ship visit in belfast

[seabourndt]

hi i'd just like to say a few words on my visit and lunch yesterday 16th aug.

i arrived at the time said on letter 0900-1000 and when i arrived by taxi there was no sign of the ship GRAND PRINCESS. in wass in a tent!! there was only 3 seatsrain!! the ship was de;layed they said! when i fact she was not due until 1030. i was shivering waiting, we eventually got on board about 1120 after 2h 30mins. as soonm as we got onboard we wentb through x ray machine anmds our picture was taken, was this a bit much for a tour??

then after we went to the dining room to have a cup of tea and cake. after we had it to made our way out, but was told we had to wait 10mins for them to make an announcement which was just bwhat time lunch was. we had 45nmins to tour the ship before lunch.the show cabins in the folder were all closed and nobody was around to ask why this was. i think this was prettty poor!! a ship visit was to look at cabins with view to book a cruise on!! the lunch was very good, and had an extra 30mins before we had to leave.

 

a not greatly organised visit as we had paid £25 for, i have done others and there much better.

dave

[Casshew]

HI there, I take it this is a travel agent trip to view the ship?

 

Sorry it didn't go as well as you expected, perhaps a letter to Princess will get you a refund of your fee.

[eagletwo]

hi I'd just like to say a few words on my visit and lunch yesterday 16th Aug.

i arrived at the time said on letter 0900-1000 and when i arrived by taxi there was no sign of the ship GRAND PRINCESS. in was in a tent!! there was only 3 seats rain!! the ship was DE;lay ed they said! when i fact she was not due until 1030. i was shivering waiting, we eventually got on board about 1120 after 2h 30mins. as soon as we got on board we went through x ray machine ands our picture was taken, was this a bit much for a tour??

then after we went to the dining room to have a cup of tea and cake. after we had it to made our way out, but was told we had to wait 10mins for them to make an announcement which was just bwhat time lunch was. we had 45nmins to tour the ship before lunch.the show cabins in the folder were all closed and nobody was around to ask why this was. i think this was pretty poor!! a ship visit was to look at cabins with view to book a cruise on!! the lunch was very good, and had an extra 30mins before we had to leave.

 

a not greatly organized visit as we had paid £25 for, i have done others and there much better.

Dave

 

 

Sorry you had such a bad time.:cool:

[kendon]

What was the purpose of your Grand Princess visit?

[Toto2Kansas]

hi i'd just like to say a few words on my visit and lunch yesterday 16th aug.

i arrived at the time said on letter 0900-1000 and when i arrived by taxi there was no sign of the ship GRAND PRINCESS. in wass in a tent!! there was only 3 seatsrain!! the ship was de;layed they said! when i fact she was not due until 1030. i was shivering waiting, we eventually got on board about 1120 after 2h 30mins. as soonm as we got onboard we wentb through x ray machine anmds our picture was taken, was this a bit much for a tour??

then after we went to the dining room to have a cup of tea and cake. after we had it to made our way out, but was told we had to wait 10mins for them to make an announcement which was just bwhat time lunch was. we had 45nmins to tour the ship before lunch.the show cabins in the folder were all closed and nobody was around to ask why this was. i think this was prettty poor!! a ship visit was to look at cabins with view to book a cruise on!! the lunch was very good, and had an extra 30mins before we had to leave.

 

a not greatly organised visit as we had paid £25 for, i have done others and there much better.

dave

 

Sounds like a dreadful visit to the ship. Sorry the ship was delayed arriving, but not much can be done about that. It might have had something to do with your shortened time onboard, again, sorry to hear that.

I also would write to whoever sent out these invitations and alert them to your displeasure and that the tour was not what it was supposed to be. Hopefully they will refund the amount you paid for the visit or the next time something like this is offered, they will allow you to attend it complimentary.

[Colo Cruiser]

hi i'd just like to say a few words on my visit and lunch yesterday 16th aug.

i arrived at the time said on letter 0900-1000 and when i arrived by taxi there was no sign of the ship GRAND PRINCESS. in wass in a tent!! there was only 3 seatsrain!! the ship was de;layed they said! when i fact she was not due until 1030. i was shivering waiting, we eventually got on board about 1120 after 2h 30mins. as soonm as we got onboard we wentb through x ray machine anmds our picture was taken, was this a bit much for a tour??

then after we went to the dining room to have a cup of tea and cake. after we had it to made our way out, but was told we had to wait 10mins for them to make an announcement which was just bwhat time lunch was. we had 45nmins to tour the ship before lunch.the show cabins in the folder were all closed and nobody was around to ask why this was. i think this was prettty poor!! a ship visit was to look at cabins with view to book a cruise on!! the lunch was very good, and had an extra 30mins before we had to leave.

 

a not greatly organised visit as we had paid £25 for, i have done others and there much better.

dave

 

 

 

You are lucky you even had the chance to do this. :cool:

The security is standard and expected in this day and age. :rolleyes:

[Casshew]

There was security like that when I boarded the Festivale over 20 years ago for a travel agent visit.

[Times Prince]

. as soonm as we got onboard we wentb through x ray machine anmds our picture was taken, was this a bit much for a tour??

Princess takes security very seriously, which as a future passenger should be comforting to you. The system is both electronic and manual such that all passengers are logged in and out of the ship, and a crewmember verifies the person leaving is the person shown on the card using the picture.

 

then after we went to the dining room to have a cup of tea and cake. after we had it to made our way out, but was told we had to wait 10mins for them to make an announcement which was just bwhat time lunch was. we had 45nmins to tour the ship before lunch.the show cabins in the folder were all closed and nobody was around to ask why this was. i think this was prettty poor!! a ship visit was to look at cabins with view to book a cruise on!! the lunch was very good, and had an extra 30mins before we had to leave.

 

a not greatly organised visit as we had paid £25 for, i have done others and there much better.

dave

There does sound like a series of errors here that would be unsatisfying. At least you had tea and lunch plus about an hour and a quarter to tour the ship.

 

As a potential passenger, you have had an opportunity that most do not get - onboard visits by friends/family were discontinued many years ago.

 

Hopefully you will get a chance to see the cabins first hand - they match the pictures online fairly well.

[Atomica]

You're more than lucky to have even had the opportunity to visit the ship - ship visits nowadays are few and far between. It is unfortunate that the ship was delayed and cabins weren't available, but they do have ship to run.

 

We did two ship visits last year, and in both we had to hustle to see all the cabins as once guests checked in, the cabins were closed to viewing, for obvious reasons. Also, on both tours (Holland & Regent), we were issued with ID that we had to wear at all times, our names cross-checked with the guest list & passports/drivers licenses held in the cruise terminal as collateral.

 

They take the safety of their ships & guests very seriously.

[can786]

I just got off the Grand Princess this morning and we were not delayed getting into Belfast at all. The ship was not scheduled to get in until 10:30 am. Sorry they told you to be there at 9am. Sorry you had to wait as it was certainly not a good day to be standing around on the pier.

[seabourndt]

yes i will certainly write a letter to princess to voice my compaints. upon speaking to a friend who was onboard you are correct about her arrival time. i am indeed lucky in these day to get a chance to do ship visits. they are getting harder every year. it was actually organsed by princess i would have thought they would have had a proper terminal in belfast as they have quite a few cruiseships coming in there now. rather than a marquee or tent! the only other visit i got this year id EURODAM whicvh i salso got grom holland america which was absulutly free!! it went extremly well, no problems at all. i also have 2 vists planned in bremerhaven next month on 2 german ships ALBATROS and AMADEA these i'm sure will be interesting.

dave

[can786]

I certainly wouldn't blame Princess for the fact that Belfast has no cruise terminal, and it really isn't surprising that they don't have one as it has only been a few years since ships started regularly calling there. Perhaps there are plans for one in the future now that the "troubles" there seem to be truly over. For most of my life I wouldn't even have considered a visit to Belfast due to the troubles there so cruiseships certainly were not visiting either.