Is this standard practice for Princess?

[PCWalton1]

Hi

We are normally Royal Caribbean cruisers but we wanted to do a Mexican Riviera cruise (which Royal Caribbean doesn't do) so we booked Royal Princess for May of 2020. We got a great promo with our balcony cabin of $400 OBC. I have been checking prices and I noticed that the price of our cabin has dropped $300 so I called our TA and asked to get the lower price. When the TA called Princess we were told we could have the lower price but we would lose $300 OBC which was a wash so we kept what we have.

Normally with Royal Caribbean I can get a price drop without any changes to whatever promo they had given. Is it normal for Princess to take away promos when you ask for a price adjustment?

 

thanks

 

 

[voljeep]

yes , if the promo has changed ... next question

[BoopTennis]

😡

[Cruise Raider]

Yes, but I pretty much have experienced this with any cruiseline whenever I have booked and had a price drop.  The pricing goes up and down with each promo that is being offered at the time of booking or changing of the promo.  Always ask, though ... when I’ve called him after seeing a price drop, sometimes the travel agent can find a better promo and I come out ahead.  

[satxdiver]

When you see a lower price for your cabin and then call your TA/Princess to request the lower price what you are actually doing is canceling the first reservation and booking a new one in the same cabin and ship.  Therefore any perks you received on the first reservation will be lost when you switch to the new one which may have some perks of its own.  Simply you cannot change the reservation for a different price and keep the old perks.  

 

I hope you enjoy your first cruise on the "Love Boat".  There will be several differences from RCL and some the same.   

[kywildcatfanone]

If the promo you book under changes, and you want the change, you lose whatever promo you were booked under

[casofilia]

You have to do a mathematical comparison to see whether a price drop is worth taking as a price drop normally occurs when the "perks" on offer changes.

 

The best ones occur very late when they are trying to fill the ship and then it is after the cancellation fee date so that has to be taken into account too.

[ontheweb]

You also have to watch out for an increase in the deposit. If your promo had a reduced deposit and the new one does not, you would immediately have to pay the difference.

[Jeter02]

Yes, because you're switching promotions around.

[skynight]

You received the information regarding the fares & promos. But, did you know you know you can receive OBC if you are a veteran and also if you own at least 100 shares of Carnival Corp. stock? Look up Princess military benefit and Carnival shareholder benefit. OBC on Princess cruises is stackable, it all adds together.

For a 7 day cruise:

The military benefit is $100/qualified passenger up to two per cabin.

The shareholder benefit is $100/cabin

[Haboob]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

You received the information regarding the fares & promos. But, did you know you know you can receive OBC if you are a veteran and also if you own at least 100 shares of Carnival Corp. stock? Look up Princess military benefit and Carnival shareholder benefit. OBC on Princess cruises is stackable, it all adds together.

For a 7 day cruise:

The military benefit is $100/qualified passenger up to two per cabin.

The shareholder benefit is $100/cabin

 

...for a one week North-American home-ported cruise.

 

Each can be as much as $250 for a 2+ week North American or as little as £30 for a 6 day UK-based cruise (yes, I know Princess does not currently have such, but they have in the past and may again in the future).  One point of confusion is that Australia-based cruises give OBC in the same number of "mini-"dollars ($AU) as do North American give in $US.

[Coral]

3 hours ago, ontheweb said:

You also have to watch out for an increase in the deposit. If your promo had a reduced deposit and the new one does not, you would immediately have to pay the difference.

I have not had this happen. I kept $1 deposit over several re-fares.

[Coral]

5 hours ago, satxdiver said:

When you see a lower price for your cabin and then call your TA/Princess to request the lower price what you are actually doing is canceling the first reservation and booking a new one in the same cabin and ship.  Therefore any perks you received on the first reservation will be lost when you switch to the new one which may have some perks of its own.  Simply you cannot change the reservation for a different price and keep the old perks.  

 

It is a re-fare, not a cancellation of the reservation. If it was a cancellation - they would lose their air and shore excursions booked and would be issued a new booking #.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Coral

[Mom33]

We booked our Norway Cruise a year and a half out. During the year, they had a sale on cabins and a 3 for free campaign. Six of the people in our group used a travel agency. We worked with Princess directly. We all got the new price and benefits without any problems and sailed in the cabins we reserved.

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, Coral said:

I have not had this happen. I kept $1 deposit over several re-fares.

I would assume then that the promotion did not change.

 

I know we once had to pay more of a deposit when we re-fared, and it was worth it since we would have paid that extra in the end anyway.

[Coral]

14 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

I would assume then that the promotion did not change.

 

I know we once had to pay more of a deposit when we re-fared, and it was worth it since we would have paid that extra in the end anyway.

Yes - I changed to 3 different promotions over a year. I expected to pay more and never had to.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Coral