She Paid Extra to Choose a Cruise Cabin Near Her Family. Months Later, She Checked Her Booking and Saw Deck 9 Instead of Deck 15. What Happened Next Made Her Even Angrier

I just watched a video from a cruise passenger, and my first question was: how can this happen?

A few days ago, I shared the story of a solo traveler who says two men entered her cruise cabin while she was showering. More recently, a United passenger sat beside his wife for about 25 minutes when his boarding pass suddenly changed and sent him 18 rows farther back, and an 83-year-old traveler whose son says he booked him First Class with miles, only to be downgraded at the gate.

This time, however, the disputed assignment wasn’t an airplane seat. It was a cruise cabin the passenger says she deliberately chose and paid extra for months earlier because she wanted to be near family.

TikTok creator CruisinSusan says she booked a balcony cabin on a cruise ship back in February. When I checked the video, it had over 7,500 views, 71 comments, and 20 shares, with much of the discussion focusing on whether Princess was entitled to move her and, just as importantly, why she says nobody told her it had happened.

ID 161122806 ©Cristim77 | Dreamstime.com 

She Had Chosen Deck 15 for a Reason

Susan, who posts as @traveladdiction26, explained that she hadn’t simply selected any available balcony cabin. She wanted to stay near family, preferred the back of the ship, and specifically wanted deck 15 because it was close to the Lido deck on Regal Princess.

“I booked back in February on Regal Princess a balcony cabin. I chose because I wanted to be near family, and I also wanted deck 15. I wanted to be near the Lido deck. I had my reasons.”

For months, as far as she knew, that was where she would be staying. She says she only discovered the change when she went into her reservation to add excursions and noticed that the cabin information didn’t look right.

“So, yesterday I was adding in some excursions, and I… then I thought, ‘Wait a second, that doesn’t seem like the right cabin.’ So, long story short, somewhere in the past few months, they decided to move me, and they have moved me down to deck 9 in the front. I was on deck 15 in the back. I like the back better.”

The difference wasn’t simply several decks. According to Susan, her original cabin was aft on deck 15, while the replacement was forward on deck 9, taking her away from both the part of the ship she preferred and the family members she wanted to stay near.

She Says Nobody Told Her the Cabin Had Changed

Susan says she wasn’t notified before she discovered the change herself. According to her account, there had been no phone call explaining what had happened and she hadn’t seen an email warning her that she was being moved.

“Even though I chose my cabin, because somebody came along and that cabin actually could hold four people, they moved me. No phone call; I got no email about this. I had to call them and go, ‘What happened?’”

When she contacted Princess, Susan says she was told that the number of people booked into the cabin was the reason for the reassignment. Her reservation had two passengers, while the cabin she selected could accommodate four.

“And did you know, because there’s only two people in my cabin and that’s set up for four, they can bump you out of there!”

According to her, the explanation was that another party of four wanted the cabin, so she and her companion had been moved elsewhere.

She Wanted Her Original Location Back, but Nothing Was Available

After speaking with Princess, Susan says she asked to return to deck 15 at the back of the ship. By then, however, there was apparently no cabin available in her category that would put her back where she had originally booked.

She then noticed a cabin on deck 14 and asked whether she could be moved there instead. It wasn’t the original deck 15 location, but it would at least put her much closer to the area she had intentionally selected.

“So, I noticed that deck 14 has a cabin. She said, ‘Well, I think I could get you into that one.’”

Susan says the representative returned with an offer to move her into that cabin and provide $25 in onboard credit for each passenger, for a total of $50.

“I said that would be fine. I would be satisfied with that. At least I’m near where my family members are going to be, and I am at the back of the ship.”

At that point, she believed the problem had been resolved well enough for her to accept the compromise.

Then She Says Princess Asked Her for Another $44.50

The conversation changed when the representative came back and, according to Susan, asked for her credit card number because she would have to pay another $44.50 for the deck 14 cabin.

“So, she gets back on the line and she goes, ‘Okay, so I need your credit card number. You owe us $44.50.’ And I said, ‘Why am I paying you when you guys moved me? It makes no sense to me.’”

Susan says she was told that the additional charge was required because the deck 14 cabin was considered an upgrade.

“And she said, ‘Because you’re getting an upgrade.’ And I said, ‘An upgrade? How is that an upgrade? Because it looks to be the exact same room type. It’s not a suite. It’s not like an extended balcony. It’s the basic balcony cabin.’”

According to Susan, the representative explained that the new cabin counted as an upgrade because it was “higher.” That answer created another problem from Susan’s perspective because the cabin she had originally selected was already one deck higher, on deck 15.

“I said, ‘Because let’s back up here a minute. Because if it’s higher and you’re talking about the deck numbers, I was on 15. You guys moved me back down to 9, and I want to at least get close to 15 in the back. And you’re asking me to pay $44.50?’”

By then, she said the disagreement was no longer really about the amount of money.

“This has now become the principle of the thing, that you guys are charging me because you had to move me because you had four people that wanted to go into my original cabin.”

Many Commenters Couldn’t Get Past the Lack of Notification

Several people underneath the video focused on the same part of Susan’s account: even if Princess had the contractual ability to reassign the cabin, they couldn’t understand why she apparently discovered the move herself months after booking.

“Definitely ridiculous!” one commenter wrote, while another said, “That is horrible. They should have at least contacted you. It makes no sense.” Another reaction was even shorter: “That’s insane!!!”

One Regal Princess passenger said Susan’s story had made her want to keep checking her own reservation because she, too, had selected cabins based on where her family needed to be on the ship.

“I would be SO mad! I had no idea they could do this. Thank you for sharing!! We just got off Regal and had an aft facing balcony which I chose. We are going again next month and specifically booked a mini suite on the lido deck because my mom gets lost.”

She added that four people would be staying in her upcoming cabin, but said she planned to keep an eye on the reservation after hearing Susan’s experience.

Other Commenters Said This Is a Known Cruise Policy

Not everyone believed the cabin move itself was unusual. Several commenters said passengers booking fewer people into a cabin with a higher maximum occupancy can sometimes be reassigned when the cruise line needs that capacity.

“Yeah that’s the standard policy… it sucks but if you choose a quad capacity cabin you can be bumped if you are not booked with at least 3 people. It rarely happens but it is absolutely part of the terms and conditions.”

Another person argued that Susan could have avoided the situation by choosing a cabin designed for two passengers rather than one that could hold four.

“It’s bad they didn’t contact you before they moved you and charged you more. However, you should have booked a cabin for 2 originally instead of one for 4, and you wouldn’t be in this dilemma.”

Several People Brought Up the “No Upgrades” Setting

Another recurring piece of advice in the comments was to make sure a reservation is marked so the cruise line knows the passenger doesn’t want an upgrade or cabin change when the specific location is important.

“That’s why when you book you make sure you or your travel agent mark no upgrades if that is for sure your room you want. Without marking that they can move you.”

Princess’s contract language for some voyages tells guests who chose a cabin for a particular reason, or who are traveling as a group, to tell Princess or their travel agent if they don’t want to be considered for an upgrade. Susan doesn’t say in the video whether she made any such request on her booking.

A Commenter Who Says She Worked for Princess Thought $25 Per Person Wasn’t Enough

Another response came from someone who identified herself as a former Princess employee. I haven’t independently verified that employment claim, but she encouraged Susan to call again, ask for a supervisor and request additional compensation.

“Please call back and tell them you would appreciate the addition of a dinner for two in a specialty restaurant. Ask for a supervisor. I worked for Princess. You paid more to pick your cabin and they should not have moved you. I see they did not charge you but $25 pp isn’t enough for the headache.”

Her reference to Susan not being charged reflected an update Susan had posted after recording the original video, when the proposed $44.50 payment was no longer part of the resolution.

One Traveler Immediately Compared It to Airline Seat Changes

The situation also reminded one commenter of something that had happened to her on a flight. She said an airline reassigned a seat she had selected so that an employee could sit there, leaving her separated from her mother.

“Sadly airlines can do and DO the same thing. they bumped me out of my chosen seat on an almost empty flight to put 1 of their employees there and put me across the aisle from my handicap mom.”

That comparison is close to several airline situations I’ve recently covered, although the rules governing airplane seats and cruise cabins aren’t the same.

In one of them, a United passenger said he and his wife had boarded together and had been sitting in seats 22E and 22F for roughly 25 minutes. When another passenger arrived claiming 22E, he opened his phone to show her his boarding pass and says they watched the assignment change from 22E to 40C.

In another recent case, the son of an 83-year-old man said he used miles to book his father a First Class itinerary because he wanted the journey to be easier for him. His father traveled the first portion of the return trip before reaching Phoenix, where his boarding pass was flagged and he was moved from First Class to coach for the connecting flight.

Princess Does Have Contract Language About Underoccupied Cabins – But We Don’t Know Which Contract Applies Here

This is where part of the discussion underneath the video has some basis in Princess’s published rules, although there is an important limitation when applying them to Susan’s individual case.

Princess states on its website that the passage contract governing a booking depends on the voyage’s departure port. Susan hasn’t identified the itinerary in the video, so I cannot establish which version applies to her reservation.

In one Princess contract covering select voyages departing from Australia, Japan, Singapore, China and Korea, the cruise line says it may need to change a stateroom for operational reasons when fewer people are booked into it than the number of beds available. Princess specifically gives two guests occupying a four-person stateroom as an example.

That contract also says passengers who selected a particular cabin for a specific reason, or who are traveling as a group and don’t want to be considered for an upgrade, should notify their travel agent or Princess Customer Service when booking.

Those provisions help explain why some commenters immediately recognized the situation Susan described, but without her departure port and applicable passage contract, they don’t establish the exact terms governing this booking.

Susan Isn’t the Only Cruiser to Discover That a Selected Cabin Can Change

What happened to Susan isn’t identical to every other cabin dispute that has surfaced in recent years, but similar situations have involved other major cruise lines – including cases where passengers chose specific cabins because of their location or because they wanted to stay close to people traveling with them.

Holland America Warned Passengers About This Exact Occupancy Issue

One of the closest parallels surfaced in 2024, when Holland America passengers began discussing what the cruise line called a “Stateroom Capacity Advisory.” Travelers reported receiving emails warning that when a stateroom could accommodate more guests than were booked, Holland America might change the cabin assignment.

In a Cruise Critic discussion from August 2024, one passenger said two specific cabins had been booked for a Christmas cruise because of their location and verandahs, including a quad cabin occupied by fewer than four people. Another traveler in the same discussion said three cabins booked for a family trip had already been relocated, and she didn’t realize it until she checked the reservation. She said Holland America eventually put the family back together, but not in the cabins they had originally selected.

Holland America’s current cruise contract explicitly states this possibility. It says specific stateroom assignments aren’t guaranteed and that guests can be moved to a comparable cabin when, among other reasons, fewer passengers are booked into a stateroom than its maximum capacity.

Royal Caribbean Passengers Were Split Across Different Decks After Cabin Changes in 2026

Cabin location became a problem for another group of passengers ahead of Royal Caribbean’s new Legend of the Seas sailings in 2026. The cruise line notified some guests that previously booked cabins had been recategorized and that they would be reassigned.

Although Royal Caribbean described some of the changes as complimentary upgrades or moves into equivalent categories, not everyone considered the replacement an improvement. Cruise Hive reported that one traveler said she and her daughter had paid extra to stay on deck 12 close to one another, only for their new assignments to put one cabin on deck 10 and the other on deck 9. Another passenger who had booked two connecting rooms was concerned after receiving a cabin-change notice for only one of them.

Another Royal Caribbean Sailing Had Cabin Changes Tied to Occupancy

A few months later, passengers booked on an August 2026 Alaska sailing aboard Ovation of the Seas were told that some stateroom assignments had to change because of occupancy adjustments.

According to a message sent to affected travelers, Royal Caribbean said it had identified that the “assigned occupancy” of certain cabins needed to be adjusted and that passengers would be moved to another stateroom that could accommodate their party, either within the same category or an upgraded one. Several passengers on the sailing reportedly received similar notices.

The circumstances aren’t the same as Susan’s Regal Princess booking, but all three situations involve something travelers can easily presume is settled once they have chosen a cabin number: where, exactly, they will be sleeping once they board the ship.

UPDATE: Princess Reached Out, and Susan Says She Won’t Have to Pay the $44.50

After posting the original video, Susan shared an update that changed part of the situation. She says Princess contacted her and agreed to move her to the deck 14 cabin without requiring the additional $44.50 payment.

“Princess reached out and will move me to deck 14 and not make me pay 44.50. Not the deck 15 aft near family but closer than deck 9 at the front. Boggles my mind how they can move people without telling them even though that is why I paid extra to pick my own room. I hope they change their policy this is not right.”

According to that update, Susan still won’t be returned to the deck 15 aft cabin she originally chose near her family. Instead, she will move from deck 9 forward to the available cabin on deck 14, and the additional $44.50 charge she was initially told she would have to pay has been waived.

Note: This article is based on CruisinSusan’s TikTok video, her public update and comments posted beneath the video. I have not independently reviewed her booking confirmation, cabin-change history or communications with Princess. The exact passage contract governing her cruise is unknown because the video’s publicly available information does not identify the departure port. Comments describing Princess policies, personal cruise experiences or employment with the company are attributed to the people who posted them and should not be treated as independent confirmation of what occurred with this reservation.

The lesson here? Read the fine print – and all the details in the contract and constantly monitor your reservation details. Or at least this is my take from all these stories I shared. 

You can see the full video here – and this is Susan’s TikTok account

Violeta Loredana

Violeta-Loredana Pascal is a communications expert, business mentor, and the founder of Earth’s Attractions and PRwave INTERNATIONAL. A pioneer in the Romanian digital PR landscape since 2005, she holds a degree in Communication and Social Sciences from SNSPA Bucharest. Violeta is a senior trainer at AcademiadeAfaceri.ro, where she leverages over 20 years of experience to teach professional courses in PR strategy and workplace productivity. By blending high-level business consulting with a passion for holistic travel and wellness, she empowers solopreneurs to overcome procrastination, build profitable brands, and design a life of purposeful adventure.