John Sisker wrote:

On our last cruise with Princess, I sailed as an Elite Member. Out of
curiosity, and for future reference to not only our clients, but
ourselves, we checked out this onboard service. In fact, we even stood
within ear-shot to see what the Princess Cruises Agent said and how they
handled other clients. First of all, this is indeed a wave (no pun
intended) of the future. Is this cutting, or intending to cut the travel
agent out of future sales? Of course it is. Cruise lines have been
narrowing down the involvement of agents for years. It's really only
just a matter of time. Yet, in this particular case, any booking made on
the ship can be transferred over to your agent - at least for now.

This is incorrect.

Any booking made onboard automatically defaults back the the travel
agent that booked the current cruise.... nothing has to be transferred.
AT THE TIME OF BOOKING, the customer can request that the booking be
assigned to another travel agent or left as an open booking with
Princess... with no travel agency on record. If that option is chosen,
the customer can assign the booking to any travel agent they wish as
long as it is done before the final payment date.

Again... On Princess (and the other major cruise lines) all onboard
bookings automatically default back to the agency of record. Here is
the official policy from Princess:

"When booking a confirmed future cruise onboard, the Onboard Sales
Manager (OBSM) will pull up the passengers existing booking and book the
passengers using the same method as their current booking (i.e. travel
agents or direct)."


A few years ago while on one of our group cruises on the Adventure of
the Seas, a number of people in our group booked a future group cruise
on the Celebrity Solstice. The onboard sales guy wasn't the sharpest
pencil in the box, especially when it came to booking Celebrity cruises,
but after talking with him and having him make MY reservation first and
then I accompanied other members of the group when they made their
reservations, he got into he spirit of the program and I believe booked
20 cabins that week.

(Note: While on a Royal Caribbean ship you can make a Celebrity
reservation and vice versa... but it has to be for a specific sailing.
It can not be an "open" booking where you just make a deposit and choose
the sailing and ship later)

One thing to consider when doing this..... most of the cruise lines have
instituted a "one bite of he apple" policy and some of the onboard
credits they offer for making these bookings are not combinable with
other promotional programs or rates.


--

George Leppla

Countryside Travel http://www.CruiseMaster.com
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