not very happy with Princess or TA

[A&G]

We have booked several cruises through current TA. He should know by now we like late dining. Ten months ago, when lodging our booking form for our Diamond sailing next month, we wrote in bold that we request late dining. We have only recently entered our precruise information on the Princess website (I had to wait until new VISA card arrived) and notice we have been confirmed for "personal choice" dining. Seems I can not get it changed. Not sure if we can even be waitlisted. I have contacted both Princess and TA and both parties know I am not very happy :mad: For us dining each night with the same guests and getting to know them is one of the highlights of a cruise.

[LEtue]

Don't worry! Just see the maitre-D when you board. They are usually available in the afternoon of embarkation for requests to change. Most passengers report no problems getting what they want.

 

As great as my TA is - she is a very busy lady and we can all make mistakes. I always check my reservation on line within a day or two. If you're not ready to enter your personal information you can so it later ;)

[spongerob]

You should still be able to get on the waitlist for late seating. Princess will work only with your TA, so have them take care of this straight away. At least you will be on the list of those who desire late seating, which might give you a little more clout if you have to speak to the maitre d' once on board. Good luck, I understand your disappointment.

[Pam in CA]

I think there's a problem with the Cruise Personalizer or something. I booked the Sapphire Princess last February for our 12/24 cruise and everything, including my final docs, had us as late traditional confirmed. However, I checked the Cruise Personalizer a few days before our cruise and saw that our dining choice had been changed to Personal Choice. Since our cruise docs said late traditional, I didn't worry. When we boarded, our cruise card had Personal Choice so I went roaring down to see the Maitre D to straighten it out. There was a dining staff member at a table on Deck 7 in the photography section with a sign, "Dining Issues." I showed him my cruise docs and he wrote my name down. No questions asked. By 5:30PM, we had our table assignment in late traditional and a sticker to put on our cruise card confirming our table assignment. When we went to dining that night, the others at our table (for 6) had all had the exact same experience.

 

They corrected the mistake with no fuss, no muss, no bother.

 

BTW, did I mention that the Cruise Personalizer had also changed my daughter's address from New Hampshire to Pittsburgh? There's something very wrong with the Cruise Personalizer so keep checking it.

[Juliadlf]

I think there's a problem with the Cruise Personalizer or something.

BTW, did I mention that the Cruise Personalizer had also changed my daughter's address from New Hampshire to Pittsburgh? There's something very wrong with the Cruise Personalizer so keep checking it.

 

Thanks for the heads up on this. I didn't realize this was a problem with Princess website and hadn't been checking the personalizer after the booking was made. Our cruise isn't till August but good to know to keep checking the website.

 

Julia

[sunflower1972]

For sure problems with the Personalizer. I prebooked 2 excursions for us. It went thru to my name and booking...but said it would be 'Charlize Theron" taking the trips!! I have to admit I did have a laugh over it....they have been doing ALOT of up dating to the system over the last month so just keep checking it:) My docs came yesterday and the excursions were noted properly:)

S

[GloriaF]

I wanted to point out to the OP, you could have entered all your info into the Cruise Personalizer with the old credit card info - it makes no difference. The one they swipe at check in is the one they use. I know this because once we had to get new numbers for security reasons and it was after I had entered the old cards into the Personalizer. We were prepared to make an explanation at check in but nobody asked a thing.

 

Also, I wanted to point out that it is not the TAs responsibility to remember what your dining preference is - you could change your mind and decide to try PC or even want early traditional once in a while - it is up to you to follow through and be sure your reservation is as you wish.

[ginnynj]

Found this thread and wanted to share it for a laugh and lighten up.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=277012

 

The analogy is clear, is the glass half full or half empty is up to the individual. NO day in life is perfect but it is not always some else's fault and I try to make the best out of it.

Live life and enjoy it.

[donna5]

As soon as we book, I go into the personalizer and fill out all my info. and also make a copy of my booking. If there are any changes I make a copy of that. This way you will always have a record. I do the same with our future cruise credits.

[GloriaF]

I do exactly the same thing. :)

[SaylorGirl]

My TA always puts in for traditional dining even though he knows we will only use PC it's never been a problem for us to have it changed the first night at dinner. I'm sure there are many passengers that switch over to PC opening up space in the dining room for those of you that want traditional.

[GloriaF]

That's a shame that a TA would do this. Why not just put in the proper dining request? It is always easier to switch from traditional to PC than vice versa.

[tonyt]

My experience was similar to Pam in Ma's.

We were wait listed for traditional early seating on the 12/3 sailing of the Sapphie Princess from the time of booking and this never changed. When I got on board, I did the same thing she did. I was told that my dining assignment would be in my cabin by 5:30PM and it was. We were changed to traditional early seating. There were 4 of us.

tonyt

[donna5]

I personally don't think it's right to take traditional when you know you don't want it. There are people that want tradtional and don't get it and don't know that they could possibly get it on the ship. Going to the maitre'd when you knew before hand that you didn't want it, also causes longer lines, of people wanting the Traditional dining. I think it would be common courtesy to ask only for what you want.

[SaylorGirl]

I personally don't think it's right to take traditional when you know you don't want it. There are people that want tradtional and don't get it and don't know that they could possibly get it on the ship. Going to the maitre'd when you knew before hand that you didn't want it, also causes longer lines, of people wanting the Traditional dining. I think it would be common courtesy to ask only for what you want.

 

Donna - I always ask for PC dining - I always get traditional. I have called Princess and told them and they will not change it on the phone! It can only be changed by my TA. I have waited in line when I boarded the ship to have it changed and it takes about an hour, now I wait until I go to the dining room the first or second night. I always book PC it is not my fault that I don't get it.

[Redsgj]

Donna - I always ask for PC dining - I always get traditional. I have called Princess and told them and they will not change it on the phone! It can only be changed by my TA. I have waited in line when I boarded the ship to have it changed and it takes about an hour, now I wait until I go to the dining room the first or second night. I always book PC it is not my fault that I don't get it.

 

So if I understand this correctly, your TA is not booking you in the type of dining you want which then means you have to spend the first part of your vacation correcting the problem. May I ask why you continue to deal with this person???

[negc]

So if I understand this correctly, your TA is not booking you in the type of dining you want which then means you have to spend the first part of your vacation correcting the problem. May I ask why you continue to deal with this person???

 

good question. If I am specific about wanting a specific style of dining or a particular seating, I expect my TA to make that exact request. I realize that it might not be possible to get what I requested (especially if I want traditional and am sailing on Princess:( ) but I would have serious problems if my TA didn't attempt to follow my directions. There are enough problems when people who want traditional dining have to be placed on a waitlist, without people, or their TAs, requesting traditional when they know that anytime dining is their, or their clients', preference. If your TA doesn't care about your dining preferences what else might he or she decide doesn't merit the effort, your preference in type or location of stateroom, your ship of choice?

[ppeckham]

On a lighter note, if my TA didn't know my tastes, I'd have to pound her. Of course, that could start a family feud. My TA is my cousin. She takes terrific care of us.

 

As others have noted, check with the maitre'd when you board.

 

As far as the website, the name issues were probably due to the programmers testing. When I was designing programs years back, I'd use bogus data for testing. We'd get quite a chuckle out of it. What little it takes to amuse programmers.

[senior lady]

I usually don't worry about the personizer until final payment is made. Then things start to open up on the cruise.

[donna5]

So if I understand this correctly, your TA is not booking you in the type of dining you want which then means you have to spend the first part of your vacation correcting the problem. May I ask why you continue to deal with this person???

 

That's what I think. There is no reason the TA should not have had the correct info. You don't need to call Princess to change things in your booking. You call your T.A. They should be able to update it while you're on the phone with them, just like when booking they can give you a booking number and as soon as they do, you can go into the personalizer and see everything. That way while you are still on the phone with T.A. or Princess(whichever you are booking with) you can have any info corrected that may not be correct. It's never a problem to get Anytime, but it is a problem to get Traditonal.

[rjg41]

First, do you know if your TA requested late dining 10 months ago? You could have verified that by looking at the booking on line months ago. Have you considered that the TA did and that it was already full. Remember, it is primarily Americans who like early seating. Most non Americans prefer PC and when that gets full go for late dining. Since this is a South Pacific area cruise that is a strong possibility. In fairness to your TA noone should be attacking the TA unless the facts are clear it was his/her screwup.

[JLC@SD]

We have booked several cruises through current TA. He should know by now we like late dining. Ten months ago, when lodging our booking form for our Diamond sailing next month, we wrote in bold that we request late dining. We have only recently entered our precruise information on the Princess website (I had to wait until new VISA card arrived) and notice we have been confirmed for "personal choice" dining. Seems I can not get it changed. Not sure if we can even be waitlisted. I have contacted both Princess and TA and both parties know I am not very happy :mad: For us dining each night with the same guests and getting to know them is one of the highlights of a cruise.

 

I assume you are on the Dimond nest month. My TA knows we prefer later sitting, however I always verify when she books that she has requested it. You should have done the same at booking, don't assume that he knew.

 

As soon as we book, I get our booking number from my TA and log on to the Cruise Personalizer to verify the booking and seating assignment. On our current cruise booking, I was able to verify this on line the same day we booked.

 

You do not need to register a credit card, we never do, I always give that at embarkation.

 

Only 1/3 of the ship gets Traditional Dining and only half fo the 1/3 gets late. So 1/6 of the ship gets late. All of the wait list that doesn't get Traditional Dining gets PC automatic.

 

If you sail in a few weeks, it is probably too late to get late even if you are waitlisted because there are so many on the list, which is why you have PC. It happened to us. YOu can go to the M d' D as others have advised or got to PC and request a set table and set time each night, 8 PM sittting is the easiest to request.

[kaimanu]

Donna - I always ask for PC dining - I always get traditional. I have called Princess and told them and they will not change it on the phone! It can only be changed by my TA. I have waited in line when I boarded the ship to have it changed and it takes about an hour, now I wait until I go to the dining room the first or second night. I always book PC it is not my fault that I don't get it.

!

 

Something is certainly wrong with that! We had soooo much trouble tracking down the Maitre D, we gave up trying to get Traditional. We'd hoped that PC would be okay, but it certainly wasn't for us.

 

Kai

[Cruisin' Chick]

BTW, don't wait until the last moment to check the Personalizer. About five days before your cruise, you can no longer access it.

[A&G]

Thanks for all the advice. Some posters obviously read the original post, others obviously did not. I take your point about the TA not being a mind reader but as I stated I clearly marked the booking form, lodged with the TA, that late seating was requested. In fact there was no question on the form about dining so I wrote in thick marker pen across the top of the form that we required late dinner (we did not know about PC at that stage).

 

Now thanks for those that suggested there maybe a problem with Princess personaliser because we did check our booking on line a few weeks after booking and we are convinced that it origionally sated late traditional. Unfortunately I did not take a print. I entered other passport information and all other details at that time but left the credit card details blank until my new card arrived. So there was many months where I did not have need to enter my personaliser. I entered the final details late last month and notice what we believe to be a switch to PC dining.

 

However I have done some research on the boards and PC may not be such a bad thing and if it comes down to us being stuck with PC then we will make the best of it and who knows we may think it wonderful. I am still going to keep pressuring the TA and Princess but if nothing can be done then we will not let it ruin our cruise.

 

Alan