Update: The Caribbean Princess arrived in St Thomas early Monday (April 2, 2012) morning in time for its scheduled 7 am arrival.
The Caribbean Princess cruise ship left San Juan late Sunday night after spending 2 1/2 weeks in port with 2 canceled cruises. The ship had been docked in San Juan since March 15, 2012 after the vessel began to have propulsion issues.
The Caribbean Princess is scheduled to be in St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, Dominica, and Barbados this week on a 7 night cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The March 11, 2012 cruise had to be cut short after one stop in St Maarten when propulsion problems starting plaguing the ship. Passengers on board were allowed to stay on the ship in San Juan until their cruise ended. They were given a 100% refund of their cruise fare and 25% off a future cruise with Princess.
Many of the passengers on that cruise have complained that the compensation was not enough. Many had flown in from Europe and felt that their flights should have been reinbursed also. However, several passengers have told Cruise Fever that they thought the compensation given to them was fair.
Shannon, a passenger on that voyage, told Cruise Fever “I’m pretty contempt with getting a full refund for the cruise plus credit for the next. I even get to stay on board, eat as much as I want, swim all day and enjoy the beautiful weather. I am quite comfortable just docked here, lounging. Things could’ve been much worse. We should all be grateful that we weren’t stranded out at sea.”
The Caribbean Princess is currently the largest ship in the Princess fleet with a capacity of 3,600 passengers. It was also the first modern cruise ship to have an outdoor theater.
Cruise Fever will continue to monitor the progress of the Caribbean Princess and bring the latest updates as more information becomes available.
I was on that dreadful trip. My airfare cost more to work around the ships itinerary (about $200 each ticket more). We did not want to be stuck on a ship going no where, as we have done the whole San Juan thing at a previous date – we paid more for this cruise to go to St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Grenada, Bonaire and Aruba. We got off the boat for 3 days and flew to St. Thomas to try to salvage part of our vacation (which ended up costing me 2 flights and a hotel at the SJU airport (because Princess would not let us off the boat early enough to catch a flight to St. Thomas) and I had to pay for 2 nights hotel in St. Thomas). Am I happy with my cruise being refunded….no, I was out an additonal $630 in charges to try to salvage the vacation I had been looking for all year – plus what a disappointment to my daughter – this was supposed to be her college graduation/spring break gift from me. Not as great of gift as I had spent months planning on.