New to site - Newe to Princess

[cruizingmomma]

As a loyal Carnial passenger...I'm nervous. We had awful service booking thru Princess directly, and I am really scared. I wrote a 5 page letter to them after they called one of our fellow booking buddies a liar because she told them she didnt receive something in the mail - I was a bit upset when I wrote the letter, but got a phone call trying to clear it all up with a nice "We are sorry."

 

We are in cabins B501 and B503 along with a couple other cabins in other areas of the ship....but we were told to "expect" a room change....

 

Anything someone would like to share on the ship or cabin??

 

Thanks guys - this is an awesome site!! :)

[johnql]

Welcome to CC.

 

Keep in mind that the level of service provided by land-based customer service has no relation to the level of service provided by the staff onboard the ship.

[lbcrosby]

Which ship are you traveling on? My husband and I took Carnival for our honeymoon in 1995 and just recently took the Diamond Princess for our 10 year anniversary. We loved Princess. Very pleased. I agree with Johnql, you can't judge Princess by the people who answer the phones. I contacted Princess three different times before we left to find out how many kids were going to be on board. Needless to say the numbers ranged dramatically depending on who answered the phones.

 

Don't worry you will enjoy yourselves if you go into the cruise expecting to have a good time.

[lbcrosby]

Okay, silly me. Read your post after I sent the message - Caribbean Princess.

[Dreamer333]

Welcome to Princess!!

 

I agree with the other posters... the people who are answering the phones definitely do NOT represent the staff on a cruise!

 

I am sure you will have a wonderful time!

 

I think I saw you on another thread... and I think we are on the same cruise this Sept!! :)

[CruiseFever]

As a loyal Carnial passenger...I'm nervous. We had awful service booking thru Princess directly, and I am really scared. I wrote a 5 page letter to them after they called one of our fellow booking buddies a liar because she told them she didnt receive something in the mail - I was a bit upset when I wrote the letter, but got a phone call trying to clear it all up with a nice "We are sorry."

 

We are in cabins B501 and B503 along with a couple other cabins in other areas of the ship....but we were told to "expect" a room change....

 

Anything someone would like to share on the ship or cabin??

 

Thanks guys - this is an awesome site!! :)

 

...so DID they clear it all up with a "We are sorry" and are your issues with them resolved?

 

Are you able to give more details about all this?

 

I do not I understand the "expect a change in cabins" thing

 

Something that elicited a 5 page letter from you (was that typed or hand written?) must have been a big deal. Care to elaborate?

[cruizingmomma]

Yes, I am sure the service will be way different. It just got our vacation off to a rough start - we have a small group going...and it started numerous arguments...so...were hoping for the best now.

 

Thanks guys!!

[zoomom]

I experienced the same type of disconnect between the phone service and that on the ship. I just finished my first cruise ever with the Pacific Princess (Bangkok to Beijing) and was thrilled with it. Great service and food. There was no similarity between the way I was treated on the phone versus the ship. On the evaluation cards provided at the end of the cruise I suggested that they upgrade their phone service as it could definitely impact a person's decision about whether to book a cruise with Princess or go elsewhere. Many of the passengers I spoke with had the same experience and comments.

[cruizingmomma]

First off....one room that booked was placed on the wrong ship - they did not get a confirmation - and when they called for one - they were told that 3 were mailed and that they would not keep spending the money to send them. This was the first time they requested one - and even said they would take it via email....

 

We asked for airfare - never got info., never got booked on the plane...(found it cheaper ourselves anyway...)

 

They forgot to book my husband...only put myself and my 3 year old in our room. Then told me they couldnt fit him in....(We booked 1 year ahead...)

 

Umm...overall nasty/rude customer service. Rude things said, like "Since you are looking for the cheap way out of a vacation..."

 

My deposit was put under some other cabin, no relation to our booking.

 

We booked a group - and someone from Princess had put 2 of our "blocked" cabins in someone elses name....and told us we couldnt have the cabins back. We then lost 2 couples.

 

We lost 2 couples when we were given the wrong balance due by date - it was about 3 weeks earlier than we were originally quoted.

 

We were told after we initially confronted them on our issues that we could change our reservation to our own private travel agent...without surcharge or cost changes. When we did this, our agent was charged $1300. and we were told our cruise went from 799 a person to 1439.00 - we quickly cancelled that transaction - and kept it with them. Later found out that indeed no pricing should have changed - but it was too late to change then since payment was due that week. :eek:

 

I know there is more - and probably more important issues... I have to pull the letter out. Yes, it was handwritten - and the expect a room change was from a manager there. So, I dont know if it means an upgrade or if we just werent guarenteed the same room. We'll see.

 

I'm really looking forward to the trip now - I am excited for the movies under the stars and just relaxing!!!

[howard6933]

All of the problems (or at least most of them) could probably have been avoided if they had booked through a travel agent. I must tell you that I AM NOT a travel agent so I'm not plugging them in any way. But keep in mind that travel agents get a commission from the cruise lines, and they will usually do everything they can to keep you happy, because they want repeat business from you. Even if you book a cruise while you are already on a cruise, you can tell the cruise line to put it through your local TA. I have done this on a few occasions, and my TA has inevitably come up with a lower price than that quoted by the cruise line. I would imagine that the cruise lines would much prefer that you book through them since that way they will save themselves paying out a commission. At any rate, booking through the cruise lines is a bad idea in my opinion. I have read too many horror stories and I try stay with my TA all the time. ;)

[calikak]

Wow, it sounds like you've had a very bad time with the people in the call center! Basically, anytime you have to talk to people from Princess on the phone, it's not going to be pleasant, at least, that's been my experience. Fortunately, the onboard service is much better than the call center. I'm sure you all will have a great time once all the hazzles of booking the cruise are sorted out. :) And next time you'll know to go through a good agent instead of through the cruise line. Just chalk it up to a lesson learned!

[spongerob]

I've booked two cruises directly with Princess, and have to say that both experiences were quite good. We had no communication problems, changes and updates were sent to us, and the people I spoke with were pleasant and seemed quite knowledgeable.

[atlcple2]

That is terrible that you had so many stupid errors...I'm thinking the person you dealt with was on crack or something. LOL I'm just kidding...I booked our first cruise with Princess in March of this year for the 9/3 sailing of the Caribbean Princess, and I am happy to say that I had no problems whatsoever. I got the email confirmation within hours and even called a couple of times regarding my cruise (I was thinking about upgrading to a mini-suite) and always got someone who was pleasant and answered my questions. I even called last week thinking maybe there was a good deal on the mini-suite -- which there was - They had a flash rate and were going to give me that rate, but it was on the E deck and I didn't want to be on that low of a deck. I'm sorry you had such a rough start...I would probably have just cancelled the cruise altogether and gone back to Carnival. We are loyal Carnival guests as well. I have read all the posts about seeing cut backs on cruises, and I have to tell you that on the Carnival Spirit and Pride, I didn't see any cut backs at all. Maybe it was the ships we were on, but man! They were great! ; )

[Ms. Sadie]

We've never travelled with Princess either and we are scheduled on the Sea Princess for Feb 2006. I'd like to know as much about the Sea as possible.

[atlcple2]

there is a neat site that has a lot of pictures for almost every ship you can think of http://www.http://cruiseclues.com