Cancel and rebook same cruise?

You made the right decision. Glad the price didn't go up on you. There are some great agents out there. I hope you find one!

We are past full payment but more than 57 days out. Can we cancel and rebook? We have FCC so we should only loose $200. Our TA is very good so I will offer to pay his cancellation fee.

Since you're past final payment, you will lose your FCC and 25-50% of the fare... is it worth it?

Coral,

Maybe we can meet on a cruise soon and I can talk with you, Hank and Tony and you'll help my DW and I find a great agent.

As crazy as it sounds, I thought the agency had to agree to give up the booking.

 

Which never made sense to me, as the customer should always control the booking.

That has sort of been my experience in the UK as Princess will only take over an existing TA booking if they have a formal request to do so from the client so that they can justify 'requesting the TA to give up the booking' and transferring it to Princess.

I say this because we once had a TA decline to contact Princess on the basis that they knew they would not succeed with a request to benefit from a promotion without cancelling and re-booking which would incur an administration charge.

I tried explaining that I had spoken to Princess and they had already said no problem applying the promotion to the existing booking, but that I just needed to get my TA to call them (as they couldn't deal direct with me), but they still refused, even though I gave them the name of the person to contact at Princess.

So, I went back to Princess and asked if they would take over the booking so that I could have the promotion. They agreed, but only if I sent them an e-mail asking them to take over the booking so that they could justify the request to the TA.

Obviously I was not party to the discussions between Princess and the TA, but the TA obviously agreed to the change as the transfer took place without any problems and without changing the booking reference.

Once the transfer was completed, Princess allowed the promotion which the TA had erroneously said was not possible.

NOTE: All my conversations with Princess were with the same person and, although technically the TA had to agree to give up the booking, I never felt out of control, hence my opening words - 'That has sort of been my experience in the UK.....'

Corfe Mixture,

I found out yesterday by talking to Princess, our process of transferring a reservation from a TA to Princess, is the same as yours in the UK. They said it usually takes a couple of days to get things transferred.

Since you're past final payment, you will lose your FCC and 25-50% of the fare... is it worth it?

According to the schedule below, we would only loose the deposit since we are more than 57 days away from sailing:

Days prior to Cruise or Land Package Departure

Item(s)* Assessed

Cancellation Fee

75 days or more None None

74-57 days Cruise fare Deposit* Amount

According to the schedule below, we would only loose the deposit since we are more than 57 days away from sailing:

Days prior to Cruise or Land Package Departure

Item(s)* Assessed

Cancellation Fee

75 days or more None None

74-57 days Cruise fare Deposit* Amount

Interesting...the Princess chart that details cancellation fees and penalties is, at best, murky.

Before you pull a cancellation trigger I would definitely recommend that you call Princess and make sure you are reading things right.

Thanks to all of you for the quick replies and straightforward information. To clarify, we are 76 days out from final payment due, 155 days out from sailing.

 

To provide some more info: We have been with this TA for over 14 years. The problem began when the owner died (this agency is in Arkansas and Sky is in the name) and her spouse and others took over the agency. We NEVER had a complaint about this agency in the previous 14+ years. This issue of a price drop would have been taken care of by Lori, I wouldn't have even had to ask! This ISN'T the same agency it was eight months ago and I doubt we will continue to use them.

 

I'm shocked to hear about Lori. We've booked several cruises with her company in the past and our Canada/New England cruise next October is with them as well. I just checked our booking on the Princess site and everything seems to be okay--beverage package and specialty dining are still there. I think we will sit tight for now but probably won't use them again in the future. Sad.

According to the schedule below, we would only loose the deposit since we are more than 57 days away from sailing:

Days prior to Cruise or Land Package Departure

Item(s)* Assessed

Cancellation Fee

75 days or more None None

74-57 days Cruise fare Deposit* Amount

Ok, so I thought a lot about it and I am thinking this may be what you would lose....

1.You are past final payment, so Princess has a lot of your money

2. The cancellation chart says you will lose your "cruise deposit"

3. This likely means that you will lose the normal deposit amount rather than the amount of your FCD.

4. So if the normal deposit for your cruise was, say, $1200.,you would receive a refund of your total cruise payment minus $1200.

Still, it would be nice if Princess could clarify this scenario.

Yes, we have had our cabin re-priced. We have also moved to a better cabin, ie kept the same price but upgraded.

And once, we actually cancelled a cruise just prior to the final payment and then rebooked a month or so later inside the final payment window. We enjoyed a significant saving.

Ok, so I thought a lot about it and I am thinking this may be what you would lose....

 

1.You are past final payment, so Princess has a lot of your money

2. The cancellation chart says you will lose your "cruise deposit"

3. This likely means that you will lose the normal deposit amount rather than the amount of your FCD.

4. So if the normal deposit for your cruise was, say, $1200.,you would receive a refund of your total cruise payment minus $1200.

 

Still, it would be nice if Princess could clarify this scenario.

Forgot to print footnote. *Forthose passengers booking a reduced deposit promotion, the initial cancellationfee amount will not exceed the deposit required/paid.