peajay

My understanding from many cruises is that the captain contacts the pilot to confirm the required timing. The captain told us that when they realised their error they tried to arrange for a pilot, and in fact cruised slowly around the end of the island waiting to see if one was available. The guest speaker was in the Crows nest as advertised in the daily news sheet and on the microphone said he was a little confused about which route we were taking and said they will contact the bridge. After about 15 minutes he said that the cruise director was discussing the course with the captain. At that point it seemed like a strange situation, and I think it was only at that time that the bridge realised the error. The letter states error.

It's a pity that they didn't have one of these mugs on the bridge 🙂

Here is the letter

HA is considered to be a premium cruise line and the prices certainly reflect that. I would say the way to judge a company is how they manage a bad situation, I am not too sure that their offer shows them in a good light ?

HA is considered to be a premium cruise line and the prices certainly reflect that. I would say the way to judge a company is how they manage a bad situation, I am not too sure that their offer shows them in a good light ?

He definitely did say that they made a mistake I heard the announcement, and we have a letter that states that. We visited Kodiak and Sitka and then after Ketchikan we should have taken the inner passage south to Victoria.

I don't consider we were lucky to miss one of the best parts of the cruise.

We have just returned home from the Westerdam transpacific cruise from Tokyo via Alaska to Seattle. A very nice enjoyable cruise despite some rough seas and mediocre weather. However after visiting three Alaskan ports and on the way to Victoria, the itinerary was to cruise through the inner passage. This was widely advertised as one of the cruise highlights and the best opportunity to see marine wildlife, we bought two souvenir mugs that were special for the cruise showing the cruise map and ports visited and quoting the inside passage specifically Unfortunately the crew made an error and sailed west of Vancouver island, so no inner passage cruise for us. The captain announced that they made a mistake and tried to get a pilot at the last minute but none were available. He told us we would get a letter delivered to our cabin detailing the compensation. We did not get the letter and after persisting, guest services reluctantly gave us one. The offer is 10 % of the cruise cost given as FCC. Many people were really frustrated and angry and several that we talked to were very unhappy with the offer, for them, like us, they did not receive one of the highlights of the cruise. This is the first HA cruise we have taken, so I am interested to see opinions. For me this isn't compensation, because we get nothing if we don't buy another cruise, so this is basically a marketing inducement to buy another cruise. On other lines where ports have been missed that were no fault of the cruise line (unlike this one) we received OBC as immediate compensation. We travelled from Europe and at our time of life, we are unlikely to ever cruise Alaska again. People that had done the inner passage previously, sadly told us that we missed the most picturesque part.

I am about to book a January 2025 South America and Antarctica cruise on Oosterdam. Not many cabins still available, and since the southern waters around Cape Horn can be rough I am thinking of going for a lower deck. Does anyone have experience of balcony cabins on deck 4 forward section? They are above the theatre so I am concerned about noise levels. They also seem to be the only balcony cabins that have steel and not glass balustrades, so I am wondering how much that spoils the view.

So if I don't have tips included in my HIA, am I allowed to pay them using OBC that is earned for shareholder benefit ?

I am booked on a Westerdam cruise in April which I booked about 9 months ago. I paid for the Have it all package which at the time did not mention crew appreciation. I now see that the same cruise mentions crew appreciation included with the package. So my question is, has the Have it all package been changed to add crew appreciation ?

I also got off that Iona cruise yesterday and I did come down with the bug on Thursday, I presume it is noro virus. Certainly that is what my symptoms were. First time in 21 cruises that I have been affected. Being a rough sea day and at the stern did not help my recovery. Almost nobody washes their hands entering food areas and very few use the gel, although apparently gel does not kill the noro virus anyway.

I am not looking for sympathy, simply stating a fact. If I was looking for sympathy I might mention the cruise in November I had to cancel because my parent died. My loss was greater than a 38 day cruise.

I am glad to hear that people with a cancelled cruise have been refunded. I opened this topic and am one of the passengers that was transferred onto Ambition. We completed our cruise, however, we have not yet received our refund which is due to us because our five day cruise was reduced to four.

We are booked on a 5 night Christmas market cruise departing Tilbury on 10 December. We received an email today explaining Ambience is out of service for repairs. Our cruise has changed to a 4 day cruise departing 11 December and will now be on Ambition. Unfortunately this means that the 38 day cruise on Ambition planned to depart on 12 December has been cancelled. A little disappointing for us, but I feel sorry for those that have lost their Christmas and New Year cruise.

Yes you will now only have the reduced benefits for Plus. My cruise departs this September and Princess have confirmed this on a chat line today for any departures after August 12.

I have sent an email to Guest Relations making my feelings very clear and requesting that they reinstate the full benefits that were offered when I paid for my cruise. Not likely to work, but if enough people express their feelings, they may relinquish for those that have already paid, or at least give more than two meals on a 24 day cruise, which is now my situation.

I have a 24 day cruise departing in September, so I am one of the customers receiving less than what was stated when I paid. Princess can implement whatever pricing that they want, however, intentionally not providing what customers paid for is poor judgement and disrespectful to customers who have paid. I have already had an online chat to request they reinstate my benefits and I plan to keep doing this just in case the management haven't guessed we are not happy. I urge others to do the same to try to persuade them of their mistake. My first Princess cruise may be my last ? Does anyone have a customer support email address ?

Yes he did nothing, it seems to have been automatic. Perhaps the UK exclusion is a recent thing ? Where can I find that ruling ?

Hmm that is odd because my brother has just boarded his first cruise today on Sky Princess. He has done several P&O UK cruises and has been given Platinum.

We have our first Princess cruise coming up in September and wondering how the Captain's Circle entitlement works. We have P&O membership and cruised 52 nights on P&O ships. Is membership in the Princess system automatic, and what level would they give us ?

I have also used the Holiday Inn a couple of times and feel comfortable with the parking location and security. I paid less for parking and overnight stay with breakfast than the CPS price

Just returned from R307 Baltic 16 nights. MDR food was hit and miss. My biggest gripe is they should provide what they advertise. For instance the Bramley apple crumble definitely did not use Bramley apples, the desert apples used were also unfortunately half raw and not a hint of juice. I tried pheasant that was a disaster on Iona and again on Aurora it was too tough to cut, when I complained the waiter asked did I want a steak knife ? The late buffet on the night before our Kiel stop had curry wurst on the menu so we ate little early and looked forward to our curry wurst. The reality was the counter that was labelled curry wurst actually had a large pile of the usual breakfast pork sausages ? My wife asked where the curry was (obviously we were not getting any wurst) and he went looking for some but never found any. If you are not able to offer an acceptable portion of what you advertise, no problem don't try, offer something else. I do agree that cold deserts in MDR and buffet are tasteless. The cherry sponge cake had tiny red flecks in it with absolutely no taste of cherry. Looked like they only used one cherry for the complete batch. There was definitely some good food, although not much variety in the buffet, but attention to details and enhancement of flavours needs attention.

We had one on Iona deck 12 to the Fjords last year and found it extremely windy. Very difficult to open and close the door. We had a guaranteed cabin, but I would not chose one, especially to the Fjords.

We completed the cruise with no possibility of claiming a refund due to not being able to obtain a customs stamp. In seven ports visited we saw no immigration or customs people, we were able to walk on and off the ship with only boarding card checks by private security people. This was surprising because on our January cruise to Spain and Portugal we were checked at every port.