Azura passengers stranded?

[AndyMichelle]

Due to the Monaco boat show, apparently they were tendered to an area outside that just has the arena and not much else. 

Reports from the stranded passengers seem to be that they are tired and can't wait for a proper cup of tea, no real criticism of P&O, but that could change. 

It seems the mdr has opened for them to get a decent meal and a much needed sit down. 

Andy 

[Eglesbrech]

14 minutes ago, kruzseeka said:

Glad the crew member wasn't hurt and that the passengers are on their way back to the ship.

I will be amazed though if stranded passengers weren't fed.   We were stranded (metaphorically - nothing like the situation here) in Harwich on a Bank Holiday when the ship we were expecting to embark broke down in Rotterdam.  Coaches were organised at short notice and 1,500 passengers were taken to Stansted and accommodated in the Hilton or Radisson Hotels overnight with a smaller number in Harwich and Ipswich. Hotel accommodation may well have been problematic on the Riviera but at the very least food should be sourced - I can't imagine P&O wouldn't have organised that and people eventually got more than a biscuit. 

Although as others have said safety is the priority and thankfully all passengers were safe.  But it will be interesting to get the details in due course.

Good point though from earlier post 're taking essential meds ashore - just in case!

I would be surprised if more adequate food provision had not been made as you say. That said getting mass catering on a Saturday night when restaurants and caterers would be fully booked may not have been easy and in that area where they don’t have massive supermarkets to buy up lots of sandwiches etc.

 

As a point of interest our Local Authorities up here have contingency plans for major emergencies which include accommodation, acquiring adequate food provision etc, it has been used several times eg people stranded during beast from the east, gas leaks etc. Presumably France has something similar but it may not kick in fully for a private company situation like this.

[eddie11]

Yes - I’ve made a mental note about essential meds/tendering

 

The more cruises I take (and the older I get) the less I want to tender.  It’s often uncomfortable, it’s inconvenient, it steals your holiday time in travel time and queues and then you have to factor in sea/weather conditions raising the possibility of not getting into port or, worse, not getting back.

 

It’ll be something I look at carefully when choosing new cruises

[philsuarez]

Very often better to stay onboard and chill especially if everyone else gets off!

[AndyMichelle]

5 minutes ago, philsuarez said:

Very often better to stay onboard and chill especially if everyone else gets off!

We made that decision a while ago after watching a tender smashing against the side of the ship and passengers literally being thrown aboard in Guernsey. 

I now like looking at St Peter Port from the deck with a cocktail in hand.. 

Andy 

[terrierjohn]

The strange thing is that no other ships were in Monaco yesterday, however it is the the Monaco boat show this weekend which probably accounts for the berth not being available, unfortunately our cruise on Azura next year is the same weekend with the same yacht show so it will be tenders for us which means we won't be able go ashore, unless of course Carnival use this debacle to put pressure on the port authority.
For those of you calling at Monaco in the near future the attachments show the schedule and location of all calls for the rest of this year and 2020. Rade seems to be anchored in the bay, Digue is berthed alongside.

https://www.ports-monaco.com/docs/plann ... s-2019.pdf
https://www.ports-monaco.com/docs/plann ... s-2020.pdf

[philsuarez]

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

We made that decision a while ago after watching a tender smashing against the side of the ship and passengers literally being thrown aboard in Guernsey. 

I now like looking at St Peter Port from the deck with a cocktail in hand.. 

Andy 

Exactly especially on the very short cruises not worth getting off. Just done a short 3 nighter on MSC which went from Hamburg to Southampton via Le Harve. Stayed on ship and had a wonderful day and that was moored against quay.

[kruzseeka]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

I would be surprised if more adequate food provision had not been made as you say. That said getting mass catering on a Saturday night when restaurants and caterers would be fully booked may not have been easy and in that area where they don’t have massive supermarkets to buy up lots of sandwiches etc.

 

 

I do agree, although when we had to be catered for it was a Bank holiday and I would guess 30 coaches would be needed to transfer guests to hotels - not cheap hotels either and a meal when we got there.  There were 1500 of us too!  I must say I thought the company concerned did a fantastic job in the circumstances.  

Perhaps the boat show in Monaco made accommodation in the environs a problem but still will be interesting to see how it was managed.  I just hope passengers weren't too uncomfortable - or hungry although of course it's all relative.  There are many in desperate situations.  However as already mentioned P&O due have a duty of care in such an event.

[jh1809]

It seems to have been an exciting trip. Just a couple of days ago there was a short item in my newspaper about Azura rescuing some migrants from a small boat in the middle of the Med.

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, kruzseeka said:

 

I do agree, although when we had to be catered for it was a Bank holiday and I would guess 30 coaches would be needed to transfer guests to hotels - not cheap hotels either and a meal when we got there.  There were 1500 of us too!  I must say I thought the company concerned did a fantastic job in the circumstances.  

Perhaps the boat show in Monaco made accommodation in the environs a problem but still will be interesting to see how it was managed.  I just hope passengers weren't too uncomfortable - or hungry although of course it's all relative.  There are many in desperate situations.  However as already mentioned P&O due have a duty of care in such an event.

Yes.

First duty of care is to make sure they are safe. 

Next is to keep them warm and fed. 

Next is to get them back on board as soon as safely possible. 

Nice hotels and 3 course meals would be good, but if not available at short notice, they have to do the best they can. 

Andy

 

 

 

[AndyMichelle]

4 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

It seems to have been an exciting trip. Just a couple of days ago there was a short item in my newspaper about Azura rescuing some migrants from a small boat in the middle of the Med.

Oh yes, I saw that. 

Didn't realise it was the same cruise. 

Andy

[Host Sharon]

From a passenger, I understand they were taken by coach to the railway station early this morning and taken by train to Villefranche. Everyone is now back on board and safe. The "report" of a crew member or passenger (depending on where you read it) falling in the sea is a rumour and not confirmed anywhere as yet.

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

From a passenger, I understand they were taken by coach to the railway station early this morning and taken by train to Villefranche. Everyone is now back on board and safe. The "report" of a crew member or passenger (depending on where you read it) falling in the sea is a rumour and not confirmed anywhere as yet.

The report I saw was from a passenger on board who claims to have seen it, describing the life jacket lighting up and the tender moving away so he could be recovered. 

Sounded convincing to me, and why would he make it up? 

Andy

[CarlaMarie]

The reports are true about the crew member falling into the sea. I know somebody who works onboard.

[Host Sharon]

3 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

The report I saw was from a passenger on board who claims to have seen it, describing the life jacket lighting up and the tender moving away so he could be recovered. 

Sounded convincing to me, and why would he make it up? 

Andy

 

3 hours ago, CarlaMarie said:

The reports are true about the crew member falling into the sea. I know somebody who works onboard.

I only said that as far as I knew at the time, it was a rumour. If it was true, then I sincerely hope they are OK.

[jh1809]

6 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Oh yes, I saw that. 

Didn't realise it was the same cruise. 

Andy

It must be, I think. It was definitely Azura and was only two or three days ago, so no time for her to have returned to Southampton and then back to the Med in the interim.

[AndyMichelle]

6 minutes ago, jh1809 said:

It must be, I think. It was definitely Azura and was only two or three days ago, so no time for her to have returned to Southampton and then back to the Med in the interim.

I'm sure you are right, it just didn't register in my little brain. 

At least their cruise has not been boring... 

Andy 

[rubydoobydoo]

I have family on board

to start with they were in a bar and the bill was being covered by P and O

then they were taken to the stadium where they spent the night 

Some food and water was provided but it ran out

they only had crackers it seems and slept in camp beds 

pretty fed up by the end of it and are having to miss Corsica I believe 

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, rubydoobydoo said:

I have family on board

to start with they were in a bar and the bill was being covered by P and O

then they were taken to the stadium where they spent the night 

Some food and water was provided but it ran out

they only had crackers it seems and slept in camp beds 

pretty fed up by the end of it and are having to miss Corsica I believe 

Not nice at all for them, but at least they were safe. 

Lets hope they can get on and enjoy the rest of their holiday. 

Andy 

[Eglesbrech]

22 minutes ago, rubydoobydoo said:

I have family on board

to start with they were in a bar and the bill was being covered by P and O

then they were taken to the stadium where they spent the night 

Some food and water was provided but it ran out

they only had crackers it seems and slept in camp beds 

pretty fed up by the end of it and are having to miss Corsica I believe 

Doesn’t sound ideal and I think I would have been pretty fed up by the end of it as well, perfectly understandable.

 

That’s a shame about Corsica, lovely place and just adds salt to the wounds missing it.

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

37 minutes ago, rubydoobydoo said:

I have family on board

to start with they were in a bar and the bill was being covered by P and O

then they were taken to the stadium where they spent the night 

Some food and water was provided but it ran out

they only had crackers it seems and slept in camp beds 

pretty fed up by the end of it and are having to miss Corsica I believe 

If that’s the case, and I don’t doubt you, then P&O have completely failed in their duty of care to their passengers. Duty of care goes a lot further than physical safety!

[Bedruthen]

We had Monaco in August on Britannia and also experienced tender problems. The queues became so long that they brought us cold towels and one of the crew kept us entertained with magic tricks. We got on the last tender before operations were suspended again, but sat for almost an hour at the side of the ship rocking and rolling, as they could not unload us. I have no complaint about how they looked after us, but if that can happen in August, then you have to question the sensibility of trying to tender here in the rougher weather months.

 

[tring]

10 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

 

For those of you calling at Monaco in the near future the attachments show the schedule and location of all calls for the rest of this year and 2020. Rade seems to be anchored in the bay, Digue is berthed alongside.

https://www.ports-monaco.com/docs/plann ... s-2019.pdf
https://www.ports-monaco.com/docs/plann ... s-2020.pdf

 

 

Thank you for posting that, but those links did not work for me.  I was able to access the port website by deleting a bit from the end of your link though and getting to this page:-  https://www.ports-monaco.com/en/cruises.html  

 

I was then able to download a cruise schedule which confirms our Azamara call in late October as berthed alongside, as advertised for the cruise.  Hope that link works for others.

[tring]

3 hours ago, rubydoobydoo said:

I have family on board

to start with they were in a bar and the bill was being covered by P and O

then they were taken to the stadium where they spent the night 

Some food and water was provided but it ran out

they only had crackers it seems and slept in camp beds 

pretty fed up by the end of it and are having to miss Corsica I believe 

 

Well at least they had been provided with camp beds, but if I understand this correctly and they ran out of drinks, that is really bad.  Food can be done without, but liquid is a necessity.  Hope they have recovered now and get a good sleep tonight.

[Mickb]

When the Boat Show is on in Monaco, it is virtually impossible to get an hotel room for a radius of 10 miles as far as Menton to the east and Nice to the west. So it is not surprising that there were no rooms available. Large sections of the port area are closed off and every restaurant is booked solid. It could not have been a worse time time for this to happen.

The Monaco Boat Show brings millions into the principality as well as the prestige of being the world’s top Boat Show, so it will always take precedence over cruise ships while it’s on. Maybe  P&O should drop any call there whilst this show is on.