Move over offer questions

[Vexorg]

I just got a move over offer on our Royal Princess cruise departing on Saturday.  I called to inquire about this and left a voicemail, but in the meantime, a couple of questions:

 

- The offer says that it's for any 5 night cruise, but there are very few options for 5 night cruises (basically one sailing out of San Francisco in January).  What options do they typically offer?

 

- How do they handle the change fees for flights if you didn't book through EZ Air?

 

My wife's sister is booked in a separate cabin, but I'm not sure if she got the offer or not.  Would she be eligible as well?

 

 

[KevintheIrishDJ]

- The offer says that it's for any 5 night cruise, but there are very few options for 5 night cruises (basically one sailing out of San Francisco in January).  What options do they typically offer?  You can get a longer cruise; however, you would pay per diem charges for extra days.

 

- How do they handle the change fees for flights if you didn't book through EZ Air?  I believe they will reimburse some of your flight costs.

 

My wife's sister is booked in a separate cabin, but I'm not sure if she got the offer or not.  Would she be eligible as well?  Mention your sister.  They may include her.

[Loritd]

We have taken two move over offers. Both were 11 day Baltic cruises, one summer before last and then again this past summer.  We were told they would cover up to $600 per person change fees, we had booked our own airfare. All I had to do was show the fees paid on my credit card bill to reinstate my frequent flyer miles. Depending on how badly they need the cabins you might and I mean might be able to increase your number of days.  Summer before last I didn't think to ask, this summer I negotiated 16 days.  But as I was once told pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.  

[azbirdmom]

Re: change fees, for our's, the amount they would cover was right on the offer letter.

 

Re: your sister, she would have gotten her own letter if she was eligible for it.  And I would think she should have if your reservations were linked.

 

If you're not willing to accept the offer as is, then when they call you back, you can always make a counter offer, such as I'll accept if you cover my airline cancellation fees, up the offer to allow you to take a 7 day cruise, and they offer your sister the exact same offer.  They will likely say no thanks.  And then they may just call you back again if they really are in a pickle and need your cabin(s).  But if you really want to take the cruise with your family, just say no thanks and have a wonderful time cruising with your sister.

[Vexorg]

The offer we got said it included up to $150 per passenger for airline change fees.  I believe that would cover the change fee for the airline, but I think we would end up eating 1 night of a non refundable hotel if we took it (not a huge deal though.)

 

And my sister in law was booked at the same time as ours, but in a different cabin and on a different reservation.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Vexorg

[mevs904]

I’m finding this thread very interesting as we are booked on an upcoming Crown cruise that is completely booked up.  In August we received two move down offers and one move over offer for our Baltic cruise.  We decided not to take any of them, but we would be open to an offer on our upcoming Caribbean cruise.  We’d like to be prepared to consider the possibilities and have one question.  If Princess offers redeemable OBC as part of an offer, could that be applied to the final payment for an upcoming cruise that has already been booked?  It would certainly help with the March 2021 B2B South America/Antarctica cruises that we are planning on taking.

[cruzsnooze]

51 minutes ago, mevs904 said:

  If Princess offers redeemable OBC as part of an offer, could that be applied to the final payment for an upcoming cruise that has already been booked?  It would certainly help with the March 2021 B2B South America/Antarctica cruises that we are planning on taking.

No- You get your cruise fare without the port fees as refundable OBC on the replacement cruise. If you wanted to cancel and rebook your March 2021 as your replacement cruise it might be a go.....

[mevs904]

Thanks for the reply, Cruzsnooze.  That’s what we suspected.  Since our SA/Antarctica cruises were booked under Sip ‘n Sail we’ll leave those bookings alone and if we do get and take a Move Over Offer we’ll look for a Mediterranean cruise.

[KevintheIrishDJ]

28 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

No- You get your cruise fare without the port fees as refundable OBC on the replacement cruise. If you wanted to cancel and rebook your March 2021 as your replacement cruise it might be a go.....

Not exactly correct.  We got our ROBC on our next cruise.  Not the replacement cruise.

[mevs904]

37 minutes ago, KevintheIrishDJ said:

Not exactly correct.  We got our ROBC on our next cruise.  Not the replacement cruise.

That would be interesting as the SA/Antarctica cruises will have many interesting excursions.

[cruzsnooze]

I took a move over offer for my last sept cruise. I was booked on a 7 night cruise and was offered a replacement 10 night cruise of my choice and refundable OBC for the fare less port fees. I did not need air credit since both cruises were from my home port. I was given the same category mini suite for my replacement cruise. 

[voljeep]

9 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

I took a move over offer for my last sept cruise. I was booked on a 7 night cruise and was offered a replacement 10 night cruise of my choice and refundable OBC for the fare less port fees. I did not need air credit since both cruises were from my home port. I was given the same category mini suite for my replacement cruise. 

we had a 5 day, they offered 7 days, no per diem extra ,, got the OBC .. Princess picked up the extra 2 days grats .. same class cabin ... no airfare involved ... jumped on it and left the next Sunday on the Regal, Eastern Carib.

[cruzsnooze]

8 hours ago, voljeep said:

we had a 5 day, they offered 7 days, no per diem extra ,, got the OBC .. Princess picked up the extra 2 days grats .. same class cabin ... no airfare involved ... jumped on it and left the next Sunday on the Regal, Eastern Carib.

Essentially the same deal. You got 2 extra days and I got 3 since we were booked for different length cruises. 

[jean s]

 

Last year we had booked a one week cruise and they offered us a two week cruise to move over.  Wish we could have taken it but could not change my husband's schedule.

[mevs904]

For those of you who have accepted Moveover Offers.  What are the sailing regions that you may choose your make up cruise from?  For example, if you gave up an 11 day Caribbean cruise could you choose to go on a Mediterranean cruise for your make up?

[Loritd]

They told me anywhere as long as there was a cabin available, no guaranteed cabins. 

[Steelers36]

On 11/25/2019 at 8:02 PM, Vexorg said:

The offer we got said it included up to $150 per passenger for airline change fees.  I believe that would cover the change fee for the airline, but I think we would end up eating 1 night of a non refundable hotel if we took it (not a huge deal though.)

 

And my sister in law was booked at the same time as ours, but in a different cabin and on a different reservation.

What was the result between you and Princess in regards to the offer?

[Vexorg]

So far, no callback yet.  They say they will call within 48 hours (I left the initial voicemail on Monday afternoon) but with the holiday this would be cutting it really close.  At this point we are operating on the assumption that we will be boarding the ship as scheduled on Saturday.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Vexorg

[cruzsnooze]

10 hours ago, mevs904 said:

For those of you who have accepted Moveover Offers.  What are the sailing regions that you may choose your make up cruise from?  For example, if you gave up an 11 day Caribbean cruise could you choose to go on a Mediterranean cruise for your make up?

I was told my make up cruise had to start or end in the US which my original cruise did. 

[Vexorg]

OK , we got contacted back,  and we went ahead and took the move over.  Here's the details I got:

 

- The offer sheet originally said that it was for any other domestic 5 night sailing, but over the phone they offered 7 nights as an option.  We briefly looked at Caribbean sailings but found the flight costs were rather high, and settled on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera sailing.  I assume we could have picked an Alaska sailing out of Seattle as well (Vancouver might be iffy, but I'm guessing they would do it), but this is our annual "Get away from the weather" trip, so we were more inclined to pick a warm weather destination..

- We were booked in interior cabins originally, they put us in balcony cabins.

- The offer was to cover up to $150 per passenger in airline change fees.  I haven't done this yet so I am not quite sure how this is handled.

- The email I received indicates that any pre-purchaed items (shore excursions, Internet packages, etc.) will be refunded back to the card they were purchased with.

- Taxes and fees aren't included in the refund OBC, so I assume those get carried over to the next booking.

 

All in all, not a bad deal, even if it does require a bit of scrambling.

[voljeep]

24 minutes ago, Vexorg said:

OK , we got contacted back,  and we went ahead and took the move over.  Here's the details I got:

 

- The offer sheet originally said that it was for any other domestic 5 night sailing, but over the phone they offered 7 nights as an option.  We briefly looked at Caribbean sailings but found the flight costs were rather high, and settled on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera sailing.  I assume we could have picked an Alaska sailing out of Seattle as well (Vancouver might be iffy, but I'm guessing they would do it), but this is our annual "Get away from the weather" trip, so we were more inclined to pick a warm weather destination..

- We were booked in interior cabins originally, they put us in balcony cabins.

- The offer was to cover up to $150 per passenger in airline change fees.  I haven't done this yet so I am not quite sure how this is handled.

- The email I received indicates that any pre-purchaed items (shore excursions, Internet packages, etc.) will be refunded back to the card they were purchased with.

- Taxes and fees aren't included in the refund OBC, so I assume those get carried over to the next booking.

 

All in all, not a bad deal, even if it does require a bit of scrambling.

and you will have the OBC to cover those on board ...did they also pick up the 2 extra days of grats ... they did when we had prepaid them for 5 and moved over to a 7

[Vexorg]

We did not have to pay any extra fee to move to a 7 night sailing.  We might have to eat the cost of a non-refundable hotel room we had booked for the night before boarding, but that's not too bad all things considered.

[Vexorg]

Also, another bonus from this:  Since we moved from a 5 night sailing in an interior to a 7 night sailing in a balcony, the OBC we got for using future cruise deposits went up from $15 per passenger to $50 per passenger.

[azbirdmom]

4 hours ago, Vexorg said:

OK , we got contacted back,  and we went ahead and took the move over.  Here's the details I got:

 

- The offer sheet originally said that it was for any other domestic 5 night sailing, but over the phone they offered 7 nights as an option.  We briefly looked at Caribbean sailings but found the flight costs were rather high, and settled on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera sailing.  I assume we could have picked an Alaska sailing out of Seattle as well (Vancouver might be iffy, but I'm guessing they would do it), but this is our annual "Get away from the weather" trip, so we were more inclined to pick a warm weather destination..

- We were booked in interior cabins originally, they put us in balcony cabins.

- The offer was to cover up to $150 per passenger in airline change fees.  I haven't done this yet so I am not quite sure how this is handled.

- The email I received indicates that any pre-purchaed items (shore excursions, Internet packages, etc.) will be refunded back to the card they were purchased with.

- Taxes and fees aren't included in the refund OBC, so I assume those get carried over to the next booking.

 

All in all, not a bad deal, even if it does require a bit of scrambling.

 

Congratulations!  Did your sister in law get the offer as well?  Hopefully the hotel will be amenable to moving your stay to a different date.  If you booked direct, it's worth a try.

[Vexorg]

Yes, my sister in law's booking was linked to ours, so they automatically included her in the offer when they called (I'm guessing being able to free up two cabins at the same time saved them some work.).  We had adjacent cabins on the first cruise, and they were able to put us in adjacent cabins on the second one as well.

 

Based on some reading here it sounds like people have had luck with getting Princess to refund non refundable hotel bookings.  I submitted the receipt along with the flight changes, so we'll see what happens.