Help needed

[Nightingale0208]

On our cruise starting 23.9.23 we had a safety incident which I can't get over. We followed all the correct procedures but the response from Guest Services was completely inadequate and left other Guests at risk of the same thing happening to them.  Having done everything requested on board I feel that the situation now needs reporting to the Executive Board and I wondered if anyone knew of a contact who is responsible for safety. I made it clear at the time I am not looking for anything other than doing all I can to prevent this happening again.  As an indication of how scared we were we have cancelled our next Princess cruise and lost a lot of money.

[cr8tiv1]

I am sorry that your “safety issue” was not properly addressed while on board.  Without prying for more details, I’m not sure if you will get much assistance.  It might have been more workable if this was escalated while still onboard.  
 

The chain of command onboard a ship would have been:

 

Guest Services counter

Customer Service Officer

Hotel General Manager

 

If it was a food matter:

 

Assistant Manager

Maitre d’

Food and Beverage Officer

Hotel General Manager

 

i don’t know the chain of command for Safety Officers.

 

i doubt you will get any further resolution after the fact via land based customer service department. 
 

Wishing you luck.  It seems as though you are trying to make sure “this” doesn’t happen to another passenger.  Kudos to you.

[antsp]

Have to ask but what was the ' safety issue' 

[Pine Man]

2 hours ago, Nightingale0208 said:

As an indication of how scared we were we have cancelled our next Princess cruise and lost a lot of money.

If it was that serious why aren't you warning us all about it?

[Nightingale0208]

Very helpful, thank you.

[Nightingale0208]

I don't know what they would do if we put everything that happened on a public forum. Also there will be some who would rather write abuse than help.

 

[Nightingale0208]

32 minutes ago, Pine Man said:

If it was that serious why aren't you warning us all about it?

It concerns one of the lifts which first of all closed as normal then a notice came on the button panel saying get out immediately when the doors open, the doors would not open and no one answered the emergency button. Then it started to shake and dropped from 12 to 5 still shaking and warning to get out flashing. We went straight to report it and Guest services was extremely busy as it was day before disembarking. I was still shaking and crying but we were not offered any privacy or allowed to put anything in writing. There was quite a long gap between us reporting it to an Engineer contacting us and the lift remained in service all the time.  That is the issue that concerns me most, that it wasn't taken out of service and the main point I wanted to raise so our experience couldn't happen to anyone else. 

 I also wanted to know if they could offer some privacy to anyone upset whatever the circumstances,  I don't mean angry and abusive, which we weren't, but having a natural reaction to being really scared.

 

 

 

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

How awful! FWIW If that happened to me I would insist that I spoke to the Guest Services manager and insist that the lift was taken out of service. You would likely get a lot of kick-back from the GS team not to speak to the manager but if you politely insist and say you will wait until you have spoken to them they will appear... eventually.

 

I realise that this isn't so easy to do if you are distressed but something like that needs to be taken seriously by the crew and I would persist until I got the lift taken out of service.

 

Regarding the privacy if upset... I have asked/insisted a couple of times now that we go somewhere out of pubic earshot to discuss the matter of concern and have always had my request agreed to. Perhaps it is down to who you get to speak to... some GS staff can be very abrasive and belligerent.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Snaxmuppet

[BamaVol]

Did I miss it, or did you share which ship this was?

[cr8tiv1]

You did the right thing by going to Guest Services.  But I would not have stopped until I was given the opportunity to speak to the manager immediately.  His/her office is just to the side of the counter.  They could have/would have paged him/her immediately.  The office is in a private area and would have afforded you some privacy.  
 

Thank you for sharing.  Were you the only occupants?  

[karatemom2]

I note you were on the Sky Princess in September shortly after our cruise that ended Sept 16. During our entire cruise one of the forward elevators was closed for maintenance which I found odd - it was a 14 day cruise so obviously something that must have required a part or team they were waiting on. I’m just wondering if the elevator you experienced this on was one of the forward elevators? Maybe there were still issues. I’m so sorry you experienced that - it must have been very frightening. I agree you deserved a more caring and professional response and that elevator should have been taken out of service - especially if it was the same one they were clearly experiencing problems with just weeks before. 

[Nightingale0208]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

You did the right thing by going to Guest Services.  But I would not have stopped until I was given the opportunity to speak to the manager immediately.  His/her office is just to the side of the counter.  They could have/would have paged him/her immediately.  The office is in a private area and would have afforded you some privacy.  
 

Thank you for sharing.  Were you the only occupants?  

We were speaking to the Manager, I asked several times to fill in a formal complaint form and sign it but was told that wasn't company policy.  I asked if we could move somewhere private but was told there was nowhere, I wasn't even allowed to sit down.  Unfortunately it was the day before disembarking and we had packing to do, photos to choose and collect and we were getting nowhere with the "manager". Taking it out of service was the Engineer's decision she said but at that point he had not been informed. We were the only ones in the lift which was really unusual. It really never crossed my mind that they would doubt what we said. 

[travelin.sisters]

I am sad that this happened to you...I don't know who to contact, but perhaps if you changed the title to something like need contact info for safety issue or something more descriptive you would get people who could answer?

[Nightingale0208]

3 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

I note you were on the Sky Princess in September shortly after our cruise that ended Sept 16. During our entire cruise one of the forward elevators was closed for maintenance which I found odd - it was a 14 day cruise so obviously something that must have required a part or team they were waiting on. I’m just wondering if the elevator you experienced this on was one of the forward elevators? Maybe there were still issues. I’m so sorry you experienced that - it must have been very frightening. I agree you deserved a more caring and professional response and that elevator should have been taken out of service - especially if it was the same one they were clearly experiencing problems with just weeks before. 

It was foreward yes and was out of action for the first few days of our cruise. The Captain told us it had a pulley system that didn't work well in rough weather, so to keep it in service later it was taken out of service on boarding. Along with another. If you can understand any coherent reasoning from that explanation I'd love to know. I assure you that was the reason he gave but he also gave the impression it was working.

 

 

[PacnGoNow]

29 minutes ago, Nightingale0208 said:

We were speaking to the Manager, I asked several times to fill in a formal complaint form and sign it but was told that wasn't company policy.  I asked if we could move somewhere private but was told there was nowhere, I wasn't even allowed to sit down.  Unfortunately it was the day before disembarking and we had packing to do, photos to choose and collect and we were getting nowhere with the "manager". Taking it out of service was the Engineer's decision she said but at that point he had not been informed. We were the only ones in the lift which was really unusual. It really never crossed my mind that they would doubt what we said. 

So sorry this happened to you. I’d be upset also.

 

I would explain what happened and that you want the safety engineer 

to be made aware, which surely they have corrected this already.  

 

Perhaps the best person to contact would be the head of Guest Services at HQ:

 

lwarren@princesscruises.com

[karatemom2]

25 minutes ago, Nightingale0208 said:

It was foreward yes and was out of action for the first few days of our cruise. The Captain told us it had a pulley system that didn't work well in rough weather, so to keep it in service later it was taken out of service on boarding. Along with another. If you can understand any coherent reasoning from that explanation I'd love to know. I assure you that was the reason he gave but he also gave the impression it was working.

 

 

 

Very concerning that they clearly have an elevator on the Sky with serious issues that need to be addressed. We had never been on any other Princess ship where an elevator was taken out of service for the entire length of the cruise. I hope they get this issue fixed before our cruise next summer. This sounds like a real safety concern and I applaud you for trying to bring this issue to the attention of someone higher on the chain at Princess since you were brushed aside onboard. Thank you for raising this  issue!

Edited November 24, 2023 by karatemom2