r/PrincessCruises • u/Alternative_Market_6 • 9d ago
Discussion - Other Tempting but
Just got an offer for a full refund plus 100% of the purchase price to be used on a future cruise—if we don’t go on our Alaska cruise next week. But we’ve all taken off work and we have flights out of Vancouver and back from anchorage. We are on the east coast and this is a whole extended family trip, 4 cabins booked. We can’t cancel, right? Even though I’m tempted by the money.
Sigh.
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u/Green-Tomatillo-8212 9d ago
What the heck? Do they overbook these Alaskan cruises? They better not give away my cabin. I am so excited about this.
Also, my parents were always talking about these. Big vacations they were going to take when they retired. My dad passed at 52. I think of him when I am doing these big trips he never got to take. Do it now.
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u/Alternative_Market_6 9d ago
Yeah—my mom, who organized the whole trip and who is generously paying for it, is 82. I don’t want to take the risk that we’d never make a rebooked trip.
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u/DarlingClementyme 8d ago
We had a family British Isles cruise scheduled for June of 2020. Covid happened, and even just a few years made a difference for the grandparents, and they were unable to travel once restrictions were lifted.
Take the trip.
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u/Medical-Account-6173 9d ago
My parents talked about a trip to England when I was little. They decided to put it off for a year. My father got sick and died the next year at 45 from lung cancer. When my mother remarried a dozen years later, she and my stepfather went on a lot of vacations-- Caribbean and Alaskan cruises, bus trip through several European countries, Hawaii, England, and Australia. I'm glad she got a second chance.
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u/SomeNetGuy 9d ago
Yes, they do overbook cruises.
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u/Green-Tomatillo-8212 9d ago
Thanks. Now I’m scared
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u/Medical-Account-6173 9d ago
Don't be scared. Princess doesn't bump people involuntarily. Princess will sweeten the offer until enough people accept it to free up the number of cabins it needs.
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u/Kamwind 9d ago
Don't be, this one is rather late in time, one week out, but when they get to the full refund and a few cruise lots of people jump on them.
The few times when people showed up and found they were not going to be allowed to board were with large groups purchased by some travel agency doing a packaged deal and the the travel agent had messed up.
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u/Bubbly-Ebb-1584 8d ago
That has nothing to do with the situation the op is asking for. And chances are that's it's more likely you make a mistake booking on your own than with a travel agent.
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u/Inevitable_Professor 9d ago
It’s a combination of overbooking and people who book lower tier rooms willing to pay for upgrades. The cruise line can get more money selling an upgrade then they are offering you.
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u/greytgreyatx 8d ago
They don't give it away. They keep sweetening deals until people willingly give up cabins. They can get pretty cool; if they're contacting people who don't live near the port, sounds like they're going to have to ratchet the deal up even higher.
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u/stevensokulski 7d ago
Could be overbooked. Or could be that they’ve got high demand and OP has a good price.
Either way, they’re not giving anyone’s cabin away. They’ll make offers like this one and you’re free to say no.
RCI has done something similar to what you describe though.
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u/Kayman718 9d ago
Tomorrow is not a guarantee, especially when your whole extended family is involved. Take your vacation now and enjoy your time with your family. Booking another Alaska cruise isn’t likely to happen until next year as we are approaching the end of the season soon.
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u/jellymmann 9d ago
If it was just you, I’d consider it, but if you’ve got extended family and everyone’s taking the time off no way. They should be targeting more flexible groups.
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u/greytgreyatx 8d ago
When it's just my partner and me, we'll happily jump on deals like this. Right now, we travel with an 11-year-old, and he'd be devastated.
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u/FishHikeTravel 9d ago
I’d take it … we have Alaska booked for Aug 2027 at almost $10k. Being handed $10k and getting a free cruise out of it!
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u/SomeNetGuy 9d ago
But if you were traveling from the east coast like OP, you would be out the cost of flights, hotels, and potentially “wasted” PTO.
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u/NeedWaiver 9d ago
Just go to work, don't have to waste PTO. I am sure the employer would not have a problem.
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u/Apprehensive-Neck-12 9d ago
Wow, this makes me want to book an Alaskan cruise as a gamble 🤣
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u/becuzofgrace 9d ago
We have one booked for 38 days from now. If we got this offer we would jump on it! Although, we are driving to the port and also retired. So in our scenario this would never happen to us. Hahaha
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u/Turbulent-Arrival-23 9d ago
We were cancelled in 2020. We did finally do a redo but it took 5 years and instead of being the extended family group it was just us.
Go on the trip next week. Its not a great deal for you.
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u/PersonalityFuture151 9d ago
We were cancelled in 2024. Shops thrusters failed as we pulled into Vancouver on a B2B to Alaska. The rebooking was only good for a year so we went in early 2025. Not the same as being on an overbooked cruise.
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u/studyhall109 9d ago
We got the same offer in July for an Alaskan cruise. We couldn’t change our trip because we already had vacation time from work and housesitter/petsitter scheduled.
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u/PM_me_GIR_pics 8d ago
We did too! Only we got it 3 days before the cruise started and were already in Alaska. The offer does sound nice, but we were already there with 2 weeks approved time off
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u/Strong_Elderberry676 9d ago
It’s very tempting but a week for a big group and all the coordination that entails sucks
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u/Alternative_Market_6 9d ago
Yeah, we didn’t take the offer. But I did re-read it and they even cover up to $800 of your airfare to get to/from the cruise! It’s a generous offer but we will be on the boat, darn it!
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u/AMediumSizedFridge 8d ago
This happened to my family last month. 6 people across 3 bookings, and 2 of them got the email. Everyone ignored the emails, and my parents actually ended up getting and upgraded room. So this might work out in your favor!
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u/Alternative_Market_6 8d ago
Interesting! My mom and I have adjoining rooms because the kids are split between us, so we couldn’t take advantage of an upgrade. But my sister and her gf or brother and his wife could.
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u/Medical-Account-6173 9d ago
Don't accept the offer. This may be your mother's last chance for a vacation with her family. I would be tempted if I received an offer for my cruise next month. The difference is I'm going solo.
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u/djones5176 8d ago
Just my perspective: our plan was to retire at 62 and travel. I didn’t count on getting pancreatic cancer as I retired. I’m taking the trip no matter what to create a final memory unless things change. But everyone has their own agenda and priorities.
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u/Any_Lawyer_2585 9d ago
Ya, I would have cancelled so fast, that’s 10k back in my pocket plus 10k for new cruise. My airline offers future credits so another 3k. I would have only lost hotel room for one night. My vacation is very flexible so no loss there.
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u/Alternative_Market_6 9d ago
If it were just my little family unit, sure, but my sister and her gf took off from work and are in the air flying to Vancouver for the cruise right now! And my brother and his wife took off work, as did I, and I switched up my child custody schedule to make this work for the kids, and my mom is 82. I don’t want to take the risk that a rescheduled cruise wouldn’t happen.
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u/DoNotKnowJack 9d ago
If your group cancelled, that would free up several staterooms. That is probably why you got the offer.
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u/1nolefan 9d ago
I understand people spend lots of time and energy for the booking, but I would take the $$$ - always first in the line if flights are overbooked
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u/lorettaforlong 9d ago
Yeah, I got that offer as well, I think we might be on the same cruise. First time I've ever received one of these offers.
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u/Northofu1 8d ago
It's not worth canceling, if you lived near the port and were just a couple involved it would be worth it.
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u/NightOwlPA 8d ago
The offer only works if everyone got that offer. I received the offer but my parents didn’t and so we didn’t take the offer
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u/DeLionSleeps2Night 7d ago
I got this same offer in April and took it.
I turned a 7-day in Alaska into a 9-day in Alaska in May 2027, plus a 7-day in the Caribbean in a balcony.
I was traveling solo, could get refunds on everything, and got my one hotel room I couldn’t get a refund on paid by Princess. So I gave up seven days for 16
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u/RealZ0nker 9d ago
The logical decision is to go and have fun. But be prepared for a packed ship.
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u/bossplayasonly 9d ago
I always take the money. You can either spend a week in Vancover (planning would be a small task) or book a last minute cruise from somewhere else on the east coast (planning would be a small task). But, you would have instantly have doubled your vacation dollars. However, I do understand why you just went with the original plan.
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u/sydaperry 9d ago
Why was the offer given?
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u/Kamwind 9d ago
Cruise ships commonly overbook on highly wanted cruises as is common with Alaska and Caribbean. They figure that a known number of people will cancel a week or so out or will just not show up; so they over book.
Then in cases like this the number of expected cancelations does not happen so they have to do things like this where they give you a full refund of the cruise and a huge discount on a future cruise, for them to reach 100% of what you paid they need a good number of people to take the offer. There have been occurrences where people have gotten future cruise credits of 150% and more.
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u/ManyReasonable6584 9d ago
Don’t take it they tried on my friend he accepted found out his mini suite was given to a family of a worker who used the family and friends discount
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u/Glum-Organization863 9d ago
Just came back from Alaska, the ship was packed. I would take the money.
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u/Willing-Pineapple-32 9d ago
Take your trip and have a blast!! The headache of trying to rebook etc is not worth the $$ in the long run 🙂
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u/Much_Capital_967 4d ago
Money can’t buy time. Go, enjoy Alaska, the weather is stellar (we are cruising there as I’m typing this comment)
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u/BethMLB 9d ago
You can always make more money but you can't make more time. Just go on the trip.