Princess Cruise Line
Emerald Princess Cruise Review
Cindy Gass
Sailing Date: December
30th, 2008
Age: 47
Occupation: Sponsored Research Administrator
Number of Cruises: 9
This is a letter that I sent
to Princess Cruises. The only thing more shocking than the
cruise was the condescending and insulting letter we
received in response. You would have thought that I was
complaining about the thread count in the sheets!
My husband and I have just returned from a cruise on the
Emerald Princess departed Ft. Lauderdale on December 30,
2008 and returned on January 9, 2009. I would like to start
by saying that the dining staff and food were excellent, the
bar tenders were excellent, and our room Steward (Rodrigo,
one of the best we’ve ever had) was excellent. That said, it
was the worst cruise we have ever been on.
It appears that your officers and customer service staff on
board require a great deal of training dealing with drunks,
emergencies, and enforcing your own rules.
New Years’ Eve was a disaster.
We decided to go to Cold Fusion for drinks and dancing. When
we arrived there were several couples on the floor dancing
so we sat down and ordered a drink. By the time our drinks
arrived (which was only a few minutes) there were probably 8
or 9 small children (5 -9 years of age) on the dance floor.
They were batting the balloons around, chasing one another,
and had even ripped the New Years sign down. All of the
adults had to leave the floor. I would have thought the club
would have been reserved for adults. The staff did nothing,
so the adults that didn’t bring children with them left. So
much for dancing on New Year’s Eve.
Next we went to deck 6 to watch the balloons fall at
midnight. There were several extremely intoxicated and
obnoxious people there, pushing people, blowing their horns
in your face, etc. Within a few minutes a fight broke out.
There was a lot of pushing and yelling and cursing. The
staff did nothing. We were just about to leave when a fight
broke out among the women in the group, unfortunately that
was right next to where we were standing with a very elderly
couple. They knocked the elderly lady into the foreign
exchange machine and had her in tears. My husband had to
help her back behind the machine and stood in front of her
so that they were falling into him and not knocking her
down. Still, nothing from the staff.
Many walked by, but no one did anything! When the crowd
managed to calm things down somewhat, we finally saw one of
your officers. He walked away with the one couple that were
already leaving away from the area, but left the other group
(who actually started the incident) on deck to continue
terrorizing the rest of us. Which they did and were quite
cocky about it.. At one point the obviously intoxicated
woman was using my husband’s back to jump up and down and
she appeared to think it was amusing.
Your staff should have put a stop to the fight as soon as it
started and they should have escorted everyone involved away
from the celebrations. Personally, I think they should have
been removed from the ship completely.. These holiday
cruises are significantly more expensive than the same
cruise any other time of the year because people want to
come on and be able to enjoy themselves without the problems
they would expect at a local bar at home! If the crew is not
capable of controlling the crowds then they should not have
the big celebrations and gatherings. And at no point should
the passengers have to try to control those situations.
I only wish those were the
only two examples of incompetency that I witnessed from the
staff, but unfortunately they weren’t. When I returned from
my outing in Antigua I decided to take a nap. I heard
someone yelling, “HELP ME”, in the hall so I went out to see
what was wrong. There was an elderly man on the floor. He
told me that he couldn’t get up and asked me to call the
emergency number and ask them to bring a wheel chair and
help him. I called the emergency medical number and told
them what had happened and they told me that they would send
someone right up. I had to call three more times (once I was
told the emergency number was for medical emergencies only
and could I call back at x6000 that they were aware of the
situation!) and two other passengers called as well. It was
over an hour before anyone arrived. And then, the floor
supervisor started lecturing the man telling him that he
should have asked for a wheel chair at the beginning of the
cruise if he needed one! Before she even bothered to find
out what was going on.
I am still shocked when I think back at how long it took for
the crew to respond. I sat out there in the hall with a
stranger for over an hour waiting on the ship’s staff.
Someone should have at least come upstairs to investigate
the situation. I was a passenger. It wasn’t my
responsibility, but I couldn’t leave an obviously ill,
elderly man lying on the floor by himself!
After the last example of complete incompetence, the next is
very minor, but still played a part in ruining our very
expensive cruise. We gave up trying to use the main pools
because the children were so unruly. We decided to go up and
check out the “Sanctuary” because we were told that children
weren’t allowed. When I arrived at the sanctuary there were
two little boys in the pool! I realized then that the staff
had no intentions of enforcing any of their rules. There was
no sense in paying to relax in an area that was for adults
only if the staff wasn’t going to insist that only adults
use the pool.
We have had a couple of nice cruises with Princess which is
why we cruised with you again, but this cruise was worse
than I could have even imagined! Your wait and service staff
are wonderful, but your officers aren’t very good at
handling situations. I would think that it would be their
job to make certain that rules are enforced, drunks are kept
under control, and any medical emergencies are dealt with
immediately. They did not appear capable of doing any of the
above. I find it really surprising since the Emerald
Princess actually has the Commodore of the fleet on board.
If the crew are incapable of handling those simple
situations I can’t even imagine what would have happened had
there been a major emergency such as ones I have read about
in the past; fires, pirates, or rogue waves! I fear we
would all have been in trouble.
Their response:
Thank you for your correspondence addressed to our Customer
Relations Department regarding your sailing aboard Emerald
Princess. We appreciate the opportunity to respond at this
time.
While we are pleased to note that you enjoyed some aspects
of your recent Caribbean cruise, we regret to learn that the
due to the behavior of nearby passengers, you were unable to
fully enjoy the New Years Eve celebrations. We were
concerned to learn of the incidents in Club Fusion and the
atrium you described. Please be aware that, as with any
hotel or resort, our guests come from divergent economic,
educational and cultural backgrounds and their individual
perception of acceptable conduct can be as varied as their
demographics. While we expect that passengers will adhere to
a certain decorum and exhibit overall common civility while
onboard, unfortunately, the ship's staff cannot prevent any
passenger's willful or careless demeanor unless in such
situations where obvious threatening behavior is displayed.
As the host, we can make suggestions, publish guidelines and
the on board staff can intercede and confer with the
passengers in an attempt to gain their understanding and
cooperation. However, the concept of proper social behavior
is a very personal matter and the imposition and enforcement
of strict rules is often impossible. Nevertheless, we regret
if the manner in which these passengers conducted themselves
compromised the enjoyment of your time onboard.
Your comments regarding our medical personnel onboard
Emerald Princess have also been noted. It is our policy that
all staff members treat passengers with courtesy and respect
and make every effort to assist them with inquiries. While
we believe our medical staff performs their duties with the
utmost professionalism, we do apologize if your experience
with our medical staff did not meet your expectations.
We also regret to learn that you observed a large number of
unsupervised children during your cruise. We try to make our
underage passengers and their parents/guardians aware of the
guidelines for proper shipboard behavior. Although senior
shipboard personnel will intervene to resolve a specific
problem, we must ultimately rely upon our guests to exercise
proper control over the minors in their charge. However, as
we are certain you will agree, and as was demonstrated on
your sailing, all families do not impose the same standards
of discipline on their children. Generally, senior staff
personnel are able to manage these situations to the
satisfaction of all parties involved. Unfortunately, during
holiday periods, spring breaks, etc., when the number of
minor passengers is higher, the situation is exacerbated. We
are sorry that this was the situation you experienced and we
will forward your comments to the appropriate senior
management for their review and future planning.
Mrs. Gass, we hope you will continue to consider Princess in
your future cruise plans and we look forward to welcoming
you aboard another Princess voyage in the near future. In
the meantime, we send our kind regards. The foregoing is, of
course, without prejudice to the terms and conditions of the
Passage Ticket Contract.
It could be me, but I found the response condescending and
insulting. |
