RoadRacer99

 

And let me be clear — which is not what you’re reading in these threads, people were angry because they did not see penguins. Penguins. Not because they wanted one more land stop...They are angry and threatening class action suits, because they did not see penguins. Staff are on 10 month contracts, away from their families, so we can cruise....missing their family...always smiling....and people were furious because they didn’t see penguins. Antarctica was the billing and main reason for the cruise....our safety, excellent and always pleasant service....and people are yelling because they didn’t see penguins??? Let’s have some perspective here. I understand disappointment. We’ve all been disappointed at times — but this kind of vitriolic anger because an Antarctic cruise didn’t have penguins up close?

Having reflected on the cruise and your observations, I felt compelled to respond. All my posts were factual. We also felt really bad for the crew who faced the wrath of upset guests. But your assertion re Penguins is at best inaccurate. Sure it read nicely, but....

We wanted to see the ports as much as Antartica, in a large part because we grew up in the UK during the terrible conflict that cost so many lives in the Falklands war. Apparently the Argentinan lawyer lost family members there too – so very sad. We met a couple from Wales who were visiting, to pay tribute to the Welsh Guards who lost 32 lives on the Sir Galahad.

And you attributed all our disappointment to Penguins. Penguins? Really?

Sounds like the root cause of the problems was the weather....not the propulsion. When the seas are up and stronger winds, two engines don't matter. How many have missed the sting rays in Grand Cayman due to weather (answer: lots). How many have missed Lisbon due to weather (answer: we have). Sounds like folks really would have Celebrity cancel a cruise due to the weather forecast....which of course is both silly and would never happen.

 

I understand disappointment, but I don't think the engines caused all of the problems the OP (and others) attribute to them......

 

I guess there's a lawyer somewhere who thinks they'll get some publicity out of filing a class action....or figures that celebrity will decide to settle a suit out of court....but unless one can clearly create a case based on safety, I don't think there's a chance in hxxx that anyone other than the lawyer will (or based on what I've read here, should) get a penny through the legal system. If the case is about not stopping in the Falklands, someone really needs to do their homework on how many ships miss that port.

As stated before, I do not agree that the legal action will stand, given the fine print. But don't blame the weather.

The weather did not turn bad until late pm the 30th Jan, after we would have left Stanley on the original schedule. MickeyLive made several comments about the fact it was so calm for the first week, even to the point that he was disappointed we didn't see more wind at several points. We were still 7.5 hours late getting to Ushuaia versus normal schedule and 2.5 hours after the modified schedule.

We were very lucky with weather. We only had a period of less than 24 hours of bad weather.

To be clear, we saw 100's of Penguins on our Ushuaia excursion, and several more on Ice-burgs later. This was not the source of our disappointment.

Our disappointment stems from the dramatically reduced port stops and excessive sea days -- we lost 50% of daylight time at Ushuaia (compared to the original itinerary) all of Port Madryn (previously communicated) and all of the Falkland Islands.

Facts: 1) We left knowing that the ship's propulsion was comprised 2) Departure was delayed from BA. 3) According to the Met office site uk.gov (which provides hourly wind and gust info) Weather conditions on our originally scheduled Falkland Island stop (the day prior to the storm) would have allowed tendering.

So I think any reasonable assessment would conclude that the Root Cause for all the lost stops was propulsion. Weather is always a risk, but we would have avoided it on this trip had the original itinerary been maintained in a ship with full propulsion.

I also want to be clear that the staff did a great job, they hated having more sea days as much as we did, but continued to provide great service, I'm sure in the face of much frustration.

We enjoyed Mickey Live and seeing Antartica, but we would never have booked the itinerary we ended up sailing -- we booked because we wanted a balance of Port time, Sea days and Antartica.

The fine print is very clear, which is one of the reasons we will not join any legal action. I just think X made a mistake continuing the cruise -- it appears that reduced propulsion makes late port departures and/or modest wind increases difficult to make up (as demonstrated with Ushuaia) hence my closing comment in my earlier post: "I would not rely on any long haul schedule integrity until dry dock."

So the group preparing for possible legal action would have preferred the entire cruise to be canceled, including Antarctica?

 

 

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We will not join the class action suit, but honestly I wish they’d cancelled the cruise. We’ve been on more than 6 X cruises and loved them. This was a once in a lifetime journey, that we’ll never forget for the wrong reasons.

The lack of port visits has been covered already in prior posts.

Communication was worse. The first letter from the captain said our 2.5 hour delay at the first port was due to adverse winds and currents. It did’t acknowldge that we left BA 45 minutes late or that the ships propulsion system had already caused a 5 hour delay. We certainly did not feel the winds were excessive....

Move on to the Falkland Islands: Passengers started getting notes from shore based tour operators at 6pm the night before our Falkland Islands stop saying the port call was cancelled. I went to both the Shore Excursions and Guest services desks Who had no updates, other than an ominous “the captain makes navigation decisions” comment. At 8:30pm, some 2-3 hours after the shore based operations were notifying guests the captain announced that we’d not be stopping at the Falklands or any substitute port.

Worst vacation ever, compounded by late and questionable communications that raise Significant concerns.

I would not rely on any long haul schedule integrity until dry dock.