GHDPeter

Just back from a cruise ( not PCL) and can't believe this thread is still running especially after all the carry on when this policy change was announce back in January.

I head off on the Sea Princess in 11 days and have packed 10 bottles into carry on as I am happy to pay the corkage and enjoy my choice of wine where and when I want to.

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Here in Australia P & O changed their policy of returning or delivering duty free spirits on the day before disembarkation to the morning of disembarkation due to abuse of the system by passengers.

You now have to collect them yourself from a designated area at a designated time before you disembark.

This also means you are carrying them when you go through customs with your bags and those with excess get stopped and have to pay duty on all the alcohol not just what is in excess of the limit.

But I say good on Princess, the rule is and has been clearly stated in your passage contract, luggage tag and boarding pass that only wine may be brought aboard. If you break the rules and get caught, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Maybe if you want to carry on and buy spirits you should try P & O UK, I did a couple of segments of their world cruise this year and was able to carry on 12 wine, 3 litres of Gin and also buy more duty free onboard and take it back to my cabin.

The Australian passage contract and website FAQ has been updated to reflect the new policy.

Since April I have done 3 cruises on the Australian based ships and had no issues with wine being carried onboard.

The policy is effectively unlimited wine, you just have to pay the corkage.

You can not however bring beer or spirits on board.

On our March cruise we had a cabin booked and confirmed, but all 9 bookings in our group received a move-over offer 3 days before the cruise was due to sail.

They offered us a full refund, a free replacement cruise ( The choice of suggested sailings included one which was double in length to our original cruise), an upgrade to the next category of cabin and airfares.

We chose the offer, the rest of our group could not change their vacation times so did not take it.

The only extra compensation that Princess has given its passengers is the free cruise credit for another cruise. All the other compensation - refund, airfares home, overnight accommodation, and incidentals is what they are REQUIRED AND HAVE COMMITTED to do under the Cruise Passengers Bill of Rights - http://www.cruising.org/news/press_releases/2013/05/cruise-industry-adopts-passenger-bill-rights , which you will find on the Princess.com website under legal except if you are in Australia as it seems that page is geoblocked.

Also Princess must have known there was a problem with the ship and that there was a high probability that the ship was not going to sail, otherwise they would not have been able to have the people on a flight from Sydney to Singapore in time to deal with the problem.

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The Sun Princess is owned by an American company and registered in Bermuda (hence the Bermuda flag). It is currently based in Australia. :)

Carnival is a dual listed company in the US and the UK. If you check your passage contract you will see that it states

We/Our/Us means Carnival plc, trading as Princess Cruises® and, where the context permits, includes the Carrier. PCL means Princess Cruise Lines Ltd, a Bermudan company. Carrier means PCL, except for bookings on Sun Princess® and Dawn Princess® where Carrier means Carnival plc. In selling you cruises and issuing you tickets, Carnival plc acts as a sales agent for PCL, except for bookings on Sun Princess® and Dawn Princess® where Carnival plc acts as principal. For bookings on Sea Princess® cruises departing and returning to Australia, Carrier means Carnival plc and Carnival plc acts as principal in selling and issuing your tickets.

You are entering into this contract with Carnival plc trading as Princess Cruises®, ARBN 107 998 443.

Certain laws such as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and any applicable state based consumer legislation (from here known as 'consumer laws'), are in place for your protection. They are designed to ensure the services provided by us (and, where applicable, the Carrier), are provided with due care and skill and are reasonably fit for a cruise holiday. These 'Terms & Conditions' do not alter any protection given to you by consumer laws.

You might be able to get compensation from Princess Cruises Australia under the consumer laws, it might be a good idea to contact the NSW office of fair trading as the passage contract also states

Legal matters

In the unlikely event you have reason to take legal action, you agree to use all reasonable efforts to bring the issue to our attention as soon as possible.

This contract is governed by the laws in force in New South Wales. You agree that any action you bring against us will be brought in New South Wales.

You agree only to bring action against Carnival plc and not PCL or any of Carnival plc's other related bodies corporate as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).

Where consumer laws and other laws permit us to exclude our liability, we will not be liable for:

loss of, or damage to, any luggage or other belongings

sickness, injury or death,

unless caused by our proven negligence or failure to provide services with due care and skill and that are reasonably fit for purpose.

In addition, our liability will be reduced in proportion to any negligence or fault on your part.

In March this year, 2 days before we were due to sail on the Sun Princess from Brisbane all in our group (9 cabins) received Moveover offers.

The offer was a full refund in the form of Refundable OBC, a replacement cruise FOC, an upgrade from outside to balcony, and airfares reimbursement. We were doing a 3 night coastal from Brisbane to Sydney and replaced it with a 6 night Sydney - Tasmania return.

There were reports on the roll calls for the Dawn Princess European cruise of people being offered the same sort of deals in the week prior to departure from Australia.

Yes I whole heartily agree with Kentskie, Angela was the most pleasant and helpful of all the Princess representatives on the day. But with no disrespect intended to her, she was and maybe unknowingly very much part of the smoke & mirror act being played out that day by the Princess Cruises so called help team on the passengers. We first had contact with Angela just after arriving at the passenger warehouse were she took our details, name, cabin number, home city etc. The reason given by her was so she could pass this information up the line where they would arrange either accommodation or a flight home for us within about 2 hours.

 

After about 3 hours I approached Angela to enquire as to what was happening, she was surrounded by a group of passengers where she was still telling everyone the same as she had told us, I interrupted and enquired as to what if anything had been organised in regards to her earlier commitment of accommodation or a flight home. Much to my disgust it came out that all Angela was doing was taking down passengers details which weren't being passed on, she still was holding the sheets of paper with our and everyone easel's details taken during the afternoon. It was all part of a lets be seen to be doing something act.

 

I approached a gentleman who was pointed out to me as being in charge, I explained to him what Angela was doing and asked why were we being lied to. He said Angela was only taken the details from passengers who were going to make their own arrangements, not what we or the other passengers were being told by Angela, he said he’d talk to her about it, turned and walked off. At no time did I see him or any other member of the Princess team approach her. I watched as Angela continued on as before telling the same story and taking down passenger’s details.

As I said smoke & mirrors !!

I wonder why Princess did not have a copy of the passenger manifest handy to use to find accommodation and flights.

The checkin system should have had that information readily available and is independent to the ships system as it is portable and taken ashore for the checkin process.

She did have a power failure this time last year as she was heading home from Auckland at the end of the World Cruise.

My experience with Princess with cancellations and move overs has been very good, they make it very easy and come through with their promises.

Better for the cruise to be cancelled than to have problems at sea like the Carnival ships did.

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What a completely narrow minded view you have!

 

Low prices attract all sorts of people. The couple who can fit another holiday into their year because it's a good deal or people like myself and my husband who have 3 very young children who are not yet at school meaning we only have one income coming in, plus a huge mortgage to pay for, so we can't afford expensive prices but can grab a cheap getaway priced cruise to have a couple of days away together. Maybe people like us shouldn't be allowed on a cruise then as we don't meet your upper class standards :rolleyes:

Being a classless Aussie I was amazed by the "class" snobbery that I saw on the Aurora earlier this year.

It was very funny to watch, but also very sad. I overheard one very "upper" class sounding woman at breakfast complaining that she had been overcharged £1 and was heading straight down to have it removed!

Those boarding a long cruise could well have brought on several bottles or a case of wine. What happens to that? Arrive at the pier with their wine only to be told the policy changed :confused: :rolleyes: :confused: The whole thing was handled so unprofessionally that it's sickening.

I don't think HAL realizes the damage they've done or the nightmare they've created. Truly...the way this would implemented...will make me question anything they do in the future.

Maybe they are counting on the outrage to die down and hoping that people forget by the time January comes round. Then they can say it has been notified and in place since july 2013.

If the original policy was part of your passage contract or terms and conditions of booking, then legally they cannot change the policy without being in breach of the contract. And breach of contract would allow you the passenger to seek damages?

Perhaps you should look at it on an ipad because it's not the same...but thx for being so understanding..............

The FB app on iOS and Android does not allow you to see posts and comments by others you have to use the safari or firefox and choose the desktop version of the website.

Looks like this rumour came true http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1781593&page=1

There are cheap flights to NZ which leave at 6AM from Brisbane -- trouble is they allow you no luggage, and for me to depart Brisbane at 6 AM, I would have to get up at 2 AM -- 1 hour to get ready to leave home, 1 hour drive to airport and 2 hours for check in to an International flight.

 

yes -- "cheapest" is usually not "best" :)

 

Barry

My business partner just returned from NZ, he decided to go about 4 weeks ago and then realised it was school holidays, but we found a good deal on China Airlines, that included food and 23kg bag. The best price was not listed on any of the online sites that allow you to compare flights, only on the China Airlines site. We took that to our TA who did a price beat. The flight times were leaving BNE 12 noon arrive AKL 5pm, return was AKL was 7pm arr BNE 9pm. They fly via BNE 3 times a week.

Thank you for sharing this great resource

Happy cruising

Peter

Be careful what you ask for.

 

If cruises on other Carnival Brands (other than P&O) counted, you might find almost everyone on the ship platinum or above. In a situation like that started to occur on many sailings, Princess would reduce the befefits since so many would be using them.

 

(I have already been on one Princess cruise where platinum and elite were over 50% of the passengers)

The only way that would happen is if they created an entirely new program.

The Princess recognition of P&O UK/AU goes back to when P&O owned Princess, its a legacy of before the P&O/Carnival merger.

Yes, waiting is difficult. We booked a GTY on the Pacific Princess last January because it was just a small number of cabins that we might be sailing in. Our assignment didn't come until 10 days out - it was one of our top choices, so that was great. DH suggested not booking GTY again because of the uncertainty.

Thats the part of a GTY booking that I like, the excitement of checking each day.

On my March cruise we received a moveover offer 2 days before we were due to sail because the cruise was oversold. We took the offer because it was too good to refuse, the other 10 in our group were given the same offer but decided to sail.

The offer they made us was a full refund of our fare, a cruise in October twice as long as the first for free, an upgrade to the next class of cabin ( outside to BC) , and airfares of $150 each way.

You will get your cabin and your cruise, happy honeymoon.

My business partner and I only have one cruise booked in 2014 so far and thats on the Sea Princess for our birthdays in May.

Our partners don't like cruises so we end up cruising together. He's the party one and I'm the quiet reserved one ;)

We tried to use this on a recent sun princess cruise, it worked as long as we were in the same zone of the ship, but not across decks, so i assume they have multiple routers around the ship creating multiple small networks

Do you happen to know if they can make the milkshakes without the malted powder (or is it a pre-mix)? Malted powder contains malt, which contains gluten, and a member of my travelling party cannot have gluten.

Ice Creams can also contain gluten, so you need to check on that as well.

Hi Spendypenny, I really feel for you, P&O have been very unfair. Let’s face it we all have our own personal reasons as to when we book, early or late and if we book early then I feel particularly with P&O that we pay for the privilege in lots of ways. Yes they offer discounts , you get your choice of cabin etc but then you will sit with someone one night for a meal to find they have booked at the last min, , got the type of cabin they like and paid less than half of the “ early saver “price!! P&O seem desperate sometimes to get in those early bookings with lots of hype and a touch of drama with “ these prices won’t last long” and even worse the first day price hikes as you try to book to find your chosen grade keeps going up as the day goes on. You book then find as the months go on perhaps you should have waited…..

I agree in your case as so many people to consider and wanting a disabled cabin you really have to get sorted early for peace of mind just like those people who need to work around their jobs and allocated leave dates. Because of these factors P&O are more than happy to fill their tills one minute but then treat you very badly as soon as it suits them.

 

I worked as a TA until last year and sold many many P&O cruises, in fact it was P&O I always mentioned first to new cruise customers. When I wanted to book a cruise for this year (2012) I didn’t hesitate and decided on P&O, no contest. I studied the brochures just like everyone else and chose a cruise. Early on the first day in April 11 that my date could be booked I was ready at 8am to get it booked. It took till lunchtime as they were selling the grand event (which I wanted) and myself and a colleague tried and tried both on the phone and net to get through as we saw the balcony grade I wanted go up and up in price until by the time we got through at about 12 it had gone right out of my price bracket!

 

I booked our second choice but felt very downhearted. My DH and i then thought about it and decided that as we hadn’t got our first choice we really should have gone for the Caribbean so we rang and changed it ( to Ventura , Caribbean, November 2012 ) paying an admin fee of £100. By now we had more than doubled our initial booking value.

 

Some 14 months later ( summer 12) with 90% of our cruise paid for and much excitement we found out that due to my husband’s work and big changes in the weather during 2012 that we needed to change our holiday dates and go away in July instead of Nov. We were gutted but didn’t have any choice (wont bore with the details as already posted on here about it all and its boring really), anyway I rang P&O to ask if I could change our cruise, quite happy to pay another amendment fee of course. They refused point blank; I’ve got to admit that at 55 years old I was near to tears, we had paid £527 deposit plus £100 amendment fee and were told in no uncertain terms we would lose £627 (and get a refund of any other money paid which was around £2000). I pleaded, I said it was ridiculous, we still wanted to go on holiday and we would spend the same or more whatever it took to be able to re-book. We also wanted to travel earlier so they would have had longer to re-sell our original cruise and we would be filling unsold cabins etc. I said we were happy to pay original price for our new cruise even though it had now been heavily discounted…what more could I do or offer?

 

They still refused, only one change will be allowed per booking etc etc....whatever the reason, we lost the £627.

 

We booked for July with RCI , had a lovely cruise but I think P&O were very wrong and I know this scenario has happened to hundreds possibly thousands over the years, they have such silly outdated rules. It seems that whatever way round it is P&O are the winners, you cannot make more than one change , it’s their rule so you lose all of your deposit, on the other hand, they chose to change or cancel your cruise and what do you get , £50 obc ?? This doesn’t help if you needed a particular date. They said to us it was our choice to cancel!! We did not want to cancel at all, just change our dates.

All (well the vast majority) of other cruise lines allow unlimited changes with an amendment fee, why oh why can’t P&O?

 

Next year we are booked with Thomson again, a very fair company who allow for life’s hiccups and realise we are not all retired and living in a perfect bubble when things don’t crop up!! When we were on a previous Thomson cruise and they had a problem and had to miss one port ( giving us an extra night in Venice as a bonus ) they actually gave every passenger £150 cash as compensation, even children ! Funny how so many people like to call Thomson for one reason or another but I think they treat people very fairly indeed most of the time. ( Apart from last min ship changes !)

Also funnily enough I feel much happier booking early with Thomson (booked first day prices released for 2013 so eighteen months in advance) as I know I can change my booking if needed and more than once. Also although they do have some good late deals they have no where near the amount of empty cabins to nearly give away at the last min like P&O so you don’t feel quite so ripped off.

I think P&O need to look more at putting their loyal customers first.

Dreamgirl1957, What happened with the £200 FCC that you mentioned in your complaint thread about P & O?

I come from a large and socially diverse family.

As far back as I can remember we were taught how to behave in public and in restaurants and how to travel.

I don't have any children of my own but I have nephews and nieces ( I am godfather to them all plus a few cousins and other members in my family), and 2013 is the year that I start them off on cruising.

The ages are 3,5,8 and 12 and they have always been taught how to behave in public and at hotels and restaurants.

For our first big family cruise next year I chose a family friendly ship that I know caters well for children and adults alike, and chose an itinerary that will be easy for everyone.

So the parents as well as the kids will have a great holiday.

I have also given the kids a couple of assignments to research the ship and our destinations as well as showing them the ship when they and it are in town, to help build their interest and excitement.

We even discussed the capacity of life boats, how to wear life jackets and the difference between flying and cruising.( they live 2 hours away by plane so are used to travel)

There are some ships and itineraries that just would not be suitable for us this time, but as the kids grow older I plan on exposing them to as much as possible to what is available in this great big world we live in.

If kids don't learn when they are young how to behave and enjoy life and social contact, how can we expect them to do it as adults?