We’ve always cruised with P&O in the past so used to their efficient travel arrangements when flying to meet the ship somewhere other than Southampton.
Because we wanted to cruise the Panamá Canal, we booked with Princess Cruises.
First issue we came across was when we arrived in Los Angeles we were told that our friends were in a different hotel to us, even though I had made the booking for all 4 of us together.
However, Princess told us this was done by Bolsover Cruise Club, not them.
Then we were told to meet in the hotel reception at 10:30 the following morning but the coach didn’t arrive until 13:00.
After the coach got stuck in the car park we eventually headed off.
When we arrived at the port, with two Princess ships docked, it was slow progress around the port to the ship.
The coach driver was looking for guidance from the Team waiting to help with luggage but got no indication of where he should stop.
He then tried to park in a small car park just past the ship to be told he couldn’t drop us there, so had to join the queue to exit the car park and go around the loop again.
By this time, I just wanted to come home.
The driver then just stopped outside the ship and we were told to collect our luggage and pointed to the door.
When we arrived at the said door, we were told to take our luggage to another door first – REALLY!!! Once we boarded the ship, it was very familiar and we settled into life as we knew it onboard.
The other thing we were disappointed with was that we’d had an excursion cancelled just a week before our departure date however, we only found this out when we questioned why we’d received all our excursion tickets and that was missing.
We’ve been home 2 weeks now and still haven’t received a refund for that excursion.
One of our ports was cancelled back in December 22, at no fault of Princess, but our excursion refund didn’t arrive until March 23, so I’m expecting a long wait for this refund too!!! We were also surprised to find that smoking was allowed in the casino.
We had a choice whether to go into the very smelly casino, but the crew don’t – they have no choice and told they have to work in the unhealthy environment.
