Just Back From The Grand - There is a tender problem

We just returned from the Grand (Dec 10-17) and yes there is a serious tender problem. While part of the problem can be attributed to the local ports, Princess' attitude and mindset about the situation is very disconcerting. With the large number of passengers that have to go ashore, one wonders why Princess includes these ports on the itinerary when neither Princess nor the locals can efficiently handle the ships. If Princess wants to stop at these ports with the current tendering problems, then more time should be spent there so that people will have enough time on shore. We were not that interested in the ports so it didn't affect us but a lot of passengers who were looking forward to time in port were extremely disappointed. In Belize we didn't even try to get off the ship. It arrived at 6:30 a.m. and left at 12:30. To spend time in Belize, you had to get up early and possibly lose the better part of the morning in tender delays. Actually, I think Belize probably went pretty smoothly since many passengers elected not to get off. Which raises the question to Princess, why bother going to Belize. Grand Caymen was next and the tendering was a nightmare. There was a 2 hour wait to get on the tender and then there was only one dock slip for the tender that had to be shared with other tenders resulting in us bobbing in the hot, enclosed tender for about 45 minutes waiting to go that last 50 feet to dock. One person threw up waiting. Almost 3 hours wasted just trying to get to shore. After about 30 minutes on shore we decided to go back to the ship. We didn't bother getting off at Cozumel because we didn't want to experience another nightmare.

As I said above, Princess is not to blame for some of the problems but their handling of the problem was awful. First of all, during the 2 hour wait for the tender ticket number to be called, my wife went down to the loading area to see what was happening and they said we no longer needed a tender ticket but to just get on board. Meanwhile no announcements to that effect were made and there were plenty of people waiting in the lounge areas waiting for their number to be called. That is inexcusable. But what was of more concern was that when we complained to the purser's office about the whole situation, they wouldn't even acknowledge that there was a tendering problem, let alone apologize or try to do something to help the passengers. Hundreds of passengers can't be wrong. We've been on many cruises and many times when something causes an inconvenience to the passengers, the Captain and crew are quick to acknowledge it, apologize and sometimes offer a little perk to compensate (e.g. a happy hour with free drinks). After all, the purpose of a cruise is to cater to the passengers.

Another poster has mentioned the problem in Cozumel when 300+ passengers were late getting back to the ship. This is another example of Princess' "I don't care" attitude. Apparantly there was a tour group of several busloads returning to the tender dock. As a result of an accident on the island that blocked the road, about half were delayed in getting back. Meanwhile the other half were sitting on the tender at the dock ready to go back to the ship but the tender would not move until the rest of the group arrived. They sat for over an hour many with small children without any facilities. Why the tender couldn't return these people to the ship while waiting for the rest of the group is beyond my comprehension. As a result, over 300 people were late getting back to the ship. So late in fact that many missed dinner. Again, no apology or response from Princess for this kind of inaction on their part.

I know I've rambled on but the bottom line is that if you are interested in ports that require tendering, don't get your expectations up because Princess does not have their act together and this was their 3rd week on this itinerary. Furthermore, since they won't even acknowledge that there is a problem, you can expect that nothing will be done to resolve it.

It's unfortunate because there are many good things I can say about the rest of the cruise but for those people who were looking forward to these ports, they were truly disappointed.

Be forewarned.

Could you fax a copy of your comments in to customer relations at Princess? That way, your comments will hopefully be heard by the people that can make a difference.

A huge :) THANK YOU! :) from future cruisers on the Grand.

I can't tell you how disappointed I am to hear this. This will be our first cruise. I go on vacation to be on a beach, thus I have never cruised before. But we thought we would give it a chance. THERE IS NOTHING WORSE THAN LINES, especially on vacation! And to miss out on the beach is just horrible. I just don't know what to say.

jssabs, Whatever you do, do not book a cruise on the Caribbean Princess if you think the tendering on the Grand was bad. With more passengers to disembark, it can be a total nitemare at times.

Sorry you had a problem though. :(

What nightmare on the CB? I was just on her last month and and also a year ago.

We went to Princess Cays around 10:30 and I thought they handled it very quickly and effeciently. We waited about 15 minutes in the Princess Theater and were on the tender and off to shore in about another 15 minutes. We returned to the ship around 2 pm and got right on a tender without any wait. Perhaps the people trying to get off as early as possible and those waiting until 3 pm had longer waits?????

I too was on the Grand this past week.

Belize was not a problem for me - I was scuba diving - so the dive op picked us up from the ship.

Cayman - we were supposed to Dive w/ the ship's excursion, but for some reason, they said we didn't have to meet in the princess theatre until 12:40pm. When we got there - all hell started to break loose. People had been waiting for hours - and these were the people w/ excurisions through the ship! Finally - they told people if they wanted to cancel, they could do so now and get a refun - so many did so. We were told that our dive trip would probably go on as scheduled - even if we got back late and the ship had to wait. We inquired several times since my husband and I were carrying about 40 pounds (each) of scuba gear. It took a LONG time to even get ashore. Once ashore, the princess guide immediately said our tour was canceled. Now - half of the port time was gone - and - we are both carrying a ton of equipment. What a waste. It was not until the next day did anyone even say they were sorry. The tour desk gave me a business card to deal w/ the corporate office. If they are anything like NCL, they won't care and I'll probably be wasting my breath. There were at least 7 ships in port that day (including Grand.) What kills me - is that NON-SHIP-EXCURSION people got to shore!!!!! Why did they get ashore before the excursion people?

Cozumel - friends got tender tickets for us - and we were on shore and already at a marina by 11am. The loading of the tender took forever because I think it holds @ 500 people.

I wish they could switch days for Cayman - surely something can be done. Instead - they just say "well, next year we are dropping cayman" - that doesn't do anything for those who have signed up for a port stop in Cayman. argh.

:mad: Hi, we too were on the grand this week and yes, it was a nightmare on several of the tendering days.

The main reason we booked this itinerary was for the stingray sandbar tour in the caymens. Our tour ticket instructed us to come to the holding area for excursions at 11:50. We sat there wasting 2 hours until finally they told us the tour was cancelled. So, not only did we miss out on a priceless experience but we wasted all that time when we could have possibly done something else. Meanwhile, my kids are sitting in kids camp for two hours for nothing.

After this was cancelled they told us we could go get a tender number."you have got to be crazy". I was not going to stand in another line. We insisted on being put on the next one coming to pick up excursions. Then after sitting on the tender, rocking in the heat for thirty minutes waiting our turn to dock,,it was so ridiculous. The pursers desk and the whole staff seemed to have such a "who cares, its not our problem" attitude. Meanwhile, my mother who had no planned exursion got off with a tender ticket in a half an hour at about 11:15.

I dont understand the tendering problem. This is a major port of call for princess and they have been doing this for weeks. There was no weather problems, just no planning on there part. when you pay this kind of money you should recieve what you are promised.

I decided not even to bother to try again in Cozymel. But, our next door cabinmates were one of the families with two year old twins who were forced to sit at the pier in the dark with no bathrooms or food or milk for there children for three hours. I am so surprised how this week went. I really hope that we will hear from the PR department.

If someone has a link or address for them or even the president of Princess, i think we should for sure send our complaints. We were offered a refund for our cancelled excurison, but i know princess offers 100% satisfaction and this just doesnt cut it for me.........

In reading all the recent reports, I have tried to give Princess the benefit of a doubt... you know, the whole too-many-ships-in-port thing. But my TA just got back from a cruise on the Liberty, and was at GC the same day as the Grand Princess. He had no problems at all going ashore, because Carnival apparently has different tendering arrangements. (Since Carnival owns Princess, that makes little sense to me.)

He was on a tour with lots of other people, a bunch from the Grand. When they got back to the dock, the tour director asked them what ship they were all on. To the people who replied they were on the Grand, he pointed to a line my TA said stretched ridiculously far, just to get back on the ship. He again had no problem getting back on the Liberty.

The Liberty carries 2694 pax at capacity, and the Grand 2600.

So I have to guess that this is just not a Grand Cayman problem, or any other port... it lies with Princess, and they need to FIX it. Itinerary change, different tender process and arrangement, whatever. They just simply need to fix it.

But I guess if they won't even acknowledge it, then fixing it is not on the horizon...

-gina-

I haven't been on the Grand and am looking at this from an outsider.

I am assuming the majority of these problems are caused because of the hurricane that hit the Western Caribbean. Cozumel will ultimatley be a problem because their docks were knocked out and they have to limit how many ships can stop there (about 4 now and before there were 8 or so per day). Now, these other ships have had to struggle to find alternative ports and Grand Caymen is now a substitute port for many of these ships who could not stop in Cozumel - thus, the problem is now in Grand Caymen's also.

I have friends who have recently been on a Carnival cruise to the Western Caribbean and they also complained about the tendering issue - they had a lot of problems also - this is not just a Princess issue. I have also had friends on RCCL and they are complaining about missing ports (they had to skip Cozumel because there was no room for them and no port was substituted). Also, I know several who sailed this cruise last year and the only thing they had problems was with traffic in Galveston. This is not just a Princess issue.

I seriously think that these issues are related to readjusting ports due to the hurricane and due to Cozumel not having piers. Unfortunately, it is really difficult for cruise lines to find other ports (there are not that many of them) and still keep the cruise on time.

Grand Princess plans to go to Roatan next year instead of Grand Cayman. I wonder if it is an option to make the switch now? It might not be the best replacement, but at least people would stand a better chance getting off the ship.

I think think is a Princess Grand class ship problem, NOT a port issue. We were in Grand Cayman early this past year 5 times in 8 weeks...3 times on Celebrity and twice on the Grand Princess. There is no comparison with the tendering process. Galaxy had us off easily and quickly; on the Grand we lost 2 hours sitting and waiting for our tender number to be called. Also, we had a similar issue on the Sapphire last fall in Maui (also a tender port), but then it took 3 1/2 hours for everyone who wanted to go ashore to be tendered off the ship.

Does Princess no longer use the local tenders? I seem to recall being able to get off the ship with no real difficulties in Grand Cayman, except last year when we had a bit of a wait.

I'm willing to cut them some slack, but after three weeks of complaints, you'd think they'd have figured something out to keep people moving more efficiently.

We had a VERY BAD time tendering to GC and had a very bad time ashore to boot.

More later:mad:

Johnny cruise:D

Does Princess no longer use the local tenders? I seem to recall being able to get off the ship with no real difficulties in Grand Cayman, except last year when we had a bit of a wait.

 

I'm willing to cut them some slack, but after three weeks of complaints, you'd think they'd have figured something out to keep people moving more efficiently.

A friend emailed me and the day they are in Grand Caymen - there are going to be (2) Voyager class ships, the Grand, a Carnival ship the size of the Grand and (2) Fantasy class ships. That is way too many ships (plus 4 of the ships are above 109,000 tonns). I think that is the main problem.

As far as not having problems tendering when on the Galaxy - the Galaxy is a small ship and has far fewer people to get off.

Its interesting (and somewhay doscouraging) to read the reports about tendering on the Grand here. It seems to me there is some evidence that the problem is not just a "hurricane" issue---see the post in this thread about Carnival's tenders. Regardless of the source of the problem, however, it does seem that Princess needs to make other arrangements to get folks on shore more expeditiously, and/or lengthen port times to compensate for the longer tendering periods. Maybe this would mean missing/dropping a port to do this, so they could spend more time in fewer ports. My wife and I are on the Grand on 1/21, and frankly, we picked it becasue of the date, length of cruise, and the fact we could get to Houston/Galveston for free using FF miles. When I looked at the port times, they looked pretty abbreiviated to me to begin with---if they are having tendering problems/issues, it obviously will only compund the problem of relatively short stays in each port. To us, its not much of an issue---if we don't get off the ship, we will have a great time, and we have been to all of the ports before (except Belize)--so we have no "must do" excursions. Regardless of the source of the problem, I don't recall ever seeing so many posters express concern/frustration over a single issue on a single ship before---I have no doubt the problem is real---I think folks going on the Grand need to plan accordingly.

With regard to port times - this itinerary is tough to keep to unless sailing conditions are good. There were many problems with having to skip some ports because of late arrivals and lack of time last year. I really planned to wait until next year to re-visit this itinerary, when Roatan will replace GC, but couldn't turn down the very low pricing. I guess if I have any complaints, I'll just have to chalk it up to going with the low bid. :)

Voicing compliants on the board will not help the issue - Princess needs to hear you! PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CALL OR FAX!

I've posted this before, but....

We've been to Grand Cayman FOUR times in FOUR different years and ALL FOUR times we've had tender problems, but none to the magnitude described above. On our last cruise (12-3 on the Grand) even with the tendering issue we were on GC for about 3 hours (1.5 on beach, 1 shopping, .5 in taxi) which was fine with us.

We have cruised Royal Caribbean twice and Princess twice and I think the problem is too many cruise ships in a given port on a given day. I think the Cayman Government needs to step in. On the other hand, I DO NOT fault Cozumel for the problems there. The hurricane really messed up the whole process.

In Belize we didn't even try to get off the ship. It arrived at 6:30 a.m. and left at 12:30.

Then I guess I miss the ship as my tour doesn't return until 12:30. I think the Grand is scheduled to leave at 1:30.

We leave on the Grand on 12/30 and this discussion has me a bit concerned as well. As I think about it, though, what is Princess' motivation to get us off the boat faster? I am quite happy to avoid monster lines and stay on the ship. That means I am not in port and not opening my wallet in port! I think pressure from the ports (merchants, excursion companies, etc.) will go further than complaints from pax. In fact, if I stay on the boat, I am buying drinks from Princess, so they make more money from me here too. Maybe they don't make enough from the ships excursions to care. It is very frustrating to say the least.

After all, the purpose of a cruise is to cater to the passengers.

I could be wrong here, but the purpose of the cruise is to make money for the Princess/Carnival family first from their perspective.

Tendering has always been one of our greatest fears on the larger ships. So much so, that often times will we not even try to go on land in a tender port.

As far as complaining to Princess directly, I would encourage it, but would not expect any admission of guilt on their part. We went through a nightmare back in 2002 and sent letters and e-mails to Princess only to receive replys stating that they were sorry that we had a bad experience but in no way was it Princess' fault. We, in turn, responded by not cruising on Princess for 4 years and spending our money on other cruise lines. Recently we have booked another cruise on the Caribbean Princess, but only because we were limited to the cruises available in the time frame we had for vacation. Our favored line no longer offers year round caribbean cruises (thanks to some active hurricane seasons) so we were forced to choose between Princess, RCL, or Carnival. As we had always enjoyed Princess while on board, (all of our issues always ended up being with the air/sea department or other on land entities) we would stick with a known experience and avoid RCL and Carnival.

Please do send your letters and e-mails to complain about the tendering situation as it may eventually seep through to the right people, but do not expect any admission of guilt. We have always found the surveys to be helpful in reporting on board issues as those are apparently read as we have received follow up from cruise lines when we have asked questions on the surveys and provided contact information.

The unfortunate thing about tendering, is that is probably only going to get worse as the ships are continually getting larger and larger. Pretty soon, they are going to have buy back the old Pacific princess to use as a tender for the 5000+ passenger ships that we may see plying the caribbean in the next 10-15 years.

double post....sorry

To all of those that missed their shore excursions I'm so sorry! That had to be a terrible disappointment. I hope alll of you filled out your end of cruise questionaires and shared your experience with Princess.

I agree with the above poster, I don't think Princess is handling the problem very well, sounds more like something NCL would do with the apparent lack of concern regarding problems.

I'm within my final payment period now to cancel our Feb 4th cruise, plus, this is our last cruise before we become Platinum. Am really looking forward to the free internet in the future. I have no problem with Grand Cayman being cancelled, I'd much rather have a journey where we can explore the port.:)

I'm glad to see that folks who have been on the Grand recently (myself included) are now being listed to instead of getting brushed off as chronic complainers or getting the ever-helpful "If you found something wrong it must be your fault, I NEVER let anything ruin my cruise!". Oy.

In a way, the hurricane did me a big favor. I planned to purchase shore excursions through Princess for every port, but I took a wait-and-see attitude when the big storm started moving in. I'm glad I did. We only booked local tours directly from the dock.

Personally, I don't blame Princess for all of the tendering problems. We rolled with the punches until Grand Cayman, when Princess really let their customer service skills shine. See, we got our tender tickets (#1064 and 1065) around 11:20AM and waiting in our cabin for 2.5 hours listening to channel 33 on our TV for our numbers to be called. They announced they were loading up to #1050, so we put on our shoes and went down 3 decks toward the Explorers Lounge. Took us about 4 minutes. When we got there, they announced, "Now loading #1150-1200". Since the crew handing out the tender tickets said you could not board if you missed your number (you would have to get new tender tickets), this made us very nervous. We immediately went into the lounge and asked if they had just skipped 100 numbers. The assistant CD looked at us and said in a really condescending tone, "You should have been in your cabin listening to channel 33!" Not "why do you say that" or "don't worry". No. She was upfront nasty. When we told her we were in our cabin just a few minutes prior and heard #1050 called, she and another assistant CD both copped an attitude and told us that everybody else heard the numbers. (Should I mention that the three CD's were looking glassy-eyed and bored after sitting here for 3 hours---they probably couldn't tell you what port we were in, much less what tender ticket #'s were just called.)

That was the moment our view of Princess took a turn for the worst.

Jape

My wife and I were on the Grand last week and had the same tender problems as everyone else. We met our tour group at 11:15am and boarded a tender at 1:00pm then we waited in the tender for an hour and set foot on the dock at 2:00pm. The problem is with the tender docking facilities, there is not enough space to handle more than three or four tenders at one time. I questioned an officer about the local tenders cutting in line and his reply was, "they have priority over ships tenders".

I kept an accurate timeline and registered my concerns with the tour desk in the form of a written timeline and stated the tender process was "unacceptable". We were given a credit for the entire cost of our tour, but my concerns were not with the tour but the tender process.

I let them know we were very concerned that Capitian Vargo did not address this issue over the PA and at no time did he issue an apology for the delays. Keeping people informed is necessary to prevent behavior problems from the passengers.

This will be an ongoing problem with most ships that visit GC and will not be resolved until a pier is constructed or my tender space opens up.