Grand Princess Late??

[hastied]

Looking on the webcam on the Grand & at Southampton harbour. Looks like the Grand is late in to Southampton. She should have arrived at 7.00am. Now nearly 1.00pm.

What happens in this case for people with flights etc?

Anyone experienced significant delay into final port before?

 

Just curious cheers

[spongerob]

The web cam appears to show the ship coming into Southampton but I'm not entirely positive since it's showing only a bit of shore right now. If the ship was delayed, it will be a zoo on board. We'll hear about it soon enough.

 

We personally haven't experienced any major delays, but it does occasionally happen due to weather or mechanical problems. It will be a huge headache for those who have to reschedule flights.

[Shogun]

Hi there,

 

You kind folk in the US keep sending us over the end of the hurricanes that you do not want, Scotland has being having some very bad rain, floods many feet deep,

 

months rain in a day etc, but also very strong winds so expect all cruise ships around UK having a bad time.

 

As to being late only had this once on a flight back from US, Princess

 

re booked on onward flights fom England, had folk at the airport to meet and guide us, a bus to get us to the terminal quicker, could not ask for more, but what was nice was we were told all of this while flying from US so we did not need to worry and could relax.

 

yours Shogun

[hastied]

The weather has been truly awful. If the Grand was round the British Isles then glad I was not on board. Here in Aberdeen the average Sept rainfall fell in a day on Thursday/Friday.

6 hours late....would imagine it will be chaos at Southampton!

[sidari]

Had a look on ship ais but for some reason the Southampton area is not showing up so not able to see if the Grand is actually moored or not yet! .... the Prinsendam has had a bad week of the weather around the UK this week too .... read about it here.... Rain all week here as well including today in the North West of the UK.

 

http://travel.sky.com/inspiration/blogs/Cruise-Diary;jsessionid=DE60A0B0632A1F20AF68EDED520AA51E

[Colo Cruiser]

[skf]

Hi there,

 

You kind folk in the US keep sending us over the end of the hurricanes that you do not want, Scotland has being having some very bad rain, floods many feet deep,

yours Shogun

 

No, Shogun, we send them to Nouvelle-Ecosse. If they come your way, blame your cousins in Halifax.

 

We have been delayed getting into New York, and once were a day early. If you booked their air Princess does get your flights rescheduled & will even put you up in a hotel & feed you. If you went independently they try to help, but I have no personal experience w/ this.

Steve

[cruiseGB]

Yes we were late. Force 10 in the North Sea. Started Thursday night and we had to slow to a snails pace. Were told Friday night we would be in Southampton at 4.30pm Saturday but we made better time when the winds subsided and docked at 1.30pm. The disembarkation was mayhem. My son and I wanted to get to see our local football club play at 3pm in Southampton, about half a mile from the dock. We ended up just walking off with no label stubs or cruise cards taken at about 2.50pm. We left the wife and daughter to get off with the cases. First time with Princess, we have done 6 cruises with P&O and will think twice before going with Princess again.

[snowman]

Oh boy, I smell smoke on this one!!

[Shogun]

Hi There,

 

Boarding at Southampton is great well organised plenty of space,

 

getting off at Southampton is no fun even on a good day, when there a few months ago, we landed up walking out of the docks to get a taxi, if not we could still be there waiting.

 

Just not enough space, not enough taxis, no shuttle bus to down town.

 

yours Shogun

[C2CMH]

Yes we were late. Force 10 in the North Sea. Started Thursday night and we had to slow to a snails pace. Were told Friday night we would be in Southampton at 4.30pm Saturday but we made better time when the winds subsided and docked at 1.30pm. The disembarkation was mayhem. My son and I wanted to get to see our local football club play at 3pm in Southampton, about half a mile from the dock. We ended up just walking off with no label stubs or cruise cards taken at about 2.50pm. We left the wife and daughter to get off with the cases. First time with Princess, we have done 6 cruises with P&O and will think twice before going with Princess again.

 

 

Hi, My sister was waiting to board in Southampton. Princess had them waiting at a Holiday Inn since they knew the ship was going to arrive late they had hospitality rooms away from the pier waiting for those on Princess transfers. Do you think the delay was Princess' fault? Did they mention if it would affect the itinerary for the next sailing?

Thanks

[cruiseGB]

Hi,

Wouldn't say it was Princess's fault as they can't control nature but I would say that the disembarkation wasn't handled well. We left the ship without seeing a bill as it wasn't delivered to our door. When we got to the front of the queue downstairs we found that the computer had crashed and we now have to contact Princess to get a copy. Just hope it is right. There was no mention about the next cruise, that we heard. To be honest our main concern, having only been in a force 8 before, was the Captain telling us he had slowed down so the ship would not be damaged. We had wondered what they would do about the next lot of passengers arriving in the port. I hope their embarkation was handled better, when it happened.

[C2CMH]

Hi,

Wouldn't say it was Princess's fault as they can't control nature but I would say that the disembarkation wasn't handled well. We left the ship without seeing a bill as it wasn't delivered to our door. When we got to the front of the queue downstairs we found that the computer had crashed and we now have to contact Princess to get a copy. Just hope it is right. There was no mention about the next cruise, that we heard. To be honest our main concern, having only been in a force 8 before, was the Captain telling us he had slowed down so the ship would not be damaged. We had wondered what they would do about the next lot of passengers arriving in the port. I hope their embarkation was handled better, when it happened.

 

 

Hi, Thanks for your reply. Those strong winds had to be pretty scary. Was the ship pitching quite a bit? How long did all that go on for? Were folks sick over the bad weather? I have not heard from them again so not sure about embarkation. If Princess was smart, maybe they checked them in at the hotel, since they knew who was there because of the Princess transfers.. just speculating since the turn around wasn't as late as we were thinking it could have been.

[coiran]

Yes we were late. Force 10 in the North Sea. Started Thursday night and we had to slow to a snails pace. Were told Friday night we would be in Southampton at 4.30pm Saturday but we made better time when the winds subsided and docked at 1.30pm. The disembarkation was mayhem. My son and I wanted to get to see our local football club play at 3pm in Southampton, about half a mile from the dock. We ended up just walking off with no label stubs or cruise cards taken at about 2.50pm. We left the wife and daughter to get off with the cases. First time with Princess, we have done 6 cruises with P&O and will think twice before going with Princess again.

 

 

And you are blaming Princess for the high winds,late arrival and passenger panic??? They will not miss you!

Ron

[Posaune]

At 6:20 PM EST the Grand was doing 21.6 knots out in the English Channel. (according to marinetraffic.com) They must have done a pretty quick turnaround.

[cruiseGB]

Hi coiran

If you read my posts you will see that I said I can't blame Princess for the wind. All I said was that the disembarkation was a mess. I am not stupid, I know nature controls the weather. As for panic. I am sorry my family found a force 10 and ship damage scary. We must just be yellow.

These are my first posts on here as I thought I could answer a few question on this thread. If this is what the answers are I will just leave and look for a friendly board. Having spent nearly £3000 for this cruise I must be able to have a view on the way we were handled in Southampton. That is all.

[cruiseGB]

Hi C2CMH,

Sorry about my last post but I just saw red.

In answer to your questions. Yes the ship did pitch a bit and yes there was some sickness. I heard they were handing out tablets. We were midships so missed a lot of the back and forth movement. A lot of people were missing at dinner and the lunch buffet was quite empty. These storms are quite rare around here and I believe it was the remnants of a hurricane from your side of the pond. Where is your sister going to?

[C2CMH]

Hi, It is no fun to be in rough seas. I was in hurricane Hugo many years ago on a Celebrity ship and we left early and missed a day in Bermuda to get a way from the storms. I have been on many cruises and sailed the Grand three times. Once on the Grand in Oct of 2001 right after 9/11 we went ahead with our cruise and there was also a hurricane brewing and the captian turned a Western Caribbean cruise into an Eastern Caribbean cruise.

 

My sisters' sailing is from Southampton to Rome, a 14 day sailing that after a few northern ports in Rotterdam, Brussles and Ireland will head south to better weather. They have been looking forward to the trip for some time.

[coiran]

Hi coiran

If you read my posts you will see that I said I can't blame Princess for the wind. All I said was that the disembarkation was a mess. I am not stupid, I know nature controls the weather. As for panic. I am sorry my family found a force 10 and ship damage scary. We must just be yellow.

These are my first posts on here as I thought I could answer a few question on this thread. If this is what the answers are I will just leave and look for a friendly board. Having spent nearly £3000 for this cruise I must be able to have a view on the way we were handled in Southampton. That is all.

 

I understand your concerns, but in saying you will not cruise Princess again it sounded like you felt that the high winds were Princess's fault. As far as disembarkation - it sounds as though there were a lot of unhappy passengers and I suspect there was some pandemonium in the disembarkation - what could Princess do to stop an angry crowd?? Perhaps toss some tear gas into the crowd - I don't think Princess responds this way - after all you have 3000 pax all wanting to disembark at the same time - what would you want Princess to do??

 

Ron

[cruiseGB]

There wasn't angry passengers as we saw it.

We just thought the whole arrival at Southampton could be handled better. Lack of annoucements, microphone not working, a list of times and colours and later time people going before the earlier timed colours, no checks when we left, no much control of people in walkways, no bills of accounts for a lot of people, people waiting in arrival as they had been let off before their luggage was ready. That is my problem.

As we live in Southampton, we cruise from Southampton so we don't need to fly. 20 minutes from home to ship! The main cruise line here is P&O. Grand Princess is the only regular Princess ship here. What I meant was that if there was P&O boat and a Princess boat leaving Southampton on the same day for the same duration we would probably choose P&O. That doesn't mean we wouldn't cruise Princess again. We find that timings of events and dress code is better on P&O. The extras you get on P&O have to be paid for on Princess. Personal choice I know and all your Princess cruise fans who have not tried P&O will probably disagree, but I can only comment on the one Princess cruise we have taken. First impressions and all that. The rest of the cruise was great and we enjoyed it very much.

I am sorry about my rant but I think you are taking my comments about the last couple of hours of an enjoyable cruise out of all proportion.

[Posaune]

Did Crown and Grand arrive in Southampton within a few hours of each other and actually swap their planned docks?

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like going back to P&O will suit you better.

 

That was a manly thing to do by the way, leaving the girls to fend for themselves with the luggage so you could see the footy game. :eek:

[Glesca]

Sounds like going back to P&O will suit you better.

 

That was a manly thing to do by the way, leaving the girls to fend for themselves with the luggage so you could see the footy game. :eek:

 

And he never got to see a goal scored. Game ended in a 0-0 tie.:(

[coiran]

There wasn't angry passengers as we saw it.

We just thought the whole arrival at Southampton could be handled better. Lack of annoucements, microphone not working, a list of times and colours and later time people going before the earlier timed colours, no checks when we left, no much control of people in walkways, no bills of accounts for a lot of people, people waiting in arrival as they had been let off before their luggage was ready. That is my problem.

As we live in Southampton, we cruise from Southampton so we don't need to fly. 20 minutes from home to ship! The main cruise line here is P&O. Grand Princess is the only regular Princess ship here. What I meant was that if there was P&O boat and a Princess boat leaving Southampton on the same day for the same duration we would probably choose P&O. That doesn't mean we wouldn't cruise Princess again. We find that timings of events and dress code is better on P&O. The extras you get on P&O have to be paid for on Princess. Personal choice I know and all your Princess cruise fans who have not tried P&O will probably disagree, but I can only comment on the one Princess cruise we have taken. First impressions and all that. The rest of the cruise was great and we enjoyed it very much.

I am sorry about my rant but I think you are taking my comments about the last couple of hours of an enjoyable cruise out of all proportion.

will think twice before going with Princess again

Your statement!

Ron

[Toto2Kansas]

cruiseGB-So sorry your disembarkation was handled poorly after your late arrival in port.

I would love to hear how P&O handled disembarkation the last time your P&O ship experienced this type of weather delay, and how they handled it better than princess does? ;)