Charged for dining reservations that are included in package

[Valiamo]

On 1/31/2023 at 12:47 PM, Captain&Commander said:

I just noticed my credit card was charged for two specialty Dinning reservations that I made with the help of the Princess navigator on my medallion.  These two dinners were suppose to be included in my premium package. When I called Princess they told me I’d have to wait and have it credited when I got on the ship.

Has any one else had this happen?  I wonder if Princess would have credited my account if I hadn’t noticed the overcharge?   

 

That is weird.  We had the same type package in Oct and were able to book 2 specialty dining events way before the cruise and the credits were taken vs payment in advance.  But the silly program is so, so very quirky, it recently cancelled and refund a dining reservation because I tried to book daily bookings (always book your daily reservations in the MDR, then try to book your Specialty Dining)

 

On your booking can you open the Luggage Tag & Travel Summary link (use a web browser), and then find the "Print Travel summary" and then scroll way down on the page that opens up and see if the specialty dining credits are listed there.  It should show "Specialty Dining 2 nights" qty 1 (there will be 1 line for the first 2 passengers on the booking.  

 

Some people swear to delete the app, re-install it and  then wait a day or two then go back into the App and then try to do another booking. 

  

Steps to take... 

- Open Dine My Way

- Select View or book individual daily reservations

- Scroll right to the night you want to book and select that night 

- Select the green +Add Reservation

- Select OK (if it shows up) then select Specialty Dining

- Make sure the first 2 passengers booked are on my travel party, then continue

- You should see here the available places to reserve and a price will be listed. 

- Pick an available time you want to dine

- Click on select and you will be taken to a payment page.   

- HERE you will see payment options.   From what I have been told, you need to scroll down a bit and the you should see a check box / select button for "use Dining credit", you select this vs using your credit card.  If it works the app will cancel the original booking (and you get a refund in 2-3 business days) and re-book your dining.

 

I hope that this helps.. 

 

 

 

 

[caribill]

15 hours ago, ED49404 said:

With all that being said.  In the future what is the best way to reserve in advance a SD if you have the Premier package without paying for it up front?   

 

Call Princess and book it over the phone.

[morechances]

My experience is this, if you are in a suite, the free vouchers show up. If you are not, then it only offers credit card bookings. At that point,  when you get to the dining room at your reserved time,  tell them that you want to use your voucher. They will cancel the credit card reservation and add the voucher. 

The cruise I am on now had very few options for specialty restaurant availability for the week. Ship is busy,  but not at capacity. 

[avalon1025]

Same here,  booked on the medallion app with two included dinners and both were charged.  No option to use credit.  Will address onboard.  I have a similar package on HAL and they deducted the included dinners when the reservations were made.

Edited February 3, 2023 by avalon1025

[pudgysmom]

On 1/31/2023 at 4:45 PM, jeromep said:

This speaks to a big issue with the pre-booking of items and the logic that Princess is using right now.  It is one thing to charge somebody up front to pre-book dining or spa if their cruise doesn't have a Plus/Premier package attached.  But once somebody selects a package that includes some perk, like specialty dining, then the programming logic should allow booking the time without insisting on charging their card.  This situation feels very much like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.  Marketing came up with Plus and Premier and launched it, but they didn't bother to loop in the programmers who are dealing with the booking engine on the web site.  The packages work on board because that is separate and independent from the booking system, and where it counts is on board.  The way pre-books seem to work is that they are collected in the on-shore system and then transmitted to the ship's system on or about embarkation of the new group of passengers.  I suspect that they have some large IT project to try to harmonize on-board passenger management with shore-side, but that has to be a huge project and many disparate systems.

I agree totally!  We are booked and paid for in full with a premium package for a September 2023 cruise.  As we have 2 special occassions while at sea, I went to the app and tried to reserve 2 nights specialty dining for 3 parties (6 people) and would have been charged $480 if I had clicked on reserve.  Since I've already paid for the premium package when we already paid for them as part of our premium package.  I just have an issue with paying for something in advance when I've already paid for it to get a refund in 9 months.  

 

I entered a CS chat and they basically said  'sorry, but no worries. . . you will be refunded OB'. . . this made no sense to me and I've seen several boards where people either never got their promised refund or had to jump through hoops to get it.  I said this seemed unreasonable as I already paid for it and was not being asked to pay for other perks that came with the package (ie. . .wifi, exercise classes, thermal spa etc) I was only asked to pay for SD.  After some back and forth they put it a ticket on my behalf that should show the dining credits.  I'm a little disappointed that wasn't the first response. . .but they said to check the app in 3-7 days for the credit/reservations.  

 

I'll keep you posted if it was successful.  

Edited February 6, 2023 by pudgysmom

[pudgysmom]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:19 PM, Valiamo said:

 

That is weird.  We had the same type package in Oct and were able to book 2 specialty dining events way before the cruise and the credits were taken vs payment in advance.  But the silly program is so, so very quirky, it recently cancelled and refund a dining reservation because I tried to book daily bookings (always book your daily reservations in the MDR, then try to book your Specialty Dining)

 

On your booking can you open the Luggage Tag & Travel Summary link (use a web browser), and then find the "Print Travel summary" and then scroll way down on the page that opens up and see if the specialty dining credits are listed there.  It should show "Specialty Dining 2 nights" qty 1 (there will be 1 line for the first 2 passengers on the booking.  

 

Some people swear to delete the app, re-install it and  then wait a day or two then go back into the App and then try to do another booking. 

  

Steps to take... 

- Open Dine My Way

- Select View or book individual daily reservations

- Scroll right to the night you want to book and select that night 

- Select the green +Add Reservation

- Select OK (if it shows up) then select Specialty Dining

- Make sure the first 2 passengers booked are on my travel party, then continue

- You should see here the available places to reserve and a price will be listed. 

- Pick an available time you want to dine

- Click on select and you will be taken to a payment page.   

- HERE you will see payment options.   From what I have been told, you need to scroll down a bit and the you should see a check box / select button for "use Dining credit", you select this vs using your credit card.  If it works the app will cancel the original booking (and you get a refund in 2-3 business days) and re-book your dining.

 

I hope that this helps.. 

 

 

 

 

Just tried this and there is definitely no check box / select button for 'use Dining credit'.  

[pudgysmom]

On 2/5/2023 at 8:22 PM, pudgysmom said:

I agree totally!  We are booked and paid for in full with a premium package for a September 2023 cruise.  As we have 2 special occassions while at sea, I went to the app and tried to reserve 2 nights specialty dining for 3 parties (6 people) and would have been charged $480 if I had clicked on reserve.  Since I've already paid for the premium package when we already paid for them as part of our premium package.  I just have an issue with paying for something in advance when I've already paid for it to get a refund in 9 months.  

 

I entered a CS chat and they basically said  'sorry, but no worries. . . you will be refunded OB'. . . this made no sense to me and I've seen several boards where people either never got their promised refund or had to jump through hoops to get it.  I said this seemed unreasonable as I already paid for it and was not being asked to pay for other perks that came with the package (ie. . .wifi, exercise classes, thermal spa etc) I was only asked to pay for SD.  After some back and forth they put it a ticket on my behalf that should show the dining credits.  I'm a little disappointed that wasn't the first response. . .but they said to check the app in 3-7 days for the credit/reservations.  

 

I'll keep you posted if it was successful.  

 

Just wanted to provide a follow up. . . Doing a chat and having them enter an incident on your behalf to have the specialty dining credits added to you medallion app worked!  They showed about about 3 days later.