Beware! Princess does not notify you when changing your reservation!

[shiner6]

I have been on the phone for more than 3 hours today to try and correct Princess moving our cabins.  My sister and I are RN's and originally booked a Carribbean cruise before Covid. Well, turns out we had rebooked twice after that in order for us to coordinate our work schedules. We were very spedific in our cabin placement.   Everything has been fine up until today. They moved both of us to different decks!   Not even anywhere near each other and neither of us received any notification. In our original reservation we had requested No changing of cabins, however, the person who rebooked us failed to click that box.  They felt it was an upgrade from Cat. BE to BC.   We don't want either of these "upgraded" cabins. I am still on the phone with my TA and Princess trying to settle this, but it doesn"t look good.  Will keep you posted.  BTW the cabins are on Carribean Princess R746 and R742.  They gave away my coveted R746.

[starboardcruiser]

5 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

I'm very surprised that you did not receive notification of these cabin changes.  That is very unusual.

I'm glad OP got the cabin straightened out.

 

I'm not surprised, and I'm disappointed in that fact. When Princess moved me from the Emerald to the Majestic for my sailing this fall, they never sent me a new confirmation with the new cabin/cruise dates. Only after I booked shore excursions (once I could finally log into the website since there were issues with that around that time), did I get a summary emailed to me with the new cabin and sail date. I booked directly also, so there was no TA to be notified.

[Kay S]

2 minutes ago, pms4104 said:

I had booked 18 months out ... and was about to lose my cabin to someone booking 5-6 months out.  I think Princess at that time marked me "don't screw with this person" ... as it has never again happened to me.  

🤣  I'm glad OP got her cabin back, but this sort of thing happens more than it should, IMO.  Some algorithm makes the decisions.  I don't care how sweetly Jan Swartz coos at customers, things have been on a steady decline in terms of customer service since she took over.  I met her once.  I wasn't convinced she actually knew what was happening on the ship she boarded.

[Steelers36]

52 minutes ago, shiner6 said:

Good news!   Just got off the phone with Jxxxx from XXXXX travel. He spent hours going back and forth for me and Princess Guest Relations came through and gave me back my room!!!!   Soooo Happy!  I can't say enough good things about Jxxx's persistence!  He renewed my faith in my fellow man by going to bat for me!  Covid has surely worn me down as I'm sure ya'll are aware by now, but today's response to "make things Right again" really perked up my spirits.

I am glad this worked out for you, but next time, just enter "TA" and not the agency and name as not allowed on Cruise Critic.  It was fine for you to call Princess and complain directly as a customer that your NO UPGRADE was ignored, but anything to do with cabin selection and cruise fare has to be handled through the agent.  It is most likely that Princess notified the agency of your cabin "upgrade", but they failed to forward the email to you.  Checking Cruise Personalizer on a regular basis helps, but it may still be a few days after a change that you notice something amiss.

 

[XBGuy]

Thanks to the posters who related the Interesting stories above.

 

Clearly, Princess has a lot of leeway in reallocating cabins.  They are pretty well covered in the passage contract.

 

We have been "upgraded" more than once.  On each occasion I received an e-mail advising of the change.  On each occasion Mrs. XBGuy did not like the new cabin and a call to Princess within 24 hours of the notification restored us to the original cabin.

 

It's been a few years since any of these cabin changes has occurred to us, but, now that I think of it. apparently, Princess does not have an elegant way of undoing these upgrades.  More than once the telephone agent has told me that they have to fill out a form and send it to some other desk.  They advised that it would take up to 72 hours to restore us to our original cabin.  On one of these restorations, we were moved to a cabin on the B Deck, not the A Deck.  The B Deck cabin was exactly under the desired original cabin.  I placed another call and explained to the telephone agent that we were supposed to be on the A Deck, not the B Deck.  She asked me to hold for a moment.  She came back a few seconds later and told me, "OK, you're now in your original cabin on A Deck."  It seemed to me that she was able to pull up our reservation on her terminal, and move me with a few keystrokes.  Did a "Super Agent" pick up my call--one who had more power than the previous agents with whom I had dealt?  I don't know.  I was happy.  It is always better to be lucky than good.

[LACruiser88]

We have always received notification of a cabin change and given 24 hrs to accept or reject the move.  I guess we have been lucky...

[Thrak]

I found out about a cabin change by accident one time while I was checking the personalizer. All of a sudden we showed a different cabin assignment. I received no notice at all. The cruise was on Crown Princess.  Fortunately, they had moved us from L249 - a forward inside cabin (category IC) to C301 - a handicapped accessible balcony cabin (category B2). It was actually quite a nice surprise. That HA balcony cabin is listed as being 395 sq. ft. whereas the original cabin is listed as being 162 sq. ft.

[ontheweb]

We were moved once without notification. We used a TA and Princess said they notified him while he said he never got the notification. Giving both of them the benefit of the doubt, I'd say an e-mail disappeared in cyber space. 

 

I also only discovered it when a saw a different cabin in the personalizer. It seemed it was too late for us to get our original cabin back, but the TA did get us something quite near instead of what they considered an upgrade but what I considered a spot that would be noisy.

[geoherb]

I'm currently on the Majestic Princess. The upgrade email went to my travel agency. It was really a cabin assignment since I had booked a guarantee, but the email considered it an upgrade. The email had my name and booking number and "Upgrade Notice (Passenger Copy)" as the subject matter. I discovered my cabin assignment way before my TA forwarded the email to me. When I've booked through some travel agencies, I haven't received any notification. The current one seems to be better than others at passing along info.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

We were moved once without notification. We used a TA and Princess said they notified him while he said he never got the notification. Giving both of them the benefit of the doubt, I'd say an e-mail disappeared in cyber space. 

 

I also only discovered it when a saw a different cabin in the personalizer. It seemed it was too late for us to get our original cabin back, but the TA did get us something quite near instead of what they considered an upgrade but what I considered a spot that would be noisy.

I should note since there are those who have mentioned that their TA does not forward cabin changes or upgrades, that we have had others where they were forwarded to us including a recommendation whether to take them or not. That is why I believe him when he said he never got this one.

[Ombud]

I use a PVP who alerts me before and can mark a cabin 'no upgrade or upsell.' I still got an offer but wasn't moved

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

I use a PVP who alerts me before and can mark a cabin 'no upgrade or upsell.' I still got an offer but wasn't moved

I am always open to looking at an upsell, but don't ignore my No Upgrade flag is my attitude.  We have never had this happen.  Once, when we had an interest in hearing about any upgrade, our TA marked it to notify her first.

 

[Ombud]

Exactly.  On Royal Class ships I'm only interested in moves to E409, E410, E424, or E425. Not premium per Princess but they're wrong (I'm currently in a bunch of E421 & E433s)

[Steelers36]

We have not been offered a true Upgrade from Princess in the past 10 years or so - other than once to my wife who did a short 5-nighter out of PE to Caribbean with one of our daughters.  It was to move to a Balcony from an Inside for some $$ (I forget the amount) and she did it for the treat. 

 

Otherwise, we have only had a GTY type Upgrade when getting a cabin assignment - and not every time.  We don't do GTY anymore.

[paul929207]

I haven't seen any mention in this thread of  Meta upgrades. 

 

These are upgrades to a higher type cabin, ie from a balcony to a mini or a mini to a full suite.

 

You can have your reservation marked Meta upgrade only. Then you will not get an upgrade to a "better" cabin of the type you have. This avoids the problem of Princess thinks a cabin is better than the one you have, but you disagree

[chrysalis]

8 minutes ago, paul929207 said:

I haven't seen any mention in this thread of  Meta upgrades. 

 

These are upgrades to a higher type cabin, ie from a balcony to a mini or a mini to a full suite.

 

You can have your reservation marked Meta upgrade only. Then you will not get an upgrade to a "better" cabin of the type you have. This avoids the problem of Princess thinks a cabin is better than the one you have, but you disagree

Exactly correct.....we only have ours marked as "meta upgrade only". I must add that it has never happened, but one can always be hopeful!

[Ombud]

But the balconies on a Majestic minisuite are so tiny. That's the upsell that had my PVP change all bookings to NO UPGRADES. I actually use my balcony

[caribill]

5 hours ago, paul929207 said:

I haven't seen any mention in this thread of  Meta upgrades. 

 

These are upgrades to a higher type cabin, ie from a balcony to a mini or a mini to a full suite.

 

You can have your reservation marked Meta upgrade only. Then you will not get an upgrade to a "better" cabin of the type you have. This avoids the problem of Princess thinks a cabin is better than the one you have, but you disagree

 

However a meta upgrade from an obstructed oceanview to an unobstructed oceanview far forward on the Plaza deck can be a significant downgrade.

[shiner6]

Caribill, Thanks for that info on Meta upgrades!  I learn so much from this site.

[latebloomer56]

8 hours ago, paul929207 said:

I haven't seen any mention in this thread of  Meta upgrades. 

 

These are upgrades to a higher type cabin, ie from a balcony to a mini or a mini to a full suite.

 

You can have your reservation marked Meta upgrade only. Then you will not get an upgrade to a "better" cabin of the type you have. This avoids the problem of Princess thinks a cabin is better than the one you have, but you disagree

We do this and scored an aft suite on the Regal for our Baltic cruise a few years ago. Awesome, though would never pay for a full suite on Princess, minis are great for us.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

However a meta upgrade from an obstructed oceanview to an unobstructed oceanview far forward on the Plaza deck can be a significant downgrade.

OV to OV is not a Meta Upgrade - or shouldn't be.  OW to OC should not be Meta, for example.

 

That said, I'd rather stay in a good Inside we have selected than be upgraded to a crappy Balcony cabin.

 

[Ombud]

On 8/27/2021 at 11:55 AM, shiner6 said:

 

Beware! Princess does not notify you when changing your reservation!

 

.... We don't want either of these "upgraded" cabins. I am still on the phone with my TA ....

Back to OP. No Princess doesn't notify you. Princess notifies your TA. Your TA notifies you. 

4 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

OV to OV is not a Meta Upgrade - or shouldn't be.  OW to OC should not be Meta, for example.

So the 1st letter has to change not the 2nd? BW -> DW, MD->S6?

Edited August 29, 2021 by Ombud

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

 

So the 1st letter has to change not the 2nd? BW -> DW, MD->S6?

Yes.

[gmjc2]

On 8/27/2021 at 5:05 PM, Thrak said:

I found out about a cabin change by accident one time while I was checking the personalizer. All of a sudden we showed a different cabin assignment. I received no notice at all. The cruise was on Crown Princess.  Fortunately, they had moved us from L249 - a forward inside cabin (category IC) to C301 - a handicapped accessible balcony cabin (category B2). It was actually quite a nice surprise. That HA balcony cabin is listed as being 395 sq. ft. whereas the original cabin is listed as being 162 sq. ft.

Unless you are disabled they should not have done this. We have a terrible time getting an accessible cabin because there are so few of them. No criticism of you, it is there system that is at fault, you just got lucky. 

[Thrak]

9 hours ago, gmjc2 said:

Unless you are disabled they should not have done this. We have a terrible time getting an accessible cabin because there are so few of them. No criticism of you, it is there system that is at fault, you just got lucky. 

 

Princess will do this if nobody has requested an accessible cabin. It was a short cruise (4 days to Catalina and Ensenada) and apparently nobody needed the cabin.

 

We are well aware of the needs of the physically disabled. Our oldest son broke his neck at the age of 20 while in the army. (He is almost 47 now.) He spent almost a year in the hospital and is now a high functioning quadriplegic. He is totally gone from the nipples down and runs his arms on a couple of muscles. One hand doesn't open all the way and the other doesn't close all the way. He is subject to muscle spasms that tend to brake the frame of his wheelchair. When he's online you would have no idea he is disabled as he is a fast two finger typist. We have done all phases of quad care at one time or another.

 

In addition we had a friend (who died a few years ago) for more than 40 years who is severely disabled and must use a wheelchair. We were not only close friends but I accompanied him as a companion on a number of trips for his work. I helped him get around, get in and out of bed, drove him to the airport and to the hotels and meetings.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Thrak