Personal cruise consultants??…….?

[ted500]

Hi to everybody

 

i just wondered what the general consensus was with everybody for booking a cruise with NCL these days. I’m looking for views from both the USA and Uk mainly with this as I know some rules/practice are different.

 

I ask because it’s amazing how different the service can be and it would be interesting to see if there is a pattern service wise. I have my own opinion here but I’m not saying anything at the moment! Im going to be delving deep into many issues but the hot topic for this month is personal cruise consultants. Do you think they are worth while, would you rather have a travel agent? Is it better to book online individually? 
 

All feedback welcome.

 

Regards

 

Teddy

 

 

 

[Diver2014]

My NCL personal cruise consultant is fabulous and does everything for me.  I have 3 cruises lined up and he did all the work for me.  Can't ask for better.  I used to just book cruises on my own but I like having someone who has direct access to NCL doing all the footwork for me. (I also have PCC's on two other cruise lines as well.  They are also very good at what they do.)

[dumbth]

I wish I could just do everything on NCL web pages, but consultants can get some rules bent for you. Like whether credits can be used for deposits, and whether a credit can be split into 2 cruises. Of course this human intervention drives up everyone's costs, especially when folks learn the squeeky wheel can get advantages. Then we gotta get unsolicited call interruptions from them from time to time, altho mine seems to vanished and not replaced.

 

Folks have pointed out some incentive reward advantages from using separate TA's, especially if they are altruistic and run themselves ragged fielding cancellations and rebookings for no more compensation. Some folks like the human touch, but we all ultimately pay those increased costs and I just wish those folks utilized therapists or 900 numbers and let the rest be efficiently done by web sites.

[FlGoodShips]

Love my PCC. Always book with him. Excellent service.

[ted500]

Thank you for your information. That’s excellent service so bravo. 
May I ask on the financial front do you think you pay more with your consultant as to what you would pay independently online?

 

[ted500]

Do we know on average how many clients a pcc would have?

[LincolnLog]

I think I had already been on 5 or 6 cruises (all of which I booked online) before I even knew something like this existed. Is this just a Norwegian thing or does every cruise line offer this? It would have been nice if they made this information a little more available somehow. I don’t know if I’m missing on on something or not but I’ve just decided to stick with doing it myself. 

[ColeThornton]

4 minutes ago, LincolnLog said:

I think I had already been on 5 or 6 cruises (all of which I booked online) before I even knew something like this existed. Is this just a Norwegian thing or does every cruise line offer this? It would have been nice if they made this information a little more available somehow. I don’t know if I’m missing on on something or not but I’ve just decided to stick with doing it myself. 

 

That information is readily available on the front page of NCL.com.   At the bottom of the main page where it has all the links it says "Need Help Planning? Speak with a Consultant".

 

And yes, this type of support is available on all the lines I have dealt with.  Personally, I don't use them.   They make it easy enough with some time and research to do it yourself, in my opinion.

 

Cheers!  🙂

[Landl cruiser]

 

We have had our  NCL PCC for 10 years or so .  She is wonderful.  

 

We have a local travel agent for cruises on other lines.   They are also wonderful and we have had them for over 10 years.

 

We do our own research to a point (Date , ship and cabin location) and then we go to the experts.

[ziggyuk]

8 hours ago, ted500 said:

Hi to everybody

 

i just wondered what the general consensus was with everybody for booking a cruise with NCL these days. I’m looking for views from both the USA and Uk mainly with this as I know some rules/practice are different.

 

Teddy,
After some issues getting random call centre operators on the phone who were really inconsistent I asked for a PCC.

I was assigned a guy who lives in Malta and he is absolutely fantastic, whenever I call him, he know me and my bookings.
If I ever have a question it is a quick direct call or email and it's sorted/answered.

 

Re, financial front (you asked):

My next cruise is Alaska on October 16th, I called him yesterday and asked if there was anything he could do in lieu of the price reductions, he offered 25% of the difference as a FCC or as reprice to a balcony. The difference from what I paid at booking of my inside to the current price of a balcony was £260 (£130 each).

It was a no brainer, I already had £310 in as a bid for a random balcony, I paid him £260 and got to choose a nice unobstructed mid ship balcony with no interconnecting door.

After I came off the phone I commented how simple it was, that call would have been so painful to the call centre but my PCC was fantastic as usual.

 

Yeah, I might be able to get a bit of onboard credit using a travel agent but honestly my PCC is worth his weight in gold to me.

[ChiefMateJRK]

1 hour ago, ziggyuk said:

After I came off the phone I commented how simple it was, that call would have been so painful to the call centre but my PCC was fantastic as usual.

Just as a counter-point, I called the "call center" (NCL reservations) twice last week to reprice/upgrade a cruise like yours (i.e. past the final payment date).  There was no pain.....  The agents were both very helpful and accurate.  Inside>>Ocean View>>balcony for $105.40 total (for two people).  😎  If you have a good PCC, then it's probably very similar. 

[ziggyuk]

3 minutes ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Just as a counter-point, I called the "call center" (NCL reservations) twice last week to reprice/upgrade a cruise like yours (i.e. past the final payment date).  There was no pain.....  The agents were both very helpful and accurate.  Inside>>Ocean View>>balcony for $105.40 total (for two people).  😎  If you have a good PCC, then it's probably very similar. 

 

I agree, not all call centre staff are bad but it's just so nice to have someone who works for NCL I can call directly whenever I want and have such a good response on every call, we are even at the point to laugh and joke with each other.

[Sailing12Away]

We're on our 5th (I think) cruise with NCL and every time I've booked online myself after much time spent researching and price checking, and double checking,  and reconfiguring all possible options to find the best thing for us. Each time I was randomly assigned a different PCC and they didn't do much. Only when we had connecting rooms on POA did they help a little bit, but then disappeared.

 

Recently tried an online TA due to the high OBC they offered. The credits were nice, but they were non-responsive and didn't do anything else at all for me. I had friends reach out to them to try and add on a gift for my last sailing, and that got royally botched up to say the least. I tried calling them to add on a gift myself to a friend's upcoming cruise who is booked through them, and no response at all. 

 

On my last cruise on the Encore we met a couple who had the same PCC for over 10 years and they gave me her info. I reached out to her when we got home and she was able to find an extra 10% off coupon on our account and apply it to our upcoming May sailing. When we spoke to agents on the phone months ago, they told us we couldn't apply it to that one for some reason, but the PCC was able to do it no problem and saved us another $200 just for a 5 min phone call. She also found a second certificate in our account we didn't even know about that we have until February to use.

 

I'll always do my own mock booking first to see what the price should be for what I want, but if I'm booking with NCL again it will be through this new PCC. 

[Old & Retired]

3 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

I agree, not all call centre staff are bad but it's just so nice to have someone who works for NCL I can call directly whenever I want and have such a good response on every call, we are even at the point to laugh and joke with each other.

Whenever I go to buy a new car, the salesman is my new best friend.  We always laugh and joke with each other.

[ChiefMateJRK]

23 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Only when we had connecting rooms on POA did they help a little bit, but then disappeared.

 

I've never needed help with connecting rooms.  DD travels with us but none of us are really interested in being "that" close.  🤣  I have had good experiences with NCL reservation agents helping me to find better rooms than the NCL website offers for the room category I booked.  Some have been surprisingly knowledgeable about the different NCL ships and their deck plans.

 

23 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

I reached out to her when we got home and she was able to find an extra 10% off coupon on our account and apply it to our upcoming May sailing.

 

I think the NCL 10% coupon for cancelled cruises is one of the biggest mysteries out there, for everybody involved.  Some of us have been told that you can have several on the account but only one applied.  I don't recall reports of somebody taking a cruise with the coupon applied and then having another one suddenly come to life for application to another upcoming cruise.  Could this have happened in your case?  Also, I believe promo code DISC10 has been the code NCL offered to this point for most/all cancelled cruises.  I now have reason to believe that those with the recent 2023 Sun AK cancellations are instead being offered promo code SUNOFF for the 10% discount.  Hopefully this means that I have another 10% off that I can apply to an upcoming cruise.  I believe that I can apply it through Dec 2022 towards any cruise sailing by Dec 2023, but I haven't tested it (yet).

[Carnac767]

We used a PCC for about ten years and she was fantastic.  She kept us informed of price reductions, suite upgrades, and the like and saved us a ton of money on our cruises.  Alas, she retired and the woman who was assigned as her replacement was a pale imitation of her predecessor.  We finally gave up trying to work with her.  She rarely answered her phone and never returned our calls.  Upon a recommendation from a CC friend, we started using the travel department of the Big Box store that ends in O.  At that time, they were the only travel company that NCL allowed to discount their cruises, and the discount was significant.  That discount disappeared when NCL new CEO took over.  Now we just deal directly with NCL.  It just takes a big more work to keep up with price changes.  If you have a great Travel Agent or PCC, they're worth their weight in gold.

[Sailing12Away]

12 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

 

I've never needed help with connecting rooms.  DD travels with us but none of us are really interested in being "that" close.  🤣  I have had good experiences with NCL reservation agents helping me to find better rooms than the NCL website offers for the room category I booked.  Some have been surprisingly knowledgeable about the different NCL ships and their deck plans.

 

 

I think the NCL 10% coupon for cancelled cruises is one of the biggest mysteries out there, for everybody involved.  Some of us have been told that you can have several on the account but only one applied.  I don't recall reports of somebody taking a cruise with the coupon applied and then having another one suddenly come to life for application to another upcoming cruise.  Could this have happened in your case?  Also, I believe promo code DISC10 has been the code NCL offered to this point for most/all cancelled cruises.  I now have reason to believe that those with the recent 2023 Sun AK cancellations are instead being offered promo code SUNOFF for the 10% discount.  Hopefully this means that I have another 10% off that I can apply to an upcoming cruise.  I believe that I can apply it through Dec 2022 towards any cruise sailing by Dec 2023, but I haven't tested it (yet).

These are all the codes currently applied to that May 2022 sailing, after the PCC added on the additional discount for us:

 

When we originally booked this in August 2020, the DISC10 and JWLOFF were not there. The DISC10 was from our cancelled New Zealand cruise, and the JWLOFF is the extra 10% off from when the Pearl was cancelled. That was the one I was fighting with NCL about because they told me I wasn't entitled to another coupon since I already had one in my account (the DISC10), even though these were 2 completely separate cruises that were both cancelled.

 

Turns out they gave it to us, but put it under a brand new account for hubby that we didn't know about. So the PCC had to merge a bunch of bogus accounts under his name, transfer the coupon to the valid account with his status miles, and then was able to apply it to the sailing - stacking the 10% off's (not really, as one is applied to my fare and the other to him).

But regardless, we've now saved over $800 on that cruise in total from the original booking, and the total price we paid is what they're charging per person now. So I'm waiting for this to get cancelled on us or the ship to be switched as this is too good a deal to go through.

[ziggyuk]

13 hours ago, Old & Retired said:

Whenever I go to buy a new car, the salesman is my new best friend.  We always laugh and joke with each other.

 

Of course!

I was simply answering the OP with the difference of having a PCC or not, I'm under no illusions 🙄

 

FYI your analogy is ridiculous as I'm talking of simple calls or queries that are not involving sales.

I don't care if you believe me or not but I get a more helpful and friendly service from a PCC than a call to the call centre.

[ChiefMateJRK]

3 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

FYI your analogy is ridiculous as I'm talking of simple calls or queries that are not involving sales.

I've had reason to believe that, at the end of the day, the PCCs are in fact sales people who benefit financially from each cruise they book.  Fortunately, it appears that my current one has given up on me.  😎  At one point a cruise had dropped in price (prior to final payment) and he told me that I had to cancel my existing booking and have him create a new booking.  He didn't know how to cancel a booking and suggested that I could just do it on the NCL website (where it clearly states that you have to call NCL reservations to cancel).  Upon calling NCL reservations, a very helpful lady told me that she could simply reprice the existing booking to lower the final payment due.  That's the last time I tried to work with that PCC.

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I've had reason to believe that, at the end of the day, the PCCs are in fact sales people who benefit financially from each cruise they book.  Fortunately, it appears that my current one has given up on me.  😎  At one point a cruise had dropped in price (prior to final payment) and he told me that I had to cancel my existing booking and have him create a new booking.  He didn't know how to cancel a booking and suggested that I could just do it on the NCL website (where it clearly states that you have to call NCL reservations to cancel).  Upon calling NCL reservations, a very helpful lady told me that she could simply reprice the existing booking to lower the final payment due.  That's the last time I tried to work with that PCC.

 

That is why you need a good one, if they are substandard dump them and get a new one, a good PCC is worth their weight in gold.

[ClevelandCruisin]

No PCCs for us!

We had one once, just a bad experience for us. You have to do everything through them. Prefer to handle my own vacation and book through NCL directly. 

[ziggyuk]

23 minutes ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

No PCCs for us!

You have to do everything through them. Prefer to handle my own vacation and book through NCL directly. 

 

What do you mean?

My PCC books the cruise but I still book, shows, dining, excursions, bids, everything I did when I booked via the website the only difference for me is I can call them and have them fix things.
I even choose the cruise, the deck and cabin before calling my PCC and just ask him to finalise it so he's responsible if I need his assistance.

[ClevelandCruisin]

1 hour ago, ziggyuk said:

 

What do you mean?

My PCC books the cruise but I still book, shows, dining, excursions, bids, everything I did when I booked via the website the only difference for me is I can call them and have them fix things.
I even choose the cruise, the deck and cabin before calling my PCC and just ask him to finalise it so he's responsible if I need his assistance.

Not for everyone though. Glad your experience was better than mine.

[ziggyuk]

11 minutes ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

Not for everyone though. Glad your experience was better than mine.

 

That's fair enough the OP asked for views and yours was not positive, I was just wondering what your PCC would not let you handle yourself.

[Old & Retired]

6 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

FYI your analogy is ridiculous as I'm talking of simple calls or queries that are not involving sales.

I don't care if you believe me or not but I get a more helpful and friendly service from a PCC than a call to the call centre.

Don't be ridiculous.  EVERY interaction with a PCC (salesman) involves sales.  Whether it be now or in the future.  ABC.  Always Be Closing.  The only goal of these people is to make a sale.  Some are easier to fool than others.