Why the extra charge to upgrade booked cruise to Plus?

[cruiseidaho]

On a just completed 7-day cruise, Princess offered to upgrade to Plus for $60/person/day.  I thought that meant that my cost would be $420/person or $840.  I clicked  the upgrade online which said the upgrade would be $907, which I declined.  When onboard, I asked a passenger services rep why the $67 difference and he said, "I have no idea.  Call Princess."  Now, checking my next booked cruise of 12 days, which also offers an upgrade for $60/person/day, I expected the charge to be $720/person or $1440/couple.  Trying to upgrade online, the charge is for $1673/couple or $233 extra.  What could those extra charges possibly be for?

[kiwimum]

More than likely an increase in your insurance cost if you selected Princess insurance.   Wait until you are onboard and purchase the Plus package.

[voljeep]

Princess insurance @ 9% (current) pre-cruise

 

Some have reported this increase is not charged when booked the first day on board, and you can use OBC if you have some to offset the cost

[NavyVeteran]

If you upgrade in advance, you are not purchasing a package - you are changing to a different fare, subject to the normal penalties if cancelling after final payment. If you have Princess Vacation Protection, then this increase in your fare causes an increase in the cost of your Princess Vacation Protection.

The extra $67 on the 7-day cruise is 8% of the increased fare of $840, so this would be the cost of Princess Vacation Protection. The extra 233 on the 12-day cruise is 16% of the additional fare - I have no idea what the additional 8% is for.

 

 

[cruiseidaho]

Thank you all for the explanations.  Sounds plausible.  I wonder why passenger services does not know this.  I shall wait to upgrade the 12-day when I am on board. 

[voljeep]

Cruise Critic should be required reading on a daily basis by Princess Service agents.  A minimum of 1 hour each day, and a test will be given on the content of daily postings.  This will be a part of your evaluations, raises, time off, promotions.

[wallyj]

24 minutes ago, cruiseidaho said:

Thank you all for the explanations.  Sounds plausible.  I wonder why passenger services does not know this.  I shall wait to upgrade the 12-day when I am on board. 

Depending on how much in the future your cruise is, Princess can increase the price of the packages at any time, so waiting till boarding day has some risks.

 

I have friends boarding the Sapphire for 32 day voyage at the end of the month and they have decided to wait till boarding on Day1 to get package as the increase in Insurance would be substantial.

[cruiseidaho]

An increase in the price of the package at any time would not be a shock, but it appears that for now, waiting to get the package when onboard is the best way to go.  Thanks!

[AtlantaCruiser72]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

Cruise Critic should be required reading on a daily basis by Princess Service agents.  A minimum of 1 hour each day, and a test will be given on the content of daily postings.  This will be a part of your evaluations, raises, time off, promotions.

The problem here is most of the “Princess” service agents are not employees of Princess or even Carnival Corp.  They are mostly employees of a 3rd party off-shore call center farm. They could easy answer the next call “Thank you for calling Kroger” or “Thank you for calling Tesco” as they are to answer the call for Princess. They are reading from a script, have ZERO knowledge of the brands they support beyond the script and an online search engine based “knowledge” databank to go to for anything not on the script. 

[beg3yrs]

31 minutes ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

The problem here is most of the “Princess” service agents are not employees of Princess or even Carnival Corp.  They are mostly employees of a 3rd party off-shore call center farm. They could easy answer the next call “Thank you for calling Kroger” or “Thank you for calling Tesco” as they are to answer the call for Princess. They are reading from a script, have ZERO knowledge of the brands they support beyond the script and an online search engine based “knowledge” databank to go to for anything not on the script. 

As bad as they are, I sincerely doubt agents handle multiple clients with zero knowledge. Please provide the source of your information.

[redtop101]

This must be something new. My wife and I are on an 11 night cruise so the Princess Plus should be 60 x 11 x 2 = $1320. When I click on upgrade it comes to $1425.60, a difference of $125.60 on $1320. 
 

Our cruise fare is $2894 and Princess EZ Air is $1379.16 for a total of $4273.16. My Princess Platinum Protection premium is $200.32 on $4273.16 yet the extra charge for Princess Plus is $125.60 on $1320 which is quite disproportionately much higher. 
 

I have been questioning this with my travel agent, who didn’t have an answer. I have been on a previous cruise where I have purchased Princess Platinum Protection BEFORE final payment, THEN bought Princess Plus after final payment for a straight $60 pp per day, without any additional surcharge, so this must be something new. I think I will also wait until embarkation day before purchasing the Plus package. 

[reedprincess]

5 hours ago, wallyj said:

Depending on how much in the future your cruise is, Princess can increase the price of the packages at any time, so waiting till boarding day has some risks.

 

I have friends boarding the Sapphire for 32 day voyage at the end of the month and they have decided to wait till boarding on Day1 to get package as the increase in Insurance would be substantial.

Yes, while Princess can, and does, raise the rate - in the past, they've always given at least 10 days, usually 2 weeks notice of the change. So, should they be raising the price - there's a window to go ahead and add it at the lower price (and at the perks for that lower price)..

 

It's not ever been raised overnight. There's always been advance notice if when the price hike and changes will come into play. 

[AtlantaCruiser72]

5 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

As bad as they are, I sincerely doubt agents handle multiple clients with zero knowledge. Please provide the source of your information.

No empirical proof, but know several people who have managed outsourced, offshore call centers and this fits their description. Staff are given minimal training on the products they are supporting with the biggest focus on the operating systems they are using. Everything else relies on use of Knowledge base articles. I do know the one Princess “agents” use is the same search engine knowledge base available to travel agents in POLAR. They may be on a dedicated Princess team but depth of product knowledge is lacking, which is plainly obvious by all the misinformation they give out.