Knowledgeable cruisers advice/suggestions wanted:

[Tess2mommies]

*I will post this on multiple boards, please excuse the duplicate post*

My name is Malaisha (Malaysia) and I am booked on the Dec 19, 2004 Golden Princess Southern Caribbean Explorer.

My partner and I booked online through cruise direct and booked a category FF stateroom. That particular category was advertised at partial obstruction, which we were happy with.

We recently received out 2005 princess brochure and realized that FF was a full obstruction. I called princess to confirm this and they said it was indeed a full obstruction.

 

Had cruise direct informed us of this, we would have booked a higher category, that was mid ship, or possibly even deal with category E in the aft and hope that I didn't get sick.

Nonetheless, I called cruise direct and informed them that my category is a full obstruction and not a partial as they previously stated, they called and confirmed this.

They said they would work on something and get back to me... I called the next day, dealt with a rude agent, not important though. She said she put me in the computer with princess for a complimentary upgrade, but their isn't a lot of availability on this cruise. Today I talked to the lady, she mentioned she put me in the system for a complimentary upgrade and that was pretty much the end of it.

She didn't offer me any ship board credit, she didn't even try to upgrade me to a better cabin. :mad: They had category D available this morning, as well as E and EE when I first contacted them about this issue. In my opinion they could've easily given me a better room, since it was their mistake. Because as I said, if they had mentioned it was a full obstruction, We would have paid for a better room. But, she said it was too expensive to put me in a different from and if I wanted to upgrade I would have to pay an extra $500 per person for a D stateroom. That's not even a balcony and the only D's available is on the plaza deck next to the pool, no way will I pay that, and it's their fault!

The lady then mentioned they would be launching a promotion soon, for a 3 day cruise, and she could offer me that. Not sure if she meant discount or free, whatever the case, I was too fed up to really listen and informed her I would get back to her. I don't want some 3 day cruise anyway, I would have to fly from San Francisco to Florida and for 3 days in my opinion, that is not worth it.

This is my first cruise and I'm very disappointed on the way things are getting worked out. I dealt with the PC dining, when they said I was getting traditional but to get a full obstruction when I was under the impression I was getting a partial, just ticks me off. The difference may not be big to you, but to me that is significant.

I know a cabin can't break a cruise (or so I've heard) but it can definitely make one!

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions for me to deal with the situation? Would me calling princess direct help me at all? I look forward to your tips.

[StephenJohnson]

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions for me to deal with the situation? Would me calling princess direct help me at all? I look forward to your tips.[/i]

 

Well, suggestion No.1 would be: Don't use italic pink text, please, it's very hard to read.

 

Sadly, lines usually won't deal with you much if you're booked through an agent. I wouldn't sweat the Cabin so much, though it sounds annoying -

I'm not sure about the traditional vs. PC question - did you book traditional but get PC? Personally, I'm a traditional dining fan, but I doubt that would be a deal killer either. At this point, you're well past final payment, so your options are pretty limited, I'm afraid.

 

Hope it works out!

[kitty9]

Unfortunately, what you experienced is why I always advise first time cruisers to book with a local travel agent and not an online agency. The things that happened to you seem to be a major problem with online agencies---very poor customer service and no accountability when they screw up. These agencies will say anything to get a sale, even if it's incorrectly advertising the location of rooms. Next time, either go online and look at the cabin layouts on a ship, or get the brochure and know exactly what you're getting. Princess isn't going to give you anything because they aren't the ones who fudged about the room location---it's the agency that pulled this on you, and now that they've got your money, they don't/won't do anything to rectify the situation.

[Tess2mommies]

Yep, i've learned my lesson, pay the extra $35 go to a local travel agent and if they mess up I can always drive to their office and pester them. They'd be so happy to get rid of me they'd do whatever I wanted! :)

[98Charlie]

pay the extra $35 go to a local travel agent

That's one option. Personally I've never found a local agent that can come close to the pricing of online.

 

OTOH, you are becoming a more informed consumer. It's one of the great things about these boards. You can learn from others. Hope you have a great cruise.

 

Charlie

[Rob_P]

Unfortunately, what you experienced is why I always advise first time cruisers to book with a local travel agent and not an online agency. The things that happened to you seem to be a major problem with online agencies---very poor customer service and no accountability when they screw up.

Hi all, this is my first post (you can see my post count :P )

 

I agree with the above statement and disagree.

It is very true that in the travel industry and just about EVERY other industry, its easy to have little or zero accountibilty if you are an online company. Or your customers interact with you online/phone only.

However, just because a company is online it doesnt related that they have bad customer service and wont take care of their customers.

 

It is just as easy to have a loser agent that is at a traditional travel agency. It all depends upon the agent and the company that the agent represents. At my office, the owners do their best to make sure all of its customers are treated the best throughout the whole process. Since we are online we usually are competing with other people, which means we have to work harder for a sale and customer happiness.

 

Just like buying anything else online, or in person at a brick & mortar store, you want to get a feel for the company and sales person before you buy anything.

See how willing they are to help you out when they know you might not be buying anything. Or if you are doing a small trip/cruise. If they are helpful in answering all your small questions and dont think you ask too many questions, odds are they are a good agent.

Do they call you back/email you in a timely manner?

Is their price competitive or at least they dont add a fee for no perticular reason..?

Have they ever been on the ship, or been to the destination (this is really important!!) ?

Are they clia members or partake in a continual education process?

 

I do side web work for other companies that do alot of online business (all of whom i think are great), and I have direct experience with alot of really bad online companies. So ive seen all types of companies (good and bad) it just really depends upon who is running the scene. The future is definely having a portion of your business run online.

 

I do work for a travel agency that does 95% of their marketing online. I dont want to make this a commercial post, so im not going to say who I work for.

 

I hope you havent had a totally bad experience with booking a trip online. You should give some other companies a better chance for your future business.

The day of travel agencies occupying retails fronts are dying fast. Its not an easy task to run a retail location in walnut creek, ca.

[C 2 C]

As a person who normally books inside the question is .. how much of a savings was it over another type of cabin? We have booked partial obstructions on some ships only to get a midship location... you don't spend much time in your cabin... if you got a good deal live with it...but if you're not happy with the service you can always switch to another TA... enjoy your trip anyways... Cruising is too nice of a lifestyle to let one issue spoil the trip...

[marco]

just wondering......was category "FF" intially advirtised by Princess in earlier brochures as being "partial obstruction", or was it just the agency that was listing it as "partial obstruction"?

 

Also, is your on line agency NOW saying "FF" is "totally obstructed".

 

Unfortunately, we've found that when dealing with on line agecies WE have to know the answers to ALL of the questions before we call, and just "book" with them. That's the price you pay for getting the savings. And if it were merely $35 we would not bother and would use a local TA. We have found our saving to be aprrox $150-$400 pp, depending on the cruise.