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The worst cruise we have experienced.

kcmufan

By kcmufan,
in Princess Cruises

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kcmufan

kcmufan

Posted
Posted


We booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess for our anniversary.

 

Sat. May 28th : We checked into our room and there was a strong smell of urine. Customer Service told us they were aware of the situation and it would be fixed shortly. They told us there were no other rooms to move us to when we asked. Sun.: Still smell of urine when we left for the day on Bahamas. We were told same as Saturday. Luckily when we returned from our day trip the smell was gone. However, our toilet wouldn’t flush when we pushed the flusher, but would randomly flush at odd times of the day for no reason. We informed our room steward and were told maintenance would come have a look and check it out.

Mon: Still no toilet flushing, so now we are using restrooms outside our stateroom. Can you imagine how inconvenient this is?? Went to Customer Service again and were told they would fix it. We asked, once again, for another room. Told none available again. This is impossible as other crew members said the ship was not full.

Tues: No smells and still toilet not fixed.

Wed: We came back to the room at noon time and there was a maintenance man in front of our door and the hallway smelled of sewer. It was awful. He said there was a pipe issue and they were working on the issue. We got what we needed and left. When we returned at 4, the smell was still there as were the workers. We changed and left. When we returned at 11pm, the smell was so putrid we had to open our balcony and room doors to keep from gagging. We called customer service and were told someone would come immediately to check out the situation. An hour later, someone came. He sniffed the room and said he knew there was an issue and would have someone get right on the problem. He wouldn’t give us another room, so we had to sleep with the balcony open. We hardly slept, both had headaches and were nauseous the next day.

Thurs: Complained AGAIN to Service desk…..told whole story. Nobody cared or offered any solutions. Smell in room alleviated some, but still pretty strong. Toilet still not flushing.

Fri: Still smells of sewer. While changing for dinner, my wife went to get her shoes and stepped into the closet into soggy wet carpet! Yes, it was raw sewage under the carpet in our room. All of her shoes were soaked and smelled of sewage. Called Customer Service while my wife went straight to the service desk. It took them 15 minutes to come and I left to go to the service desk. At the service desk, they tried to push my wife off again and she said she wasn’t moving until our situation was resolved. The young lady couldn’t care less that we were in this horrible situation. She kept trying to get her to move along so she could take care of simple questions. Finally, she called a supervisor and it took her 20 minutes to arrive. The Supervisor was very nice and apologized for all the problems with our room. She looked at all the notes and said they should have given us a new room the first day. She offered us a new room 4 doors away for the night and said the best she could offer us was a $400 credit . We would have to go higher than her for anything more. This whole trip was a disaster and customer service nightmare that could easily have been resolved the first day of the cruise. We did everything that was necessary on our end….Customer Service on their end totally ruined our trip when they could have fixed it immediately.

We never did get our toilet fixed and spent 5 days using public restrooms in addition to the sewer leakage into our room. This apparently was not an isolated instance as the smell was also prevalent on other floors near the same elevator. It definitely was not how an anniversary trip was supposed to go.

 

We have sent emails to customer service and even to the CEO of the company and NO ONE has responded. We did finally get a check from the cruise lines in mid July for our negative balance (after the $400 credit).

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antsp

antsp

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've heard someone in this situation before, they went down to guest services in there pj's with pillows and refused to move until they got a new room. Amazingly within about 15 mins they had one. You really have to play hardball in these rare situations 

Edited by antsp
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PacnGoNow Holiday Sharing Rare

PacnGoNow

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, kcmufan said:


We booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess for our anniversary.

 

Sat. May 28th : We checked into our room and there was a strong smell of urine. Customer Service told us they were aware of the situation and it would be fixed shortly. They told us there were no other rooms to move us to when we asked. Sun.: Still smell of urine when we left for the day on Bahamas. We were told same as Saturday. Luckily when we returned from our day trip the smell was gone. However, our toilet wouldn’t flush when we pushed the flusher, but would randomly flush at odd times of the day for no reason. We informed our room steward and were told maintenance would come have a look and check it out.

Mon: Still no toilet flushing, so now we are using restrooms outside our stateroom. Can you imagine how inconvenient this is?? Went to Customer Service again and were told they would fix it. We asked, once again, for another room. Told none available again. This is impossible as other crew members said the ship was not full.

Tues: No smells and still toilet not fixed.

Wed: We came back to the room at noon time and there was a maintenance man in front of our door and the hallway smelled of sewer. It was awful. He said there was a pipe issue and they were working on the issue. We got what we needed and left. When we returned at 4, the smell was still there as were the workers. We changed and left. When we returned at 11pm, the smell was so putrid we had to open our balcony and room doors to keep from gagging. We called customer service and were told someone would come immediately to check out the situation. An hour later, someone came. He sniffed the room and said he knew there was an issue and would have someone get right on the problem. He wouldn’t give us another room, so we had to sleep with the balcony open. We hardly slept, both had headaches and were nauseous the next day.

Thurs: Complained AGAIN to Service desk…..told whole story. Nobody cared or offered any solutions. Smell in room alleviated some, but still pretty strong. Toilet still not flushing.

Fri: Still smells of sewer. While changing for dinner, my wife went to get her shoes and stepped into the closet into soggy wet carpet! Yes, it was raw sewage under the carpet in our room. All of her shoes were soaked and smelled of sewage. Called Customer Service while my wife went straight to the service desk. It took them 15 minutes to come and I left to go to the service desk. At the service desk, they tried to push my wife off again and she said she wasn’t moving until our situation was resolved. The young lady couldn’t care less that we were in this horrible situation. She kept trying to get her to move along so she could take care of simple questions. Finally, she called a supervisor and it took her 20 minutes to arrive. The Supervisor was very nice and apologized for all the problems with our room. She looked at all the notes and said they should have given us a new room the first day. She offered us a new room 4 doors away for the night and said the best she could offer us was a $400 credit . We would have to go higher than her for anything more. This whole trip was a disaster and customer service nightmare that could easily have been resolved the first day of the cruise. We did everything that was necessary on our end….Customer Service on their end totally ruined our trip when they could have fixed it immediately.

We never did get our toilet fixed and spent 5 days using public restrooms in addition to the sewer leakage into our room. This apparently was not an isolated instance as the smell was also prevalent on other floors near the same elevator. It definitely was not how an anniversary trip was supposed to go.

 

We have sent emails to customer service and even to the CEO of the company and NO ONE has responded. We did finally get a check from the cruise lines in mid July for our negative balance (after the $400 credit).

They were supposed to fix the toilet

issues in dry dock.  I smelled it everyday, walking to the mid elevators, 

midship caribe deck 10, others complained about the Aloha deck.

I thought they fixed it and replaced the carpets?  Really a shame it spoiled your special trip.

Where were you located? 

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CineGraphic "Live from...." Rare

CineGraphic

Posted
Posted

I'm sorry this happened to you.

Pay no attention to those who feel compelled to say that they've sailed 300+ days on Princess and this has never happened to them. And let's not forget those who will chime in and say, "give them a break, it's a pandemic".

The response from Princess for many of us who've had bad experiences while on board has been underwhelming at best. In your case, Princess treated you like crap. (Pun intended)

 

Here's some contact info if you don't already have it.

Mail Jan, and CC the others.

 

Jan Swartz jswartz@princesscruises.com

 

Collin Steinke
Director, Customer Relations
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
csteinke@princesscruises.com

 

Mario Siebaldi
Senior Vice President Guest Experience
24305 Town Center Drive
Santa Clarita, CA 91355
msiebaldi@princesscruises.com

 

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prmssk "Live from...." Rare

prmssk

Posted
Posted

@kcmufanThe experience you share is very similar to many others I heard in May and even in June on the Caribbean Princess (mostly on the Facebook groups I follow).  I was very surprised to hear so many issues right after dry dock (especially since many of those issues had also been reported before dry dock).  It made me very apprehensive about our two weeks at the end of June on the Caribbean.  We were very lucky not to have any problems but I remember the smell as we walked through certain areas of the ship and the lack of AC in so many different areas of the ship (which I think made the smell worse).   And every public bathroom I went in had at least one non-working toilet (and often a non-working sink).  That ship really needs some maintenance.

 

I'm so sorry you had such a horrible experience and that guest services did so very little to remedy the situation.

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Triptkr

Triptkr

Posted
Posted

This is beyond ridiculous.  Please tell me you took pictures of the damage that ocured to your wife's shoes and the soggy carpet--I would have been clicking away!!   

I hope you write to the above provided email addresses and send any proof that you have that this took place.   Honestly, until more Princess customers start taking action Princess most likely won't change their behavior.  

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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

Posted
Posted

Oh dear … that sounds awful.  Your complaint sounds legitimate and so sorry to hear that happened to you, for your anniversary celebration, no less.  
It is unforgivable that you weren’t given a different room for a non working toilet.  We experienced the same on one ship and were given a new room immediately.  $400 is not nearly the compensation and not being moved to a clean room is not I would have expected.  It’s a health hazard to have any sewage under foot and I imagine you didn’t want to even pack your shoes to go home after that.  
I would definitely write to Jan Schwartz after that and explain your experience.  I can tell you, I’m definitely not a whiner when it comes to cruising, I can let little things slide and usually have a very positive experience but, I’d have complained about that situation myself.  
I hope you were able to salvage some of your vacation days to enjoy your anniversary.  


 

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suzyed

suzyed

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, prmssk said:

@kcmufanThe experience you share is very similar to many others I heard in May and even in June on the Caribbean Princess (mostly on the Facebook groups I follow).  I was very surprised to hear so many issues right after dry dock (especially since many of those issues had also been reported before dry dock).  It made me very apprehensive about our two weeks at the end of June on the Caribbean.  We were very lucky not to have any problems but I remember the smell as we walked through certain areas of the ship and the lack of AC in so many different areas of the ship (which I think made the smell worse).   And every public bathroom I went in had at least one non-working toilet (and often a non-working sink).  That ship really needs some maintenance.

 

I'm so sorry you had such a horrible experience and that guest services did so very little to remedy the situation.

When is the Caribbean due for dry dock?  Anyone know?

 

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FritzG

FritzG

Posted
Posted (edited)

We had several of the same issues with the plumbing on Caribbean in 2017 along with the propulsion issues, and it's the only Princess ship that we won't even consider sailing.  It was a British Isles/ WB TA, and it was the first time we were glad when the cruise ended.  There is no excuse for these issues still occurring for such a long time.  They should have sold this ship and kept the Pacific Princess.   We're loyal Princess cruisers with 34+ cruises, but we're some of their business practices shake that loyalty.

Edited by FritzG
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SiliconCruiser

SiliconCruiser

Posted
Posted

It's been my experience that any encounter with Guest Services is met with lies.   They will tell you anything to get you to move away from the counter.  It's hard to believe that there are "no available rooms" when ships are not sailing at capacity, unless the OP needed a special room, like an ADA room.

On a recent Alaskan cruise (got home yesterday,) the ship was only at about 60-65% capacity (given the count that was provided at the Captain's Circle cocktail party.)  I note the ADA rooms, because I have never seen so many mobility devices on a cruise as I saw on this one; most were rented scooters, and I'm sure they did not all get ADA cabins since there aren't that many on the ship.  (most of the rental scooters will fold and fit into a regular cabin.)  But I did see quite a few people in manual wheelchairs (will also fold and fit into a standard cabin), and also quite a few motorized wheelchairs (mostly full-sized, 335# types) that do require an ADA cabin, and my wife's partially collapsible motorized chair that will not fit in a standard cabin if you want to move around in it.

 

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Astro Flyer

Astro Flyer

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

And there are still all of these problems? That doesn’t sound good!


Glad we canceled our Caribbean Princess cruise before final payment…it’s just one of several reasons this Princess fan has canceled our future cruises & are exploring other cruise lines.

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