Charles2108

The main problem I had was with the NC cruise director who was useless and put the boot in first as he'd obviously worked out that I was going to complain. The Concierge on the ship was excellent. I did have a problem with their safety procedures on Zodiacs but other than that the Elysium staff were fine. I think it would have been a lot better if I had booked direct. The NC staff are frankly not what they used to be. They seem to have worked out that employees - who are useless - are cheaper than freelancers. Let's face it, if you're any good you're going to go freelance as the money's better...

Thanks for your comments Fletcher. I hadn't put anything on the web until after I was banned. Serenissima is a cr*p boat. A floating sardine tin. I went on it once and told people to avoid it afterwards. It's now academic as it is impounded due to Russian ownership. The Caledonia Sky had been sold a APT so effectively they only have two ships of their own. After being banned we successfully re-booked on the same ships with different companies. Seems they have lost their USP so why use people who are arrogant and heavy handed and treat you with so little respect?

Yes it was. He was a freelancer. Could well be on that cruise (it's pot luck who you get) , but I have to say that the Sky vessels are much better re the zodiac procedures as they are performed by a Philipino crew who know what they are doing so you won't have that specific problem.

We are possibly one of Noble Caledonia's most loyal customers. At the time of taking our last cruise on MV Elixir we had four more already booked and this was our 39th trip with them. The have had over £600,000 of our money over the years and yet with no explanation they have decided that our custom is no longer required... We suspect that the reason for this is that the cruise director was completely useless. Specifically the Zodiac procedures on this whip were, in my opinion, dangerous. Despite a safety briefing lasting less than 5 minutes, the crew made no attempt to follow their own procedures. On the first return to the ship, the zodiac was not secured to the ship, there was nobody on the landing platform, the two crew on the zodiac were holding onto the landing stage, no two handed grips were used - you get the picture. The cruise director was at the top of the ladder and when I tried to tell him about the potential dangers, he completely blanked me. I tackled his later over lunch. He was dismissive and said he had no control over the procedures as these were down to the ship. When I pressed him, he accused me of shouting at him and said that he deserved respect. I was not shouting at him and walked away to get a drink to defuse the situation. When I returned he said he would arrange for me to speak to the captain. It never happened. At Delos the crew of the zodiac were literally hanging on by their fingertips to the tread of the old tyres on the dock. They overloaded the zodiac. I did remark that it felt like a cross channel migrant crossing. Again when we returned to the ship, it was not secured. I was the first passenger off and refused to move until the zodiac was secured, one member of crew and got onto the landing platform, and the proper two handed safety grips were used. I tackled the cruise director again at a briefing meeting. He said he was talk to me separately afterwards. It never happened. So I wrote a long letter of complaint to Noble Caledonia. Rather than a response, I received a cursory letter from Noble informing me that they had received reports of rude and abusive behaviour (after 39 trips this was never commented on previously?) and that they had decided to cancelled all future bookings. I suspect that knowing that I was going to complain about the completely useless cruise director, he'd managed to put the boot in first. Needless to say I don't expect they'll be bothering to read my complaint letter. This is an appalling way to treat loyal and long standing repeat customers. No discussion. No attempt to establish my viewpoint. There are plenty of other cruise companies offering the same trips, especially bearing in mind that Noble have only 2 ships of their own. I've already re-booked two of my banned journeys with other companies. My advise - don't use them. They don't care about you.