Princess Not Disclosing Port Information on Pacific Cruise

[BURNSMN]

I have been following the situation for many months in Apia, Samoa and it has been obvious that our March 30th Hawaii, Samoa, and Tahiti Cruise on the Emerald Princess out of LA was not going to be able to make the stop there. Why would Princess wait until this week to notify passengers well after final payment? I realized this was probably going to happen but i feel sorry that so many cruisers were unaware of the situation. No ports are guaranteed but if facts are known the itinerary should be changed as soon as possible. I can not find any information leading Princess to believe that this work was going to be completed early. Thoughts?

[fishywood]

Passengers on Holland America's current World Cruise were not officially informed that their call at Apia was cancelled until after embarkation. So at least Princess is one up on them.

 

As for "if the facts are known" do any of us know how certain it was that the call would not be possible? That some sort of promises on the part of the Apia port authority had been made as to some sort of docking (or tendering) facility being in place by the scheduled date? Maybe it was illogical for Princess to wait until less than two months before embarkation to not announce what to some people is the obvious. But as you say, no ports are guaranteed, and if you are going to put your trust and safety in Princess' hands for four weeks perhaps you should simply give them the benefit of the doubt that they will make their decisions (even if not promptly enough in your eyes) always in the best interest of the passengers. Rather than tacitly accuse them of engaging in intentionally deceptive practices.

[hillslife]

This is sooooo disappointing... we are long time Princess cruisers and understand that sometimes changes must be made. But it appears that most people knew Apia wasn’t in the cards a year ago , so why are we just finding that out and spinning our wheels booking tours to the Sua trench when there is no chance to go there. Totally unacceptable and BS .... 😡😩👎

[hillslife]

Why can’t we still go to Apia and tender in like most of the Polynesia ports???

 

Problem solved.... Princess?????

[tcdcruiser]

Speaking for someone booked on this cruise....

 

IMHO - It is too bad, but this is Apia and not Venice or Glacier Bay NP or St. Petersburg. Also, what was not mentioned in prior posts is that the Emerald Princess will overnight in Bora Bora thus offering 2 full days versus 1 full day as an alternative. This is not exactly a bad deal.

[hillslife]

Speaking for someone booked on this cruise....

 

IMHO - It is too bad, but this is Apia and not Venice or Glacier Bay NP or St. Petersburg. Also, what was not mentioned in prior posts is that the Emerald Princess will overnight in Bora Bora thus offering 2 full days versus 1 full day as an alternative. This is not exactly a bad deal.

 

Also speaking from someone on this cruise and I’ve done this cruise before... where we tender into Bora-Bora is a sleepy little town with maybe six or eight shops that close up at 5 PM. So staying overnight there is worthless and not a benefit .. just another night on the ship at anchor🙄

 

I know this is a Third World problem. And we shouldn’t be so petty. We are all spoiled with a great cruise, But its just disappointing when you planned for over a year 😎

[JoJo1973]

Speaking for someone booked on this cruise....

 

IMHO - It is too bad, but this is Apia and not Venice or Glacier Bay NP or St. Petersburg. Also, what was not mentioned in prior posts is that the Emerald Princess will overnight in Bora Bora thus offering 2 full days versus 1 full day as an alternative. This is not exactly a bad deal.

 

 

I blog and will be sharing a link later today, but I only chose this itinerary only because of Samoa. The port day was exactly my 45th birthday, I spent 6 hours and international long distance calls making the perfect itinerary (not sure I'm going to get my car reservation money back :( If they had made this announcement only 16 days earlier, I would have 100% cancelled even though I would have lost out on the $700 in airfare booked separately. That's how disappointed I am about spending a special birthday in paradise vs. a crappy sea day on a cruise with so many sea days. If I knew this I would have booked the Holland America cruise that stopped in Kirbati, Tuamotu and Marquesas instead.

[Kamloops50]

Oct 2017 cruise didn't stop in Apia as well. The info we got was that pier for cruise ships is being rebuilt and was delayed. Cause of delay wasn't given. We stopped in Kona instead. Many people would of preferred an extra day in French polynesian instead.

We where notified about 45 days before the cruise started.

[JoJo1973]

Oct 2017 cruise didn't stop in Apia as well. The info we got was that pier for cruise ships is being rebuilt and was delayed. Cause of delay wasn't given. We stopped in Kona instead. Many people would of preferred an extra day in French polynesian instead.

We where notified about 45 days before the cruise started.

 

 

And this is when they should have modified the itinerary for the Mar 2018 Cruise. I would not have booked around Christmas if they had a realistic itinerary.

[Tweedy]

Speaking for someone booked on this cruise....

 

IMHO - It is too bad, but this is Apia and not Venice or Glacier Bay NP or St. Petersburg. Also, what was not mentioned in prior posts is that the Emerald Princess will overnight in Bora Bora thus offering 2 full days versus 1 full day as an alternative. This is not exactly a bad deal.

 

Myself, I'm quite happy to have two full days in Bora Bora. It is gorgeous there. Sure, I don't get to see Samoa but I'm just happy to be on a cruise vacation. :D

[tcdcruiser]

Again, IMHO...what is truly a concern is how this was handled by Princess.

 

IF Princess knew (and it is hard to believe they did not know) that they could not make the Apia port call for months, then they had an obligation to share that fact with booked and yet to book passengers. The non disclosure is truly horrific.

[fishywood]

 

this is a Third World problem.

 

truly horrific.

 

 

C'mon...don't hold back, say what you really feel :rolleyes:

[voljeep]

As was/is the rollout , or lack thereof, of the inaugural ***** cruise on the Regal

 

again, notified after final deposit date.

 

DISCLAIMER: Princess was good to us in allowing the complete cancellation with ALL payments refunded of both our 2 day and 4 day B2B cruises. Princess also helped with booking a substitute booking on the Crown Princess - same date - and even allowed us to re-fare that cruise multiple times, the last being 5 days before sailing...:cool:

[WVBill]

If it has been obvious to you for many months that the cruise was not going to be able to stop in Suva, then why didn't you re-book the cruise instead of waiting until now and complaining?

[JoJo1973]

If it has been obvious to you for many months that the cruise was not going to be able to stop in Suva, then why didn't you re-book the cruise instead of waiting until now and complaining?

 

For many of this it is a complete surprise, I never saw any word of this on CC until a couple weeks ago when someone mentioned we may be delayed to port at Apia due to the construction, then last night the announcement by Princess.

[Superfragger]

If it has been obvious to you for many months that the cruise was not going to be able to stop in Suva, then why didn't you re-book the cruise instead of waiting until now and complaining?

 

This is an excellent question. Not sure why he/she is complaining in the behalf of those that were uninformed.

[fishywood]

This is an excellent question. Not sure why he/she is complaining in the behalf of those that were uninformed.

 

OP just moving the discussion from the roll call to the main Princess board to stir the pot. Now with the full disclosure that I have not read the roll call nor do I intend to, I echo the idea that the two members who responded had discovered nothing at all about the closure of the pier at Apia during all their research of private tours is very odd. (By that I mean just a bit strange, not "unacceptable BS" or "horrific" or any of the other terms being tossed around on this thread...:rolleyes:)

[WVBill]

Perhaps, Princess has had a rep in Samoa for the past many months trying very very hard hard to sort out with the government and port authority and/or whoever else - ways in which the ship might dock or anchor out and tender passengers ashore or??? Perhaps Princes set a deadline of 30 days before departure to have a solution in place and the rep worked up to the very last minute but couldn't pull it together, so Princess HQ had to announce the cancellation of the port call.

 

To me, that's a more logical explanation than Princess knowing for many months that they weren't making the port call and keeping it a secret. Why would they do that?

Now they are faced with disgruntled passengers and, probably, having to re-sell at the last minute cabins of passengers who exercise a "cancel for any reason" clause.

[JoJo1973]

Perhaps, Princess has had a rep in Samoa for the past many months trying very very hard hard to sort out with the government and port authority and/or whoever else - ways in which the ship might dock or anchor out and tender passengers ashore or??? Perhaps Princes set a deadline of 30 days before departure to have a solution in place and the rep worked up to the very last minute but couldn't pull it together, so Princess HQ had to announce the cancellation of the port call.

 

To me, that's a more logical explanation than Princess knowing for many months that they weren't making the port call and keeping it a secret. Why would they do that?

Now they are faced with disgruntled passengers and, probably, having to re-sell at the last minute cabins of passengers who exercise a "cancel for any reason" clause.

 

I don't know if you're right, but it seems like they should offer something to us given they ignored many facts. In just a little time online I was to gather up a number of facts that Princess ignored...

https://thehotflashpacker.com/princess-cruises-cancels-port/

[caribill]

Perhaps, Princess has had a rep in Samoa for the past many months trying very very hard hard to sort out with the government and port authority and/or whoever else - ways in which the ship might dock or anchor out and tender passengers ashore or??? Perhaps Princes set a deadline of 30 days before departure to have a solution in place and the rep worked up to the very last minute but couldn't pull it together, so Princess HQ had to announce the cancellation of the port call.

 

 

We have a local road construction project going on.

 

In September the signs said there would be traffic delays until the end of October. Then the signs said by the middle of November. Then by December 15. Then by January 31. Then by February 28. Now the signs say by March 31.

 

I suspect Princess had the same type of information about the port in Samoa. Based on past experience, I expect Princess did not change the itinerary until it was certain they would be unable to stop there.

 

I was on a Princess cruise with a stop in Egypt the year of the revolution. Before final payment, they announced the cancellation of the Egypt stop and the addition of a day in Malta and a 2nd day in Istanbul instead. Many people cancelled because Egypt was the main reason they had booked that cruise.

 

 

About 6 weeks before the cruise conditions in Egypt had improved (no longer any safety problems) and the original itinerary was restored, must to the pleasure of those (including us) who had not cancelled the cruise.

 

However, there were a number of very unhappy people who had booked the cruise because of the revised itinerary of Malta and the 2nd day in Istanbul. Past final payment for them.

Edited February 2, 2018 by caribill

[JoJo1973]

caribill... if you have a look at the link, you will find a couple places I found in a few minutes of internet search from very official sources in Samoa that it would not be done until June. These were dated August and November 2017. So why didn't we find out until February 1?

[JEH]

Contacted Princess Guest Relations yesterday and received a reply stating that someone would contact me to adress my concerns .

[caribill]

caribill... if you have a look at the link, you will find a couple places I found in a few minutes of internet search from very official sources in Samoa that it would not be done until June. These were dated August and November 2017. So why didn't we find out until February 1?

 

I guess Princess did not read the notices in a timely manner.

[Steelmen1]

Was on the Oct So Pacific cruise and while no stop in Apia, we did stop in Pago Pago!! We did have an extra stop Kona before going to American Samoa. In Pago Pago we had student tour guides from the high school and it was so refreshing to see their pride in their country!! We knew before hand no stop in Apia!!