azbirdmom

I don't recall seeing the starting category for the demo booking but if it was standard balcony then yes, full suite is offered. But they didn't say that (at least from what I heard and I agree that the sound was painful at times) so we will have to wait to see what actually transpires, especially since the offer email only included up to mini suite. ETA: As someone who has done training in the past, I would always use the same test data throughout the presentation and also use criteria that could happen in real life. But again relying on realistic / consistent examples when it comes to Princess might be a stretch.

The screenshot during the demo clearly showed that the current cabin was Standard Balcony and the offers were for Deluxe Balcony and Premium Deluxe Balcony in addition to Mini. Still this is Princess and there were some other things that seemed to conflict during the discussion so we will have to see what kind of offers folks start getting within the next two weeks - because you know it will hit CC soon after the first one goes out! 🙂

We will have to see if there are any further breakdowns within a category but based on what I saw in the presentation I think you are right.

They did break out Deluxe from Balcony. I just don't know if they will separate categories within generic "Balcony" if some are deemed less desirable than others. Edited to add screen shots with some of the balcony cabins shown in the presentation.

It's going to be the high level categories per the presentation. But they did break out M1 from M6 in the Club Class category so we will have to wait to see if they further break down the balcony categories if there are any less desirable cabins within that. And actually I misstated the categories within mini suite. Meant to say MA, MB, etc. Can't edit but it was an example anyway....

Yes, they are within categories. The subcategories will be shown such as balcony, deluxe balcony or the various types of suites. But you won't see M1, M2, etc., you'll just see Mini Suite, Club Class Mini Suite, or forward Mini Suite as an example. I saw your edit. They didn't say that you would get another opportunity once you've accepted a bid, it didn't come up.

You should be able to bid if you paid with FCCs. And no you can't select specific decks or cabins. As John noted above, they did indicate that there may be some flexibility but it didn't give me warm fuzzies that they would move someone back if they didn't like where they landed. They did say that they know the more problematic categories from dealing with Upsells for a while and that they would call before accepting your bid if that came into play. But I would say that if you're bidding, be prepared to keep what you're offered.

Here's some of the screenshots from the presentation.

I made a couple of notes in red above and have a couple of extra notes below (didn't get a chance to post yesterday but will also post screenshots too in a bit): The general rule is if you paid something for your cruise fare you will be eligible to make an upgrade bid. This was in response to a question about the cabins TAs can earn, I don't know if this would work for, say, free casino offers where you've already paid to upgrade your cabin. I'm guessing no but will find out soon enough as I have one of those in December. The categories you can bid on depend on what you booked. For example, if you booked an inside you can only bid up to a Deluxe Balcony. Offer goes via email to guest and TA (if applicable). Guests must put in a credit card number before submitting their offer but it is only used to ensure that the bid is serious - no charges are made at the time of bid. When you get the email that your bid has been accepted, you must indicate your final payment type in the Personalizer. FCCs can be used but they must be payment type not discount. In response to a question they said free upgrades may still happen. And those with guarantees can bid too - the category booked will be used in building the offer. If there is a tie in terms of bid price for a specific cabin, Captain's Circle status will be used as a tiebreaker. I got the sense that there are other criteria but this one was in response to a question asking if status is taken into account in this process.

Princess Sales just had a webinar about the new process. At times there are horrible audio issues when the two ladies are talking but the part with the gentleman who did the walkthrough of the upgrade screens is worth listening to. https://www.facebook.com/PrincessVPSales/videos/1484592348657993/

The amount applied to the cruise also shows up on the Travel Summary.

That is very strange. Mine usually show as they are in the screenshot below. If you play slots, the free play should be on the machine when you log in. If they aren't or if you want to play table games, go to the cashier. Would recommend that you take along the documentation about the $400 on the off chance that the casino doesn't know about it. Yup, it happens!

For those not getting callbacks - I wonder if you have a feature on your phone that blocks suspected spam calls? Our home phone automatically blocks calls from United Airlines, and back when Princess called back with a survey asking how well they did it blocked those too. I wrote to the cable company (our home phone carrier) and told them that those numbers should not be blocked but it didn't help.

Well this is weird because for the exact same cruise I see the itinerary below. What is going on with the Princess website???

Oh so sorry this all happened to you. You mentioned wanting to reach out to the executives and here they are (courtesy of elliott.org): Princess Cruise Lines 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 https://www.princess.com/ Phone Contacts Main: (661) 753-0000 Customer Service: (800) 774-6237 Call center hours: Monday – Friday 6am – 7pm Pacific Time (9am-10pm ET) Saturday and Sunday 6am – 6pm Pacific Time (9am-9pm ET) Email Contacts customerrelations@princesscruises.com Executive Contacts Primary Contact Collin Steinke Director, Customer Relations 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 csteinke@princesscruises.com Secondary Contact Lorna Warren Vice President Guest Services 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 lwarren@princesscruises.com Chief Executive John Padgett President 24305 Town Center Drive Santa Clarita, CA 91355 jpadgett@princess.com In another post someone earlier today someone also mentioned these other addresses for Jan Swartz (she is over Holland America and Princess) and John Padgett: Jan email address: jaswartz@hagroup.com John email address:japadgett@carnival.com

I just checked the Princess website. I searched for cruises in Alaska selecting the May, June, July, and August 2023. The only ship that shows Icy Strait point instead of Skagway in 2023 seems to be the Crown Princess. The (Majestic, Ruby, Discovery, Royal etc.) all show Skagway. Of course a lot can happen in the next several months but for now it's still on from what I see.

I just reported it.

@John99 - you might want to remove / edit your email address. And congratulations on solving your issues. I will share with a friend of mine who has been struggling through the same thing you did. Thank you for sharing!

I was one of those people. Casino reservations can cancel at any time if you add anything that is billed as part of a booking (like EZAir, transfers or insurance) either yourself or by calling the non-casino Princess reservation line. The casino reservations folks must add those items and then must protect the booking. What the OP is experiencing is quite unusual and painful. As I mentioned I had been told before my casino cruise last month that they never miss making their final payment. Clearly something went terribly wrong and the process isn't as failsafe as they say. I have one more of these reservations booked and will definitely be on the phone with them a week before the cruise to ensure that they pay on time. Continuing to send good wishes to the OP.

That's what I thought - despite the fact that the casino reservation folks say that could never happen! Hope their word is good and they are able to get back everything that you pre-booked. What a mess.

I sent a request in on August 5th for a December cruise booked through Princess as it involved a free cabin from the casino. Yesterday (August 15) I got a booking confirmation from Princess which included the Shareholder OBC and it was shown in the Payments section of the Cruise Personalizer as well. I sent one in for an October cruise on Sunday that I booked through our TA. We shall see how long that one takes and if we get any kind of notification about it. We never had in the past but I suspect they might only send those booking confirmation notices out to those who book direct.

Did you book a casino cruise by any chance? If so, either they didn't pay their portion or the notice is a mistake. Is the cruise still shown in your cruise personalizer and in the Medallion app? Please let us know what happens and I wish you the best!

Exactly what my friend is going through. At one point they gave her a different email address (adding a 1) and password. She logged in the next day and she was shown as "Mr." with her husband's birthday instead of her's and with a location of the Phillipines. She was told by one rep to change it herself which she can't. And Princess didn't get that using a dummy email address would mean that my friend wouldn't get communications from Princess. This despite the fact that she gave them an alternate, legitimate email address to use. It's a giant mess.

If you want to get the attention of a member just use the @ sign and start typing their user name. You’ll see a list of members pop up and you can select the one you want from the list. Other than that there’s no way to contact folks unless they provide their email address.

You are one of many people who have had this problem recently and I'm not sure any have been resolved. The thread is here: A good friend is experiencing this too. She and her husband used the same email address as their log in ID. A year ago when the new Medallion app rolled out and the check in function was added to the app apparently each person had to have their own email address. At that point she got the account missing info error but her husband's account worked. What was weird is that her account seemed to magically right itself until about a month ago. Since then she has called Princess multiple times spending over 8 hours on the phone, enduring hang-ups and promises of callbacks that never came, most recently from a very nice lady from Customer Solutions who admitted it's a bad glitch in their system and requires IT intervention. At this point she's giving it a rest but since her husband's account is working and her FCCs are identical to his, she can tell her balance by checking his account. She can also get into their booked cruise by inputting the booking number and filling in the other fields. I don't know if Princess is working on a solution behind the scenes but as far as I know the only option is to call them and hope you get someone who can actually fix it. Others have written to Princess executives but I haven't heard that anyone has had any luck with that route yet.