Booking with a Princess Vacation Planner

[warren buffet]

Just now, teecee60 said:

 

I would suggest, that since you booked through a PVP exclusively for many years, you really have absolutely no idea if "they took good care of you."

 

There are many long time cruisers who mistakenly believe, that a travel agency is FORBIDDEN to sell cruises at prices below those offered by the cruise line. You should know that there are MANY travel agencies that offer lower prices AND added OBC/perks than what the cruise lines offer. In reality, booking directly with the cruise line (or your PVP) almost always guarantees that you will pay a HIGHER price and get FEWER perks.

 

Your habit of booking AFTER the final payment date is one of the two very BEST ways to get the lowest prices AND the most OBC/perks. (as the cruise line is absolutely desperate to fill every cabin that they possibly can) This strategy does come at the cost of losing out on "more desirable" cabins.

 

Booking through reputable online travel sites is the "other best" way of getting fantastic deals. A perfect example of this, is the 14 night Regal Princess transatlantic on 16 April. Just yesterday, that cruise was being offered for $518 for an inside cabin, and $701pp for a balcony cabin, with $300 OBC that was NOT offered by Princess. ($140pp in taxes and port charges are extra)

 

Princess STILL DOES have some outstanding perks. If you use Princess Future Cruise Deposits that adds another $150 OBC... if you own Carnival stock, that adds ANOTHER $250 OBC, and if you are a military vet, that adds ANOTHER $250 OBC.

 

A combined $950 OBC on a 14 night cruise that only cost $658pp for an inside, or $841pp for a balcony... makes cruising with Princess a REALLY good deal! 

 

 

i partially disagree. the results are all over the place. Chase travel has had a special deal with celibrity for the past 6 months to get a free upgrade from the classic drink package to the upper level. their prices are always exactly the same as booking direct with the same obc as direct. I believe some agencies offer prices 2-5 percent lower or give more OBC is by rebating part of their commisions back to you. evidently the cruise industry pays very high commisions. As airlines slashed commissions this will someday change and cruise lines will. I expect any yr now.  with pretty much everyone capable of doing website searches with companies direct it blows my mind that cruise lines have not done this.   they only would have to hire some more customer service agents and improve their website experience.           so using chase is only benificial really if you book celebrity and buy drinks. they do give 5 percent off to the extent you have chase credit card points at 1 cent each. but a limited amount of other agencies are 2-5 percent lower than direct too.   amex offers sometimes get the same discount also

Edited April 6, 2023 by warren buffet
more info

[Times Prince]

A different view:  We have used a TA from a large franchised agency who used to always get us a discounted fare plus a modest OBC.  However before 2020 her ability to offer discounts and OBC was diminished by some changes by Princess which apparently reduced her commission and ability to discount fares.  The amount of discount usually was in the ballpark of the cost of taxes.  OBC often came out of her commission which she could no longer afford to offer us, but used to be at least $25/person.

 

We've had a couple of cruises now where the Princess sale offer was good enough for us to book direct.   One CVP came and went with no real assistance.  But this year we have a new CVP who is at least keeping us informed of cruises and Princess offers, however we have not yet booked a new cruise through her.

 

We had a question about an OBC which appeared for other people on our upcoming cruise, but not for us.  We had the same response as the OP - Customer service was worthless, the CVP could only escalate, escalation professed no knowledge of the OBC, and all anyone could tell me was that my booking didn't show the OBC, which was my original complaint.  (Note: I since found out here on Cruise Critic what the OBC was for).  But I believe that Princess Customer Support has a major lack of people who know the complete picture of what OBC was offered, and under what conditions - i.e. a subject matter expert.

 

For special offers I used to always capture a copy of the original terms and conditions of the offer so I could address issues should they arise, especially where OBC is involved.   I suggest that for everyone and all it takes is to inconvenience some electrons to store an image of the offer on a computer.

[nini]

We se a TA with a big box store. We typically are rewarded with a huge cash "refund" shortly after our return. Cabin availability is excellent through them and we book a favorite aft cabin.

 

It does not hurt to look around for an arrangement that works for you.

 

[flutprop]

16 hours ago, jeromep said:

Based only upon recent experience and a bit of "connect the dots" logic, PVPs are inside sales people who are given access to "self-service" cruisers, those of us who have become comfortable booking through the web site on our own, and their goal is to conduct email blasts and phone calls to get these unassociated cruisers to book more cruises.  Unassociated you say?  Yes.  Meaning cruisers that book direct and do not use a travel agent.

 

If you use a travel agent to book cruises, you are terra non grata and become the "property" of the travel agent you book with, so if you have a TA you won't hear from PVPs and will not have one assigned to you.

 

Now, if your most recent cruise was booked through a TA and you are getting promotional contacts, either via email or phone calls, from PVPs, I'd love to know, because the moment that I moved my most recent booking from Princess direct to a TA the emails and phone calls from PVPs dried up.

 

We started getting phone calls from a PVP back in 2015 or 2016, after we booked a cruise through a "regular" storefront agent. I never really dealt with her, and booked our cruises through different outlets: Big box Membership store, direct online and through an online TA at two different agencies. Our PVP continued to call a few times per year, and send emails. It wasn't until end of Feb 2023 that I actually booked with her for a June 2023 sailing, and haven't felt she has been all that helpful. I wanted a specific cabin type that wasn't showing available for 3 passengers. It was just quicker to contact the PVP than deal with either TA we used before

[Kellyansapansa]

Is there a difference between a CVP and a PVP or are they the same thing?

 

The first couple of times we cruised with Princess we used a TA, and the next couple of times we just booked online ourselves.

 

I put a hold on one of the new Australian itineraries when they were released this week and received a call from a CVP today.

 

We currently have three booked cruises for 2 days, 14 days and 29 days. We had FCDs applied against two of the bookings, and had also made some instalment payments.

 

She shuffled around the FCDs to maximise our OBC, threw in some extra OBC and managed to reduce the fare on one of the bookings as well. She also managed to retain the cabins we had booked, and moved our instalment payments over so we didn't have to pay any additional deposit.

 

In short, it was a fabulous experience and I will definitely be keeping her number for future use. 😊

[AE_Collector]

1 hour ago, Kellyansapansa said:

Is there a difference between a CVP and a PVP or are they the same thing?

 

The first couple of times we cruised with Princess we used a TA, and the next couple of times we just booked online ourselves.

 

I put a hold on one of the new Australian itineraries when they were released this week and received a call from a CVP today.

 

We currently have three booked cruises for 2 days, 14 days and 29 days. We had FCDs applied against two of the bookings, and had also made some instalment payments.

 

She shuffled around the FCDs to maximise our OBC, threw in some extra OBC and managed to reduce the fare on one of the bookings as well. She also managed to retain the cabins we had booked, and moved our instalment payments over so we didn't have to pay any additional deposit.

 

In short, it was a fabulous experience and I will definitely be keeping her number for future use. 😊

Excellent. I think PVP (Princess Vacation Planner) and CVP (Cruise? Vacation Planner) are being used interchangeably here.
 

From what you have said that’s exactly what I’m looking for from a PVP but have had no success at all. I’m thinking the same way that @Times Prince feels as well.  I'm not sure what brings this higher level of service including the ability to give a little extra OBC or finding ways of offering a bit lower cruise price. Over years and years I have only heard “not possible”. The logical thing for them to reward IMHO is the amount of cruising done with Princess but that isn’t what I am seeing at all. 
 

Do you have your own Princess people in Australia that you get when you call? I’m in Canada but get one of their west coast offices in the USA when I call, usually Santa Clarita or Seattle which I think is mainly a HAL office.

Edited April 6, 2023 by AE_Collector

[brisalta]

1 hour ago, Kellyansapansa said:

Is there a difference between a CVP and a PVP or are they the same thing?

 

The first couple of times we cruised with Princess we used a TA, and the next couple of times we just booked online ourselves.

 

I put a hold on one of the new Australian itineraries when they were released this week and received a call from a CVP today.

 

We currently have three booked cruises for 2 days, 14 days and 29 days. We had FCDs applied against two of the bookings, and had also made some instalment payments.

 

She shuffled around the FCDs to maximise our OBC, threw in some extra OBC and managed to reduce the fare on one of the bookings as well. She also managed to retain the cabins we had booked, and moved our instalment payments over so we didn't have to pay any additional deposit.

 

In short, it was a fabulous experience and I will definitely be keeping her number for future use. 😊

 

Princess changed the name of the role from Princess Vacation Planner to Cruise Vacation Planner.

[AE_Collector]

10 hours ago, Times Prince said:

A different view:  We have used a TA from a large franchised agency who used to always get us a discounted fare plus a modest OBC.  However before 2020 her ability to offer discounts and OBC was diminished by some changes by Princess which apparently reduced her commission and ability to discount fares.  The amount of discount usually was in the ballpark of the cost of taxes.  OBC often came out of her commission which she could no longer afford to offer us, but used to be at least $25/person.

 

We've had a couple of cruises now where the Princess sale offer was good enough for us to book direct.   One CVP came and went with no real assistance.  But this year we have a new CVP who is at least keeping us informed of cruises and Princess offers, however we have not yet booked a new cruise through her.

 

We had a question about an OBC which appeared for other people on our upcoming cruise, but not for us.  We had the same response as the OP - Customer service was worthless, the CVP could only escalate, escalation professed no knowledge of the OBC, and all anyone could tell me was that my booking didn't show the OBC, which was my original complaint.  (Note: I since found out here on Cruise Critic what the OBC was for).  But I believe that Princess Customer Support has a major lack of people who know the complete picture of what OBC was offered, and under what conditions - i.e. a subject matter expert.

 

For special offers I used to always capture a copy of the original terms and conditions of the offer so I could address issues should they arise, especially where OBC is involved.   I suggest that for everyone and all it takes is to inconvenience some electrons to store an image of the offer on a computer.

Yes that’s what I’m talking about. The PVP can’t do anything or even answer generic questions about bookings since I’m looking for something they apparently can’t offer to us, only to others. I should point out that I’m never anything but polite in emails or on phone calls. I can certainly understand someone getting their back up against certain customers attitudes that they likely see but I would certainly be unhappy to think that was me.

 

Was the missing OBC you related to the recent “Greatest Sale Ever” that ended at the end of the day March 1? That was part of what got me started with this again. Friends booked the same cruise as us on the same day that we booked. They received the additional $100 each OBC for their booking and we did not. Enquiries brought responses of  “not available for this cruise” with no ability or willingness to investigate further. I realize that further discounts or extra OBC directly from a PVP is hard to investigate or explain but not receiving an OBC that was part of a published sale should have been dead easy for someone at Princess to look into for us. This lack of response resulted in us cancelling the cruise and combined with no messages back from anyone at Customer Relations or any help from either of two PVPs over a 1 month period of time finally has resulted in us exploring other cruise lines after 16 years, 43 cruises and 444 days with Princess. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by AE_Collector

[AE_Collector]

15 minutes ago, brisalta said:

 

Princess changed the name of the role from Princess Vacation Planner to Cruise Vacation Planner.

That clears that up…thanks!

[memoak]

We have the best CVP ever   She responds quickly to all of our question and now that she can book casino comps without going through the casino department we are getting 16 day cruises in full suites with Princess Plus, OBCand some casino play for about $4.500 pp

[AE_Collector]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

We have the best CVP ever   She responds quickly to all of our question and now that she can book casino comps without going through the casino department we are getting 16 day cruises in full suites with Princess Plus, OBCand some casino play for about $4.500 pp

Lol, that’s yet another part of my frustration! My sister just completed her Ruby level so her fifth Princess cruise. She constantly gets casino cruise offers for half or less than what we pay along with all sorts of extras. If they rewarded “doing lots of Princess excursions” like they reward “going to the Princess casino” I wouldn’t be here complaining, I would be on another cruise. We don’t gamble at all but have thought many times I should open an account and gamble a few $ a couple of times in a cruise and see if I start getting offers.

[memoak]

34 minutes ago, AE_Collector said:

Lol, that’s yet another part of my frustration! My sister just completed her Ruby level so her fifth Princess cruise. She constantly gets casino cruise offers for half or less than what we pay along with all sorts of extras. If they rewarded “doing lots of Princess excursions” like they reward “going to the Princess casino” I wouldn’t be here complaining, I would be on another cruise. We don’t gamble at all but have thought many times I should open an account and gamble a few $ a couple of times in a cruise and see if I start getting offers.

You will not get any big offers without spending considerable amount of time in the casino. We probably spend a minimum of 2-4 hours a day playing slots or blackjack. That usually gives us free balconies on any cruise under 21 days. We usually upgrade to a full suite and pay the extra

[warren buffet]

Just now, AE_Collector said:

Lol, that’s yet another part of my frustration! My sister just completed her Ruby level so her fifth Princess cruise. She constantly gets casino cruise offers for half or less than what we pay along with all sorts of extras. If they rewarded “doing lots of Princess excursions” like they reward “going to the Princess casino” I wouldn’t be here complaining, I would be on another cruise. We don’t gamble at all but have thought many times I should open an account and gamble a few $ a couple of times in a cruise and see if I start getting offers.

 i doubt you would. The fact is the casino is a lot more profitable than the excursions. most people lose a lot of money in the casino if they spend a significant amount of time there. I have also noticed in my life than gamblers like to share to people the news on days they win but there is crickets on losing days. your sister is likely paying for her discounts through her casino. all table games have built in advantages for the cruise line.   the only way a gambler can legit get casino discounts and not repay more than it with casino losses is if someone is a really really good poker player. In that instance, princess is getting a commision per hand  of poker and the gambler is really winning from other gamblers at the table. 

[warren buffet]

Just now, AE_Collector said:

Lol, that’s yet another part of my frustration! My sister just completed her Ruby level so her fifth Princess cruise. She constantly gets casino cruise offers for half or less than what we pay along with all sorts of extras. If they rewarded “doing lots of Princess excursions” like they reward “going to the Princess casino” I wouldn’t be here complaining, I would be on another cruise. We don’t gamble at all but have thought many times I should open an account and gamble a few $ a couple of times in a cruise and see if I start getting offers.

I also noticed from a family members experience, that cruise lines share info about gamblers from land casino companies. I also know someone who got pretty substantial casino discounts on their 1st cruise. it's because the cruise line knew they have a history of betting fairly big on land casinos

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

That was part of what got me started with this again. Friends booked the same cruise as us on the same day that we booked. They received the additional $100 each OBC for their booking and we did not.

No excuse for it, but I wonder if you got booked under the general public fare code (which never includes promotional perks) versus the B.S.E. fare code.  That would be pretty incompetent move for a PVP.  If you just made your own booking at Princess.com, you would have had the B.S.E. because Princess.com is supposed to be showing the best deal.  I also wonder when you booked if there was the Canadian At Par promo going on and you got booked on that one (I don't recall if it had other promo perks).

[warren buffet]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

No excuse for it, but I wonder if you got booked under the general public fare code (which never includes promotional perks) versus the B.S.E. fare code.  That would be pretty incompetent move for a PVP.  If you just made your own booking at Princess.com, you would have had the B.S.E. because Princess.com is supposed to be showing the best deal.  I also wonder when you booked if there was the Canadian At Par promo going on and you got booked on that one (I don't recall if it had other promo perks).

that would make total sense. if they got canadian dollar at par, it is prob not combinable with other princess obc offers. the par deal already gives about a 35 percent discount

[Times Prince]

4 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

Yes that’s what I’m talking about. The PVP can’t do anything or even answer generic questions about bookings since I’m looking for something they apparently can’t offer to us, only to others. I should point out that I’m never anything but polite in emails or on phone calls. I can certainly understand someone getting their back up against certain customers attitudes that they likely see but I would certainly be unhappy to think that was me.

 

Was the missing OBC you related to the recent “Greatest Sale Ever” that ended at the end of the day March 1? 

Actually my current PVP was as helpful and cooperative as she could be within the restrictions of not knowing about the OBC.

 

My missing OBC was not related to any sale or offer, but was given to other cruisers on my Roll Call coincident with a cancelled port causing misconceptions.  It turned out to be a general OBC for all cruises out of Galveston where drink packages had been purchased.  That general issue should have been communicated within the PVP community.

 

Sorry to hear about your moving on from Princess after many years of good experiences.

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Times Prince

[jeromep]

56 minutes ago, warren buffet said:

 i doubt you would. The fact is the casino is a lot more profitable than the excursions. most people lose a lot of money in the casino if they spend a significant amount of time there. I have also noticed in my life than gamblers like to share to people the news on days they win but there is crickets on losing days. your sister is likely paying for her discounts through her casino. all table games have built in advantages for the cruise line.   the only way a gambler can legit get casino discounts and not repay more than it with casino losses is if someone is a really really good poker player. In that instance, princess is getting a commision per hand  of poker and the gambler is really winning from other gamblers at the table. 

 

I'm not a gambler, but there is a certain psychology that gamblers have and that is partially why casinos have the gaming club cards and do things like ply gamblers with free drinks, low cost or free food, comped rooms, special deals.  If you get somebody that will sit in front of a slot and pour money into it, at some point, you want to keep them doing that and they have to feel they are getting enough free stuff in exchange for the money they are pouring into a machine.  Just as you said, a gambler will always tell you when they are winning (or getting something for "free" from the casino), but nary a peep if they haven't done so well in front of the bandit.  And all that free stuff they get from the casino or the cruise line because they spend in the casino, well, they have already paid for it, and probably in excess.

 

38 minutes ago, warren buffet said:

that would make total sense. if they got canadian dollar at par, it is prob not combinable with other princess obc offers. the par deal already gives about a 35 percent discount

 

That is a very strong discount.  If I were Canadian and I was buying something at par, I don't think I'd be expecting a bunch of extra perks or OBC to come behind that.  All the promo was provided up front at the purchase.

[memoak]

1 hour ago, jeromep said:

 

I'm not a gambler, but there is a certain psychology that gamblers have and that is partially why casinos have the gaming club cards and do things like ply gamblers with free drinks, low cost or free food, comped rooms, special deals.  If you get somebody that will sit in front of a slot and pour money into it, at some point, you want to keep them doing that and they have to feel they are getting enough free stuff in exchange for the money they are pouring into a machine.  Just as you said, a gambler will always tell you when they are winning (or getting something for "free" from the casino), but nary a peep if they haven't done so well in front of the bandit.  And all that free stuff they get from the casino or the cruise line because they spend in the casino, well, they have already paid for it, and probably in excess.

 

 

That is a very strong discount.  If I were Canadian and I was buying something at par, I don't think I'd be expecting a bunch of extra perks or OBC to come behind that.  All the promo was provided up front at the purchase.

Sometimes we wein sometimes we lose we always have a good time. I have left a cruise down a few thousand and have left a cruise over $3,000 ahead. Either way we enjoy ourselves and most times the discount for casino comp cruises makes up for any losses. When you can get  over $4,000 discounted on a 16 day cruise in a full suite with Princess Plus several hundred OBC and some casino free play it mostly comes out an even deal

[Kellyansapansa]

7 hours ago, brisalta said:

 

Princess changed the name of the role from Princess Vacation Planner to Cruise Vacation Planner.

Thank you so much for the explanation! ❤️

[Kellyansapansa]

7 hours ago, AE_Collector said:

Excellent. I think PVP (Princess Vacation Planner) and CVP (Cruise? Vacation Planner) are being used interchangeably here.
 

From what you have said that’s exactly what I’m looking for from a PVP but have had no success at all. I’m thinking the same way that @Times Prince feels as well.  I'm not sure what brings this higher level of service including the ability to give a little extra OBC or finding ways of offering a bit lower cruise price. Over years and years I have only heard “not possible”. The logical thing for them to reward IMHO is the amount of cruising done with Princess but that isn’t what I am seeing at all. 
 

Do you have your own Princess people in Australia that you get when you call? I’m in Canada but get one of their west coast offices in the USA when I call, usually Santa Clarita or Seattle which I think is mainly a HAL office.

I actually don't know where she is based, I didn't ask. The number had a Sydney prefix but that doesn't mean the call centre is in Sydney. She did not speak with an Australian accent though so she may have been in the US. Or does Princess have an offshore call centre in the Philippines perhaps?

[jeromep]

10 minutes ago, Kellyansapansa said:

I actually don't know where she is based, I didn't ask. The number had a Sydney prefix but that doesn't mean the call centre is in Sydney. She did not speak with an Australian accent though so she may have been in the US. Or does Princess have an offshore call centre in the Philippines perhaps?

More connect-the-dots guesses here, but I'm pretty sure that you will speak with an offshore call center in the Philippines, or another low cost labor country, at least during certain times of the day.

[AE_Collector]

Trying to reply to many comments here….

 

Canadian at par is a 26% discount so yes very very good, but not 35%. $135 Cdn as .74 (26% discount) = $100 or the US price for Canadian $.

 

Whether booked under wrong code somehow or not, something messed up as friends who booked same day and are also Canadians did receive the advertised OBC. Yes Cdn at par is very good deal but if that disqualifies a bunch of other sale perks that paying in $US gets, the at par part is no longer worth what it seems to be worth. It doesn’t matter as they were going to delete and rebook the whole thing to try to get the OBC but I said to not worry about it is only $100. My reference to this part of the problem was just that this should have been a slam dunk for someone at Princess to either find an error or to determine that this part of the sale wasn’t valid with the Cdn at par. But instead I go no help.

 

Call centre for Canadians always seems to be in US so I don’t know about other parts of the world. Could be in the Philippines but I don’t believe I have ever overflowed to an off shore call centre and I was on hold for hours and hours multiple times trying to talk with someone booking our first post Covid cruise about a year ago. I think it was 13 hours in total on hold over 4 or 5 calls.

[Steelers36]

4 hours ago, Kellyansapansa said:

I actually don't know where she is based, I didn't ask. The number had a Sydney prefix but that doesn't mean the call centre is in Sydney. She did not speak with an Australian accent though so she may have been in the US. Or does Princess have an offshore call centre in the Philippines perhaps?

 

4 hours ago, jeromep said:

More connect-the-dots guesses here, but I'm pretty sure that you will speak with an offshore call center in the Philippines, or another low cost labor country, at least during certain times of the day.

CVP's are not based in the Philippines.

 

[Kellyansapansa]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

 

CVP's are not based in the Philippines.

 

Good to know, thank you, although it really didn't matter to me where where the CVP was located, as my experience was very good.