Star Princess Verdict In: Returns May 15

[Joanandjoe]

In a statement released this morning (3/28), Princess Cruises says that the damage assessment of Star Princess following last week's fire is completed and that the ship will be taken out of service until May 15.

That means that the rest of Star Princess' Caribbean season is canceled -- April 9, 16 and 23 departures -- along with its Atlantic crossing on April 30.

"Passengers booked on these cruises will receive a full refund of their cruise and non-refundable air charges," the announcement reads. "We will also provide passengers with a future cruise credit equal to 25 percent of the cruise fare paid on these sailings."

The ship, which is now docked at Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, will sail out this week to Lloyd Werft, the Bremerhaven shipyard that's known for refurbishment work. Star Princess will return to service on May 15, where it will depart from Copenhagen for its first European cruise.

[JoeyandDavid]

I must applaud Princess Cruiseline for it’s handling of this entire tragedy.

They have shown class and compassion imho,

I do feel bad for the people, who are having their dream vacation crushed at the last minute. That’s a tough one to take… But I think all in all Princess should get a two thumbs up from me, and after previous comments about Carnival Corporation and many of you are aware how I feel, I want to say is This time you guys did good! Bravo

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[Joanandjoe]

To paraphrase Lincoln, it just proves that Carnival can foul up some things all of the time and all things some of the time but not all things all of the time. They have handled this well, assuming that the spread of the fire wasn't their fault in the first place.

Their relaunch of the Carnival Sensation is more typical. See our new thread.

[Suzila]

They did handle it as well as they could I guess, however, there are plenty of people who will not feel that way.

On one of the other message boards I frequent (not a cruise board, it's a different subject), someone was saying that her son and fiance were booked on the Star Princess in three weeks for their honeymoon. They only heard directly from Princess yesterday, 3/29, that their cruise is one of the ones cancelled, and that they will receive their money back.

Unfortunately, it was a package deal from Ohio, costing them less than $2000, including airfare, and with such short notice, they can't seem to find a cruise AND airfare that cheap (I think the airfare is the main problem), in order to reschedule something for their honeymoon. They also don't know WHEN they will receive their money back from Princess, and are reluctant to buy something else...on credit, with their finances being so tight.

Someone has offered them a beach house for 3 days...for a small price, and it looks like they will take them up on that instead of cruising. I feel bad for them...they've had this cruise scheduled since they got engaged quite some time ago.

So, like I said, I guess Princess took care of it all as well as they could, but it won't be to everyone's satisfaction.

[schatje]

Being booked on a B2B in December aboard the Star Princess I am glad that things were handled well. I look forward to seeing things cleaned up and repaired as opposed to the horrible pictures that have been posted on the net. Good job this time!

[KarenUK]

I feel for the Honeymoon couple it is such a shame they cannot be placed onto a different ship instead of the refund but there's not a lot one can do if the ship needs work on? :sad:

[teacp]

I feel sorry for the honeymoom couple but I think Princess handled it fine. So the worst thing if they don't have money for a honeymoom put it on hold until you receive your refund from the cruise line. Sometimes........you just have to go with the flow...........no matter what happens or what they do for you there are always going to be complainers...that is just their nature........I always say some people are not happy unless they are miserable.............Good Job Princess !!!!!!!!!!!! I always think......It could have been worse........