Changes to Baltic Cruise Itinerary

[Mo Jito]

I am pleased with the overnight in Stockholm on the May 4 Enchanted itinerary. We were originally going to berth at Nynashamn, which is quite a distance from Stockholm, so it will be great to not have to cut the day short to get back to the ship. Also really looking forward to sailing into the Stockholm Archipelago, which everyone says is beautiful and which we would have missed docking at Nynashamn.

 

I would love to see St Petersburg some day, but I am going to enjoy the ports we have. That said, I can understand people wanting to cancel since SPB is normally a highlight of a Baltic cruise. I kind of expected Princess to make the offer even though port changes are allowed per the passenger contract. Perhaps if this war hadn’t come on the heels of the pandemic pause, Princess would have been more inclined to be generous with refunds.

[FollowingTheSun]

2 hours ago, Mo Jito said:

I am pleased with the overnight in Stockholm on the May 4 Enchanted itinerary. We were originally going to berth at Nynashamn, which is quite a distance from Stockholm, so it will be great to not have to cut the day short to get back to the ship. Also really looking forward to sailing into the Stockholm Archipelago, which everyone says is beautiful and which we would have missed docking at Nynashamn.

Yes, the trip through the Stockholm Archipelago was a highlight of our first Baltic cruise. We were very disappointed when they changed us to Nynashamn on our second trip after especially selecting a cruise that DID go into Stockholm again.

I would happily swap an overnight in Stockholm for St Petersburg.

[judithzuz]

I posted this question in our April 9th roll call for the Enchanted, but has anyone noticed that pricing has been pulled from the Baltic sailings? I have no idea what this portends.

[Traveller94]

41 minutes ago, judithzuz said:

I posted this question in our April 9th roll call for the Enchanted, but has anyone noticed that pricing has been pulled from the Baltic sailings? I have no idea what this portends.

I noticed that with our August sailing. I have been wondering if the price will go down now that a major port that many people booked to see has been removed. I’m definitely going to keep an eye on prices.

[Wendylala]

1 hour ago, Traveller94 said:

I noticed that with our August sailing. I have been wondering if the price will go down now that a major port that many people booked to see has been removed. I’m definitely going to keep an eye on prices.

i just got a notification from shipmate that our may 15th rate has gone done 25%. but does princess make refunds due to lowered rates?  

Edited March 8, 2022 by Wendylala

[caribill]

10 hours ago, Mo Jito said:

 That said, I can understand people wanting to cancel since SPB is normally a highlight of a Baltic cruise. I kind of expected Princess to make the offer even though port changes are allowed per the passenger contract. Perhaps if this war hadn’t come on the heels of the pandemic pause, Princess would have been more inclined to be generous with refunds.

 

Don't these cruises come under the Cruise With Confidence policy which would refund fares to the original form of payment except for any penalty which would be refunded in the form of an FCC to be used within a year?

[caribill]

5 hours ago, Wendylala said:

i just got a notification from shipmate that our may 15th rate has gone done 25%. but does princess make refunds due to lowered rates?  

 

Definitely not automatically and usually not after final payment.

 

Check with Princess or your TA if booked with a TA to see what you might be able to do about this.

[Wendylala]

just saw someone post that NCL has not only replaced all port days with port days, but they are also refunding 20% of people's fares on baltic cruises. meanwhile, my TA said that princess will not budge on cancellations or changes (will charge a hefty fee) even though we are losing a day and a half of port days. and of course princess is not lowering fares. 

 

this process has really opened my eyes to how, out of the major cruiselines, princess has done the least for their customers. and will not sail with them again. 

[Srqgal67]

On 3/7/2022 at 3:02 PM, Wendylala said:

yes when i booked there is also an expectation that they would try to make this vacation comparable to what is advertised. right now it isn't and there is no option to cancel without penalties. is this a legal practice? for now in the US yes. but not in some other countries where this is considered an illegal practice. is it ethically right? imho no. i think the cruiseline has an obligation to give what it advertised and if it can't, it should allow the customer to cancel. there are laws in the US against untruthful advertising practices like bait and switch.

I agree. This is not a typical situation. I canceled my April 23 cruise for medical reasons. 

[nini]

What does everyone mean about no refunds? They have the Cruise with Confidence which refunds your money up until 30 days before the cruise. You can also purchase cruise insurance, one of which is Princess Vacation Protection which will insure you through the cruise.

 

We cancelled our June 6 Baltic cruise two days before final payment and received our full deposit back on our credit card within two days.

[Wendylala]

On 3/9/2022 at 3:48 PM, nini said:

They have the Cruise with Confidence which refunds your money up until 30 days before the cruise. You can also purchase cruise insurance, one of which is Princess Vacation Protection which will insure you through the cruise.

this is not true. they will take percentage of it and give it to you as FCC, which for personal reasons we cannot use. you also cannot purchase cruise insurance past a certain date. when russia invaded ukraine we are already past our final payment date because we are leaving on an earlier sailing. so we absolutely cannot get the refund you got because we are in a different situation, but i'm glad you are able to cancel. 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Wendylala

[nini]

1 hour ago, Wendylala said:

this is not true. they will take percentage of it and give it to you as FCC, which for personal reasons we cannot use. you also cannot purchase cruise insurance past a certain date. when russia invaded ukraine we are already past our final payment date because we are leaving on an earlier sailing. so we absolutely cannot get the refund you got because we are in a different situation, but i'm glad you are able to cancel. 

With Cruise with Confidence you can get a full refund- it is cancel for any reason. It is your cancellation fees which are FCC, not that there would be any because. Of course, Princess Vacation Protection needs to be purchased right before final payment and will cover you through the entire trip.

[007colocruz]

I paid my cruise with FCC & the extra on credit card. I used Cruise with Confidence to cancel 42 days prior to cruise 

I also purchased Princess Platinum insurance 

I received all of my FCC back to my account & all the money paid to my credit card including the amount paid for the insurance. 
the platinum insurance did not have to be used 

Adding- the FCC now has an expiry date of 1 year from the date I cancelled 

Edited March 12, 2022 by 007colocruz

[billco]

6 hours ago, 007colocruz said:

I paid my cruise with FCC & the extra on credit card. I used Cruise with Confidence to cancel 42 days prior to cruise 

I also purchased Princess Platinum insurance 

I received all of my FCC back to my account & all the money paid to my credit card including the amount paid for the insurance. 
the platinum insurance did not have to be used 

Adding- the FCC now has an expiry date of 1 year from the date I cancelled 

I booked the March 27 and April 3 cruises on the Discovery Princess. When my cabin was changed to an unacceptable cabin due to Covid isolation, we cancelled the cruises and booked another cruise. The refundable portions of the cruise fares were applied to the new cruise. The 50% cancellation fee went to FCCs. I asked my Cruise Vacation Planner if the FCCs could be refunded to the CC on record which was allowed, essentially having zero cancellation fee . I don't think that would have been allowed if I hadn't booked another cruise and had a good planner..

[caribill]

Received in the mail Friday fro,m Princess:

 

Book 11 day Baltic cruises sailing June-August 2022 and see St. Petersburg, Russia.

 

Great timing, Princess.

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, caribill said:

Received in the mail Friday fro,m Princess:

 

Book 11 day Baltic cruises sailing June-August 2022 and see St. Petersburg, Russia.

 

Great timing, Princess.

I was going to hit the Ha Ha reply, but then realized the subject is actually the opposite of funny.

[Ulsteinvik]

Enchanted Princess is booked now 9 times in Southampton from 04 May 2022 during the summer season. Also a new call came for Le Havre on 03rd May 2022. Wondering if they will drop her Baltic Season from Copenhagen and instead sail from Southampton..

[CCFC]

Ooh thats interesting

[Galaxy]

1 hour ago, Ulsteinvik said:

Enchanted Princess is booked now 9 times in Southampton from 04 May 2022 during the summer season. Also a new call came for Le Havre on 03rd May 2022. Wondering if they will drop her Baltic Season from Copenhagen and instead sail from Southampton..

Enchanted Princess are now booked in Norwegian ports. 

[Ulsteinvik]

There are several other port calls, it seems that she will sail similar cruises to Sky Princess.

I found:

 

Cadiz:

28.05

06.06

04.07

 

Gibraltar:

27.05

04.07

 

Kristiansand:

26.04 from Oslo to Hamburg

17.07 from Southampton to Copenhagen

28.08 from Southampton to Copenhagen

 

Bergen:

29.06 from Olden to Southampton

[Longimanus]

My wife and I were looking into Enchanted for the June 6th to 17th cruise from Copenhagen after a big price drop here in Europe (from €1400+ to +/- €850). We would love the Baltic, even without SPB. Bit concerned after reading the above that we'd be booking Baltic and getting something else. We're already doing Spain and Portugal in April on MSC, so not interested in doing that again. 

 

Do you guys have a source for the updated plans?

 

Thanks in advance

[flahagan]

4 hours ago, Galaxy said:

Enchanted Princess are now booked in Norwegian ports. 

 

4 hours ago, Ulsteinvik said:

There are several other port calls, it seems that she will sail similar cruises to Sky Princess.

I found:

 

Cadiz:

28.05

06.06

04.07

 

Gibraltar:

27.05

04.07

 

Kristiansand:

26.04 from Oslo to Hamburg

17.07 from Southampton to Copenhagen

28.08 from Southampton to Copenhagen

 

Bergen:

29.06 from Olden to Southampton

 

I am on the April 9 Enchanted Princess transatlantic to Copenhagen and then on to Baltic ports, excluding St. Petersburg.  Am I to understand that Enchanted's entire itinerary is again changing again?  On Friday, a tour operator that I've been in contact with in Brest, France (where we're supposed to port on April 19), told me the port in Brest doesn't have Enchanted there on that date!  That is on our transatlantic portion.  We REALLY need to find out what's going on ASAP.

[flahagan]

3 minutes ago, flahagan said:

 

 

I am on the April 9 Enchanted Princess transatlantic to Copenhagen and then on to Baltic ports, excluding St. Petersburg.  Am I to understand that Enchanted's entire itinerary is again changing again?  On Friday, a tour operator that I've been in contact with in Brest, France (where we're supposed to port on April 19), told me the port in Brest doesn't have Enchanted there on that date!  That is on our transatlantic portion.  We REALLY need to find out what's going on ASAP.

 

Just heard back from our Brest tour operator and we WILL be in Brest on April 19, the port agent was mistaken earlier.  Now we just need to find out about the rest of the cruise!

[flahagan]

4 hours ago, Galaxy said:

Enchanted Princess are now booked in Norwegian ports. 

 

Which Norwegian ports?  Does this include the April 23 sailing for the Enchanted out of Copenhagen?  Where is everyone finding all of this information?

[Longimanus]

Just noticed that every baltic cruise on Enchanted after the April 23rd one has been removed from the Princess website. Eagerly awaiting what will come in their place, but not counting on an interesting route seeing it will probably visit Cadiz etc.