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Crazy story!

goldgirl2

By goldgirl2,
in Princess Cruises

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goldgirl2

goldgirl2

Posted
Posted (edited)

My friend planned a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. They booked an early morning flight the day of the cruise. They did not get travel insurance. Due to the horrible weather in the northeast there flight was cancelled. They rented a car and drove to an airport in Illinois. That flight was delayed. They missed the boat. They got in touch with the cruiseline and flew to the first port in Maui. The ship never came to port! There were two princess ships heading to Maui. A crew member jumped overboard. Ship #2 turned around to help find the lost crew member. Neither ship made it to maui. They are now trying to fly to the second port. They will miss a few days and spent a whole lot of money on airfare, food, hotel rooms and plane tickets! She thinks the cruise line should reimburse her because they never made it to the first port. I think I will buy insurance and I am glad booked my flight two days before my ship leaves. I never on go day of the cruise.

Edited by goldgirl2
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champagne123

champagne123

Posted
Posted (edited)

Trying to be sympathetic...

No insurance?

15 day cruise out of CA and coming from the North East?

Flying in the same day?

 

We knew DAYS in advance about the weather front that hit us. It was not a surprise.

 

So many things could have been done to avoid this.

Edited by champagne123
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lifeboatcaptain

lifeboatcaptain

Posted
Posted
My friend planned a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. They booked an early morning flight the day of the cruise. They did not get travel insurance. Due to the horrible weather in the northeast there flight was cancelled. They rented a car and drove to an airport in Illinois. That flight was delayed. They missed the boat. They got in touch with the cruiseline and flew to the first port in Maui. The ship never came to port! There were two princess ships heading to Maui. A crew member jumped overboard. Ship #2 turned around to help find the lost crew member. Neither ship made it to maui. They are now trying to fly to the second port. They will miss a few days and spent a whole lot of money on airfare, food, hotel rooms and plane tickets! She thinks the cruise line should reimburse her because they never made it to the first port. I think I will buy insurance and I am glad booked my flight two days before my ship leaves. I never on go day of the cruise.

 

Wow, what a story. I sure hope your friend made it to port #2. I'll never take the chance too and will fly in at least 1 day before. For Port #1, although technically the cruiseline doesn't have to pay because they have the right to change itinerary, but it doesn't hurt to just ask because they might just absorb part of the misfortunes that your friend went through.

 

Wish them the best of luck, and let us know what happens ya, so that we may take it as a case study

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Daghis

Daghis

Posted
Posted

You didn't mention which cruise line your friend was booked on. I know that for Royal Caribbean, their ticket contract explicitly says that the ship can change its itinerary and skip ports for whatever reason and the cruise line will have no liability for the deviations.

 

I'm guessing your friend didn't read the ticket contract beforehand (not that most of us do).

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reallyitsmema

reallyitsmema

Posted
Posted
Trying to be sympathetic...

No insurance?

15 day cruise out of CA and coming from the North East?

Flying in the same day?

 

We knew DAYS in advance about the weather front that hit us. It was not a surprise.

 

So many things could have been done to avoid this.

Sounds like a very expensive lesson learned. Flying in the day of at this time of year is very risky. Flying in two days before is not going to guarantee making the cruise either, but at least it leaves some time to rebook and possibly make your cruise.

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travelplus

travelplus

Posted
Posted
My friend planned a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. They booked an early morning flight the day of the cruise. They did not get travel insurance. Due to the horrible weather in the northeast there flight was cancelled. They rented a car and drove to an airport in Illinois. That flight was delayed. They missed the boat. They got in touch with the cruiseline and flew to the first port in Maui. The ship never came to port! There were two princess ships heading to Maui. A crew member jumped overboard. Ship #2 turned around to help find the lost crew member. Neither ship made it to maui. They are now trying to fly to the second port. They will miss a few days and spent a whole lot of money on airfare, food, hotel rooms and plane tickets! She thinks the cruise line should reimburse her because they never made it to the first port. I think I will buy insurance and I am glad booked my flight two days before my ship leaves. I never on go day of the cruise.

 

 

I'm so sorry for your friends. This must be a stressful situation for them. I hope they learned their lesson to arrive at least the day before the cruise is set to depart for instances such as this. I hope they will consider insurance for their next cruise. We as veteran cruisers learn from our mistakes which is why there is Cruise Critic so we can pass along the wealth of information be it that we missed the ship and we can only suggest that new CC members purchase insurance and arrive at least the day before the cruise.

 

You friends are only due the port taxes as a refund and not much else is due back to them.

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reney313

reney313

Posted
Posted

Wow! That is a crazy story. Best of luck to your friends making it at the next port.

 

I could never imagine booking an expensive trip like that which includes air, etc. without insurance. Maybe a 3 day Bahamas cruise or something I would consider forgoing the insurance, but I have found myself concerned about medical evacuation, etc. You just never know what can go wrong.

 

I can see both sides regarding the missed stop to Maui. I don't think RCI would be required to compensate for the travel to the next stop; but in good faith, since they did miss the stop, I think it would be best for them to compensate for that one leg as a compromise.

 

A great example of why insurance is very important. While still a bad experience for the traveler's at least they wouldn't have to worry about the financial implications.

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reney313

reney313

Posted
Posted
I have a feeling this was on Princess Cruises as Royal I do not believe has an itinerary to Hawaii from the West Coast. Moderator please move this to the Princess forum once the OP confirms it was on Princess.

 

Good catch. I think you're probably correct. Same answers, different cruise line :)

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lady_cruiser

lady_cruiser

Posted
Posted
My friend planned a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. They booked an early morning flight the day of the cruise. They did not get travel insurance. Due to the horrible weather in the northeast there flight was cancelled. They rented a car and drove to an airport in Illinois. That flight was delayed. They missed the boat. They got in touch with the cruiseline and flew to the first port in Maui. The ship never came to port! There were two princess ships heading to Maui. A crew member jumped overboard. Ship #2 turned around to help find the lost crew member. Neither ship made it to maui. They are now trying to fly to the second port. They will miss a few days and spent a whole lot of money on airfare, food, hotel rooms and plane tickets! She thinks the cruise line should reimburse her because they never made it to the first port. I think I will buy insurance and I am glad booked my flight two days before my ship leaves. I never on go day of the cruise.

 

I think she needs to learn from this and buy cruise insurance the next time. Life, especially cruising, does not come with any guarantees

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TravelerThom

TravelerThom

Posted
Posted
Very expensive lesson learned...always take insurance!

Anyone flying out of a winter gateway needs to fly the day before!...

Insurance would help with the financial end.

 

However, SORRY, but scheduling to fly across the country a day early isn't going to help much if a major storm comes through. You might be able to drive from AZ, but you're not going to drive from the NE to California in one day, and given airline passenger loads your chances of getting rebooked the next day are slim and none, unless you have major pull (they are going to take care of their first class and elite frequent flyers way before they get to me). A few years ago I had a Trans-Atlantic from Fort Lauderdale on a Sunday. A major storm came in Friday and pretty much shut everything on the East Coast down for two days. Silly me had a departure day air reservation which came off without a hitch, and I was on board eating lunch prior to noon. The "smart people" who booked Friday and Saturday were SOL and missed the sailing.

 

Thom

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TravelerThom

TravelerThom

Posted
Posted
I hope she understands the phrase up the creek without a paddle because that's where she is in regards to reimbursement from the cruise line. I do hope they made the rest of the cruise though.
If this is one of the round-trip Princess Cruises out of LA or SF to Hawaii and back, it would be a violation of the Passenger Vessel Service Act if the passenger does not disembark in Ensenada and have the joy of crossing back into the US through Tijuana. Bad turns to worse.
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RickEk

RickEk

Posted
Posted
If this is one of the round-trip Princess Cruises out of LA or SF to Hawaii and back, it would be a violation of the Passenger Vessel Service Act if the passenger does not disembark in Ensenada and have the joy of crossing back into the US through Tijuana. Bad turns to worse.

 

Exactly what I was thinking as I was reading this thread. They cannot join the ship in Hawaii unless they disembark in Ensenada.

 

And, as others have said, the cruise line doesn't owe them anything... they'll be lucky to board.

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