The worst cruise we have experienced.

[Steelers36]

Reading these troubles on the CB reminds me back pre-Covid of similar complaints about Grand (AP).

[MsSoCalCruiser]

1 hour ago, Astro Flyer said:

Glad we canceled our Caribbean Princess cruise before final payment…it’s just one of several reasons this Princess fan has canceled our future cruises & are exploring other cruise lines.

It’s just a short cruise but we are going to try the Navigator of the Seas. 

[geoherb]

I wish the OP would come back and answer the question where their room was. I'm sailing on the CB next month. When we sailed on it in 2017 (British Isles), it had the propulsion issues that made us late for Cobh. We had a toilet issue for a brief time. We saw the maintenance guy in the corridor, and he warned us not to use the toilet until he had a chance to fix the system. The problem affected a large section on our deck (Lido) and the one below ours. 

 

My cruise next month is nearly sold out. I'm still waiting for my cabin assignment. I booked an inside guarantee--so if I get what I booked, I won't have the luxury of keeping a balcony door open to help bring in fresh air. It seems like with the testing requirements, there should be some empty cabins.

[PacnGoNow]

17 hours ago, kcmufan said:

We booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess for our anniversary.

 

Sat. May 28th : We checked into our room and there was a strong smell of urine. Customer Service told us they were aware of the situation and it would be fixed shortly. They told us there were no other rooms to move us to when we asked. Sun.: Still smell of urine when we left for the day on Bahamas. We were told same as Saturday. Luckily when we returned from our day trip the smell was gone. However, our toilet wouldn’t flush when we pushed the flusher, but would randomly flush at odd times of the day for no reason. We informed our room steward and were told maintenance would come have a look and check it out.

Mon: Still no toilet flushing, so now we are using restrooms outside our stateroom. Can you imagine how inconvenient this is?? Went to Customer Service again and were told they would fix it. We asked, once again, for another room. Told none available again. This is impossible as other crew members said the ship was not full.

Tues: No smells and still toilet not fixed.

Wed: We came back to the room at noon time and there was a maintenance man in front of our door and the hallway smelled of sewer. It was awful. He said there was a pipe issue and they were working on the issue. We got what we needed and left. When we returned at 4, the smell was still there as were the workers. We changed and left. When we returned at 11pm, the smell was so putrid we had to open our balcony and room doors to keep from gagging. We called customer service and were told someone would come immediately to check out the situation. An hour later, someone came. He sniffed the room and said he knew there was an issue and would have someone get right on the problem. He wouldn’t give us another room, so we had to sleep with the balcony open. We hardly slept, both had headaches and were nauseous the next day.

Thurs: Complained AGAIN to Service desk…..told whole story. Nobody cared or offered any solutions. Smell in room alleviated some, but still pretty strong. Toilet still not flushing.

Fri: Still smells of sewer. While changing for dinner, my wife went to get her shoes and stepped into the closet into soggy wet carpet! Yes, it was raw sewage under the carpet in our room. All of her shoes were soaked and smelled of sewage. Called Customer Service while my wife went straight to the service desk. It took them 15 minutes to come and I left to go to the service desk. At the service desk, they tried to push my wife off again and she said she wasn’t moving until our situation was resolved. The young lady couldn’t care less that we were in this horrible situation. She kept trying to get her to move along so she could take care of simple questions. Finally, she called a supervisor and it took her 20 minutes to arrive. The Supervisor was very nice and apologized for all the problems with our room. She looked at all the notes and said they should have given us a new room the first day. She offered us a new room 4 doors away for the night and said the best she could offer us was a $400 credit . We would have to go higher than her for anything more. This whole trip was a disaster and customer service nightmare that could easily have been resolved the first day of the cruise. We did everything that was necessary on our end….Customer Service on their end totally ruined our trip when they could have fixed it immediately.

We never did get our toilet fixed and spent 5 days using public restrooms in addition to the sewer leakage into our room. This apparently was not an isolated instance as the smell was also prevalent on other floors near the same elevator. It definitely was not how an anniversary trip was supposed to go.

 

We have sent emails to customer service and even to the CEO of the company and NO ONE has responded. We did finally get a check from the cruise lines in mid July for our negative balance (after the $400 credit).

You have inquiries…could you answer, please?

[puppycanducruise]

Sorry this happened.

[PacnGoNow]

10 hours ago, SiliconCruiser said:

It's been my experience that any encounter with Guest Services is met with lies.   They will tell you anything to get you to move away from the counter.  It's hard to believe that there are "no available rooms" when ships are not sailing at capacity, unless the OP needed a special room, like an ADA room.

On a recent Alaskan cruise (got home yesterday,) the ship was only at about 60-65% capacity (given the count that was provided at the Captain's Circle cocktail party.)  I note the ADA rooms, because I have never seen so many mobility devices on a cruise as I saw on this one; most were rented scooters, and I'm sure they did not all get ADA cabins since there aren't that many on the ship.  (most of the rental scooters will fold and fit into a regular cabin.)  But I did see quite a few people in manual wheelchairs (will also fold and fit into a standard cabin), and also quite a few motorized wheelchairs (mostly full-sized, 335# types) that do require an ADA cabin, and my wife's partially collapsible motorized chair that will not fit in a standard cabin if you want to move around in it.

 

I found GS was very nice and tried to be helpful on the CB. However, there are a lot of new staff and they just do not have the knowledge.  They sometimes will give answers that are incorrect.  I don’t believe they are just telling you lies, it’s a lack of knowledge. 

 

[MsMidge]

50 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I found GS was very nice and tried to be helpful on the CB. However, there are a lot of new staff and they just do not have the knowledge.  They sometimes will give answers that are incorrect.  I don’t believe they are just telling you lies, it’s a lack of knowledge. 

 

What is a CB?

[SargassoPirate]

I was on the Caribbean Princess for 14 days in January and never experienced anything like the newbie OP.  I generally walk the inside corridors in the early hours and was on every deck except where part of the Baja deck was closed off for quarantines.  Never on my walks did I notice any unusual odors.

 

I like the Princess product and their ships.  Plumbing issues can happen on any ship, especially if people don't follow the rules for what you can flush down the toilets. 

 

That being said, when I have encountered an issue with a cabin that can't seem to get resolved at the desk, I ask for an appointment with the Hotel General Manager.

[PacnGoNow]

5 minutes ago, MsMidge said:

What is a CB?

Caribbean Princess code

[MsMidge]

18 hours ago, kcmufan said:

We booked a cruise on the Caribbean Princess for our anniversary.

 

Sat. May 28th : We checked into our room and there was a strong smell of urine. Customer Service told us they were aware of the situation and it would be fixed shortly. They told us there were no other rooms to move us to when we asked. Sun.: Still smell of urine when we left for the day on Bahamas. We were told same as Saturday. Luckily when we returned from our day trip the smell was gone. However, our toilet wouldn’t flush when we pushed the flusher, but would randomly flush at odd times of the day for no reason. We informed our room steward and were told maintenance would come have a look and check it out.

Mon: Still no toilet flushing, so now we are using restrooms outside our stateroom. Can you imagine how inconvenient this is?? Went to Customer Service again and were told they would fix it. We asked, once again, for another room. Told none available again. This is impossible as other crew members said the ship was not full.

Tues: No smells and still toilet not fixed.

Wed: We came back to the room at noon time and there was a maintenance man in front of our door and the hallway smelled of sewer. It was awful. He said there was a pipe issue and they were working on the issue. We got what we needed and left. When we returned at 4, the smell was still there as were the workers. We changed and left. When we returned at 11pm, the smell was so putrid we had to open our balcony and room doors to keep from gagging. We called customer service and were told someone would come immediately to check out the situation. An hour later, someone came. He sniffed the room and said he knew there was an issue and would have someone get right on the problem. He wouldn’t give us another room, so we had to sleep with the balcony open. We hardly slept, both had headaches and were nauseous the next day.

Thurs: Complained AGAIN to Service desk…..told whole story. Nobody cared or offered any solutions. Smell in room alleviated some, but still pretty strong. Toilet still not flushing.

Fri: Still smells of sewer. While changing for dinner, my wife went to get her shoes and stepped into the closet into soggy wet carpet! Yes, it was raw sewage under the carpet in our room. All of her shoes were soaked and smelled of sewage. Called Customer Service while my wife went straight to the service desk. It took them 15 minutes to come and I left to go to the service desk. At the service desk, they tried to push my wife off again and she said she wasn’t moving until our situation was resolved. The young lady couldn’t care less that we were in this horrible situation. She kept trying to get her to move along so she could take care of simple questions. Finally, she called a supervisor and it took her 20 minutes to arrive. The Supervisor was very nice and apologized for all the problems with our room. She looked at all the notes and said they should have given us a new room the first day. She offered us a new room 4 doors away for the night and said the best she could offer us was a $400 credit . We would have to go higher than her for anything more. This whole trip was a disaster and customer service nightmare that could easily have been resolved the first day of the cruise. We did everything that was necessary on our end….Customer Service on their end totally ruined our trip when they could have fixed it immediately.

We never did get our toilet fixed and spent 5 days using public restrooms in addition to the sewer leakage into our room. This apparently was not an isolated instance as the smell was also prevalent on other floors near the same elevator. It definitely was not how an anniversary trip was supposed to go.

 

We have sent emails to customer service and even to the CEO of the company and NO ONE has responded. We did finally get a check from the cruise lines in mid July for our negative balance (after the $400 credit).

If only they knew to pour water down the floor drain to stop the smell like so many people on this forum believe.

[jebhoward3]

Note to self:   Pack PJ's that are suitable to wear in public.  Make and pack sign "Unable to sleep in cabin due to sewage issue's"

Then if they can not/do not fix sewage issue and will not put us in a replacement cabin go to public area to try to sleep at night.

[RNRcruisers]

Considering a cruise next year on CB so this is concerning. I guess I better do some research on the past problems for this ship.

[Triptkr]

11 minutes ago, jebhoward3 said:

Note to self:   Pack PJ's that are suitable to wear in public.  Make and pack sign "Unable to sleep in cabin due to sewage issue's"

Then if they can not/do not fix sewage issue and will not put us in a replacement cabin go to public area to try to sleep at night.

I dunno.  One may get more prompt service if the PJ's aren't suitable for public viewage.

[spookyfudge]

I am so happy we cancelled our world cruise on this ship, amazing

[555]

7 minutes ago, RNRcruisers said:

Considering a cruise next year on CB so this is concerning. I guess I better do some research on the past problems for this ship.

Or just pick a newer ship like the Sky or Enchanted. 

[Jadn13]

I was on this cruise with a decent sized roll call. I’m pretty sure others spoke of issues but they were fixed during the voyage. It wasn’t a great cruise all around with lots of issues, along the lines of a perfect storm scenario. 

[555]

1 minute ago, Jadn13 said:

I was on this cruise with a decent sized roll call. I’m pretty sure others spoke of issues but they were fixed during the voyage. It wasn’t a great cruise all around with lots of issues, along the lines of a perfect storm scenario. 

We were caught in the middle of that storm on a different ship & didn't have any of the problems that this ship is experiencing. 

[LovetheSea]

So glad you posted this .Princess should not be able to get away with treating passengers like this. I am sure you will choose another cruise line next time. No one would blame you. Sorry you had to go through this   

[Honolulu Blue]

@kcmufan:  Thank you for sharing.  I'm sorry this happened to you.  My modest suggestion is to send a snail mail letter to Princess President John Padgett in Santa Clarita.  Yes, I'm asking you to type out your story (or better yet, write it out in longhand), find an envelope, find a stamp, stuff the envelope, affix the stamp, find a mailbox, and send it.  I've had decent results getting responses this way when I've done this for past problems.  If nothing else, it will get rid of some of the stress and anger you're feeling.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

we sailed on CB back in 2016 and even then it was already kind of very run down. We also had a noro outbreak during that sailing. However, the ABC islands itinerary made up for the small issues. Nothing can make up for the issues OP had, though,  short of a free cruise on a much younger ship.

 

We like Royal class. Will be trying out Enchanted Princess this fall.

[msmoger]

22 minutes ago, spookyfudge said:

I am so happy we cancelled our world cruise on this ship, amazing

 

Just curious, where do you see the Caribbean Princess (the subject of this thread) as scheduled for a world cruise itinerary?  I only see the Island and coral.

[mtnesterz]

1 hour ago, MsMidge said:

What is a CB?

Princess Ship Abbreviations

* CB - Caribbean Princess

* CO - Coral Princess

* KP - Crown Princess

* DI - Diamond Princess

* AP - Grand Princess

* IP - Island Princess

* GP - Regal Princess

* SA - Sapphire Princess

* EP - Emerald Princess

Don't know the newer Royal Class ships, Sky, Discovery

[PacnGoNow]

30 minutes ago, RNRcruisers said:

Considering a cruise next year on CB so this is concerning. I guess I better do some research on the past problems for this ship.

It would be helpful to know the cabin location, but the OP never replied.

 

I can tell you we were forward Caribe deck balcony and no issues.  I found the crew to be excellent and our crew was great this year we did 6 weeks on her before the dry dock.  Some at GS were fairly new, as with most ships, they are still learning.

So, you could check on some of the current roll calls and see how it is.

 

I wouldn’t believe 1 person who complains and never comes back on the forum.  JMo

[eclue]

Please tell us the cabin number.....we are scheduled to go on the Caribbean Princess in two weeks....Hope it is not our cabin!!

[CineGraphic]

2 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

I would have agreed with you until my recent experience. There were only a few Princess ships I’d vowed to avoid based on poor experiences….I was never a fan of the Sun Class ships, and the Crown and the Caribbean offered fairly unsatisfactory experiences for us also. Some of our favorite cruises ever were on the Ruby, years ago when she was new and just before the COVID outbreak for over three months. Couldn’t have said anything bad about that ship. Now, I won’t entertain the thought of stepping on board. Which leads me to the conclusion that I simply can’t trust past experience as an indicator of future enjoyment. 

 

Our best cruises were on the Caribbean Princess....2 weeks in 2019, and more recently, 1 week in January of this year.  Our worst cruises took place this past April on the Ruby, a ship we really enjoyed back in 2018. Only 90 days until we try Virgin Voyages, and we've never been more excited pre-cruise.