Coral Princess Oct/25/05 Sailing

[Paul]

I have read many threads on this forum and have not read one regarding the events that occured prior to and until, the 10/25/05 sailing took place. I am frankly dumbfounded that nobody has responded and possibly I have mistaken this forum as not a place to inform cruisers of just how bad one can be treated when disaster strikes and and your long made plans of a 5 star vacation for 10 days is hampered by one "Wilma".

Let me try to explain the event and how it played out.

As we all knew and watched on the television Wilma hammered Cancoun and also Cozumel for 24 to 36 hrs. leaving massive devastation. It then made its way into the Gulf of Mexico and was on course to hit South West Florida. Having booked on the Coral with friends from Scotland and also Florida, for the 10/25/05 sailing we started to call Princess to find out what was going to happen to our cruise. We were told nothing has changed. When asked if the storm hits Florida on Sunday as predicted what effect would that have on our Tuesday sailing. Answer; no effect everything is as it was before. Checked out Princess web site: no information. Called our travel agent and was informed that she has been calling even their emergency number and gets the same story nothing has changed.

Wilma comes ashore at Everglades City 50 miles south of Fort Myers FL. Florida Power is overwelmed with over 2 million coustomers without power as far north as Sarasota. Wilma continues across the state and devastates Fort Laurderdale and also Miami and Key West. Comunications now is reduced to Cell phones but with no way to recharge the battery every call is critical.

A call is put into the Cruise Connection Bus Co. who was to transport a bus full of people to Fort Laurderdale. They have been told the same thing "nothing has changed"; we are informed the "bus will pick you up at 9:15 Tuesday AM as planned".

Bus leaves on time and 3 hrs. later arrives at the entrance to Port Everglades;only to be told the port is closed until further notice. Also Fort Laurderdale Airport as well as Miami airport is closed. People in cars that had arrived at the port from Orlando were also turned away. These people were suposed to fly to Fort Laurderdale but due to closing were dropped off in Orlando with no better information than we had or their travel agents. Since all of South Florida was evacuated and power was off in most all of Miami and Fort Laurderdale, hotel rooms were non existent. All those people had to drive back to Orlando before they could find lodging. On Wednesday our travel agent phoned and told us we would be leaving from port of Miami on Thursday, and that Princess would refund 1/3 of our fare.

Royal Caribbean on the other hand, had hourly updates before the storm even hit on their we site, with the option to cancel and a full refund + 25% off another cruise.

My wife and I are Platinum members and have completed 7 cruises with Princess with a total 18 cruises with other lines. We are not complainers and have used this forum in the past to ask questions only. We did feel as did our traveling friends and countless passengers that we all paid our money in good faith and realize that this was an act of nature not created by Princess. The very least they could have done was to keep their travel agents informed, even if they had never intended to inform their passengers.

It has become painfully obvious that the wonderful Cruise line we both loved and enjoyed for so many years has sucumed to the influence of their owner Carnival cruise line.