What a Rip-off

[Cassicruiser]

if you can book with a good TA they can be cheaper than the cruise line and you get some OBC if its on offer, try and get one that honours price drops but read their terms & conditions

 

I have booked twice with local TA's and had no luck at all with making any changes to cabin category or price drops. The prices were a little cheaper than the cruiseline. We also booked one cruise through a US TA, paid less deposit that was refundable till final payment and no problem changing cabins. I guess I have learned the hard way to shop around and question everything up front. You learn as you go along (and through the wonderful world of cruise critic)!

[dizzy1948]

I booked ours online through ECr............... and when there was a substantial drop in price for our cruise - shown on the Princess site - I contacted the big "E" and sure enough - back came a big fat cheque - took 2 weeks - and we kept the same cabins.

 

I think some TA's think it's all a bit too hard - so I haven't used one in years. Of course I appreciate not all TA's are like that - but for future - it will be the cruise line or the big "E"

 

Point to note - if you don't contact the cruiseline - they don't automatically contact you if there is a price drop - so you still have to keep your eyes peeled - and get on to them as soon as you spot the difference in your favour.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Dizzy! We just so happened to book through them so good to know they r ok to deal with. I was looking today and fijiian jewels Dec 17 departure has ocean view rooms for $600 pp dearer than our BA balcony, so I am even happier with our deal ;). Aunt n Uncle still don't want to pay for that knowing we got a much cheaper deal on a balcony :D

[BruceMuzz]

You're right. I think someone at Princess must be playing around. Before I posted originally, the Princess website was showing that 13 midship interior cabins had become available. I checked it a few times and the same info was showing. Now I see that they have all gone again. Very strange indeed.:)

 

Actually, not strange - nor unusual - at all.

 

All the mass market cruise lines sell each cabin an average 8 times before a cruise begins. The cruising public is very fickle. They upgrade, downgrade, move to another deck, move to another ship, move to another date, cancel, re-book, have family emergencies, have medical emergencies, miss their flights, cancel at the last minute, the list goes on and on.

Every cruise line has a list of preferred travel agents who are contacted with last minute fire sales to sell off any last minute vacant cabins. These travel agents have a list of preferred customers who are offered these last minute deals. They go very quickly.

 

Bigger ships always have a dozen or so small groups onboard. Each of these groups - usually at the last minute -typically need an additional 20 cabins - or give 20 unsold cabins back to the line. This happens every day of the week, on just about every ship.

 

Older ships (and sometimes newer ones) are always having mechanical emergencies. At the last minute they need to fly in 15 service engineers to fix an engine or a machine. That's 15 cabins gone.

[dizzy1948]

Dizzy! We just so happened to book through them so good to know they r ok to deal with. I was looking today and fijiian jewels Dec 17 departure has ocean view rooms for $600 pp dearer than our BA balcony, so I am even happier with our deal ;). Aunt n Uncle still don't want to pay for that knowing we got a much cheaper deal on a balcony :D

 

We have some friends that have done exactly the same. When the price came down - and I got the refund - they kept hanging on - I kept joking with them that I would send them a postcard from NZ If they didn't do something quick - including factoring in the air fare rises - now they are going to get the post card!!!:eek: Too late came the cry :rolleyes::p

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

I bet they are regretting it, as it seems are our Aunt n Uncle! Still, we are having Christmas on the water, and other than that, not much else concerns me!! We would have booked earlier for slightly cheaper but had to sort out house sitters etc....