Communication Problems With Princess Cruise Lines

I need the advice of fellow cruisers.

About a month ago I booked a cruise with Princess.

I had some questions and sent several emails, all went unanswered.

I called them and a representative told me "don't ever email us, all your emails will not be answered because they go to someplace nobody knows, lol".

I kind of blew it off until something else came up about onboard credits.

Again, they did not answer emails and I called them 4-5 times and each time except for once the representatives were not nice and did not solve my problem.

Today I was connected to someone higher up and not until I threatened to cancel my cruise and go with another cruise line did they promise to correct the problem, TODAY !

Well, guess what, I got a call back from this "higher up" and she stated that their servers have been having problems she also stated that she will get back with me today or Monday by the latest.

This is my problem, I have started to research a cruise with Celebrity, I am 99.5 % sure I will cancel cruise with Princess.

Question: What would you do ?

You seem to want to cancel the Princess cruise. Why not do that?

Yes, correct, I just wanted to vent my frustration and get an opinion from others, especially since Princess is un-approachable.

First of all, when you have a question about a cruise that you booked, you contact the person or agency that you booked through. Did you do that?

Secondly, cancel the princess cruise, you have already set yourself up to not liking it. JMHO

It is sometimes one of the reason why engaging the services of a TA is preferred.

Most cruise lines help desk people are not all that helpful. They are low paid folks who have never even been on a cruise and half the time they don't know how to answer questions because they have not been properly trained. They know how to follow a script on their computer but beyond that, they don't have a lot of knowledge about how to help customers. This is not just a Princess problem but most other lines as well. The computer issue is also not unique to Celebrity. Many posters here have seen all kinds of crazy things like missing onboard credit, missing reservations, and on and on. I just dealt with an issue at another cruise line where my husband somehow had two different loyalty numbers. That has finally been corrected and it ONLY took 3 years of calling them from time to time and asking them to fix it to get it done! Yes, I am patient, but I recognize who I'm trying to work with and what little they actually know and don't expect miracles.

Cancel the Princess cruise and go on the Celebrity cruise if that is what you want but I certainly would not pitch a fit over what some low paid person in a call center did or did not do. Also, and to be honest, Princess and Celebrity are more alike than different. To me, Princess has a better spa and a better buffet and much better shows and music. Celebrity has better food in the MDR and in Luminae and their specialty restaurants. The cabins are a wash until you get to suites, at which point, the Celebrity Suite is nicer than the 1 bedroom suite on Princess. Eh...they are both equally nice cruise lines.

I'm not sure if you can email any cruise line with your questions and get an answer...

All the cruise lines are more alike than different.

IMHO Princess has some very bad customer service both on and off the ships.

I'm not sure if you can email any cruise line with your questions and get an answer...

 

 

 

All the cruise lines are more alike than different.

 

 

 

IMHO Princess has some very bad customer service both on and off the ships.

I have to disagree.

With a little research (e.g., travel ombudsman and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott), you can find the direct contact info for senior executives of most travel related companies.

I've used this info on several occasions when my concerns were reasonable and shared by many other passengers. A carefully considered e-mail that summarizes the issue(s) and offers concrete evidence and efficacious solutions will, more often than not, be answered in short order. For example:

Last year, one of the premium cruise lines had decided to permit e-cigarettes onboard (despite having one of the most restrictive tobacco use policies in the cruise industry). It was a topic of much conversation here on CC and a few of us used whatever connections we had to voice our opposition to that line's officials.

From my end, I collected some data used to justify the latest e-cig restrictions here in California and, armed with the cruise line president's personal e-mail address (thanks Christopher Elliott), I sent him the materials along with a short note on a Sunday morning. Within one hour (!!!), I received a response from him with thanks for the info and a promise that, by the next morning, the e-cig policy would be amended so that the e-cigs would be treated like other tobacco products (I.e., limited to one smoking room in an enclosed bar area and one pool area corner only).

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UPDATE: After venting on this site and with various takes from others on my rant I did cancel with Princess and re-booked with Celebrity, so far they have more than courteous with me.

Oh, btw, not a word from Princess on why I cancelled.

I have to disagree.

With a little research (e.g., travel ombudsman and syndicated columnist Christopher Elliott), you can find the direct contact info for senior executives of most travel related companies.

I've used this info on several occasions when my concerns were reasonable and shared by many other passengers. A carefully considered e-mail that summarizes the issue(s) and offers concrete evidence and efficacious solutions will, more often than not, be answered in short order. For example:

Last year, one of the premium cruise lines had decided to permit e-cigarettes onboard (despite having one of the most restrictive tobacco use policies in the cruise industry). It was a topic of much conversation here on CC and a few of us used whatever connections we had to voice our opposition to that line's officials.

From my end, I collected some data used to justify the latest e-cig restrictions here in California and, armed with the cruise line president's personal e-mail address (thanks Christopher Elliott), I sent him the materials along with a short note on a Sunday morning. Within one hour (!!!), I received a response from him with thanks for the info and a promise that, by the next morning, the e-cig policy would be amended so that the e-cigs would be treated like other tobacco products (I.e., limited to one smoking room in an enclosed bar area and one pool area corner only).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You can disagree all you want. I only report on my experience.

UPDATE: After venting on this site and with various takes from others on my rant I did cancel with Princess and re-booked with Celebrity, so far they have more than courteous with me.

Oh, btw, not a word from Princess on why I cancelled.

At least you can now put everything behind you and begin looking forward to your cruise.

Cruising starts with booking and should be stress-free. You made a good decision.

Enjoy your cruise!