Using a travel agent-Have you always been notified of an upgrade?

[ukbecky]

I ask because my cabin was "upgraded" without my knowledge or consent. I only found out nearly 2 months after the fact, the ship is sold out and my final payment was made in October. My cabin went from a IC to an IB.

Woohoo

 

I now get to spend 27 days beside the laundromat. I don't feel very upgraded.

 

Is it common practice for a travel agent to just let it happen, without telling the customer, unless the booking is marked 'no upgrades'? I usually book directly.

[Colo Cruiser]

Mine always lets me know.  

Sounds like you need a new TA.

[Loritd]

We like being near the laundry. Never had any noise problems and you can pop your head in to see if there are any open washers without have to carry your dirty laundry down the hall. But I agree the TA should have told about the cabin change.  

Edited January 28, 2019 by Loritd

[ontheweb]

7 minutes ago, ukbecky said:

I ask because my cabin was "upgraded" without my knowledge or consent. I only found out nearly 2 months after the fact, the ship is sold out and my final payment was made in October. My cabin went from a IC to an IB.

Woohoo

 

I now get to spend 27 days beside the laundromat. I don't feel very upgraded.

 

Is it common practice for a travel agent to just let it happen, without telling the customer, unless the booking is marked 'no upgrades'? I usually book directly.

That happened to us once on Princess. I discovered the new cabin when looking in my personalizer.

 

I called the TA and had him check out the location, and I did not like it as it was right below a bar.

 

He claimed he never got the e-mail from Princess, but Princess told him that they had sent it.He could not manage to get our original cabin back but did get one very close.

 

He had at another time let us know we were offered an upgraded cabin.

 

[Wishing on a star]

We booked our last cruise thu a TA, with one of the large agencies.

We were notified of an upsell.  (like most not-so-cheap upsells of late, we declined)

But, many, if not most, of these kinds of agencies/agents will not be notifying on these kinds of things.

I would always recommend keeping a close watch on your booking.

 

Were you thinking that your booking was 'DO NOT UPGRADE'...

 

PS:   If there is a bit of time before sailing, I would call and check, DAILY, to see what cabins in that category might actually be available as things could still shift around with upgrades and upsells.

 

I also understand that, in many cases, the laundry is not as much of a factor as you might be concerned about.

So, maybe not so bad.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Wishing on a star

[Cruise Raider]

6 minutes ago, Loritd said:

We like being near the laundry. Never had any noise problems and you can pop your head in to see if there are any open washers without have to carry your dirty laundry down the hall. But I agree the TA should have told about the cabin change.  

 

We always book a cabin right next to the laundry room as well ... never have had any issues ... very quiet, actually.  

 

[Coral]

I was notified last week from my TA (real TA, not online) of an upgrade. It was a guarantee to a higher guarantee category.

Edited January 28, 2019 by Coral

[rentlady]

Be careful what you wish for....you just might get it! A few years back we were upgraded and learned about it when we arrived in port. We were so excited! Bigger cabin, but it  was across from the kids daycare center! Kids were running up the halls, punching elevator buttons, crying, and then had one kid plowed  right into me as I was opening my door!

[paul929207]

Last week we got a Move Down offer from Princess via our TA. We took the offer. It was move from a regular balcony to an obstructed balcony. We got $1500 refundable OBC plus a specialty dinner each. Cruise is 49 days around South America on the Royal.

[mcrcruiser]

Never ;but ,we haven't sailed on a lot of Princess ships .However ,we started & have 4 future cruises booked now . We are Ruby with Princess & this line sails from San Pedro Ca ;which is drivable for us  .

 

 We are now favoring Princess & HAL from the San Diego port  ;which is a;sp a drivable distance

[mreasier]

A few years ago we got upgraded from a balcony to a mini.  The only way I found out was checking my Personalizer.  My "TA" was a large agency who never informed me.

[ukbecky]

This is the third online TA I have tried, and the third bad experience.

 

I booked a specific cabin because that is what I wanted. I could've saved money booking a guarantee.

 

Princess knows that, and sends out an email if they want to change the cabin. I just wish they would stop the practice of automatically changing it if they don't hear back from the customer, and it's not marked 'no upgrades'.

 

This time, the customer wasn't me, it was the TA. Who ignored the email. Both the TA and Princess acknowledge that the email was sent, but never to me.

 

I feel a bit better about the laundry next door, although I know it will be well used on this long cruise. I can't come to terms with spending all this time in an inside, on a deck with balconies. We sweated through 15 days in an inside on the Golden last spring.

 

People leaving their balcony doors open shut down the A/C of the whole deck every night.

[ukbecky]

Well it took 6-7 hours of phone calls over 10 days, and a full-court press from my TA, but I finally have an acceptable cabin in the area I originally booked.

 

For days, Princess's only reply was "Nothing can be done" over and over again. No problem moving me from my paid-for original cabin, but they absolutely could not/would not/steadfastly refused to move anyone else.

 

My advice? Don't let it go

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the update.

[RMMariner]

Our experience. Laundry rooms are actually very quiet.

[polmcs]

The only upgrade I’ve ever received was from a mini to a full suite for both our cabins on an Alaskan itinerary. We had booked through a big box TA and they actually did call us to let us known that we’d been moved, but we would like the new cabins.

 

I had specifically chosen mini-cabins on separate sides of the ships close to an alleyway so that we could run from cabin to cabin depending on the view. I needn’t have bothered as we were moved to the full suites at the front of the Diamond, so we had perfect views no matter which cabin we happened to be in.

 

I’m not sure why we were picked for the upgrades as it was only our second ever cruise on Princess, but I’m not complaining. 🙂 Perhaps they were trying the crack cocaine approach, similar to airlines and giving you that turn left feeling, but we did have a rather hefty and expensive shore excursion itinerary. 

 

I’ve not been back in a suite on Princess, but I have gotten used to those lie flat seats to the left of the boarding door upon entering an aircraft. 😉

[Steelers36]

I am halfway curious to know which ship has a laundromat beside B level cabins because they are usually located aft in the D level section. 

 

[Steelers36]

On 1/28/2019 at 7:17 AM, paul929207 said:

Last week we got a Move Down offer from Princess via our TA. We took the offer. It was move from a regular balcony to an obstructed balcony. We got $1500 refundable OBC plus a specialty dinner each. Cruise is 49 days around South America on the Royal.

The trip around S.A. is AMAZING.  Great trip for us.  Ours was 60 nights (FLL-FLL with Panama Canal transit).  We did it in an Inside.  Its a nice chunk of change, but seems to me Princess charges more than $30/night difference between Obs Balcony and Reg Balcony.