Key Aspects:
- As Grand Princess is repositioning from Alaska to the Caribbean, she is having both air conditioning and toilet difficulties for multiple guests.
- Princess Cruises is offering prorated refunds as well as future cruise credits for impacted guests to make up for the inconvenience.
- Guests should never expect compensation for minor onboard problems, but should report concerns to crew members so issues can be corrected.
A repositioning cruise, when a ship moves between homeport assignments, can be a very memorable getaway. Unfortunately, guests aboard Grand Princess might be remembering their sailing for all the wrong reasons.
Technical issues onboard have impacted both air conditioning levels as well as toilet functions, leaving some guests with less than desirable travel conditions.
Fortunately, Princess Cruises is aware of the situation and is seeking to make it right for impacted guests.
“We are aware and want to acknowledge that you are experiencing issues in your staterooms, and we truly appreciate your patience as our teams work to address the concerns,” a letter sent to impacted guests reads.
Grand Princess is currently on a 16-night itinerary that departed Los Angeles on Monday, September 25, 2025, having just finished her Alaska season.
Now, the 107,500-gross-ton ship is on her way to Fort Lauderdale by way of the Mexican Riviera, Costa Rica, Panama, and Aruba.
As part of the repositioning, the ship must adjust her operations from the cooler weather of Alaska to the warmth of the Caribbean itineraries she will offer from San Juan once she completes her movements.
This has affected air conditioning in select staterooms and guests are feeling the heat.
“While our cooling systems are working properly overall, additional adjustments need to be made in affected staterooms to bring the temperature to a more comfortable level,” the letter explained.
At the same time, some even more basic functions are being affected for other guests as the toilet systems are malfunctioning.
“Ongoing treatment to the system is causing temporary disruptions,” the letter noted. “Our technical team is actively addressing this matter to make the necessary repairs as quickly as possible.”
Not all staterooms appear to be impacted by either issue. The concerns are widespread enough, however, that the cruise line is offering compensation to guests to make up for the less-than-ideal situation.
Affected guests are going to receive a refund of their cruise fare (not counting taxes, port fees, gratuities, or any add-on costs) for the impacted days.
The total of this refund will vary based on the fare individual guests paid for their vacation as well as how many days their experience was disrupted.
Furthermore, a future cruise credit of 25% of the total cruise fare will be added to guests’ Captain’s Circle accounts. This will be available after the current sailing ends and can be applied to any booking made no later than April 1, 2026 and setting sail no later than April 1, 2027.
It is unclear whether or not all guests onboard will receive the future cruise credit, but the refund of impacted days is only going to guests who have been directly affected by the unpleasant issues.
Should Technical Problems Lead to Compensation?
Undoubtedly, guests aboard Grand Princess are relieved that they will be receiving some compensation for the multiple issues they’ve experienced onboard.
Should guests on any cruise expect such reactions from the cruise line, however, and believe that every glitch should bring about refunds, future cruise credits, or other compensation?
This could be a slippery slope for cruise lines to start down. Undoubtedly, the onboard engineering team is carefully assessing each individual complaint onboard Grand Princess to ensure guests’ concerns are warranted.
For example, some guests have different sleep preferences for what temperature the room ought to be. Personally, I prefer a much cooler bedroom and set my home thermostat to 66 degrees at night.
If my onboard stateroom can only reach 68 degrees, however, that does not mean I ought to be compensated for the slight inconvenience. If my stateroom remains at a toasty 78 degrees all the time, however, that would certainly be cause for concern and complaint.
The best thing any guests can do, whether onboard Grand Princess or any other cruise line or ship, is alert crew members if they believe there are technical problems.
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Crew members cannot fix what they don’t know about, and they will always take every possible step to correct a problem so guests have the very best cruise experience.
Hopefully, the issues onboard Grand Princess will be corrected long before the ship arrives in Florida on Wednesday, October 1.
