Pacific Princess 2021 Sailings Cancelled?

[Ken the cruiser]

We're just hoping we get to go on our 24 day Med cruise on the Pacific  in July out of Venice. We're in a mini-suite with all included for $368 pp/day whereas a similar Med cruise on one of Oceania's R class ships in the cheapest Penthouse, which is a similar cabin, would be over $500+ pp/day.

[nocl]

On 1/19/2021 at 3:45 PM, snoozecrooze said:

I disagree. Equity firms like Sycamore have a very narrow focus of cost-cutting to keep brands upright without really putting any heart into their investments into the brands they own. I doubt Sycamore is looking to actually purchase any ships, given how strapped for cash Azamara must be in right now. Remember that Azamara's President & CEO Larry Pimentel fled the company almost a year ago (9 mos.) now so the problems were definitely building for far longer and COVID-19 just exacerbated them.

Apollo successfully invested in NCL and Oceania making substantial profit with the relaunch as NCLH so there are cases of equity firms buying cruise lines, making the necessary investments and improving the brand.

[beg3yrs]

7 hours ago, skynight said:

Someone on these boards has posted the Pacific Princess "for sale" information. I can't locate the posting right now, but Princess/Carnival Corp. does or did have it up for sale. Don't know if that is the reason she does not have the medallion. Could be, could not be. It's possible that medallion doesn't make sense for a 680 passenger vessel.

That 'for sale' information has been up since before the Ocean Princess was sold. It's not clear it's current or it's the Pacific Princess.

 

Agree the medallion doesn't make sense for the Pacific Princess.

[Grego]

18 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

What is your reliable source for this statement? If you don't have one, it's just speculation. You may still be correct but unless you have a good source, it's not credible.

My information was from a direct conversation with a Princess staff person.  The plan when I was told this was to finish off any planned or booked voyages with the new owners at the time of the sale.  It is possible that this has been delayed, but the fact remains is that the ship does not make the profit that is required to keep her in the fleet. 

 

None of this is speculation and just because there hasn't been any announcement doesn't mean it isn't true.

 

Her not getting the Medallion system added to her is a possible further example of her future with Princess.

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

18 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The Pacific Princess (at least until the pandemic) has been profitable for Princess, just not as profitable as the newest and largest ships.

 

One reason it is profitable is that in general the cruise price paid per day by passengers is higher than on the other Princess ships.

Definitely. I have long said there is a definite market for cruises priced somewhere between the mass market cruise lines and the Oceanias and Azamaras of the industry. The Pacific Princess perfectly addresses that market, providing a more intimate and service-oriented cruise experience. It doesn’t buy any better food than normal Princess fare, but we believe it makes for a better cruise. 
 

The “race to the bottom” pricing of the mass market cruise lines couldn’t continue forever, and it seems the current remedy is to offer more all inclusive pricing. This effectively blurs the per diem comparative cost of cruises but also provides a fairer comparison to all inclusive land based resort pricing which, especially in today’s COVID environment, is where the industry’s true competition lies. 

[Syracusefan44]

Just spoke to a Princess representative who confirmed that our bucket list cruise to Tahiti on the Pacific Princess has been cancelled.  
 

She said the ship has not been sold but all cruises longer than 7 days out of a United States port have been cancelled through November.

 

When you search for cruises on Pacific Princess in 2021 and 2022 nothing comes.

[PescadoAmarillo]

You’re right. They were there yesterday, gone today. However, they are still showing up in My Princess for us. The Pacific Princess is no longer showing up on the Princess website as one of their ships. 
 

Sold:

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/princess-cruises-announces-pacific-princess-to-leave-the-fleet-301212388.html

Edited January 21, 2021 by PescadoAmarillo

[Syracusefan44]

Carnival Corporation official announcement.

 

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/princess-cruises-announces-pacific-princess-leave-fleet

[Geoffa30]

So sad to hear this as we were scheduled to sail on her in September for the very first time with this fantastic itinerary. We’d used our 150% compensation from our cancelled March 2020 Sky Princess cruise towards this. Time to start looking for another replacement.

 

 

[Jadn13]

Sad to see it go

Edited January 21, 2021 by Jadn13

[caribill]

8 hours ago, Grego said:

 The plan when I was told this was to finish off any planned or booked voyages with the new owners at the time of the sale.

 

 

Not part of the announcement!

[azbirdmom]

My TA forwarded an announcement from Princess about this.  Note that they won't be reaching out to those with booked cruises until tomorrow - here's an excerpt from the TA email - and I am very sad:

 

"With a sad heart, I wanted to let you know that later this morning we are going to announce the sale of our beloved Pacific Princess to an undisclosed buyer.  After sailing more than 1.6 million nautical miles, including 11 unforgettable World Cruise voyages and countless cruises to exotic locales, it is now time to bid her a fond farewell, with fair winds and following seas.

 

As a result of Pacific Princess’ departure, her remaining voyages have unfortunately been cancelled. Similar to the last several announcements, we are sending the notice of these voyages being canceled ONLY to the Travel Advisors who have guests booked. The guests who booked with a Travel Advisor are not hearing from us directly until Friday (Jan 22) at around 10am PT.  Thus, each Agency/Travel Advisor has the opportunity to contact their clients directly to share the news and talk about the bonus FCC offer vs. the refund and hopefully get them rebooked on a new sailing."

[Steelers36]

So, it also appears as though Princess is not substituting another ship in the fleet for the Fall 2021 voyages.  Such as the ones in the MED.  So, we are out of luck again with more cancelled cruises.

 

Either that, or they may announce something new and we all have to re-book.

[Georgie562]

5 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

My TA forwarded an announcement from Princess about this.  Note that they won't be reaching out to those with booked cruises until tomorrow - here's an excerpt from the TA email - and I am very sad:

 

"With a sad heart, I wanted to let you know that later this morning we are going to announce the sale of our beloved Pacific Princess to an undisclosed buyer.  After sailing more than 1.6 million nautical miles, including 11 unforgettable World Cruise voyages and countless cruises to exotic locales, it is now time to bid her a fond farewell, with fair winds and following seas.

 

As a result of Pacific Princess’ departure, her remaining voyages have unfortunately been cancelled. Similar to the last several announcements, we are sending the notice of these voyages being canceled ONLY to the Travel Advisors who have guests booked. The guests who booked with a Travel Advisor are not hearing from us directly until Friday (Jan 22) at around 10am PT.  Thus, each Agency/Travel Advisor has the opportunity to contact their clients directly to share the news and talk about the bonus FCC offer vs. the refund and hopefully get them rebooked on a new sailing."

 

I was hoping our December 2021 Tahiti cruise was still a go but just on a replacement ship but it doesn't seem that way. Bummer 😔

[Steelers36]

Don't see any info on what the comp plan will be.  We just have FCD's down on a 24-night in the Med for this coming Fall.  We were doubtful ports and such would be ready and were already looking this week to 2022. 

 

 

[azbirdmom]

3 minutes ago, Georgie562 said:

 

I was hoping our December 2021 Tahiti cruise was still a go but just on a replacement ship but it doesn't seem that way. Bummer 😔

 

Our's was too be in January.  Even though it looked like the ship would be sold, I was holding out hope!

[voljeep]

the announcement is now on the Princess website ... cancelled cruises

[azbirdmom]

1 minute ago, Steelers36 said:

Don't see any info on what the comp plan will be.  We just have FCD's down on a 24-night in the Med for this coming Fall.  We were doubtful ports and such would be ready and were already looking this week to 2022. 

 

 

 

It's there on the Princess webpage but here's an excerpt from the notice my TA received:

 

"All guests currently booked on these cancelled cruises for Pacific Princess will receive: 

    

• 100% value of cruise fare paid as a refundable Future Cruise Credit (FCC) 
• Bonus non-refundable FCC equal to 25% of the cruise fare paid* 

  

*Bonus FCC minimum of $50 per person (minimum varies by FCC currency:  $50USD, $50CAD, $50AUD, £50GBP, €50EUR, ¥5,000) 

 

This requires no action from the guest and gives our team a chance to shine at a later date by using the above Future Cruise Credits on any cruise booked by May 1, 2022 and sailing by December 31, 2022.     

   

Alternatively, guests can forfeit the bonus FCC offer and request a refund for all money paid on their booking by using this online form. Guests have until February 28, 2021 to decide, or they will automatically receive the default offer listed above."

[Georgie562]

Bummer 😔

cancellation-pacific-princess-cruises.pdf

[beg3yrs]

8 hours ago, Grego said:

My information was from a direct conversation with a Princess staff person.  The plan when I was told this was to finish off any planned or booked voyages with the new owners at the time of the sale.  It is possible that this has been delayed, but the fact remains is that the ship does not make the profit that is required to keep her in the fleet. 

 

None of this is speculation and just because there hasn't been any announcement doesn't mean it isn't true.

 

Her not getting the Medallion system added to her is a possible further example of her future with Princess.

 

Your sources were right! Too bad for all of us who have cruises booked on the Pacific Princess. 😥

 

Glad we have a plan B (and C)!

[Ken the cruiser]

Duplicate of another post.

Edited January 21, 2021 by Ken the cruiser

[TeaBag]

My cruise on Pacific was cancelled Nov 2.  I still have not received my deposit back and I do fear with all the new cancellations because of the sale that the wait is now going to be much longer.

[snoozecrooze]

I love following the clever sleuthers here on CC -- guaranteed to get the breaking news on anything before the companies even make them public. I empathize with you all on having a cruise cancelled that is simply irreplaceable now.

 

For Pacific, it feels like such a hard pill to swallow because it was THE last small ship in the fleet. And after Ocean was nixed just not too long ago (well, it kind of was, if we're coming to terms with that). And it made Princess what it was for the longest time--being able to balance both boutique-style options with its ever-expanding mass market leaning. So to send it off in this unceremonious fashion is very unfortunate, but I wasn't surprised. I don't know what Carnival ultimately wants Princess to be (other than a company of behemoths), but I would hope there are mid-sized replacements in the late-2020s/early-2030s for the continued wealth of options. Not everyone is drawn to the Vikings/Regents/etc. Anyways, onward and upward. 

[beg3yrs]

If somehow, some way, Princess and Seabourn would have some reciprocal privileges ... they're the only ones left under the Carnival umbrella that has smaller ships.

[nocl]

7 hours ago, Georgie562 said:

 

I was hoping our December 2021 Tahiti cruise was still a go but just on a replacement ship but it doesn't seem that way. Bummer 😔

To be honest the ports in Tahiti seemed overwhelmed with just a ship the size of the Pacific Princess.  Would not go on a larger ship.