Our cruise is overbooked - Dawn Princess Oct 14, 2004 - any thoughts?

[West Coast]

The Dawn Princess October 14, 2004 Southern Caribbean Medley cruise is now in an overbooked situation.

 

One of the members of our roll call group was called yesterday by their Travel Agent stating that Princess had called and asked if they would consider *downgrading* from a BB (assigned) cabin to a BC and offered $100 pp as compensation. The TA mentioned that the BA & BB categories were overbooked. As this is on the Dawn (a Sun Class ship) there is not much room to 'upgrade' anyone in the BA/BB categories as this ship has so few mini-suites/full suites. They did not take Princess up on their offer.

 

Does anyone have experience with this situation?

 

We have booked a BB GTY and have not yet heard anything.

 

Should we be concerned?

 

If Princess cannot *make some room* is it possible they would start to bump, non-voluntarily, like the airlines do?

[Toto2Kansas]

Not to worry, Princess will continue to 'sweeten the pot' until they find someone willing to switch. It happens quite often and I have never heard of anyone being made to take a bump.

You will be fine!

[JudyK]

Thanks Toto, I am in the same boat as West Coast, but depending on our favorite TA to take care of everything. I haven't heard a word yet.

[Logie]

Hi

 

All of the B category cabins are basically the same except for location on the ship. For $100 I would take the deal. I would imagine the cabin would just be on a lower deck nothing else would change except that the balcony opening is slightly bigger on the higher decks.

 

Have a great cruise!!!

[CruiseFever]

Interesting thread.

 

I'm thinking out loud...

 

Does overbooking occur because they over sell guarantees? Surely they don't sell specific cabins twice...right? Do people sometimes get "bumped" like they might on an oversold airline flight? If so does picking a specific cabin get you out of harms way on situations like this?

 

Does someone know this?

[GloriaF]

I have no personal experience, but have read on these boards that, like Toto stated, Princess will continue to sweeten the pot until they have takers. $100 pp wouldn't be enough for me to change since we still have to make time off work arrangements, but if they did like the airlines and offered a free cruise voucher, I would. :D Plus I'd still be on the original cruise just in a lower cabin.

[karfest]

There is a thread on the Carnival board about a group of 110 people who have been bumped off their Oct. 17 cruise because of overbooking. It was explained that Carnival expected a lot of cancellations on this cruise but not many actually did cancel.

It's one thing to be bumped on a flight as there is always another one to take, but a cruise?? I can't imagine. :mad:

 

BTW, this is the cruise that Derf is scheduled to be on!

[Coral]

Hi,

 

This summer one of my Dawn Princess cruises was over booked. A week before I was supposed to leave, they called and offered to refund 1/2 off the 2nd person in my cabin if I switched to a different date. I said no.

 

3 days before I was supposed to leave - they offered me a free cruise if I switched dates from a May cruise to a July crusie. I couldn't rearrange it with work and FF miles so I said no. How they would handle this was that when I checked in, I would have the price of my cabin as shipboard credit - what I didn't use, I could cash out at the end of the week.

 

When Princess does this - they start small with an offer. If not enough people take it, they increase the offer and may keep increasing the offer until they have enough takers.

 

Good luck!

[DeltaOne]

The cruise lines know, from analyzing their records, what percentage of cancellations to expect. Let's assume they regularly see 3% of the passengers cancel a cruise. They'll overbook the ship by 3% hoping the ship will be at 100% capacity when it leaves the dock.

 

Sometimes they see fewer cancellations than expected and have to bump some passengers.

 

Just recently one of the lines (Carnival, I think) had huge problems with ships leaving Baltimore because they were seeing far fewer cancellations than they had predicted.

[spongerob]

Interesting thread.

 

Does overbooking occur because they over sell guarantees? Surely they don't sell specific cabins twice...right? Do people sometimes get "bumped" like they might on an oversold airline flight? If so does picking a specific cabin get you out of harms way on situations like this?

Chris, if my memory is functioning properly, people who booked the guarantees on the Carnival cruise(s) out of Baltimore were the first to be involuntarily bumped. Princess probably has a different set of policies, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to do the same things. You are right, though, it is something to think about.

 

I just grabbed a brochure that was handy and there is only a $20 difference in the printed fares between BB and BC. $100 credit sounds almost fair, except that it really only costs Princess a fraction of that amount because most purchases made on board have a significant profit margin built in. It's the same in our business - we'd rather issue a credit towards future service because it costs us less than an equivalent refund.

[Coral]

Chris, if my memory is functioning properly, people who booked the guarantees on the Carnival cruise(s) out of Baltimore were the first to be involuntarily bumped. Princess probably has a different set of policies, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to do the same things. You are right, though, it is something to think about.

 

SpongeRob - I remember reading about this also. I thought (though could be wrong) they targeted people to be bumped by those who lived in Baltimore (embarkment city). They figured those who flew in may have already purchased plane tickets, so it was the locals who were bumped. Regardless - it was an ugly situation.

[patlanta]

We got bumped once when they sold the ship! In retrospect I think my TA did a wonderful job because she complained about wardrobe costs, scheduled time off from work, and everything else she could think of regarding changing to another season on another cruise. Consequently, Princess picked up first-class cross-country flights for a land vacation for our family during the time of the cruise and we got a substantial discount on a future cruise.

[donnaw]

The Baltimore story is an absolute disaster. Word is that they actually managed to bump a bride and groom at one point while half the wedding party made the trip! Their standard computer formulas are based on a % of cancellations and they did not account for the fact that Baltimore cancellations are very low since so many wanted to cruise from a more local port. They seem to be unable to keep groups together (in most cases) which is really adding to the hostility. Add to that, Carnival has discovered a gold mine and doesn't have a ship scheduled there next year but the city is so mad at this point that they might not have let them sail from there anyhow.

 

As to the overbooking, they will continue to sweeten the pot until they find takers. Friends (retired) ended up with a free Panama Canal cruise due to overbooking but that is the extreme. Listen to the offers and take it when your comfortable with it.

[katisdale]

Our May 04 Royal Princess cruise was overbooked. We were offered a complimentary cabin upgrade on the same itinerary in September with $200 cash to cover changing the air arrangements and one person's cruise fare as shipboard credit which if not fully used could become cash (about $1600.00). This was for a 12 day Europe cruise. We thought the offer was fair but could not accept due to our work schedules.

[West Coast]

Everyone has provided great insight. Thanks - I guess we'll have to wait and see what unfolds over the next week!

[psw]

I have a friend (part of the wedding party) that was bumped from the ship. Bride and groom stayed on that cruise. They (6 of them) were offered and accepted a cruise out of Miami, Carnival to pick up the air (they/ carnival forgot to confirm the air as of thursday no air to Miami) and now their cruise has been shortened to a 5 dayer because of the hurricane. They were to leave for Miami on Firday and I havent talked to her to see if they are down there in the midst of the hurricane. Talk about if it werent for bad luck theyd have no luck at all. Sad thing is this is their first cruise and most likely will be there last Carnival cruise. I sure hope they get to enjoy the 5 days they will be onboard.

[NitaBcruising]

I have a friend (part of the wedding party) that was bumped from the ship. Bride and groom stayed on that cruise. They (6 of them) were offered and accepted a cruise out of Miami, Carnival to pick up the air (they/ carnival forgot to confirm the air as of thursday no air to Miami) and now their cruise has been shortened to a 5 dayer because of the hurricane. They were to leave for Miami on Firday and I havent talked to her to see if they are down there in the midst of the hurricane. Talk about if it werent for bad luck theyd have no luck at all. Sad thing is this is their first cruise and most likely will be there last Carnival cruise. I sure hope they get to enjoy the 5 days they will be onboard.

OH MY!!!!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[psw]

Oh my is right. Cant wait till they get back to get her take on everything.

[West Coast]

I was able to touch base today with my (email only) TA who advised that they have not heard anything (yet) from Princess. We still have 2 weeks to go so we'll see what happens over the next couple of days :)

[Riviera Deck Randy]

Interesting thread.

Surely they don't sell specific cabins twice...right?

I guess you missed the memo Chris, The new brochures state that all staterooms are being refitted as quads so now your cruiseing experiance is taken to a whole new level as you get to bunk with perfect strangers for 7 wonderful days.