PVP Question

[SkyPiglet]

I have done a search, but the results were too numerous to really figure out my answer so I thought I would ask directly.

 

DW and I have been cruising Carnival for the past five years since our honeymoon. This summer, we are back on the Breeze (our favorite) again. For the record, we love Carnival We booked our first cruise through Orbits (I think), and since then have booked the rest directly from Carnivals website. We use DW's phone number and my email. We have occasionally gotten phone calls or emails from various PVPS over the years, and pretty much ignored them thinking they were just cold sales calls, though the names would be pretty consistent.

 

What is the point of a PVP? Are they basically sales agents, or do they offer something more? My cursory search of these forums indicate that a) a good PVP is amazing, b) a bad pvp is awful, and c) some call you all the time. I have not found what they actually do to be helpful, or the opposite.

 

If we are pretty good at navigating Carnival's webpage and know enough about how the process works, is there anything the PVP offers that I am not capable of doing myself? I mean special rates, deals, knowledge of stateroom availability, or a higher level of service?

 

Since I joined this website, I see a lot of mention of PVPs, so I thought I had best explore the option in case I am missing out on something amazing.

[tidcruiser]

A PVP is a single point of contact with Carnival. You are right a good one is an amazing help a bad is quite annoying. Mine has been a lot of help over the years. For example on our upcoming cruise some friends decided to join us. we were ATD. It was filled up when they joined and he was able to link our reservations.

[teknoge3k]

A PVP is a single point of contact with Carnival. You are right a good one is an amazing help a bad is quite annoying. Mine has been a lot of help over the years. For example on our upcoming cruise some friends decided to join us. we were ATD. It was filled up when they joined and he was able to link our reservations.

 

Yep ^

 

We love our PVP. Anytime we need anything, something changed, etc., I shoot our PVP an email and it's taken care of immediately. When we book she knows exactly what we want and helps us get the perfect room, helps us with price drops, etc. If I notice a price drop I shoot her an email and OBC is applied, answers any questions I have moving along. It's a single contact at Carnival rather than emailing and getting a different person each time. Plus if something were to go wrong you have someone at Carnival you can contact.

[firemanbobswife]

Basically it's like having a friend that knows the ins and out of Carnival and in my guy's case has been with Carnival since 1992 and has lots of experience. He also sails the ships so can offer some first had knowledge. You won't hear of him messing things up like the 800 CSRs frequently do. If you need to change things, have questions, issues, etc, you have one person who will personally talk to the Supervisors on your behalf saving tons of time and frustration. There isn't one good reason not to deal with mine.

[sanmarcosman]

We have worked with our PVP for 5 years now and it has worked well for us. When I first spoke with them I made it clear I would only work with them if they assured me they wouldn't contact me unsolicited. They have kept their word on that score.

 

Basically, I think of our PVP as an order taker who will also be an advocate for us should a hitch occur in our giddy-up. This happened once and the PVP came through with flying colors. Two days before a cruise on the Miracle a member here on Cruise Critic announced her cabin number saying she and her large family would be partying and for folks to come by night or day. I went "wait, what? that looks like the number of the cabin next to ours!" I checked and it was the cabin next to ours and not only that there was a connecting door between our cabins which are infamous for transferring noise from one cabin to another.

 

I reached out to our PVP pronto and included a link from here to the post in question. Within 2 hours I got word there were other balcony cabins available aft on the same deck far away from that family but Carnival needed time to contact the on board team to effect the cabin change due to the time constraint.

 

The PVP called back 2 hours later saying they were on the case and while it was coming down to the wire for our cruise we would be moved to another cabin. The PVP got my cell number and called me the morning of our cruise as we were in our car approaching the pier to give us our new cabin assignment. Our keys had already been made for the originally assigned cabin and the PVP told me I would have to explain our situation to the check in people. We did that and were directed to another agent whose function was to assist those in situations just like the one we found ourselves in. The agent knew we were expected and took our old cards and made new cards. When we got in our cabin even our cabin steward didn't know there were guests assigned to the cabin, his list showed unoccupied. The Bon Voyage items we ordered had to be called for because yep, sure enough, they had been delivered to the cabin originally assigned. Not a problem, I mention this only to emphasize how all these changes to our reservation needed to be made at the last minute.

 

OK, we got lucky in that the ship wasn't sailing full but the point is that given very short notice of only two days our PVP went to bat for us big time even going so far as to forward to management the link we sent them from here on Cruise Critic to back up our concerns.

 

This level of service from our Carnival PVP was nonpareil and is why we re-book only with them and will continue to do so as long as they work as a PVP at Carnival.

 

This is a long story but I think you deserve an example of how a PVP can be of assistance to their clients when your back is against the wall.

 

Happy Sailings!

Edited July 16, 2017 by sanmarcosman

[springs741]

Why I use / love my PVP:

 

I always have a trusted source for my questions.She has been with Carnival for over 10 years, so she knows the rules.

 

She helps me find the right staterooms when I book a family cruise. Do you know how difficult it is to find three balcony staterooms - with dividers that open directly across from a fully handicap interior stateroom? Pretty much impossible to book that yourself online.

 

Because we have a prior relationship, she will put forth the extra effort to get fees waved when we have to change sail dates.

 

She almost never cold calls me. The few exceptions to that have been a day or two before sailing to wish me a great cruise and ask if any last minute issues have occurred.

 

Because when she goes on vacation she leaves someone to take her calls that is equally knowledgeable about the Carnival Brand.

 

I read here on Cruise Critic almost daily threads with questions and think if you used a PVP you would have had the correct answer by now.

 

Just like in any professions there are great PVP (and TA's too) and then there are those that give them all a bad reputation.

[fair-winds39]

I have done a search, but the results were too numerous to really figure out my answer so I thought I would ask directly.

 

DW and I have been cruising Carnival for the past five years since our honeymoon. This summer, we are back on the Breeze (our favorite) again. For the record, we love Carnival We booked our first cruise through Orbits (I think), and since then have booked the rest directly from Carnivals website. We use DW's phone number and my email. We have occasionally gotten phone calls or emails from various PVPS over the years, and pretty much ignored them thinking they were just cold sales calls, though the names would be pretty consistent.

 

What is the point of a PVP? Are they basically sales agents, or do they offer something more? My cursory search of these forums indicate that a) a good PVP is amazing, b) a bad pvp is awful, and c) some call you all the time. I have not found what they actually do to be helpful, or the opposite.

 

If we are pretty good at navigating Carnival's webpage and know enough about how the process works, is there anything the PVP offers that I am not capable of doing myself? I mean special rates, deals, knowledge of stateroom availability, or a higher level of service?

 

Since I joined this website, I see a lot of mention of PVPs, so I thought I had best explore the option in case I am missing out on something amazing.

 

We've been cruising for a number of years and in the late 80's to the early 90's, we usually booked through a random travel agent, or we contacted the cruise line directly. Our first Carnival cruise in the late 90's or early 2000 something....was on the Legend, and we booked with whoever answered the booking line. That one call resulted in 4 cabin upgrades for us and the other three couples; 2 couples each had wraparound suites, and the other two couples had the suites on either side of the wraparounds. So, we can't complain about contacting Carnival directly.

 

We've cruised with Carnival exclusively since then, and will sail again in early Feb. 2018 on the Carnival Pride for the 5th time. We received a postcard or something along the way that referenced a PVP, and since 2012, for no special reason, decided to book with the PVP. I just pick which cruise we want to take, contact her via email, she calls me immediately, and within minutes, the cruise is booked. She has all of our pertinent information, so it's simple. She is reachable at all times; weekends and holidays as well. She is informative, and when we book early saver, I don't need to do the form, she just handles submission and gets the reduction. She's terrific and a pleasure to work with. The customer service that our PVP provides is the best, especially these days.

[ddlb]

I must be missing something. My procedure has been to get online with Carnival or other Cruise Lines and compare the fake booking prices to a very large website database that allows you to search for cruiseline/ship/dates/ports/cabin type etc. looking for my "vacations to go".....The website has the most current prices too which seem to change with Carnival on a daily basis.

 

My latest Carnival PVP who calls constantly and tells me he can get me the "best price"- has always been the "current price" - at the time he calls.

 

However, the online TA I have used most affords me cash back (this time 10%) or cash matching rewards which can be substantial. They also handle the stock certifcate etc. I guess the thing I am not getting in upsell/upgrade offers - but then again I'm not sure how many people get those either.

 

Having a Carnival PVP does have benefits from what I have read IF something goes wrong. Thus far nothing has for us fortunately - good thing cause we never pay for the insurance either. But I've never had an upgrade/upsell offer either :(

[sanmarcosman]

Having a Carnival PVP does have benefits from what I have read IF something goes wrong. Thus far nothing has for us fortunately - good thing cause we never pay for the insurance either. But I've never had an upgrade/upsell offer either :(

You said a mouthful, try getting a resolution for the problem we had mentioned earlier in this thread when booked through an online mega wholesaler. We all take risks, some are more calculated than others.

[buddylover]

I have done a search, but the results were too numerous to really figure out my answer so I thought I would ask directly.

 

DW and I have been cruising Carnival for the past five years since our honeymoon. This summer, we are back on the Breeze (our favorite) again. For the record, we love Carnival We booked our first cruise through Orbits (I think), and since then have booked the rest directly from Carnivals website. We use DW's phone number and my email. We have occasionally gotten phone calls or emails from various PVPS over the years, and pretty much ignored them thinking they were just cold sales calls, though the names would be pretty consistent.

 

What is the point of a PVP? Are they basically sales agents, or do they offer something more? My cursory search of these forums indicate that a) a good PVP is amazing, b) a bad pvp is awful, and c) some call you all the time. I have not found what they actually do to be helpful, or the opposite.

 

If we are pretty good at navigating Carnival's webpage and know enough about how the process works, is there anything the PVP offers that I am not capable of doing myself? I mean special rates, deals, knowledge of stateroom availability, or a higher level of service?

 

Since I joined this website, I see a lot of mention of PVPs, so I thought I had best explore the option in case I am missing out on something amazing.

 

We have found that the PVP provides NOTHING that you can't figure out yourself, and most times you are even better at it yourself, if you are knowledgeable enough and can navigate on your own as you say. They can NOT give you any special deals or breaks, not allowed.....we have not found one yet who provides anything useful to us at all.

Funny story, actually, we did turn to one that has just started out as a PVP, taking a new job at CCL from a role on the ships where we met him and sailed with several times. Thought we would 'throw' him some business.....BAD IDEA.....never have we been told so much incorrect information, been more misled, nor have we had to "undo" so much on a booking before. So from our perspective, we will go back to booking on our own and we feel we know more and have probably cruised more than most PVPs....LOL!!!

[firemanbobswife]

We have found that the PVP provides NOTHING that you can't figure out yourself, and most times you are even better at it yourself, if you are knowledgeable enough and can navigate on your own as you say. They can NOT give you any special deals or breaks, not allowed.....we have not found one yet who provides anything useful to us at all.

 

 

 

Funny story, actually, we did turn to one that has just started out as a PVP, taking a new job at CCL from a role on the ships where we met him and sailed with several times. Thought we would 'throw' him some business.....BAD IDEA.....never have we been told so much incorrect information, been more misled, nor have we had to "undo" so much on a booking before. So from our perspective, we will go back to booking on our own and we feel we know more and have probably cruised more than most PVPs....LOL!!!

 

Again it depends on getting the right one. Once you do, there's no going back.

[Bruner1]

We used to have a PVP who emailed and called us constantly. However, now that I have a question to send to him, I can't seem to find any contact information for who our PVP is. I guess I need to search the Carnival website a bit more carefully to find him.

[sanmarcosman]

We used to have a PVP who emailed and called us constantly. However, now that I have a question to send to him, I can't seem to find any contact information for who our PVP is. I guess I need to search the Carnival website a bit more carefully to find him.

You make a good point, there does seem to be a lot of turnover in the position of PVP. As others have stated so well, when you find a good one you stick and a good one usually has been in the job for a minimum of 3 years.

[ray98]

They are salesmen...that's all. There is no information they have that you cannot find yourself without their sales spin.

[Pyrate13]

My PVP is no "salesman", never tried to sell me anything. When I have several cruises that I am interested in she does not try to sell me on the most expensive one but gives me the information I may need to make my own decisions. She has always been extremely helpful with any questions I may have, linking with others, etc and makes booking my cruises simple. Also, she never calls unless I leave her a message asking for a call back.

[bUU]

The best salesmen are those who make you feel like you're not be sold anything.

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

[RWolver672]

They are salesmen...that's all. There is no information they have that you cannot find yourself without their sales spin.

I disagree. You can only find X amount (I think it's 10) cabins available in a certain category. A PVP can find all that is available.

 

Using a PVP is in a way like buying FTTF or Cheers or any excursions. You have the option of doing it or not doing it. It just depends on what you want. If booking yourself online is your thing, do it. If booking through a PVP or a TA is your thing, do it. The OP was given several reasons why people use them. Now it's up to them to decide.

[firemanbobswife]

I disagree. You can only find X amount (I think it's 10) cabins available in a certain category. A PVP can find all that is available.

 

 

 

Using a PVP is in a way like buying FTTF or Cheers or any excursions. You have the option of doing it or not doing it. It just depends on what you want. If booking yourself online is your thing, do it. If booking through a PVP or a TA is your thing, do it. The OP was given several reasons why people use them. Now it's up to them to decide.

 

I agree. I have never ended up with more than what I already knew I wanted when I called. He has never called me, mentioned, or talked me into a higher category, insurance, Shore Excursions, or anything else than what I asked for when I initiated contact.

 

The difference between him and FTTF, Excursions, or Cheers is that his services cost me zero. So as long as he continues to provide excellent customer service as he does to me and my many friends and acquaintances that use him, I have ZERO issue with him getting credit for doing exactly what I request and doing it right.

 

I also agree that many, many, many questions/problems/issues posted on here would have been handled without incident or need for posting if they had the RIGHT PVP. My time is valuable and I cut out a lot of nonsense by going right to him. If he ever leaves, then I might change my mind. Until then, I will continue to take advantage of his experience which again, is invaluable to me especially when things don't go exactly as I had expected.

 

For those who have never had an issue come up with your cruise, then great. And you might not. But if it does, then having the RIGHT PVP can make all the difference in the world. Just look at all the people that post with issues or questions that thought it would never happen to them and they book online all the time. Some have been doing it for years. Then something does and they get 3 different answers from 3 different people, need to wait for phone calls from Supervisors, have mix ups with deposits, amongst whatever else can happen. Kind of like insurance. You don't think you will ever need it until you do. Except this insurance is free for you to use. It costs $0 added to your cruise vs someone else that books direct online.

 

Anyway, you get the idea.

[joepeka]

I disagree. You can only find X amount (I think it's 10) cabins available in a certain category. A PVP can find all that is available.

 

Using a PVP is in a way like buying FTTF or Cheers or any excursions. You have the option of doing it or not doing it. It just depends on what you want. If booking yourself online is your thing, do it. If booking through a PVP or a TA is your thing, do it. The OP was given several reasons why people use them. Now it's up to them to decide.

True. Our DD's PVP did exactly that on their most recent booking. They wanted two cabins located in a specific category and configuration but were unable to see any on Carnival's web site no matter how often they checked. The PVP easily found what they needed and booked.

[GingerMT/TX]

My PVP is no "salesman", never tried to sell me anything. When I have several cruises that I am interested in she does not try to sell me on the most expensive one but gives me the information I may need to make my own decisions. She has always been extremely helpful with any questions I may have, linking with others, etc and makes booking my cruises simple. Also, she never calls unless I leave her a message asking for a call back.

 

This. It all depends on the PVP. I have had the same one since my first cruise in 2003, and only because my BF and her family had already been with her for years. Her value to us is incalculable--have no idea what we will do when she retires.

[Pyrate13]

This. It all depends on the PVP. I have had the same one since my first cruise in 2003, and only because my BF and her family had already been with her for years. Her value to us is incalculable--have no idea what we will do when she retires.

 

Exactly what I am saying, we've had the same one for all of our Carnival cruises. Some folks like having a pvp, others don't want one. Ours has been great. To each their own.

 

"The best salesmen are those who make you feel like you're not be sold anything."

Perhaps so but some folks really aren't trying to sell you anything.