Britannia Returning to Southampton

[molecrochip]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

I feel so sorry for the staff.  a lot of them will have to go home to India or wherever.  No pay.  It's just awful.

 

Why do you suggest no pay? The rest of the group has confirmed that staff will still be paid and receive gratuities (equivalent). They are also being given the option of staying on ship or going home. Doubt this is a local decision as a lot of the group recruit via the same companies in India etc.

 

20 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

Josy1953, that sounds very odd. If that is the case why did they not offer to fly home the passengers on Britannia? There was enough time. I wonder if they offered that to the people who would have been on the flight that came empty to pick us up! 

Their charter planes were already full with guests due to disembark. They were flown empty on the Saturday instead of conveying fresh passengers. Also on cruise turnaround days, most of the scheduled airlines are also full with cruise ship passengers. There just was not the flight capacity. Compare this to Arcadia in Freemantle (Perth) where Qantas run a daily scheduled flight to Heathrow and there are various other options with one change still available.

 

That said, I believe that P&O did allow people to fly home on charter services where they had capacity. Not everyone for example can do 8 straight sea days (infants etc).

[tinkercat]

1 hour ago, newbie cruissy said:

I've just looked at booking the cruise we are on in July, £800 cheaper 😳

Oooh I can’t look at that mine is supposed to be the 26th April

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Out of interest I just did a dummy booking for Ventura leaving on Tuesday and got right through to the payment page, so it appears that they are still taking online bookings for it.

Doesn't surprise me that their website is not up to date, it seldom is.

[alsa]

We got off Britannia on Friday - looks like we were one of the last ones off!   On our flight back the air hostess said that the crew had flown out the day before on an EMPTY Dreamliner - thought it was odd at the time but makes sense now.  I feel so sorry for the staff on board - I assume like other cruise lines they will be offered the choice to stay on board or fly home.. Celebrity are keeping all their staff onboard and going out to sea for a month.  Captain Kate is going to do daily updates of her ship and crew on Instagram - captainkatemccue  - should be interesting.    Sending best wishes and prayers to all those onboard Britannia heading to Southampton- and to anybody else who is affected by this awful situation.

[alsa]

7 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Given the letters posted online from Britannia’s captain, the ship will not be in Barbados on March 27th. 
 

P&O appear to be dealing with cruises in date order.

Where are the online letters from the Captain?  I’d like to read them.

[Horizon777]

Ditto. I would also be grateful for a link to these letters.

The lack of information from P and O has been very frustrating. Other cruise lines appear to have been far clearer and prompt about issuing information about any suspension of  cruising.

i have noticed that the Brittanis cruise leaving March 27th from Barbados was still being advertised yesterday.
This forum has been very useful as it is our only source of information. We are still able to print our tickets and there is no official information about this particular cruise.

[Josy1953]

9 hours ago, Jennizor said:

Josy1953, that sounds very odd. If that is the case why did they not offer to fly home the passengers on Britannia? There was enough time. I wonder if they offered that to the people who would have been on the flight that came empty to pick us up! 

My guess is that for some reason they are not expecting anyone to want to book at the moment but don't want to officially say that they are cancelling cruises.