Is Caribbean Princess going to be late into Houston this morning?

[DrSch]

Any Information would be greatly appreciated:

My 83 year old mother and I are scheduled for the next cruise, December 6 - out of Houston. We have done this cruise before and did not have any problems, but .... Texas weather being what it is you never know.

 

We are driving down from San Antonio so there is no airfare, but we are scheduled the night before at the Marriott in Houston - through Princess - and have bus transfers to the port on cruise day - through Princess. We also have the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess, which I have never needed to use before so I don't really know what it covers.

 

 

One of the posters remarked that if you did not purchase a full package from Princess, including Air Fare, they basically left you stranded at Bayport. :confused:

 

Is there anyone who knows what happened to those passengers with my same situation? Did Princess keep their bus at the terminal and put the riders back on the bus and take them to a hotel after it was determined the ship was not going to make it? Does the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess cover costs of the hotel and food with receipts?

 

I would not expect food to be provided, but since my mother must eat every 3-4 hours I will definitely be bringing a 6 pack of her Ensure in my carry on. This posting has been extremely informative to me. I have traveled a great deal, by many different methods - not just cruising, so I know that being flexible and having a "go with the flow" attitude is best. However, hanging out for a day at the Bayport Terminal with my mother - Oh Dear! :eek:

 

 

You are good to go. With an overnight hotel, transfers and platinum insurance... if there is a fog problem, you will be kept at the hotel until the ship is boarding, and if there is an overnight delay, you will stay in your room (or a similar one). Princess Reps at the airport and or hotel will keep you up to date.

[cruiser fanatic]

Any Information would be greatly appreciated:

My 83 year old mother and I are scheduled for the next cruise, December 6 - out of Houston. We have done this cruise before and did not have any problems, but .... Texas weather being what it is you never know.

 

We are driving down from San Antonio so there is no airfare, but we are scheduled the night before at the Marriott in Houston - through Princess - and have bus transfers to the port on cruise day - through Princess. We also have the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess, which I have never needed to use before so I don't really know what it covers.

 

 

One of the posters remarked that if you did not purchase a full package from Princess, including Air Fare, they basically left you stranded at Bayport. :confused:

 

Is there anyone who knows what happened to those passengers with my same situation? Did Princess keep their bus at the terminal and put the riders back on the bus and take them to a hotel after it was determined the ship was not going to make it? Does the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess cover costs of the hotel and food with receipts?

 

I would not expect food to be provided, but since my mother must eat every 3-4 hours I will definitely be bringing a 6 pack of her Ensure in my carry on. This posting has been extremely informative to me. I have traveled a great deal, by many different methods - not just cruising, so I know that being flexible and having a "go with the flow" attitude is best. However, hanging out for a day at the Bayport Terminal with my mother - Oh Dear! :eek:

 

If you are delayed for any reason and purchased transfers and hotels through Princess they will put you in a hotel. Last night, those that purchased the transfers/hotels were put up at the Four Seasons. You are good to go.

[caribill]

 

One of the posters remarked that if you did not purchase a full package from Princess, including Air Fare, they basically left you stranded at Bayport. :confused:

 

 

I assume the Hotel and Xfers purchased would have Princess help you if this occurred for your cruise

[Nanaoften]

Thanks to this thread my DH and I have decided not to drive to Texas from MN for our cruise! It seems like if you have a Princess transfer and travel insurance through Princess you were inconvenienced but will be compensated... Those people who drove to the port on there own had to go to a staging area... So we will be on the shuttle from the airport and not worry... I really do love Princess and will continue to unless something changes!

[Loonbeam]

Worst case book a second night at the marriott, cancelable until 6 pm that day AS a second booking (perhaps in Mom's name). As soon as you are onboard, cancel the booking.

 

Any Information would be greatly appreciated:

My 83 year old mother and I are scheduled for the next cruise, December 6 - out of Houston. We have done this cruise before and did not have any problems, but .... Texas weather being what it is you never know.

 

We are driving down from San Antonio so there is no airfare, but we are scheduled the night before at the Marriott in Houston - through Princess - and have bus transfers to the port on cruise day - through Princess. We also have the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess, which I have never needed to use before so I don't really know what it covers.

 

 

One of the posters remarked that if you did not purchase a full package from Princess, including Air Fare, they basically left you stranded at Bayport. :confused:

 

Is there anyone who knows what happened to those passengers with my same situation? Did Princess keep their bus at the terminal and put the riders back on the bus and take them to a hotel after it was determined the ship was not going to make it? Does the Platinum Vacation Protection from Princess cover costs of the hotel and food with receipts?

 

I would not expect food to be provided, but since my mother must eat every 3-4 hours I will definitely be bringing a 6 pack of her Ensure in my carry on. This posting has been extremely informative to me. I have traveled a great deal, by many different methods - not just cruising, so I know that being flexible and having a "go with the flow" attitude is best. However, hanging out for a day at the Bayport Terminal with my mother - Oh Dear! :eek:

[flip side of fifty]

Thanks you for your comments!:)

[bellebaby]

I just looked at the terminal web cam... It appears that the ship is on it's way.

 

B

[DrSch]

They are going to Belize, instead of Grand Cayman

[PenguinLife]

We are scheduled to sail out of Bayport in just under 2 weeks, our plan is to drive over the day before (we live about 150 miles away), spend the night at the Holday Inn Express in La Porte 10 miles from the cruise terminal, and check the web cams and online updates before checking out of our room and driving over to the port if fog is in the potential forecast. If it looks like it will be a fog free morning we may cancel the motel reservations and drive over the morning of the cruise, we have done much the same before in our cruises out of Bayport and Galveston. Out of our 6 previous cruises from these ports all Nov-Feb in the fog months, we have never had a departure or arrival delayed by more than 2-3 of hours due to fog and this strategy of waiting at the motel for updates has worked well in the past, as there is no sense getting to the terminal before the ship does. We simply set an alarm for when we would plan to check out and head to the ship, wake up check the port / ship cams if there is no ship there, hit the snooze button and check again in 20-30 minutes, repeat as needed.

[AllisonJames]

All day yesterday everyone did an exemplary job for the passengers and they all were so gracious and professional during a very long and difficult day!

I am sorry if those waiting to board did not have a good experience, we kept saying how fortunate we were to be on the ship and appreciated the fact we weren't in the terminal waiting! Now that the ship has sailed I wish you all Bon Voyage and hope you enjoy the Caribbean Princess!

[TracieABD]

All day yesterday everyone did an exemplary job for the passengers and they all were so gracious and professional during a very long and difficult day!

I am sorry if those waiting to board did not have a good experience, we kept saying how fortunate we were to be on the ship and appreciated the fact we weren't in the terminal waiting! Now that the ship has sailed I wish you all Bon Voyage and hope you enjoy the Caribbean Princess!

 

Lovely thoughts! I hope those aboard the CB are having extra fun to make up for the situation yesterday...

[nealstuber]

All day yesterday everyone did an exemplary job for the passengers and they all were so gracious and professional during a very long and difficult day!

 

I am sorry if those waiting to board did not have a good experience, we kept saying how fortunate we were to be on the ship and appreciated the fact we weren't in the terminal waiting! Now that the ship has sailed I wish you all Bon Voyage and hope you enjoy the Caribbean Princess!

 

 

Glad the crew stepped up so well. Another post mentioned that those working on tips were basically working for free yesterday. Hoping you and your fellow pax stepped up for them as the oncoming passengers will be credited for tips yesterday.

[Pierlesscruisers]

Glad the crew stepped up so well. Another post mentioned that those working on tips were basically working for free yesterday. Hoping you and your fellow pax stepped up for them as the oncoming passengers will be credited for tips yesterday.

 

How anybody things that anybody on a ship works only for tips, I can't understand at all. They all get their "salary" every day.

 

Tom

[Steelers0854]

How anybody things that anybody on a ship works only for tips, I can't understand at all. They all get their "salary" every day.

 

Tom

 

 

While that is true their salary is very very small and they do rely on tips to make the wage more livable. That is supposedly one of the reasons why cruise lines implemented the auto tip requirement as passengers were not tipping as they should have. We can all debate why they really did it, but the wage alone for most workers aboard is drastically low compared to what people in the US for example are accustomed to as a "living wage".

Edited December 1, 2015 by Steelers0854

[loxley]

While that is true their salary is very very small and they do rely on tips to make the wage more livable. That is supposedly one of the reasons why cruise lines implemented the auto tip requirement as passengers were not tipping as they should have. We can all debate why they really did it, but the wage alone for most workers aboard is drastically low compared to what people in the US for example are accustomed to as a "living wage".

Min wage for the areas most of the tipped employees come from is 30~60 usd per month.

 

Don't believe me, Google it.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[azbirdmom]

Glad the crew stepped up so well. Another post mentioned that those working on tips were basically working for free yesterday. Hoping you and your fellow pax stepped up for them as the oncoming passengers will be credited for tips yesterday.

 

Lots of speculation about autotip distribution but one theory has it that the tips are share across the entire fleet. If that is the case there won't even be a blip in the pay of those who put in the extra effort yesterday. I can only hope that is the case as they certainly earned their pay and more with what they had to do under the circumstances.

[Pierlesscruisers]

Lots of speculation about autotip distribution but one theory has it that the tips are share across the entire fleet. If that is the case there won't even be a blip in the pay of those who put in the extra effort yesterday. I can only hope that is the case as they certainly earned their pay and more with what they had to do under the circumstances.

 

I had heard so many stories about how the tips were distributed, etc. that 3-4 months ago I called Princess and asked how they were distributed (e.g. by each ship separately, across the fleet, some other method) and the person I spoke with said that she wasn't sure and would check and get back to me. Sure enough later that day, or it might have been the next, I don't recall for sure, I did get a call back from the lady who said that they were put into a fleet-wide pool and distributed that way.

 

Now I'm sure that somebody is going to come along and say that they heard it was someway different, or that doing it fleet-wide would be an impossible task, or something along those lines. I'm just repeating what the lady, who I assume was with customer relations, called me back and told me. :confused:

 

Tom

[Spotter]

Fleet-wide makes a lot sense as way way to avoid a potential problem of staff resisting transfers based on income inequality.

[sptrout]

I had heard so many stories about how the tips were distributed, etc. that 3-4 months ago I called Princess and asked how they were distributed (e.g. by each ship separately, across the fleet, some other method) and the person I spoke with said that she wasn't sure and would check and get back to me. Sure enough later that day, or it might have been the next, I don't recall for sure, I did get a call back from the lady who said that they were put into a fleet-wide pool and distributed that way.

 

Now I'm sure that somebody is going to come along and say that they heard it was someway different, or that doing it fleet-wide would be an impossible task, or something along those lines. I'm just repeating what the lady, who I assume was with customer relations, called me back and told me. :confused:

 

Tom

 

During our last Princess cruise, there was a letter in the cabin that said that tips are handled exactly like what was described to you. I still have that letter filed here in case this subject ever came up here on CC. I cannot quote it exactly now, but can tomorrow if anyone is interested.

[nealstuber]

How anybody things that anybody on a ship works only for tips, I can't understand at all. They all get their "salary" every day.

 

Tom

 

While that is true their salary is very very small and they do rely on tips to make the wage more livable. That is supposedly one of the reasons why cruise lines implemented the auto tip requirement as passengers were not tipping as they should have. We can all debate why they really did it, but the wage alone for most workers aboard is drastically low compared to what people in the US for example are accustomed to as a "living wage".

 

Its not about what Pierlesscruiser understands or what a US living wage is. Its about what the service staff is used to and have come to expect. They are used to 70 to 80 percent of their wages coming from tips. All of a sudden a day that was supposed to be an "easy day" turns in to an extra hard day and they get hosed financially to boot.

 

The previous two years we sailed Thanksgiving on NOTS. Both times Grand Cayman got washed out on Thanksgiving day due to weather. Both times the crew went out of their way to make the day extra special and both times we tipped those who positively impacted us directly in cash (with the money we saved on our planned shore excursion).

 

This year we're cruising for the first time at Christmas with Princess. If we're on the "port" side of a fog delay, we'll take our one day gratuities credit and visit the space center or go see the Hunger Games movie. If we end up with an extra day on the ship due to fog, we'll make the most of it and compensate those who help us do so.

[Murphey]

During our last Princess cruise, there was a letter in the cabin that said that tips are handled exactly like what was described to you. I still have that letter filed here in case this subject ever came up here on CC. I cannot quote it exactly now, but can tomorrow if anyone is interested.

 

But, puleeze tell me that cash I give someone actually goes in their pocket. I know this is now off topic. (Auto tips on)

[ryanbarckley]

But, puleeze tell me that cash I give someone actually goes in their pocket. I know this is now off topic. (Auto tips on)

 

 

Cash tips directly to a person go directly to that person...that's why I always tip in cash.

[nealstuber]

But, puleeze tell me that cash I give someone actually goes in their pocket. I know this is now off topic. (Auto tips on)

 

It goes in their pocket so long as no one sees it go in their pocket (unless they are honest to a fault). Tip pooling is pretty much standard practice in the service industry - call it "team work" or "socialism" depending on your point of view.

[Cindy]

Cash tips directly to a person go directly to that person...that's why I always tip in cash.

 

It goes in their pocket so long as no one sees it go in their pocket (unless they are honest to a fault). Tip pooling is pretty much standard practice in the service industry - call it "team work" or "socialism" depending on your point of view.

 

Unless something has changed very recently, staff can keep individual tips if (and only if) someone hasn't removed the auto-tips. If you remove the gratuities and tip directly, the employee has to report it and it goes in the pool. If they're caught trying to cheat the system they risk being fired immediately.

[caribill]

I had heard so many stories about how the tips were distributed, etc. that 3-4 months ago I called Princess and asked how they were distributed (e.g. by each ship separately, across the fleet, some other method) and the person I spoke with said that she wasn't sure and would check and get back to me. Sure enough later that day, or it might have been the next, I don't recall for sure, I did get a call back from the lady who said that they were put into a fleet-wide pool and distributed that way.

 

Now I'm sure that somebody is going to come along and say that they heard it was someway different, or that doing it fleet-wide would be an impossible task, or something along those lines. I'm just repeating what the lady, who I assume was with customer relations, called me back and told me. :confused:

 

Tom

 

The Customer Services Director (supervises among other things the Purser's Desk) told me on a recent cruise that the tips are not shared fleet-wide. All tips associated with a ship are only for that ship's personnel.

Edited December 1, 2015 by caribill