Not having a good introduction to Princess....

[Rick&Jeannie]

2 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Aw, that was kind of some blue sky thinking.  I had intended to delete that comment before I hit send but forgot.  So edited it out later.   My thought was why even have Princess' glitchy booking systems when the same thing can be accomplished without the problems.  The reason might be happy customers (once they discover hey can remain in as much control as they want).  But yeah, I don't believe they would do this either.   

 

I wonder what percent of fares are booked directly vs via TAs.  

LOL...I kinda thought you might be kidding about that!

[ldubs]

1 minute ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

LOL...I kinda thought you might be kidding about that!

 

Well, it is a little outside the box I have to admit.   😀

 

 

[KaiBlue]

3 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

You may also be a little early for excursions on that June 2025 cruise. 

Could be.  The excursions opened about months ago and I booked the one at that time.  They might be completely overhauling them.  As noted, we have plenty of time and I was surprised they had any excursions open this early.  

[Bgwest]

5 hours ago, suekel said:

I Hate it when people say this.  Some people like to do things for themselves.  As for me, I do both, it just depends.  But, my TA doesn't do excursions.  I don't consider that her job. 

 

Anyway, the excursion thing has been messed up.  I was finally able to book an excursion last night on the website but I am unable to look at previously booked excursions on Chrome, FireFox or the app.  

OK. You hate me. 🤷‍♂️

[TRLD]

3 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Thank you! I much prefer to do my own trip/cruise planning. We tried a TA who was a close family friend about 3 years back (not a cruise.) Many things went off the rails...and this was instance #1! I'll just do my own from now own...ESPECIALLY flights!

we travel 120 to 150 days per year. We run into few problems booking everything directly ourselves. This includes some fairly complex trips. 

Have had far more issues/problems the few times we have used TAs for any thing.

 

In those few cases when we have had a problem (mostly weather or mechanical issue) we just contact the provider directly. When we have worked with a TA and an issue has come up the extra layers have made resolution much more time consuming.

[Princessfan20]

3 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

If Princess were to do this (I really don't believe that they would...) I think I would have to seriously consider jumping ship to another cruise line. I sure hope this doesn't happen...it wouldn't make any logical business sense!

 

We would be gone too.....we have traveled so much that there is very little a TA can do for us that we cannot do ourselves....it is not rocket science planning trips and TA's are really dinosaurs and very few travel agency really exist today like they did in the past.  

 

The other issue is that if something goes wrong with a trip that a TA had planned the airlines, hotels, and cruise lines will want you to deal with the TA and not them.  Have fun with that if you are somewhere far away from home.

Edited May 25 by Princessfan20

[suekel]

1 hour ago, Bgwest said:

OK. You hate me. 🤷‍♂️

No  I hate it when people make condescending comments saying why didn't you do it the way I think you should.  You are probably a nice human being. 

[Bgwest]

1 hour ago, suekel said:

No  I hate it when people make condescending comments saying why didn't you do it the way I think you should.  You are probably a nice human being. 

My dog seems to think so. 😃
We have 11 upcoming cruises booked. We utilize the services of a trusted TA for ONLY the cruise component of our travels. We book cruises ourselves then transfer the cruise to our TA.
Everything else we plan and complete ourselves. 

While saving money isn’t important to some, the (nominally) 10% discount/rebate we get from our TA makes using them a no brainer. Additionally, as noted above, cruises and cruise lines are historically fraught with peril that comes at passengers from seemingly all directions. It is here we’ve found that having a good TA in our corner is invaluable. That said, I’m just a poor guy who appreciates any opportunity to earn 10% on most anything. 
 

[CruiseMob]

6 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

If Princess were to do this (I really don't believe that they would...) I think I would have to seriously consider jumping ship to another cruise line. I sure hope this doesn't happen...it wouldn't make any logical business sense!

I agree. I have not had the good fortune of others that have great TAs that take care of things and gives great discounts/perks. It's always been a hassle of bad information and issues with increased costs, so I just take care of it myself. I don't get the discounts/perks but I also don't have the hassle of bad information or missed opportunities because they didn't research enough to let me know what was possible.

[ldubs]

4 hours ago, Princessfan20 said:

 

We would be gone too.....we have traveled so much that there is very little a TA can do for us that we cannot do ourselves....it is not rocket science planning trips and TA's are really dinosaurs and very few travel agency really exist today like they did in the past.  

 

The other issue is that if something goes wrong with a trip that a TA had planned the airlines, hotels, and cruise lines will want you to deal with the TA and not them.  Have fun with that if you are somewhere far away from home.

 

We also do all of the planning. And for years we then booked directly with Princess.  Now, once planning is done, we book the cruise through our TA's website to get the better pricing.    We don't book air or lodging with that TA.  Only cruises.  

 

Flights are booked directly with the airline, with one of the large online agencies, or with EZAir depending on which works better.  Lodging is almost always booked via one of the large established online agencies.   Car rentals are almost always booked directly with the rental car company.  I'm not exactly sure why.  That is just what we do.   

 

We feel same as many here about doing our own planning.  Finding the right TA didn't change our minds about that but it did provide a pretty decent savings.  We don't feel we have lost control.  If something goes wrong we will call, text, or email someone.  We actually don't feel it is much different in that regard.  Those that use a TA for everything are probably in a better position because they can make one contact to handle everything.  

 

I'm not out to convert anyone.  It is just a conversation about our current approach and how it might or might not contrast with what others do.  

 

  

[MacMadame]

 

9 hours ago, Mark_K said:

Yeah, but it should work regardless, and I don’t want to clear all that. I like being able to search my browsing history.

You shouldn't have to clear your history. It's just a list of URLs after all. The main thing that keeps pages from working properly are the cookies that are left behind. Clearing them is also a pain but sometimes you just have to do it. Sometimes you have to clear other things too -- Chrome has a setting to clear "images and other site data" and that other data also can cause problems. The rest of the stuff should be fine to leave as is.

[ecs66]

It seems that the more technology Princess has introduced, the worse it has become.  We cruise in December, and I'm definitely not looking forward to digging in to finalizing arrangements, payments, etc.

[KaiBlue]

For those of you that use TA's, can I ask if you are using one of the online companies (some that seem to only do cruises?) or are you using a local agency? i've seen some good prices with the cruise ones (not sure they are enough to make me want to relinquish control mind you...).   The only time I've used a TA in the past 20 years has been on a Disney trip where the TA specialized in Disney and got block hotel pricing (so I saved quite a bit) but I knew someone who had used them, so I felt comfortable. The only TA I'd trust for cruises at the moment would be my automobile club travel agency. 

[Bgwest]

3 hours ago, KaiBlue said:

For those of you that use TA's, can I ask if you are using one of the online companies (some that seem to only do cruises?) or are you using a local agency? i've seen some good prices with the cruise ones (not sure they are enough to make me want to relinquish control mind you...).   The only time I've used a TA in the past 20 years has been on a Disney trip where the TA specialized in Disney and got block hotel pricing (so I saved quite a bit) but I knew someone who had used them, so I felt comfortable. The only TA I'd trust for cruises at the moment would be my automobile club travel agency. 

Our TA is a brick and mortar firm and is half a continent away. Nevertheless, transferring our bookings to them (in the case of Princess within 60 days of booking and prior to final payment being made) generates savings that we are simply not willing to forego. 

[memoak]

11 hours ago, ecs66 said:

It seems that the more technology Princess has introduced, the worse it has become.  We cruise in December, and I'm definitely not looking forward to digging in to finalizing arrangements, payments, etc.

Payments ?  I call my CVP and give them a credit card. Payment done

[Rick&Jeannie]

19 hours ago, ecs66 said:

It seems that the more technology Princess has introduced, the worse it has become.  We cruise in December, and I'm definitely not looking forward to digging in to finalizing arrangements, payments, etc.

Princess has been "leading the charge" in regards to ship-borne technology for quite some time.  There's always growing pains when it comes to change/progress...and there's always people who bemoan these changes.  In my opinion...the payment system is one of the best to be had across all cruise lines.