Last week I had the pleasure of spending time onboard the Caribbean Princess. It really was a fantastic vacation although I would be hesitant to call it a cruise since the bulk of our time was spent in San Juan. If you are wondering what I am talking about when I say “the bulk of our time was spent in San Juan”, what I mean is our ship broke down.
Although I flew down to San Juan, Puerto Rico during the middle of the previous week, I boarded the ship Sunday March 11, for a Southern Caribbean cruise. We were to arrive in St. Martin at approximately 10 am that Monday, but didn’t actually make it there until 2:45 pm on Monday. There was something wrong with the port propeller which severely hampered the ability of the ship to make it from point A to point B. We stayed overnight in St. Martin as experts were flown in to assess the damage. Upon our return from port on our second day in St. Martin we were informed we would be returning to San Juan for the rest of our vacation week.
At first the sting of a long anticipated cruise vacation being transformed into a 3 day cruise, capped by a 4 day stay in San Juan’s newest floating resort was a bit much. However, after the Captain announced the compensation package the cruise line had put together, the sting quickly subsided. Passengers were told we would be getting a full refund of our cruise fare, as well as a cruise credit equal to 25 percent of what we paid for our modified cruise.
Now, I have been on cruises that have been impacted by hurricanes in the past but this was the first time one of my cruises has ever been cancelled. I was expecting at least a partial refund for the cruise but no additional compensation. When the announcement was made I was “blown away” by the fact that I would now be spending the remainder of my week in an incredible “hotel” in one of my favorite cities, completely free of charge. So, although I would be hesitant to say this past cruise was a success, I will say any time you get to spend a week being waited on “hand and foot” it was a successful vacation.