mikemonster

And the confusion continues..... ESPRIT is correct , Sun Princess stopped in Santorini yesterday/today. I haven't seen any updates/posts regarding this stop, but I'm sure all of those who were disappointed with the recent port change announcements which had eliminated Santorini were happy👏🙌. We leave tomorrow for our cruise and at this point I'm not sure what ports we'll be stopping at (and I'm not sure Princess knows either 🙃) Bar or Kotor or maybe we'll go to Santorini too😁(lol) At least our forecast of scattered showers in Montenegro has been revised to partly sunny.

Interesting recent article sheds some light Regarding Santorini and Cruise industry https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2024/04/15/overtourism-cruise-ship-cancels-santorini-stop-over-congestion/ mike

Keep checking your Personalizer “dinners” we were able to book at 20 days before our cruise sail date ( May 3). note: I’ve noticed Princess has been doing the web updates around 9:00AM PST for changes on our cruise mike

We finally received the "Booking Itinerary Change" Notice last night (I'm in NorCal) Still no excursions on Personalizer. I've noticed that Princess usually sends out emails and does web updates around 9:00AM (PST) so we'll see if there are any updates. Regarding speculation on the port changes.( ports are controlled by local authorities) Santorini- (I can't find the article I read) but earlier this year the port was performing work on the gondola system and closed the port to all ships while the work was being performed. There was also discussion at that time to limiting the number of ships/passengers in port at daily as the port could not handle the ever increasing number of visitors. Kotor- Similar to the passenger overload issue in Santorini coupled with possibly number of tenders could possibly the problem with Kotor which has shifted to using Bar. [SPECULATION] Princess may have run into issues with Montenegro port authority which they most likely have agreements in place to use their ports which may have forced the change to Bar (an alternate Montenegro port) rather than switching to Dubrovnik for instance , who knows. bottom line is Kotor is out for Sun Princess. As for this latest change to Bar, we are traveling with 2 other couples and have cancelled our Kortor excursion, with no options being offered yet by Princess, our research finding few options in Bar and the weather forecast for showers,. We have developed our own excursion for Bar, Montenegro. "BAR CRAWL" With 29 bars onboard we have decided to "visit" as many as we can while in port, taking advantage of our "Plus and/or Premier drink packages" .'when life deals you lemons, make limoncello.....' mike.

EDVM96”No worries. I'm sure the shore excursion desk will have tours available for you.” Problem for our cruise is Bar will be the First Stop so many of the 4k passengers will be lined up on embarkation day trying to book excursions AND who knows what the capacity of the excursions will be. Bar is a minor cruise stop (no large ships seem to stop there) and just reviewing online tours there aren’t that many options.

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!! We leave in 6 days and haven't received any notice from Princess regarding this change HOWEVER, our itinerary now has "Bar" for our stop in Montenegro instead of Kotor. There are NO excursions listed our "Princess Personalizer". Now we're in "scramble mode" since we had a half day van tour thru Viator scheduled in Kotor , with a 2hr drive that's out . We have no way to book Princess excursions online or even know what's available................ and so it goes with more POOR COMMUNICATION from PRINCESS

Mark- my point as well. As for Cruisedig (a site I don’t usually visit ) I did a bit of searching there and Sun Princess itinerary’s are not available on that site from what I found, which could explain why it doesn’t show up in the port info for Kotor. let’s just wait and see😉

I’m not sure what’s “ disappointing to hear since we haven’t heard anything yet which will affect our May cruise. From what I’ve read , Santorini port has decided to limit the number of passengers in port at any given time by restricting ships in port. Future schedules such as “cruisemapper” may help determine if your cruise is included in the days schedule. As for Kotor as a port for Sun Princess we’ll just have to see if future cruises are affected, it too early to tell at this time.

15 days until we sail and no word from Princess on anything (including port changes) In checking cruisemapper "no ships" show as scheduled docking in Kotor on April11 besides Sun Princess or on May 6 (which is my cruises port date for Kotor). At this point we have considered options should there be a change (even checked Dubrovnik which shows no ships scheduled for our port date of May 6). The speculation of "why" the Kotor port changed on the April 11 cruise at this point is interesting but in the end it happened. Hopefully, Princess will do a better job of communication moving forward but if this was a last minute one time change out of their control, chalk it up to Sh#t happens. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next 2 weeks. mike

Any update on why the port was changed from Kotor to Bar? We’re sailing on May 4 and Kotor is our first scheduled stop. We haven’t heard from Princess about any changes, but given their track record so far on communication that’s not a surprise.

Thanks Sox great summary/review Sailing in 19 Days, Now, I can cancel my Amazon order for a sports coat 😉and have less to pack We have the "8:30PM" reservation with 2hrs eating and 1/2hr in the bar before the show, it sounds like a late evening.(we're also celebrating one of our groups 60th BD that evening, (we'll be sure to let the magician know), Fortunately, we have a sea day the next day to recover Mike

Thanks “Sox” I was just in the process of looking for a “travel sports coat” but with 3 weeks until our cruise I’ll be waiting to hear if I don’t need one. please do keep us updated and give your impression of the dinner and show M

This was the first time I saw Spellbound for our May 4 cruise. I didn’t take time to check out time/dates and booked. We are traveling with 2 other couples and it is one of our friends 60th BD and I was able to book us all for his BD. Then realized it’s a At Sea Day and could have booked an earlier time. I tried to change time but App wouldn’t let me. I tried our “Planner” no help, tried Princess support ( no confidence they wouldn’t screw us up when she said she would need to cancel the existing booking to change time so I just left it at our 8:30 seating. Again, thanks CC for the heads up to get booked MM

Just booked our Spellbound for our May 4 cruise. No email announcement I just had "Cruise Critic notify set for this thread and saw the post from Spandance (Thanks)!! Did have a slight issue with my CC being used needing additional info and had to reenter charge info for my card for some reason, but still got reservations Mike

I'm booked on May 4 cruise and have been waiting and checking often for "Spellbound" reservation option to appear, which for me IT HAS NOT APPEARED. At this point I don't know if it's sold out or not for our 7 day cruise (which runs concurrently with a 14day and 21day cruise all boarding on May4). I have a number of issues with Princess that I won't address here, but a couple that are on topic are the way that Princess is managing COMMUNICATION and the BOOKING systems for dining. In my case (it seems to me) that on my "concurrent" cruise, passengers with the shortest cruise should be offered the opportunity to book first followed by those on the 14 day and lastly those on the 21 since this would provide all passengers 7 days of exclusive booking for their portion of their cruise BUT WHO KNOW's HOW PRINCESS IS MANAGING THESE BOOKINGS since there has been little to NO COMMUNICATION.. Princess has done an EXTREAMLY poor job of communication over all (just take a look at the posts regarding sailing and port cancellations) and in this case, emails that indicate events (dining & wine tasting in particular) can be booked only to find when you select "Booking" in the email the link only tells you "Coming Soon" and when you call in to Customer Service OR your "Cruise Planner" they recite what you can read in the App or Princess web AND then tell you 'book once you are on board'. OR 'it's coming soon keep checking the App. Due to a Princess EZ Fly issue which placed charges on my account in error after I had made my final payment, I was unable to make dinner reservations via the App because the error showed "payment due" which prevented me from being able to book/see dinner reservations until end of Feb.. At this point with 24 days until sailing I haven't been able to book any "Specialty" restaurants. When I check these restaurants now only a very few have any times and those are 5:00 or 9:00 on 1 or 2 days during our portion of the cruise. We had hoped to experience Spellbound, I can somewhat understand the high price for the experience and don't mind the dinner menu however, I do resent bringing/packing a suit/sportscoat/slacks and tie for a single evening of a 7 day cruise only to possibly find out once on board that the show is unavailable to us and I overpacked for nothing.. Mike Sun Princess May 4 - 11 Reserved Cabana Mini Suite Princess Premier Princess Gold