Royal princess: the cruise from hell

[ibfern]

The cruise from hell

 

We are on the Royal Princess Inaugural transatlantic passage, and have been on this ship since Barcelona. We have had one problem after another from the beginning, they damaged my luggage beyond repair but refuse to reimburse me for it so I can buy a new bag to carry my stuff home. Instead, they are looking for a cheap replacement in each port and not very successfully. They call me daily to tell me no luck, this upsets me and reminds me of the problems.

 

My bathroom on the first leg was broken for 3 days, we could not use it and this was extremely painful and made those days Impossible. Good grief, when it rains it pours.

 

We moved to rear facing deluxe balcony on the turn around day, the room was nice but the balcony, which was a little larger, was covered In black tar. The following day when we left Venice, I discovered why. Our room, C743, was in the direct line of the exhaust and once we were set sail the room filled with toxic fumes regardless of whether we opened or closed the balcony door. I have bad Asthma, and immediately could not breath, my husband also got ill immediately. We both panicked because we knew the ship was filled. Our friend, a heart specialist came up and told us we needed to move immediately, he indicated this was very bad for our health, he had to leave the room because he also started to get ill.

 

I need a balcony because I have chronic sinusitis which goes along with my chronic migraines. The dry air of an inside cabin is terrible for me, I always book balconies so I can leave to balcony door open and have fresh moist air.

 

They had one balcony available and we moved late last night into it. It was covered in blood and hair, had not been properly cleaned, had cigarette burns on the carpet along with a lot of blood. I was at the end of my rope. The hazmat team had to come in and clean it at midnight, we did not get to unpack until 12:30 last night! We did not sleep at all and today we are both ill with headaches, and of course very upset.

 

I am not sure how Princess will compensate us for all these problems, so far they keep telling us we have to take these issues up when we get home! I can't believe the treatment we are receiving here, considering this is our 25 th cruise since 2006! We paid a premium price for both rooms, over $10,000 for the entire cruise.

 

I want to warn anybody about these horrific conditions, please be careful of those rear facing room. There is clearly a huge problem with the ship design. I will update this as I hear from the home office and let you all know how they are handling this.

 

Amelia

[dmwnc1959]

Hi Amelia,

 

It sounds just awful, and your chronic health problems certainly aren't being helped by the dreadful conditions in your accommodations. I wouldn't wait until getting home to contact Princess HQ, just fire off an email now. And you would think in Italy they could find a suitcase somewhere that would take the place of the one damaged!

 

I do hope that at least some of your 30-day cruise vacation is salvageable by the time you reach Fort Lauderdale. :(

[icat2000]

Terrible. I feel very sorry for you having to experience these own going issues. If it had only been the luggage, I would have thought no biggie. Just buy a new bag, keep the receipt and send in the claim form to Princess.

 

However, to read about the dreadful soot conditions and then to be moved a room that they hadn't even clean first. Yuck. Lot of money to spend and to have to put up with those incidents.

Edited October 11, 2013 by icat2000

[phabric]

Sorry to hear about all your trouble.

 

Make sure you get all the names of the people you deal with. Take pictures if you can. Why not send an email now.

[dmwnc1959]

Hi Amelia,

 

Good on you for trying to make the best of it! I know how hard it is to roll with those punches. After disembarking from my much less than satisfying Princess cruise last year held onto that 'sack of charcoal' that was suppose to be the Christmas present to myself. It was a dark cloud that I certainly hated being under. In hindsight, and as unpleasant as the circumstances were at the time, I can now look back at them and put them into greater perspective.

 

Good luck on the remainder of your journey and keep us posted. If all else fails, buy a suitcase in Naples and hand them the bill! lol ;)

[Coral]

I am so sorry!

 

Make sure you document everything (pictures if possible, may be too late).

 

I am guessing the reason why the room with the blood became available was that someone was very sick and had to leave the ship. I assume anytime blood (or bodily fluids) is involved, a hazmat team is called for safety reasons.

 

I sure hope things get better for you very soon. I personally couldn't handle the tar/soot smell either and I don't have asthma.

 

I hope things get better soon!

Edited October 11, 2013 by Coral

[LovesCruising]

OP - you are obviously well known on this board so I have to assume your post is legitimate. Checking into a new cabin that is in that condition is unacceptable.

 

Having said that, I have had the misfortune of checking into an unmade room in a hotel (not on a cruise ship) It was however made right.

 

I am having visions of the blood all over comment. Was there an explanation for that? Not to be morbid but exactly how much blood are we talking about and what happened in that cabin? I think I would have been freaking out seeing that. :eek:

[ibfern]

The room steward we had briefly on C743 said many of the rear facing cabins get heavy soot, depending on the wind I imagine. She said she spent hours scrubbing the balcony floors because they are black from tar. They are larger. But this will be the last time I book a center rear facing cabin on this ship, it's likely related to the design. I was wondering why they were black.

 

Be careful if you book a center rear acing cabin, I suspect they are the worst off. Ill ask around the ship and see what others who are back there say. Hopefully it is only the center cabins on the rear, I love facing the wake and never had a problem as bad as this.

 

My biggest problem is that my expectations were very high, I booked this within the first hour of release. Happiness is managing expectations!

 

CC meet And greet was huge, we filled the vista lounge. Never been to such a huge meeting!

 

Thanks for the kind words,

Amelia

[Cruise Junky]

Amelia, I'm so sorry. I know how much you were looking forward to this cruise and to lose your Aft Cabin, I would be devasted. Hopefully with the crazy amount of CC Members onboard you'll have an amazing time.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Cruise Junky

[curiouscat]

I think what concerns me most is that once they agreed to move you the room was not prepared for new guests but was iclearly non hygienic:eek:

 

Also, there should have been some kind of acknowledgement from the management of all these issues... a bubbly gift or a note or visit from the hotel manager at the very least..

 

Hoping the rest of your cruise is smooth sailing.. and please if u used a TA .. reach out to them while on board.. we do have BDM's who can and should run it up the flagpole for you.

 

CC

Edited October 11, 2013 by curiouscat

[OCruisers]

Amelia, good grief, it certainly hasn't been a good cruise for you so far. :(

Let us know how the remainder of it goes.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[PescadoAmarillo]

Amelia, I know how you were so looking forward to these cruises, and feel really badly for you having to deal with these issues. I hope things do improve, and I hope you receive some restitution from Princess, at least for the ill-prepared cabin you moved in to. I've had that happen to me at a Disney resort...they wisked us out of that room so quickly and into an expensive restaurant for a meal on the house while the room was being cleaned. Since most meals are "on the house" (really, pre-paid) on a cruise, I would hope they'd find something else nice to do (a relaxing complimentary stay in the Enclave might help sooth those weary bones).

[chamima]

No one picked up on "cigarette burns in the carpeting".

There is no smoking allowed in cabins on Princess ships. This may be part of the reason that cabin was available - passengers not voluntarily put off the ship.

 

I hope the rest of the cruise will be better for you.

I know from personal experience that Princess reads these boards ( we wrote something nice about a crew member on a Live From in the middle of a cruise and the next day he told me it had been forwarded to his supervisor, printed out and posted on the staff bulletin board) so hopefully someone with some power to make things right for you on the ship will be notified.

Edited October 11, 2013 by chamima

[ne1travel]

First, thank you to the moderator for straightening out this post.

So sorry to hear of your problems Amelia. It is time for Princess to step it up a notch for you and at least offer a token of concern for your problems. We have only done one cruise and that was on Caribbean Princess. The problems we brought up were taken care of immediately. Let us now if you hear from them while on the cruise.

[kruisey]

The room steward we had briefly on C743 said many of the rear facing cabins get heavy soot, depending on the wind I imagine. She said she spent hours scrubbing the balcony floors because they are black from tar. They are larger. But this will be the last time I book a center rear facing cabin on this ship, it's likely related to the design. I was wondering why they were black.

 

Be careful if you book a center rear acing cabin, I suspect they are the worst off. Ill ask around the ship and see what others who are back there say. Hopefully it is only the center cabins on the rear, I love facing the wake and never had a problem as bad as this.

 

My biggest problem is that my expectations were very high, I booked this within the first hour of release. Happiness is managing expectations!

 

CC meet And greet was huge, we filled the vista lounge. Never been to such a huge meeting!

 

Thanks for the kind words,

Amelia

 

What a horrible way to start a vacation you had been so looking forward to on a new ship.

Tell the 'Hotel Manager' on board the ship your experience I feel he/she will compensate you in some way.This manager may not have been informed about your situations.The ship has such a large volume of passengers that this may not have been directed to him/her........Heather:)

[Seafoam Green]

How awful, Amelia!

 

You had been sharing such positive stories from the first cruise (except for your suitcase). I was stunned to read the title of your thread.

 

I hope everything gets made right for you asap.

 

Blood and cigarettes? Very strange and creepy!

[Gunner22aa]

As a dedicated Princess cruiser I am glad to say I have never had such a rough go as what you experienced. Had I in the past I dont think I'd be the sligest bit dedicated anymore. I'd personally press this one as fast and as hard as I could with the company.

 

As an aside maybe bigger isn't better in the long run.

[catugirl]

Is the soot and exhaust problem with aft balconies on all Princess ships? We have booked an aft suite on Crown Princess for Jan., 2014. We usually just book a balcony cabin mid ship. Since we spent the extra money to splurge this time around, we would hate to have our cruise ruined.

 

Beth

[dorisis]

Your experiences are horrible. I would write directly to Arison at CCL and list all the things that have gone wrong. Let him know what kind of compensation you feel entitled to.

[sha88]

I have a friend at work who just got back from Royal and he had an aft balcony (M726 I think) and he said even though the room steward worked hard to keep it clean, it was pretty much not usable during the entire cruise. He was bummed about it for sure, but everything else was good. He did speak to a Customer Service Manager a couple of times.

 

For myself, I have had soot problems on one aft and I think that was on my most recent cruise on the RCL Enchantment, but nothing as bad as my friend and Ameila are reporting.

 

Good Luck, Amelia. Sorry you are experiencing such issues. Best wishes and hope you can enjoy the remainder of the cruise. I feel for ya for sure.

[trikeman]

Is the soot and exhaust problem with aft balconies on all Princess ships? We have booked an aft suite on Crown Princess for Jan., 2014. We usually just book a balcony cabin mid ship. Since we spent the extra money to splurge this time around, we would hate to have our cruise ruined.

 

Beth

 

We took the Golden to Hawaii in an aft facing cabin and never had a problem with exhaust or soot. Then again it's a different design.

[Avalon35]

Thanks to all for posting. This info is helpful. Especially when it comes to a new ship. It has been hard enough to figure out which are the larger size balconies on the Royal and Regal, but you need to have as much info as possible to make a choice.

Ibfern - sorry to hear about your difficulties. I know how it feels with the air issues. I have the same problem with the closed in A/C system on the ships even worse than hotels - my throat gets bad and my eyes become bright red...and nothing makes the red go away. So, I can understand totally the frustration and the need for fresh air. Best of luck for the rest of the cruise.

[capriccio]

Is the soot and exhaust problem with aft balconies on all Princess ships? We have booked an aft suite on Crown Princess for Jan., 2014. We usually just book a balcony cabin mid ship. Since we spent the extra money to splurge this time around, we would hate to have our cruise ruined.

 

Beth

 

We've had aft balconies on the Emerald, Sapphire and the old Royal (sister ship to the Ocean and Pacific) and never had an issue with soot. We have one on the new Royal (Dolphin deck) in December - it's an owners suite and if the balcony is uninhabitable I will be a very, very unhappy cruiser.

[pablo222]

Your experiences are horrible. I would write directly to Arison at CCL and list all the things that have gone wrong. Let him know what kind of compensation you feel entitled to.

That might not have much of an effect, as Arison is gone.

[3888T6813]

The cruise from hell

 

They had one balcony available and we moved late last night into it. It was covered in blood and hair, had not been properly cleaned, had cigarette burns on the carpet along with a lot of blood.

 

Amelia

 

What was the source of the blood and hair?