Passengers on Crown Princess cruise ship expressed frustration and disappointment due to extended delays before embarking on their voyage from San Francisco CA USA to Mexico.
The ship eventually departed early Wednesday morning, December 13th, but before that, tourists took to social media to convey their discontent with the company's handling of the delay.
The initial delay was anticipated as Princess Cruises received notification from San Francisco port officials regarding increased silt accumulation near the designated cruise berth. This accumulation, combined with unusually low tidal levels in San Francisco Bay, resulted in insufficient keel clearance for the ship to dock and embark at the originally scheduled time on Tuesday.
Guests were informed of the situation through email notifications and received a letter explaining the circumstances upon arrival at the terminal.
While passengers had prepared for the initial delay, they were taken aback when the departure was further postponed. Crown Princess eventually left San Francisco at 1:15 a.m. on Wednesday, ~5 hours later than the originally delayed time.
As compensation for the inconvenience, passengers were provided with a US$25 OBC/credit. However, a considerable number of individuals felt that this compensation was inadequate given the challenges they experienced during the delay.
Crown Princess current cruise is a 10-day roundtrip to the Mexican Riviera.
For more Crown Princess incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.
UPDATE: (CruiseMapper-emailed report from Nancy Watson)
Hi! I just caught your news about the Crown Princess Dec 13, ‘23 departure problem and complaints. I was on that cruise and I want to alert passengers who had bought a PrinPlusPackage but could not use first-day service at $60 per day - since most people boarded about midnight or later! There were 6 of us on Family Reunion cruise and I paid for 5 of the extra Plus packages ($300) and son Neil Watson paid for his own at $60. Still waiting for refund! My agent requested refunds many months ago - affiliated with USAA military Co. This wasn’t mentioned in your article and terrible discomfort for most waiting pax outside in quite cold weather!
Thank you for any help or advice! Princess should acknowledge this extra problem!