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you can't be serious: you would take this to small claims court? I think I am glad we didn't cruise with you. It doesn't sound like you would be a barrel of fun. Hopefully you will find another way to vacation that will work better for you
Surprisingly, On this we disagree. It's a matter of principle. I would try other ways to get a refund before even considering filing small claims court, but ultimately might get pissed enough to do it. (But my closeted secret is an addiction to The People's Court ). OP HAS jumped the gun too quickly, IMO. There are other avenues to getting his refund to be explored that will very likely succeed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by keninaz
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Already decided that cruises just don't give us what we want so we have abandoned that idea mainly due to out mobility issues and the lack of time onshore. Just not interested in sitting on a small space with 5000 other people whose main goal seems to stay drunk.
I did not take the cruise to make friends.
Which is 100% predictable since you had decided this BEFORE you set foot in the ship. For this reason, nmnita and I do agree: I'm glad I didn't sail with you, either.
As a final comment, I enjoyed to stories about the local areas we were told by the excursion bus drivers. At least we got some local flair out of it.
Scenery is one thing, but we have lived among the trees in many communities and seeing them from a passing ship is OK at best.
Also of note, after sending 3 unanswered complaints about wanting a refund to Princess about that last excursion where the tickets were delivered at the last minute and we never saw them until we returned to the cabin? I finally came up with the customer relations phone email. I got a call 3 days later and they said it would be "awhile" before they could respond.
So far it's been nearly a month and I have heard nothing.
Shortly I will just put the matter into small claims court and let them deal with the court system. My only regret is that I did not dispute the charge on my CC when I could have. What the hell, $160 is still $160 and I don't like the way they got it.
i am not clear on when you received the tickets. Were they delivered in the evening meaning you'd missed that day's excursion, or did you receive them the evening before?
Port excursions can only be a certain number of hours because the cruise ship has a timetable to follow and it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if the ship does not depart at its pre-arranged time. We know this going in, which is one of the reasons we've only done two cruises, and another one booked next May. A day trip is a good taste of a location but ultimately it's not how I prefer to travel.
I know people who cruise multiple times per year but I have to think it's for the actual cruise ship amenities and experience, whereas for me, a cruise is a portable hotel where I don't have to pack and unpack for a week or more, but get to visit a new city/country each day. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the ports I visited and there are definitely a few we need to return to, but honestly, the best parts of each cruise were the pre and post cruise days where we spent multiple days in Rome and Venice.
I have osteo arthritis in my knee and will be going on my first cruise in Nov. to the Bahamas. We will only be in the Bahamas for 24 hours (3 day cruise from Miami). Now I worry about mobility. I can walk everywhere, but standing for prolonged periods of time hurts. I also hate stairs, but as long as there's not 20+ steps I can manage. I thought cruise ships had elevators?
I ordered the tickets on board, on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we were told that the excursion we wanted was booked.
They told us that they would put us on standby and if there was enough interest, another 10 people or so, that they would call us and let us know we could get the tickets.
On Friday afternoon, the day before leaving the ship, they moved the dinner schedule up to start at 1600 or 1630 and having heard nothing we assumed that we were not going to get tickets so we went to dinner and then to a lounge area returning around 8 or so.
At that time we found the tickets in the outside mailbox (they were not there when we left for dinner) and the excursion was either leaving or left already.
If we had known via a phone call or message on our room's phone (that we were supposed to get if they got further interest) we would have taken the excursion needless to say.
Not a good way to do business.
I have osteo arthritis in my knee and will be going on my first cruise in Nov. to the Bahamas. We will only be in the Bahamas for 24 hours (3 day cruise from Miami). Now I worry about mobility. I can walk everywhere, but standing for prolonged periods of time hurts. I also hate stairs, but as long as there's not 20+ steps I can manage. I thought cruise ships had elevators?
Yes there are plenty of elevators. Some people just like to complain. We have taken 6 or 7 cruises, & never had a problem with communication. Of course, I also do not look down my nose at someone who is not speaking American. I am not saying this is what OP did, but I have certainly met people who do.
I have osteo arthritis in my knee and will be going on my first cruise in Nov. to the Bahamas. We will only be in the Bahamas for 24 hours (3 day cruise from Miami). Now I worry about mobility. I can walk everywhere, but standing for prolonged periods of time hurts. I also hate stairs, but as long as there's not 20+ steps I can manage. I thought cruise ships had elevators?
Please don't worry! DH had had one knee replacement and needs another. That is actually one of the reasons that cruising is his favorite way to travel these days - he's not restricted by the limited distances he can walk. Lots of elevators and chairs to rest on the ship if needed.
The long line complaints are generally exaggerated by people who are always impatient or simply think they are more important than anyone else. Even if there IS a line, they can be easily avoided. (Like don't go to the buffet at the strike of noon. Wait until 12:45pm)
I did a cruise once when I needed a wheelchair. ZERO PROBLEM on the ship.
Yes there are plenty of elevators. Some people just like to complain. We have taken 6 or 7 cruises, & never had a problem with communication. Of course, I also do not look down my nose at someone who is not speaking American. I am not saying this is what OP did, but I have certainly met people who do.
I certainly did not look down my nose at people. I just think that in certain positions that deal with the passengers that the crew ought to be able to speak the language of the people they serve.
We found it hard to communicate with some of them when it was obvious that they had little understanding of the basic skills to understand and respond.
They work very hard for the passengers however.
We found that our cabin steward and dinner steward were very good with the English language.
Also, for those with mobility challenges, one of our excursions picked us up right on the pier which was nice but when we returned the driver said they could not reenter the pier area and we had to walk some 4-6 blocks and unfortunately it was windy and raining. Once at the gangway we stood in the WX behind several hundred other people trying to get back on board.
I saw a number of people in scooters on board and all 3 excursions we took was rated very good with little walking by the ship in their advertisements but we saw nobody in a scooter on the excursions we took. And, as pointed out, the "truth" about most of the tours is that it took quite a bit more walking than was advertised.
Yes, I get it, they could not sell the tours if they told the absolute truth.
Just an update, Princess Cruises did the right thing and called today to get copies of the tickets which I emailed to them as proof we did not use them.
They agreed that before charging us they should have left a message on our phone verifying that we still wanted the tickets and that they were available.
It did take some 6 weeks for them to respond but they did the right thing.
From my experience, all crew members speak English. I've found that many Americans are impatient when dealing with people who have accents.
I totally agree: I have seen some crew members who do not have a good command of our language but they all speak well enough to do their jobs properly and most go above and beyond.
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). OP HAS jumped the gun too quickly, IMO. There are other avenues to getting his refund to be explored that will very likely succeed.
