Iona no show for Geiranger

[gsmt47471015]

29 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

Having been in the same situation with Iona docking in Geiranger cancelled last month, for the 6 of us, it certainly wasn’t a reason to cancel. Hellesylt was in a beautiful location. The majority of the sail in is the same fjord and Iona sails through most of the Geiranger fjord at the end of the afternoon so you get to see that scenery too, you don’t get a glimpse of Geiranger though, Iona doesn’t go down quite that far.
Similar and some of the same excursions are still available but are slightly more expensive because of the added ferry trip & greater distance.

 

Would I have preferred to dock in Geiranger for free as originally planned? Yes.

Did I feel the day was worth the £56/£59 we ended up paying to get to Geiranger? Yes.

Would I sail the same itinerary knowing that Iona would stop at Hellesylt instead of Geiranger? Yes.

While i fully understand your opinion, as somebody who has been to Norway before would not choose to stay a full day in Helleyslt . The main issue here is that we have cruise newbies with us, as you were, and asking them to now fork out more money to get them where they originally booked just does not sit well with us after what we sold them, we will not be spending any more money to get us to Geiranger and are waiting to see if they still wish to go under these circumstances, we do not wish to proceed with the cruise but will be guided by their wishes, our preference is to use the money from this cruise and put it towards one of our others ,but we will keep that thought from them .All this could have been avoided  with some proper planning by the company 

[P&O SUE]

My friend is sailing on the 2nd July and has only just got an email telling her Geiranger is cancelled, although she was expecting it. New excursions are not up yet.

[Ardennais]

Also cancelled as far ahead as G230, Sept 2nd. 

[Ardennais]

So Moley confirmed on 2 June that it affected all up to G218, but P&O probably knew even then, a full week ago, that they would also be unable to visit Gerianger at all this year. Not good at all. 

[Spike11]

2 hours ago, SarahHben said:

Having been in the same situation with Iona docking in Geiranger cancelled last month, for the 6 of us, it certainly wasn’t a reason to cancel. Hellesylt was in a beautiful location. The majority of the sail in is the same fjord and Iona sails through most of the Geiranger fjord at the end of the afternoon so you get to see that scenery too, you don’t get a glimpse of Geiranger though, Iona doesn’t go down quite that far.
Similar and some of the same excursions are still available but are slightly more expensive because of the added ferry trip & greater distance.

 

Would I have preferred to dock in Geiranger for free as originally planned? Yes.

Did I feel the day was worth the £56/£59 we ended up paying to get to Geiranger? Yes.

Would I sail the same itinerary knowing that Iona would stop at Hellesylt instead of Geiranger? Yes.

I agree completely. Our best day of the cruise was at Hellesylt and Geiranger. We had already booked a Geiranger excursion, so had to pay around £30 each more to get the ferry add-on. To me it’s the Geirangerfjord with all the waterfalls and cliffs that’s the highlight and Iona sailed along it at the end of the day anyway. Our guide described how busy Geiranger village gets in the summer (not just from cruisers) and it actually sounds like a place to avoid!

[AuroraCruiser08]

She's still booked to call next summer too, wonder if that will get changed last minute as well. Looking at her cruises for next year, it seems she will be alternating port calls at Hellesylt one week with Alesund the other. 

[Ardennais]

27 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

I agree completely. Our best day of the cruise was at Hellesylt and Geiranger. We had already booked a Geiranger excursion, so had to pay around £30 each more to get the ferry add-on. To me it’s the Geirangerfjord with all the waterfalls and cliffs that’s the highlight and Iona sailed along it at the end of the day anyway. Our guide described how busy Geiranger village gets in the summer (not just from cruisers) and it actually sounds like a place to avoid!

It’s definitely not a place to avoid! 

[Spike11]

5 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

It’s definitely not a place to avoid! 

From the guides description, I would only want to pass through the actual village in the summer. The way she described it was that you just can’t move through the streets. I’m sure the surrounding area would be fine though.

[gsmt47471015]

42 minutes ago, AuroraCruiser08 said:

She's still booked to call next summer too, wonder if that will get changed last minute as well. Looking at her cruises for next year, it seems she will be alternating port calls at Hellesylt one week with Alesund the other. 

Which begs the question that with the obvious prior knowledge P and O have, and have had could Alesund have been allocated into these cruises as a replacement? 

[gsmt47471015]

Also been informed by our TA that if we cancel we lose 75% of the holiday cost , I was under the impression that the transfer policy was still fluid up tp seven days prior to departure , If that's wrong I stand corrected🤨

[Gettingwarmer]

29 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Also been informed by our TA that if we cancel we lose 75% of the holiday cost , I was under the impression that the transfer policy was still fluid up tp seven days prior to departure , If that's wrong I stand corrected🤨

Your TA is correct

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, Spike11 said:

From the guides description, I would only want to pass through the actual village in the summer. The way she described it was that you just can’t move through the streets. I’m sure the surrounding area would be fine though.

It wasn’t like that when we visited in high season, but that day, only Oceana was there so there were fewer cruisers. Which begs the question, why on earth did P&O think it was a good idea to send a huge ship like Iona to Gerianger?! And worse still, find out after taking people’s money that Iona couldn’t actually stop there? And worse of all, asking people to pay extra to actually visit Gerianger, an advertised port of call? 

[gsmt47471015]

4 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

It wasn’t like that when we visited in high season, but that day, only Oceana was there so there were fewer cruisers. Which begs the question, why on earth did P&O think it was a good idea to send a huge ship like Iona to Gerianger?! And worse still, find out after taking people’s money that Iona couldn’t actually stop there? And worse of all, asking people to pay extra to actually visit Gerianger, an advertised port of call? 

I'm looking at buying a new car and have decided to ask the Boffins at P and O if they can check if it will fit in my garage,  as I need somebody who knows about logistics🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Yorkypete]

5 hours ago, Lockotron said:

Probably the intern put together the itineraries...

 

We'll make the best out of it - we now booked the ferry to Geiranger here: https://www.norwaysbest.com/things-to-do/fjords/fjord-cruise-geirangerfjord/

It's approximately £84 for a return trip with a family of 3 and will give us 3.5 hours in Geiranger. So overall not too bad.  

Except it should have been free!.

 

[Yorkypete]

2 hours ago, Ardennais said:

So Moley confirmed on 2 June that it affected all up to G218, but P&O probably knew even then, a full week ago, that they would also be unable to visit Gerianger at all this year. Not good at all. 

Yet they are still advertising it as going to Geiranger for the day after a stop at Hellesylt. P&O are beginning to be a cruise line to avoid with their misinformation.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Yorkypete

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Also been informed by our TA that if we cancel we lose 75% of the holiday cost , I was under the impression that the transfer policy was still fluid up tp seven days prior to departure , If that's wrong I stand corrected🤨

I thought that was still possible, we certainly moved a fully paid cruise earlier this year, and in fact our TA managed to have the credit applied to an existing cruise, although I guess that was a special deal.

[thornegirl]

2 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Yet they are still advertising it as going to Geiranger for the day after a stop at Hellesylt. P&O are beginning to be a cruise line to avoid.

 

We are on Iona on the 6th August sailing (G226).  Still not been informed that we are not stopping at Geiranger.  It is now saying that Hellesylt is arriving morning depart afternoon and Geriangerfjord  afternoon/evening. I checked yesterday and it was still saying Geiranger.

 

 I did ask the question to P&O a few weeks ago when Iona was missing on the Geiranger port website all summer and was told that there had not been a change to the itinerary.  P&O should at least give some OBC to compensate , they'll be saving a huge amount of money not docking at Geiranger, but they won't.  

 

Will just have to make the most of Hellesylt,  next port Haugesund wasn't looking forward to that one but have found out there's a Jazz festival on the day we're there so that might make it interesting.

 

[Spike11]

25 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

We are on Iona on the 6th August sailing (G226).  Still not been informed that we are not stopping at Geiranger.  It is now saying that Hellesylt is arriving morning depart afternoon and Geriangerfjord  afternoon/evening. I checked yesterday and it was still saying Geiranger.

 

 I did ask the question to P&O a few weeks ago when Iona was missing on the Geiranger port website all summer and was told that there had not been a change to the itinerary.  P&O should at least give some OBC to compensate , they'll be saving a huge amount of money not docking at Geiranger, but they won't.  

 

Will just have to make the most of Hellesylt,  next port Haugesund wasn't looking forward to that one but have found out there's a Jazz festival on the day we're there so that might make it interesting.

 

We actually really liked Haugesund - even though it was a national holiday when we were there! Admittedly it was sunny, so the sail in and out was lovely. It’s only about a 20 minute walk over the bridge to the centre past the shipyard and the quayside was a lovely place to sit and watch various ferries and other boats go and in out. I believe there is quite an unusual sculpture another 30 or so minutes walk away which we didn’t get to ( see photo below) and also a national monument, but we did pop along to the Marilyn Munro statue - something to do with her grandfather coming from the area?? Would also recommend the excursion to Ryvarden Lighthouse which we did in the morning.

[Lockotron]

39 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

 I did ask the question to P&O a few weeks ago when Iona was missing on the Geiranger port website all summer and was told that there had not been a change to the itinerary.  P&O should at least give some OBC to compensate , they'll be saving a huge amount of money not docking at Geiranger, but they won't.  

 

 

Completely agree with that, they're not even trying to make up in any way.

[poorer]

We received an email today for sailing on 23rd July on Iona informing us Geiranger is cancelled

[sagaris]

4 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

My friend is sailing on the 2nd July and has only just got an email telling her Geiranger is cancelled, although she was expecting it. New excursions are not up yet.

I have just received the same email for 2nd July.

Molly

[dunnster1965]

1 minute ago, sagaris said:

I have just received the same email for 2nd July.

Molly

Yep got our email for the 2nd July today  too.

[gsmt47471015]

1 hour ago, thornegirl said:

We are on Iona on the 6th August sailing (G226).  Still not been informed that we are not stopping at Geiranger.  It is now saying that Hellesylt is arriving morning depart afternoon and Geriangerfjord  afternoon/evening. I checked yesterday and it was still saying Geiranger.

 

 I did ask the question to P&O a few weeks ago when Iona was missing on the Geiranger port website all summer and was told that there had not been a change to the itinerary.  P&O should at least give some OBC to compensate , they'll be saving a huge amount of money not docking at Geiranger, but they won't.  

 

Will just have to make the most of Hellesylt,  next port Haugesund wasn't looking forward to that one but have found out there's a Jazz festival on the day we're there so that might make it interesting.

 

As long as they don't cancel that port

[AuroraCruiser08]

3 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Which begs the question that with the obvious prior knowledge P and O have, and have had could Alesund have been allocated into these cruises as a replacement? 

Indeed. It's a pure example of P&Os current itinerary method of copy and paste from previous years. 

[Snow Hill]

It’s probably not surprising giving that it appears that Iona is unable to us the sea walk due to incompatibility between the ship and the sea walk leaving tendering the only option, which given the number of passengers and crew onboard could be a very long operation. 
 

The port schedule at Geiranger has had the Iona crossed out for about 2 weeks now, not sure why P&O have been tardy in informing its customers of the inevitable change.