Same thing happened to me on Island Princess. A year before the cruise, picked a rear cabin that had a larger deck because it was at the rear corner, and also offered a partial aft view. Paid cruise off 6 months before sailing. 1 month before sailing, we get an email saying they are taking our cabin for covid quarantine, and they've moved us to a similar class cabin, but much worse position on the ship! Two things really bother me about what they did. The first is, why can they not know until 1 month in advance which cabins become covid quarantine? The second is, there is a price difference of a few hundred bucks between picking your own cabin and allowing Princess to pick your cabin. AT THE VERY LEAST, when they move you like this, they should give you an immediate refund of this difference.
Booked a transatlantic 16 day cruise on Sun Princess for September in deluxe balcony. Booked an excursion during the "sale" @ $249.95 less a 20% discount. NOW the price is $214.95. I called, they can't do anything but tell me to bring the receipt onboard and see what they can do. My TA got the same answer. I was a TA for 20+ years. The customer service is appalling. I am going to persevere because PRINCIPLE! I am not working on my cruise. Thank you for sharing your story.
Very intriguing! I had almost the exact same thing happen to me for the Regal Princess. I booked one of those 8 staterooms with the larger balcony, paid my deposit and several months later received a letter from Princess to tell me I had been upgraded (they gave no reason) but this was the EXACT scenario being “upgraded”, although I did not get charged more. When I contacted my travel agent, she felt this was a bonus, but exactly like you, I knew it was a downgrade. She wouldn’t fight for me with Princess and so I had a choice - cancel and find an agent who would fight for me, or grin and bear it and be at the corporation’s mercy. I chose to cancel the whole cruise, fire my travel agent, move to a new travel agent and am booking through her now. It’s funny how contracts between big corporations often times are one way protecting themselves but not the consumer.
The reason your TA wouldn’t fight for you is because she is the one who opted you into the “complimentary upgrade”. When booking the cruise one of the questions is “would you like a complimentary upgrade if one becomes available?” So I’m 99% sure in your scenario that is what happened. Personally when booking cruises I use the princess cruise planners. It’s much less of a hassle and it’s cheaper than a 3rd party TA.
@@Seadia_Delmarsome of them DO charge planning fees because abusive people use their free services for hours then cancel everything and book elsewhere. Just like a consult fee that doctors, lawyers and other consultants charge, some TAs are tired of being used for free information and need to be reimbursed for their time
I learned quite a while ago w Princess - I got a regular P travel rep that was quality. I do everything through him - no more hassles (we are regular P cruisers).
I had a very similar experience when Princess switched our May cruise from the Crown princess to the Royal princess. I had booked very early to be sure to get a corner aft with an extended balcony on the Crown. They move us to a mid-ship directly under the lido deck. It took me 3 days and 3 phone calls but we eventually ended up with an extended aft cabin on the Baja deck for about $50 less per person.
I had the same problem about a transpacific cruise. I had picked out the cabin we wanted. 2 days ago Prince "upgraded" me to a cabin under the pool! They said I had 48 hours to not accept the "upgrade". I called and was told my original cabin was gone. They now gave me an obstructed balcony. This after 22 cruise with Princess. Not happy.
Just curious. I am doing a transpacific, and am concerned about this issue as well since it seems like its actually getting full. I have not paid in full yet, so my question is, did they wait until you paid in full to "upgrade" you? I am most concerned in corporations that once they have my money, that will be the time that they decide to take advantage.
Really glad you got a much better deal. I always find it frustrating, when I call someone to solve a problem and they don’t want to help, but then call the same company later, get a different agent and get a completely different response. It should be the better solution the first time, every time.
Great video ! I just booked a Princess cruise for February 2025 and requested “no upgrades or cabin changes” because we like the Lido Deck for hot weather cruises. We had an “upgrade” that was done automatically on a previous cruise that gave us a slightly larger cabin but at a lower deck and right next to the casino - which we don’t use. I was shocked that we received no notification or request for approval for the change. Luckily, we were able to change the booking back to a Lido Deck cabin. “Upgrade” is subjective , based on what a person values (cabin size, location, view, etc.). I just wish that Princess would contact its guests first for their review and approval before automatically changing the cabin that was originally booked. I would love to be upgraded to a mini-suite from our balcony cabin but not if it is at a much lower deck and at the aft of the ship. I’m so glad that you received a great resolution. Hope you had a wonderful cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m now subscribing !
They changed my room one time and I did not like the new area and Princess said I had 24 hours to let them know I wanted my original room back. But when I called they said they would try to get my room back but ended up they could not. So I canceled that cruise. Plenty of other cruise lines that I can go on.
As someone that works on the phones in Australia, correct lol. Now most of the time honestly the customer has trash reception and they drop out and then blame if on the operator but if you're a douchebag you're getting hung up on for sure
More than half the time when a business has a problem it’s usually the employee not the business I’m glad you got that resolved and you found someone who is willing to work
The ship’s deck plan identifies the category of each cabin on the ship. An “upgrade” would put you into a cabin in a higher category on the cruise line’s scheme. Sadly, this is not always congruent with our personal preferences. (A midship cabin, for example, might be in a higher category than one that is far forward even if it is smaller.) If I’ve chosen a cabin for some particular reasons, I will check the “no upgrade” option to make sure that I don’t get a cabin in a higher category that doesn’t meet my needs. (And, of course, any upgrade must be into a higher category-which could be a cabin of the same type.)
I've experienced the overseas call center myself. It was a call that lasted about 1 1/2 hours then click, disconnected. Second try I spoke with someone in the States. The problem we had with our booking went away in about 10 minutes. Enjoy Alaska, it's fantastic!
The booking process on Princess was abhorrent for me the other day. I can't even begin to describe it, but I haven't even sailed on them yet and I have a VERY sour taste in my mouth. And we had the same issue with always getting the call center where they take an obnoxious amount of time. I learned to ask for "Guest Services in the US" and they get me to someone that can help in just a few min.
Yes. Listening to this video made me appreciate my travel agent even more. I know she has spent hours on the phone for me this past year related to rebooking.
It goes to prove that ‘customer service’ should be the decision makers, because it makes a significant difference to the customer. It is a strategy to put customers on hold to for long periods of time, in the hope that you just give up and hang up.
Surprising that they would use premium cabins for quarantined passengers. I was quarantined twice last year once on the Enchanted Princess and on the Island Princess both times for eight days. I went from a standard balcony to an almost fully obstructed (90%) Oceanview cabin on deck 8. I will say I was treated very well while quarantined, the food was actually better than the dining room food.
You’re such a great husband for going through all that to give your lady a special birthday cruise. I totally understand your frustration. I don’t like dealing with the customer service overseas as they don’t have access to the same information they have here. Alaska is one of our favorite destinations. Have a fabulous trip!
Gosh that’s awful! Sorry you went through that! We literally just sailed on the Enchanted Princess and literally booked the cruise one week prior to departure- requested an upgraded balcony in any part of the midship or Aft. We had zero issues, had a beautiful room and larger balcony than expecting. Overall it was a pleasant experience and we booked directly through Princess.
I think what might be happening is that when they have vacancies in undesirable locations, they bump people down who have already booked, leaving more desirable cabins open which would make it easier for them to book those cabins. They are playing a shell game.
5:39 I think that makes sense. Not the fact they had to change your reservation. Rather, it makes sense to use the rooms with larger balconies for quarantine.
Great news. We have upgraded you to our “Bilge” room. Whereas you could have been rained on if you were on your balcony, you will be protected from that with your new, non-opening porthole. You will also get that real ship experience as you will have a clear audible experience hearing the engines running 24 hours a day. You will also have direct access to the sun decks as you are only 3 floors below the bottom of the lifts. There’s lots of room for two on your bunk beds and the bathroom is just down the corridor. Although we would normally charge you more for this, if you ring us for 3 hours we will say we will remove the surcharge. We won’t actually remove it, but we will say we will. Have a great cruise. Princess.
I totally agree with you. Princess call centre is totally useless. I made a few calls to ask or request something, and the only answers I got were 'I don't know', or 'I can't do that'. I have made the same requests with other cruise lines and never had any issues.
You are nicer then me. When they said they had to move me to an upgrade....then I would have demanded an upgrade or leave me in the room I have already picked and paid for. The word "upgrade"....I would have stressed that over and over...plus the $50. each for the inconvenience on the phone. I am so glad this worked out for you. Have a great time on the birthday cruise!
It’s not just Princess that does this. My first cruise was with Royal Caribbean many years ago. When I booked, I booked what I felt was the best location for me. When we arrived for checkin we had been upgraded. The upgrade stressed me out so much I had a full panic attack. I got over it and enjoyed my cruise but the room itself in my opinion was not an upgrade at all.
Same thing happened to us on Holland America! Total B/S! Told us our cabin was going to be used for quarantine and lo and behold someone else was in it! My educated guess is they booked that room twice and chose you to get screwed! They should have given you a mini-suite for FREE! But in the end it shouldn’t have been that hard to get it resolved! Each cruise we go on we set up a separate folder with all the info for that cruise kept in it.
Ugh this sounds very aggravating. I hope the cruise is awesome!! I have noticed in general if I get someone on the phone like the first operator and all I’m hitting are brick walls that it’s easier for me to just nicely end the call and try your luck with another operator. Happy sailing 😊
I had a problem with Princess last month. On a 15-day Hawaiian cruise for my mom's 95th birthday, we were in the ADA cabin from HELL! Constant overflowing toilet and eventually water dripping from the light fixtures! Unfortunately they did NOT switch my room because they overbooked the ADA cabins and didn't have even one empty in case of an emergency. I called EVERYDAY for a week after we got back home with a wait time over 5 and a half hours on one of the calls!
We just got off the Sky Princess, our first AND Last Princess cruise. So many things we were not happy with beginning with standing in line 4 Times on embarkation day. The buffet and dining room food was just terrible. Too many more to mention. Hope you have a better experience.
Same here, was on Sky Princess last year. WORST FOOD EVER! The “prime rib” was inedible, couldn’t even cut through it. The hard boiled eggs were burnt…how do you even do that? The only edible thing at the breakfast buffet was the bacon. Sausage tasted like sawdust.
I am surprised to read about unpleasant experiences on Sky Princess. Sounds like an entirely different ship than what I went on. I had used the App so most everything was completed ahead of time. I had one of the fastest embarkations of any ship. Got in the Green line, answered some health questions. I was sent to a desk where I picked up my Medallion. I always take my own luggage so I went to my cabin Caribbean deck, level 10, slightly forward, a nice location), dropped off my luggage (cabin was ready, it was 12:30PM). Then I went to the Marketplace, level 16 to eat lunch. Disembarking was easy! It took exactly 15 minutes from.when I started by going with my luggage to Vista Lounge level 7. When I got there 8AM, they said take elevators to level 3 or 4 (?) & walked a short distance where Medallion was pressed into machine. We then walked down the corridors to the building & took elevators to level 1. I went to Customs, they had me stand in front of a screen & took my photo. I was told I could leave. I went outside to sit on a bench along with my luggage. To my astonishment, it was 8:15 AM and I was off the ship!!! My bus would arrive by 9:45 - 10:00 AM. First of all: it is a beautiful ship. Also, it is relatively new as it's inaugural cruise was Oct. 2019. My experiences were all *positive* on the 10 night cruise Sky Princess Dec. 17 - Dec. 27, 2022 (last year). It was phenomenal! I was upgraded from an Oceanview cabin to a Balcony and loved my cabin. The dinner was delicious, with good choices in the main dining room where I ate most evenings around 7PM. I loved all the breakfast & lunch offerings in the World Fresh Marketplace (Buffet) deck 16. 2 or 3 nights I had dinner there which was delicious & amazing choices. The entertainment was great too. I loved all the ports: Princess Cay, St..Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, & Curacao.
Just got off the discovery and I’m booked again for the May 28th Alaska inside passage. The biggest problems I had was exactly the same as you, calling customer service and (not the call center workers problem, she was very nice) the person not being able to help me, like you said she either didn’t have the authority or ability to help me with any of my problems and it was very frustrating because I had to wait to get onboard to try and resolve the issues and was treated extremely rudely by two employees onboard because they assumed I was stupid and this was my fault and I told them that Princess made changes to my booking and I wasn’t able to resolve it through the phone center. So at least you got yours resolved before your cruise. I think they have to do something about the call center, once again, wasn’t her fault her hands were tied. Give them the authority to make changes or immediately bump it up to someone who can. Very frustrating. PS my problem was never resolved to my satisfaction
We are looking at booking this cruise (May 28th from Seattle on Discovery Princess). We have never cruised before and this is what my son has requested for his graduation gift. With that being said, we are looking at a mini suite but are having a hard time deciding our room location. Is the lido deck a good choice?
@@_.Lil_Buggy_Drag0n._ everyone has their own preference, I would recommend doing a little video search on cabin choices. If you have motion sickness problems or you want to be located closer to the middle or back and most of the lido suites are in front and it’s one of the highest decks. I was in the Navy so I just love being on board and the cabin isn’t that important to me but I do prefer a balcony .
We were offered an "upgrade" cabin twice when we first started cruising, both times it was to cabins they could not sell due to noise. We now pick our cabin and stick with it.
Thank you for reporting your frustration. I forgot the ship you were on ( and don’t want to waste mt time listening to it) probably the Royal class ship. Size is not always everything ( at least for cabins). You picked the least expensive obstructed deluxe balcony. The room has a love seat and many of the balconies are larger, but have a steel versus glass railings. Your location in the front of deck 8 is right on top of the Princess theatre. Yes you had a large balcony ( in Alaska it’s better to be on deck so hear the commentary or put the live TV Chanel on full blast ), but you could hear and feel the vibration from downstairs. Plus being so far up front you could hear the anchor, plus the movement of the ship is more than the middle! You were lucky to be moved to a higher category ( non obstructed standard balcony). I did not hear the cabin number. Sorry I have been on Princess 140 times and they did you a favour! There are some rooms with larger balconies than what you had!
Our 21Princess was cancelled due to Covid rebooked for 22, then same thing again and now for the Jan 23 cruise we will still get a cabin with a balcony but not the type we originally booked for the 21 cruise. BUMMER!!! At least it wasn't an inside cabin!
I’m so sorry you experienced this! Sounds painfully familiar. Princess has gone down hill I’ve the past 5 years, especially after COVID. Glad there was a happy ending.
I print everything out every time I make a payment. We are also going on our first Alaska cruise September. Hope we keep the room we chose with a balcony. Thank you for the in fo.
Don's Family Vacations reported a similar case recently. The section you were booking in is going to be used for COVID isolation. They should be comping the difference in cabin price. With the case Don reported the reservation was marked as do not upgrade. The operational reason is those cabins are above the theatre which is noisy, and easy to block off.
Great story! We missed getting aboard because of the luggage issues at Fort Lauderdale. Next day on a plane to the first Caribbean island then boarded there with an upgraded cabin, nonetheless the difference for missing those first two days. (We always get the travel insurance) Princess aims to do the best for their customers!
In today's world it takes so much patience to travel. My husband would do exactly the same you did keep calling stay on hold and copies of reservations on hand. Happy cruising!
I’m booked on a TA on the Sun Princess in September. I’ve come to learn that Customer Service is poor when you call after hours or weekends. They are clueless and you get the run around or worse put you on hold and the call keeps getting disconnected. I have a designated agent based in the US with Princess and she is amazing. One phone call or email and my questions are answered, problems solved.
This is not quite the same however Carnival called with an offer to "UPGRADE" us to a balcony room for the normal difference of the price. My wife excepted the offer and my credit card was charged after the cruise was paid off. The real problem was my wife is NOT authorized to use the card. When we got on the cruise I found out that the balcony was below the Lido. I was so mad on the first morning because they were moving deck chairs. I complained to customer service everyday and when we got back Carnival admitted that there were lots of complaints for that cabin. Carnival finally refunded the difference that I paid and gave me a $400 credit towards a new cruise. I was happy but it also took about 3 hours to get it resolved.
I booked two staterooms on the Ruby for March and later saw that there was a better location that became available. I got a hold of a very good vacation planner at Princess that was able to move me to the better location and saved me $150 on the fare as well as got me $300 ship credit. He also told me if I see the fare drop before the cruise date contact him and he would refund the difference. I would say definitely contact a cruise planner instead of costumer service.
I'm going on my first cruise today. I booked it Monday. Since Monday I've been on the phone 5 or 6 times with Princess getting lots of wrong info and yes it took hours. One guy in LA named Richard was really good but the rest weren't. Hopefully all will go well today but I'm very nervous. Glad things worked out well for you.
What a story! We've had a few of those times sitting on the phone for hours, with various lines. Lynn and I are booked into cabin R731 of the May 14th embarcation of Discovery Princess to Alaska..
I was on Discovery last November and when we contracted Covid, they didn't stick us in a 310ft room with large balcony! We stayed in our own original cabin. Princess use to be great with details but now they seem to drop the ball on so many things. Glad your experience changed for the better but I've heard stories how they have had disappointing experiences with Princess lately. We are doing Alaska next year on Princess and I'll give them one more try and if they fail, see you Princess.
Just make sure you use one who really knows your cruise line or at least cruises in general. I've tried to use AAA and two independent travel agent and the cruise line number. And I realized quickly, that none of them had any or very little experience with either cruising or that line, and I could do just as well online by myself.
That does not apply to moving your for quarantine cabins. I had my MSC aft balcony taken for covid quarantine rooms, did not get any compensation, put me in a regular connecting balcony that took me 3 weeks to get changed to a non connecting. By the time I actually got on the ship I was so over MSC. But I did say I would give them another shot as this was only a few months after cruising started up again and presently have yacht club booked. Bet they wont take THAT room for quarantine *knocks on wood*
That's BS. After paying the deposit, the 20 pages of documents CHANGED the terms and conditions, a violation of contract law. The "new" terms stated if I elected an upgrade, the cruise line could change it. I called the booking agent and told them it was NOT possible to check that in either the booking website or on Princess. A class action lawsuit may put a stop to this practice. The attorneys will make the money, and the cruise line may pay a lot. Classic bait and switch.
Wow. That had a happy ending. So much to unpack. You know the saying: "It's who you know." In this case, you talked to the right person. I've heard that some of the cruise lines are overwhelmed with calls, so that have to outsource to contractor call centers. And of course, those folks just have a script and relay information. They don't have the deep knowledge base or authority of a cruise line agent. So, number one, the call center worker focused on the least important part of your call, which was the $10. Sometimes things that seem bad turn out to get really good. That is when the call center worker hung up on you. I know you give her that she was 'disconnected', but I don't. However, that action led to you getting an awesome agent who got you a sweet deal! On a different note, if it's true Princess wanted your old cabin for covid cases, that's scary. As the numbers are way up again, folks shouldn't be mad if some of the protocols come back. Of course they will be mad, but the cruise lines don't do anything for no reason. Anyway, congratulations on that result. The extra OBC would definitely come in handy for excursions, which I hear are expensive on the Alaska cruises.
always demand on the phone to be sent to someone in the USA; calls are taped and they HAVE to. Sometimes they connect you to their friend 3 desks away; just ask them any common USA question . . I do it all the time
@@esciteach7997 I asked to be sent to the Customer Care Agent (told to ask on a previous call by a US agent) on a T-Mobile call answered by someone in the Philippines. I was told they were Customer Care Agent and would not move me. The final resolution after an hour? - they told me to go to a US store!
great outcome :) when you said the ph dropped out I thought ohhh nooo. it shows that being persistent wins out :) also shows the wonders of getting someone on the ph, that is not from an overseas call center but is from your own country :) I would have been crazily stressed, but like you would have kept pushing. I also keep copies of every single transaction I ever do online for my self booked cruises. thank God I do as over 2 different cruises had $930 of onboard spending money just vanish off of our account. without proof I never would have got it back. I do that for anything I purchase or order online, just in case :)
Like I say, it hard to find good help. Glad everything turn out well. Some of the people working those phone lines just don't know there job well enough by far.
I had a similar experience, and Princess is my preferred cruise line (so far). I was booked on a cruise for February 2022, and wound up getting covid and had to cancel. Cool no problem, I went to book a new cruise. I was single at the time I had booked my cruise for February, and had wound up in a relationship sometime in between. Great, my partner and I can now go on a romantic vacation together, just us. No responsibilites etc... So I booked the last Canada/New England cruise on Enchanted for my birthday and Halloween. Fast forward to the middle of September. I've just gotten home from a 3 week working vacation. I was recently promoted and decided to see what it would cost to upgrade to a balcony from our interior cabin. So, I go online and start looking at what's available and what I'd want. I start a chat with Princess, and was informed that they could upgrade me for free. They provided the cabin number, and I okayed to go ahead with it after confirming that our prior promo including Princess Plus would stay. We then closed everything up. Cool, sweet I got an upgrade and got an email with the confirmation. Then 5 minutes later I got an email with my old booking. Okay maybe it's a glitch, I thought nothing of it. Fast forward to 3 weeks before my cruise. I'm preparing to go out on a work trip the next week, and wat to make sure everything for vacation is in line. I get on the Medallion app and have noticed my cabin is still showing my old cabin number. So I start another chat. Apparently after we had terminated our conversation the agent saw the price had actually gone up and canceled the upgrade. I was PISSED. I never received a phone call, just that email a few minutes after the fact where I'd have had to open another attachment to see that they had reverted back. The agent on chat said there was nothing they could do, that I'd have to pay for the upgrade and NOW I would lose my promos. I wasn't having it, so I called Princess. This agent was also unable/unwilling to assist in resolving the issue. Ultimately, I emailed customer relations. They called me within the hour and were able to provide an upgrade to the same class of cabin, and allow me to keep Princess Plus for no extra out of pocket. Within a few days of getting that fixed and back from my work trip, I placed a bid on a mini-suite and upgraded our drinks package to Premier. Out of pocket I paid less than an extra 500. When we got on board, we saw that we had an extra specialty dining to Bistor Sur La Mer. We had already booked Crown Grille and Sabatinis. Sabatinis was my favorite by far, feeling like the right amount of food that was crafted to a high quality and wasn't heavy. Crown, while delicious really should have smaller cuts of steak. From the bread, to the apps, mains and sides... I really didn't have much room for dessert at the end; It was such a heavy and decadent meal. Sur La Mer was unexpectedly good, for my first time with french food I didn't hold my hopes too high, but was pleasently surprised. I was unimpressed with the sushi, it was alright but service was painfully slow. If Discovery has the Salty Dog Gastropub, it is worth the small upcharge.
I just spent 2 hours yesterday to co all the deck plans. I spent 2 hours today to book a cruise,. The most annoy abut Princess was it did mostly guaranteed room. That was very few rooms that I could select myself..
Pre-Covid we had a cruise from HELL on Princess, problems were never resolved. Our booking agent was told "there are a lot of cruisers out there and we don't need you". We will never cruise Princess again, what happens on Princess stays with you forever! Wait the problems will snow ball on board.
Amazing! I booked Sapphire Princess Alaska Cruise for 2024. I also booked through an overseas customer service line. I had the same experience of being on the line for hours. I could not understand the woman half of the time. I finally became frustrated (within a week of my original booking) when I was trying to move one of my cabins and the agent simply did not understand me. When I was disconnected (yes, it happened to me), I called Costco Travel and asked them to take over my reservation. I filled out the paperwork to move it. It was several days later when I called because my payment for a Disney Cruise this summer did not go in (website issues). The Costco Travel agent was great (does not always happen). He fixed everything with Disney so I asked about the status with Princess. He told me never mark "Upgrade" with Princess because I could find myself somewhere I do not want to be. He then helped me change everything to make the whole trip better. Off-site customer service is the worst.
I didn't think any cruise line could have worse customer service than NCL. Then I booked a new cruise on Princess. The worst customer service ever! It takes forever to get thru, then the won't even listen and make the changes I'm requesting. I have now asked four times for an email with my updated info after making some changes. They can't even get me that. I too am doing Alaska. I'm looking forward to it but have had a really bad experience with their customer so far.I hope the ship and it's crew are better than the customer service reps.
I find the best way to deal with any call center is to ask and insist to speak with a supervisor. And when the agent asks what the issue is, tell them the issue is you need to speak with a supervisor. Never tell the agent what the problem is, just keep saying you want to speak with a supervisor. Eventually, I always get to speak with a supervisor who actually has the authority to provide customer service. Of course, I’m always courteous since I worked retail for over a decade and know that works better than being a Karen.
I was an ardent supporter and loyal customer of Princess until I sailed on the Diamond Princess. They also tried to do the dirty on me and I had a tough time getting things straightened out. They continuously twisted and turned their guest / customer (me) but every time they did that I untwisted it. Finally they gave up and got things right. But the kind of stress I had to go through is unimaginable. One plus year down the road, I decided to try Princess again because I believe in giving everyone a second chance. I attributed my bad Diamond Princess experience as that attributable to the several Princess staff I dealt with and not the corporation. So I went on the Majestic Princess. Boy, was I wrong. I had another bad experience which made Diamond Princess bad experience like child's play. I now realize that all these "twisting and turning" from Princess is pervasive in their corporate culture and attitude towards their customers. It is part of Princess Cruise DNA. I have had enough of Princess and would never touch them with a barge pole.
We went on Caribbean Princess November 23/28 /22, had balcony dinner scheduled 3 months ahead for 11/24/22 went to service desk for time and menu, they informed us they No Longer have them, our daughter for the next day ordered a breakfast on the balcony, that was fine to do, I called and canceled the reservation, the rest was down hill, this is our 3rd cruise and our last
I’ve been on 24 Princess cruises. Number 25 booked for an October coastal sailing on the Discovery. I originally booked a standard balcony but the more I thought about the cabin size, the more I wanted to upgrade. I finally did pay a nominal fee for the upgrade to a Mini-Suite plus got more OBC’s. Now up to $400. Hint: If you can verify military / veteran status, Princess offers additional OBC’s for your service. Some cruise lines don’t.
I have also had a bad experience with Princess call centers. Most of the people I've talked to have no idea how to help. I was told to email customer support and never got an answer. I was ready to cancel my bucket list trip to Alaska. Finally after much frustration and time spent on the phone I've gotten someone who knows what their doing. Hopefully I won't have to go though anything else. My trip is not until May 2025. Princes really needs to improve their customer service!!!
Glad to hear it was resolved, and I too am booked on Discovery Princess May 14th and have also had some not so wonderful experiences with their customer Service. Although, similar to your situation, once on the phone with some one in the US, it was resolved VERY quickly.
My experience with Princess is worse. I booked a full suite on Coral Princess, paid the deposit and then found Princess had cancelled the reservation because they could get 50per cent more by selling it to another person. This is their reward for me being a loyal Princess cruiser. After argument by my travel agent,my reservation was reinstated.
Yes, they did the same thing to me. I had the perfect midship cabin. Then they “upgraded” me to an aft facing cabin, which was just above the dance band stage. Well, a bad back and I knew I would be walking long ways to get to anything in the ship. I called them and all they could offer me was an aft balcony room next to the elevator. They said that was an upgrade yes the balcony was larger. But this was Alaska in September so we didn’t spend a lot of time on the balcony. So neither way did I end up with my nice midship mid deck room.
After getting this resolved, I hope that you have a great time. If you have not already booked chef's tableLuminaire, book that for Tiffany, she'll love it.
Have cruised with Carnival at least 11 times. Will be on Princess in 20 days but already experience bad customer service (on hold for over an hour, got told the same story but issue did not get resolved-I declined cabin upgrade, supposed to go back to original cabin, but got put somewhere else). I might not want to deal with Princess again after this.
Although we didn't have any issues like you, we just went on our 3rd NCL cruise and they pushed us to have their app. So I used it, thinking it would be great for planning and paying. It gave me very few details and was confusing. The only thing I liked it for was the daily count down. Other than that, I was happier using their website in the past for purchasing online excursions and booking special events and checking in online. Plus on top of that, they would send me emails to do the muster drill, and Bermuda authorization that was still in effect earlier this year. What the heck was the app for? Just wasted my time. Like you said, I made sure to print out stuff or kept it in my files in my phone. I'm glad you made out well. It definitely shows me how to navigate the system!
I can imagine how many people this happens to every day but I fine the best way to avoid the problem of being on the phone for hours is to have a travel agent so they can make the calls needed to resolve the problem.
Wish I'd known that up front. 😞 Horrible to deal with. The csr's lie outright, or actually I truly believe they don't know, and they just say whatever gets you off the phone.
I have heard your cabin is closest to the medical station and sometimes gets used for Covid quarantine area as it is most convenient area on the ship. They end up doing exactly what happened to you and they always call it operational.
@@HighSeasCruising Apparently it's the lowest passenger deck, so closest one they can get to the medical centre, and by being in the bow they can section off an area of rooms easily at front of ship without any through traffic or inconvenience elsewhere
Don't ever sucker for their bid for an upgrade program. I did this for our June 2022 Alaska Cruise on Discovery Princess. Their rules say that they can upgrade you anytime up until the ship leaves. So there we were on the ship, luggage in our cabin, but we still don't know if they are going to upgrade us. So we decide to not unpack in case they move us. We were in a Balcony cabin. Well it was getting close to sail away and still nothing. So I went to Guest Services, waited in line and asked them if they would tell us if we were not upgraded as we don't want to unpack until we know for sure. They could not tell me. Finally the ship sailed and we assumed no upgrade and unpacked. Got dressed and went to dinner. Back to the room and they had left us a note on the desk as well as a message on the phone that they had an upgrade for us. We told them no. Besides the inconvenience of having to wait to unpack, they could have put us in a Mini Suite that was in a horrible location, like right under the lido deck or just above the theater or anything noisy. Also, we like mid ship to lessen boat movement and they could have put us at the very front or back of the ship. So I will not be doing the bid for an upgrade thing again. Glad your room issue turned out with a good resolution.
Hosed by them too. Booked 2 balcony cabins next to each other. They changed us to different decks and forward 4 cabins. We paid a deposit and without our knowledge as an Upgrade. No place booking to uncheck No cabin upgrade.
On the TA site the Upgrade Section is Clear. There are 3 Options 1. Open to Any Upgrade (default) 2 Only upgrade to next Stateroom Type (EX Balcony to Mini Suite) or No Upgrade. If you do your own booking and select a specific cabin, or are with traveling with others, then make sure you call Princess to make your upgrade preferences known. A good TA will explain this to their clients.
The last cruise I was on my sister who had the cabin next to us got COVID. She stayed in her own room. I hate to say this but probably an elite level passenger with a 100 Princess cruises under their belt wanted your cabin. One time we had a mid-ship balcony room. I got an email from princess where they'd give me a free upgrade to a mini-suite. I thought sure why not. The mini-suite was near the bow of the ship and we found ourselves always going back and forth from the stern to the bow and back every meal. The extra space was nice, but we both decided we'd rather have a good location over a larger room. I've got a mid-ship balcony on an even bigger ship Discovery Princess coming up in a couple weeks. So location is even more important on that ship. Every day I get an email to upgrade, I just ignore it.
I am a wheelchair user and I need a accessible cabin which I had booked and paid for only to get an e-mail later to tell me that i was moved to a normal cabin, like you I was not happy but when I phoned them and explained they put me straight back in the cabin that I had booked. I dont know why they did that and dont care I was happy I wanted.
Good grief, but you've got the patience of a saint. And you handled it so beautifully. Kudos to you for being such a pleasant customer of their cruise line.
ask to be transferred to USA next time. Always. Overseas DO NOT have the ability to make changes on their own; must get approval from USA. Double time wasted.
Same thing happened to me on Island Princess. A year before the cruise, picked a rear cabin that had a larger deck because it was at the rear corner, and also offered a partial aft view. Paid cruise off 6 months before sailing. 1 month before sailing, we get an email saying they are taking our cabin for covid quarantine, and they've moved us to a similar class cabin, but much worse position on the ship!
Two things really bother me about what they did. The first is, why can they not know until 1 month in advance which cabins become covid quarantine? The second is, there is a price difference of a few hundred bucks between picking your own cabin and allowing Princess to pick your cabin. AT THE VERY LEAST, when they move you like this, they should give you an immediate refund of this difference.
Booked a transatlantic 16 day cruise on Sun Princess for September in deluxe balcony. Booked an excursion during the "sale" @ $249.95 less a 20% discount. NOW the price is $214.95. I called, they can't do anything but tell me to bring the receipt onboard and see what they can do. My TA got the same answer. I was a TA for 20+ years. The customer service is appalling. I am going to persevere because PRINCIPLE! I am not working on my cruise. Thank you for sharing your story.
Very intriguing! I had almost the exact same thing happen to me for the Regal Princess. I booked one of those 8 staterooms with the larger balcony, paid my deposit and several months later received a letter from Princess to tell me I had been upgraded (they gave no reason) but this was the EXACT scenario being “upgraded”, although I did not get charged more.
When I contacted my travel agent, she felt this was a bonus, but exactly like you, I knew it was a downgrade. She wouldn’t fight for me with Princess and so I had a choice - cancel and find an agent who would fight for me, or grin and bear it and be at the corporation’s mercy.
I chose to cancel the whole cruise, fire my travel agent, move to a new travel agent and am booking through her now.
It’s funny how contracts between big corporations often times are one way protecting themselves but not the consumer.
If you catch it early enough you can get your cabin back.
The reason your TA wouldn’t fight for you is because she is the one who opted you into the “complimentary upgrade”.
When booking the cruise one of the questions is “would you like a complimentary upgrade if one becomes available?” So I’m 99% sure in your scenario that is what happened. Personally when booking cruises I use the princess cruise planners. It’s much less of a hassle and it’s cheaper than a 3rd party TA.
@@Perfecc101 If you are having to pay a TA, you are using the wrong TA.
I am happy for you! They have done me wrong several times and have not any good endings even with persistence. 😊
@@Seadia_Delmarsome of them DO charge planning fees because abusive people use their free services for hours then cancel everything and book elsewhere. Just like a consult fee that doctors, lawyers and other consultants charge, some TAs are tired of being used for free information and need to be reimbursed for their time
Fantastic outcome ! Can take ages on the phone with Princess but always good to persevere too.
I learned quite a while ago w Princess - I got a regular P travel rep that was quality. I do everything through him - no more hassles (we are regular P cruisers).
I had a very similar experience when Princess switched our May cruise from the Crown princess to the Royal princess. I had booked very early to be sure to get a corner aft with an extended balcony on the Crown. They move us to a mid-ship directly under the lido deck. It took me 3 days and 3 phone calls but we eventually ended up with an extended aft cabin on the Baja deck for about $50 less per person.
I had the same problem about a transpacific cruise. I had picked out the cabin we wanted. 2 days ago Prince "upgraded" me to a cabin under the pool! They said I had 48 hours to not accept the "upgrade". I called and was told my original cabin was gone. They now gave me an obstructed balcony. This after 22 cruise with Princess. Not happy.
I would cancel and rebook with another cruise line.. That is
terrible!
That truly sucks, sorry that happened to you.🥺
Just curious. I am doing a transpacific, and am concerned about this issue as well since it seems like its actually getting full. I have not paid in full yet, so my question is, did they wait until you paid in full to "upgrade" you? I am most concerned in corporations that once they have my money, that will be the time that they decide to take advantage.
@@---jt5wg Yes, it was after I paid in full.
Really glad you got a much better deal. I always find it frustrating, when I call someone to solve a problem and they don’t want to help, but then call the same company later, get a different agent and get a completely different response. It should be the better solution the first time, every time.
❤thank you for sharing. This is typical experience unfortunately with Princess. Princess is not customer focused in my experience.
Your patience is unmatched! Glad it all worked out for you guys!
Great video ! I just booked a Princess cruise for February 2025 and requested “no upgrades or cabin changes” because we like the Lido Deck for hot weather cruises. We had an “upgrade” that was done automatically on a previous cruise that gave us a slightly larger cabin but at a lower deck and right next to the casino - which we don’t use. I was shocked that we received no notification or request for approval for the change. Luckily, we were able to change the booking back to a Lido Deck cabin. “Upgrade” is subjective , based on what a person values (cabin size, location, view, etc.). I just wish that Princess would contact its guests first for their review and approval before automatically changing the cabin that was originally booked. I would love to be upgraded to a mini-suite from our balcony cabin but not if it is at a much lower deck and at the aft of the ship.
I’m so glad that you received a great resolution. Hope you had a wonderful cruise. Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m now subscribing !
They changed my room one time and I did not like the new area and Princess said I had 24 hours to let them know I wanted my original room back. But when I called they said they would try to get my room back but ended up they could not. So I canceled that cruise. Plenty of other cruise lines that I can go on.
Good for you. The customer is King. This will be a strong message to them not to muck around with the customer.
Call dropped = you got hung up on because they didn’t want to deal with the problem any more. I’ve had this happen in several instances.
I don’t think so. I’ve called several times and they are so busy, unfortunately it happens.
As someone that works on the phones in Australia, correct lol. Now most of the time honestly the customer has trash reception and they drop out and then blame if on the operator but if you're a douchebag you're getting hung up on for sure
More than half the time when a business has a problem it’s usually the employee not the business I’m glad you got that resolved and you found someone who is willing to work
The ship’s deck plan identifies the category of each cabin on the ship. An “upgrade” would put you into a cabin in a higher category on the cruise line’s scheme. Sadly, this is not always congruent with our personal preferences. (A midship cabin, for example, might be in a higher category than one that is far forward even if it is smaller.) If I’ve chosen a cabin for some particular reasons, I will check the “no upgrade” option to make sure that I don’t get a cabin in a higher category that doesn’t meet my needs. (And, of course, any upgrade must be into a higher category-which could be a cabin of the same type.)
I've experienced the overseas call center myself. It was a call that lasted about 1 1/2 hours then click, disconnected. Second try I spoke with someone in the States. The problem we had with our booking went away in about 10 minutes. Enjoy Alaska, it's fantastic!
The booking process on Princess was abhorrent for me the other day. I can't even begin to describe it, but I haven't even sailed on them yet and I have a VERY sour taste in my mouth. And we had the same issue with always getting the call center where they take an obnoxious amount of time. I learned to ask for "Guest Services in the US" and they get me to someone that can help in just a few min.
This is why I use a travel agent. Ours spent hours on hold to deal with stuff.
That would make things easier for us but I learn more doing it myself even when this happens
@@HighSeasCruising I've learned my patience doesn't always hold up well.
Good morning! Glad everything worked out in the end, but it is frustrating.
You are going to love Alaska!!
I have a friend who's our travel agent as I don't have any patience for stupidity as I grow older!!! She gets me all kinds of extras!
Yes. Listening to this video made me appreciate my travel agent even more. I know she has spent hours on the phone for me this past year related to rebooking.
It goes to prove that ‘customer service’ should be the decision makers, because it makes a significant difference to the customer.
It is a strategy to put customers on hold to for long periods of time, in the hope that you just give up and hang up.
Yes indeed. Putting you on hold for a long time is the SOP for call centres to wear you down.
Yup.
Surprising that they would use premium cabins for quarantined passengers. I was quarantined twice last year once on the Enchanted Princess and on the Island Princess both times for eight days. I went from a standard balcony to an almost fully obstructed (90%) Oceanview cabin on deck 8. I will say I was treated very well while quarantined, the food was actually better than the dining room food.
You’re such a great husband for going through all that to give your lady a special birthday cruise. I totally understand your frustration. I don’t like dealing with the customer service overseas as they don’t have access to the same information they have here. Alaska is one of our favorite destinations. Have a fabulous trip!
Gosh that’s awful! Sorry you went through that! We literally just sailed on the Enchanted Princess and literally booked the cruise one week prior to departure- requested an upgraded balcony in any part of the midship or Aft. We had zero issues, had a beautiful room and larger balcony than expecting. Overall it was a pleasant experience and we booked directly through Princess.
I think what might be happening is that when they have vacancies in undesirable locations, they bump people down who have already booked, leaving more desirable cabins open which would make it easier for them to book those cabins. They are playing a shell game.
I love Princess. Glad for the happy ending. The mini suites on that ship are wonderful. Enjoy the cruise!
Thanks so much!
5:39 I think that makes sense. Not the fact they had to change your reservation. Rather, it makes sense to use the rooms with larger balconies for quarantine.
Great news. We have upgraded you to our “Bilge” room. Whereas you could have been rained on if you were on your balcony, you will be protected from that with your new, non-opening porthole. You will also get that real ship experience as you will have a clear audible experience hearing the engines running 24 hours a day. You will also have direct access to the sun decks as you are only 3 floors below the bottom of the lifts. There’s lots of room for two on your bunk beds and the bathroom is just down the corridor.
Although we would normally charge you more for this, if you ring us for 3 hours we will say we will remove the surcharge. We won’t actually remove it, but we will say we will.
Have a great cruise. Princess.
They sure did try to do you dirty and 3 hours on the phone only to be disconnected! I’m glad it all worked out in your and Tiff’s favor.
This was a roller coaster of a ride. I have found that it always depends on who you get when it comes to customer service.
I totally agree with you. Princess call centre is totally useless. I made a few calls to ask or request something, and the only answers I got were 'I don't know', or 'I can't do that'. I have made the same requests with other cruise lines and never had any issues.
You are nicer then me. When they said they had to move me to an upgrade....then I would have demanded an upgrade or leave me in the room I have already picked and paid for. The word "upgrade"....I would have stressed that over and over...plus the $50. each for the inconvenience on the phone. I am so glad this worked out for you. Have a great time on the birthday cruise!
It’s not just Princess that does this. My first cruise was with Royal Caribbean many years ago. When I booked, I booked what I felt was the best location for me. When we arrived for checkin we had been upgraded. The upgrade stressed me out so much I had a full panic attack. I got over it and enjoyed my cruise but the room itself in my opinion was not an upgrade at all.
Same thing happened to us on Holland America! Total B/S! Told us our cabin was going to be used for quarantine and lo and behold someone else was in it! My educated guess is they booked that room twice and chose you to get screwed! They should have given you a mini-suite for FREE! But in the end it shouldn’t have been that hard to get it resolved! Each cruise we go on we set up a separate folder with all the info for that cruise kept in it.
Ugh this sounds very aggravating. I hope the cruise is awesome!! I have noticed in general if I get someone on the phone like the first operator and all I’m hitting are brick walls that it’s easier for me to just nicely end the call and try your luck with another operator. Happy sailing 😊
Thank you, now I know what to expect with Princess customer service.
Hi! So glad everything worked out well for y’all! Every time I have to deal with an overseas call center, it’s an awful experience.
I had a problem with Princess last month. On a 15-day Hawaiian cruise for my mom's 95th birthday, we were in the ADA cabin from HELL! Constant overflowing toilet and eventually water dripping from the light fixtures! Unfortunately they did NOT switch my room because they overbooked the ADA cabins and didn't have even one empty in case of an emergency. I called EVERYDAY for a week after we got back home with a wait time over 5 and a half hours on one of the calls!
We just got off the Sky Princess, our first AND Last Princess cruise. So many things we were not happy with beginning with standing in line 4 Times on embarkation day. The buffet and dining room food was just terrible. Too many more to mention. Hope you have a better experience.
Same here, was on Sky Princess last year. WORST FOOD EVER! The “prime rib” was inedible, couldn’t even cut through it. The hard boiled eggs were burnt…how do you even do that? The only edible thing at the breakfast buffet was the bacon. Sausage tasted like sawdust.
I am surprised to read about unpleasant experiences on Sky Princess. Sounds like an entirely different ship than what I went on. I had used the App so most everything was completed ahead of time. I had one of the fastest embarkations of any ship. Got in the Green line, answered some health questions. I was sent to a desk where I picked up my Medallion. I always take my own luggage so I went to my cabin Caribbean deck, level 10, slightly forward, a nice location), dropped off my luggage (cabin was ready, it was 12:30PM). Then I went to the Marketplace, level 16 to eat lunch. Disembarking was easy! It took exactly 15 minutes from.when I started by going with my luggage to Vista Lounge level 7. When I got there 8AM, they said take elevators to level 3 or 4 (?) & walked a short distance where Medallion was pressed into machine. We then walked down the corridors to the building & took elevators to level 1. I went to Customs, they had me stand in front of a screen & took my photo. I was told I could leave. I went outside to sit on a bench along with my luggage. To my astonishment, it was 8:15 AM and I was off the ship!!! My bus would arrive by 9:45 - 10:00 AM.
First of all: it is a beautiful ship. Also, it is relatively new as it's inaugural cruise was Oct. 2019. My experiences were all *positive* on the 10 night cruise Sky Princess Dec. 17 - Dec. 27, 2022 (last year). It was phenomenal! I was upgraded from an Oceanview cabin to a Balcony and loved my cabin. The dinner was delicious, with good choices in the main dining room where I ate most evenings around 7PM. I loved all the breakfast & lunch offerings in the World Fresh Marketplace (Buffet) deck 16. 2 or 3 nights I had dinner there which was delicious & amazing choices. The entertainment was great too. I loved all the ports: Princess Cay, St..Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, & Curacao.
Well done for hanging in there and calling back!
Your patience is commendable. Great outcome too. Big takeaway keep your eye on new specials.
Just got off the discovery and I’m booked again for the May 28th Alaska inside passage. The biggest problems I had was exactly the same as you, calling customer service and (not the call center workers problem, she was very nice) the person not being able to help me, like you said she either didn’t have the authority or ability to help me with any of my problems and it was very frustrating because I had to wait to get onboard to try and resolve the issues and was treated extremely rudely by two employees onboard because they assumed I was stupid and this was my fault and I told them that Princess made changes to my booking and I wasn’t able to resolve it through the phone center. So at least you got yours resolved before your cruise. I think they have to do something about the call center, once again, wasn’t her fault her hands were tied. Give them the authority to make changes or immediately bump it up to someone who can. Very frustrating. PS my problem was never resolved to my satisfaction
We are looking at booking this cruise (May 28th from Seattle on Discovery Princess). We have never cruised before and this is what my son has requested for his graduation gift. With that being said, we are looking at a mini suite but are having a hard time deciding our room location. Is the lido deck a good choice?
@@_.Lil_Buggy_Drag0n._ everyone has their own preference, I would recommend doing a little video search on cabin choices. If you have motion sickness problems or you want to be located closer to the middle or back and most of the lido suites are in front and it’s one of the highest decks. I was in the Navy so I just love being on board and the cabin isn’t that important to me but I do prefer a balcony .
We were offered an "upgrade" cabin twice when we first started cruising, both times it was to cabins they could not sell due to noise. We now pick our cabin and stick with it.
Thank you for reporting your frustration. I forgot the ship you were on ( and don’t want to waste mt time listening to it) probably the Royal class ship. Size is not always everything ( at least for cabins). You picked the least expensive obstructed deluxe balcony. The room has a love seat and many of the balconies are larger, but have a steel versus glass railings. Your location in the front of deck 8 is right on top of the Princess theatre. Yes you had a large balcony ( in Alaska it’s better to be on deck so hear the commentary or put the live TV Chanel on full blast ), but you could hear and feel the vibration from downstairs. Plus being so far up front you could hear the anchor, plus the movement of the ship is more than the middle!
You were lucky to be moved to a higher category ( non obstructed standard balcony). I did not hear the cabin number.
Sorry I have been on Princess 140 times and they did you a favour! There are some rooms with larger balconies than what you had!
Very happy everything turned out great in the end. 👏👏
Glad it worked out for you. My first response would have been "make the smaller room a quarantine room".
It did seem like an odd location to pick
@@HighSeasCruising These cabins are located by the medical center. Easy to isolate.
I have always advocated, "Document, Document, Document" you lucked out big time and it is nice to see that they made this right.
You must be in the medical field😂😂😂😂
Our 21Princess was cancelled due to Covid rebooked for 22, then same thing again and now for the Jan 23 cruise we will still get a cabin with a balcony but not the type we originally booked for the 21 cruise. BUMMER!!! At least it wasn't an inside cabin!
I’m so sorry you experienced this! Sounds painfully familiar. Princess has gone down hill I’ve the past 5 years, especially after COVID. Glad there was a happy ending.
I print everything out every time I make a payment. We are also going on our first Alaska cruise September. Hope we keep the room we chose with a balcony. Thank you for the in fo.
Don's Family Vacations reported a similar case recently. The section you were booking in is going to be used for COVID isolation. They should be comping the difference in cabin price. With the case Don reported the reservation was marked as do not upgrade. The operational reason is those cabins are above the theatre which is noisy, and easy to block off.
Great story. Thanks, I am booked to Alaska in August. Hope I don't have your type problem.
Great story! We missed getting aboard because of the luggage issues at Fort Lauderdale. Next day on a plane to the first Caribbean island then boarded there with an upgraded cabin, nonetheless the difference for missing those first two days. (We always get the travel insurance) Princess aims to do the best for their customers!
In today's world it takes so much patience to travel. My husband would do exactly the same you did keep calling stay on hold and copies of reservations on hand.
Happy cruising!
This is precisely why I book cruises through my trusted travel agent. Doesn't cost any extra, and they do all of the dirty work.
I’m booked on a TA on the Sun Princess in September. I’ve come to learn that Customer Service is poor when you call after hours or weekends. They are clueless and you get the run around or worse put you on hold and the call keeps getting disconnected.
I have a designated agent based in the US with Princess and she is amazing. One phone call or email and my questions are answered, problems solved.
You were nice and they responded in a positive way!
This is not quite the same however Carnival called with an offer to "UPGRADE" us to a balcony room for the normal difference of the price. My wife excepted the offer and my credit card was charged after the cruise was paid off. The real problem was my wife is NOT authorized to use the card. When we got on the cruise I found out that the balcony was below the Lido. I was so mad on the first morning because they were moving deck chairs. I complained to customer service everyday and when we got back Carnival admitted that there were lots of complaints for that cabin. Carnival finally refunded the difference that I paid and gave me a $400 credit towards a new cruise. I was happy but it also took about 3 hours to get it resolved.
Wow, what a story. Luckily all turned well!
I booked two staterooms on the Ruby for March and later saw that there was a better location that became available. I got a hold of a very good vacation planner at Princess that was able to move me to the better location and saved me $150 on the fare as well as got me $300 ship credit. He also told me if I see the fare drop before the cruise date contact him and he would refund the difference. I would say definitely contact a cruise planner instead of costumer service.
I will have to try that and see how that works
@@HighSeasCruising Any way you could give the name and extension? Decent Princess Planners are very hard to find!
@@princesssweetpea9205 I didn’t get an extension I just called the 800 number but her name was Kate
I'm going on my first cruise today. I booked it Monday. Since Monday I've been on the phone 5 or 6 times with Princess getting lots of wrong info and yes it took hours. One guy in LA named Richard was really good but the rest weren't. Hopefully all will go well today but I'm very nervous. Glad things worked out well for you.
Have an awesome cruise
What a story! We've had a few of those times sitting on the phone for hours, with various lines.
Lynn and I are booked into cabin R731 of the May 14th embarcation of Discovery Princess to Alaska..
I was on Discovery last November and when we contracted Covid, they didn't stick us in a 310ft room with large balcony! We stayed in our own original cabin. Princess use to be great with details but now they seem to drop the ball on so many things. Glad your experience changed for the better but I've heard stories how they have had disappointing experiences with Princess lately. We are doing Alaska next year on Princess and I'll give them one more try and if they fail, see you Princess.
You’ve just cemented my resolve to always use a travel agent🤗
Just make sure you use one who really knows your cruise line or at least cruises in general. I've tried to use AAA and two independent travel agent and the cruise line number. And I realized quickly, that none of them had any or very little experience with either cruising or that line, and I could do just as well online by myself.
@@juliewendt724 Good point!
Something needs to be done with the problems at Princess. I have had similar problems with Princess and I am Elite.
Wow! Glad that turned out better than it was sounding, but good grief did you have to work for it.
You worked hard for the mini suite.
You needed to have your booking marked "do not upgrade/move". When you use a Princess Vacation Planner you will have more control of your trip
That does not apply to moving your for quarantine cabins. I had my MSC aft balcony taken for covid quarantine rooms, did not get any compensation, put me in a regular connecting balcony that took me 3 weeks to get changed to a non connecting. By the time I actually got on the ship I was so over MSC. But I did say I would give them another shot as this was only a few months after cruising started up again and presently have yacht club booked. Bet they wont take THAT room for quarantine *knocks on wood*
Makes sense. Not unlike selecting 'Do Not Substitute' when buying a grocery delivery online.
That's BS. After paying the deposit, the 20 pages of documents CHANGED the terms and conditions, a violation of contract law. The "new" terms stated if I elected an upgrade, the cruise line could change it. I called the booking agent and told them it was NOT possible to check that in either the booking website or on Princess. A class action lawsuit may put a stop to this practice. The attorneys will make the money, and the cruise line may pay a lot. Classic bait and switch.
@@richards.4116 I am speaking from my experience with my Princess Vacation Planner not a "booking agent". The planners are different.
@@richards.4116 that’s what I thought if you booked a select room and pay in full your bound as are they bound to the contract, right?
Thank you so very much Chris!!! I have heard other complaints from other UTUBE channels
Wow. That had a happy ending. So much to unpack. You know the saying: "It's who you know." In this case, you talked to the right person. I've heard that some of the cruise lines are overwhelmed with calls, so that have to outsource to contractor call centers. And of course, those folks just have a script and relay information. They don't have the deep knowledge base or authority of a cruise line agent. So, number one, the call center worker focused on the least important part of your call, which was the $10. Sometimes things that seem bad turn out to get really good. That is when the call center worker hung up on you. I know you give her that she was 'disconnected', but I don't. However, that action led to you getting an awesome agent who got you a sweet deal! On a different note, if it's true Princess wanted your old cabin for covid cases, that's scary. As the numbers are way up again, folks shouldn't be mad if some of the protocols come back. Of course they will be mad, but the cruise lines don't do anything for no reason. Anyway, congratulations on that result. The extra OBC would definitely come in handy for excursions, which I hear are expensive on the Alaska cruises.
always demand on the phone to be sent to someone in the USA; calls are taped and they HAVE to. Sometimes they connect you to their friend 3 desks away; just ask them any common USA question . . I do it all the time
@@esciteach7997 I asked to be sent to the Customer Care Agent (told to ask on a previous call by a US agent) on a T-Mobile call answered by someone in the Philippines. I was told they were Customer Care Agent and would not move me. The final resolution after an hour? - they told me to go to a US store!
great outcome :) when you said the ph dropped out I thought ohhh nooo. it shows that being persistent wins out :) also shows the wonders of getting someone on the ph, that is not from an overseas call center but is from your own country :) I would have been crazily stressed, but like you would have kept pushing. I also keep copies of every single transaction I ever do online for my self booked cruises. thank God I do as over 2 different cruises had $930 of onboard spending money just vanish off of our account. without proof I never would have got it back. I do that for anything I purchase or order online, just in case :)
Good for you! I’m glad there was a satisfactory ending.
Like I say, it hard to find good help. Glad everything turn out well. Some of the people working those phone lines just don't know there job well enough by far.
I had a similar experience, and Princess is my preferred cruise line (so far). I was booked on a cruise for February 2022, and wound up getting covid and had to cancel. Cool no problem, I went to book a new cruise. I was single at the time I had booked my cruise for February, and had wound up in a relationship sometime in between. Great, my partner and I can now go on a romantic vacation together, just us. No responsibilites etc... So I booked the last Canada/New England cruise on Enchanted for my birthday and Halloween.
Fast forward to the middle of September. I've just gotten home from a 3 week working vacation. I was recently promoted and decided to see what it would cost to upgrade to a balcony from our interior cabin. So, I go online and start looking at what's available and what I'd want. I start a chat with Princess, and was informed that they could upgrade me for free. They provided the cabin number, and I okayed to go ahead with it after confirming that our prior promo including Princess Plus would stay. We then closed everything up. Cool, sweet I got an upgrade and got an email with the confirmation. Then 5 minutes later I got an email with my old booking. Okay maybe it's a glitch, I thought nothing of it. Fast forward to 3 weeks before my cruise. I'm preparing to go out on a work trip the next week, and wat to make sure everything for vacation is in line. I get on the Medallion app and have noticed my cabin is still showing my old cabin number. So I start another chat. Apparently after we had terminated our conversation the agent saw the price had actually gone up and canceled the upgrade. I was PISSED. I never received a phone call, just that email a few minutes after the fact where I'd have had to open another attachment to see that they had reverted back. The agent on chat said there was nothing they could do, that I'd have to pay for the upgrade and NOW I would lose my promos. I wasn't having it, so I called Princess. This agent was also unable/unwilling to assist in resolving the issue.
Ultimately, I emailed customer relations. They called me within the hour and were able to provide an upgrade to the same class of cabin, and allow me to keep Princess Plus for no extra out of pocket. Within a few days of getting that fixed and back from my work trip, I placed a bid on a mini-suite and upgraded our drinks package to Premier. Out of pocket I paid less than an extra 500. When we got on board, we saw that we had an extra specialty dining to Bistor Sur La Mer. We had already booked Crown Grille and Sabatinis. Sabatinis was my favorite by far, feeling like the right amount of food that was crafted to a high quality and wasn't heavy. Crown, while delicious really should have smaller cuts of steak. From the bread, to the apps, mains and sides... I really didn't have much room for dessert at the end; It was such a heavy and decadent meal. Sur La Mer was unexpectedly good, for my first time with french food I didn't hold my hopes too high, but was pleasently surprised. I was unimpressed with the sushi, it was alright but service was painfully slow. If Discovery has the Salty Dog Gastropub, it is worth the small upcharge.
I just spent 2 hours yesterday to co all the deck plans. I spent 2 hours today to book a cruise,. The most annoy abut Princess was it did mostly guaranteed room. That was very few rooms that I could select myself..
Pre-Covid we had a cruise from HELL on Princess, problems were never resolved. Our booking agent was told "there are a lot of cruisers out there and we don't need you". We will never cruise Princess again, what happens on Princess stays with you forever! Wait the problems will snow ball on board.
Amazing! I booked Sapphire Princess Alaska Cruise for 2024. I also booked through an overseas customer service line. I had the same experience of being on the line for hours. I could not understand the woman half of the time. I finally became frustrated (within a week of my original booking) when I was trying to move one of my cabins and the agent simply did not understand me. When I was disconnected (yes, it happened to me), I called Costco Travel and asked them to take over my reservation. I filled out the paperwork to move it. It was several days later when I called because my payment for a Disney Cruise this summer did not go in (website issues). The Costco Travel agent was great (does not always happen). He fixed everything with Disney so I asked about the status with Princess. He told me never mark "Upgrade" with Princess because I could find myself somewhere I do not want to be. He then helped me change everything to make the whole trip better. Off-site customer service is the worst.
I didn't think any cruise line could have worse customer service than NCL. Then I booked a new cruise on Princess. The worst customer service ever! It takes forever to get thru, then the won't even listen and make the changes I'm requesting. I have now asked four times for an email with my updated info after making some changes. They can't even get me that. I too am doing Alaska. I'm looking forward to it but have had a really bad experience with their customer so far.I hope the ship and it's crew are better than the customer service reps.
I find the best way to deal with any call center is to ask and insist to speak with a supervisor. And when the agent asks what the issue is, tell them the issue is you need to speak with a supervisor. Never tell the agent what the problem is, just keep saying you want to speak with a supervisor. Eventually, I always get to speak with a supervisor who actually has the authority to provide customer service.
Of course, I’m always courteous since I worked retail for over a decade and know that works better than being a Karen.
I was an ardent supporter and loyal customer of Princess until I sailed on the Diamond Princess. They also tried to do the dirty on me and I had a tough time getting things straightened out. They continuously twisted and turned their guest / customer (me) but every time they did that I untwisted it. Finally they gave up and got things right. But the kind of stress I had to go through is unimaginable.
One plus year down the road, I decided to try Princess again because I believe in giving everyone a second chance. I attributed my bad Diamond Princess experience as that attributable to the several Princess staff I dealt with and not the corporation. So I went on the Majestic Princess. Boy, was I wrong. I had another bad experience which made Diamond Princess bad experience like child's play. I now realize that all these "twisting and turning" from Princess is pervasive in their corporate culture and attitude towards their customers. It is part of Princess Cruise DNA. I have had enough of Princess and would never touch them with a barge pole.
So glad it worked to your advantage. That was a lot of work on your part, I would have done the same. Have a great cruise!
We went on Caribbean Princess November 23/28 /22, had balcony dinner scheduled 3 months ahead for 11/24/22 went to service desk for time and menu, they informed us they No Longer have them, our daughter for the next day ordered a breakfast on the balcony, that was fine to do, I called and canceled the reservation, the rest was down hill, this is our 3rd cruise and our last
Another lesson from this story is if you get an ineffective agent, hang up and call back until you get a good one like you did.
I’ve been on 24 Princess cruises. Number 25 booked for an October coastal sailing on the Discovery. I originally booked a standard balcony but the more I thought about the cabin size, the more I wanted to upgrade. I finally did pay a nominal fee for the upgrade to a Mini-Suite plus got more OBC’s. Now up to $400. Hint: If you can verify military / veteran status, Princess offers additional OBC’s for your service. Some cruise lines don’t.
Glad it all worked out in the end!
I have also had a bad experience with Princess call centers. Most of the people I've talked to have no idea how to help. I was told to email customer support and never got an answer. I was ready to cancel my bucket list trip to Alaska.
Finally after much frustration and time spent on the phone I've gotten someone who knows
what their doing. Hopefully I won't have to go though anything else. My trip is not until May 2025. Princes really needs to improve their customer service!!!
Glad to hear it was resolved, and I too am booked on Discovery Princess May 14th and have also had some not so wonderful experiences with their customer Service. Although, similar to your situation, once on the phone with some one in the US, it was resolved VERY quickly.
I enjoyed this immensely. I am planning a cruise on princess and Hope it goes well. Your experience helps me in the negotiation process if I have to.
My experience with Princess is worse. I booked a full suite on Coral Princess, paid the deposit and then found Princess had cancelled the reservation because they could get 50per cent more by selling it to another person. This is their reward for me being a loyal Princess cruiser. After argument by my travel agent,my reservation was reinstated.
Yes, they did the same thing to me. I had the perfect midship cabin. Then they “upgraded” me to an aft facing cabin, which was just above the dance band stage. Well, a bad back and I knew I would be walking long ways to get to anything in the ship. I called them and all they could offer me was an aft balcony room next to the elevator. They said that was an upgrade yes the balcony was larger. But this was Alaska in September so we didn’t spend a lot of time on the balcony. So neither way did I end up with my nice midship mid deck room.
Glad everything worked out better ☺️
After getting this resolved, I hope that you have a great time. If you have not already booked chef's tableLuminaire, book that for Tiffany, she'll love it.
Have cruised with Carnival at least 11 times. Will be on Princess in 20 days but already experience bad customer service (on hold for over an hour, got told the same story but issue did not get resolved-I declined cabin upgrade, supposed to go back to original cabin, but got put somewhere else). I might not want to deal with Princess again after this.
Although we didn't have any issues like you, we just went on our 3rd NCL cruise and they pushed us to have their app. So I used it, thinking it would be great for planning and paying. It gave me very few details and was confusing. The only thing I liked it for was the daily count down. Other than that, I was happier using their website in the past for purchasing online excursions and booking special events and checking in online. Plus on top of that, they would send me emails to do the muster drill, and Bermuda authorization that was still in effect earlier this year. What the heck was the app for? Just wasted my time. Like you said, I made sure to print out stuff or kept it in my files in my phone.
I'm glad you made out well. It definitely shows me how to navigate the system!
I can imagine how many people this happens to every day but I fine the best way to avoid the problem of being on the phone for hours is to have a travel agent so they can make the calls needed to resolve the problem.
Wish I'd known that up front. 😞 Horrible to deal with. The csr's lie outright, or actually I truly believe they don't know, and they just say whatever gets you off the phone.
I have heard your cabin is closest to the medical station and sometimes gets used for Covid quarantine area as it is most convenient area on the ship. They end up doing exactly what happened to you and they always call it operational.
Except the medical center is 4 decks down and mid ship
@@HighSeasCruising Apparently it's the lowest passenger deck, so closest one they can get to the medical centre, and by being in the bow they can section off an area of rooms easily at front of ship without any through traffic or inconvenience elsewhere
Don't ever sucker for their bid for an upgrade program. I did this for our June 2022 Alaska Cruise on Discovery Princess. Their rules say that they can upgrade you anytime up until the ship leaves. So there we were on the ship, luggage in our cabin, but we still don't know if they are going to upgrade us. So we decide to not unpack in case they move us. We were in a Balcony cabin. Well it was getting close to sail away and still nothing. So I went to Guest Services, waited in line and asked them if they would tell us if we were not upgraded as we don't want to unpack until we know for sure. They could not tell me. Finally the ship sailed and we assumed no upgrade and unpacked. Got dressed and went to dinner. Back to the room and they had left us a note on the desk as well as a message on the phone that they had an upgrade for us. We told them no. Besides the inconvenience of having to wait to unpack, they could have put us in a Mini Suite that was in a horrible location, like right under the lido deck or just above the theater or anything noisy. Also, we like mid ship to lessen boat movement and they could have put us at the very front or back of the ship. So I will not be doing the bid for an upgrade thing again. Glad your room issue turned out with a good resolution.
Hosed by them too. Booked 2 balcony cabins next to each other. They changed us to different decks and forward 4 cabins. We paid a deposit and without our knowledge as an Upgrade. No place booking to uncheck No cabin upgrade.
On the TA site the Upgrade Section is Clear. There are 3 Options 1. Open to Any Upgrade (default) 2 Only upgrade to next Stateroom Type (EX Balcony to Mini Suite) or No Upgrade. If you do your own booking and select a specific cabin, or are with traveling with others, then make sure you call Princess to make your upgrade preferences known. A good TA will explain this to their clients.
When we were on Princess to AK, the entire 8th floor was a covid floor. No paid rooms.
The last cruise I was on my sister who had the cabin next to us got COVID. She stayed in her own room. I hate to say this but probably an elite level passenger with a 100 Princess cruises under their belt wanted your cabin.
One time we had a mid-ship balcony room. I got an email from princess where they'd give me a free upgrade to a mini-suite. I thought sure why not. The mini-suite was near the bow of the ship and we found ourselves always going back and forth from the stern to the bow and back every meal. The extra space was nice, but we both decided we'd rather have a good location over a larger room. I've got a mid-ship balcony on an even bigger ship Discovery Princess coming up in a couple weeks. So location is even more important on that ship. Every day I get an email to upgrade, I just ignore it.
I am a wheelchair user and I need a accessible cabin which I had booked and paid for only to get an e-mail later to tell me that i was moved to a normal cabin, like you I was not happy but when I phoned them and explained they put me straight back in the cabin that I had booked. I dont know why they did that and dont care I was happy I wanted.
Good grief, but you've got the patience of a saint. And you handled it so beautifully. Kudos to you for being such a pleasant customer of their cruise line.
ask to be transferred to USA next time. Always. Overseas DO NOT have the ability to make changes on their own; must get approval from USA. Double time wasted.
I love Princess Cruise lines. Glad you had a happy ending.