British Isles Cruises Missed Ports

We just did the Caribbean Princess British Isles with Kirkwall (May 1st). Lovely itinerary and had unexpectedly fabulous weather. We were not able to dock in Kirkwall. The Captain reported high winds combined with the inability to have tug boat assistance from the port. Our private tour operator, Explore Orkney, refutes this and says our docking problems had to do with the ship's bow thrusters not working properly. I tend to believe the Captain. The lesson learned though is...for ports that have the reputation of being missed because of weather, it is better safe to opt for a ship sponsored excursion. Explore Orkney has refused to refund us any portion of our money for our missed tour.

Reminds me of funny story. We were on the first Caribbean Princess visit to Kirkwall after they built the new dock. Beautiful dock, wonderful visit but almost could not depart. Strong winds came up abeam and each time he pushed out with his thrusters the wind forced us back in. After a few tries they called foe "the tug", note the singular. Put it at the bow and with some effort we got underway. An interesting problem, hope they now have 2 tugs. BTW we also missed Guernsey on that cruise.

I'm glad I found this thread - we're on Oriana this Sunday and due to visit most of the 'affected' ports within the first 10 days of August.

We normally 'hoof' it or book local excursions but have now definitely decided to wait & make sure that we actually dock!

Belfast, Dublin & Cobh are the ports I'm most interested in but Guernsey is somewhere I've always meant to visit - so fingers crossed.

I just finished the British Isles Cruise (July), and the weather was good. Thankfully, we did not miss any ports. I was worried since we had pre-booked some excursions with local companies and some required full payment up front.

We did leave Guernsey late due to an extremely slow tendering process that led to late departure from the port (and a long wait in the sun for tenders). They warned us that night we would arrive at Cobh later than originally scheduled the next morning (it ended up approximately 1.5 hours later), though the ship compensated by staying an hour later in the evening, so we didn't miss out on time at the port. After that, everything else was on track again. No problems at Kirkwall or Invergordon.

We did the 12-day British Isles on the Caribbean Princess last June and missed St. Peter Port due to bad weather. The rest of the cruise was fine.

Just returned from the August 5 sailing of the Caribbean Princess. We were able to tender at both our tender stops. Guernsey and Queensferry (Edinburgh).

Sad face :( Gorgeous sunny day but Captain Cook (yes, that is his real name) deemed the water too choppy to tender at St Peterport on 10th Aug. We bobbed about for a while, hoping the near non-existent white caps would bugger off completely but, sadly, no. We turned around & he put Oriana in 1st gear all the way back to Southampton - oh yes, we were cable to watch obviously whilst Ventura tendered her passengers ashore.

Capt Cook said Ventura had twin hulled tenders & that's why she could go ahead with the operation. My thought was - if Oriana's tenders aren't up to the job, simply remove Guernsey from her itinerary.

We had no missed ports on the Aug. 11 sailing of the Silhouette.

We made it to all our ports last month on the Caribbean Princess--Aug. 17 cruise. We did leave from Guernsey late due to delays in tendering. I think the choppiness of the seas contributed to it taking longer to unload people in the afternoon--plus the fact that many waited until the last possible moment. Some people we talked with had a two-hour wait. Then a mechanical issue (and the ongoing technical problems with the ship) made it impossible for us to make up the time. We arrived in Cobh four hours late. Fortunately the independent tour company we booked with found out about the delay and worked it out so that we did not miss anything on our excursion to Blarney Castle and Kinsale. The ship delayed departure by four hours. Someone later told me that four Princess excursions ended getting canceled. The couple who told us that missed going to Waterford.

We just did the Caribbean Princess British Isles with Kirkwall (May 1st). We were not able to dock in Kirkwall. The Captain reported high winds combined with the inability to have tug boat assistance from the port. Our private tour operator, Explore Orkney, refutes this and says our docking problems had to do with the ship's bow thrusters not working properly. I tend to believe the Captain. The lesson learned though is...for ports that have the reputation of being missed because of weather, it is better safe to opt for a ship sponsored excursion. Explore Orkney has refused to refund us any portion of our money for our missed tour.

We were on the Caribbean Princess in June of last year and missed Orkney due to weather (?). Our tour operator wasn't going to refund our tour either, but my dad had booked the tour with his Visa card and got the money back that way.

Our tour operator wasn't going to refund our tour either, but my dad had booked the tour with his Visa card and got the money back that way.

Unless the tour operator had a stated policy of refund if the ship doesn't make port, you're not entitled to a refund.

But always worth reclaiming on your card - interestingly, in different circumstances (car rental) I claimed a refund which I knew that by the letter of the law I wasn't entitled to. The rental agency objected but I stood my (shaky) ground and eventually got a refund on my card. The sum was relatively small and I'm fairly certain that either the rental agency or the bank decided it wasn't worth the hassle, and refunded as a goodwill gesture / get-this-guy-off-our-backs.:rolleyes:

He who shouts loudest & longest etc etc :)

JB :)

When you sail the British Isles you never know what to expect.

Last sailed it in 2014.

14 day cruise.

Missed five ports.

Captain said it was the most ever.

It was September but with changing weather patterns more like November.

The challenge is usually with the tender ports and with heavy sea swells it can make them unsafe.

The good news is four of the five ports were replaced with other ports and we enjoyed anther day at sea.

Keith

Out of interest, regarding those tours who've been paid upfront / deposit and who don't refund... what are they supposed to do? It seems to me they have planned for, and are available to do the tour. If they refund money because of the ship not docking, then they have lost that day's earnings through no fault of their own. That doesn't seem fair either!

Out of interest, regarding those tours who've been paid upfront / deposit and who don't refund... what are they supposed to do? It seems to me they have planned for, and are available to do the tour. If they refund money because of the ship not docking, then they have lost that day's earnings through no fault of their own. That doesn't seem fair either!

I doubt any experienced cruiser would book a private land tour from a cruise ship, if a refund wasn't automatic, if the ship doesn't call in to that port.

Cruise insurance normally pays out for a missed port, in which case the compensation would cover any lost deposit.

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I'm sorry MM Down Under; I must be being obtuse, but am genuinely wondering - so you're saying it's ok for the tour provider to lose their income for the day because they should offer a refund? I would have thought wowzz point of having cruise insurance means everyone's 'happy'. The tour provider isn't out of pocket, and the cruise passenger isn't out of pocket either (or not much).

I'm sorry MM Down Under; I must be being obtuse, but am genuinely wondering - so you're saying it's ok for the tour provider to lose their income for the day because they should offer a refund? I would have thought wowzz point of having cruise insurance means everyone's 'happy'. The tour provider isn't out of pocket, and the cruise passenger isn't out of pocket either (or not much).