Sun Princess and missed port Montenegro

[TRLD]

3 hours ago, mikemonster said:

15 days until we sail and no word from Princess on anything (including port changes)

 

In checking cruisemapper "no ships" show as scheduled docking in Kotor on April11 besides Sun Princess or on May 6 (which is my cruises port date for Kotor).

 

At this point we have considered options should there be a change (even checked Dubrovnik which shows no ships scheduled for our port date of May 6).

 

The speculation of "why" the Kotor port changed on the April 11 cruise at this point is interesting but in the end it happened. Hopefully, Princess will do a better job of communication moving forward but if this was a last minute one time change out of their control, chalk it up to Sh#t happens.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the next 2 weeks.

 

mike   

Different of the sites showed different things.  Cruise Dig seems to show the most complete list. It shows no ships in Kotor on May 6

 

Cruisemapper seems to show Kotor and Dubrovnik as less busy than they are.

Edited April 16 by TRLD

[Mark_K]

Interesting reading, here, but let’s not forget that one data point does not make a trend. 

[mikemonster]

Mark- my point as well.

 

As for Cruisedig (a site I don’t usually visit ) I did a bit of searching there and Sun Princess itinerary’s are not available on that site from what I found, which could explain why it doesn’t show up in the port info for Kotor.

 

let’s just wait and see😉

Edited April 16 by mikemonster

[StevenW]

 

My 17June stop at Kotor, has been replaced in itinerary by Bar.

 

With Bar only about 30km from Kotor though, I'm hoping there will be a ship tour to Kotor.

[EDVM96]

10 minutes ago, StevenW said:

My 17June stop at Kotor, has been replaced in itinerary by Bar.

Well, after all it seems we will never see the Sun Princess in Kotor Bay.

 

10 minutes ago, StevenW said:

With Bar only about 30km from Kotor though, I'm hoping there will be a ship tour to Kotor.

Yes, there are ship tours to Kotor from Bar. But it's a 1:30h drive each way to get to/from there by bus. It's 60 road km away. Princess tour description even sais it's 2 hours each way.

https://www.princess.com/ports-excursions/bar-montenegro-excursions

 

 

Edited April 25 by EDVM96

[mikemonster]

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!!

We leave in 6 days and haven't received any notice from Princess regarding this change HOWEVER, our itinerary now has "Bar" for our stop in Montenegro instead of Kotor. There are NO excursions listed our "Princess Personalizer".

 

Now we're in "scramble mode" since we had a half day van tour thru Viator scheduled in Kotor , with a 2hr drive that's out . We have no way to book Princess excursions online or even know what's available................ and so it goes with more POOR COMMUNICATION from PRINCESS

 

 

 

 

[EDVM96]

15 minutes ago, mikemonster said:

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!!

We leave in 6 days and haven't received any notice from Princess regarding this change HOWEVER, our itinerary now has "Bar" for our stop in Montenegro instead of Kotor. There are NO excursions listed our "Princess Personalizer".

No worries. I'm sure the shore excursion desk will have tours available for you. Website isn't that fast. Even the Princess app shows tours sometimes as sold out or doesn't even show them at all when on the ship, but at the shorex desk they still have it.

 

Edited April 26 by EDVM96

[phuac]

May through June sailings have been updated to Bar.  Can see that when you try to book.  The map still shows Kotor, but below that  the itinerary shows Bar.  July and after cruises still show Kotor in the itinerary.  But now, would not be surprised if these get updated to Bar.  Payment due date should be coming up for August sailings and after.  If there are any changes to Bar, I’d assume Princess would make them after payment due date has passed.

[EDVM96]

3 minutes ago, phuac said:

The map still shows Kotor, but below that  the itinerary shows Bar

I have never seen that Princess updated the map image after an itinerary change.

 

[TRLD]

Has the Sun Been stopping at any tender ports?  Seems they have been skipping Santorini and Kotor which are both tender ports.

 

Any that it has been stopping at?

[EDVM96]

Just now, TRLD said:

Has the Sun Been stopping at any tender ports? 

Yes, it did several times as far as I know.

[TRLD]

2 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Yes, it did several times as far as I know.

Which ports?

[EDVM96]

1 minute ago, TRLD said:

Which ports?

I don't remember. Looking at the moment right now. Greek islands I think. Not Santorini tho.

Edited April 26 by EDVM96

[TRLD]

3 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

I don't remember. Looking at the moment right now. Greek islands I think. Not Santorini tho.

Looking at their schedule in the med the only ports that have said water shuttle were Santorini and Kotor. Now that they have been replaced they all appear to be docking locations.

 

I seem to recall that they were doing a different setup for shuttle operations then with the Royal class but do not remember the details.

 

Can anybody confirm that they gave actually tendered from the Sun.

[mikemonster]

EDVM96”No worries. I'm sure the shore excursion desk will have tours available for you.”

 

Problem for our cruise is Bar will be the First Stop so many of the 4k passengers will be lined up on embarkation day trying to book excursions AND who knows what the capacity of the excursions will be. Bar is a minor cruise stop (no large ships seem to stop there) and just reviewing online tours there aren’t that many options.

[EDVM96]

Just now, TRLD said:

Looking at their schedule in the med the only ports that have said water shuttle were Santorini and Kotor. Now that they have been replaced they all appear to be docking locations.

You may be right. But didn't they tender in Mykonos? Not sure

No tender operations yet you think? That would mean no general alarm evacuations as well?

I don't think so.

 

[EDVM96]

3 minutes ago, mikemonster said:

Problem for our cruise is Bar will be the First Stop so many of the 4k passengers will be lined up on embarkation day trying to book excursions AND who knows what the capacity of the excursions will be.

No, they won't. You can be sure most of them don't even know of the schedule change. 😄

 

Maybe check the roll call from the Sun sailing that stopped in Bar already. Ask them.

 

[TRLD]

1 minute ago, EDVM96 said:

You may be right. But didn't they tender in Mykonos? Not sure

No tender operations yet you think? That would mean no general alarm evacuations as well?

I don't think so.

 

Big difference in how  boats are used and lowered when used as life boats  and when used as  tenders. 

 

Lifeboats are boarded, then lowered.

Tenders are lowered and then pull up to loading platform. So a problem with tender operations would not necessarily  imply an impact to emergency operations. Santorini does not use ships boats, but do pull up to ships tender platforms 

 

 On Royal class they use two tender loading platforms on one side with 4 to 6 tenders in operation. Mid and forward if recall correctly.

 

Not sure what the setup is on the Sun.

 

 

[TRLD]

Looks like is similar, though the Sun has a lounge called the Landing for Suite guests right in the middle on the mid ship tender platforms.

[Esprit]

11 hours ago, StevenW said:

 

My 17June stop at Kotor, has been replaced in itinerary by Bar.

 

With Bar only about 30km from Kotor though, I'm hoping there will be a ship tour to Kotor.

But you will miss the sail in/out which I really enjoyed every time I've visited Kotor.

We are due to sail in on 19th August. We also have Santorini on our itinerary for the 13th. Losing those two ports would be really disappointing despite having been to both many times!

[Esprit]

9 hours ago, TRLD said:

Has the Sun Been stopping at any tender ports?  Seems they have been skipping Santorini and Kotor which are both tender ports.

 

Any that it has been stopping at?

The Sun has definitely tendered in Santorini. Can't remember if it was in March or earlier this month though!

[StevenW]

44 minutes ago, Esprit said:

.... Losing those two ports would be really disappointing despite having been to both many times!

 

Then I'm sure you can imagine my disappointment, having never been to either location, and not likely to be able to return in the future.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

We skipped Kotor and went to Bar instead. The change was last minute and they had excursion online for us to book before the cruise. They also had excursions in our cabin when we arrived. No one complained that there was a “mad rush” to get tours. It was fine. We stayed on the ship as our Kotor guide told us that Bar was nothing special. Most people coming back confirmed that. Kotor was too far away to try and visit even though our guide was willing to come pick us up. 
 

We tendered in Santorini. There is nothing wrong with the ships tendering system because they could not sail if there was as it is also part of their emergency system. 
 

The landing is not for suite guests but an open area for all folks leaving the ship. There are seats for people to relax and a bar for selling water and other drinks. It’s used for both port stops and tendering. We never see the need for this space because we are never in the huge crowd waiting to go ashore. We always wait for most people to leave the ship and then we walk right off. 

[cr2000]

12 hours ago, StevenW said:

 

My 17June stop at Kotor, has been replaced in itinerary by Bar.

 

With Bar only about 30km from Kotor though, I'm hoping there will be a ship tour to Kotor.

I said that would happen weeks ago. Just another epic failure for the rollout of this ship - shame on Princess for lying to customers to begin with. Bar is an an absolute waste of a port stop. Zero comparison as a replacement for Montenegro.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Bar is still Montenegro but I understand what you meant.