Switching Cabins

[Bezanson]

Hello, hoping someone can weigh in.  We are travelling with another couple.  On the advice of the Princess rep we booked the gals in one cabin and the guys in the other cabin so that the couple we are travelling can have the same price as us.  We are only gold and they are new to Princess.  We did this on Carnival many years ago so that we could take advantage of their discount.  Now it's all computerized with the medallions.  Can we get the medallions switched up at the desk upon boarding?  Can I just change the booking and put book the two cabins and I pay for both of them....would they still get the discount (on Holland America when my parents booked 4 cabins for family she got her 3 star discount for all cabins).  Hoping someone can advise on the best route to go so that our friends get the same rate as us.  Thanks.

[Mike45LC]

How much is the savings from this scam?  Seems like a lot of trouble.  You can't just switch possession of a medallion like you could switch a door key, because they scan the medallion so often -- whenever you order a drink, every time you leave the ship and return, etc.  (Although often, it is possible that a couple make a mistake and switch medallions.)    And I don't know if Guest Services will be willing to simply re-assign the cabin associated with two of the medallions so it is Boy-Girl and Boy-Girl.  

[donswife]

I was not aware of a price difference for Princess new vs return customers.  Did you refer them for new passenger shipboard credit?

[jennybenny]

We have done this with our kids, mom and kid in one room, dad and kid in another. 
 

It’s no problem to fix onboard, and you don’t need to explain the why to Guest services.  In your case you can request that the medallions only open the cabins desired. All 4 need to go and it will be quickly remedied.

in my case we wanted the medallions to open both rooms, but they offered to keep the kids locked out of our room, which was not necessary.

[franktown]

As donswife said on post 3 I do not understand why there would be a difference in price for new and past cruisers.  Did 2 different mock bookings one for me and my wife using our captain circle #, we are platinum and then a second mock booking for 2 made up names with no captain circle # and the price came out exactly the same.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, donswife said:

I was not aware of a price difference for Princess new vs return customers.  Did you refer them for new passenger shipboard credit?

 

1 hour ago, franktown said:

As donswife said on post 3 I do not understand why there would be a difference in price for new and past cruisers.  Did 2 different mock bookings one for me and my wife using our captain circle #, we are platinum and then a second mock booking for 2 made up names with no captain circle # and the price came out exactly the same.

 

Princess's "list" price for most cruises is $100 more per person than for Captain's Circle Members.  As long as you have a Princess ID, and login, then you see the lower rate. 

 

@franktown probably saw no change because Princess website cookies recognized you as a member.  I have a similar issue when in the USA.  If I simply logout and then check cruise pricing, I see CAD.  I should see USD since I am connected to a US ISP.  I would need to clear cookies in order to see USD pricing.  Or switch to another browser that I have not used for Princess.

 

[caribill]

5 hours ago, jennybenny said:

 

It’s no problem to fix onboard, and you don’t need to explain the why to Guest services.  In your case you can request that the medallions only open the cabins desired. All 4 need to go and it will be quickly remedied.

 

 

Yes -- this is true.

[skynight]

Once on board passenger services can change your medallions for access to your cabins. Since you are new thought I would mention two sources of OBC. Look up Carnival Corporation Shareholder benefits, if you own Carnival stock. Also look up Princess Military Benefit if any of you are active or ex-military.

[LACruiser88]

Not worth the hassle to save $200.  I can see doing it when booking with kids because you can't book kids in a cabin without an adult...

[jennybenny]

$200? That's specialty dining money for the OP! If they don't mind the hassle, who cares!

 

The real problem is that you need to wait a bit do make the fix because Passenger services are busy on the first day. We just wait until the line is low/er, but have not had any issues getting this done. So you either stand in a 30 minute line, or wait until it's more manageable to fix. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by jennybenny

[CountryCruiser]

15 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

Princess's "list" price for most cruises is $100 more per person than for Captain's Circle Members.  As long as you have a Princess ID, and login, then you see the lower rate. 

 

@franktown probably saw no change because Princess website cookies recognized you as a member.  I have a similar issue when in the USA.  If I simply logout and then check cruise pricing, I see CAD.  I should see USD since I am connected to a US ISP.  I would need to clear cookies in order to see USD pricing.  Or switch to another browser that I have not used for Princess.

 

There is not always a difference.  But many times there is.  I've done the ole switcheroo, but only when there was quite a bit of savings. Not sure $200 would be enough to justify it in the big scheme of things.  It can be somewhat painful with onboard spending and such.

[CountryCruiser]

3 hours ago, jennybenny said:

$200? That's specialty dining money for the OP! If they don't mind the hassle, who cares!

 

The real problem is that you need to wait a bit do make the fix because Passenger services are busy on the first day. We just wait until the line is low/er, but have not had any issues getting this done. So you either stand in a 30 minute line, or wait until it's more manageable to fix. 

Waiting is not really a big deal if it is your kids you are switching.  But for another adult couple, it is really a pain to not be able to get it switched right away.

[jennybenny]

1 minute ago, CountryCruiser said:

There is not always a difference.  But many times there is.  I've done the ole switcheroo, but only when there was quite a bit of savings. Not sure $200 would be enough to justify it in the big scheme of things.  It can be somewhat painful with onboard spending and such.

Your medallion still pays for your purchases and since the couples are technically in different cabins they will need to make sure they consume their OBC per person, on each person's account. 

[jennybenny]

1 minute ago, CountryCruiser said:

Waiting is not really a big deal if it is your kids you are switching.  But for another adult couple, it is really a pain to not be able to get it switched right away.

I don't mean wait until mid cruise, I mean wait until the line dies down a bit in the evening. Stick with your significant other till it happens. If the OP and their friends think the $ amount is worth it, who are we to judge the difficulty?

[CountryCruiser]

1 minute ago, jennybenny said:

I don't mean wait until mid cruise, I mean wait until the line dies down a bit in the evening. Stick with your significant other till it happens. If the OP and their friends think the $ amount is worth it, who are we to judge the difficulty?

You are absolutely correct.  I just wanted them to think about all of the potential consequences since they have never done it before.  And if there is some kind of mass hiccup with the systems, those lines may not go down for quite some time.  Especially if you are not platinum or elite.

[Steelers36]

17 minutes ago, CountryCruiser said:

There is not always a difference.  But many times there is.  I've done the ole switcheroo, but only when there was quite a bit of savings. Not sure $200 would be enough to justify it in the big scheme of things.  It can be somewhat painful with onboard spending and such.

Not sure what you are getting at.  If you are a past cruiser with Princess, you will get the correct lower fare, if one exists.  IDK what "switcheroo" you mean, but whether Princess or a TA booking, you always will start with the correct list price if you are a  past cruiser.

 

OH.. I GET IT... you were talking about another post where folks are switching how booked to how they want to live/sleep. 

 

How many folks put all the Medallions in a hat and draw them out and you are matched with whomever for the evening? 😁😍😈

Edited January 27, 2021 by Steelers36

[skynight]

1 hour ago, jennybenny said:

Your medallion still pays for your purchases and since the couples are technically in different cabins they will need to make sure they consume their OBC per person, on each person's account. 

This is an excellent point. Cabin access isn't the only issue. On board accounts would also have to be rearranged if possible. Normally when accounts are linked each person in a family couple will have a separate account and there will summary which combines all spending and OBC for a net total. With the family couple officially in different cabins don't know how this would work. 

[broberts]

It has been a while, but I believe there is 100 discount booking balcony and above when one occupant is a past passenger.

[jennybenny]

3 minutes ago, skynight said:

This is an excellent point. Cabin access isn't the only issue. On board accounts would also have to be rearranged if possible. Normally when accounts are linked each person in a family couple will have a separate account and there will summary which combines all spending and OBC for a net total. With the family couple officially in different cabins don't know how this would work. 

If two people share a room but use different credit cards they get two statements. With two cards on file, OBC is not shared among them. If you use the same credit card for the room, or multiple rooms, it all balances out. So if each kid has $100 obc and I pay for everything their OBC subtracts from the credit card total I am responsible for and I can get one statement for all. At least that’s how it’s been in my experience with both scenarios 

[triple7tahoe]

I have not seen it mentioned but there can be some significant money earned here. Both my wife and I are elite so get "loyalty credit" and CCL credit. Both are to one per cabin. When traveling with adult daughter or another family member we have gotten two cabins; one in each of our names with one sharing the family member. We each get the loyalty credit; the CCL credit along with mini-bar set up. Not something we do all the time but.....:-)

 

[donswife]

21 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

 

Princess's "list" price for most cruises is $100 more per person than for Captain's Circle Members.  As long as you have a Princess ID, and login, then you see the lower rate. 

 

@franktown probably saw no change because Princess website cookies recognized you as a member.  I have a similar issue when in the USA.  If I simply logout and then check cruise pricing, I see CAD.  I should see USD since I am connected to a US ISP.  I would need to clear cookies in order to see USD pricing.  Or switch to another browser that I have not used for Princess.

 

I had no idea that was a thing!  I guess that explains why the price for our next cruise is lower on the Princess website than other sites I checked, even when I don't put in my CC #.  

[Tucker in Texas]

We have a similar question so I'm glad someone addressed it.  In our case, my sister and I were planning on taking a cruise this month that was cancelled.  Her husband was not interested in going until a vaccine was out and mine felt the same.  As I said, it was cancelled.  Later, after receiving our deposit back (we had not made final payment), we were contacted that, if we were willing to book the same cruise in 2022, they would give us $500 on board credit   However, it had to be the same people in the cabin.  Now the husbands are ready to go.  So, we booked the men in one cabin and us in another cabin. They don't do bed checks (lol).  Another reason for doing this is that our fare included the "free" perks.   However, the men don't drink much more than a beer to be sociable and we could book them significantly cheaper without the perks--like $500 each cheaper even factoring in the grats they would owe.    

 

Having never cruised with the medallion, I was curious how it would work with the room keys.  I had already figured out that we would use separate credit cards for each us to keep our expenditures separate, I just want to get the cabin keys so that they match the cabin we are sleeping in.  Hope it is as easy as some have indicated.

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, donswife said:

I had no idea that was a thing!  I guess that explains why the price for our next cruise is lower on the Princess website than other sites I checked, even when I don't put in my CC #.  

Dig a little deeper and you can beat Princess pricing with a discounting TA.  Agencies can only publish list prices on their public pages, but they can offer discounts and incentives.

[Pansy2801]

I remember that in Personalizer is an option to invite friends who can have the same price as “me”. Maybe you check “ booked guests”  and/ or call Princess .