Diamond Princess cruises from September 1, 2022 through November 13, 2022 booking Cancelled

[kiwimum]

6 minutes ago, DavidsNana said:

Glad that you got correct and prompt service.  My Sept. 1st cancelled cruise is still showing on my account as one of my "upcoming cruises" and no refund or FCC returned to my account.  The fact that yours has already been done gives me hope for maybe next week.  Thanks for posting.

I use a CVP and she is wonderful.   She obvious relayed the info to those handling the cancellations.

[kiwimum]

1 hour ago, californiagirl said:

Update:  after I posted a while ago I tried the online chat feature.  She could do nothing from her end about the cruise showing up in the medallion app or in the ocean ready medallion class website.  However while I was on with her, she moved the paid cruise amount over which made the new one paid in full.

 

Within 3 minutes I received notification of an email from Princess.  It was the statement of being paid in full.  I then went to the ocean ready medallion website and like magic it was there!  I was able to make my dining reservations (with terrible times).  But at least I have them.  It looks like I can do anything on the website that can be done in the app…except choose to have my medallion sent to my house.  It repeatedly kicks me out when I tap enter.  
 

Still missing is the pitiful $100 OBC for Princess cancelling my cruise less than a month from sailing.  I sent an email to my PVP.  Hopefully this is not above his pay grade.  (I’m NEVER using him again as he has been able to do very little.)  I don’t know why he couldn’t do what the chat person did today.  I realize I sound very negative but this whole process has been incredibly frustrating and irritating.

 

I’m feeling better about the cruise though.  It feels more real and I leave 3 weeks from today!

Our $100 each showed under onboard credit with no notes.   

[Supershot]

I was booked on the Oct. 2nd cruise and really looking forward to not having to mess with flights before and after as I live in San Diego.

I've gone for the full refund as I think there is trouble brewing with Princess Cruises and a FCC from a company that has gone under is worthless. The insulting pittance of $100 is not enough to make me take a chance. Also, who want's to give business to a company that has just screwed you over.

[fresnel468]

5 hours ago, Supershot said:

I was booked on the Oct. 2nd cruise and really looking forward to not having to mess with flights before and after as I live in San Diego.

I've gone for the full refund as I think there is trouble brewing with Princess Cruises and a FCC from a company that has gone under is worthless. The insulting pittance of $100 is not enough to make me take a chance. Also, who want's to give business to a company that has just screwed you over.

 

I cancelled requesting a full refund.   The departure port of San Diego (great place!) was a big reason we booked the Diamond 16 day Hawaii cruise.   If I wanted to leave from LA on a lame ship with one less day, I would have booked it in the first place.  No way am i leaving thousands of dollars on the books with this outfit.   This was to be our first Princess cruise but highly unlike to try them again. 

[Sea Hag]

Our canceled sailing of 11/13 was still showing up in my account, with final payment due to be made automatically tomorrow. I got on Princess chat and the chat gal told me that the sailing was marked "canceled," so it wasn't going to be charged tomorrow. I copied off the chat thread just in case, and I'm not going to worry about it anymore.

[californiagirl]

Update:  my new cruise is now showing up in the medallion app, the old cruise is gone both from the regular princess website and the medallion app.  I was able to order my medallion to be sent to my home.  I’m glad it was on the app because the dining reservations I made yesterday were not listed on the app!  I remade them, still crummy times but since I’m traveling solo hopefully I can switch them once onboard.  
 

I'm still missing the promised OBC.  But in the broad scheme of things I’m looking forward to my cruise.

[latserrof]

With relaxed Covid protocols, can we expect more crew-shortage cancellations due to crew illness?

[Shelly97060]

On 8/12/2022 at 6:23 PM, 4x4bob said:

On 8/12/2022 at 6:23 PM, 4x4bob said:

Well, my wife just saw another fly swimming in the soup over the cancellation of Diamond cruises for the rest of this year.. 

 

Where did your wife see information that Diamond Cruises were cancelled for the rest of the year? 

[PhotoPete]

We were on the Oct 23rd sailing of the Diamond Princess.  After much consideration, wife and I decided to opt for the refund.  Now to see how insurance is going to handle hotel and travel expenses.  Wife is still grumbling about Princess pulling the rug out from under us......LOL

[Momma Rene]

On 8/12/2022 at 6:23 PM, 4x4bob said:

Well, my wife just saw another fly swimming in the soup over the cancellation of Diamond cruises for the rest of this year.. 

 

Our Cruise was in November with final pay day of 16th of  this month which was set up to be an auto pay on that day.

 

We called our Princes vacation planner for another cruise and she told us she was locked out of the November records so she could not tell us if the auto pay was still in effect..😪

 

So the Wife being the kind person she is has the plan to lock her credit card on the the 14th.  Since we are planning for a Jan cruise, we do not want to be hit with paying for a cruise that was cancelled, then trying to get our funds returned. . 

 

All part of the Adventure of dealing with Princess.😲

Bob

Any chance your wife knows what is happening in 2023 cruises?  Getting nervous, don't want to do Discovery.  I like the size of the Diamond

[4x4bob]

5 minutes ago, Momma Rene said:

Any chance your wife knows what is happening in 2023 cruises?  Getting nervous, don't want to do Discovery.  I like the size of the Diamond

Sorry, she can not help you.  She says, her crystal Ball only covers until the end of the week.  😀

Bob

[4x4bob]

37 minutes ago, Shelly97060 said:

Where did your wife see information that Diamond Cruises were cancelled for the rest of the year? 

Sorry about writing for the rest of the year.  The letter we received from John Padgett, Princess stated through Nov which ended our cruise. 

If you are concerned about a cruise I suggest you contact Princess and talk to a CVP.

Bob

Edited August 15, 2022 by 4x4bob

[toofewcruises]

On 8/14/2022 at 4:05 PM, fresnel468 said:

 

I cancelled requesting a full refund.   The departure port of San Diego (great place!) was a big reason we booked the Diamond 16 day Hawaii cruise.   If I wanted to leave from LA on a lame ship with one less day, I would have booked it in the first place.  No way am i leaving thousands of dollars on the books with this outfit.   This was to be our first Princess cruise but highly unlike to try them again. 

You do realize this is a pandemic, right?  You also realize that the other cruise lines are going through the same thing, right?  I think cruising may just not be for you, at least for the next few years.  Princess is a very reputable cruise line and I hate to see it insulted through no fault of their own.  I had two cruises booked on the Diamond and I am disappointed... However, I just looked at my options and rebooked one and will have a substantial FCC for another cruise.

[toofewcruises]

On 8/14/2022 at 9:46 AM, Supershot said:

I was booked on the Oct. 2nd cruise and really looking forward to not having to mess with flights before and after as I live in San Diego.

I've gone for the full refund as I think there is trouble brewing with Princess Cruises and a FCC from a company that has gone under is worthless. The insulting pittance of $100 is not enough to make me take a chance. Also, who want's to give business to a company that has just screwed you over.

Princess did not screw you over.   No, there is no trouble brewing with Princess.  A $100 was not enough compensation for you?  I happily accepted this, rebooked a cruise and am looking forward to a substantial FCC.

Edited August 16, 2022 by toofewcruises

[eclue]

1 hour ago, toofewcruises said:

You do realize this is a pandemic, right?  You also realize that the other cruise lines are going through the same thing, right?  I think cruising may just not be for you, at least for the next few years.  Princess is a very reputable cruise line and I hate to see it insulted through no fault of their own.  I had two cruises booked on the Diamond and I am disappointed... However, I just looked at my options and rebooked one and will have a substantial FCC for another cruise.

well stated....those that discredit Princess have not cruised a lot. We have had 30 cruises on Princess...were looking forward to Sept trip from San Diego but if you don't have the crew, you can't go . If you go, the whiners will complain about a lack of service. It's a tough situation....All cruise lines are definitely dealing with the same issues.

 

[Carlos A.]

1 hour ago, toofewcruises said:

Princess is a very reputable cruise line and I hate to see it insulted through no fault of their own.

 

Wow... just wow

 

 

[Stockjock]

I think I've had 3-4 cruises cancelled over the course of the pandemic, including this one.  Fortunately, none have been a huge deal as I did fully refundable hotels and used frequent flyer miles for flights, which I could simply credit back to my account.

I do think that if there is any special situation, Princess, or any other cruise line should offer a bit more than $100 OBC if a loss can be documented through no fault of their customer.  But unfortunately, these things do happen.

[californiagirl]

1 hour ago, toofewcruises said:

Princess is a very reputable cruise line and I hate to see it insulted through no fault of their own.  I had two cruises booked on the Diamond and I am disappointed... However, I just looked at my options and rebooked one and will have a substantial FCC for another cruise.

 

 

1 hour ago, toofewcruises said:

A $100 was not enough compensation for you?  I happily accepted this, rebooked a cruise and am looking forward to a substantial FCC.

TooFew I'm glad that you are looking forward to your cruises and are pleased with the $100 onboard credit but some of the rest of us are not.  I think it’s unfair to be critical of those of us who feel Princess should have done more…much sooner.  To cancel fully paid cruises (mine included) less than a month prior to sailing over reasons that have been discussed on this board for months makes me think their letter was disingenuous.  The crew shortage is not a last minute surprise to them.  As to the $100 OBC, I think that they COULD have and SHOULD have done more for those of us who had to scramble at the last minute to find a replacement cruise or vacation for the same time period.  If I had known even two weeks earlier I could have booked a land vacation for about the same price.  But during those two weeks the prices went up substantially.  Even in their current financial situation they should have done more.  For customers who had made final payment there were additional ways to show goodwill such as giving a discount on cruises sailing during the same time period as our cancelled cruises.  Many of those cabins would be sailing empty anyway.  I think the amount of OBC was insulting and by the way after a phone call, email to my PVP and live chat I STILL DON’T HAVE IT!  No OBC has been added to my replacement cruise in 2 weeks.  
 

As I’ve posted before, my husband and I are longtime Princess cruisers.  The decline of Princess we are experiencing makes me profoundly sad.  We have a cruise in February with FCC but after that we will think long and hard about booking another Princess cruise.  We have lots of choices for travel.  I think the decline can not be blamed solely on the pandemic.  I think the change in leadership has more to do with it.  The measure of a company is not only how they treat a customer in good times, but how they treat the same customers in difficult times.  IMHO they get a fail on this one.

[Guest ldtr]

11 minutes ago, californiagirl said:

 

 

TooFew I'm glad that you are looking forward to your cruises and are pleased with the $100 onboard credit but some of the rest of us are not.  I think it’s unfair to be critical of those of us who feel Princess should have done more…much sooner.  To cancel fully paid cruises (mine included) less than a month prior to sailing over reasons that have been discussed on this board for months makes me think their letter was disingenuous.  The crew shortage is not a last minute surprise to them.  As to the $100 OBC, I think that they COULD have and SHOULD have done more for those of us who had to scramble at the last minute to find a replacement cruise or vacation for the same time period.  If I had known even two weeks earlier I could have booked a land vacation for about the same price.  But during those two weeks the prices went up substantially.  Even in their current financial situation they should have done more.  For customers who had made final payment there were additional ways to show goodwill such as giving a discount on cruises sailing during the same time period as our cancelled cruises.  Many of those cabins would be sailing empty anyway.  I think the amount of OBC was insulting and by the way after a phone call, email to my PVP and live chat I STILL DON’T HAVE IT!  No OBC has been added to my replacement cruise in 2 weeks.  
 

As I’ve posted before, my husband and I are longtime Princess cruisers.  The decline of Princess we are experiencing makes me profoundly sad.  We have a cruise in February with FCC but after that we will think long and hard about booking another Princess cruise.  We have lots of choices for travel.  I think the decline can not be blamed solely on the pandemic.  I think the change in leadership has more to do with it.  The measure of a company is not only how they treat a customer in good times, but how they treat the same customers in difficult times.  IMHO they get a fail on this one.

From people I have talked to one of the major (most likely the main one) drivers of the staffing issue is the time it is taking to get Visa's for the crew that will be working on ships out of the US. Apparently it is taking considerably longer than in the past.  So it is pretty much outside of the cruise lines control.  The cancellations occurred when it became clear that the clearance backlog was not going to get cleared in time for the ships to get staffed.

[rheathslc]

We had our Sept 1st and Sept 6th B2B cruises on the Diamond canceled along with the rest last week. They were supposed to be my 40th b-day celebration cruises so I was crushed. We had splurged on an aft Vista Suite and had pre-booked massages, etc. I was so looking forward to trying Izumi. And I love the layout of the Grand/Crown class ships. The official replacement options were all on the Discovery and not until November or even February which didn't work for us. I immediately called my CVP at 4:30pm on the 8th and had him request the FCC + $100 OBC per person option for each of the two canceled cruises and hold a booking on the Royal for Sept 3rd instead (and Alaska vs Mexico so we had to change flights, change packing plans, etc.). It was a bit of a whirlwind but the transfer of FCC came through by Wednesday morning the 10th and we had access in the Medallion app by Thursday the 11th to do the check-in items and get "Ocean Ready". We had all refunds of prepaid spa bookings and a few other items we had prepaid in our accounts by Saturday the 13th, exactly 3-weeks out for the new cruise. Overall I was very pleased with the service and speed of rebooking. Originally my CVP said it could take till as late as August 26th to finalize everything. Which would have been only 1 week in advance of when we were trying to sail.

It's only 7 days instead of 10 total and it was a bit more expensive as we wanted an aft suite and the aft suites on the Royal Class ships are a higher cabin class (S3 or higher vs S6). I also won't be onboard for my actual birthday anymore. I'm still working through the disappointment but I'm grateful we found a replacement and that everything got settled so quickly. My CVP puts up with a lot of craziness from me with grace and he really outdid himself last week.

I know a lot of people are disappointed and think Princess should have told us sooner, done more to compensate us, etc. and I fully understand that. Hope everyone gets resolution quickly.

[caribill]

5 hours ago, eclue said:

... if you don't have the crew, you can't go . If you go, the whiners will complain about a lack of service. It's a tough situation....All cruise lines are definitely dealing with the same issues.

 

 

All cruise lines have been dealing with this, but, for example, CCL announced that once the Covid testing rules were relaxed bookings for the rest of this year have skyrocketed.

 

So either CCL is able to staff their ships somehow or these sailings with more passengers than in the recent past will have problems with on board service.

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

All cruise lines have been dealing with this, but, for example, CCL announced that once the Covid testing rules were relaxed bookings for the rest of this year have skyrocketed.

 

So either CCL is able to staff their ships somehow or these sailings with more passengers than in the recent past will have problems with on board service.

Random, mostly related comments:

 

• Carnival started sailing first, so it's entirely likely that some staff that were a-hoping and a-waiting for their Princess to come through went for the whale tail and were retained by them
• Carnival's ships have more passengers per crew member than Princess (I think; I'm open to correction on this)
• Carnival has already mentioned crew shortages due to slow US visa processing; they've also mentioned that this factor has been abating in the past few weeks
• Carnival has had some venues close and operating hours shortened - some temporary, some permanent

[Guest ldtr]

12 hours ago, caribill said:

 

All cruise lines have been dealing with this, but, for example, CCL announced that once the Covid testing rules were relaxed bookings for the rest of this year have skyrocketed.

 

So either CCL is able to staff their ships somehow or these sailings with more passengers than in the recent past will have problems with on board service.

Carnival was the first of the CCL  lines to have all of their ships in operation.  Basically they started much earlier with their schedule to restart.  They also had some staffing issues and cruises canceled earlier in the year when they were trying to bring some ships on line.

 

Once visa are obtained they are good for 8 years (I think).  So the problem is with the long term employees whose visa's expired over the pandemic or are close to expiring, or new hires that have not had one with that cruise line.

 

In addition to the visa's a couple of  other issues are the number of employees that have decided not to return (thus adding on training to the time frame), basically the number of former employees that are declining a contract is higher than normal, vaccinations (since many Asian countries still do not use US approved vaccines that adds some delay, 

[CaliforniaDon]

SUBSTITUTE TRIP POSTED 7 DAYS FROM REQUEST.

 

We selected an Oct 29th Mexico alternative to our 9/25 Coastal. We had our travel agent fill out the form, since we had meals and some onboard credits through her.

 

She sent the form on the day after the big announcement - last Wed.  She told us that she had submitted the form,  but we heard and saw nothing from Princess. Just the old trip data.

 

Today, exactly a week later, when checking the Princess site, the substitute trip, new booking number, and an unassigned cabin BD category (same as before) appeared and the old trip info is gone. - Our credits were moved correctly, plus the $100 per person extra, and our special meals were still in onboard reservations and the $7 bottled waters we bought were moved also.

 

No new booking confirmation yet, although that may come via our travel agent. We need to be sure that the insurance got moved, and the all-important drink package is still there.

 

This trip priced out at about two times the original booking, so the swap was a bargain, even with the Discovery teeny weenie balconies.

 

[polmcs]

It would have definitely been nice to have a bit more notice about potential cancellations, especially after final payments. I had booked an early September cruise out of San Diego specifically to avoid being at home on the anniversary of my wife’s passing. I got caught up in the Diamond Princess cancelations and now, given the fact that we’re now in mid Aug, cruise alternatives are few and far between (both the Crown and Royal  cruises that weekend show as unavailable) and land vacations are somewhat limited given that last minute airfares are pretty expensive these days.