Emerald Princess/Tunis

[newparks]

We have just been advised by Princess that they have cancelled the June 1st visit to Tunis. We are scheduled to be there on September 7, per Princess, they will keep us advised of the situation.

We are sailing out of Istanbul, any idea what happens when the situation is such that the decision is made not to go to that port??

[Rancher Dave]

likely they will add a different "safer" port.

 

I had pretty much, while on Emerald for Spring Break last week, decided to sail one of the routes visiting Tunis this Summer, until Wednesday morning when I saw the news. Guess I will look for a different Summer daddy - daughter cruise instead.

[msmoger]

We have just been advised by Princess that they have cancelled the June 1st visit to Tunis. We are scheduled to be there on September 7, per Princess, they will keep us advised of the situation.

We are sailing out of Istanbul, any idea what happens when the situation is such that the decision is made not to go to that port??

 

They will usually just substitute a different port. Yalta and Odessa, Ukraine were replaced with Kusadasi (Ephesus) and Santorini on our cruise last October. It was disappointing but totally understandable.

[paul929207]

Princess will substitute another port if the port is canceled early enough. There are many wonderful ports in that part of the world

[Mary Ann 2]

Naples is the replacement for Tunis on our Emerald May 30th cruise. We got the notification from our cruise agency yesterday.

[DrivesLikeMario]

My guess is Naples.

[cb at sea]

If you were kidnapped or worse, your family would so sue Princess....they will err on the side of caution. No way would I want to be in that entire area right now....I wouldn't give ANYONE a penny of my money..they are using it to try and kill us. Fact.

[PescadoAmarillo]

If you were kidnapped or worse, your family would so sue Princess....they will err on the side of caution. No way would I want to be in that entire area right now....I wouldn't give ANYONE a penny of my money..they are using it to try and kill us. Fact.

This has been going on with foreign oil for decades. Do you still drive a gasoline powered car?

[gailjen]

Naples is the replacement for Tunis on our Emerald May 30th cruise. We got the notification from our cruise agency yesterday.

 

We are doing the 8/8 14 days Barcelona to Athens I'll be really disappointed if they put Naples in twice 😟

[jacksonwayne]

We are on the same cruise. We are Elite and long time Princess/P&O sailors. I have been studying the med maps and doing some calculations; Assuming Princess continues to boycott Tunis, I seriously doubt the logic of visiting Naples twice unless the decision is only one of convenience for Princess rather than for the passengers. Given the currently scheduled sea day after Tunis, I predict we will either sail direct (slowly) to the next scheduled port (Livorno) PRINCESS, are you listening ? which like Naples would be a BIG AND CHEAP DISAPPOINTMENT AND A WASTED OPPORTUNITY !! , or instead sail to either Sardinia or Corsica on the way to Livorno. This route makes better sense, for Princess and the passengers, because, 1. both ports are within sailing speed/time constraints, and 2. Princess has both Islands/ports (one on Corsica, 2 on Sardinia) already listed as Princess Destinations. 3. Princess has over 4 months to realign to these locations. 5. No further interruptions to a scheduled itinerary. AS I have been on too many Princess Cruises where a port was cancelled, it would be nice for Princess to pick up the ball and substitute a do-able alternative like this.If you agree, jump in.

[gailjen]

Totally agree with everything you say, I would love Corsica or Sardinia.

My email only advised they had amended the 1st June sailing but would keep us informed.

Hopefully with the time left they can sort something nice for us all x

[jacksonwayne]

Those of you impacted by a cancellation for Tunis on Emerald Princess; I should clarify my comments.I was speaking in response to only the Emerald Princess Cruise which was scheduled for Tunis on 7 September 2015. Having been to Naples twice before, I can truly attest to it being a premiere port. Naples, Pompei, Sorrento, Capri, Positano...are all fantastic places, not to be missed ! My heartburn, instead, was for a repeat stop on the same cruise, or an extra sea day, etc.... If we don't go to Tunis (I really want to see Carthage) and I do respect Princess's need to ensure our safety, then a replacement of Sardinia or Corsica would be something that would be a welcome and attractive alternative to Tunis. I also neglected to state in my original post that none of the other cruise lines currently have Sardinian or Corsican ports scheduled for our Tunis date of 7 Sept 2015......YET.

Edited March 26, 2015 by jacksonwayne

[Wehwalt]

I hope they will avoid B2B repeats by going to Malta or another island. I'm on the Emerald on the 9/26 (Tunis call 9/28) and she goes to Naples right before I board at Civitavecchia. I'm hoping for Corsica or Sardinia, but would accept Malta (like I have a choice other than canceling)

Edited March 26, 2015 by Wehwalt

[CI66774]

This has been going on with foreign oil for decades. Do you still drive a gasoline powered car?

 

Well - actually, the U.S. gets the majority of our oil from Canada and Latin America - not the Middle East.

[jacksonwayne]

Malta is not to be underated. Not a place to go twice, but once is quite interesting given its history. On a sidenote, If you have never been to Naples, it can easily tolerate 2 visits; One day alone for Capri; Capri Town and Anacapri are wonderful, and another full day at Pompei or Herculanum, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi Coast. My wife and I have been there twice before, and will be going again on the 8/15 and 8/29 sailings. Aside from Lake Como/Milan, we think Capri is the prettiest place in the Med.

[VirtualRain]

We are scheduled to be in Tunis on the 11th of June. It's odd that they've difinitively changed the June 1st visit but none of the others yet. Maybe they are working on other options and just don't know where exactly we will be going yet? I just hope it doesn't turn into another sea day.

[Wehwalt]

We are scheduled to be in Tunis on the 11th of June. It's odd that they've difinitively changed the June 1st visit but none of the others yet. Maybe they are working on other options and just don't know where exactly we will be going yet? I just hope it doesn't turn into another sea day.

 

My guess is Princess will resolve this quickly. It's kinda hard to sell cruises to Tunis right now I imagine, and they won't let people go into final payment with this uncertainty.

[azdmelani]

Malta is not to be underated. Not a place to go twice, but once is quite interesting given its history. On a sidenote, If you have never been to Naples, it can easily tolerate 2 visits; One day alone for Capri; Capri Town and Anacapri are wonderful, and another full day at Pompei or Herculanum, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi Coast. My wife and I have been there twice before, and will be going again on the 8/15 and 8/29 sailings. Aside from Lake Como/Milan, we think Capri is the prettiest place in the Med.

 

Malta is absolutely beautiful. I would not be upset if our cruise stopped there.

 

Newparks, have you joined one of our roll calls for the trip yet?

[jacksonwayne]

My guess is Princess will resolve this quickly. It's kinda hard to sell cruises to Tunis right now I imagine, and they won't let people go into final payment with this uncertainty.

 

I agree it would be great to resolve this quickly, and I think Princess has already pulled the plug for the forseeable future on Tunis; however, rerouting a bunch of sailings to new ports is never easy, and there in lies the temptation to just add another sea day. My point is I hope they don't do that, or double up on a port out of convenience. My vote is obviously for Sardinia or Corsica when timing permits. Here's a chance for a cruise line to "rise to the occasion" and do something really cool and memorable for the passengers. After all, we are devoted Princess Cruisers because of this type of pro active altruistic actions.

Princess, are you listening ?

[jacksonwayne]

Got the notice today from Princess in the mail. Only reference was to 1 June arrival, but I appreciate the heads up anyway. They, as we have all heard, are "evaluating". Other sources today have commented that P & O, and Princess are being much more reticent about cancelling further Tunis stops. As I said in an earlier post, I think this is smoke, and politically jives with today's announcements by the Tunis Tourist Group urging the "Cruise lines", et al to not give up on Tunis. Princess can be taking the "were evaluating" approach as they pursue rescheduling those cruises that were set to stop at Tunis, and I don't see how a cruise line insurance carrier with a sane risk assessment could avoid warning Princess against hemorraging from mega law suits if they were to return to Tunis in the forseeable future and suffer another ISIS style attack. I just don't think it's worth the risk. YES; I stand with those who would still go to Tunis, but I'm not the Cruise Line Underwriter nor stock holder, and don't think they won't express their opinions.

[caribill]

I stand with those who would still go to Tunis, but I'm not the Cruise Line Underwriter nor stock holder, and don't think they won't express their opinions.

 

People book the itinerary because, among other ports, they wanted to stop at Tunis. If that stop would be possibly unsafe on cruises later this year, I would expect Princess to cancel. If considered safe, I would expect it to stay on the itinerary.

 

Several years ago we were booked on a Princess cruise in May with a two day stop in Alexandria, Egypt which was a big draw for that cruise.

 

Then, in early February there was the revolution in Egypt and several weeks later Princess changed the itinerary to remove the Alexandria stop and substitute a day in Livorno, a day in Malta and a 2nd day in Istanbul.

 

A number of people canceled (it was before final payment) because Alexandria had been a big reason for booking. We did not cancel because we had not been to Malta before and figured we would get to Egypt on a future cruise.

 

Of course, there were then a number of new bookings from people who liked the new itinerary.

 

About a month before the cruise, conditions had changed for the better in Egypt and the original itinerary was reinstated. This made those of us who had not cancelled very happy. It made those who had booked because of the new itinerary very unhappy, especially as it was now past final payment.

 

Ship ended up sailing at only about 70% of capacity.

 

I suspect Princess is not changing the itinerary for the future cruises yet because they do want to keep the itinerary they sold if it is safe enough there to do so.

[VirtualRain]

People book the itinerary because, among other ports, they wanted to stop at Tunis. If that stop would be possibly unsafe on cruises later this year, I would expect Princess to cancel. If considered safe, I would expect it to stay on the itinerary.

 

Several years ago we were booked on a Princess cruise in May with a two day stop in Alexandria, Egypt which was a big draw for that cruise.

 

Then, in early February there was the revolution in Egypt and several weeks later Princess changed the itinerary to remove the Alexandria stop and substitute a day in Livorno, a day in Malta and a 2nd day in Istanbul.

 

A number of people canceled (it was before final payment) because Alexandria had been a big reason for booking. We did not cancel because we had not been to Malta before and figured we would get to Egypt on a future cruise.

 

Of course, there were then a number of new bookings from people who liked the new itinerary.

 

About a month before the cruise, conditions had changed for the better in Egypt and the original itinerary was reinstated. This made those of us who had not cancelled very happy. It made those who had booked because of the new itinerary very unhappy, especially as it was now past final payment.

 

Ship ended up sailing at only about 70% of capacity.

 

I suspect Princess is not changing the itinerary for the future cruises yet because they do want to keep the itinerary they sold if it is safe enough there to do so.

 

I hope things get back to normal (?) in Tunis soon and Princess doesn't need to reroute. But I can understand if they need to.

 

In our case, Tunis is one of 17 ports on a 21 day cruise in June that's now past final payment and while I'll be very disappointed if it's cancelled, I don't want to be stressed out visiting there either.

 

I've been on Princess cruises before where a port was inaccessible due to weather, wind, or tide conditions, and their MO in that case is to make it a sea day instead. Although I'm usually ticked off at that outcome, again, I can understand it given the last minute nature of the decision.

 

What's not acceptable (in my view) is to leave this particular decision to the last minute and sub a sea day, when they had plenty of time (e.g. 2 months) to reroute to a different port of call. I hope that's not even a consideration.

Edited April 1, 2015 by VirtualRain

[caribill]

I've been on Princess cruises before where a port was inaccessible due to weather, wind, or tide conditions, and their MO in that case is to make it a sea day instead. Although I'm usually ticked off at that outcome, again, I can understand it given the last minute nature of the decision.

 

 

One time we missed four scheduled ports out of ten on a trans-Atlantic

o Big storm and ship kept hundreds of miles away

o Too much wind so ship could not dock on an otherwise beautiful day

o An iceberg sitting in the only spot the ship could anchor on a perfect day

o Another big storm that again the ship kept hundreds of miles away

 

Three of those became sea days. Another port was substituted for the fourth.

[VirtualRain]

One time we missed four scheduled ports out of ten on a trans-Atlantic

o Big storm and ship kept hundreds of miles away

o Too much wind so ship could not dock on an otherwise beautiful day

o An iceberg sitting in the only spot the ship could anchor on a perfect day

o Another big storm that again the ship kept hundreds of miles away

 

Three of those became sea days. Another port was substituted for the fourth.

 

 

Wow... You must start to wonder if the captain is just lacking skill... That's horrible.

[caribill]

One time we missed four scheduled ports out of ten on a trans-Atlantic

o Big storm and ship kept hundreds of miles away

o Too much wind so ship could not dock on an otherwise beautiful day

o An iceberg sitting in the only spot the ship could anchor on a perfect day

o Another big storm that again the ship kept hundreds of miles away

 

Three of those became sea days. Another port was substituted for the fourth.

 

Wow... You must start to wonder if the captain is just lacking skill... That's horrible.

 

I doubt most passengers would really have preferred to be in big storms at sea as well as on shore during them.

 

The ship could have docked, but the wind was so high it would have pulled the pier apart.

 

Nothing the Captain could do to cause the iceberg to move out of the way.