Personal cruise consultants??…….?

[ziggyuk]

5 minutes ago, Old & Retired said:

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.

 

So when I call to ask him to check I have double latitude points assigned to my cruise it involves a sale does it PMSL ..... simple minds!

 

Oh, you might also want to ACTUALLY read my reply before reacting, I did say I was under no illusion of their role but the experience is different.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by ziggyuk

[Sailing12Away]

12 hours ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

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. 

I think you're confusing a PCC with an outside travel agent. The PCC is just a NCL employee who helps with NCL related things. Similar to a travel agent, but you still have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want to your own booking. 

 

With an outside travel agent, you have zero control. If you call NCL, they can't help you with anything. It has to be done with the TA. Even if you have friends that want to add on a gift to your sailing for you, they can't. They would have to go through your TA.

[ClevelandCruisin]

3 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

I think you're confusing a PCC with an outside travel agent. The PCC is just a NCL employee who helps with NCL related things. Similar to a travel agent, but you still have the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want to your own booking. 

 

With an outside travel agent, you have zero control. If you call NCL, they can't help you with anything. It has to be done with the TA. Even if you have friends that want to add on a gift to your sailing for you, they can't. They would have to go through your TA.

Oh I'm not confused at all. 

 

I just choose to book my vacation myself from now on. Simply what I wrote about my experience with the PCC was not pleasant,  I'm not explaining myself on here. It's my choice and whatever anyone else chooses is their own.

[ClevelandCruisin]

15 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

 

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.

Why do you even care if I do not choose to use a PCC?

 

I had a bad experience with one and now I am done with them. So I shared my views on them.

 

Why should I go into detail about my personal travel. I gave enough information to state my case. 

[ziggyuk]

2 hours ago, ClevelandCruisin said:

Why do you even care if I do not choose to use a PCC?

 

I had a bad experience with one and now I am done with them. So I shared my views on them.

 

Why should I go into detail about my personal travel. I gave enough information to state my case. 

 

I don't 

Clearly total BS them 😂

AH on ignore, reply away I wont see it. 

Edited September 30, 2021 by ziggyuk

[DCGuy64]

7 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

With an outside travel agent, you have zero control. If you call NCL, they can't help you with anything. It has to be done with the TA. Even if you have friends that want to add on a gift to your sailing for you, they can't. They would have to go through your TA.

Sorry but that isn't true. It may have been true in your case, but your comment sounds like it applies generally and that's not correct. I was absolutely able to make some changes through NCL without bothering my travel agent, who is by the way a personal friend and a fantastic TA. Then again, I guess it depends on what you want, but where you see having a travel agent as giving you zero control, I see it as being able to trust someone else to take care of things so I don't have to. Which I 100% prefer. Let someone else do the legwork. Maybe that's not your thing, and that's cool. 

[ted500]

Hi everybody

 

Sorry about not responding earlier. I just want to thank you all for your feedback. It’s obviously a very emotive issue and clear to see that there’s a massive difference in the customer service levels offered from NCL PCC”s. There’s lots of very good ones and it’s obvious there’s lots of very bad ones too. So who regulates or monitors these standards like they would do in a normal work place? Do you get a satisfaction questionnaire after your calls? Do you get an email about the service you received?  I’m concerned that they all seem to go in different directions in there offers etc but surely for the consumer this is confusing…? 
 

I’m interested in continuing the different promises and services delivered by some and not by others.

 

Thanks for all the info so far.

 

Regards

 

 

 

 

 

[MsTabbyKats]

On 9/30/2021 at 1:17 PM, DCGuy64 said:

Sorry but that isn't true. It may have been true in your case, but your comment sounds like it applies generally and that's not correct. I was absolutely able to make some changes through NCL without bothering my travel agent, who is by the way a personal friend and a fantastic TA. Then again, I guess it depends on what you want, but where you see having a travel agent as giving you zero control, I see it as being able to trust someone else to take care of things so I don't have to. Which I 100% prefer. Let someone else do the legwork. Maybe that's not your thing, and that's cool. 

May I ask...what kind of changed could you make?  When I call, they tell me "go ask your travel agent".

 

After many years of using TAs, I find it easier to speak to whomever picks up the phone at NCL.  I don't like having to wait to speak to a specific person...whether it be TA or PCC.

[ted500]

Hi to you all again.

 

I’m thinking we all agree that cruising is a passion we will talk about and disagree about many times with regards to lines and services etc.
 

I refer you all back to post 32 and 01 I guess. I have received a lot of feed back and I’ve got to admit it’s very similar but there’s a lot of unhappy people out there with regards to PCC,s 

 

Again thanks

[DCGuy64]

16 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

May I ask...what kind of changed could you make?  When I call, they tell me "go ask your travel agent".

 

After many years of using TAs, I find it easier to speak to whomever picks up the phone at NCL.  I don't like having to wait to speak to a specific person...whether it be TA or PCC.

Sure, I was able to add excursions, Priority Access, additional dining packages and the Thermal Spa pass, all without bothering my TA. 

[MsTabbyKats]

1 hour ago, DCGuy64 said:

Sure, I was able to add excursions, Priority Access, additional dining packages and the Thermal Spa pass, all without bothering my TA. 

Yeah....I've done those too.  But it's "the big things"....like price reduction (before it goes back up) or cancelling, or cabin change(before someone else grabs that dream cabin) that can become problematic if you book thru a TA. 

 

Maybe it's just that I've never found the right TA (Example...Last week I wanted to book an 11/21 cruise....I told him I had my credit card in hand...his associate was supposed to call me back.  She didn't.  No follow-up from him.  Will book directly closer to sailing.)

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Yeah....I've done those too.  But it's "the big things"....like price reduction (before it goes back up) or cancelling, or cabin change(before someone else grabs that dream cabin) that can become problematic if you book thru a TA. 

 

Maybe it's just that I've never found the right TA (Example...Last week I wanted to book an 11/21 cruise....I told him I had my credit card in hand...his associate was supposed to call me back.  She didn't.  No follow-up from him.  Will book directly closer to sailing.)

gotcha. Yeah, in our case the only thing we did was change from an oceanview to a Club Balcony suite because the prices dropped dramatically. Easy peasy, our TA took care of everything. I think (like most things in life) it depends on who you deal with. He's a personal friend, someone I used to work with, and he & his wife are avid travelers who also love cruising. He's extremely fast with responding to emails (typically within minutes), and he got us $100 onboard credit with our booking, too. I'd probably be tempted to do my own bookings if it weren't for him. He's really terrific. 

PS he's also on here, but I think we're not allowed to mention TA's by name. I could find a way to put the two of you in touch if you're interested. He's helped some of my friends with reservations before. 

Edited October 4, 2021 by DCGuy64

[MsTabbyKats]

@DCGuy64  Thanks, but right now I'm gonna be a DIY person.  The cruise I'm looking at is currently underbooked, so I'm hoping prices to drop close to sailing.

[DCGuy64]

17 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

@DCGuy64  Thanks, but right now I'm gonna be a DIY person.  The cruise I'm looking at is currently underbooked, so I'm hoping prices to drop close to sailing.

Good move! I hope you enjoy your cruise. We are looking forward to our next one, although it's still 6 months away, LOL. 😁

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

PCC's and TA's are like other service professionals such as realtors.    There are very good ones and there are very bad ones.  You can do things yourself, but if you get/have a good one, they can be invaluable, if not then not so much. 

[bonvoyagie]

We started cruising back before PCCs and even internet booking were even on NCLs radar. We found a TA who did mosty cruises and he sent us lots of color brochures (another thing of the past) from all the cruise lines he worked with. We selected NCL as our liine of choice an he booked our first cruise. Over the years we have used his services an we have also become good friends and I have refered family and friends to him as well. He is a small one person operation and someday he will retire but he does enjoy helping people with vacations. I usually look online to do my research and have booked if I found a good deal - I later transfer the booking to him - it is a simple process. He does not offer any additional OBC but he saves me from having to be on the phone for hours with the call center. He has a speical rep who he can call at NCL to get questions answered. Also by doing the booking first and then transfering it to him, I get to see the booking invoice and insure that it is correct.

[babba]

I had a bad experience with my PCC ... This person stopped responding to emails and calls once I asked him / her to make simple modifications to my booking.

 

I recently had to cancel a cruise and I was told I could not do it through NCL but had to cancel through my PCC ... I explained to them that I called NCL various times to get this person removed from my account. (I haven't heard from this person for 19 months).  Finally an NCL supervisor got involved and my situation was rectified ... I hope. 

[Sailing12Away]

On 9/30/2021 at 1:17 PM, DCGuy64 said:

Sorry but that isn't true. It may have been true in your case, but your comment sounds like it applies generally and that's not correct. I was absolutely able to make some changes through NCL without bothering my travel agent, who is by the way a personal friend and a fantastic TA. Then again, I guess it depends on what you want, but where you see having a travel agent as giving you zero control, I see it as being able to trust someone else to take care of things so I don't have to. Which I 100% prefer. Let someone else do the legwork. Maybe that's not your thing, and that's cool. 

 

On 10/4/2021 at 8:28 AM, DCGuy64 said:

Sure, I was able to add excursions, Priority Access, additional dining packages and the Thermal Spa pass, all without bothering my TA. 

 When you want to give NCL money, they'll generally take it. When you want to make changes or cancellations and remove their money - that's when they stop you and force you to go through your TA if you used one.

 

Simple example - I had a 10% certificate from a cancelled cruise, NCL wouldn't let me add it on to an existing booking since it was being managed by a TA. I had to call the TA and have them add it on. Called the TA, emailed them, no response. By the time they looked into it, the final payment date had since passed and the TA told me "it's too late, you're beyond final payment date". Yeah idiot, because you sat on my request for 5 days before doing anything with it. So now I need to book another cruise before February 2022 if I want to use this certificate, which I wasn't planning on doing.

 

Another example - I've got a friend sailing in December that I wanted to add on a gift package to their trip so they'd have a treat when they arrived on board. Since they booked through a TA, I had to either ask them to share their reservation number with me (ruining the surprise, so not an option), or figure out which travel agency they used and ask the TA to add it on for me and bill me through the TA. I reached out to the TA and got no response from them. Second friend booked directly with NCL online and I was able to add a gift for them with no issue in <5 minutes.

 

As is the general theme with all things NCL related - it depends on who you ask, what you want to do, and who answers the phone when you call. For those who have found a good TA or NCL specific PCC that you trust and does what you need them to - great, keep using them. For the rest of us, we'll keep searching or doing it all ourselves.

[DCGuy64]

On 10/11/2021 at 5:47 AM, Sailing12Away said:

As is the general theme with all things NCL related - it depends on who you ask, what you want to do, and who answers the phone when you call.

Which is precisely why we use the same travel agent for everything. As you said, if you deal with NCL on your own, the answer you get depends on whom you ask, ie it's a crap shoot. I'd rather deal with the same person every time. It's funny, but we always use the same agent and we never complain, whereas I read reviews about cruise lines on here all the time and people are constantly complaining about poor customer service. That's exactly WHY we book with our travel agent.