NCL Personal Consultant

[schildiams]

Hi - what's the benefit of having an NCL personal consultant? One called and I told him that I prefer to be able to talk to anyone/use the website to make my own changes, but after we hung up, he emailed me and apparently assigned himself to me anyway. Is there any benefit to this? I feel like if i need to make a change that I now need to speak to him only which might caused delay. what does he get out of this (commission?)  vs. what can he do for me that I can't do myself? Thanks!

[Notnewtoit]

3 minutes ago, schildiams said:

Hi - what's the benefit of having an NCL personal consultant? One called and I told him that I prefer to be able to talk to anyone/use the website to make my own changes, but after we hung up, he emailed me and apparently assigned himself to me anyway. Is there any benefit to this? I feel like if i need to make a change that I now need to speak to him only which might caused delay. what does he get out of this (commission?)  vs. what can he do for me that I can't do myself? Thanks!

 

Some are in love with their PCC, I (and many) find them to be a redundant parasitic annoyance that are difficult to get rid of even with IV Vancomycin.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Notnewtoit

[schildiams]

Just now, Notnewtoit said:

 

Some are in love with their PCC, I (and many) find them to be a redundant parasitic annoyance that are difficult to get rid of even with IV Vancomycin.

Do they actually do anything? What would make me love one? Give me shipboard credit? Free upgrade? WHat's the draw?

 

[Notnewtoit]

Just now, schildiams said:

Do they actually do anything? What would make me love one? Give me shipboard credit? Free upgrade? WHat's the draw?

 

Nope - above their pay grade... They call you up randomly when their rent is due and try to sell you cruises you don't want but are a 'great offer'. I cannot discern that they can do a single thing that you cannot do on the website for yourself.

[Alynna715]

Mine yells at me and gives we attitude when I book cruises she didn't recommend.  Sometimes she tells me my questions are dumb or "don't worry about it. you are on a nice ship"

[smplybcause]

They can't offer you any more that what's on NCL's website. I went round-robin with one that kept telling me how awful TAs were when I told him I wouldn't book with him unless he could match their offer. I suppose the good ones are more like a decent TA. I'm dealing with one now because I'm going on a group cruise with friends and they decided to use a PCC over a TA. He seemed on the ball and knowledgeable considering he had 20 or so people inundating him in the course of less than 48 hours to book a cruise in the group, but I haven't interacted with him beyond that. 

[Outerdog]

There is nothing a PCC can do that you cannot do for yourself.

 

They are worthless.

[dolita22]

Our PCC is good. He doesn't call and annoy or try to sell us cruises and has been very responsive via email or phone when we've either needed to make changes to a cruise or cancel one. Earlier this year, when I emailed him after business hours to cancel a cruise, not expecting to hear back from him until the next day or even day or two after, I got a response within 15 minutes that my cruise has been canceled and my CruiseNext deposit refunded. 

 

I wouldn't say they're worthless, as ours has helped us, as well as family and friends, book and make changes to cruises without having to call the general number and wait on hold - though I have booked at least one cruise via the general number when he was a new-to-us-PCC. We typically email him and do everything that way to book, and he makes things really easy for us.

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, Notnewtoit said:

Nope - above their pay grade... They call you up randomly when their rent is due and try to sell you cruises you don't want but are a 'great offer'. I cannot discern that they can do a single thing that you cannot do on the website for yourself.

 

My PCC has never once called me unsolicited. Worst case, I get an occasional email promo from her or a post card in the mail.

 

I definitely like having a single point of contact for my questions/issues. The problem with just calling the general customer service line is that you won't get the same person twice. If you have an issue that needs to be escalated to technical support, for instance, and the customer service rep says it will be resolved in X business days, then it's not, when you call back you have to talk to a whole new person and describe your issue all over again. If my PCC tells me something will be resolved in X business days and it's not, I can call her directly and ask her what gives.

 

Here's a great example of a way in which my PCC helped me recently. We sailed on the Escape last week. We booked that sailing only 3 weeks out. I needed to use the CruiseNext deposits from a canceled sailing to pay towards our Escape sailing. Since it can take up to 72 hours for refunded CruiseNext deposits to appear on your account, I had to pay the full price (inside final payment) then retroactively apply the CruiseNext when they became available on my account again and get a refund to my credit card for the extra $500. My PCC took care of all of this behind the scenes for me, so I didn't have to call back in for each step of the process. She applied the CruiseNext after the 72 hours and got me the refund to my credit card with no intervention from me.

Edited June 11, 2019 by JamieLogical

[GrabMyWrist]

11 minutes ago, dolita22 said:

Our PCC is good. He doesn't call and annoy or try to sell us cruises and has been very responsive via email or phone when we've either needed to make changes to a cruise or cancel one. Earlier this year, when I emailed him after business hours to cancel a cruise, not expecting to hear back from him until the next day or even day or two after, I got a response within 15 minutes that my cruise has been canceled and my CruiseNext deposit refunded. 

 

I wouldn't say they're worthless, as ours has helped us, as well as family and friends, book and make changes to cruises without having to call the general number and wait on hold - though I have booked at least one cruise via the general number when he was a new-to-us-PCC. We typically email him and do everything that way to book, and he makes things really easy for us.

 

This has been my experience as well. We love our PCC.

[JamieLogical]

Another note about booking through a PCC versus online through the NCL site is that they can see all the available rooms on the ship, not just 15 in each category like WE can see on the web site. My SO and I prefer to sail in angled balconies. When the site limits you to only being able to see 15 available rooms in each category, that means there may be angled balconies available that we can't see. I am able to tell my PCC "we want an angled balcony" and she can find the available ones on the ship that we can't see through the site.

[disneykins]

Our PCC has never called to sell us anything. I do most of the legwork on the website and then email him the details and he takes care of things that I cant online. For example, we have lots of Cruise Next certificates but they are in USD. Since we book in CAD, we have to call in to get the Cruise Next applied. We just email him and he takes care of it. We booked a cruise on the Epic and the consultant took one of my Cruise Next that expires in 2021 instead of one of my wifes which expires in 2020, he took care of it. When we were on an MSC TA in March, we stopped in Lisbon and found out our NCL Spirit cruise to Greece had dropped in price about $1,000 total. We were only 15 days out and he got us OBC (not $1,000, I think maybe $250). We couldn't have done that on our own or with a TA, we didn't have cell phones or wi fi so we just sent him an email from Lisbon and when we got wi fi later in Rome he had taken care of it for us.

Like I said, we do most of the legwork and just let him know if we need anything and he has been great.

Just booked the Dawn for next year and wanted something before the deadline, he was going on the Sky that night but took care of it and gave me his cell number if I needed anything while he was away.

Tony

[LrgPizza]

There is an active post on here by someone who was attempting to cancel a cruise, and finding it a challenge. If this person had a PCC, this would have been a non-issue. This is one of many examples. So yeah, while you can do things yourself, often it takes multiple steps, waiting on hold, etc. whereas with a PCC it often takes a single email or phone call.

[beerman2]

Our personal consultant never contacts us, but is very helpful when needed. Those who say they can do nothing, that's not been my experience. She found us a deal when we decided to get Spa passes. 

 

 if I remember I was eligible for a discount, that certainly didn't show on line. And as JamieLogical stated they have the whole inventory of rooms available, not the limited ones showing online. 

[PangeanSir]

I'd echo several of the positive comments, especially the reference to their ability to access all of the cabins not just the 15 that currently show up per category (I really liked the ability under one of the older booking engines that allowed you to search availability by cabin number).

 

Although she is now retired, I worked with a PCC for many years and never felt pressured or hounded. I found the single point of contact helpful and appreciated the ability to negotiate upgrades (obviously before the current upgrade bid regime) with someone other than the finance department. Indeed, on at least one occasion my PCC was able to skirt the old up-sell offer process.

 

She also knew my cabin preferences and provided useful advice. Most importantly, my PCC helped minimize the cost of several cruises. She knew that I would book a cruise extremely early to obtain a particular cabin (often as soon as it was announced), then cancel/rebook, cancel/rebook, cancel/rebook several times as the price dropped closer to the final deadline. For the last couple of cruises prior to her retirement she was pro-active and would contact me when she noticed my category had dropped in price or where there were applicable offers. Although I usually keep track of prices after booking (and before the deadline), sometimes I got busy and short email from my PCC would save me significant $$.

 

Bottom line is that it was a "no downside risk" arrangement. She had access to information I could not get, she was friendly without being pushy, and I saved some money. 

[Sup_Devil]

1 hour ago, LrgPizza said:

There is an active post on here by someone who was attempting to cancel a cruise, and finding it a challenge. If this person had a PCC, this would have been a non-issue. This is one of many examples. So yeah, while you can do things yourself, often it takes multiple steps, waiting on hold, etc. whereas with a PCC it often takes a single email or phone call.

That's me. I have a PCC. And I still have not received any correspondence from them despite emails, calls etc. To me PCC is worthless. 

[mugtech]

We get updates by email about the cruises in which we are interested.  I have had price drops before final payment without losing the perks.  Back when it mattered I got a price reduction on a 29 day cruise with 6 months before sailing, still got double latitudes points for booking more than 9 months out..

[mugtech]

PCC was also very helpful when I sold cruise next certificates.

[CookieShip]

Would PCC be able to help with booking guarantees? Just wondering, on my last trip, my party ended up on two different floors. Which was fine, but wondering if going thru a PCC would have helped us be closer/same muster station. 

[mugtech]

6 minutes ago, CookieShip said:

Would PCC be able to help with booking guarantees? Just wondering, on my last trip, my party ended up on two different floors. Which was fine, but wondering if going thru a PCC would have helped us be closer/same muster station. 

Don't know that a PCC could help, as guarantees are often last minute assignments, someone needs to know who all the guarantees are.

[LrgPizza]

14 hours ago, Sup_Devil said:

That's me. I have a PCC. And I still have not received any correspondence from them despite emails, calls etc. To me PCC is worthless. 

 

It sounds like yours is. That certainly isn't the  norm.

[JamieLogical]

14 hours ago, Sup_Devil said:

That's me. I have a PCC. And I still have not received any correspondence from them despite emails, calls etc. To me PCC is worthless. 

 

I believe you can request to change PCCs. Sounds like that might be a good call in your case. There are definitely good PCCs out there.

[delaware32]

We 've used the same PCC for 5 years . He's been helpful in cabin selection etc. Last year after final payment he called and told us there had been a price drop and refunded the difference to our credit card .  So our experience with cabin upgrade etc. has been positive without endless phone calls and emails .

[Sup_Devil]

 

1 hour ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I believe you can request to change PCCs. Sounds like that might be a good call in your case. There are definitely good PCCs out there.

Thanks! I think I will! He finally emailed me last night. I had to message NCL through Facebook. He claimed he's been trying to call me and my phone was disconnected. I've been making and receiving calls every day for the last week no issue. Then one time I got ahold of him he put me on hold then to voicemail. Lol... I think I'll definitely ask for another! 

[TenForward]

On 6/11/2019 at 3:19 PM, JamieLogical said:

Another note about booking through a PCC versus online through the NCL site is that they can see all the available rooms on the ship, not just 15 in each category like WE can see on the web site. My SO and I prefer to sail in angled balconies. When the site limits you to only being able to see 15 available rooms in each category, that means there may be angled balconies available that we can't see. I am able to tell my PCC "we want an angled balcony" and she can find the available ones on the ship that we can't see through the site.

 

Thank you for this.... I'd originally had our PCC book us in a regular balcony based on availability I saw online.  After reading your post I decided to give him a call and he did in fact find one for us.  We are now booked in our first angled balcony!  🤗