attached is a letter I wrote to Princess cruises upon returning from their cruise ship Caribbean princess. Needless to say they did nothing in response for us except send their apologies & hope we cruise with them again.
To Princess Cruises Oct. 22, 2007
Customer Relations Dept.
24844 Avenue Rockefeller
Santa Clarita, CA. 91355-1283
Re: Caribbean Princess Voyage B741 10/14/07 to 10/21/07 Cabins D735, D416, D508 & C436
I wish I could say that this was going to be a short & sweet message, stating this was the BEST cruise ever, unfortunately for both of us, that is definitely not the case.
I feel it necessary to give you a little background information regarding how important this cruise was to me and my family. This was going to be our first Family Get Together (Reunion) in about 10 years.
Several years ago I broke my neck at work and due to obstacles brought about by the Insurance Company and their lawyers; I didn’t receive any money until last year. Due to their continuous delays, my daughter and I were so close to bankruptcy & being homeless, it really scared me. If it hadn’t been for the support my family gave us, we would have really been on the streets. So by the time I received the money, I was so far in debt to everyone, that by the time I paid off our debts, I was left with approximately $15,000. I had considered moving out of state somewhere where that money would have made a down payment on a house, where it wouldn’t be anything towards a house in California. Owning a house is something I’ve always wished for, but now being close to 50 years old, have never been able to obtain. I had become a single parent when my daughter was only 1 ½ years old, and to say life has been a struggle for us would be such an understatement. Thank God for my family, who helped us as often as they could and as much as possible. This is where the cruise comes in.
My family, although quite small, haven’t spent a single holiday together, or even been in the same room, for over 10 years now. My parents couldn’t afford to retire in California, so they moved to Arkansas. My brother’s job relocated him & his family to Florida, and my sister’s job had her move to Colorado (which she just moved back 6 months ago). Considering my family was far from wealthy, it just wasn’t ever affordable for all of us to ever be together all at the same time. So Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthday’s and even our kid’s graduation’s were never spent celebrating as a family. Even before myself and siblings had our own children, our family hadn’t been on a family vacation together since 1974.
So last October I decided to spend the rest of my money on a Family Reunion Cruise for this October ’07. Upon finding out that my Dad had just been diagnosed with Cancer, I knew more than ever that I had made the right decision. You see, my family has always been there for Ashley & me and so I wanted more than anything to finally be able to do something for all of them, which I had never been able to do before. Saying Thank you or sending cards just wasn’t going to do it this time. I wanted to give all of them something that they would all treasure for a lifetime, especially if we were never able to all be together again. I wanted to show my appreciation for all they’ve done for us over the years and by bringing us all together on a Family Reunion vacation was the best way to do that. I began prying information from each of them about their dream vacation, location, etc. My parents and brother had both talked about going to the Caribbean on a cruise. When I asked them which Cruise line was they’re favorite, they said Princess had been the best they’ve gone on by far. I had only been on Carnival cruises in the past (2 High School reunions, and a friend’s son’s Graduation) and I had ALWAYS enjoyed them, but if my family would only go on Princess, then so be it. This vacation was more for them anyway, and I wanted to make sure more than anything for all of them to have the best time.
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So last Thanksgiving I sent everyone cards and told them they would all open them at the same time, while we were on the phone together. My family was so excited about this reunion, although they kept telling me I shouldn’t be doing this & they knew I couldn’t afford it, etc, etc., but there was no way I was changing my mind. You have to live each day to the fullest, because you’re not guaranteed tomorrow.
I began planning the trip through AAA travel agent, Lisa Marraccini, in Lodi, CA. as my sister used to work with her. She really had her hands full trying to accommodate my requests for cabin locations, decks,etc. I booked a mini-suite for my parents (something I’ve always wanted to be in!), I booked an extended balcony for me & my sister and my brother & his wife (which later got changed per his request) and an interior for the 4 kids. I was quite excited to be getting an extended balcony as I had never even had a balcony cabin before, just interiors!
After the cruise was booked and paid for, I immediately bought everyone travel insurance considering the cruise was still a year away & you never know what could happen in that time frame. And also, since myself & my parents only have Medi-Care insurance, which doesn’t cover you in other countries, I didn’t want to take any chances.
For the next year, I worked on & off planning family activities for sea days. I printed our own form of phony family money for our Anything Auction, made up a Scavenger hunt for just us, made personalized hand-made Family Reunion frames for all of us to put our new family reunion photos in, and had personalized little trophies made for everyone as a souvenir. I also purchased many gifts when possible that the family would bid for in our auction. I also made up our own version of Fear Factor.
I had contacted Princess many times prior to our cruise, as other family members did too. We were always assured that our requests were taken care of and for us not to worry. I also advised Princess that we would also be celebrating 5 (out of 10) family members birthdays on-board, my mom’s Oct. 9th, mine Oct. 17th (on the ship), my nephew Jered’s Oct 24th, my daughter Ashley’s Nov. 5th and my brother Bob’s Nov. 8th. Finally my family would be celebrating something all together once again!
I also pre-ordered gifts to be sent to each cabin, Chocolate strawberries to the kid’s cabin & mine & my sister’s, an assorted canapé tray to my parents, and a deluxe canapé tray to my brother & wife’s cabin ( he LOVES caviar). I also told them what to put on each gift card, and was told these gifts would be awaiting their arrival in each of their cabins.
I felt Lisa and Princess were doing everything possible to ensure a most memorable journey for my family. Having cruised before, although some of us not so recent, we knew what to expect and what not to expect, and since Princess came so highly recommended, and had been the #1 Preferred cruise line for at least 7 years, what could possibly ruin this fantastic, possibly once in a lifetime, Family Reunion? Well, I had advised you in the beginning of this letter that this wasn’t going to be short or sweet, so now I will began with “What did go wrong” on this reunion, with a day-to-day journal of the most un-memorable moments spent on this cruise. Please keep in mind that I never thought for one moment that something like this would be necessary, that is, until each and every day, several things started to go wrong, and now having to write them all down is hurting me twice as much by forcing me & my family to re-live them once again, something we wanted to forget ASAP. And knowing that, it brings tears to my eyes once again as I journal our “Family Reunion from HELL!”
Day #1 (10/14) Sunday
Our family arrived at the port only to find there was no wheelchair for my Dad, (which had been pre-arranged many month’s before the cruise) so my Mom & I went in search of one. It wasn’t easy locating one but we finally did.
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Next, the family went through the boarding process which really impressed me. It was rather quick considering there were 10 of us. Upon boarding the ship, we were directed to Deck 15 for a Buffet lunch. So all of us headed that way. As we started going into the sliding door entrance to the Buffet room, my Mom had apparently lagged behind us taking in the view from up there, of the pool etc., she had never been on a ship this BIG! When she came inside to join us there was a rise in the floor (approx. 1 ½ inches) directly under the sliding doors that caught the front of her sandals and caused her to fly forward, hitting her forehead & her right forearm on the hand railing, and landing on both knees before she hit the floor. We weren’t aware of this until a staff member brought her to us and said he had picked her up. Of course we were all concerned as the bump on her forehead was quickly swelling & turning purple. Her knees & forearm were bright red and just beginning to bruise. I never looked at the staff member’s name tag as I was entirely focused on my mom, no one wanted to start this vacation/reunion with an injury. Anyway, the staff member ‘tried’ to act concerned, but you could just tell it wasn’t genuine. I had to ask him twice to please go get my mom some ice packs. My brother & I both requested she be seen by Medical as we wanted to be sure she wasn’t seriously hurt so bad that she couldn’t go on the cruise, as my mom wasn’t looking very well at this point. I also asked the same staff member didn’t he need to fill out a report or something, when they arrived with a wheelchair. My brother accompanied her to the Medical Dept. Once they got down there & explained what had happened, the nurse, instead of being concerned about my mom’s injuries, she handed my mom some form to fill out stating she was going to be financially responsible for this visit and that she would see the charges on her bill at the end of the cruise. My brother took the notice from my mom and re-read it, not believing what he was reading; asked the nurse “Do you really expect my mom to sign this, authorizing you to charge her for this?” WHAT??? Are you kidding me? That’s when my brother refused to have either of them sign it and insisted she be seen by the Doctor. The nurse however wanted to argue about how the bill was going to get paid! This only infuriated my brother more & further upset my mom. Eventually my mom was seen by the Dr. and my brother still refused to sign their form. The Dr. told my mom she might have a mild-concussion so not to fall asleep anytime soon and suggested she go walking around the ship. HELLO THERE! She had just fallen on both knees amongst other things and the last thing she wanted to do right now was force herself to put pressure on them by continuously standing or walking.
While they were at the Medical Dept, myself, my sister Laury, my niece Christine, nephew’s Jered and R.J., and my daughter Ashley, all went to go see what had caused her to fall. Sure enough, there was a good size rise in the floor, separating the wood from the carpet, and yet NO SIGN cautioning passengers of it. That was just an accident waiting to happen. Oh wait, it DID happen, and to MY mom! My Dad said for us to go to our cabin’s to see if our luggage had began arriving & to get settled in, saying he would call all of us once my mom returned to let us know how she was.
My sister & I went to our cabin (D735) and found the Chocolate strawberries waiting for us, except there were only 7, not 8 (which was taken care of the next day). The card said To Cheryl Bon Voyage From Cheryl. That’s NOT what it was supposed to say, it should have said To Laury, Bon Voyage From Cheryl. I called the kid’s cabin to see if they had received theirs and said yes, but their card read “ To Jered Bon Voyage From Cheryl”, none of the other kid’s names were listed!
So then I decided to go looking around the boutiques as the ship was already sailing. I needed to order some liquor for some friends & get a carton of cigarettes. I must say I was quite shocked by the lack of selection/variety of both of these things, but especially of the liquor. And what little they did have to select from, was rather expensive and the so-called specials they had, who wanted to buy more than 3 bottles of the same kind just to get 10% off? I asked the clerk about it and he didn’t speak very good English and was having
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trouble understanding me when I asked if there was going to be a larger selection, and better pricing later on. No answer, just this puzzled look on his face. Then he took the carton of cigarettes from me and put them aside, I thought he didn’t understand that I wanted to purchase them. He told me in broken English, that “You no get them till last day on ship”. I said I thought that was just for the liquor ( Carnival had always let me have the cigarettes right then), and he said “No”. Then I asked him where I could find the purse-size bottles of hand-sanitizer, since there seemed to be some flu or something spreading on the ship (we had to sign this declaration before being allowed to board the ship swearing we weren’t sick) and that although the ship provided very large bottles around the ship for our use, there were none of the smaller ones to purchase. Kind of weird since once we used their sanitizer, we then had to touch an elevator button, or railing, or whatever, and if you didn’t immediately return to your cabin to wash your hands, you’d have to go search for another one of their bottles! He didn’t have a clue what I was talking about and even another passenger tried to explain to him what I was looking for, still nothing! So I just went back to my cabin.
Shortly after I got back, my Dad called to let us know Mom was back, how she was doing & what the Dr. had said. He then said that both my brother and mom were quite upset (and pissed) about the way they had been treated while there. She didn’t feel like walking around he said, because now she was having a terrible headache and her knees were giving her pain. She decided to go rest on the balcony and that he would make sure she didn’t fall asleep. He also said that we were all to meet at the Palm dining room at 7:30 pm. I asked him if there was a gift waiting for them in their cabin, he said No, so I asked was there a card telling them to expect something later, again he said no. So I called my brother’s cabin to see about their gift, he too said there was nothing.
That’s when I called the Passenger Service’s Desk to inquire about the platters and spoke to Petra. I told her they were ordered and paid for all together at least a month or two before the cruise and I didn’t understand how 2 of the cabins received there’s, even though the card’s were wrong, but there was nothing for the other two cabin’s. She said there was nothing she could do as they hadn’t received a current report from the Main office providing proof of the order & payment. She said the report she had only showed the strawberries I ordered & paid for and nothing else. She suggested I call back in 24 hours as they should receive a more current report by then. So I asked her to please have someone call & notify me when “this” report is received, and that could she at least send them each a card advising them to expect a gift? She said she wouldn’t do that until there was proof of payment or else we could use that card to demand a platter if their report said there was no order or payment! Hmmm, someone must have done something like this before, so Princess has to make sure it doesn’t happen again and lose the $22 for the 2 platters??
By this time I was pretty stressed out and I had only been on the ship about 3 hours. Then a card came to our cabin for a soda package addressed “To Cheryl From Cheryl”. That was supposed to go to my Dad! He had been concerned they wouldn’t have Diet-Coke on the ship and didn’t think he could bring any. So I called & found out Princess does carry it, so I had that sent to his cabin, or so I thought! I also was led to believe he would “actually” receive a six-pack to put in their cabin’s refrigerator, not the case, just a card stating he could redeem it through room-service or the dining room. What a waste of $10.75. And get this, when we did redeem the card for the six-pack, we got charged $3.00 by room service! Wow! Princess just made about $14.00 on a $2.50 six pack of soda!!!
Our luggage had begun arriving little by little, so we began getting ready for dinner. Then I went out onto the balcony for a much needed cigarette when our cabin steward, Reymund, came & introduced himself, and said ANYTHING we need to let him know and he would take care of us. He was really friendly and seemed sincere in wanting to help us, so I told him about the platters, cards, etc. and he apologized and said
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Unfortunately he couldn’t help us with that, but suggested I call room service to see if they could get things straightened out. So then I told him I had requested a sharps container for my insulin needles, and he said no problem and soon returned with it. I DID try calling room service about the platters, but all they could suggest was to call the Passenger Services Desk. I already had done that!
7:30 pm, and we were all at the Palm dining room when we were told we needed to get in line to put our names down and to receive this beeper thingy advising us when our table was ready. We stood in line for 20 minutes and still hadn’t gotten to the front to put our names in yet! I went up to the Maitre’ D at the desk and asked him how much longer he thought it would be? He said approximately 45 minutes. I then told him I had just taken my insulin shot & that I needed to eat 30 minutes after that or as close to it as possible. He suggested I go eat in the buffet then since I couldn’t wait, and he wasn’t even THAT rude when he said it! Keep in mind, no one in my family had any knowledge about this “Anytime Dining” and we only changed to it from having late seating, when on one of my calls to Princess the lady recommended it, saying it would us more flexibility as we wouldn’t have to adhere to a set time every night for dinner and all we had to do was arrive between 5:30 and 10:30pm and we’d still have the same menu choices as the timed seated passengers. We thought that was great. However, she failed to mention that especially with a party of 10, that we should call ahead to make reservations or else we might be subject to a lengthy wait!
Well, we finally got seated and made our selections. My brother ordered 2 bottles of wine to share amongst the adults who like wine, the rest of us either ordered soda or water. Next, this photographer came up and said we needed to remember this moment forever with a family photo! She then started telling our side of the table (there were 6 of us) to get up and all of us move behind the other’s (there were only 4 of them!) who were already sitting up against a railing! Which we did, but not until after having rearranged the items on the table so they wouldn’t be in the picture, and pulling the table out so we could squeeze behind the chairs & the railing. But still no picture! She then wanted some of the taller ones to sit down & replace them with some of us not so tall! We did it, but you could tell we just wanted the picture taken by this time. Finally, she took the picture, and only 1 !! After all that, only 1 picture?? And believe it or not, that picture was never to be found in the Photo Gallery, even though we went back several times over the next few days to see it. Sure, our other pictures taken were there, but not that one!!
By this time it had been quite some time since we had finished our appetizers & salads and still no main entrée. We also had requested several times for our drink refills, more rolls (we were so hungry by then) and for those drinking wine, to have their glasses refilled. The more time that went by, the harder it got to even find someone to do this, and when we did, we either had asked the wrong waiter but they would tell our waiter, or the one we did ask, either forgot or was so slow we had to ask again! This went on all through dinner, and my brother never even got the second bottle of wine, so at the end of dinner he said to just send it to our table the next night for dinner! We were in there for at least 3 hours though. When our main entree’s finally arrived, talk about a mess! I think almost everyone’s order was either containing the wrong side dish, or the meat they ordered med-well, came rare, or if they ordered rare, it came well-done, and so on. Most of us hadn’t eaten at the Welcome Buffet because of what had happened to my Mom, and some of us just didn’t find anything that really appealed to us, so some of them had the waiter take it back, and some just switched some items on their plates not wanting to have to wait any longer. I did neither, I was just tired and stressed and wanted dinner to finally end so we could get out of there! We all felt that we were being ignored for some reason, but these waiter’s just didn’t seem to want to do their job. When everyone was done with dinner, we waited for the dishes to be cleared and get some coffee. Never happened! Nor did we ever see or get offered a dessert menu. When
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We finally decided enough was enough, it was already almost 11:00pm, and the dining room was empty except for us & 2 other tables! So then why did it take so long to get anything brought to our table? Who knows, and by this time, we were all frustrated and tired and wanted to go to bed (at least us older ones!)
Now you’re probably having a hard time believing all this had happened and it was just the first day/night, oh, but wait, there’s even more!
Before I get into the conclusion of this first day, I want you to know that upon my recommendation from my family members, my daughter’s best friend & family were also on this cruise. They are the Tarin Family cabin E115.You see, after I had attended a High School Reunion on Carnival Pride several years ago and raved all about it, the Tarin Family decided to take their family on a vacation and since I spoke so highly about the cruise I had been on, they decided to go on their first cruise, aboard the same ship and destinations. When they returned from their cruise, they thanked me and said it had been the best family vacation ever, even better than Disneyland! They too were quite impressed with the Carnival Pride, its activities, food, entertainment, and kid’s club for their 10 year old son.
Now here’s the conclusion to Day #1. My sister and I decided we didn’t want to go and try to find something to do, so we would just stay & watch T.V.. My daughter called and said the Mr & Mrs Tarin were taking their 19 year old daughter, Samantha, up to the Skywalker lounge to dance and invited our 3 kids. My 16 year old nephew, R.J. had gone to the Teen club with the Tarin’s son, Nico. So I said ok. Upon them entering the lounge, the 4 kids were asked to show ID proving they were all over age 18, which was the required age to enter. They showed their ID’s and went dancing. Within 45 minutes, all 4 kids were walking around the lounge, trying to see if they could find anyone else in their age group, when they were approached by Head of Security, Alex, and asked again to provide proof of their age, which they did once again. The kids then went back out onto the dance floor. Approximately 1 to 1 ½ hours later, Alex went up to the kids and took them off the dance floor and over to the entrance of the lounge, AGAIN asking to show him their ID’s and for their names & cabin #’s as he looked it up on this list he was holding. At this time, Mr & Mrs Tarin were returning from the restrooms and seeing the kids with this security guard again, went to see if there was a problem. They asked Alex what was going on, and he said nothing really, that he just wanted to VERIFY their ages & match it against their cabin #’s. The Tarin’s said “That’s fine, but is it necessary to do it 3 times in one night? That seems excessive especially since you’re the same person who had checked their ID’s the second time” Alex asked them who they were, and they told him they were Samantha’s parents, pointing to her, and then showed him their own ID’s. At this point, the Tarin’s said Alex became loud and very rude with them when they asked him how many more times tonight he planned on doing this to the kids, and he said However many times it takes to satisfy him.That’s when Mr & Mrs Tarin told Alex they felt that the kids were being harassed, and he should have remembered how old the kids were from the first time he checked them, since there were never more than 15, maybe 20 people including all of them, at any one time in the entire lounge for the whole night! So they told the kids, come on let’s just go, it’s not worth it. They told me Alex just grinned at them. The Skywalker lounge was always pretty empty for the many times I had gone in there to check on the kids. There was nothing else for kids in this age group to do on this ship, and yet Alex wanted to ‘persuade’ them from going even into there to dance by harassing them? The kids called my room to let me know what had just gone on, and I told them maybe just because it’s the first night they did that, and they should go to bed as we had excursions to go to in the morning.
Around 11:00pm, I still couldn’t fall asleep, so I got dressed and decided to go get some ice cream. When I arrived at Scoops they were closed! I could have sworn that it had said it was open until midnight in the Cruise Answer book we received prior to the cruise! I asked someone what time it was & they said 11:10pm. So
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I went back to the cabin and looked up the hours in the blue Princess binder in every cabin. Funny, it also said
open until midnight! I thought well maybe Room Service has ice cream after they close, so I called them, and they said no. I wasn’t happy at all with the first day so far, but to deprive me of something so small as ice cream really made me even madder. Carnival provides ice cream 24 hours a day and it’s FREE! I was told that Princess & Carnival were sister companies who’d have thought they’d be so different. You’d think Princess could provide ice cream 24 hours, since they charge for it. I called Passenger Service’s and spoke to Frederika, the Night Mgr., and asked her about it. She said that Scoops actually closes at 10:30pm! I told her that in this blue binder it says that it’s open until midnight. She said she didn’t know what I was referring to, so I told her I would come down and show her. Along with the page showing Scoops hours, I brought the page that was titled ‘The Ten Points of Princess Service’. I had read it earlier while being bored, and found that although it’s very first sentence states ‘To be known, practiced, owned and energized by all crew members’ so far they had only truly come through with 1 of the ten points, Their uniforms are immaculate!
When I got to the desk, I showed Frederika the page I was talking about regarding the hours of Scoops. She then said that this must be an old copy we have and that she would have the new version sent to our cabin. I told her these were the same hours that were printed in our cruise answer book, and she said she didn’t know then.
I decided what better time than now to let Princess know how disappointing our family’s first day was so far. I began with my mom tripping over the rise in the floor, the platters that hadn’t arrived, the card’s screw-up’s, dinner, and so on, etc… She ‘seemed’ to be quite sincere and wanting to help, I found out later that week that wasn’t the case. She said that as we were speaking she was removing the $90 charge for my mom’s visit to the Doctor. This statement by her will come into play on another day.
Frederika said she’ll check on the platters and came right back and said they were delivered tonight. I told her that when I had called about them earlier and spoke with Petra, that I had requested to be notified when that had been cleared up, if it is was before the 24 hours that I was told to check back on it. She said she was sorry for the mix-up on the platters and didn’t know what went wrong but that the fault was that of the Head Office as it is their responsibility to notify the ship of all reservations, orders, etc. that are pre-booked. She said as far as everything that had happened at dinner, she would have to leave a note about it for the day Manager, Lyn, to take care of in the morning, and that it would be her contacting me about it tomorrow. She asked is there anything else she could help me with, and I said yes, matter of fact there is, I asked her would there be any reason for our kids to be asked for proof of ID 3 times tonight, within a 2 to maybe 2 ½ hour time period? She said definitely not. She asked where this had happened and mistakenly I said Club Fusion, when it was actually Skywalker Lounge. I told her they were with one of the kid’s parent’s and she said she could understand how they felt they were being harassed when they hadn’t been doing anything wrong. She said that she would include that too in her document of our conversation and talk to the person who was in charge of security ( I didn’t know at that time it WAS Alex she was referring to or that he was the one who asked them twice for their ID’s) That too will also come into further discussion on another day.
That, I think, was just about everything from Day #1. If you feel that we are being petty or whatever, you’ll soon discover that things only go from bad to worse as the week goes on. Either way, No-Body should ever experience this much confusion, frustration, rudeness and stress on their very first day of any vacation, I don’t care where they go!
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Day #2 Monday (10/15)
When I woke up, I started calling the other cabin’s to verify our meeting time & location since we had shore excursions. I called the kids & woke them up, then called my parent’s cabin, they didn’t have a shore excursion planned but were planning on spending the day at the beach with all of us, since our excursion was only 15 minutes long and located right there at the beach and my sister wasn’t doing it either, but my Dad said my Mom was still in pain and also embarrasssssed by the ‘big’ purple bump on her forehead, so they were going to stay on the ship & rest while we were gone. Then he said Thank you for the platter you had sent to us. So I asked him how was it, and he said it was good, but I could just tell he wasn’t telling the truth so I told him to be honest with me. He said he didn’t want to hurt my feelings and it was the thought that counted. I asked him what did he mean. He said when they got back from dinner the platter was there and when they went to take a bite, the bread was very hard and the whole platter had this bad smell, so they just put outside their cabin to be taken away. He said they were so sorry because they knew how much I was trying to do for everyone. I said don’t worry about it Dad, I’m just sorry it wasn’t edible.
Next I called my brother’s cabin to wake them. He answered and I gave him the meeting information, etc. I asked him about their platter, and he said it was alright. I said just alright? I said Mom & Dad only tried a bite or two then put it outside to be picked up. Then he told me in a nice way that theirs was not edible, and that they didn’t know how long it been there before they returned & found it. He said their bread was hard, that it didn’t even look appetizing, and for someone who loves Caviar so much, there was no way he was even eating that part of the platter! Then he asked me what was the other stuff supposed to be anyway? I said I don’t remember except for the caviar, but that Mom & Dad had a different platter which was supposed to have Shrimp & Salmon & other things. I told him that Mom & Dad had the same problems. So they also put their platter outside to be picked up. He said his card was addressed to just him, not his wife Alicia, but that they knew it was meant for both of them. No one from Passenger Services, or from any Dept. for that matter never even notified me as I had requested that the Platters had even been delivered, nor did anyone follow-up to make sure they were received. I planned on contacting Pass. Svc’s. when I re-boarded the ship as I didn’t have much time left to get ready to go ashore.
We had a pretty good time at Princess Cays, besides the fact that when my sister & I finally figured out where the BBQ lunch was, they said they were no longer serving food because it was 1:03pm and they closed at 1:00pm! There was still food left, but they had no problem turning us and many other passengers away. We were told they needed to pack everything up & get it back to the ship!
Upon reboarding the ship, my sister, nephew Jered & I went to check on my parents. My Mom asked if there was something that could be done about the dinner situation as they didn’t want it repeated again tonight. I said I’m already working it. I went & changed my clothes and went to Pass. Svc’s & spoke with Lyn. She said she was working on the dinner arrangements right at that moment and was expecting a return call from Ferdinand (Head Maitre D) anytime. I also told her how unhappy I was with the way things were going so far. She said she was sorry & was taking care of the things I had complained about the night before. When I asked her about the platters, she had no answer of why I wasn’t notified of they’re delivery or why the gift cards were ALL screwed up! I also told her they weren’t even edible, and said she would take care of it. I NOW know, that was just to satisfy me for the time, as nothing ever got done about them and I still paid for them.
Well before the cruise I had contacted Princess regarding reserving a small meeting place for my family to get together and play the games I had arranged. I was told it would be taken care of aboard ship, because then & only then would they be aware of previous reservations, and what was available. I asked Lyn
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about this and she wanted to know what days, times, etc. we needed. I said Tuesday & Saturday as these were sea days and it wouldn’t conflict with anybody’s shore excursions. I said for Tuesday around noon would be good as my brother & his wife, Alicia were doing wine tasting in the afternoon. I said I would need the room for approx. 1 hour and 15 min’s. And for Saturday, I would need a room for a minimum of 1 ½ hours around noon also for that day, as I knew some of us had massages planned & my brother & his wife had also scheduled & pre-paid another wine tasting.
Lyn asked me to give her 2-3 minutes to check on that. After more than 10 minutes, she returned & said we could meet at 12:30pm in the card room as an event already scheduled would be over by noon. She said she also reserved the Wheelhouse Bar for us for Sat, but it would need to be at 12:30pm because something else was already scheduled in half of the bar that day, but would be ending soon after that, but just in case it went over a little, we still had the other half of the room, although it might be a little loud for awhile. She said she would have a ”Private Party” sign put up so we wouldn’t be disturbed. I said fine & I would notify the family at dinner that night.
Lyn then asked me to wait for about 5 minutes while she went to the back to see if Ferdinand had called yet (weird as she had the phone in her hands!) My sister came up & asked me what was up for dinner. I said they’re working on it right now, and she said for me to hurry up as it was starting to get late & everyone would still need to be notified & given time to get ready. After 25 minutes, I went up to the desk & asked them to please get Lyn for me. He went in the back & then Lyn stuck her head out & asked if she could have another minute or two? After another 10 minutes had passed, I again went to the desk and asked for Lyn. At least 10-15 minutes passed BEFORE Lyn came back & said she had just spoken with Ferdinand and he said we could have dinner at 5:30pm in the Coral dining room tonight & every night left on the cruise. I looked at my watch and said there’s no way possible that I would have time to notify everyone, and have time to shower & get myself ready by then as it was just minutes before 5pm then. I asked can we please have a time around 6:30pm as we had shore excursions in every port & we would still need time after re-boarding to shower & dress etc. each night? I advised her we wouldn’t need accommodations for Wednesday night as my Mom had pre-reserved our dinner at Sterling Steakhouse at 7:30pm for my Birthday dinner. Lyn asked if she could have a few more minutes to call Ferdinand back & see what can be done. I waited 20 minutes & then went to the desk to tell them to notify Lyn that she could just call me in my cabin as I needed to start getting ready. Lyn came out & said ok.
When I reached my cabin, my sister said that Ferdinand from the dining room called & said they could accommodate us at 7:30pm for tonight in the Coral dining room. I asked her what about the other evenings & she said he didn’t say, but he left his extension number for me to call.. When I tried calling it all it did was ring & never got an answer. So I called Lyn back and before I could tell her what Ferdinand had said, she tells me Ferdinand said he ONLY has 6:00pm available! I told her had already called my cabin & said 7:30pm was the time. So Lyn said she would call him back to find out what was going on! Gee, did these two people EVEN speak to each other about this?? No sooner had I hung up from Lyn when the phone rang & it was Ferdinand telling me it was definitely 7:30pm-Coral dining room tonight & for the remainder of the cruise. I asked him he was aware of our Wednesday night plans at Sterling, and he said No (figures!) but that he would make a note of it.
Our family arrived promptly at 7:30pm for dinner, and Ferdinand showed us to our table and said we would have the same table every night. He was very nice and accommodating, much more so than Lyn! Every night after that, he always greeted us by name ( I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad!) but since he was so friendly, we didn’t care.
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During dinner, my Mom said that Security had called her & said they needed to meet with her the next day. We asked for what? She said to re-check her. Our entire family that was kind of weird, why wasn’t the Dr. re-checking her? You’d think someone from Medical or upper staff would at least want to know how she was feeling, especially since she was hurt on-board, and might have a mild concussion!
After dinner, my sister & I were just about to our cabin when Reymund, our cabin steward, handed me another blue binder as ‘per our request’??? I asked him if this was the newer version and he replied he didn’t know. I checked out the binder, and low and behold, it WAS NOT the newer version, and it contained the same incorrect hours and Information! Now I had a bad headache and I could feel my blood pressure going up along with my stress.
I called Pass Svc’s desk & spoke with Frederika & advised her the binder we received was just like the old one with the wrong information. I also asked her why did Security want to re-check my Mom and not the Dr? She said it probably was to go over the accident report, just to let you know, Security NEVER did get in contact with my Mom or meet with her! Frederika said I can take my Mom down to Medical to be re-checked the next day and she gave me the hours. I said will she be charged for this visit? Frederika said no and for me to tell them she had authorized it.
Day #3 Tuesday (10/16)
At 12:30pm, our family met in the card room for the Scavenger Hunt I had planned. While I was explaining the rules to them, several people came in & sat at tables to play cards. They kept giving us dirty looks as I was trying to explain everything. I was trying to keep my voice as low as possible, but they made us feel very uncomfortable to say the least. As soon as I was done explaining everything & handed out their clue list, the teams left to begin the game. We were out in less than 15 minutes. The teams were told they had 1 hour to get as many things on the list & return to the same room.
Around 1:30pm everyone had returned & I began verifying the winners. The other passengers made it very clear they weren’t happy with our presence, with more dirty looks and sighs. It’s not like we were being overly loud. That’s when I noticed the people at the tables weren’t even speaking to each other, so any noise we made was disturbing them. We felt bad & left as soon as possible.
Around 4:30pm I went & got my Mom to take her to the Medical Dept. We sat down & waited to be helped. The nurse, Morag, walked up to us & asked what we needed. I told her what had happened to my Mom on Sunday, and that I was advised by Frederika that my Mom wasn’t to be charged for this visit per her authorization. Morag immediately changed her tone of voice & stature, and told me “Whatever gave me the idea that Frederika was authorized to tell anyone they wouldn’t be charged for their visit or to remove any charges?” I said that I didn’t know, and that that was what Frederika had told me to say. She rolled her eyes & walked away. She was soo rude to us that she really upset my Mom. A few minutes later she came back out & sat next to mom and asked “So what are you even here for today?” My mom turned & looked at me with this scared look on her face, that’s when I said I wanted my mom re-checked to make sure was doing better and that she was well enough to leave the ship tomorrow, as she wasn’t feeling up to leaving the ship yesterday. Morag then said “ So what specifically do you want us to do?” Did she just not hear what I said? That’s when I took a pen out of my purse and wrote down her name on a piece of paper. Morag leaned across my mom to me and said “ Do you have a problem?” so I said “Why, because I wrote your name down?” She said very snotty “YES!” so I told her no, that I just wanted to know who we were speaking to. She got up & walked away. Minutes later she returned & took my mom in the back to check her vitals. As I saw Morag leave the room, I
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was going in to see my mom, she obviously didn’t see I was right behind her because as she went to the reception desk area, she said “That lady is so rude and so is her mom!” to the lady seated behind the desk. The lady (I didn’t see her name tag) replied “She sure is, it’s seems like that’s all we’ve been getting this week.” My mom even heard this and said “How can she say we’re rude?” I told her not to let it bother her, but if she was rude again, I would take care of it.
The Doctor called my mom into his office and we both went. He said her blood pressure was a little high , 173/98 (I wonder why!) but that she’d be fine to leave the ship. I asked him why the ship doesn’t do something about that rise to prevent other’s from tripping? Or at least put up a sign? He said we can’t please everyone, if we put up a sign, they complain, if we don’t have a sign, they complain. I said it would be wiser & safer to put up a sign cautioning people to avoid another accident from happening than worry about the people complaining about the sign. Shouldn’t safety come first? I also told him I’ve seen several people tripping over those rises in the floor in the same place & different places where they were. He said the ship’s contractors were working on it. I then asked him about the charges for today and Sunday. He told me the charge for Sunday never was put on her bill (Hmmm, so Frederika lied about that too!) and that she wouldn’t be charged for today either.
After dinner that night, my sister & I made plans to spend some time with the kids, as they had been totally bored most of the time so far. There was nothing for them to do, or for any 18-20 year olds for that matter on the ship, except go dancing. No wonder there weren’t any other’s in that age group on the ship besides ours!
My sister & I took the kids to the Skywalker Lounge to dance & talk. We were meeting the Tarin’s there. Us four adults sat a table & talked, while watching the kids dance with each other almost non-stop, and we even joined them a few times throughout the night dancing too. The Tarin’s each had 2 Dos Equis beers, and my sister & I each had 1 drink. Then my brother & his wife, Alicia, showed up, so I ordered 5 beers to share amongst them (I wasn’t having one). Around 1:30am or so, my sister & I decided to go to bed, since my brother & Alicia, along with the Tarin’s were still there keeping an eye on the kids. My sister & I thought it was weird that no one ever came to clear our tables or even see if anyone even wanted another drink the whole time we were there (and it’s not like it was real busy in there), so we checked each bottle BEFORE we left and ALL of them were empty. The only unfinished drink was mine, with about 2 inches left in the glass. The reason we did this was that we DID have teen-agers with us, and we know that sometimes they can be tempted, especially when they’re bored to death!
We stopped by the buffet before returning to our cabin. We weren’t back 10 minutes before my daughter Ashley & our niece, Christine, came to our cabin crying and quite upset. They said that everyone was still at the Skywalker, when Alex came over to the table & grabbed a glass from my nephew Jered’s hand. Apparently our table STILL hadn’t been cleaned off, and while the adults were dancing , Jered had picked up MY glass and went to smell what was in it, when Alex came up. Alex took Jered & Samantha by the arm outside the lounge, and everyone else, including the adults, followed to see what was going on. Alex then accused Jered and Samantha of drinking and DEMANDED their ID’s. The Tarin’s asked Alex “Who was drinking and what?” Alex said Samantha was drinking a beer and that Jered was drinking something out of a glass (???). The Tarin’s then told Alex there wasn’t even any beer left in the bottles on our table to drink. That’s when Alex demanded EVERYONE”S ID’s. Mr & Mrs Tarin refused to show him their ID’s stating he already knew who they were from 2 night’s ago. My brother collected our kids ID’s and gave them to him, along with his own & his wife’s. Alex returned their ID’s along with Ashley’s & Christine’s saying they weren’t drinking. Mrs Tarin walked back to our table and checked the beer bottles again, and sure enough they ALL were empty.
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So Mrs Tarin asked again what had Samantha been drinking? Alex said that he had seen Samantha & Jered only, drinking 3 separate times that night. If that was REALLY the case, then why hadn’t he approached them after the FIRST time?? Isn’t that his job? Why would he wait until he claims to have seen them drinking 3 times before doing anything about it?? If that really was the case, wouldn’t he too, be breaking the law by standing there & not doing anything about it the moment he first ‘assumed’ they were consuming alcohol? ( the kid’s did have water & soda in their glasses while we were there). The Tarin’s & my brother asked Alex the same thing, why would he not say anything immediately if he suspected them of drinking, and Alex told them that ‘I have proof on video, so I’m not going to stand here and debate this with you.” Mr & Mrs Tarin then asked to see the video, because if Samantha really had something to drink, they wanted to know what it was & where it came from, because they had been there with her & our kids every night so far and had NEVER seen any of the 4 kids drinking alcohol. That’s when they said Alex got even ruder, louder and more abrasive with them, claiming he didn’t have to show ANYONE ANYTHING. He had them stand there while he was making some notes then handed Jered’s ID back to my brother, and told them not to return for the rest of the night.
That’s when my brother called our cabin and said he Ashley’s ID and card to their cabin and for them to meet at the cabin. I asked him what had just gone on and he said now is not the time to discuss it because he was upset and they had been embarrasssssed by the whole situation that just took place. But of course, I wanted to know if everything was okay, and then I told him what had happened to the kids & the Tarin’s on the first night. Then it hit all of us at the exact same time! Possibly Alex was trying to set the kids up by having the staff not clear the table all night, to see if any of the kids would try & drink when the adults weren’t looking! Little did he know that all the bottles were empty! Obviously, he had nothing to do anyway, since NOTHING ever seemed to happen on the ship, so maybe he did this to try & say the kids were nothing but trouble-makers, because he had been accused of harassing them on the first night???? With all I’ve heard about him so far, I wouldn’t put it past him, because from what my brother told me about his encounter with him, what the kids told us, and also the Tarin’s, the only person who would benefit from lying would be Alex.
Day #4 Wednesday (10/17) My Birthday!
My family left the ship early to do an excursion in Jamaica. While there, I purchased 1 bottle of beer that was a Limited Edition bottle of Jamaican Beer celebrating the 2007 Cricket Tournament. This was the last bottle they had, so I bought it for a friend as a souvenir who likes Cricket.
When we were done river-tubing, my brother, mom & his wife went back to the ship to change & get my Dad who wasn’t able to do the tubing. They offered to bring back our stuff for us and we’d meet up in about an hour. When we did meet up, my brother told me that when they went through security on-board the ship, a lady security guard took the bottle of beer out of my bag after it had gone through the x-ray machine, telling my brother “No liquor allowed!” and threw it into the trash can! My brother wasn’t even aware of the bottle until my mom told him I had bought it for someone.
When they were leaving the ship to come meet us, my brother approached the same security guard & told her the bottle of beer was a limited edition, collector’s item, not for consumption (come on, it was ONLY 1 beer bottle!) and why couldn’t we have it? She said “then if you want it, you go get it out of the trash can!” If it hadn’t been my birthday, my brother would have said forget it, there was no way he was going to dig in the trash, but since it was my birthday and it was a gift for a friend, he did! Then he also went all the way back to his cabin to leave it before they left the ship, so they wouldn’t have to go through the same thing again!
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After we all returned to the ship, we had time to relax a little before getting ready for dinner, as our reservations at Sterling SteakHouse weren’t until 7:30pm. My mom had made and paid for the entire dinner for 10, two month’s ago to celebrate my birthday and also show their appreciation for everything I had done from paying for the cruise to planning and arranging everything down to the last detail. Unaware to me, she had at the same time ordered & paid for, a flower arrangement that was supposed to be sent to my cabin early that morning saying Happy Birthday from the entire family. When it still hadn’t arrived when we re-boarded the ship, my sister told my mom. My mom went down to the Courtesy desk ( I think she may have meant Passenger Service’s Desk) to inquire about it. She spoke to Sebastion. He told her he had no information about the flower order, and when she asked him about the dinner reservation and 4 bottles of champagne she had also pre-ordered and paid for month’s ago, he told her he had the dinner reservation information and the ‘order’ for 4 bottle’s of champagne, but had nothing showing she had paid for any of it! My mom got so upset at this time, and asked Sebastion to look into things for her, but Sebastion told her if she didn’t have ‘proof’ of her payment (remember, it had been at least 2 month’s ago!) that he was going to charge her right then, and if when she got home, she found her credit card receipt (it wasn’t lost, she just didn’t think she needed to bring it!), she could file a claim through the Main Office in California then, and only then. That’s when my mom called our cabin asking for my sister, Laury. I told her she was in the bathroom and she said to have Laury come down to the Courtesy Desk right away! So I asked her what was wrong? She sounded so upset and on the verge of tears. She told me not to worry about it but to make sure my sister went down there as soon as possible. So I sent my sister down there and right after she left the cabin the phone rang again. It was my mom again, and this time she WAS crying. She asked if Laury was on her way and I said yes. Again I asked her what was going on, but she refused to tell me saying Laury needed to take care of it??? (That made no sense at all to me, that is until after my sister returned.) A few minutes later, Laury called me & asked the name of the day Manager I had been dealing with and I told her Lyn.
About 45 minutes later my sister came back. Laury then told me she had taken mom back to her cabin to calm down. She said mom didn’t want to say anything to me because it was my birthday, and that I had been dealing with all the ‘other’ problems so far and she just wanted my birthday to be enjoyable.
Laury said that when she got to the desk, our mom told her “Sebastion is telling me that I haven’t paid for tonight’s dinner yet and that he’s going to charge me again, and that there is no order for the flower’s I was sending to your sister!” She asked my sister if she remembered had long ago it had been when she first told my sister she was doing this, Laury told her & Sebastion that it was at least 2 months ago. Sebastion then got rude with my sister telling her our mom had no proof of payment and so he WAS going to charge her. My mom told Laury that he had also been rude with her and refused to help her in any way to clear things up, and that was why she was crying and she was just so frustrated with all the B.S. so far. That’s when Laury had called me asking for Lyn’s name. My sister asked to speak to Lyn and said Sebastion told her that Lyn was going to tell her the same thing he had just told her! My sister insisted on speaking to Lyn and, reluctantly, Sebastion went to get her. Lyn told my sister that yes, she had been dealing with the many problems our family was having with me, and was quite ‘surprised’ when she heard there was something else! My sister said Lyn was able to verify that mom had pre-paid everything, and although she didn’t tell me about the flower’s until after dinner, because it was supposed to be a surprise, which is when she said Lyn had verified the flower order, and just didn’t seem to know why the flowers never arrived! My mom then requested the flowers be sent to Sterling Steakhouse while we were having dinner, and Lyn reassured her she would take care of it. Now how could ANYTHING else POSSIBLY go wrong tonight? Come on now, it WAS my birthday, I WAS supposed to be celebrating it with my family, something I hadn’t been able to do in over 10 years, and all we (me included)
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wanted was to have an enjoyable dinner & celebration. That’s not asking too much is it? Well, for Princess it was!
Anyway, I arrived last for dinner, just before 7:30pm at Sterling Steakhouse, when I saw my mom pull my sister aside and tell her something. Next thing I know, my sister’s practically running down the hall, my brother following her, and I don’t have a clue what just happened. I don’t even know where my mom went to. I asked my Dad what was going on now? He said “Nothing Honey, don’t you worry about it.” From past experience, I knew that was his way of saying “The shit was about to hit the fan!” My brother re-appeared asking where did Laury run off to? I told him I thought he was following her, and he said when he had turned the corner, he had lost her. So I asked him what had just happened. That’s when he said that when my mom had gone to let them know we would be ready to be seated in a few minutes, and to remind them it was my birthday, that she was told “What reservations? We have no reservations for you at 7:30 tonight, and it would take some time to ‘try & fit us in’ seeing we had a party of 10, and that they were already full with all the other reservations at that time.” That apparently was happening the same time I had walked up. Approximately 25-30 minutes later, my sister returned. My sister had gone to speak with Lyn and find out what the H-E double L was going on! Lyn was already off, so she said she spoke with someone else but was so darn mad she didn’t remember to look at their name tag name when I asked her who she spoke with. I’d say about 10 minutes later, the Maitre d came over to my mom and said everything was cleared up and could he have just a few minutes to prepare our table? So my mom & I went into the store right across from the restaurant, I think it was the Bijou Turner store. She was noticeably upset but refused to talk about it, she didn’t know I already knew what had happened from earlier. She just kept apologizing to me and saying I didn’t deserve this. I acted like I thought she was referring to ‘everything’ else that was going on. But for her to feel that I didn’t deserve this really hurt me. I had wanted this family reunion more for all of them, than me, and so they didn’t deserve this was how I was feeling, but she was worried more about my feelings than her own. Tears came to my eyes now knowing how she was feeling and that was the moment I really did start to feel I had let everyone down.
The Maitre d called us to dinner shortly after that and apologized for the error saying they had NEVER been sent any information regarding our reservation. He was so nice and sincere, too bad Princess hadn’t thought to hire more like him! After we were seated, they came & asked what we would like to drink, my mom told him that she had pre-ordered 4 bottles of champagne with the reservation , and also paid for them. He said that information was not sent to him. Boy could you tell the tension and stress were all over that table by then! The waiter left but soon returned with the Maitre d. So much for a good time I thought. My mom just looked over at my sister and Laury asked him to please go check with Passenger Services. The Maitre d said “No problem, you’ve been through enough already tonight (If he ONLY knew!) I can check later.” He asked if my mom knew what kind of Champagne she had ordered? My brother told my mom it was either Brut or Korbel? She then said the name of it, I don’t remember it now, because I don’t drink Champagne, but there was no way I was going to tell my mom that now, not after all of this!
Our dinner was the best we had on that entire cruise! Everybody’s meal was delivered just as ordered and very promptly. We never had to ask for refills for our soda’s or other drinks, and although they brought me a birthday cake for everyone to enjoy, they still brought us each a desert menu and asked if anyone wanted coffee. The Maitre d was very apologetic even at the end of our meal, I think he may have heard by then about the problem my mom & sister went through earlier regarding dinner and wanted to make sure he didn’t cause us any additional problems. My family barely finished 2 bottles of the champagne, so he offered to have them sent to my mom’s cabin or to credit her account.
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My parents asked us if we would like to go back to their cabin to play cards or something, but by this time I was so emotionally drained and dinner lasted for some time, that I really just wanted to relax. I wish now that I had gone because we never were able to get together and play cards with everyone on any other night that cruise for reasons I’m sure you know by now.
When my sister and I got back to the cabin, there was this beautiful arrangement of flowers there. I went to look at the card but it was BLANK, except for our cabin number. I told my sister that maybe the ship had sent them trying to apologize for my birthday dinner mistake(s). My sister said “No, Mom & Dad sent them. They were supposed to arrive early this morning and when they didn’t, Mom then asked they be sent during dinner, that was one of the reason’s she was at the Passenger Service’s desk today.”
I called my parent’s cabin to thank them, and my mom said she was sorry they didn’t arrive early this morning as she had arranged, and then they didn’t arrive at dinner. When I told her the card was blank, she said “Has anything gone right this cruise?” Why should she expect it to now! I told her it wasn’t her fault, and at least they had arrived! She didn’t sound happy at all.
My sister and I just laid there watching T.V., not wanting to go out as there wasn’t anything to do, unless you wanted to dance or gamble. We had only gone out last night to be with the kids, which is really weird, since on every other cruise we’d been on, we were always out ‘til early in the morning doing things, but not this one!
About an hour later my daughter came to our room with Samantha to tell me that the Tarin’s were stopped from leaving the ship this morning, that is until they met with the Staff Purser. Apparently before that happened, they had tried to order a drink in the casino & they were told their account was blocked! Samantha said their cards had sounded an alarm or something when they tried to dis-embark. They were told they had to meet with the Staff Purser first or they wouldn’t be allowed off the ship!!!
I asked Samantha where her parents were & she said “They definitely weren’t in the Skywalker Lounge,, but maybe at the outdoor movie. So I got up, got dressed and went looking for them.
I found them and asked what had happened earlier today. They told me they had to have a meeting with Staff Purser James Eaton before they were allowed to leave the ship upon which he told them that if Samantha was caught drinking again, they would be dis-embarked at the next port and have to pay their own way home. The Tarin’s then asked Mr. Eaton if they could please see the video showing Samantha drinking as they still didn’t believe it. Mr. Eaton told them they don’t have cameras there! The Tarin’s said they were with the kids all night, along with myself, my sister, my brother & his wife, and that NONE of us ever saw the kids drinking, but yet Alex said he saw the Jered & Samantha drink 3 separate times and that he had proof on video, and now you’re telling us there aren’t even any cameras there? Why did Alex lie???Mr Eaton said he didn’t think Alex meant to lie. Yeah right! The Tarin’s then asked about Jered and Mr Eaton told them that “The other parent’s were already notified and given the same warning.” So of course when I told the Tarin’s that none of us had been notified or warned about anything, they asked “Then why are we being singled out & Harassed?” I told them I didn’t know and that I was very sorry, especially since it seemed that they were being held responsible for my nephew Jered. They said they had told Mr Eaton they were only responsible for Samantha, no one else, but that didn’t seem to be the truth at all.
I can understand 1 or 2 things going wrong, even 3, but I can’t understand how so many things could go wrong, especially since several things were happening EACH day. I told them I didn’t know how much more that I could take, that this cruise had turned out sooo bad so far for everyone and that I felt terrible about it. I was so tired of being stressed out, getting headaches, and feeling so depressed.. Mrs Tarin told me I shouldn’t feel responsible for anything that has gone wrong, and reminded me just how much I did to try & make this
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Family Reunion a memorable one, and although it wasn’t the kind of memories I was thinking of, nobody would ever forget it!
By this time my head was spinning from all the different things that had been going on & I just kept madder and madder, more frustrated & really upset that I had paid all this money only for my fami
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