Assistance with Group Booking

[clcizme]

This is sort of a long story, but I will try and truncate it to get to the point.  We are doing a group cruise instead of a family get together for the first time.  Many of our family have cruised individually before but thought it would be fun to do altogether.  I started with the special events department to see the possibilities of doing a private party onboard and was able to work out all the details.  The Special Events people have been good to work with, no issues other than they don't work together with the Groups department (despite what the brochure says).  The problem came with our "Group Concierge".  This is supposed to be a perk of doing a group booking, according to their web site:  Your dedicated Groups Concierge will ensure all of your pre-cruise arrangements including meals, parties and shore excursions are planned to a “T” whether it's for weddings, family reunions, birthday celebrations or private events.  But our Group person has ignored my emails and phone messages, as well as the calls of others in our group.  She has not correctly booked many of the rooms according to the requirements for our event and neglected to include any of the 'group perks' on most of the reservations.  When we were able to talk with her, she would answer questions in such a long confusing way that we were never entirely sure that she knew what she was doing and the errors were not corrected. After many emails and calls, I finally called the group number again and asked for a supervisor or someone to assist me in getting our group booking assigned to another agent.  I was given a case number that I now believe is a worthless way of placating me to get me off the phone.  I have called in multiple times since then with a mixture of, "your case is being looked into and someone will call you" or transfers to a number that either rings, hangs up on you, or asks you to leave a message.  I am completely frustrated by the lack of interest in resolving our issues and my family is about ready to pull out and look for another cruise line.  I am wondering if anyone has ever had such a negative experience with Norwegian's Group Department.  And if they have, how did you resolve it?  Also, if anyone might have a contact person or number (other than the main group booking number) that we can contact to get these issues taken care of.  I am honestly at the end of my wits about this. As the group leader, I have never experienced such horrible customer service when arranging parties, vacations and get togethers in the past.  Thanks to anyone that can assist or offer advise.

[IAcruising]

Ouch. This is a painful read, on a number of levels.

 

I would never, ever attempt this on my own. That's what travel agents are for.

 

[BirdTravels]

Is there a reason that you created another account, then abandoned your thread?

 

 

[boxedmoon]

A PCC that has experience with groups is what I have used. He handled all the communications with the groups dept and I got a responsive agent for questions and changes without having to deal with groups directly. The PCC won't arrange events for you though.

I have done a 11 cabin group for reference.

Edited September 26, 2023 by boxedmoon

[clcizme]

11 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Is there a reason that you created another account, then abandoned your thread?

This is my original account, I was unable to get into it and created a new account.  I thought it was too old to access again.  But, with the wonderful help from the Cruise Critic help desk, I was able to get into it.  😁 Unfortunately, I lost access to the new account in the process (same email used) and couldn’t locate my first post.  So, I posted again with the further developments. Still holding out hope to resolve this and thought another cruiser might have some experience or tip that would assist.  😊 Thanks for your responses. 

[clcizme]

7 hours ago, boxedmoon said:

A PCC that has experience with groups is what I have used. He handled all the communications with the groups dept and I got a responsive agent for questions and changes without having to deal with groups directly. The PCC won't arrange events for you though.

I have done a 11 cabin group for reference.

Were you able to get the Group Credits through a PCC?  That is the part we were hoping for. Also, having someone to do our show and dinner reservations. Thanks for your response.  

[boxedmoon]

1 hour ago, clcizme said:

Were you able to get the Group Credits through a PCC?  That is the part we were hoping for. Also, having someone to do our show and dinner reservations. Thanks for your response.  

Yes, we got all the group offers and credits using a PCC.

Any reservations for dinner and shows he didn't do though, he only handled the cabin reservations.

[vacation44]

We are in a group booking for our June 2024 cruise.   I booked through my PCC at the time and he contacted the Group Department and set it up with them.    Honestly, I was only after the 15% discount and $100 OBC per cabin.   The only issue we had was getting all of the cabins to qualify.   As our cruise is in June 2024, I have not needed to have the Group Department make any dining reservations yet, but might do that on my own.    When is your cruise?

[clcizme]

28 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

We are in a group booking for our June 2024 cruise.   I booked through my PCC at the time and he contacted the Group Department and set it up with them.    Honestly, I was only after the 15% discount and $100 OBC per cabin.   The only issue we had was getting all of the cabins to qualify.   As our cruise is in June 2024, I have not needed to have the Group Department make any dining reservations yet, but might do that on my own.    When is your cruise?

Our cruise is in February 2024. Our group is 30 people at this time so all reservations have to be done through the group department. 😑

[boxedmoon]

1 hour ago, clcizme said:

Our cruise is in February 2024. Our group is 30 people at this time so all reservations have to be done through the group department. 😑

A PCC can arrange it. I helped pre arrange names and cabins, he put it all together. Mine even is OK with real dummy bookings and can have individuals call him to finalize deposits or payments.

Being the group coordinator is a bit of work though. I answered lots of questions from new cruisers and setup a private Facebook event to communicate mass updates to everyone.

 

A PCC that answers the phone and calls back same day makes managing a group easy IMO.