Princess Cruises
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They gave us a cruise on a broken ship
We went on an Alaskan Cruise 7/16/22-7/23/22. This was my first cruise and, based on conversations with others who had gone on an Alaskan Cruise, my wife and I were eagerly looking forward to it. Based on recommendations, we chose one that went through the inside channel of Glacier Bay for optimal sightseeing. We were on the Crown Princess, the only choice for cruising the inside channel of Glacier Bay with Princess. 5 weeks after the booking we received notice that due to "scheduled engine maintenance" the ship could not run at full speed. As a result we would be getting into 2 ports late and one important port(Ketchikan) was being replaced with a smaller port(Icy Strait Point). 3 weeks prior to sailing we received additional info that "technical restrictions" regarding speed would further delay our arrival at Juneau(a total of 4 hours lost of a planned 10 hour shore time). Princess did give us a token amount of shipboard credit to make up for the changes but it was totally inadequate. We had planned a 5 week cross country trip around the cruise schedule so we did not want to cancel. That may have been our biggest mistake. The biggest disappointment was not being able to go through all of the inside passage as scheduled. We were told it was due to ice and wildlife, although a Holland America ship sailed by us and went on in. I'm convinced we didn't go through because of the ship's limited speed. Even though we turned around, we were still late to our next port and could not do our chosen excursion. The whole point of cruising the inside channel of Glacier Bay(at a substantial upcharge) is to see the glaciers, the largest of which we were unable to cruise to! In summary, our cruise included 4 ports and inside Glacier Bay Cruising. In our first port, Juneau, we lost 40% of our shore time. The second port, Skagway, went essentially as planned. The Glacier Bay cruising was cut short. Our third port, Icy Strait Point was a waste of time since we couldn't do our planned excursion due to inadequate timing and extremely poor organization. It certainly was not equal to Ketchikan! At our final port, Victoria, we were so late that all shore excursions were cancelled. A medical emergency accounted for some delay, but not all of it. Princess should have repaired the ship before the season so it could maintain an appropriate schedule. An Alaskan cruise is the cruise of a lifetime for many people. Princess let the passengers down and should be held responsible. I would not recommend them anyone at this time