Royal Princess Aft & Caribe-like Balconies - Photo

[scottlad]

We were upgraded from our vanished aft balcony B735 to R415, a minisuite on Riviera. Honestly, if you book a cabin on a new build, you run the risk of something changing during construction. An aft balcony would have been nice, but I'm not complaining about the upgrade. I am curious though, how they decided to allocate cabins to the displaced folks since some of us on our cruise in October were upgraded and others weren't.

Edited December 24, 2012 by scottlad

[Pzazzz]

To clarify - Royal afts appear to be changed. We were booked and confirmed (not a guarantee) in a Baja aft adjacent to the suites. Princess just upgraded and notified us. No room for discussion. Excuse was that the afts are being reconfigured but no clear explanation. Our cruise personalizer has been changed, but no e mail nofitication of such. We e mailed that we did not want the upgrade, just the room we reserved. No reply. We did write the president, no reply from his office either. Very poorly handled and we still are not sure where we are going to be or if we will cancel. Royal afts....be prepared?

[caribill]

To clarify - Royal afts appear to be changed. We were booked and confirmed (not a guarantee) in a Baja aft adjacent to the suites. Princess just upgraded and notified us. No room for discussion. Excuse was that the afts are being reconfigured but no clear explanation.

 

Correct. The number of D4 rear balcony cabins on each of the 7 decks is being reduced by two.

 

Some people will stay in the cabin they booked which continues to exist in the same location, but will have a different cabin number.

 

Some will be moved to an existing D4 cabin on a different deck.

 

Some have been upgraded to a mini-suite mid-ship.

 

Some have been changed from an assigned cabin to a GTY.

 

Of course, all of this applies to all of the Royal itineraries that were available for booking, so at least 38 sailings and a possible 532 bookings are affected.

 

 

A note explaining the situation should have been sent by Princess to all those affected and not through a travel agent. That would have been a better way to handle the situation although it would not lessen disappointment.

Edited December 24, 2012 by caribill

[caribill]

What the new cabin arrangement looks like

 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks

[Shogun]

Hi All

While it is clear the cabin changes have been very distressing for those affected, do you really book a cruise just because of a cabin, personally I do not care about the cabin, while some cabins are better than others, I book a cruise for a number of reasons, the dates fit my plans, the ports of call, it is nice to have friends on board as well, and in this case my interest in seeing a new ship layout, but the cabin plays no part in selecting a cruise.

Buying anything from plans especially the first is likely to be changed from what was first conceived. My own house my back door was moved from the side of the house to the back, causing no end of issues with things no longer fitting as planned, I would guess many things on the Royal have changed, most things we will never know about.

As to communication I have been lucky to have been in contact with both Princess UK and US in the past few weeks, part of the problem these days is sites like ours, In that information can be out within seconds of an event, in the good old days Princess employees had some ability to resolve an issue on their own with guidelines, however this is more centralised now as if some gets A and tells everyone via the internet someone who gets B now finds out and complains.

The result of this is that companies not just Princess have to make sure what they do is standardised and communicated to all at the same time.

So if these cabin changes are affecting 500 bookings I expect that no statement would made until they have checked every booking and offered a new cabin, to all if ships are full not an easy task, only then would I expect an official communication.

I can not see how Princess can please all here as some cabins have gone, if you booked an aft cabin and it has gone what would you want from Princess, an aft cabin on another cruise, or an upgrade to a side cabin.

Yours Shogun

[waltd]

Shogun I hear what you are saying and agree this was a large undertaking for Princess to have to change all the cabin assignments for so many cruises. I think, if possible, it would have been better had Princess made all the changes at one time and sent out all notifications together. Good and bad news spreads fast on CC. But I do disagree with you on one point. Yes some folks do book the cruise for the cabin. If you have done many transatlantic cruises and been to most or all of the ports before and are one of those select few who love watching the wake at the back of the ship it would be distressing to know that your cabin was taken away. Some passangers just love being at sea and relaxing. If you are one of those passangers then it might almost be a deal breaker. Yes this is a no win situation and some will be happy and some not so happy.

Edited December 25, 2012 by waltd

[5:00_Somewhere]

Shogun I hear what you are saying and agree this was a large undertaking for Princess to have to change all the cabin assignments for so many cruises. I think, if possible, it would have been better had Princess made all the changes at one time and sent out all notifications together. Good and bad news spreads fast on CC. But I do disagree with you on one point. Yes some folks do book the cruise for the cabin. If you have done many transatlantic cruises and been to most or all of the ports before and are one of those select few who love watching the wake at the back of the ship it would be distressing to know that your cabin was taken away. Some passangers just love being at sea and relaxing. If you are one of those passangers then it might almost be a deal breaker. Yes this is a no win situation and some will be happy and some not so happy.

 

Shogun, I have to agree with waltd, including understanding your points. I will admit that I may have overreacted a bit to this issue, and that I think a large part of the negative reactions by many of us is exactly because we heard it here in CC before ever being contacted by Princess.

 

But, also to waltd's point, in this case the cabin - and especially the balcony - really WAS that important to me. We are very curious to see the new innovations on the Royal, but one of the things I very much dislike about her design is the absence of the "stair-stepped" sides which afford a mix of balcony types from fully covered to fully uncovered, including of course our preferred 1/2 and 1/2 Caribe balconies. As is probably evident by the existence of this thread, itself, this if extremely important to me and I have done a LOT of research on this issue (some might say I was a little obsessed with it.) In fact, one of the reasons we were so happy with this itinerary (which we have done several times in the past) is that it's one of our very favorite for just relaxing on our balcony, especially on the the 2 back-to-back sea days. The fact that there were only 12 Caribe-style balcony cabins on the entire ship, and that they then just got rid of a good number of those without telling people first is, I think, what's got people so upset.

 

Does it mean I hate Princess and will never sail with them again? Of course not. It just had me extremely peeved. ;) I'm sure I'll get over it. But, I am communicating with them, both about the cabin we were moved to but also about the need for timely communication of such things to their customers in this age of instant communication and on-line communities such as this.

 

In fact, I also posted on Princess' FaceBook page - both to alert other passengers who may not be on CC, and also to express my frustration if I'm honest - and I had a response from Princess there yesterday, as well as a voicemail from a Princess customer service representative. I will look forward to talking with them later in the week and will report the results, if any, back here.

Edited December 25, 2012 by 5:00_Somewhere

[Shogun]

Hi There 5.00_somewhere

 

I do hope that Princess can do something to assist, if you do not get anywhere,

 

I would contact Rai hes the bloke in all the Royal videos, I can give you a direct number for him, but can not post it here.

 

yours Shogun

[compozer]

Shogun,

Yes, in this case I did book the cruise for the cabin. I wanted to try the "new" corner owners suite. For some reason, after everyone went to bed last night and I couldn't sleep, I looked at my personalizer and discovered we were DOWNGRADED from the owners suite to a penthouse suite midship. I know things can change with a new build but this really is unacceptable.

[Shogun]

Hi Compozer,

 

Not good that you have been down graded, but if you had a corner owners suite, why did Princess move you, are those cabins still not in the same grade,

 

I checked to see if I had a cabin but on both my Royal cruises still no cabin number.

 

yours Shogun

[Eppe4]

Hi All

While it is clear the cabin changes have been very distressing for those affected, do you really book a cruise just because of a cabin, personally I do not care about the cabin, while some cabins are better than others, I book a cruise for a number of reasons, the dates fit my plans, the ports of call, it is nice to have friends on board as well, and in this case my interest in seeing a new ship layout, but the cabin plays no part in selecting a cruise.

Buying anything from plans especially the first is likely to be changed from what was first conceived. My own house my back door was moved from the side of the house to the back, causing no end of issues with things no longer fitting as planned, I would guess many things on the Royal have changed, most things we will never know about.

As to communication I have been lucky to have been in contact with both Princess UK and US in the past few weeks, part of the problem these days is sites like ours, In that information can be out within seconds of an event, in the good old days Princess employees had some ability to resolve an issue on their own with guidelines, however this is more centralised now as if some gets A and tells everyone via the internet someone who gets B now finds out and complains.

The result of this is that companies not just Princess have to make sure what they do is standardised and communicated to all at the same time.

So if these cabin changes are affecting 500 bookings I expect that no statement would made until they have checked every booking and offered a new cabin, to all if ships are full not an easy task, only then would I expect an official communication.

I can not see how Princess can please all here as some cabins have gone, if you booked an aft cabin and it has gone what would you want from Princess, an aft cabin on another cruise, or an upgrade to a side cabin.

Yours Shogun

 

Shogun,

 

Thank you for your input, but I respectfully disagree. I'm sure if people book an inside cabin, location might not matter, but that is not the case for all of us. We'll be on the Royal for 30 days and the location is important to both my husband and myself. When we first started cruising (35 Princess cruises ago) we always booked mid ship mini suites. Now that we know what we love, we search out for the best aft locations. We don't want to just "be on the ship", we always love also being in our cabins, for quiet time and also the view. We would have booked an aft suite had we known of the new configuration. We have been moved and yes it's an upgrade and if we had a choice we would have turned it down as we marked our booking NO UPGRADE. Bottom line, we all spend a lot of money on our cruises and want what we've booked. We indeed booked this cruise for the ship and to experience all of the updates Princess will be bringing to their brand along with the aft deluxe cabins. As for ports, there's not one that we've not been to, so for us, it's all about the new ship. Hope this makes sense.

[compozer]

Hi Compozer,

 

Not good that you have been down graded, but if you had a corner owners suite, why did Princess move you, are those cabins still not in the same grade,

 

yours Shogun

 

That's what I'd like to know - WHY did they move us? The corner suite is still the Owners Suite (highest category) .

 

My confirmation sheet from my TA says I am in S2 cabin ______ and now my personalizer says S4 cabin ______. The only thing I can think is that since the cabin number changed in my original suite making it now the number for a balcony, they changed it. Why not notify me or my TA?? And yes the original cabin is still a S2 category.

 

I guess I am just very frustrated - this cruise was a surprise for my husband and it kind of soured Christmas when I noticed the change Christmas Eve when I was telling him about it and since it is Christmas - I can't do anything or talk to anyone about it until tomorrow. It really has spoiled my Christmas -you think I'm worked up now - wait until tomorrow when I get on the phone with Princess!!!

[Shogun]

Hi Compozer

 

If you get no where, e mail me and I can give you that phone number.

 

yours Shogun

[compozer]

Thanks Shogun,

 

Appreciate it.

 

Saw your Christmas card - one beautiful baby you have.

[Sunviking]

Compozer, I would be very ticked also if I were in your position. We had a PH on the side on one cruise and my DH told me that if we couldn't get an aft suite on a Princess ship for a cruise we were interested in, we could pick a different cruise instead. Had we not canceled the Royal transatlantic for which we had an aft S-2 and if we had been changed as you have, it would be a dealbreaker. I hope you are able to get this straightened out. Since they haven't evidently reduced the number of aft S-2s, there is no reason Princess should have changed you.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2012 by Sunviking

[caribill]

So if these cabin changes are affecting 500 bookings I expect that no statement would made until they have checked every booking and offered a new cabin, to all if ships are full not an easy task, only then would I expect an official communication.

 

The number of bookings affected also should include the people who are lucky enough to remain in the same cabin, but are in a cabin which now has a new cabin number. Seeing a different cabin number in the personalizer with no explanation probably also causes a bit of stress, especially since so far the ship's main map on the Princess web site has not been updated.

 

If Princess, through either a computer or with personnel had the ability to make all of the cabin reassignments and cabin renumbering in the personalizer, then they also had the ability to sent a notice (E-mail to those with E-mail addresses, snail mail to those without one) directly to everyone affected letting them know of the changes at the same time the personalizer was changed.

 

Based on the number of people on roll calls, probably about 5% of cruisers are involved with Cruise Critic and may another 5% with similar sites. That suggests to me that around 90% of those booked and affected by these changes will not have the the support family that Cruise Critic is to help explain what is going on with their bookings.

[Pam in CA]

Hi All

While it is clear the cabin changes have been very distressing for those affected, do you really book a cruise just because of a cabin, personally I do not care about the cabin, while some cabins are better than others, I book a cruise for a number of reasons, the dates fit my plans, the ports of call, it is nice to have friends on board as well, and in this case my interest in seeing a new ship layout, but the cabin plays no part in selecting a cruise.

That's your choice and while I'm not affected by this modification, I respectfully and completely disagree. If I just wanted to be on a ship, I'd book a GTY. But I don't because normally, I book a specific cabin. If I'd booked one of the aft cabins and been moved without prior notification or explanation, I'd be really pissed. The bottom line is that Princess has screwed up big time and needs to make it right for these people. Like many others on the T/A, I've been to all of the ports multiple times and am looking forward to doing and seeing different things than I have before. I booked this cruise to experience the new ship, cruise with people I've cruised with before and to meet others.

[Shogun]

Hi Pam,

 

What is it you disagree with in my post, I said for me a cabin type is not a reason that I book a cruise, and I understood that for those affected by Princess changing cabins was very distressing. What I was asking was if folks could not get a certain type of cabin would they not take that cruise.

 

 

yours Shogun

[Sunviking]

Hi Pam,

 

What is it you disagree with in my post, I said for me a cabin type is not a reason that I book a cruise, and I understood that for those affected by Princess changing cabins was very distressing. What I was asking was if folks could not get a certain type of cabin would they not take that cruise.

 

 

yours Shogun

 

Not Pam, but for us the answer would be yes. If we didn't get the cabin we wanted, we would not take the cruise. We spend a great deal of time in our cabin, and not having the one we like would decide us.

[Pam in CA]

Not Pam, but for us the answer would be yes. If we didn't get the cabin we wanted, we would not take the cruise. We spend a great deal of time in our cabin, and not having the one we like would decide us.

Exactly. Some people are very particular about the cabin they book, especially aft and corner aft cabins. Even if the plans changed, Princess should have contacted the passengers affected, let them know and offered them comparable cabins -- before making the changes That's the very least they should have done.

 

The one time I was upgraded, it was without notification, I was upgraded from a BD balcony cabin in a location I wanted to an AA mini-suite mid-ship, where I didn't want to be. I had no choice but I wasn't happy. Most would be jumping up and down to get a mini but I preferred the location I had towards the aft.

[Michael Kays]

We just booked the Royal Princess for Jan 2014, and I'm hoping we booked cabins that will not be affected by the aft configuration changes. We booked category D4 cabins D729 and D731..

We had originally booked Crown Princess aft minis for Jan 2014, but we just got off the Crown and we were in the same minis E731 and E729 we booked for Jan 2014...and I felt the larger corner minis balcony space was wasted because we could not use them on at sea days..way too much wind.

 

I have to agree with folks that we also book a cruise not just for the ship, but for the cabin as well. We booked the minis because of larger blacony area, the sofa, and larger bathroom.

 

So booking the Royal in this case it is a brand new ship we have never sailed on, so the ship was defintely one factor. But also the new configuration for the D4 aft balcony's give you a sofa and a larger shower area..and less wind on aft balcony, giving you more usage time while at sea.

[caribill]

We just booked the Royal Princess for Jan 2014, and I'm hoping we booked cabins that will not be affected by the aft configuration changes. We booked category D4 cabins D729 and D731.

 

You are OK.

 

First of all, they let you book it at this time.

 

Second of all, D727 was the D4 category cabin eliminated on the starboard side and is now a renumbered suite.

[emairs]

Does anyone know where to find an updated deck plan of the Royal, if one exists?

The Princess website is still showing the old one.

We have still not received any notification of change to our cabin number from Princess, nor has our TA.

Thank goodness for Cruise Critic, our main source of information.

[stunnedinva]

Does anyone know where to find an updated deck plan of the Royal, if one exists?

The Princess website is still showing the old one.

We have still not received any notification of change to our cabin number from Princess, nor has our TA.

Thank goodness for Cruise Critic, our main source of information.

 

It's corrected on the Princess website. My D4 balcony room on Baja is gone, gone, gone. :( I also wasn't notified and was only prompted to check "My Princess" by reading CC.