Princess excursion disappears

[Womble99]

36 minutes ago, Thrak said:

Tour still MIA on the Princess site.

Which cruise are you on Thrak? The Hobbiton is still showing for ours in Jan.

[Thrak]

1 minute ago, Womble99 said:

Which cruise are you on Thrak? The Hobbiton is still showing for ours in Jan.

 

This is number 6 of 6 B2B cruises on Grand Princess.

 

Voyage / Dest:
A340 / 14 Days Australia - New Zealand
Ship / Registry: Grand Princess / Bermudan
Embarkation: November 15, 2023 / Melbourne, Australia
Disembarkation: November 29, 2023 / Melbourne, Australia

[Womble99]

Sorry to hear it, seems the next one after yours is still going (for now.......)

Guess we will wait and see if ours magically drops off closer to departure 😒

[Thrak]

11 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

Sorry to hear it, seems the next one after yours is still going (for now.......)

Guess we will wait and see if ours magically drops off closer to departure 😒

 

I'm checking daily and may try to get info from the Live Chat. It still shows in the latest version of the Travel Summary.

[PacnGoNow]

5 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

With Australia and New Zealand cruises the excursions are excruciatingly expensive so yes, I'm sure I can figure something else out. I'm mostly just hesitant to book the private excursion. The ship is due to leave at 4:45 PM and I don't want to be late - they do guarantee to have us back in plenty of time. but if they blow the return time Princess is just going to wave bye bye as we stand on the dock.

Is that private tour refundable?  You could book it as a backup if it is.  
I too would be a little hesitant.  What time are they supposed to get you back?  
 

If they guarantee to get you back, will they fly you to the next port?  Always wondered.  Luckily, never had to find out. 😆

[leck57]

7 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

With Australia and New Zealand cruises the excursions are excruciatingly expensive so yes, I'm sure I can figure something else out. I'm mostly just hesitant to book the private excursion. The ship is due to leave at 4:45 PM and I don't want to be late - they do guarantee to have us back in plenty of time. but if they blow the return time Princess is just going to wave bye bye as we stand on the dock.

 

Well if the unthinkable happens it's only about 3 hours by car up to Auckland which is assume is your next stop. If they guarantee to have you back in time, many operators offer to get you to the ship if they fail to get you back in time. Do these guys offer that? 

Like you, I'm always concerned taking private excursions that are a long way from the port, however it is not like you have to get across a body of water (meaning a flight) to catch up to your ship. Tauranga to Auckland is quite easy. Also easy for me to say.😬

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

With Australia and New Zealand cruises the excursions are excruciatingly expensive so yes, I'm sure I can figure something else out. I'm mostly just hesitant to book the private excursion. The ship is due to leave at 4:45 PM and I don't want to be late - they do guarantee to have us back in plenty of time. but if they blow the return time Princess is just going to wave bye bye as we stand on the dock.

Understood, but we have done probably 99% private touring and never sweated a return except once was a bit tight to schedule.  However, it was a special sutuation and traffic was affecting all and tour guide went above and beyond.  What I find is the private companies HAVE to be on time as directly affects their business and the Princess tours always have laggard buses returning to port.

[coo359a2]

44 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Understood, but we have done probably 99% private touring and never sweated a return except once was a bit tight to schedule.  However, it was a special sutuation and traffic was affecting all and tour guide went above and beyond.  What I find is the private companies HAVE to be on time as directly affects their business and the Princess tours always have laggard buses returning to port.

On a tight schedule or off on  Belize back roads, a broken water line, oil line or engine coolant line can get you  in trouble.  My guideline is over 2 hours away do a ship's tour and one hour before sailaway to return.  Of course depending on flight schedules,  I am one to have minimum  2 or 3 days pre cruise on international cruises and 1 day or 2 days to get to the 3 US port we have to fly to get there.  I'm to much of a chicken.

Edited August 22, 2023 by coo359a2

[azbirdmom]

17 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

With Australia and New Zealand cruises the excursions are excruciatingly expensive so yes, I'm sure I can figure something else out. I'm mostly just hesitant to book the private excursion. The ship is due to leave at 4:45 PM and I don't want to be late - they do guarantee to have us back in plenty of time. but if they blow the return time Princess is just going to wave bye bye as we stand on the dock.

 

It's a very reputable tour company and they aren't offering the combo Hobbiton / Wai o tapu tour option because there wasn't enough time to do both and ensure you could get back to the ship on time.  So I have no concerns that they will return us to the ship on time.  I am thrilled that they were able to get 11 spots for each cruise from Hobbiton. Much better than the uncertain situation with Princess.

[azbirdmom]

9 hours ago, leck57 said:

If they guarantee to have you back in time, many operators offer to get you to the ship if they fail to get you back in time. Do these guys offer that? 

 

They do have a guarantee  (snippets from their website)

 

 

And there is the cancellation policy per their website:

 

What is your cancellation policy?

If you or any member of your party cancels, you may replace him with a new member at any time with our approval. However if you are unable to find a replacement for someone who cancels, we may impose cancellation charges to cover our estimated costs. These cancellation charges are expressed in the table below as a percentage of the total excursion cost. The person who signed the Booking Form must notify all cancellations to us in writing and charges apply from the date that this notification is received at our offices (not the date of your letter or the date you post it). If you do wish to replace a cancelled party member, please notify us as soon as possible. In any event we require notice at least 21 days before departure.

Day Excursions Only – Cancellation Parameters

Period before scheduled departure	Cancellation charge as a percentage of which notification is received
Up to 30 days before departure	No Charge – only if no fees have been incurred
15-29 days before departure	$25 per person administration fee – plus any unrecoverable costs which have been incurred to date.
8 – 14 days before departure	50% of Tour Cost
7  days or less	100% of Tour Cost

 

 

What happens if my cruise ship does not dock as scheduled on the day of my tour?

If your ship does not dock for any reason, we refund ALL your monies as soon as is possible.

[Guest ldtr]

On 8/16/2023 at 2:51 PM, Prost Seattle said:

I had a kayak and hiking/swimming in the falls of Kauai8 excursion cancel, no notification.  I searched non Princess excursions to see if I could find something similar, and there was one, but it didn’t operate over weekends, and our visit was a Saturday.  I wonder if Princess used the same company and someone didn’t catch what days the excursions operated.  

 

Now our itinerary is going to change and it looks like we’ll be in Kauai on a Monday, so I’ll be interested to see if it’s offered again. 

In Hawaii these days (since Covid) tour excursion companies have been having substantial problems getting and keeping staff.  The rental and real estate prices have gone up so much over the past few years that it makes it difficult for employees to live there.  As a result these businesses are having problems in meeting capacity, especially when they have to estimate months in advance.  You see the same issue in resaurants and other businesses on the islands.  One coffee shop that I routinely visit in Kona stated they they were having to operate with less than half of the employees they had pre covid because of the rental prices and housing shortages.  A number of what was long term rentals got converted to vacation rentals or sold as vacation homes.

Edited August 22, 2023 by ldtr

[Thrak]

Just went ahead and sent in booking request for the two of us. Will leave the Princess excursion in place for now as it can be cancelled later without penalty. Once everything is settled I will cancel the Princess excursion and ask my wife to find another excursion or an alternate idea regarding how to spend the OBC. (I'm guessing we will be able to find some use for the money.)

[Thrak]

Did Live Chat today as I was on the Princess site and thought, "Why not?". The guy said he can definitely see on his end that I'm booked for the excursion. He kept wanting me to try a different browser, dump cookies, history, cache, etc. Did that. No luck. He insists that he can see the excursion using 3 different browsers but all I can get is the "OOPS!" page.

 

Edit: Just got confirmation of the private booking "pending payment". I have the option to pay in full or put down a deposit. Can pay via credit card or bank transfer. Guess I'll just go ahead and pay in full now and cancel the Princess excursion.

 

Stupid that the Princess IT team is so incredibly lame. I've been "trying" to book another Princess excursion today but it bombs out every time. It adds "me" but not my wife. Heck, I have to right click and choose "open link in a new tab" to even get the stupid excursions to open up at all. I have to wonder what sort of "qualifications" Princess asks for in order to work their IT department.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Thrak

[dlh015]

10 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I have to wonder what sort of "qualifications" Princess asks for in order to work their IT department.

A pulse. But I understand they will make exceptions in certain cases...

[azbirdmom]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

Did Live Chat today as I was on the Princess site and thought, "Why not?". The guy said he can definitely see on his end that I'm booked for the excursion. He kept wanting me to try a different browser, dump cookies, history, cache, etc. Did that. No luck. He insists that he can see the excursion using 3 different browsers but all I can get is the "OOPS!" page.

 

Edit: Just got confirmation of the private booking "pending payment". I have the option to pay in full or put down a deposit. Can pay via credit card or bank transfer. Guess I'll just go ahead and pay in full now and cancel the Princess excursion.

 

Stupid that the Princess IT team is so incredibly lame. I've been "trying" to book another Princess excursion today but it bombs out every time. It adds "me" but not my wife. Heck, I have to right click and choose "open link in a new tab" to even get the stupid excursions to open up at all. I have to wonder what sort of "qualifications" Princess asks for in order to work their IT department.

 

 

 

It's very bizarre that customers can't see the excursion but Princess can.  I wonder if they could actually book that excursion for someone.  Of course one would not know to ask about it because they can't see it.

 

Glad you've made a decision and you'll no longer have to wonder if Princess will or won't actually run this excursion.

[Casualcruisers]

Not sure if this applies to Princess as I’m on Celebrity, but just got this notice today -

 

We’re reaching out about your scheduled shore excursion Destination Highlight: Lord of The Rings - Hobbiton Movie Set Encounter, which has unfortunately been cancelled by the venue.

 

Due to unforeseeable operational limitations, the venue has informed our local operator that they will be unable to provide group or individual space to ANY cruise line for the foreseeable future.  At this time, we have issued a full refund for the cancellation,

 

looks like private tours are the only way to get there now 😞