Diamond Princess cruises from September 1, 2022 through November 13, 2022 booking Cancelled

[Cariboocruisers]

We were booked on the Diamond October 16 cruise. Was really looking forward to the different ports.

 

I had just begun to seriously look at booking pre-cruise items. Did parking at SeaTac but picked the pay later option, tried to book a SD hotel for 2 nights through Hotwire on Sunday night (non-refundable $470USD) but the website hung when I clicked the Book button.

 

Flights were through EasyAir.

 

So, amazingly, we are out zero dollars. Switching to the Discovery a day earlier and trying to be optimistic.

[azbirdmom]

The timing of the announcement stinks too.  They did it late in the day yesterday then rolled out bookings for a whole slew of cruises for the 2023/24 season this morning.  Guessing the phone hold times will be even more of a nightmare than usual.

[PacnGoNow]

3 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

The timing of the announcement stinks too.  They did it late in the day yesterday then rolled out bookings for a whole slew of cruises for the 2023/24 season this morning.  Guessing the phone hold times will be even more of a nightmare than usual.

They have been pretty short hold times for the last couple of weeks, for me anyway.  Now, it may be crazy again. 😞

[Graycruise]

5 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

They have been pretty short hold times for the last couple of weeks, for me anyway.  Now, it may be crazy again. 😞

Wishful thinking!  I've been on hold for 4hrs now!  Our cabin category (Club Class) is not available on either of the replacement Discovery sailings - so looks like we will need to cash out.  Not going to book Princess again.

[shastatroy]

19 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Interesting that Princess would sail the Diamond across the Pacific (she was just in San Pedro) and then cancel all her cruises just a few weeks away.  What will they do with the Diamond?

 

I am sorry for the disappointment in not doing the Sea of Cortez.  Is if one of my favorite West Coast itineraries.  

 

I am booked for a Japan Cruise.  It will be interesting if they sail the Diamond back to Japan and start the cruises when Japan is still struggling to open to tourism.  

 

I'm glad I did not jump on a chance to do a short trip out of San Diego.  Gave it some thought, but nothing seemed to draw me in.  Fares were outstanding.  

Just spoke to a crew member with the Diamond, Princess couldn't fill the staffing for the dining rooms, so they canceled the sailing until they can find enough crew members. 

[wcflats]

Still have cruises 🚢 booked on discovery in December and on emerald princess Panama Canal in March though!😁

[cr8tiv1]

28 minutes ago, shastatroy said:

Just spoke to a crew member with the Diamond, Princess couldn't fill the staffing for the dining rooms, so they canceled the sailing until they can find enough crew members. 

 

Hi @shastatroy.  Been a very long time.  Hope you are doing well.

 

When I spoke to my MRD crew, they told me that one of the problems was getting visas and other necessary documents for international crew.  Many expired during the pandemic.  They said that there were a lot of friends wanting to rejoin the ship, but the process was taking a long time.

 

Add covid/isolations and coming on board quarantine and you have a problem with staffing.  

 

I see that Princess has a few options.

1.  Fill the ships to less capacity with keeping crew ratio pre-covid ratio.

2.  Salvage current ships online by cannibalizing ships that are not online (Sapphire/Diamond).

3.  Scrap Galveston.

4.  Consolidate Ships/ports.  Carnival has one ship in Long Beach that does 3 and 4 day cruises (= 7 day cruises).  The Panorama is HUGE.  No thanks.  Princess removed back to back cruises to Hawaii.   They replaced them with Hawaii, then Mexico, then Hawaii.  I didn't like that then but maybe Princess needs to rethink scheduling.  

 

The Crown will be going into drydock.  But the time is not long enough to move the crew to other ships.  

[toofewcruises]

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

The timing of the announcement stinks too.  They did it late in the day yesterday then rolled out bookings for a whole slew of cruises for the 2023/24 season this morning.  Guessing the phone hold times will be even more of a nightmare than usual.

I used the chat function and that worked well!

[fpsphil]

17 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

Hi @shastatroy.  Been a very long time.  Hope you are doing well.

 

When I spoke to my MRD crew, they told me that one of the problems was getting visas and other necessary documents for international crew.  Many expired during the pandemic.  They said that there were a lot of friends wanting to rejoin the ship, but the process was taking a long time.

 

Add covid/isolations and coming on board quarantine and you have a problem with staffing.  

 

I see that Princess has a few options.

1.  Fill the ships to less capacity with keeping crew ratio pre-covid ratio.

2.  Salvage current ships online by cannibalizing ships that are not online (Sapphire/Diamond).

3.  Scrap Galveston.

4.  Consolidate Ships/ports.  Carnival has one ship in Long Beach that does 3 and 4 day cruises (= 7 day cruises).  The Panorama is HUGE.  No thanks.  Princess removed back to back cruises to Hawaii.   They replaced them with Hawaii, then Mexico, then Hawaii.  I didn't like that then but maybe Princess needs to rethink scheduling.  

 

The Crown will be going into drydock.  But the time is not long enough to move the crew to other ships.  

Any word on if they are going to be moved over to the Sapphire?

[Guest ldtr]

Just now, fpsphil said:

Any word on if they are going to be moved over to the Sapphire?

The real question is that if they cannot staff Diamond, what are the odds that they will be able to staff Sapphire's initial cruises.

[fpsphil]

Just now, ldtr said:

The real question is that if they cannot staff Diamond, what are the odds that they will be able to staff Sapphire's initial cruises.

I would assume any of the staff that are already committed to the Diamond would be moved to the Sapphire making it easier to staff

[rj59]

On the bright side, Baja in October is pretty hot and has some hurricane risk. I’m bothered by the requirement to use the FCC by 2024, since RC dropped FCC expiration. I’m bummed to miss my Sept 1 sailing, but I feared that the first sailing would have problems, and a SF/Ensenada sailing isn’t exciting.

[voljeep]

4 hours ago, shastatroy said:

Just spoke to a crew member with the Diamond, Princess couldn't fill the staffing for the dining rooms, so they canceled the sailing until they can find enough crew members. 

so this crew member you spoke to ... what was the reason Princess 'can't' fill crew staff?  Are past crew now not willing? No new crew applying? Visa's? Covid? Training?

[Vexorg]

My wife and I are booked for the October 23rd Sapphire Princess cruise which I'm hoping will go as planned, but it sounds like we might want to have a plan B just in case they start cancelling those too.

[tonit964]

14 minutes ago, Vexorg said:

My wife and I are booked for the October 23rd Sapphire Princess cruise which I'm hoping will go as planned, but it sounds like we might want to have a plan B just in case they start cancelling those too.

Well the Sapphire 9/24, 10/4 and 10/19 cruises are still showing “currently unavailable”

so I’m thinking those sailings being canceled too. 

[lb7429]

4 hours ago, toofewcruises said:

I used the chat function and that worked well!

Chat worked best for us

[Momma Rene]

I'm booked for February on Diamond.  I've booked hotel.  Something is up with a San Diego departure.  Celebrity has very little San Diego.  

[fpsphil]

1 hour ago, Vexorg said:

My wife and I are booked for the October 23rd Sapphire Princess cruise which I'm hoping will go as planned, but it sounds like we might want to have a plan B just in case they start cancelling those too.

Whelp looks like she's left the dock probably for anchorage for the next 3 months....

[westerdam]

I am rather peeved with Princess right now.  They have yet to cancel my booking or even send the supposed email about it to either me or my travel agent.  She said she found out late last night but didn't have the details yet.  Thank you so much cruise critic! I just wonder why they are not offering any of the other Diamond Princess sailings in January and just the Discovery Princess instead.  

[Stockjock]

On 8/8/2022 at 4:37 PM, whataboutport said:

The OBC incentive is tempting but i'm thinking when the itinerary I want is back up (Sea of cortez) prices will be much higher anyway. I'm opting for the full refund.

The only reason I'm taking FCC is due to the fact that my deposit was $2.  But otherwise, I think one is almost always better off taking a cash refund rather than FCC.

[youngkona]

For anyone taking the refund option, can you please confirm when your account shows the refund- thanks!

[toofewcruises]

18 hours ago, rj59 said:

On the bright side, Baja in October is pretty hot and has some hurricane risk. I’m bothered by the requirement to use the FCC by 2024, since RC dropped FCC expiration. I’m bummed to miss my Sept 1 sailing, but I feared that the first sailing would have problems, and a SF/Ensenada sailing isn’t exciting.

FCC needs to be used by December 2023...

[toofewcruises]

37 minutes ago, youngkona said:

For anyone taking the refund option, can you please confirm when your account shows the refund- thanks!

Patience.  Check your account weekly.  It's highly unlikely anyone will be reporting here that they received their refunds, especially since most of us have chosen either to rebook or to get FCC's.

[sunsetme]

I am trying to dispute the charge with my CC company as I recently made final payment for Nov 13 day before the darn cancellation notice.

[zhuangcorp]

I was seriously considering booking a Princess cruise out of San Diego, but I ended up booking with HAL instead around the same period. 

 

Hopefully dodged a bullet in that HAL doesn't also cancel.