aft or caribe deck. If it really is a mini.... whats with the BL?

Opinions on the offer?

The TA has tried to contact Princess, but got through to the US offices - the offer comes from Southampton so we need to phone office hours tomorrow.

Only take it if you are comfortable with it AND it benefits you. Sounds like they do not have a suite to meet your gaurantee. Never take the first or second offer.

I would also do a mock booking to see what cabins are available and give your TA a choice of at least two. Do not let the TA agree to anything without your approval.

it appears to be a balcony.

Mini-suite categories start with an M.

https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=SA

Balconies start with a B, and I don't see a BL category.

it appears to be a balcony.

Mini-suite categories start with an M.

https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=SA

 

Balconies start with a B, and I don't see a BL category.

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Only take it if you are comfortable with it AND it benefits you. Sounds like they do not have a suite to meet your gaurantee. Never take the first or second offer.

I would also do a mock booking to see what cabins are available and give your TA a choice of at least two. Do not let the TA agree to anything without your approval.

The Cruise is sold out currently so it would seem that they may be struggling to fulfil the guarantee.

My husband just reminded me of the exact wording of the offer..... we would keep our club class and specialty dining. My heart is torn over Sabatinis breakfast... would they really let us keep that? or does it just mean the first night speciality dining. So many questions!!!!

Hello collective cruise brains.

 

 

 

Tonight we got an email from our TA asking us to call them. We received and offer from Princess relating to our next trip on Sapphire 22nd Sept - 14 night southern med cruise. We booked a Full Suite guarantee category S6 - we got it for a song and were super smug about as our fave location is aft.

 

 

 

Tonight they have offered us a move down - they stated it was a Mini Suite category BL and we would keep our club class dining for a 50% refund in OBC of £1708 - not quite 50% if truth be known by the time you take in tax etc. But its basically one free. We might lose out a little more as they state it will be in dollars.

 

So we are a bit confused as we can't see a category BL, we are a wee bit choosy about location - if its a balcony we'd only be interested in an aft or caribe deck. If it really is a mini.... whats with the BL?

 

Opinions on the offer?

 

The TA has tried to contact Princess, but got through to the US offices - the offer comes from Southampton so we need to phone office hours tomorrow.

I would accept. Question to ask, is unused OBC refundable? There is no cat. BL on the Sapphire. You are either getting a cat. "B___" which refers to a balcony cabin, or what I think it will be cat. M1 since you do mention that you will still have Club Class dining.

ask for 100% refundable OBC, and retain ALL suite perks...:cool:

I would accept. Question to ask, is unused OBC refundable? There is no cat. BL on the Sapphire. You are either getting a cat. "B___" which refers to a balcony cabin, or what I think it will be cat. M1 since you do mention that you will still have Club Class dining.

The said it would be returned to us in a cheque if we didn't use it onboard. They definitely said Mini Suite... but they named it category BL.... we asked twice. The TA may have picked that part up wrong.

ask for 100% refundable OBC, and retain ALL suite perks...:cool:

I like your thinking! And.... if it were 100% refundable OBC I'd be all happy in my nappy dancing at the free cruise! I would take any balcony if that was the case! :cool:

ask for 100% refundable OBC, and retain ALL suite perks...:cool:

(y)(y)(y)

Absolutely!! If they are really in a bind, you'll get it all.

I'm also booked on the 22nd Sept. cruise, originally in a full suite. We also got the offer of £1708 refund (a bit over 50% of what we paid) but insisted we have it paid now and not as refundable dollar OBC as I was unsure if we would be worse off due to the exchange rate at the end of the cruise. Princess agreed and they have already refunded the money to my TA in GBP and my TA is in the process of passing it to to me.

We have got a midship mini suite, about 3 doors down from club class minis. But we get to have all club class benefits and a free speciality meal. I have asked for the full suite benefits and that is being looked into. To be honest the Sabitinis breakfast was never important to us. I would like the free thermal suite but whatever the deal suits us with or without it.

I have to say I'm not surprised, at least in the UK the full suite was offered at a very low price for quite sometime.

Only the OP can decide whether having one person sail for free basically is worth it to give up the extra space and benefits of being in a suite. When we took an upsell to a suite last year, our favorite benefit was breakfast at Sabatini's. Club Class dining was not that important. We had a couple in a suite on a previous cruise who joined us at traditional dining. They discovered later that they could have gone to Club Class, but they decided that dining with others was enjoyable rather than dining by themselves every night.

With a guarantee, though, the OP could end up in any suite that's a Cat. S6 or higher. They may not get their favorite aft location.

Be careful, they may withdraw the offer and give it to someone else. We got 100% ROBC for a Move Over plus a $2,000 upgrade.

Last year we had a mini on a very short coastal. They gave us one fare back as refundable OBC if we'd move to a premium balcony. We took the offer. Even with 2 of 3 nights in specialty dining we got most of it back.

They screwed up reassigning the room, and as a result I had to go hunt down our bags. We then got about 1/2 the second fare back as OBC on the next cruise.

I'm OP's husband. Here's a wee update.

I called our TA this morning, and she phoned Princess to clarify the offer: downgrade to an MB mini-suite, retain club-class dining and one specialty meal. 50% fare refund in OBC. I was given a choice of six mini-suites, adjacent to the club-class minis on Dolphin.

After rejecting this first offer, Princess came back with the 'immediate' refund offer that Smokey01 describes above.

While this offer was slightly more attractive, I declined the offer. We just like all the benefits of a suite a little too much to be swayed by their downgrade offer.

I thought it was interesting to note that Princess have at least 6 mini-suites to play with while they upsell and downgrade passengers from other grades.

-Michael.

I'm OP's husband. Here's a wee update.

I called our TA this morning, and she phoned Princess to clarify the offer: downgrade to an MB mini-suite, retain club-class dining and one specialty meal. 50% fare refund in OBC. I was given a choice of six mini-suites, adjacent to the club-class minis on Dolphin.

 

After rejecting this first offer, Princess came back with the 'immediate' refund offer that Smokey01 describes above.

While this offer was slightly more attractive, I declined the offer. We just like all the benefits of a suite a little too much to be swayed by their downgrade offer.

I thought it was interesting to note that Princess have at least 6 mini-suites to play with while they upsell and downgrade passengers from other grades.

 

Michael.

Interesting and thanks for the update, Michael. I'm with you and your wife - it wouldn't be enticing enough for me either. If they offered your full fare back as refundable OBC, then I'd take it. Half doesn't seem that great when you've been counting on the full suite and planning for it. Bon voyage!

What is your TA suggesting you do?

What is your TA suggesting you do?

Our TA had never had an instance of this happening in the past. We are in the UK I suspect it doesn’t happen as frequently here.

Our TA had never had an instance of this happening in the past. We are in the UK I suspect it doesn’t happen as frequently here.

So presumably they haven't come back with a better offer? I guess they have sorted the problem now.

Like you we were hoping for one of the S6 Aft suites but being a guarantee it is (I believe) actually an S6 or higher. We really didn't want the S5 grade which are at the front of the ship with a metal balcony and restricted access while at sea. So this was part of our decision also i.e. what if we got an S5. I didn't really see us using Sabitini's for breakfast other than the first day to give it a try, we actually like the buffet, we get up early enough that it is quiet and we love a 2 table overlooking the sea. But I doubt we will ever get a full suite for as little as this, so it is a shame that we won't get to live the high life!

So not long to go now, 4 weeks this Saturday.

In many cases, I’d love a Move Over or Down offer, but in your case, if you already got a great deal and you’re excited about your suite, this wasn’t quite attractive enough to give it up. Enjoy your cruise!

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So presumably they haven't come back with a better offer? I guess they have sorted the problem now.

 

Like you we were hoping for one of the S6 Aft suites but being a guarantee it is (I believe) actually an S6 or higher. We really didn't want the S5 grade which are at the front of the ship with a metal balcony and restricted access while at sea. So this was part of our decision also i.e. what if we got an S5. I didn't really see us using Sabitini's for breakfast other than the first day to give it a try, we actually like the buffet, we get up early enough that it is quiet and we love a 2 table overlooking the sea. But I doubt we will ever get a full suite for as little as this, so it is a shame that we won't get to live the high life!

 

So not long to go now, 4 weeks this Saturday.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised how peaceful and wonderful breakfasts in Sabatini's is compared to the buffet.

Ok, update today - three weeks on Saturday till we go and we finally have our cabin allocation. They never called back with a subsequent offer so I'm guessing they had enough people willing to move down. We believe they had 6 mini suites on Dolphin that they were playing with to fulfill the guarantees. So we received cabin D738 an S6 aft vista suite that we are delighted to have. One of our slight worries was we'd end up being in an S5 forward facing which wasn't optimal, but no matter a suite is a suite! So Sabbatinis breakfast here we come :)

Ok, update today - three weeks on Saturday till we go and we finally have our cabin allocation. They never called back with a subsequent offer so I'm guessing they had enough people willing to move down. We believe they had 6 mini suites on Dolphin that they were playing with to fulfill the guarantees. So we received cabin D738 an S6 aft vista suite that we are delighted to have. One of our slight worries was we'd end up being in an S5 forward facing which wasn't optimal, but no matter a suite is a suite! So Sabbatinis breakfast here we come :)

Congratulations on your cabin assignment! Yay to Sabatini's breakfast!!

Enjoy your cruise

Ok, update today - three weeks on Saturday till we go and we finally have our cabin allocation. They never called back with a subsequent offer so I'm guessing they had enough people willing to move down. We believe they had 6 mini suites on Dolphin that they were playing with to fulfill the guarantees. So we received cabin D738 an S6 aft vista suite that we are delighted to have. One of our slight worries was we'd end up being in an S5 forward facing which wasn't optimal, but no matter a suite is a suite! So Sabbatinis breakfast here we come :)

Take care of that suite! We will be in the same one next January. I think you made the right choice - enjoy your cruise!