Were any of you on the cruise that piled into the pier in Victoria on May 21? Have you had any luck in compensation from Princess for the missed Victoria stop and the missed flight plans?

My wife and me were aboard that cruise. We were extremely lucky in that we had booked a flight on our own, and had no problem switching the flight to a later one the same evening. Alaska Airlines was very accomodating.

No, we haven't heard a word from Princess about any kind of compensation for the missed opportunity to visit Victoria.

Amazingly, since I have a nautical background (7 years in U.S. Coast Guard), I was completely amazed by the decision to continue the cruise schedule by the Diamond Princess, albeit with a shortened itinerary. The ship is now operating with one propeller instead of two, and can only do about 12 knots versus 22 with both screws. I got a message from a friend of mine in Seattle that 300 passengers elected not to sail with the shortened itinerary. Don't blame them a bit.

Since it was our first cruise, we had a blast! If anyone has any updates on possible compensation please contact me. I can be reached at: rickmccusker@sbcglobal.net or at rmccusker@sacsheriff.com.

Thanks!

Very interesting. What did the 300 passengers who elected not to finish do? Did they find transportation home from the Victoria port? We have our travel agent working on the flight change charge and on the meal compensation. We rode on the bus to the Seatac with Alaska flight passengers who were irate because Alaska would not reschedule their flights without full charges for the new one and no refund for the missed flight. I don't know how that will wash out. Are you from the Sacramento area? We are from Placerville area.

We just got back from the Diamond Princess cruise to Alaska - the one after it hit the dock in Victoria. It was a bad cruise all around. We sat in a large room at the Seattle Conference center (no food or beverage) for more than 6 hours before we were boarded onto buses to board the ship. Some people didn't board until midnight. We were never told what happened. About midnight information was posted that we would not go to Juneau or Victoria. About 300 people were awake and almost rioted at the pursurs desks. After much arguing an officer who would not identify himself told some people to get off the ship (the really angry people) and told others that they could leave but they had to get their own luggage and turn over their cruise and airline tickets. They refused to inform the rest of the passengers who were already in their cabins. People had 15 minutes to make up their minds and getting a promise of a refund in writing was near impossible. About 250 people left. When the rest heard what happened the next morning there was much anger and frustration. To make matters worse the crew were rude, service the entire week was awful. We will NEVER cruise Princess again. We may never cruise again. Oh, in addition to the missed ports, we didn't go to the glacier, the movies didn't work, there were few activities, and did I mention the Norwalk virus outbreak? NEVER AGAIN WILL WE TRAVEL ON PRINCESS. Watch out for captain Nick Nash (we dubbed him "crash nash". If you want more details about this very disappointing cruise and poorly run ship let me know - I could go on for pages.

Do you mean you were on the cruise after we disembarked on May22? The ship had lost two propellers-I don't understand how it could have taken passengers anywhere. We were on the cruise from May 15 and suppose to be off the ship early on May 22. Well, that didn't happen. It was the most disorganized cruise from start to finish. On May 15 when we were boarding, we had a three hour wait in the rain before we could even board. Something was really wrong with customs or something..I would really like to know what it was. Let me know if you have any luck from Princess with compensation. We had to reschedule our flight to go home on 5/23 instead of 5/22. It was a nightmare and nobody could tell us anything. I don't think they were letting staff know anything.

Hi Diamond Lil,

according to my sources, the ship did not loose both propellers (which would have left it dead in the water as far as propulsion is concerned), but rather two propeller blades were damaged, and Princess reported that those were repaired by divers during the next cruise.

Well, that makes more sense than what we had heard. We heard that the ship would have to go into dry dock for repairs and that there was already a ship in dry dock in Seattle and the only other dry dock big enough for this ship was in Hawaii so that there would not be a cruise on this ship until the propeller had been fixed but you have proven that wrong as you were on that cruise following the accident. Let me know if you hear anything more.

Hi Diamond Lil,

there was a discussion on a mailing list some days ago that there was not a single non-military dock on the west coast which could accommodate "Diamond Princess" because of her beam. I guess that for the regular drydockings, Princess will send her and "Sapphire Princess" to Asia (e.g. Singapore). As at least one of the ships will be doing Asia/Pacific cruises during the winter months, this should not even require a lengthy "detour" from its regular routes.

To me it doesn't matter if the ship lost 2 blades, 2 props or 1n prop. It was all about how the passengers were treated.Or I geuss you could say untreated. After reading this I don't think I would ever book on R.C.I think right now that all the cruise lines have so much bussiness that they don't care.The problem is they have run most of the little guys out so they can do things like this and get away with it.I would say to everyone tell all your friends and relatives about these type situations and hurt the cruise operators that act in this way in thier wallets. If you lay down and take it they will continue to give to you.Also contact your travel agent about these things, they have way more horsepower than an individual.
Tom

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Originally posted by thomas stanton:
To me it doesn't matter if the ship lost 2 blades, 2 props or 1n prop. It was all about how the passengers were treated.Or I geuss you could say untreated.

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Hi Tom,

I'm sure nobody disagrees with you in that respect.

Thomas: When you say you would never book again on RC are you speaking of Royal Caribbean? The experience we are speaking of was on the Diamond Princess. Please don't tell me that all the major cruise lines are alike.

Lil
I mis printed when I said R.C. I ment to write Princess. I have been on R.C. AND JUST CAME BACK FROM THE Celebrity Century, which is owned by Royal Carribean. That was a wonderful cruise, and I definately will cruise Celebrity again. I will not however even consider Princess after these people were treated the way they were. Sorry about my earlier mis print.
Tom

Just heard from our travel agent with copies of letter to Princess re May 15 Alaska cruise on the Diamond. Princess is refusing to pay for our meals while we were held over in Seattle to catch a plane the next day after missing ours because of the pier crashing (they called it a technical problem). They said they will compensate for the airline charge for rescheduling the flight. We are not happy with this cruise line.

We were on the May 22nd cruise to Alaska. Not only was the long wait at the Seattle Center horrible but to top everything they lost one of my pieces of luggage. The customer service staff kept telling us to wait, it may show up. I spent most of our stop in Skagway replacing all my personal items. I just received it by mail from Holland America. Figure that one out. I agree that the staff was not the friendliest.The only concerned person was our stateroom steward. I thought it was sneaky to offer a non-refundable credit to everyones account one day and then after many spent it on ship, it became refundable. I went back and read the contract and it basically says that the cruise line can shorten the cruise and eliminate ports if they want, with no liability. I'm amazed that this company can treat customers this way and get away with it. We were very disappointed with this cruise,

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Originally posted by BLE:
I went back and read the contract and it basically says that the cruise line can shorten the cruise and eliminate ports if they want, with no liability. I'm amazed that this company can treat customers this way and get away with it. We were very disappointed with this cruise,

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Hi BLE,

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

Virtually all cruise lines have passenger contracts like that. Hence, they are usually giving passengers more than they have to by the contracts. Of course this won't necessarily cover the hassle and disappointment involved in the event of something unusual happening.

It has happened (usually with smaller operators) that people ended up on a different ship or sailing to a completely different destination (e.g. to Canada instead of Bermuda due to a Hurricane).

However, these occurrences are fortunately very rare. It has happened to me, as well, however.

I am interested in your non-refundable credit. We didn't receive said credit. We did miss our plane ride home on the 22nd and we did have two unplanned meals at the hotel we were put up in that are not being reimbursed. We, too, were very disappointed with the service (excepting stateroom steward) and we didn't think the food was that great. It seemed that there was alot of surcharging; ice cream, gratuities, water, etc.

We just received word back from Princess through our travel agent that there was no compensation for missed iteniary, meals at the hotel you were put up at, tips for luggage porters, carts, etc. This is not the way to treat their passengers (customers).

I would like to say to every one. Please tell everyone you know about this ordeal on the Diamond Princess, if there were a boycot of this cruise line it wouldn't take long and they would learn how to treat thier guests. It looks to me as the whole operation needs a lesson in customer relations.I feel bad for all the passengers involved but now we can all help out by passing the word. I will never consider this cruise line after reading about this unfortunate experience.Lets all stick together and pass the word!!!!!!!!!
Tom

I'm with you. What is the best way to get the word out?

I believe the best way to get something done about this is to tell every one you know that cruises about what happened.Also get in touch with any travel agents that you know or use past or present, and get on any web site that has a cruise review,just pass the word and maybe it will do some good. It will not help the passengers that already have had thier vacations ruined,but it might make them feel better and also prevent this cruise line from treating other people in this manner.I still can not believe the way these passengers were treated. Good luck and pass the word!
Tom