Guaranteed Stateroom Not So Guaranteed?

[Cruise till you drop]

We had a similar situation happen in January. Booked a balcony on deck 17 on the Sky Princess near the Retreat pool and said no upgrades (which is what THEY suggested to guarantee our room).

 

Next thing we know, boarded the ship and moved to deck 14, and they claimed it was an upgrade (which it was not to us).  And friends we were traveling with had it worse as they got moved to deck 9 (from 17), and just above the life boats.

 

I am so freaking frustrated and done with this all.

 

We were on the Celebrity Edge in March and beforehand, I called and asked about what I would have to do to guarantee our room and they laughed and stated that I already have a guaranteed room and they would never change it.  What a breath of fresh air.

[Steelers36]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:46 PM, Dreamscaper said:

Thanks!  I've had it for today - and have a bunch of things to do right now - but I will definitely take your advice and call the planner, there is NO way I shouldn't be guaranteed the originally booked price at the very least right now.  It may be a couple of days before I get a big enough block of time to do this (these calls are always extremely lengthy), but I will definitely do it!

IMO, your booking should be reinstated to your original BA GTY and at your original price with no balance owing (or they refund you back the $1,100 upgrade you did not agree to if you already paid that).  Just because some agent pushed a situation, doesn't mean you had to accept it.  I'd be after Guest Relations about it since you seem to have been stonewalled.  Perhaps you will get some nice treatment back out of that. 

 

This is the first time I have heard of a guest being assigned a cabin that was lower (let alone much lower) in Category than their GTY booking.  You booked a BA and should never have been assigned a BD (nor BC, nor BB for that matter).  You paid extra money for the BA Category.  Who knows - they might decide to put you in a Deluxe Balcony.  But be aware that Princess will consider the lowest far fwd Deluxe (say DF or DE) to be higher than the BA.

 

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, Cruise till you drop said:

We had a similar situation happen in January. Booked a balcony on deck 17 on the Sky Princess near the Retreat pool and said no upgrades (which is what THEY suggested to guarantee our room).

 

Next thing we know, boarded the ship and moved to deck 14, and they claimed it was an upgrade (which it was not to us).  And friends we were traveling with had it worse as they got moved to deck 9 (from 17), and just above the life boats.

 

I am so freaking frustrated and done with this all.

 

We were on the Celebrity Edge in March and beforehand, I called and asked about what I would have to do to guarantee our room and they laughed and stated that I already have a guaranteed room and they would never change it.  What a breath of fresh air.

So you said no to upgrades and they still moved you? Did you see a change to your cabin in your personaliser before you boarded or did you only find out that you were moved on boarding day?

[Coral]

I agree - I would escalate this. You deserve a BA midship.

[Buckeye10640]

13 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

We had a similar situation happen in January. Booked a balcony on deck 17 on the Sky Princess near the Retreat pool and said no upgrades (which is what THEY suggested to guarantee our room).

 

Next thing we know, boarded the ship and moved to deck 14, and they claimed it was an upgrade (which it was not to us).  And friends we were traveling with had it worse as they got moved to deck 9 (from 17), and just above the life boats.

 

I am so freaking frustrated and done with this all.

 

We were on the Celebrity Edge in March and beforehand, I called and asked about what I would have to do to guarantee our room and they laughed and stated that I already have a guaranteed room and they would never change it.  What a breath of fresh air.

I think this is different than the OP.  You booked a specific cabin and had Princess or the TA mark 'no upgrade'. You should NOT have been moved. OP booked a 'guarantee' cabin which is not a specific cabin but is a cabin guaranteed to be in the same or better class as the booking. Princess can assign any cabin that meets that criteria. 

 

Regarding your issue, I book those Deck 17 cabins and also would not have been happy to be relocated!

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Buckeye10640

[Cruise till you drop]

7 hours ago, Nicole&Pete said:

So you said no to upgrades and they still moved you? Did you see a change to your cabin in your personaliser before you boarded or did you only find out that you were moved on boarding day?

In retrospect, I did see a change in my cabin when I printed out our Travel documents from the Princess site about 4 days before the cruise.  But as this has never happened to us in over 25 cruises, it wasn’t something we caught as it wasn’t something we thought we needed to check.  Shame on us I guess.

 

However when we boarded the ship on embarkation day and it became apparent what was going on, it was too late. Frustrating part was I called both Princess and my TA before ship sailed and no one could help, kept blaming the other party, and no one could explain why we were moved.

 

Never again

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, Cruise till you drop said:

In retrospect, I did see a change in my cabin when I printed out our Travel documents from the Princess site about 4 days before the cruise.  But as this has never happened to us in over 25 cruises, it wasn’t something we caught as it wasn’t something we thought we needed to check.  Shame on us I guess.

 

However when we boarded the ship on embarkation day and it became apparent what was going on, it was too late. Frustrating part was I called both Princess and my TA before ship sailed and no one could help, kept blaming the other party, and no one could explain why we were moved.

 

Never again

That is very annoying as you shouldn’t have been moved if you selected no upgrades.

[minabruuke]

21 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

We were on the Celebrity Edge in March and beforehand, I called and asked about what I would have to do to guarantee our room and they laughed and stated that I already have a guaranteed room and they would never change it.  What a breath of fresh air.

 

Though I am glad that what Celebrity told you brought you comfort, it was still extremely foolish for them to use the word "never."  I've seen cruise cabins be taken out of service before and sometimes multiple cabins in a section have to be taken out of service for unexpected repairs. We were once in a room that was pulled from service due to some significant issues in the bathroom.  We were in the room while a team of officers were assessing the situation and one of them voiced that they needed to go contact a shore department to let them know that the room could not be used for at least the next cruise.  Another officer recommended that they pull it for the next few cruises just in case. I couldn't tell you whether or not the people booked in that cabin for the next cruise were able to be notified ahead of boarding (there wasn't much time) but they definitely ended up in a different cabin whether they liked it or not.  

 

Given that you and your friends were moved from deck 17 cabins on the same cruise, I do have to wonder if they had a problem with a section of those cabins and had to pull them from service for some reason.  This may not have been the case but if it was they certainly should have explained that to you but I could see them trying to avoid admitting a problem. Did you happen to check to see if anyone was actually in those cabins? I'd also be really upset being moved from that area unless the upgrade was significant enough to make up for the loss of a really neat location on that ship.

[Guest ldtr]

8 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

In retrospect, I did see a change in my cabin when I printed out our Travel documents from the Princess site about 4 days before the cruise.  But as this has never happened to us in over 25 cruises, it wasn’t something we caught as it wasn’t something we thought we needed to check.  Shame on us I guess.

 

However when we boarded the ship on embarkation day and it became apparent what was going on, it was too late. Frustrating part was I called both Princess and my TA before ship sailed and no one could help, kept blaming the other party, and no one could explain why we were moved.

 

Never again

When there is a change like that you have about 72hrs to act.  After that it is pretty much locked in and your original room is gone.  Your TA should have gotten notification of the change when it was made. 

[Cruise till you drop]

1 hour ago, minabruuke said:

 

Given that you and your friends were moved from deck 17 cabins on the same cruise, I do have to wonder if they had a problem with a section of those cabins and had to pull them from service for some reason.  This may not have been the case but if it was they certainly should have explained that to you but I could see them trying to avoid admitting a problem. Did you happen to check to see if anyone was actually in those cabins? I'd also be really upset being moved from that area unless the upgrade was significant enough to make up for the loss of a really neat location on that ship.

They did not have a problem with those rooms as we went to the rooms we were supposed to have and there were other names assigned (as you may know, passenger names are on the sign outside of each cabin with loyalty status).  Also Guest Services admitted that they moved us as our rooms were reassigned to others (they just never said why)

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Cruise till you drop

[Cruise till you drop]

31 minutes ago, ldtr said:

When there is a change like that you have about 72hrs to act.  After that it is pretty much locked in and your original room is gone.  Your TA should have gotten notification of the change when it was made. 

My TA said they were not notified and blamed Princess for this last minute change with no notice

 

Princess said my TA knew and requested the room change

 

As you can see, either one or both were lying to me

 

 

[theloo]

2 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

as you may know, passenger names are on the sign outside of each cabin with loyalty status

I don't remember this happening (but haven't cruised in over 4 years).  Can it be removed?  That seems like a privacy problem (especially if you lose your medallion).

[memoak]

14 minutes ago, theloo said:

I don't remember this happening (but haven't cruised in over 4 years).  Can it be removed?  That seems like a privacy problem (especially if you lose your medallion).

The names have been out there for years and there so old be no difference between a medallion and a cruise card

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

41 minutes ago, Cruise till you drop said:

My TA said they were not notified and blamed Princess for this last minute change with no notice

 

Princess said my TA knew and requested the room change

 

As you can see, either one or both were lying to me

 

 

Apparently it was at least 4 days before the cruise since that is when you noticed it, but did not realize the implications.  Who knows how far before then that the change was made.

[packedandready]

What I'd be afraid of is being left in the mini-suite. If the mini-suite shows a balance and is due in July, but you don't get a cabin before that, what's going to keep your booking from being cancelled for non-payment. Their computer system may automatically cancel regardless of any notes on the reservation. 

[Dreamscaper]

1 hour ago, packedandready said:

What I'd be afraid of is being left in the mini-suite. If the mini-suite shows a balance and is due in July, but you don't get a cabin before that, what's going to keep your booking from being cancelled for non-payment. Their computer system may automatically cancel regardless of any notes on the reservation. 

We had already authorized Princess to charge our final payment on the final due date.  Of course, we expected the final charge to be what we agreed to on our booking.  But if we don't get this resolved before then I would expect that they would charge us for the mini suite they currently have us booked in - this is my fear.  If they move us back to the original mid ship balcony we had requested then we would probably get a refund.  Whether that refund reflects the originally agreed upon price or not is anyone's guess.  Obviously it should - but I'm not confident it will.

Edited June 2, 2023 by Dreamscaper
clarification

[Dreamscaper]

After four days and still no email I called our CVP again.  He's been unable to help - he can move us to an obstructed balcony mid ship, but charge us about 2k more than our originally agreed upon price, which is a really expensive upgrade (our current bill for the mini suite they booked us into costs less than that!), but he has no authority to change back to our original price.  I got him to put me to his supervisor and she's "making calls" and they will get back to me..........

 

 

[rideev]

On 5/30/2023 at 2:34 PM, jimdee3636 said:

@DreamscaperThere are other (and better) cruise lines out there. 

 

Jim

 

Well there are other cruise lines, but I wouldn't say better (for the same price point.). But to each their own.  But Jim, of you don't like Princess, why are you bothering to check out their boards?

[Guest ldtr]

20 hours ago, memoak said:

The names have been out there for years and there so old be no difference between a medallion and a cruise card

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before medallion it used to be a card that the Steward would insert in a little holder by the door.

[Guest ldtr]

21 minutes ago, Dreamscaper said:

After four days and still no email I called our CVP again.  He's been unable to help - he can move us to an obstructed balcony mid ship, but charge us about 2k more than our originally agreed upon price, which is a really expensive upgrade (our current bill for the mini suite they booked us into costs less than that!), but he has no authority to change back to our original price.  I got him to put me to his supervisor and she's "making calls" and they will get back to me..........

 

 

Your choice appears to come down to accept the room they have, or cancel because they do not have a room you want.

 

Might be better for both you and your relatives to just cancel.  Otherwise you will seem to resent the situation for the entire cruise.  No cruise is worth it. 

 

 

[jimdee3636]

1 hour ago, rideev said:

Well there are other cruise lines, but I wouldn't say better (for the same price point.). But to each their own.  But Jim, of you don't like Princess, why are you bothering to check out their boards?

Good question! The answer is that I still have a small amount of credit with Princess that will expire if I don't book another cruise by the end of the year. (I actually let a larger amount expire this past December 31). I keep hoping I'll find a reason to book one, but I can't seem to pull the trigger. My Princess cruises have all been on the Crown, Ruby, and Emerald and I prefer that class of ship to the newer, bigger classes. but the Cruise Critic reviews and threads about those older ships have pretty much been dismal of late.

[cr8tiv1]

1 hour ago, jimdee3636 said:

Good question! The answer is that I still have a small amount of credit with Princess that will expire if I don't book another cruise by the end of the year. (I actually let a larger amount expire this past December 31). I keep hoping I'll find a reason to book one, but I can't seem to pull the trigger. My Princess cruises have all been on the Crown, Ruby, and Emerald and I prefer that class of ship to the newer, bigger classes. but the Cruise Critic reviews and threads about those older ships have pretty much been dismal of late.

 

I just got off the Emerald Princess.  I would give that ship a shot (local/coastal/Hawaii) this summer. I will choose a Grand/GEM Class ship over a Royal Class ship any day.  It comes down to what is important to you.  For me, it's the crew.  Haven't had a bad crew experience since the restart.  I don't need all the fancy bells and whistles.  Do feel like Princess's step child when it comes to entertainment though.  Wish they would "invest" in upgrades to their production shows.

[Notalotofinfo]

23 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

My TA said they were not notified and blamed Princess for this last minute change with no notice

 

Princess said my TA knew and requested the room change

 

As you can see, either one or both were lying to me

 

Went through this with Princess 10:years ago. TA blamed Princess and vice versa. It turned out Princess was right and bent over backwards to cover our butts. Cost the TA  20 bookings!

 

[Dreamscaper]

5 hours ago, Dreamscaper said:

After four days and still no email I called our CVP again.  He's been unable to help - he can move us to an obstructed balcony mid ship, but charge us about 2k more than our originally agreed upon price, which is a really expensive upgrade (our current bill for the mini suite they booked us into costs less than that!), but he has no authority to change back to our original price.  I got him to put me to his supervisor and she's "making calls" and they will get back to me..........

 

 

Got a call back from George's supervisor, Edwina.  She made some calls and said she'd have George call me back.  I did end up getting a call back from Daniel and he's making all the right noises and promised another call back, which I'm waiting on.  I haven't given up hope entirely just yet, though my faith is still shaken pretty hard.

[cr8tiv1]

They CAN make it right and should.  But it shouldn't be this difficult.  I hope they find you a suite for the same price you paid for your balcony.