sunshine nana

I am the OP. I am not asking for any money. The $15 they gave me is a joke. What I want is to get on the cruise. I want Princess to tell the truth. If they have already sold cabins, the company that charters should honor those reservations. Those who have booked should be told up front that the cruise is chartered NOT canceled and that we can keep our cabin if we wish. This would be done BEFORE our cabin is sold to someone else.

Getting on the waitlist is not an option because we are traveling from the east coast and will need to purchase air ahead of time. Of course we are making alternate plans. My point is that Princess did not tell the truth when they said the cruise was canceled. It was not. They canceled our reservations and let online TA's sell our cabin to someone else. If they had told us that upfront, I would have rebooked through the new TA. I consider this a breach of faith by Princess. Be wary.

I found out today that another online TA that I have a credit card with was also selling the "canceled" cruise. It is now sold out. If only Princess had been honest in the first place with the charter instead of canceled, I probably could have rebooked a cabin. Be wary!

I did try to book with the TA and was told there were no more cabins available. Perhaps if Princess had told me this information at the time the cruise was chartered, I could have bought a cabin. They told my TA the cruise was canceled on Wednesday the 10th. I think they must have known way ahead of that date. I only found out through the nice folks on CC, but it was too late.

I agree the customer needs more protection. A cruise that is supposedly canceled should not be sailing but with other people who pushed aside those who had paid in good faith and paid for many other arrangements. For many reasons, we need to make all our plans months ahead. We cannot wait until the last 3 months to make sure Princess hasn't chartered our cruise.

This is an update to the supposed cancelation of the Grand out of Vancouver May 1st. I found out on CC that the cruise was not canceled, but chartered and the cabins were being resold on line by an online TA. A buyer did not have to belong to a special group to buy. I did not find this out until our cabin had been resold and most of the categories are waitlisted.

The details are on the thread about the Grand, but to update new readers, our TA was told by Princess that the cruise was canceled and would not give a reason. We were offered $30 or we could switch to another cruise. We have already booked a train trip and could not change the date to a day later.

If I had been told I could buy the cruise from the online TA, (for the same price by the way), I would have taken most any other cabin. Princess did not offer the correct information.

Be wary, Princess may cancel your reservation and let an online TA resell it.

I am writing this because CC is a great place to learn what can happen.

It's really too bad they can't accommodate those of us who booked in good faith months ago and made other plans around the cruise to go even if they have a large group going also. I am really disappointed and wary of booking another cruise which will involve overseas airline tickets, hotels and other travel connected with the cruise.

The main purpose of our going to Vancouver is the train trip, so we are still doing that.We never buy insurance until final payment. If we had known the Grand was not sailing, I could have changed the train date, but that is not possible now. I asked if it was being chartered and the Princess rep. could not say. Thanks for your concern. We left Princess several years ago to try Celebrity because the Ruby canceled Istanbul a month before departure. We were not on that cruise, but decided to go to Istanbul on Celebrity. We have loved all 5 of our Princess cruises, but I don't like this deal!

I just got a call from our TA that Princess has canceled the Grand's May 1st cruise r/t Vancouver. They are giving us whopping $30 for our trouble. We planned to fly to Vancouver from Toronto, take the cruise for 3 days and then board the train back to Toronto. We booked the dome sleeping car on the train several months ago to work with the cruise. The only good thing is we have not bought our plane tickets.

Princess did offer to let us take a longer cruise, but it won't work with the train. The train cannot be changed. I am very disappointed with Princess.

I am wondering what good insurance is when part or all of the river cruise is switched to a bus. I don't think insurance would pay in that instance unless the cruise were canceled prior to embarkation by the cruise line.

We have been looking at river cruises, but are wary of the river cruise for $1000 per night that turns into a bus trip. Our neighbors just returned from a Viking cruise in late August that was the first river cruise on Viking this year that spent the entire time on the river, not a bus. This was Amsterdam to Budapest. We have taken bus trips to see places that can't be seen on a cruise, but the price was much less than a river cruise. We are still looking!

Right after the stock market crash in 2008, we were able to upgrade for a small amount to an NCL suite a week before sailing. We met some who were upgraded at embarkation for free. In 2009, we got a fantastic deal from Princess and again in 2010 from NCL. Both of these were pre-embarkation. Those days are over! The US economy has improved and most lines are upselling pre-cruise if there are any suites left. The stories you hear about upgrading at the pier are from a few years ago.

Thanks for the quick reply. 10E is certainly worth it especially if it's a hot day. We walked the walls the last time and it was so hot, we didn't do the rest of the city, so we want to this time.

Thanks for the great review. Do you remember what the taxi in Dubrovnik cost? DH likes to know ahead of time if it's reasonable. Thanks

I should have said cynbar was the exception for fellow passengers on NCL. They were great! I would try it again if the price were comparable to Celebrity or a mini-suite on Princess.

We loved our aft suite on NCL for the extra space and large balcony and mostly for breakfast and lunch in Cagneys, BUT we had really poor service both sailings from the concierge and butlers. Also, the MDR service went downhill each time and the last cruise, we ended up in the buffet most dinners.

We tried an S1 on Celebrity and were hooked. The service, atmosphere and other passengers was much better than NCL. We ate breakfast and dinner in Blu or in a specialty restaurant and loved the food and service. We had a wonderful butler who brought us whatever meals and snacks we wanted. He even hung up clothes!

We would give NCL a try again, but every time we priced a cruise with NCL and Celebrity, Celebrity always comes out better! I think NCL is pricing themselves out of the suite market compared to Celebrity.

Our cruises are port intensive in Europe. It may be different for Bermuda.

We have booked the British cruise for next summer and want to disembark at Le Harve and visit Paris for a few days before taking the chunnel back to Heathrow to fly home. Princess says we will be allowed to disembark. We are wondering how to get from LeHarve to Paris. Should be book an excursion, are there taxis or should be pre-book a private transfer. Thanks for any info.

Thanks for the replies. We have an aft balcony booked on the Grand and a window suite is an extra $100. If we won't get the specialty dinner, then it's probably not worth it to us. I don't think there would be time for free laundry and I don't mind doing it myself. Also, we only drink wine, so the mini-bar would not be a help. Trading the balcony for the extra space with only three days probably is not a good trade for us. It would be different on a TA or New England cruise.

Ask questions before sitting down and ordering at a restaurant. Is there an extra charge for water? bread? service charge? sitting down? music? Be clear before you order.

After 9 Celebrity, Princess and NCL cruises, I am sooo happy I found the river cruises thread on CC before I spent twice the price of a wonderful mini or full suite for a bus trip sold as a "river cruise" Thank-you CC

We are considering a WS for a 3 night Pacific Coast cruise in early May. We are wondering if a 3 night cruise would include the mini bar set up, free laundry and a free specialty meal? Thanks

Thanks notamermaid for the train info. I am starting to do the research. I think the trip will be put off another year! The website is great. It is a lot more work than the bus trip or our usual ocean cruises, but it will be worth the work.

We took a WWII bus trip from Paris to Munich last summer as a bus was the only way we could have gotten to all the museums and points of interest including Bastogne. The hotels could not compare to the wonderful cabins with balconies we have had on all 9 of our ocean cruises in Europe, Alaska, Hawaii and the Panama Canal.

We decided to try a river cruise next year to see Prague, Vienna, and Budapest thinking it would be nicer than a bus trip. After reading this thread, I'm thinking another bus trip or a train tour would be much better and certainly less expensive than a river cruise that turns into a bus trip!

I just found this thread and have questions about the "high speed" train from Munich to Prague. DH would love to do this. How far ahead do we need to get tickets? Would the Rail Pass work? Do the cars have compartments where we can have our luggage overhead? I have heard that you have to watch luggage all the time to keep it from being stolen on some trains. Thanks.

We are looking at the same cruise on AMA and are thinking of doing Prague on our own. We want to visit Nuremberg and it seems we could do that and still board the boat. We are also considering flying into Paris and spending a few days there before taking the train to Prague. Did you meet anyone who took the train into Prague? Did you pass Nuremberg but not stop? Also, where did the boat dock in Vienna? Was it close to town? Thanks.