Dlady47

1 hour ago, geocruiser said:

Did Princess tell you that they messed up?  How did you find out?  I am happy to hear that all is OK now.

The affected person is getting her room paid for and some other perks. Honestly, we will never really know. The only one she heard from is TA.

To set the record straight, it does appear it was Princess who messed up these bookings not the TA.

Just heard from my friend. She got a room.

7 minutes ago, geocruiser said:

My question is : Who has their money now?  The TA or Princess?  If Princess has the money or/and the TA has record of paying Princess before Princess canceled the cruise, then Princess has to get a a cabin.  They can make a mover over offer to another PAX.  

If they are on a wait list, I think that sounds like a new booking that was made.

 

37 minutes ago, katisdale said:

What I haven't seen (I may have missed it) is whether the cancelled cruiser got their money back. I suspect not and that would be worth calling the police about in my opinion. At minimum I would be doing a charge back on my credit card if I was not on the ship next week.

So far, they're still hoping to have a room on the ship. They're on the waiting list, but the longer time goes on, the less likely. The person I'm in contact with will definitely be taking action if she doesn't get a room. No money has been refunded yet, and the TA isn't admitting that they don't have rooms. She says she's working on it with Princess. So who knows? 

Yes, we all had access to the Princess cruise portal. The one person whose booking was cancelled twice was able to fill out the info for the cruise but hadn't yet printed the boarding pass. She had a booking number and a room assigned. Then a few days later, she went into the Princess site to buy an excursion and got the message that her booking had been cancelled. It's really odd.

We're all guessing, unfortunately. There was a post from the TA about Princess allocating the funds incorrectly. I'm thinking that she might have moved funds around and not realized she'd left some bookings hanging out there without full payment 1.5 weeks before the cruise. No idea. I'll probably never know. I will never book another group cruise again, of that you can be sure. This particular TA has been doing these types of cruises for 6 years, and the former cruisers spoke highly of her. It's only recently that I've heard negative things about past cruises. For some reason, people were afraid to speak up previously. I appreciate all the responses and insight into what might have gone wrong. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone who paid for a booking months ago gets a room. I'll keep you guys informed as to what happens.

Idahospud--It won't let me email you. It says I'm only allowed to send 0 emails. I'd love to discuss this more. I' checking Help to see why I can't send email, but I'm finding nothing.

Thank you for all the responses. It's been very helpful. The TA has already announced this will be the last group cruise she does, and it appears she only does these cruises, so the likelihood any of you will have dealings with her in the future is unlikely. The person having the booking issue doesn't want to go public about it, so I cannot reveal the TA and cruise because I must respect her wishes. I can appreciate all of you wanting to know, and I apologize. If I was having the issue, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops.

If there is a TA in here, I would really like to know if this issue could have been caused by Princess as the TA has claimed. My friend was able to log in and complete a portion of her check-in before the cruise suddenly started showing up as "cancelled" about a week ago. What would cause that?

This person appears to be a one-off travel agent. I did check the pricing and was told that we'd get the lowest price later. We never did, and she is non-responsive to any questions about that issue. I already paid an extra $500 for the special activities so I'm doubting that was the reason for the cruise being high. Honestly, I was suspicious from the beginning, but I had friends going who wanted me to go, plus, because it's for my business, all or some will be a write-off. If I could tell you want type of group this was, it'd probably make more sense, but I don't want repercussions from the organizers. 

The cruiser that this happened to was able to enter some info into Princess for the cruise, but didn't get as far as a boarding pass, before her booking was cancelled the first time. Then the TA reinstated the booking, and within 24 hours, it was cancelled again. The TA claimed it was cancelled because Princess mis-allocated the funds.

I always wondered why payments to my regular TA showed up as payments to the cruise line. I thought that was odd, now I realize what a good thing that was after dealing with this mess. 

I'm also certain I probably over-paid by about $1000-1500 for this cruise. There's no accountability as to where the money went or proof as to how much was actually paid to Princess because all the charges are to the travel agency.

I never got a confirmation from Princess regarding payments, but I did get a booking number from them initially. I also believe we were way overcharged for the cruise, but I can't prove it. This has certainly been a learning experience for several of us.

Coral,

There are about 200 of us. I know there were initially 17 whose bookings were cancelled. I haven't heard that there are any others who were waitlisted, but people are afraid to speak out so I'm not sure. My friend is local to the cruise port, so I'm wondering if she was singled out by the TA since she wouldn't lose airfare.

That's good to know about how the charges should show up. The travel agent I normally use does do it that way. All my charges show up as the cruise line, not the TA. It's this group cruise with this other TA that's a big hot mess. I'm just sick for the couple who appear to have lost their booking.

No travel insurance.

The payments were to the travel agency.

I'm part of a group cruise that sets sail in a week on Princess. Several of the cruisers had their bookings cancelled last week, despite the fact that they'd paid in full for this cruise months ago and had rooms assigned, etc. The travel agent claims that it's a Princess glitch and that Princess incorrectly allocated the funds. She managed to reinstate most of the reservations (with different rooms than before), but one couple called Princess yesterday because they couldn't get any response from the travel agent and found out the cruise is now sold out. They're on a wait list. What recourse does this couple have, if any? Who can they call? Princess says it's not their fault and to call the travel agent. The travel agent remains non-responsive. They really want to go on this cruise, but at this late date, it's not looking good. Do cruise lines ever have a few rooms available for issues like this? If it was their fault, why won't they make good on the reservation somehow?

Without giving away who this travel agent might be, this is a group cruise related to the type of business I'm in. She's done several of these and has a large set of regulars who appear to be fine with the prices and service they get from her. I still have a week to cancel, but several people have told me that they signed up because I was going. As you can see, I feel obligated to take my lumps and go.

If I transfer the cruise to Princess, I won't be able to attend the group events.

When we booked, we were told that the rates charged were the initial rates for the cruise, but we would get the best deal available. That never happened.

You guys have answered my questions, and I thank you all for that. The answer is what I thought it would be--we're out of luck. As someone else said, live and learn. I'll never do another one of these group cruises again.

I have booked three other cruises via an excellent TA, so I do know what they can do for a traveler, which makes this doubly frustrating.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this or not.

I am going on a group cruise arranged by a travel agent. We are paying top dollar and until recently all attempts to get her to lower our price and respond have gone unanswered. Last July princess offered a great deal on the suite we’d already booked. I asked her to get us that lower price. She never did. They also offered a free drink package in the timeframe we booked, we never got that either.

After complaints to Princess and others, she’s suddenly woken up and is trying to get us a better deal. Is there any chance Princess will give us the deal on the beverage package even though it ended months ago, or are we out of luck?