boomerone

The compensation offered by Princess is more than fair. I cannot think of any other vacation opportunity where such a generous offer could be expected if something went wrong. Some airlines will not even give $7 meal vouchers to passengers who get stuck at an airport for 12 hours or even overnight when a plane breaks down and substitute aircraft cannot or will not be provided. Anyone who holds Princess liable for fog or oil spills in a port should expect Princess to respond "Well, why did you schedule your cruise when the weather was going to be foggy or when the oil spill was going to occur?" Both scenarios are ludicrous but people want Princess to give them the moon when they don't deserve it. Travel insurance should help those who had the foresight to purchase it and to the rest of the complainers I'd say too bad, so sad. I suspect the generosity shown by Princess is because they had insurance of their own to cover such an oddball occurrence. Instead of being taken to the woodshed Princess should be congratulated for their generosity.

Porcini mushroom soup, lamb chops or steak at the Crown Grill, gambieri fra alla diavolo in the MDR, black cherry sorbet, smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted bagel for breakfast

1979 on the original "Love Boat" sailing to the Mexican Riviera with Captain Creighton at the helm. We've been hooked on cruising with Princess ever since and are looking forward to many more sailings.

I just filled out the survey from the link emailed to me. We disembarked from the Ruby on Thursday. Those of you who read my live thread know that we had a problem with the shore excursion desk. I mentioned that in my survey. Does Princess contact passengers who report problems on the survey? The shore excursion manager sent me a letter saying that he was unable to get in touch with the tour operator and that he would be forwarding my complaint to Princess' offices in California. I wonder how long I should wait until I follow up on my own in case Princess doesn't respond.

 

P.S. My complaint was that the tour we received did not match the description. It was the Tulum Mayan Ruins and Beach Break. The beach was closed due to rough surf, so we missed out on that portion of the excursion. The shore excursion desk rep told me that the weather isn't Princess' fault. I told him it wasn't ours either. The beach break was schedule to be 90 minutes of our excursion. It was the reason I chose that excursion instead of the other one that goes to Tulum. In addition, if we had been told earlier that the beach was closed, we would have left a lot of things on the bus. As it was, we carried heavy bags around the excursion with our beach towels, change of clothes, suntan lotion, etc. I'm hoping my complaint will improve the operation of that tour so that future passengers are told when the beach is closed before they get off the bus.

I firmly believe the way to handle a gripe from a shore excursion is to immediately address the issue with the shore excursion supervisor as soon as you return to the ship. Don't wait several days or longer to square things away and don't think the post-cruise survey will fix your gripe. On a recent shorex in Spain our guide did not tell us where our bus would be for the return to the ship. When I pressed her for the location of the bus she said "no problem, just meet me at X at time Y. We returned to X about 10 minutes early and saw a number of fellow cruisers milling about in the rain waiting for the guide. X was in a spacious town square but on that day a large number of students were in the square protesting something. X was very crowded and there were about 7 exits from the square leading down streets and alleyways. to wherever one might find a bus. Seeing we had 10 minutes time before departing X we slipped around the corner not more than 75 feet from X to check out a shop or two. We returned to location X precisely at time Y and could not find a soul from our group. The guide was not carrying a flag or bright unique umbrella to identify her in the crowd. If she had one we would have seen her walking away from the square. Not knowing which way to go to find the bus we stayed at location X until the guide returned about 15 minutes later. That was a frustrating and anxious 15 minutes. She admitted to not taking an accurate count of the people on her tour but would not admit she had left early. We got back to the bus to a somewhat miffed group of fellow passengers and it was embarrassing. We were not late for the departure from X, the group simply was herded back to the bus earlier than the stated time. I went to the shorex desk, stated our case to a very receptive officer and received a partial credit for that excursion on the spot without even asking for one. Tip of the hat to Princess for our satisfactory and reasonable resolution. My advice with shorex gripes is to stay civil with the guides and ship personnel, have your ducks lined up and don't have unrealistic expectations. Next time, if a guide does not have a flag we will make sure we maintain visual contact of the meeting location a few minutes prior to the stated departure time.

You're right. Tony is on the Crown. Then we get on the Ruby. And after that, Emerald. I know Nick will be on one of them.

Captain Tony Yeomans told us he was retiring once the Crown Princess arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on November 8, 2013. Class act all the way, the consummate professional. Enjoy the golf!

And the more people talk about smuggling their wine onboard the more effort every cruise line will put into finding our "beverages". I suggest we forego discussing this issue as we are the ones who likely killed the golden goose in the first place.

Hi All,

 

Thank you in advance for any information!

 

We are sailing on our first Princess Cruise next month (Ruby). We are looking forward to experiencing her :-)

 

We have learned from other cruise lines that there are tips for specialty dinning. Such as Celebrity offering a reduced rate for booking a specialty for the first night of the cruise or knowing that NCL has lobster the first night in the dining room.

 

Is there any tips or information about Specialty dining or dining in general that I would be wise to know?

Tried the Crown Grill on Crown Princess several weeks ago and afterwards wondered why we had not taken advantage of specialty dining venues sooner. The service and food quality was extra special and the ambiance was a step up from the MDR. We enjoyed the lobster cake as a starter, salad, soup, and a filet mignon or lamb chops with a side of lobster tails as an entree. It was a truly wonderful and unhurried dining experience well worth the $25pp fee.

We are planning a cruise on Coral Princess in January of 2014 to the Panama Canal - Round trip. I guess that means partial.

 

A few years ago we went to the Panama Canal with Royal Caribbean. At that time nothing was ever mentioned about PARTIAL–at least I don’t think so. When going through the locks we stayed on the ship and could see everything. Then when the ship turned around, we went off and did some shopping near the pier.

This time we are going with Princess and friends who have never been to the Canal. I would pretty much like to stay on board again. But with this itinerary I am not quite sure if you get to see as much or if it would be better to take the 6 hr locks excursion. It seems that a lot of people here really like that excursion.

Any pros and cons?

Several years ago we took a partial transit cruise and got off the boat in Gatun Lake for a "nature walk" which was pretty blah (one monkey in the trees, a bunch of leafcutter ants racing about, some flowers, a couple of birds). However, the best part was saved for last as we were allowed to view the ship returning through the locks from several vantage points along a viewing platform right at the locks. The ship passed just a few feet away. The up-close experience was a fine comparison to what we saw from the ships perspective entering and passing through the locks. I don't know if this excursion is offered on the partial transits these days but it's worth researching.

This was the most unusual cruise I have ever been on thanks to Mother Nature.

Embarkation was from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale with a turnaround in

Southampton for the last half of the trip..

 

The first 2 weeks were perfect weather wise, with great ports including the Canary Islands.

 

When we arrived back in Southampton to change passengers, we were informed by the Captain a terrible storm was in our path and we would be

in port at Southampton for 3 days. And we were. This caused us to miss

3 ports, including Le Harve for Paris and Normandy, Vigo and the Azores.

Wow, everybody was upset!! Some acted like Princess planned this on purpose.

 

Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone can do. The sad part was that many

Veterans were on board to visit Normandy. One gentleman brought American flags to put on graves. I didn't want to miss Paris as well.

However, Captain made the correct decision. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

Although we only able to visit 2 ports in 14 days, the Cruise Director, Kelvin Joy, and his staff kept things on board fun with lots to do. Princess gave each

passenger a FCC of one week fare based on the amount they paid for their cruise. My husband and I each received $1080.00. Considering Princess didn't

have to compensate anything because of weather conditions, I thought that was very generous to them. Figuring each of the 3000 passenger's received approximately $1000.00 and the three days in port the casino, stores and no shorex's took place, I figure it could have cost them about 4 Million.

I am pleased to see the support Princess is receiving in this thread. What bothered me most about the decision to remain in Southampton was the negative reaction of those who have no clue about how rough and dangerous heavy seas and high winds can be. After spending a large part of a Navy career at sea I have witnessed first hand the kinds of conditions we would have faced had we ventured out into the Atlantic as scheduled. It would not have been pretty with terrified, panic-stricken passengers wailing about the conditions and the decsion to press on into the storm. The integrity of the ship and crew and passenger safety would have been in jeopardy and obviously a number of people did not understand that situation. Captain Yeomans and the Princess Operations Department deserve kudos for their decision. Kelvin Joy and his Cruise Director Staff also deserve praise for giving us many entertainment, self-enrichment, and contest options during our time inport and sailing across the ocean. The future cruise credit we received is beyond generous and with time I hope those who were unhappy come to the realization that they got a great deal. Passengers placing blaming on Princess for staying inport due to the weather is akin to Princess blaming the passengers for scheduling their holiday during a storm! It makes no sense whatsoever. The conduct of some who had the shore excursion officer cornered near the future cruise sales desk was appalling and undeserved. I admire the professionalism she and the Purser's Desk staff exhibited under duress. Our cruise credit has already been gratefully applied to our next cruise on the Emerald. The only mistake I thought Princess made during the event was publishing the terms of the the future cruise credit prior to our arrival in Bermuda. High winds and a very narrow channel into West End has caused a number of port visit cancellations in Bermuda. I shudder to think how some of the passengers would have reacted had Captain Yeomans been forced to skip Bermuda as well.

Thoroughly enjoy all the sorbets with the exception of the pink grapefruit...

Porcini mushroom and French onion soups

Gambieri Fra Alla Diavolo or is it Alla Fra Diavolo? (Cajun shrimp on rice)

Crawfish etouffe (sp???)

Scallops

Chicken salad, Greek/Mediterranean salad, shrimp salad, served in the International Café

Any curry dish

Hot pizza in Alfredo's

Lobster

Lamb chops

Morning coffee after my power walk on the Promenade deck (followed by granola yogurt in the IC)

Crème brulee

First time to Ocean cruise to Viking Homelands-Bergan to Stockholm. Any suggestions of side trips in Stockholm or St. Petersburg?

Stockholm is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Hopefully we will be tied up in or very close to the Gamla Stan (old city). The Wasa museum is amazing as they have done a wonderful job restoring the ship that sank in the city the day it was launched hundreds of years ago. Drottningholm Castle is also quite nice. Any small boat tour sailing out into the Swedish archipelago is well worth the time and expense. Luckily we have cousins who live about 40 minutes north of Stockholm and we'll get to visit them for a few days post-cruise. Have fun!

We're think about a New England/Canada cruise out of NYC in October because the fares are reasonable and we could drive to NYC. Those who have done this itinerary - did you enjoy it? We could leave either October 12 or 19th; I doubt there would be much of a difference foliage-wise or weather-wise, right? I still have some vacation time this year and am looking for a fairly reasonable way to use it without using it for a staycation. (Unfortunately, my workplace is use it or lose it, so I definitely want to use it!)

 

There aren't really any other ports we can drive to, so it's pretty much NYC if we don't want to add airfare on to the cost.

Concur with Pam but Mother Nature isn't always as predictable as we'd like her to be. I've done this one twice and enjoyed them both. Next cruise trip to Canada we'll go B2B so we have two shots at seeing the ports. Loved "Bah Hahbor" for Cadillac Mtn and Acadia Nat'l Park foliage...wonderful scenery but sometimes it rains which is a bit of a spoiler...take a brolly! The reversing falls jet boat in St. John is very exciting, an e-ticket ride for sure. Boston city bus tour was good for seeing all the historical stuff. Have never cared for Newport and both times I was there the weather was pretty ugly. The Titanic cemetery in Halifax is very interesting depending on the guide you have for the bus tour. Sailing into and out of NY Harbor past the Statue of Liberty is memorable but try to get to Ellis Island either pre-or post- cruise to really get a feeling for immigrants in the late 1800-early 1900's. Flew into EWR, stayed overnight and then caught the Princess bus early on the days we sailed. Piece of cake! Have fun!

Wes, Thanks for the updates. Here's a new version with those bookings. Also added cruiser names where I have them. Count is now 22. -- roy --

boomerone=Janie and John from Seattle on Viking Homelands May 16

Hi. Tell us, in our poll, which is your favorite river cruise line (you can vote for more than one). Feel like telling us why? Please share below. Thanks.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

Veteran of 6 Viking River Cruise experiences (China, Tulips and Windmills, Elegant Elbe where we were stuck high and dry on the rocks in Dresden but VRC did the best they could and issued us credit toward a future cruise, Paris-Normandy-Paris, Chalon-Avignon, and Amsterdam to Budapest on our first longship sailing) and we have enjoyed them all so we find no reason to change. Itineraries, food, service, onboard activities, inport guides, audiovox system, and cabin quality/amenities consistantly very much to our liking. We intend to book a sailing in Russia in the near future. We attended the Viking Ocean Cruises unveiling and were quite impressed with the presentation, the images of "Viking Star" and the inclusion of some things we find lacking on the "big ship" sailings. Appreciate the CEO's decision to not nickel/dime, eliminate super formal evenings, and spend more hours and overnights in port. Also, kudos for eliminating the casino and opening up the MDR with large windows. We trust Viking Cruises will put out a superior ocean product and we have booked their first Baltic sailing in 2015. Quite frankly, this poll is flawed as I believe most folks do not sail on multiple lines and are in no position to compare river cruise companies. If you've only sailed with one provider it must be your favorite!

I hesitate to articulate in fear that I may deviate from the true course of rectitude.

The last time we had the pleasure of being entertained by Maurizio we learned that his wife was not well. Hope that has turned around for them. He is a marvelous musician and what a personality! Roger Carr is another Princess gem that we have enjoyed on several cruises. There are times when I feel as if the two of them provide the best entertainment by individuals on the ship.