redfrock

You are quite right. Cunard did not handle this well. Communication and explanation about why no alternative port was suitable would have helped. Despite the man in the hat's rude accusation of lies, I wrote about what I experienced and unless he was following me into the lifts, dining tables and ladies' toilets, he can't possibly claim that his experience was the only truth. Likewise, he cannot know why people left early.

As it happens, I was very polite to the receptionist and was only trying to suggest that they try to put more options on for people who didn't care for football, bingo and quizzes. How fortunate that the man in the hat was not served by the the uninterested girl who spoke to me.

Martin Bell's lectures were a delight - what a pity that the daily programme showed that on day three he was repeating the lecture from the day before (he wasn't). Some of us missed it, thinking we'd already heard it.

In my experience, most people go on holiday to have a good time and don't want to feel aggrieved and unhappy. If there isn't sufficient explanation, people hit back at the company they only way they can. Waiters at our table told me that some guests cancelled gratuities. That is an awful thing to do, as it was definitely not the fault of the waiters, stewards etc., yet people act out of sheer frustration. More communication can only have helped. The explanations about ports in France and the Channel Islands on this thread have helped my understanding of why there wasn't a suitable port - why didn't Cunard take just a little bit of time to explain this?

We all know things go wrong from time to time, but good communication and prompt goodwill gestures help soften disappointment. The Captain's decision is unquestionable - safety must always come first, but good PR is also an important factor in helping clients understand why they cannot have the experience they paid for when change is unavoidable.

The company knew in advance about the weather. Sailing enthusiasts among the guests said even they had known about this weather front for over a week. We took 36 hours to get to Holland at a snail's pace and 12 hours to be back level with Southampton. We passed ports in Holland, Belgium, France, The Channel Islands and the UK. The weather in the English Channel wasn't nearly as bad. No port, not even Southampton, was deemed possible to dock, until it suited Cunard to dock early for repairs.

Moreover, if the weather was known about, why wasn't there a contingency plan for entertainment? The afternoon of the second day (when we were supposed to arrive in Amsterdam) had nothing to offer most passengers - 2 lots of televised football, bingo or a quiz. The rest of the so-called entertainment involved hard-sell shopping promotions - Tag Heuer watches and the Cunard spa packages.

Most people I spoke to weren't angry about missing Amsterdam if it was unsafe to proceed. The extremely quick decision that no other port was suitable and that we were going to spend 4 days just circling the English Channel was what infuriated most guests. It's somewhat different to miss a port when it's the last day of the cruise, but not many people would pay out for a trip to nowhere at all, particularly when no effort was made to lay on anything for the trapped guests to do. People were just sitting around staring into space, because there was next to no entertainment laid on.

The atmosphere on board was awful: everywhere people were angry and complaining. Cunard's reception staff couldn't have been more cavalier or disdainful. I wanted to register a complaint about the lack of entertainment. After being called over to one of the receptionists, she cut me short while she tidied up something in her drawer. I waited until she'd finished, began again, but then her colleague had a little joke to involve her in, so I had to wait until she'd had her laugh. That's pretty typical of the attitude that the guests experienced.

As if to rub it in, Cunard put on a 'Christmas Market' of a few stalls of stuff from their shops - with mulled wine, if you were prepared to pay for it. The other stall had waiters rolling napkins into shapes. I wouldn't have been surprised to see one rolled into a 2-finger salute.

People were queueing to get off the ship 12 hours before the end of the cruise. I've never seen anything like it.

I'm a Gold Member cruiser with Cunard, but I no longer trust this company with my money or precious holiday time. This is from someone who has experienced the disappointment of missed ports before - this was of a different order. Some people are saying 'get over it', but really, you had to be there to experience the feeling that we, and our money, were being taken for a ride in every sense of the phrase.