Remedy for canceled excursion?

[Newbiejawn]

Going on my first cruise in three days, Enchanted Princess Canada/New England. Just found out that my Newport excursion booked through Princess was canceled three months ago without notice. They only partially refunded me because another excursion became more expensive after I booked. I did not notice the credit on my card and only figured all of this out by calling them today. These two changes have me really upset. There is absolutely nothing available in Newport now, all excursions that I would book myself are full. I called Princess and after waiting for about half an hour they disconnected. Any suggestions around how they might make this right, or did I just pick a horrible cruise line and this is just the start of my disappointment?

[ontheweb]

It may be too late as your cruise is so soon, but have you checked if there is a roll call for your cruise? If there is, and there probably is, some might have private excursions booked and might welcome you to participate (though it is pretty late.) But it is worth a try.

[Essiesmom]

Also. Heck out the East Coast Departure board, under North American Homeports.  Folks there might have some suggestions for DIY excursions.  
There is a long roll call for this voyage, top of page 2 of Enchanted Princess roll calls.  No one has posted for a week…EM

Edited August 21 by Essiesmom

[Hlitner]

Just keep in mind that there is no rule/law that says you must take cruise line excursions.  You could look for some kind of local tour, or simply do Newport on your own.  Do a little online research and you will find tons of information about walking tours, trolley tours, boat tours, etc.  Keep in mind that you are a USA tourist town and will have plenty of company if you decide to go visit some of the mansions on your own.

 

Since you are new to cruising, my only caution is to make sure to get back to your ship, in plenty of time.  Most ships require you to be back aboard at least 30 minutes before sailing time.  When we do our own thing in cruise ports we like to be back within walking distance (of the ship or tender) at least 1 hour earlier in order to play it safe.

 

Hank

[TheOldBear]

Newport information is found over in https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/9-canadanew-england/ the 'Canada and New England' forum.

 

Newport is a tender port - the ship itself does not dock. Folks on the ship's excursions will have priority for tenders. Be aware of the posted time for returning to the tender dock.

 

[One Youtube video was about their experience on one of the MSC mega ships - by the time they got to shore they had only 20 minutes before they needed to be on the line to board the return tender.]

 

Newport itself is quite walkable - I would look for some online port guides [before you embark ] and just wander around for some of the local attractions [e.g. the Cliff Walk]

 

[jsn55]

Anytime I'm unfortunate enough to have a tender port, I book a ship's excursion just to be sure I get off the ship earliest.  I think being stuffed into a tender is absolute torture, but ports like Newport and Bar Harbor aren't to be missed.  We had a private excursion at some port in the Med, and we booked a ship's tour just to get off the ship early enough to have some quality time in the port.  My theory prevails ... I've spent thousands on this trip, what's a few more hundred dollars?

[geoherb]

We had a great day in Newport on our cruise. We joined the Preservation Society of Newport County, which gave us access to many of the mansions. We toured seven of them: Marble House, Rose Cliff, the Elms, Chateau-sur-Mer, the Breakers, Kingscote, and the Isaac Bell House. It was a jam-packed day. 

[karatemom2]

Newport is a very easy place to do on your own. You don’t need a ship tour. We visited Rose Island Lighthouse in the morning and The Breakers in the afternoon. Easy to get around by Uber. Here are a couple of links:

 

https://roseisland.org/index.php/visit/

 

https://www.newportmansions.org/mansions-and-gardens/the-breakers/

 

 

 

 

[Abercrombie2019]

11 hours ago, Newbiejawn said:

They only partially refunded me because another excursion became more expensive after I booked. I did not notice the credit on my card and only figured all of this out by calling them today.

Are you saying that they charged you more for an excursion that you already had booked?  I’ve never heard of this before.  Are you sure they didn’t put some of the refund back to OBC?

[cr8tiv1]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  I am sorry that your first experience with Princess did not go as you had planned.  Newport is known for it's seaside mansions.  There is a free shuttle that will take to there.  I got off at one location (not quite the full circuit) and walked back to the beginning.  You can stop at any mansion and pay your fee to tour.  Cost for walk = zero.

 

There is a wonderful volunteer manned kiosk as you get off the tender.  They will be happy to assist you.  In the meantime, go online to TripAdvisor or Viator, and see what other independent tours are still available.  

 

Just be sure to give yourself plenty of time to catch the tender back to the ship.  It will be very costly for you to miss the ship because you were late getting back to the dock.

[Bollycats]

Also, check the shore excursion deck on board when it's open. People change and cancel excursions all the time and something might open up. 

Edited August 22 by Bollycats

[Newbiejawn]

10 hours ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

Are you saying that they charged you more for an excursion that you already had booked?  I’ve never heard of this before.  Are you sure they didn’t put some of the refund back to OBC?

Yes, I booked another excursion in Halifax on the same day and it was a special deal to book multiple excursions so I booked Newport and Halifax. These were for two people. They reduced my refund for the two Newport excursions by $50 because Halifax was now more $. And it gets worse - I have since found out (not by Princess, they did not disclose this, but rather Direct Lince Cruises) that they also took my $100 onboard credit to pay even more for the Halifax trip. I cannot prove the original cost of the Halifax trip because the promo email I used refers to links that have since been updated. And I certainly would not have booked Halifax at $150 more than advertised. This is next level bs and I am already so disappointed in this cruise.

[Parrottdizes]

Since your cruise starts in a few days, just sit tight and wait till you get on the ship; then there are a few things you can do.

1. After getting on the ship, check your folio.......that will show you what your OBC is and what it was used for and if there is any left.

2. Go to the excursion desk when they open up and see if they can help you with the excursions and to answer any questions you have about them (and what you were charged).

 

Do bring all of your paper work with you (such as a copy of the credit card bill showing a refund, a copy of your trip summery (that is on the Princess web site in you trip personlizer.....it shows excursions and the price you paid), any excursion e-mails (don't forget to look in your spam folder).

Hopefully you will get things straightened out to your satisfaction.  

[voljeep]

55 minutes ago, Newbiejawn said:

Yes, I booked another excursion in Halifax on the same day and it was a special deal to book multiple excursions so I booked Newport and Halifax. These were for two people. They reduced my refund for the two Newport excursions by $50 because Halifax was now more $. And it gets worse - I have since found out (not by Princess, they did not disclose this, but rather Direct Lince Cruises) that they also took my $100 onboard credit to pay even more for the Halifax trip. I cannot prove the original cost of the Halifax trip because the promo email I used refers to links that have since been updated. And I certainly would not have booked Halifax at $150 more than advertised. This is next level bs and I am already so disappointed in this cruise.

mental stress is a medical condition -  use it and cancel the cruise for all monies paid except the potential cost of insurance

[MsK64]

Newbiejawn— you’ve gotten a lot of really good advice from folks on this thread, but I would add one more thing. Even if things do get straightened out at the excursions desk (and hopefully they will), you should also go to Guest Relations and tell your story there. It’s important that Princess understands that the first people that customers come in contact with when booking (especially if they have booked things directly, and not with a TA or a CVP) are often the worst representatives of the company. (that was definitely my experience when booking the cruise) If nothing else, the frustration and stress you have experienced is deserving of more OBC and they would be the people to do that. 
 

Also, for what it’s worth – Newport has a free hop-on/hop-off trolley (#67) which is actually part of the public transit system and it stops at all the major points of interest. But, as a previous poster mentioned, when you’re doing something on your own, it’s easy to lose track of time and so you would really want to make sure that you get back to the ship at least 30 minutes before sailing, if not earlier. 

 

FYI— I’m on the same cruise as you, and I’ve had my share of problems with Princess as well in the planning of this trip, so maybe we’ll meet up in the line at Guest Services! 😋 My hope is that once I get on the ship, it will be wonderful and worth the aggravation I’ve had so far. I hope the same is true for you.

[JF - retired RRT]

12 hours ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

Are you saying that they charged you more for an excursion that you already had booked?  I’ve never heard of this before.  Are you sure they didn’t put some of the refund back to OBC?

My thought exactly.

 

@Newbiejawn were those excursions booked through Princess or a third party? I've never heard of price increases being passed on to booked excursion cruisers. Once booked, the price is locked in.

[Ellipooh]

Also, you can cancel your now-unwanted Halifax excursion and get refunded back to the original form of payment.  That's what i would do in your situation.

Edited August 22 by Ellipooh

[Catchum]

13 hours ago, jsn55 said:

Anytime I'm unfortunate enough to have a tender port, I book a ship's excursion just to be sure I get off the ship earliest.  I think being stuffed into a tender is absolute torture, but ports like Newport and Bar Harbor aren't to be missed.  We had a private excursion at some port in the Med, and we booked a ship's tour just to get off the ship early enough to have some quality time in the port.  My theory prevails ... I've spent thousands on this trip, what's a few more hundred dollars?

One if my greatest cruise excursions was to see the book of Kells in Dublin, you have to book a time slot for your visit with little margin for delays. Tender to Dún Laoghaire, Dart to Dublin, walk to Trinity College arrived with two minutes to spare. Stress 0. Tenders are an extra free boat ride to enjoy and you can take pictures of the port and ship from new vantage points.

[beg3yrs]

2 hours ago, Newbiejawn said:

Yes, I booked another excursion in Halifax on the same day and it was a special deal to book multiple excursions so I booked Newport and Halifax. These were for two people. They reduced my refund for the two Newport excursions by $50 because Halifax was now more $. And it gets worse - I have since found out (not by Princess, they did not disclose this, but rather ******************) that they also took my $100 onboard credit to pay even more for the Halifax trip. I cannot prove the original cost of the Halifax trip because the promo email I used refers to links that have since been updated. And I certainly would not have booked Halifax at $150 more than advertised. This is next level bs and I am already so disappointed in this cruise.

You're new here so you probably don't know. One of the primary "no-no"s on Cruise Critic is that other travel agents or their agencies shall not be named (remind you of Harry Potter?). It's probably too late to edit your post but next time you'll know.

[Newbiejawn]

1 hour ago, JF - retired RRT said:

My thought exactly.

 

@Newbiejawn were those excursions booked through Princess or a third party? I've never heard of price increases being passed on to booked excursion cruisers. Once booked, the price is locked in.

It was BOGO and I guess when the first one got cancelled they upcharged me for the second excursion. And they never let me know the first excursion got canceled either. Just the worst!

[Newbiejawn]

3 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

You're new here so you probably don't know. One of the primary "no-no"s on Cruise Critic is that other travel agents or their agencies shall not be named (remind you of Harry Potter?). It's probably too late to edit your post but next time you'll know.

Sorry I saw that but they are not being roasted here. They did nothing but help me understand that Princess has taken even more $ from me. I thought we were only to not mention them if we were throwing shade. Duly noted though, thanks!

[Abercrombie2019]

3 hours ago, Newbiejawn said:

Yes, I booked another excursion in Halifax on the same day and it was a special deal to book multiple excursions so I booked Newport and Halifax. These were for two people. They reduced my refund for the two Newport excursions by $50 because Halifax was now more $. And it gets worse - I have since found out (not by Princess, they did not disclose this, but rather xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. that they also took my $100 onboard credit to pay even more for the Halifax trip. I cannot prove the original cost of the Halifax trip because the promo email I used refers to links that have since been updated. And I certainly would not have booked Halifax at $150 more than advertised. This is next level bs and I am already so disappointed in this cruise.

Print out your Travel Summary from the cruise personalizer on Princess.com .  It will list the excursions you have booked and how much you paid for them.

Edited August 22 by Abercrombie2019
Removed TA name

[sanger727]

14 hours ago, jsn55 said:

Anytime I'm unfortunate enough to have a tender port, I book a ship's excursion just to be sure I get off the ship earliest.  I think being stuffed into a tender is absolute torture, but ports like Newport and Bar Harbor aren't to be missed.  We had a private excursion at some port in the Med, and we booked a ship's tour just to get off the ship early enough to have some quality time in the port.  My theory prevails ... I've spent thousands on this trip, what's a few more hundred dollars?

 

That has never occurred to me.  I can think of much better ways to spend a few hundred dollars.  

[Abercrombie2019]

29 minutes ago, Newbiejawn said:

It was BOGO and I guess when the first one got cancelled they upcharged me for the second excursion. And they never let me know the first excursion got canceled either. Just the worst!

I think that others have pointed out in a different thread that some of the excursion prices went up when the BOGO sale went into effect, and then went down again when it was over.

 

Most of the people here will tell you to take screenshots of pricing and terms & conditions so that you can refer to them later.

[arizonaperson]

@Newbiejawn I think you’ve been given quite a lot of information on how to proceed once you’re onboard and I hope everything works out for you. Yes totally disappointing when something that you’ve booked has gone awry, lots of good information for you that has been posted to do for an excursion .
Hope you make the best out of it and you see Newport or Halifax on your own or a tour you happen upon- just as an aside sometimes Newport, Rhode Island, because of the tendering/ wind  process has to be skipped, so not to throw another “wrench” into your itinerary/excursions ,but it can happen .

I do think because of the buy one get one free and or booking more than one excursion definitely made things a little bit more complex when one was canceled. Not as straightforward as booking when it’s not on sale .

Edited August 22 by arizonaperson