Iona in Olden

[davecttr]

Iona was due to berth in Olden today but marine traffic website has her well west of Alesund proceding NE. The past track shows her circling off the Olden fjord entrance during the night. It appears there is no room in Alesund as Celebrity Sillouette and AidaNova have already berthed there. 

 

edit - maybe they could not board the pilot because of heavy seas but I notice Mein Schiff 6 arrived OK, perhaps because they brought the pilot with them from Flam 

Edited May 10, 2022 by davecttr

[SarahHben]

7 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Iona was due to berth in Olden today but marine traffic website has her well west of Alesund proceding NE. The past track shows her circling off the Olden fjord entrance during the night. It appears there is no room in Alesund as Celebrity Sillouette and AidaNova have already berthed there. 

I noticed that this morning, watching with interest in case that happens when we sail. Olden would be a disappointing loss to the itinerary, for me it’s 1 of the 2 highlights.

[davecttr]

I notice that the Olden port schedule has Celebrity Sillouette is due in tomorrow so she will probably get the berth? If Iona ends up in Alesund expect a lot of unhappy cruisers who's fjord cruise did not have any fjords in it.

[SarahHben]

My sister has just told me that she’s seen a post on ‘another site’ saying that they tried twice to get into Olden but had to abandon  it due to weather conditions so they now have a sea day.

 I know that you have to get written confirmation from reception to say that the port was cancelled in order to claim on your insurance, but do P&O give extra on board spend too?

[davecttr]

I would hope they have some goodwill offer for the passengers as the increased onboard spend means more profit for P&O.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I would hope they have some goodwill offer for the passengers as the increased onboard spend means more profit for P&O.

But increased fuel cost, increased food costs to consider.

Normally, I thought that no compensation was given if the reasons were outside of the cruise line's control.

[newbie cruissy]

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

no compensation was given if the reasons were outside of the cruise line's control.

Compensation is one thing, goodwill is another thing altogether. 

[davecttr]

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But increased fuel cost, increased food costs to consider.

Normally, I thought that no compensation was given if the reasons were outside of the cruise line's control.

P&O will have to consider carefully how to mollify several thousand disgruntled passengers

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

My sister has just told me that she’s seen a post on ‘another site’ saying that they tried twice to get into Olden but had to abandon  it due to weather conditions so they now have a sea day.

 I know that you have to get written confirmation from reception to say that the port was cancelled in order to claim on your insurance, but do P&O give extra on board spend too?

Just checked my policy wording, £50 per day for missed ports due to weather etc 🙂 

 

Six large glasses of wine 🥳

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, davecttr said:

P&O will have to consider carefully how to mollify several thousand disgruntled passengers

Any port can be affected by weather. It's a risk of cruising.

Disgruntled or not, I see no reason to offer any sort of goodwill gesture.

Glad you have insurance cover !

 

[Palaceman]

In such circumstances I would not want P&O to offer me any form of compensation or goodwill gesture as if they did my insurance would not pay out, whether I accepted it or not. When we were unable to dock in Cadiz in 2019 due to weather my wife and I successfully claimed £300 each from our insurance policy, worth more than six glasses of wine!

[zap99]

2 hours ago, SarahHben said:

My sister has just told me that she’s seen a post on ‘another site’ saying that they tried twice to get into Olden but had to abandon  it due to weather conditions so they now have a sea day.

 I know that you have to get written confirmation from reception to say that the port was cancelled in order to claim on your insurance, but do P&O give extra on board spend too?

Our insurance gave £100 for a missed port, they wanted proof. I asked for a letter from reception. You need to get that from Head office. Insurance excess is ........£100, no OBC. We didn't bother. I suppose that was their plan anyway 

[Britboys]

Iona seems to be missing more ports than the other P&O ships - or is that just my imagination...

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Any port can be affected by weather. It's a risk of cruising.

Disgruntled or not, I see no reason to offer any sort of goodwill gesture.

Glad you have insurance cover !

 

Very true. But a for a huge ship like Iona navigating through a narrow fjord in inclement conditions is likely to be more challenging than for a smaller ship like Arcadia or even Azura or Celebrity Sillouette, which is roughly the same size as the latter. I would expect Iona and Arvia to miss more ports than their smaller sisters.

[newbie cruissy]

4 hours ago, davecttr said:

If Iona ends up in Alesund expect a lot of unhappy cruisers who's fjord cruise did not have any fjords in it.

If they carry on at this rate, no Fjords, but possibly an Arctic Circle crossing 🙂

[Yorkypete]

2 hours ago, Denarius said:

Very true. But a for a huge ship like Iona navigating through a narrow fjord in inclement conditions is likely to be more challenging than for a smaller ship like Arcadia or even Azura or Celebrity Sillouette, which is roughly the same size as the latter. I would expect Iona and Arvia to miss more ports than their smaller sisters.

Due to its size Iona is going to miss a few ports over the year. Perhaps P&O would be better scheduling the ships up to Britannia size for the Fjords. They must know that there will always be a problem.

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Yorkypete

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, newbie cruissy said:

If they carry on at this rate, no Fjords, but possibly an Arctic Circle crossing 🙂

They are at the latitude of Trondheim so another 160nm to reach the arctic circle. At 11 knots they won't make it. Weather is sunny though.

[Amyracecar]

56 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Due to its size Iona is going to miss a few ports over the year. Perhaps P&O would be better scheduling the ships up to Britannia size for the Fjords. They must know that there will always be a problem.

 

 

I was thinking this earlier. I can't wait to sail on her to the Fjords, but she's struggled at Madeira a few times and now in Norway, so in the future she'd perhaps be better suited to the Med or Caribbean, where the tricky manoeuvres aren't required. I'll be interesting to see if she changes one day. 

[BouncingWheel]

51 minutes ago, Amyracecar said:

 

I was thinking this earlier. I can't wait to sail on her to the Fjords, but she's struggled at Madeira a few times and now in Norway, so in the future she'd perhaps be better suited to the Med or Caribbean, where the tricky manoeuvres aren't required. I'll be interesting to see if she changes one day. 

I was thinking that too. All those scheduled Fjords trips. Will be interesting to see how many times Iona fails to dock over the summer. That may influence future itineraries for her and Arvia.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Amyracecar said:

 

I was thinking this earlier. I can't wait to sail on her to the Fjords, but she's struggled at Madeira a few times and now in Norway, so in the future she'd perhaps be better suited to the Med or Caribbean, where the tricky manoeuvres aren't required. I'll be interesting to see if she changes one day. 

 

1 hour ago, BouncingWheel said:

I was thinking that too. All those scheduled Fjords trips. Will be interesting to see how many times Iona fails to dock over the summer. That may influence future itineraries for her and Arvia.

But Iona was designed for cool weather cruising with the closed skydome whereas Arvia is the 'sun ship' with the magrodome that opens. It would be quite an expensive job to make structural changes and I doubt that they would have both ships in the Caribbean...

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

Due to its size Iona is going to miss a few ports over the year. Perhaps P&O would be better scheduling the ships up to Britannia size for the Fjords. They must know that there will always be a problem.

 

I would have expected Iona to be far more manoeverable than Britannia due to having azipods. However any high sided cruise ship will have problems in strong cross winds, including Azura and Ventura.

[davecttr]

It may be that Iona's problem was that they could not embark the fjord pilot because of the sea state. AidaNova managed OK but they may have had the pilot already aboard when they left Flam. I have been on a Norway cruise when they did that, the pilot being qualified for more than one fjord.

Iona has now changed course back towards Alesund.

 

edit - for AidaNova read Mein Schiff 6

Edited May 10, 2022 by davecttr

[jaydee6969]

32 minutes ago, davecttr said:

It may be that Iona's problem was that they could not embark the fjord pilot because of the sea state. AidaNova managed OK but they may have had the pilot already aboard when they left Flam. I have been on a Norway cruise when they did that, the pilot being qualified for more than one fjord.

Iona has now changed course back towards Alesund.

 

edit - for AidaNova read Mein Schiff 6

 

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember on our Fjord trip on Azura a few years ago that the pilot came on board for the first port and stayed onboard until after leaving the last port.

[Amyracecar]

2 hours ago, davecttr said:

It may be that Iona's problem was that they could not embark the fjord pilot because of the sea state. AidaNova managed OK but they may have had the pilot already aboard when they left Flam. I have been on a Norway cruise when they did that, the pilot being qualified for more than one fjord.

Iona has now changed course back towards Alesund.

 

edit - for AidaNova read Mein Schiff 6

 

The pilot was definitely on board Iona today, the captain confirmed that the pilot attempted entry into the fjord twice and failed, then recommended they do not try again. 

 

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

 

But Iona was designed for cool weather cruising with the closed skydome whereas Arvia is the 'sun ship' with the magrodome that opens. It would be quite an expensive job to make structural changes and I doubt that they would have both ships in the Caribbean...

 

Well there may be other cooler locations, or itineraries, doesn't have to be the Caribbean. It'll just depend on how she performs going forward I suppose. This may well be an exceptional circumstance, but on the other hand if it happens regularly then they're not going to find themselves one of the go-to brands for the fjords. 

They may just look to other possible ports with more spacious entry points etc. 

Obviously this is me just pondering, not suggesting it'll actually happen! 

 

The weather this year has been incredibly poor/unpredictable so far overall, something that all lines are probably going to have to consider longer term & work with. 

 

[Yorkypete]

An interesting point is if the weather makes it too dangerous to enter the fjord then what happens if the wind gets up when you are due to leave Olden? Presumably you cannot get out!