Megabear2

Any opinion on the similar event with QM2 in Italy the other week, or is it only P&O who do it wrong?

I'm certainly not defending anyone. What I believe is that there will be an investigation and enquiry and that will apportion blame where necessary if there is any to be had. If heads need to roll or be banged together no doubt that will happen. Newspaper hysteria is dying down. Let the relevant authorities deal with it. It is not helpful to say what if this or that had occurred, fact is thankfully it didn't. No matter how much people discuss this on forums, social media or through the press there actually aren't any useful answers to be found here, just a lot of hot air between a small group who think they know best. Any person caught up in all this, particularly if they are stuck in Majorca, might be reading these forums and all this conjecture will only add to their anxiety and anger.

Of course there are accidents and the ridiculous situation we find ourselves in looking for someone to blame causes long delays on roads while investigators pick over minute details looking for that blame. The incidious blame culture came in because of insurance companies and lawyers insisting that someone has to be at fault so monetary costs could be passed between them. There was an accident on the A303 a few months back where the driver of a vehicle was unexpectedly blinded by sun reflecting of a vehicle. Thankfully no one died but there were unfortunate injuries. Using the logic of there are no accidents who does the injured party and the police etc blame? Should the sun be pursued, the innocent car driver driving in front of the car involved in the crash for having a nice shine on his car, the manufacturer of the crashed car for not having good enough tint in the windscreen? Trying to blame someone for absolutely everything has come about because insurance companies and lawyers want someone to blame to pass the financial responsibility off on anyone other than their client.

Interesting choice of hotel if that's where the passengers are - a British couple abandoned their teenage child there a few years back and ended up with a jail sentence for doing so! It is a vast complex featured as a 2 star hotel in the TUI and Jet2 package holiday brochures and very far from a quality offering. I'm guessing that due to its size it would have been able to offer P&O the required number of rooms, although apparently under renovation in a lot of them. A very poor offering in any circumstances and I still cannot get my head round the photograph of the food. It's not the food itself that confuses no matter how unappealing it looks, rather its presentation looking like pictures we saw of quarantine food in the height of the pandemic. A rundown hotel room in an emergency is one thing that might have been unavoidable in an emergency for a night or two but a paltry food allowance and meals such as the one photographed are really not acceptable.

Have little choice but to use them for my long haul flights as they cover most destinations. I quite like Lufthansa to the States but invariably I go via Germany and break my journey to visit friends. Very odd watching the flight plan which says I'm flying over Salisbury as we are a flight free zone unless there's an emergency. I'd love to know where we really are on those flights.

I have had book.onboard for Retreat for two weeks yet get emails telling me to book.now. My dining still says coming soon, make of it what you will. I'm rapidly getting tired of all cruise lines at present!!

Thank you for that information. Do we have any update on the passengers in Palma still? I see a mention of a Stansted flight, I presume so a larger aircraft can be used. Any idea if everyone is being kept in one place as is being suggested on news outlets.

What did the reply from Exec Office say or was it just an acknowledgement of your email, ie 28 days from now we will let you know.

No. Overwhelmingly they think we will get tables for 2, especially as we both have special requirements.

Yet more dramas!!! In all the excitement with my BIL stranded in Italy and my train woes I'd completely forgotten about my American friends who travelled into UK on Queen Mary 2 and flew straight out to Spain from Southampton when they arrived. I've just had a message to say they're meant to arrive London tomorrow but BA cannot confirm if and when. To add to the excitement they've also lost their luggage en route! To quote my friend: "Right now- no clothes no underwear nothing no makeup Have only what I wore on plane BA NEVER AGAIN FOR ME" Goodness knows what's happening next!! They have to board QM2 back to NYC on 4th I've not said a word but am silently praying!

Over on Cunard board I've asked a few questions on the Club dining, I've been surprised to be told there can be as little as 10 inches between tables in the Grills. Seems money paid doesn't necessarily equate to better gaps.

I normally sail Cunard solo and it's not me with the problem so am happy to share. Ironically on my last Cunard cruise in May on QM2 I asked to share and they kept saying no and making me eat solo! My problem is my husband who psychologically cannot eat with people he does not know. If someone joined us midway into a meal he would simply stop eating, he wouldn't leave but just woukd not eat anymore. He does cruise with me on P&O as we select freedom dining, but his cruises are basically only at Christmas to the Caribbean or on one occasion with his family. It's a rare event for us to eat out at home as well. We did one Queen Elizabeth cruise together to scatter my mother's ashes from her but we had a table for two in Britannia on that occasion.

Personally I've no interest in who was responsible for the actual event occurring in the first place, that's for the "official" enquiry and not for discussion by people not in possession of thr full facts. I am interested in the passengers both currently onboard Britannia, in hotels or at the airport. Human beings are remarkably adaptable and hopefully will put these events into their memory files to talk about in years to come. I'm certainly not a defender of P&O in the normal ***** ups they oversee but even I can see this was something pretty outstanding and a one off. Whatever happens I wish all involved God speed and s safe trip home however they do it.

The staff and contractors might think it's an upgrade! Joking apart I'm certain if there is a problem on that front for paying guests it will be being discussed with the care team who are now on site in Palma. Not everyone will be unhappy. If I had been one of the "volunteers" I'd have put it down to experience and make my points when I got home. I'm certainly no shrinking violet about complaining but even I can accept these really were extenuating circumstances beyond a lot of control.

All very valid points but the fact remains to sail within the law and to prevent all 4,000 people being made to leave and fly home these "volunteers" were necessary and prepared to make that sacrifice presumably after asking these types of questions. Moley explained the "guests of staff" etc were automatically chosen. That along with contractors etc would have been presumably a fair chunk. We will probably never be party to how the rest were selected. Mind you one very vociferous "terrified" lady from Wales presumably got her wish to get off and fly home! I'm not in any way suggesting anyone did or didn't do the right or wrong thing, I'm merely saying it's unfortunate the incident occurred at a time of a national problem and everyone had to accept this was a far from normal disembarkation situation. As I said, damned if they do, damned if they dont.

Yes, I've seen that. I however live in an area covered by the local news for Southampton and they were broadcasting live on the tv news about the incident. This was what I was referring too not the website.

To be honest if that's what I arrived to I would not have stayed if there was an alternative - there clearly is now - but if I could not find an alternative to present to P&O I would have stayed under the proviso it was under the strict expectation I could move as soon as other accommodation was available and I would do exactly as Windsurfboy did and look today first thing to find it. No, it's not ideal but it clearly wasn't an option to stay on the ship either.

Currently on BBC local news regarding her return and confirmation that next sailing will go ahead. Absolutely nothing re hotels and passengers in Majorca despite numerous articles on the airport problems.

That may be very true but if they hadn't alighted the ship could not have sailed as the rules would have stopped it. Are you suggesting P&O should have refused to leave Palma to accomodate the situation? Other ships would be due to fill that berth as well. I would guess the logistics were pretty horrendous for all. Earlier posts from our correspondents onboard yesterday also indicated there were tensions between the port and P&O. Basically they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.

With all the will in the world we aren't getting any information on where these people actually are as we haven't anyone on here reporting from the hotel so are relying on the third party reports. Yes, there are pages of hotels for today but did they exist yesterday, I don't know so can't comment. I can say with certainty there was absolutely zilch being offered in Nice yesterday despite BA and my BIL searching for hours so I'm pretty certain that Palma/Majorca may have been the same yesterday. I cannot understand why the passengers are apparently in one place and why they appear to have food being served in plastic trays like covid quarantine offered. Under normal circumstances we would be hearing lots of information and complaints- remember the shouts about quarantine hotels previously. Surely if it's that bad and they are all there together the passengers would be staging protests to P&O, seeking alternatives and demanding that P&O do better.

Sky working here as we are watching the racing and have just checked all our apps okay. We do intermittently lose connection to our wifi and have to reset the router to get it back.

Success!!!!! Good old Indian call centre over the telephone has sold and sent me a printable email ticket for both of us.

I would guess it's one of the hotels handed over for covid previously. I'm assuming if they all had to go in one place - why I'm mot sure - it would need to be somewhere that is currently not operational a d awaiting upgrades. A search of Trivago shows rooms in Palma in 4* hotels shows availability at around £500 for three nights as available but they wouldn't be for all 321.

Apparently not as they have no wifi and cannot therefore issue tickets via their machines or distribute them to telephone apps. It's all becoming a bit comical now, I'm holding for National Rail who tell me they should be able to complete a telephone sale with an electronic ticket. Apparently they guy is in an Indian call centre so is checking with the UK via email. You really couldn't make it up. No train company can sell a ticket over the telephone, only National Rail is allowed to do this, apparently it's a streamlined service!

We had G218 the year before last. It has the sofa which makes it a higher grade. We enjoyed it, there was a little noise from the theatre but not terrible and we slept well. Last year we had a similar cabin on deck 9 and in our opinion this was far more obstructed than the deck 8 one. It was a huge disappointment and I'd rather have the deck 8 one any time.