A "MUST" read on RCCL's board.... "When things go wrong"

[Coral]

I know this is the Princess board but there is a MUST READ on RCCL's board with a lot of lessons that we could all learn from when things go wrong disembarking on a cruise ship in a foreign country (and missing your flight) due to reasons beyond your control.

 

I usually only read the Alaska and Princess boards and am posting this because I know many others on this board probably only read a few boards also and may have missed this story. I am glad someone pointed it out to me.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=249454

 

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I really hope this thread doesn't get pulled - I know it has nothing to do with Princess but it is a very good lesson that we can all learn from (and unfortunatley, it could probably happen on any cruise line).

[imsulin2]

Good post, Coral. I've been following the thread/s about this and agree with you comnpletely! It could happen on any cruise line, and it's the type of situation we should all keep in mind. Thanks, Coral!

[Logie]

I happened upon this the other night and can't recall reading a story even close to this one before. I can't gaurantee that I will always do a post cruise night, but I sure will have a international cell phone for emergencies. What a mess to say the least.

[jbond]

I was on that cruise and it really was a mess. An extra night post cruise would have helped in this situation, but it is not the answer. The strike could have gone on for another 24 hours and that would have killed that solution. I had an international cell phone and it proved it's worth several times over. The other item that you should never leave home without, is travel insurance. It has really paid off this time.

[Coral]

jbond - I recognize your name from being on various cruise boards through out the years. Thank you also for sharing your experiences on this situation.

 

What brand of cell phone do you have? I would not have thought that would be important when traveling overseas but I can tell you that I will not leave for Europe with out one on my next trip.

[jbond]

I have a Modal. The website is http://www.modal.com It's a onetime buy. I bought the worldwide one for $99. There are no monthly fees, you just pay a fee if you use it. Last year we were on Serenade of the Seas and my wife's sister died. Our kids had big problems contacting us. They kept getting cut off. It cost $79 to just leave us a message and it took two days. We figured out that we needed a better system.

This phone worked really well. Several of us managed to use it for our flights back home and contacting family. If we never use it again it was worth it.

[imsulin2]

jbond - just want to let you know that I have appreciated all of your posts, and truly sympathize with you! You went through an ordeal that none of us would ever want to experience! It just makes me re-think if I want to purchase an International Calling Plan with cingular the next time I travel! And...I also never cruise or travel without trip insurance. You had a terrible experience, and - although I am going on an RCI cruise next April - I will say that RCI really messed up on this one!

[Strawberry]

Jbond - I went to the Modal site and could not find anything about the world wide cell phone you mention that you purchased for $79. Could you provide further details on where on the Modal site to go for info?

Thanks!

[firstcruise05]

Jbond - I went to the Modal site and could not find anything about the world wide cell phone you mention that you purchased for $79. Could you provide further details on where on the Modal site to go for info?

Thanks!

 

I think he said that it was $99 for the Modal phone. The $79 was the amount of money that his kids used to try and find them before they bought the phone...probably by using their credit card for shore to ship calls. HtH, I haven't been to the website yet but if I ever do an international cruise, that will be one of the things that I am sure to bring!!! I too learned alot from those posts...and despite some of the negativity on the RC board towards these passengers, there are many of us who are grateful that they posted about their experience. Some very important lessons were taken from the situation.

[Coral]

I had problems also finding the phone on the website posted. jbond - let us know if there is a better link.....

[sultan_sfo]

www.mobal.com

[Mitchie872]

Thank you very much for posting this Cora.

Thanks to JBond for the info on the phones and to sultan also.

[Coral]

Thanks to JBond for the info on the phones and to sultan also.[/size][/font]

 

I agree - I thought the phones were pretty reasonable and since you only pay when you use it.....I was looking at phones about 9 months ago when looking to go to Russia and didn't come across this phone. Again, thank you.

[spongerob]

We used a rented cell phone from Planetfone this last summer. It turned out to be quite valuable when friends of ours received a very upsetting message from home and did not want to rely on e-mail. One of Planetfone's nice features was a 1-800 number that people back home in the US could call to reach you, toll free.

[GloriaF]

I am going to look into both modal and planetfone when I finish this message. I know that if you have Cingular for your regular cell phone, you can add an International Calling Plan to your normal plan for $5.99/month, but it is only for Europe and not the Carib or wherever else you may be lucky enough to be traveling. $5.99/month additional seems like a cheap way to stay in touch - has anyone used it and does it actually work as well as Cingular does in the states?

[Coral]

....ignore..

[jbond]

Thanks sultan, it's http://www.mobal.com, not http://www.modal.com. I got my "b's" and "d's" mixed up. Sorry about that.

We've done three cruises in the last three months and we've used the phone in Mexico, Panama Canal, Caribbean and the Mediterranean. We used it in the Med from the ship while we were at sea.

[sultan_sfo]

There have been many posts about the delayed arrival in FLL (10/09) and the subsequent impact on the 10/09 Carib cruise. But it may be appropriate to post here how Princess handled the delay. It was a little easier for Princess to manage the delay becaous we would be in USA rather than in Europe as experienced by JBond.

 

All of us knew on the previous day (Oct 8) that the rough seas on leaving NY (Oct 7) meant that Star Princess would not make it on time. The Bridge made an announcement about 2 pm (Oct 8)that Star Princess would dock around 1pm on Oct 9 instead of 7 am. And around 4pm a letter giving instructions was distributed to all the cabins.

 

1. Princess would take care of all those who had booked Air through Princess including all hotel costs.

 

2. For all passengers, Princess posted on the TV the telephone numbers of all the airlines. Satelllite phone calls from the cabin to airlines, home, and hotels would be free to all passengers to make their own arrangements. Internet would also be free.

 

3. Everyone was advised to keep all the receipts related to the delay. The Princess memo implied (but did not explicitly state) that Princess would also pick up the tab for those with non-Princess Air.

 

4. We (non-Princess Air) started callilng Delta from the cabin but because there are only a limited number of Satellite lines could not get the outside line. Finally around 10 pm we got through to Delta. The person to whom we ended up being transferred was so courteous, sympathetic, and polite. She noted down that we would not make our 12:45 pm flight. She told us that while she could book us on the 5pm flight it would cost us additional $450 each. However, if we waited until 2 pm, and if there were seats available then, we would be charged only $25 per person. But the tone was encouraging that we would get on the flight if we waited until 2 pm to rebook. (We did have delay insurance which would have covered upto $500).

 

5. I recalled reading on this board that if one is in a hurry to request the porter in FLL to get us to a cab. As soon as we found the porter (4 suitcases + 2 carry-ons -- we were on 27 days B2B), I asked him whether he could get us to a waiting cab. His reply with a smile "If you take care of me I will take care of you". So I asked him outright -- would $10 take care? He said yes. We got to the airport ahead of the crowd. And there were seats on the 5 pm flight and Delta did not charge us anything extra! Later the flight was full. Did we feel lucky!

 

6. Moral: Always plan to arrive one day before and plan to leave one day after (as most of CC friends on board had done) if one is doing one's own air.

 

/Sultan

[Logie]

I was on the Golden in May when the rough seas delayed our embarcation by a day in NYC. I booked a new flight on line, Princess gave me free phone calls to work and cat sitter and sent me a refund for the new flight after I returned home.

 

This was all accomplished in a matter of an hour two and then I happily enjoyed the "free" extra day on my cruise.

 

I love Princess!!! :)