Ugent, Star overbooked, just found out!

[skarletohara]

here is what I would do, check online and see if they have any full suites available for your cruise and tell them to bump you up to a full suite..

Just a thought

 

THAT'S THE BEST IDEA!

 

I've had the comparable mini suite on the Diamond, Emerald E731, which is the last one and it had equal to a deck and a half of balcony space. A very nice location indeed!

 

I also agree that the $996 US offer was not sufficient.

[Toto2Kansas]

I would keep the original mini suite. There is a world of difference between a balcony cabin and a mini suite on Princess. Especially since this is your first time sailing with them. For us, cabin choice can make or break the cruising memory we take back home with us.

[khicks1101]

here is what I would do, check online and see if they have any full suites available for your cruise and tell them to bump you up to a full suite..

Just a thought

 

 

How do you check on suite availability online?

[DrivesLikeMario]

Balconies on the Baja Deck are completely covered by the balconies above them.

Balconies on the Aloha Deck are completely coverd by the deck above them which overhangs enough to cover those balconies. You can get noise on this deck from the pool deck which is directly above it, but it's usually not too bad.

 

Since it's your first cruise, I'd go with the reg. balcony cabin and the extra cash. It's much easier to go up to a higher category on your next cruise when you don't know what it's like having more square footage. The first cruise is usually so overwhelming anyway, that you'll be okay without the extra space.

[chasetf]

Another vote for take the money and run. I think it is too good a deal to pass up. The savings could go well towards another cruise. :D

[Kevin & Brenda]

How do you check on suite availability online?

 

khicks i dont think you can get a true picture of what is availble but you might try using princess online booking agent to see what inventory they are selling. I believe they hold back rooms but it might give you an idea.

 

interestingly, we are booked on Stars Dec 2nd sailing for our wedding and booked a mini-suite. I had been occassionlly surfing princess to see what was still for sale - hopeing that the upgrade fairy might visit if the full suites didn't sell. For about the past 3 weeks princess site showed ALL rooms as waitlist only. Now people are getting offers to downgrade as the ship is "oversold" but if you look to book there are some inside cabins for sale.

 

There are also post of people who have been blessed by the upgrade fairy (mini-suites to suites) so I guess oversold doesn'm mean full sailing just that certain cat have been oversold.

[KAWS]

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm a little confused. Why would Princess offer to bump anyone up to a suite from a mini just to sell the mini again? Why wouldn't they just sell the SUITE for the new mini price? Would it be because original price would have been higher than the present price?

 

I understand the $$ offer to downgrade. You wind up paying the original balcony and they only lose say $200-300 and then can resell the mini, but I'm not understanding the other way around.

 

Kim

[Tom O.]

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm a little confused. Why would Princess offer to bump anyone up to a suite from a mini just to sell the mini again? Why wouldn't they just sell the SUITE for the new mini price? Would it be because original price would have been higher than the present price?

 

I understand the $$ offer to downgrade. You wind up paying the original balcony and they only lose say $200-300 and then can resell the mini, but I'm not understanding the other way around.

 

Kim

I think what happens is that suites quite often are unsold because of their high price. People who are looking at last minute bargains are usually looking for the lowest possible price. So it is easier for a cruise line to upgrade a mini-suite up to a full suite, then a balcony goes into that mini, until an empty room is available at a low enough price that they can sell.

[Dale]

I won’t attempt to tell you what to do, but my wife and I found ourselves in a similar position. This is what I did. I had something Princess wanted. They made their offer which I refused. I then calculated what “I” wanted, which by the way was considerably more than what they had offered to pay. Long story made short, my offered was accepted.

[Toto2Kansas]

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm a little confused. Why would Princess offer to bump anyone up to a suite from a mini just to sell the mini again? Why wouldn't they just sell the SUITE for the new mini price? Would it be because original price would have been higher than the present price?

 

I understand the $$ offer to downgrade. You wind up paying the original balcony and they only lose say $200-300 and then can resell the mini, but I'm not understanding the other way around.

 

Kim

 

Princess does not actually discount suites. They do complimentary upgardes to them but they do not discount them if they don't sell. In fact, I have seen ships sail with many full suites empty. They do however upgrade to them if they have oversold categorys that are below the suites to free up those category cabins that are selling well. Princess suites are very pricey so on some sailings, pasengers just don't want that high of a priced cabin.

[Wileyd577]

If you are booked on the starboard side of the Star,

take the money and a balcony on the port side.

DO NOT waste money on the stinky side of Star

Princess. Just off the Star. Princess will not even

admit there is a problem.

 

Good luck

[nho9504]

This is interesting - for the longest time, Star Dec sailings were heavily discounted and guarantees were available from inside to balcony at 349 499 699 something like that. CB on the other hand, has shown sold out on every category except inside, and the inside were offered at 449....

 

We are booked on CB Dec 10 balcony - booked BG guarantee, assigned BB just a couple weeks after booking back in July. Checking the booking information every now and then, I have been hoping CB would be oversold and not mind to get an offer...

 

Now it is the Star that have been seeing dumping prices that are oversold!

[Coral]

I actually thinking the "bumping" concept happens far more than what is reported on this board. On my last several cruises, we have been offered bumps to different weeks and at that time, I hadn't read on CC about anyone else being offered it.

[JLC@SD]

Since it appears that they are only offering a few hundred $$$s to change......make them an offer that will make it worth moving......and see if they take it...

[Cruisin' Chick]

We received a message on our answering machine the day before our first Princess cruise that the cruise was oversold and we could get a full refund and an upgrade to a balcony from our low category inside if we postponed our cruise for a few weeks. We didn't take the offer for a number of reasons (including we didn't want a balcony with our little one, five at the time). The message said no worries if we didn't take the offer -- we'll still have our cabin.

 

As others said, they'll keep calling people and upping the offers, if necessary. If it's a question of the cabin not being what you want or the money not enough, why not try giving them a counter-offer?

[khicks1101]

khicks i dont think you can get a true picture of what is availble but you might try using princess online booking agent to see what inventory they are selling. I believe they hold back rooms but it might give you an idea.

 

 

Thanks for that I will hop off and give it a try.

 

 

[jmss1950]

As I posted recently our Star Thanksgiving cruise was overbooked and we were called three days before departure and offered a good deal (more so when we read about the rough weather, the non visit to GC , tendering issues and the "non exsistant" smell!). We were originally booked in a mini suite (D222) and they offered us penthouse suite and 50% on board credit. They offered us a date in January which being teachers we could not accept, but when I gave them the dates of our spring break vacation -3/31/07-4/7/07 they said that could be done. We changed our trip date and now have a full suite and some extra money to enjoy. We also managed to pick up a great rate on the Carnival Liberty last miute 4 day cruise over Thanksgiving so we really ended up with an extra cruise. They certainly offered us a good deal for changing dates, but made no mention of other offers if we had wanted to keep our original date.

Good luck with whatever you decide. It pays to haggle.

Have a great cruise.

[Steven_&_Daniel]

Our first cruise was a mini on the Dawn, which is like a full suite on Grand class ships. They called us ten days before sailing, said they were overbooked, and offered us a full refund if we downgraded to a balcony. It's hard to turn down something like that. You get a free cruise and when you get home you get a big check in the mail. (Yea, it was our money to start with but after making monthly payments for a year, it felt like found money!):cool:

 

As I recall it did take them 2 months to finally send that check.:rolleyes: