Princess

We booked a Carnival Cruise (aka Princess) for our Honeymoon. I had long heard about horrible service issues, but we gave them a shot, and frankly, it was the only carrier going where we really wanted to go for our Honeymoon at the time of our wedding. Then comes Hurricane Wilma. For days, we heard that Cancun and Cozumel were pounded by the Category 5 beast, just 2-3 days before our wedding and cruise.

Their ‘policy’ states that if they change their itenerary, you can be entitled to a refund or move to another cruise. For 2 days before the wedding, knowing a majority of our itenerary would be cancelled, I called the cruise line to try to rescue our honeymoon. Even though half of Cancun was flattened and Cozumel was under 5 feet, yes feet of rain, not to mention that everyone in both communities had evacuated, Carnival (Princess) refused to indicate if there would be a schedule change. End result, 11am on the day of my wedding I get a computer calling and leaving a message that the itenerary had finally been adjusted. Well, by then, I was a little busy to be dealing with travel plans.

So, we got married, and on our bulletin outlining the wedding events, the last category was, Honeymoon….who knows where?? Thanks Hurricane Wilma! As a light-hearted attempt to approach the situation. Then Wilma headed for Fla and our flight out was delayed by a day. No flights and no hotels because everyone was evacuating north. Then, we get to Fla understanding already that Cancun (the one place we really wanted to go) was cancelled, but we knew that Cozumel would be too.

Our ship was delayed for an entire day to skirt the weather, after already being delayed so we’re stuck in our hometown for an extra night, and now we’re stuck in Fla with no place to stay because of the evacuation north. But, in repeatedly calling the cruise line, there was no information. Finally, the boat came in and we were interviewed by a reporter about our situation, but I never found any evidence it was published. They told everyone waiting at the corral to board, and while they were cleaning, they would serve lunch. Then, another announcement came that said, “No, go to lunch on your own and come back around 5-6pm.” At that point, I thought, there are too many issues with this carrier, lets’ just hang in Tampa for the rest of our honeymoon after being jerked around so much. I asked for our luggage back and they refused to retrieve it. At this time they finally offered a refund, but no luggage, so how nice would a honeymoon be in a far away place with no luggage, no hotel plans and no car arrangement? Reluctantly, we boarded the ship, and by the way, after half the passengers had boarded an announcement was made that Cozumel would also be cancelled. Gee, I knew that 4 days ago.

As a result, we essentially took a cruise to nowhere. Oh, Progresso, Mexico was our consolation, and while I appreciate the ‘effort’ to send us somewhere, it was merely a shipping port, not a destination. After many calls and letters before, during and after the cruise for hanging us to dry for our honeymoon, the only consolation Carnival (Princess) provided was a 20% discount for our troubles which they gave to everyone because the 5-day cruise was delayed by more than a day.

Princess could have chosen to work with us to make a memorable honeymoon, but it refused. Saying that, I will say that once we were on board, the staff and accommodations were truly exceptional I’m sure to make up for everyone’s frustration and dissatisfaction about how everyone was treated in the days before embarkation, and so regardless of where we went or didnt go, we decided to have a great honeymoon just being together, and we did. However, we will never book a Princess lines affiliated cruise again thanks to Carnival. And yes, I wrote to both once I realized Carnival was affiliated with Princess. No satisfaction of any kind other than the standard rebate for the shorter trip (no refund of airline change costs, or hotel costs for having to stay home an extra day and being stranded in Fla because the prior cruise wasnt coming in and they failed to notify everyone until the day they were due to board…..like, didn’t they know this??? They waited until everyone had to be there to tell us the boat was going to be late….) Unbelievable.