Northeastcruiser007

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

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

No experience myself, but others have commented that the sofa beds or Pullman bunks are prepared by the stewards in the evening, for cabins with 3 or 4 guests.

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.🙂

13 hours ago, KKB said:

Bravo to Princess.

Cruising 1x/yr it never hit our radar to buy stock for the shareholders benefit.

But now that we are cruising much more frequently & stock prices are so low, went ahead & bought CCL & NCL. 

But I didn't get all the paperwork squared away until early last week--less than 2 wks b4 sailing. 

I emailed both NCL & CCL Weds afternoon. (with a bit of piecemeal screenshots from Etrade to get them what they wanted)

NCL was in the account the next morning--impressive & unexpected.

Princess just hit our account today--got an updated email showing it!

They seem to have a 3 week turnaround but if you let them know you need it sooner, they may just come through!

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.

12 hours ago, bbtablet said:

are you sure that shouldn't be:

Guestrelationssuck@princesscruises.co.uk?

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

1 hour ago, Murray's Pop said:

Totally agree.  Many companies have a built in system that acknowledges when a customer email is received and provides an automatic response that the email was received.  That way a customer knows that the information was received by Princess. 

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.

On 6/26/2022 at 6:25 PM, Aulanis said:

I would agree with what you are saying, I assume from your  CC name you  are from Northumberland/ Durham. We are from  North West - Preston not  as far but found ourselves in a  similar position.
Daft as it might sound it was lucky there was a rail strike as we held advance  tickets which without the strike would have been useless and a total loss.

I anticipated most of the problems and sent this "chat"   

checked as we left the ship and it was not answered 15 hours  or so later.
I will be sending a complaint to Princess as otherwise they will not be doing  anything to improve.
  When the Captain first came on air regarding being an engine/generator short  and unable to reach full speed he seemed to suggest it was something that they  had no control over and thus we could not complain about it?
 OK it seems it is not an easy repair but  they could  have left Bergen hours  before rather than put almost everyone under some stress.  As well as delay the next cruise another 3000 unhappy pax.
 The ship being able to reach full speed  would also be important should an  emergency  or severe weather occur.  Wasnt that part of the problem with the  Virgin ship that floundered  off the Norwegian coast?  
   There was also the detour at Lofoten Islands  because the ship was TOO BIG to
go through the inside passage???  
 I cant see there being ANY excuse for that faux pas.

When we did get ashore at Southampton  our luck improved.  I had spent  an hour or two looking for a hotel  in Southampton or London  but prices  were crazy - travelodges that were not full were around £150  most were £200  I couldnt see Princess wanting to reimburse that.
Got the local  bus to the station and a train to Waterloo was sat in the station.  
They barely glanced at the tickets which were not for that time - .  Took the tube to Euston and  found the LAST Preston train had gone 30 minutes  before.   Spoke to a "helper" on the station and asked if we could go to Manchester  instead.  Reply was if you have a ticket you can  try to get home any train any route adding that that was the last train. Had hoped we could then do a short  hop to Preston  which is  normally served by 2 train companies but  they had none  running by the time  we would get there.
 Well hotels were cheaper  in Manchester so that seemed a plan,  On the train I thought to ring the taxi people we use from time to time and yes they would   send a car for us. £60 but still less than a hotel and we would actually get home. 
  Got off the train and taxi arrived 15 minutes later.  So got home around 7.30pm.
I am going to ask Princess if they will reimburse the taxi fare.   
 

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. 🤢

On Iona recently, instead of the Portunus Party, each person was given a voucher for ONE drink. This could be beer, cider, wine or a soft drink.

My husband asked for a beer flight (menu price £4.95) and was told no - the flights aren't included. He was allowed to have a pint of John Smith's (basically the same price).

We thought that was incredibly mean-spirited.

19 minutes ago, HikingPete said:

 

I am on Iona right now. Just about to arrive at Zeebrugge.

 

This morning the buffet was the standard breakfast stuff I think, just less of it. The room service options are definitely reduced and now have a delivery charge. No hot for available, just cereals, muffins, fruit. No compote.

 

Sindhu was excellent as always. I'll see about the MDR this evening. I'll try to remember to take a photo of the current Horizon later.

I've recently sailed on Iona. I recommend giving the Olive Grove a try. It is free (apart from a small number of dishes with an extra charge) and I thought it was better than the Beach House.

Have a good cruise!

On 10/29/2021 at 4:41 PM, Rupert2251 said:

Yes, very true.

Thank you for starting this thread.

Could I ask, where did the information you quoted in your original post, come from?

We have FCCs from 2020 and were delighted to read about the extension, but when we phoned P&O today they said this wasn't the case and the only longer timescale was for more recently cancelled cruises. The person we spoke to even went away to double check!

I don't want to just take take the person's word for it and so it would help to know your source! 

Many thanks. 😊

Could I ask... Was there a syndicate quiz in the evenings on Iona? Thank you to anyone who can answer! 

37 minutes ago, Rebel Rouser said:

Here is the link to the Covid tests from Marella:

 

https://www.chronomics.com/tuimarella

Thank you for posting the link.

Only passengers who have already booked can access the site to find out about the tests and costs.

I had the most frustrating live chat with Marella/Tui. I asked how much it would cost for testing for the specific cruise I was interested in and the response was, basically...  'anything between £20 and £90 depending on the cruise'. They could not or would not tell me, and said I would have to find out for myself by logging into the Chronomics website. When I pointed out that I did not have a booking number they then told me what I had already told them... that without a booking number I would not be able to log on to find out (!!!)

I'm grateful to posters on this forum who have helped by describing their own experience and giving advice. Passengers shouldn't have to rely on forums or social media to get basic cost information for their cruise, though! I still have not booked and I'm not sure I will. I'm an experienced cruiser and have never experienced such poor admin from a cruise line or agent in my life!

I agree it's a tough call for them, but with just a week to go to the cruise, I do think they could at least tell prospective customers of their general intention so that they can decide whether to shell out hundreds of pounds on a holiday. There are six ports on this cruise and they must have already made arrangements with the authorities in each of them.  Yes, there's always a chance that circumstances might change last minute, forcing them to alter their plans, but (for example) they must know now whether there are any local restrictions that will prevent them docking in a particular port and at the very least they could provide that information. Regarding mingling with local people in ports - this is happening now on excursions run by several cruise lines. Passengers haven't always been kept in the sterile bubbles some of those cruise lines would have us believe!

2 hours ago, LLOM said:

If you go on the Chronomics website via TUI you need to order the green package at £20 per person, this consists of a test to do onboard and the day 2 test after you get home Our travel agent told us that when on board we will be required to take another 2 tests which are provided free from TUI, our travel agent was very good in finding out what we needed and got in touch with us as soon as she was found out.

You can if you want to use another supplier for the tests but I believe they may be more expensive although I don’t know for sure. Hope this helps.

Many thanks for your speedy reply - it is much appreciated!

I hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise.

Thank you for posting your e-mail communication from Marella.

Could I ask which cruise it refers to?

We are hoping to book 30 August Coastal Charms on Explorer 2 out of Newcastle. Having done an excursion-only Marella cruise in July we are worried about booking another one unless we can get off in at least some of the ports.

I know the situation is ever-changing but Marella are very coy about their intentions! If anyone has any information on the likelihood of independent exploration in Dover, Portsmouth, Torquay, Liverpool or Belfast on Marella I'd really appreciate it! (I know Le Havre could be much more awkward.) Thank you all.

On 8/21/2021 at 11:47 AM, LLOM said:

Just ordered our tests @ £20 each from Chronomics on the TUI website, you need to order the green package which has  a Healgen Rapid Covid-19 self-test and a Covid-19 day 2 test , the TA rang to say we will be having 2 tests on the ship free of charge also, hopes this helps , it was pretty straightforward to order online.

Thank you very much to everyone who is posting information on this. We want to go on 30 August Marella Explorer 2 (which seems to be classed as an international cruise as it calls in at Le Havre?) and have just wasted a lot of time on the phone and then on live chat dealing with Marella staff who could not give us a clear answer about what the testing requirements and costs would be. They kept telling us to look on the website, there are lots of suppliers to use, it is up to us to sort it etc etc, whereas it seems from this thread that Chronomics should be used. Could we just be totally clear - does the £20 charge per passenger cover all the tests required (ie the ones to take with us on board and the day 2 PCR taken on return) or is it £40 per person (ie £20 for each of the two tests referred to)? Or have we misunderstood? Would really appreciate it if someone could let us know! Many thanks.