Sky Princess- Iceland Missed Ports

[EDVM96]

26 minutes ago, Coral said:

This was one of my least favorite ports in Norway. It was pretty sailing in but very little to do here.

Cruising the fjords to Olden & Skjolden is usualy one of the main reasons why people book Norway cruises.

There is not much to do in Skjolden itself, didn't you know that in advance?
In the surrounding area, there are 2 spectacular National Parks, a Stave Church, Waterfalls and the Saga Column. 

Princess ShorEx Best Of Skjolden SK2-100 would have brought you there for example.

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, EDVM96 said:

Cruising the fjords to Olden & Skjolden is usualy one of the main reasons why people book Norway cruises.

There is not much to do in Skjolden itself, didn't you know that in advance?
In the surrounding area, there are 2 spectacular National Parks, a Stave Church, Waterfalls and the Saga Column. 

Princess ShorEx Best Of Skjolden SK2-100 would have brought you there for example.

I had a 14 night cruise. The other ports were of interest to me but Skjolden wasn't. So it didn't matter. The sailing in was pretty but my excursion that day was underwhelming. I would still pick that same itinerary again (even with Skjolden) to get the other great ports.

 

So yes - I knew that in advance as we all struggled to find excursions there. I did hit those highlights on a private excursion. Though they were underwhelming compared to my other excursions in Norway.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Coral

[Coral]

16 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We did not originally have an excursion booked for this port but we added a bus tour last minute. It was interesting...mainly we didn't want to just sit on the boat!

Too funny!

[TN-Mountains]

6 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Well, eventually all cruises come to an end. This is the last day (sea day) before returning to Southampton tomorrow. This has definitely been an eventful trip! Missed ports, 2 medical evacuations (1 by boat, 1 by helicopter), visiting a port that had originally been canceled, visiting a port that had *not* been scheduled, at least 2 onboard medical calls... Wow!

 

I know some people are disappointed,  some really upset...and some have just "gone with the flow". While we were disappointed to miss Reykjavik since we've never been there, that just means we have to book another cruise to "make up for it"! I was surprised/glad that we received 20% FCC compensation...Princess certainly did not have to do that but it sure was nice to get. Some people have indicated that 20% wasn't enough.  I just applied it to an upcoming cruise that is not yet fully paid (actually,  a transatlantic...and on the Sky!)

 

While I did not start this thread as a "Live From" topic...it just kinda morphed into one. I hope everyone has enjoyed following along our adventure! I thought it was a good cruise. We saw some beautiful scenic sights in both Norway and Iceland. I hope our "tales of woe" regarding weather and missed ports does not dissuade anyone from considering this itinerary. After all, any day on a ship is better than being stuck at home!  

Happy cruising!

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.  I leave next week on a very similar itinerary, so I've been closely following posts about your cruise.  I saw where you posted that the internet was good, but I wasn't paying attention to where you were on the cruise.  Was it good on the last 3 sea days between Iceland & Southampton? I need to make a Facetime/WhatsApp video call during those days to wish my son a Happy Birthday.  I am curious if it will be feasible.  

[Rick&Jeannie]

Just now, TN-Mountains said:

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.  I leave next week on a very similar itinerary, so I've been closely following posts about your cruise.  I saw where you posted that the internet was good, but I wasn't paying attention to where you were on the cruise.  Was it good on the last 3 sea days between Iceland & Southampton? I need to make a Facetime/WhatsApp video call during those days to wish my son a Happy Birthday.  I am curious if it will be feasible.  

It has been very good every day, surprisingly. Starlink has been a great improvement. I think you will have good luck with a call. Video call might be a bit iffy....

[milolii]

What currency does the ship use?  Is it the $ or the £?   We are sharing a taxi tour with some folks from Canada.   We are US.  So trying to decide how to pay our half.  

[Jeter02]

1 hour ago, milolii said:

What currency does the ship use?  Is it the $ or the £?   We are sharing a taxi tour with some folks from Canada.   We are US.  So trying to decide how to pay our half.  

The ship uses USD

[nini]

11 hours ago, Cruise_Ewe said:

Thanks for the updates and pictures, nice to see whats going on! Looking forward to next week now.

I get everyone has different ideas on 'compensation' but surely 20% is very generous considering it as nothing to do with Princess that the issues (weather) occured.
Whilst it must be extremely frustrating not getting somewhere you had planned you are still on a luxury cruise ship with basically unlimited food and drink, I have seen some comments on twitter such as "never going with Princess again" but I seriously question that logic when any cruise line would do the same thing, guess its a case of can't please everyone all the time and some people wouldn't be happy with 100% back.

Glad you personally still had a good time!

To never book with Princess is from people who are unable to analyze much. It was Mother Nature being herself and had nothing to do with any cruise line. Good grief!

[nini]

@Rick&Jeannie Thank you for taking us along. We board the Sky a week from tomorrow.

[milolii]

49 minutes ago, Jeter02 said:

The ship uses USD

This is what I thought.  Ty 

[david63]

2 hours ago, milolii said:

What currency does the ship use?  Is it the $ or the £?   We are sharing a taxi tour with some folks from Canada.   We are US.  So trying to decide how to pay our half.  

The ship uses USD but the taxi will use local currency (you dont say which country the tour is in). If the folks have prepaid the tour then your half I would suspect should be in Canadian dollar

[milolii]

35 minutes ago, david63 said:

The ship uses USD but the taxi will use local currency (you dont say which country the tour is in). If the folks have prepaid the tour then your half I would suspect should be in Canadian dollar

Thanks, we haven’t paid anything. I actually arranged it.  We pay on that day(DKK).  Also am thinking to ask the company (Dantaxi) if we can run two different charges.  I know cash is rarely used in Denmark.  

[susanmoon]

Any chance someone could post the letter re missing Akureyri Port. I was told this would be available on Friday but I tested positive for Covid that morning and kept in isolation. 

[mmiicc]

[Senga]

We were very disappointed to miss the ports in Iceland but, when the medical evacuations occurred, it put things in perspective for us.  Our cabin was beautiful (a couch is now a MUST for us after the crowding issues), the food in the MDR was excellent, and IET refunded all of our prepaid excursions.  I sent them a message telling them NOT to refund Akureyri since they tried so hard to accommodate the change in date and then, at the last minute, our inability to dock.  It was disappointing for us but I can just imagine how devastating that revenue loss would be for a small company.  They messaged me to make sure I was still happy with my instructions and they were really appreciative.  We used our 20% FCC to book Caribbean Princess for May 31st next year in hopes that we will actually get to see these ports and we will definitely book our Iceland tours with IET.

[mmiicc]

The missed ports situation is not just a captain’s decision but in my opinion a systemic failure on the part of Princess. My next cruise, whenever it happen, will assuredly not be with Princess. I dreamed of Iceland for a long time, devoted my meager annual vacation time, traveled thousands of miles. And the main objective of the trip was not fulfilled. Also the tour group I went with had arranged private excursions not through Princess because the group had special requirements. Changing the order of ports or skipping ports messed up those tours unrefundably; hopefully our travel insurance will reimburse us.

 

I disagree with all the pollyannish comments here that try to rationalize the way Princess screwed us over.

[kitkat343]

On 5/26/2023 at 3:26 AM, Rick&Jeannie said:

Well, eventually all cruises come to an end. This is the last day (sea day) before returning to Southampton tomorrow. This has definitely been an eventful trip! Missed ports, 2 medical evacuations (1 by boat, 1 by helicopter), visiting a port that had originally been canceled, visiting a port that had *not* been scheduled, at least 2 onboard medical calls... Wow!

 

I know some people are disappointed,  some really upset...and some have just "gone with the flow". While we were disappointed to miss Reykjavik since we've never been there, that just means we have to book another cruise to "make up for it"! I was surprised/glad that we received 20% FCC compensation...Princess certainly did not have to do that but it sure was nice to get. Some people have indicated that 20% wasn't enough.  I just applied it to an upcoming cruise that is not yet fully paid (actually,  a transatlantic...and on the Sky!)

 

While I did not start this thread as a "Live From" topic...it just kinda morphed into one. I hope everyone has enjoyed following along our adventure! I thought it was a good cruise. We saw some beautiful scenic sights in both Norway and Iceland. I hope our "tales of woe" regarding weather and missed ports does not dissuade anyone from considering this itinerary. After all, any day on a ship is better than being stuck at home!  

Happy cruising!

It's really important to know the possibilities, since it seems like the weather in Iceland is a bit more unstable than some other locations.  For someone like me with 3 small children, it's really important to chose itineraries that minimize the chances of something going wrong.  That can happen on any cruise, of course, but it means that I need to carefully research my options.  On my Baltic cruise since I was traveling with a 3 year old, I picked the older and not as nice ship so we had a chance of docking directly in Stockholm since I didn't know how my son would handle travel.  So I greatly appreciate reading about your experiences, and also am glad Princess gave 20% back considering this all was weather related (if it was mechanical they should have given more but since this wasn't their fault I'm glad they stepped up and gave you something).

[LibertyBella]

I visited Iceland the first time back in 1974, and I have gone again, and again, most recently this past November just to see the northern lights. 

 

I have never been there on a cruise, because Iceland never WAS a big cruise port destination in previous decades, and knowing the changeable weather conditions, I would never even think of sailing there except in mid-June to mid-September, similar to Alaska. 

 

People have to research their destinations and know when it is best to travel based on weather, or they have to be able to put up with risk.  Look at the Viking Sky Norway incident in March, 2019 (400+ passengers evacuated by helicopter!), or the Viking Polaris (rogue wave kills and injures) in the Antarctic just last year.

 

Yet even if you prepare, sometimes freak accidents happen, like the Carnival Freedom fire in Grand Turk last year, or the Cunard Queen Mary cancelled transatlantic cruises just this month. In fact, the only cruise line I refused to cruise on was Costa after the captain tipped the Concordia over in 2012 because he was sailing too close to the shore (showing off.).

 

I am SO looking forward to my Princess cruise leaving from Rome in a few weeks--there is no place I enjoy cruising more than the Greek islands.

 

No cruise and no vacation is 100% safe or without risk. You can dwell on it and make yourself miserable, or just rise above it and plan the next trip.  I always say, "travel is an adventure!" 

[david63]

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

The missed ports situation is not just a captain’s decision

Correct - it is done in conjunction with both Princess head office and the local port authorities.

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

a systemic failure on the part of Princess

To the best of my knowledge Princess do not have control over the weather.

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

My next cruise, whenever it happen, will assuredly not be with Princess.

I doubt that will really bother Princess.

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

And the main objective of the trip was not fulfilled.

And that was the same for 3,000 others.

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

Changing the order of ports or skipping ports messed up those tours unrefundably;

That is the risk that you take by going independently without making sure that in the event of not being able to reach the port that the tours are refundable. (Many on the same cruise, myself included, booked with companies where their tour costs were refunded.)

 

4 hours ago, mmiicc said:

I disagree with all the pollyannish comments here that try to rationalize the way Princess screwed us over.

In most people's opinion Princess have gone above and beyond what they needed to do and in no way do I believe that Princess have "screwed" anyone over. There are many cruise lines that would not have gone as far as Princess have gone in this situation.

 

Yes we are all disappointed but this is real life and unforeseen things happen.

[Rick&Jeannie]

Has anybody seen any refunds from IET yet?

[Senga]

10 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Has anybody seen any refunds from IET yet?

Within TWO weeks was clearly stated.

[mevs904]

LibertyBella, off topic, but will you be on the June 24 sailing?  We are so looking forward to that cruise.

[Lady Arwen]

9 hours ago, mmiicc said:

The missed ports situation is not just a captain’s decision but in my opinion a systemic failure on the part of Princess. My next cruise, whenever it happen, will assuredly not be with Princess. I dreamed of Iceland for a long time, devoted my meager annual vacation time, traveled thousands of miles. And the main objective of the trip was not fulfilled. Also the tour group I went with had arranged private excursions not through Princess because the group had special requirements. Changing the order of ports or skipping ports messed up those tours unrefundably; hopefully our travel insurance will reimburse us.

 

I disagree with all the pollyannish comments here that try to rationalize the way Princess screwed us over.

Anyone who has cruised more than once understands that things can change rapidly and often more than once.  As a matter of fact, it says so very clearly in your cruise contract that you acknowledged.  It happens on every single cruiseline, not just Princess.  It’s the Captain’s decision based on the safety of the ship and its passengers.  If you book independent excursions then you accept the risks that entails.  This is on you, not Princess.

You can try to blame anybody and everybody, but it is what it is.  Perhaps you would be more suited to land vacations since cruising will never be 100% what you ordered.

[david63]

9 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Perhaps you would be more suited to land vacations

And even then the unforeseen can happen - only other option is to stay at home and just hope that UFO doesn't fall on your roof.

[Jeter02]

13 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Anyone who has cruised more than once understands that things can change rapidly and often more than once.  As a matter of fact, it says so very clearly in your cruise contract that you acknowledged.  It happens on every single cruiseline, not just Princess.  It’s the Captain’s decision based on the safety of the ship and its passengers.  If you book independent excursions then you accept the risks that entails.  This is on you, not Princess.

You can try to blame anybody and everybody, but it is what it is.  Perhaps you would be more suited to land vacations since cruising will never be 100% what you ordered.

Well it's not 100% based on the captains decision it's the Port authorities. I'm in complete agreeance safety first.