Sapphire Princess changes due to Coronavirus

[leck57]

Some people will be aware of this if they are in their cruise Roll Call but Princess have announced by email to passengers that the cruise leaving Singapore on 16 April and due to disembark in Shanghai on 2 May 2020 will now be disembarking in Yokohama and the two prior ports Busan and Nagasaki will be swapped. I assume the cruise that was due to depart Shanghai on 2 May would also be affected but I am not on that cruise and not certain. 

Mods - please move if this shouldn't be in this thread.

[cruisers1468]

Yes. I received an email overnight regarding an itinerary change on the Sapphire Princess which was originally scheduled to sail from Shanghai on May 2, 2020. The ship will now depart from Tokyo (Yokohama) in Japan on May 2, 2020. In addition, there was also a port call change in conjunction with this in that the call to Kagoshima on Tuesday, May 5th has been changed to a call to Sasebo, Japan on Monday, May 4th. As a result, the call to Busan, South Korea has been moved to Tuesday, May 5th.

[matadams4u]

What’s interesting is this is planning three months ahead.  Will be interesting to see other itinerary changes.

[leck57]

I started this post to advise people of changes to Sapphire Princess itineraries, not to have a medical debate about the virus. Stick to the thread.

[TrixieBel]

Cambodia excursion changes? 

We are on the March 1 cruise out of Singapore around Asia. Have signed into my account this morning and found that our (pre-paid) excursion has disappeared and there are no excursions showing at all for Cambodia (Sihanoukville). No refund showing in our on-board account either of course. 

[LSantiago]

42 minutes ago, TrixieBel said:

Cambodia excursion changes? 

We are on the March 1 cruise out of Singapore around Asia. Have signed into my account this morning and found that our (pre-paid) excursion has disappeared and there are no excursions showing at all for Cambodia (Sihanoukville). No refund showing in our on-board account either of course. 

 

We are on the March 22 sailing for SE Asia, and there are no longer excursions for Cambodia on mine either. My other excursions are still there, though. 

[LSantiago]

I just checked my itinerary for the March 22 sailing, and they have replaced Cambodia with an overnight in Bangkok.

[npcl]

2 hours ago, TrixieBel said:

Cambodia excursion changes? 

We are on the March 1 cruise out of Singapore around Asia. Have signed into my account this morning and found that our (pre-paid) excursion has disappeared and there are no excursions showing at all for Cambodia (Sihanoukville). No refund showing in our on-board account either of course. 

This far out any prepaid excursions (not using OBC) should be refunded to original payment source, not to onboard account. Might take 2-4 weeks for it to show up.

[npcl]

10 minutes ago, LSantiago said:

I just checked my itinerary for the March 22 sailing, and they have replaced Cambodia with an overnight in Bangkok.

Do not be surprised if you see additional changes the Thai authorities are already concerned about their ability to control and outbreak, not because of their current number of cases, but instead because of the number of travelers from Wuhan that traveled to Thailand prior to China locking down travel.

 

Thailand health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday that the government is “not able to stop the spread” of coronavirus in the country, according to Sky News. The Thai government estimates that about 22,000 tourists from Wuhan visited the country in January, possibly exposing vast numbers of people to the virus.

[LSantiago]

Thanks for the heads up on Thailand. I knew there were cases there, but not how many from Wuhan had visited in January. If these changes do come to pass, I can only hope that Princess either re-routes to desirable places or cancels altogether for full refunds so we can scramble to get a backup plan together. 

[TrixieBel]

Cambodia has now been completely removed from the 1 March Sapphire Princess sailing out of Singapore too. Replaced with a second night at “Bangkok”. 

[davidoff2020]

On 1/30/2020 at 11:28 AM, leck57 said:

Some people will be aware of this if they are in their cruise Roll Call but Princess have announced by email to passengers that the cruise leaving Singapore on 16 April and due to disembark in Shanghai on 2 May 2020 will now be disembarking in Yokohama and the two prior ports Busan and Nagasaki will be swapped. I assume the cruise that was due to depart Shanghai on 2 May would also be affected but I am not on that cruise and not certain. 

Mods - please move if this shouldn't be in this thread.

 

Hello,

 

does anyone know if they offer free cancellation because of this serious change of itinerary? I suppose that most of the passengers have already booked their flights home out of Shanghai and now they will have to arrange new flights from Japan on their own cost?? All this because Princess Cruises changes the final port of the cruise?? For whatever reason??

[Cuedon]

It's more of a change in policy than itinerary, but if anybody else is booked on the Feb2 voyage and haven't left for Singapore yet, check your emails because if your airline is routing you through any part of mainland China, or you were recently routed through there, there's an emergency message suggesting you might be barred from boarding.

 

Unfortunately, all the contact numbers I've been able to reach (including their en route delay support line) don't have any more specifics as to what qualifies.

 

Edit: Ah, sorry. Looks like there was a different thread lower that would've been a better place for this.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Cuedon