superior customer service from Princess

[seamanfs]

We were booked on the Ruby Nov 21 for 2 weeks. I found out I need GYN surgery on Nov 15th so we called to cancel the cruise and get the Berkley Care Insurance forms started. We spoke with a wonderfully helpful CSR, Noah Tipton, who helped us simply move our Ruby cruise to a date the end of February and March. No forms to fill out or Ins. to deal with. They applied the amount we had paid to the Feb 27th cruise and transferred the OBC, too. I was surprised to be able to bypass the insurance merry go round at this late date cancellation!!! Certainly made our life easier!! We sent an email to Princess complimenting Mr. Tipton.

[paul929207]

Glad it worked out so well.

[Toto2Kansas]

We were booked on the Ruby Nov 21 for 2 weeks. I found out I need GYN surgery on Nov 15th so we called to cancel the cruise and get the Berkley Care Insurance forms started. We spoke with a wonderfully helpful CSR, Noah Tipton, who helped us simply move our Ruby cruise to a date the end of February and March. No forms to fill out or Ins. to deal with. They applied the amount we had paid to the Feb 27th cruise and transferred the OBC, too. I was surprised to be able to bypass the insurance merry go round at this late date cancellation!!! Certainly made our life easier!! We sent an email to Princess complimenting Mr. Tipton.

 

Your cruise must have been overbooked. Happy it worked out for you, but I have to alert you to the fact that this is not normal procedure unless the ship is overbooked and they need your stateroom. Glad it worked out for you though, lucky break! Good luck on your surgery. ;)

[Coral]

Your cruise must have been overbooked. Happy it worked out for you, but I have to alert you to the fact that this is not normal procedure unless the ship is overbooked and they need your stateroom. Glad it worked out for you though, lucky break! Good luck on your surgery. ;)

 

Considering that is Thanksgiving - I am guessing you are right. Princess probably saved money by not having to offer 1 more move over offer.

[regnig]

seamanfs thanks for taking time to say something positive about Princess's CSRs. BTW, we will miss having you sail with us. Good luck with your surgery.

[Happy2cruise]

Your cruise must have been overbooked. Happy it worked out for you, but I have to alert you to the fact that this is not normal procedure unless the ship is overbooked and they need your stateroom. Glad it worked out for you though, lucky break! Good luck on your surgery. ;)

 

Toto is correct, this is not normal procedure. We were booked on the Ruby for 3/09 and in 1/09 I suffered a brain bleed. We had the insurance but did not want the money refunded. We are frequent Princess cruisers so we just wanted the money applied to our future cruise. Went thru our TA and he went round and round with Princess but they would not do this. Talked to a supervisor....no go.

 

Glad you were lucky and Princess did this for you.....hope your surgery goes well and you are feeling better soon and enjoy your cruise.

[Mrs Monkey]

Good to hear positive feedback. Wishing you a speedy recovery. You will have a lovely cruise to look forward to :)

[seamanfs]

This is the 3rd time we have had to cancel and before had to go through the insurance route so we realize this was not "normal". We were expecting a phone call yesterday from Princess telling us to contact Berkley but so far so good!!!! Still would rather be leaving on a cruise rather than surgery but that's life!!

[Clutterlady]

Glad things worked out for you with Princess. Best of luck with your surgery!

[Coral]

This is the 3rd time we have had to cancel and before had to go through the insurance route so we realize this was not "normal". We were expecting a phone call yesterday from Princess telling us to contact Berkley but so far so good!!!! Still would rather be leaving on a cruise rather than surgery but that's life!!

 

Good luck with surgery! You live about 45 minutes from me (I am in Lincoln). Good to see NE cruisers on CC.

[rdsqrl]

seamanfs, glad things worked out so smoothly for you. Wishing you an easy surgery and a speedy recovery. Of course, having a cruise to look forward to should help a lot with that, right?!

 

Toto is correct, this is not normal procedure. We were booked on the Ruby for 3/09 and in 1/09 I suffered a brain bleed. We had the insurance but did not want the money refunded. We are frequent Princess cruisers so we just wanted the money applied to our future cruise. Went thru our TA and he went round and round with Princess but they would not do this. Talked to a supervisor....no go.

 

Glad you were lucky and Princess did this for you.....hope your surgery goes well and you are feeling better soon and enjoy your cruise.

Okay, this is a first -- complaining about a full refund. I guess some would whine if you hung them with an old rope. Or is the proper idiom, "new rope"? Why would it be "new rope"? Is a new rope too scratchy? I mean, it's not like you have to endure it for more than a few minutes, anyway . . . I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

[seamanfs]

Good luck with surgery! You live about 45 minutes from me (I am in Lincoln). Good to see NE cruisers on CC.

 

Thanks for the kind thoughts! We have family in Lincoln so we are there many times a year. Do you fly out of Lincoln or Eppley? Wondered about the fare difference between the two airports.

[seamanfs]

seamanfs thanks for taking time to say something positive about Princess's CSRs. BTW, we will miss having you sail with us. Good luck with your surgery.

 

Take good care of the Ruby for us. We will see her in February!

[Rob & Beckys mom]

This is the 3rd time we have had to cancel and before had to go through the insurance route so we realize this was not "normal". We were expecting a phone call yesterday from Princess telling us to contact Berkley but so far so good!!!! Still would rather be leaving on a cruise rather than surgery but that's life!!

 

Hope your surgery goes well & you are on the road to recovery asap :)

 

Jan

[montgomeryfamily]

I do wish you well on your surgery and hope that all goes well and you are restored to good health.

 

I want to add for others that might read this thread that this is not the usual experience/procedure dealing with Princess in regard to a situation like this. Although we are elite on Princess, our experience last November was similar to that of Happy to Cruise.

 

We were booked DIRECTLY with Princess and the Friday before final payment was due on Sunday, had to be admitted to the hospital for surgery. The doctor indicated a second surgery would be necessary and then physical therapy, making it very unlikely we could cruise within the next three months. So I called on Monday and tried to reschedule the cruise to late April and move the deposit to the April sailing. The agent said that since final payment was on Sunday, we were a day late and could not do this--we would have to lose the deposit and if we wanted the cruise in April, we would have to put down a new deposit. Her supervisor said the same thing and was admanant that there was NO EXCEPTIONS. So we lost the deposit, I later filed to recover with our cruise insurance, and then I booked a ten day cruise in April on the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas.

 

There was the out of pocket cost for the insurance, which was not transferable since we had to file against it for the deposit (We didn't have air booked and the hotel and other arrangements could be cancelled with no cost). I debated not filing the claim so we could transfer the insurance to the new cruise, but the cost of the deposit was a little more than the insurance premium (the insurance premium was around $300.00)

 

I'm sure that Happy to Cruise also lost the cost of their insurance premium since they had to file a claim against it and that precludes being able to transfer it to another cruise. So even when you have insurance, there is the out of pocket cost of the insurance premium.

[Coral]

Thanks for the kind thoughts! We have family in Lincoln so we are there many times a year. Do you fly out of Lincoln or Eppley? Wondered about the fare difference between the two airports.

 

I really try to fly out of Lincoln as I can't drive well at night and most of the flights I get out of Omaha are early going out and late coming back (so there is often a hotel stay involved). Last cruise, we flew out of Omaha as it was the best route to Quebec (less hops) and we came back on Southwest out of FLL which we loved.

 

This next cruise out of LA - the prices were the same so we are flying out of Lincoln. We looked at SW out of Omaha but all of their connections were way too close for comfort.

 

If it is within $100 - $150, we will fly out of Lincoln as we can have friends take us and not have to pay for parking. Omaha still has more choices by far.

 

Good luck on your surgery and enjoy your cruise in February when we are 10' under!

[Stevesan]

:p

We were booked on the Ruby Nov 21 for 2 weeks. I found out I need GYN surgery on Nov 15th so we called to cancel the cruise and get the Berkley Care Insurance forms started. We spoke with a wonderfully helpful CSR, Noah Tipton, who helped us simply move our Ruby cruise to a date the end of February and March. No forms to fill out or Ins. to deal with. They applied the amount we had paid to the Feb 27th cruise and transferred the OBC, too. I was surprised to be able to bypass the insurance merry go round at this late date cancellation!!! Certainly made our life easier!! We sent an email to Princess complimenting Mr. Tipton.

 

 

Glad you got the result you wanted. However, there's no "merry-go-round" with Berkely Care. :)

You simply fill out the on line form, have your doctor fill in the diagnosis and a check will be in the mail within a few weeks.

 

Simpler forms than Access America with whom I had insured the air fare.

No complaints and they paid promptly, but their forms were longer and more detailed than Berkely Care's for far fewer $.

I didn't really mind. I spent 20 years in the USAF so forms aren't an obstacle.:p

 

To each their own. I just wanted to say a few kind words for Berkely Care.

[Happy2cruise]

seamanfs, glad things worked out so smoothly for you. Wishing you an easy surgery and a speedy recovery. Of course, having a cruise to look forward to should help a lot with that, right?!

 

 

Okay, this is a first -- complaining about a full refund. I guess some would whine if you hung them with an old rope. Or is the proper idiom, "new rope"? Why would it be "new rope"? Is a new rope too scratchy? I mean, it's not like you have to endure it for more than a few minutes, anyway . . . I'm sorry, what were we talking about?

 

 

No one was complaining about a full refund!!!! I was only commenting on how Princess normally does not transfer cruises like they did for the OP.

 

No more comments from me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[seamanfs]

:p

 

 

Glad you got the result you wanted. However, there's no "merry-go-round" with Berkely Care. :)

You simply fill out the on line form, have your doctor fill in the diagnosis and a check will be in the mail within a few weeks.

 

Simpler forms than Access America with whom I had insured the air fare.

No complaints and they paid promptly, but their forms were longer and more detailed than Berkely Care's for far fewer $.

I didn't really mind. I spent 20 years in the USAF so forms aren't an obstacle.:p

 

To each their own. I just wanted to say a few kind words for Berkely Care.

 

We have used Berkley Care with every cruise and you are correct. Very easy to fill out the forms and we got payment within 3 weeks. But it is nice to NOT have to fill out ANYTHING at all!!! We spent 21 years in the USAF so we know what you are saying!!!!!

[Stevesan]

But it is nice to NOT have to fill out ANYTHING at all!!! We spent 21 years in the USAF so we know what you are saying!!!!!

 

 

Amen, brother!!

 

You have tenure on me - 20 years and one day.:D

 

Glad you used "we". Spouses and curtain climbers also serve.