Incident on Britannia

[AndyMichelle]

10 minutes ago, brian1 said:

They should name it bunfight at horizon ct.The clown obviously ran up there cos he had an arsenal of ammo at the dessert station.

Dai says it was not a clown Brian..,

Thats our bit of fun ruined...😀

Andy 

[BenMurphy]

23 hours ago, anniegb said:

Which cruise lines have patriotic sailaways apart from P&O ??

 

I don't sail P&O but I have sailed NCL, MSC, HAL, Princess, Azamara, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and they don't.

 

Just asking

 

Annie

Hi Annie

we're Brits and we ditched P&O because of the "patriotic" sailaways. We now sail on Oceania . Much more our style

best regards

Josie

[jeanlyon]

I may be wrong, but I don't remember this flag waving and War songs on Fred Olsen.

[ollienbertsmum]

8 minutes ago, BenMurphy said:

Hi Annie

we're Brits and we ditched P&O because of the "patriotic" sailaways. We now sail on Oceania . Much more our style

best regards

Josie

 

Oh no!  Is this a regular thing?  Is it easy to avoid if you are on your own balcony?  

 

I have a Norwegian Fjords trip booked for 2020 on the Iona.  I got a great deal on an aft balcony which I am reluctant to give up.  it would be my first cruise with P and O.  

 

First it seems like jackets are compulsory for men on formal nights (flying in and don't want to waste precious kilos on a jacket in summer).  Now Rule Britannia?  Maybe I should stick with NCL!!

 

Can anyone persuade me that it will be all right??

[jeanlyon]

Well I don't know much about Iona - far too huge for us - but if you have an Aft Balcony, I assume you would looking at the sea and miles away from any Sailaway which would probably be around the pool area.

[amajaa]

Not quite sure what the Great British Sailaway has to do with a fight between a few people at 2 o’clock the next morning, absolutely nothing I reckon.  The GBS only lasts an hour at the most and by the way we have had similar British themed songs with Union flags handed out (in fact exactly the same songs) at least twice on Princess Cruises sailing into Southampton but after the first evening show.

Btw for those worried about a patriotic Sailaway spoiling their holiday, it is once per cruise, only around one of the pool areas and only lasts about an hour at most, normally shorter.

 

Now whether it is to do with drinks packages we don’t know as we don’t even know if the people involved had a drinks package or were even drinking. I do however think on any holiday people do tend to drink too much and trouble often ensues. Unfortunately in most holiday destinations the Brits do have a reputation for being drunk and causing trouble. 

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by amajaa

[Clodia]

Has anyone seen the new report on the Daily Wail's website? By someone called Gant, who NEVER lets the truth get in the way of a good story. He once wrote one about me which was full of lies and half truths, but at least gave me the opportunity to repudiate the untruths!

No comments allowed, so the only way to repudiate the wild exagerrations is to email the Editor who will do nothing. I feel like asking my friends who have been on Britannia for the last couple of cruises to give me their take on it (they reflect almost entirely what Dai B says) so i can contact the Editor

Edited July 28, 2019 by Clodia
typos

[Bazrat]

25 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I may be wrong, but I don't remember this flag waving and War songs on Fred Olsen.

thought they were a Norwegian owned line

[Bazrat]

33 minutes ago, BenMurphy said:

Hi Annie

we're Brits and we ditched P&O because of the "patriotic" sailaways. We now sail on Oceania . Much more our style

best regards

Josie

wow you stopped cruising with P&O because of a patriotic sail away.

[jeanlyon]

9 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

thought they were a Norwegian owned line

They are but almost 100% Brit passengers.

[Harry Peterson]

12 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

wow you stopped cruising with P&O because of a patriotic sail away.

It's not just the 'patriotic' sailaways, I'm sure.  It reflects an outdated, outmoded attitude towards life, Britain and change which some people (including me) abhor.  You'll be fine with it I guess.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

 

4 The costume was a Beetlejuice costume for the 80’s night fancy dress the night before. It was completely within P&O guidelines.

 

 

I believe that P&O have ‘theme nights’ as opposed to fancy dress. Therefore an 80’s theme night is intended to be clothing styles as worn in that era. Certainly that’s how it’s always been interpreted on our cruises, albeit by the tiny proportion of passengers that participate. Fancy dress, on the other hand, is a different matter and forbidden under P&O’s dress code and behaviour policy. I haven’t seen the film Beetlejuice but having just googled it, there is no way that anyone looking like that would be acceptable! Clearly there is never an excuse for a fight, but P&O staff should have explained to the individual that they had misunderstood the policy. 

 

Whilst I have no knowledge of this incident, the reporting is laughable. On the Sky News newspaper review last night the reviewer stated that “apparently, on P&O, you can pay extra to go on cruises where fancy dress is banned and someone who had done so took exception to someone in a clown outfit”. I also cannot see that there would have been ‘families’ around in the early hours of the morning and I’d be surprised if anyone other than the two parties involved and the poor staff who had to intervene were affected. Much as I hate sail away events, I can see no link there whatsoever. 

 

Finally, without wishing to get too involved in the debate about passenger profile changes and differences between ships, having been on all ships in the P&O fleet several times each, we certainly notice the differences. The larger ‘resort’ style ships definitely attract a broader cross section of society than the more traditional ships, whereas the smaller ships such as Aurora are much closer to the passenger profile that we experienced on our first P&O cruise back in 1996, with a predominately retired passenger base. We have never seen a fight, but we are usually in bed by around 11pm. That said, we have seen two incidents where violence looked like it might break out - one was on Britannia and one was on Ventura. 

[Cruising Nomads]

Jean I think you must be forgetting the British Night on Fred Olsen.  This starts with a British sing along and flag waving in the Neptine lounge before second sitting. Many passengers wear Red White and Blue outfits.

[jeanlyon]

I thought that was very odd on both the reporter's report and the news.  "We requested a cruise without fancy dress?"  What's that all about.

[jeanlyon]

2 minutes ago, Cruising Nomads said:

Jean I think you must be forgetting the British Night on Fred Olsen.  This starts with a British sing along and flag waving in the Neptine lounge before second sitting. Many passengers wear Red White and Blue outfits.

How far back are you going - don't remember anything like that at all.

[Harry Peterson]

36 minutes ago, Clodia said:

Has anyone seen the new report on the Daily Wail's website? By someone called Gant, who NEVER lets the truth get in the way of a good story. He once wrote one about me which was full of lies and half truths, but at least gave me the opportunity to repudiate the untruths!

No comments allowed, so the only way to repudiate the wild exagerrations is to email the Editor who will do nothing. I feel like asking my friends who have been on Britannia for the last couple of cruises to give me their take on it (they reflect almost entirely what Dai B says) so i can contact the Editor

The Times has the story too, without all the Wail's (vile paper) exaggerations.  Some of the comments are illuminating:

 

-  "patriotic" a euphemism for Brexit.

-  It says a lot about the clientele who go on P&O cruises these days. The modern version of the booze cruise?

-  This story has completely put me off ever considering booking a cruise.  Should result in more availability and reduced prices for those interested in a bargain though.

-  How absolutely ghastly. Never been on one, never wanted to, obviously missed nothing good.

-  Just looking at the accompanying photograph indicates that this sort of holiday would be my idea of hell.

 

P&O, sadly, has a lot more Daily Wail and Express readers than Times readers these days.
 

[ailmarsh]

I quote DaiB

"The fault is all down to the idiots who drank too much and were loud and objectionable. BTW this was the first cruise of the school holidays and prices would have been way up. "

 

Scottish schools have already been on holiday for 4 weeks!

Another example of confusing 'English' with 'British' .......... not relevant but gets my dander up!

 

Gt Britain goes beyond Carlisle & Newcastle .............

 

We deliberately avoided the GBS on the Oriana in January. However the peace of the rear pool area was shattered by overspill of loud self important English passengers who didn't consider that their conversation was of absolutely no interest to those of us enjoying that space 😡

[PORT ROYAL]

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

hopefully you took the name of the dj and complained because it was obviously preplanned,than you told us on here how upset you were.

 

I did, to GS who said they would investigate,  unfortunately I was the only complainant.

[majortom10]

4 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

 

Or even more appalling.  

Sailing out of port on the Azura, we passed the MV Europa, the DJ decided to play, on full blast, the Dambuster March, encouraging the ensemble HD to sing along with Da - Da Didi Da Da words, accompanied by vigorous flag waving .  Followed by the loud chant of "Two World Wars and one Wold Cup - Do Da Do Da". 

 

This was the final straw, and never again did we sail P&O.

 

The exactly same thing happened to us at a sailaway party at Gibraltar when were docked next to Aida (German) cruise ship. It was virtually the same script and was IMO very embarrassing.

 

[Presto2]

1 hour ago, BenMurphy said:

Hi Annie

we're Brits and we ditched P&O because of the "patriotic" sailaways. We now sail on Oceania . Much more our style

best regards

Josie

 

Am guessing that there must be more to the move as well ----- there is a heck of a difference between P&O and Oceania. We worked out that if we were to move to Oceania for our main holiday we could only cruise once every 3 years !

[Cruising Nomads]

Jean. The last time I was on Fred was March this year and it was certainly on that cruise.

[jeanlyon]

14 minutes ago, Cruising Nomads said:

Jean. The last time I was on Fred was March this year and it was certainly on that cruise.

Then I have expunged it from my brain!

[Harry Peterson]

25 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

The exactly same thing happened to us at a sailaway party at Gibraltar when were docked next to Aida (German) cruise ship. It was virtually the same script and was IMO very embarrassing.

 

This sort of deliberate baiting of old enemies but current allies is appalling and gives the British (English?) an even worse name abroad than we already have.

 

And if P&O condone it, as they seem to, then shame on them.  They really do seem now to be going out and out for the hooligan market.  Maybe that's where the money is. 

[majortom10]

3 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

This sort of deliberate baiting of old enemies but current allies is appalling and gives the British (English?) an even worse name abroad than we already have.

 

And if P&O condone it, as they seem to, then shame on them.  They really do seem now to be going out and out for the hooligan market.  Maybe that's where the money is. 

Just for your information this was not a recent occurrence but happened a good few years ago and was way before Brexit and the word was even invented.

[AnnieC]

4 hours ago, PORT ROYAL said:

 

Or even more appalling.  

Sailing out of port on the Azura, we passed the MV Europa, the DJ decided to play, on full blast, the Dambuster March, encouraging the ensemble HD to sing along with Da - Da Didi Da Da words, accompanied by vigorous flag waving .  Followed by the loud chant of "Two World Wars and one Wold Cup - Do Da Do Da". 

 

This was the final straw, and never again did we sail P&O.

 

Similar happened to us about 10 years ago - leaving a German port (Warnemunde), some of the locals waved us off. P&O thanked them by blasting out "The Dambusters". Most seem to think it was funny.