What Are the Odds

[AlaskaDay]

We have taken nine Princess cruises since 2006. On 44% of these cruises we have either missed a port or our itinerary has been completely re-routed – Mexican Riviera to a California Coastal due to swine flu in Mexico and totally missing Bar Harbor, Newport, Boston and New York on a Canada/New England trip last fall due to hurricane Sandy. Please, no flames. I am not blaming Princess at all; in fact, Princess did a great job in scrambling to create a cruise for us on each of the re-routed cruises. Our nine cruises have been variety of itineraries; we are not cruising to the same area each time and we have never missed Princess Cays which as I understand it happens often.

 

What I am wondering is, are we experiencing a greater or lesser percentage of missed ports/changed itineraries than most cruisers? What has been your experience?

[Kenswing]

We've only been on three Princess cruises (two to Alaska and New England/Canada)..

 

The only hitch in the giddyup was arriving late in Boston and Halifax due to high seas..

 

Never missed a port though..

[Coral]

Probably higher than normal.

 

Canada/NE cruises seem to have issues, especially with Bar Harbor and Newport (tender ports). We missed Newfoundland on our cruise there and in Newport, only the first hour or two the tenders ran. It was too windy otherwise.

 

Victoria, Canada is a port I have missed several times due to winds.

 

I seem to miss more ports whenever Captain Nash is our Captain.

[Colo Cruiser]

We have only missed San Juan several years ago due to a TD.

51 Princess cruises and thats it for us.

I don't think its anymore then usual. IMO

[sunsetbeachgal]

Much more than Normal...we have taken 15 Princess cruise...missed Princess Cay two times...and missed Santorini on a Med. Cruise due to rough seas as that is a tender port..so I just HAD to take another to get to Santorini. :D

[robgvic]

Over 30 cruises and never missed a port

[Keith1010]

You are experiencing much more than normal.

 

Keith

[Pam in CA]

I've missed a number of ports on a variety of itineraries. Even the "surest" ports can be missed. You've probably missed more than usual but it's not unusual to miss ports. On my upcoming Diamond cruise, South Korea is "iffy" to say the least. :) What will be will be.

[Bemidji Ty]

Fifty plus cruises and we've only missed 2 ports. One due to rough seas and the other due to a teen that was overserved in Cozumel.

[PescadoAmarillo]

In 45 Princess cruises, we've missed Princess Cays once (maybe twice), Wellington NZ, Bonaire and St. Kitts.

 

In almost 70 cruises, we've only additionally missed Grand Cayman and Venice (that one was due to a war).

 

So, you're way above average!

[PunkiC]

We have been on a lot of Princess cruises and so far have only missed Princess Cay (no great loss), and Livorno. Instead of Livorno, we went to La Spezia and we were quite happy with that port.

 

We did once arrive into Dublin too late to really do anything. I think we docked at about 4:00 p.m. and had to make a 6:00 p.m. tide.

 

Not bad considering all of the cruises we have taken.

[RNGALNG]

Only 8 cruises total, 7 (60 days) with Princess. Only one missed port due to a hurricane. Almost missed another as we couldn't dock due to high winds but they made a great effort of taking us ashore by tender.

 

Let us know when you plan on sailing again. . .don't know if I want to be on the same ship! :D Your odds are not that good! But they have to get better, right?

[H2O skier]

Several years back, we missed Rarotanga on the old Tahitian Princess. Unfortunately there was a couple on board who were planning on going to their son's wedding on the island that day. :(

[AlaskaDay]

:D Your odds are not that good! But they have to get better, right?

 

That's what I was hoping for -- better odds in the future!

[CruisinChris]

Over 24 cruises, I've had a number of missed ports/port substitutions/significant delays:

 

*Missed St. Martin due to severe hurricane damage - San Juan substituted

*Missed Princess Cays at least 2 times (once because of unsafe tendering conditions another because of hurricane damage -different cruise than the St. Martin one above)

*Had port time in Helsinki reduce to 3 hours due to ship propulsion problem

*Arrived in NYC over 10 hours late from a transatlantic due to multiple hurricanes

*Missed Fjordland National Park South Island New Zealand due to storms and heavy seas - got to over night in Hobart as a result

*Missed Marseilles due to weather conditions that made it impossible for the ship to enter the harbor - got extra time in Barcelona

 

So I'm running about 25%. I would say that some of above were fairly significant or disappointing given the nature of the trip. I could care less about Princess Cays. However, I accept it when it happens. And as a general rule, I don't sail during Hurricane Season in place impacted by that.

[DeepWaterMariner]

Your luck is worse than most. In over 70 cruises we've missed Grand Cayman (rough conditions), San Juan (taxi strike), the Azores (rough conditions), Vigo, Spain (rough conditions), Port Canaveral (high winds), Kona (rough conditions), Lahaina (rough conditions), Boston (engine problems), Trondhiem, Norway (headwinds), and perhaps a few more I've forgotten about. These were spread across several cruise lines.

[paul929207]

We have been on 30 Princess cruises, and only missed 3 ports.

 

The first was the Seychelles. The Captain decide to skip that port after there were 6 pirate attacks in the two weeks before we were due.

 

The other two were the Falklands and San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. We missed them on the same cruise (Feb/Mar this year) due to rough seas and tender ports

[Holomoku]

We have only been on 7 Princess cruises, but we book looking ahead at the weather in the areas. We have only missed Victoria once due to high winds that day, it just gave us another sea day which we love. We were with PunkiC on the one that was delayed going into Dublin. My GPS agreed with the reason given that we had gone way South to avoid icebergs and then way North to avoid a storm. The tracking on the GPS showed that to be true. Smoother water for several days or a longer day in port? I think the Capt. made the correct choices.

By looking at the weather ahead of time, we will probably never book a Carribean cruise in Aug./Sept. or early Oct. A Hawaii cruise in Oct./Nov. An Asian cruise in Sept. - early Nov. Pay attention to the weather around the world and you can reduce the rough seas and missed ports.

[blueflicker]

Several years back, we missed Rarotanga on the old Tahitian Princess. Unfortunately there was a couple on board who were planning on going to their son's wedding on the island that day. :(

 

I had a similar experience.. not *me* but others. My first cruise which was with Carnival. Our ship broke down on night one so we missed all our ports of call except San Juan where we docked for a longer timeframe for repairs. There was a couple on board who were planning to get off in St Thomas for their wedding. They had some of their wedding party on board but everyone else was flying directly in to St. Thomas from their homes.

 

Haven't missed a port on my previous Princess sailings however, we've only been on two. Third one sails on Tuesday and from the sounds of the expected weather at the different islands... who knows.

[PunkiC]

We have only been on 7 Princess cruises, but we book looking ahead at the weather in the areas. We have only missed Victoria once due to high winds that day, it just gave us another sea day which we love. We were with PunkiC on the one that was delayed going into Dublin. My GPS agreed with the reason given that we had gone way South to avoid icebergs and then way North to avoid a storm. The tracking on the GPS showed that to be true. Smoother water for several days or a longer day in port? I think the Capt. made the correct choices.

 

Since we were commemorating the centennial of the Titanic sinking on that particular cruise, heading south to avoid icebergs sounded like a really good idea to me. ;) Did you go up an throw flowers when we crossed the site of the Titanic sinking?

[Cruisin' Chick]

I have been on six Carnival cruises and five Princess ones. Have only missed one port (I would have to think out how many ports we've been to), and that was Kona, due to high waves that the Captain felt made tendering too unsafe.

 

We have been in a couple of tropical storms, but not so bad that made us skip a port.

 

Okay, did a quick accounting of ports we've been to, and out of 36 scheduled ones (unless I'm missing one or two), we made it to 35 (this includes ports we've been to, more than once). So that's about 97 per cent.

[kendon]

Out of 23 7-10 day cruises, we only missed a total of two ports due to high wind. Not knowing the total number of ports, I can only say the percentage of misses is VERY low.

[FlipperRae]

Several years back, we missed Rarotanga on the old Tahitian Princess. Unfortunately there was a couple on board who were planning on going to their son's wedding on the island that day. :(

 

This thread scares me!!! We booked an Alaskan cruise as the "easier" way to attend my brother's wedding in Skagway on July 27th. I will be heartbroken if we don't make it!!!

[silverbird]

Missed one port during 21 cruises . . . until we planned a trip to Bermuda on the Caribbean Princess last October 27. Thank you Hurricane Sandy for four lovely days in Boston Harbor. I hold no malice toward Princess -- they did the best they could under the circumstances. We were warm, safe, had plenty of food, entertainment, and mostly nice people. (A few were not so nice.)

 

You have to go in with your eyes wide open knowing that something could go wrong. My best advice: Roll with the punches!!

[Jasperdo]

In 14 cruises we have only missed 2 ports. And both of them were on the same Hawaii cruise. We missed Kauai due to high winds and Lahaina due to mudslides that made the harbor unusable for our tenders.