Usually I'd be delighted with an upgrade..

[mringenoldus]

We have a number of cabins on the Coral Princess. 3 reservations were made using my very reliable agent. When the fourth cabin was added, I received a quote from a competition-type internet agency that I felt was quite good.

 

They agency later said there was an error made in the quote - but that's another story.

 

I noticed that the BB cabin had been moved away from the rest of the cabins and upgrade to a BA two decks lower. (I'm not sure why a Caribe balcony is considered an upgrade from the Aloha hump balcony??) Anyway, I contacted the TA and asked that she try to move the party back to the BB hump - or try to bet an upgrade to the AD mini on the hump immediately below on Baja.

 

The TA replied by email that the BB was waitlisted already so it wasn't coming back and she would try to get the mini (actually only a $20 price difference) Princess booking site showed the original BB and the AD as available. What's up?? Why would a cabin show open with Princess and not open on other internet sites?

 

Of course, I haven't heard another word from the TA although I have called and left messages and emailed. I have learned my lesson and will remain loyal to my relaible TA!

[OnlyCruises]

Some travel sites buy groups of tickets then sell to you from that group. My travel agent could not get tickets from princess for a cruise in july. I was able to get tickets from a travel site that still had some left.

[KAJOKG]

Depends on whether it's more midship, and also the Caribe Balconies are much larger than the Aloha and Baja balconies.

[mringenoldus]

The Caribe balcony does look bigger on the deck plans - but we were happy with the Aloha hump cabin that was next to the rest of our group. I still haven't heard from the TA. I get the sense that once this agency sells you the cruise, they aren't very concerned about you after that.

[tequilasunrise]

I have always booked through my own TA, so this may not be possible with consolidators...but when you book a group of cabins for family/friends travelling together, and you want to be sure they aren't split, consider booking specific cabins with "no upgrade", or have your TA tell Princess you want to see all upgrades before deciding (which is what we do). An "upgrade" is category and is not always a cabin you will like better----so I always want to see what the offer is first! I have turned them down in the past, and taken them too.

 

Here's a tip if your time is flexible....book one of the more popular cabins, early. Then, if they are selling well, sometimes Princess will offer you a minisuite and onboard credit to take a later cruise instead. A sweet deal if you can go anytime!

[mringenoldus]

Those are all great ideas. I don't know that this TA is a consolidator - simply an agency that resonded to a CRUISE COMPETition request.

 

I had marked all the cabins "no upgrade unless to a suite" because I wanted to keep the locations. I'm not sure what happened and I can't get the darn TA to reply - maybe tomorrow when the work week begins?

 

We booked this trip way in advance (our VS cabin was the second booking on the entire ship) The friends cabin was booked almost a year in advance also. I think I did everything right - except not just using my typical TA.