Sun Princess and missed port Montenegro

[cr2000]

1 hour ago, Globaler said:

I will never sail a new ship within a one year period. Nothing but problems, broken promises and total disappointment. Too much money and so many other cruise ships and cruise lines. wow Princess has caused some major brand damage on this one.

 

It's basically theft on the part of Princess. Making false promises and having people pay up. The worst part is that a new ship rollout doesn't have to be this way. Look at RC Icon of the Seas. They hit a homerun with that ships rollout. Princess should have recognized they had numerous issues, put a pause on all guest sailings, and used their employees as "guests" for a few weeks to work out all the kinks. Instead paying customers are getting the shaft. Pulling Kotor (which I knew they would do) was the last straw for me. Princess knew they couldn't sail into that port when they cancelled it the first time but instead they strung people along for a few more weeks and substituted Bar which is basically a cargo port. Shameful.

[J18ktleo]

37 minutes ago, cr2000 said:

 

It's basically theft on the part of Princess. Making false promises and having people pay up. The worst part is that a new ship rollout doesn't have to be this way. Look at RC Icon of the Seas. They hit a homerun with that ships rollout. Princess should have recognized they had numerous issues, put a pause on all guest sailings, and used their employees as "guests" for a few weeks to work out all the kinks. Instead paying customers are getting the shaft. Pulling Kotor (which I knew they would do) was the last straw for me. Princess knew they couldn't sail into that port when they cancelled it the first time but instead they strung people along for a few more weeks and substituted Bar which is basically a cargo port. Shameful.

I have sailed Celebrity multiple times within 3 months of a brand new ship being deployed, doing one of the first 'sample' cruises on the Edge class and again a month later, then this past Jan on the 2 month old Ascent and it was PERFECT!  Everything was open, everything was operational, no staffing challenges or issues.

What I'm reading on Princess is ridiculous!  And we are booked on the Star Jan 2026, 5 months after she comes out, in suites hoping Princess comes to their senses and pays attention to what's going on with the changes to suite class that we're all paying for!

Hard to imagine after all this time that Princess is having so many issues with the 'newness' of the Sphere class ship, and that they'd let it go until the very last minute to cancel inaugurals?

So sad and difficult to understand thought process behind all this!

 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

4 hours ago, Globaler said:

I will never sail a new ship within a one year period. Nothing but problems, broken promises and total disappointment. Too much money and so many other cruise ships and cruise lines. wow Princess has caused some major brand damage on this one.

We were the 5th cruise and it almost near perfect. For the things that we want out of a cruise we were very happy. And their suite service was beyond exceptional. 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

6 hours ago, TRLD said:

Yes Santorini has required their tenders for years. 

 

When I say tender operations I am not saying the tenders themselves more likely an issue with the tender docks.

 

Could be any number of potential issues. Problems with one of more of the hatches/dock themselves, the height relative to the tenders, the way the tenders tie off, etc. Anything that impacts the loading/unloading process or potentially could make it less safe. If there is any potential known safety issue they would certainly not tender.

 

What we do know is that Princess said that they canceled their maiden voyage to Santorini saying that there was a technical problem with tender operations.

 

There has been 1 stop with tendering in Santorini but no other tender stops. Which might indicate that they thought they had resolved the issue but then discovered that it was not resolved. 

 

Would be interesting to know if on that cruise if Kotor was scheduled before or after Santorini. If after if Kotor was cancelled before or after the Santorini stop. @Sox Fan Cruiser

 

A couple of the Kotor cancellations have been for technical tendering restrictions. Without saying if those were port restrictions, of ship technical restrictions.

 

They have said  that the Santorini cancellations have been due to congestion. Which does match with a couple of dates in June and late May where there is about 15000 passengers in port and the Sun is in port with larger NCL ships.

 

However it does not match with some of the cancelled dates where there were 5000 to 7000 in port. A light load as far as Santorini is concerned.  In the past Princess has gone to Santorini with much heavier passenger numbers in port.

 

 

Kotor was canceled before we even flew to Rome. We were notified about a week before we were scheduled to get on the ship. And the port in the itinerary was before Santorini.  

[TRLD]

6 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

Kotor was canceled before we even flew to Rome. We were notified about a week before we were scheduled to get on the ship. And the port in the itinerary was before Santorini.  

Thanks.

 

That eliminates that hypothesis then.

[Mick D]

Just got notification today for our Sun Princess cruise departing May 25, 2024 that Kotor is no longer a port that the ship will visit. It was worded in a manner that made it sound as though this is a permanent change. Bar is the replacement.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

15 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Thanks.

 

That eliminates that hypothesis then.

Also I think the other Santorini stops on future cruises were cancelled before we even went there. I’m not 100% sure but I think so. 
 

I truly think that the cable car experience with a lot of ships in port is so bad that Princess wants to avoid it. Things started to get really tense up in the line that we just walked down. Not an option for older folks but we talked to people who waited 90 minutes in line, in the heat and with tempers boiling over. We heard a fight almost broke out. We walked down in 25 minutes. And we were the only ship in port. 

[EDVM96]

31 minutes ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

I truly think that the cable car experience with a lot of ships in port is so bad that Princess wants to avoid it. Things started to get really tense up in the line that we just walked down. Not an option for older folks but we talked to people who waited 90 minutes in line, in the heat and with tempers boiling over. We heard a fight almost broke out. We walked down in 25 minutes. And we were the only ship in port. 

One question about Santorini:

If you book a Princess tour, do they also tender you down to the cable car / trail? There is no bus access down there. And also not up there (no roads). 

If a tour ends near the upper station, going the trail down seems not to be a problem. 

(of course, for older passengers, it is).

Going the trail up I would hate. 🤣

 

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

If you have a tour they tender you to the old port and you take a bus up the caldera. But then they drop you in Fira and you have to take the cable car down. 
 

Because of the line problem they ended up taking the late tours back to the old port and tendering them back to the ship. 
 

And I will say this again…

 

We were the only ship in port!!

[EDVM96]

So what's wrong going down that trail instead of waiting 90+ minutes in line for the cable car?

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, Sox Fan Cruiser said:

Also I think the other Santorini stops on future cruises were cancelled before we even went there. I’m not 100% sure but I think so. 
 

I truly think that the cable car experience with a lot of ships in port is so bad that Princess wants to avoid it. Things started to get really tense up in the line that we just walked down. Not an option for older folks but we talked to people who waited 90 minutes in line, in the heat and with tempers boiling over. We heard a fight almost broke out. We walked down in 25 minutes. And we were the only ship in port. 

Problem is that two of the canceled stops had fewer than 6000 in port. Not busy at all by Santorini standards.

[TRLD]

1 hour ago, EDVM96 said:

So what's wrong going down that trail instead of waiting 90+ minutes in line for the cable car?

Fairly steep, slippery from the donkey dung. Need to clean ones shoes afterwards.

[Chusquer Xerez]

I was in September 2023 in Santorini, with the Enchanted Princess. There were only two medium  ships... about 5000 cruise passengers between the two ships. That day it was not very hot. Well, the line for the cable car was tremendous. Full of very old people in full sun. I went down the stairs. People were literally crying with pain going down the stairs. If you are not in good shape, it is a major problem, and again, it was not hot like it usually does there.

[phuac]

https://montenegrobusiness.eu/montenegro-business-recent-sun-princes-mega-cruise-ship-port-of-bar-tourism/

Jovan Moric from Boka Adriatica, noted that the Sun Princess... has eight planned visits to Bar.

Boka Adriatica supports port operations in Montenegro.  So good assumption that they would know what the future is for Cruise ships.  

Sun Princess was scheduled to sail to Kotor 8 times from April to September during it's Mediterranean season.  May, June itineraries have already been updated to Bar.  
July, August, September itineraries still say Kotor, however, given the above statement, feels almost certain it's going to change to Bar.  

If you are sailing July-September with non refundable port excursions made (outside of Princess) in Kotor, you could look into getting travel insurance that covers for these in the event of port changes made after your purchase of travel insurance.  Once you get an email from Princess saying that the itinerary has changed to Bar, then purchasing this insurance afterwards won't work.   Some of these are expensive and don't reimburse you much, so do the math if it works for you.

[Esprit]

12 hours ago, TRLD said:

Fairly steep, slippery from the donkey dung. Need to clean ones shoes afterwards.

Come on!

It’s not that steep and there are many resting places to take in the views and sideline the donkey packs.

Ok, there is some urine and poop but you are not wading in the stuff!

Just don’t wear your newest footwear.

The 588 steps are more pleasant than standing in a 90 minute line for the cable car.

[Globaler]

4 hours ago, Esprit said:

Come on!

It’s not that steep and there are many resting places to take in the views and sideline the donkey packs.

Ok, there is some urine and poop but you are not wading in the stuff!

Just don’t wear your newest footwear.

The 588 steps are more pleasant than standing in a 90 minute line for the cable car.

Some of us don’t even have the option to try!

[TRLD]

8 hours ago, Esprit said:

Come on!

It’s not that steep and there are many resting places to take in the views and sideline the donkey packs.

Ok, there is some urine and poop but you are not wading in the stuff!

Just don’t wear your newest footwear.

The 588 steps are more pleasant than standing in a 90 minute line for the cable car.

Funny thing is we have been there 4 times. One time with 4 ships and over 11000 passengers. The tram can carry about 1200 passengers per hour. Have seen lines, especially during the last hour before a ship leaves.

 

Last time got there about 5 pm with 3 ships in port and two getting ready to leave. When we got to the top station there was a line out the station, wrapping over to the main street and going about a block down the street. Walked past about a half hour later and the line was gone.

 

Have not seen what was described about the Sun's last visit. Does not make sense for 1 4200 ship visit.

 

Either their were having problems and the tram was running slow or the other possibility is that there is limited space in the tender loading area in the old dock. Basically a span of concrete made 30 feet wide in front of a couple of restaurants. If that space was full they will slow down the rate at which the tram would take people down from the top.

 

So I wonder @Sox Fan Cruiser how crowded was the old port area when you got down there from your hike down? How long did you wait to board a tender once you got there?

How often was the tram running? They can run it about every 2 minutes.

[mikemonster]

Interesting recent article sheds some light  Regarding Santorini and Cruise industry

 

https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2024/04/15/overtourism-cruise-ship-cancels-santorini-stop-over-congestion/ 

 

mike

[TRLD]

2 hours ago, mikemonster said:

Interesting recent article sheds some light  Regarding Santorini and Cruise industry

 

https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2024/04/15/overtourism-cruise-ship-cancels-santorini-stop-over-congestion/ 

 

mike

On two of the Sun's stops in May and June you have 3 other large ships in port, including 2 NCL ships with one being over 5000.

 

However on two of the other cancelled stops one had 6000 scheduled and one 7000.  Congestion should not have been a problem on those 2 days.

 

Wonder if Santoroni is going to reinstate the 8000 limit they had on around 2016.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

9 hours ago, mikemonster said:

Interesting recent article sheds some light  Regarding Santorini and Cruise industry

 

https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2024/04/15/overtourism-cruise-ship-cancels-santorini-stop-over-congestion/ 

 

mike

Exactly what I have been saying. It’s not a tendering issue. 
 

We were trying to leave at prime time and there was congestion and tension was rising. I would not get off the ship if there were multiple ships in port. They can only handle so many people. 
 

There was absolutely no waiting for a tender. Once we got to the bottom (walking down) we went right on a tender and we left two minutes later. 

[LME70]

I'm booked on the Sun at start of July and was really looking forward to Kotor. I'm wondering whether anyone who has missed one of these ports already has claimed on their insurance (especially if they were only informed once on the ship)?

 

I'm still excited by the upcoming cruise but a little annoyed if Bar is boring.

[beg3yrs]

5 hours ago, LME70 said:

I'm booked on the Sun at start of July and was really looking forward to Kotor. I'm wondering whether anyone who has missed one of these ports already has claimed on their insurance (especially if they were only informed once on the ship)?

 

I'm still excited by the upcoming cruise but a little annoyed if Bar is boring.

According to a Celebrity web page on Bar, it seems quite interesting, especially Stari Bar which is the Old Town.

[Esprit]

According to the Sun Princess webcam today, the ship is bound for Santorini 👍😂

[mikemonster]

And the confusion continues.....

 

ESPRIT is correct , Sun Princess stopped in Santorini yesterday/today. I haven't seen any updates/posts regarding this stop, but I'm sure all of those who were disappointed with the recent port change announcements which had eliminated Santorini were happy👏🙌.

 

We leave tomorrow for our cruise and at this point I'm not sure what ports we'll be stopping at (and I'm not sure Princess knows either 🙃)

Bar or Kotor or maybe we'll go to Santorini too😁(lol) At least our forecast of scattered showers in Montenegro has been revised to partly sunny.