Grand Bus STRANDS passengers 2/11/06

[organizedhome]

Just when we thought it couldn't get worse as passengers on the infamous Grand Turn/Incident cruise on the Grand Princess, it did.

 

48 passengers on a Princess transfer spent nearly 5 hours on a bus with an impaired/incompetent/untrained driver, trying to make the 2-hour trip to Hobby Airport/Bush International Airport--and the nightmare ended when the driver abandoned all of us at Hobby and drove away in an empty bus.

 

44 of us were headed to IAH (Bush), and we were forced to pay for taxis and shuttle transportation for the 40-minute trip.

 

This is AFTER the bus driver circled ground streets in Houston for over two hours, obviously lost.

 

This is AFTER she told passengers who inquired that she was simply "following the route to the ship".

 

This is AFTER passengers called the bus supervisor to report that we were circling residential neighborhoods, that the driver appeared to be lost.

 

This is AFTER the driver spent 45 minutes on the phone with her "home base", evidently trying to figure out where she was and how to get back to the freeway.

 

This is AFTER she became lost even in the Hobby entrance, and left the airport again without reaching the terminal.

 

This is AFTER she attempted a U-turn in cross traffic, and required four back-and-fill maneuvers to turn around. Traffic was blocked across four lanes.

 

This is AFTER she hit a light post while turning a corner.

 

This is AFTER she told police officers that someone had "assaulted" her, and that she didn't feel safe.

 

No, WE didn't feel safe. After the U-turn and accident with the pole, my physician husband decided the woman had to be impaired. We planned to leave the bus at the first opportunity for our own safety.

 

There was no need. She finally reached Hobby FOUR FULL HOURS after leaving Galevston. She stopped the bus. She pulled out the luggage. She complained to the police, and then she drove away.

 

STRANDING 44 passengers far from their destination.

 

 

I am a Platinum Princess cruiser, and have cruised other lines as well, taking 13 cruises since November, 1999.

 

It is my opinion that the Galveston port does not have appropriate or sufficient ground transportation capability to handle normal port traffic.

 

The "turn" or "Incident" was traumatic enough. Princess' poor service, food and facilities were disappointing enough. Seeing this cruise line enter "full legal defensive mode" while onboard, refusing to release medical records to those passengers injured in the "Incident" was shocking.

 

But placing 48 passengers on a bus with a (take your pick) impaired/untrained/unqualified/new driver who couldn't even find the airport, who abandoned the entire group before reaching the final destination, and who had the absolute gall to accuse us of assault?

 

This goes beyond cutting corners. This goes beyond protecting their corporate heinies.

 

Cheerleaders may make of this what they wish. You weren't there, my friends.

 

For 48 of us, a frightening beginning came to a nightmare end. I don't believe this Platinum member is going to bother to take another cruise on Princess cruise lines.

[Casshew]

my physician husband decided the woman had to be impaired.

 

anyone can recognize an impaired person, it doesn't take an MD.

 

I am wondering why the passengers did not mutiny and take over the bus?

[madelinerose]

Princess - Strike 2. :rolleyes: Very sad.

[TexasMom2]

My goodness. The route from Galveston to Hobby then IAH is not that difficult. The signage is very good on the freeway and feeder streets to Hobby. At least you are home and safe. Please don't give up on cruising.

[brn2crz]

Wow...

 

I really do not know what to say....What an event...

 

I know you guys had a rotten time given all that happend..

I gotta say though.We have cruised out of Galveston..7 times....(RCI & Carnival)

And have never ever had embarkation or debarkation problen.I know there have been a few instances on both of those...But none to the degree that I have read/heard about on Princess:confused:

[spongerob]

Local transport is contracted...it's not Princess Bus Lines. Which doesn't make it any less traumatic for those involved, by the way, or relieve resonsibility for oversight of said contractor.

 

I'd have been livid.

[cnmiranda]

Ouch!!!!! I am sorry but the post read a little comically- I didn't think things could get much worse after reading other passenger comments. :) I don't agree with your onboard comments regarding the food and facilities, but I do agree the crew went into "protect us from lawsuits by giving no information" mode. I am so sorry that happened to all of you. I guess I'm a true die hard because I still like Princess:) Cheers and sorry again about your situation.

[Druke I]

Very frustrating indeed - but as Spongerob pointed out - contracted company, not Princess Bus Lines.

[organizedhome]

Gee, I didn't find it "comical" in the slightest. The experience was frightening.

 

We didn't "take over the bus", but we did just about everything else we could. Multiple calls to the bus line. We considered calling 911, only to be told that if we did, we'd all be stopped and searched--and by the end, we were ready to do that, just to get the bus to stop.

 

All I can tell you is my experience. The dawning realization that we were circling the same streets. The rising questions back and forth among passengers.

 

The kind woman who went to talk with the driver, gently, to find out what might be the matter.

 

The travel agent who phoned and phoned and phoned to try to reach someone, anyone, who could rectify the situation.

 

The tension as more and more of us saw our flight times come, and go--and yet we were still circling the same rough neighborhoods, farther and farther away from the airport.

 

After the 4 Hobby fliers knew they'd missed their flight, we began to ask if the driver just couldn't take the rest of us on to IAH. "No."

 

We discussed passing the hat to buy a taxi for the four Hobby fliers, stopping at a downtown hotel, and sending them on so the rest of us could resume our trip to IAH. "No."

 

The bus management was not helpful. The driver, reacting to the tension in the bus, began losing her driving skills.

 

It was a deteriorating situation, and at no point could we have stepped in and stopped it until we reached Hobby.

 

Once there, we did.

 

But grabbing the wheel was not an option. We explored all others.

 

So rah-rah-rah--but we purchased this transfer from the cruise line, and will look to the cruise line for compensation.

[TexasMom2]

Very frustrating indeed - but as Spongerob pointed out - contracted company, not Princess Bus Lines.

 

So if you purchase Princess transfers and something like this happens and the service isn't fulfilled, who do you contact with your complaint?

[cnmiranda]

Gee, I didn't find it "comical" in the slightest. The experience was frightening.

 

We didn't "take over the bus", but we did just about everything else we could. Multiple calls to the bus line. We considered calling 911, only to be told that if we did, we'd all be stopped and searched--and by the end, we were ready to do that, just to get the bus to stop.

 

All I can tell you is my experience. The dawning realization that we were circling the same streets. The rising questions back and forth among passengers.

 

The kind woman who went to talk with the driver, gently, to find out what might be the matter.

 

The travel agent who phoned and phoned and phoned to try to reach someone, anyone, who could rectify the situation.

 

The tension as more and more of us saw our flight times come, and go--and yet we were still circling the same rough neighborhoods, farther and farther away from the airport.

 

After the 4 Hobby fliers knew they'd missed their flight, we began to ask if the driver just couldn't take the rest of us on to IAH. "No."

 

We discussed passing the hat to buy a taxi for the four Hobby fliers, stopping at a downtown hotel, and sending them on so the rest of us could resume our trip to IAH. "No."

 

The bus management was not helpful. The driver, reacting to the tension in the bus, began losing her driving skills.

 

It was a deteriorating situation, and at no point could we have stepped in and stopped it until we reached Hobby.

 

Once there, we did.

 

But grabbing the wheel was not an option. We explored all others.

 

So rah-rah-rah--but we purchased this transfer from the cruise line, and will look to the cruise line for compensation.

 

 

On no, please don't take that the wrong way Orgainzedhome, I was just amazed to read that the cruise could have gotten any worse for Grand Passengers. I'm sorry if you took it that way, I just meant that it was almost comical to see that things had gotten worse after disembarking. I would have been worried and upset also.

 

We're sending a letter to Princess too, I feel obligated to share my expereince, don't ever want this to happen to anyone else either.

[Druke I]

Texasmom

 

You still contact Princess - and they can then "dump" the company. The point that Spongerob and I were making was that the driver and company were not Princess, but contract.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of things can go wrong on trips.

[spongerob]

You still contact Princess - and they can then "dump" the company. The point that Spongerob and I were making was that the driver and company were not Princess, but contract.

 

That's my point, too. Unfortunately, Princess will still bear responsibility since they hired the contractor, so they should make the passengers on that bus 'whole' by whatever means necessary, then take it out of the hide of the contractor.

 

I had a case like this last year. A third-party supplier screwed up on my job, and we had to cough up some serious dollars to correct the situation and salvage our reputation. Resolution is still pending...it's one of the hazards of doing business.

[TexasMom2]

Thanks...people checking here should know they need to contact Princess for a refund if they were stranded at the wrong airport and had to pay additional to get to the right airport, plus they may want to recoup any costs to change flights if they had a reasonable chance of making their original flight if the driver hadn't gotten lost. What a mess.

[ZGirl]

We called Princess today to complain about our disembarkation and bus transfer issues. They told us to write a letter with all the details and gave us an address to mail it to. Let me know if you need it.

 

Melissa

[Charliesmom]

This is an example of why it is necessar to document all of your extra expenses when things go wrong.

 

In August, we got caught in a British Air strike. We ended up taking the Eurostar to Paris from London, taking a limo from the train station to the airport and then a flight to Helsinki from Paris. We stayed overnight in an expensive hotel in London, even though we had an already paid for hotel in Helsinki.

 

We submitted all of the receipts to British Air and they paid every penny.

 

Contact the Executive Suite at Princess headquarters on this. You might find that you get better treatment that way.

 

Roberta

[Snoozeman]

I am so sorry this happened to you, especially after all the other events.

 

This is just unbelievable!!

[cruzegirl]

What a terrible ending for you guys after all you went through on the cruise.. And then an insane bus driver to boot...... Awful...

And it doesn't matter that Princess employees weren't personally driving the bus for transfers.... Princess hired/contracted them to provide a service, Princess is responsible.. Maybe they should find another company.... But they should refund everyone's transfers who were on that bus to say the least..

[cruise182]

At the time of the incident the bus company was working for Princess. I do not care if they are actual employees or contracted by Princess. End result, Princess looks bad and there reputation is tarnished. Everyone that works fro Princess are contracted to a certain extent...Correct? If not, why do i always here about employees fulfilling their contracts?

[stephenandrew]

Very frustrating indeed - but as Spongerob pointed out - contracted company, not Princess Bus Lines.

 

 

May not be Princess Bus Lines, but there is no doubt who is responsible for making the individuals whole as a result of the contracted company's poor performance---that would be Princess Cruise Lines.

[zydecocruiser]

A decade or so ago I predicted that eventually major corporations will be reduced to a PO box and a bunch of overpaid good old boys in the board room. Everything else will have been outsourced because they will have figured out that they really have no core competancies. Typically, outsourcing goes to the low bidder. Corporations can outsource all they want, but will still share in the responsibility and liability.

 

On the Princess transfer I took to Hobby, even though the bus was full, we just sat until the powers that be said to go. The driver did not seem terribly familiar with the route to Hobby, but we did get there without a city tour.

 

I still do not understand why Princess mixes Hobby and Bush passengers on the same bus.

 

As a result of the delayed departure and the mis-routing of passengers, even more missed their flights than would have otherwise.

[ChrissyM_Cruiser]

I can not believe all the things that went wrong for those of you on the 2/4 Grand!

 

Organizedhome, I don't know what I would have done in your shoes, thank goodness you finally made it back home. Good luck with getting reimbursed.

 

Now I am so so glad that we spent the extra money and hired a Town Car for our upcoming cruise. Between it being Mardi Gras in Galveston and 3 ships at port that weekend, it's one less thing to have to worry about.

[TexasMom2]

I can not believe all the things that went wrong for those of you on the 2/4 Grand!

 

Organizedhome, I don't know what I would have done in your shoes, thank goodness you finally made it back home. Good luck with getting reimbursed.

 

Now I am so so glad that we spent the extra money and hired a Town Car for our upcoming cruise. Between it being Mardi Gras in Galveston and 3 ships at port that weekend, it's one less thing to have to worry about.

 

Crissy, are you checking in at the Hotel Galvez? Will your driver wait for you while you check in, then drive you to the pier? A lot of the complaints we heard on Dec 17 was that the buses from the Galvez to the ship took forever to fill. It would be more pleasant for you if you didn't take a bus.

[ChrissyM_Cruiser]

Actually, we're staying in Houston near the airport the night before, so the Town Car service is round trip from the hotel - pier, pier - IAH.

 

Thanks for the heads up though!

[TexasMom2]

I meant if there were three ships in port on the 25th, is ship check-in at the Hotel Galvez? If your driver drops you at the Galvez to check in, you will have to catch a Princess bus to the pier. It may cost extra but it would be nice if your driver would wait and drive you to the pier.