Royal Princess Misses April 30 Disembarkation in LeHavre

[Canberra forever !]

A little aside from the main subject.

 

Many, many moons ago, the Southampton dockers went on strike. All the passengers on our cruise, Canberra (remember her) flew to Cherbourg from either Bournemouth or Southampton. Likewise the incoming passengers flew the other way. All organised within a couple of days. We had a phone call telling us where to report and what time. Luggage taken off us and taken by coach to appropriate airport.

 

Remember one lady who was so afraid of flying she always went on cruises from the UK. She ended up almost paralytic which was the only way she would get on the plane.

 

We were caught out in that same incident but we were on the QE2, Cunard put us all on a chartered ferry to Portsmouth then buses to Southampton all very well organised.....how times and T&C have changed !

[tv24]

We were to embark in LeHavre. We took a ferry from Lehavre to Portsmouth at 5 pm on the 30th. We did not receive any assistance from Princess. Had to research and make our own arrangements.

 

I am so sorry this happened to you. There must have been others in the same situation, wanting to board in LeHavre. And it sounds like similar stress to what we experienced when we were on our own trying to get to France from Southampton/Heathrow. I hope you have success with your insurance claim filing; I'm still waiting for the results of mine, but I know it will take time to get through the processing queue.

[Al54]

We were to embark in LeHavre. We took a ferry from Lehavre to Portsmouth at 5 pm on the 30th. We did not receive any assistance from Princess. Had to research and make our own arrangements.

 

 

 

I'm shocked and so sorry for you. Hope Princess won't use their "read your passengers contract : we are responsible for nothing" argument (as some posts did on this thread : very strange how some "afficionados" are always ready to defend their beloved cruiseline.......specially when they are not personnally concerned!) and will remember that it's sometimes better to loose some money by paying compensation to the left-behind Le Havre passengers, than loosing future passengers and cruiseline-reputation!

 

 

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[Al54]

We were caught out in that same incident but we were on the QE2, Cunard put us all on a chartered ferry to Portsmouth then buses to Southampton all very well organised.....how times and T&C have changed !

 

 

 

Yes, those were the days...........

 

 

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[Reina del Mar]

That is shocking. I’m sorry you went through this.

 

Agree !

 

 

Does this mean if ships cannot get into Fort Lauderdale, we'd all be responsible for making our own way to the first or maybe second port ?? (If first port was Princess Cays)

[rocklinmom]

Wow that's crazy! I can't believe someone who was booked to embark in Le Havre had to pay their own way to Portsmouth to board the ship (not to mention having to research and book it on their own!). Princess booked the cruise as embarking in Le Havre (for some of the passengers) and should have been responsible for getting them to the ship at SOU if the ship couldn't dock at LH. I have sailed on Princess since I was a child and I am very disappointed to hear this.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I hope someone who sent a letter to Princess with documentation of their out of pocket expenses to get from LaHavre to Southampton requesting reimbursement comes back here to report the answer!

 

 

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[RDC1]

You're on your own to get to the next port!

Just to be clear.

 

1. Princess offered no assistance

2. Did not refund for the missed day of the cruise

3. No option to cancel cruise?

[RDC1]

One question.

 

Did the ship wait around near La Havre or did it immediately head for Southampton once it became known that they would miss their docking time?

[SimonaD]

One question.

 

 

 

Did the ship wait around near La Havre or did it immediately head for Southampton once it became known that they would miss their docking time?

 

 

 

I.e. could you have hired a speedboat in LeHavre and board the ship Bond-style?

 

 

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[RDC1]

I can see why they have the comment about not being responsible for costs incurred due to a change of port for weather.

 

However I am extremely surprised and dismayed by Princess's actions in this case. There was no extreme weather event that closed the port. Just wind level that the Captain viewed as being too high to safely enter the port.

 

There were only 300 passengers embarking or disembarking. There were ferries that could get the passengers from/to La Havre at low cost. Together with buses to from the ferry terminal it would have cost Princess less that $30,000 to ferry and bus all 300 to the ship.

 

I currently have 4 cruises booked with Princess over the next 12 months. I have decided to cancel 2 of them. When I cancel them, two different calls, I am going to give the reason as the treatment of the passengers due to board in La Havre.

 

I would encourage someone that was actually impacted to contact the travel press and see if this incident, that has not gotten any attention, can get a little more visibility placed upon it.

[RDC1]

I.e. could you have hired a speedboat in LeHavre and board the ship Bond-style?

 

 

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Just interested to see if they waited to see if the wind might drop allowing them to enter port for disembarkation and embarkation or if they said oh well we cannot make our port time so let's head to Southampton.

[Haboob]

Yes. Read the Passage Contract. Do hold a cruise line to what they promise to deliver, but if you bought a

burger don't whinge because you weren't served steak.

 

If you want more protection than what's in the Passage Contract, it's available, but extra protection costs

...extra (novel concept, that).

[RDC1]

Yes. Read the Passage Contract. Do hold a cruise line to what they promise to deliver, but if you bought a

burger don't whinge because you weren't served steak.

 

If you want more protection than what's in the Passage Contract, it's available, but extra protection costs

...extra (novel concept, that).

Not whining but will certainly do what I can to communicate to the cruise line that strictly interpreting that clause is not worth it in cases like this.

 

Especially since they do far more for passengers, that are impacted far less, in situations where they are also covered by cruise contract language.

 

The key is if one or more of the travel advocates get interested and write an article or two to inform the traveling public about not only the language, but the strict interpretation Princess has taken. Especially if Princess does not credit for the day of the cruise missed.

[Haboob]

Yes. Read the Passage Contract. Do hold a cruise line to what they promise to deliver, but if you bought a

burger don't whinge because you weren't served steak.

 

If you want more protection than what's in the Passage Contract, it's available, but extra protection costs

...extra (novel concept, that).

 

Not whining but will certainly do what I can to communicate to the cruise line that strictly interpreting that clause is not worth it in cases like this.

 

Especially since they do far more for passengers, that are impacted far less, in situations where they are also covered by cruise contract language.

 

The key is if one or more of the travel advocates get interested and write an article or two to inform the traveling public about not only the language, but the strict interpretation Princess has taken. Especially if Princess does not credit for the day of the cruise missed.

 

Yes, please do tell one and all to know what they are and are not paying for.

 

But... How 'bout you pay extra for the extra you wish, but do not demand the cruise line

charge me extra for the extra I'm willing do do without?

 

The bottom line is, on average, you are better off self-insuring for such as happened at

La Havre because if the cruise line factors in the cost of absorbing such risk, they're also

justified in factoring in a profit on absorbing it, too.

[tv24]

One question.

 

Did the ship wait around near La Havre or did it immediately head for Southampton once it became known that they would miss their docking time?

 

At 9:30 on the night of the 29th, the Captain made a very brief announcement. It was only few sentences. He indicated that due to severe weather, the Royal would not dock in LeHavre and would head for Southampton instead. He definitely did not state that we would wait to see if conditions improved. However I cannot confirm from navigation info whether there was any delay in re-routing to Southampton. The ship seemed to be in continual motion until it docked on the 30th at about 8:00 AM in Southampton. Hope this info helps.

[RDC1]

Yes, please do tell one and all to know what they are and are not paying for.

 

But... How 'bout you pay extra for the extra you wish, but do not demand the cruise line

charge me extra for the extra I'm willing do do without?

 

The bottom line is, on average, you are better off self-insuring for such as happened at

La Havre because if the cruise line factors in the cost of absorbing such risk, they're also

justified in factoring in a profit on absorbing it, too.

 

This is a bit different than you normal insurance case. If princess were to allow those at the embarkation port to cancel or if they provided some assistance as in information about how the embarking passengers could reach the ship. Then it is more in line with being a standard insurance/no insurance issue.

 

Take an airline for example if the airplane flight is not at the airport or one considered to be equivalent, for example national instead of Dulles, a person has the right to a refund, even with a nonrefundable ticket and no insurance.

 

A case like this, that provides open ended liability, to the passenger to have to catch up to the ship is different. Since would fall under trip delay, the coverage levels are usually much lower and could easily be exceeded with travel between countries.

 

Also in this case you have a marginal weather event, not a case where the port was closed.

[RDC1]

At 9:30 on the night of the 29th, the Captain made a very brief announcement. It was only few sentences. He indicated that due to severe weather, the Royal would not dock in LeHavre and would head for Southampton instead. He definitely did not state that we would wait to see if conditions improved. However I cannot confirm from navigation info whether there was any delay in re-routing to Southampton. The ship seemed to be in continual motion until it docked on the 30th at about 8:00 AM in Southampton. Hope this info helps.

 

Thanks. In my mind there is a difference between legal liability for compensation, and doing what they can to mitigate the problems caused.

 

Would be interested to hear from someone that planned to board in LaHavre if they had the option to cancel for refund, without any compensation for other expenses?

 

Mitigation in this case might include:

 

1 Exhausting all alternatives for reaching the port.

2. Providing information from alternative travel routes such as ferries, flights, etc.

3. Possible delay of the ship leaving Southampton for however much time that they could and still make the next port if necessary to give passengers time to reach there depending upon the availability of alternative routes

 

And so forth. Very little cost to cruise line, no assumption of liability for compensation, but a lot better than you are on your own.

[moki'smommy]

Princess has likely lost more in the bad publicity surrounding this incident than it would have cost them to assist the affected passengers.

 

I certainly know that I would not choose a cruise that started or ended in LeHavre and would have PRIVATE insurance to cover such situations as I'd hate to be dealing with Princess insurance about issues with Princess.

[Haboob]

This is a bit different than you normal insurance case. If princess were to allow those at the embarkation port to cancel or if they provided some assistance as in information about how the embarking passengers could reach the ship. Then it is more in line with being a standard insurance/no insurance issue.

 

Take an airline for example if the airplane flight is not at the airport or one considered to be equivalent, for example national instead of Dulles, a person has the right to a refund, even with a nonrefundable ticket and no insurance.

 

A case like this, that provides open ended liability, to the passenger to have to catch up to the ship is different. Since would fall under trip delay, the coverage levels are usually much lower and could easily be exceeded with travel between countries.

 

Also in this case you have a marginal weather event, not a case where the port was closed.

 

No, it's even more simple than that. It's a matter of did or did not the cruise line keep its word?

 

If "no", hang them out to dry. If "yes", please don't try to pressure them into changing what

they promise and charging me for extras I may not want.

 

The extra protection is already available. Yes, it costs more. It's still going to cost --everyone--

more if you convince cruise lines to fold into the basic fare.

[lstone19]

Princess seems to have a problem with alternate embarkation/disembarkation ports. Even though they sell them that way, they seem to become afterthoughts operationally. How do you tell a primary itinerary from one that uses an alternate emabarkation and/or disembarkation port? Primary itineraries have a four character Voyage Code (e.g. Royal departing Southampton on 6/6 is Voyage 1816). Alternate itineraries (including when they sell B2Bs) have an additional alpha character at the end (e.g. Royal departing Le Havre on 6/17 is 1816A). It's as if back in their command center in California (I assume it's there at Princess HQ) ships are tracked by their primary voyage code (which means a certain amount of sense - you don't want to be managing the same ship twice) and they forget or don't even realize that there are alternate voyages. I can actually see that back at the command center, when the decision was made to skip Le Havre, the thinking was "Royal voyage 1812 (I think that was the voyage code for that TA cruise) is skipping LeHavre and heading on to it's final port of Southhampton" oblivious to the fact Le Havre was an embarkation/disembarkation port for alternate voyages. And given that decisions for alternate transportation and compensation almost certainly come from HQ, if they missed that an alternate embarkation/disembarkation port was skipped, then nothing happened.

 

 

The sad reality is that doing the right thing in situations like this almost always requires that someone go the extra mile. Since I'm pretty sure Princess has no permanent presence in their seasonal ports (everyone is a contractor), it's really up to the ship (whoever is in charge of Passenger Services) to go to bat. But they seem to generally not concern themselves with issues off the ship and with only contractors (probably) at the port, there was no one to communicate with the passengers. But for as long as I've been cruising (on two different cruise lines), there has always seemed to be huge disconnect between landside and seaside operations.

 

 

 

I'm retired from an airline but spent most of my career in a support role in system operations. Almost anytime something unusual was done to recover during irregular operations, it was become took the initiative to let system operations know they had an unusual situation. Example: flight from a spoke to a hub is cancelled at the last minute because hub is getting slammed by weather. The captain, already there and having been talking to passengers, knows that 75%+ of the flight is a school group connecting at the hub to get to another spoke city. So he called system operations and suggested operating as an extra non-stop to the destination spoke for the school group. So they did but it took someone seeing the unusual situation and a good but outside the box solution.

 

 

 

For those who want to say Princess was within their contractual rights, as I read it, they don't have to give you any cruise at all. They could, in theory, cancel the cruise entirely (or at least cancel it after one day) for safety reasons and owe you nothing. I don't think that would sit well one day into a world cruise. I'd also say that no cruise line wanting to stay in business would actually do that.

[tv24]

I promised to report back when we received some news about our situation. I had filed an insurance claim under the trip interruption provisions. We had bought transportation to LeHavre in France and instead were sent to Southampton in the United Kingdom and provided little assistance to get us to France.

 

Late yesterday I received a favorable response from AON, the company that processes insurance claims bought through Princess. We will be reimbursed for the full cost of our travel between the Heathrow airport and Paris.

 

I intend to eventually write a CC review of this cruise, probably next week. I intend to write a balanced review, the things I liked as well as those not-so-good. And I will summarize the extremely unpleasant end to the cruise.

[rocklinmom]

Looking forward to your review! I booked this cruise out of Dublin next summer on the Crown so am very interested in what happened at the end of your cruise when you couldn't dock at your disembarkation port. Also in how your insurance covers it. Was it the Princess Platinum insurance coverage?

[Haboob]

I promised to report back when we received some news about our situation. I had filed an insurance claim under the trip interruption provisions. We had bought transportation to LeHavre in France and instead were sent to Southampton in the United Kingdom and provided little assistance to get us to France.

 

Late yesterday I received a favorable response from AON, the company that processes insurance claims bought through Princess. We will be reimbursed for the full cost of our travel between the Heathrow airport and Paris.

 

I intend to eventually write a CC review of this cruise, probably next week. I intend to write a balanced review, the things I liked as well as those not-so-good. And I will summarize the extremely unpleasant end to the cruise.

 

 

“Travelling” is spelled s-t-u-f-f--h-a-p-p-e-n-s--b-e--p-r-e-p-a-r-e-d--f-o-r--i-t.

 

Glad you were.

[tv24]

Looking forward to your review! I booked this cruise out of Dublin next summer on the Crown so am very interested in what happened at the end of your cruise when you couldn't dock at your disembarkation port. Also in how your insurance covers it. Was it the Princess Platinum insurance coverage?

 

We had the "standard" insurance coverage sold by Princess.