2:00 pm....really?

[c4ddym4n]

We were on the 01-05-13 Caribbean Princess cruise, because of 45 to 55 MPH winds and 7.5 to 12 foot seas we arrived at 4PM. We were able to get off the ship at 4:45pm because of a numbered system to get off. Almost all excussion were cancelled. So we walked over to cross the swing bridge to get into town to shop. There were about 2000 people trying to use the ferry because the city had the bridge closed for boats. We waited over an hour before the city opened the swing bridge at 6:10pm. Almost all the stores were closed. We found one that stayed open, but the salespeople were so rude because they had to stay overtime, it was not a good experience. My wife and I will never go back to that island if we can help it. We loved Princess Cays and Aruba( where we spent money in their stores for jewlery)

[flying fingers]

I am right there with you. I was originally booked on the Royal in December and after a little debate with myself cancelled and booked a trip with Celebrity. I am anxious to try something new and I have not been thrilled with the choices Princess is currently offering. Next year it seems the only option for a 7 day cruise out of Florida will be the Royal traveling eastern. I was excited about the 4 and 5 day trips on the Ruby until I realized they were almost as much money as a 7 day trip. I have pretty much decided my FCCs will be coming back to me as refunds.

[Iamcruzin]

I am right there with you. I was originally booked on the Royal in December and after a little debate with myself cancelled and booked a trip with Celebrity. I am anxious to try something new and I have not been thrilled with the choices Princess is currently offering. Next year it seems the only option for a 7 day cruise out of Florida will be the Royal traveling eastern. I was excited about the 4 and 5 day trips on the Ruby until I realized they were almost as much money as a 7 day trip. I have pretty much decided my FCCs will be coming back to me as refunds.

 

LOL... I cancelled my Royal Princess cruise for November and booked an 8 day reposition cruise on Celebrity. They were offering some great deals in December and for the same price as an interior on Royal I got an ocean view with a great itinerary at right time of year and it's out of San Juan. I realized that the itinerary means more to me than a new ship. After reading all the threads on the Royal and listening to Rai Caluori on the Princess videos I realized that the new build is nothing more than a larger version of the Grand class ships carrying more passengers. The dancing fountains and the sea walk don’t do it for me. I really enjoy the Princess experience so I hope that sometime in the near future I may be able to sail in Europe or Hawaii with them. As far as the Caribbean I think I will be looking at Royal Caribbean and Celebrity.

[Roce48]

I imagine that Princess Cruise monitors this web site, so I am sure that they know what our feelings are about arriving late into Curacao.

 

We e-mailed them the other day about the CB constantly arriving late into Curacao, and they called me on the phone saying that the delay was weather related, not propulsion. They said that the arrival time was changed from 1pm to 2pm.

 

Called them back today on the phone with questions about getting off the ship in time to catch the Trolley Tour at 2:30pm.

 

I also suggested that since we were arriving an hour late, that we should depart Curacao and hour later, giving us a little more time to enjoy the city.

[topcop]

This is all interesting....the company "claims" the time change is due to weather and NOT a propulsion problem. Our cruise is in March and they know that far in advance that weather will prevent them from making it to Curacao on time??? I go with the propulsion theory. They probably cannot make their normal speed but since it appears they may be scheduled to drydock the CP in April, they will wait until then to fix it. Wouldn't want to lose all that money taking the time to fix the problem, would they?

 

I would hate to be the PR person should the ship go dead in the water in the middle of the ocean due to a propulsion problem that they have known about for sometime.

 

For those who have never been to Curacao, it is probably one of the prettiest ports. We usually cruise HAL and have been there several times. HAL cruises up the waterway to dock and it is quite a sight to see the colorful dutch inspired buildings on both sides of the waterway.

[highheel girl]

I imagine that Princess Cruise monitors this web site, so I am sure that they know what our feelings are about arriving late into Curacao.

 

We e-mailed them the other day about the CB constantly arriving late into Curacao, and they called me on the phone saying that the delay was weather related, not propulsion. They said that the arrival time was changed from 1pm to 2pm.

 

Called them back today on the phone with questions about getting off the ship in time to catch the Trolley Tour at 2:30pm.

 

I also suggested that since we were arriving an hour late, that we should depart Curacao and hour later, giving us a little more time to enjoy the city.

 

I doubt they would share any information about propulsion issues (or any other for that matter) with anyone outside corporate.

[robtulipe]

For those who have never been to Curacao, it is probably one of the prettiest ports. We usually cruise HAL and have been there several times. HAL cruises up the waterway to dock and it is quite a sight to see the colorful dutch inspired buildings on both sides of the waterway.

I agree.

Here is a shot of Punda sector of downtown Willemstad taken from our ship which was docked at the Mathey wharf cruise terminal. The floating market place is in the channel off to the left.

 

[crawford]

This is all interesting....the company "claims" the time change is due to weather and NOT a propulsion problem. Our cruise is in March and they know that far in advance that weather will prevent them from making it to Curacao on time??? I go with the propulsion theory. They probably cannot make their normal speed but since it appears they may be scheduled to drydock the CP in April, they will wait until then to fix it. Wouldn't want to lose all that money taking the time to fix the problem, would they?

 

I would hate to be the PR person should the ship go dead in the water in the middle of the ocean due to a propulsion problem that they have known about for sometime.

 

For those who have never been to Curacao, it is probably one of the prettiest ports. We usually cruise HAL and have been there several times. HAL cruises up the waterway to dock and it is quite a sight to see the colorful dutch inspired buildings on both sides of the waterway.

 

Don't know about propulsion system issues but despite some pretty stiff headwinds, we were clipping along to Curaçao this past week at between 18 and 22 knots. Got to the port before 1:30.

[thinfool]

Everything you spend on Princess Cays helps Princess as they get at least a cut of everything. Same in not true in Curacao

 

While this may be true....we have yet to spend $.05 on Princess Cay. And we have been there 2 or 3 times.

 

No, wait...I did buy a beer last time....but I would have onboard anyway.

[brenderlou]

This thread reminds me of my one of my favorite quotes.....

 

Don't sweat the small stuff

 

In the big scheme of things, is any one of us gonna remember that we arrived in a port an hour later then originally planned? That we couldn't take a certain tour? Etc, etc......

 

I think that I am so lucky to afford such a wonderful vacation for a week with my family, ports or no ports....anything can happen.

 

I'm not bashing anyone that is upset just trying for those that are upset to perhaps look at the situation a little differently....I know when I'm on my deathbed, this isn't gonna be something I'm thinking about.

 

Let go and let the countdown to a wonderful week of vacation no matter what it brings, begin!!!! Enjoy life with all it's quirks!!!

 

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!!!

[Austykatie]

Don't know about propulsion system issues but despite some pretty stiff headwinds, we were clipping along to Curaçao this past week at between 18 and 22 knots. Got to the port before 1:30.

 

We were just in Curaçao on Tuesday and arrived in time and no problems. I think it's a great port but enjoy Princess Cays and Aruba much more. It's all a matter of tastes and personal preference. I always enjoy my Princess cruises and look forward to the next one. I tend to pick my battles in life and I am just happy to be able to cruise!

[bunny1954]

Wow,

 

We're giving CB another chance after our disappointment last March when our sailing was cancelled.

 

That sailing was a 5 port stop cruise, my kind of cruise.

 

We chose our upcoming sailing due to credits we were issued (to compensate for our cancelled sailing) and how with those credits a Caribe deck balcony midship was extremely affordable. Despite the fact that the itinerary only includes 3 islands: Princess Cays, Curacao, and Aruba, with a late arrival at Curacao, the price won us over.

 

With CB's apparent continuing propulsion problems, the sailing from Princess Cays to Curacao has occasionally taken longer than scheduled, resulting in a late arrival in Curacao.

 

It seems that Princess has dealt with this by simply changing the scheduled arrival time in Curacao to 2:00pm instead of 1:00pm. Wow.

Is being at Princess Cays so valuable to Princess that they can't instead leave that island an hour or two early, so the passengers can spend a decent day in Curacao? With a 2pm arrival, by the time we sit on the closest beach it'll be nearly 3. So, at the max we'll have 2 and a half or maybe 3 hours on the beach before the sun sets.

 

Oh, well. I guess we'll resolve to enjoy ourselves as much as we can on the ship that day, and remember how much money we saved by switching over to this sailing.

 

Are any of you folks let down by this push back?

 

What do you non CB cruisers think of this? Do you agree that PC should be where the shortened time should be?

 

Thanks for listening to my venting. :)

 

We just got off CB yesterday. We were alongside the pier at 1:30 and off the ship about 2pm.

 

I think it would be very hard to cut Princess Cays short and still make it a viable day due to having to tender in.

[SnorkelMoose]

Yep--we had no problems getting to Curacao on the Caribbean Princess this past week. In fact, I had the best snorkeling experience of my entire vacation in Curacao, and it was an afternoon/early evening excursion!

[Seafoam Green]

This thread reminds me of my one of my favorite quotes.....

 

Don't sweat the small stuff

 

In the big scheme of things, is any one of us gonna remember that we arrived in a port an hour later then originally planned? That we couldn't take a certain tour? Etc, etc......

 

I think that I am so lucky to afford such a wonderful vacation for a week with my family, ports or no ports....anything can happen.

 

I'm not bashing anyone that is upset just trying for those that are upset to perhaps look at the situation a little differently....I know when I'm on my deathbed, this isn't gonna be something I'm thinking about.

 

Let go and let the countdown to a wonderful week of vacation no matter what it brings, begin!!!! Enjoy life with all it's quirks!!!

 

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!!!

 

+1

 

Also, tour operators understand that delays happen - cruise ships are their livelihood! They'll show up at 2pm and understand that it was beyond your control. For peace of mind, ASK when you book how they handle a delayed arrival of the ship.

[avonthunder]

Which excursion and where did you snorkel in Curacao?:p

[SnorkelMoose]

Which excursion and where did you snorkel in Curacao?:p

 

Hey! I believe the excursion was the Sunken Tugboat snorkeling tour, which can be found under the Curacao excursions on the Princess website (hope this link works!)

 

http://www.princess.com/find/excursion/exDetails.page?tourCode=CUR-820&t=C&exType=S

 

The fish were amazing--I only wish we had had more time! :)

[blueboro]

Yes, we did get to Curacao around 1:30 last week (January 22nd) but it was almost 2:00 before actually getting off as you had to either get a debarkation number of wait for open debark. We were scheduled to arrive at 1:00. We had NO wind or high seas and still were late. Did not seem to have any propulsion issues either. So, I just think it was bad planning on the part of Princess to schedule a 1:00pm arrival. We also stayed on the ship at Princess Cay as tendering with 3,500 people just did not seem worth the trouble.