Beware! Princess Shore Excursions Policy of Waiting

Just wanted to inform those people that put blind trust in Princess that the ship will wait for you if on a ship sponsered tour, you are sadly mistaken.

After 12 cruises with Princess with no problems, the unthinkable happened while on a 14 day cruise over Christmas aboard the Sea Princess (voyage C533). When returning from a cruise tour, we became separated from the group (tour was already 30 minutes late arriving to port) and we could not locate the tender service back to the ship. No officer or signs were posted at the dock and there were three other ships in port that day resulting in large crowds. We had not swiped off the ship that morning due to a computer failure (12.26.05), so when we saw the ship underway, we became very distraught. Apperantly the last tender was held for our group, but the ship chaperrone did not take a head count before the last tender left without us. We immediatly sought out the Port Agent as the ship was still in sight and asked what to do, his response was that the ship would not be returning for us and that we needed to leave the port immediatley as we were in his country (Venezula) illegally as we did not have any ID or passport. We had 10 dollars between us.

Earlier that morning we could not access our Passports that were locked in our stateroom safe. We had made a phone call to the pursers office at 0635 and requested that someone be sent to open our safe. At 0650 we had to leave without our passports and money to join the tour as we were the first to disembark. We left in heavy rain aboard a tender that got lost trying to get to the tender dock and ended up going around in circles. By the time we did reach the dock, we had no idea where we where at in relation to the ship.

After being told several times that we would be detained by the authorities if we remained in the port, we where told to go to Caracas to the US Embassy for help.Asked if the port agent would notify the ship that we had been left behind, said he would email them. He did not try to establish communication via radio. We where put into a taxi and sent to the airport on the Island. When we got there, no one would sell us a ticket to Caracas becuase we did not have ID, even though we had a Credit Card to pay with. Communication was very tough and finally tried to contact the embassy using a payphone. Being the day after Christmas (Monday), the embasy was closed. The only saving grace was the tour guide we had used had come through the airport and saw us in distress. Asked us what we where doing and after explaining, he helped us arrange a flight to Caracas through people he knew at the counter and onward to Aruba. After missing the first flight, he came back through and demanded that we be taken on the next flight out. We were to meet a friend of his in Caracas that would help us out getting on the flight to Aruba that night. The flight was delayed and by the time we arrived his friend was not there and the flight to Aruba had already left. Next flight out was 2 days away, ship would have been gone by then. We contacted a Duty Officer at the Embassy and requested help and where told travel around the city at night was unsafe and that we should get a room near the airport until morning. We requested help from an information attendant, who contacted a hotel that sent out transportation to us. Once at the hotel, the manager became very upset that we had no ID and no cash to pay and we where asked to leave in a very bad part of town. We convinced him to call the duty officer who arranged for us to stay and pay the next day before leaving once we had been to the embassy. The manager agreed to this, but once off the phone, he sent us off to what had to be the worst hotel in the city. There was no hot water, no door lock, window opened and would not close with burning refuse right outside that filled the room full of smoke. Wife would not sleep under the covers and slept under the two raincoats that we had with us. I did not sleep at all for fear of our lifes. Someone walked past our door all night shrieking every time he passed. Were told that the driver would be there to pick us up at 0630 to take us to the embassy. At 0600 a man walked through the door and said the taxi was waiting for us. The drive was over an hour away through very distute areas and the driver became lost once in the city. We finally arrived at the embassy and the State Department began to do there best to help. The first phone call I made was to Princess Cruises to inform them of where we were at. We had not been missed, the port agent did not contact the ship, no one knew we where even gone!!!! Pull up the Consular Information on Venezula and you would begin to understand the fear we had for our lifes. We arranged to meet the ship in Grand Cayman once we got our new passports. We flew to Miamii and spent two nights until the ship was in Grand Cayman. We where told that we would be responsible for our transportation back to the ship from the airport, however once there a port agent met us and took us directly to customs to clear and reboard, Once aboard we had to meet with the Chief Purser, the Captain and the Staff Captain, all of whom apoligezed and stated that they would back us up due to the shipboard problems.

As of now, Princess has yet to refund the over $3000 it cost to get back aboard a ship that we were certain would never leave us. They did offer $150 credit toward the next cruise. (we booked another 14 day cruise for next year) however, after 12 cruises aboard Princess ships, this will probally be our last. Will post the letter I sent to the Passenger Relations Department upon our return home.

Beware!!!! We have never left a ship ever without scanning out and will never again!!!

Oh my God, how awful for you. I can not believe that you went through this kind of a nightmare, you must have been completely scared out of your wits.

Hopefully Princess will get back to you soon. I would not let this rest and I would keep calling until I got a hold of someone. Maybe it's time to talk to an attorney and get some help. I'm not the type of person to sue and I'm not suggesting that you do, but since you were on a ship's excursion and they did nothing to help you maybe you can at least get some of your money back. It's amazing that they never realized you were not back on the ship.

12 princess cruises and this your first post?

12 princess cruises and this your first post?

Why is that hard for some people to understand? I had been on at least 15 cruises before I found this site!!!!!!

:cool::cool:

That sounds terrible and quite a scary thing to go through. I am always worried something like that will happen to me.......Thanks for sharing your experience.

Just curiosity catnip, just curiosity. Nothing more.

12 princess cruises and this your first post?

I had been on 4 cruises prior to finding this board.

Just curiosity catnip, just curiosity. Nothing more.

OK, good. Because so many old-time posters here are quick to call first time posters trolls.........Glad you are not one of them! ;)

First let me say that sounds like a terrible experience. I'm a little confused however....are you saying you left the ship without swiping your card? Is that possible....I was under the understanding that you had to swipe as this is the way the ship knows who has gone off?

I am glad you are all safe, hoping your next cruise is problem free.

Sorry, I never new that this sight existed until I saw a Cruise Critic sign on the door on the next cabin down from us aboard our ill fated trip. I remembered it today after talking to Princess about the problem and were we stood with it. Today I was told that it was noted in our file that we would recieve $150 shipboard credit each on our next cruise but our expenses incurred would not be paid. We were off the ship from Dec 26th until December 29th when we met it in Grand Cayman. Our cabin steward did miss us after two nights but it was not brought to anyone's attention.

We have been on Princess Cruises 12 times, NCL 4 times and Holland America 2 times. We got engaged on our first cruise, and try to go at least 2 times per year, once in summer and another at Christmas time. We have been married 9 years, so do not always make the two per year, but we try!!! Princess was our preferred cruise line as we feel we know our way around the ships and have attained Platinum Captain Circle Member status. We always stay in the same catagory AB unless we get a deal on a mini suite.

This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to us. We could have been abducted in the murder capital of South America (Caracas) and killed and Princess would have thought we had simply jumped off the ship durring the voyage in a succesfull suicide attempt. Our families and others would have never known what truly happened!!! Not saying that Princess is a bad cruise line, but we have watched it change the past 8 years. We never would have stayed with them this long if we felt it was truly bad.

Bad story but glad ending had you home safe.. One thing though that we do is never leave the ship without a color copy of our passports and one credit card.. This is a good lesson for all of us to thoughly uinderstand.. When you are off of the ship you are at the mercy of the country you are in.. Some are way more friendly than others..

That is all soooo true Largin!!! We head out for our first cruise on Monday and certainly has given me some food for thought!

This is a good reminder to all of us. ALWAYS, ALWAYS take a copy of your passport with you. You never know when you will need it.

Too be on the safe side we take two copies of each. I have mine and my wife's in my wallet , she has hers and mine in hers..

So glad to hear you are safely back home. Sounds like a lot of weird circumstances led to your scary demise, I didn't know you could get off the ship without them scanning your card. Your post gives us food for thought though on making sure we have proper documents and a credit card with us when we leave the ship. We were just on the Grand and realized we had left our ID and both our credit cards on board. Fortunately we had a friend who was a taxi driver giving us a tour of the city. I can't even imagine getting left in Belize like you were, so many bad parts to the city that when you mentioned the hotel you stayed at I could relate seeing the proverty of Belize and how at times we didn't even feel safe in our friends taxi through some areas. I hope you get restitution for your horrible experience and Princess can restore your faith in its company.

Sounds like all the layers in place to prevent this type of incident failed. Definitely a case of Murphy's Law! Just out of curiousity - how did you get separated from your tour group? That seems to be the key event that led to all the other problems.

The fact that the scanners weren't working that morning is a little disconcerting. The "right" thing for them to do would be to not allow anyone off the ship until they had a way of scanning or at least tracking departures. But then everyone would have been mad about being held back. However, even if you had scanned off, there's no guarantee they would have waited for you.

I suspect this is an unfortunate series of events that could have happened aboard any cruiseline in any port. I'm glad you ended up safe and sound.

So, in conclusion, we should NOT leave the ship unless we swipe out, we should carry a color copy of our passports, a credit card, maybe some cash and try like heck NOT to get separated from our tour, as that sounds like it might have been the beginning of the nightmare. I'm sorry for your anguish, as that could happen to anyone. We only take Princess tours but we've certainly been known to get off the ship without our passports (or copies). We've all learned an important lesson from your anguish. By the way....how WAS that excursion?

Largin is right. I will never leave the ship again without a copy of our passport and a copy of our driver's liscence. Most importantly, never leave the ship without swiping out!!!! No matter what anyone says!!!! If the system is down, refuse to get off the ship and demand a refund for you tour.

The Security Officers stopped several person in front of us trying to swipe the machine and said to proceed down to the next level. We thought we would swipe out there, but were loaded onto the tender at that point. They did not explain that this saftey system was down completley. We found this out from the Chief Purser only when we reboarded the ship. There was no backup plan in effect for accounting for which passengers or crew members left and had reboarded the ship early that day.

Glad to hear you made it home safe - tell me - how is it you got separated from your Princess Excursion? - and - not accounted for on the return - all of the ship excursions I have been on they take a head count on the bus before they leave a location. Knowing this, however, they did leave a couple several miles from the ship in one of our shore excursions in France.

Ron

Wow, that's awful!

This is the 1st I've read of a color copy of your passport. I had a black & white copy & had it laminated. Does it have to be color? And can it be laminated? Or does this depend on the country?

Certainly I am sorry you had a problem. As stated earlier the fact you got seperated from the group is the real problem. The other issues only compounded the problem. However, the fact remains that cruise lines will almost never leave until all their tours have returned. That does not mean if someone got separated from the group they will wait for them. I suspect that if they had known you were missing they would have done a search on shore and announced your name several times on the ship. If they were unsuccessful in finding you they likely would have left. Just curious, you didn't mention how you got seperated from the group? Your fault or their fault?

We got seperated from the group when the bus arrived back at the port. We were the first people off the bus and went and stood by the fence in front of the bus to wait. When another group from one of the other ships walked in front of us, we lost sight of our group for a brief instant. Being raised to be polite, we waited until this other group passed, by then we no longer saw the other passengers on the excursion we were with. This was another lesson we learned: Stand by the bus/transport, do not try to get out of everyone's way, keep everyone in plain sight, wait until everyone is off and then proceed with the group as a whole. It does not always pay to be first off or to be polite. Also, we usually always ask where we are to go once we exit the transport prior to arriving just in case we are separated. Our chaparonne was also not the best as she was from the photo department and was more concerned with recording the excursion for some new program Princess wishes to sell to its passengers in video format (princess memories?).

Sorry to hear of all your problems, but we have learned some valuable information!

I think that this is a good wake up call in the future for all cruise passengers to #1. Take a copy of your passport when going ashore, # take a credit card and #3 do not giet off of the ship unless your card has been swiped. So far we have been fortunate in that the computer has always worked. LARGIN, you did have a good idea about two copies, one in your wallet and one in your wife's. We always just carried one copy each of mine and DH in my purse. We will change that on our next cruise.

Marilyn

I first cruised in the early 80's many years before they had "swiping" cards. Has the percentage of people left behind improved since the swiping cards are used? I would like to know what the error rate is, how many people either do not swipe or the computer shows them on or off the ship when they are the opposiite. I doubt swiping is 100 percent foolproof, does anyone have any information on this?

I am sorry the OP went through this fiasco, it certainly does give the rest of us a few lessons learned.

So glad to hear you are safely back home. Sounds like a lot of weird circumstances led to your scary demise, I didn't know you could get off the ship without them scanning your card. Your post gives us food for thought though on making sure we have proper documents and a credit card with us when we leave the ship. We were just on the Grand and realized we had left our ID and both our credit cards on board. Fortunately we had a friend who was a taxi driver giving us a tour of the city. I can't even imagine getting left in Belize like you were, so many bad parts to the city that when you mentioned the hotel you stayed at I could relate seeing the proverty of Belize and how at times we didn't even feel safe in our friends taxi through some areas. I hope you get restitution for your horrible experience and Princess can restore your faith in its company.

We we were on The golden on one of our Northern Europeon ports in July the scanner didn't work and we all walked off the ship without scanning which I thought was a bit scary. Not sure how they knew we were all back on that day prior to leaving but I assumed we were, who knows!