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Crown Princess June 18th Sailing

Riley_Mon

By Riley_Mon,
in Princess Cruises

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Riley_Mon

Riley_Mon

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Thought I'd start this thread for tomorrow's cruise.

 

One thing I've learned the hard way on this 3rd attempt to cruise since 2020 is you absolutely cannot have a tight schedule.

 

After arriving at our hotel close to the airport last night to make sure we had plenty of time to get on our 6:00am direct flight thru Delta, at 2:10am we received notification our flight was canceled and we were rebooked on a flight departing at 5:40PM now connecting thru Atlanta, middle row seats assigned. The flight to Atlanta was a delayed flight from 8:10am earlier. Will this flight actually take off? Its anyone's guess at this point.

 

Today we had planned on hiking near Mt. Rainier with a non refundable rental car and hotel booking. Looking back in order to make sure we could have hiked Rainier we should have booked our flight for Thursday night. So , setting aside the generally salty attitude I had with Princess, I am now out roughly $350 due to Delta not being able to have flights for whatever reason not counting the hotel money spent last night. I'm sure the cancellation is staffing related. I really , really wanted to hike the glacier basin trail today.

 

I try to understand, its all part of the world we live in now, but no one who plans a once in a lifetime trip for 3 years wants to approach it with a be thankful for whatever you get attitude, and I especially don't want to hear it from anyone else who isn't going thru it.

 

So my advice to anyone planning a vacation is, the best insurance is put in plenty of downtime between major vacation events. We made sure to book our arrival flight the day before so our cruise is not in jeopardy - at least not at the moment, but whatever plans we had for the day are gone. Quite frankly the reason we didn't cancel the cruise after all the nonsense Princess is putting us thru was the hiking we had planned to bookend the trips.

 

Seems like our battle to have a memorable vacation (in a positive way) is lost even with the substantial amount of planning effort.

 

Perhaps the real punch in the stomach from Princess and Delta in all of this is that this is just now business as usual.

 

Delta's email conveyed no empathy or acknowledgement with the level of inconvenience they have put on us. The "your flight is canceled , you have been rebooked to the best available option - connecting flights thru Atlanta in middle row seats just has a certain level of callousness to it I'm not prepared for - and yes I am a frequent flyer, while Princess provides us with itinerary changes that includes a note at the bottom reminding us we signed a cruise contract allowing them to cancel ports they were using as selling points to sell the cruise in the first place.

 

Anyways

 

maybe I'll make it to the ship, maybe I won't, who knows.

 

Looks like I have plenty of time to read the details on my vacation insurance I bought from Princess.

 

 

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MarcsSharon

MarcsSharon

Posted
Posted

I wish I could say something to make you feel better. I understand entirely, as I was in your shoes 2 weeks ago. All I can say is I signed a Cruise contract  for a ship that was sea worthy..not one with multiple KNOWN issues. That’s the rub in all this. Princess has not fulfilled their end of the contract.  Ah well, hope you can find some good in all this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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geoherb "Live from...." Rare

geoherb

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My brother and sister-in-law spent the day in Atlanta earlier this month because Delta canceled their direct flight to New York. Fortunately they were flying in two days before their cruise. They should have gotten to their hotel before noon and had time to leave their bags at the hotel (if checking in was not possible because it was too early) to explore the city. They ended up getting to the hotel at midnight instead.

 

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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Riley_Mon said:

Thought I'd start this thread for tomorrow's cruise.

 

One thing I've learned the hard way on this 3rd attempt to cruise since 2020 is you absolutely cannot have a tight schedule.

 

After arriving at our hotel close to the airport last night to make sure we had plenty of time to get on our 6:00am direct flight thru Delta, at 2:10am we received notification our flight was canceled and we were rebooked on a flight departing at 5:40PM now connecting thru Atlanta, middle row seats assigned. The flight to Atlanta was a delayed flight from 8:10am earlier. Will this flight actually take off? Its anyone's guess at this point.

 

Today we had planned on hiking near Mt. Rainier with a non refundable rental car and hotel booking. Looking back in order to make sure we could have hiked Rainier we should have booked our flight for Thursday night. So , setting aside the generally salty attitude I had with Princess, I am now out roughly $350 due to Delta not being able to have flights for whatever reason not counting the hotel money spent last night. I'm sure the cancellation is staffing related. I really , really wanted to hike the glacier basin trail today.

 

I try to understand, its all part of the world we live in now, but no one who plans a once in a lifetime trip for 3 years wants to approach it with a be thankful for whatever you get attitude, and I especially don't want to hear it from anyone else who isn't going thru it.

 

So my advice to anyone planning a vacation is, the best insurance is put in plenty of downtime between major vacation events. We made sure to book our arrival flight the day before so our cruise is not in jeopardy - at least not at the moment, but whatever plans we had for the day are gone. Quite frankly the reason we didn't cancel the cruise after all the nonsense Princess is putting us thru was the hiking we had planned to bookend the trips.

 

Seems like our battle to have a memorable vacation (in a positive way) is lost even with the substantial amount of planning effort.

 

Perhaps the real punch in the stomach from Princess and Delta in all of this is that this is just now business as usual.

 

Delta's email conveyed no empathy or acknowledgement with the level of inconvenience they have put on us. The "your flight is canceled , you have been rebooked to the best available option - connecting flights thru Atlanta in middle row seats just has a certain level of callousness to it I'm not prepared for - and yes I am a frequent flyer, while Princess provides us with itinerary changes that includes a note at the bottom reminding us we signed a cruise contract allowing them to cancel ports they were using as selling points to sell the cruise in the first place.

 

Anyways

 

maybe I'll make it to the ship, maybe I won't, who knows.

 

Looks like I have plenty of time to read the details on my vacation insurance I bought from Princess.

 

 

Are you at the airport trying to get on an earlier flight?  Is there a nonstop flight earlier today that you could try?  
 

If you were cancelled, if you go out to the airport, they will put you on a standby list. They do have noshows or passengers who misconnect, due to delayed or cancelled flights.


You probably know all of this, but just trying to help. You didn’t say if you were waiting till later.  If you can’t get on an earlier flight, you’ll still be holding your later flight.

Best of luck.

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Riley_Mon

Riley_Mon

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1 hour ago, PacnGoNow said:

Are you at the airport trying to get on an earlier flight?  Is there a nonstop flight earlier today that you could try?  
 

If you were cancelled, if you go out to the airport, they will put you on a standby list. They do have noshows or passengers who misconnect, due to delayed or cancelled flights.


You probably know all of this, but just trying to help. You didn’t say if you were waiting till later.  If you can’t get on an earlier flight, you’ll still be holding your later flight.

Best of luck.

I looked at my options and they didn't really do much for me. I was going thru Atlanta no matter what.

 

It happens, in this case it just compounds what is already a vacation that was a bit of a downer.

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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Riley_Mon said:

I looked at my options and they didn't really do much for me. I was going thru Atlanta no matter what.

 

It happens, in this case it just compounds what is already a vacation that was a bit of a downer.

Good luck. 

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Riley_Mon

Riley_Mon

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Posted (edited)

Yesterday was an exceptionally bad day to fly. Original flight was canceled, put on connecting flights , then departing flight was delayed by 12 hours, then delayed again so that we were arriving 30 minutes after the connecting flight, 2 hour wait time on the phone so we go to the airport, agent said take that flight, go to Atlanta, spend the night and we will comp you a hotel. He advises to get my luggage in Atlanta. The delayed flight is then canceled. Now catch last minute flight to Orlando so that I can catch connecting flight to Atlanta. Orlando gate agent says do not get your luggage, we will send it to Seattle. Orlando flight is delayed, arrive with 10 minutes before Atlanta flight, luckily Atlanta flight is also delayed. arrive in Atlanta around Midnight. Line for customer service is about 100 people deep. They announce after standing in line for almost an hour and nowhere close to the desk they have no more hotel rooms to give. By then it was after 1am and we were going to have to be back at the airport anyways around 5am to see if we can get on a Seattle flight as we are on Standby on a flight that gets us in at noon. We have seats on a later flight but it is cutting cut too close for the ship departure.  We are sitting in Atlanta at the moment with a bunch of angry people surrounding us. No idea at the moment where our luggage is, we checked baggage claim last night and it wasn’t there. Hopefully gate agent can shed some light when they open up

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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

Posted
Posted
40 minutes ago, Riley_Mon said:

Yesterday was an exceptionally bad day to fly. Original flight was canceled, put on connecting flights , then departing flight was delayed by 12 hours, then delayed again so that we were arriving 30 minutes after the connecting flight, 2 hour wait time on the phone so we go to the airport, agent said take that flight, go to Atlanta, spend the night and we will comp you a hotel. He advises to get my luggage in Atlanta. The delayed flight is then canceled. Now catch last minute flight to Orlando so that I can catch connecting flight to Atlanta. Orlando gate agent says do not get your luggage, we will send it to Seattle. Orlando flight is delayed, arrive with 10 minutes before Atlanta flight, luckily Atlanta flight is also delayed. arrive in Atlanta around Midnight. Line for customer service is about 100 people deep. They announce after standing in line for almost an hour and nowhere close to the desk they have no more hotel rooms to give. By then it was after 1am and we were going to have to be back at the airport anyways around 5am to see if we can get on a Seattle flight as we are on Standby on a flight that gets us in at noon. We have seats on a later flight but it is cutting cut too close for the ship departure.  We are sitting in Atlanta at the moment with a bunch of angry people surrounding us. No idea at the moment where our luggage is, we checked baggage claim last night and it wasn’t there. Hopefully gate agent can shed some light when they open up

What a mess.  Storms all around ATL

last night, messed up air traffic also.

 

Anyway, so sorry you’re having such a hard time.  Gate agent should be able to see where your bags are right now.

You can track them also on the DL App

sign in…click lower left “more”

then “track my bags”

 

Let us know how it plays out.  
Best of luck!

 

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Riley_Mon

Riley_Mon

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Posted (edited)

On the bus going to the ship

 

I think it pays to be nice to airline workers. Even in that craziness, I have to say they were all professionals. Luggage was there waiting for us off the plane. Looking forward to changing out of these clothes we have been wearing for 2 days.

 

should have checked the app but it all worked out….sorta

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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

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1 minute ago, Riley_Mon said:

On the bus going to the boat

 

I think it pays to be nice to airline workers. Even in that craziness, I have to say they were all professionals. Luggage was there waiting for us off the plane. Looking forward to changing out of these clothes we have been wearing for 2 days.

Oh that’s great!!!  Yes, if you are nice, you will get a lot more help, I agree.

 

Forget all this and enjoy your cruise!

 

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dog

dog

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Posted
On 6/17/2022 at 11:16 AM, memoak said:

Delta seems to be the main culprit here. My advice stay away from Delta

My son spent 2 extra days in NYC last month due to cancelled flights on Air Canada.  Not just Delta, although a lot of cruisers are having same issues.

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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

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1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

We are landing in Italy two days ahead.  Thinking  lot of this airline mess will be better by end of September and two days gives us good cushion.  If we get there on time, we get to adjust to the time zone.

Yes, if we don’t get weather due to hurricane season! 😂

 

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wolvey

wolvey

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Posted
2 hours ago, Riley_Mon said:

On the bus going to the ship

 

I think it pays to be nice to airline workers. Even in that craziness, I have to say they were all professionals. Luggage was there waiting for us off the plane. Looking forward to changing out of these clothes we have been wearing for 2 days.

 

should have checked the app but it all worked out….sorta

Hope you made it on the ship

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WAvoyager

WAvoyager

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On 6/17/2022 at 8:16 AM, memoak said:

Delta seems to be the main culprit here. My advice stay away from Delta

Weather affects all airlines flying in and out of ATL.  Staffing shortages (especially pilots) are affecting all airlines.  Delta has been one of the better airlines from a cancellation perspective, due to some advanced planning they did, but they’re still awful - as is most of the industry:

 

My advice?  Only make plans where you can be flexible.  Allow plenty of extra time (days?) before connections and transfers, and don’t hinge your trips “success” on any planned itinerary.  This will almost certainly last for the rest of this summer, and probably continue to some degree for a couple of years.

 

glad the OP made it to the ship!  


We just got word the Juneau docking for the next sailing is pushed back to 4, but at least they made it to Icy point on the last sailing (the first time!).  As long as they don’t run out of A) food, B) space in the kids club, and C) drinks, we’ll be okay!

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