Princess Cruises, Grand Princess Review

Overall Rating

Our first cruise and looking forward to it. Hadn't been anyway special for years!
We had booked for several tours ahead of time, for both of us. One cruise I missed due to an upset stomach.My husband countinued on..in Kusadasi, Turkey.On the final stop of the tour,the people were told to go to the lower gate at 3:30 to board the bus. They were dropped off at the higher gate. My husband inadvertantly returned to the higher gate at 3:15, to be told that it was the lower gate.. He ran -3/4 mile and once within sighting the buses and the time 3:26 by his watch felt he was on time. However that was not the case. The bus had left without him.He had on him, 8 euros, no wallet ( I was carrying that)no passport!..One other bus driver that spoke a bit of English said he was on time and the bus should never have left.A cab driver ,through sign lanuage, offer to return him to the ship, 30 miles away, for 50 euros.The driver got the message my husband had no money but would get it from me on the ship.
Raced through the streets, as the ship was to depart at 4:30, ran from the cab to the ship to our room and not finding me there, went to the pursors officed and asked for a cash advance of 50 euros, to be charged to our room account. They refused..My husband continued his search for me, running through the ship..found me and I gave him the money.Off he went, running to get off the ship, to get back to Isamal , the driver, who was holding our camera!!
I was furious! First , why was there not a head count done, which is normal, at the last site, and once realizing someone was missing, why not look for that person or wait..What had my husband been having a heart attack or was in a bad way?? He is 74!!! The tour was heading back to the ship without any other stops!! I saw the tour coming aboard at 4;10 and my husband found me at 4:18...
I addressed in a note/letter,to the Tour department Manager, the situation. I had a message on the phone saying that she would be happy to talk about this experience and would call back later in the afternoon! NEVER heard from her again, and we still had two full days on the ship!
So for any of you who will book tours in the future, make sure you are back at the tour bus at least 5 min. prior to departure...or you will be left behind..
I feel the pursors office could have given him the money and charged the cash advance to our room, even with a service charge, of say $5.00. I feel the pursors office could have paged me to come to them ,seeing the state my husband was in and lastly they could have picked up the tab of $50.00 .
The food was great, the staff friendly ( other then the tour people!) - disappointed that you had to purchase a "coke account", at the beginning of the cruise and if you hadn't had to pay for it!! The idea of paying an extra 20.00 a head to try 2 restrauants, is goughing as is the coke account!
We loved the cruise, met nice people, but will try a different company, other then Princess....I keep thinking he could have been in a bad way and no one looked or waited....

Members' Comments onGuest's Review

• Catherine J on 4th Oct 2009

  I am the author of the last review, where my husband was left behind, well on a tour.
  I do have to add the comment, that we enjoyed the cruise and all that it envolved. We will cruise again. However, we are up for trying other cruise lines....