Changing Cabins Aboard Princess

[windfair]

I booked a total of 6 cabins on a Princess ship through a travel site. The TA said no connecting cabins were available on the entire ship. I was on the official Princess site last night and saw there were connecting cabins and one such cabin was available and next to a cabin we already have a deposit on. I called the TA today and tried to switch the rooms around. She told me there would be a huge cost involved over $1500 for just one cabin change. I don’t understand this as they are all the same cabin class and in the same area of the ship. I had booked three cabins next to each other starboard and two cabins next to each other port side. I placed the two sets of cousins (2 in each cabin) in their 20s port side. My son’s family of six we placed in two cabins (3 in each cabin)next to my cabin (2 of us) on the starboard side, all the same class and category. The only available connecting room was next to one of the cousin rooms, so I wanted to get that room, move the family to the two adjoining rooms (one of which we already booked) and move the cousins to our rooms on the starboard side. In essence, all I was doing was getting one ‘new’ cabin and releasing one we had a deposit on. She said there would be a huge cost to this. One of the cabins, is completely paid for, does that make a difference? All of the others are just being held with deposits. The cruise is scheduled for over a year away. I know it would be a pain to change all the names on the cabins, but there are no new people or additional rooms or upgrades. Is this typical? If you want to change your room to the same class and category you have additional charges? Does anyone know if this is a princess policy? Or is this strictly from my TA? I have other family members who want to book, but will tell them to look for a more knowledgeable TA who knows the deck plans better. Ironically, I found out I am in a connecting cabin, of course I don’t know the people my cabin is connected with. I apologize for the length of this, but wanted to fully explain. Just hoping to find out if this is Princess or if I should be shopping for another TA for future cruises.

[NavyVeteran]

Normally, Princess will allow a change to another cabin in the same category at no charge. I've done it several times (directly booked with Princess).

The rules may be different for groups. If you have five or more cabins booked in a group, you should be getting some small group amenities.

It may not be a good idea to tell other family members to use a different TA for this cruise. If you have eight or more cabins, you should be getting more substantial group amenities. However, all of the cabins have to be booked in a single group, which means they all have to be booked with the same TA.

Another option would be to change one cabin only - not change the people in the other cabins. Once you are onboard, Princess does not care who sleeps in which cabin. You can ask Guest Services onboard to program one medallion to open the doors to more than one cabin - you have to have someone registered in the other cabin there to do that.

You did not say what category your cabins are in. If you have two adjacent balcony cabins, you can ask the steward to open a door between the two balconies (except in a few cases where the cabins are in different areas of the ship.

[Thrak]

Not sure what is going on but sounds like BS from your TA.

[trbarton]

I'm curious if anyone has changed their stateroom once on board & what happened & was there any charge?

 

Tom

[wallyj]

1 hour ago, trbarton said:

I'm curious if anyone has changed their stateroom once on board & what happened & was there any charge?

 

Tom

Your question is too vague. Changed stateroom for what reason or circumstance? If directly related to this thread, if a cabin of same category would be available on embarkation day, normally guest services can accommodate you without additional charges. With most cruises currently being fully booked, I do not see available cabins. 
 

My currently sailing on the Emerald Princess was fully booked, I met passengers with cabin issues that wanted to be moved, but no cabins were available. One passenger told me they were offered FCC for the inconvenience they suffered.

 

Princess has a bidding for upgrade program so complimentary upgrades may happen, but I would assume not as often. Guest services has more flexibility if the sailing is not fully booked. I have had friend’s recently request if upgrade cabins are available and guest services has responded with availability of cabins and rates and also have received a complimentary upgrade upon asking on board. This situation is ship and circumstance dependent.

[SCX22]

If you have a refundable deposit and the fares are still the same, why not cancel the bookings with the current TA, start fresh a new TA and rebook to get the cabins you want?  Your cruise is in the distant future anyway.

[windfair]

10 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

Normally, Princess will allow a change to another cabin in the same category at no charge. I've done it several times (directly booked with Princess).

The rules may be different for groups. If you have five or more cabins booked in a group, you should be getting some small group amenities.

It may not be a good idea to tell other family members to use a different TA for this cruise. If you have eight or more cabins, you should be getting more substantial group amenities. However, all of the cabins have to be booked in a single group, which means they all have to be booked with the same TA.

Another option would be to change one cabin only - not change the people in the other cabins. Once you are onboard, Princess does not care who sleeps in which cabin. You can ask Guest Services onboard to program one medallion to open the doors to more than one cabin - you have to have someone registered in the other cabin there to do that.

You did not say what category your cabins are in. If you have two adjacent balcony cabins, you can ask the steward to open a door between the two balconies (except in a few cases where the cabins are in different areas of the ship.

Thank you! All helpful information. I am going to try to get another family member to book that adjoining room and then move around once on the ship. We are in the cabana balcony cabins. In the 2 cabins we have one adult, and two daredevil twins who will be five, and in the other cabin, an adult and a 10 and 13 year old in the other, it would just be nicer if they could have adjoining cabins.

[windfair]

6 hours ago, SCX22 said:

If you have a refundable deposit and the fares are still the same, why not cancel the bookings with the current TA, start fresh a new TA and rebook to get the cabins you want?  Your cruise is in the distant future anyway.

I did get refundable deposits, but prices have gone up several hundred dollars per cabin. Otherwise, I would cancel and rebook the connecting cabins.

[windfair]

8 hours ago, Thrak said:

Not sure what is going on but sounds like BS from your TA.

I thought so, I don’t think they purposely mislead me, but they don’t know how to help me. It will be a great cruise, but I thought changing cabins would be a fairly easy procedure. Maybe it is a lot of paperwork on their end. I will probably book directly with Princess next time. When I did the online chat with them, they said they won’t be able to change cabins, unless you booked through them. I have to go through my TA.

[Steelers36]

51 minutes ago, windfair said:

I thought so, I don’t think they purposely mislead me, but they don’t know how to help me. It will be a great cruise, but I thought changing cabins would be a fairly easy procedure. Maybe it is a lot of paperwork on their end. I will probably book directly with Princess next time. When I did the online chat with them, they said they won’t be able to change cabins, unless you booked through them. I have to go through my TA.

Can you make it simpler for the TA?  Just identify the cabin you don't want.  Advise the TA you want that booking moved from ABC to XYZ and since they are same cabin category, it is something can be done easily for no charge.  The TA can make the change themselves in POLAR in about 1 minute if they know and use the System.  Otherwise, it's an easy thing for them to do on the phone.

 

You can then move guests around once on board and Guest Services can program the Medallions accordingly.  Come to GS with all the Medallions and one adult from each affected cabin.

 

The TA must be looking at the whole picture and thinking needs to cancel and rebook.  You can change out names on a booking, but one origjnal must remain.  Wait until on board.

[deltahog]

1 hour ago, windfair said:

prices have gone up several hundred dollars per cabin.

This seems key to understanding what might be happening.

[windfair]

On 8/22/2023 at 9:13 AM, Steelers36 said:

Can you make it simpler for the TA?  Just identify the cabin you don't want.  Advise the TA you want that booking moved from ABC to XYZ and since they are same cabin category, it is something can be done easily for no charge.  The TA can make the change themselves in POLAR in about 1 minute if they know and use the System.  Otherwise, it's an easy thing for them to do on the phone.

 

You can then move guests around once on board and Guest Services can program the Medallions accordingly.  Come to GS with all the Medallions and one adult from each affected cabin.

 

The TA must be looking at the whole picture and thinking needs to cancel and rebook.  You can change out names on a booking, but one origjnal must remain.  Wait until on board.

Thank you, Steelers36!  Yes, I called today and got another TA (same company) and switched a cabin to the adjoining cabin I wanted, and then moved my cabin to that side of the ship. So, it was only a total of two cabin changes. We now have the three cabins together on port side with the adjoining room and two cabins on the starboard side. There was no charge, and he said once we get onboard we can fix the names.  The TA today was much more helpful and knowledgable, so it took no time at all.  They did have to call Princess to make the change.  I am very happy with the resolution.  It will be so much nicer for the family of 6 to have adjoining cabins. Hopefully, it won't be a big deal on ship to change names. 

[NavyVeteran]

You may or may not be able to change the "assigned" cabins for the passengers. I have no experience doing that. Perhaps someone else who has done it can provide more information. But just because someone did it on one ship doesn't necessarily mean that someone else can do it on another ship - Princess is not noted for consistency.

However, you will certainly be able to change where the people actually sleep. It is easy to get them to authorize a specific medallion to open another cabin. This only takes a simple request to Guest Services with a person assigned to the other cabin present to authorize it.

If they don't change the "assigned" cabins, then the folios will charge people based on their assigned cabins. It could be a problem if using the phone to order room service, since the charge would go to the cabin the phone call came from. It would not be a problem ordering in person ordering with the app, since a delivery would go to the room where the person actually is (based on medallion location) and the charge would go to the person logged in to the app.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, windfair said:

Thank you, Steelers36!  Yes, I called today and got another TA (same company) and switched a cabin to the adjoining cabin I wanted, and then moved my cabin to that side of the ship. So, it was only a total of two cabin changes. We now have the three cabins together on port side with the adjoining room and two cabins on the starboard side. There was no charge, and he said once we get onboard we can fix the names.  The TA today was much more helpful and knowledgable, so it took no time at all.  They did have to call Princess to make the change.  I am very happy with the resolution.  It will be so much nicer for the family of 6 to have adjoining cabins. Hopefully, it won't be a big deal on ship to change names. 

Love it when a good strategy works.

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

You may or may not be able to change the "assigned" cabins for the passengers. I have no experience doing that. Perhaps someone else who has done it can provide more information. But just because someone did it on one ship doesn't necessarily mean that someone else can do it on another ship - Princess is not noted for consistency.

However, you will certainly be able to change where the people actually sleep. It is easy to get them to authorize a specific medallion to open another cabin. This only takes a simple request to Guest Services with a person assigned to the other cabin present to authorize it.

If they don't change the "assigned" cabins, then the folios will charge people based on their assigned cabins. It could be a problem if using the phone to order room service, since the charge would go to the cabin the phone call came from. It would not be a problem ordering in person ordering with the app, since a delivery would go to the room where the person actually is (based on medallion location) and the charge would go to the person logged in to the app.

I don't think this will be a problem.  The one family will most likely be consolidating charges to one credit card and they are in close proximity.