Sun Princess and missed port Montenegro

[JimmyVWine]

2 minutes ago, cr2000 said:

See post above about ship sizes and mooring, released in 2023. This issue appears well understood, and yet Princess continues to carry Kotor as port stop. Let's be real, Bar is not a port you advertise to secure customer bookings...

Did you bother to read the article?  The Association of Sea Captains opposes this plan and meetings are being conducted and talks are being held.  We simply do not know what the outcome will be, but it is fair to say that the Sea Captains would like the status quo to continue. There is no crime in Princess continuing to discuss the issue in hopes that a solution might be found. As long as these hopes remain, so too will the port on the itineraries until such time as it becomes too late for last minute course corrections.  And that seems to be around the 60-90 day mark as far as I can tell.

[mikemonster]

So 200 posts on this thread could be addressed with an honest statement from Princess letting their paying customers know what’s going on and what they are doing to resolve the situation, rather than leave it to uninformed posters to propose theories and guesses. As I’ve said preciously “ Princess lacks in honest communication with their customers”

[beg3yrs]

I asked Captain Arrego about Kotor last night. He was very direct telling me that Kotor does not have enough tenders (they insist on using theirs) to service the Sun Princess in a manner that would provide a good passenger experience, i.e. it would take too long to get everyone to shore. Kotor officials also insist that next season they will have enough tenders. This is why Kotor remains on itineraries in the coming years.

[Esprit]

Thanks for the clarification @beg3yrs.

All the far fetched theories were becoming dead boring!

[EDVM96]

3 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

He was very direct telling me that Kotor does not have enough tenders (they insist on using theirs)

But this wouldn't explain the cancelled July 29 port stop for example, where the Sun would have been the only scheduled ship at anchor that day.

Not enough tender boats for 4300 pax, but on other days like July 26 there are 3 ships with a total of 5144 pax where they have enough tender boats?

Edited June 18 by EDVM96

[cr2000]

2 hours ago, EDVM96 said:

But this wouldn't explain the cancelled July 29 port stop for example, where the Sun would have been the only scheduled ship at anchor that day.

Not enough tender boats for 4300 pax, but on other days like July 26 there are 3 ships with a total of 5144 pax where they have enough tender boats?

 

Yep, you can also look at cruisemapper and see future port days with similar passenger loads in port. Sounds like the captain is holding the party line on tenders. Everyone traveling next year can hold out hope they will stop in Kotor (just like we all did this year), but prepare yourself to be disappointed - it's not happening.

[Esprit]

But not all cruise ships use the Kotor shuttles.

This picture of the Costa tender was taken in 2022

[EDVM96]

1 hour ago, Esprit said:

But not all cruise ships use the Kotor shuttles.

Exactly.

 

Photo from October 2022.

 

Both, local and ships shuttles were used.

[phuac]

Yes, it's quite interesting what they are saying about tendering... considering that Kotor handles NCL Pearl, Celebrity Constellation and Queen Victoria tenders in the same morning with Constellation and Victoria sometimes coming in at the same time.   That's like 7500 passengers across the 3 ships in a span of 1 hour arrivals.  

 

They've got Mein Schiff and Constellation usually coming in at the same time both tendering as well.  5000 passengers for the two.  Sounds like they can handle the load.  

 

As per Kotor using their own boats... there are many videos people can easily search to show cruise ships using their own boats to tender in.  So what the Captain said isn't adding up.