Thomas Cook - Man/Barbados 4th March Cancelled

[Patsy Flower]

Hi,

 

Does anyone have any relatives/friends who were scheduled to go to Barbados this morning with Thomas Cook?

 

We have friends currently in Barbados who should have been returning on this flight. Does anyone know what is/will happen now?

[aurorakippa11]

Looking at manchester airport departures it looks as if they have found another crew and it could be on it's way shortly. 2 Thomson flights also very delayed. Bad for the airlines but not their fault .

[leelooandgelf]

I have just noticed that P and O Cruises have just posted information on Twitter regarding Adonia and Azura. It relates to flights from and to Manchester and how the itineries have change.

No doubt they have posted the same on Facebook also.

Hope this helps

Karen

[Patsy Flower]

Two of the flights whch should have gone to Barbados today, one a TC and one a Thomson have now been re-scheduled for tomorrow.

 

Suppose it is OK if you are stuck in Barbados but I feel very sorry for everyone stuck at Manchester.

[Host Sharon]

Adonia has had one port cancelled as a result but not much can be done when it's weather related sadly.

[annieuk]

We left Adonia yesterday but on the Thomson Gatwick flight so no problem. First it was announced that the Thomas Cook Manchester flight was delayed then apparently they flew a plane out from Gatwick and the Thomas Cook Manchester flight took off just before our Thomson flight. We did hear that the incoming flight from Manchester was cancelled which was the reason for all the problems.

[Riversidemay]

First time poster here so hello

 

I was on Azura with my wife on cruise A604 and was scheduled to go on TOM117 flight to Manchester on Friday and there was an announcement mid morning that the flight was delayed due to heavy snow in Manchester.

 

There was also a outbound Thomas Cook flight to Gatwick that was also delayed due to the incoming plane having to pick passengers up in Manchester that then couldn't take off again. There were other flights delayed but I will just point to these two in relation to what happened.

 

The two flights were then invitied to meetings, ours was in Malabar at 4.30 to which we were told our flight would not be taking off today however we would be staying an extra night on Azura and this was met by a round of applause but I also felt a bit guilty as I found out that the Gatwick passengers were going to be staying overnight in hotels in Barbados.

 

I do think P&O did as much as they can and do deserve a lot of credit.

 

I would also like to say it was a fantastic cruise and didn't damper the holiday one bit. Would love to hear from people who was on this cruise.

 

I will write a review of this cruise when I have recovered only landed at 5am this morning and had only a few hours sleep since.

[Patsy Flower]

Thanks for the update. It was interesting to see what had happened as we were on the TOM117 back in January.

 

From what I can gather the problem at Manchester seemed to be lack of ground staff for de-icing but I am not sure.

 

One thing is for certain the UK cannot deal with even the smallest amounts of snow. Everything grinds to a halt.

 

Glad that you arrived back home OK.

 

Like you I feel sorry for the Gatwick passengers as one of them has posted and said the hotel they were in was not good. However, at such short notice I expect P & O did what they could.

[jeanlyon]

Trouble is you cannot de-ice if more snow is actually falling. It settles on the wings and other parts and an aircraft cannot take off in that condition. I was watching the TV from Leeds Bradford and snow was still falling on that day.

[Scriv]

My husband was once on a flight in Rome (of all places) where they sat on the runway for ages and kept getting de-iced and moved a bit further up the queue to take off, only to ice up again and have to be de-iced yet again - and wait that bit longer.

 

It is a grim deal, but you just can't win in those conditions and it is nobody's 'fault'.

[jeanlyon]

Yes, it happens all the time, then they run out of de-icing fluid!! I got used to it in my 16 years :-)

[Jennizor]

Hi Riversidemay, we were on the same cruise and flight TOM117. I agree that generally P&O were great. The only issue we had was that around 11.00 am they told us there was a problem with our flight and they would give us an update at 12.00. This did not happen, even though Reception was full of people asking for more info. While it was lovely enjoying the extra sunshine, it was not very relaxing and there was all sorts of speculation going on around us. We were greatly relieved that we didn't have to leave the ship and even got a cabin just a few doors away from our original. We did feel terribly sorry for those stuck in Manchester, we even heard that people who did come out ( a TCX flight I think) sat in the aircraft for 6 hours before it took off. 14 hours in total with one meal.

 

We had a great cruise however. One of the highlights for us was the Great British Sailaway from St Maarten when we were alongside Britannia. The atmosphere was fantastic and the entertainment team were brilliant. We are cruising on Britannia in September so it was extra special to see her for the first time.

 

I did hear a few people moaning about things but we just enjoyed the whole experience, Azura is brilliant.

[Riversidemay]

Hi Jennizor, Yeah agree the updates didn't come on time, We tried to relax as much as we could but as the day went on I kinda knew we would be staying in Barbados another night so like you say it was a relief that we stayed on the ship we were even more lucky and got the same cabin but felt strange when it was all set up for the new passengers and even had their tour tickets on the bed.

 

We did know someone who was on the Gatwick flight who had to stay in a hotel but haven't heard from then yet.

 

Yeah seeing Brittania was great and the sailaway was excellent and it was good to see all the senior officers including the captain on Brittania's bridge seeing us off.

 

We have put a down payment on our next cruise and can't wait like you say Azura is brilliant.