PUNISHED FOR BOOKING EARLY WITH PRINCESS…!

Glad to hear they looked after you. Some things just take a bit of time and patience. Happy sailing and Bon voyage!

*****UPDATE*****

WE JUST HAD TWO UPGRADES FROM PRINCESS AND ARE NOW VERY HAPPY BUNNIES AGAIN...

STARTED WITH A NORMAL BALCONY, THEN GOT UPGRADED TO A DELUXE BALCONY, AND THIS MORNING GOT UPGRADED AGAIN..... TO A PREMIUM DELUXE BALCONY!!! WOW!!!

SAVED BY THE BELL...!

NOW WE MOST PROBABLY WILL BE TAKING OUR CRUISE CARD WITH US. CANT WAIT!

I think I see what you are saying John, and I have to admit that I often have seen the price drop drastically the day after the final payment date. Also have been told the two times I tried to get a change basically the same as you but in politer words. But since I want a good room and not the leftover maybe rooms, I book as early as I can instead of hoping to get a room (decent or otherwise) at a much lower cost after the final payment date.

Side note, SeaCations are a mystery to me, Princess does not want us on this side of the pond to see what they are (and no VPN).

Hope y'all have a good trip otherwise!

Well, my first attempt at a reply to this one got deleted somehow… trying again! Yes, i agree with you on all you say, but this is not actually relevant to us. Firstly our cruise is a ‘staycation’ cruise so no-one can book or ask/request any particular room… they are all allocated on embarkation. Secondly, we paid the deposit on our cruise same as lots of others as soon as these cruises were advertised, March i think. So, 100 deposit with remaining as final payment date of 850 on July 17th… making total of 50 or thereabouts. On the day AFTER we settled our final payment, Princess dropped the prices by 200? Which meant we had no knowledge prior to paying them, and when we questioned a day or so after this we were told ‘tough luck’ basically and they weren’t prepared to do anything in the form of onboard credit or FCC either. (Bearing in mind we had FOUR cruises booked with them at this point). So, when we asked if we could cancel and rebook at the now lower pricing we were informed there would be 2x 100 ‘fines’ for doing this.. which meant we would be no better off, and still ended up paying for a mini-suite but are to be given a balcony. Prices on mini-suite are exactly equal to what we paid… We will still have a great break away and love Princess cruise ships… just dont agree with how they treat their passengers, especially their loyal ones, so will be leaving our Cruiseing Credit cards behind this time… Blessings to you for your interest.

Hi, Yes i see what you have written here and yes its all correct, however it does not apply to us. We booked our cruise with a deposit earlier this year when Princess first advertised their SeaCations… We paid £100 deposit and with a final payment day of 17th July… 60 days prior to sailing due to the new Princess Promise and closer final pay by date. This is the date when most everyone else also booked on this cruise with a deposit had to pay final payment, so we were not alone in this. We duly paid out £950 for the balcony guarantee… (NOT ABLE TO CHOOSE CABIN AS GUARANTEED PASSAGE). The next day, as you have mentioned, Princess dropped this price by £200…? When we called Princes to see what could be done they virtually said tough luck. If we cancelled then re-booked we were told that it would be a cancellation and re-booking that would incur 2x £100 “fines” for them pressing a few buttons. So, as this wouldn’t have made a difference to us, we declined this ‘offer’. (Apart from potentially waiting months for the refund etc to go through, as indicated by Princess). So, we have paid £950 which is the EXACT cost of a mini-suite but will be given a balcony. Hope this clarifies our situation and hoping no-one else suffers the same issues. We do love being onboard Princess ships so not booking excursions is not a worry to us, and we will continue to go with them.. we have a further three booked with them at this time anyway… but we will look very carefully at our spending whilst onboard and try to ‘recoup’ or save what we have lost by leaving our cruise spending cards at home… Blessings, John and Briony.

As I read the comments and responses I am now confused on what happened, booking early and final payment are two different items.

Booking early (historically) has not penalized you on cruise lines like Princess (unlike airlines), you can always rebook at a different price/perk point (I just rebooked my December Princess trip that I booked in 2019 for better perks and a less expensive deal, final payment is in September).

Final payment date on the other hand is just that, final. While some folks can get OBC after that point, the lines primarily use the remaining time to try and fill up the ship with folks who do not care if they may not get a desirable cabin and/or perks or even CAN book a cabin, thus bigger and bigger discounts on the unsold cabins after final payment is due (usually 90 days, but some are going to 120 days before sailing) and 'upgrade deals' to move folks up into more expensive cabins.

Granted, right now some ships have no 90 day, you are booking for a cruise in a month or two or less and are past the final payment date.

Hi grey wolf… yes I do agree with you on all your points, it’s just bad timing and a bit of bad luck on our side I guess… although you said that booking early gets you the cabin you want, NOT on this trip as the entire cruise is called a guarantee cruise whereby everyone gets their cabin allocated on embarking..?
times surely are different too… reflection is always good in one way to remember the good times, I have been diagnosed with early onset dementia… PPA … but this does not make me just sit down and accept companies upset me this way and as my window of opportunity for making more happy memories is now limited we want to cruise more, and we want to cruise more with Princess. Doesn’t make sense that I am complaining about Princess and at the same time want to sail with them more? But then I was never normal from birth I think? Ha ha ha…

Thanks Auntie… it won’t upset us when we get onboard, although we won’t be spending anything on excursions and other frivolous stuff like we normally do with Princess, we WILL be making the absolute most of all the amenities possible to get our money’s worth, especially now we have been ‘fined’ for booking early!

we shall be taking lots of photos and of course there is normally lots of opportunities to let them know how we have been treated when those emails asking for our opinions and feedback drop into our mailbox… can’t wait to get on board now only 20 days away… x

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Sorry this happened. I wish you could have at least gotten an on board credit.