The airline industry has been doing it for years: overbooking flights, then offering passenger great deals to accept alternative flights. Now, as cruise continues to boom, some lines are doing the same.
The Cruise industry has coined a quaint phrase for it: “Move over offers.” In other words, you get a very special offer if you’ll just move off that packed itinerary to another.
They are not to be confused with upgrades and downgrades, which allow passengers to sail on their booked journeys in a different cabin. Downgrades also usually come with some form of compensation.
Princess Cruises appears to operate move over offers most often.
Cruise specialist at Deluxe Travel & Cruise Shazz Summerhayes writes on Facebook: “It’s very common with Princess Cruises. I’ve just had four clients offered to move their cruise from departure this Sunday.”
“We have had four move over offers in last 16 months. We took three of them,” writes Amanda Kennish from Brisbane on Facebook.
Meanwhile lines like Carnival says that they have had to call guests on fewer than a handful of occasions in the eight years that they have been in operation.
“Carnival Cruise Line endeavours to ensure that all guests who make a booking sail with us. They are looking forward to their holiday and we would never want to disappoint them. We very closely manage the inventory on every sailing up until the day of departure,” says the line.
How does it work?
For some, that last minute call can be very good news indeed!
Move over offers are only available for a very limited time (it can be as quick as within a day or two). Princess Cruises states that they are accepted on a first-come-first-served basis. So far, we found that they can be made from 18 days prior to sailing and up to the embarkation day itself.
For Princess Cruises, once passengers accept the offer, they will receive 100 per cent of their cruise fare back as refundable onboard credit, their next Princess Cruise is free and a sum for changing flights and out of pocket expenses. Some offers also include a complimentary upgrade pending availability.
“Usually they refund the full fare by crediting to your onboard account and then sending a cheque for whatever is left over,” writes Princess cruiser Carol Williams on Facebook. And she has taken up Princess’ offer a couple of times.
“Sometimes they suggest a few departures to choose from others and the client has time to choose an alternative,” says Barry Downs, Sales & Marketing Manager at Bicton Travel.
However, he adds that it is not a regular occurrence for his Fremantle clients to receive such offers, but when it is offered, the offer is very generous.
Should I take it?
Many cruisers have taken up the offer as they are great deals. For example, Princess cruiser Debbie Robertson took the offer, booked the same New Zealand to Sydney itinerary sailing at a later date and went from inside cabin on the Diamond Princess to balcony cabin on the Majestic Princess.
Sydneysider Antonique Flatt who was originally booked on Majestic Princess from Sydney to Auckland took the offer, moved up to mini suite from balcony and sailed on Regal Princess out of New York instead. The line also refunded the difference in airfare change, Ms Flatt shares on Facebook.
What’s the catch?
To take advantage of these offers cruisers need a flexible schedule and not be travelling in a large group with a few cabins booked.
Cruisers who passed on the offer often cited reasons such as work commitments and travelling for special events or with family.
Cruisers who have to fly out to their cruise also have to consider the cost of a change in flight and hotel arrangements. Tanya Sutton from Cairns declined the offer for her three-night Sydney roundtrip in September this year as she found that it wasn’t worth it.
“Our cruise was only three days and the airfares for two of us to fly to the port and back were triple the price of the cruise. The move over offered wasn’t worth it once we took in to consideration non-refundable flights and the non-refundable hotel for the night before embarking,” says Ms Sutton.
Tell us your “move over” stories in the comments below.
What is this promotion I have missed out on just completed I think my 26th Cruise.
Turning 90 on 28 February 2020 I would love to be offered a free cruise just for my loyalty. .
Love Cruising to Fiji and around Australia
You want to fill an empty Cabin here I am !!!
I have just read some of the wonderful comments Re: Princess Cruises. My Husband and I would love to take up the chance for an Upgrade or a ” free Cruise”. we are now Elite Cruisers and will be trying out our new Status in the new year on a 3 day Ruby Princess Cruise staying on board on our return trip to wait for our Daughter & her husband to accompany us on our 13 day cruise to New Zealand in Feb. Looking forward to using the New Medallion. We then leave on our old favourite the “Sea Princess” doing a 35 day Cruise to Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand etc. in April/May. We have also booked in 2021 A trip incorporating the Legendary Ghan Train from Darwin to Adelaide and then home again on our favourite the ” Sea Princess ( would love an Upgrade for this one please.) Our very first Cruise was on the Dawn Princess & Indian Pacific. Loved them both.
We were offered a move over from Majestic Princess in 2018 in August just days before the cruise. On contacting Princess we accepted the change to our cruise as the offer paid for half our 46 day Africa and India cruise around the Indian Ocean. This was meant to be as our younger daughter was hospitalised 3 days later with vasculitis and is still in hospital today – 16 months and just beginning rehab. We did manage the cruise on Majestic Princess in August/September 2019. We are elite passengers and now only cruise with Princess.
We went on a sampler cruise in 2015
On the Golden Princess from Sydney to Melbourne for 3 nights.
We flew from Melbourne to Sydney especially to go on this Cruise being our first cruise.
We loved it. Great ship, great food and hospitality. We were very well looked after.
We are certainly looking forward to a longer cruise one day. It would be nice if Princess Cruises had a bit more destinations out of Melbourne. As in more up North.
i love princess cruises my wife and I have been with them since 1978 we are retired and elite so any cruise suits us we have 2 booked next year 1 in February 25th for 14 days and another in November 29th we could change either of these with a good offer
We think Princess is the best but never had an upgrade or move over.
extremely happy to take a freebie.
Lynne McGregor King.
I would be happy to be involved in any move over deals Princess has to offer. I am now an Elite member and not tied to work commitments anymore.
How do I get on the lists for these move over offers?
We were offered to vacate our mini-suite on the Majestic Princess to New Zealand for an inside cabin – same cruise – and we would receive our entire fare refunded. Naturally we accepted, had a lovely cruise in a very comfortable, large inside room for nothing!
I am just sitting here and it’s great and waiting for your call to come and enjoy a cruise with the best of the very very best.
I am one of the very poor persons but don’t have any problems in cruising.
From the age of 4 I’ve always loved the sea.
My father was a First Mechanical Engineer with Luke Thomas and sometimes he would take me with him.
I love the sea and hoping I can get a complimentary 14 days cruising the seas.
Thanking you,
Anthony Sorotos
we Judith and david boulter would be able to take cruises anytime as we are retired and love cruising with prinvcess we have only had a upgrade once after cruising since 1978 we are elite and have done 546 days
My wife and l were offered a move over by Princess cruise line and we took it. Our 10 day Japan cruise was cancelled in full with air flight credits and out of pocket expenses.
Two months latter we flew out of Sydney to Barcelona for a 21 day complimentary Mediterranean cruise on the Diamond Princess.
We were the happy recipients of a move over cruise in 2017.
Offer was as stated in this article from Princess.
Ouf first ever cruise… we took the offer and cruised Alaska.
We would love to take part in this sort of promotion. My husband is retiring in April 2020, so we will be footloose and fancy free!
Put me on the list for this Princess happy to go on next cruise if you have overbooked mine
Love to cruise anytime especially with princess cruises
That would be great I need a free holiday just email me and I’ll be there thanks ⚓️⚓️
email me anytime with offers such as the “Move over” or upgrades etc.
I am always open to offers. Have traveled many times with Princess and always enjoyed them.
We are always ready to go cruising with Princess as these are the best cruise ship we have travel on to many different parts of the world.
Love cruising. Add in the benefits of having ELITE statis makes it even better. The one down side is now that I am single is the cost. Double the price of twin share is a bit over the top. Surly this can be addressed. Also more cruises leaving Fremantle would be great.
We are an elderly couple and Elite status with Princess – our favourite and preferred cruise line for many years. We now restrict our cruises to Australian departures because of age
I’m now retired and can go any time away. I prefer to sail out of
Brisbane due to the expense of air fares, I have two booked nearly
back to back early in Jan, but one leaves from Adelaide and the other
From Sydney. I’m an elite customer which I’m proud to say to any of
my friends or family. I’ve been Looking for a cruise to take around
May,June,July next year and all I can find are the world cruises. Our
winter is not like other countries and I’m disappointed that the ships
are sent away from Australia during that period. My hope now is that
I find a relocation cruise that comes back to a Australia.
Happy Cruising, because I sure will.
We have just entered the Elite status on Princess and loving the little perks. Would love a upgrade on our next cruise. Have my fingers crossed for a cruise to the Mediterranean May 2020.
We were offered a Princess ‘move over’ just prior to Easter in 2015. We were booked on a Hong Kong to Japan cruise and offered the full refund, a fair deal to alter our flight arrangements and a 12 day free cruise. I recall the original was only 7 days. We thought the offer was very generous and as the alteration did not really inconvenience us , we gratefully accepted and cruised a couple of weeks later.
We booked a 7 day sector of a world cruise with Princess a few years ago from Sydney to Fremantle to visit family. Our travel agency rang us 2 days before sailing and told us that our cruise was overbooked. Princess offered us too good a deal to refuse if we did not sail. A free cruise up to 17 days anywhere in the world, the cost of our cruise as OBC, $2000.00 cash and they paid for our airfares to Perth. We only had a few hours to decide otherwise the offer would be pulled and offered to someone else. It sounded to good to be true! We got it all in writing and decided it was too good to pass up.It was a shock at the time as we were looking forward to the cruise instead of flying to Perth. We were lucky enough that we were flexible and took the offer up of course. 8 months later we sailed from Sydney to Honolulu, using all the offers and had a brilliant cruise and that holiday barely cost us a more than a few dollars. Thank you Princess Cruises. We are Elite customers.
I have been on carnival before and enjoyed it very much. I’m a widow now so would be a solo passenger but I could bring my 18year old grandaughter. I really could do with a free holiday on a cruise ship.
My father and I travel on Princess quite regularly and think they are by far the best. Are off on Ruby Princess for the Christmas Cruise but would be ready to go any day if we were offered a free cruise. Dad will be 100 in January and a free cruise would just make his day.
Just completed 28 days LAX to Sydney on the Ruby Princess.
It was amazing in all respects from the moment i stepped on board, the staff could not do enough for you, bedding was so so comfortable, Cruise director Arron was good and food was great. Wish i could do it all again soon.
Nearly booked a cruise last night but had a feeling that I should,t …next morning I remembered that we had a previous booking…..I think we need a holiday.
Long overdue for a cruise, so could really do with some time away with the wife. Looking forward to your surprise email:)
We took a ‘downgrade’. Offered a restricted view balcony in place of open balcony on same cruise and refunded half the fare. Worth it.
We were offered a move over cruise 5 days before departure on a 27 day cruise to Mediterranean from Singapore. It suited us to accept, and a month later, we had a magnificent 31 day cruise from Sydney to Hawaii, returning via Tahiti to Auckland. Flight change costs were all covered, and we had credit in our bank account at the end of the cruise. What could be better. We used that money towards booking the original Mediterranean cruise this year. Thank you, Princess Cruises.
we should have sailed from Adelaide on the 1st November 2019 but we received a move over on the 31st October 2019 offering us a free cruise up to 22 nights any where in the world plus what we paid in OBC and what we don’t spend we get back as a refundable credit we also get an upgrade to outside depending on availability as we have been to the Sth Pacific a few times it only took me a few seconds to say yes, we have now booked a 17 night departing from Adelaide return via NZ on Sapphire in Oct. 2020.
Please give me a call can be ready in no time.
Would love that to happen free anytime to take a cruise just send me an email.
Patricia and I are undertaking two cruises in 2020. The first is in March, leaving Ft Lauderdale for the westbound Atlantic to Pacific transit of the Panama Canal. We will be aboard “Emerald Princess” for the 15-day cruise. Our second cruise is leaving from Barcelona, visiting multiple Mediterranean port destinations, then transiting the Suez Canal; to eventually disembark at Dubai. This is aboard MSC “Seaview” for the 21-day Grand Voyage.
So we are ‘doing’ two major canals in the same year.
We are avid cruisers, always seeking new experiences. We enjoy “Diamond” loyalty status with RCI and “Black” card status with MSC.
Would be nice to be offered a “free” cruise? Perhaps one day?
Just enjoyed a wonderful back to back cruise on the Majestic Princess cruising around the Fiji Islands for two weeks and then New Zealand for thirteen days which we thoroughly enjoyed albeit we had three rough sailing days on the return journey across the infamous ‘ditch’.
Princess Cruises we need more cruises out of Fremantle!
Princess you have done it again !!! We miss out each time we book.We must jump in too early. Leave here Brisbane on Sunday for just a short one the coast and back to Brisbane 7 days. Have another booked for about a years time will not travel with any other cruise line Have had 5 or 6 already and loved them all Now we are living In Queensland we only wish to go on any from here.
We had our bags packed for a cruise around New Zealand from Melbourne with Princess when we were offered a full refund and an upgrade to take the following cruise. We had nothing on so accepted and spent the next two weeks pretending we were on holiday at home before taking the cruise.