Our family of four have disembarked today. We missed our onward travel and have now had to book a hotel and new onward travel tomorrow, at very considerable cost.
In my view, Princess have been dishonest. They implied on board that the closing of the shipping channel, as a result of the Isle of Wight yacht race today, was a surprise to them. Guest Services staff were blaming the yacht race.
This really is not honest. This is an annual event. Five years ago we did the exact same cruise and the ship left Bergen early to dock on time, to beat the shipping lane closure.
This year Princess would know the lane would close, as usual, and even confirmed this when we phoned them weeks ago. They said the ship had been scheduled to accommodate this.
If they had mechanical problems and feared they might miss the window of opportunity they should have been more cautious on their return journey and not assumed they could make up the time. There had been no mention of engine trouble in recent days and the ship appeared to be proceeding at a normal speed.
I don't see why my insurers should have to bear the cost of this. Princess are presumably blaming the yacht race to avoid passengers asking them to cover their costs.
I do hope everyone adversely affected by this has managed to make alternative arrangements to get home safely. It has been a very stressful day.
I have nothing but praise for the hardworking bar staff, waiters and cabin stewards who were wonderful, but Princess's management and admin leaves much to be desired.
Just for information, next year's yacht race date is readily available through an on line search. Perhaps Princess could check it out.