Royal Princess Misses April 30 Disembarkation in LeHavre

Being one of the Le Havre embarkation passengers, it certainly was a learning experience. I usually travel with insurance and this is the first time I have ever filed a claim. It was surprisingly easy for this situation.

I do sympathize with those passengers who found themselves suddenly incurring unexpected travel expenses with no insurance back up.

After reading the contract and finding that, except for mechanical failure, a cruise company has no financial obligation, I would suggest travelers always purchase insurance.

I never expected that a ship would not pick me up at an embarkation port and I would have pay to get myself to the next port in another country no less.

It was amazing talking to fellow Independent passengers and hearing about the different ways they got to Southampton. Our day was very long and very inconvenient but the overnight ferry was nothing compared to passengers who went to CDG airport to make alternate plans. The port agents at Le Havre worked very hard to get us ferry reservations. My disappointment was our arrival at Southampton and the dismal level of customer service we received there.

Anyway, lesson learned. Hopefully, this will never happen to anyone else again.

Recently returned from our European vacation and have filed our claim for the Le Havre diversion. What struck us was the lack of preparedness for this event - surely a large cruise line would have contingency plans? I can't believe this is the first time Princess has had a port diversion. A lack of customer service and plethora of misinformation made for a poor end to what had been a relatively enjoyable first-time TA cruise. Having spent most of my career in the transportation sector and in customer service, I know this event could have been handled much better and would give Princess a failing grade on this experience.

Our circumstances were somewhat different than those cited by most others. We were undertaking independent travel in Normandy upon disembarking at Le Havre, and arrangements had been made for a rental car, B&B stay and D-Day tour before then traveling to northern France. After the Captain's announcement, we received our stateroom notice between 2130 - 2200h providing more details. Besides the phone access and 30 minutes internet, the only other assistance was "All guests will be provided with a complimentary transfers (sic) from Southampton. More information...will be available tomorrow morning..."

Realizing we were on our own, and combined with the late hour and with neither of us having previously traveled to the UK nor any pre-planning since this was not part of our travel itinerary, we were scrambling to work out alternative arrangements. We made a decision to scrap the Normandy part of our vacation as there were too many unknowns and we chose to head to the next phase of our itinerary in northern France. After waiting in line for the internet then losing the connection a couple of times, it took us quite some time to cancel our various bookings and make new bookings for travel and accommodations. We made the assumption that since the Princess letter stated they would be flying people home from London, something would be offered in the way of a transfer to London. Back to our stateroom around 0100h after a quick nightcap.

Awake in the early morning for breakfast and then to head to UK immigration, and we find a letter from Princess in our mail slot. During the night Princess had booked us a flight to Paris. Confused, flummoxed, perplexed - you pick. At no point were we made aware this was being undertaken by Princess. Their explanation was "because you chose to make your original travel arrangements with Princess EZAir, we have booked alternative flight reservations on your behalf." It is unfortunate that someone had spent time and energy (and cost to Princess) in making these arrangements when we were not heading to Paris and as we were to find out shortly, many others would have begged to have that flight versus the option they were presented. We headed to Passenger Services to cancel the flight booking. At the same time I asked if there was more information regarding the transfers and if I could purchase British pounds. No on both accounts - he did not have any details re: transfers and pounds no longer available but I could get them in the cruise terminal. We then headed to our assigned disembarkation location - Casino to Club 6 to Casino to Club 6, yes everyone seemed to be confused - and again asked about transfers. While the staff person did not have details, they thought something may be offered since Princess was making transfer connections to Heathrow and Garwick, so it was likely transfers would be going to London. And there is an ATM in the cruise terminal so we could get some money.

Our time was up on the ship and we headed to the Cruise Terminal to pick up our luggage and hear the good news. The agent advised us there were no transfers other than the airport ones and no ATM. She did assist with providing travel options to London (we wish someone on the ship would have done so) and she booked for us the coach to London (which turned out to be a pleasant experience). No shuttle to the bus terminal and we were pointed in the direction of the taxi stand outside the cruise terminal. Outside and with no Princess staff in sight, we headed to the first taxi in the queue and he advised us he does not accept credit cards. I explained we had Euros and $US, would he accept either and what would be the cost to get to the bus terminal (which we found out is less than a 10 minute trip). He stated it would be 50 Euro. Realizing this was outrageous we exchanged a few choice words, and fortunately the next driver in line agreed to take us for 10 Euro. Welcome to the UK and thanks for your help Princess!

Catching up on emails upon our return, we were surprised there was no correspondence from Princess providing a further apology for this event nor offer of compensation. The standard survey was in the in-box but the two-week window had lapsed and we could not provide feedback using that forum.

Our priority was to file the claim for extra expenses we incurred and this has been done. We will correspond with Princess and await their response. If unsatisfactory, we will cancel our next TA trip with them in 2019. We are already researching other cruise options. And based on the experience of others, this may be the best thing to do.

Being one of the Le Havre embarkation passengers, it certainly was a learning experience. I usually travel with insurance and this is the first time I have ever filed a claim. It was surprisingly easy for this situation.

I do sympathize with those passengers who found themselves suddenly incurring unexpected travel expenses with no insurance back up.

After reading the contract and finding that, except for mechanical failure, a cruise company has no financial obligation, I would suggest travelers always purchase insurance.

I never expected that a ship would not pick me up at an embarkation port and I would have pay to get myself to the next port in another country no less.

It was amazing talking to fellow Independent passengers and hearing about the different ways they got to Southampton. Our day was very long and very inconvenient but the overnight ferry was nothing compared to passengers who went to CDG airport to make alternate plans. The port agents at Le Havre worked very hard to get us ferry reservations. My disappointment was our arrival at Southampton and the dismal level of customer service we received there.

Anyway, lesson learned. Hopefully, this will never happen to anyone else again.

Becky: Thanks for posting. If you have a few minutes, could you tell us more about your experience in LeHavre...Was there anyone there from Princess to help the stranded embarking passengers to find alternative arrangements? Was the dismal customer service in Southampton at the ferry terminal or trying to board the Royal Princess? Any stories from other embarking passengers, for instance those who went to CDG to fly to the UK? Thanks in advance. Tom

DenSha: Thanks for your posting. And I feel you pain. Note that we too have received no communication from Princess other than the post-cruise survey. No apology, no explanation.

Becky: Thanks for posting. If you have a few minutes, could you tell us more about your experience in LeHavre...Was there anyone there from Princess to help the stranded embarking passengers to find alternative arrangements? Was the dismal customer service in Southampton at the ferry terminal or trying to board the Royal Princess? Any stories from other embarking passengers, for instance those who went to CDG to fly to the UK? Thanks in advance. Tom

Tom,

We arrived at Le Havre after, I believe, many passengers had made the afternoon Le Havre ferry crossing so I don’t know who was available at that time. When we arrived about 4:30ish, we were met by several port agents. It was chaos and very tense as it was clear numerous passengers had no clue what had occurred.

We had received an email around 7 a.m. It advised us to make our own travel plans at CDG or go to Le Havre for assistance with ferry reservations. The port agents made the reservations for us and we paid for the tickets at the ferry terminal. We had to book cabins for 4 so it was necessary to group up with strangers. It would have been helpful if the email had listed ferry locations and times. Le Havre has a ferry but we missed that one. We had to go back to Rouen for the overnight ferry to Portsmouth. A bus was arranged, for about 40 of us, to take us to the ferry. However, had we known, we could have gone there directly ourselves as we were traveling in Normandy prior to the cruise.

Upon arrival at Portsmouth, we were met by a Princess Rep for the transfer to Southampton. After getting on the transfer bus, we found that 1 of the passengers was still on board with a medical emergency. We had to wait to find out if they had to go to the hospital. We waited so long that ferry employees were getting off work and going home. Finally, it was determined that the passenger needed hospitalization so we headed out into an absolute nightmare of a traffic jam. We could have walked to Southampton faster. I began to wonder if something was trying to tell me not to take the cruise.

No special arrangements were made for us. It was as if no one at the terminal had any idea that passengers would be arriving outside of the normal embarkation time as they made there way from France to England. As we’d been met, I expected they knew we were coming. First, they couldn’t find anyone to handle our luggage, then we were told to just go sit and wait until boarding began. Eventually, about 10:30 a.m., we were allowed to board early. Except for the initial letter saying Le Havre had to be missed due to weather, we never heard another word about it.

Independent passengers who went to CDG had it much worse. The EZair folks traveled by prop plane to England. I spoke to people who had to arrange flights to other cities like Oslo Norway which had long layovers to finally make it to Heathrow where they had to find their own way to Southampton. Numerous folks did transfer from Paris to take the Chunnel pooling their resources together to hire multiple vans to get Southampton. Princess Reps were at CDG but basically everyone was just going from airline to airline trying to find a flight. One couple thought they had tickets only to find when they got to the gate that the tickets were standby and of no use. They had to start all over again.

Like I said, this had been a learning experience for me. If I had known, I would have been proactive and just researched my own options and acted accordingly. I was under the mistaken assumption that Princess had a responsibility to get me to my embarkation point.

The concept of treating passengers differently based on what they booked thru Princess is not a new concept for this cruise line. We had a cruise out of Houston that was delayed by 24 hours due to fog. Obviously, we'd flown in to make the originally scheduled flight, and we used EZ Air. Our Princess transfers got us to the terminal....and we sat all day. Princess did provide a shuttle bus to a restaurant area where we could have purchased our own lunch, but due to mobility issues and the need to take our luggage along, we didn't take advantage of this.

About 5pm, we were informed that people who bought "the total package" thru Princess would be taken to a hotel and brought back to port in the morning on Princess's dime. Those who had not booked all three parts of the "package" were on their own. We also had private insurance, which covered various incidentals--dinner that night, etc. No, that's not why I buy insurance, but having paid for it, I may as well put in a claim for our small costs.

In fairness, we were treated very well, but it was largely due to the actions of one supervisor who appreciated our mobility issue and was determined to make it work for us.

Tom,

We arrived at Le Havre after, I believe, many passengers had made the afternoon Le Havre ferry crossing so I don’t know who was available at that time. When we arrived about 4:30ish, we were met by several port agents. It was chaos and very tense as it was clear numerous passengers had no clue what had occurred.

 

We had received an email around 7 a.m. It advised us to make our own travel plans at CDG or go to Le Havre for assistance with ferry reservations. The port agents made the reservations for us and we paid for the tickets at the ferry terminal. We had to book cabins for 4 so it was necessary to group up with strangers. It would have been helpful if the email had listed ferry locations and times. Le Havre has a ferry but we missed that one. We had to go back to Rouen for the overnight ferry to Portsmouth. A bus was arranged, for about 40 of us, to take us to the ferry. However, had we known, we could have gone there directly ourselves as we were traveling in Normandy prior to the cruise.

 

 

Upon arrival at Portsmouth, we were met by a Princess Rep for the transfer to Southampton. After getting on the transfer bus, we found that 1 of the passengers was still on board with a medical emergency. We had to wait to find out if they had to go to the hospital. We waited so long that ferry employees were getting off work and going home. Finally, it was determined that the passenger needed hospitalization so we headed out into an absolute nightmare of a traffic jam. We could have walked to Southampton faster. I began to wonder if something was trying to tell me not to take the cruise.

 

 

No special arrangements were made for us. It was as if no one at the terminal had any idea that passengers would be arriving outside of the normal embarkation time as they made there way from France to England. As we’d been met, I expected they knew we were coming. First, they couldn’t find anyone to handle our luggage, then we were told to just go sit and wait until boarding began. Eventually, about 10:30 a.m., we were allowed to board early. Except for the initial letter saying Le Havre had to be missed due to weather, we never heard another word about it.

 

 

Independent passengers who went to CDG had it much worse. The EZair folks traveled by prop plane to England. I spoke to people who had to arrange flights to other cities like Oslo Norway which had long layovers to finally make it to Heathrow where they had to find their own way to Southampton. Numerous folks did transfer from Paris to take the Chunnel pooling their resources together to hire multiple vans to get Southampton. Princess Reps were at CDG but basically everyone was just going from airline to airline trying to find a flight. One couple thought they had tickets only to find when they got to the gate that the tickets were standby and of no use. They had to start all over again.

 

 

Like I said, this had been a learning experience for me. If I had known, I would have been proactive and just researched my own options and acted accordingly. I was under the mistaken assumption that Princess had a responsibility to get me to my embarkation point.

Becky: Thanks for taking the time to tell your tale of woe. It's pretty grim. And it seems as though other folks (those who elected to take Princess' suggestion to go to CDG to fly to the UK) had worse experiences.

I continue to emphasize my central point, and why I started this thread...We were provided virtually no assistance to get ourselves to the destination for which we had bought tickets. And no courtesies as well. Not luxury cruising. No coming back "new."

Becky: Thanks for taking the time to tell your tale of woe. It's pretty grim. And it seems as though other folks (those who elected to take Princess' suggestion to go to CDG to fly to the UK) had worse experiences.

 

I continue to emphasize my central point, and why I started this thread...We were provided virtually no assistance to get ourselves to the destination for which we had bought tickets. And no courtesies as well. Not luxury cruising. No coming back "new."

And no customer service!

And no customer service!

I'm tryin' to tell ya!

Becky: Thanks for taking the time to tell your tale of woe. It's pretty grim. And it seems as though other folks (those who elected to take Princess' suggestion to go to CDG to fly to the UK) had worse experiences.

 

I continue to emphasize my central point, and why I started this thread...We were provided virtually no assistance to get ourselves to the destination for which we had bought tickets. And no courtesies as well. Not luxury cruising. No coming back "new."

I was not affected by this incident but I have read about it here, and I am appalled at Princess’ behavior. Yes, there may be legal distinctions as to what Princess is or is not required to do, but that is superseded by the fact that Princess is in the customer service business. And at least in this instance, they have failed in a huge way.

I see several levels of failure here. Princess could have made amends (at least to some extent) at several points along the way but the only consistent thing they did was to drop the ball. Every time.

a) Front line staff (on the ship) should have been far more empathetic and helpful to those on the ship who were affected by this. Even if Princess chose to provide financial assistance only to those customers who purchased EZ-Air (that may have been Princess’ right under the contract although I personally view that as a bad choice… more about that later), staff on the ship could have and should have provided operational assistance to everyone who was affected, even if Princess was going to insist that some of these people had to bear the costs directly.

The same is true for staff at the port of LeHavre, for those passengers who needed to scramble to get to Southampton.

b) The lack of follow-up by headquarters staff is also unacceptable. Everyone affected by this should have received a personal apology, at least by letter. (If I were in charge, each person would have received a personal phone call.)

And yes, there should be compensation. My own view is that everyone’s expenses should be reimbursed, but if Princess is not going to do that they should offer a significant inducement for a future cruise. And I mean significant. Why wouldn’t they do this as a means of restoring loyalty from at least those customers who might be willing to give Princess another chance? Absent this, how many of these people are going to abandon Princess forever? Perhaps not all, but I’ll bet that many will. I cannot believe how short-sighted Princess' actions have been-- truly penny-wise and pound-foolish.

I know that some people have observed that the contract we accept may not require Princess to cover these expenses. But every large business maintains a contingency account to deal with unexpected issues that might arise… including this sort of issue! The contingency budget allows them to “do the right thing” (without directly affecting profitability) and apply good judgment to provide compensation even if legally that may not be required.

If you are in any sort of service business these sorts of things happen from time to time and an important way a service business can distinguish itself is to do what’s right, particularly when that exceeds what is required. Good will matters a lot and Princess has just dissipated a huge amount of that. Approximately 600 people were directly affected by this. How many others have read about it—Hundreds more? Thousands more? How do these people feel about Princess now?

My view is that Princess has failed miserably in this case, in every respect. My regard for the company has been hugely diminished and I suspect I’m not alone with that view.

If anyone from Princess reads this, I hope you will take this to heart and do the right thing. Some contrition and positive action can go a long way, even now.

The above says it best. And the concept of a significant discount on a future cruise is a great solution from a "good will" standpoint. Sure, some will not take advantage of it, given their frustration with this cruise. But others will decide to give Princess another chance to do things right.

The loss from this discount would be minimal--after all, they routinely discount cruises with "casino rates" and virtually every other possible "deal."

The lack of meaningful response from Princess is mind-boggling considering they routinely provide credit for far less (I was booked on one of the Seattle-Vancouver one-night cruises which was cancelled nine months in advance to support the dry-dock schedule and received unrequested OBC for a future cruise). I know I've said it above but Princess is still acting like this was a mid-cruise port call that was cancelled rather than a scheduled embarkation/disembarkation port so that the only people affected were on deviations where they knew it was "own risk". I've never before heard of a cruise line skipping a scheduled embarkation port and just saying "you're on your own - if you catch up with us, we'll let you on, otherwise, too bad".

In a post above, I believe I made mention of my airline experience. Delays and cancels were considered either controllable (compensation paid) or uncontrollable (no compensation). The only uncontrollable reasons were weather and Air Traffic Control. Everything else was controllable. Airport is legal to land but captain isn't comfortable? That's controllable. Yet in those trems, for Princess only mechanical problems with the ship are controllable and everything else is uncontrollable. Port is open but captain isn't comfortable (which is what this issue with Royal sounds like) ? That's uncontrollable to them. And that, to me, is bull. And if a flight diverted to a nearby airport (e.g. Orange County is after curfew so flight went to Los Angeles) and cancelled, ground transportation to the scheduled arrival airport was always made available even if the diversion was for an uncontrollable reason.

The lack of meaningful response from Princess is mind-boggling considering they routinely provide credit for far less (I was booked on one of the Seattle-Vancouver one-night cruises which was cancelled nine months in advance to support the dry-dock schedule and received unrequested OBC for a future cruise). I know I've said it above but Princess is still acting like this was a mid-cruise port call that was cancelled rather than a scheduled embarkation/disembarkation port so that the only people affected were on deviations where they knew it was "own risk". I've never before heard of a cruise line skipping a scheduled embarkation port and just saying "you're on your own - if you catch up with us, we'll let you on, otherwise, too bad".

 

 

In a post above, I believe I made mention of my airline experience. Delays and cancels were considered either controllable (compensation paid) or uncontrollable (no compensation). The only uncontrollable reasons were weather and Air Traffic Control. Everything else was controllable. Airport is legal to land but captain isn't comfortable? That's controllable. Yet in those trems, for Princess only mechanical problems with the ship are controllable and everything else is uncontrollable. Port is open but captain isn't comfortable (which is what this issue with Royal sounds like) ? That's uncontrollable to them. And that, to me, is bull. And if a flight diverted to a nearby airport (e.g. Orange County is after curfew so flight went to Los Angeles) and cancelled, ground transportation to the scheduled arrival airport was always made available even if the diversion was for an uncontrollable reason.

Also keep in mind that the ship did not even hang around to see what the weather at Le Havre was going to be, it headed immediately for Southampton when the announcement was made and docked there, at the time it should have been docking in Le Havre.

For anyone that thinks that this is the first time Princess has changed a disembarkation port here is a stream dealing with a change from Osaka to Hong Kong after the Earthquake in Japan.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1382951&highlight=osaka+change+disembarkation&page=13

We were on the B2B that included the mess at Le Harve.

Here's what I wrote about Princess in the British Isles blog:

We agree with you on many points. We are Elite with Princess and have reservations on four future cruises with them including the 60 night North Pacific Rim. However...

It was our first cruise on the Royal or any in its class. First the positive. The crew, although over worked, always had a smile and friendly greeting. In addition, the ship was very clean and was continually being cleaned. The enrichment speaker was very good and very interesting. Lots of nice folks aboard; friendly and willing to talk with you.

The negatives: Speaking with other passengers with numerous Princess cruises under their belts, we all felt the quality of the entire experience is slowly being eroded by cost-cutting so as to ensure more profit on each cruise we take with them. This includes the food, its preparation and the time it took to get it to the table. We think there are several reasons for this. The waiters now have more tables to wait on; the quality of the food is not what it used to be nor the selection. On one evening my wife ordered prime rib rare. Some sort of something came out on her plate that was slathered in some sort of a brown gravy that none of us at the table could identify and the waiter had no idea what it was either. One of their "signature dishes" is supposedly the Fettuccini Alfredo. We ordered it several times during the two cruises and it was NEVER the same. One night it would be swimming in sauce, another time it would be dry and burned and another time it would be fine. One never knew. In addition, there's the Club Class dining area that takes waiters away from main dining with less diners. We've done Club Class once and never will again. It's a complete rip-off and the subject of a different review. These are all driven by profit motives.

The ship was too large for us. The crowd problems at the ports were horrible. On the British Isles cruise on our back to back, we looked back as passengers were coming ashore and it looked like the ship was vomiting passengers and once they got ashore, they couldn't move anywhere. Very disorganized.

Speaking of coming ashore, how did everyone like the 45 degree angle on the gangway? Or was that just on the British Isles section? When we disembarked the ship in Southampton, the gangway was at an angle of over 45 degrees. It was a long gangway and the steps were hardly pronounced and so it was like going down a ramp. I honestly don't know how some folks were able to use it.

We ate early and were able to get to a few shows which we walked out of. The Irish comedian was horrible and he was on three or four times on the BI portion.

How about Zoomba in the Atrium? Did you all enjoy that? The International Cafe is one of our favorite sections of the ship and each morning at sea, it became uninhabitable when Zoomba started at 120 decibels. We realize the weather was the main cause of this but it could have been held on the stage of the theater or somewhere else. Oh, we forgot, they've eliminated some of those spaces.

Obviously, Princess has problems and is cutting corners trying to attract more passengers. Those of us who've sailed with the line for a long time hate to see it happening. We could go on and on as well regarding the small things but we can also list a lot of reasons we still sail Princess. Itineraries, Elite comps, friendly folks and the like.

Steve and Judy

And since we weren't involved in the fiasco at Le Harve I didn't cover it but listed to many folks very put off at Princess, and deservedly so.

 

In a post above, I believe I made mention of my airline experience. Delays and cancels were considered either controllable (compensation paid) or uncontrollable (no compensation). The only uncontrollable reasons were weather and Air Traffic Control. Everything else was controllable. Airport is legal to land but captain isn't comfortable? That's controllable. Yet in those trems, for Princess only mechanical problems with the ship are controllable and everything else is uncontrollable. Port is open but captain isn't comfortable (which is what this issue with Royal sounds like) ? That's uncontrollable to them. And that, to me, is bull. And if a flight diverted to a nearby airport (e.g. Orange County is after curfew so flight went to Los Angeles) and cancelled, ground transportation to the scheduled arrival airport was always made available even if the diversion was for an uncontrollable reason.

That may be the way it is supposed to work with the airlines, but they manipulate and try to make things "weather" related even when it isn't. Two personal examples, both at OHare, interestingly. I had a connecting flight to London. All other flights at the international terminal took off. Yes, there was snow, but it didn't stop other flights with the same airline. The captain came out to the gate area and was "Mr. Friendly." He said that they were waiting for the co-pilot to arrive, but the roads were crowded. After a couple hours of delay announcements, the flight was canceled. No compensation and the official word was that there were no seats available for 3 days and that it was "weather related." I questioned why "weather" didn't stop any other scheduled take off. They weren't nice. The luckier of us found flights on line--I was able to get a flight to Houston, 12 hour delay, and finally to London by going to that gate myself (rather than the customer service line). The agent at the gate even commented that she didn't know why they weren't sending more people that way as the flight was only half full!

The second episode also resulted in a flight that was delayed multiple times and then ultimately canceled with the statement made that the flight crew was now past their allowable hours. My daughter was told that there were NO hotel rooms in Chicago (the person ahead of her in line got one), and then that she was due no compensation as it was weather related. SHE pointed out that they said it was due to crew being over hours....which resulted in a "well, there are no rooms." She was told on Friday that there were no flights till Monday; the day she was to be back in college after a summer abroad. I got the panic phone call and suggested she go to a different airline. She burst into tears at the United desk, and told the agent that it wasn't her fault, but..... The agent took pity on her and waitlisted her for 3 flights the next morning and a solid booking for the afternoon, and supplied a cot in the airport (better than nothing!) She got on the second waitlist flight, and one piece of her luggage went to Uruguay. It HAD been in Chicago, because she had to claim it in Chicago and take it thru Customs.

Bottom line--both times the airlines lied and tried to say the issue was weather, when in both cases it was personnel. And they gave no compensation.

Just read this thread and astonished at the total fail of Princess. Not even an apology offered!

Just read this thread and astonished at the total fail of Princess. Not even an apology offered!

Thanks for hanging in there and reading the whole thread. That in and of itself is pretty astonishing. So, yes, almost a month has passed and nothing from Princess. But I have to say that I need to let this go. I actually hear Princess loud and clear. We will travel another line next spring when we book a repositioning TA.

Thanks for hanging in there and reading the whole thread. That in and of itself is pretty astonishing. So, yes, almost a month has passed and nothing from Princess. But I have to say that I need to let this go. I actually hear Princess loud and clear. We will travel another line next spring when we book a repositioning TA.

And that says it all. Wonder how many others will also look elsewhere for their cruises. Probably about 600.

Wonder how many others will also look elsewhere for their cruises. Probably about 600.

... and 590 will 'come back old' ;) when they realize all the other lines are just the same i.e. businesses.

Thanks for hanging in there and reading the whole thread. That in and of itself is pretty astonishing. So, yes, almost a month has passed and nothing from Princess. But I have to say that I need to let this go. I actually hear Princess loud and clear. We will travel another line next spring when we book a repositioning TA.

One of you that was impacted might want to contact one of the travel advocates to get a bit more publicity on this issue such as Christopher Elliott at http://www.elliott.org

He has a good web site that is very informative about travel problems and helps make for a more informed consumer.

Yes that is an excellent idea. Christopher's travel column is in our local newspaper as well and he gets a lot of results.

The airlines may be the worst (a three hour storm in Atlanta in April 2017 resulted in DH sleeping in the Richmond airport for three nights until Delta could get him out on the next available flight, and for his trouble after waiting in lines for days he got...20000 useless miles), but not all cruise lines are as hard hearted as Princess.

A friend was just scheduled to cruise on RC on an itinerary that included Cuba. She realized three days before the cruise that her passport expired three weeks too early for her to be allowed to board the ship. With no insurance and only a couple of RC cruises in the past, RC gave her a 50% credit toward a future cruise.

That’s how you encourage repeat business.

We had our own drama with Princess during the Nice incident. If it hadn’t been for the officers on the ship really looking out for us, and if we had had to rely solely on Princess Customer Relations, that would have been our last Princess cruise.

The airlines may be the worst (a three hour storm in Atlanta in April 2017 resulted in DH sleeping in the Richmond airport for three nights until Delta could get him out on the next available flight, and for his trouble after waiting in lines for days he got...20000 useless miles), but not all cruise lines are as hard hearted as Princess.

 

A friend was just scheduled to cruise on RC on an itinerary that included Cuba. She realized three days before the cruise that her passport expired three weeks too early for her to be allowed to board the ship. With no insurance and only a couple of RC cruises in the past, RC gave her a 50% credit toward a future cruise.

 

That’s how you encourage repeat business.

 

We had our own drama with Princess during the Nice incident. If it hadn’t been for the officers on the ship really looking out for us, and if we had had to rely solely on Princess Customer Relations, that would have been our last Princess cruise.

If I recall wasn't Nice the one where the ship got damaged and you had a number of B2B2B and just got booted off while the ship went into dry dock for repair. As I remember in that case Princess did get the people to the end port for those finishing, but anyone booked on the canceled cruise had to fend for themselves during the time the ship was out of commission.

If I recall wasn't Nice the one where the ship got damaged and you had a number of B2B2B and just got booted off while the ship went into dry dock for repair. As I remember in that case Princess did get the people to the end port for those finishing, but anyone booked on the canceled cruise had to fend for themselves during the time the ship was out of commission.

I was on a B2B (transatlantic Southampton/New York/Southampton, when the QEII was damaged in Bar Harbour. Cunard booked rooms for us in good NY hotels, offered to all passengers a complimentary return flight (some passengers refused to fly on Virgin airlines, and Cunard booked flights on British airways, with connecting flights for all the UK or continental airports needed). We were helped by a Cunard representative in Heathrow, on a Sunday morning and, of course, we received a full refund for the missed transatlantic New-York/Southampton and two (generous!) vouchers for future cruises. Yes "those were the days!"

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Just wanted to let you all know that the review I wrote, of the TA portion of this cruise, is now posted on CC.