Crown Princess Alaska past, present and future sailings

[jk04]

Just looked at out Cruise Personalizer, trying to prepare for our cruise on the 11th.  It seems we got an additional $100 pp Goodwill OBC.  I guess for the reduced time in Juneau and the now missed port.  

[JeffT237]

24 minutes ago, jk04 said:

Just looked at out Cruise Personalizer, trying to prepare for our cruise on the 11th.  It seems we got an additional $100 pp Goodwill OBC

So that's a total of $200 OBC pp now with no FCC?  Also is that OBC refundable?  We were told that ours was on the May 7th, have yet to receive it back as well as our cancelled excursion money.

[jk04]

4 minutes ago, JeffT237 said:

So that's a total of $200 OBC pp now with no FCC?  Also is that OBC refundable?  We were told that ours was on the May 7th, have yet to receive it back as well as our cancelled excursion money.

Correct.  It appears to be refundable according to the notations.  Did anyone try going to the casino, adding the OBC to a slot machine, then do a cash out?  I thought you used to be able to do that.

 

So far no email about the addition OBC either, just showed up.

Edited June 5, 2022 by jk04

[JeffT237]

1 minute ago, jk04 said:

Did anyone try going to the casino, adding the OBC to a slot machine, then do a cash out?

We didn't try to cash it out in the casino we just kept it, we had Princess Plus and had pre-paid all of our excursions and speciality dining so we really had no use for it.  We also had some OBC from our travel agent that we were going to use for lunches at the Salty Dog Gastropub but it was closed our week.  If you do use your OBC for speciality dining it appeared reservations filled up quickly on our sailing, I think a lot of passengers were using their OBC for that.  We did meet some people that were given  complimentary dinners at the Crown Grill for their plumbing issues so that added to the busyness of the restaurant as well. 

[jk04]

3 minutes ago, JeffT237 said:

We didn't try to cash it out in the casino we just kept it, we had Princess Plus and had pre-paid all of our excursions and speciality dining so we really had no use for it.  We also had some OBC from our travel agent that we were going to use for lunches at the Salty Dog Gastropub but it was closed our week.  If you do use your OBC for speciality dining it appeared reservations filled up quickly on our sailing, I think a lot of passengers were using their OBC for that.  We did meet some people that were given  complimentary dinners at the Crown Grill for their plumbing issues so that added to the busyness of the restaurant as well. 

That is probably true.  I'm thinking we are going to have to decide in advance what nights for Specialty Dining and make a mad dash for reservations.  A la Oasis class on RCL. 

[Lulubelle45]

I’m in a bit of a different position. My cruise is a 10 day round trip Pacific Coastal September 22.  Then it is scheduled for dry dock immediately after. If it’s still puttering along by then, it will be interesting as to what they plan to do to our ports (SF,SD, SB &LA. ) I’ve been to all of these before- booked it more for our families joining who are first timers. Emailed Princess 2 weeks ago asking about whether they we’re waiting for dry dock to repair this issue. No word yet. Talked to my TA and he feels it’s exaggerated, all ships are going slower in AK. ( I think he doesn’t want to lose his commission on all our cabins) he is also on this cruise. So my dilemma- do I carry on with final payment and hope for OBC if ports are altered or cancelled? If entire cruise is canceled ( as happened to the Carribean) will I get some great FCC to go with my refund? What if they end the cruise half way, fly us all back to Vancouver? Will areas of the ship be closed off in preparation for dry dock?? For me, it’s the 10 day cruise that I want- not do much the ports but do want some time ashore. What a mess. The way Princess is handling this is atrocious. 

[PacnGoNow]

6 minutes ago, Lulubelle45 said:

I’m in a bit of a different position. My cruise is a 10 day round trip Pacific Coastal September 22.  Then it is scheduled for dry dock immediately after. If it’s still puttering along by then, it will be interesting as to what they plan to do to our ports (SF,SD, SB &LA. ) I’ve been to all of these before- booked it more for our families joining who are first timers. Emailed Princess 2 weeks ago asking about whether they we’re waiting for dry dock to repair this issue. No word yet. Talked to my TA and he feels it’s exaggerated, all ships are going slower in AK. ( I think he doesn’t want to lose his commission on all our cabins) he is also on this cruise. So my dilemma- do I carry on with final payment and hope for OBC if ports are altered or cancelled? If entire cruise is canceled ( as happened to the Carribean) will I get some great FCC to go with my refund? What if they end the cruise half way, fly us all back to Vancouver? Will areas of the ship be closed off in preparation for dry dock?? For me, it’s the 10 day cruise that I want- not do much the ports but do want some time ashore. What a mess. The way Princess is handling this is atrocious. 

If you look at previous cancelled cruises, it may give you an idea of how it

is handled.  Doesn’t mean it will be the same, but just an idea.

 

Here is a copy of the previous Crown cancellation on their website.

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/plan/impacted-and-cancelled-cruises/cancelled-cruises-crown-island-through-april-2022.pdf
 

 

 

 

 

[JeffT237]

20 minutes ago, Lulubelle45 said:

Talked to my TA and he feels it’s exaggerated, all ships are going slower in AK.

All your TA needs to do is follow any of these threads, reviews on the May Crown sailings, trip advisor, YouTube or many other cruise related social media platforms and he can see that there are issues.  Maybe some people are embellishing parts of their experience, but most of these are pretty credible.  For ships not sailing full speed per your TA he's either misinformed or deliberately misleading you.  A simple search on CruiseMapper will show the current speeds of the Crown as well as the other ships sailing the region, most of the others are over 20 knots while the Crown is anywhere from 16-19 knots.  Also anyone who has completed a Crown cruise can verify that other ships passed her routinely.  If I remember correctly on our sailing we hit 19 knots, but we were mostly around 16-17 knots.

 

As far as your cruise and the performance of the Crown pre-dry dock there's no way you'll get answers from Princess or anyone else.  The best you can get is there are currently (despite your TA's disbelief) known issues impacting the Crown Princess.  I hope later in this Alaska season the issues are worked out and the Crown can start consistently making her scheduled itineraries.  

[Lulubelle45]

22 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

If you look at previous cancelled cruises, it may give you an idea of how it

is handled.  Doesn’t mean it will be the same, but just an idea.

 

Here is a copy of the previous Crown cancellation on their website.

 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/plan/impacted-and-cancelled-cruises/cancelled-cruises-crown-island-through-april-2022.pdf
 

 

 

 

 

Interesting. The problem I see with replacement cruises is that in our case- there are no other cruises from Vancouver. Like the last cruise noted- one was Seattle other San Francisco- I doubt Princess would pick up the extra cost for flights if one lived in Seattle 

[GloriaF]

On 5/28/2022 at 2:24 PM, bmc alabama said:

We are on the cruise today as well.  Not a good start.  Our Seattle Express driver never showed up for our transfer.  Trying to get that situated…

Glad you are now on your way!  We are using them for our transfer next week.  How did you handle getting in touch with Seattle Express?  Is there a telephone #, since we booked online I never noticed phone contact.  Guess I need to look at our receipt.

[GloriaF]

On 5/31/2022 at 9:03 AM, Snate said:

I think we are at the point where all 13 of us will be trying to move ships.  The question now becomes moving a day later on the Discovery (Seattle to Seattle) or changing to the Majestic which is the same exact days but the airfare becomes much larger (Whittier to Vancouver).  My wife and I have done the Whittier cruise already but all the others are new to Alaska and this will be their only trip as they won’t be going back.  I feel like Discovery, without Glacier Bay should be a non starter but the others don’t know any better and just feel it is easier to stay in Seattle.  Not seeing the glaciers is kind of a big deal as far as an Alaskan cruise goes.  

 I wish you luck in making the change.  My personal option would be to include Glacier Bay on Majestic. If many of your party have never been to Alaska and will not return, Glacier Bay is a priority.

 

You could keep the flight out of Seattle to return home and use a shuttle service from Vancouver cruise port to Seattle Airport.  With 13 people, you may do better with a private shuttle.  We booked two seats on a large bus full of other cruisers being transferred from Vancouver cruise port to Seattle Airport and the cost was not bad...I can't recall exact cost bc our last cruise to Alaska was in 2005!  (We return to Alaska on the crippled Crown June 11th and we are sticking with it.)  

 

Of course, there's no getting around the expense  of 1 change flying into Anchorage. Again, GOOD LUCK!!! 

[PacnGoNow]

46 minutes ago, Lulubelle45 said:

Interesting. The problem I see with replacement cruises is that in our case- there are no other cruises from Vancouver. Like the last cruise noted- one was Seattle other San Francisco- I doubt Princess would pick up the extra cost for flights if one lived in Seattle 

Then you probably will would pick another option.

Good luck.  I hope they can fix this ship too, as we are booked on it also.

[wolvey]

5 hours ago, jk04 said:

Just looked at out Cruise Personalizer, trying to prepare for our cruise on the 11th.  It seems we got an additional $100 pp Goodwill OBC.  I guess for the reduced time in Juneau and the now missed port.  

Wait a min. The sailings from May 7, 14, 21, and now June 11 got additional compensation that’s outside of the meager $100 obc from the original Ketchikan/icy strait swap? What about the sailings from May 28 and June 4? We haven’t gotten anything extra from this mess.

 

what the fudge is wrong with princess?

[jk04]

2 hours ago, wolvey said:

Wait a min. The sailings from May 7, 14, 21, and now June 11 got additional compensation that’s outside of the meager $100 obc from the original Ketchikan/icy strait swap? What about the sailings from May 28 and June 4? We haven’t gotten anything extra from this mess.

 

what the fudge is wrong with princess?

This is turning into 'Who's on first'.  

 

So, 7th, 14th, 21st possibly got various OBC and FCC, right?  Then Princess 'published' the revised sailings for the 28th, 4th, 11th, and 18th and no mention of additional compensation.  28th and now 4th have sailed and no additional OBC that anyone has mentioned.  We are on the 11th and I just noticed the additional Goodwill credit today and still now email notification.  Maybe someone on the 18th can chime in if they have received the extra OBC.  So, consistently inconsistent?

 

Not sure how many more ways Princess can screw the pooch on the handling of this.  Maybe you can hope for a check in the mail?

[FTLCruiseGal]

On 5/30/2022 at 10:12 PM, BUtaxMan said:

We are also booked on the July 9th Crown Cruise.  We have 6 of us that have never been to Alaska before.  I am really concerned about the above items and even more the toilet issues.  Does anyone know where they are having issues with the toilets not working or smelling in the ship?  I just do not want to be dealing with that in addition to missing our excursions.

 

I have reached out to our travel agent and hope to hear back from her Tuesday or Wednesday.  I will let you know if she has anything to add to this discussion, but I am guessing she will not.

The toilet issues were due to guests flushing all sorts of trash down the toilet.  That was fixed long time ago.

[Snate]

8 hours ago, GloriaF said:

 I wish you luck in making the change.  My personal option would be to include Glacier Bay on Majestic. If many of your party have never been to Alaska and will not return, Glacier Bay is a priority.

 

You could keep the flight out of Seattle to return home and use a shuttle service from Vancouver cruise port to Seattle Airport.  With 13 people, you may do better with a private shuttle.  We booked two seats on a large bus full of other cruisers being transferred from Vancouver cruise port to Seattle Airport and the cost was not bad...I can't recall exact cost bc our last cruise to Alaska was in 2005!  (We return to Alaska on the crippled Crown June 11th and we are sticking with it.)  

 

Of course, there's no getting around the expense  of 1 change flying into Anchorage. Again, GOOD LUCK!!! 

We moved to Majestic and are spending a extra night in Vancouver since none of us have been there before.  Airfare was the main cost but my father in law picked it up for everyone so all is good.  Everyone is very excited about the new ship and itinerary.  Best of luck to those sailing on the Crown this summer.

[OKCruiseMan]

4 hours ago, FTLCruiseGal said:

The toilet issues were due to guests flushing all sorts of trash down the toilet.  That was fixed long time ago.

Just off the 28th. Did here a couple of problems but nothing major. We were midship on 10 and there were no odors or problems. A few reports of hot water issues. We had hot water in the shower but not in the sink. Not a major problem. 

[OKCruiseMan]

9 hours ago, JeffT237 said:

All your TA needs to do is follow any of these threads, reviews on the May Crown sailings, trip advisor, YouTube or many other cruise related social media platforms and he can see that there are issues.  Maybe some people are embellishing parts of their experience, but most of these are pretty credible.  For ships not sailing full speed per your TA he's either misinformed or deliberately misleading you.  A simple search on CruiseMapper will show the current speeds of the Crown as well as the other ships sailing the region, most of the others are over 20 knots while the Crown is anywhere from 16-19 knots.  Also anyone who has completed a Crown cruise can verify that other ships passed her routinely.  If I remember correctly on our sailing we hit 19 knots, but we were mostly around 16-17 knots.

 

As far as your cruise and the performance of the Crown pre-dry dock there's no way you'll get answers from Princess or anyone else.  The best you can get is there are currently (despite your TA's disbelief) known issues impacting the Crown Princess.  I hope later in this Alaska season the issues are worked out and the Crown can start consistently making her scheduled itineraries.  

Just off the 28th sailing. We were passed several times and late to even the delayed revised times. At one point the engines completely stopped in Glacier Bay until they could get the electricians to the engine room. Crown has a problem. Cancelled and limited time in Port. I was just glad they got the engines restarted. As the captain said. They are working for now!

Makes you wonder if the captain thinks they should be on the water???

[PacnGoNow]

8 hours ago, OKCruiseMan said:

Just off the 28th sailing. We were passed several times and late to even the delayed revised times. At one point the engines completely stopped in Glacier Bay until they could get the electricians to the engine room. Crown has a problem. Cancelled and limited time in Port. I was just glad they got the engines restarted. As the captain said. They are working for now!

Makes you wonder if the captain thinks they should be on the water???

 

Scary 😦 

[jk04]

8 hours ago, OKCruiseMan said:

Just off the 28th sailing. We were passed several times and late to even the delayed revised times. At one point the engines completely stopped in Glacier Bay until they could get the electricians to the engine room. Crown has a problem. Cancelled and limited time in Port. I was just glad they got the engines restarted. As the captain said. They are working for now!

Makes you wonder if the captain thinks they should be on the water???

Thanks for the update.

 

Is anyone here on the June 4th sailing?  How is the trip going so far?

[jeno]

I was on the Crown for a 10 day cruise in January 2020.  We missed ports then because of propulsion problems.  I’ve seen mention of supply chain issues.  Baloney. They’ve had plenty of time to fix this ship and have had full knowledge of the problem since at least then. 

[rrusso81]

On 6/5/2022 at 7:16 AM, jk04 said:

Just looked at out Cruise Personalizer, trying to prepare for our cruise on the 11th.  It seems we got an additional $100 pp Goodwill OBC.  I guess for the reduced time in Juneau and the now missed port.  

How do you see the OBC in Cruise Personalizer??  Thanks in advance, its my first cruise and this is all new to me...Nevermind- I kept looking and finally found it!

Edited June 6, 2022 by rrusso81

[PacnGoNow]

31 minutes ago, jeno said:

I was on the Crown for a 10 day cruise in January 2020.  We missed ports then because of propulsion problems.  I’ve seen mention of supply chain issues.  Baloney. They’ve had plenty of time to fix this ship and have had full knowledge of the problem since at least then. 

Where was the cruise to in Jan 2020?

TIA

 

[jeno]

1 minute ago, PacnGoNow said:

Where was the cruise to in Jan 2020?

TIA

 

Southern Carribean 

[BobbySu]

12 hours ago, Snate said:

We moved to Majestic and are spending a extra night in Vancouver since none of us have been there before.  Airfare was the main cost but my father in law picked it up for everyone so all is good.  Everyone is very excited about the new ship and itinerary.  Best of luck to those sailing on the Crown this summer.

We changed to the Majestic as well and got a good deal on the price difference, enough that it more than paid for the airfare back from Anchorage.  After the continuing disappointment of the Crown we are all very excited again about this cruise.  

We had friends on the 28thMay cruise who seemed pretty oblivious to the changes.  Their remarks were, "Some people just complain too much", "there wasn't much to do on board" and "we didn't get to many ports", like none of that was a big deal. They used their OBC to move from an interior to a balcony cabin and were happy about that.  If time on board with family is what you are after then the rest are minor inconveniences.