Reservations mean nothing

[tenntomt]

First of all I have sailed with princess on seven different occasions. This was by far the worst experience. This has nothing to do with the crew. They were fantastic. Nor the itinerary. I reserved this cruise months in advance and my cruise contract said I had cabin A505. When we embarked, we were told that that cabin was taken. To make a long story short we finally got a cabin after being assigned five different times. The customer service desk could offer on explanation. The line there on embarkation day was terrible with waits of over an hour. When I book a cruise I expect to get the cabin I signed up for. I'm not sure about the cabin class but I certainly did not get the location I paid for. Being a Captain's circle member, I expected a much higher level of service. This I did not get. Goodbye Princess.

[cr8tiv1]

I am sorry this happened to you.  Thank you for mentioning that the crew and itinerary were fantastic.  What ship?  Which cabins were offered (5 times)?  Which cabin did you end up with?  Did you finally get an explanation?  Did you have a. printout confirming your cabin number?

[ldubs]

Who knows what happened.  People in our cruise group were moved to a different cabin.  They found out later their original was put in a block to be used for the quarantine deck.   

 

Anyway, it is too bad this happened, but these kinds of things seem to be happening a lot.  And I don't think it is limited to any one cruise line.  If you otherwise like Princess, maybe forgive the snafu.   

[CineGraphic]

Were your reservations marked "no upgrade"?

If so, I can understand your frustration.

If not, not every agent asks about this when making new bookings.

Reservations can be marked, "complimentary upgrade", "no upgrade" or "meta upgrade".

Meta upgrades are to a whole new cabin category, such as inside to ocean view or higher.

[tenntomt]

5 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I am sorry this happened to you.  Thank you for mentioning that the crew and itinerary were fantastic.  What ship?  Which cabins were offered (5 times)?  Which cabin did you end up with?  Did you finally get an explanation?  Did you have a. printout confirming your cabin number?

 

[BlerkOne]

I believe a cruise line has the right to change "assigned" cabins and certain loyalty level doesn't matter. I think they can even change ships, itinerary, or just about anything else. Check the ticket contract 

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, tenntomt said:

First of all I have sailed with princess on seven different occasions. This was by far the worst experience. This has nothing to do with the crew. They were fantastic. Nor the itinerary. I reserved this cruise months in advance and my cruise contract said I had cabin A505. When we embarked, we were told that that cabin was taken. To make a long story short we finally got a cabin after being assigned five different times. The customer service desk could offer on explanation. The line there on embarkation day was terrible with waits of over an hour. When I book a cruise I expect to get the cabin I signed up for. I'm not sure about the cabin class but I certainly did not get the location I paid for. Being a Captain's circle member, I expected a much higher level of service. This I did not get. Goodbye Princess.

Sorry that happened.  Aloha and dolphin decks seemed to be used a lot for quarantine areas. Perhaps the inbound cruise had a lot of crew quarantined?

 

Whatever, I really believe they should be up front and tell you.  Or, it may have been double booked. Not likely, but possible.

 

I hope they gave you a comparable or better cabin. 
 

[Lady Arwen]

Which Princess ship were you on?  Other than the cabin issue, which I agree is very disappointing, how was the food and service?  Did you enjoy the ship?  Entertainment?  Was there anything you really liked about your cruise?  Sometimes one snafu can make all the positives disappear.  I will tell you that all cruiselines are going through the same issues, not just Princess.  Travel in general right at the moment can be challenging.  I hope that you will give Princess another opportunity to make this right sometime in the future.

[partybarbie]

The Grand Princess is using Aloha Deck for Covid quarantine. My cabin was also changed, but I certainly understand why. 

[nini]

Aloha deck appears to be currently used for quarantine.

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, tenntomt said:

First of all I have sailed with princess on seven different occasions. This was by far the worst experience. This has nothing to do with the crew. They were fantastic. Nor the itinerary. I reserved this cruise months in advance and my cruise contract said I had cabin A505. When we embarked, we were told that that cabin was taken. To make a long story short we finally got a cabin after being assigned five different times. The customer service desk could offer on explanation. The line there on embarkation day was terrible with waits of over an hour. When I book a cruise I expect to get the cabin I signed up for. I'm not sure about the cabin class but I certainly did not get the location I paid for. Being a Captain's circle member, I expected a much higher level of service. This I did not get. Goodbye Princess.

Not sure if you are going to respond to the questions asked, but here is one no one asked about - especially seeing as you might have been bumped due to blocked off section for Covid-19 quarantine space if needed.  After booking months in advance, did you check your booking from time-to-time?  Did you ever make an EZ-Air booking in the Cruise Personalizer.  Keeping an eye on your booking helps to avoid last-minute surprises. 

 

It also seems odd that when you were bumped, there was no new cabin assigned since you indicate having to wait around Passenger Services to find out.  We are wondering what five cabins were offered and where you ended up? 

[Jersey42]

5 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Reservations can be marked, "complimentary upgrade", "no upgrade" or "meta upgrade".

Meta upgrades are to a whole new cabin category, such as inside to ocean view or higher.

Are you sure about this and do you have personal experience with meta upgrades?  Here is why I ask. 

 

We usually book through a TA.  Depending on the ship we sometimes book guarantees, but when we select a cabin we usually tell him "No Upgrade". On our last cruise we ended up booking through princess.com for probably the first time ever.  We selected an ocean view cabin and I never noticed any place to provide an upgrade choice.  A few days later we received an email telling us we have been upgraded.  It was a higher category cabin, but it was one we chose not to book the first time, because to us it was inferior.  I called Princess and asked to be moved back to back to our original cabin.  They told me they could put in a request (which was eventually honored),  but they could not guarantee it was still available.  They asked me if I wanted the reservation to be marked "No Upgrade" to avoid this happening again.  I said to mark it "Meta Upgrade" as we would be happy with any balcony, but we did not want a different ocean view. The agent said that was not an option, it was either "Upgrade" or "No Upgrade".  I tried this because I had seen posts on cruise critic talking about meta upgrades.

[geoherb]

What ship and what cabin did you get? It's amazing that you weren't assigned a cabin sooner and had to wait until you were on the ship.

[tetleytea]

Probably completely unrelated, but we found dining reservations on Princess don't carry much meaning, either.

 

[caribill]

16 hours ago, tenntomt said:

I reserved this cruise months in advance and my cruise contract said I had cabin A505. When we embarked, we were told that that cabin was taken.

 

When you printed out the luggage tags, did they say Cabin A505?  If so, how far in advance of the cruise did you print them out?