Britannia delayed Baltic departure 6th July

[Tilly20]

Due to sail tomorrow and received this email late morning. Apparently some technical difficulties and the ship had to return to Bergen yesterday to deal with2 medical emergencies which has added to the delay. (Hope they are recovering!).       We hope you are looking forward to joining us on board Britannia tomorrow for your cruise with us.    We're very sorry, Britannia’s arrival into Southampton tomorrow is delayed due to a technical issue and a medical disembarkation on the return from Norway.    As a result of this delayed arrival into Southampton embarkation will now be later.    For your comfort, please can you arrive 6 hours after your scheduled arrival time printed on your E-ticket.    If you have transfer arrangements through us your coach will depart at the normal time as planned therefore please be ready for your transfer as normal.    If you have independent arrangements in place, we would recommend you delay your journey. Otherwise you can travel into Southampton and enjoy the local area before you check in.    We apologise that we have had to start your holiday with a change to your embarkation, in recognition of this we will be adding £20 per person to your on board account.    Thank you for your understanding, we look forward to welcoming you on board and wish you a very happy holiday.    Yours sincerely,

[alija1960]

This all worryingly seems to be getting a bit normal lately - really having second thoughts about booking with P & O now which is a shame as we have not even used them yet (sailing with them in August on Aurora).  We will see how it all goes last few cruises have been with Princess and no problems there but just fancied a change.

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, alija1960 said:

This all worryingly seems to be getting a bit normal lately - really having second thoughts about booking with P & O now which is a shame as we have not even used them yet (sailing with them in August on Aurora).  We will see how it all goes last few cruises have been with Princess and no problems there but just fancied a change.

Don't panic!!!

We have had plenty of recent cruises with P&O and had no issues.

The problems get highlighted, imagine if we all posted that we had no issues.

These things happen, don't let it spoil your holiday.

Andy

[Harry Peterson]

Certainly more than the usual number of problems lately. 

[BanburyBlue]

5 hours ago, Tilly20 said:

Due to sail tomorrow and received this email late morning. Apparently some technical difficulties and the ship had to return to Bergen yesterday to deal with2 medical emergencies which has added to the delay. (Hope they are recovering!).       We hope you are looking forward to joining us on board Britannia tomorrow for your cruise with us.    We're very sorry, Britannia’s arrival into Southampton tomorrow is delayed due to a technical issue and a medical disembarkation on the return from Norway.    As a result of this delayed arrival into Southampton embarkation will now be later.    For your comfort, please can you arrive 6 hours after your scheduled arrival time printed on your E-ticket.    If you have transfer arrangements through us your coach will depart at the normal time as planned therefore please be ready for your transfer as normal.    If you have independent arrangements in place, we would recommend you delay your journey. Otherwise you can travel into Southampton and enjoy the local area before you check in.    We apologise that we have had to start your holiday with a change to your embarkation, in recognition of this we will be adding £20 per person to your on board account.    Thank you for your understanding, we look forward to welcoming you on board and wish you a very happy holiday.    Yours sincerely,

Interesting that they’re prepared to give people extra OBS for sailing late, but absolutely refuse to give people extra OBS when mechanical failures result in people missing ports, or indeed when they shut all the shops.

[r60lt]

This is weird, Britannia is still due to dock in Southampton at 0645hrs tomorrow morning.  Yet we can not get on board till 9pm at the earliest? Not great when i have a 3 year old and a 10month baby. Called P&O and was told tuff basically. I was advised the ship will not arrive until after lunchtime, which looking at several websites this is nonsense. Not a happy chappy and not even on the ship. 

[winman14]

6 minutes ago, r60lt said:

This is weird, Britannia is still due to dock in Southampton at 0645hrs tomorrow morning.  Yet we can not get on board till 9pm at the earliest? Not great when i have a 3 year old and a 10month baby. Called P&O and was told tuff basically. I was advised the ship will not arrive until after lunchtime, which looking at several websites this is nonsense. Not a happy chappy and not even on the ship. 

 

 

Southampton VTS is showing live arrival time of Britannia as being 11:15am presently. 

 

http://www.southamptonvts.co.uk/Live_Information/Shipping_Movements_and_Cruise_Ship_Schedule/Cruise_Ship_Schedule/

[Thejuggler]

From our Norway and Baltic cruises by the current UK time of 21.30 the ship is usually just about to go through the Straits of Dover.

 

Britannia is currently on a the same latitude as Hunstanton on the north of The Wash and doing 21 knots, so almost full chat.

 

Lunchtime arrival is to be expected.

Edited July 5, 2019 by Thejuggler

[the english lady]

This is where she is. This is at 8am, Remember the port authority will be letting her know when she can come up round bramble bank and fit in with the other traffic coming up and down the water. Once here , what normally happens when everyone is fast asleep will be happening this morning/afternoon. If you are driving down remember you will not be able to get into the carpark until the people on this arriving cruise have driven off, so be guided by what pando have told you and don't turn up earlier. You will not be able to park.

[Harry Peterson]

Last time this happened as I recall the most serious problem was with CPS parking. Long delays getting parked and onto the ship.

 

They’ve had plenty of notice this time, and probably learned from last time, so hopefully they’ve managed to line up the necessary staffing. No festival to compete with either!

[Clodia]

What is it with P and O and medical evacuations? There never used to be any! In the last 3 or 4 years the numbers have gone up exponentially. Is it "Elf n safety"? Are P and o more likely to evacuate a sick passenger than try to treat them on board? Do they have fewer less qualified medical staff than in the past? I don't know the answer, but it's starting to put me off booking with them again. I have 3 cruises booked for 2020 so am monitoring the situation.

[the english lady]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Last time this happened as I recall the most serious problem was with CPS parking. Long delays getting parked and onto the ship.

 

They’ve had plenty of notice this time, and probably learned from last time, so hopefully they’ve managed to line up the necessary staffing. No festival to compete with either!

Was part of this early arrivals from the new cruise before the old cruise had cleared the car park. Still might have the fact you are asking staff to work to late on Saturday night. Could you do it at 2 days notice.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, Clodia said:

What is it with P and O and medical evacuations? There never used to be any! In the last 3 or 4 years the numbers have gone up exponentially. Is it "Elf n safety"? Are P and o more likely to evacuate a sick passenger than try to treat them on board? Do they have fewer less qualified medical staff than in the past? I don't know the answer, but it's starting to put me off booking with them again. I have 3 cruises booked for 2020 so am monitoring the situation.

Yes I think they are more likely to evacuate folks rather than care for them onboard. The increase in this seems to tie in with the change of ownership, US policy perhaps? There did seem to be far fewer in years gone by.

 

II don’t think the passenger profile has altered that much and if anything there are more younger passengers onboard than in the past.

 

The number of medical staff will be the same as there will be minimum requirement by law.

 

I also think that the medical evacuation would not have caused a delay of this length,  note that the technical issue is mentioned first.

 

This has happened several times recently with late returns, missed port etc due to technical issues. I will also be monitoring it re future bookings as personally I don’t  think that £20 cuts it for all the inconvenience and missing virtually all of the first day of a holiday.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Clodia said:

What is it with P and O and medical evacuations? There never used to be any! In the last 3 or 4 years the numbers have gone up exponentially. Is it "Elf n safety"? Are P and o more likely to evacuate a sick passenger than try to treat them on board? Do they have fewer less qualified medical staff than in the past? I don't know the answer, but it's starting to put me off booking with them again. I have 3 cruises booked for 2020 so am monitoring the situation.

As HP says the P&O age profile on Southampton cruises is way higher than a typical Caribbean fly cruise and will have a much higher risk of passengers needing hospital treatment.  I doubt that P&O ships will have a lesser complement of medical staff than any other cruise line, but elderly patients will likely present with problems that necessitate more intensive care than a cruise ship medical dept can offer.

[Thejuggler]

A friend had three on one cruise recently, not P&O.  Ship medical is little more than A&E and is there to provide care until a better resourced facility is provided, usually onshore.

 

BBC had a report last week about someone who died after a cruse.  It concluded the initial treatment received on board ship was far below expectation and this contributed to the death which happened after some time in an Italian hospital and a move back to the UK.

Edited July 6, 2019 by Thejuggler

[majortom10]

To be honest we have seen many people on cruises recent year, and not all elderly, with obvious medical problems and have often wondered they either pay very high insurance premiums or do not tell travel insurance companies their full medical history  which is a silly thing to do and very risky but fear that many are doing this.

[daiB]

2 hours ago, Clodia said:

What is it with P and O and medical evacuations? There never used to be any! In the last 3 or 4 years the numbers have gone up exponentially. Is it "Elf n safety"? Are P and o more likely to evacuate a sick passenger than try to treat them on board? Do they have fewer less qualified medical staff than in the past? I don't know the answer, but it's starting to put me off booking with them again. I have 3 cruises booked for 2020 so am monitoring the situation.

Number of points.

 

Do you know if the other cruise lines have more or less medi-vac’s.

The  age profile for P&O is high.

There are no fewer medical staff. 

Decisions about who should be evacuated are made in the US. The medical team on all Carnival ships is run from the US. It’s contracted out.  So little to do with P&O as a separate company.  This takes the decision on these matters out of the ships control.

not sure why you would see this as a problem for booking P&O again.

[Clodia]

Just now, daiB said:

not sure why you would see this as a problem for booking P&O again.

Delays, a couple of missed ports, late back and missed booked train costing me over £100 for new ticket. Not to mention being woken up in the night; I'm a poor sleeper at the best of times. Starting to spoil the cruise.

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, daiB said:

Number of points.

 

Do you know if the other cruise lines have more or less medi-vac’s.

The  age profile for P&O is high.

There are no fewer medical staff. 

Decisions about who should be evacuated are made in the US. The medical team on all Carnival ships is run from the US. It’s contracted out.  So little to do with P&O as a separate company.  This takes the decision on these matters out of the ships control.

not sure why you would see this as a problem for booking P&O again.

Dai, I can see exactly why it would start to put people off booking if this continues at the current rate. Most of the issues have been technical so the medical evac this time is to an extent a red herring.

 

Just out of interest I checked what it would have cost me to get home if I had been on the ship today. There is only one flight back home today pm and the cost is eyewateringly high and that’s if I got off on time to get it. If I did not then you can add on an overnight stay, meals etc and then a slightly less expensive but still ridiculously high flight tomorrow. I would probably get some of that back but it could take months.

 

[galeforce9]

4 hours ago, Clodia said:

What is it with P and O and medical evacuations? There never used to be any! In the last 3 or 4 years the numbers have gone up exponentially. Is it "Elf n safety"? Are P and o more likely to evacuate a sick passenger than try to treat them on board? Do they have fewer less qualified medical staff than in the past? I don't know the answer, but it's starting to put me off booking with them again. I have 3 cruises booked for 2020 so am monitoring the situation.

We had loads of med Evacs on p&o in the late 90s and 00s.  We very often used to get a trip to an unexpected port. Once we had a helicopter air lift off in the North Sea.  

[daiB]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Dai, I can see exactly why it would start to put people off booking if this continues at the current rate. Most of the issues have been technical so the medical evac this time is to an extent a red herring.

 

Just out of interest I checked what it would have cost me to get home if I had been on the ship today. There is only one flight back home today pm and the cost is eyewateringly high and that’s if I got off on time to get it. If I did not then you can add on an overnight stay, meals etc and then a slightly less expensive but still ridiculously high flight tomorrow. I would probably get some of that back but it could take months.

 

Is that not why we pay insurance

[P&O SUE]

In defence of P&O I have just come off the Sapphire Princess and the drinks prices are much higher plus they had the 18% gratuity to each drink. I knew this when I booked but what I didn’t know was they don’t ask you to sign for the drinks so we couldn’t really check the bill properly. It was 10 Euros each for the shuttle bus into Blankenberge and an eye watering 19.95 USD for the bus at Copenhagen as we were at the furthest port.

On a plus point for Princess, we missed Skagen and got 18 USD each re- credited to our account!

[Eglesbrech]

2 hours ago, daiB said:

Is that not why we pay insurance

Personally I pay insurance for the unforeseen, any medical issues etc. I don’t pay it to subsidise lack of proper maintenance schedules. 

 

Insurance costs also go up the more people have to claim on them so we pay more for issues that, to an extent though not always, can be avoided.

[daiB]

46 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Personally I pay insurance for the unforeseen, any medical issues etc. I don’t pay it to subsidise lack of proper maintenance schedules. 

 

Insurance costs also go up the more people have to claim on them so we pay more for issues that, to an extent though not always, can be avoided.

How do you know the problem was caused by poor maintenance. No evidence at all.

[daiB]

Btw boarding started about 15.00. All reporting very smooth.