Booking with a TA

[BSUGrad]

My wife and I are considering booking one of the 15 day Hawaii cruises next year. We have found a travel agent that will give us extra OBC, so we would like to use them. We have only cruised Carnival before and always booked direct, so I have some questions.

 

1) I think I know the answer to this, but would like to get it confirmed. We can book the EZAir later ourselves directly, correct? The flights are not yet available that far out.

 

2) Can we book extras like excursions, drink packages, etc. ourselves on the Princess website after we are booked, or do all of those things have to go through the TA? I was hoping to be able to do those kinds of things ourselves instead of having to call the TA every time we want to look at something like that.

[VTX-AL]

My wife and I are considering booking one of the 15 day Hawaii cruises next year. We have found a travel agent that will give us extra OBC, so we would like to use them. We have only cruised Carnival before and always booked direct, so I have some questions.

 

1) I think I know the answer to this, but would like to get it confirmed. We can book the EZAir later ourselves directly, correct? The flights are not yet available that far out.

 

2) Can we book extras like excursions, drink packages, etc. ourselves on the Princess website after we are booked, or do all of those things have to go through the TA? I was hoping to be able to do those kinds of things ourselves instead of having to call the TA every time we want to look at something like that.

 

re - excursions: On a 15 day Hawaii cruise in March (2015) we had originally booked excursions through Princess for all four of the port days - Princess cost over $900.00 for the ones we selected. Subsequently did some comparison shopping and discovered that booking virtually identical tours for three of the four excursions through a private (but recommended and reputable) private tour operator, we were able to reduce the total cost by almost 50%. Interestingly enough, we found that we ended up at the same excursion locations, at the same time, as those that others had booked through Princess.

 

...VTX-Al

[JF - retired RRT]

Excursions, dining, drink packages, etc. will be available in your Personalizer after you book.

You only need to contact your TA for changes to your actual cruise reservation, i.e. price drop, cancel, etc.

[BSUGrad]

re - excursions: On a 15 day Hawaii cruise in March (2015) we had originally booked excursions through Princess for all four of the port days - Princess cost over $900.00 for the ones we selected. Subsequently did some comparison shopping and discovered that booking virtually identical tours for three of the four excursions through a private (but recommended and reputable) private tour operator, we were able to reduce the total cost by almost 50%. Interestingly enough, we found that we ended up at the same excursion locations, at the same time, as those that others had booked through Princess.

 

...VTX-Al

 

Thanks for the info! We will more than likely do a lot of searching and researching before making any plans.

[skynight]

Regarding EZ Air. EZ Air will give you a selection of departing airports, and as you are from Milwaukee this airport will be one of them. But, if you find better fares and wanted to fly from say Chicago those airports may not be on your EZ Air listing. If they are not there and you want to check them out you have to ask the T.A. to ask Princess to change your airport. Princess will not accept this request directly. It seems funny, since you book directly, but that is the way it is.

It happens to us since we fly from our son's in a different State.

Hope this make sense.

[Steviewonder1]

Go get into your roll call for your cruise (listed lower down the listing in CC) and see who else has excursions that are private. You may find one or more that have openings for additional folks. We do lots of Private excursions because we do not like sitting on a bus of 55 people and then being hurded like a group of cats around the sites to be seen. It is much better getting on a small bus of 10-15 people and being able to adjust your trip to the needs of the group, including lunch and other unscheduled stops. YMMV, ours have been great!

[cr8tiv1]

You will enjoy the cruise on the Ruby to Hawaii (fan of ELUA/Cultural Ambassadors) if you go out of Los Angeles.

 

Whatever you decide, please be sure to fly in a day or two early so that you are not held hostage to the weather.

 

You can also do your own booking and have Princess hold your reservations for your Travel Agent to pick up in a timely manner. Let your TA know that you would like to do this. Tell Princess that you are going to turn it over to xxx person. Then contact him/her and give them your booking number. She should still honor the OBC with her doing less work.

 

Roberts Hawaii is pretty much the only big tour company on the islands. There are a few smaller companies. Do not book a trip to the Arizona Memorial with a tour company. Do that one on your own by reserving your tickets early. There are many threads on what to do on the islands.

 

Displaced local girl

[OCruisers]

Can we book extras like excursions, drink packages, etc. ourselves on the Princess website after we are booked, or do all of those things have to go through the TA? I was hoping to be able to do those kinds of things ourselves instead of having to call the TA every time we want to look at something like that.

 

No Problem! You can do those things yourself! :)

[ontheweb]

Regarding EZ Air. EZ Air will give you a selection of departing airports, and as you are from Milwaukee this airport will be one of them. But, if you find better fares and wanted to fly from say Chicago those airports may not be on your EZ Air listing. If they are not there and you want to check them out you have to ask the T.A. to ask Princess to change your airport. Princess will not accept this request directly. It seems funny, since you book directly, but that is the way it is.

It happens to us since we fly from our son's in a different State.

Hope this make sense.

 

Princess changed it for us, even though we used a TA.

 

We basically fly from 3 airports, two in NY (JFK and LaGuardia) and one in NJ (Newark). when our EZ air only showed NY state airports, we asked them to change it so we could see Newark. They changed it, but then only the NJ airports were showing.

 

It makes little sense for someone flying out of the NY metropolitan area not to be shown Newark while having Buffalo shown as a possibility, or to be only be able to see Newark by not being able to see JFK and LaGuardia.

 

(We ended up not using EZ air.)

[Pierlesscruisers]

Thanks for the info! We will more than likely do a lot of searching and researching before making any plans.

 

One thing to remember, however, is that if you're on a Princess sponsored excursion and something happens that prevents you from getting back to the pier in time to embark on the ship, then Princess will be responsible for getting you to the next port of call at their expense. If your delay is on an independent tour, you are own your own. Granted, the odds are pretty much against anything happending like that, but you do need to be aware of that.

 

Whichever way you go, I hope you have a great cruise! :)

 

Tom

[georgiacat]

I have a Princess booking with a travel agent. If I book the EZ air myself, do I immediately pay the air fare myself or is it added to the final payment for the cruise? What if the travel agent books the EZ air for me? When do I pay?