Created a new Princess account AFTER completing first cruise. How do we update the CC number?

[Ken the cruiser]

My son and his family cruised with Princess for the first time back in Jul 2019 and were issued Captains Circle numbers at that time. However, he didn't create an online Princess account until a few months ago. Since there is no option we could find to change the "new" Captains Circle number, generated when he created (registered) the Princess account, how do we go about updating that CC number to the real one created back in 2019? He currently has another cruise booked with Princess using his original CC number and can view it when using the Booked Guest option. But it would be nice for him to be able to view his past and future cruises via his online account. Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated as I'm sure other folks have run into this issue as well.

[azbirdmom]

You'll need to call them to merge accounts.  There's no way you can do this yourself.  In my case they added the older cruises to the new CC number but I don't know how they are handling it these days.

 

ETA:  You can also give Chat a try, or under Contact Us choose these selections:

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by azbirdmom

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, azbirdmom said:

You'll need to call them to merge accounts.  There's no way you can do this yourself.  In my case they added the older cruises to the new CC number but I don't know how they are handling it these days.

Thanks. He and his wife currently have a cruise booked with us in July, which is booked via our TA using the original booking number. You’re thinking if they “merge” the accounts, the upcoming booking’s CC number will be changed as well?

[azbirdmom]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks. He and his wife currently have a cruise booked with us in July, which is booked via our TA using the original booking number. You’re thinking if they “merge” the accounts, the upcoming booking’s CC number will be changed as well?

 

I think that's something you'll need to ask them.  Note that I updated my original answer to add the chat and contact us options.  If they have a July cruise you may want to try chat first as that is quicker, and then if that doesn't solve it move on to the phone option.  Contact us may take too long.

[AE_Collector]

Somehow years ago my wife wound up with a separate CC number. Don’t think it was ever used for a cruise but just a few years ago we had a Future Cruise Deposit missing which was finally found in her mystery CC account number. Got it moved and other account closed out.

[wallyj]

@Ken the cruiser, I believe Princess has a dedicated Captain Circle help land line, who can consolidate accounts if necessary.
 

Many cruisers first day ‘chore’ is to question why they were issued a ‘blue’ newbie card/medallion when they know they have sailed with Princess previously.
 

In most cases, they failed to inform whomever they booked the cruise with, they have an existing Captain’s circle number and were issued a new one. On board, the Captain circle host/Loyalty and Events Manager will merge accounts if necessary, but in your particular case, it appears the ‘new’ account will have zero cruises attached, so most likely this number will be deleted and the first Captain circle number assigned will remain as it has a cruise associated with it.

 

With phone hold times being unpredictable, and there does not seem to be any need to have the account consolidated immediately, I suggest you have the Captain’s Circle / Loyalty and Events Manager do this for him on his July sailing.

[Steelers36]

It's been a long time, but I thought PCL found your new CC number via email.  Of course, what they should do upon registration is ask for any assigned CC number since the account is established and all that is happening is setting up associated website login.

[Ken the cruiser]

29 minutes ago, wallyj said:

@Ken the cruiser, I believe Princess has a dedicated Captain Circle help land line, who can consolidate accounts if necessary.
 

Many cruisers first day ‘chore’ is to question why they were issued a ‘blue’ newbie card/medallion when they know they have sailed with Princess previously.
 

In most cases, they failed to inform whomever they booked the cruise with, they have an existing Captain’s circle number and were issued a new one. On board, the Captain circle host/Loyalty and Events Manager will merge accounts if necessary, but in your particular case, it appears the ‘new’ account will have zero cruises attached, so most likely this number will be deleted and the first Captain circle number assigned will remain as it has a cruise associated with it.

 

With phone hold times being unpredictable, and there does not seem to be any need to have the account consolidated immediately, I suggest you have the Captain’s Circle / Loyalty and Events Manager do this for him on his July sailing.

Thanks! We decided to turn this over to our TA to see if she can coordinate with her PCL POC to merge the accounts, as we booked both the July 2019 cruise as well as the upcoming cruise through them. However, if she is unsuccessful by the time we sail in July, we will definitely take your advice and talk with the Captain Circle Host/Loyalty and Events Manager onboard. 

[AE_Collector]

I have frequently just given my name when calling in if I neglected to look up my CC number first. Lately I figure I have 1-2 hours to look it up after calling and while waiting to speak with someone. But I have a name that likely means they don’t have to look very far to narrow it down to me. However I have my every day first name and my official first name like on my passport so this scenario could easily lead to someone having more than one account.

[JF - retired RRT]

2 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

I have frequently just given my name when calling in if I neglected to look up my CC number first. Lately I figure I have 1-2 hours to look it up after calling and while waiting to speak with someone. But I have a name that likely means they don’t have to look very far to narrow it down to me. However I have my every day first name and my official first name like on my passport so this scenario could easily lead to someone having more than one account.

Hmmm. When I call in the first thing the rep asks is "do you have a booking #", that pulls up my account. Then the rep confirms my name & DOB.

[Ken the cruiser]

Now comes the question, where does the data come from that populates the App if someone doesn’t have an account?

 

I’m guessing since my DIL’s picture is visible in the App associated with the upcoming cruise along with other outdated information, the data could only have been retrieved from a centralized PCL database entry associated with her CC number issued because of that first cruise.  Unfortunately, that outdated information such as email and snail mail addresses along with phone numbers cannot be updated in the App, even though it gives the illusion you can, but the Save button remains grayed out after you typed in changes. Because we can’t directly add/amend certain Profile information in the App, they both remain in the Blue Lane. However, they were able to update the Arrival Time Group information as well as order their medallions in the App. So there are some positives.
 

We’re hoping once they merge my son’s “new” account with his “official” PCL database account, as well as for our DIL, they will be able to replace the outdated Profile information projected in the App with the updated information in their “new” website PCL accounts so they can be upgraded to the Green Lane. 🤞 

 

[caribill]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

We’re hoping once they merge my son’s “new” account with his “official” PCL database account, as well as for our DIL, they will be able to replace the outdated Profile information projected in the App with the updated information in their “new” website PCL accounts so they can be upgraded to the Green Lane. 🤞 

 

 

Merging to get it down to one account does not mean that already entered information for a cruise will be automatically updated. You need to contact Princess to do that.

 

As one example, a newby would not have Gold status in the Captain's Circle. When the combined account now shows gold status, it would not automatically show up in the cruise booking.

[Moondogy]

If they sailed together as spouses the first time, their numbers should be the same except for the letter at the end I think. I know my ends in an A and DW's ends in B. So when in the app she automatically is added to my account as the same in website.

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, Moondogy said:

If they sailed together as spouses the first time, their numbers should be the same except for the letter at the end I think. I know my ends in an A and DW's ends in B. So when in the app she automatically is added to my account as the same in website.

Interesting. They both sailed as spouses with PCL for the first time in 2019, but the last 5 in the CC numbers are totally different with no letter suffix at the end. But they both show up in each other's App interface, probably because they are on the same booking.

[Moondogy]

15 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Interesting. They both sailed as spouses with PCL for the first time in 2019, but the last 5 in the CC numbers are totally different with no letter suffix at the end. But they both show up in each other's App interface, probably because they are on the same booking.

I guess they changed the CC membership numbers since our first PCL cruise in 1999. 😏 Just when you think you figured them out they switch things up on us 🤣

[Ken the cruiser]

21 minutes ago, Moondogy said:

I guess they changed the CC membership numbers since our first PCL cruise in 1999. 😏 Just when you think you figured them out they switch things up on us 🤣

Speaking of switching, the two CC numbers, each created when the two "empty" accounts were created over time, magically reversed last night.

 

Just a curious question, my DIL has never created a PCL account yet. Does anyone know how to create a PCL account online that will automatically link up to her actual PCL database entry which has her actual CC number and associated information from the first cruise?

 

I'm thinking when my son originally created these two accounts over a span of a couple years, he used his birthday and abbreviated first name rather than his full name as listed on his original Jul 2019 booking that created the PCL account and associated CC number.

[Moondogy]

59 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Speaking of switching, the two CC numbers, each created when the two "empty" accounts were created over time, magically reversed last night.

 

Just a curious question, my DIL has never created a PCL account yet. Does anyone know how to create a PCL account online that will automatically link up to her actual PCL database entry which has her actual CC number and associated information from the first cruise?

 

I'm thinking when my son originally created these two accounts over a span of a couple years, he used his birthday and abbreviated first name rather than his full name as listed on his original Jul 2019 booking that created the PCL account and associated CC number.

When I created DW's for her, I followed the instructions with her email and everything. After got her in to it, there was an option about if you cruised with them before you could input the CC number.......but, that was a loooonnnggg time ago....lol

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Moondogy said:

When I created DW's for her, I followed the instructions with her email and everything. After got her in to it, there was an option about if you cruised with them before you could input the CC number.......but, that was a loooonnnggg time ago....lol

I know. Let the person enter their existing CC number. What a concept! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

Problem solved. I decided to call the Captains Circle phone number on the PCL website to see if they could merge the accounts. To make a long story short, the wait time was less than 5 minutes (at 1:30 pm CDT) and the two accounts were merged in about 5 minutes.

 

For those that are interested, the underlying issue was that my DW originally booked their July 2019 cruise, since we were paying for it, and her email address was what got loaded into his initial PCL database record. This caused a mismatch when my son subsequently created his new online account as the PCL computer program uses multiple entries to verify a person's identity when merging records, the email address being one of them. Once the email address in the PCL database record was changed to reflect the one my son used to create his online PCL account, the merge took place. Yay! 😀

 

Note: We haven't actually seen the merged data yet as it could take up to 24 hours, according to the lady we were working with, before we might actually see the merged data in the online account. 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Just thought I'd add this final update from which I can finally say this problem is now resolved and has been confirmed.

 

First of all, when we checked the next day (Tuesday morning), my son's accounts hadn't been merged yet, even though the Princess CC POC assured me all was good. Then we got an email from our TA (Tuesday afternoon) who had come down with C19 over the weekend which explained why we hadn't heard from her as she normally works on Sundays. She contacted her Princess POC and provided the same details I provided the CC rep with on Monday, and her Princess POC assured her they were able to merge the accounts and for us to check the results 24 hours later, Wednesday around noon. Nope, the accounts were still not merged. 

 

I then sent our TA an update email with screenshots of what we were seeing. She contacted her Princess POC again and after they told her once again all looks good on their end, they told her to make sure we had the latest browser software loaded and to check again in another 24 hours. FTR I'm using Windows 11 with the latest Edge software.

 

As soon as I got our TA's follow-on response today, I checked the accounts again and low and behold (1) the account we wanted the data merged into had been deleted and (2) the other older account actually had both my son's old 2019 cruise as well as the new 2022 cruise data and had been updated to reflect his original CC number. Now I can safely say the problem has been solved. Yippee!!

 

Not sure what happened this afternoon (behind the Princess curtain) after our TA contacted her POC again. But in all actuality, it just doesn't matter. I'm just glad it's now resolved, and we have a great TA in your corner that helped us to get it done! 😀

 

[brisalta]

On 5/23/2022 at 2:49 AM, Moondogy said:

If they sailed together as spouses the first time, their numbers should be the same except for the letter at the end I think. I know my ends in an A and DW's ends in B. So when in the app she automatically is added to my account as the same in website.

 

No, that is not correct. My spouse has a number that is about 3000 different from mine and both numbers are just that numbers. No alphas involved.

[Ken the cruiser]

34 minutes ago, brisalta said:

 

No, that is not correct. My spouse has a number that is about 3000 different from mine and both numbers are just that numbers. No alphas involved.

Actually, that was the case back in 2001 when my DW (at the time) and I had the same CC number, except I had an A as a suffix on my number and she had a B. I still have that same number today. Of course, I have no idea when that policy changed, but I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been the policy for quite some time.

[Moondogy]

1 hour ago, brisalta said:

 

No, that is not correct. My spouse has a number that is about 3000 different from mine and both numbers are just that numbers. No alphas involved.

They must changed it sometime, don't know when. But I do still have the original CC card they gave her with the same number as mine, except for the alpha designation.