Princess.com cruise consultants

[HMSDingy]

Our last two cruise were booked directly through Princess. Both times I was assigned one of their cruise reps to assist us. Both times, after we booked and made our final payment, their agents all but disappeared. What's that expression about the third time being lucky:rolleyes: Or Maybe I should go with a TA!

 

Curious to know if others have had the same experience.

[Coral]

I book with a TA who discounts as I can save money over Princess's pricing. I also like that I can always get a hold of her. My TA is interested in a long term business relationship (repeat business, etc..) so the help doesn't end with final payment. She also wants to know how things went after the cruise.

 

Are you saying you contacted them after final payment and they didn't return your calls?

Edited December 11, 2014 by Coral

[azgrandmax3]

I too have my doubts about the consultants. We have traveled often with Princess. New to Princess ( 1 cruise) are my sister and brother-in-law. They have been hounded constantly since their return in August. Now we are planning to travel again together in 2016. I can not believe what is being offered as far as promises to be upgraded if "Only they book with him". If 1/2 of what is being promised everyone would be in a mini or higher and pay price of balcony. We have been really turned off and wonder just how much pressure these salespersons throw out!! We will continue to book ourselves and then turn it over to TA prior to final payment. Work very well having control 24/7 with TA handling final paperwork, Visas etc. For us the average cruise (15th & 16th booked) has at least 4 cabin or category changes. Hope there wil be more discussion on this topic.

[Colo Cruiser]

Our last two cruise were booked directly through Princess. Both times I was assigned one of their cruise reps to assist us. Both times, after we booked and made our final payment, their agents all but disappeared. What's that expression about the third time being lucky:rolleyes: Or Maybe I should go with a TA!

 

Curious to know if others have had the same experience.

 

 

Yes! There is alot of tunover in the Princess Vacation Planner area and customer service reps.

We would recieve an email from a new one then within a month or 2 we would get an email saying that the particular plannerr was no longer there.

Then we would get a new one and the same thing happened. We have never used one and I am glad I didn't.

[HMSDingy]

I book with a TA who discounts as I can save money over Princess's pricing. I also like that I can always get a hold of her. My TA is interested in a long term business relationship (repeat business, etc..) so the help doesn't end with final payment. She also wants to know how things went after the cruise.

 

Are you saying you contacted them after final payment and they didn't return your calls?

 

I communicate by e-mail and getting an answer from them is a lesson in frustration. When I do call, I speak to the first person on the line and then only do I get answers. But the assigned rep rarely responds to my e-mails or I get the automatic out of office response.

[Colo Cruiser]

I communicate by e-mail and getting an answer from them is a lesson in frustration. When I do call, I speak to the first person on the line and then only do I get answers. But the assigned rep rarely responds to my e-mails or I get the automatic out of office response.

 

 

There probably is no particular person, they just use photos from the internet to attach to the emails. :rolleyes:

[Coral]

I communicate by e-mail and getting an answer from them is a lesson in frustration. When I do call, I speak to the first person on the line and then only do I get answers. But the assigned rep rarely responds to my e-mails or I get the automatic out of office response.

 

This sounds horrible. I would consider working with a TA. I have been dealing with the same agent since the late 90's.

 

I know people who deal with large agencies and they have experienced the same issue - they work with an agent and then that person is gone the next month. When you have a large investment in a vacation, you want someone to work with you (consistently).

[Sitmar Lady]

I have to completely disagree! My family and I have had the same Princess Cruise Consultant with Princess for a couple of years now and we love her! We had a gentleman before her and he really didn't cut it so I understand what most are saying here but now that they assigned her to our Family we have all been very happy. I am afraid to give out her name because I don't want her to get too popular and leave us but her name is Karlein and she is wonderful so I can't help but sing her praises.

[AKman2495]

I have used a TA for booking and I've also booked everything myself.

 

I spent a lot of time undoing/redoing the TAs work-booking me into the wrong room...booking me on a nonexistent flight...etc..for all my troubles, the only thing we ever got from her was four TA coupon books!

 

Princess consultants are like TAs find a good one and you're in love. But they are all not great.

 

I have called princess numerous times about things and have always had pleasant service. I did have to call a few times to get things right, but they are very nice whether screwing up or fixing things.

 

For example, I just booked a pre-cruise hotel through Princess. Out of three hotels, I chose one. I later discovered that, instead of the 2 days I had thought I booked, the Rep had booked only one. I called back and discovered that the particular hotel was only available on the second day and we were waitlisted for the first. Not wanting to deal with that, I rebooked for another hotel. the first rep never said a word about only booking one day.....

 

And so it goes......

Edited December 11, 2014 by AKman2495

[Thrak]

When I call my TA and the office says he is out of town or whatever they transfer me to his "voice mail". It actually transfers automagically to his cell phone. He either picks up at that point or, if it does go to his cell phone voice mail,he responds very quickly. I've had him do final payment, etc. from a hotel room somewhere as he was in another town. I've been pretty pleased with his responsiveness.

 

Having said the above, I still tend to book myself so I can watch for price drops (I tend to check several times a day :rolleyes:). I transfer the booking to the TA before final payment is due.

[magandy]

I agree with SITMAR LADY.

Here in the UK we were allocated a Personal Cruise Specialist about a year ago and she has been brilliant. In fact today we received a hand written Christmas Card from her.

We book cruises through her....she regularly checks our cruises for price drops or better deals, including flights......I have her email/tel no and can generally get through to her immediately.... she answers queries very quickly.

 

I used to book with a TA but found that they were reluctant to check on price reductions because it would reduce their commission......Princess wouldn't talk to me because I had booked with a TA......the documents that they send us are the same as I can print of Cruise Personizer.

So for the sake of around £50-£75 that the TA might give me off a booking, we feel more in control dealing direct with Princess.

[waltd]

I would like to know how a Princess Travel Consultant gets paid. Salary or commission or both. I can only imagine that being a travel consultant at Princess is not easy. How many of us have booked with Princess and then transferred the booking to another travel agent for a better price. I know that the few Princess agents I've used have moved on to other departments within the company. The Princess consultants can't really compete with other travel agencies so seems like a lot of work. I wonder how long I would stay in that position.

[Iamcruzin]

If you are going to book directly with the cruise line and I have done so many times I don't see a difference booking with the first person who answers the phone or a special cruise consultant. They don't discount or give OBC. Any person that I spoke with at both Princess and Celebrity have been able to handle my requests whether it was a room change, price adjustment, payment or cancellation.

[waltd]

If you are going to book directly with the cruise line and I have done so many times I don't see a difference booking with the first person who answers the phone or a special cruise consultant. They don't discount or give OBC. Any person that I spoke with at both Princess and Celebrity have been able to handle my requests whether it was a room change, price adjustment, payment or cancellation.

 

I agree. If the consultant is no longer there then any of the reps. can do the change.

[Dcshener]

I wish I could find one of those RAS I could rave about. We've tried to be patient but I bored with correcting her work and then being told "good pickup", waiting for a week for a reply, and pointing our to her the price she quoted for the hotel is cheaper on their own website. We have stuck with them because she gets better prices on a few things like car hire or offers an occasional discount. But thus time her quote is more than I can get directly from Princess. On our last cruise I needed to talk directly to princess about a few things and they were fine. We've been doing more and more on the Internet for the last few years just saving the big ticket items for the TA. But now's the time to just cut them loose.

[Runbarb55]

I booked a cruise myself for the first time. I wanted to find out if any rooms happened to open up in my category so I called in. I got a consultant who went over every available oz with me to find one that was not really that obstructed. I booked on the Lido and my DH didn't want to be that high as we don't use the elevator and he said that was just too many stairs. She finally said, for 10.00 more each she had a totally open oy aft on Emerald deck. I had not found this cabin myself so I was very pleased. She then also was able to give some other advice and knew a lot and was willing to part with some good information. We had the same TA for years but she almost lost us our hawaii cruise a few years ago at Christmas. Then we used a relative and I did all the work booking a very long cruise and tour. I would call Princess and they would not talk to me so he would call them and have a conference call with me because he didn't know what I was saying. This consultant seems to be on the ball so I will give it a try. So far so good.

[Dbld777]

I would like to know how a Princess Travel Consultant gets paid. Salary or commission or both. I can only imagine that being a travel consultant at Princess is not easy. How many of us have booked with Princess and then transferred the booking to another travel agent for a better price. I know that the few Princess agents I've used have moved on to other departments within the company. The Princess consultants can't really compete with other travel agencies so seems like a lot of work. I wonder how long I would stay in that position.

 

On our second cruise with Princess, I began working with a PVP/PCC at Princess that seemed very competent and responsive. She called with reminders at critical points(i.e. final payment due) and then just before departure to see if we had any questions and to wish us a great cruise. I booked a third cruise on the web at Princess.com and then called her the next day to take care of a few final details like marking it "No Upgrade". She asked me to please call her first next time vs. beginning the reservation on the web. She would not get the commission associated with the booking since I had initiated it on the web. I asked if she wanted to delete the booking and then I would call her back to rebook and she said no, that they were not allowed to do that and she could get in trouble for doing that. Anyway, I promised her that I would always call her first in the future now that I know that. She seems very knowledgeable and easy to work with and I plan to book directly with Princess in the future with her assistance. I hope she stays with them!

Edited December 12, 2014 by Dbld777

[jewelsea21]

Trust those agents that (a) give you a straight answer, and (b) are not afraid to tell you when they need to research an answer. Cvps work Eighty plus hours a week and for the most part only princess although some work Cunard as well. Best knowledge / ability to navigate issuesif you have the correct one.

[jennybenny]

I don't have a princess consultant and I always book directly from calling their 800 number. Never had a problem but the only OBC we get is from FCC. It doesn't bother me. I am very happy with Princess