Just venting: No Caribbean sailings this late spring/summer

[Pia1913]

Here is an email I have received from Princess when I asked the same question:

 

Dear Mrs. -

 

Thank you for your e-mail and your suggestions regarding our itineraries. We value your ideas and they will be passed along to our planning department.

It has been a business decision to not visit the Caribbean during the summer of 2012.

Our summer 2013 will be published shortly and we hope there will be a cruise that interests you and you will once again sail with Princess.

 

Sincerely,

 

Princess Cruises

Customer Relations Specialist

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

And of course Summer 2013 is a disappointment also... I just hope that "bussiness decision" will be a disappointment.

 

Princess had a webinar for Elites about a year ago and this question was posed to them at that time. The response you received is verbatim to what they wrote at that time. I presume their business decision is that the revenue at that time of year is better by not being in the caribbean.

[roe2ship]

Here is an email I have received from Princess when I asked the same question:

 

Dear Mrs. -

 

Thank you for your e-mail and your suggestions regarding our itineraries. We value your ideas and they will be passed along to our planning department.

It has been a business decision to not visit the Caribbean during the summer of 2012.

Our summer 2013 will be published shortly and we hope there will be a cruise that interests you and you will once again sail with Princess.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Princess Cruises

Customer Relations Specialist

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

 

And of course Summer 2013 is a disappointment also... I just hope that "bussiness decision" will be a disappointment.

What makes you say that just yet? They have not released the Summer 2013 itineraries.

[lynwar]

We have traditionally cruised in the Fall or early winter. We do live in Central Florida so it is easy for us to get to Ft. Lauderdale. Hurricanes haven't overly affected our cruises-except that we cruised for 2 extra days during Hurricane Jeanne, and then in 2005 our ship was the last one out of port when Hurricane Wilma was heading toward south Florida. And, our ship was diverted to San Juan because of "disturbance Alpha". One Eastern itinerary was also diverted West because it was our ship's turn to deliver pallets of supplies to the islands there after a hurricane.

 

We have looked at spring cruises in the past and the price was significantly higher and enough to keep us from going then. When I was working, that was our low activity time and would have been a good time to cruise. Now, I'm retired, and we still need to look at the cost.European cruises capture our imagination but there is air fare on top of the cruise price, plus sightseeing, plus... so we stick to the closest port location.

That said, we could probably break tradition and go to Tampa or Cape Canaveral to catch a line other than Princess. However, we prefer Princess, and Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I was posting with someone yesterday and she said that there will only be 3 ships in port the first weekend in May (when we'll be visiting). She'll be returning on the Allure of the Seas. Seven (7) ships left Port Everglades yesterday. The Transatlantic cruises start about that time. (May 6........)

 

Lynne

[nattie]

What makes you say that just yet? They have not released the Summer 2013 itineraries.

 

My mistake, I thought they did. I looked on the website and could see possible summer 2013 cruises with nothing in Caribbean. But when I actually looked into it only South Pacific and Australia show up for June 2013. So there is hope :)

 

Thank you for catching it!

[sunluva7]

I, too, miss Princess summer Caribbean itineraries. My husband is an education administrator,NAND our vacation time is limited. We traditionally block off the first two weeks of August each year for vacation, which has always been the highest price of the year in the Caribbean besides Christmas. We love Princess, but my husband has no interest in Alaska. So we are going to give thepouch pricier 8-day British Isles cruise a shot this year, and hope that Princess will return to the Caribbean next summer. I, for one, look forward to retirement when our cruise choices will be much greater.:)

[Iamcruzin]

Does anyone know when Summer 2013 will be out?

[Loucat]

It all depends on where you live. 2004 had Frances and Julia and perhaps another minor one. 2005 had Wilma. Correct me if I've missed some, but that's all I recall that mattered in 30 years.

Might not be your area, but Charlie devastated Punta Gorda in 2005 and then went on to Orlando. There are still new openings in that area all these years later. That was a horrible storm. As the eye went north, it was less than 20 miles from us; luckily it was small in circumference.

[Pia1913]

Might not be your area, but Charlie devastated Punta Gorda in 2005 and then went on to Orlando. There are still new openings in that area all these years later. That was a horrible storm. As the eye went north, it was less than 20 miles from us; luckily it was small in circumference.

 

Didn't mean to be blase', but Wilma did a whole lot of damage on this side, while Charlie was killing Punta Gorda. Of course we're aware of what happened over there, but we lived (that's the colloquial "we") with blue roofs for a long time too. I suppose I should say we are fortunate not to have had too many major hurricanes in 30 years.

[roe2ship]

Does anyone know when Summer 2013 will be out?

I've noticed the last few years that Princess has been announcing new cruises earlier than in the past. Last year they made announcements on March 17th so being that the new Royal Princess will be available for booking on March 15th....maybe that will be the date.:)

[roe2ship]

So there is hope :)

 

Thank you for catching it!

Well it appears now we have to continue our hope for Caribbean cruises during the Summer till 2014!:rolleyes: Princess has officially announced their Europe and Alaska cruises for the Summer of 2013. Basically, their entire fleet is there.....there is not a ship left which obviously means no Caribbean cruises for the Summer of 2013.

[madmacz]

While I can't speak for jbobst, I will say that I wasn't thrilled with our Carnival cruise either. Not that it was bad or anything, just not on par with what we have come to expect from Princess. I find it interesting that when Princess commissioned the Caribbean Princess, she was to be in the Caribben year-round. Guess that moving her to Europe was more in keeping with their marketing scheme. Too bad they're not listening to their passengers.

 

We have sailed on Princess six times and have had a great time on each cruise. We are cruising this summer on Royal Caribbean out of New Jersey since Princess isn't sailing out of Red Hook. We will miss bringing our own wine, the great live dance music venues, the ability to do our own laundry (etc.) but what are you gonna do? We can only cruise in the summer, so we have to make do.

 

It appears that the Royal Princess will be joining the Caribbean Princess in Europe next summer. We were hoping to cruise Europe next year, since our son is graduating high school. Sure hope we can affort the air fare on top of the cruise.

[Love.II.Cruise]

I guess any cruise is good cruise, right?

 

I disagree. If I'm going to spend the money it will be on something I want. We won't settle.

[Habs_Fan]

Well it appears now we have to continue our hope for Caribbean cruises during the Summer till 2014!:rolleyes: Princess has officially announced their Europe and Alaska cruises for the Summer of 2013. Basically, their entire fleet is there.....there is not a ship left which obviously means no Caribbean cruises for the Summer of 2013.

 

 

Where did they post this? I'm not seeing this or very many cruises scheduled for 2013 on the website yet.

 

I'm really hoping the CB goes back to the Caribbean in summer of 2013 once Royal is out in Europe.