Price went down $780pp

[Cyn874]

I've been closely watching our sailing on the Princess ship, and I'm noticing a significant price reduction right now. We booked a mini suite several months ago for $3579pp. Currently, the same section of mini suites is selling for $2799. If we called Princess, would they re-adjust our fare? I've heard of people doing this but having to cancel their  cruise and rebook under the new fare. Is this risky at all? It makes me so nervous because I'm worried something will get messed up and we'll lose our room, or our onboard credit, or partial payments that we've already made. But that would be a very large cost savings to us if we did it.. opinions?

[1025cruise]

It depends. Are you after final payment?

[Colo Cruiser]

Call Princess and ask.

[Cyn874]

No, we've paid our deposit plus about 50% of the total cost. This is booked under my father and he was going to call and make the final payment after January 3rd. We can definitely call Princess tomorrow (unfortunately my parents are out to dinner and won't be back til much later), but I wanted to make sure no one else had any bad experiences doing this.

[suekel]

when I rebooked to a lower fare, I lost my OBC but the price reduction more than made up for that. 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Cyn874 said:

No, we've paid our deposit plus about 50% of the total cost. This is booked under my father and he was going to call and make the final payment after January 3rd. We can definitely call Princess tomorrow (unfortunately my parents are out to dinner and won't be back til much later), but I wanted to make sure no one else had any bad experiences doing this.

No way to tell what experience you will have due to the erratic answers from Princess reps.

Some have been successful and some have not.

[Cyn874]

1 minute ago, suekel said:

when I rebooked to a lower fare, I lost my OBC but the price reduction more than made up for that. 

 

 

Was it a fairly simple process, Suekel? Did you just call Princess and they handled it, or was it a huge ordeal? 

[suekel]

Yes, I just called.  Same cabin, nothing changed except the purchase price and OBC.  Very simple.  

[Tak8]

Did you book with Princess or a travel agent?  You will more than likely have to go through the agent if you booked with one.

[Cyn874]

We booked directly with Princess. I'm thinking of calling them now, but I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm the 3rd guest on the booking, but it was my Dad who actually booked the cruise. I'm not sure if they'll do it for me.

[Coral]

Call them now.

 

It is a simple process.

[Cyn874]

Ok, since there were only 2 cabins left in our section at that price, I decided not to risk it so I went ahead and called, and it worked!! The agent on the phone was super nice, made the adjustment right away, verified all our information with me like room number, dining preference, even verified we still have our onboard credit, and I just checked our remaining balance- we saved $1647.60. My parents will be over the moon. 🙂

[Coral]

1 minute ago, Cyn874 said:

Ok, since there were only 2 cabins left in our section at that price, I decided not to risk it so I went ahead and called, and it worked!! The agent on the phone was super nice, made the adjustment right away, verified all our information with me like room number, dining preference, even verified we still have our onboard credit, and I just checked our remaining balance- we saved $1647.60. My parents will be over the moon. 🙂

Tell them they owe you! 🙂 Yes - they will be over the moon!

Edited December 21, 2018 by Coral

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

1 hour ago, Cyn874 said:

Ok, since there were only 2 cabins left in our section at that price, I decided not to risk it so I went ahead and called, and it worked!! The agent on the phone was super nice, made the adjustment right away, verified all our information with me like room number, dining preference, even verified we still have our onboard credit, and I just checked our remaining balance- we saved $1647.60. My parents will be over the moon. 🙂

Congrats, that's one less Christmas present you have to get them.

We have always used a TA and they are able to cancel and rebook most of the time and keep the same cabin but we lose the perks from the initial booking but the savings from the rebooking exceed what we lost.

[RDC1]

If you booked under US terms, are still before final payment date and the current terms do not state new bookings only then you should be able to trade the terms and price you booked under for current price and terms. When you reprice to get the new price you also have to give up any non-price benefits (paid gratuities, OBC, etc. that you initially received) for whatever is included in the new terms which may or may not be different from what you originally got.

[bbum]

We have rebooked several times when a price drop came about or a better obc offer came around but the last time I looked into rebooking to take advantage of a little more obc we ran into a slight problem. We always book direct with Princess so I handle all the bookings. However the last time a little more obc was offered on a future cruise we are booked on, which was offered while we were on a cruise as a promo, I tried to rebook at the future sales office and get the extra obc, but ran into a slight snag that I hadn't encountered before. We were booked in a mini suite for the upcoming cruise that we were trying to get the extra obc on and would not have had a problem rebooking it and getting the extra obc except the mini suites on that cruise were sold out with a waiting list. So if we had cancelled and tired to rebook, our mini suite would have automatically been assigned to the next person on the waiting list as soon as we started the cancel/rebook process, and we would lost our mini suite and the only option that was left was the lowest cat balcony and we would be put last on the waiting list for a mini suite. The extra obc wasn't worth losing the mini to us so we hit the brakes. In most cases I don't see this happening too often, but be careful if making changes, make sure there are cabins still available in your category. I was so glad the Princess rep caught it before she went ahead and did the rebooking because once started it's a done deal.   

[dog]

9 hours ago, Cyn874 said:

Ok, since there were only 2 cabins left in our section at that price, I decided not to risk it so I went ahead and called, and it worked!! The agent on the phone was super nice, made the adjustment right away, verified all our information with me like room number, dining preference, even verified we still have our onboard credit, and I just checked our remaining balance- we saved $1647.60. My parents will be over the moon. 🙂

Congratulations on that move!

I just had my cruise repriced 2 weeks after final payment and saved quite a bit, like you. My TA handled it.dog

[Denmal]

Can you tell us which sailing you saved on ?

[rocklinmom]

Yes you can always call and refare a cruise that isn't past final payment.  This is another reason not to prepay the entire cruise fare before final payment (although many do, I definitely don't).  You will just be rebooking it under the new promo and would then have whatever the current promo is.  So always make sure you like the current promo and are okay with losing whatever promo you were booked under.  A significant fare reduction is always a great reason to refare, as the OP just found out.  

[idocdlw]

Fingers crossed for a reduced fare for you...good luck! Let us know how it works out. I've done this a couple of times on another cruise line & am so happy that the option exists. Nothing ventured...nothing gained...go for it...worst case scenario is they say no.

[pandora518]

20 hours ago, Cyn874 said:

I've been closely watching our sailing on the Princess ship, and I'm noticing a significant price reduction right now. We booked a mini suite several months ago for $3579pp. Currently, the same section of mini suites is selling for $2799. If we called Princess, would they re-adjust our fare? I've heard of people doing this but having to cancel their  cruise and rebook under the new fare. Is this risky at all? It makes me so nervous because I'm worried something will get messed up and we'll lose our room, or our onboard credit, or partial payments that we've already made. But that would be a very large cost savings to us if we did it.. opinions?

Our upcoming cruise had a significant price drop a few months before final payment.  I called our Princess rep and she ran the numbers to see if it was worth losing our promotional OBC and free specialty restaurant dinner.  It was and she got it all changed in short order, no risk of losing our cabin going through her.  We didn't lose any of the rest of our OBC (veteran's, shareholder), and our shorex reservations were intact.  I was a little surprised because we had originally booked under a "3 for Free" sale and the cabin upgrade was one of the 3 perqs.  We didn't lose that.  It's definitely worth calling and working with a Princess rep.

[Cyn874]

12 hours ago, Denmal said:

Can you tell us which sailing you saved on ?

Hi Denmal, it's the Ruby Princess 15 day to Hawaii, departing April 8th, 2019. They still currently have some mini suites available at the $2799 rate- when we originally booked, it was $3579, so a pretty significant savings if you feel like taking a trip to Hawaii!

[TracieABD]

Wow! That is awesome! Certainly a very nice holiday surprise! Come back an let us know their reactions!!!

[Cyn874]

They were both really stunned and happy! I'm so glad this worked out and I was able to get the price lowered. Now maybe we can use some of that extra money for some specialty dining or an extra excursion or two. 🙂

 

As it turns out, we didn't have to lose any perks or OBC because we didn't originally book our cruise under any promotions that would offer that. If I recall, the name of the promotion was just 'Come Sail Away' or something, it was just $800 off the booking or something like that, I can't remember exactly.  It was supposed to be a reduced rate fare, and at the time, it was. 

 

We did receive a $50 goodwill OBC a week or so ago because I had purchased the unlimited surf and stream OceanMedallion package on the Cyber Monday sale. They called last week and said they were very sorry but OM would not be ready in time for our sailing, so they had to cancel the internet package but gave us $50 OBC for the inconvenience. I guess since it was a 'goodwill' credit and not part of a promotion, that's why we got to keep it, but  I've checked and it is still in our booking.

[Ombud]

The process is simple, the only caveat is to make sure the room will still be available.  I booked the 3/14/19 Star rm P305 (usually pick this one) but this time I was put into OF Guarantee when dropping price as someone picked that room during refare process. So although the price went down substantially and I am now paying less as a solo OF than a shared inside ..... it's less than 3 months away on a sold out ship & I am not assigned a room. New experience  😞