Royal Princess January 25th itinerary change

[Vexorg]

For anyone sailing on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera cruise, I just got notified of an itinerary change to swap the PV and Cabo port calls:

 

ITINERARY CHANGE

Please be advised that due to cruise ship congestion in Puerto Vallarta, Royal Princess' calls to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas have been reversed. Royal Princess will now call to Puerto Vallarta on Monday, January 27, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM rather than Wednesday, January 29 from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Cabo San Lucas on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM rather than Monday, January 27 from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM as previously scheduled.

On the day this cruise was scheduled to be in PV there were going to be four ships in port with only three berths, meaning one ship was going to have to tender and things were likely to be rather crowded.  With the time changes there may be impacts to shore excursions, but we'll see what happens.

[Bwana Tom]

8 hours ago, Vexorg said:

For anyone sailing on the January 25th Royal Princess Mexican Riviera cruise, I just got notified of an itinerary change to swap the PV and Cabo port calls:

 

ITINERARY CHANGE

Please be advised that due to cruise ship congestion in Puerto Vallarta, Royal Princess' calls to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas have been reversed. Royal Princess will now call to Puerto Vallarta on Monday, January 27, 2020 from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM rather than Wednesday, January 29 from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Cabo San Lucas on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM rather than Monday, January 27 from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM as previously scheduled.

On the day this cruise was scheduled to be in PV there were going to be four ships in port with only three berths, meaning one ship was going to have to tender and things were likely to be rather crowded.  With the time changes there may be impacts to shore excursions, but we'll see what happens.

My updated itinerary from 'My Princess' website shows the change in the PV and Cabo port of calls, but shows the 26th and 27th to be sea days and PV on the 28th and Cabo on the 29th. Not sure which itinerary is right but I suppose it will eventually get worked out. I hope they let us know.

Tom

[Vexorg]

2 hours ago, Bwana Tom said:

My updated itinerary from 'My Princess' website shows the change in the PV and Cabo port of calls, but shows the 26th and 27th to be sea days and PV on the 28th and Cabo on the 29th. Not sure which itinerary is right but I suppose it will eventually get worked out. I hope they let us know.

Tom

 

The text of the notification seems to be incorrect, but the updated itinerary in the email refects this (there are now two sea days before PV and one after Cabo.). This is what the Cruise Personalizer shows:

Edited January 1, 2020 by Vexorg

[TNTLAMB]

What ever the final itinerary, it will be Great. Just came off that cruise. The big issue is the Carnival Panorama. How 4500 pax ship can have no tendering set up is beyond me. How it can schedule a a tender only port is  bigger question. We literally raced the Panorama to Cabo so as to use both the ship tenders and local tenders. It worked beautifully. By the time the Panorama was anchored, it was open rendering. Watching the contact tenders race to the Panorama from the other ships was most entertaining.... The switch up will be great for everyone. 

[victoriaj]

We are also on this cruise on the Jan. 25th and received the same email. Interesting as to their reason for change as our Daughter just returned Dec. 21st, same ship and was to be original same itinerary. She was awakened early in the morning of their planned Cabo arrival by a bridge announcement that the ship would not be stopping at Cabo due to a generator problem. The itinerary was switched to what is  our new schedule ???? 

Upsetting as we had afternoon excursion booked in Cabo, not interested in doing any others. 

Cruise will be great and I really don't care, I just wish they would tell the truth when these kind of things happen,  so please tell us the truth we can handle it !!!!!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Hate that short day in Cabo.

[Vexorg]

It's pretty clear that the change was made mostly to avoid having four ships in PV on the 29th.  With four ships in port it seems likely that Emerald Princess (on a one way Panama Canal sailing) is the one that would end up tendering so its probably easier for Royal to move its schedule a bit.   On the new itinerary I believe Royal Princess will be the only ship in each of the three ports (assuming no changes to Carnival Panorama's itinerary, since it was scheduled to be in the same three ports on the same three days.)  If I had to pick a stop to shorten I'd probably prefer Mazatlan though. 

 

We had the Princess "Cabo by Land and Sea" excursion booked for Cabo, but my guess is that with the early arrival and shortened port call it ends up cancelled.  My parents are on the cruise as well and already decided that they will most likely just stay on board that day. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Vexorg

[shellbeachjim]

2 hours ago, victoriaj said:

We are also on this cruise on the Jan. 25th and received the same email. Interesting as to their reason for change as our Daughter just returned Dec. 21st, same ship and was to be original same itinerary. She was awakened early in the morning of their planned Cabo arrival by a bridge announcement that the ship would not be stopping at Cabo due to a generator problem. The itinerary was switched to what is  our new schedule ???? 

Upsetting as we had afternoon excursion booked in Cabo, not interested in doing any others. 

Cruise will be great and I really don't care, I just wish they would tell the truth when these kind of things happen,  so please tell us the truth we can handle it !!!!!!

We were on the same cruise as your daughter. The announcement was actually made late in the afternoon the day prior to the original planned Cabo arrival. Instead of Cabo, PV, Mazatlán, the Port order was changed to Mazatlán, PV, and Cabo. The stop in Cabo was from 6am to 1pm. 

[Vexorg]

Princess sent another update clarifying the itinerary change: The short version is that the itinerary included with the original notification was correct, with PV on the 28th, Mazatlan on the 29th and Cabo on the 30th.  

 

Also, it looks like shore excursions have been updated.  The one we have scheduled (the "Cabo by Land and Sea" Princess excursion) is still there, but now shows times of 7am to Noon, which isn't going to leave time for much else.  I expect that there will be late arriving Princess excursions so the ship isn't going to leave at 1 as scheduled.

 

ITINERARY CHANGE CORRECTION

Please be advised that while the itinerary attached to the recent itinerary change notification you received was correct, the description of changes contained an error. Due to cruise ship congestion in Puerto Vallarta, Royal Princess' itinerary has been entirely reversed. We will now call to Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday, January 28, 2020 rather than on Wednesday, January 29, to Mazatlan on Wednesday, January 29 rather than on Tuesday, January 28, and to Cabo San Lucas on Thursday, January 30 rather than on Monday, January 27. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Affected Shore Excursions have been updated. Please check your Cruise Personalizer for more information.

The revised itinerary displays in full at the end of this notification.

[From Air to Sea!]

On 1/1/2020 at 3:06 PM, shellbeachjim said:

We were on the same cruise as your daughter. The announcement was actually made late in the afternoon the day prior to the original planned Cabo arrival. Instead of Cabo, PV, Mazatlán, the Port order was changed to Mazatlán, PV, and Cabo. The stop in Cabo was from 6am to 1pm. 

We were that same cruise also. What confused us was that we (the Royal) were originally supposed to be in port with Panorama and HAL but after the change (due to a mechanical problem), we noticed that the Oosterdam has also changed their itinerary and were with us in each port. I didn’t care since it’s a smaller ship but I am almost sure that she had the exact same itinerary as our original one. I never did find out why (or if) they changed though. Just curious! We still enjoyed our trip no matter what!

[victoriaj]

On 1/1/2020 at 1:06 PM, shellbeachjim said:

We were on the same cruise as your daughter. The announcement was actually made late in the afternoon the day prior to the original planned Cabo arrival. Instead of Cabo, PV, Mazatlán, the Port order was changed to Mazatlán, PV, and Cabo. The stop in Cabo was from 6am to 1pm. 

Thanks for your input, we just got another email this morning correcting what they previously sent, so I think we will just wait and see and what will be will be and it will all be fine. Just disappointed we  miss the full day in Cabo.  Happy Cruising and Happy New Year !

[txjim09]

Vexorg, thanks for starting this, I'm on this cruise as well.  I had a Tour with Roberto booked in PV, just sent him an e-mail and hope he still has availability on this new date.  Cabo El Arco Cruise & Scenic Views tour was booked through Princess to avoid tender issues and is now 7:30 to 10:00.  

 

 I was typing out a line stating I never received an e-mail, I checked my inbox and there it is!  Don't know when your notification came through, mine came 20 seconds ago.

 

I am very much in favor of not being in PV with 4 ships!

Edited January 3, 2020 by txjim09