Crown Princess Excursion Problems

[shopgirl151]

I am doing the British Isles in July, 2019 with my parents on the Crown.  In reading reviews on this site, many who have just recently completed the same cruise have mentioned issues with the excursions.  More specifically, getting off the ship and back on again.  It seems that because of this, the excursions are leaving late and people are missing some of their excursion.  Anyone have more comments on this topic?

[TW6cruiser]

I am posting here so I will get notice of any responses.  When I saw your post I looked at some recent reviews and I hope they get this more organized before your trip and ours in August.   I saw one review also where the posted complained about the shuttle service into Dublin and wonder if anyone can comment on that too. 

[EllieinNJ]

I am on the Aug. 29th cruise.  Got notice from my TA we will be in Greenock 8 am instead of 7 am.  Our private excursion starts at 8 am.  The tour company said they got no word about the time change.  Hope we don't miss our tour.

[omc329]

We did the May 4th out of Dublin.

 

Shuttles in Dublin were $8 each way, $16 round trip per person on the first two days of our arrival. (overnight) When we returned to Dublin to disembark, Celebrity had the other dock. Taxis were not allowed into the dock we had been assigned on return except by calling ahead, circling, checking in and a nightmare of hoops. I "assume" because of that?, the shuttles were free for those going into Dublin that day unlike the embarkation days.

 

Also, because we embarked from Dublin, there was a nightmare of immigration issues. They couldn't even decide what was what. They took our passports the day we embarked. They returned them a few days later. Then we were told at Southampton we had to appear with them for immigration before leaving the ship for tours. After waiting around for an hour or so, it was determined it was holding things up too much and immigration "allowed" us to hand in our passports and go, but only for the Dublin folks. The LeHavre folks had to stick around. Also note, ship's excursions were handled from a different point than independents, but I understand they had much the same issues.

 

We had to go through immigration yet again when we reentered Ireland in Cobh. I did not receive notification of this one until I returned to my room around 9PM the night before. The notice was dropped in the cabin while we were at supper. This time we were told we would get our passports back as we entered the lounge, and then we would present them to immigration. They lost my sister's, nieces and son's passports as well as at least one other passenger's passport. They did find them after around an hour of searching. UGH!!! Some of the folks had their passports restamped, others were told another stamp wasn't needed as we already had them from the airport and they were still good. I was told he still had to meet me in person. I said "Nice to meet you, have a nice day!" Thpttt!

 

Because of the immigration we got off the ship late, BEHIND all the ship's tours, making our private tour of 12 late, arriving to Blarney and long lines we should've been through by the time we arrived.

 

Other port issues. Initially they were late arriving in Dublin. Embarkation there was another nightmare. Belfast, because of tides, was around an hour or so late. St Peter's they made tender, but seas picked up and getting all the passengers back on board was a major feat that had us leaving late. They made up the time though, so no impact other than the struggle to get everyone back on board.

 

Other ports were as shown.

[tillys mom]

Do you think all of this was because you embarked in Dublin? Or were all passengers treated this way?

We sail in August.

[Diver2014]

We’re on Crown Princess right now doing British isles and our ship excursions have been fabulous. We haven’t had any problems. We embarked last Saturday in Southampton.

[omc329]

Immigration issues for those who embarked in Dublin were bad. I'm not aware of there being problems for those out of Southampton, but can't swear by it. The tide issues were just that and not much to be done about them.

 

One further note on Queensferry. My info is second hand, but someone on the ferry back to the ship said that she heard some folks waited 2 hours to catch a tender that morning. We purchased tickets through the ship so were not affected, and the info is second hand so take it for what you will.

Edited May 31, 2019 by omc329

[rocklinmom]

Reading this thread with great interest as we are doing this cruise on June 18.  It's always good to have a ship's excursion booked in tender ports.  We always do ship excursions and definitely in Edinburgh since it's tender there. We are winging it in Guernsey so if the tender lines are too long I will just take photos of it from the ship and enjoy the empty spaces onboard.  We do have priority tender, has anyone used that on this cruise yet?  It's usually a separate line when getting off the ship and no priority returning to the ship. 

[Mapu]

10 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

Reading this thread with great interest as we are doing this cruise on June 18.  It's always good to have a ship's excursion booked in tender ports.  We always do ship excursions and definitely in Edinburgh since it's tender there. We are winging it in Guernsey so if the tender lines are too long I will just take photos of it from the ship and enjoy the empty spaces onboard.  We do have priority tender, has anyone used that on this cruise yet?  It's usually a separate line when getting off the ship and no priority returning to the ship. 

Priority tender will work to get you ashore. Don’t miss Guernsey.

[Lynnhaven]

We are booked on the Crown Princess on the Aug 5th cruise of theBritish Isles.

 

We, a  lovely family of 9, age range 16-81, have booked a 8 hour private tour of Orkney from Kirkwall which includes the Standing Stones of Steness, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Scapa Flow, Chruchill Barriers, Italian Chapel and St. Magnus (spelling?) with David Hamilton through Red's Orkney Tours.  Because of our size we must have 2 vehicles which leaves us with 3 extra seats.  I am hoping 3 lovely people will join us. If 3 do, the cost will be 79 BP, if 2 the cost will be 86BP.  Entry fees are included.  

 

Please contact me at hulanmt@gmail.com

[El_Snocat]

5 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I am on the Aug. 29th cruise.  Got notice from my TA we will be in Greenock 8 am instead of 7 am.  Our private excursion starts at 8 am.  The tour company said they got no word about the time change.  Hope we don't miss our tour.

They may not receive direct notification, but most excursion companies monitor the ship’s progress once under way. If you go to the Princess website the time changes all ready show up- mine have for the August 17 sailing. Good you let them know in advance.

[jasbo49]

2 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

It's always good to have a ship's excursion booked in tender ports. 

 

This makes a lot of sense to me. Probably doesn't matter so much if you have priority tender privileges such as suite or elite.

 

Jim

[El_Snocat]

1 hour ago, Lynnhaven said:

We are booked on the Crown Princess on the Aug 5th cruise of theBritish Isles.

 

We, a  lovely family of 9, age range 16-81, have booked a 8 hour private tour of Orkney from Kirkwall which includes the Standing Stones of Steness, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Scapa Flow, Chruchill Barriers, Italian Chapel and St. Magnus (spelling?) with David Hamilton through Red's Orkney Tours.  Because of our size we must have 2 vehicles which leaves us with 3 extra seats.  I am hoping 3 lovely people will join us. If 3 do, the cost will be 79 BP, if 2 the cost will be 86BP.  Entry fees are included.  

 

Please contact me at hulanmt@gmail.com

You might want to post this on your Roll Call for better exposure.

[shopgirl151]

Priority tender?  How do you get that?

[Adventures ahead]

1 hour ago, Lynnhaven said:

We are booked on the Crown Princess on the Aug 5th cruise of theBritish Isles.

 

We, a  lovely family of 9, age range 16-81, have booked a 8 hour private tour of Orkney from Kirkwall which includes the Standing Stones of Steness, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Scapa Flow, Chruchill Barriers, Italian Chapel and St. Magnus (spelling?) with David Hamilton through Red's Orkney Tours.  Because of our size we must have 2 vehicles which leaves us with 3 extra seats.  I am hoping 3 lovely people will join us. If 3 do, the cost will be 79 BP, if 2 the cost will be 86BP.  Entry fees are included.  

 

Please contact me at hulanmt@gmail.com

Login to the Roll Call for Crown Aug 5 and you will probably find people who want to join your group. We're on the same sailing but our plans are already made.  May see you onboard!

[Adventures ahead]

Just now, shopgirl151 said:

Priority tender?  How do you get that?

It's a perk if you are at the Elite level with Princess.

[EDDY0827]

42 minutes ago, Adventures ahead said:

It's a perk if you are at the Elite level with Princess.

Or in a full suite.

[ASiuta]

7 hours ago, Diver2014 said:

We’re on Crown Princess right now doing British isles and our ship excursions have been fabulous. We haven’t had any problems. We embarked last Saturday in Southampton.

We are on the June 9th sailing out of Dublin.  I am reading with intent how this is all "going down"!  We have private tours booked in each city except going to Normandy with a Princess tour.  I am very interested in knowing more about the "immigration face to face" and collection and re-distribution of passports".  Any information you can share about this shall be appreciated.  Thank you!  PS - is the ship really in as much disrepair as some of the recent reviews now lead us to believe???  Just curious as to your take on this.

[Diver2014]

The passport thing is a non issue.  They collected our passports at embarkation and we're supposed to get them back today from our cabin steward.  The only thing anyone wants to see is our cruise card.  We take our drivers license on shore per Princess instructions but no one wants to see them.  We've been on Princess tours in each port, which are really good.  I think we've gotten our money worth.  The only port we did on our own was Liverpool where we did the HOHO bus and saved $150 over Princess on exactly the same sights.  

As far as the ship, yes the Crown is getting dated.  We had issues in our cabin up until day 6 when they were finally resolved after contacting guest services and our room steward 3 times.  They apologized and offered us a bottle of wine or a coffee card but we don't drink wine or coffee so we passed.  The issues?  Our toilet doesn't flush until it's ready to --maybe a few minutes sometimes.  The a/c thermostat doesn't work - we have it moved all the way up and our cabin is still cold.  The smell in the bathroom and shower was overpowering  (sewage) but they finally got that fixed yesterday and put air freshener in our bathroom.  But, the food and shore excursions have made up for the issues with our cabin.  Excellent food, wonderful and informative excursions.  I still give the Crown an A- as far as satisfaction is concerned.

[omc329]

8 hours ago, ASiuta said:

We are on the June 9th sailing out of Dublin.  I am reading with intent how this is all "going down"!  We have private tours booked in each city except going to Normandy with a Princess tour.  I am very interested in knowing more about the "immigration face to face" and collection and re-distribution of passports".  Any information you can share about this shall be appreciated.  Thank you!  PS - is the ship really in as much disrepair as some of the recent reviews now lead us to believe???  Just curious as to your take on this.

It is the out of  Dublin that will cause the issues. Some of it may have been because we were the first and they simply didn't seem to know what they were doing. Southampton folks are being handled differently than the Dublin folks.

 

The two ports I would be concerned that you may get off the ship late because of immigration are Southampton, (oddly, NOT Belfast or Scotland), and then again in Cobh. We were notified for Southampton that we were to meet at 6:45AM. LOTS of folks complained about that timing, and it was later moved to 7:15AM, (?). But then we had to sit around for 45-60 minutes or so until immigration boarded and got around to us. By then they had established that the Princess tours were getting messed up because of the delays, (They were in a different holding area than us), and they changed the way they were processing us, simply taking our passports as we walked out. Again, this was ONLY they Dubliners. The LeHavre folks were kept in the theater and Southamptoners had none of this nonsense.

 

The Cobh immigration was done much the same way, but only for the Dubliners again. And again, we had a late start, ending up well behind the tour groups making our day much less than we had planned both because of additional wait times at Blarney and the late start of the day.

 

I would advise anyone NEVER to book out of Dublin IF the main port is Southampton. If you have already booked out of Dublin, plan for the issues, (unless they kindly decide they are causing too many hassles the way they are handling it all!). It would be much easier if they would just keep the passports for processing instead of taking them, giving them back, taking them and giving them back. I wouldn't be surprised after all the issues and delays if something else is worked out. I would be curious to know if it gets better.

 

As for the ship, we had no issues with the ship's maintenance. Frankly, we were so tired and worn out from all the long days, I don't think we would've noticed much.

 

One note, they had a great group come on in Dublin the first of the 2 days when we embarked and they did one show only around 4PM. It was great! The one they got in Edinburgh, not so much. I walked out on that one. Watch for early shows like that where they come on board just long enough for a short show. Unfortunately, with the long port days, you often miss those kinds of shows. 

[rocklinmom]

Diver2014, what type of stateroom are you in?  And if it's a balcony cabin, is it on Baja deck?  Hoping our cabins won't have the same issues.  I read another recent review that said their Lido deck balcony cabin also had faulty AC and was too hot.  I would rather have my cabin too cold like yours personally.  

[phabric]

15 hours ago, Lynnhaven said:

We are booked on the Crown Princess on the Aug 5th cruise of theBritish Isles.

 

We, a  lovely family of 9, age range 16-81, have booked a 8 hour private tour of Orkney from Kirkwall which includes the Standing Stones of Steness, Ness of Brodgar, Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Scapa Flow, Chruchill Barriers, Italian Chapel and St. Magnus (spelling?) with David Hamilton through Red's Orkney Tours.  Because of our size we must have 2 vehicles which leaves us with 3 extra seats.  I am hoping 3 lovely people will join us. If 3 do, the cost will be 79 BP, if 2 the cost will be 86BP.  Entry fees are included.  

 

Please contact me at hulanmt@gmail.com

 

You might want to post your tour on your Cruise Critic - Roll Call.

[Diver2014]

35 minutes ago, rocklinmom said:

Diver2014, what type of stateroom are you in?  And if it's a balcony cabin, is it on Baja deck?  Hoping our cabins won't have the same issues.  I read another recent review that said their Lido deck balcony cabin also had faulty AC and was too hot.  I would rather have my cabin too cold like yours personally.  

  

We’re on Riviera deck in R746–I chose it due to the extra large triangular shaped balcony that juts out on the aft of the ship—we can see all the way to the bridge (and into everyone else’s balcony as well).  I don’t like having a cabin on the cool side but it’s so dang cold outside here in Scotland that we don’t need any a/c.

[rocklinmom]

Thank you!  Hopefully the Baja deck balcony cabins are ok.  Glad to hear it's cold in Scotland right now...hope it stays that way for us! (I'm coming from the land of hot in California) 🙂 

[ASiuta]

15 hours ago, omc329 said:

It is the out of  Dublin that will cause the issues. Some of it may have been because we were the first and they simply didn't seem to know what they were doing. Southampton folks are being handled differently than the Dublin folks.

 

The two ports I would be concerned that you may get off the ship late because of immigration are Southampton, (oddly, NOT Belfast or Scotland), and then again in Cobh. We were notified for Southampton that we were to meet at 6:45AM. LOTS of folks complained about that timing, and it was later moved to 7:15AM, (?). But then we had to sit around for 45-60 minutes or so until immigration boarded and got around to us. By then they had established that the Princess tours were getting messed up because of the delays, (They were in a different holding area than us), and they changed the way they were processing us, simply taking our passports as we walked out. Again, this was ONLY they Dubliners. The LeHavre folks were kept in the theater and Southamptoners had none of this nonsense.

 

The Cobh immigration was done much the same way, but only for the Dubliners again. And again, we had a late start, ending up well behind the tour groups making our day much less than we had planned both because of additional wait times at Blarney and the late start of the day.

 

I would advise anyone NEVER to book out of Dublin IF the main port is Southampton. If you have already booked out of Dublin, plan for the issues, (unless they kindly decide they are causing too many hassles the way they are handling it all!). It would be much easier if they would just keep the passports for processing instead of taking them, giving them back, taking them and giving them back. I wouldn't be surprised after all the issues and delays if something else is worked out. I would be curious to know if it gets better.

 

As for the ship, we had no issues with the ship's maintenance. Frankly, we were so tired and worn out from all the long days, I don't think we would've noticed much.

 

One note, they had a great group come on in Dublin the first of the 2 days when we embarked and they did one show only around 4PM. It was great! The one they got in Edinburgh, not so much. I walked out on that one. Watch for early shows like that where they come on board just long enough for a short show. Unfortunately, with the long port days, you often miss those kinds of shows. 

What was the date of your cruise?  I am assuming that your port of embarkation was Dublin and that you are speaking from personal experience.  Please advise.  We have private tours booked in both Southhampton and Cobh and would like to know if we need to notify the guides now that we will be late getting off the ship.  If you could give me an idea as to just how late you got off, it would be appreciated.  And sounds like it is VERY cold there!  Just how many layers did you wear??  Still in packing mode so have time to add!  Thank you!