Lessons learned, love shared: Golden Princess to Hawaii 3/27/13

[terrific_surprise]

How awful! I was hoping for another Hawaiian review from you. Hang in there. You will make it back to Hawaii. I hope we do as well.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Melody. I once thought that our cruise to Hawaii would be a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience, but now that thought seems so silly. Having been there once, of course we now dream even more of returning.

 

But like a rough sea day on a cruise, it will all be worth it in the end if we just hold on for the ride.

 

Tim

[cr8tiv1]

Bookings can be easily turned over to a TA, if, it I'd done before final payment. BUT...I have called and place a booking on hold for 24 hours until my TA can pick it up beyond final payment voyage.

 

Thank you Terri, for forgiving Tim and myself (the "other" woman).

[slc22]

Oh,

Sad you missed the October promotion ....

But hopefully you took advantage of the December short cruise getaway promotion ?

Edited February 5, 2014 by slc22

[terrific_surprise]

When I was trying to book the November 4 Golden Princess getaway cruise, I hadn't known that Renee (cr8tiv1) would eventually decide to book that same cruise, so we missed an opportunity to cruise with Renee! (But it wouldn't be our last opportunity.)

 

Even though we were disappointed that we had missed the November 4 cruise, things probably would have been very difficult for us if we had successfully booked it. On the evening of November 3, several of our kids were involved in a crisis which would have likely caused us to miss the cruise. (On the other hand, it is possible that if we had booked the cruise we would have avoided the entire crisis. I guess we'll never know without a time machine.)

 

Not long after the crisis subsided, Princess began promoting some new "50% back" cruises. At first I was not interested. After all, 50% falls far short of the 100% opportunity we had missed, and I was still sulking over the lost 100% back cruise. Besides, I was preoccupied with a big project I needed to finish. But after a few days of stubborn apathy, I finally came to terms with the fact that getting a 50% credit for a cruise was still an incredible deal that we would be foolish to pass up (especially when we could apply our soon-to-expire BVE credit toward the cruise). When I mentioned the new promotion to Terri, she immediately wanted to seize the opportunity (as slc22 correctly suspected above).

 

To be able to meet Renee on November 20, we would need to book our BVE no later than November 13. During the weeks since Renee had first suggested that we meet on November 20, I had continued to occasionally correspond with her, saying that I was trying to work out the details so that we could meet her for the BVE. She probably wondered why I was dragging my feet on booking it.

 

Finally on the afternoon of November 12, I called Princess, leaving a voicemail for the Cruise Vacation Planner through whom our cruise to Hawaii had been booked. But when 30 minutes passed with no return call, I decided to call Princess back and book through another agent. I felt that I no longer had any time to waste.

 

After making sure that the stateroom I wanted was still available and that the credit from our February BVE would apply, I finalized the booking for the December 1 Golden Princess three day getaway cruise. Terri was sitting right beside me (as she drove our van down the highway) so she was fully aware that I was booking the cruise. But she had no reaction when she heard me mention the specific stateroom. (I was hoping that she wasn't paying attention, but I thought that would be too good to be true. I couldn't actually surprise her again, could I?)

Edited February 5, 2014 by terrific_surprise

[CoronaCRZR]

Good deal Tim.

Sounds like we should be hearing about another little cruise report from your Dec 1 trip on Golden !!:D

 

 

Ted

[skiladyldp]

Good for you Tim. We are taking another cruise on Oceania in June. We thought our last cruise (our first) was our trip of a lifetime too. We loved going to the mediterranean area.

 

 

Virginia

[terrific_surprise]

Good deal Tim.

Sounds like we should be hearing about another little cruise report from your Dec 1 trip on Golden !!:D

 

 

Ted

 

You're right on target, Ted! :) I thought about making a separate thread about it, but for reasons that will eventually become obvious, I decided that it really belongs in this thread.

 

Tim

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ar1950]

You're right on target, Ted! :) I thought about making a separate thread about it, but for reasons that will eventually become obvious, I decided that it really belongs in this thread.

 

Tim

 

Tim, looking forward to hearing about it as well as the next one that apparently you will be doing with those new credits. :cool:

[terrific_surprise]

After I finished booking the December 1 Golden Princess cruise, ensuring that the February BVE credit had been applied to it, I told the Princess agent that next I wanted to book the Bon Voyage Experience on the Star Princess on November 20 (so that we could meet Renee). I prepared myself for bad news, fearing that with the cruise just a week away, all 50 BVE slots had already been booked. Nevertheless, I wasn't prepared for what I was about to hear.

 

The agent told me that what I wanted could not be done, explaining definitively "they don't do BVEs on small ships like the Star!" (Yes, I heard her right: she really called the Star a "small ship"!) I had to try to keep myself from laughing out loud.

 

I continued being polite to her even though I assumed that she was mistaken, but I remembered a good piece of advice I had seen several times on CC in relation to phone calls to Princess: "HUCA" (hang up, call again). I have learned that when someone is giving bogus information (which, unfortunately, seems to apply particularly to Princess agents at times) it isn't usually worth the trouble to try to talk them out of it. They seem too often to be quite convinced that their misinformation is accurate (or at least they are too proud to admit that the caller knows something they don't know). So I thanked the agent for her help and said goodbye.

 

Before calling back, I searched on the Princess website for a list of available BVE dates, wanting to be prepared to prove the availability of the BVE if the next agent disputed it. To my dismay, the website showed that the last 2013 BVE date listed for the Star was September 14! But the web page appeared truncated at that point in the BVE listings, so I wondered if some dates might have been accidentally omitted as a result of some kind of computer glitch. I tried reloading the page, but nothing changed.

 

Not wanting to give up yet, I called Princess back. It seemed at first like the process was going smoothly this time: when I told the agent that we would be meeting Renee for the BVE, he wrote down Renee's booking number so that he could ensure that we would board the ship together. Then he put me on hold for a few minutes. Soon he returned, reporting with disappointment that no BVE was available for the Star on November 20! I began to think that this was no longer a case of misinformation, but perhaps there really was some reason that a BVE could not be held that day.

 

After two failed attempts at booking the November 20 BVE and a failed attempt at finding it on the Princess website, I began to give up on being able to make the arrangements to meet Renee. I picked up my phone again, this time to send a quick email to Renee, sharing with her the sad news.

 

About an hour later, Renee sent me back an email marked "urgent," explaining that she had just received a phone call from Princess informing her that the BVE was indeed available on November 20 after all! After I ended my second call with Princess, the agent must have received updated information, and had called to inform Renee instead of me (apparently because I had linked the BVE to Renee's booking number). Renee urged me to contact Princess immediately, reminding me that Princess requires BVEs to be booked no less than six days in advance.

 

It was after 5:00, and I assumed that the Princess phone center would be closing soon, so I called Princess back immediately, being put on hold for several minutes. Finally, they transferred me to the BVE department, where I successfully booked the November 20 BVE. (The obvious lesson here is that if you intend to book a BVE, make sure you are talking to the BVE department, because the typical booking agents tend to provide incorrect information regarding BVEs. I don't understand why the other agents don't just automatically transfer such calls to the BVE department.)

 

As I provided my card information and the BVE booking was finalized, the BVE agent began to close the call, confirming that he had finished booking our BVE for December 20! I don't know how he got the date wrong when it was linked to Renee's booking number, but thankfully I caught the error before the end of the call, and he corrected the booking to show November 20.

 

After over two months of uncertainty regarding our BVE plans, we could finally look forward to (as it seemed to us) resuming our Hawaiian cruise for a day, anticipating the opportunity to meet the Hawaiian woman who had helped to make our cruise so special, and finally watching the ship sail away to Hawaii, to the sounds of Elua!

Edited February 6, 2014 by terrific_surprise

[Cruisin' Chick]

Just to ease your mind, you can call Princess up to 7pm PT. I don't know if all departments, such as the BVE, are still open at that time.

[terrific_surprise]

I have received some emails asking if everything is ok, so I thought I should post here to explain that there will be a slight delay in continuing our story.

 

Those who followed our pre-cruise story likely recall that the last two Valentine's Days were big events in relation to the cruise. I would have liked to make this Valentine's Day another such big event (especially with the Sapphire being in San Pedro -- for one of her last times -- on the day after Valentine's Day), but it won't be quite what I had hoped for, because we have other big plans for the day.

 

Terri decided that we should have a 30th anniversary celebration for our organization (which was founded on Valentine's Day 1984) so I have to focus on preparations for the event, and after the event I will be further distracted as we deal with some of our guest speakers who will be visiting for the following several days.

 

Also, to be honest, I'm kind of mad at Princess right now, for reasons that I won't explain at the moment. I can be a stubborn guy (one of my biggest faults), but I don't want that to taint the beautiful memories I still hope to share with you.

 

Preparing the photos and videos for the next day I hope to share with you (our November 20 Star BVE with Renee) has also taken some time. Even though we didn't sail that day, they include some of our most memorable (and fun) cruise moments.

 

But most of you who have followed this story for very long have become used to occasional delays like this, so once again I appreciate your patience.

 

Tim

Edited February 13, 2014 by terrific_surprise

[Smokeyham]

I share your frustrations about the process for getting information on the Bon Voyage Experience on Princess. I really like your "HUCA" advice. :(

 

As examples of the poor information which is provided; I've had a Princess call taker tell me that you had to know someone who is actually going on the cruise in order to be able to sign up for a BVE, and I've also had really confusing (and conflicting) advice about how to sign up for the BVE. If you can convince them to put you through to the BVE you seem to get better information.

 

You mention finding a list of BVEs on the Princess website. Could you post a link to that web page? When I called Princess they said that they do not list the BVEs on their own website.

 

I found a listing of 2013 BVEs on a travel-agent (One Source) site https://book.princess.com/BookingSystem/jsp/home/ship_visit/BonVoyageExperience.jsp

That site has not yet listed the 2014 BVEs.

 

 

After I finished booking the December 1 Golden Princess cruise, ensuring that the February BVE credit had been applied to it, I told the Princess agent that next I wanted to book the Bon Voyage Experience on the Star Princess on November 20 (so that we could meet Renee). I prepared myself for bad news, fearing that with the cruise just a week away, all 50 BVE slots had already been booked. Nevertheless, I wasn't prepared for what I was about to hear.

 

The agent told me that what I wanted could not be done, explaining definitively "they don't do BVEs on small ships like the Star!" (Yes, I heard her right: she really called the Star a "small ship"!) I had to try to keep myself from laughing out loud.

 

I continued being polite to her even though I assumed that she was mistaken, but I remembered a good piece of advice I had seen several times on CC in relation to phone calls to Princess: "HUCA" (hang up, call again). I have learned that when someone is giving bogus information (which, unfortunately, seems to apply particularly to Princess agents at times) it isn't usually worth the trouble to try to talk them out of it. They seem too often to be quite convinced that their misinformation is accurate (or at least they are too proud to admit that the caller knows something they don't know). So I thanked the agent for her help and said goodbye.

 

Before calling back, I searched on the Princess website for a list of available BVE dates, wanting to be prepared to prove the availability of the BVE if the next agent disputed it. To my dismay, the website showed that the last 2013 BVE date listed for the Star was September 14! But the web page appeared truncated at that point in the BVE listings, so I wondered if some dates might have been accidentally omitted as a result of some kind of computer glitch. I tried reloading the page, but nothing changed.

 

Not wanting to give up yet, I called Princess back. It seemed at first like the process was going smoothly this time: when I told the agent that we would be meeting Renee for the BVE, he wrote down Renee's booking number so that he could ensure that we would board the ship together. Then he put me on hold for a few minutes. Soon he returned, reporting with disappointment that no BVE was available for the Star on November 20! I began to think that this was no longer a case of misinformation, but perhaps there really was some reason that a BVE could not be held that day.

 

After two failed attempts at booking the November 20 BVE and a failed attempt at finding it on the Princess website, I began to give up on being able to make the arrangements to meet Renee. I picked up my phone again, this time to send a quick email to Renee, sharing with her the sad news.

 

About an hour later, Renee sent me back an email marked "urgent," explaining that she had just received a phone call from Princess informing her that the BVE was indeed available on November 20 after all! After I ended my second call with Princess, the agent must have received updated information, and had called to inform Renee instead of me (apparently because I had linked the BVE to Renee's booking number). Renee urged me to contact Princess immediately, reminding me that Princess requires BVEs to be booked no less than six days in advance.

 

It was after 5:00, and I assumed that the Princess phone center would be closing soon, so I called Princess back immediately, being put on hold for several minutes. Finally, they transferred me to the BVE department, where I successfully booked the November 20 BVE. (The obvious lesson here is that if you intend to book a BVE, make sure you are talking to the BVE department, because the typical booking agents tend to provide incorrect information regarding BVEs. I don't understand why the other agents don't just automatically transfer such calls to the BVE department.)

 

As I provided my card information and the BVE booking was finalized, the BVE agent began to close the call, confirming that he had finished booking our BVE for December 20! I don't know how he got the date wrong when it was linked to Renee's booking number, but thankfully I caught the error before the end of the call, and he corrected the booking to show November 20.

 

After over two months of uncertainty regarding our BVE plans, we could finally look forward to (as it seemed to us) resuming our Hawaiian cruise for a day, anticipating the opportunity to meet the Hawaiian woman who had helped to make our cruise so special, and finally watching the ship sail away to Hawaii, to the sounds of Elua!

[terrific_surprise]

I found a listing of 2013 BVEs on a travel-agent (One Source) site https://book.princess.com/BookingSystem/jsp/home/ship_visit/BonVoyageExperience.jsp

That site has not yet listed the 2014 BVEs.

 

The site I mentioned which listed BVEs is the same as the link you provided. Up until at least the second week of January it was still showing the 2013 list of BVEs (which was cut off in the middle, leaving out many of the Star BVE dates and I think also some of the other ships' BVEs).

 

I have not seen the 2014 BVEs listed anywhere yet.

 

Tim