rocklinmom

It was around 9am. I used to get the CA office calling at that time. Those were the good old days I guess.

I did try that extension this time (to book a cruise).

Yes you can look at the hotels Princess uses in your embarkation city and then just book it yourself. Most likely it will be cheaper. And as someone mentioned above, there is usually a Princess rep in the hotel lobby for questions and you will be with fellow cruisers.

I assume you used the U.K. number? Because I'd be shocked if it was this call center you spoke with.

Yes I must agree to the customer service at Princess lately. I have been sailing with Princess for years and never had any issues getting anything done on their customer service line. I book my own cruises and call in to add cabins, link them together, change dates if needed, etc. Yesterday (8/25/23) I spent over two hours on the 1-800-PRINCESS line with a very poorly trained rep at the new call center - lots of chattering in the background, occasional cheering (?), thick accents. I was patient and explained what I needed, just to change our cruise to a different sailing date (due to a recent scheduling conflict with one of us), which I have done in the past with no issues. This was the worst ever experience I have had. The rep had no idea what to do, she refused to transfer me to the direct sales dept. (which would have been able to help me, I've been transferred to them many times), refused to transfer me to a supervisor, and kept telling me she couldn't do it. I repeated the cabin category to her three times, even used the lingo (Delta Alpha for DA) and after a half hour of her telling me the cabins I was looking at on the website marked available were not available I realized she had entered it as DE. I walked her through what to do. An hour later, many times wanting to bash my head into the wall, somehow the cabins disappeared onscreen and my booking confirmations started to appear in my email. She must have hit enough buttons to make it happen but seriously had no clue what to do. Do they not get trained? After the two hours I had the date change and cabins I wanted, but it was a very stressful and frustrating experience. I have never in my 20 plus years with them had this happen. I almost want to file a complaint with Princess but I don't want to affect her job, she did get it done with my help and was never rude, but the fact that she wouldn't (or couldn't) transfer me to someone who could help me was annoying. From now on I will be very hesitant to call in.

I looked at the cove balcony cabins on the new Sun and they are indeed low, even under the lifeboats. So you would definitely hear them on tender port days and when they do cruise safety drills.

Thank you so much for posting this, I have always wondered about these. Doesn't it sleep up to 8? So I assume the mini suite for two, the interior must be a quad (so four "bunk beds"), and the sofa in the living area must be a double?

Thank you for all the info! Much appreciated.

Wow so are the cable cars or this "trail" down the only way back to the ship tenders to return to the ship? If you get off the ship and just stay in the immediate area I assume you don't have to come back down this way or on the cable cars? First time visiting Santorini.

So if our ship is docking at Mykonos (no tenders or "water shuttles" as Princess calls them) does this mean we dock far from the town center? And then we have to pay the Princess shuttle bus fee to get into town? Do people try to walk from the dock or is it not possible? The last time we went to Mykonos we were tendered in and walked right into town. This was 9 years ago though. Any info appreciated 🙂

I just booked three deluxe balcony cabins together. The cabin availability keeps shuffling, you could check and see what your cruise is currently showing. If you see a pair together you could always change to those, it's nice to be next to each other and get your balconies connected.

Hmm I think I hit "existing cruise booking" since I already had one cabin booked. You're right, maybe that had something to do with it. And yes the gal was in the US and said she was the sales dept.

I did book our cruise today and the call center was a bit challenging. I had booked my own cabin online and needed to add two cabins next to it for the rest of my family. Normally this is a quick process (I already have my booking number, the cabin numbers I want to book, all the totals calculated out, etc.). I called the traditional Princess number that I've always used (the 1-800-PRINCESS) and it was about a fifteen minute wait so not bad for a Monday morning. The representative was friendly, I could definitely tell it was a call center with lots of background noise, and he did have an accent but I had no trouble explaining what I needed. Then I was on hold again several times because he said he had to transfer me to the direct sales department to do my booking. When I asked why he said they aren't trained to do that. Eventually I was transferred to a gal somewhere in a sales dept. who was very efficient and my bookings were all complete. I wish I could book multiple cabins online myself (even if I don't log in the system always remembers me, probably lots of Princess cookies LOL) but this is the process for now. I did appreciate that the wait time was minimal and I didn't have any issues getting our cabins booked, and linked together (which only a rep can do). I think the new call center is fine for general questions or making changes to a booking.

Princess must have heard me (LOL) because now there are more balcony cabins available on the cruise we are looking at and can get 3 together. I am still trying to research the layout of Sun cabins and balconies and trying to avoid what I think will be the louder areas (open cabana deck on 9, the long rows of cabana balcony cabins, under the Dome, etc.). We had considered doing Oceanview cabins to save some money but they are either under the theater or above the Landing area (loading/embarking/tender wait area).

It's hard because some of the PVP's are good and others aren't. I tried using one years ago and they were unresponsive and it was more frustrating than handling my own booking.

Is this using the new phone number? (1-888-819-1193) I noticed this new number shows on the website now as opposed to the traditional number (1-800-PRINCESS). I am also a lifelong Princess cruiser and will be very annoyed if I have issues completing a booking over the phone. I have always booked my own and had a Princess rep add my other cabins to my reservation and link them together. So is this new number a new call center somewhere?

I am looking at the June 2024 seven day Med cruises on Sun. We are a family of six and need 3 cabins together, and cabin availability is very limited. I assume this is because people can book a 7, 14, or 21 day version of these cruises so that narrows down which cabins are available. I notice that every day the cabins that are available change, they either disappear or change to different ship locations. We are leaning towards the June 29th cruise with Istanbul but as mentioned each morning the available cabins seem to change (or are in an undesirable location, like under the Dome which will have night performances or overlooking the open Cabana deck). So I haven't booked anything yet, I am just watching what's available and learning as much as I can about the ship.

https://etias.com/etias-requirements/etias-for-american-citizens I didn't realize this would affect Europe cruises as of January. Looks to be around $8 per person (children and over age 70 free) and hopefully not hard to do.

https://www.princess.com/deckPlans.do?shipCode=SU If you go on the Princess website and go under Sun Princess then under Deck Plan, you can go on each deck and put a "3" or a "4" for number of guests in the little box and it will show cabins that sleep that many. So it appears that there will be double balcony cabins with sofas only that sleep 2, triples that sleep 3 where it is a sofa bed, and quads that sleep 4 with a sofa bed and a pull down bunk above it. If you are entering 3 guests for your booking the system will show you triple or quad cabins.

Following! My sister will be on this cruise so thanks for doing this.

Yes we also flew in a day early and stayed at the Sofitel at T5. It was wonderful. And the next morning we just walked to meet our Princess transfer to the cruise port.

I thought the age was 16 to be booked in their own cabin? I booked my 16 year old nieces in their own cabin several years ago on Princess. Don't know why you'd be having issues booking a 17 and 20 year old in their own.

How warm was it in the Med ports? Would love to do a Med cruise next summer but don't do well in high heat anymore.

Wow who could have predicted this for those passengers! I hope they get fair compensation from Princess. Imagine the ones who have nonrefundable shore excursions booked in the ports they will now miss. But if I were them I wouldn't want to sail until I knew the Ruby was safe to hit the ocean.

Yes do not forget to bring some Bonine pills (mezciline works better than the medicine in Dramamine in our experience) and take one every night just in case. My poor daughter got extremely seasick on the December Hawaii cruise last year and wound up in the medical center as well. She had been taking Dramamine every night but it didn't help. That open Pacific Ocean route is no joke.