compensation if ship misses port ?

[cruisechickee]

As a first time cruiser I would like to know what Princess does for pax if it misses port/or is late and you have Princess shore excursions booked? Do they compensate the passengers?

[CruisinKiki]

I have been on sailings that missed ports due to weather. In this case, the cruiseline usually does not charge the port tax for that stop. Since you already paid it in your booking, it would be a credit to your onboard account. There is no compensation if you arrive late to a port. If excursions are cancelled, they do not charge you. If you are booking with independent excursion companies, you should check what their policy is if your ship is unable to port. That has happened to me a couple of times and the independents were always very nice to say that it wasn't the pax fault and they would not charge you.

[Globaliser]

Do they compensate the passengers?

Generally, there is no compensation as such. Port taxes (which are small amounts) are refunded because they're just not due if the ship doesn't call at the port, and Princess shore excursions not taken are not charged for.

 

But on any cruise, there is always a risk that any port may be skipped or curtailed. The cruise line does not guarantee that you will get anywhere except to the final port of disembarkation. Every cruise line makes this clear.

 

If you really need to get to a specific place, then an en route port of call on a cruise is not the way to do it.

[cruisechickee]

Thanks CruisinKiki and Globaliser, I just did not want to lose money on Princess shore excursions if booked and ship unable to make port. Good to know Princess does not charge for their shore excursions if unable to make port.

[bobsydney]

When a port is cancelled (as two were on our recent Sun Princess cruise to New Zealand), any shore tours booked through Princess are invariably refunded. Anything you book yourself is your problem. This (together with the fact that the ship will wait for Princess-organised shore tours to get back before leaving port) is why many passengers choose to book the generally overpriced Princess shore tours rather than to pre-book and pay for a private tour.

 

Similarly, when the ship arrives back late at the end of the cruise (as happened on our Sun Princess cruise), Princess will rearrange onward travel for passengers that it booked for, but those people who booked their own onward travel are left to do it themselves ... not easy to do at sea when maybe a 1,000 passengers are trying to use the ship's satellite phone service's 6 outgoing lines!!

 

There is generally no monetary compensation for missed ports. Our cruise was over 24 hours late departing Sydney (due to need for urgent repairs) and then because of bad weather, we missed 2 ports and arrived back in Sydney over 8 hours late, and what compensation did we get .... a glass of champagne as we docked, and a letter offering a 50% discount off our next cruise ... but only off the brochure price!!

 

Cheers

Bob

[cruisechickee]

When a port is cancelled (as two were on our recent Sun Princess cruise to New Zealand), any shore tours booked through Princess are invariably refunded.

There is generally no monetary compensation for missed ports. Our cruise was over 24 hours late departing Sydney (due to need for urgent repairs) and then because of bad weather, we missed 2 ports and arrived back in Sydney over 8 hours late, and what compensation did we get .... a glass of champagne as we docked, and a letter offering a 50% discount off our next cruise ... but only off the brochure price!!

 

Cheers

Bob

Seems like there are definite advantages booking Princess shore excursions. Wow, that is unbelievable that you had to wait 24 hours and on top of that miss 2 ports, with very little compensation! Sorry to hear...

GB