Move DOWN offer from Princess today!

[LovetheSea]

We got a phone call from Princess saying our they overbooked the Oceanview Cabins on our upcoming Alaska cruise. She said it is completely voluntary and would like to offer us $250.00 to move down to an Oceanview Obstructed. I told her I never heard of a move down offer? I said absolutely not. No thank you,  NO. Has anyone received a move down offer before? I have cruised on  45 cruises and this is the first time for me. 

[mek]

15 minutes ago, LovetheSea said:

We got a phone call from Princess saying our they overbooked the Oceanview Cabins on our upcoming Alaska cruise. She said it is completely voluntary and would like to offer us $250.00 to move down to an Oceanview Obstructed. I told her I never heard of a move down offer? I said absolutely not. No thank you,  NO. Has anyone received a move down offer before? I have cruised on  45 cruises and this is the first time for me. 

Yes, I've heard of them.  They would have to offer me a lot more than $250.

[mevs904]

We received two move down offers on our Baltic cruise last month.  The first was to an inside cabin and the second was to an obstructed view balcony.  We received the offers via email and chose not to respond.  After that we received a move over offer to completely give up our balcony cabin.  In all three cases they offered much more than $250.  Prior to this cruise we received a move down offer for our Panama Canal cruise a couple of years ago.  Someday, if conditions are right we might accept one of their offers.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Yes,  I received and accepted a Move Down offer.  We received all of our money back in the form of refundable OBC.  We moved down from a Caribe balcony to an inside stateroom.

[azbirdmom]

Depending on the cruise, you might have booked the obstructed cabin initially for more than $250 under what you paid for your OV so that's not a good deal at all.

Edited September 12, 2019 by azbirdmom

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, LovetheSea said:

We got a phone call from Princess saying our they overbooked the Oceanview Cabins on our upcoming Alaska cruise. She said it is completely voluntary and would like to offer us $250.00 to move down to an Oceanview Obstructed. I told her I never heard of a move down offer? I said absolutely not. No thank you,  NO. Has anyone received a move down offer before? I have cruised on  45 cruises and this is the first time for me. 

Happens all the time.

[Steelers36]

28 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Yes,  I received and accepted a Move Down offer.  We received all of our money back in the form of refundable OBC.  We moved down from a Caribe balcony to an inside stateroom.

Makes me wonder if Princess had earlier in time upgraded someone to a balcony and now they have to pay someone to go back down.  Probably not something like that (Inside to Balcony) early on in the lead up to departure.

[donswife]

I just started a thread yesterday about our move down offer. $100 each to go from mini suite to deluxe balcony on the Royal 3 day. We said no.

[casofilia]

We probably wouldn't get them as we book Inside but it would take a lot more than $250 each to go down.   I wonder why they don't offer to move people up!!

[joybook]

Just slightly off-topic, but a question I am interested in. Am I correct in assuming any upsell, upgrade, move over, move down etc offer would only be made by Princess after the final payment has been made. I suppose they could only make an offer like these if you had definitely committed to the cruise by making your final payment. I might add that I have never received one.

[caribill]

38 minutes ago, joybook said:

Just slightly off-topic, but a question I am interested in. Am I correct in assuming any upsell, upgrade, move over, move down etc offer would only be made by Princess after the final payment has been made. I suppose they could only make an offer like these if you had definitely committed to the cruise by making your final payment. I might add that I have never received one.

 

These offers are usually made in the days leading up to the cruise when Princess has unfulfilled GTY cabins and needs to "bribe" others to either move over or move down in order to fill the GTYs. This is way past final payment time.

 

The move down offers used to be a complete rebate (as refundable OBC) of the cruise fare paid (not including taxes). Based on posts here and elsewhere Princess is trying to save $$ by offering a small amount of OBC instead. I suspect if there are no takers of the offer with just small amounts of OBC that the offers will get better until enough people accept them.

 

This is sort of the reverse of what they have done with the upgrade fairy. There used to be plenty of free upgrades to cabins that were not selling well to free up lower priced cabins that Princess could then resell or to free up cabins to fill GTYs. Then Princess discovered that instead of wanting free upgrades, passengers were willing to pay for them and thus upsells have become prevalent.

[LovetheSea]

Our cruise is sailing Saturday. Balcony cabins have been sold out for a while. That is why we booked an Oceanview. Once we booked a balcony GNTY on Celebrity and when it came time for the cruise, they put us in an Oceanview because they oversold the balcony cabins. We got a lot of $$$. back. But I still would have preferred the balcony cabin. 

 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

10 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Makes me wonder if Princess had earlier in time upgraded someone to a balcony and now they have to pay someone to go back down.  Probably not something like that (Inside to Balcony) early on in the lead up to departure.

 We had initially booked an inside cabin and then I accepted an upsell to the balcony. When I received the call they told me that they had oversold the balconies.

[Steelers36]

46 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

 We had initially booked an inside cabin and then I accepted an upsell to the balcony. When I received the call they told me that they had oversold the balconies.

As a shareholder, I ought to be concerned that they ended up paying a customer back more than they collected for the move to the balcony in the first place.  As a passenger, it would be nice were it me. 

[TW6cruiser]

We took a move -down offer once, our travel agent got an email and sent to me, and I called Princess directly as it was just a few days before sailing (actually the day before we left for Europe, but maybe 4 days before the cruise).  We took a move down from a regular balcony to an "obstructed view" balcony, in exchange for a good bit of OBC (I don't remember how much maybe $200 or $300 and a specialty dinner).  I had checked a link here on Cruise critic with deck plans and also checked online for which obstructed cabins were available.  The cabin we got was only called obstructed view as the panel on the balcony under the rail was not clear glass.  So for us, for a 7 day cruise, we were happy as in our opinion the only down grade was the cabin was very forward (our prior one was mid-ship) but it was not really obstructed.  Each case is different.  

[MISTER 67]

We got a call from Princess about 12 years ago a day before our cruise asking us to cancel completely, cant remember what they offered but it was quite substantial but we said no.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

5 hours ago, steelers36 said:

As a shareholder, I ought to be concerned that they ended up paying a customer back more than they collected for the move to the balcony in the first place.  As a passenger, it would be nice were it me. 

Yes, you probably should be concerned...  I wonder how often that happens ?

[geoherb]

Was that $250 each? If so, I'd consider it. Most of the time, we won't book an unobstructed view cabin unless it's just a few more dollars per person than an obstructed view.

[jangor]

1 hour ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Yes, you probably should be concerned...  I wonder how often that happens ?

As a shareholder, I would not be too concerned.  The goal is to sell all cabins on the ship with no loss from empty cabins.  Remember that an empty cabin means no photos, drinks, excursions, specialty dining or other sells.  Sailing with empty cabins is more of a loss than moving paid passengers that will spend other money.

[casofilia]

Another reason we wouldn't be offered anything up or down as we don't spend anything while on board if at all ;possible!!

[pjrockman]

Our one and only move over offer was from our 10 day New Year Eve cruise on the Royal or Regal two years ago.  We had a Club Class mini suite.  We enjoy NYE cruises to the Caribbean.  The offer came about 10 days before the cruise and it was for a full refund credit and a CC Mini on the same itinerary after February.  We are semi-flexible with SWA flexible changeable  air arrangements.  We always hoped we would get an offer and it had a value of about $4k....but when we were actually faced with the offer, our overwhelming ‘ready to cruise now’ desire kicked in!!

 

So, we turned it down and never looked back!!  Many would say we were stupid at that amount, but sometimes ya just need to get on a Ship instead of waiting another 2 or 3 months!

 

Safe Journeys, Paul

[LovetheSea]

It was just $250.00 total, not each.

[Aussie Gal]

Our cruise is on the 26th September and today I received first of all a text message and since then over a period of 3 hours, 5 emails with an offer to go from a large mini suite (Sun Princess and Club Class) to an interior cabin.  We would get the whole of our fare back in OBC -a  lot to spend in 19 days unless I use the Casino as some sort of bank to get the money back - plus an 8 night free cruise and $100AUD EZ air offer.

We will not be taking up the offer as I am claustrophobic for one thing and secondly we love our aft balcony and Club Class.  This cruise is leaving from overseas so I presume that is why we are not being asked to cancel the cruise as we all have our airfares in place.

Funny that this morning I was reading the above posts and thinking how much it has changed as twice we have been offered an upsell to go from a mini to a full suite and of course we took both offers.

Jennie

 

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Aussie Gal said:

Our cruise is on the 26th September and today I received first of all a text message and since then over a period of 3 hours, 5 emails with an offer to go from a large mini suite (Sun Princess and Club Class) to an interior cabin.  We would get the whole of our fare back in OBC -a  lot to spend in 19 days unless I use the Casino as some sort of bank to get the money back - plus an 8 night free cruise and $100AUD EZ air offer.

We will not be taking up the offer as I am claustrophobic for one thing and secondly we love our aft balcony and Club Class.  This cruise is leaving from overseas so I presume that is why we are not being asked to cancel the cruise as we all have our airfares in place.

Funny that this morning I was reading the above posts and thinking how much it has changed as twice we have been offered an upsell to go from a mini to a full suite and of course we took both offers.

Jennie

 

 

It was most probably refundable OBC.  You might have told them you would consider it if still could dine in Club Class.  ;-)

Just kidding as I read the note about claustrophobic.  

[Aussie Gal]

14 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

It was most probably refundable OBC.  You might have told them you would consider it if still could dine in Club Class.  ;-)

Just kidding as I read the note about claustrophobic.  

 I even had trouble with an Ocean View back in 1999. Since then we have always had a balcony.  Also, we book at least 18 months or more in advance to get the cabin we want plus we love sitting on our balcony either reading or just watching the ocean.  We just couldn't give up that for what Princess is willing to give.

Jennie