Is this booking policy new? Is it widespread??

[Drizzle66]

Well, here's a new one for me...

I spent quite some time on the phone with my VERY earnest and diligent agent today trying to arrange a booking on the Enchanted Princess for January 2025.

One of the reasons I like to book early is so that I can choose specific cabins based on my research -- those with larger balconies, or other 'hidden gems'. I take great pleasure in this.

But today, after wasting quite a lot of my agent's valuable time searching THE ENTIRE SHIP, it seems Princess has reserved EVERY "Deluxe Balcony" stateroom on the ship for "Guarantee status". There was NOT ONE cabin in that category that wasn't 'held hostage' to that booking status!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?? If I was within 90 days or so of final payment, I'd completely understand. BUT 1 1/4 YEARS???

It seems to me that people like me (who know specifically what they want, and appreciate the better experience of a deluxe vs. standard balcony cabin) would be among Princess's better customers. So why would they create a policy like this that seems specifically intended to piss us off?? Not good form, Princess! (Dang, I miss Jan Swartz!!)

Anyone know any ways through this? I know what I want, and will always be a tad resentful if I am denied it -- especially on terms as blatantly screwy as this.

 

I am more than willing to settle for a "Deluxe Balcony" cabin without the 'special features' I was gleefully searching for. But I am NOT willing to book into that category on "Guarantee status" only to have Princess arbitrarily put me into a space of THEIR choosing that could be under endless scraping chairs, or above the boom-boom-boom of a dance-floor, etc... This staggers belief!

[iamaqt2]

4 minutes ago, Drizzle66 said:

Well, here's a new one for me...

I spent quite some time on the phone with my VERY earnest and diligent agent today trying to arrange a booking on the Enchanted Princess for January 2025.

One of the reasons I like to book early is so that I can choose specific cabins based on my research -- those with larger balconies, or other 'hidden gems'. I take great pleasure in this.

But today, after wasting quite a lot of my agent's valuable time searching THE ENTIRE SHIP, it seems Princess has reserved EVERY "Deluxe Balcony" stateroom on the ship for "Guarantee status". There was NOT ONE cabin in that category that wasn't 'held hostage' to that booking status!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?? If I was within 90 days or so of final payment, I'd completely understand. BUT 1 1/4 YEARS???

It seems to me that people like me (who know specifically what they want, and appreciate the better experience of a deluxe vs. standard balcony cabin) would be among Princess's better customers. So why would they create a policy like this that seems specifically intended to piss us off?? Not good form, Princess! (Dang, I miss Jan Swartz!!)

Anyone know any ways through this? I know what I want, and will always be a tad resentful if I am denied it -- especially on terms as blatantly screwy as this.

 

I am more than willing to settle for a "Deluxe Balcony" cabin without the 'special features' I was gleefully searching for. But I am NOT willing to book into that category on "Guarantee status" only to have Princess arbitrarily put me into a space of THEIR choosing that could be under endless scraping chairs, or above the boom-boom-boom of a dance-floor, etc... This staggers belief!

Are you looking at one of the 10 day bookings or the 20 day B2B booking they're offering?  A lot of times these cabins will show available if you search the 10 day, but they block the 20 day.

[boeckli]

To check for real availability on deluxe balconies you need to do a mock booking for 3 passengers (1 or 2 will only show guarantees).

Once you have found your desired available cabin, contact your CVP or Princess to make the reservation for your party of one or two passengers. 

I have done it through my CVP without problems.

Edited November 28, 2023 by boeckli

[Drizzle66]

4 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

Are you looking at one of the 10 day bookings or the 20 day B2B booking they're offering?  A lot of times these cabins will show available if you search the 10 day, but they block the 20 day.

 It's a 10 day booking.  Someone else had suggested that it might have been available if I'd been booking the 20 day... <grin>  

I believe it was reserved for "Guarantee", either way...

[Drizzle66]

4 minutes ago, boeckli said:

To check for real availability on deluxe balconies you need to do a mock booking for 3 passengers (1 or 2 will only show guarantees).

Once you have found your desired available cabin, contact your CVP or Princess to make the reservation for your party of one or two passengers. 

I have done it through my CVP without problems.

Wow!  Such sleazy games they play! 😢

[trbarton]

1 hour ago, Drizzle66 said:

Well, here's a new one for me...

I spent quite some time on the phone with my VERY earnest and diligent agent today trying to arrange a booking on the Enchanted Princess for January 2025.

One of the reasons I like to book early is so that I can choose specific cabins based on my research -- those with larger balconies, or other 'hidden gems'. I take great pleasure in this.

But today, after wasting quite a lot of my agent's valuable time searching THE ENTIRE SHIP, it seems Princess has reserved EVERY "Deluxe Balcony" stateroom on the ship for "Guarantee status". There was NOT ONE cabin in that category that wasn't 'held hostage' to that booking status!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?? If I was within 90 days or so of final payment, I'd completely understand. BUT 1 1/4 YEARS???

It seems to me that people like me (who know specifically what they want, and appreciate the better experience of a deluxe vs. standard balcony cabin) would be among Princess's better customers. So why would they create a policy like this that seems specifically intended to piss us off?? Not good form, Princess! (Dang, I miss Jan Swartz!!)

Anyone know any ways through this? I know what I want, and will always be a tad resentful if I am denied it -- especially on terms as blatantly screwy as this.

 

I am more than willing to settle for a "Deluxe Balcony" cabin without the 'special features' I was gleefully searching for. But I am NOT willing to book into that category on "Guarantee status" only to have Princess arbitrarily put me into a space of THEIR choosing that could be under endless scraping chairs, or above the boom-boom-boom of a dance-floor, etc... This staggers belief!

Interesting….Do you have a T/A that might be able to help?

 

Tom😀

[Cruisintimer]

2 hours ago, Drizzle66 said:

Well, here's a new one for me...

I spent quite some time on the phone with my VERY earnest and diligent agent today trying to arrange a booking on the Enchanted Princess for January 2025.

One of the reasons I like to book early is so that I can choose specific cabins based on my research -- those with larger balconies, or other 'hidden gems'. I take great pleasure in this.

But today, after wasting quite a lot of my agent's valuable time searching THE ENTIRE SHIP, it seems Princess has reserved EVERY "Deluxe Balcony" stateroom on the ship for "Guarantee status". There was NOT ONE cabin in that category that wasn't 'held hostage' to that booking status!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?? If I was within 90 days or so of final payment, I'd completely understand. BUT 1 1/4 YEARS???

It seems to me that people like me (who know specifically what they want, and appreciate the better experience of a deluxe vs. standard balcony cabin) would be among Princess's better customers. So why would they create a policy like this that seems specifically intended to piss us off?? Not good form, Princess! (Dang, I miss Jan Swartz!!)

Anyone know any ways through this? I know what I want, and will always be a tad resentful if I am denied it -- especially on terms as blatantly screwy as this.

 

I am more than willing to settle for a "Deluxe Balcony" cabin without the 'special features' I was gleefully searching for. But I am NOT willing to book into that category on "Guarantee status" only to have Princess arbitrarily put me into a space of THEIR choosing that could be under endless scraping chairs, or above the boom-boom-boom of a dance-floor, etc... This staggers belief!

Yes I have had the same issues primarily on one of the newest ships.  I too want to be able to choose the location of our cabin.  Previously I always did my own bookings, now I am using a Princess Cruise Planner.  I was told on-board our last cruise that they have blocks of cabins they have access to.  I am quite surprised your Travel Agent had so much difficulty.  Hope you get the cabin you desire. Happy Cruising!  Please come back and keep us posted as to what you find out in the future.

[kywildcatfanone]

6 hours ago, Drizzle66 said:

But today, after wasting quite a lot of my agent's valuable time searching THE ENTIRE SHIP, it seems Princess has reserved EVERY "Deluxe Balcony" stateroom on the ship for "Guarantee status". There was NOT ONE cabin in that category that wasn't 'held hostage' to that booking status!!!

They are trying to force people to book guarantees so they control cabin locations they give out and will upcharge for specific cabins.  They have been doing this for a while now.  I do see a few sailings here and there where you can still find a cabin, but I suspect it's based upon the percentage of bookings at that time and once they hit a specific number, those cabins disappear. 

[SargassoPirate]

6 hours ago, Drizzle66 said:

Wow!  Such sleazy games they play! 😢

That's how they fill those known to be less desirable cabins. Then they can "upgrade" an unsuspecting passenger into one of those cabins and then sell the newly vacant one.

[lx200gps]

3 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

They are trying to force people to book guarantees so they control cabin locations they give out and will upcharge for specific cabins.  They have been doing this for a while now.  I do see a few sailings here and there where you can still find a cabin, but I suspect it's based upon the percentage of bookings at that time and once they hit a specific number, those cabins disappear. 

We're contemplating a Deluxe Balcony on a Regal sailing in Feb 2025. The ship still shows completely wide open, only a very small number of any cabins are taken, and when I search for DBs, using the "3 passenger" trick, pretty much every one is still available, maybe 5% are showing as already booked. Sadly, our long time TA insists she can't book a DB for us, claiming they're Guarantee only so we will have to resort to either calling Princess, or using a CVP, then hopefully transferring the booking back to our TA.

[lx200gps]

9 hours ago, boeckli said:

To check for real availability on deluxe balconies you need to do a mock booking for 3 passengers (1 or 2 will only show guarantees).

Once you have found your desired available cabin, contact your CVP or Princess to make the reservation for your party of one or two passengers. 

I have done it through my CVP without problems.

Thanks for the tip. We use a TA who insists she can't book Deluxe Balconies, so I will have to resort to either calling Princess and waiting on hold for hours, or use the services of a CVP, which we've never done. We get MANY Emails from Princess under the name of a certain CVP, though we've never used her. Any idea how (or whether) it would work if I contacted her, got her to book a specific DB that we want, then transferred the booking to our usual TA?

[TAW1963]

15 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Thanks for the tip. We use a TA who insists she can't book Deluxe Balconies, so I will have to resort to either calling Princess and waiting on hold for hours, or use the services of a CVP, which we've never done. We get MANY Emails from Princess under the name of a certain CVP, though we've never used her. Any idea how (or whether) it would work if I contacted her, got her to book a specific DB that we want, then transferred the booking to our usual TA?

This issue, of almost every premium deluxe or regular deluxe balconies being guarantee only, has frustrated me since I started booking cruises on Princess late last year (2022).  It makes no sense that one can book with 3 people and have your choice of a cabins, but cannot with 2 people.   Either way (guarantee or not), a cabin is taken up and reserved, so the argument that they are saving them for 3 or more people is erroneous.  

 

I haven't used a TA, nor CVP, but calling Princess direct has always worked.   First, find the cabins that are available just as suggested by doing a mock booking for 3.  Call Princess and have the agent book the cabin that you would like with three people (I use my mothers name as the third passenger) and then dropping the third passenger (my mother in my case).  This leaves the booking with 2 people, and I pay the deposit for 2 people only.  I have done this several times and have never had a problem.

 

I am pretty sure that you can then transfer your booking to your TA.

 

Good luck!

Edited November 28, 2023 by TAW1963

[lx200gps]

6 minutes ago, TAW1963 said:

This issue, of almost every premium deluxe or regular deluxe balconies being guarantee only, has frustrated me since I started booking cruises on Princess late last year (2022).  It makes no sense that one can book with 3 people and have your choice of a cabins, but cannot with 2 people.   Either way (guarantee or not), a cabin is taken up and reserved, so the argument that they are saving them for 3 or more people is erroneous.  

 

I haven't used a TA, nor CVP, but calling Princess direct has always worked.   First, find the cabins that are available just as suggested by doing a mock booking for 3.  Call Princess and have the agent book the cabin that you would like with three people (I use my mothers name as the third passenger) and then dropping the third passenger (my mother in my case).  This leaves the booking with 2 people, and I pay the deposit for 2 people only.  I have done this several times and have never had a problem.

 

I am pretty sure that you can then transfer your booking to your TA.

 

Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm only a bit hesitant to call Princess myself, as my last few experiences with doing that haven't worked too well (LONG waits on hold, dropped calls etc; one time I called and when the call went through, all I heard was the agent screaming at her kids in the background, then the line went dead ;o)  We do get lots of Emails from one Princess CVP, so I'll try and book through her first and see what happens.

[TAW1963]

Just now, lx200gps said:

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm only a bit hesitant to call Princess myself, as my last few experiences with doing that haven't worked too well (LONG waits on hold, dropped calls etc; one time I called and when the call went through, all I heard was the agent screaming at her kids in the background, then the line went dead ;o)  We do get lots of Emails from one Princess CVP, so I'll try and book through her first and see what happens.

Good luck, I hope you are successful.  I have not had problems with calling for new bookings, but perhaps I have just be lucky.  I was on the Sky Princess for the transatlantic from Nov 10-25, and tried to do a booking with the boss of the Future Cruise Consultants onboard.  He emphatically said that he could not book these cabins and that they showed as guarantee only.  I told him I do it all the time (with adding the third person and then dropping) and he suggested that is was a glitch.  Glitch or not, it is a pain. I told him I would buy a future cruise deposit and then book when I got home.  That is exactly what I did. 

[boeckli]

I have not had to use the 'add and then drop third person' trick, simply booked for what I required.  

Interestingly you can book a mini-suite for one or two pax without any workaround, even though they also hold three 🤔

I can't comment on whether you can transfer booking to your TA as I don't use one.

[PacnGoNow]

1 hour ago, TAW1963 said:

This issue, of almost every premium deluxe or regular deluxe balconies being guarantee only, has frustrated me since I started booking cruises on Princess late last year (2022).  It makes no sense that one can book with 3 people and have your choice of a cabins, but cannot with 2 people.   Either way (guarantee or not), a cabin is taken up and reserved, so the argument that they are saving them for 3 or more people is erroneous.  

 

I haven't used a TA, nor CVP, but calling Princess direct has always worked.   First, find the cabins that are available just as suggested by doing a mock booking for 3.  Call Princess and have the agent book the cabin that you would like with three people (I use my mothers name as the third passenger) and then dropping the third passenger (my mother in my case).  This leaves the booking with 2 people, and I pay the deposit for 2 people only.  I have done this several times and have never had a problem.

 

I am pretty sure that you can then transfer your booking to your TA.

 

Good luck!

When you drop the third…when do you do that?  At FP, or before? Don’t they reprice the cabin then? Sometimes the price could be different.  Just curious.  TIA

[Drizzle66]

10 hours ago, trbarton said:

Interesting….Do you have a T/A that might be able to help?

 

Tom😀

Waiting to see if my T/A can find a way through this....

[Host CJSKIDS]

I find this to be equally as frustrating when booking my latest cruise and just couldn't believe there were no cabins to book and only gty.  Luckily my CVP was able to book us an actual cabin.  

Princess appears to be making it that we can't book ourselves on line.  Not sure what their reasoning could be at all on this one.  Questioning a lot about their reasoning is lately.

 

Hopefully @Drizzle66 your TA is able to actually book a cabin. Have you thought about booking it directly with Princess if they can assign one and then transferring to your TA?

[Lady Arwen]

 My CVP is able to “see” these cabins and book our choice for two passengers.  Princess keeps them as guaranteed cabins because they do sleep three passengers.  Just booked L101 on Enchanted for Canada/New England.  Online showed guarantee only and my CVP did her thing and voila!

[MJC]

If you want to transfer the booking to your TA there is a time limit, I think 30 days? So don't take your time. Learned the hard way.

[Drizzle66]

11 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

I find this to be equally as frustrating when booking my latest cruise and just couldn't believe there were no cabins to book and only gty.  Luckily my CVP was able to book us an actual cabin.  

Princess appears to be making it that we can't book ourselves on line.  Not sure what their reasoning could be at all on this one.  Questioning a lot about their reasoning is lately.

 

Hopefully @Drizzle66 your TA is able to actually book a cabin. Have you thought about booking it directly with Princess if they can assign one and then transferring to your TA?

I'm waiting for my TA to respond to a couple of questions I've sent her.  I'd like to give her a chance to work this out for me.  I feel timid about going straight to Princess, as if I'm 'cheating on her', but if she can't sort it out, I might give that a try -- and see if I can switch it back.  

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see what she says about the idea of booking for 3, and then dropping...

[TAW1963]

59 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

When you drop the third…when do you do that?  At FP, or before? Don’t they reprice the cabin then? Sometimes the price could be different.  Just curious.  TIA

I have the third person dropped immediately when making the reservations and never pay a deposit for the third person.   It only takes the agents a few minutes to book with a third person and then immediately drop the third person.   The price for the first two, and final two, guests has always stayed the same.   I hope this helps.   

[memoak]

2 hours ago, boeckli said:

I have not had to use the 'add and then drop third person' trick, simply booked for what I required.  

Interestingly you can book a mini-suite for one or two pax without any workaround, even though they also hold three 🤔

I can't comment on whether you can transfer booking to your TA as I don't use one.

We sail in suites and same thing no problem choosing specific ones. Even when I sea h for balconies I see many cabins to choose from. Do I have a special personalizer ?

[TAW1963]

48 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

 My CVP is able to “see” these cabins and book our choice for two passengers.  Princess keeps them as guaranteed cabins because they do sleep three passengers.  Just booked L101 on Enchanted for Canada/New England.  Online showed guarantee only and my CVP did her thing and voila!

I have gone with aft-facing Premium Deluxe Balconies on the Royal class ships before, but for our next 4 cruises (two on Discovery and two on Majestic)  have booked either L101 or L102.   I am hoping we like it up front as well as we do the aft.  

[Lady Arwen]

I’m sure you’ll love the size of the balconies.  A party for 12 would be no problem!  Yes, they provide you with plenty of the motion of the ocean whilst at sea, but we do not have issues with this.  The metal front railing of the balcony is a problem for some people because it does impede your view of the sea.  Yes, it can get windy up there, so be prepared.  You have to keep your drapes drawn at night to not impact the navigation on the bridge.
 

 If you use the facilities and the buffet on Lido then this location is ideal.  We don’t eat in the buffet, but we like to grab some cheese and crackers and other nibbles to keep in the cabin.  Longer walk to the elevators, but we don’t  mind.  On shorter cruises, 7 nights, we like these cabins.  Longer than this we prefer a mini suite.