Our Most Excellent Adventure - We Missed the Ship

[SoCal Cruiser78]

At this point I am sure that everyone who see's the title will jump right in to read what Happen and to provide unlimited advice on how we caused the problem by flying into the port on the day of embarkation...

 

No snarky advice from me; I've had to fly in the day of a cruise when work dictated it. Hope your next one goes more smoothly :).

Edited March 1, 2015 by Ryndam2002

[paul929207]

Sorry to hear your tale of woe.

[tompeter]

Coral, I think the OP was referring to Delta's India call center, not Princess...

[Colo Cruiser]

What a terrible experience. :(

[Coral]

Coral, I think the OP was referring to Delta's India call center, not Princess...

 

You are right. Thanks for pointing that out.

[janetz]

What a stressful mess. Sorry you had to go through that.

[Coveguy4]

Wow! What a great insiteful(sp?) review of a trainwreck. Kudo's to keeping your cool and handling everything that was thrown in your way! If it ever happens to me, I hope I can handle it as well as you did! Bravo....

[Times Prince]

Funny thing, the only time we had a major issue with trying to make a cruise was with Delta as well.

 

And Cruisin'Chris - backup plans are well and good, but remember the flight was booked, likely with a non-refundable, obscure ticketing code, through Princess EZair. Changes should have been made through them, but that's what got Bob and Mrs. 4x4 talking with India...

[4x4bob]

You said the other couple had a different experience. How did they handle the problems?

They originally made their cruise/flight reservations through Delta. That is why they stood for two hours at the Delta Special Assistance desk while the clerk helping them listened to elevator music. He was supposed to be trying to get them a flight to PV.

 

When we walked up the clerk had the phone up to ear and his eyes closed.

 

After a flight to PV was scheduled for them they had to pay for the flight them selves because they did not have the Princess Insurance.

 

Then they were given a bogus Hotel voucher for the Four Point Hotel. After being turned away they made reservations at the Travel lodge on their own dime.

 

However, their Delta Travel voucher did contain four tickets, not two like ours did.

 

When they get home they have to try and get Delta to cover their additional expenses. Don't know how that will work out for them.

 

Bob

[Dorinda]

First, make sure that you have a few tools on your phone or tablet - I recommend your airline's app and either Flight Stats or Flight Aware. The combination of these sites will give you updates about your flight status before your gate agents even know. A modest delay for a mechanical is tolerable - but when you first learn of it is when you need to start making a back-up plan. Things to check: when's the next flight on your airline to your destination and does it meet your timing needs. If not start looking at other airlines and identify flights that would work. Are those flights on time? If things go south with your mechanical - like they're flying in a mechanic and part (or they'er driving it across the airport from the hangar) - that's when you bail. Don't wait until the end. Ask to be booked over on one of your identified back-ups. Insist they book you over to another airline if necessary. Through those apps you can also check where your inbound plane is coming from and whether it's on time. Airlines often do not post delays even though they know an inbound aircraft will arrive too late to turnaround in the alotted time.

 

Thanks for this advice...I plan to get those apps.

 

Cheers, Dee

[jagsfan]

I'd love to read about the rest of your cruise. Surely with such a catastrophic beginning, the cruise itself was sublime. Kudos to both of you for handling it all with grace under pressure.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Not to be snarky, but I hope the next time you see a thread or mention here about someone who is insisting on flying in the day of their cruise that you post that you did miss the sailaway because of messed up flights. Too many people insist they've done this many times and haven't had a problem, but to me, you have a cautionary tale that might help someone from missing the first day of their cruise and go through all the trouble you went through.

[4x4bob]

I'd love to read about the rest of your cruise. Surely with such a catastrophic beginning, the cruise itself was sublime. Kudos to both of you for handling it all with grace under pressure.

 

O.K. Since we arrived late onto the Ship we missed out on the window to sign up for the popular activities. So, we made do as we went along.

 

As I stated earlier we teamed up with Ed and Barb. They wanted to have dinner with us, however we both had fixed time dinner in different locations.

 

So, we contacted the services desk and asked how can we get our time and locations changed to match three days into the Cruise. We were told to contact the Matrie D at the Boticicelli dinning room at 5:30 PM.

 

We were assigned to a 8 top table that was empty. Shortly after we arrived another couple was assigned the same table. They only came one night so we had the table to our selves. After Dinner then we went to the Theater to watch Motor City, however, the early show was packed 40 minutes before the show. So, we went to the Casino. I looked for the staff person who carries the hammer around, but did not see him this trip. You know, his job is to hammer flat any machine that pays off more then 5 cents at a time.:D

Then we went to the late show.

 

At Mazatlan we hired a van and toured the city for three hours. Then back on the ship we went to the Pub Lunch in the Wheelhouse bar. Ed and Barb had not done this before on their previous Princess Cruise.

 

At Cabo we tendered into Port at 9:00 AM to miss the rush. We walked around town and back to the ship.

 

We had outstanding weather the whole cruise. You had to look out a window to see that we were on the ocean, it was so calm.

 

Bob

Edited March 2, 2015 by 4x4bob

[greenie082756]

First off, Wow! I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!

 

Thank you Bob for explaining what happened and how you handled it! :)

 

I think if it would of happened to my DH and I, my patience would of shortened real fast.

 

There are some really good suggestions by others and I will be making note since I just recently booked with Princess Air for a same day plane flight. Phoenix to San Francisco. No, its not Delta (I just checked my paperwork) its United.:D

Princess insurance too!;)

Again thank you for taking the time to tell your horrendous story. :)

[Loonbeam]

Every time I fly I always keep note of all alternative flights. Several times I have given the desk agents options they were not aware of (usually on codeshare airlines). They are trained to follow the booking system and put you on the next flight with space on the same mainline.

[JustinPlusLauren]

Wow...what a nightmare and what a story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!

[KruzPrincess]

I'm sorry you had such a difficult travel story. Many years back, I had a ship sail without me. It started with a 15 minute mechanical delay on American Airlines which spiraled from there. My friend and I who both lived in the same city traveled separately because we had free tickets on different airlines. She made it to the ship and I did not. I had to handle all my stuff alone and this was before cell phones. LOL. A smartphone would have been handy. Anyway, this stuff happens and it's not just Delta that can cause a problem. One of my highlights was when an American Airline employee told me to just take a taxi cab from Cancun to Cozumel! I promise you she didn't mean to say ferry. Anyway, we learn from these experiences. Yep, it's a nightmare, but now you have a great story to tell. I'm glad you got to the ship and enjoyed a few days of your cruise.

[CruisinChris]

Funny thing, the only time we had a major issue with trying to make a cruise was with Delta as well.

 

 

 

And Cruisin'Chris - backup plans are well and good, but remember the flight was booked, likely with a non-refundable, obscure ticketing code, through Princess EZair. Changes should have been made through them, but that's what got Bob and Mrs. 4x4 talking with India...

 

 

In that kind of situation you don't need to go back through princess. The airline has control and they're the one with the problem. Once you're checked in better to just deal with the airline.

[hansi]

Horrible experience and I feel for you, but there is a moral to this story. Don't fly on the day of departure. You'll save yourself a lot of stress.

[jagsfan]

I'm so paranoid that even though we just have a 4 hour or so drive from Jacksonville to Miami, I insist on going the previous day. It stems back to being 19 and watching my train pull out as I was running to catch it.

A short flight, however, seems so easy it would seem like a no brainer to fly on sailing day.

Sometimes it's just fate.

[brian1]

hi,we flew from london to auckland 2 years ago on a princess air flight to catch the diamond.we landed ON TIME 6 hrs before sailing.that was a bit tight i thought 27 hours including change in hong kong. i was glad we made it,cheers brian.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I'm so paranoid that even though we just have a 4 hour or so drive from Jacksonville to Miami, I insist on going the previous day. It stems back to being 19 and watching my train pull out as I was running to catch it.

A short flight, however, seems so easy it would seem like a no brainer to fly on sailing day.

Sometimes it's just fate.

 

I'm with you!! For Port Everglades cruises I won't stay any further away than Port St. Lucie exit off I 95. And for Europe cruises we fly in two or three days early. I can't relax if I'm stressing about getting there for the ship.

[Garn]

I don't think anyone would counter that, all things being equal, it's better not to fly the same day. But to read Cruise Critic, it's as risky as just showing up at the airport without a ticket and hoping that there's a flight available that gets in when you need it to. The vast majority of cruisers fly the same day, especially when booking through the cruise line or with a package deal (unless, of course, there's a trans-ocean flight involved), and it works out fine in the vast majority of cases.

 

And of course, even if you book flights for the day before, things can happen - such as the huge snowstorms the US has been getting this winter - that can still leave you stranded. I saw another story here a couple of years ago about someone who got out the same day, but those who were scheduled for the day before were stranded because their flights had been cancelled. Less likely, but nothing is certain.

 

But what is frustrating is those who assume that just because *they* can fly in the night before, everyone can as well.

 

I travel in a group including my wife, our kids and both sets of grandparents. We've gone down the night before, but that involved getting transportation for 8 to the hotel (two taxis of course), the hotel itself, meals in Miami, transportation from the hotel to the ship (at a time when the hotel lobby was swamped with cruisers). Add in another day of dogsitting for each of us. And the fire alarm in the hotel had gone off 3 times during the night, freaking out the kids and leaving us all exhausted.

 

That's a lot of guaranteed stress to add to the mix, plus hundreds of extra dollars, versus the smaller chance (but greater stress) of missing the flight.

 

If my wife an I were traveling solo, I'd almost certainly fly in the night before. But please, don't judge those whose circumstances make the right choice for them different than what's the right choice for you.

[srvpoo]

While writing, I had not stopped to read the other posts.

 

We tried to fly out of Sacramento, Ca (SMF) with Delta. That is where the train jumped off the track.

 

 

Yes, we could have booked another flight if Delta had been up front with us on the broken airplane and needing to fly in a mechanic with part from LA. Instead they just bumped the flight down 30 minutes at time and then made the announcement that the plane would be repaired at 1:30. Then they Canceled the flight. The next flight was then at 3:30 PM which arrived at 4:40 PM.

 

Bob

We had a disaster with Delta last year. We were booked for a cruise from Seville, Spain to Rome. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, we found that we were booked with a regional airline and I had boarding passes say Delta flight #. They had no record of our reservation and the desk attendant took about an hour to get us on the plane. Arrived in Seville but no luggage for 4 days. Delta was no help and never responded to a letter that I wrote after returning home

[caribill]

In that kind of situation you don't need to go back through princess. The airline has control and they're the one with the problem. Once you're checked in better to just deal with the airline.

 

The OP had booked with EZAir which means Princess would deal with a missed ship.

 

Dealing only with Delta might get you a flight to PV with no other costs covered. And the OP explained how the couple dealing directly with Delta had horrible service from them.