After a grueling, long, long embarkation where non-"premier members" were held up long after Premier members went into check-in, we arrived inside to find that the cabin (Marina 104) we booked in December 2014 ( and paid extra for, over a balcony guarantee) was taken away from us and we were given a lesser balcony cabin ( D522), in a poorer location. Marina 104 was in the front of the ship, on 15th deck, in a quiet location and nowhere near the much complained about and congested central elevators. M104 had 287 sq ft vs. 233 sq ft for D522 which overlooked the not so attractive life boat and wench equipment. I told the check-in agent that we had printed our luggage tags just four days before coming on the ship and they still said we were in M104. We didn't understand why we were switched since we specified it a year in advance, and paid more money for this cabin. We were told we were getting an upgrade, and that our travel agency had failed to guarantee our room. Funny, we got no less than three confirmations back from Princess during 2015 confirming M104???

When we got on board and saw the cabin we were switched to (D522) on the 9th deck, we went to the Purser twice in period of three hours asking to speak with a supervisor. We knew we had been given a lesser cabin. Customer Service blew us off saying it will take some time to investigate what happened. Next, we began searching for our lost bags which presumably went to M104. The second time we went up there, the new occupant of M104 came out looking for his bags and told us that he booked this room, online, just four days before the cruise. We theorized that the couple must have been Princess "Premier members", and that we got bumped to a lesser cabin to accommodate them. While this was our 24th cruise, this was only our second with Princess.

We went back to the Purser and this time demanded an appointment with the Hotel Director. Within a half an hour, the Customer Service Manager told us we were being moved to M106, next door to the room we had booked a year ago. The view from M104, which we got to see the day we disembarked, was not obstructed ( only had a string of lights from the mast to the front tip of the ship) and it had a very large balcony, as my research, a year prior had indicated. We had great views of the sea and wonderful breezes in our cabin, which would be the same for M104. We loved the front of the ship, how quiet it was, and the front elevators were never congested. Confusion continued for us during the week with Symphony restaurant reservations messed up because they appeared under D522. Worse yet, we were never notified that we were entitled to a free meal at Sabatini's which was part of our package. This was never on any of our confirmations from Princess. Read more