Sky Princess Arriving Early in Southampton

[sunviking90]

A recent poster did a wonderful trip report from the Crown Princess to Hawaii. The ship missed 2 of the 4 ports! Maui and Kauai were both missed due to weather, and I saw no comments on expected compensation at all. It happens.

[Acker]

Presently on Sky. What a hoot some of my fellow pax, and some CC posters are🤣 .

The Captain makes a decision to keep us safe, and the immediate knee-jerk of some pax/CC posters is "how can I monetize this?"

Not to be confused with "I only took this cruise b/c I wanted to visit xxxx port. How dare the Captain skip it!"

Can't make this stuff up.

Gotta sign off and continue to enjoy myself.

Pat

 

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, molly-patch said:

Princess are not a transport company transporting passengers across the Atlantic.  They are a holiday company advertising places they cruise too.  The holiday finishes at Southampton which they have arrived at 2 days early.  Surely they have a responsibility to compensate their loyal passengers for not honouring their contract of a 14 day cruise, whatever the reason.  It wouldn’t be acceptable for any other type of holiday.  If the weather is always notoriously bad at this time of year don’t sell a cruise, just advertise a ferry service 🤷‍♂️

They sell a cruise, and, as with all cruises, throughout the year, all ports areweather dependent,  so your point is invalid. 

And Sky is arriving in Southampton on Thurdsay night, so only one day early, and a far better option than floating about in the Atlantic in the gale force winds.

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, molly-patch said:

Surely they have a responsibility to compensate their loyal passengers for not honouring their contract of a 14 day cruise, whatever the reason

Read the contract.  Princess have honoured it to the letter, and have given obc when they did not have to do anything. 

[annlee]

I'm also onboard. There was a great 10 min video by Captain on our tv midmorning. He'd be an excellent science teacher, seriously. He explained weather patterns, low pressure systems, etc very well.

Maybe my fellow passengers who are not happy with the $100 OBC that Princess was not obligated to offer, should stand firm and refuse it. After all, it's not about money, it's the principle, right.😉

Me? I'm making room in my luggage for the jacket I just bought in the shops.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, molly-patch said:

No they haven’t 🙄.  When in port none of the shops or casino can open, who wants to sit in Southampton for nearly 48 hours, a stop that was never on the itinerary before disembarking.  This is about customer service and looking after your passengers.  Princess are usually better than this and should compensate passengers accordingly.  Where are you going to spend the $100 when nothing is open and you have purchased all inclusive drinks.  What is the point, at least make it refundable. It’s disgraceful!

Why sit in Southampton  ? Go to Salisbury,  go to Winchester,  go for a proper pub lunch !

And the bars on board ship will be open, so your point about the package is invalid. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, molly-patch said:

Can’t believe Princess would sell a cruise a time of year that is notorious for bad weather 🙄

Whaaaat???

[enhaut]

Molly-patch,

 

About that $100...

 

• Go to the spa and spend it
• Lose it in the Casino
• Buy 20 of those fancy decorative drink cups that are left over from the Caribbean cruises & that the wait staff and bartenders are trying to sell
•  Offer it to another passenger. I'm heading to IC in 10 minutes and will be wearing red sparkle dress. Just saying...
• Or spend the next 2.5 days in a sour mood, yapping that they did you wrong.

 

Your choice.

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by enhaut

[Ken the cruiser]

I noticed Sky's ETA into Southampton is currently scheduled for 4 pm Thursday afternoon. Since passengers don't have to disembark until Saturday morning, have they started offering any Friday excursions to book yet to use up that $100 (per person I'm assuming) OBC?

 

 

SKY PRINCESS Current Location (cruisemapper.com)

 

[david63]

54 minutes ago, molly-patch said:

It wouldn’t be acceptable for any other type of holiday

So if you went to a beach resort and had two days of thunderstorms would you expect compensation from the tour operator?

[david63]

But Princess have not shortened the stay/cruise

[Lady Arwen]

8 minutes ago, molly-patch said:

No I would still be in the place I had chosen to be 🤷‍♂️ What’s your point?

If the tour operator had shortened the stay by two days they would compensate with no argument.

Please tell us what you want from Princess.  What’s the amount that you feel you deserve for this horrendous inconvenience?  More OBC, fare refund, free future cruise?  What would make you happy?

[voljeep]

Does Princess Platinum / AON / whatever carrier it is ... provide trip interruption insurance reimbursement for missed ports due to weather conditions.

 

In this case - do passengers have the option to remain on board and enjoy the ship amenities until their scheduled departure time?  Can Princess get a deviation to keep the shops and casino open?

[Bedruthen]

In most circumstances, if a port has to be missed the cruise line will try and adjust the ongoing itinerary, either with an additional port or perhaps an extended stay in the next scheduled port. That has been my experience. It appears that on this cruise, that wasn’t possible and passengers are ending their cruise in an embarkation/ disembarkation port, not a destination port. I can therefore understand the disappointment of the passengers on board. It is a little harsh to criticise the passengers for cruising at this time of year. You could equally argue that it is irresponsible of the cruise line to sell cruises where there is a high risk of port cancellation. Compensation of $100 does seem low, given the savings in port fees and the fact it is given in the form of OBC, on a cruise where passengers may have already paid for drinks packages etc. 

[Tedferg]

We missed two ports last Fall on Canada New England cruise. Due to Hurricane Fiona. Princess substituted two other ports, one was very good. They gave us $399 each as FCC which we did get to use on an upcoming cruise.

[david63]

3 hours ago, Bedruthen said:

given the savings in port fees

Without knowing all the details the port fees could actually be higher. Just because two ports were missed it does not mean that those fees will not have to be paid and there will probably be additional fees for the extended stay in Southampton.

[sunviking90]

Deleted 

Edited March 29, 2023 by sunviking90

[MIJOY]

14 hours ago, annlee said:

I'm also onboard. There was a great 10 min video by Captain on our tv midmorning. He'd be an excellent science teacher, seriously. He explained weather patterns, low pressure systems, etc very well.

Maybe my fellow passengers who are not happy with the $100 OBC that Princess was not obligated to offer, should stand firm and refuse it. After all, it's not about money, it's the principle, right.😉

Me? I'm making room in my luggage for the jacket I just bought in the shops.

I’m also on Sky and am very grateful that the captain made the decision to skip ports, and thought $100 OBC was generous. I bought a couple of items but really don’t want or need more stuff. I have asked guest services to add a couple of days to the crew incentive.  I will be walking off the ship with no charges. So it’s all good 

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, Nightingale0208 said:

You have received a goodwill gesture

Actually, she is not even on the ship !

[davekent]

Mixed views on this one. Although not experienced cruisers our first cruise on the Royal Princess around 5 years ago from Southampton to NYC had a similar scenario, After our scheduled stop at Hamburg our North Atlantic passage trip via Bergen, Belfast and Newfoundland was amended due to the weather to a more southerly passage via Spain and the Azores. We had no idea as to what to expect from Princess but were notified later that day as to the $100 onboard spend credit each plus further compensation to come. Later in that trip around £700 of FCC was also given to us (not sure what the % was)

 

We would therefore have an expectation in this case that additional compensation would be provided and would be disappointed if it was not. Whether this is a consistency issue or a new policy driven by current financial constraints I wouldn't know. Agree that the main point is to avoid the worst of the weather and rather than dwelling on it enjoy the rest of the holiday

[TK42799]

In the damned if you do category…

During our medical evacuation in Lisbon, P&O Iona was in port as part of a 2 day visit. Clearly, they were monitoring the same weather situation however, they made no determination to leave port early. At the time of this writing, we on Sky are currently in the Channel and Iona is cruising along the coast of Portugal. Both ships were scheduled to arrive in port on the same day Saturday, April 1,2023. If my app is accurate, we are also experiencing the same sea states. As Carnival is the corporate head office for both companies, I would have expected similar contingency plans be implemented to deal with this storm. Time of course will tell if Iona experiences worse weather conditions however, as an armchair quarterback enjoying my drink package, I am leaning towards the possibility that we could have made our last port call of La Coruna. 
Here’s to all of us arriving safely 🍻. 
Cheers

[wowzz]

36 minutes ago, TK42799 said:

I am leaning towards the possibility that we could have made our last port call of La Coruna. 

The forecast for tomorrow is dire - trust me, you would rather be in Southampton tomorrow rather than at sea !

[david63]

49 minutes ago, TK42799 said:

Time of course will tell if Iona experiences worse weather conditions

Iona appears to be "taking it easy" as she is scheduled to arrive in Southampton at 08:30 which is a good two/three hours later than would normally be expected. P&O ships are normally alongside by 06:00, if not earlier.

[wowzz]

The other item to be taken into consideration,  is that if no action had been taken, the bad weather could well have caused Sky to arrive late into Southampton.  Given that there are a large number of Americans and Canadians on board who are flying back home on Saturday, a late arrival would have caused many of them to have missed their flights.

Edited March 30, 2023 by wowzz

[Nightingale0208]

2 hours ago, molly-patch said:

Why? Please explain 🤷‍♂️

I don't think anything anyone writes will mean anything unless it is about money.  Interesting you feel so strongly when not on board. I am boarding on Saturday which is why I've been following the posts.  If you do book, with any cruise line, I suggest you read the small print in detail.  Possibly the more expensive of them would compensate, I have no idea, but in my view that's something to look for when taking out insurance.  I believe as this was a repositioning cruise those on board would have paid a reduced fare, and at this time of year the majority would have understood the weather might necessitate a change in the itinerary.  When you purchase most things there is a disclaimer attached, I don't believe keeping the vessel, passengers and crew safe by adjusting the itinerary is deserving of anything but praise and gratitude.  We will have to agree to  disagree.