Princess transfers - worth it?

[moki'smommy]

Agree..although not tech savvy enough to do Uber !

 

 

We find we pay more for hotels when booking with any Cruiseline. They are going to take a 'cut' . Passengers are prepared to pay for this service, so sadly it's a case of supply and demand.

We've found this to be true outside the US. Many hotels in the US give the cruise lines a "deal" in exchange for a certain number of guaranteed bookings. The cruise line can re-sell these rooms at a lower then typical rate and still make a profit. In Europe and Asia, we've always been able to do better booking on our own.

[elliair]

The late boarding had nothing to do with your transfer. Everyone had late boarding.

 

If you had taken a cab to the ship instead of the Princess Transfer, you would have been sitting in the waiting room or standing in lines at the pier for 5 hours instead of sitting at the Sheraton drinking coffee and tea and eating pastries.

 

I'd guess it was a pretty bad day for everyone that day whether you were on a Princess Transfer or not.

 

You missed my point. Once you're on the bus and hooked up with Princess, you are not on your own. Your luggage is in Princess' control, you are in their control. Those that showed up at the terminal were offered a bus ride to Long Beach to shop and have lunch, or a bus ride to the fishing village close by. Wasn't bad for those people who got a free lunch and an onboard credit. I'd say it was worse for the handicapped who had no access to a restroom. We weren't offered a bottle of water. We take Super Shuttle now, cheaper and much better customer service. Very reliable.

 

FTR, the ship had noro on board from the previous cruise and the ship had to be deep cleaned. This was on the Crown Princess, notorious for being the noro ship. Still had the noro on board during our cruise. So much for deep cleaning....

Edited May 12, 2018 by elliair

[SusieS]

In NY, going from the port to the airport, I might take a Princess transfer. Other than that, 99% of the time, I would not. We once had to wait for 4 hrs in LAX for our transfer to the port. They kept saying that we’d be boarding the bus in a few minutes. Very stressful....never (almost!) again!

[moki'smommy]

You missed my point. Once you're on the bus and hooked up with Princess, you are not on your own. Your luggage is in Princess' control, you are in their control. Those that showed up at the terminal were offered a bus ride to Long Beach to shop and have lunch, or a bus ride to the fishing village close by. Wasn't bad for those people who got a free lunch and an onboard credit. I'd say it was worse for the handicapped who had no access to a restroom. We weren't offered a bottle of water. We take Super Shuttle now, cheaper and much better customer service. Very reliable.

Wow! We did Princess transfers during our "delayed boarding." They did offer a bus to a local food area so that we could buy our own lunch, but my daughter has a mobility issue and really can't handle bus stairs (HA transportation to the food area was not available, taxis or food delivery was not an option as the police were not permitting anything other than Princess authorized buses into the area). The combination of carry on luggage and mobility issue was more than we could manage. In retrospect, I should have gone to the restaurant area and purchased something "to go," taking the shuttle back.

 

No "free lunch," no OBC. We did ultimately get food about 8 pm when we got to the hotel provided by Princess.

[elliair]

In NY, going from the port to the airport, I might take a Princess transfer. Other than that, 99% of the time, I would not. We once had to wait for 4 hrs in LAX for our transfer to the port. They kept saying that we’d be boarding the bus in a few minutes. Very stressful....never (almost!) again!

 

Why can't they just be upfront and honest? Why do they BS the passenger (customers). We paid for a service and got held hostage,. We were herded around like cattle. I was seriously thinking about contacting the DOT (Department of Transportation), and try to put a stop to this practice. I think that's why the bus driver hopped on the bus so fast and took us to the terminal. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[tanyaewa]

For a family of 4 it is usually less costly to organize our own private transport than pay $20-30 pp

[goseacruising]

It depends on how many people are transporting between the airport and cruise port. We are a party of 4, booked on a Canada New England cruise on September 29 and plan on using Dial 7 to get there from LaGuardia. The transfer through Princess can run up to $40.00 per person. The dial 7 cost should be around $40.00 - $65.00 (plus tip $8.00-$13.00) for everyone. The cost variation is car vs. van depending on how much luggage we end up bringing.

[PandRBarry]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 7:39 AM, Anubi said:

We normally get the Princess transfers from the ship to the airport and plan to do this on our upcoming cruise as well. We've never had a problem.

My only complaint is the overt request for tips.

I know this is an older thread but I've sailed  on Princess many times but have never taken a transfer from the ship to the airport.  We are disembarking in Sydney Australia for an 11:50 am flight to NZ.  My question is, does princess load the luggage onto the bus you are assigned to or do you still have to get your luggage with all the others?  We are on a tight schedule and I'm trying to determine the best and fastest way to get to the airport that morning.  per Princess, we are in the right timeframe for their transfer.

Thanks!

[Anubi]

1 minute ago, PandRBarry said:

I know this is an older thread but I've sailed  on Princess many times but have never taken a transfer from the ship to the airport.  We are disembarking in Sydney Australia for an 11:50 am flight to NZ.  My question is, does princess load the luggage onto the bus you are assigned to or do you still have to get your luggage with all the others?  We are on a tight schedule and I'm trying to determine the best and fastest way to get to the airport that morning.  per Princess, we are in the right timeframe for their transfer.

Thanks!

You collect your luggage yourself, go out to the bus and you or the driver will load the luggage on the bus.  I hope this helps.  

[PandRBarry]

2 minutes ago, Anubi said:

You collect your luggage yourself, go out to the bus and you or the driver will load the luggage on the bus.  I hope this helps.  

Yes exactly what I wanted to know.

Thanks very much!

[X1HYCB]

On ‎5‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:55 AM, tanyaewa said:

For a family of 4 it is usually less costly to organize our own private transport than pay $20-30 pp

We (family of 4) just had an excellent Baltic/St Petersburg cruise last month!  Anyway, originally we planned on taking the Princess R/T transfer from Copenhagen airport to the terminal and back.  That was $39pp one way ($160.00 total).  Since we had 3 hours to spare before boarding time, we grudgingly took a Merc Benz taxi (they all are). I mean, you're in a foreign country and expects things to go wrong. After 38 min, we were dropped off at the terminal (Converted to US$85, credit card payment). A Dane lady was waiting, stapled our luggage boarding tags to our bags and put them on the conveyor. Awesome experience.  My expectations proved otherwise.

[rbrad3]

we took transfer from Brooklyn  to regel last October it was a disaster 2.5 hours  never again