Northeastcruiser007

Many thanks to you all for your helpful replies. Really appreciated.

Many thanks for taking the time to answer my query.

I'll soon be sailing on Iona with my family, in a four-berth cabin. I've read that P and O aren't doing the nightly turndown service. This would not normally bother me too much, but in a four-berth, will this mean the extra beds/bunks are permanently left out, even in daytime? I'd rather have them put away! Has anyone recent experience of this? Any information greatly appreciated. Thank you.🙂

They certainly didn't come through for us, even though we followed their guidance on timing. We ended up having to speak to Guest Services on board and eventually got the OBC halfway through the cruise. There used to be an efficient system in place. Shareholders were asked to apply 'at least X days in advance' of the cruise AND crucially, 'no more than Y days in advance'. This allowed them to focus on the applications in a timely manner. I've read reports now of people applying months in advance and getting OBC applied straight away, whilst others cruising sooner are being ignored. It wouldn't be rocket science for someone at Princess to sort this out and ensure everyone is dealt with fairly.

Very probably. But it really doesn't matter where anyone sends their emails as they are rarely answered. 😦

The irony is, that by not (for example) automatically acknowledging receipt, then giving a timescale for response etc, Princess simply get more and more follow-up emails and phonecalls from concerned or irritated customers. They are their own worst enemy.

We had applied in good time beforehand and sent reminders - all ignored. It was impossible to get through by phone to speak to the shareholder team as no one ever answered. We collated copies of all our ignored correspondence, and evidence of shares held, and took them to Guest Services on the ship. We eventually got the OBC applied, a few days later. If anyone is struggling to get a pre-cruise response I'd recommend going well-armed with your documents and ask Guest Services to sort it out immediately.

Glad you got home OK. Yes, we are from North East England. We had to pay for two rooms at the Premier Inn Southampton and were 'lucky' to be able to buy the last 4 available tickets on the only National Express coach to Newcastle on Sunday. Shockingly high fares and 12 hours sitting in cramped seats on a packed vehicle, to arrive home late on Sunday - drained, demoralised and fed up. We will be writing to Princess and will post any updates for anyone interested. Yes, I know from our pre-cruise experience they don't reply to emails or answer the phone, but they let many of their passengers down this time and they should take responsibility for that. If a similar farce had happened to airline passengers it would have been all over the UK media, but somehow cruise companies are managing to keep under the radar.

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.

we applied over a month ago for a sailing this weekend. I sent a follow up email and have had no reply. I have never experienced delays or difficulties before. We are also owed a lot of OBC linked to Future Cruise Deposits and my emails are being ignored. It is totally impossible to get through on the phone. We have tried for hours. It's a lot of money and we feel very stressed. I hope everyone gets their OBC on time. We certainly won't. 🤢