Why would Princess do this ?

[jc foster]

 Yesterday we received an email that we had received an upgraded cabin.   We were  in a B2 Preminium Balcony on the Caribe Deck on the Emerald. The upgrade was to a B1 about three cabins down. The upgrade was neither better nor worst than the cabin we had booked . It was also a preminium balcony. My question is simply why would Princess do this ?  It does not seem to serve a purpose . We are not upset just puzzled.

[Sea Hag]

I think it's likely that it goes something like this. Their computer system is programmed to do upgrades when cabins are unsold. They probably do this in series, for instance X number of B1s would be upgraded to minis. Another X number of B2 would be upgraded to B1. And so on. It's an automated process, and it's based solely on the category number with no human involved to see that the upgrade you got makes no sense.

 

Or, possibly, somebody wanted the specific cabin you were in to be near traveling companions. 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Sea Hag

[skynight]

Princess believes that they are doing you a favor moving you closer to the center of the ship. They may also require adjacent cabins, including your original cabin, or a cabin across the hall from an inside for another passenger group.  Princess booking process defaults to "Upgrades will be accepted." If you don't want an upgrade have your booking marked "No Upgrade." "No Upgrade" is the best chance of staying in your original booked cabin. Good for b2bs. 

[DallasGuy75219]

6 minutes ago, jc foster said:

 Yesterday we received an email that we had received an upgraded cabin.   We were  in a B2 Preminium Balcony on the Caribe Deck on the Emerald. The upgrade was to a B1 about three cabins down. The upgrade was neither better nor worst than the cabin we had booked . It was also a preminium balcony. My question is simply why would Princess do this ?  It does not seem to serve a purpose . We are not upset just puzzled.

What ship and itinerary? If it's something like the 7-day Mediterranean itineraries on Regal, a lot of people do back-to-back (or back-to-back-to-back) cruises and Princess runs out of cabins available on consecutive cruises.  By moving you to an essentially identical cabin, they could be making your old cabin available to others on two or more consecutive cruises.

[PTMary]

If your room was a connecting room, perhaps you were moved so two rooms could be booked together to take advantage of that connection. 

[DallasGuy75219]

4 hours ago, PTMary said:

If your room was a connecting room, perhaps you were moved so two rooms could be booked together to take advantage of that connection. 

They usually don't make those available to people who don't need connecting rooms, unless the ship is close to sold out and connecting rooms are the last available rooms in that category. 

[SantaFeFan]

2 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

They usually don't make those available to people who don't need connecting rooms, unless the ship is close to sold out and connecting rooms are the last available rooms in that category. 

 

I can book any cabin I want in most categories on the Princess booking site, including only one of two connecting cabins. Try a mock booking and you'll see for yourself. In fact, on my Royal Princess Hawaii cruise next March there are several mini-suites near us with connecting doors that are booked but the companion room is not. The room next door to us is a connecting room, but it is still empty while its companion room has been booked for several months. The ship is currently less than 50% booked, and less than 25% of the mini suites appear to be booked.

[rbtan]

I think Sea Hag is correct. (her Moniker is interesting, Does she ever cruise with Bluto or Popeye?)

[brisalta]

3 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

They usually don't make those available to people who don't need connecting rooms, unless the ship is close to sold out and connecting rooms are the last available rooms in that category. 

 

Ha! That is not true as I was "upgraded" to a connecting room when the ship was no where near to being sold out. Of course I complained and was moved back to my originally booked room.

[Thrak]

I had this happen - twice last week!  We usually book a balcony but, for our December cruise, we booked a specific inside cabin. It's all the way aft on Riviera deck and my wife can simply slip out the back door to her happy place. She loves the aft pool. Without any notice I discovered Princess had moved us to a mid-ship interior cabin. In their mind that is an upgrade. I tried Live Chat and they couldn't fix it so I had to go through my TA. He got the original cabin back (it was plainly showing as available). The next day Princess moved us again. This was a move to another mid-ship cabin which, again, was an upgrade according to them. My TA managed to get the original cabin back again (and it was once again plainly showing as available). Now I've been checking every day to make sure we haven't been moved again. Since the cruise isn't until December this is a monumental pain in the neck.

 

Each time the booking was marked as "No Upgrade" but we were still moved twice. Marking your booking as No Upgrade is a request - it's not a guarantee.