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Lost our cabin assignments, what should we do?


stpie
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Hello friendly Silversea cruisers,

 

I posted in another thread about upgrades and appreciated the responses.

 

I asked our TA about potential upgrades. After discussing with SS, our TA emailed me that we could upgrade to 2 Silver Suites (we were originally in a two 3-person Verandas), for a high upgrade fee.

 

Our TA emailed us that SS had already upgraded us and was waiting our confirmation. If we declined, our TA said we would be moved back into our original cabins.

 

We declined the upgrade. We mentioned that we could posibly upgrade for a lower fee, but not for the high fee. However, SS declined our request for the lower fee and told us that they had already reassigned our cabins to other customers! We lost our cabins! :(

 

We are now in a "guarantee" status--no room assignment, and definitely without a 3-person room (we are told they are now out of 3-person verandas). We are being told that our children will be given a rollaway bed. We are a family of 6 (2 tweens, 2 parents, 2 grands), and we had picked our two cabins to be close together and in a quieter location.

 

I'm shocked, frustrated, and sad that SS could just give away our cabins without our consent. We never agreed to the upgrade. We were just inquiring.

 

Any suggestions? Thank you reading this long request.

Edited by stpie
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I don’t understand why on earth they would have cancelled your original booking and I certainly wouldn’t accept the “guaranteed” status especially as that option is always cheaper than having your suite assigned which you had.

 

It sounds like your TA messed up but releasing what you had before you had agreed to take what they had offered.

 

Problem you have now is that booking with a TA is likely to mean SS will expect you to deal via them and not direct.

 

I would not be amused with this at all and I would be tempted to cancel for a FULL refund if they don’t resolve to your satisfaction.

 

Have you asked your TA why they released your suites before consulting with you?

 

Good luck.... hope your TA makes amends.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thank you, Les, for your prompt reply. I have no idea why they would do that, either. I just emailed my TA to ask. It seems unprofessional and inappropriate. I'm shocked.

 

From what I understand, SS went ahead and moved our cabins but informed our TA that we could have our original cabins back if we declined. Incidentally, in the original upgrade email, I was given choices of different Silver Suites, but I never made a choice because I declined. But somehow, we did end up getting upgraded into 2 Silver Suites, apparently.

 

After we declined, though, we lost all the cabins. We gave no inclination that we would ever accept (the cost was prohibitive). I'm disheartened especially because we are a family traveling together. To be apart (celebrating two birthdays and a big wedding anniversary) on this vacation is really disappointing.

 

I regret inquiring about upgrades because I had no idea this could happen.

 

I'm hoping Silversea will somehow make things right.

Edited by stpie
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Thank you, Les, for your prompt reply. I have no idea why they would do that, either. I just emailed my TA to ask. It seems unprofessional and inappropriate. I'm shocked.

 

From what I understand, SS went ahead and moved our cabins but informed our TA that we could have our original cabins back if we declined. Incidentally, in the original upgrade email, I was given choices of different Silver Suites, but I never made a choice because I declined. But somehow, we did end up getting roomed in 2 Silver Suites, apparently.

 

After we declined, though, we lost all the cabins. We gave no inclination that we would ever accept (the cost was prohibitive). I'm disheartened especially because we are a family traveling together. To be apart (celebrating two birthdays and a big wedding anniversary) on this vacation is really disappointing.

 

I regret inquiring about upgrades because I had no idea this could happen.

 

I'm hoping Silversea will somehow make things right.

I do think it's your TA who has messed up here.... But whoever it was they do need to make amends.

 

Hopefully the silver suite upgrade is the solution they come up with to resolve your anguish. Fingers crossed for you.

 

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Have to agree with Les37b that somehow your TA miscommunicated with Silversea and released your original cabins thinking you were committing to moving up to Silver Suites. I suppose Silversea could have misunderstood what your TA was asking but you’ll probably never know and it’s just a “finger pointing” situation. Hopefully it can get resolved and you’ll have a great cruise.

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While I’ll never know for sure, I believe my TA who says he has never seen anything like this in his 20+ year experience with high end cruise lines. He says our inquiry was passed to the assistant of the assistant at SS because the original assistant became ill. He believes this second assistant may be inexperienced and made the mistake of moving us without permission.

My TA is awaiting word from SS. Thank you for your supportive words, Randy and Les. I’m realizing that my post is kind of ridiculous because I’m pretty powerless in this situation. There’s not much that I can do except wait for SS and see if they will make things right.

 

 

Thank you for answering my post. I know it’s not the worst thing to happen, so I appreciate you taking the time.

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I certainly wouldn’t accept the “guaranteed” status especially as that option is always cheaper than having your suite assigned which you had.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Actually, I have never found that to be so - maybe on mainstream lines but I've never seen a cheaper 'guarantee' option offered at a reasonably early initial booking on SS.

Admittedly I usually choose a cabin at booking, but the few times I've accepted a guarantee, it's because I've booked late and there's no more cabins in my chosen category. The guarantee is no cheaper than being assigned a cabin in that category, although since it's usually only more expensive cabins available by then, I suppose you could argue that it's cheaper but I don't think that's quite what you mean.

I have also been offered upsells to a higher category (which is what the OP maybe means rather than upgrades) - one of the mechanisms that SS uses to deal with booking too many pax for a popular cabin category if they don't get enough cancellations. The upsells are cheaper than the price differential for booking the higher category originally but not by much.

As stated on the OPs other thread, SS doesn't usually do late cheap/free upgrades or it would undermine the value of the fare guarantee, and that is of value - I recently received a hefty refund from SS because the price of one of my future cruises had gone down.

 

BTW, OP, I'm just nitpicking here - I am very sympathetic to your plight, I hope it works out to your satisfaction.

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Update: we got cabins! During the day SS still insisted that our family was in a guaranteed status. Our TA told them that was unacceptable. By evening, we were notified that we had rooms. Somehow, SS was able to find two 3-person cabins. We are six decks apart. They are a slight upgrade in cabin category (Verandas), which SS did provide with no additional cost. While I am so grateful and relieved to have cabins again in reasonable locations, I still preferred our original cabins which were adjacent to one another.

 

As an aside, our TA said not to worry about finger pointing. He wasn't sure but he believed that phone calls are all recorded.

 

Thank you for helping me! I think that SS did right this situation. Not a Silver Suite, but good!

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That’s great news...

 

Ask your TA to keep an eye on the allocations ... people do cancel, upgrade and generally move about making suites available that were previously booked. (Your own being a good example.) There is still a good chance you can get located near each other.

 

There is a TA website you can check on suite availability of your cruise direct online. We’re not allowed to post TA links but that was a good hint!

 

JollyJones, thanks for your update. Yes I probably was thinking more mainstream with pricing and on reflection we did get offered this “guarantee” on the Shadow cruise we just came back from (without discount) but elected to pay a small supplement, upgrade and get our suite allocated midship.

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JollyJones, thanks for your update. Yes I probably was thinking more mainstream with pricing and on reflection we did get offered this “guarantee” on the Shadow cruise we just came back from (without discount) but elected to pay a small supplement, upgrade and get our suite allocated midship.

 

About the closest I’ve seen Silversea come to a discounted cabin rate is when they offer a 10% discount for full payment in advance of the normal final payment date. We took that option for our last cruise on the Spirit but even with trip insurance it made me a bit nervous as we booked like a year out. For an 18-day cruise that was a lot of money to have tied up. Of course it was our Number 1 bucket list cruise to Egypt so we were totally committed to go come he’ll or high water.

 

As for main stream cruise lines discounting “guarantees” that’s all over the place and differs a lot from line to line and even cruise to cruise on the same line. Years ago when we were HAL loyalists there was no price advantage to a guarantee. Basically you were playing “cabin lotto” and hoping when they assigned cabins you got a higher category than the guarantee booked cabin. Many times you did, sometimes you didn’t. I still hang around the HAL section here and the various offers, salesman upgrades, upsells, etc., almost make you head hurt.

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les37b, thank you for your suggestion! I did as you said and asked for a waitlist for other cabins, and now we are only one deck apart, hooray! I'm still on a waitlist in case any other cabin opens up on either deck.

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Les - I tried to figure out the way to check cabin availability given your hint, but I must admit, I failed. Would it be possible for you to send me the information at emtbsam at yahoo dot com? Many thanks.

 

Also, I could send you photos of the Shadow taken from the Whisper if you would like them.

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