Star Princess Cruises Reviews

Thanks for all that. Very interesting & things I shall note as my wife has a yen to return. First, I didn't , in fact, use a taxi in Montevideo, but at the berth I did see a board upon which there was what appeared to be a list of taxi prices to various stops including the Plaza Independencia. Although I may have read it wrongly, I don't believe I did so. In respect of the Falklands (Malvinas?) my impression is that, tourist-wise, it is battlefield sites and/or penguins. You can do research on the Falklands offical tourist web-site. Stanley is, of course, a tender port so you will have to consider your wife's fitness for that. You will understand that most cruise ships are likely to decant into Stanley somewhat more people than the whole Falklands population, and so, unlike, say, many Caribbean islands, there is not a long line of taxis waiting at the small berth hoping to sell tours. As tourism is now the main driver of the economy it seems that just about everyone pitches in with their Land Rover or similar to cater for the ship's tours (remember, battlefields & penguins - we did penguins). I'm sure there must be a few taxis but I didn't see any. There is, apparently, a shuttle 'bus' near to the berth doing unbooked trips to a nearby penguin colony: maybe this is for you. On the main sea-front road in Stanley are Jubilee Villas, a couple of tourist shops; if memory serves these are within a couple of hundred yards of the berth; the cathedral with whale jaw-bone arch (1/4 mile?); and the British war memorial (1/2 mile?). I don't suppose you need to be told that The Falklands is a bleak place and when we were there the weather was foul with wind and rain. We enjoyed it very much and you are right to look forward to it, but, frankly, without that tremendously powerful association with all that went on in 1982..................

Like you Russell of Fareham, I too should have been on the next cruise. but after trying to get information from both my travel agent and Princess over the weekend (nothing on the web site)my travel agent also in the dark,the agent \'phoned on Monday morning to say travel as itinerary. Feeling the flight from Madrid to Santiago could not possibly take place I \'phoned Princess who confirmed travel plans to go ahead. Surprised, but followed instructions (75 mile journey to Manchester ) expecting to be told at check-in not to bother, not so, therefore arrived at London Heathrow no Princess representative at Iberia check-in (in fact no-one in sight.) Asked Iberia check-in staff if flights were in operation from Madrid to Santiago and obviously they weren\'t. Hung around still awaiting a Princess rep. who eventually turned up some approximately 20 minutes later with coffee for himself in hand, only to be told itinerary cancelled. I also had booked the whole package of flights plus cruise but was told to travel home. I stated that since my ticket showed my return flight to be some 2 weeks later what were the arrangements, the rep said just go back to the terminal you came in from if they won\'t change your flight get another and claim on your insurance. I asked why Princess during the whole weekend hadn\'t once contacted me by \'phone, e-mail etc, he gave me a slip of paper with a \'phone number and said to ring them but did not lift a finger to be more helpful, basically do it yourself. Another couple then arrived who had flown in from Poland, they also had not been contacted had a mobile phone with them and had tried unsuccessfully by \'phone and internet to find out the situation. After arranging a flight back to Manchester (British Midland were brilliant) I \'phoned my husband to do a repeat journey back to Manchester to meet me he covered some 300 miles on that day. Princess now say only a refund of flights and cruise will be covered, should I wish to recover the out of pocket expenses I will have to claim on insurance. I realise that the earthquake and it\'s consequences are horrific and could not have been forecast but I do feel Princess should have made some attempt to contact passengers to at least give them some information instead of leaving it to us the passengers to do the chasing for help and leaving us to make our own arrangements. However I have not been put off and have re-booked for a similar cruise on 26th Janaury, 2011. I do hope it will be less traumatic.

I also wrote to Princess pointing out the lack of contact and customer care which certainly didn't happen, I probably received exactly the same letter in reply as you did, and like you it wasn't worth my while to claim on insurance due as in your case to excess. The answer to your question regarding discount on my future cruise for 26th January, 2011 is NO I didn't receive any discount whatsoever, but there you go, I just want to do that particular cruise so I have to accept that Princess do not intend to make amends, and there are not that many other cruise lines that I wish to travel with. I do hope however that should anything go wrong in future they have learned their lesson.

As I have said here, I honestly think Princess were overwhelmed. Their crisis-management was non-existent. Because they did not know what to do they just did virtually nothing, handed the whole issue over to passengers, hoping that bad things would just go away. Isn't Carnival the biggest leisure company in the world? Not good. Not impressive.

I had intended to keep my displeasure at Princess brief but since you ask, the 'option' to return to Buenos Aires was not as attractive as it may sound (although I note that Princess are representing it as a fine, generous initiative). The re-arranged itinerary was 10 days :- 9 1/2 days at sea and 1/2 day in Ushuaia - not especially attractive to me. The deal was $50 pppd. plus $116 taxes each (plus 'hotel charge' (tips), $10.50 pppd, of course). Princess said in a letter (I kept my copy) that they would "attempt" to arrange flights from an airport of your choice, ie. Montevideo or Buenos Aires, but even if you were on a Princess package you would be treated, and I quote, "Similar to those who have booked their flights independently, if you CHOOSE (my emphasis) to fly from a city other than Santiago, the difference between your current fare and the new fare will be to your account". So first you had no way of knowing the Princess-booked costs of outbound flights, but you could be sure that an intercontinental flight, if it were available, booked at the last minute, would cost a bomb (£5-600 extra each?). Those who did choose to return to Buenos Aires got a further Princess letter saying flights from Buenos Aires could not be guaranteed, were likely to be in short supply, and where that was the case there would be lotteries (I kid you not) to establish the order in which passengers who returned to Buenos Aires would fly home. Oh, and pay for your own hotel in the meantime. Great option, eh? My view is they were just trying to get a few paying passengers on the ship for its return to Buenos Aires. As far as my own flights home were concerned, the night before we were due to leave the ship I got a call to go to passenger services where I was told my flights were cancelled. That was no surprise but then I was told I had to arrange my own flights (how/where/when - the airport's closed!??) and, without me asking, I was told "and you'll have to pay for your own flights". I was astonished saying I was on Princess flights & refused to take the proffered airline phone number. A couple of fellow British passengers appeared: we talked about sit-ins and the like & demanded to see the captain or a senior officer. In due course we got to see the Hotel Services Manager who eventually produced what appeared to be flights for a week hence. We thought 'better than nothing': don't forget we understood and accept that there's been a major earthquake & there's massive disruption. Then we got back into the 'now you've got to book your own hotel and pay for it' mode. When we protested, said manager winked conspiratorially and said to keep all your receipts. A Spanish-speaking passenger had acquired a list of hotels and let me have a copy. I spoke to hotels in Santiago, always beginning with the question 'Do you speak English?' A half hour later (by the way, it's now 1.30am) I guessed I'd succeeded in booking into the Santiago Park Plaza. Returned to wife in cabin, bags outside door, and 7am meet for disembarking. An agency rep. took us to Santiago. Book into hotel (who, thank God, are expecting us). Later in the day I saw the same Spanish-speaking passenger who helped with hotel list. She informed me and others that she has found out the airline 'ticket' given us the previous evening is not a ticket but an itinerary and to 'activate' it I need to visit in person the TAM Brasil airlines office in downtown Santiago. So taxis, etc., etc., grief, insecurity (thanks, Princess) and ticket is obtained. If I had not spoken to her I may well have turned up at the airport at the appointed time believing I had a ticket, found that was not the case, and been sent away to book and pay again. Great, Princess. In due course we checked out of the hotel but not before we had to arrange and pay for our airport transfer and pay for the hotel. Since I have returned home I have been to Thomas Cook's who arranged the cruise package. I believe they were astonished and cannot understand how Princess could abrogate their obligations to us. Remember: Princess flights and cruise. I have also had a letter from Princess saying how hard they worked for us after this unprecedented event, hope that nevertheless we had a great time; and get in touch with our insurance companies to seek any recompense incurred. Russell; thanks for your interest. Listen, the cruise itself is a great itinerary and it's a real interesting adventure (OK the transport is pretty soft and indulgent). The crew and service at the sharp end of Star Princess were as splendid as we have come to expect: I have already said we are Princess fans. But it's clear that Carnival in California and the ship's management were overwhelmed by the circumstances and, frankly, lost it. To be truthful, three days of management confusion, lack of information, inconsistency, and all that followed regarding flights and hotels and all the effort and grief to which I was exposed has left us with very negative feelings and spoiled what should have been the cruise of a lifetime. But that won't apply to you. Go for it.

Dear John I have just found this website, so this comment is of course about events that happened in March 2010. Like you we were on this cruise, and shared the experience of Princess Cruises complete lack of customer care after the problems with the Earthquake. I remember standing with you when we were threatening to have a sit in, or was it a gang plank sit in! If the Brits on board hadn't got together, I shudder to think what would have happened if we had found it necessary to return to Buenos Aires. However you have not perhaps highlighted the blatant lies which were told us by Customer services. It was obvious that Head office were trying to recoup their losses by trying by any means to get us to stay on. We were told as you will remember that Valparaiso was destroyed; that Santiago was a lawless city, with armed police being stationed in Hotel lobbies to protect people from looting. On the last 3 nights on board we were bombarded with what turned out to be fictional tales of woe, worrying us all and causing many sleepless hours wondering just how we were to get home. All you say about the departure from the ship, the flight e tickets which weren't and the hotel are of course absolutely true, but maybe you haven't said as much about the fantastic reception we had in Santiago, which turned out to be a beautiful and peaceful city. Valparaiso, which we had been told was destroyed, looked pretty good to me from the coach, with all of the infrastructure in place. We hadn't intended staying in Santiago, but I am really pleased that we did. As regards communications with Princess after the holiday, I can only say that their attitude was derisory. After our Insurance company said that `acts of nature' (pc expression for Acts of God) were not covered by their policy, a bit of a surprise as they had failed to send me the policy document stating that, I tried to see if Princess would consider any kind of recompense, bearing in mind the distress they had caused by their manipulation of the truth, and the physical cost which was around £1000 including a £380 mobile phone bill. As the Volcano ash problem had highlighted tour operators liabilities to delays due to natural causes, I wrote to Princess quoting the EU Regulation concerned and awaited their response. Surprise surprise, they refused to consider any liability, again quoting how well they had treated and looked after us, they finished by saying that in effect they said if you are unsatisfied with their response, go to the Ombudsman! Whilst I agree that the cruise was a memorable one, it was let down by their failure to address and understand passengers concerns. I also note that you accepted the line about why we were stuck in Ushuaia. Strange but a large sailing ship with just a small imboard engine, managed to get in & out of port while we were, so say, stuck to the jetty unable to move with our huge engines and thrusters! After the newspaper articles at that time concerning Argentina's response to the Oil drilling in the Falklands, and Princess's failure to get a permit from the Argentinians to return to Argentina after the Falklands makes me wonder if maybe we were being held as a punishment! It was strange that although the wind did not seemed to have dropped, or its direction changed, exactly at Midnight we sailed! Anyway when push came to shove, we accepted the additional cost at our expense as it really wasn't worth the upset, although I personally still feel that Princess Cruises were liable under the terms of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004. Chile was lovely, we saw the Andes, we saw a Winery, we saw Santiago, so we felt it was an expense worth paying. Sadly we still felt that Princess had let us down, there wasn't even an offer of a discount on another cruise to sweeten their refusal to consider a claim. I guess that we will again cruise with Princess (Carnival), because they are the major cruise operator, but it was not a pleasant experience at the time Paul