My letter to J Padgett - President of Princess Cruises - Its just too hard to book a cruise with them - BUYER BEWARE

 I thought I would share the letter I recently wrote to the President of Princess Cruises. I re started sailing with them after COVID.  I have no issues with their ships but booking with them has been a nightmare on ever single booking (5 in the past 2 years).  I have finally given up. Below is the letter I wrote to their president. If (and that is a big IF) I will share his response.  All I have to say is buyer beware: booking with them is just not worth it for you or your travel agent.  You have lots of choices and no other cruise line has been this difficult to book with.

"Dear Mr. Padgett

Although I know this will likely not get responded to, I thought it prudent to tell you why you have lost a long term guest on Princess Cruises.  I am booked on Regal Princess   for the transatlantic cruise   and have had a thoroughly frustrating and annoying booking process with your company.   Below is what has happened:

When I booked on January 10^th, as I always do I tried to book the flights thru Princess  same day– the price was $850 roundtrip, but when I pressed to book your site went down – so I called  and waited the obligatory 45 minutes to get to speak to someone  and she couldn’t help (and no apology for my inconvenience).  So I tried again later  on line and guess what during that time the price went up to $951. But what are you going to do – I booked the flight anyway.   You need to know as a Canadian when I book thru Princess to get the guaranteed arrival on the first day to book seats and baggage I have to pay in USD not Canadian as Princess is a US booking agent.  So I always pay 33% to 35% more for these services but I do it as I (used to) like Princess.

Thru my travel agent we tried to buy the internet at time of booking (I always do and as a Platinum member its 50% off), but guess what they told her we now only get 10% off). I then called myself and they told me its still 50% off, but as I wanted to pay in CDN dollars thru my agent she tried calling back  on the Monday to get someone else (that is what your guests have to do to get the correct information) and guess what you had raised the prices over the weekend for the internet.  You didn’t inform guests who had booked and there was no pre info on your website of the price increase.   After several calls later and an informed supervisor we were able to buy the internet package at 50% off and the supervisor hearing what both my travel agent and I had been through gave me on onboard credit to make up the difference as a “goodwill gesture”  as you had just raised the price that day and we had made 3 calls (each at a 30 to 40 minute wait and be transferred several times).

So now the final straw, was your company sent me an offer for my cruise for $1331 versus the $2075 I paid for a guaranteed balcony.  I always have to pay the single supplement as I travel solo (so I am paying a 100% more for my cabin).  I contacted my travel agent and she called on my behalf  to see if Princess would do something and again she had to talk to 3 people before the last one said – “Read the fine print”.  Its for new bookings only and Princess will not help in any way.  You can cancel the booking but it will cost more than what your client paid.  I wasn’t looking for a refund for the difference – just some acknowledgement of my loyalty - I would have been delighted if they had said I will put her on upgrade list for a deluxe balcony versus the balcony (it would have cost your cruise line nothing) , but no your uninformed, unhelpful staff who either get the info wrong or just transfer us to another person who are adamant and quite pleased with themselves for quoting the fine print.

Please stop having your customer service reps and supervisors say when they first speak to customers “Thank You for your loyalty”.  As I don’t ever feel like a loyal customer after having to wait on the phone so long and then get misinformation or no help or snarky remarks re the fine print.

I got a travel agent so I wouldn’t have to deal with your staff (as the long waits and misinformation have happened before on all my bookings) but to no avail even travel agents go thru the same long waits on the phone, get the wrong information and get transferred several times.

Its time for you to empower you customer service reps to have some empathy for your guests and do small gestures to make your customers feel like you still want their business.

I had planned to book another cruise with Princess for later this summer, but now I will not even consider Princess Cruises for future bookings.  I take three cruises a year – always longer than 2 weeks at a time and usually Princess gets at least 2 of my 3 bookings.  But now I am just tired and annoyed.  It shouldn’t be this hard to do business with your company. 

I would like a response (just to see if someone cares about the Princess customer)."

I never got a response