Dcopperfield

On 5/28/2024 at 4:16 PM, Boatmans Lady said:

Have just booked 2 Aft Deluxe Balcony cabins on Dolphin deck for the summer solstice Norwary cruise in 2026 as I was recommended an aft cabin for the fjords. 

Have had a larger balcony like these cabins have, on another cruise line and loved it. 

Are these cabins in a good place and are there any negatives to them. 

Thank you in advance. 

(1st cruise on Princess) 

We booked D729 for an Iceland/Norway cruise next month... First time in an aft cabin but will report back afterwards! 

Love the idea of the partially covered, bigger balcony and wake view sailing through the fjords 👍 

It frustrates me to no end how corporations find it acceptable to rely on the goodwill of customers to pay their staff a living wage.

Like many other posters have said - raise cruise fares in the interests of transparency and drop this nonsense.

I operate a hospitality business in the UK, pay all staff above the real living wage and any tips they receive are theirs on top of their salary. Tips should be for exceptional service - not a grey area to cover the shortfall in wages because a multi-billion corporation chooses to pay it's staff a pittance.

The 'American' way of subsidizing staff salaries by way of gratuities is an absolutely baffling practice. 

I guess they're addressing this with the plus and premier packages and, through the fullness of time, we will see the standard fare disappear.

25 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

We were told that most of the dry dock will involve the standard up-dates such as new carpeting, re-painting the hull, replacement of furniture and mechanical updates.

 

The most significant updates from a passengers perspective is the changing of the restaurants.

That's great, thanks for your insight 👍

4 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

The Majestic was originally built for the Chinese market and we know what happened with that idea.  Now that the Majestic is going to Europe they want it to be in-line with their other ships. 

 

We also had a conversation with a very Senior Staff Officer who said that there have been conversations regarding converting the Hollywood Conservatory to a Sanctuary. 🤷‍♂️

Can you shed any other light on upcoming changes whilst Majestic is in dry dock? We're going on the first sailing after and keen to know what the extent of the dry-dock schedule was 🙂 Many thanks in advance.

It certainly seems that Majestic has it's quirks... at least for now

32 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

You mean the £150 cancellation fee.  If it was only the £1 deposit, life would be good!  😀

Correct 🙂 

11 hours ago, Teechur said:

1. There may be a "name-change" fee. Check first before giving your uncooperative TA any more money.

 

2. Find a new TA. Will the lost $150 pound pp fee go to Princess or does the TA get to keep it?

 

I'll catch up with them tomorrow to figure out the options but like you say - the main takeaway here is find a new TA 🙂 

The lost deposit is for the TA rather than Princess. 

29 minutes ago, DCThunder said:

Would another option be for you to find people to sail in the duplicate cabin and reimburse you directly for the fare?  You'd need to get Princess or the TA to change the names of the passengers in those cabins, but that might not be too big a hurdle, although it's very possible it would be.

That could be a great solution if I can convince more family to come - thanks! I'd assume the TA would be more receptive to that than an outright cancellation.

Thank you everyone for your input 🙂

41 minutes ago, TRLD said:

If made directly with Princess one could just let them expire.  Being made through a TA adds additional complexity. If one person made all of the bookings for the same cruise there is always the possibility of the TA not finalizing payment for any of them until funds are received for all of them. 

That's a good point that I hadn't really considered... Perhaps I'll bite the bullet and put it down to experience 👍

4 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

 

 OP admits it is their honest mistake and I presume their obligation.  I can see how the cruise line might give the benefit of the doubt, but they didn't and were not obligated to do so.  Op is angry because they didn't get special treatment.   Blocking credit cards as a way to do an end run is not a good look, in my opinion.

Fair assesment, appreciate the feedback 👍

3 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

Interesting situation. I'm sorry I don't know the answer, but if it was me...I think I would try it and see what happens.

Good luck!

Welcome to (posting on) cruise  critic.

Thanks! I'm inclined to let the duplicates run and see what happens 👍

3 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

 

You’re right.  Thanks for that.

 

That’s the reason I asked if it was the June Sky booking.  FP

should have been made. IDK.

 

Maybe this is another cruise, further out?

 

If so, when they make FP on the cabins they are using, the TA is going to want FP on all of them or charge the cancellation fee on the ones they cancel.

You would think the TA knows how many bookings they made?

 

UK rules are different than the US rules.  Interesting to see what happens.

Each cabin was a separate booking - but they can see for sure that I've made a duplicate... They're just not using discretion to cancel without penalty.

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

Sky is Norway/Iceland, they were talking about a Med cruise.

 

if the T&C give the booking agency the right to charge £150, I expect they will, regardless of whether those rooms are officially canceled or Princess cancels them for nonpayment of the outstanding balance.

I suspect you're probably right and that's what the TA will hang their hat on. 

1 hour ago, Essiesmom said:

So final payment has not yet been made.  How are you doing it?  Can you do it online, or do you have to do it through the TA?  Or is the TA going to do it automatically when it is due?  If so, then the TA has the credit card number and could access it to charge the cancellation fee.  Do you have more than one credit card?  If so, and you can make the payment online, or even on the phone with Princess, I would do so with a card different from the one you used for the deposits.  Then I would temporarily lock the card that you used for the deposit so the TA can’t charge you the fee.  I think the TA should have noticed when you booked that you had double booked two cabins and straightened it out then.  EM

I don't think the TA can automatically take payment - it's an online payment via their website for payments. Inclined to let it run and see what happens.

Thanks for all your input folks and, of course, I'll remove the named TA in my original post when I figure out how.

Thanks again!

Hey folks, first time poster here although I've relied on this forum for helpful info for quite a while - so thank you for all your continued input!

I made several bookings for my extended family for a 10 day Med Sailing on Majestic Princess via my TA. My issue is that booked 7 cabins instead of the 5 that we actually require (duplicate bookings for 2 families - entirely my fault). This was during the £1 deposit Princess Flash Sale so given the silly deposit I was definitely not paying as much attention as I would have had the deposit been the usual 15% or so.

I called my TA and they said they would need me to pay a £150 cancellation fee for the duplicate bookings... Given that it was an honest mistake (I accept it's my fault) and that I have booked several cruises with them this year I expected a little discretion, however, got nowhere with them. The way they handled the call actually infuriated me to the point where I will never make another booking with them again..

My question is if I just let the duplicate bookings run their course and don't pay the final balance when it's due - presumably the bookings would just get cancelled automatically? Do they have any recourse for a cancellation charge at that point? Their t's and C's do state a cancellation charge would be payable etc, however, my feeling is that they can sing for it and will have difficulty in collecting it.

It's such a small amount to be overly concerned by but their lack of discretion in correcting an obvious error and their subsequent response has really p****d me off.

Any insight greatly appreciated 🙂