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Sun Princess cancelled departure from Singapore today

MissCruising1

By MissCruising1,
in Princess Cruises

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ace280

ace280

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Posted

How do we feel? Well we got to the terminal at 11am after leaving our hotel. At the terminal we was one of the first there. Everything was roped off and they had only about 100 seats.

 

Princess staff told us just to wait without any information. By midday the terminal was full. People were now queuing outside the door in the hot humid Singapore heat. Lots of disabled and older people just left outside was wrong. We gave up our seats to an elderly couple but could do nothing for the majority of people there. At about 1.30 they announced the cruise had been cancelled. By now the terminal was so packed with people standing it was a fire risk. Not to mention nobody could hear over the loudspeaker. People now looked worried as they heard the cruise was cancelled. After more time someone came round and read from a script.

 

Indeed the cruise was cancelled. At this point you still had no idea what that meant. After getting to the front of a big queue where we had our cabin checked it was decided if your name wasn't on the list you would be shipped to a staging area. We wasn't on the list so we got bused to the marina bay conference centre. Here is where the fun began.

 

People had to take all there own cases down a normal escalator to get to the buses. My wife nearly fell down but we are one of the few below 50 on a cruise so we made it ok. A few women were not so lucky they fell and had cut legs. It was not good to see loose skin and blood. However to be fair at this point princess staff did appear to start helping people down with cases.

 

At the basement no body was directing people. We waited for 5 mins then asked where to go. Just go to the buses they said. We walked out with our cases and the lady that was bleeding from her ankle wounds was there too. Someone from princess said the lady should seek medical care but she didn't want to leave her party so she stayed on the bus. We set off to marina bay conference centre which I can describe as a converted warehouse.

 

The centre had light food of salmon fish cakes, noodles and chicken wings. Tea, coffee and water were also there. This would have been fine had we have gone to a hotel. However....

 

The food had gone by about 4pm and people were still arriving! The princess staff did their best to show passengers sympathy but we got no actions only a lot of "we will try and get people to hotels and flights". Singapore was pretty much full so hotels could not easily be found!

 

About 7pm some people started heading to flights but only a fraction of the total. Still nobody had gone to a hotel.

 

About 9pm people started heading to hotels. We had now been in princess care for almost 12 hours with only light lunch and tea/coffee.

 

Now they brought in bags of peanuts. Yippee. We scoffed them down. We was told get in a queue and we would be bused to a hotel. After a further 1 hour standing we were going nowhere! Some people were now lying on the floor. A few we're distressed and crying but on the whole most of the Australian passengers were calm and sensible. A few screamed at the staff who just soaked it up. If the passengers had been Americans it would have been a riot.

 

Eventually about 10.30pm we got on the bus and went to Pan Pacific hotel. Upon arrival the hotel staff greeted us and treated us like royalty. This showed us how princess could have been so much better. We went to our room. Breakfast and bed only from princess but we ordered room service. Hope we can claim this later?

 

It's now 8am so will let you know what happens today.

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djmill@optusnet.com.au

djmill@optusnet.com.au

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My husband and I were booked on this cruise. I thought it was a bad joke when someone came up to our taxi and said the cruise was cancelled. We stood in queues then for at least 3 hours. there were a lot of elderly people waiting and standing for a long time. No refreshments - only water and orange juice at the terminal. We were then bussed to the Convention Centre and put in a huge hall. They served up what looked to me like noodles and carrot. That was all that was offered from 5 to 8. We were tired and wanted to stay in Singapore overnight and not catch an overnight flight back to Brisbane. We were told if we wanted to do that we would have to book our own accommodation and flight the next day (if there were any available). It was not handled well. It was chaotic and minimal information was given to passengers. I know it was a giant headache for them but it was for us as well. I think they should refund fares to Singapore. We would not have been there only to catch the cruise. I didn't go there to buy a pair of shoes!!!! People in the main were very calm and reasonable but as the night wore on and they were hungry and tired and sick of being in queues and not knowing their options, frustration started to creep in and fair enough. I heard quite a few people say they were contacted late last week to consider refunds or shifting to another date. The feeling was strongly that Princess possibly knew this could happen and people were disappointed they were not warned. We flew back last night with Singapore Air and we are glad now we didn't stay. Hope people didn't have to sleep at the Convention Centre. Just a small summary. A very expensive mistake for everyone concerned!!!

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Kentchikan

Kentchikan

Posted
Posted
Are they also reimbursing you for the Full cost of your airline tickets for which you are still out of pocket for? Airfare to Singapore is expensive.

 

Good point. I hope they would even if they were bought with FF miles they should do something to mitigate the costs of flights for next time.

It's not like living in the Bay Area and riding to the dock in San Francisco.

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Kentchikan

Kentchikan

Posted
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My husband and I were booked on this cruise. I thought it was a bad joke when someone came up to our taxi and said the cruise was cancelled. We stood in queues then for at least 3 hours. there were a lot of elderly people waiting and standing for a long time. No refreshments - only water and orange juice at the terminal. We were then bussed to the Convention Centre and put in a huge hall. They served up what looked to me like noodles and carrot. That was all that was offered from 5 to 8. We were tired and wanted to stay in Singapore overnight and not catch an overnight flight back to Brisbane. We were told if we wanted to do that we would have to book our own accommodation and flight the next day (if there were any available). It was not handled well. It was chaotic and minimal information was given to passengers. I know it was a giant headache for them but it was for us as well. I think they should refund fares to Singapore. We would not have been there only to catch the cruise. I didn't go there to buy a pair of shoes!!!! People in the main were very calm and reasonable but as the night wore on and they were hungry and tired and sick of being in queues and not knowing their options, frustration started to creep in and fair enough. I heard quite a few people say they were contacted late last week to consider refunds or shifting to another date. The feeling was strongly that Princess possibly knew this could happen and people were disappointed they were not warned. We flew back last night with Singapore Air and we are glad now we didn't stay. Hope people didn't have to sleep at the Convention Centre. Just a small summary. A very expensive mistake for everyone concerned!!!

 

Well said. I loved the "I didn't go there to buy a pair of shoes!!!" line.

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ace280

ace280

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Not heard from princess this morning. I am at breakfast at the hotel they out me up in. It's a good hotel but now wonder if I will be evicted at checking out time ;-). Will call princess after food. Priorities first ;-).

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MissCruising1

MissCruising1

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My husband and I were booked on this cruise. I thought it was a bad joke when someone came up to our taxi and said the cruise was cancelled. We stood in queues then for at least 3 hours. there were a lot of elderly people waiting and standing for a long time. No refreshments - only water and orange juice at the terminal. We were then bussed to the Convention Centre and put in a huge hall. They served up what looked to me like noodles and carrot. That was all that was offered from 5 to 8. We were tired and wanted to stay in Singapore overnight and not catch an overnight flight back to Brisbane. We were told if we wanted to do that we would have to book our own accommodation and flight the next day (if there were any available). It was not handled well. It was chaotic and minimal information was given to passengers. I know it was a giant headache for them but it was for us as well. I think they should refund fares to Singapore. We would not have been there only to catch the cruise. I didn't go there to buy a pair of shoes!!!! People in the main were very calm and reasonable but as the night wore on and they were hungry and tired and sick of being in queues and not knowing their options, frustration started to creep in and fair enough. I heard quite a few people say they were contacted late last week to consider refunds or shifting to another date. The feeling was strongly that Princess possibly knew this could happen and people were disappointed they were not warned. We flew back last night with Singapore Air and we are glad now we didn't stay. Hope people didn't have to sleep at the Convention Centre. Just a small summary. A very expensive mistake for everyone concerned!!!

 

wow. just wow.

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jpj39

jpj39

Posted
Posted

You got me worried .

I booked Diamond Princess April 02,2014 Sinapore to Tokyo.

This is the 1st voyage after dry dock for the Diamond Princess

The worrisome thing: pre cruise hotels are not available at this time.won't be available until 30 days out.. I wonder, if in case they have to cancel the voyage,why go the all the trouble of booking hotels

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ace280

ace280

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OMG. Just met a lady at breakfast who's husband had heart attack in the warehouse. They had to wheel him to marina bay sands hotel medical centre and then take him to hospital. The private hospital wanted 30000 sing dollars even to treat him so they had to leave there and go to local hospital. Even then it's cost 5000!

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MissCruising1

MissCruising1

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OMG. Just met a lady at breakfast who's husband had heart attack in the warehouse. They had to wheel him to marina bay sands hotel medical centre and then take him to hospital. The private hospital wanted 30000 sing dollars even to treat him so they had to leave there and go to local hospital. Even then it's cost 5000!

 

OMG!! How horrible! what a crazy crazy situation and I just feel terrible for everyone that was in that warehouse, hotels, cruise terminal :(

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caribill

caribill

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Posted (edited)
How do we feel? Well we got to the terminal at 11am after leaving our hotel. At the terminal we was one of the first there. Everything was roped off and they had only about 100 seats.

 

Princess staff told us just to wait without any information. By midday the terminal was full. People were now queuing outside the door in the hot humid Singapore heat. Lots of disabled and older people just left outside was wrong. We gave up our seats to an elderly couple but could do nothing for the majority of people there. At about 1.30 they announced the cruise had been cancelled.

 

I could be wrong, but I suspect that the decision to cancel was not made until shortly before the 1:30 PM announcement, that up until then Princess hoped the problem could be fixed and the sailing take place.

 

If it had been another problem that would not have affected hotel operations and food service, I suspect they would have let everybody board and just not sail until the problem was fixed, eliminating ports to make up the lost time. But the power problem would not allow this to take place.

 

I figure at this point (1:30 PM) Princess was scrambling to make plans for all the passengers. I do not think this cancellation was decided a day or so ago and Princess waited until the last moment to inform the passengers.

 

My sympathies to all booked on the cruise and had their vacation cancelled, especially those who do not have additional vacation time available to take a later cruise this year.

Edited by caribill
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AZbeachboy

AZbeachboy

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Our first cruise ever was on the Carnival Fantasy (which we had one in a drawing) We were in MO and went down to Port Canaveral. We did not know what to expect. It has just got out of dry dock. We waited for hours to get on board and finally about three o'clock they boarded.

 

The problem was the Coast Guard inspection. I don't know what they found or did not find, I know I was awfully hungry and tired and needed my medications but the time we got on. I am glad they found the problem however and we did get to go.

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Jamey Bergman

Jamey Bergman

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OMG. Just met a lady at breakfast who's husband had heart attack in the warehouse. They had to wheel him to marina bay sands hotel medical centre and then take him to hospital. The private hospital wanted 30000 sing dollars even to treat him so they had to leave there and go to local hospital. Even then it's cost 5000!

 

Hi again, Ace -- first, thanks for all the updates, I'll be adding some of this to our original story. Second, that poor man -- I hope he has gotten the treatment he needs. We're checking with Princess on this, but would you mind sending me your real name over email? My email is jamey@cruisecritic.co.uk

 

Thanks,

 

Jamey

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Jamey Bergman

Jamey Bergman

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Hi Jamey out of curiosity my I ask why you need my real name?

Of course, no problem -- We (the Cruise Critic editorial staff, for which I'm an editor) are trying to verify the story before we report on it. Due diligence, basically. We have contacted Princess Cruises to get confirmation that there was a passenger who suffered a heart attack and to check on his condition and what medical care he received. Additionally, as we found out about the story from your post, by asking for your name, we are trying to further verify the story and cite our source properly.

 

To protect your privacy, please don't share your name here on the forums, just email me at jamey@cruisecritic.co.uk. And thanks.

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