Any experience with cancelled Princess cruise?

We received a rather shocking and disappointing phone call this morning from Princess Cruises advising that our Oct. 6/15 Grand Asia cruise on the Sapphire Princess has been cancelled. Also turns out the return cruise Oct. 23/15 has been cancelled. Why? They have chartered the ship to a Chinese company for the entire 34 days. Fortunately we haven't booked any flights, hotels, excursions, etc. but we had done a lot of work investigating the various ports and looking at land tours pre and post-cruise in Japan and Cambodia. They have confirmed our deposit will be returned (well, that's nice) but have hesitated to provide any additional compensation.

Has anyone had any experience with handling a cancelled cruise? Any ideas on what form you think compensation, if any, should take?

I'm really disappointed with Princess. Besides the obvious fact that they clearly favour corporate riches over the loyalty of their individual clients, they didn't handle this well at all (some on our roll call still haven't been advised of the cancellation). When we learned of the cancellation through a friend (who lives in an earlier time zone), we phoned our Princess cruise consultant and were emphatically assured the cruise had NOT been cancelled. We returned a couple hours later from an errand to find a voice mail message sheepishly confessing their error. Then got a pretty cavalier attitude about what they would do to make us feel better about continuing to choose Princess. Perhaps they have forgotten there are other cruise lines out there.

Thoughts? Thanks, Greg

We had the same thing happen in about the same time frame.

No compensation. We didn't expect any and rebooked. It was far enough out that we didn't have any flights booked either. Stuff happens.

Since the cruise is so far away, there really is no need for compensation. I'm sure if you had flights already booked, they probably would take care of the change fees. Someone on another cancelled cruise last year said something about some OBC for the inconvenience if you book a different cruise. Don't know if that would be the case here.

And do be aware... any and all cruise lines would do the same thing to accommodate a charter.

Perhaps they have forgotten there are other cruise lines out there.

And the exact same thing has happened on other cruise lines too.

How exactly would you have them "handle it". They did what had to be done and notified you in a timely manner. You have plenty of time to find something else before Oct. It's a disappointment , on that nobody can disagree. I had this happen once on RCL so it's not limited to any particular cruise line, it's all related to their bottom line.

In 2002, I'd booked a Christmas cruise on the Coral. It was to be her 3rd sailing. She was delayed and her 1st maiden voyage was canceled. A few weeks later, her 2nd and now maiden voyage was canceled. We were unexpectedly on her maiden voyage. Less than three weeks before sailing, flights and hotel booked, our cruise was canceled. Read about it first on CC and days later, confirmed by Princess which immediately refunded the cruise fare.

We were stuck anticipating a Christmas cruise only to have every ship sold out. If you have ever cruised out of FLL at Christmas, you know that cruise fares and flights are sold out months in advance at super premium rates. Suddenly, I learned that the Navigator of the Seas had been finished early and was sailing "preview" cruises before her maiden voyage. No, I didn't book her but a number of RCCL cruisers had the opportunity to jump ship from the Explorer of the Seas to the Navigator, opening up a number of cabins. Booked the EOS cruise, re-booked our air and we had a nice Christmas cruise.

Didn't receive nor did I expect any compensation even though the last-minute cancelation of the Coral cruise was a big disappointment. I had just over two weeks' notice, you have almost ten months. You're lucky you have that much lead time. Can't think of anything Princess owes you.

We had a cruise canceled for a different reason - Princess had decided to move the Star to Alaska instead of Europe. We had been booked from Santiago to BA to Europe (I for get the ending port). We decided to rebook on the Star and went the other way BA to Santiago to Acapulco to SF. No compensation.

It happens, and did happen to us, I think in 2010. October 2015 is within the time period where you are able to purchase airline tickets. If you did, try to recover the lost funds from Princess. It may be difficult, but if you keep at it you could have some sort of positive result.

I wrote about our May 2015 cruise being "canceled", but really chartered and how disappointed I was that Princess lied about it at first.They said it was canceled. We had bought train tickets to come home from Vancouver after the cruise that could not be changed. We were able to cancel hotel res. and had not bought plane tickets. Princess did give us $15 for our trouble which has now disappeared from our account.I know it can happen with other lines, but the lying by Princess was bad. Also, I think Princess does it more than others. We tried Celebrity for the first time in 2012 (and loved it!) after a Ruby cruise dropped Istanbul AFTER final payment but well before the cruise embarked meaning it was not weather or mechanical. Beware.

If you change cruise lines because of cancelled cruises or dropped ports, you'll run out of cruise lines.

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We received a rather shocking and disappointing phone call this morning from Princess Cruises advising that our Oct. 6/15 Grand Asia cruise on the Sapphire Princess has been cancelled. Also turns out the return cruise Oct. 23/15 has been cancelled. Why? They have chartered the ship to a Chinese company for the entire 34 days. Fortunately we haven't booked any flights, hotels, excursions, etc. but we had done a lot of work investigating the various ports and looking at land tours pre and post-cruise in Japan and Cambodia. They have confirmed our deposit will be returned (well, that's nice) but have hesitated to provide any additional compensation.

 

Has anyone had any experience with handling a cancelled cruise? Any ideas on what form you think compensation, if any, should take?

 

I'm really disappointed with Princess. Besides the obvious fact that they clearly favour corporate riches over the loyalty of their individual clients, they didn't handle this well at all (some on our roll call still haven't been advised of the cancellation). When we learned of the cancellation through a friend (who lives in an earlier time zone), we phoned our Princess cruise consultant and were emphatically assured the cruise had NOT been cancelled. We returned a couple hours later from an errand to find a voice mail message sheepishly confessing their error. Then got a pretty cavalier attitude about what they would do to make us feel better about continuing to choose Princess. Perhaps they have forgotten there are other cruise lines out there.

 

Thoughts? Thanks, Greg

WHY would you expect compensation?.....SMH:rolleyes:

I wrote about our May 2015 cruise being "canceled", but really chartered and how disappointed I was that Princess lied about it at first.They said it was canceled. We had bought train tickets to come home from Vancouver after the cruise that could not be changed. We were able to cancel hotel res. and had not bought plane tickets. Princess did give us $15 for our trouble which has now disappeared from our account.I know it can happen with other lines, but the lying by Princess was bad. Also, I think Princess does it more than others. We tried Celebrity for the first time in 2012 (and loved it!) after a Ruby cruise dropped Istanbul AFTER final payment but well before the cruise embarked meaning it was not weather or mechanical. Beware.

You keep saying that they lied. If a ship is chartered, then the current cruise is cancelled. Ipso facto...

I am not surprised Princess chartered out 34 days to a Chinese Company. This is the area Carnival Corp is now targeting according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (1/22/15). In fact, Alan Buckelew ,formerly of Princess, and now CEO of Carnival Corp has moved to Shanghai. He expects 20% to 30% growth in this area over the next few years while overall growth in the industry is around 3% to 4%. Suspect there will be a lot of changes coming for Princess and Costa.

WHY would you expect compensation?.....SMH:rolleyes:

I should think that they would reimburse people for some things such as airline change fees. RCI will routinely give OBC of up to $400 for cancelled cruises, even if they are outside of the flight booking window. I think that's overly generous (but always accept it;)).

I should think that they would reimburse people for some things such as airline change fees. RCI will routinely give OBC of up to $400 for cancelled cruises, even if they are outside of the flight booking window. I think that's overly generous (but always accept it;)).

I asked point blank if the cruise had been chartered because I had read it on CC and was told "NO". Also, people who found out which online TA was selling the cabins for the chartered cruise were able to book it. I would say it was not canceled, but was chartered. Anyone who knew which TA was booking could get a cabin as it became a fund-raiser. It was not a specific organization you had to belong to. In the end, even the charter was canceled. Princess disappointed the original booked customers and the chartered customers.

I have just got off the phone with a manager at Princess Australia. This is not a scam. I was informed 2 days ago but after so much confusion on this and other sites thought I would try to get to the bottom of this mess. I first spoke to a consultant who verified the name of the person who first informed me, I then asked for a manager who read me the official email he had received from Princess.

"The Sapphire Princess cruises for Oct 6th October 23rd and Nov 1st are CANCELLED to the general public".

1 replacement cruise Nov 9th 17 nights Beijing to Singapore will be offered to guests booked on the cancelled cruises before opened to general sale. The cat B4 I had reserved for AUD$1999 will be AUD $3039. I was also told that the U.S agents will be notified on Feb 5th. A refund will be made or can be transferred to a future cruise any compensation will be between the client and the TA nothing will be offered by Princess.

I rang the Princess number my self, I spoke to 3 different reps over 2 days. I believe these cruises are CANCELLED. I will be organising my refund before the rush.

So be it I guess

Jen

We received a rather shocking and disappointing phone call this morning from Princess Cruises advising that our Oct. 6/15 Grand Asia cruise on the Sapphire Princess has been cancelled. Also turns out the return cruise Oct. 23/15 has been cancelled. Why? They have chartered the ship to a Chinese company for the entire 34 days. Fortunately we haven't booked any flights, hotels, excursions, etc. but we had done a lot of work investigating the various ports and looking at land tours pre and post-cruise in Japan and Cambodia. They have confirmed our deposit will be returned (well, that's nice) but have hesitated to provide any additional compensation.

 

Has anyone had any experience with handling a cancelled cruise? Any ideas on what form you think compensation, if any, should take?

 

I'm really disappointed with Princess. Besides the obvious fact that they clearly favour corporate riches over the loyalty of their individual clients, they didn't handle this well at all (some on our roll call still haven't been advised of the cancellation). When we learned of the cancellation through a friend (who lives in an earlier time zone), we phoned our Princess cruise consultant and were emphatically assured the cruise had NOT been cancelled. We returned a couple hours later from an errand to find a voice mail message sheepishly confessing their error. Then got a pretty cavalier attitude about what they would do to make us feel better about continuing to choose Princess. Perhaps they have forgotten there are other cruise lines out there.

 

Thoughts? Thanks, Greg

This may have something to do with it...Carnival Corp. announced Jan 27, 2015, per Reuters, that they are in talks with state owned China merchants group ltd. to develop a new cruise line for the fast growing China cruise market (which is estimated to be worth 11.8 billion dollars by 2018)....they may be showing them how great Princess is.:D

Glad they didn't do this just weeks before your cruise and that you will be able to book another.

Received a 400$ comp from Celebrity when a cruised was cancelled last year.

Wow. Apparently it happens commonly enough that some CC'ers are rather blasé about it. :confused:

I can't imagine the reaction would be the same if you planned a vacation at a resort, paid deposits, and made all the plans and then the hotel called you and said "oops, no, now you can't come because we decided to cancel everyone's reservations except this one conference" and then you found out that the only way you could keep those vacation plans was to pay the same company 2-3 times as much to go to their hotel during another week.

It seems like an OBC would be a minor inconvenience for the cruiseline.

Travel Insurance that covers situations like this sounds like a good idea.

I wrote about our May 2015 cruise being "canceled", but really chartered and how disappointed I was that Princess lied about it at first.They said it was canceled.

If the ship was subsequently chartered then your cruise was "canceled" and no lie was involved.

Mike:)

We were just notified an hour ago that our booking on this cruise was cancelled and offered a measly $200 credit if we change to the Nov. 9 sailing. As far as why should we receive any compensation, we & our travel agent spent a lot of time booking the cruise and hotels before & after in Shanghai & Singapore. Also already made & paid for our plane reservations. (Luckily we bought insurance.) Now more time changing things. BTW, our travel agent was offered $50 to get us to change to the Nov. 9 cruise. This would have been our 5th cruise but our first with Princess. We've avoided them in the past as we prefer smaller ships but this itinerary goes to several places that hubby visited with the Navy & he wanted to share them with me. Since it sounds like this ship has been booked solid since April by this same Chinese group, what is the likelihood that the Nov 9 one will also be bought up by them? Princess has not endeared themselves with us!

I'm also curious if the November 9th cruise will also be cancelled - we just rebooked on this one -- I don't want to go through cancelling all hotel reservations, etc., that I just had to do!

We were also on the cruise, that was changed to the charter. Princess,

charters the sapphire out from late April to

September to a Chinese company, they were able to extend

their charter until mid November. We will fly to China, and

do our thing, also got a cathy pacfic, circle pass business pass, so

will fly to the cities we want to visit. I only problem in in Vietman, but we

have enough time to work it out. We won't be going to Busan, but

will go to Toyko instead. If you think that this is bad, cancellation,

try American airlines, our flights in the US and CAnada have been

changed three times for an upcoming journey this spring.

We were booked on a cruise on the Caribbean Princess several years ago that ended up being chartered. This was back when she was sailing out of San Juan. We booked for a different date and were given OBC. Princess also paid the change fee for our flight reservations. I thought they were very generous.