How to book as a european?

[OliverSwe]

Hello,

This might be a stupid question but how do I book a Princess Cruise as a European? 

If I go to princess cruises webpage at the booking page it just directs me to finding a travel agent and I can´t find a European website. Is it possible to book online? In that case where? I wish to not go via a travel agent

[caribill]

25 minutes ago, OliverSwe said:

Hello,

This might be a stupid question but how do I book a Princess Cruise as a European? 

If I go to princess cruises webpage at the booking page it just directs me to finding a travel agent and I can´t find a European website. Is it possible to book online? In that case where? I wish to not go via a travel agent

 

I assume you are living in Europe.

 

Just contact your Europe located Princess office and book over the phone.

[david63]

Don't know which European you are from but try

https://www.princesscruises.xx where xx = your country code such as fr for France, de for Germany etc

 

 

[OliverSwe]

33 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

I assume you are living in Europe.

 

Just contact your Europe located Princess office and book over the phone.

I was hoping not to call. I find it much easier to book on my own online. Nice and calm 🙂

 

 

21 minutes ago, david63 said:

Don't know which European you are from but try

https://www.princesscruises.xx where xx = your country code such as fr for France, de for Germany etc

 

 

They didnt have one for Sweden but apparently Germany has one and they also had english translation of their webpage! Thank you very much! The german site didnt show up when i tried to google for some reason haha

[Bedruthen]

I had exactly the same problem. It was to do with the settings on my iPad, but sorry, I can’t remember the solution. It needed a lot of googling.

[jeromep]

1 hour ago, Bedruthen said:

I had exactly the same problem. It was to do with the settings on my iPad, but sorry, I can’t remember the solution. It needed a lot of googling.

For web site issues with Safari on iPad the two most important settings to look at are cookies, they must be allowed, and cross site tracking must be allowed.  That will fix a lot of web site compatibility problems with Safari on iOS.  In general Apple does not do a good job with handling cross-site tracking on Safari, they use a sledgehammer rather than something more graceful.  Many web sites use off site resources to display information, present forms, etc., and Safari sees this as cross-site tracking, not a legitimate resource request from an off-site resource.  So, cross-site tracking in that situation, while not ideal is also not an issue because the other site that is providing information to the site you are visiting is doing so "at your request" and for a legitimate site.  Firefox, Chrome, Edge all by default have cross-site tracking blocked, but not for legitimate site running exercises.  Also, when one browser doesn't work with a site, try another.  I run multiple browsers on my computer, and I keep alternate browsers on my iOS devices just in case sites don't play well with Safari.

 

13 hours ago, OliverSwe said:

Hello,

This might be a stupid question but how do I book a Princess Cruise as a European? 

If I go to princess cruises webpage at the booking page it just directs me to finding a travel agent and I can´t find a European website. Is it possible to book online? In that case where? I wish to not go via a travel agent

I presume that you are a seasoned traveler, and possibly a seasoned cruiser.  For those of us that fly and book hotels and rental cars and even theme parks and other travel resources online, it just makes sense that we can handle booking a cruise on our own.  And for the most part I'd say that is correct.  But things have really changed for the worse with regard to cruise line booking and pre-cruise customer service.  The call centers are overwhelmed, the call center staff doesn't seem particularly well trained, call center staff don't have the information they need at their fingertips, and cruise offers, fares, discounts, credits and features seem to be changing on a daily basis.  I think in cruise sales everyone's heads are spinning right now, so a cruise line call center has to probably be one of the most unorganized working environments you can imagine right now; and that trickles down to any customer contact that is more complex than booking a cruise over the phone or getting a question answered where the answer is on a computer screen right in front of the call center employee.

 

That said, on my most recent booking I transferred my online booking of a cruise to an independent travel agent I found through a friend.  My pre-cruise sales and service experience has never been better.  There was a number of changes to the Princess Plus/Premier program and initial grumblings coming out of CC indicated that staff at Princess didn't know anything about the changes.  Plus you couldn't opt-in to the changes through the web site.  You had to call them or deal with your TA.  Knowing how many people have been having issues getting things resolved through the call center, I decided to make the jump to a TA.  The TA handled the changes I needed on their own when they were able to access those changes in the booking system.  I didn't have to remind them, they just handled it.

 

I'm not sure why you are averse to dealing with a travel agent.  I've found my experience to be excellent.  I speak with the same person every time.  I bounce travel ideas off from them, and since they are also active and avid cruisers on many different lines, I get great advice and first hand experience.  Sure, they send out email blasts every now and then, but it isn't annoying and the delete button remains easy to use.

[OliverSwe]

On 4/7/2023 at 1:26 AM, jeromep said:

I'm not sure why you are averse to dealing with a travel agent.  I've found my experience to be excellent.  I speak with the same person every time.  I bounce travel ideas off from them, and since they are also active and avid cruisers on many different lines, I get great advice and first hand experience.  Sure, they send out email blasts every now and then, but it isn't annoying and the delete button remains easy to use.

The biggest reasons I don't wanna go via a TA is a combination of I like to have my own control and also find it very fun to find flights, hotels, destinations. Second reason is the price, since I find it fun to do I see no reason to pay extra when I can then spend that money on the next vacation 🙂

[david63]

On 4/7/2023 at 12:26 AM, jeromep said:

But things have really changed for the worse with regard to cruise line booking and pre-cruise customer service.  The call centers are overwhelmed, the call center staff doesn't seem particularly well trained, call center staff don't have the information they need at their fingertips

That may be the case in the US but in the UK the Princess call centre is excellent - better than other Carnival brands.

 

On 4/7/2023 at 12:26 AM, jeromep said:

I'm not sure why you are averse to dealing with a travel agent.

I know that was not directed at me but I also will not use a travel agent unless there is no other option for one very good reason - a few years back we had a cruise booked through a local cruise TA who went bust after we had paid them the balance