Sun Princess cancelled departure from Singapore today

[seacrystal]

I am heartsick after reading this thread. As a long time Princess cheerleader, I am so disappointed in them. Certainly there has been enough experience over the years with cancelled cruises that they would have had a routine in place to handle this situation. Carnival Corp. will again suffer for this!

 

My sympathies for all and I hope the stricken passenger will return to good health with all the prayers from people reading along.

[mes531]

Wow - I can't imagine what you are all going through. Good luck to you all, especially after the excitement and anticipation of such a fantastic voyage!

[gvre]

We will be on the Diamond April 2, 2014 Asian cruise. The ship will be just getting out of dry dock in Singapore. I am having second thoughts about the cruise

[Kentchikan]

We will be on the Diamond April 2, 2014 Asian cruise. The ship will be just getting out of dry dock in Singapore. I am having second thoughts about the cruise

 

I think/hope it's an aberration. Good luck.

[sayaguru]

WOW! How terrible for everyone involved. And I thought I had it bad when my river cruise was cancelled (after dry dock). My husband mentioned a likely problem. I said "no way would they let that happern as it will cost them millions of $".

 

We were in Belgium 3 days before (from Australia) and got the urgent Email. We only checked because we had WiFi otherwise we would have turned up at the port (in Cologne). They offered us a refund and to book again next year but luckily our agent said we were already in Europe so the offered us another cruise. Then the race was on to get to Passau (the new departure port). But it was a lovley cruise and they then drove us to Prague to get to our accom. And we got our money back.:D

 

I hope everything works out for those involved. Not that the money will compensate for the missed cruise and the disapointment. A can't imagine turning up all excited to receive that news.

[Stu K]

Hope all get home safe and well and all out of pocket expenses are covered. Never seen things go this bad for princess lets hope this is a one off.

 

Stu K

[Pipit]

My sympathy to all the passengers booked on this Asian cruise. I am booked on the Sun Princess 35 days round Australia cruise in October 2013. I have also cruised twice on this ship sailing to Asia and South Pacific islands. Both times there were minor problems delaying the sailing time. On one trip, we could not raised the lifeboat, so the ship sailed with the lifeboat dangling on the side of the ship. It is an old ship and I am sailing on it again as our good friends are joining us from Mellbourne. My apology as a Singaporean for the poor hospitality that passengers encounter at The Convention Centre and Marina Bay Cruise Terminal. In fact my good friend is also affected by the cancellation but they have relatives in Singapore.

[MMDown Under]

Thinking of the passengers still on the ship (those in cabins which still have power) and hoping you all get a flight home soon.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thats why we don't book the first cruise after a dry dock.

[Kentchikan]

Thats why we don't book the first cruise after a dry dock.

 

Until this week it never occurred to me that it would/could be an issue. :confused:

[scotgal1]

This is so sad, and we feel for everyone who has had their holiday's ruined after all the pre holiday excitement. Hope you all got home safe and sound and that the gentleman who had the heart attack is recovering well.

 

We are on the Diamond for the cruise before she goes into dry dock, I notice someone said that there are disruptions on these cruises also, can you please advise what type of problems we may encounter.

 

Thank you :confused:

[scotgal1]

How terrible for the passengers on the cancelled cruise but better than experiencing problems at sea. I avoid a cruise after drydock because sometimes things go wrong & problems happen. Even the last cruise before drydock can be affected when work begins during the cruise before drydock.

 

Hi Astro Flyer,

 

Can you please let us know how the cruise before drydock can be affected. We are booked on Diamond Princess before dry dock in Singapore in March 14

 

Thanks

[Love.II.Cruise]

This is so sad, and we feel for everyone who has had their holiday's ruined after all the pre holiday excitement. Hope you all got home safe and sound and that the gentleman who had the heart attack is recovering well.

 

We are on the Diamond for the cruise before she goes into dry dock, I notice someone said that there are disruptions on these cruises also, can you please advise what type of problems we may encounter.

 

Thank you :confused:

 

We were on a ship directly before a dry dock. Would you believe they closed the entire casino and boarded it close during half of our cruise?!? This happened with other venues as well (including a specialty restaurant). We were shocked.

 

Another time we went and knew a dry dock was coming up. We were on 3 weeks before the dry dock and also on the back to back so we were on the 2 weeks before dry dock. There were many construction crews on board both those cruises and on turn around day, they were with us getting off and immediately back on. On those cruises we had to step around them in the hallways - they were pulling cables everywhere and the walls and ceiling were opened up. Quite a sight! But at least none of the venues were closed.

 

We now never sail close to a dry-dock on either end. Been there done that and don't want to risk it anymore.

[Kentchikan]

We were on a ship directly before a dry dock. Would you believe they closed the entire casino and boarded it close during half of our cruise?!? This happened with other venues as well (including a specialty restaurant). We were shocked.

 

Another time we went and knew a dry dock was coming up. We were on 3 weeks before the dry dock and also on the back to back so we were on the 2 weeks before dry dock. There were many construction crews on board both those cruises and on turn around day, they were with us getting off and immediately back on. On those cruises we had to step around them in the hallways - they were pulling cables everywhere and the walls and ceiling were opened up. Quite a sight! But at least none of the venues were closed.

 

We now never sail close to a dry-dock on either end. Been there done that and don't want to risk it anymore.

 

Wow. Another thing I had no idea about. Did they offer compensation for the inconvenience?

[Astro Flyer]

Hi Astro Flyer,

 

Can you please let us know how the cruise before drydock can be affected. We are booked on Diamond Princess before dry dock in Singapore in March 14

 

Thanks

 

We now never sail close to a dry-dock on either end. Been there done that and don't want to risk it anymore.

My experiences were mild in comparison to 'Love.II.Cruise' & mostly Lido deck work but mine was before a shorter 10 day maintenance 'tuneup'.

 

As I recall it was posted that the cruises leading up to the Grand's removal of Skywalker's resulted in aft areas not available. That was a major overhaul & probably not routine but it appears that sometimes there are adverse affects to pre-drydock cruises. I'm not going to take a chance with a cruise before a major overhaul.

[Kentchikan]

My experiences were mild in comparison to 'Love.II.Cruise' & mostly Lido deck work but mine was before a shorter 10 day maintenance 'tuneup'.

 

As I recall it was posted that the cruises leading up to the Grand's removal of Skywalker's resulted in aft areas not available. That was a major overhaul & probably not routine but it appears that sometimes there are adverse affects to pre-drydock cruises. I'm not going to take a chance with a cruise before a major overhaul.

 

It seems like you're not getting all that you paid for with closed areas and all.

[Astro Flyer]

It seems like you're not getting all that you paid for with closed areas and all.

I agree & a reason why it's doubtful if we'll do a cruise before or after a major drydock...unless the price was hard to refuse. ;)

[Love.II.Cruise]

Wow. Another thing I had no idea about. Did they offer compensation for the inconvenience?

 

There was no compensation and we didn't seek it. This may be the wrong way to look at it ... but we saved money (well... unless we would have won in the casino) by those venues being closed. It was a battle we chose not to fight.

 

But, in the future, we won't book pre or post dry dock cruises as a result.

 

Getting back to the OP... I still cannot believe the cruise was cancelled! :eek: It also disturbs us that some people were offered move over offers a week before. That makes me wonder if Princess wondered if there "might" be an issue on embarkation day.

 

I remember back in the day when you could call up the airline and find out if a flight was on time or not. These days our experience is that a flight is delayed 5-10 minutes after it should have left the gate! :rolleyes: Perhaps 9/11 played into that - not sure. But it does seem that companies only want to state a delay at the last possible moment (why else would Princess inform them at 1:30pm and not at 11am when people were arriving?).

Edited August 23, 2013 by Love.II.Cruise

[NSWP]

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!

Surely he had travel insurance to cover medical issues, such as this?

[wazsal]

My wife and I were booked on this cruise and due to the sudden and unexpected cancellation were forced to endure more than twelve hours of being kept in the dark as to the true situation. First we were told that some of the Ship’s cabins were functioning and those guests booked into the said cabins could, and did board for accommodation purpose for that night only. While the rest of us, and I quote from the letter given to us by Princess Cruises, Would be taken to a staging area at the Marina Bay Sands where there will be refreshments, seating and the opportunity to shop in the mall.

This staging area turned out to be a second level basement area under the shopping mall, concrete floor, hard temporary seating and very limited toilet facilities. High celling with exposed air-conditioning ducting and all the other under floor piping and building bits you’d expect. The refreshments turned out to be a couple of selections of finger type food, noodles, tea, coffee and fruit juices. Not the best choice for about two thousand people who had not eaten since breakfast, and as it turned out would not eat another reasonable meal that day.

The lack of any real information being provided to us and constantly being told by the very limited number of Princess Cruises staff on hand, in my opinion numbering only about 10 to assist with the 2000 plus passengers, that the Princess Help Team had everything under control and we’d all on our way soon. This was the most unprofessional and truly appalling situation I have ever experienced. A situation that only worsened when all the passengers who’d been boarded on the Ship for overnight accommodation earlier now had been taken back off the ship and joined the rest of us being held in the hot, stuffy and very un-comfortable basement area ( Passenger warehouse ) under the hotel shopping mall.

 

There were many seniors amongst the passengers, some with mobility problems in age from the high sixty’s to some in their ninety’s, with no priority or special arrangements being made for these folk. Many who’d already been forced to stand for hours at the shipping terminal due to the lack of seating while waiting for Princess Cruises to inform the passengers as to what was going to happen and act accordingly. These passengers had to endure many more un-comfortable hours without proper food or care along with the rest of us. In my opinion from what I witnessed the Princess Cruise staff used smoke and mirror type antics to give the impression that things were being done. The lack of any real leadership or organisation was unbelievable.

 

Now the battle to get fair and reasonable compensation begins. To be fair Princess Cruises have made guarantees as to the refunding of the cruise fare paid, plus any other post cruise loss due to the cancellation. As well as an offer of a free same fare level cruise in the future. My concern is will Princess Cruises also compensate passengers for the cost of getting to Singapore and any pre-cruise accommodation. As I see it, it’s all the same, we only went to Singapore to start the cruise, so it would only be fair and reasonable expect this also to be compensated for.

I have just lodged my claim for compensation with Princess Cruises Sydney office, been told the processing of my claim will take about 4 weeks. Also found out from my discussion with a representative from the Sydney office that they had sent their “ help team” to Singapore from Sydney early morning the day the ship was due to sail, got to wonder what they knew well in advance.

 

We were lucky enough to have gotten a flight out of Singapore that night, all be it 12.45 am the next day. This was no thanks to Princess, but to the wonderful assistance given to us by Mr Tan Chuan Lye, President & CEO of Sats Ltd. And his staff who came to our aid after we were dropped off at the airport by transport arranged in conjunction and with the knowledge of the Princess Help Team on site back at the warehouse, only to be told that Qantas had no knowledge of the seats promised to us. Mr Tan Chuan Lye came to our rescue and arranged not only to get us on the Singapore Airways flight out that night but also arranged for us to be admitted to the airlines business lounge so we could shower and have something to eat, a big heart felt thank you Mr Chuan Lye.

 

To give you an example of how dis-organised the whole event was in Singapore, after arriving in Sydney the next morning and while driving home we received a phone call from a lady from Princess informing us they had bookings for us to fly home from Singapore that night. They had no idea that we’d already ready left the country despite having paid Singapore Airlines for our flight out the night before. You have to wonder with the total lack of organisation by Princess Cruises through out this whole event what chance we would have if the ship was sinking. I guess it would every man for them self !!

[Kentchikan]

My wife and I were booked on this cruise and due to the sudden and unexpected cancellation were forced to endure more than twelve hours of being kept in the dark as to the true situation. First we were told that some of the Ship’s cabins were functioning and those guests booked into the said cabins could, and did board for accommodation purpose for that night only. While the rest of us, and I quote from the letter given to us by Princess Cruises, Would be taken to a staging area at the Marina Bay Sands where there will be refreshments, seating and the opportunity to shop in the mall.

This staging area turned out to be a second level basement area under the shopping mall, concrete floor, hard temporary seating and very limited toilet facilities. High celling with exposed air-conditioning ducting and all the other under floor piping and building bits you’d expect. The refreshments turned out to be a couple of selections of finger type food, noodles, tea, coffee and fruit juices. Not the best choice for about two thousand people who had not eaten since breakfast, and as it turned out would not eat another reasonable meal that day.

The lack of any real information being provided to us and constantly being told by the very limited number of Princess Cruises staff on hand, in my opinion numbering only about 10 to assist with the 2000 plus passengers, that the Princess Help Team had everything under control and we’d all on our way soon. This was the most unprofessional and truly appalling situation I have ever experienced. A situation that only worsened when all the passengers who’d been boarded on the Ship for overnight accommodation earlier now had been taken back off the ship and joined the rest of us being held in the hot, stuffy and very un-comfortable basement area ( Passenger warehouse ) under the hotel shopping mall.

 

There were many seniors amongst the passengers, some with mobility problems in age from the high sixty’s to some in their ninety’s, with no priority or special arrangements being made for these folk. Many who’d already been forced to stand for hours at the shipping terminal due to the lack of seating while waiting for Princess Cruises to inform the passengers as to what was going to happen and act accordingly. These passengers had to endure many more un-comfortable hours without proper food or care along with the rest of us. In my opinion from what I witnessed the Princess Cruise staff used smoke and mirror type antics to give the impression that things were being done. The lack of any real leadership or organisation was unbelievable.

 

Now the battle to get fair and reasonable compensation begins. To be fair Princess Cruises have made guarantees as to the refunding of the cruise fare paid, plus any other post cruise loss due to the cancellation. As well as an offer of a free same fare level cruise in the future. My concern is will Princess Cruises also compensate passengers for the cost of getting to Singapore and any pre-cruise accommodation. As I see it, it’s all the same, we only went to Singapore to start the cruise, so it would only be fair and reasonable expect this also to be compensated for.

I have just lodged my claim for compensation with Princess Cruises Sydney office, been told the processing of my claim will take about 4 weeks. Also found out from my discussion with a representative from the Sydney office that they had sent their “ help team” to Singapore from Sydney early morning the day the ship was due to sail, got to wonder what they knew well in advance.

 

We were lucky enough to have gotten a flight out of Singapore that night, all be it 12.45 am the next day. This was no thanks to Princess, but to the wonderful assistance given to us by Mr Tan Chuan Lye, President & CEO of Sats Ltd. And his staff who came to our aid after we were dropped off at the airport by transport arranged in conjunction and with the knowledge of the Princess Help Team on site back at the warehouse, only to be told that Qantas had no knowledge of the seats promised to us. Mr Tan Chuan Lye came to our rescue and arranged not only to get us on the Singapore Airways flight out that night but also arranged for us to be admitted to the airlines business lounge so we could shower and have something to eat, a big heart felt thank you Mr Chuan Lye.

 

To give you an example of how dis-organised the whole event was in Singapore, after arriving in Sydney the next morning and while driving home we received a phone call from a lady from Princess informing us they had bookings for us to fly home from Singapore that night. They had no idea that we’d already ready left the country despite having paid Singapore Airlines for our flight out the night before. You have to wonder with the total lack of organisation by Princess Cruises through out this whole event what chance we would have if the ship was sinking. I guess it would every man for them self !!

 

What a horrible experience. I'm so sorry you went through this.

[AZbeachboy]

WAZSAL thanks for the info.

[NSWP]

WAZSAL thanks for the info.

Likewise.

 

The initial response by Princess team appears most unsatisfactory. Surely they could have done better in looking after 2000 stranded passengers. To me it appear the Princess incident response plans to such emergent cruise cancellations need an overhaul.

Edited August 23, 2013 by NSWP

[Beejay4016]

Surely he had travel insurance to cover medical issues, such as this?

 

He would have to pay up front and then claim it back from his health insurers probably. There are plenty of hospitals which expect cash or credit card up front before commencing treatment. At least the medical care would be superb, probably much better than we get back home.

[Beejay4016]

My brother and his wife are stuck up there. They were so excited to go on this cruise after we raved about our HAL cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong. I feel so terribly sorry for them and for all affected; just a terrible, terrible thing to happen. As someone said, though, you would have to wonder why Princess Help staff flew up there from Sydney before the event.