Goosebear Mum

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

You can hardly complain about Terms being changed just with not being able to take a bottle on board.    That is not the reason you booked surely?

Silly question. Of course not, but people who have taken a bottle onboard for evening balcony drinks, don’t suddenly expect to be told days beforehand that ‘you now can’t’.  (We never have, but were about to pack a few miniature bottles of his favourite Edinburgh gin, for my husband, for when sitting on the balcony for the evening Fjord sails, which are idyllic at 10/11pm)  Will we go up to to a bar to buy a g&t and bring back down to the balcony? NO!  Will we pay for room service to deliver one glass of g&t? NO! 

P&O are reducing the value of their product step by step.  Reduced food quality, greatly reduced meat/fish mdr menu choices, no flannels, no nightly turn down, no pillow chocolates, no lemon slices in buffet for use in water (I really miss these)  no conditioner, no paper port guides/maps, just the crappy online cafe/shop guides… no wine waiters in MDR, and ask for most non alcoholic drinks, and they grumble they’ll need to go and get them… no cheese board, and what arrives is sad,  no individual bathroom toiletries, just bottles shared from previous cabin occupants (yuck…) etc. etc…

… now being petty and stopping people even having their own choice of drinks in cabin…   Hotels don’t stop people having drinks in their cases for use in their rooms. Why should ships?

Each of these is small on its own, but drip by drip it builds up to reduced quality (yet, we’re paying more than we did in 2015)  and new passengers will not miss them (some I don’t miss either, like nightly turn down!)   We’ve just spent several thousand for 7 days on Iona.  I’d now rather a better value / higher quality product for most of our cruises.  P&O are very much “reduce quality as much as possible”, and “expect passengers to pay for extras over and above the bare minimum”.  

Of course, if you just use inside cabins, and pay saver fare; you have paid little for the cruise and think everyone else can spend more on all the extras too… 

We have almost paid off our mortgage and in 1-2 year’s time will try out other lines, one of which allows any alcohol to be taken on board, is not quite all inclusive, but doesn’t charge extra for most of what P&O does, £ for £ / day it’s nit that much more for far higher quality. 

Places can state no filming for commercial reasons, without licence/permission.  It would reduce the number considerably. Those who act responsibly and professionally would have a licence, and have to act within guidelines.  It would stop the gauntlet of irresponsible wannabes.  

Personally, I would be very unhappy to be filmed, and shown to all and sundry as on holiday. If our home were to be broken into, because of some non-influencer, I can assure you, they would find out.  I think cruise companies should clamp down on them.  My photo is very very private for a specific reason.  I have no photos of us in ‘public’ online.  

I just wish that Aurora, etc, had food matching the far higher p&o smaller ship prices! Prices are far lower on Iona, but Aurora has recently had very poor meals/food. We only started with P&O in 2015, but even in these 9 years, there has been a huge decrease in quality. 

Yes, I had this for a cruise later this year, on Iona. Got Sindhu booked eventually, but the system had a complete meltdown as tens of thousands of passengers tried to book for cruises over the next few months… Didn’t get Beach House, so really hope I can do when bookings reopen, as that was my priority…  I do not like this stressful way of booking meals 😞 

5 minutes ago, formernuke said:

 

Heads up: Hairdryer provided, but cannot be plugged into the bathroom outlet. DW reported that the cord didn’t reach from the nearest outlet to the closet mirror, so she was drying “blind”. 

In the UK, we are not allowed to use electrical appliances in a bathroom, due to safety risk, hence no sockets, and the lead not reaching. (hairdryers and water are a lethal combination !)  I am surprised there is no mirror outside the bathroom, with a socket for the hairdryer, as this is norm in the uk.  

Enjoy the extension 🙂 

Exactly, I would never go to Iceland for a full solar Eclipse, that I may never have another chance to see near the UK.  The risk of cloud would be far too high. This is why I’m surprised Viking doesn’t have a cruise in the southern track of the Eclipse (e.g. Portugal/ Med)  All the med cruises are not within the 100% track 

Agree, I looked up cruises for this day, and none are in the region of the full eclipse 😞 Bizarre, as I’d have thought they could have managed a Med or Northern France/Portugal cruise. 

I have to say, the food on Aurora last year was not good. We gave up on the MDR and ended up in the buffet, which was nowhere near as good as previously, but sadly a lot better than the MDR!  It’s a huge shame as Aurora is our favourite, despite cruises on her being priced considerably higher than the larger ships. We have a cruise on Iona this year, and we will soon pay off our mortgage. After that, if P&O doesn’t improve their included MDR options, we are moving to another company (paying more post mortgage!) 

Thanks for this info on smoking, I would never have realised that there were still cruise companies allowing smoking on balconies.  As someone who has had pneumonia a few times, and struggles to breathe (with coughing manically) when encountering cigarette smoke (AND some vapes) FO will need to remain off my P&O alternative list.  

Just now, Frenchberet said:

We had “birds” on Saturn when we disembarked in Istanbul two weeks ago.  Maybe Sky’s birds migrated south for the winter?

Maybe, they’ve abandoned Sky along with all the passengers taking overland tours/other routes home? 😉 Or maybe they decided to fly the original route via the Med 😉 😂  Not sure I’d want a rutting boar in my bathroom 🤣 

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

 

I want to go on a Celebrity Edge cruise again but we can't afford the prices they are charging at the moment. Does this mean that Celebrity need to dumb down their offer for me? Sadly no .. we have to save up and see if our circumstances change. 

exactly. Seems nowadays, people expect ‘dumbing down’ for ‘inclusivity’.  It’s crazy.  I save hard for what we need, I do NOT want cost cutting as an alternative.  I don't expect others to have to eat what is my choice.  I have been investigating other cruise lines as alternatives; yes it may mean one cruise every alternative year, instead if each year, until our mortgage is paid off, but I’d rather pay more to have the service I used to get on p&o.  Our 2 week Aurora last year was a great cruise itinerary, but terrible service/quality. The itinerary and amazing weather made the cruise.  

This would be my worst nightmare too, thanks for asking. I don’t go on holiday to increase anxiety!  We’ll avoid! 

Vegan food? Allowed, yes, but enjoy?… rarely, and for my husband, never. I don’t choose to go on a cruise, and pay several £000 to be almost forced into eating food that is a lifestyle choice by a minority.  I save up hard to go on a cruise once a year, mortgage is tough, salary is tough, etc etc. We expect decent meal choices, sometimes the MDR had just ONE meat option. We ended up in the buffet which ironically was better.  We usually choose Aurora, but will be trying Iona this year, as the food choices on Aurora were so bad last year, and my husband thinks it's worth seeing if Iona is better.  Last year was our first cruise since covid, and the cutbacks were very noticeable.  I did make a list of all the cutbacks, but cannot currently find it. 

Yes, husband came to the conclusion after tests, that somehow they had managed to block that traffic on Aurora. Shame. Like you, we both ended up logging each other on/off as we needed it. 

2 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

There likely isn't anything that can be done to redesign/rebuild the sump tanks, given ship geometry, so there will have to be measures to mitigate any design deficiency.

Thanks, yes, I wondered as such. Mitigation. It’ll be interesting to see how TH and the industry as a whole responds, just as it had to do after Costa, etc.  Thanks. Sadly, it’s only through incidents like this, that the industry can sometimes learn, and improve safety further.  I know after my parent’s boat explosion (and others that followed over the next few years) that ‘bi yearly boat MOTs’ were introduced on the River Thames (UK)  The run of deadly explosions ended thankfully. 

12 minutes ago, Thedonkeycentrehalf said:

@Selbourne not sure I should say this on here but when we were on Britannia recently we got around this by setting up a hotspot on my phone and linking my wife’s phone that way.  We did the same on land as I get data roaming on my contract and she doesn’t.

 

Simple to set up and worked really well.

Interesting as we tried this, and our previously used hootoo device, last year on Aurora, but all were blocked.  (edit, blocked by ship, previously all worked okay, pre covid on Aurora) 

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

I will stress that from my readings the root cause of the incident was the failure of the shipyard and Lloyd's Register to adequately design the lube oil sump tanks. 

 

So, out of interest, in your opinion, what do you think will/can/could potentially be done for all the current ships? 

Hi

We’ve never had an issue in B deck balcony cabins, mostly starboard (mid-fwd, mid, mid-aft, aft)

Cannot remember ever using it outside the cabin (I rarely take my phone/tablet out of the cabin, and husband never does)  so cannot comment for elsewhere! 

3 hours ago, TV Dad said:

I cruised Viking Sky last October and enjoyed myself. But after reading this report, I will never cruise Viking again. The crew's incompetence put people's lives at risk. Totally unacceptable.

I would hope Viking is now more risk adverse and would be very safe, maybe safer than companies that have not had an ‘incident’ yet… More safety processes followed, ships checked, etc.  I was on a boat (my parents) which exploded when I was 15, it's made me H&S aware, but not put me off, but I only ever book a balcony cabin, I’d have nightmares in an inside/seaview cabin.  

There were a couple of serious incidents in storms this Winter, injuring many passengers, with other cruise lines crossing the ‘Biscay’, again questions were raised about ‘should they have sailed?’.  Cruising will always be a ‘risk’, but companies have a responsibility to reduce that risk as much as possible. I am sure Viking will react to this, if not already ‘behind the scenes, before the report was publicised’.  

This was serious, It was horrifying.  I feel for those passengers who were onboard, and the relatives ‘watching’.  I remember the event clearly, though I was not onboard.  But, please don’t let it put you off.  I don’t believe the crew were incompetent, I have only ever read passengers praising the actual ‘crew’.  

I also will be interested to keep an ear open for any legal proceedings against captain, Viking, ship builder, etc.  

Out of interest, where is that Captain now? 

We love watching the pilot / boat leaving too. It’s a rather poignant moment, especially when having just embarked or about to do a sea crossing - “now alone on the sea, till the next port, and the cruise has really begun” 🙂 

I’m really glad to hear you all made it on time, despite the flight delays.  Now relax and enjoy your cruise.  Thanks for posting. I enjoy following along with these ‘live’ threads 🙂 

Thanks. I find it interesting so many on a Viking WC have ‘done’ Africa already, but not Europe (or maybe they are happy to ‘do’ Europe again!) I see quite a few posts on the WC forum asking which WC go via Africa and not Europe, as so few do.  

8 hours ago, molecrochip said:

If true, some of Carnival Corp’s US based ships have been caught not enforcing the clear evacuation route aka ‘no scooters/wheelchairs/buggies in the corridors’ rule and have been given til the end of this month to retrain their crews and enforce across all brands.

Good, as I once had to politely comment on Aurora, that someone was always blocking the corridor, outside their mini suite. It was acted upon.  This was pre covid, and I’ve only seen it on a regular basis on that one cruise. 

I’m amazed so many people don't wish to continue, and see South Africa, etc. I can understand a minority, but nearly a third?! 

3 hours ago, TigerB said:

We're back home now. Left the ship at 08:10, and drove away from the port at 08:40. Did a bit of a shop and got in the door at 14:30 to find the kids had been in and put up birthday deccies.

I ramped the heating up […]

 

Thanks for your blog, I enjoyed it…. and welcome back to a very wet East Yorks!