Sun Princess cancelled departure from Singapore today

[wazsal]

Hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip home Bazandgiz.

 

Please keep us all informed through this forum as to how your claim goes as we will be doing. Not out to cause trouble, just want what’s fair and just, we live in hope !!

[Kaz&mike]

Hi Kas&Mike,

So glad we all got home safe. Yes it was a real bum fight, we also were very happy to be out of there that night. No real thanks to the so called Princess Help Team, thank God for the SATS team at the airport especially Mr Tan Chuan Lye, the SATS President & CEO who arranged for us all to get on the Singapore Airlines flight out that night and who also gave us access to the business lounge so we could shower and get something to eat,

 

I see your from Kings Park, small world Sal & I before moving down the coast about 24 years ago lived at Kings Langley. My daughter lives at Kings Park in Madagascar Drive.

 

Please keep in touch either through this forum or if you prefer via our personnel email, which if want I’ll post on the forum. I’m very interested to hear from yourself or any other passenger as to how their claims for compensation is going, if we keep united in this matter we’ll get the best result.

 

We Live off Madagascar and have for 35 years. Would love to keep in touch over the whole matter. Our email address is mfrater@bigpond.net.au, please email at any time.

Karen and Mike

[ace280]

Hi All. We are now in Perth waiting for the Sun Princess to arrive so we can start/continue our cruise. I could not see the sun princess before leaving Singapore Wednesday so I guess it has indeed left for Perth. Fingers crossed it makes it and all is well. If anyone hears about princess contacting people before the sailing on the 3rd please let us know.

[rkmw]

someone posted on facebook that they got a refund from princess but no mention of any amount

[MMDown Under]

In March this year, 2 days before we were due to sail on the Sun Princess from Brisbane all in our group (9 cabins) received Moveover offers.

 

The offer was a full refund in the form of Refundable OBC, a replacement cruise FOC, an upgrade from outside to balcony, and airfares reimbursement. We were doing a 3 night coastal from Brisbane to Sydney and replaced it with a 6 night Sydney - Tasmania return.

 

There were reports on the roll calls for the Dawn Princess European cruise of people being offered the same sort of deals in the week prior to departure from Australia.

 

As airfares reimbursement was given when Sun Princess was overbooked, airfares reimbursement should be a given for a cruise cancelled on the day of departure.

 

Princess has a duty of care towards its passengers. To alleviate the continuing stress, Princess should advise all passengers that they will receive fair compensation, eg reimbursement of all out of pocket expenses.

[MMDown Under]

Perhaps Drydock should encompass a little more maintenance and a little less introduction of new and additional means of on board revenue?

 

Couldn't agree more.

[wazsal]

I received a phone call today from a very delightful and courteous lady from Princess Cruises in regards to my postings on this Cruise Critic forum.

 

Strange I thought at first, how did Princess Cruises identify who I am, obtain my name and my phone number. Was this just good detective work, is there a tell all relationship between the cruise company and Cruise Critic. There I was thinking the reason we are required to have a user name was to protect our identity. Not that I have anything to hide or that I’ve been slandering Princess Cruisers, Carnival or anyone, personally or otherwise in my postings. But still you have to wonder.

 

I’ve only been telling it as it was, I’ve been fair and honest and if your been following the forum you would of read simular testimony to the situation on that day and evening. Postings from other passengers who were there have voiced their agreement with my statements of events that day, so why the phone call ?

 

I did ask the caller how she was able to identify me from Cruise Critic and get my personal details, such as my full name and phone number, alas she wasn’t able to tell me, she wasn’t too sure herself, so she claimed. Not wanting to embarrass her I let the question drop.

 

I’m still not really sure what was the reason for her call, she did start to inform me how sorry Princess Cruises were for the cancellation, and how difficult and stressful it was for all the Princess people that day, be they in Singapore, the Sydney office or their United States office. How hard and long they'd work to assist the stranded passengers. At which time I thought to my self, you should of been one of the passengers that day, not knowing what was going to happen or when, then you’d know all about stress.

 

With all due respect to the caller, I guess she was only wanting to reassure me that Princess Cruises were genuinely sorry about the sudden cancellation of the cruise and any inconvenience or stress it had caused. I did get a bit wound up when telling her all about the whole miss-management on the day, how there was no apparent plan in place for such an event. I went on to tell her that any reasonable person would of thought that a company the size of Carnival and their subsidiaries would of had a protocol in place for such an event. Maybe they do, but someone just forgot to tell their help team the plan. It was disgraceful how the elderly, people with special needs and the families with young children were not prioritised and the lack of ongoing and useful communication.

 

She did then inform me that they had received many, yes she did say many, passengers had contacting them to praise the way things were handled that day... please I thought name me three !! There I go again thinking that’s just the company’s spin. Then I could be wrong.

The conversation then turned to the Princess Cruises plan for compensation to passengers for out of pocket losses due to the cancellation. I was a little gob smacked when she indicated that the company thought the refund of airfare to Singapore and one nights pre-cruise accommodation was fair. When I challenged the one nights accommodation as being fair and reasonable I was told that if passengers had spent longer than one night in Singapore prior to the cruise departure date, we should view it as a holiday in it’s self.

 

Now as nice a place that Singapore is, it’s not a destination that we would of chosen for a mini or any other kind of holiday, to us Singapore is only ever a stop over on the way to somewhere. The caller did suggest we most likely did a little sightseeing while there during the three days prior to the sailing date, and as such we’d had a mini holiday... rubbish, Yes we did take a ride in the Singapore Flyer, rode the cable car out to Sentosa Island, visited the Singapore Zoo and take a short walk along part of Orchard Road. These were only ever distractions at best to fill in the time while waiting for the cruise. We found it far too humid and uncomfortable to be whizzing around, and spent most of our time in the comfort of the air-conditioning of our hotel room.

 

We only went to Singapore to board the Sun Princess, we had to stay for three nights due to airflight availability, we flew business class only because my wife suffers from Deep Vein Thrombosis and has been strongly advised by her doctor on long haul flights not to travel economy class due to the cramped and restrictive seating. We were happy to pay for the three nights accommodation in a moderately priced hotel and business class seats, only because we’d booked this cruise not to visit Singapore. If the ship had sailed we’d been happy, but it didn’t.

 

Look I’m sure that Princess Cruises do want to do the right thing, I’m also sure they are a good honest company with only our best interest in mind. Things like the cruise cancellation can happen, I get that, but please Princess or Carnival who ever, just compensate us passengers for our losses and move on. Sally and I are reasonable people, we’d personally be happy to except cruise credit instead of cash to offset our pre-cruise financial losses if that helps, cash would also be ok, your call Carnival. Can’t be any fairer than that, as I’ve said before we aren’t out to get something for nothing, just don’t want to have blown our money on an un-necessary airflight and accommodation.

 

Wonder if I’ll get another phone call ???

[Perth Pollyanna]

Sounds as if you've been bullied by the so-called charming lady from Princess cruises....eg "we’d personally be happy to except cruise credit instead of cash to offset our pre-cruise financial losses if that helps," not good enough.

Cruise Critic -- please reply to Wazsal's Q re genuine anonymity!

[wazsal]

Perth Pollyanna thanks for your concern, can’t say I felt “ Bullied “ I really do believe she only wanted to put forward Princess Cruises side of the event and to discuss my postings, and not to try and intimidate me in anyway. Allowing anyone to bully me would never be an option.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t really give her the opportunity to say a lot . I got right into my views on the whole event, especially what I would expect to be a fair and reasonable compensation for any passenger, that being full financial re-imbursement for all losses sustained wholly due to the cruise cancellation.

 

I’m sure Princess Cruises will do the right thing and I do believe that Princess is a good company who do value their passengers, and as such will be fair.

 

I would welcome and appreciate any comments from Princess Cruises or Carnival in this forum regarding the matters being raised, come on give us your side of the story.

[Love.II.Cruise]

I received a phone call today from a very delightful and courteous lady from Princess Cruises in regards to my postings on this Cruise Critic forum.

 

Strange I thought at first, how did Princess Cruises identify who I am, obtain my name and my phone number. Was this just good detective work, is there a tell all relationship between the cruise company and Cruise Critic. There I was thinking the reason we are required to have a user name was to protect our identity. Not that I have anything to hide or that I’ve been slandering Princess Cruisers, Carnival or anyone, personally or otherwise in my postings. But still you have to wonder.

 

I’ve only been telling it as it was, I’ve been fair and honest and if your been following the forum you would of read simular testimony to the situation on that day and evening. Postings from other passengers who were there have voiced their agreement with my statements of events that day, so why the phone call ?

 

I did ask the caller how she was able to identify me from Cruise Critic and get my personal details, such as my full name and phone number, alas she wasn’t able to tell me, she wasn’t too sure herself, so she claimed. Not wanting to embarrass her I let the question drop.

 

I’m still not really sure what was the reason for her call, she did start to inform me how sorry Princess Cruises were for the cancellation, and how difficult and stressful it was for all the Princess people that day, be they in Singapore, the Sydney office or their United States office. How hard and long they'd work to assist the stranded passengers. At which time I thought to my self, you should of been one of the passengers that day, not knowing what was going to happen or when, then you’d know all about stress.

 

With all due respect to the caller, I guess she was only wanting to reassure me that Princess Cruises were genuinely sorry about the sudden cancellation of the cruise and any inconvenience or stress it had caused. I did get a bit wound up when telling her all about the whole miss-management on the day, how there was no apparent plan in place for such an event. I went on to tell her that any reasonable person would of thought that a company the size of Carnival and their subsidiaries would of had a protocol in place for such an event. Maybe they do, but someone just forgot to tell their help team the plan. It was disgraceful how the elderly, people with special needs and the families with young children were not prioritised and the lack of ongoing and useful communication.

 

She did then inform me that they had received many, yes she did say many, passengers had contacting them to praise the way things were handled that day... please I thought name me three !! There I go again thinking that’s just the company’s spin. Then I could be wrong.

The conversation then turned to the Princess Cruises plan for compensation to passengers for out of pocket losses due to the cancellation. I was a little gob smacked when she indicated that the company thought the refund of airfare to Singapore and one nights pre-cruise accommodation was fair. When I challenged the one nights accommodation as being fair and reasonable I was told that if passengers had spent longer than one night in Singapore prior to the cruise departure date, we should view it as a holiday in it’s self.

 

Now as nice a place that Singapore is, it’s not a destination that we would of chosen for a mini or any other kind of holiday, to us Singapore is only ever a stop over on the way to somewhere. The caller did suggest we most likely did a little sightseeing while there during the three days prior to the sailing date, and as such we’d had a mini holiday... rubbish, Yes we did take a ride in the Singapore Flyer, rode the cable car out to Sentosa Island, visited the Singapore Zoo and take a short walk along part of Orchard Road. These were only ever distractions at best to fill in the time while waiting for the cruise. We found it far too humid and uncomfortable to be whizzing around, and spent most of our time in the comfort of the air-conditioning of our hotel room.

 

We only went to Singapore to board the Sun Princess, we had to stay for three nights due to airflight availability, we flew business class only because my wife suffers from Deep Vein Thrombosis and has been strongly advised by her doctor on long haul flights not to travel economy class due to the cramped and restrictive seating. We were happy to pay for the three nights accommodation in a moderately priced hotel and business class seats, only because we’d booked this cruise not to visit Singapore. If the ship had sailed we’d been happy, but it didn’t.

Look I’m sure that Princess Cruises do want to do the right thing, I’m also sure they are a good honest company with only our best interest in mind. Things like the cruise cancellation can happen, I get that, but please Princess or Carnival who ever, just compensate us passengers for our losses and move on. Sally and I are reasonable people, we’d personally be happy to except cruise credit instead of cash to offset our pre-cruise financial losses if that helps, cash would also be ok, your call Carnival. Can’t be any fairer than that, as I’ve said before we aren’t out to get something for nothing, just don’t want to have blown our money on an un-necessary airflight and accommodation.

 

Wonder if I’ll get another phone call ???

 

I say kudos to Princess! I think they did the right thing. No one needs to fly in 3 days ahead of time unless they plan to see that city. There are many airlines with business class to choose from where you could have just flown in the day before with one nights' stay. You just need to plan accordingly and in advance to find the right flights with price. I don't buy that you didn't have other options.

 

You did sight see; you saw much more being there 3 nights than only being there one night, including one of the best zoos in the world. Princess shouldn't have to pay for your extra nights. Where does it end? What about the people that stayed 4 nights... 5 nights... 7 nights... 10 nights?

 

I do think it is great that Princess is going to pay for your business airfare and one night hotel stay.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Love.II.Cruise

[NSWP]

It does concern me that Princess Cruises can identify CC members, if that has happened. No wonder I never got an upgrade in 18 cruises.

 

But back to the subject, personally I think Princess was a bit slow off the mark with their action plan right after the cancellation, but in hindsight now, it has handled the repatriation/actual cruise compensation reasonably well.

 

Good luck with compo for flights/precruise expenses. I lost a lot of money on those things when a Costa Atlantica, Fort Lauderdale to Quebec cruise I booked on was cancelled due to rescheduling, some 4 years ago. Money back on cruise from Costa but nothing for airfares/hotels, which amounted to some $5000. The travel insurance company would not pay up for 'rescheduling.' Sounds like the same scenario with Sun Princess. And of course Carnival is the parent company of Costa AND Princess.

 

Of course us Aussies do not have access to the Princess Cruise Insurance which many Americans take, it covers just about everything. The mass Princess Market - the North Americans, would not cop this treatment.

Edited September 1, 2013 by NSWP

[caribill]

It does concern me that Princess Cruises can identify CC members.

 

It may not be that difficult. For example, in your case all Princess has to do is check the list of passengers for the names Les and Mary who live in Australia.

 

There may or may not be more than one couple identified or there may be just one, you. If more than one, unlikely they would all be from Batemans Bay.

Edited September 1, 2013 by caribill

[Love.II.Cruise]

It does concern me that Princess Cruises can identify CC members, if that has happened.

 

Cruise Critic -- please reply to Wazsal's Q re genuine anonymity!

 

I don't understand this... you are using social media. It doesn't take much to look up history of a poster and I think any cruise line can figure that out. They said their first names and the general area they were from.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38997553&postcount=45

 

In another post they gave their email address.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=39505802&postcount=62

Edited September 1, 2013 by Love.II.Cruise

[NSWP]

I don't understand this... you are using social media. It doesn't take much to look up history of a poster and I think any cruise line can figure that out. They said their first names and the general area they were from.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38997553&postcount=45

 

In another post they gave their email address.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=39505802&postcount=62

There you go, explains all. Big Brother is watching us !

[wazsal]

Love 2 cruise, with all due respect mate,

 

You have no idea of when we booked the cruise. The limited window of opportunity we had time wise for us to secure the level of seating with our preferred carrier, and not just some cheap budget airline. What if any were our flight options as far as arriving any closer or not to the cruise departure date.

 

These were our choices, and we happily paid for these choices, if the cruise wasn’t cancelled we’d be happy. Please remember there would not be a problem if the ship had sailed. Our limited choice of airline and seating availability caused us to have three nights accommodation in Singapore, this was unavoidable. Believe me we would much rather of only spent the one night in Singapore.

 

We have been to Singapore on four other occasions, three of which were short transit stop overs, the forth a week in Singapore on the way home from the U.K. And yes due to having three days to kill while waiting for the cruise, we did find things to do to fill in the time, and yes one of which was to visit the Singapore Zoo, a Zoo that is based on our own Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney but a lot smaller. Taronga Park Zoo we have visited many times, so going to Singapore Zoo was no big deal, just a time filler. By the way we have not requested nor would we expect Princess to compensate us in part or whole for the cost of these activities, these were our choice and as such our responsibility.

 

As far as Princess re-embussing us for the business class airflight, this has not as yet been confirmed my friend, this may still turn out to be a battle. And are you saying one nights accommodation pre-cruise is ok and more is not, regardless of the cost of that accommodation. If a passenger had stayed in a $1200 per night hotel is that ok and it would be fair to expect Princess to pay the $1200 and not fair as in our case for Princess to pay for three nights in a $280 per night hotel, even when having to stay three nights was unavoidable.

 

Your question" “ Where does it end “ well in my humble opinion it ends when people, in this case Sun Princess passengers are fairly compensated for their financial losses due to no fault of their own. I welcome your opinion, I just don’t agree with it. Now I have a question for you, would you still think the same if you were in my shoes ??

[wazsal]

It does concern me that Princess Cruises can identify CC members, if that has happened. No wonder I never got an upgrade in 18 cruises.

 

But back to the subject, personally I think Princess was a bit slow off the mark with their action plan right after the cancellation, but in hindsight now, it has handled the repatriation/actual cruise compensation reasonably well.

 

Good luck with compo for flights/precruise expenses. I lost a lot of money on those things when a Costa Atlantica, Fort Lauderdale to Quebec cruise I booked on was cancelled due to rescheduling, some 4 years ago. Money back on cruise from Costa but nothing for airfares/hotels, which amounted to some $5000. The travel insurance company would not pay up for 'rescheduling.' Sounds like the same scenario with Sun Princess. And of course Carnival is the parent company of Costa AND Princess.

 

Of course us Aussies do not have access to the Princess Cruise Insurance which many Americans take, it covers just about everything. The mass Princess Market - the North Americans, would not cop this treatment.

 

The big difference between your Costa Atlantica, Fort Lauderdale to Quebec cruise and the Sun Princess cruise is that the Sun Princes cruise comes under Australian law, N.S.W. law and all the consumer protection under that law. This is confirmed in the Sun Princess cruise terms and conditions.

[GHDPeter]

The only extra compensation that Princess has given its passengers is the free cruise credit for another cruise. All the other compensation - refund, airfares home, overnight accommodation, and incidentals is what they are REQUIRED AND HAVE COMMITTED to do under the Cruise Passengers Bill of Rights - http://www.cruising.org/news/press_releases/2013/05/cruise-industry-adopts-passenger-bill-rights , which you will find on the Princess.com website under legal except if you are in Australia as it seems that page is geoblocked.

 

Also Princess must have known there was a problem with the ship and that there was a high probability that the ship was not going to sail, otherwise they would not have been able to have the people on a flight from Sydney to Singapore in time to deal with the problem.

 

Sent from my AMID-972XS using Tapatalk 2

[caribill]

reasonably well.

 

Good luck with compo for flights/precruise expenses. I lost a lot of money on those things when a Costa Atlantica, Fort Lauderdale to Quebec cruise I booked on was cancelled due to rescheduling, some 4 years ago. Money back on cruise from Costa but nothing for airfares/hotels, which amounted to some $5000.

 

Was this "rescheduled" at the last minute after you had already flown to Fort Lauderdale?

 

If not, was everything else prepaid and not changable even if for a fee?

[Love.II.Cruise]

I welcome your opinion, I just don’t agree with it. Now I have a question for you, would you still think the same if you were in my shoes ??

 

Yes. I stand by my post and wouldn't have stated it if I didn't think it was fair... even if I was in your shoes.

[ace280]

Anyone heard if any issues with 3rd sept sailing? Information on ground seems to suggest it is travelling ok.

[NSWP]

Was this "rescheduled" at the last minute after you had already flown to Fort Lauderdale?

 

If not, was everything else prepaid and not changable even if for a fee?

All Flights/Hotels prepaid and non refundable. Costa did the reschedule due to operational reasons, about 6 weeks before we were due to fly out to FL. They moved the ship, Costa Atlantica from the USA East Coast run to the Med, not enough bookings I believe.

[DeanoNorthPerth]

Anyone heard if any issues with 3rd sept sailing? Information on ground seems to suggest it is travelling ok.

 

The ship arrived at Fremantle today so hopefully that means all is good.

[ace280]

My travel agent: Just got off the phone with Princess and they have confirmed that the port of Bali has been removed from the itinerary, they are looking into why for me and have advised me that letters will be waiting for you in your staterooms when you board the ship. I will let you know as soon as they get back to me.

[shootingstar07]

My travel agent: Just got off the phone with Princess and they have confirmed that the port of Bali has been removed from the itinerary, they are looking into why for me and have advised me that letters will be waiting for you in your staterooms when you board the ship. I will let you know as soon as they get back to me.

 

That is too bad. Bali is such a beautiful place with gracious people. Please keep us posted as to why it was dropped. I am looking at an itinerary that includes Bali. I would be very disappointed if it were dropped. Good luck - hope you don't have all the problems the OP and others had on the first cruise post dry dock.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[ace280]

Yeah everyone says Bali is amazing. Oh well can't be helped. I still have no word as to why it was cancelled. Princess will only say letter in cabin.