How to "guarantee" a room?

[dsal]

I purchased our upcoming cruise from an online travel auction site. It's for an inside cabin. How do I do a room "guarantee"? I'd like to be eligible for an upgrade/upsell if possible.

 

Also, when I won the auction I made a few requests: foam mattress pad/s because I have Fibromyalgia, and I let them know I use a cpap machine. I do not see a notation of this anywhere on my cruise personalizer yet. Is there a way I can add that myself, or should I call the auction site or Princess?

 

Thx,

dsal

[JanineM]

If you've already booked your room then you cannot get a guarantee. It's a specific type of cabin class that you book at time of purchase. If this auction site you used allows you to change class of cabin then you could see if there are guarantees available. They are not available on every sailing or with every cruiseline.

 

You may be able to upgrade to a better cabin. For this and for other requests, contact your travel agent. Generally the cruiseline will not speak to you if you booked through an agent.

[dsal]

OK, thanks. My personalizer says "Class 2". Not sure what that means?

 

thx,

dsal

[kitty9]

When you do things via an auction, whatever room you get is what you have. You didn't book via a travel agent or with the cruise line, so you can't change the terms of what you won. You might be able to buy an upgrade once you get to the ship, but don't be surprised if you can't because auctions are a whole different story.

 

The Class 2 thing might be the cabin category you won.

 

For your special needs, you have to contact Princess directly. You need to call or email their Special Needs Department. I don't think those auction sites provide many services other than just getting you the cabin.

[dsal]

Ahh, ok, thanks.

 

The auction thing allowed me to get a good price--but then they tacked on fees which were pretty expensive. Not meaning to hijack my own thread here, but are tax and extra fees added on to booking prices when you book through a TA or Princess, direct?

 

thx,

dsal

[kitty9]

Now, that's where those auctions can be a big rip off. Personally, I don't trust those things. They bring you in with what looks like a great price and then they tack on all kinds of add ons, and you wind up paying the same as if you booked with a regular travel agency.

 

Every cruise has port taxes, but not every agent has "fees", and that's the stuff I'd worry about. When you book a cruise via the cruise line, you get the cost of the actual cruise and then they tell you the port taxes. But they don't add on "fees". If I might ask, what was the total cost of those "fees and taxes"? That way, we might be able to tell you if you're being ripped off.

[dsal]

OK, here's the deal.

 

I did know that there would be taxes and fees even before I bid, so the auction site didn't blindside me. I knew that the fees would help them defray the cost of listing an auction at a low price. That being said, I probably could have got a similar deal had I gone through a regular travel agent.

 

Please be gentle with me. It will hurt my feelings if I hear I was totally ripped off, and would wreck my cruise experience, since I'm trying to stay within a budget, and I love a good deal even more than the average person, lol. ;)

 

Per person: paid $377, plus $371 taxes, service charge, processing fee; total $748 pp for 7 day Princess Alaskan cruise Inside passage (Sapphire), interior cabin.

 

Remember, be gentle... :o

 

dsal

[travelntreats]

Not knowing the sailing date really makes it difficult to say how "Good" the end pricing really was......if it is a May sailing or Sept. sailing (lower priced because of beginning and end of Alaska season), I dont think you did GREAT, but perhaps not that bad. If it was July or August sailing... those rates are decent.

[dsal]

June

[kitty9]

Well, I think you did pretty good, thankfully.

 

I just did a mock booking of a June 2010 booking on Sapphire, for an inside cabin and their price was $699 plus $118 port taxes for a total of $817. So, it looks like you got a pretty good deal, unless they hit you with other charges once your final payment is due. BUT, I'm rather interested in their $317 fee/taxes stuff. That's pretty high when you consider that Princess' taxes were only $118.

[dsal]

Thanks for doing the research. :)

 

Yeah, I'm guessing that $317 in fees includes approx. a $200 commission to the travel agency so they make some money on the auction. I don't know that for a fact--just a guess.

 

Actually, those are my total, final fees. You need to pay for your auction completely in order for your trip to be booked.

 

Of course the bad news is that it is a little difficult to get in contact with the auction house if you have a question. You email them, but sometimes it takes a little while to hear back. Forget calling them--the "please hold" message always seems to eventually roll over to voice-mail.

 

I used the same auction place a few years back, and the price I got was phenomenal. I paid a little over $300 pp for a 3 (or 4?) night stay in the Bahamas, and it included round-trip air and hotel. The hotel was nice--not super fancy, but still nice, and it had an awesome pool. The airfare alone should have been the price of what I paid for the air and hotel. :)

 

I didn't set out to get a cruise--I was just browsing the auction site for trip ideas, stumbled upon this cruise and it seemed like a good idea. Hind-sight being 20/20, I may have been better off booking through a discount-finding t.a., and then paying more to upgrade to a better room. If I want to upgrade through the auction house, I'll need to pay around $500 more pp. Kind of crazy, because that amount could also purchase me an additional 7 day cruise--or at least would be better spent on an excursion, etc.

 

I'm determined to have a fantastic time, even if we do have an interior room! :D

 

dsal

[firefly333]

Ahh, ok, thanks.

 

The auction thing allowed me to get a good price--but then they tacked on fees which were pretty expensive. Not meaning to hijack my own thread here, but are tax and extra fees added on to booking prices when you book through a TA or Princess, direct?

 

thx,

dsal

 

I know the site, thats why you need to read the amount they tack on. They pull the port charges out of the cruise fare and tack it on with the add on taxes and fees, so it becomes a quite large amount.

 

I wish I had never used them. They are horrible to deal with. I bought insurance because of the TA, not because of the cruise. I cant tell you all the issues .. and then the price dropped way below what I had paid to top it all off and of course no refunds. (but I finally got them to upgrade me).

 

sorry you didnt read the amount they tack on before you bid. the port fees run on average over $50 a port that you usually never see because on the cruiseline sites, its included in your cruise fare.

[firefly333]

Thanks for doing the research. :)

 

Yeah, I'm guessing that $317 in fees includes approx. a $200 commission to the travel agency so they make some money on the auction. I don't know that for a fact--just a guess.dsal

 

No, the TA breaks out the noncommissionable part of the fare and combines it with the add on taxes and fees.

 

The TA gets commission on the rest of the fare, and thats the part you bid on. sorry if Im not being clear. .. but its NOT commission ... its the noncommionable part of the cruise fare (port charges)

[Happy ks]

We live and learn through our experiences. I'd probably not book a cruise through an auction, mainly because I like to choose our cabin.

 

But I don't hesitate to book hotel rooms through Priceline :)

 

Do email Princess about your special needs, but don't be surprised if you have to ask the cabin steward for the foam mattress.

 

According to the above numbers, you saved around $138...not bad.

[KAYEF]

Well,

If you learn a lesson, it won't be a bad thing

BUT

the biggest lesson you will learn :o is that you will want to cruise again and again and again. That's not a bad thing to learn!

;)Immediately when you get home, get back onto CC and learn how to use the online agencies most of us use, among other things. I wish I'd have known about CC before our first cruise but we had a grand time, so that's what I remember.

HAVE A GRAND TIME!