Saturday, June 20, 2009

Getting the Royal Princess Passengers Home

Things are falling into place (seemingly) smoothly for passengers having to disembark Royal Princess unexpectedly at Port Said.

The passengers spent Friday night aboard the ship with all hotel functions once again operating normally. All passengers will have to disembark on Saturday.

Princess reported that a group of 20 Princess Care Team members arrived in Egypt Friday evening (local time) to assist passengers with travel arrangements home. While they were traveling there, the air department in California had been securing air arrangements for everyone. By 8pm (EDT) Princess reported they had air arrangements confirmed for all passengers.

They have also secured 300 hotel rooms in Cairo for the passengers who won't be flying out until Sunday, and they've reserved 24 motorcoaches to transfer passengers from Port Said to Cairo.

Passengers will begin to disembark from Royal Princess Saturday morning at 10:30am local time (3:30am EDT), and Princess has also arranged for 24 porters to be on the pier to assist.

For information about the cancellation of the Royal Princess cruises, please see our earlier blog item.