Will Princess follow any of RCCL's new protocols for cruising?

[memoak]

Remember they do not allow minors to leave the ship without adults. They can pretty much make any rules they want. Their ship their rules just like state and local laws

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Daniel A said:

What I'm saying is that they cannot physically stop you from getting off the ship.

 

Just try to leave the ship at the end of a cruise and there is a problem with the settlement of your onboard account.

 

You will not be allowed to disembark until your onboard account problem is resolved.

 

 

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

 

Just try to leave the ship at the end of a cruise and there is a problem with the settlement of your onboard account.

 

You will not be allowed to disembark until your onboard account problem is resolved.

 

 

Just curious at this point.  Do you have direct knowledge of any specific instance where someone was physically restrained from getting off the ship?

 

Don't take this question as a challenge to you, but I'd like to see when this has ever actually happened.

Edited October 30, 2020 by Daniel A

[caribill]

6 minutes ago, Daniel A said:

Just curious at this point.  Do you have direct knowledge of any specific instance where someone was physically restrained from getting off the ship?

 

 

 

No.

 

There have been numerous posts in the past by posters saying they when they tried to disembark they were told they had to go to the Passenger Services Desk first, but nobody posted that they challenged this and tried to leave the ship anyway.

[ontheweb]

And try to get off before immigration clears the ship and see how far you get.

[Daniel A]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

And try to get off before immigration clears the ship and see how far you get.

Good point!  But this is a matter of apples and oranges.  There is a huge difference between civil authorities and a corporation denying disembarkation.  A good example was this past Spring when several civil authorities denied disembarkation and instead quarantined ALL ship's PAX due to an epidemic.

 

The situation I was making my point about was I don't believe a cruise ship has the ability to let some passengers disembark because they bought a product from the cruise line and detaining all the others who didn't make those purchases.

Edited October 30, 2020 by Daniel A

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Good point!  But this is a matter of apples and oranges.  There is a huge difference between civil authorities and a corporation denying disembarkation.  A good example was this past Spring when several civil authorities denied disembarkation and instead quarantined ALL ship's PAX due to an epidemic.

 

The situation I was making my point about was I don't believe a cruise ship has the ability to let some passengers disembark because they bought a product from the cruise line and detaining all the others who didn't make those purchases.

Exactly how are they going to get off the ship? Those with excursion tickets will be led to a place to disembark. There will be no place available for those without those tickets.

[caribill]

7 hours ago, Daniel A said:

 

The situation I was making my point about was I don't believe a cruise ship has the ability to let some passengers disembark because they bought a product from the cruise line and detaining all the others who didn't make those purchases.

 

Princess sure tried to when we docked in St. Petersburg. They did not want to let any passengers who had independent excursions off the ship until all Princess excursion passengers had made it through Russian immigration on shore.

[Daniel A]

13 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Exactly how are they going to get off the ship? Those with excursion tickets will be led to a place to disembark. There will be no place available for those without those tickets.

My experience with disembarkation was that while PAX were waiting in the theater for their group to be called other non excursion PAX were disembarking on their own without the need to go to a staging area.

 

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Princess sure tried to when we docked in St. Petersburg. They did not want to let any passengers who had independent excursions off the ship until all Princess excursion passengers had made it through Russian immigration on shore.

I can see establishing a priority disembarkation system being used in order to establish an efficient means to disembark PAX.  Case in point is the example you just gave where the local civil authorities were causing a delay to enter the country.  Another good example is where elite PAX get priority disembarkation when tenders (water shuttles??) are being used.  But in both of those situations, nobody was being denied disembarkation at all, PAX were just being disembarked in a timely, orderly fashion.

[caribill]

Princess statement about the CDC order:

 

October 30, 2020 5:30PM PT

Princess Cruises will continue to work with the CDC on an eventual return to guest cruise operations. We are evaluating the CDC’s new order that sets out the conditions under which cruising can resume, but there are a significant number of requirements that must be evaluated in the context of our plans to resume operations. We ask for your patience as we complete our review. We are committed to communicating more details as soon as possible.

[Reader0108598]

On 10/27/2020 at 8:51 AM, Iamcruzin said:

Elevators aren't an issue for us. We spend most of the time in the evening on the lower decks like most. I don't book a room on a floor higher than what DW is willing to do stairs. On sea days we spend all day on the upper decks so it's just one trip up and down. I really think that they need a dedicated elevator just for those with mobility issues during this situation.

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Reader0108598
delete

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Daniel A said:

My experience with disembarkation was that while PAX were waiting in the theater for their group to be called other non excursion PAX were disembarking on their own without the need to go to a staging area.

 

You are comparing apples and oranges. In the pre Covid days passengers could get off the ship without a ship excursion either by just walking off or meeting a private excursion. Hence, other passengers disembarked as the passengers with ship excursions waited to be called in the various staging areas. Now if there is no choice except the ship's excursions, they will not set up an area for any other passengers to have their cards scanned and then disembark.

[Daniel A]

35 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Now if there is no choice except the ship's excursions, they will not set up an area for any other passengers to have their cards scanned and then disembark.

Fine.  The cruise line can forcibly detain you onboard the ship for as long as they want and there's nothing you can do about it.  BTW how much force is allowed to be used against a PAX to stop them from leaving a ship's excursion to go off on their own?  Last I saw they don't forcibly restrain the PAX, they just refuse re-boarding.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Daniel A said:

Fine.  The cruise line can forcibly detain you onboard the ship for as long as they want and there's nothing you can do about it.  BTW how much force is allowed to be used against a PAX to stop them from leaving a ship's excursion to go off on their own?  Last I saw they don't forcibly restrain the PAX, they just refuse re-boarding.

Who said anything about forcibly detaining passengers? What I said is that only the passengers with tickets to cruise excursions will be allowed to get off. There will be no place open for other passengers to disembark from the ship, no force necessary.

 

And as someone else pointed out, this is allowed in the cruise contract signed by passengers.

 

[paul929207]

One time we met a situation where pre-planned groups were the only way off the ship. We were not docked, so controlling  passengers was simplified. 

 

This occurred  when we visited Komodo Island. This is an Indonesian island inhabited by about 1800 people  and about 2200 of the dragons. Princess offered tours, but they  could only accommodate 400 passengers.  

In addition there was one pre-planned private tour (Thank you Janelle). There were about 20 of us. The remaining 260 passengers could not get off and were not happy about it.

 

For those not familiar with the Komodo Dragons, the are about 12 feet long. The can out run people and on occasion will eat us. All the tours were led by a park ranger. There was a ranger at the front, in the middle and at the end of the group.

[Steelers36]

22 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Princess sure tried to when we docked in St. Petersburg. They did not want to let any passengers who had independent excursions off the ship until all Princess excursion passengers had made it through Russian immigration on shore.

We did the Baltic voyage on the REGAL in 2019, so very recently, and we had no problem disembarking there to meet our SPB private tour in plenty of time. 

 

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

We did the Baltic voyage on the REGAL in 2019, so very recently, and we had no problem disembarking there to meet our SPB private tour in plenty of time. 

 

We did our Baltic voyage in 2007. At the time I remember reading posts that the cruise lines tried to hold back all not using their excursions until a lawyer sued them. And we were able to get off in the first wave. Our group of 10 agreed where to meet before disembarkation in St. Petersburg so we could do that.

 

Since then, and I do not remember the date but it was I believe sometime in the last few years, the cruise lines got the permission of the Russian government to have their excursion passengers go through immigration first. IIRC, the lawsuits were on the basis of this was a function for the Russian authorities, not the cruise line to determine. I also read that the private tour operators then adjusted their tour times to take this into account, and things ran smoothly.

 

I have no doubt that you were able to meet your tour group in plenty of time in 2019, but wonder if you were allowed to immediately disembark or did you have to wait to get off until after the ship's groups.

[paul929207]

We ere on the Pacific Princess 2 years ago and had no problem getting off in St Petersburg for our private tours with Alla Tours.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

We did our Baltic voyage in 2007. At the time I remember reading posts that the cruise lines tried to hold back all not using their excursions until a lawyer sued them. And we were able to get off in the first wave. Our group of 10 agreed where to meet before disembarkation in St. Petersburg so we could do that.

 

Since then, and I do not remember the date but it was I believe sometime in the last few years, the cruise lines got the permission of the Russian government to have their excursion passengers go through immigration first. IIRC, the lawsuits were on the basis of this was a function for the Russian authorities, not the cruise line to determine. I also read that the private tour operators then adjusted their tour times to take this into account, and things ran smoothly.

 

I have no doubt that you were able to meet your tour group in plenty of time in 2019, but wonder if you were allowed to immediately disembark or did you have to wait to get off until after the ship's groups.

 

Hi.  You are testing my memory, but I happen to still have some documents.  SPB did warn us about generic cruise operations where their tour guests get off first.  I do recall that on Day 1, only certain numbers of passengers were let off at a time so as to not swarm the terminal building or be crowded on the dock.  I think they were letting ~75 off at a time and then the next group as the line diminished. 

 

Here is SPB info from the electronic documents sent to us:

 

Tour Ticket Starting Times Information
1. The "Starting Time" for Day 1 represents the beginning of a 1 hour meeting window.
2. Do not worry, you will not miss your tour. Flat-rate group tours will be filled up on a first 
come first serve basis. As soon as you disembark we will group you with others, and once your group 
is full the tour will begin.
3. SPB-Tours guests will be allowed to disembark after cruise ship tour guests—our starting time 
takes this into account. Please follow the disembarkation instructions from your ship.
4. The time required for disembarkation can vary greatly depending on the number of ships in port. 
t panic, be patient, we will be aware of the delays and we will see you
when have completed the immigration check
 

Our tour start time was 8:30am.  I do not have Patters to tell me what the posted disembarkation time was.  I do know that we and our friends would have been in line in good time to be off the ship.  I don't recall it being anything that was delayed nor anything to sweat over in regards to the tour.  I think we were among the first to arrive and meet our tour van outside the terminal.  I don't recall how long we were there before leaving as all were advised to be ready early.  I'd like to say that we left before 9:30 (the one hour window), but of course we would have left only when all others arrived.  With SPB, we were in a small group, but I did not organize a full van - we were with other folks.  All I know for sure is that we had the full day treatment and we had a fantastic guide who was with us on both days. 

 

I checked my WhatsApp history and it appears that with Princess, they had all the ship tours off by 8:30am latest - probably sooner.  I don't recall if we were using a different gangway to the pier than the ship tours - could be as with the large ships (i.e. Regal), there are always two gangways for sure.  I just know we were up early enough to have breakfast and have a good spot in line to get off in good time.  We were probably off before or around 8:30am and it did not affect our touring at all.

I would say initial passenger off-loading began around 7:00am latest.  With the private tour, you have a more reasonable start to the day. 

 

So, you are correct in that we couldn't or didn't disembark very early at 7am-ish, but that did not at all affect our day and I wouldn't have done it another way.

 

 

 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

Hi.  You are testing my memory, but I happen to still have some documents.  SPB did warn us about generic cruise operations where their tour guests get off first.  I do recall that on Day 1, only certain numbers of passengers were let off at a time so as to not swarm the terminal building or be crowded on the dock.  I think they were letting ~75 off at a time and then the next group as the line diminished. 

 

Here is SPB info from the electronic documents sent to us:

 

Tour Ticket Starting Times Information
1. The "Starting Time" for Day 1 represents the beginning of a 1 hour meeting window.
2. Do not worry, you will not miss your tour. Flat-rate group tours will be filled up on a first 
come first serve basis. As soon as you disembark we will group you with others, and once your group 
is full the tour will begin.
3. SPB-Tours guests will be allowed to disembark after cruise ship tour guests—our starting time 
takes this into account. Please follow the disembarkation instructions from your ship.
4. The time required for disembarkation can vary greatly depending on the number of ships in port. 
t panic, be patient, we will be aware of the delays and we will see you
when have completed the immigration check
 

Our tour start time was 8:30am.  I do not have Patters to tell me what the posted disembarkation time was.  I do know that we and our friends would have been in line in good time to be off the ship.  I don't recall it being anything that was delayed nor anything to sweat over in regards to the tour.  I think we were among the first to arrive and meet our tour van outside the terminal.  I don't recall how long we were there before leaving as all were advised to be ready early.  I'd like to say that we left before 9:30 (the one hour window), but of course we would have left only when all others arrived.  With SPB, we were in a small group, but I did not organize a full van - we were with other folks.  All I know for sure is that we had the full day treatment and we had a fantastic guide who was with us on both days. 

 

I checked my WhatsApp history and it appears that with Princess, they had all the ship tours off by 8:30am latest - probably sooner.  I don't recall if we were using a different gangway to the pier than the ship tours - could be as with the large ships (i.e. Regal), there are always two gangways for sure.  I just know we were up early enough to have breakfast and have a good spot in line to get off in good time.  We were probably off before or around 8:30am and it did not affect our touring at all.

I would say initial passenger off-loading began around 7:00am latest.  With the private tour, you have a more reasonable start to the day. 

 

So, you are correct in that we couldn't or didn't disembark very early at 7am-ish, but that did not at all affect our day and I wouldn't have done it another way.

 

 

 

I am not at all surprised that you had an excellent guide with SPB. We used Alla, and our guide informed us that she had gone through all the requirements to open her own agency the following tourist season. She, Viktoria, started SPB the next year. She was excellent as a guide, and I have only read excellent reviews of her agency. As I said, it does not surprise me one bit.

[caribill]

18 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Since then, and I do not remember the date but it was I believe sometime in the last few years, the cruise lines got the permission of the Russian government to have their excursion passengers go through immigration first. IIRC, the lawsuits were on the basis of this was a function for the Russian authorities, not the cruise line to determine.

 

 

 

When we were in St Pete there were about 8 immigration lines. Princess (not Russia) put up signs indicating all but one of the lines was for Princess tours and only that one line for independent tours.

 

We were on an independent tour (Red October -- recommend them) and just got on the shortest line marked for Princess tours. The immigration agents did not care an iota what type of tour you were on.

[ontheweb]

The cruise lines have in the past done everything they could think of to try to scare passengers away from private tours in St. Petersburg. They have constantly said you need a visa unless you go on their tours conveniently ignoring that the private tours supply the same visa waiver that their tours supply. I think if ships start going back to St. Petersburg, they will use Covid as an excuse to allow only ship excursions.

 

And good for you not allowing them to delay you off the ship because you booked an independent tour. As you stated, Russian immigration does not care how your visa is covered as long as the requirement is covered.