kathy49

Thanks for all the input....glad to hear it is not the norm or required.

I was an agent many years ago before fees were even heard of. I am aware the agents themselves do not directly get the comm. it is paid to the agency. Most agents will be compensated based on their volume and expertise. I do get the agent not being interested in spending time with someone just 'picking their brain" and then the potential client books elsewhere or direct. But usually an agent can sort out the shoppers vs buyers and if they know their product should be able to close the sale. Compared to many requests that an agent gets a cruise booking is not that complex. No problem with a fee if you cancel as long as it is outlined in the details of the booking. Or maybe a fee upfront to have an agent do the work and share knowledge with you and that would go towards the booking if you make one? That seems fair. Anyway thanks for the input.

I realize that many agents charge fees these days but from experience that was for land trips that involved many bookings such as hotels/transfers/sightseeing etc. Is it common for agents to charge for booking an extended family on an Alaska Cruise a fee of $200.00? Cruise bookings normally pay a pretty nice commission 10-12% maybe more with overrides. To me is seems high but wondered if there is an industry standard.

no we will never see them...maybe he pointed to this other guy and said I am meeting him? or again Maybe just walked off no questions. He does not look 18 that is for sure.

I don't know ....he may have thought there is no problem just walking off...if it was the time when many were getting off for excursions etc. he probably just stayed with people as they went thru...are the staff really counting out the number in the party etc. It does seem planned and most reports say he was meeting a 19 year old fellow gamer.

from the family reports sounds like he is over 2 hours away from the place where ship was docked. It is simply every parent or grand parents nightmare to have your child missing let alone in another country. I am curious as to whether he met this person online or something random.

I would not want to be the princess staff person that checked Aydin off the ship!!! That is basic security 101. I hope they find him okay and that the person he was with maybe did not understand his age etc. They cleared had this arranged. Not sure I would let an autistic child out of my sight on a cruise ship...the grandmother must be so upset.

great that he was found safe

Good question but I am sure they do so for marketing and bookings and I guess only if one does much research or have a very good agent that would call this risk to your attention and recommend a later in the season sailing. Cruise lines want to fill ships..Greenland is a draw right now...as with anything up to the buyer to really do the research.

These are very very old ships and looks like it is a party ship. I don't think this concept will attract many from US that travel so far to Greece. Prices are high but probably have lots of sales. Will get mostly party crowd from Europe.

So true...if this had been just a small number of bookings Princess may well have honored them but when the word was spread thru social media and some reported 800 booked on this I guess they had no choice. Good advice above.

I think you will see more of the YT type of tours starting March 9 and March 14..they have invited some YT influencers to sail for 5 nights on each of those departures.

State of Emergency declared today. Not sure cruise ships will continue to go in there. I think this is a major escalation and some desperate people on the loose.

Rex confirmed in latest NOT ADULT ONLY

they have the usual live music but at this point no production type shows as venues are not ready including Spellbound.

WEll I love swimming but one of my criteria is steps to comfortably enter a pool. Given the number of older cruisers this surprises me.

Is that for real..no steps into pool?

There is so much contrary info not sure what really is going on. Some sayit is an old photo from 2017 old sun princess but who knows.

there was no flooding it was in 2017

yes I can see all the complications.

agree so much now is reactive and only when there is so much illness does it get to media or prevents countries from letting them dock.

Seriously why would they change the name of the cruise at this time??? Has to be a reason. If I were on this voyage I would keep a close eye on the itinerary as something will be changed or no need to change the name.

Princess was fully aware of the increased risk due to all aspects of construction as outlined above. That is no excuse.

Agreed...it is simply not a good time for many of the ports...but they got top $$ from passengers to basically "shake down cruises".

I think the explanation makes sense. However RCL really did not have to share much other than the usual lead up to the rollout which happened as planned.