Ordered Ashore From Golden Princess

[mariposa777]

I do have travel insurance , when I rang them in Sydney all I could get from them is send us a fax and fill in a form we might pay you in three months time:p

 

 

I was in need of someone to assist me , Princess Cruises say there was supposed to be a caree team to look after me , I knew nothing about this nor did I get ANY contact phone numbers , also Princess Office in Australia were closed and not contactable

 

 

Regards

 

John

 

Good to see you are feeling a bit more cheerful today - it certainly appears the port agent/Princess has dropped the ball.

 

Ideally one would hope when a passenger is deemed unwell enough to put off the ship that the ship's shore reps would hand off to the passenger's insurance emergency company. The passenger should not be left to fend for themselves, especially if the rest of their party is still onboard.

 

Was it the 24hr emergency insurance contact that gave you the brush off or the claims number? (who should have known to redirect you to the international assistance org).

[VK3DQ]

Good to see you are feeling a bit more cheerful today - it certainly appears the port agent/Princess has dropped the ball.

 

Ideally one would hope when a passenger is deemed unwell enough to put off the ship that the ship's shore reps would hand off to the passenger's insurance emergency company. The passenger should not be left to fend for themselves, especially if the rest of their party is still onboard.

 

Was it the 24hr emergency insurance contact that gave you the brush off or the claims number? (who should have known to redirect you to the international assistance org).

 

 

Hi

 

I am feeling a little better had a reasonable sleep and a shower .. I was rather high :eek:

 

The insurance company could not understand that I had no access to either a fax or the internet and a printer .. said they could do nothing for me .. all claims have to go by registered mail for approval so at the time of the emergency they provided no help at all

 

 

Lucky I had enough liquid funds to cover the situation

 

 

Princess say that there should have been a dedicated care team to look after me , this did not happen

 

If I could have rung someone and given them my debit card details and said please get me home .. that would have been fine ...but all the Princess Offices were closed for holidays .. Even the Australian Embassy in New Zealand were on holiday and the emergency consular person was on leave and his message bank was full so I could not request help there

 

The only way I got home was with the kindness of people locally in New Zealand for which I am most grateful

 

 

If I had known I could have flown to Auckland and avoided 5 hours on "The Bus" (full story to follow) but I had no knowledge of this at the time ...:mad:

 

 

I suppose it will be a tale to amuse the grandchildren in my dotage :cool:

 

 

Regards

John

[Seasidesue]

I am so sorry you had to go through this nightmare, and appreciate your sharing your awful experience. Based on what I've read, I will be canceling my reservation for my next cruise! I thought to try Princess, but will not. I am very happy with Celebrity! But, you never really know, do you. Anyway, glad you're finally home, feeling better. I do hope you've spoken with your wife by now! Frightening to be left alone in a foreign port, alone and sick!

 

Mike, you did a good thing! Glad you were reading CC, and close to the port, and took the time to go there!

[hbfhhbfh]

The sad part of all this is that it has made you sour on cruising. I am quite certain if you had Princess' insurance, this would not have happened.

 

First comes your health and then unfortunately the battle. Make sure you keep a paper trail of everything you send them on your claim. Follow up constantly with emails, not phone calls. If you must call, follow that up with a confirming email of your conversation. The insurance companies are notorious for not paying for what you are asking. Make sure your wife gets a bill from the ship's doctor and a print out of any expenses, including how many days you missed and any shore excursions. They will charge for the tips even though you didn't receive the service. Those should be reimbursed. Scour your ship's bill carefully and completely and claim everything and anything.

 

Wishing you the best of luck!

[Womble99]

The sad part of all this is that it has made you sour on cruising. I am quite certain if you had Princess' insurance, this would not have happened.

 

Is Princess insurance available in Australia? I thought it was only available to US and Canadian residents?

[VK3DQ]

I am so sorry you had to go through this nightmare, and appreciate your sharing your awful experience. Based on what I've read, I will be canceling my reservation for my next cruise! I thought to try Princess, but will not. I am very happy with Celebrity! But, you never really know, do you. Anyway, glad you're finally home, feeling better. I do hope you've spoken with your wife by now! Frightening to be left alone in a foreign port, alone and sick!

 

Mike, you did a good thing! Glad you were reading CC, and close to the port, and took the time to go there!

 

Hi Sue

 

My last two cruises were on board the Celebrity Solstice I cannot imagine them allowing anything like this to happen ...

 

The issue is that there was absolutely no one I could contact , I feel as if I had just been dumped ...

Please understand that at the time I was in great pain , and a little wacko from the morphine and other drugs...

 

I am supposed to cruise again on Golden Princess on the 8th March up to the pacific Islands I dont think I dare risk it.. it might have been my 92 y/o MIL who had a fall or something like that how would they have handled that? She would not have had a clue of how to contact the insurance company or how to make an airline booking on the internet..

 

There is a duty of care , which I say failed badly

 

I dont want ANY compensation from Princess I want them to allow my wife a couple of phone calls from the ship , and I would like to think that they might allow me to cancel my March cruise without the 25% Penalty

 

Any way its all food for thought.. my overwhelming impression at this moment is how nice and kind the people in New Zealand were.

 

Regards

John

[Aus Traveller]

The sad part of all this is that it has made you sour on cruising. I am quite certain if you had Princess' insurance, this would not have happened.

 

First comes your health and then unfortunately the battle. Make sure you keep a paper trail of everything you send them on your claim. Follow up constantly with emails, not phone calls. If you must call, follow that up with a confirming email of your conversation. The insurance companies are notorious for not paying for what you are asking. Make sure your wife gets a bill from the ship's doctor and a print out of any expenses, including how many days you missed and any shore excursions. They will charge for the tips even though you didn't receive the service. Those should be reimbursed. Scour your ship's bill carefully and completely and claim everything and anything.

 

Wishing you the best of luck!

As someone else said, I do not believe Princess insurance is available in this part of the world.

 

Tips are not charged on Australian-based ships.

[Aus Traveller]

Glad your better, but that's why we buy insurance. This almost happened to us, but another blood test kept us on the ship. You can't expect the cruise line to over help on this one.

I think any passenger in John's situation can and should expect help from the cruiseline. He is lucky it happened in a NZ port where there was no language barrier (or hardly any;)) and the standard of medical care would be the same as in Australia. From my experience Princess looks after people in this situation, but with John, somehow someone 'dropped the ball' and John was left stranded. I cannot imagine how he felt.

 

I feel he should follow it up with Princess, but maybe he is jumping too fast saying he will cancel his next cruise. :) Maybe wait and see how Princess responds.

[SeaDog-46]

John - The port agent at Tauranga let you, the ship & Princess Cruises down & deserves the sack for his actions. Part of their job is to look after ALL the ship's interests to do with that port call. To dump you in the hospital & say you are on your own is an absolute disgrace & I am astounded that happened in New Zealand.

As a ship's master for 15 years I have landed several crew into hospital.

Always the agent will advise the ship & owners of the situation & also when the crew member - days or weeks later - is sent home.

 

I have also been landed from a ship with a kidney stone. As I was on morphine, I signed the ship over to my chief officer & was landed into hospital.

 

You should write, by snail mail to Princes Cruises Australia detailing your experience. Copy it to Princes Cruises USA. & note on original it is being copied to head office.

 

You could complain & relate your experiences & disgust at your treatment to:-

ISS-McKay Ltd., P.O. Box 4095, Mt.Maunganui Sth 3149, New Zealand.

email mtm@iss-mckay.co.nz

http://www.iss-mckay.co.nz

ph. 07-5742154

[jannandjohn]

one thing that puzzles me is the fact that your wife and MIL let you go ashore to hospital etc on your own....if it were my husband we both would have been together throughout the ordeal, and we both would have known what was going on. :eek:

Surely they didn't ask just you to get off and knowingly leave your spouse behind?

wouldn't everyone here get off too, with their partner, in a foreign country?:confused:

[VK3DQ]

one thing that puzzles me is the fact that your wife and MIL let you go ashore to hospital etc on your own....if it were my husband we both would have been together throughout the ordeal, and we both would have known what was going on. :eek:

Surely they didn't ask just you to get off and knowingly leave your spouse behind?

wouldn't everyone here get off too, with their partner, in a foreign country?:confused:

 

Hi Folks

 

It was my choice that my wife stayed on the ship to care for my MIL who is 92

It would have been much more stressful having them trailing after me.. I know they are safe on the ship ...

 

My wife of course was worried and if I had been able to contact her I could have assured her I was ok

 

Its a little different in New Zealand as I was looked after in the hospitals at no cost .. the whole issue is the lack of 'Care" by Princess , if they had given me a telephone number to contact the "Care Team" that were supposed to be looking after me all would have been well, but over the holiday everything was CLOSED

 

oh and BTW You are not asked to leave the ship , they tell you you must leave !

 

Regards

 

John

Edited December 29, 2015 by VK3DQ

[mariposa777]

 

The insurance company could not understand that I had no access to either a fax or the internet and a printer .. said they could do nothing for me .. all claims have to go by registered mail for approval so at the time of the emergency they provided no help at all

 

.......

 

Regards

John

 

This is pretty alarming to me - I pay a lot of attention to the promise of emergency assistance made by my insurer and it does seem that it rarely plays out as advertised.

 

Assuming that you have one of their standard policies i would have expected the kind of help listed on the page below to kick in and assist you with travel arrangments etc. One would expect to be able to access this without having to initiate a claim process.

 

http://www.insureandgo.com.au/travel-insurance/24-hour-emergency-assistance.html

 

There was a thread some time back about a solo cunard passenger put off in Belgium after suffering a stroke - her emergency assistance did get her home but it took a couple days for them to have someone on the ground to bring her home. She had to pay quite a large hospital bill up front.

[VK3DQ]

Hi Folks

 

Princess Cruises facilitated a telephone call allowing my wife to call me from the ship

 

She and the MIL are fine and enjoying their cruise

 

I am much relieved after speaking to her

 

Hopefully I will be able to resolve all other issues shortly

 

I was contacted by Julie from Sydney who is part of their care team

 

 

I am awaiting further telephone calls from Princess

 

I will keep you all informed as to progress

 

Thank you all for your support and good wishes

 

 

regards John

 

PS Mike your message was NOT passed on to my wife .. she is going to have words about that , also a message delivered to the ship by the New Zealand police was NOT passed on to my wife

 

Best John

Edited December 29, 2015 by VK3DQ

[Aus Traveller]

John,

I hope the support and expressions of good wishes here have made your time alone at home less lonely. :D It looks like a few more people on the Golden Princess have also dropped the ball.

[Hawka]

if they did not pass one messages from a kind hearted sole let alone the police that is not good at all those manning the gates well and truly should have done so and if they had and the next person didn't that isn't good either .

[VK3DQ]

John,

I hope the support and expressions of good wishes here have made your time alone at home less lonely. :D It looks like a few more people on the Golden Princess have also dropped the ball.

 

Hi

 

I am lucky to have friends who have been baby sitting me , including one lady who helped me whilst the ambulance was delayed , I was in extreme pain and not able to cope at all..

 

Hopefully thats all in the past now but I have a friend here at home who is baby sitting me ... he's drinking all my coffee and eating the chocolate bikkies :D

 

Regards

John

Edited December 29, 2015 by VK3DQ

[NSWP]

Hi

 

I am lucky to have friends who have been baby sitting me , including one lady who helped me whilst the ambulance was delayed , I was in extreme pain and not able to cope at all..

 

Hopefully thats all in the past now but I have a friend here at home who is baby sitting me ... he's drinking all my coffee and eating the chocolate bikkies :D

 

Regards

John

Good luck to you John and don't let your good friend drink all your duty free scotch !!

 

Hope it all works out.

[VK3DQ]

if they did not pass one messages from a kind hearted sole let alone the police that is not good at all those manning the gates well and truly should have done so and if they had and the next person didn't that isn't good either .

 

Hi

 

Yes , I mentioned this to my wife, she will have words regarding the failure to pass those messages on ..

 

One issue to come out of this mess is that the lines of communication at times like this are in need of fixing..

 

I would be upset if this happened to someone else , its not all about me ,,, it could be someones father or mother ... there needs to be a policy that if someone is taken ashore sick then they should be accompanied at all times or at least off the ship with a LOCAL contact to call upon for help.

 

Regards

 

John

[Hawka]

Hi

 

Yes , I mentioned this to my wife, she will have words regarding the failure to pass those messages on ..

 

One issue to come out of this mess is that the lines of communication at times like this are in need of fixing..

 

I would be upset if this happened to someone else , its not all about me ,,, it could be someones father or mother ... there needs to be a policy that if someone is taken ashore sick then they should be accompanied at all times or at least off the ship with a LOCAL contact to call upon for help.

 

Regards

 

John

true , i posted an email earlier for you but not sure you saw it but by that stage i think Mike did that wonderful thing but if we had known that had not worked that email would have worked that i do know i was on the golden from 25thnov to 8thdec but sounds like it is getting sorted hopefully the insurance sorts its self out now

[VK3DQ]

true , i posted an email earlier for you but not sure you saw it but by that stage i think Mike did that wonderful thing but if we had known that had not worked that email would have worked that i do know i was on the golden from 25thnov to 8thdec but sounds like it is getting sorted hopefully the insurance sorts its self out now

 

Hi

I'm not to worried about the travel insurance I will submit a claim and see what happens .. but I will not cruise again without ready access to a large cash fund that I can draw against as needed

 

I'm thinking that something like $10,000 in reserve for a family of three would help until the insurance people were able to help.. however I will be VERY careful in my choice of insurance in future and will ask all the hard questions well in advance

 

If I cruise with princess again (IF) I will expect a cast iron statement from them that in the case of an emergency to any of us on board that they will look after us in a proper manner

 

I would advise anyone to seek the same statement , after all its what a "Consummate Host"would wish to do :)

 

Regards

John

[Opua Kiwi]

John,

 

Off topic....looking at the weather; your wife and her mum should have settled weather for inside Fiordland on Thurs, especially Milford.

[Hawka]

i used medibank private travel insurance if that helps for next time

i asked heaps of questions before i took it out ,

and i would say give Princess a go again i hear more good reports then bad , in the end it is your choice but hopefully next time you have a way better experience at cruising no matter who you cruise with ,

and sadly with the medical side of it i had heard it was pay up front [cruise card ] and claim after that part i knew about , had enough on my card in case but didn't need at least there was a lass on my cruise who's feet swelled up blood test is about 200 they send results to the U.S [probably why that dear as satellite internet isn't cheap for them or the passengers all up for that one visit was about $400 with stuff to take and put on feet

she was meant to see him again next day but not sure if she went down to do so

 

hope you are getting better and you find out what caused your pain soon

[VK3DQ]

John,

 

Off topic....looking at the weather; your wife and her mum should have settled weather for inside Fiordland on Thurs, especially Milford.

 

Hi

 

Thanks for that, we have been though twice but it will be a first for the MIL , I'm sure she will enjoy it.

 

Our first time the weather was perfect , the second time in rain and cloud , quite a sight

 

Best Regards

John

[Hawka]

John,

 

Off topic....looking at the weather; your wife and her mum should have settled weather for inside Fiordland on Thurs, especially Milford.

 

that will be good she will enjoy that hope they get into dusky too we missed dusky but got doubtful thompson and milford

[Hawka]

Hi

 

Thanks for that, we have been through twice but it will be a first for the MIL , I'm sure she will enjoy it.

 

Our first time the weather was perfect , the second time in rain and cloud , quite a sight

 

Best Regards

John

 

it is good to see both sides of Milford , i was lucky to in 1998 i stayed the night on one of the little ships at milford and it was sunny one day wet the next with waterfalls and all was a lovely sight to see

Edited December 29, 2015 by Hawka