New to Princess

[pinkiek]

My husband and I are platinum on NCL and Carnival.  We have never sailed on Princess.  I want to book a cruise on the Island Princess for 2026.  I have contacts with these other cruise lines and would like to have someone I could work with at Princess.  How do I find a vacation planner with Princess?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Helen

[EDDY0827]

I would suggest a local travel agent. Use one agent for all your cruise bookings.

[memoak]

16 minutes ago, pinkiek said:

My husband and I are platinum on NCL and Carnival.  We have never sailed on Princess.  I want to book a cruise on the Island Princess for 2026.  I have contacts with these other cruise lines and would like to have someone I could work with at Princess.  How do I find a vacation planner with Princess?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Helen

They are called CVP’s and you can request one. If you have friends who use Princess they may be able to refer you   Like with everything else some are great some are so so. If you have. a TA you use now find out if they book a lot of Princess cruises

[cnice515]

14 hours ago, pinkiek said:

My husband and I are platinum on NCL and Carnival.  We have never sailed on Princess.  I want to book a cruise on the Island Princess for 2026.  I have contacts with these other cruise lines and would like to have someone I could work with at Princess.  How do I find a vacation planner with Princess?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Helen

Helen, i have an AMAZING CVP I have personally worked with for my 1st upcoming Princess cruise and would highly recommend her, IM me if you are interested.

[Rick&Jeannie]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:01 AM, cnice515 said:

Helen, i have an AMAZING CVP I have personally worked with for my 1st upcoming Princess cruise and would highly recommend her, IM me if you are interested.

Sadly, the IM (or PM) function is disabled here on CC.

[cnice515]

36 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Sadly, the IM (or PM) function is disabled here on CC.

Really?!?  That doesn't make any sense why they would disable it?  Thanks for the info.

[Rick&Jeannie]

22 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

Really?!?  That doesn't make any sense why they would disable it?  Thanks for the info.

*Everybody* agrees with you...but that's the state of affairs. 

[Mark_K]

26 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

Really?!?  That doesn't make any sense why they would disable it?  Thanks for the info.

Probably all the normal reasons. Worries about liability, scamming, identity theft, etc. 

[Steelers36]

33 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

Really?!?  That doesn't make any sense why they would disable it?  Thanks for the info.

For precisely the reason you want to use it.  CC doesn't allow/want us to be referring travel agents or agencies.

[jeromep]

CC has a prohibition against referring to or referencing specific travel agents.  You'll notice that everyone that comments here is quite delicate about mentioning travel agent names.  If you do, the post will be pulled down by the mods and they will send you a "friendly" reminder about policies.  That said, I do agree that having an independent travel agent that you book all your cruises through, somebody that is local, or somebody that you have grown to trust, is a better resource than other travel resources.

[cnice515]

Didn't think about CC selling cruises so I guess that makes sense.  Thanks for the knowledge 🤙

[cnice515]

20 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

For precisely the reason you want to use it.  CC doesn't allow/want us to be referring travel agents or agencies.

 

15 hours ago, jeromep said:

CC has a prohibition against referring to or referencing specific travel agents.  You'll notice that everyone that comments here is quite delicate about mentioning travel agent names.  If you do, the post will be pulled down by the mods and they will send you a "friendly" reminder about policies.  That said, I do agree that having an independent travel agent that you book all your cruises through, somebody that is local, or somebody that you have grown to trust, is a better resource than other travel resources.

Didn't think about CC selling cruises so I guess that makes sense.  Thanks for the knowledge 🤙

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, cnice515 said:

 

Didn't think about CC selling cruises so I guess that makes sense.  Thanks for the knowledge 🤙

 

CC doesn't sell cruises, but their owner does.

[cnice515]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

CC doesn't sell cruises, but their owner does.

Pretty sure this link https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseto/ would disagree with your statement

[EDDY0827]

Your link connects to ***** to book a cruise, not Cruise Critic. Cruise Critic is a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, also noted on the link you posted.

[memoak]

15 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

Pretty sure this link https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruiseto/ would disagree with your statement

Cruise Critic is owned by TripAdvisor which defuses “travel experiences”

[cnice515]

Understand that CC is a part of trip adviser but the site I linked is indeed a CC site at least for me.  However, so as not to offend the cruise booking site police I will never make the mistake of stating that CC is a booking site for cruises.  Thanks to all for letting me know how wrong I am lol.

[2 cruises a year]

11 minutes ago, cnice515 said:

Understand that CC is a part of trip adviser but the site I linked is indeed a CC site at least for me.  However, so as not to offend the cruise booking site police I will never make the mistake of stating that CC is a booking site for cruises.  Thanks to all for letting me know how wrong I am lol.

I'm glad that you took that well, CC posters can be pretty nit-picky. 😉

[cnice515]

18 minutes ago, 2 cruises a year said:

I'm glad that you took that well, CC posters can be pretty nit-picky. 😉

Ikr lol, glad we all got that straightened out, I certainly feel better ha!

[MacMadame]

12 hours ago, memoak said:

Cruise Critic is owned by TripAdvisor which defuses “travel experiences”

If you click through to find a cruise, you will find you book it on another site (that sells cruises), not CC. CC is advertising the cruises (for some sort of kickback, I assume) but not actually selling them. 

[2 cruises a year]

28 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

If you click through to find a cruise, you will find you book it on another site (that sells cruises), not CC. CC is advertising the cruises (for some sort of kickback, I assume) but not actually selling them. 

@cnice515 They just can't help themselves. And they don't bother to read all of the posts.

[cnice515]

@2 cruises a year Exactly the same reaction I had when I read it...just can't help themselves lmao

[MacMadame]

You people are so sweet. /s

[20165]

Just my 2 cents, we have been booking direct with the cruise lines for our last couple of cruises and it seems to be less of a hassle to get issues taken care of.  Example, we had an issue getting our medallion order to go through and when i called, they just cancelled everything out and i reentered the order no problem.  Im sure a TA could have also done that, but they would probably have to call Princess.  Paperwork seems cleaner too.  When i used a TA, i would get their branded receipts/cruise docs which for the most part matched the ones they got from princess, but sometimes they didnt, missing drink packages, wrong packages, etc. 

There is usually a cost savings using a TA, especially the online ones, but its not significant enough for us to go back to using a TA. 

[cnice515]

2 hours ago, 20165 said:

Just my 2 cents, we have been booking direct with the cruise lines for our last couple of cruises and it seems to be less of a hassle to get issues taken care of.  Example, we had an issue getting our medallion order to go through and when i called, they just cancelled everything out and i reentered the order no problem.  Im sure a TA could have also done that, but they would probably have to call Princess.  Paperwork seems cleaner too.  When i used a TA

I don't necessarily disagree with you as far as resolutions and paperwork, but I am able to get more OBC, and an occasional unsolicited "gift", from a TA so there is some financial incentive for me to use them.

 

And BTW, I work in GSO.