Just Back From The Grand - There is a tender problem

[wrp96]

We are going on Grand Princess on Feb 4, 2006 and I was told by Princess they dock in Cozumel and Belize. Is this true? My husband is in a wheelchair and we don't get off the ship when it is a tender, very unsafe.

 

The piers are all gone in Cozumel so you have to tender there now.

[cdfev]

My extended family (14 of us) are just off the Grand as of yesterday.

 

Tenders in Belize are not much of an issue since the first ones are at 0630 and half the ship is not up yet. In addition, there was only one other boat off the coast that day and the Belize tenders were readily available when we got off for the private excursion that we had previously booked to cave tube. This tour went well through Coral Breeze but I'd probably do a different excursion next time as this one required a long drive (more than 50 minutes) to the caves over very rough roads the last 6 miles.

 

The tenders in Grand Cayman and Cozumel are a competition. We assigned different family members to the line and were able to get on the first available tenders (for those not booked on ship's excursions) on each day; nevertheless, this was a pain in the ***. We unloaded at the dock around 12:45 PM in Grand Cayman and around 1:00 PM in Cozumel. We had to sit for over 40 minutes on the 4th floor awaiting the first tender to leave in Cozumel after we were called too early for this tender. There was a lot of gritching and I felt very sorry for the ship's staff who had to take a load of grief from some passengers.

 

I think that Grand Princess is doing the best they can with what appears to be a situation that is not very much under their control. The staff has always been very pleasant to us and I see little benefit to beating on them for delays that cannot be avoided or predicted.

 

Be prepared for a competition for these tenders....figure out whether you can deal with a delay or whether the delay will ruin your day. If so, book a ship excursion and hope that things run smoothly.

[db610]

I don't buy the excuse that lines are a nessasary evil of cruising. I have been on the Voyager ships that hold over 4,000 people visiting the same ports and never had the problems we had on the Grand princess. In fact eveything was so well tuned I never even saw a line on those ships at all. On the Grand, It took 2 days and 4 trips to the pursers desk to get the wheelchair that was reserved for my elderly mother. I had even called 4 months prior to check and make sure it would be there in the room for her when we arrived. Princess assured me it was no problem. I would have gone and picked it up myself if they would have let me. Since we were sailing, it obviously was on board somewhere. I agree the staff couldn't care less about helping anyone. The dinning room staff acted very tired and overworked. I had 3 children in our family group and usually the waiters make a fuss over them. All the little extras were sadly missing. My room was great and the steward did a fantastic job but that was where any of my compliments end. Princess reminds me of a cheesebag cruiseline. We I love cruising and go every year but vacation days are very precious and I won't be wasting any more of mine with Princess.

[chasetf]

On southbound Alaska itinereries last year' date=' there was tendering in Ketchikan. It worked well.[/quote']

Which is because of the number of ships in port.....:( Fortunately when we have been in the Alaska ports, we got there first and got a parking spot. Others had to tender.....

[Coral]

I don't buy the excuse that lines are a nessasary evil of cruising. I have been on the Voyager ships that hold over 4,000 people visiting the same ports and never had the problems we had on the Grand princess. In fact eveything was so well tuned I never even saw a line on those ships at all. On the Grand, It took 2 days and 4 trips to the pursers desk to get the wheelchair that was reserved for my elderly mother. .

 

Things have changed recently in the Caribbean. I have also sailed Voyager class and Grand class ships before and have never had problems tendering on either.

 

The problems people are now experiencing is due to Cozumel not having any piers and the amount of ships in Grand Caymen is double what it used to be. I have friends recently on Voyager class ships and have complained about their tendering experiences in these 2 ports as well. This is not just a Princess issue.

[TX_Minnow]

Hi!

 

I am scheduled to cruise on the Grand Princess on Feb. 18th. I have been very upset about the tendering problems at the ports of call. As a result, I called customer relations and got an email address.

 

passengerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

This is an address where you can let Princess know that there are problems. Hopefully, it will get to people that actually run the cruise line. So please, if you had had a problem, email them and let them know. Perhaps you might even get some little perk out of it.

 

Many thanks!

 

TX_Minnow

[spiritkat090909]

My DH & I were also on the Grand that week...I have never seen such a mess in my entire cruising life. We too picked up a tender ticket, 1075, around 11:30am. We did not rush since we had intentions of only going to Hell (guess we sorta did that) & if there was time, seeing the beach. By 2pm, there wasn't a cab in sight. If we had found one, we may not have made it back to the port before departure. We shopped for 2 hours (a real tourist Trap) & braved the return tender, hoping our liquor made it back easier than we had arrived. No problems for the liquor. Hmm.

 

We were also on the tender that got held up by the accident in Cozumel. One of the 300 on the dock. That one really wasn't so bad, though. There WAS a restaurant within sight of the beach/tender area that had a restroom & we made use of it. There was a ship's officer in the restaurant (he asked our guide what was going on & where the shore contact was...huh? MIA) From 5:30-7:00 pm we were in the dark (the moon was full) & had no idea if the ship had left us or not. We had the late dinner & made the Lobster night with 5 mins to spare. Only by going up the FORBIDDEN staircase midship & ignoring the crew telling us we couldn't be there...that's another story. Review to be posted.

SKIP Grand Cayman if you are on the Grand Princess.

 

The wait for a tender would have been more tolerable with a drink... but the bars were closed. HINT: Go to the pool area. It has the only open bars during the port tendering. Guess they didn't want a bunch of upset drunks. PCL KNOWS this is a real problem. I spoke to the Pursers desk & the guy there said it happens every week, this is not an unusual situation for GC. I'm just surprised that I hadn't read about it before hand on this site. If I had expected it (or if the Captain or other staff had mentioned it), then I would have adjusted my plans accordingly. As it was, we wasted a day that could have been spent out by the ship pool instead of an hour in an unairconditioned dinghy with a roof. I was also surprised to hear that ship excursions were NOT given priority tendering. To me, that is the main reason I book through the ship. Particularly at tender ports.

 

Next year, Roatan replaces Grand Cayman. Thank God. We booked again while onboard. IMO it stinks that everyone on this itinerary loses one day of their cruise when they could simply stay at sea & have the employees keep us entertained another day. For us, that loss of one day was about $103 pp. Will PCL compensate for that lost day? Doubt it. For what it's worth... our shipboard expenses were $1500...:Dwe would have SPENT about 103pp for that day if we had been at sea. So, I guess we came out even.:o

 

 

 

 

 

[cnmiranda]

I don't buy the excuse that lines are a nessasary evil of cruising. I have been on the Voyager ships that hold over 4,000 people visiting the same ports and never had the problems we had on the Grand princess. In fact eveything was so well tuned I never even saw a line on those ships at all. On the Grand, It took 2 days and 4 trips to the pursers desk to get the wheelchair that was reserved for my elderly mother. I had even called 4 months prior to check and make sure it would be there in the room for her when we arrived. Princess assured me it was no problem. I would have gone and picked it up myself if they would have let me. Since we were sailing, it obviously was on board somewhere. I agree the staff couldn't care less about helping anyone. The dinning room staff acted very tired and overworked. I had 3 children in our family group and usually the waiters make a fuss over them. All the little extras were sadly missing. My room was great and the steward did a fantastic job but that was where any of my compliments end. Princess reminds me of a cheesebag cruiseline. We I love cruising and go every year but vacation days are very precious and I won't be wasting any more of mine with Princess.

 

Db610, just curious, did you have Personal Choice dining or Traditional? I've noticed a definite difference between PC dining and traditional, with PC being much more rushed and less formal, but it doesn't really bother me as we're not too much for socializing:) I was just wondering if you felt service was lacking in the traditional dining room as well?

[db610]

Cnmiranda,

We had traditional dining except for the first dinner(when we got on so late we missed it) and the night of the Lobsters in Cozemel (when we got back onboard after 7PM from our very late shore excursion) Those nights we did the other dining room (personal choice) and I do think the service in the PC was better then the traditional. We had thought to stick with traditional because we liked the way the wait staff usually picked up on likes and dislikes and had an ice tea or milk waiting at your place as you arrived. That was so not the case. It would take me 2 or three requests just to get the first ice tea and just as many for a refill when my glass was dry. The waitress and her junior waitress would launch into heated exchanges (in another language) thru out dinner. Once I know it was because of the wrong size spoon put out by the other girl. Maybe the help was all new and they were just adjusting to very long hours, but they were very sour. If I had my chioce to start over I think I would have chosen personal choice. (That does require reservations and you do have to wait for a table)

[lindnet]

Wow, when I sailed on the Grand last Dec, we did PC dining and we never needed a reservation, nor did we ever wait more than 5 minutes for a table. Has it changed?

[jfjudge]

Okay you have all convinced me that we will not try the tenders - think we'll just sit on the balcony and people watch and drink. Sounds Good can't wait till we leave on February 4th..........

[cnmiranda]

Cnmiranda,

We had traditional dining except for the first dinner(when we got on so late we missed it) and the night of the Lobsters in Cozemel (when we got back onboard after 7PM from our very late shore excursion) Those nights we did the other dining room (personal choice) and I do think the service in the PC was better then the traditional. We had thought to stick with traditional because we liked the way the wait staff usually picked up on likes and dislikes and had an ice tea or milk waiting at your place as you arrived. That was so not the case. It would take me 2 or three requests just to get the first ice tea and just as many for a refill when my glass was dry. The waitress and her junior waitress would launch into heated exchanges (in another language) thru out dinner. Once I know it was because of the wrong size spoon put out by the other girl. Maybe the help was all new and they were just adjusting to very long hours, but they were very sour. If I had my chioce to start over I think I would have chosen personal choice. (That does require reservations and you do have to wait for a table)

 

Interresting. I guess that's why some people argue against having gratuities automatically added to your bill each day:) As previously mentioned we have definitely noticed the service to not be as good when personal choice dining. Less friendly, more rushed service. No biggie but I was a bit surprised to hear your comments about the traditional dining room. Thanks for your info:)

[JimnKaren]

Hey there jfjudge, would you please save me a chair on the deck. Ya know put a book upside down or something...I plan to spend a lot of time watching those folks trying to get ashore on our leg 2/11.

 

Jim

[zydecocruiser]

The only time we got the flashy light things for Personal Choice dining was the final night - and then the wait was less than 15 minutes. Otherwise, we never had to wait for seating and never needed nor made reservations. Service was never a problem and often quite impressive.

 

But getting back to the original topic, I saw at least one wheel chair on a tender so it is certainly possible. And at least one on a shore excursion that left on a boat from the ship.

 

My Mother, while a little slower than some since she uses a cane, had no problem using a tender in Grand Cayman and even managed to get herself back to the ship unescorted!

 

I found the crew and fellow passengers to be extremely helpful and considerate of her needs.

[srpilo]

.

 

Well the Grand's problem's continue... The Grand is un-able to make it's published itininary again this week, she will once again be calling at Playa Del Carman, eliminating her scheduled call at Grand Cayman.

 

 

 

Thats 4 cruises in a row with either late departures, late arrivals or missed ports.. Add to that all the reported tendering issues, and well ??

 

 

 

 

Are there still any doubts that the Grand has problems? Problems that Princess is completely aware of, but still refuses to advise or warn future passenger's of.

 

 

Not Good !!

 

Srpilo

[chris2597]

Dh signed us up for the traditional dining. Can we opt on the ship to do PC and just take the wait if there is one? Is PC also formal on Formal night? Do they have lobster or do you have to order that in the traditional dining? Is PC the dining area that charges extra? Sorry for all of the questions but we have never sailed Princesses.

[bjkTX]

From what I've heard at this late date (since you just booked) I'd be surprised if you got traditional dining - they have a limit on how many they take and the rest are put on a list. Either way you can still choose to do Personal Choice on one or more days - but protocol dictates letting your tablemates in the traditional dining room know so they won't wait for you.

 

Formal night is ship wide - so it applies in all the dining rooms except the buffet - and the same items are served in all the dining rooms on the same nights.

 

There is no charge for Personal Choice dining in the regular dining rooms. The only time there is an extra charge is if you go to one of the specialty restaurants (Sabatinis Italian - or the Steakhouse).

 

See you on board!

[MSN-Travelers]

Dh signed us up for the traditional dining. Can we opt on the ship to do PC and just take the wait if there is one? Is PC also formal on Formal night? Do they have lobster or do you have to order that in the traditional dining? Is PC the dining area that charges extra? Sorry for all of the questions but we have never sailed Princesses.

 

Yes, you can switch from Traditional to PC dining. They will have a table set up outside Sabatini's (I think) on embarkation day to deal with dining issues and take reservations for the specialty dining restaurants. There is always a wait list for people that want Traditional dining. You will make somebody very happy if you opt to switch to PC dining.

 

Since you posted this question in this thread, I will assume you will sail on the Grand. There are three main dining rooms and two specialty dining rooms. Of the three main dining rooms, two are used for PC dining and one is set aside for traditional dining. The food is the same in all three main dining rooms.

The ship has two specialty dining rooms. Sabatini's serves a 10+ coarse Italian foodfest and Sterlings is the steakhouse. There is an extra charge for these two restaurants. $20 & $15 pp respectively. Reservations are strongly suggested, possibly required.

I think the big lobster dinner is served on the second formal night. If that is important to you, then schedule any specialty dining for a different night. (I have been told that you can request they bring you a lobster tail, on lobster night, if you happen to be dining in Sterling's that evening. It's not on the steakhouse menu.)

 

Formal night is observed in all five dining rooms.

 

There is a FAQ thread listed at the top of this Princess board. It contains a ton of information targetted at the first-time Princess cruiser.

 

Enjoy!

[ppeckham]

Folks have to realize they are going to have to manage through a line at least once while on a cruise.

 

In March we'll be on the Grand, first time on Princess. But we've sailed several times. We've done the Grand Cayman and Cozumel ports three and four times. With Cayman, all ships must tender to the port. Usually Carnival has one of the two docks and RCCI has the other. The other cruiselines (Celebrity, Princess, etc) must squeeze into one of the two docks in between arrivals/departures. The more ships in port, the longer the wait.

 

Usually we've been there in the summer when only one Princess ship is cruising in the Caribbean. I think I've only been in Cayman once when a Princess ship was in port. Only one time have we waited longer than 30 minutes for a tender. We'll just have to be patient.

 

With Cozumel I think they're still having to refine the process since the hurricane. I suspect they have some days with more ships in port and others with just a couple.

 

Three years ago I was on a cruise where the debarkation port had to change to a port not used by the cruiselines. What added to the problem was the ship was late docking due to fog. The cruiseline, port authorities and casino were scrambling. We waited in our cars for over 3 hours to drop off luggage. We waited another hour to check in and receive a shuttle ticket to return to the ship. We would have had another hour wait to return to the ship, but the ship's agent checking us in gave us the earliest ticket she could locate. This was all because we were very organized and extremely pleasant to her. I'm sure she had heard loads of grumblings and complaints over the last several hours. About 30 minutes after we checked in, we were seated at dinner. It pays to be pleasant.

[Stevesan]

Dh signed us up for the traditional dining. Can we opt on the ship to do PC and just take the wait if there is one? Is PC also formal on Formal night? Do they have lobster or do you have to order that in the traditional dining? Is PC the dining area that charges extra? Sorry for all of the questions but we have never sailed Princesses.

 

Princess refers to their Personal Choice dining arrangements as Anytime and Traditional.

 

It's quite easy to switch from Traditional to Anytime dining. However, you won't be allowed to change back again. You can't switch back and forth during the cruise, either.

If you do opt for Anytime dining, you can make a standing reservation, however, the available times will be limited to early or late. Usually 6 - 8:30 is blocked out for walkups.

 

The optional, for a fee, dining venues are Sabatini's from 6:30PM-11PM ($20) and 11AM-2PM for brunch on sea days only and Sterling Steak House, ($15) which has the same dining times except brunch is extended to 3PM, it's also sea days only.

 

Boticelli is the Traditional dining room. Michelangelo and Da Vinci are Anytime dining rooms. The latter are open for dinner from 5:30PM - 10PM. Breakfast and lunch are served in Boticelli.

[writrgirl]

I've discovered that truly the only way to receive a response from Princess is to be a TA.

We sailed on the Sapphire in August 04. I had emailed Princess regarding a situation on the ship and never received a reply.

My mother is a TA who sells just cruises.

She was on the Sapphire with us. She wrote a letter. She received a reply.

So my suggestion would be to send your letter or email, but ask your TA to send one in as well.

 

My opinion of Princess is they don't understand good customer service.

Problems happen and often all a passenger would like to hear is that their complaint is being listened to and hopefully will be addressed.

The staff on board is usually busy doing their jobs and dealing with basic ship problems as well as the occasional nutjob/drunk.

If I ran Princess, I would have special PR liaisons on the ship to deal with issues such as tendering, embarkation, debarkation etc.

Good service is such an easy thing to provide. It only takes a smile and patience.

As I posted on another thread, we're leaving Saturday for the Grand. This is my dh's first cruise - he has been resisting this type of vacation forever.

I hate to think that we'll miss GC and the few excursions he wants to do.

If my parents weren't traveling with us - they're elite - I would've never booked Princess.

[jfjudge]

Writgirl:

 

Yes that is right write a letter, we were on Diamond Princess May of 2004 to Alaska and had all kinds of problems so I wrote a letter to Princess and we received a $500 credit toward another cruise. Sooooo, we booked on the Grand Princess for 2/4/06, now I hear they are having all kinds of issues, not going to Grand Cayman, going to Playa Del Carmen rather than Cozumel, generator problems, sure hope this trip is better than the last. I do think this will be our LAST trip on Princess. RCCL is much better. Sure hope you have a great cruise. Please let me know how it was. Thanks

[elemon]

I can't belive they would just skip a port, we are on the Grand 1/28 and really want to go to Grand Cayman- this was a HUGE part of the reason we selected this ship. Playa del Carmen is beautiful but we have been there before. That will be disappointing if GC is missed...

[ppeckham]

I can't belive they would just skip a port, we are on the Grand 1/28 and really want to go to Grand Cayman- this was a HUGE part of the reason we selected this ship. Playa del Carmen is beautiful but we have been there before. That will be disappointing if GC is missed...

You have to go with the flow. Last year I selected a cruise on another line that took us to the same ports as the Grand. My daughter, who had cruised to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel twice before, wanted something a little different. Hurricane Emily plowed through the Caribbean and changed the ports to... you guessed it - Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. DH was bummed. However we made the most of it.