Deposit Requirements Upped--Considerably!

[dog]

32 minutes ago, DHP1 said:

We booked a balcony. Deposit payment is due today and Princess still hasn’t change the deposit rate. They told me they would and I have it in “writing”. Princess has changed for the worse.  I have notice this the last 5 years. 

 

You are getting the run around. No way should you have to pay that much. Are you a past passenger.?  Personally I would let booking expire and wait it out for a lower deposit or go to a TA with lower Refundable deposit. 

[dog]

13 hours ago, DHP1 said:

From Princess website today.
Our cruise is 12 days and our deposit is $1,008 (Canadian). In the meantime, Princess has not changed our deposit to reflect the below. Our deposit should be $400 (USA). 
 

 

if you want to tell me ship/ date I will check deposit. I am in Ontario. 
is the deposit $1008 for 2 in a cabin?   When I look at 12 cruise like mine Sky March 28/22 the deposit is $504 for 2 adults in a cabin, not per person. 

[beg3yrs]

Just pondering here a bit. I've made several bookings of which I can only actually take one because they overlap time-wise. My logic was that with low deposits I could afford to book all three and when the time comes for final payment there would be enough information to choose the one most likely to sail (one of those bookings is already kaput with the sale of the Pacific Princess).

 

Now with the much higher deposits, I would be less likely to pursue this plan and I'm wondering if there were enough cruisers out there doing the same thing to make Princess take notice and effectively end it by raising deposits.

 

Of course they could always ban overlapped bookings but that would take some software programming to detect and we all know how error-prone that can be!

[dog]

44 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

Just pondering here a bit. I've made several bookings of which I can only actually take one because they overlap time-wise. My logic was that with low deposits I could afford to book all three and when the time comes for final payment there would be enough information to choose the one most likely to sail (one of those bookings is already kaput with the sale of the Pacific Princess).

 

Now with the much higher deposits, I would be less likely to pursue this plan and I'm wondering if there were enough cruisers out there doing the same thing to make Princess take notice and effectively end it by raising deposits.

 

Of course they could always ban overlapped bookings but that would take some software programming to detect and we all know how error-prone that can be!

i have been able to cancel a booking and have Princess rep move my FCC & money deposit to my new booking. So when deposit was $520 they moved my $270 deposit over to new booking. 

[Northumberland]

We had booked a cruise in September through my TA  for an April 2022 sailing. Our deposit was $270.00 Cdn. We re fared twice. The second time was about 2 weeks ago. A couple days later, I was checking the Princess website and couldn't find my booking. Upon checking with my TA, I found out Princess had cancelled the booking because they had increased the deposit to $1016.00 Cdn, but had failed to inform us. I don't mind them increasing the deposit given the current circumstances with Covid, but I do mind not being informed about the increase and almost loosing out on the specific staterooms we had chosen. Fortunately, I was able to pay the difference and reinstate my original booking.

[dog]

1 hour ago, Northumberland said:

We had booked a cruise in September through my TA  for an April 2022 sailing. Our deposit was $270.00 Cdn. We re fared twice. The second time was about 2 weeks ago. A couple days later, I was checking the Princess website and couldn't find my booking. Upon checking with my TA, I found out Princess had cancelled the booking because they had increased the deposit to $1016.00 Cdn, but had failed to inform us. I don't mind them increasing the deposit given the current circumstances with Covid, but I do mind not being informed about the increase and almost loosing out on the specific staterooms we had chosen. Fortunately, I was able to pay the difference and reinstate my original booking.

Does the higher deposit show on the website when you do a mock booking? 

if that is what Princess is no doing I can see a lot of us Not booking with them in the future. 
i only have one booking now with a FCD & my FCC on it. 
 

i ch class my Personalizer daily now. 
i ‘ve checked several cruises balcony & never see any deposits above $504 CAD. 

Edited March 5, 2021 by dog

[DHP1]

7 hours ago, dog said:

if you want to tell me ship/ date I will check deposit. I am in Ontario. 
is the deposit $1008 for 2 in a cabin?   When I look at 12 cruise like mine Sky March 28/22 the deposit is $504 for 2 adults in a cabin, not per person. 

Interesting- I check your cruise and you are correct however, our cruise still shows $1008 (12 days).  I would give you my ship name, date and destination however, I’m sure Princess spies will be reading this thread. Princess is now playing games with it customers. This is definitely not fair. I realize Princess is suffering however, so are all it’s customers. If Princess provided us with advance notice (i.e. 1 month) then I would accept the new deposit. However, those days are long gone. This is now the new Princess and I don’t like it. 
Comment 30 Northumberland: another thought you all should remember, if Princess goes claims Bankruptcy, you won’t get your money back unless you have travel insurance which includes this. Right now, we can’t purchase travel insurance, so booking a cruise now is at our own risk. 

[ringers0815]

The deposit seems to vary depending on the cruise. I see some cruises with a CAD $504 deposit and others with CAD $1008. The cruise we have booked for April 2022 (Sydney to San Francisco) was on a courtesy hold for us until Princess dealt with the deposit from our cancelled Pacific Princess cruise. The deposit was listed at $1008 for the Sydney to SFO cruise. But we were able to use as deposit only the FCC (plus the "goodwill" FCC) from our cancelled Pacific Princess cruise. And they gave us the OBC that went with our original FCD that we had used as a deposit for the Pacific Princess cruise.

Edited March 5, 2021 by ringers0815

[Northumberland]

37 minutes ago, dog said:

Does the higher deposit show on the website when you do a mock booking? 

if that is what Princess is no doing I can see a lot of us Not booking with them in the future. 
i only have one booking now with a FCD & my FCC on it. 
 

i ch class my Personalizer daily now. 
i ‘ve checked several cruises balcony & never see any deposits above $504 CAD. 

I haven't tried a mock booking, but upon checking the confirmation from the TA, it shows a deposit of $508.00 Cdn per person. 

When we re fared, I was told we had to have our booking cancelled and rebook because the new fares were only for new bookings. I guess that was so they could charge the new deposit amounts. According to a Youtube video from a TA, the cruise lines are charging higher deposits because a number of people are canceling and rebooking cruises with different dates and that is costing the cruise lines a lot of money maintaining those bookings.

[dog]

48 minutes ago, Northumberland said:

I haven't tried a mock booking, but upon checking the confirmation from the TA, it shows a deposit of $508.00 Cdn per person. 

When we re fared, I was told we had to have our booking cancelled and rebook because the new fares were only for new bookings. I guess that was so they could charge the new deposit amounts. According to a Youtube video from a TA, the cruise lines are charging higher deposits because a number of people are canceling and rebooking cruises with different dates and that is costing the cruise lines a lot of money maintaining those bookings.

Definitely something wrong here. Deposit is for cabin. Not per person in all my paperwork. 
I would not accept that.
On another matter, in the past, many Ontario TA are members of ACTA, and that covers you in case of bankruptcy. 

[dog]

13 hours ago, dog said:

Definitely something wrong here. Deposit is for cabin. Not per person in all my paperwork. 
I would not accept that.
On another matter, in the past, many Ontario TA are members of ACTA, and that covers you in case of bankruptcy. 

I did look up a 14 day Enchanted April   ‘22 cruise with a 1008 CAD deposit   Good reason to buy FCD if this is the future requirement 

[Bertie Doe]

We've just booked 2 cruises for 2022 via Princess web site. June '22 on Sky  P to Norway and Aug '22 on Island P to Iceland/Greenland. Each cruise is £50 pp or £100 for a balcony cabin. A good price IMO.

 

Both cruises are about 18 months away, could deposits go up as we get closer to sail date? No airlines involved as they're both 'no fly' cruises out of Southampton Uk, could this effect the size of deposit?

[dog]

49 minutes ago, Bertie Doe said:

We've just booked 2 cruises for 2022 via Princess web site. June '22 on Sky  P to Norway and Aug '22 on Island P to Iceland/Greenland. Each cruise is £50 pp or £100 for a balcony cabin. A good price IMO.

 

Both cruises are about 18 months away, could deposits go up as we get closer to sail date? No airlines involved as they're both 'no fly' cruises out of Southampton Uk, could this effect the size of deposit?

Are your deposits in UK refundable up to final payment?

[CruisinCouple2010]

We paid a deposit of $800.00 on our two latest bookings. Both cruises were just to the Caribbean.

[Iamcruzin]

On 3/5/2021 at 10:15 AM, beg3yrs said:

Just pondering here a bit. I've made several bookings of which I can only actually take one because they overlap time-wise. My logic was that with low deposits I could afford to book all three and when the time comes for final payment there would be enough information to choose the one most likely to sail (one of those bookings is already kaput with the sale of the Pacific Princess).

 

Now with the much higher deposits, I would be less likely to pursue this plan and I'm wondering if there were enough cruisers out there doing the same thing to make Princess take notice and effectively end it by raising deposits.

 

Of course they could always ban overlapped bookings but that would take some software programming to detect and we all know how error-prone that can be!

People have been doing what you are doing for years. Now not knowing when capacity control will be lifted, they may be trying to prevent an issue of ships sailing with even less due to all of the phantom bookings.

[DHP1]

1 hour ago, CruisinCouple2010 said:

We paid a deposit of $800.00 on our two latest bookings. Both cruises were just to the Caribbean.

If your cruise is 12 days or less, you paid to much. I have “this in writing” from Princess however, they don’t care.  The new deposit rates don’t take effect until March 29th. Princess will say anything to keep a customer. 

[DHP1]

One of my cruises were cancelled because I didn’t pay the deposit on time. In the past, they will usually call or send me an e- mail reminding me of the deposit due date. Things sure has changed with Princess. I wonder what it will be like cruising with them this year. I feel sorry for the people who are. It won’t be the same (waste of money). 

[Bertie Doe]

23 hours ago, dog said:

Are your deposits in UK refundable up to final payment?

No they're not - if we cancel, we lose the £50 pp deposit. T&C quote :

 

" Failure to pay the balance by the due date shall entitle Princess to cancel the booking and retain the deposit by way of a cancellation charge, together with any cancellation charges due in respect of flights pursuant to clause 34. "

[Bertie Doe]

On 3/6/2021 at 3:45 PM, dog said:

Are your deposits in UK refundable up to final payment?

Sorry dog, I misunderstood. There's no mention of what happens to the deposit before final payment. Maybe in the 'small print' somewhere.

[c-boy]

2 hours ago, DHP1 said:

One of my cruises were cancelled because I didn’t pay the deposit on time. In the past, they will usually call or send me an e- mail reminding me of the deposit due date. Things sure has changed with Princess. I wonder what it will be like cruising with them this year. I feel sorry for the people who are. It won’t be the same (waste of money). 

don't waste you feelings of sorrow on me. I'm a grown up, I make my own decisions. 

[Lauren Spray]

On 3/3/2021 at 6:49 AM, capriccio said:

We just made bookings (4 cabins for a total of 8 passengers) yesterday through our TA for a 28 day Australia cruise in 2023 and the deposit was $100 per person.  Two cabins had FCD returned from a cancelled cruise that would have expired before the cruise but our TA worked with Princess to extend them and two cabins just paid the fully refundable $100 per passenger deposit.

Yesterday I booked the 28 day Australia cruise for April 2023.  Only ocean views were available.  My deposit was $200 total for the 2 of us.  Today when I went to look on line for the cruise, it is not listed for sale.  Sold out so fast?

[capriccio]

10 minutes ago, Lauren Spray said:

Yesterday I booked the 28 day Australia cruise for April 2023.  Only ocean views were available.  My deposit was $200 total for the 2 of us.  Today when I went to look on line for the cruise, it is not listed for sale.  Sold out so fast?

Full suites, minis and interiors sold out the first day.  The rest yesterday. The cruise is also being sold in 2 legs (northern and southern) that aren't sold out so they will probably reallocate some of those available cabins to the round Australia cruise.

[Lauren Spray]

Good thing I was quick.  I placed the cabin on hold for 1 hour.  Something told me to book.  I haven´t even told my husband yet.

[nini]

2 hours ago, Lauren Spray said:

Yesterday I booked the 28 day Australia cruise for April 2023.  Only ocean views were available.  My deposit was $200 total for the 2 of us.  Today when I went to look on line for the cruise, it is not listed for sale.  Sold out so fast?

We booked the 29 day which goes up to San Francisco. SF is closer to our home

in Washington State. This one still appears on the Princess website along with the 32 day

which goes on up to Vancouver, BC

[CruisinCouple2010]

21 hours ago, DHP1 said:

If your cruise is 12 days or less, you paid to much. I have “this in writing” from Princess however, they don’t care.  The new deposit rates don’t take effect until March 29th. Princess will say anything to keep a customer. 

Both bookings are for April 2022 and are for 14 days.