Royal Princess Misses April 30 Disembarkation in LeHavre

We had the "standard" insurance coverage sold by Princess.

Did they cover under trip delay (capped at $1500) or some other aspect of the policy?

Did they cover under trip delay (capped at $1500) or some other aspect of the policy?

I filed under "trip interruption." In the email to me AON also refers to "trip interruption." I have not yet seen their official letter, which will be mailed to my home address later this week.

Oh, and I should add, that the moral to this story is to always buy trip insurance. I hate the extra expense after spending so much money on the cruise itself, plus all the extras. But my TA always talks me into the insurance, so from now on, I won't hesitate.

I filed under "trip interruption." In the email to me AON also refers to "trip interruption." I have not yet seen their official letter, which will be mailed to my home address later this week.

 

Oh, and I should add, that the moral to this story is to always buy trip insurance. I hate the extra expense after spending so much money on the cruise itself, plus all the extras. But my TA always talks me into the insurance, so from now on, I won't hesitate.

Agree, but not for such as this. The saved premium from 2 or 3 trips would

have likely paid for this.

It's the low probability, cripplingly high-cost stuff such as medical evacuation

(up to $50k from Europe, more if you need an accompanying nurse; double

that from Japan; and don't ask about from Antarctica :o) that make having

good trip insurance a no-brainer.

I hope someone who sent a letter to Princess with documentation of their out of pocket expenses to get from LaHavre to Southampton requesting reimbursement comes back here to report the answer!

 

 

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Well, that would be me.

I was specifically told by Princess Customer Relations 3 weeks ago to submit a letter to them, and that an insurance claim would not be necessary as Post Cruise was fully aware of what happened on this cruise and would be handling all reimbursements. So that's what I did.

A very long, very detailed letter that clearly conveyed the pandemonium, chaos and incompetence of how the ship's staff handled the matter post-announcement with 7 attachments of receipts for expenses we incurred, and the 2 days of misery, exhaustion and stress we endured trying to get to Paris.

A week after I submitted the letter, I received a call from the person in Post-Cruise handling this cruise who confirmed that they received my letter, are working on it in corporate (coordinating with insurance), and that she would get back to me in about 2 weeks.

She called me back tonight and asked if I have filed my insurance claim yet. Are you frigging kidding me? Her department had specifically told me not to file one... At any rate, that's what they now want me to do in order to recover my $370 in out-of-pocket expenses (including non-refundable unused train tickets from Le Havre to Paris and one of our three hotel nights in Paris because Princess did not get us to Paris until May 1st).

Most notably, according to the Post-Cruise rep, Princess corporate has decided that it is NOT going to be providing ANY other compensation for the actions/inactions of, and/or representations/misrepresentations by, the ship's crew in their handling of the port diversion. Surprise. What else is new?

So there you have it. After losing 3 weeks' time needlessly, tonight I filed our insurance claim with AON for Trip Interruption.

By the way, other ships, including a cruise ship, did port in Le Havre on the 30th. No storms that night. No high seas; in fact, calmer than many of our other days & nights. Whole thing was very fishy.

I can see why they have the comment about not being responsible for costs incurred due to a change of port for weather.

 

However I am extremely surprised and dismayed by Princess's actions in this case. There was no extreme weather event that closed the port. Just wind level that the Captain viewed as being too high to safely enter the port.

 

There were only 300 passengers embarking or disembarking. There were ferries that could get the passengers from/to La Havre at low cost. Together with buses to from the ferry terminal it would have cost Princess less that $30,000 to ferry and bus all 300 to the ship.

 

I currently have 4 cruises booked with Princess over the next 12 months. I have decided to cancel 2 of them. When I cancel them, two different calls, I am going to give the reason as the treatment of the passengers due to board in La Havre.

 

I would encourage someone that was actually impacted to contact the travel press and see if this incident, that has not gotten any attention, can get a little more visibility placed upon it.

We have about 10 cruises booked with them. Plan to cancel all but one: the Sky's maiden TA that we are taking with lots of friends.

Well, that would be me.

I was specifically told by Princess Customer Relations 3 weeks ago to submit a letter to them, and that an insurance claim would not be necessary as Post Cruise was fully aware of what happened on this cruise and would be handling all reimbursements. So that's what I did.

A very long, very detailed letter that clearly conveyed the pandemonium, chaos and incompetence of how the ship's staff handled the matter post-announcement with 7 attachments of receipts for expenses we incurred, and the 2 days of misery, exhaustion and stress we endured trying to get to Paris.

A week after I submitted the letter, I received a call from the person in Post-Cruise handling this cruise who confirmed that they received my letter, are working on it in corporate (coordinating with insurance), and that she would get back to me in about 2 weeks.

She called me back tonight and asked if I have filed my insurance claim yet. Are you frigging kidding me? Her department had specifically told me not to file one... At any rate, that's what they now want me to do in order to recover my $370 in out-of-pocket expenses (including non-refundable unused train tickets from Le Havre to Paris and one of our three hotel nights in Paris because Princess did not get us to Paris until May 1st).

Most notably, according to the Post-Cruise rep, Princess corporate has decided that it is NOT going to be providing ANY other compensation for the actions/inactions of, and/or representations/misrepresentations by, the ship's crew in their handling of the port diversion. Surprise. What else is new?

So there you have it. After losing 3 weeks' time needlessly, tonight I filed our insurance claim with AON for Trip Interruption.

By the way, other ships, including a cruise ship, did port in Le Havre on the 30th. No storms that night. No high seas; in fact, calmer than many of our other days & nights. Whole thing was very fishy.

The fact that they decided the night before that the weather was going to be too bad, and did not even make the decision based upon actual weather at the time they were scheduled to enter is distressing.

Will be interesting to see how the insurance handles the claim for those items that were technically after your cruise and outside of the Princess insurance coverage window. Please report back and let's us know.

By the way, other ships, including a cruise ship, did port in Le Havre on the 30th. No storms that night. No high seas; in fact, calmer than many of our other days & nights. Whole thing was very fishy.

Seems to me a case could be made that the reason wasn't really weather but rather than their captain lacked the needed competence to handle weather conditions that did not cause problems for other ships. When the reason is your employees aren't competent to do the job, that's not force majeure.

In the old days, if the weather was up, you called in tugs to assist. Now it seems if the weather is bad, it's easier to skip the port rather than call for tugs.

Seems to me a case could be made that the reason wasn't really weather but rather than their captain lacked the needed competence to handle weather conditions that did not cause problems for other ships. When the reason is your employees aren't competent to do the job, that's not force majeure.

 

In the old days, if the weather was up, you called in tugs to assist. Now it seems if the weather is bad, it's easier to skip the port rather than call for tugs.

Would be interesting if someone that had purchased under UK (doubtful) or EU (possibly) had been negatively impacted and filed a claim under their consumer protection laws to see if the weather force majeure claim would hold up to review by an independent authority.

Tothemall: You story just gets worse and worse. I found your comments about April 30 LeHavre weather and the ability of another cruise ship to dock there very interesting and fishy indeed!

I'm very hopeful that you will get a full insurance claim paid. We did with no questions asked.

I see that you are a regular Princess customer. We are not, and this was only our second time on Princess. Interesting that you have cancelled a bunch of future Princess trips. I am still open to traveling Princess, but my DH has sworn never again. I think he was more stressed and angry than I was...and I was the one who volunteered to navigate the chaos at Passenger Services on the night of the 29th!

So we are exploring options for a crossing to get to Europe in Spring, 2019. Of course Princess has a repositioning available, but we won't even consider it. And it has a planned disembarkation in LeHavre!

The fact that they decided the night before that the weather was going to be too bad, and did not even make the decision based upon actual weather at the time they were scheduled to enter is distressing.

 

Will be interesting to see how the insurance handles the claim for those items that were technically after your cruise and outside of the Princess insurance coverage window. Please report back and let's us know.

The expenses weren't "technically after our cruise" because we had Princess Air to fly home from Paris on May 3rd, so insurance extends to that time and whole trip is covered.

Tothemall: You story just gets worse and worse. I found your comments about April 30 LeHavre weather and the ability of another cruise ship to dock there very interesting and fishy indeed!

 

I'm very hopeful that you will get a full insurance claim paid. We did with no questions asked.

 

I see that you are a regular Princess customer. We are not, and this was only our second time on Princess. Interesting that you have cancelled a bunch of future Princess trips. I am still open to traveling Princess, but my DH has sworn never again. I think he was more stressed and angry than I was...and I was the one who volunteered to navigate the chaos at Passenger Services on the night of the 29th!

 

So we are exploring options for a crossing to get to Europe in Spring, 2019. Of course Princess has a repositioning available, but we won't even consider it. And it has a planned disembarkation in LeHavre!

We have not cancelled those cruises - yet. But many (most) will get cancelled. With separate calls where each rep has to hear the reason.

OK - for those of you who may be interested in details of what it was like to endure this experience, here is a copy of the very long, very detailed, letter we sent to Customer Relations 3 weeks ago. If you have not seen my previous posts, Princess has now asked us to file a claim with AON and has refused to issue any other compensation other than a Specialty Restaurant voucher. BFD.

To Whom It May Concern:

We have just returned from the above-referenced April 16, 2018 Transatlantic Cruise on the Royal Princess. We are among the passengers who were adversely affected by the ship missing its port call in Le Havre.We called Princess Customer Relations yesterday and were advised by Kelly to submit this letter, and that an insurance claim would not be necessary as PostCruise was fully aware of what happened on this cruise and would be handling all reimbursements.

I am, accordingly, writing this letter to request reimbursement for the expenses we incurred as a result of the missed port, as well as additional compensation for the extremely unprofessional and poor manner in which the matter was handled by both ship’s personnel and Princess staff shoreside, especially the Princess Air Department.

We thank you in advance for your careful attention to the matters addressed in this admittedly very long letter. We felt that it was important for you to be given detailed facts, and not just generalized complaints and demands for reimbursement, in order for you to fully comprehend both the level of incompetence on Princess’s part and the extreme frustration and inconvenience we were forced to suffer as a result of that incompetence.

Booking Background.

We originally booked this cruise in November 2016 as a 15-night cruise to Southampton. Our booking included Platinum Princess VacationProtection. In September 2017, we were granted a Route Sector DeviationApproval to disembark in Le Havre. We then booked Princess EZ Air (Restricted)for a flight home on Norwegian Air from Paris to Fort Lauderdale on May 3,2018.

Initial Notification andHandling of Diverted Itinerary.

The Captain’s announcement that we would not be making our port call in Le Havre was made at approximately 9:15 pm on Sunday,April 29, 2018 (the night prior to our scheduled disembarkation). When we returned to our stateroom a few minutes later, there was a letter in our mailbox explaining that guests with Princess Air (like us) would have their flights re-booked at Princess’s expense, and that those, again like us, planning to remain in Paris post-cruise would be flown to Paris at Princess’s expense. The letter further provided that all guests would be provided with complimentary transfers, and that specific information would be provided the next morning. (A copy of the letter is attached.)

At this point, I met with the Front DeskSupervisor, Dinesh Kamaran, who assured me that we would have our flight information by 9:00 am the next morning, and that, because we had Princess Air and Platinum Princess Vacation Protection, ALL expenses incurred as a result of the port diversion would be covered by Princess, including our non-refundable train tickets from Le Havre to Paris and our missed hotel night(s) in Paris.

Morning of Day OnePost-Announcement – Trying to Get a Flight.

The next morning, we presented ourselves to theUK Immigration authorities on board at 8:00 am, as the letter from the previous night directed. While in line, we learned that other passengers had already received second letters with their flight information. But we had not received any such letter or further information.

Accordingly, after the immigration check, we went straight back to the front desk to inquire about our flight status. It was complete pandemonium at the front desk, where instead of having dedicated lines for the affected Le Havre disembarking passengers, we had to wait in line with people who were buying British Pounds, disputing charges, etc.

We spoke with Sheila, the onboard CustomerRelations Manager. Sheila told us that the reason we did not receive any flight information was because we did not have Princess Air. WRONG! I replied that we indeed did have Princess Air, but she insisted that she could not find it in the system. In order to prove it to her, I went up to our cabin and retrieved a print-out of our Travel Summary which clearly showed that we had Princess EZAir from Paris to Fort Lauderdale.

Sheila then said that she would contact Princess shoreside and “work on it”. By now, more than 12 hours had elapsed, we still did not have any air arrangements, and most, if not all, of the good flights toParis were likely full. We knew at least one of our planned nights and two planned days in Paris would be lost.

We went to play morning trivia, get some breakfast, and then went back to our cabin to see if our second letter with flight information had arrived. It had not. So, at approximately 11:00 am, we returned to the front desk (still complete pandemonium there) to ascertain fromSheila the status of obtaining our flight. This time, we were told by her that we would not receive air arrangements from Princess because “we were not harmed by the diversion to Southampton as we were booked to Southampton”. WRONG AGAIN! We were booked to Southampton with a pre-approved Route Sector Deviation to disembark in Le Havre. In fact, my cruise card, which Sheila could have checked, even had an end date of April30, 2018 – the day we would have arrived in Le Havre. (This actually proved to be very problematic for us when trying to going into Southampton on April 30and then again, when trying to disembark on May 1.)

At this point, our meeting with Sheila was joined by another Passenger Relations officer, Amit, who verified that we indeed had a pre-approved Route Sector Deviation to disembark in Le Havre. Sheila then disengaged from the conversation and left us to talk with Amit.

We knew that people were receiving flights that got them into Paris as late as midnight that night, and because it was already past 11:00 am, we suggested to Amit, as an alternative, an early morning non-stop/direct flight to Paris the next day. Amit agreed that this plan would work because our cabin would not be needed for other guests as we were booked through to Southampton for all 15 nights, but with a Route Sector Deviation to disembark in Le Havre.

Amit further informed us that because no transfers would be available to Heathrow at that early hour the next day, we would have to lay out/advance the taxi fare (about 150 British Pounds), but that we would be reimbursed by Princess for all of it. We agreed to those terms, and asked Amit if we could go ashore in Southampton for a few hours while he obtained our air reservations. Amit said that would be perfect and that when we returned, our air arrangements would be confirmed via a letter in our cabin mailbox.

Afternoon of Day OnePost-Announcement – Still Trying to Get a Flight.

Per our discussion and agreement with Amit, we took the Princess shuttle from the ship to WestQuay Mall in Southampton. We spent approximately 2 hours ashore and then returned to the ship expecting to find our air information in our cabin mailbox. It still was not there, but, realizing the staff may have needed a little more time, we went to have lunch and waited until approximately 3:00 pm. Having still not received any flight information, we returned to the front desk where, this time, we once again met with Dinesh Kamaran.

Dinesh went into his office behind the PassengerServices Desk and came back with our flight information: a 3:05 pm (not early morning as discussed and agreed upon) flight on a FlyBe Airlines prop plane from Southampton that would have us first arriving in Paris at 5:30 pm the following evening.

We told Dinesh that this was not what Amit had told us he would do for us. Dinesh responded that he would work on it and would get back to us. He also told us that he would have to move us to another cabin for the night, which we did not understand since the cabin was ostensibly booked for all 15 nights, albeit with a Route Sector Deviation, all as acknowledged earlier by Amit. We returned to our cabin to await word from Dinesh on the new flight arrangements and the cabin change.

Evening of Day OnePost-Announcement – Clarifying Travel Arrangements.

Three hours later, at 6:00 pm, (and now a full 21hours since the Captain’s announcement of the port diversion), Dinesh called to tell us that the 3:05 pm prop plane from Southampton was the best that Princess could do. He said he would send a printed copy of the flight information to our cabin, with an “official Princess stamp” on it. He also said he would get back to us with information on how Princess would transfer us to the airport. We told him we were not pleased with how everything had been handled (or more precisely, mishandled).

Indeed, we were in total shock and very angry that these were the flight arrangements that had been made, knowing full well that they were solely the result of Princess staff both onboard and shoreside screwing up in initially neglecting to get us a flight, and then not effectively communicating and working with each other to do their best on our behalf as loyal passengers to resolve it.

We then asked about the cabin change, to which Dinesh responded that of course we could stay in our cabin. We had waited for 3hours – in our bathrobes – because everything was packed while we waited for word on the cabin change he had previously told us we’d have to make.

In the interim, we had gone online to the FlyBeAirlines site in order to check-in to the flight and confirm our baggage allowances. It was at this point that we learned that FlyBe had a flight fromSouthampton to Paris departing at 6:30 in the morning, and wondered whether Princess had even tried to get us on that flight.

We were not able to check-in to our flight without first paying for seat selection and baggage. We therefore strongly suspected that, incredibly, Princess had not included baggage in the purchase of our tickets.

We also learned at that time of the very strict baggage allowances of this particular airline. Having packed for train travel and for Norwegian Air’s generous 2 bag per person baggage allowance (which is twice that of what was allowed by FlyBe), we began dumping weight by literally throwing out into the trash items such as shoes, clothing, a brand new travel hairdryer, hairbrushes and numerous toiletries.

So, once again, we went down to the chaos of the front desk to find Dinesh in order to confirm that baggage was included with our air arrangements. Dinesh assured us (“100%’) that baggage would be included. This was again confirmed the next morning by Passenger Services representative Ajay who stated that “Princess knows that no one takes a cruise without baggage, so it would always be included in flight arrangements”.

Meanwhile, we still awaited word from Dinesh on how Princess would transfer us to the airport.

At approximately 9:00 pm (24 hours after theCaptain’s announcement and 9 hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive in Paris by SNCF train), and having still not heard anything, my husband once more returned to the front desk to speak with Dinesh. Dinesh advised my husband that we would have to take a taxi and lay out the fare which would only be about 10-15 British Pounds which (not having planned on being in the UK and not having any British Pounds) we could pay with a credit card, and for which we would be reimbursed by Princess. Dinesh reiterated that we should keep all receipts for all expenses incurred as a result of the port diversion, so that we could be reimbursed.

We then discovered, at about 10:30 pm, that Dinesh had issued us NON-refundable onboard credits in the amount of $19 USD per person in lieu of cab fare. Because the OBC’s were NON-refundable, and we were in port so there was nowhere to spend the money (casinos and shops were closed), back to the front desk went my husband. Dinesh said we should buy a bottle of wine or some drinks with the money. With all the aggravation and stress of the prior 25 hours, alcohol was the last thing we wanted. In addition, it wouldn’t compensate us for the cost of the cab. So Dinesh told him to return at 7:00 am the next morning and he would try to work something out. We went to bed.

Morning of Day TwoPost-Announcement – Princess Again Drops the Ball.

As directed by Dinesh the previous evening, at 7:00am the next morning (now 34 hours after the Captain’s announcement of the diversion to Southampton) my husband went back to Passenger Services to speak with Dinesh about travel to the airport and the useless onboard credits. Dinesh stated that he can only issue non-refundable onboard credits. He reiterated that we should just keep our receipt for the cab fare (which he still claimed would be about 10-15 British Pounds) and use the onboard credits to buy photos since the Photo Gallery was opened. There were a few photos which we had previously decided to not purchase, but rather than leaving the money onboard and totally useless, we purchased them, still, however, leaving $6 unspent on board. We did not want nor need the photos, so do not consider them to be compensation for our cab fare.

We disembarked the ship at approximately 9:30 am and took a cab to the airport. The fare that all the cabs were asking was 25British Pounds, not 10-15 as Dinesh had told us. Also, contrary to what Dinesh had told us, the taxi would not accept a credit card but agreed to accept payment in euros or US dollars. We paid the 25 British Pound cab fare in USD which we paid in the amount of $40 USD. (A copy of the receipt is attached.)

Morning of Day TwoPost-Announcement – Extra Expenses andLoss of Paris Time.

We had to spend 6 hours sitting in the tinySouthampton Airport terminal. When we checked-in to our flight, we discovered that, despite Dinesh and Ajay’s assurances to the contrary, Princess had NOT included any baggage as part of our booking. Luckily, the airline representative read the notes on the booking, and in an act of kindness, decided to waive the 40 British Pounds per bag charge to check our luggage.

We incurred some food and beverage costs USD during our long 6 hour “layover” at the airport. (A copy of the receipts is attached.)We also incurred a large unplanned cab fare from CDG airport to our hotel inParis at the rate of 55.40 euros, which was charged on our credit card at the converted rate of $66.97 USD. (A copy of the receipt is attached.)

We finally arrived at our hotel at approximately7pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2018, a full 30 hours later than we were scheduled to arrive, and for which we had non-refundable train and hotel expenses. Our train fare was 15 euros per person, which was charged to our credit card at the converted rate of $18.78 USD per person. (Copies of our unused train tickets are attached.) We still had to pay for our unused first hotel night as theCaptain’s announcement was made after the cancellation/modification window had closed earlier in the day. The amount paid for our unused hotel room was$135.22 USD. (A copy of the invoice/paid receipt is attached.)

We have attached copies of receipts for all of the expenses incurred, as well as a spreadsheet identifying each expense and totaling the amounts due to us. We expect compensation IN FULL for ALL of these expenses and losses as promised to us repeatedly by both Dinesh and Amit.

We believe that, besides reimbursing us for all of the expenses we incurred as a result of the port diversion from Le Havre, Princess owes us significant additional compensation for the disorganized ,ill-prepared and incompetent manner in which the aftermath of the diversion toSouthampton was handled, which caused us undue levels of stress, exhaustion, and aggravation, not to mention the loss of half of our planned 4 days in Paris.

Finally, we must say that we, quite frankly, do not understand why Princess would not look for alternate solutions for our transport to France such as putting us on the Eurostar train from London toParis, or on the very ferry that returned from France on the evening of April30, with 200 passengers who were supposed to embark in Le Havre. It should not have taken the better part of 2 days to get us from London to Paris with so many options at Princess’s disposal. For this reason and all the others set forth above, we expect that Princess will do more for us than simply reimburse the expenses we incurred.

Sincerely,

**********

Wow, I can't believe this happened to you. Princess should be ashamed. I have sailed with them since I was a child and this isn't what they used to be. I am seriously rethinking the British Isles cruise that I have booked with them next summer that embarks/disembarks in Dublin instead of Southampton. I can't imagine having to deal with what you did if the ship can't dock in Dublin and we are treated like that. Simply unacceptable.

Please update what happens and how much you are paid back for your expenses. I also get the Princess Platinum insurance coverage but that didn't seem to help much in your case.

Reading the above post by tothemall&beyond and as I understand this poster's story, this is the first I've seen (unless I missed it earlier) that the ship, after skipping Le Havre, then arrived Southampton a day early and overnighted there. While it doesn't excuse Princess's inept handling of it, it does put a different spin on some of it.

I also note that tothemall&beyond referred to it as a missed port call. If I were writing such a letter, I would not say "port call", which to me implies a stop in the middle of the cruise, but would instead say "scheduled port of disembarkation" (or embarkation as the case may be). I'm still not convinced the people back at Princess HQ understand this was a scheduled (dis)embarkation port since it wasn't the primary port (I realized another way to tell what they consider to be the primary vs. alternate embarkation port is if the MDR is open for lunch but there's no afternoon tea, it's the primary embarkation port. If the MDR is closed for lunch but there is afternoon tea, it's an alternate embarkation port).

Reading the above post by tothemall&beyond and as I understand this poster's story, this is the first I've seen (unless I missed it earlier) that the ship, after skipping Le Havre, then arrived Southampton a day early and overnighted there. While it doesn't excuse Princess's inept handling of it, it does put a different spin on some of it.

 

 

I also note that tothemall&beyond referred to it as a missed port call. If I were writing such a letter, I would not say "port call", which to me implies a stop in the middle of the cruise, but would instead say "scheduled port of disembarkation" (or embarkation as the case may be). I'm still not convinced the people back at Princess HQ understand this was a scheduled (dis)embarkation port since it wasn't the primary port (I realized another way to tell what they consider to be the primary vs. alternate embarkation port is if the MDR is open for lunch but there's no afternoon tea, it's the primary embarkation port. If the MDR is closed for lunch but there is afternoon tea, it's an alternate embarkation port).

The previous posts of everyone affected by the diversion made it clear that the ship spent two days in Southampton when it diverted from Le Havre to Southampton. No different spin. For 600 pax (300 disembarking and 300 embarking) Le Havre was an alternate embarkation/disembarkation port. Still correct to entitle it a port call. But Princess did sell the TA in both a 14 night and 15 night version, and the following British Isles cruise with an embarkation port of either Le Havre or Southampton. Most of the disembarking passengers had plans to go to Paris, not London. Princess is/was fully aware of the difference.

Tothemall: Thanks for sharing your long letter. Wow! Your story makes ours (frantically trying to buy our own Heathrow to CDG tickets on the night of 4/29 with little help from Princess - the words, "You are own your own," are still ringing in my ears) seem brief and almost acceptable.

I firmly believe that you will receive full reimbursement from insurance.

A voucher for a specialty restaurant? How generous! At this point I would expect no more than a discount on a pina colada.

The previous posts of everyone affected by the diversion made it clear that the ship spent two days in Southampton when it diverted from Le Havre to Southampton. No different spin. For 600 pax (300 disembarking and 300 embarking) Le Havre was an alternate embarkation/disembarkation port. Still correct to entitle it a port call. But Princess did sell the TA in both a 14 night and 15 night version, and the following British Isles cruise with an embarkation port of either Le Havre or Southampton. Most of the disembarking passengers had plans to go to Paris, not London. Princess is/was fully aware of the difference.

Your story reinforces my practice of never booking air through Princess. I would much rather be on my own than to let them handle an unexpected travel situation.

 

We spoke with Sheila, the onboard CustomerRelations Manager. Sheila told us that the reason we did not receive any flight information was because we did not have Princess Air.

Frankly, I do not see for your situation whether or not you had Princess air mattered.

Only if you were going to miss your flight home because of the missed port would that matter. Since you could still make (and I assume you did) your EZAir flight from Paris, it should have been a non-issue.

The issue is that they were committed to get you to France. By air. By boat. By train. whatever. And having or not having EZAir is irrelevant.

Frankly, I do not see for your situation whether or not you had Princess air mattered.

 

 

Only if you were going to miss your flight home because of the missed port would that matter. Since you could still make (and I assume you did) your EZAir flight from Paris, it should have been a non-issue.

 

The issue is that they were committed to get you to France. By air. By boat. By train. whatever. And having or not having EZAir is irrelevant.

The issue is that Princess only provided help to those with EZair. The rest were totally on their own. Apparently they only sent those with EZair to France by air.

The more I read the "passage contract", it becomes apparent that Princess actually promises to do almost nothing. And while I am not a lawyer, I've had enough familiarity with contracts to know that one that is one-sided (e.g. you promise to pay money while the other party promises to maybe do something) can be held to be non-enforceable.

In the passage contract, it says:

"If, and only when, the cancellation or change was for reasons other than described in the preceding paragraph, and was within the exclusive control of Carrier, You agree the liability of the Carrier, if any, shall nonetheless be limited as follows:

• ...
  
• © If the scheduled port of embarkation or disembarkation as specified in the passage ticket is changed, Carrier shall arrange transportation to it from the originally scheduled port."
  

So what is exclusive control of Carrier in this case? Princess seems to be claiming that it was weather (wind) and outside their control but as others have posted other ships were making it in and out of Le Havre and that Princess made the decision 12 hours in advance (the night before), I think a case can be made that it was within their control. The port was not closed and it does not appear the port authority or any other governmental agency said they couldn't come into the port. The captain and/or Princess decided, well in advance, that the weather was more than they wanted to deal with even though it was OK weather for other ships. That to me means the decision could be considered in their exclusive control. There's always weather of some sort - was this decision what a typical captain would decide or did Princess make a very different decision? To put out an absurd example, what if the captain had said "winds are expected to be one knot - that's too much for me". I think everyone would agree that's not a reasonable decision. Where do you draw that line?

Imagine if you were booked on an airline flight and showed up at the airport to board only to be told the plane is at an airport 100 miles away (you're on Maui and the plane is over at Honolulu across water to make it similar to Le Havre vs. Southampton) and you're on your own to get to it. And no refunds if you don't. I can tell you that just won't fly (pun intended) in the U.S. as that flight is legally considered cancelled with a right of refund or reaccommodation (retired from 25+ years with an airline where I was involved with operational reporting for some of it and occasionally helping Customer Relations with figuring out why a flight was really delayed or cancelled so a proper controllable or uncontrollable (weather) decision could be made - example being a flight is delayed four hours for a controllable reason, then weather moves in and it's cancelled but the root cause was the controllable delay which had it not happened, the flight would not have cancelled).

Anecdotal data is rarely useful for statistically valid conclusions but between this and our experience on Regal's TA last September, it seems maybe Princess captains are becoming extremely conservative in their port/don't port decisions.

Frankly, I do not see for your situation whether or not you had Princess air mattered.

 

 

Only if you were going to miss your flight home because of the missed port would that matter. Since you could still make (and I assume you did) your EZAir flight from Paris, it should have been a non-issue.

 

The issue is that they were committed to get you to France. By air. By boat. By train. whatever. And having or not having EZAir is irrelevant.

The point I was making is that, even with easier, princess was trying to deny us Transportation. I had to prove to them that I had the easier. I shouldn't have had to do that. And I shouldn't have lost two full days in Paris because of their incompetence.

The point I was making is that, even with easier, princess was trying to deny us Transportation. I had to prove to them that I had the easier. I shouldn't have had to do that. And I shouldn't have lost two full days in Paris because of their incompetence.

Except you were in a different situation than the rest of the people who booked their cruise to end in Le Havre:

"In September 2017, we were granted a Route Sector DeviationApproval to disembark in Le Havre."

When you're approved for a Route Sector Deviation, they tell you straight out on the confirmation that if for some reason you miss the port where you're schedued to leave, you're completely responsible for your own arrangements and Princess has no liability.

While I do appreciate the discussion of contracts and legal liability (thank you everyone for that), I fear that what is getting lost here is a concern for customer service. This was only our second time on Princess, and maybe those with more experience had lower expectations than me. But when things went wrong, as they sometimes do in travel, I do expect to receive some assistance. I received almost nothing. And I see from the postings here that one passenger boarding in LeHavre received no assistance, and poor Tothemall received inaccurate service that wasted precious holiday time. When I have experienced meltdowns with the major airlines such as Delta and British, for whom I have no love, I have received way more assistance than I received from Princess.

So all right, we were not injured, we did make it to Paris, and I did get reimbursed for my additional expenses through insurance coverage. But I will always remember the lack of customer service. The words that I received at Passengers Services, "You are on your own," will continue to ring in my ears.

This sounds like a terrible situation. Even if this isn't Princess' legal responsibility, it was certainly their moral responsibility. And a small price to pay for 600 passengers' satisfaction.

This sounds like a terrible situation. Even if this isn't Princess' legal responsibility, it was certainly their moral responsibility. And a small price to pay for 600 passengers' satisfaction.

Totally agree.

I would be interested to know if any UK passengers were affected and if Princess treated them any differently (as per the UK passage contract). For Princess to treat passengers differently, because they can, seems very wrong to me.

Perhaps Princess should replace their ‘come back new’ strap line with ‘get there - possibly’ or ‘all passengers are equal, but some are more equal than others’. (Apologies to George Orwell).