pa_snowbird

@BermudaBound2014 how much do they charge you for a spa day pass?

Just curious, what level of medical emergency would warrant a change in itinerary? Does it have to be life threatening or it’s up to the discretion of the captain?

What number did you call? The main number 800-774-6237 ? TA may have access to better support, but the main number is staffed by overseas workers (could be contractors) who have limited knowledge and access to the system. They mostly read from a script and frequently need to consult with a "supervisor". I think the "live chat" may be staff similarly. Support has definitely went down hill. Princess if you are listening: BRING BACK AMERICAN STAFF FOR THE CALL CENTER.

Not sure what is holding them back. Princess and Celebrity got itineraries out to the 1st quarter of 2026 for weeks already. Here is Princess: and Celebrity:

Does anyone know when HAL will release their itineraries for the end of 2025 / early 2026? They have some for Alaska, Europe, South America, but nothing else. They seem to be late compared to other cruise lines.

I looked at one of the agency invoice that I got. For this particular cruise, the commission was a whopping 15% (commision / (total fare - NCF portion - tax and port charge)). Of that, the big box TA kicked back 5%. They still keep 10%. For other cruises, they kicked back half or more of what they got. Not sure how they determined how much they give back. I think this can explain all the "magic" that people's favorite TA was doing for them. They are just giving up a bit of what they are getting in commission to give you the upgrades or OBC. An independent agent can decide how much they want to give back to you, probably depending on how much business you have had with them. The cruise line controls all the pricing and incentive knobs. In fact, all the agents are probably using the same interface to get into Princess' reservation system to get the rates. It's very unlikely that your favorite TA can magically dig up some special rate that no one sees.

Has anyone booked a Cove Balcony? If it's similar to the cove balcony on the Carnival Magic, it should be great. Some people are afraid to be so close to the water, but I personally loved it. If your balcony is toward the front sometimes you can feel the sea spray if you stick you head out. One morning I even found a small fish on the floor of my cove balcony. Ha, half the people are probably terrified after reading the above and the other half probably jump to book a cove balcony!

If you log on to the Princess website, the system can see that you are a previous guest and on certain itineraries you can get a small discount from the current price. I have seen invoice statement from Princess to a big box TA that shows the commission break down and it could be as much as 11 to 13% of the fare you pay, depending on the itinerary. Lower volume TAs probably get lower commission rate. So you can see there is a bit of leeway for the TA to give something back to you. In the case of this big box TA, you get about half of that commission back in the form of a shop card after your cruise. For a long cruise, this could be a non-trivial amount of money. Getting some chocolate, flower or specialty dinner is nothing compare to that. I rather get a cash card to use later than some OBC that I have to use onboard. And yes, you can book directly with Princess (onboard or on their website) and transfer the booking to your TA (including big box TA) within 60 days. Be careful if you use Princess Vacation Planner (their internal TA), those bookings are not transferable. What I don't know much about is the these "group" rates. Does anyone know how much the discount that can be? To get these group rate does the TA have to put up some deposit to grab a block of rooms that they can sell back to their clients? As such your cabin selection may be limited from that TA?

Is there any benefit to book directly with Princess (either through the website or with their Vacation Planner)? Would they offer cabin upgrade to their direct customer first (after all they make more money by not paying commission to TA)? With TA, do you get better price with large volume TAs or with small independent TAs? It seems like most everyone offers the current published rate, the extras may come from OBC or some small discount that the TA kicks back to you from their commission? It would make sense that Princess may have better commission rates to higher volume TA?