Princess debarkation policies for people in isolation are unacceptable! Shame on you, Princess!

[mbglib]

Hello, I don't post much, but I do follow the Princess board.  We have been on forty-four cruises, but have never before been treated like this.  I feel this rather long story is important to disseminate.  At least, I hope it will let others know to dress warmly if you are debarking at Galveston in February.  Also, don't ever get sick on the ship!  Here is the story:

 

On the February 11-18, 2024 Regal Princess cruise out of Galveston, we had a very nice cruise with great food, excellent entertainment, and nice accommodations. However, I am quite concerned with how we were treated at the end of the cruise. At about midnight the last night, I went to the medical center with severe vomiting and diarrhea. My BP was low and I was very dehydrated. I was treated well with an IV and other meds and was discharged at about 4 am. They told us to return at 8 am to get the paperwork for our insurance, and that we were on isolation and would need to call guest services when we returned to our cabin.

 

This is where the problems began. My husband called guest services and they told him we would be escorted off the ship at 6:30 am. He explained that we needed the medical paperwork at 8 as we had heard too many horror stories of how difficult, if not impossible, to obtain medical paperwork is after leaving the cruise. He also explained that our pre-booked (non-Princess) shuttle wasn't due until 10 am (since we were planning on remaining on the ship as long as possible) and since I had been sick all night, he didn't want me outside for three hours in the cold weather waiting. The worker told him we would be allowed to sit in the terminal. The worker couldn't help us beyond that, but said someone would call right back.

 

My 68 year old husband stayed awake, after not having slept all night, and waited for the call. It finally came at 6 am, and he explained the situation again. The person who called said he would look into it and call back, but he never did.

 

At 6:30, three men came to escort us to a lounge. I felt insulted as we were treated like criminals! At the lounge, I tried crew chat to try to get the medical records, but no one answered. We sat in the lounge with people who had Covid, but at least we were not close to them. Finally, someone did bring my medical records, a print out of charges, but no diagnosis, to the lounge. We asked about a print out of our onboard charges and were told we would get a final email. We did not get that email. Again we reiterated the problem with leaving the ship so early and our shuttle not coming until 10. He told us there was nothing he could/would do about it, but that we would be able to sit inside the terminal and, if we weren't allowed, to have terminal personnel contact him, but he did not/would not give us a number or his name, but simply said for them to ask for the night operation manager. In retrospect, I see that they no longer cared what happened to us, but only wanted to get us off the ship no matter what.

 

Next, we were called to leave and escorted out by the men. We saw the customs officer. When we were led off the ship, I heard one of the workers laugh and say oh are these more druggies or domestic disputes? Again I was so insulted and felt like I was treated like a criminal even more. I am 66 years old, and (fortunately) I have never been treated worse anywhere!

 

Then, we left the ship and were forced to walk quite a distance around the outside of the terminal. Mind you, I had been violently sick most of the night and had no strength. Additionally, my husband has a hard time walking any distance. But walk it we did. When we got to the front of the terminal, the men left us, so we asked a terminal worker where we would be allowed to sit indoors and, of course, he said, we couldn't! That is what we tried to tell the Princess workers earlier. One outside worker even went inside to confirm with someone else. We asked them about contacting the ship, but they wouldn't/couldn't.

 

So, we sat down in front of the terminal with the temps in the 40s and stayed there for three hours until time for our shuttle. All the while, people came out of the terminal and walked closely in front of us or sat with us. So, no point in isolating us on the ship.

 

If lying to passengers and sending sick people off the ship to sit in these weather conditions is typical Princess policy, and, apparently it is, SHAME ON YOU, PRINCESS!

[tonit964]

I'm so sorry this happened to you and I hope you are feeling better.

[Wishing on a star]

I am SO sorry!!!!

I don't know what any misunderstandings might have occurred...

But, If they had wanted me off the ship THAT early,  THAT badly,  with no consideration for medical conditions...  I would have politely declined and politely but directly informed them that if they wanted to 'evict' us from the cruise, perhaps they could contact the local authorities.  If they want to 'evict' paying passengers for any reason other than 'criminal' type reasons, they should have an appropriate area, somewhere, for them to wait and to have assistance available.

 

PS:  Taxi's or Uber could be your 'friend'....

Princess should have 'been there' offering to make sure that you had transportation.

 

Edited February 19 by Wishing on a star

[Lady Arwen]

Your story makes me sad for you and angry with Princess.  How could they just throw you off the ship and leave you both outside in the cold?  Completely unacceptable!

 

I would not just let this go.  You need for Princess to at least acknowledge the situation, give you all your medical records and apologize profusely.  
 

So very sorry for what you and your husband had to endure.

[tulok]

Your symptoms sound a lot like food poisoning. Did you ever get a diagnosis? I hope you recovered and the ride home was bearable.

[PacnGoNow]

I’m so sorry you two had to endure this treatment.  It is not right.

 

If you didn’t get your diagnosis code on the medical records, you will need it for insurance.  Here’s an email that could help.  That is the email address to request the medical records.

 

mrecordsrequest@carnival.com

Here’s an email for the medical team.  I would let them know how you were treated as well as customer relations.

 

guestmedical@hagroup.com

 

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

Again, so sorry and I hope you recover quickly.

 

 

[TRLD]

If one has symptoms that might be noro the normal process is to disembark either before or after normal disembarkation minimizing potential contact with other passengers and the facilities through which they might pass. When it happened to my wife we were given the choice to be taken off before normal disembarkation, or to wait in our cabin until everyone else was off. 

[Ellipooh]

Yikes.

What a horrible experience. 

[mbglib]

6 minutes ago, TRLD said:

If one has symptoms that might be noro the normal process is to disembark either before or after normal disembarkation minimizing potential contact with other passengers and the facilities through which they might pass. When it happened to my wife we were given the choice to be taken off before normal disembarkation, or to wait in our cabin until everyone else was off. 

I understand the reasoning, but when we were mixed with everyone outside, the isolation was useless.  We were given no choices.  I felt very powerless, especially with the "security" personnel.

[mbglib]

1 hour ago, tonit964 said:

I'm so sorry this happened to you and I hope you are feeling better.

Thank you.  I am better.

[mbglib]

54 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

I am SO sorry!!!!

I don't know what any misunderstandings might have occurred...

But, If they had wanted me off the ship THAT early,  THAT badly,  with no consideration for medical conditions...  I would have politely declined and politely but directly informed them that if they wanted to 'evict' us from the cruise, perhaps they could contact the local authorities.  If they want to 'evict' paying passengers for any reason other than 'criminal' type reasons, they should have an appropriate area, somewhere, for them to wait and to have assistance available.

 

PS:  Taxi's or Uber could be your 'friend'....

Princess should have 'been there' offering to make sure that you had transportation.

 

Thank you.  We complained and my husband argued, but to no avail.  We do use Uber, but we had a pre-arranged shuttle as Uber would be quite expensive going to Houston, I believe.  We did try to adjust our pick up time, but no seats were available.

[karatemom2]

So sorry about what you went through. I once had the misfortune to come down with Norovirus on one of our cruises and seriously could barely walk the first day I was so weak. I remember thinking that if we had to disembark that day I would have needed a wheelchair. It is hard to fathom that literally within hours of providing you with IV fluids in medical you were being unceremoniously dumped on the curb. Sadly, I seem to remember a post from someone last year sharing a similar story about her experience disembarking one of the Princess ships in Los Angeles while she was quite ill with COVID. She also spoke of basically being escorted off the ship and pretty much abandoned when the promised transportation for the group of sick passengers never showed up. I remember her comment was something to the extent that she felt they just wanted her off the ship and didn't seem to care about her well being at all.

 

This is a very bad look for Princess and absolutely inexcusable way to treat a customer who needs care and assistance. I do hope you pursue this with Princess and that you get some satisfactory response as well as the medical records that you need. Best of luck and I hope you are feeling better.

[mbglib]

23 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I’m so sorry you two had to endure this treatment.  It is not right.

 

If you didn’t get your diagnosis code on the medical records, you will need it for insurance.  Here’s an email that could help.  That is the email address to request the medical records.

 

mrecordsrequest@carnival.com

Here’s an email for the medical team.  I would let them know how you were treated as well as customer relations.

 

guestmedical@hagroup.com

 

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

Again, so sorry and I hope you recover quickly.

 

 

Thank you so much for this info.  I am better now.  

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

This post made me very cross with Princess.

 

We had covid on our last cruise and we were escorted off after everyone else had left and that seemed sensible to me as we were quite poorly.

 

Glad you are feeling better.

[kywildcatfanone]

I have learned, and it sounds like you couldn't avoid it, but if you get sick, try to take care of yourself, because since covid, they don't care.

[mbglib]

Thank you, everyone.  I am better.  We spent the night in Houston and flew home to OKC this afternoon.  I have contacted Princess about our treatment.  I have not yet contacted them about medical records.

[mbglib]

2 minutes ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I have learned, and it sounds like you couldn't avoid it, but if you get sick, try to take care of yourself, because since covid, they don't care.

I have had this problem before and tend to get dehydrated very quickly and my bp goes down dangerously.  I did not want to have to go to the medical center, but it was unavoidable.  It would have been better had I been able to treat it myself, but I was not holding down anything I took.  I always carry lots of different meds onboard, but sometimes they just aren't enough. 🙂

[mbglib]

6 minutes ago, Snaxmuppet said:

This post made me very cross with Princess.

 

We had covid on our last cruise and we were escorted off after everyone else had left and that seemed sensible to me as we were quite poorly.

 

Glad you are feeling better.

Waiting until after would be much more sensible and would have been fine with us. 

[Coral]

I believe Princess needs to "make it right" IMO. You were treated poorly. I am glad you are better. I hope they acknowledge their mistake and offer something to make up for it (I know you are not asking for this but I think you deserve it). 

 

This type of treatment is unacceptable. Definitely follow up with Customer Relations.

Edited February 20 by Coral

[mbglib]

Thanks again for all the supportive comments.  I just looked, again, at the paper they gave me and it does have a diagnosis of Gastroenteritis and colitis of unspecified origin with a code, so, hopefully, that is all I will need.  I will start my insurance application process tomorrow.  It is sad for us that this overshadowed what was otherwise an amazing cruise.

[SCX22]

Don't mean to be the devil's advocate, but Princess is damned if they do and damned if they don't in these situations.  When Princess tries to contain a potential outbreak, people complain.  When they don't control an outbreak, people complain.

 

Glad you're feeling better.

[sunviking90]

So sorry you had this experience. I think the worst part was the stress of being told you’d be kicked off before you’d be able to get your Medical info. @SCX22raises a good point, but It would be nice if the ships had a crew member assigned as a liaison to ensure people in this situation are not just “dumped”. If you do not hear anything from Princess in 4-6 weeks I would encourage you to go higher up. I have done this in the past when I had had no responses after months. Email for Collin Steinke (director of customer relations) is csteinke@princesscruises.com. CC customer relations when you do. 
Be specific and if you want some type of compensation, say so.
 

Edited February 20 by sunviking90

[mbglib]

14 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

Don't mean to be the devil's advocate, but Princess is damned if they do and damned if they don't in these situations.  When Princess tries to contain a potential outbreak, people complain.  When they don't control an outbreak, people complain.

 

Glad you're feeling better.

Like I said, I understand the need, but don't agree with the procedures and feel being disembarked that early was pointless once I was outside the terminal and mixed with everyone else.  I even had to request a mask and did wear it until we got to our hotel room in Houston to try to protect others.

 

  Also, even when trying to contain an outbreak, to be required to walk that far around the outside of the terminal in the cold was unacceptable.  One of the people with Covid was in a wheelchair, but the other one and I were not.  Perhaps I could have requested it.  I did tell one of my "escorts" that I needed to rest, but he just urged me on.

Edited February 20 by mbglib

[mbglib]

4 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

csteinke@princesscruises.com

 

5 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

So sorry you had this experience. I think the worst part was the stress of being told you’d be kicked off before you’d be able to get your Medical info. @SCX22raises a good point, but It would be nice if the ships had a crew member assigned as a liaison to ensure people in this situation are not just “dumped”. If you do not hear anything from Princess in 4-6 weeks I would encourage you to go higher up. I have done this in the past when I had had no responses after months. Email for Collin Steinke (director of customer relations) is csteinke@princesscruises.com. CC customer relations when you do. 
 

Thank you.  Not being able to know we would get the medical records was stressful.  Just having crew members who treated one with respect and didn't laugh about being druggies or domestic abusers would have been nice.  I appreciate the email address.

[Princessfan20]

Getting hurt or sick on a cruise ship is not a pleasant experience.  Our family had a similar experience when contacting Covid on a Princess ship plus luggage was lost also.  Also, a family member injured themselves on a Princess ship off of South America and it was a 4 day ordeal getting back home for appropriate  treatment.

 

Even with Princess insurance you really have to advocate for yourself and expect that they want you out of their hair ASAP.

Edited February 20 by Princessfan20