Princess Statement on Hurricanes

[Woobstr112G]

Below is Jan Swartz's statement on the hurricanes. I received in an email today.....

 

Our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Irma.

In difficult times like these, it's also important to remember our responsibility to the places we visit. We’re committed to supporting those affected by the storms in rebuilding their communities and their lives. Learn more about what Princess is doing for hurricane relief.

 

We look forward to continuing to provide the great cruise experience to the Caribbean our guests expect and the support that the region relies on, now more than ever. Currently we can confirm that none of our ships were impacted and no sailings will be cancelled. Our staff will continue to assess recovery efforts and conditions in affected destinations should any adjustments be required to future sailings. You can find the latest updates here.

The well-being of our guests is extremely important to me and the entire Princess Cruises family. We appreciate your patience as we work together with our partners to set sail on these memorable journeys, visiting the beautiful ports of call we all love.

Sincerely,

 

Jan Swartz

President

Princess Cruise Line

Bob

[DrivesLikeMario]

Nice and any communication is better than nothing but I wish they had addressed the upcoming Caribbean cruises more specifically. Which itineraries do they anticipate changing? When will they know? Will they post that information as soon as it's available on their website and will they update the itineraries on their website too? So much more needs to be decided. I suppose they're still in an assessment stage.

[OCruisers]

Received the same email. Princess is at least trying to keep us updated.

Seems the next update will be on the 19th.

[riclop]

Very nice.

[capriccio]

Nice and any communication is better than nothing but I wish they had addressed the upcoming Caribbean cruises more specifically. Which itineraries do they anticipate changing? When will they know? Will they post that information as soon as it's available on their website and will they update the itineraries on their website too? So much more needs to be decided. I suppose they're still in an assessment stage.

"When will they know?" I'm sure many with booked Caribbean cruises this fall and winter seasons want to know the answer to this question but it cannot be answered at this early date on the islands most impacted by Hurricane Irma. I'm sure Princess and all the other lines that cruise the Caribbean are getting updates daily, but the cruise lines will not be the ones determining when a port is ready to re-open. We need to keep in mind that repair equipment and possibly workers need to be imported to each island and they have a long, difficult, and expensive job to do. Considering that many locations in Florida that survived a much less severe storm last weekend had pre-positioned electrical crews from though out the country but are still without electricity (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane/sfl-map-florida-power-outages-by-county-20170910-htmlstory.html) it is hard to be sanguine about these islands' timely recovery. I hope I am proved too pessimistic.

 

Given that changing itineraries will result in unhappy passengers plus relatively last minute scrambles to secure docking at another port and arrange excursions to offer those unhappy passengers, I would expect itinerary changes to be announced incrementally as each cruise gets closer to sailing. As more time passes, more affected ports will re-open. After all cruise tourists are the livelihood for many islanders and I'm sure they want to get 'back to normal' as quickly as cruisers do.