Princess to Introduce Price control

[Loonbeam]

And I am very glad you are happy with them and they work for you. But they may not be what I want, pricing aside and I am very tired of people saying I use the 'wrong agent'. I'm sure mine could find the rate if it was publicly available and it was a cruise I wanted (I will guess that if Princess felt compelled to offer that kind of a discount it was not selling well, supply and demand always rules, and a lot of providers use agents to pass on deals so as not to appear to devalue their brand).

 

And while I am entirely capable of doing on my own, I don't generally want to anymore. I do the hand-holding for my customers during the year, so for 2 weeks or so its nice not to have to worry about planning my next step. The closest I get anymore is planning some shore excursions, primarily because I prefer smaller groups than the ones the lines offer or a custom itinerary and I work with the provider to develop it. For Italy in 2012, I have a private driver booked in every port with a custom itinerary. Is that 'wrong' too because I didn't want to do it myself?

 

So I am very happy if your agency meets your needs. They might even meet mine. But the key there is might, and I am perfectly happy where I am with a full service agent even if it costs me more money, thankfully I can afford it. Every person on here has different priorities when it comes to travel, and no one agency or provider will fit everyones requirements. That doesn't make them 'wrong' or 'bad' just 'incompatible'

 

 

 

I used this agent for 5 years and they had a great record of customer satisfaction. Some of us do not need our hands helded. We had independently traveled in Europe doing all of our hotels and transportion. We enjoy doing our own thing. The cruise I quoted' date=' a few of our friends also want to go. One of them called a friend who is a local travel agent and she meet the price. So it was not that special or a secret.[/quote']

[ibfern]

And I am very glad you are happy with them and they work for you. But they may not be what I want, pricing aside and I am very tired of people saying I use the 'wrong agent'. I'm sure mine could find the rate if it was publicly available and it was a cruise I wanted (I will guess that if Princess felt compelled to offer that kind of a discount it was not selling well, supply and demand always rules, and a lot of providers use agents to pass on deals so as not to appear to devalue their brand).

 

And while I am entirely capable of doing on my own, I don't generally want to anymore. I do the hand-holding for my customers during the year, so for 2 weeks or so its nice not to have to worry about planning my next step. The closest I get anymore is planning some shore excursions, primarily because I prefer smaller groups than the ones the lines offer or a custom itinerary and I work with the provider to develop it. For Italy in 2012, I have a private driver booked in every port with a custom itinerary. Is that 'wrong' too because I didn't want to do it myself?

 

So I am very happy if your agency meets your needs. They might even meet mine. But the key there is might, and I am perfectly happy where I am with a full service agent even if it costs me more money, thankfully I can afford it. Every person on here has different priorities when it comes to travel, and no one agency or provider will fit everyones requirements. That doesn't make them 'wrong' or 'bad' just 'incompatible'

 

I don't blame you loonbeam, with only 2 weeks of vacation a year I can understand using whatever agent makes you happy, regardless of the costs. I just hope that someday you have gobs of vacation time and then you may be more interested in different priorities!