Sapphire Princess May 11, 2024 Cruise Delayed - Propulsion Issues

[TRLD]

10 minutes ago, Pingpong27 said:

If they had to cancel two or four or six cruises, then that's what they had to do. This ship wasn't in a state to do anything close to our scheduled itinerary.

Would you have been  happy with a full refund and maybe some flight costs reimbursed?, because that would have been the alternative. Look at the streams that talk about what was given when Sun canceled its inagural cruise at the last minute.

Edited May 16 by TRLD

[SCX22]

11 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Would you have been  happy with a full refund and maybe some flight costs reimbursed?, because that would have been the alternative. Look at the streams that talk about what was given when Sun canceled its inagural cruise at the last minute.

 

That's exactly what should have been done from the get go.  This is a mechanical issue, not force majeure.  RCCL takes the limelight with what they did with the Radiance of the Seas in the same situation because they didn't go forth with a cruise to Alaska in which they knew they couldn't deliver the full experience.

[TRLD]

9 minutes ago, Pingpong27 said:

I would've been happy with 100% refund and credit for airfare if Princess cancelled from the beginning. I fully believe this is what they should have done in Vancouver. 

As they say hindsight is always 20/20. I suspect if they new then what they know now they would have allowed people to choose either a full refund or the compensation they ended up offering, but the cruise itself would have continued. I suspect many, if not most would have taken the compensation a d continued, not unlike what happened when the Ruby hit the pier in SF last year I believe.

Edited May 16 by TRLD

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2 minutes ago, TRLD said:

As they hindsight is always 20/20. I suspect if they new then what they know now they would have allowed people to choose either a full refund or the compensation they ended up offering, but the cruise itself would have continued.

 

Just now, TRLD said:

Same answer as the one I just gave.

 

It's just bad judgement on Princess' part.  This isn't the first time.  The Sun Princess inaugural was a disaster.  Princess tries to pinch pennies, but in the end their decisions come to pinch them.

[fpsphil]

2 hours ago, TRLD said:

There are really only 4 possible outcomes.

 

1. Everything fixed no problem

 

2. Same problem exists. No Glaciers. Same compensation

 

3. Some problem still exists but glacier cruise bys and most stops made probably much smaller if any compensation. This is likely out come if they get the parts in Whittier, but it takes a day or 2 to install them.

 

4. They cancel the next 2 cruises.

 

Out of all of them 4 is probably the lowest probability.

 

So it really comes down to how one would feel about each of the other 3.

They have ~20 hours to install them in Whittier so I’m hoping for option 1. It’s also possible they loaded more contractors today or yesterday in Juneau to prepare for whatever repairs need to take place and are going to “take it slow” to Whittier limping the ship thus Glacier Bay being cancelled 

 

Waiting for AIS to update to see if they are planning on getting in early

Edited May 16 by fpsphil

[LyndaMR]

Had a stellar day in Skagway today after rainy and cold in Juneau yesterday. Arrived in Juneau around 2:30pm instead of 8am after losing all our inside passage views and Ketchikan by sailing to the west of Vancouver Island. Many people had their excursions cancelled. College Fjord was still on the itinerary two days ago but is gone now in addition to Glacier Bay. 
 

The Captain had cited currents as being part of the reason we had to go north on the open ocean, so I hope coming back (we are on a back to back cruise) we might get to sail the inside passage and stop in Ketchikan if the issue isn’t solved. They were clear in the letter that the compensation offered (75% refund & 75% towards a future cruise if booked by the end of this year in our letter) was *only* for the northbound journey. Whether that’s because they can fix it in Whittier or because they don’t want people to know it can’t be fixed remains to be seen. 

[fpsphil]

The theory of the ship coming in early may be somewhat true. Due to enter Prince William Sound at noon Friday which hopefully means docking early for repairs

 

[dizgal64]

8 hours ago, beerme1 said:

 

We can't? I'm in Buffalo and we have CFAR with Allianz. No issue.

That’s what we were told a couple cruises ago and then when we tried to get the Princess insurance they said it again. Sure wish I would have tried harder if this isn’t true. 

[dizgal64]

6 hours ago, TRLD said:

 

About the only alternative even if the problem remains, would be to allow people for the next cruise to cancel for full refund with other expenses refunded, but little or no FCC, of some FCC in place of covering other expenses. That is what they have done during similar cases in the past.

I would love this option! I wasn’t ever going to cruise with Princess again before all this happened so a FCC wouldn’t do me any good. Especially if it had an expiration of a year and a half. Just let me get out of this deal now so I can plan something else. 

[mncbabu_yahoo]

We will be on May 25th sailing. Also we are doing one week land tour (independently exploring), after cruise. Planning alternate options. Lot of booking were made in land tour ( hotels, matanuska glacier hike, denali shuttle, kenai fojard tour). Thinking of flying directly to anchorage on June 1 to do land tour only, if they cancel the may 25th sailing. The one way airfare (from San Diego to Anchorage) is very expensive as the dates are close. Is it a good idea to shop for travel insurance at this point? 

[sippican]

6 hours ago, LyndaMR said:

They were clear in the letter that the compensation offered (75% refund & 75% towards a future cruise if booked by the end of this year in our letter) was *only* for the northbound journey. Whether that’s because they can fix it in Whittier or because they don’t want people to know it can’t be fixed remains to be seen. 

 

The other reason may be that they don't know if they can fix it or not. They will never offer compensation for a sailing they when they have not determined if it can take place without impact. Why offer compensation if it becomes  non-issue?

[kamelia]

Just a quick heads-up for my fellow passengers currently on the ship: be sure to keep the compensation letter until after you have applied the Future Cruise Credit.  There was some pushback when I tried to apply it towards final payment for an upcoming cruise.  Usually, FCC can only be applied to new bookings made after final payment for the itinerary that the FCC was issued for, but there is no such stipulation attached to the FCC we were given and you may need the letter to show that.  If you don’t still have it, ask for a copy at Guest Services before you disembark.

[Paula_MacFan]

10 hours ago, fpsphil said:

Just received

Thank you SO MUCH!  It's nice to finally get something official.  Not to be a total skeptic, but the notice says 'set to sail as scheduled on the itinerary detailed at the end of this notification'.  Is that itinerary the same as originally booked?  

 

Just making sure 🙂  Thanks

[JimmyVWine]

12 hours ago, STLCARDS82 said:

How about the people that aren't on board and you're not currently in the situation with the Sapphire quit trying to justify to the people that are ...what a good deal they're getting!!!..You're not in the situation!!!!!

So if one IS on board, what should they be doing?  Seems if they have two options.  Look optimistically at the compensation that they are getting, or complain about it.  Spoiler alert:  Doing the latter will accomplish nothing.  

 

[dizgal64]

10 hours ago, fpsphil said:

Just received

How did I miss this?! 🤦‍♀️ 

Did you receive this by email? And thank you for posting. Here’s praying you have a great cruise with no incidents! 
 

oh and as far as the insurance, we got ours off of the squaremouth website. 

Edited May 16 by dizgal64

[Derfman60]

Just curious if anyone on board now could upload a copy of the Patter (or whatever it is called now). Would like to see what types of things are going on.

 

FYI - we were scheduled on NCL last October - Seattle to Hawaii (via Alaska) - and they cancelled the entire cruise. 

 

We also got held over in St. Thomas at the end of a Princess cruise years ago. We got an extra day FREE - but the people we saw in Puerto Rico that missed a day were pissed.

 

#StuffHappens

[kamelia]

26 minutes ago, dizgal64 said:

How did I miss this?!

You should also be able to see it in your reservation under “Itinerary” as well as “Travel Summary.”

[fpsphil]

50 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Thank you SO MUCH!  It's nice to finally get something official.  Not to be a total skeptic, but the notice says 'set to sail as scheduled on the itinerary detailed at the end of this notification'.  Is that itinerary the same as originally booked?  

 

Just making sure 🙂  Thanks

Looks the same as we booked.

1 minute ago, kamelia said:

You should also be able to see it in your reservation under “Itinerary” as well as “Travel Summary.”

We received it via email at 7:15 last night

[kamelia]

12 minutes ago, Derfman60 said:

Just curious if anyone on board now could upload a copy of the Patter (or whatever it is called now). Would like to see what types of things are going on.

[dizgal64]

34 minutes ago, kamelia said:

You should also be able to see it in your reservation under “Itinerary” as well as “Travel Summary.”

Oh I am sorry. I meant how did I miss this post. I’m on the 25th sailing so I am really paying attention to what happens with this next week’s sailing but I had missed that person posting that they had a communication from Princess. 
 

[kamelia]

2 minutes ago, dizgal64 said:

Oh I am sorry. I meant how did I miss this post. I’m on the 25th sailing so I am really paying attention to what happens with this next week’s sailing but I had missed that person posting that they had a communication from Princess. 
 

No apology necessary. 😊  This may help someone else who’s concerned they missed the email to know that there are alternative sources to confirm the Important Information specific to their itinerary.

[likeadisguise]

11 hours ago, ncmrs said:

Does anyone remember back in 2022 when the Celebrity Eclipse had barnacle issues causing all their port stops in Alaska to have reduced times? I think some of the times in port were reduced to 4 hours. I would think barnacles would be a regular maintenance issue. 

 

Off topic, but this was a problem for a lot of ships on a lot of lines after the pandemic, both because ships missed their every-two-year dry dock schedule, and also because the ships were kind of floating around more than usual rather than traveling at higher speeds, giving the barnacles more of a chance to grow and spread. You pretty much have to grind them off to remove them, and most ships didn't have a dry dock before return to service.  

[zanzibargirl]

Does anyone know the name of the naturalist? Thanks!

[kamelia]

32 minutes ago, zanzibargirl said:

Does anyone know the name of the naturalist? Thanks!

Sandra Schemp

[Joe Denver]

Eek - that's rough. They cancelled the glaciers, but kept the enrichment talk on, "Alaska's Mighty Glaciers".