Alaska cruise itinerary change

[dog]

8 hours ago, Kennact said:

Well, so far my Juneau excursion has been cancelled. The one excursion I have been dreaming about for the past 3 years! Time in port is too short for the Tracy Arm Fjord Glacier Explorer excursion. I am beyond disappointed. From what I am reading I can't even cancel our cruise without penalty. 😭

your cruise is in June so you are within the 30 day limit to cancel with cruise with confidence-  I used it for Covid concerns.  Had to wait a bit for all my funds to be returned as FCC. 

[Snate]

So with the new itinerary being announced I am very surprised that Princess didn't have all their "ducks in a row" so to speak with updated changes to the website for current excursions through them at ports that were affected along with excursions ready to go for the new port of Icy Strait Point.  Anybody have any idea how long this will take to get updated?  Right now we have an excursion in Juneau but it begins before we dock.  Hopefully, they just move it a few hours later to when we are docked and all will be good with that but every hour that goes by waiting for something that should have been done along with the announcement is painful.  

[Eaglecw]

We jumped ship on this one. I was able to cancel the Crown Princess and rebook on the Discovery the next day for about $500 less than the what the cruise on the Crown was going to be, also got a little more OBC. The Crown is on it's way up to Seattle, moving at a whopping 12.5kn or 10mph. She got problems.

[Sam Ting]

9 minutes ago, Eaglecw said:

We jumped ship on this one. I was able to cancel the Crown Princess and rebook on the Discovery the next day for about $500 less than the what the cruise on the Crown was going to be, also got a little more OBC. The Crown is on it's way up to Seattle, moving at a whopping 12.5kn or 10mph. She got problems.

That’s great!  No way would I want to go on a ship in Alaska with issues that only allow half speed, and clearly has issues. God forbid something else happens to the ship and it ends up unable to outrun storms or ends up dead in the water 12 miles out.   Doesn’t sound too safe to me….

[Skm52674]

1 hour ago, Eaglecw said:

We jumped ship on this one. I was able to cancel the Crown Princess and rebook on the Discovery the next day for about $500 less than the what the cruise on the Crown was going to be, also got a little more OBC. The Crown is on it's way up to Seattle, moving at a whopping 12.5kn or 10mph. She got problems.

Were you able to get the same stateroom category? I'm booked in Club Class and they don't have any available for the next day Discovery sailing. 

[Eaglecw]

9 minutes ago, Skm52674 said:

Were you able to get the same stateroom category? I'm booked in Club Class and they don't have any available for the next day Discovery sailing. 

Yes we got the same stateroom category, actually in a better location. The Discovery is filling up fast, it's almost sold out for the June 26th sailing. For some reason there were still a lot of open cabins on the Crown before this problem was announced. I think it must be the new ship thing that everyone wants to be on the Discovery.

[OKCruiseMan]

Well they did push the departure time for our excursion until after the ships arrival. That does help.

[jchowze]

3 hours ago, Eaglecw said:

We jumped ship on this one. I was able to cancel the Crown Princess and rebook on the Discovery the next day for about $500 less than the what the cruise on the Crown was going to be, also got a little more OBC. The Crown is on it's way up to Seattle, moving at a whopping 12.5kn or 10mph. She got problems.

We did too.  Able to move up a class to a deluxe balcony too!  Had to pay a little to change our return flight, but seemed worth it to me.

[sjde]

There are 11 of us in our group,  3 generations going in July.

I checked and we could move over a day later to the Discovery,  however our flights would be about $600 additional per person to change our return trip!

[Eaglecw]

1 hour ago, sjde said:

There are 11 of us in our group,  3 generations going in July.

I checked and we could move over a day later to the Discovery,  however our flights would be about $600 additional per person to change our return trip!

Airfare is the absolute killer these days. I'm glad we only live 45 minutes from the pier in Seattle and only have to pay $167.00 to park our car for the week, it went up this year from $147.00

[Snate]

1 hour ago, sjde said:

There are 11 of us in our group,  3 generations going in July.

I checked and we could move over a day later to the Discovery,  however our flights would be about $600 additional per person to change our return trip!

This is my concern as we have 13 going in July.  My other issue with moving to Discovery is it doesn't go to Glacier Bay.   I have been on 2 previous Alaska cruises (one to Glacier Bay and the other to Tracy Arm) and to me Glacier Bay was a thousand times better so I wanted the others that have never been to Alaska to experience Glacier Bay.  

[VibeGuy]

6 hours ago, Sam Ting said:

That’s great!  No way would I want to go on a ship in Alaska with issues that only allow half speed, and clearly has issues. God forbid something else happens to the ship and it ends up unable to outrun storms or ends up dead in the water 12 miles out.   Doesn’t sound too safe to me….

Again, the level of safety and redundancy is not in question here.   I don’t know how fast you think storms move in Alaska, or how fast you think this ship can move in the best of circumstances, but the sheer mass of regulations covering what the ship can do versus the conditions encountered covers such contingencies more than adequately *even with backup systems offline*.   Storms here are not “outrun”.  
 

It’s tasteless and ignorant to imply Princess would ever knowingly risk passenger safety.  Their marine operations are impeccable. 
 

take the bus instead. 

[Sam Ting]

14 minutes ago, VibeGuy said:

Again, the level of safety and redundancy is not in question here.   I don’t know how fast you think storms move in Alaska, or how fast you think this ship can move in the best of circumstances, but the sheer mass of regulations covering what the ship can do versus the conditions encountered covers such contingencies more than adequately *even with backup systems offline*.   Storms here are not “outrun”.  
 

It’s tasteless and ignorant to imply Princess would ever knowingly risk passenger safety.  Their marine operations are impeccable. 
 

take the bus instead. 

Didn’t their parent companies carnival ship get stranded several years ago in the Caribbean?  All that supposed redundancy apparently meant nothing. Why would anyone get on as ship when they know it cant move itself out of harms way as designed to begin with. No thanks!

[suzyed]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:53 AM, JeffT237 said:

 

I think this is a valid complaint, many of us are wondering the same.  By Princesses definition this was "scheduled maintenance", however I'm skeptical of that seeing how the ship has been without passengers for 2 years.  As others have pointed out any routine maintenance should have been addressed by now.  As far as the excursions, they absolutely should have had a plan in place and answers to passengers questions about time adjustments or refunds immediately.  I did call customer service, and after a 5 minute hold time, yes only 5 minutes!, the agent had no idea about the excursion issue nor a solution.  This is our first cruise on Princess we are a little disappointed in their customer service and how they are handling this "scheduled maintenance issue".  I get it, things happen that's why we sign a cruise contract but good communication is an absolute in these type of situations.

 

I am a bit concerned with the cruise even happening, we are set to sail May 7th and the Crown is still here in SoCal.  Our fear is trying to get a ship with a propulsion issue to Seattle without any other mechanical issues. 

We don't sail until July.....why can't the "scheduled maintenance" take place between now and then?  It seems like they aren't even going to try to fix the problem.  
Taking my family on this cruise and they have never been to Alaska...most disappointed.

Edited April 30, 2022 by suzyed

[suzyed]

7 hours ago, sjde said:

There are 11 of us in our group,  3 generations going in July.

I checked and we could move over a day later to the Discovery,  however our flights would be about $600 additional per person to change our return trip!

And we have 6 of us in 4 cabins....looked at the Discovery and yes, so many changes.... the airfare, the hotel the night before,  the stern cabins we have booked on Crown are not available on the Discovery......DH and I have been to Alaska before but the others have not.  I guess they don't know what they're missing but we do and I'm disappointed. 
We have been on the Crown 5 times previously and loved it.

[WAvoyager]

14 hours ago, suzyed said:

We don't sail until July.....why can't the "scheduled maintenance" take place between now and then?  It seems like they aren't even going to try to fix the problem.  
Taking my family on this cruise and they have never been to Alaska...most disappointed.

My guess is they probably had scheduled maintenance on the engines which would solve this problem, but that planning got impacted somehow.   These global supply chain issues are mainly caused by a shortage of workers, and that may have impacted the maintenance in many ways (parts, resources, facilities availability) - Princess may have simply been told “your scheduled maintenance has been pushed back 2 months”, so they can’t get it done before the end of the season. 

In the meantime, their engines are safe to run, but at full power the stress levels increase greatly.  So limiting engine rpm’s to 70% ensure you don’t cause any damage to them, before you can get the maintenance done.

 

just a guess, but I think it fits everything we know so far.

[WAvoyager]

One positive to this - I’m guessing our June cruise on the Crown will be pretty much deserted now.   Won’t have to worry about crowds at the dining rooms, and better odds at BINGO!

 

Seriously - sorry for all who are having to change their plans (or ship).  We’re going to stick with the Crown - this is a rebook from September, with lots of special credits applied by Princess, and the casino group, so I’m imagining it would be a total fiasco trying to rebook it.  Also, we really want to do Glacier Bay this year (while there’s still a Glacier 🤪).

 

Now just keeping my fingers crossed that they don’t cancel the cruise.  
 

it’s making more sense now why they cancelled the sailings and sent that one ship for “scheduled maintenance” last month.  I’m guessing they were told “we can get this ship in for the maintenance now, or we can do it 5 months from now”, and they didn’t want all of their ships sailing at 70% power.

Edited April 30, 2022 by WAvoyager

[sjde]

I don't see excursions for Icy Strait Point. Is it too far out for our 7/2 departure?

[Earthworm Jim]

On 4/27/2022 at 8:27 PM, fpsphil said:

Ya this is ridiculous. They should have “scheduled the maintenance” sometime in the past 2 years that ship has been sitting idle.

 

I suspect they were too busy trying not to go bankrupt to be doing any expensive maintenance during those 2 years.

[brisalta]

28 minutes ago, Earthworm Jim said:

 

I suspect they were too busy trying not to go bankrupt to be doing any expensive maintenance during those 2 years.

 

I suggest you read this thread:

 

 

[sjde]

This is a Tlingit piece bought in Alaska 19 yrs ago.

[RJAM3]

nice artwork!!

[teh3505]

I still cannot get over only $100.00  per person credit for a great cancelled port (6 hrs) for one that is only 3.5 hours and you can't book any excursions.  This cruise will be a two port stop Only.  

[cruisequeen4ever]

For me, this would actually be a selling point because I’ve been to Ketchikan so many times and have wanted to go to Icy Strait Point for years! I understand why it would be upsetting for people experiencing Alaska for the first time, though. Ketchikan is one of my favorite AK ports. 

[pamwigs]

On 4/28/2022 at 9:48 AM, WAvoyager said:

I don’t have any issue with the port change.  I do have major issues with the reason for the port change.  Imagine chartering a flight (or a tour bus) with a set agenda.  Then, once you’re booked and ready to go, the company says “oh, sorry, we can’t go to all of the stops you expected.  Our plane (bus) can only go at 50 MPH right now, so we have to remove stops, just to make it back in time”. Oh - don’t worry, we’ll give you back 10% of the charter cost… which you can use to buy extra cocktail peanuts”.

 

It’s one thing for weather, port congestion, or other issues outside of Princess’s control.  But changes like this because their ship isn’t working properly before the sailings…. That’s really pretty unacceptable.

 

Really???   Things happen. 

Maintenance is a pretty good reason. It is better than the alternitive.