Iona no show for Geiranger

[howmuch!]

23 hours ago, davecttr said:

My shaver featured on antiques roadshow last year 

Must be like 'Trigger's sweeping brush', 5 new heads and 3 new handles.😂

[EssexcruiserS]

Iona can definitely fit into Gerainger, we were there on Tuesday on Virtuosa and she is the same size as Iona. Fitted no problem. 

 

I am not.sure why cruise companies feel it is OK to not give you something you have paid for without explanation.  It's a shame as that port is the highlight of any Norway cruise. 

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, EssexcruiserS said:

Iona can definitely fit into Gerainger, we were there on Tuesday on Virtuosa and she is the same size as Iona. Fitted no problem. 

 

I am not.sure why cruise companies feel it is OK to not give you something you have paid for without explanation.  It's a shame as that port is the highlight of any Norway cruise. 

 

I know it is dangerous on this forum to ask why P&O ships seem to have more problems with high wind related missed ports than other cruise lines.  But has anyone heard of any other cruise ships that have been unable to enter Fjords or dock in Geiranger over recent days?

[Amyracecar]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I know it is dangerous on this forum to ask why P&O ships seem to have more problems with high wind related missed ports than other cruise lines.  But has anyone heard of any other cruise ships that have been unable to enter Fjords or dock in Geiranger over recent days?

 

I don't think it's likely to be a weather issue for Geiranger, as we're still sailing down Geirangerfjord for a cruise-by. It'd make a lot more sense just to say what the problem is and avoid lots of speculation on that one. 

There are certainly a few crossed-out ships on the Geiranger port schedule for the last month, but some of those are smaller vessels and no reasons are given so aren't likely to be the same circumstance. 

 

It'll be interesting to see how Iona performs going forward, she's very tall so definitely struggles more in high winds, but perhaps she's also been unlucky to hit a lot of extreme weather in the first few months of her service. I hope that in time the issues calm down a bit with the weather and we see fewer incidents. 

[Fionboard]

Does Iona refuel in Norway? If so, where?

[terrierjohn]

13 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Does Iona refuel in Norway? If so, where?

On 7 nt cruises it's unlikely she would need to refuel, unless of course there is a cost benefit.

[Amyracecar]

2 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Does Iona refuel in Norway? If so, where?

Some people have suggested Haugesund, but that might just be them trying to justify reasons for stopping at a slightly lacklustre port. 😆 (No offence Haugesund, but you're not the most exciting stop on the itinerary) 

[davecttr]

Marine traffic site has shown a LNG tanker alongside Iona at Haugesund

[Fionboard]

Cost benefit then!

[molecrochip]

LNG tanker usually comes from just north of Bergen and transfer is undertaken at Haugesund. It’s the only port Iona calls at that they can bunker from a ship of sufficient size.

 

At the moment there is no LNG facility at Southampton so still has to come in from another location. It was coming from Rotterdam.

 

Whilst in Southampton, Iona bunkers diesel. The two operations cannot take place at the same time and there’s not enough time to do both on the same day.

[Selbourne]

On 5/19/2022 at 2:00 PM, terrierjohn said:

I know it is dangerous on this forum to ask why P&O ships seem to have more problems with high wind related missed ports than other cruise lines. 

That’s a fair question and it doesn’t just apply to the larger ships. We were on Aurora once and couldn’t dock in Zeebrugge due to high winds (it was a named storm) yet a significantly larger ship from another operator had done so.

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

LNG tanker usually comes from just north of Bergen and transfer is undertaken at Haugesund. It’s the only port Iona calls at that they can bunker from a ship of sufficient size.

 

At the moment there is no LNG facility at Southampton so still has to come in from another location. It was coming from Rotterdam.

 

Whilst in Southampton, Iona bunkers diesel. The two operations cannot take place at the same time and there’s not enough time to do both on the same day.

I hadn’t appreciated that Iona took on diesel as well as LNG. Presumably that’s for non-propulsion power systems? 
 

More importantly, can you confirm that the Geiranger issue is just a one off? Like many people, Geiranger was the main factor in us selecting our cruise on Iona next year. Of the top three fjords, Geiranger is the only one that we haven’t experienced and we would not be happy if we don’t get there. 

[molecrochip]

39 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

That’s a fair question and it doesn’t just apply to the larger ships. We were on Aurora once and couldn’t dock in Zeebrugge due to high winds (it was a named storm) yet a significantly larger ship from another operator had done so.

This isn't uncommon and depends on scheduled / available berth. I can't remember the port but we were due to berth with the quay to our East. The wind was coming from the East and the captain deemed it too dangerous. There was a spare passenger dock which put the quay to our South East and this was attempted. The captain confirmed that by leaving his engines on, driving at the dock, he could safely maintain position. as the different angle reduced the force of the wind enough.

 

The next ship in (smaller) couldn't dock at their scheduled position - and by now there was no spare passenger docks available. They missed the port.

33 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I hadn’t appreciated that Iona took on diesel as well as LNG. Presumably that’s for non-propulsion power systems? 
 

More importantly, can you confirm that the Geiranger issue is just a one off? Like many people, Geiranger was the main factor in us selecting our cruise on Iona next year. Of the top three fjords, Geiranger is the only one that we haven’t experienced and we would not be happy if we don’t get there. 

I can't confirm its a one-off but do understand its temporary and is related to the Sea Walk therefore outside of P&O control.

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

This isn't uncommon and depends on scheduled / available berth. I can't remember the port but we were due to berth with the quay to our East. The wind was coming from the East and the captain deemed it too dangerous. There was a spare passenger dock which put the quay to our South East and this was attempted. The captain confirmed that by leaving his engines on, driving at the dock, he could safely maintain position. as the different angle reduced the force of the wind enough.

 

The next ship in (smaller) couldn't dock at their scheduled position - and by now there was no spare passenger docks available. They missed the port.

I can't confirm its a one-off but do understand its temporary and is related to the Sea Walk therefore outside of P&O control.

Probably a silly question,  but why can’t they use the tenders if the Sea Walk is unavailable? 

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Probably a silly question,  but why can’t they use the tenders if the Sea Walk is unavailable? 

Given the long winded rigmarole that P&O subjects passengers to when using tenders on their larger ships, I should imagine that attempting that on Iona would be unbearable! Also, some passengers (such as my wife) cannot use tenders, so we try to avoid booking cruises with tender ports. 

[Fionboard]

What non sailors do not understand is that winds and tides are changing all the time. One minute docking is achievable and 15 minutes later it is not, even on a smaller ship. Captain and pilot have to make a decision. Safety always paramount.

[terrierjohn]

57 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

What non sailors do not understand is that winds and tides are changing all the time. One minute docking is achievable and 15 minutes later it is not, even on a smaller ship. Captain and pilot have to make a decision. Safety always paramount.

I dont believe that Norwegian Fjords have significant tides.

[Selbourne]

52 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

What non sailors do not understand is that winds and tides are changing all the time. One minute docking is achievable and 15 minutes later it is not, even on a smaller ship. Captain and pilot have to make a decision. Safety always paramount.

All of which makes sense, but the decision not to dock can often be made the night before, so there’s a lot of 15 minutes in that timeframe! Obviously with cruise ships they have to plan ahead, so will make a decision based upon a best guess of what the conditions will be. Nobody would ever question that safety comes first but, as TerrierJohn said, it would be interesting to know how the number of failures to dock with P&O compares with other comparable cruise lines. 
 

Often the ‘Operational Reasons’ excuse is complete hogwash. On our first fjords cruise, our call at Flaam was cancelled “due to problems with the port” and replaced with Haugesund, which isn’t even a fjord. I couldn’t get anywhere with P&O so I emailed the harbourmasters office to enquire what the “problem” was. I got a very helpful reply, far more than I had expected. He gave the date that our ships slot had been booked, the date it had been cancelled by Carnival, not the port as had been implied (and it was several months before P&O communicated it - so they continued to sell the cruise dishonestly) and the reason for the cancellation - Carnival ‘bumped’ the P&O ship and replaced it with Queen Victoria. 

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Given the long winded rigmarole that P&O subjects passengers to when using tenders on their larger ships, I should imagine that attempting that on Iona would be unbearable! Also, some passengers (such as my wife) cannot use tenders, so we try to avoid booking cruises with tender ports. 

Of course I understand your personal preference and the reason for avoiding tender ports. Do you think that Iona will ever visit tender ports? 

[Ardennais]

28 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

All of which makes sense, but the decision not to dock can often be made the night before, so there’s a lot of 15 minutes in that timeframe! Obviously with cruise ships they have to plan ahead, so will make a decision based upon a best guess of what the conditions will be. Nobody would ever question that safety comes first but, as TerrierJohn said, it would be interesting to know how the number of failures to dock with P&O compares with other comparable cruise lines. 
 

Often the ‘Operational Reasons’ excuse is complete hogwash. On our first fjords cruise, our call at Flaam was cancelled “due to problems with the port” and replaced with Haugesund, which isn’t even a fjord. I couldn’t get anywhere with P&O so I emailed the harbourmasters office to enquire what the “problem” was. I got a very helpful reply, far more than I had expected. He gave the date that our ships slot had been booked, the date it had been cancelled by Carnival, not the port as had been implied (and it was several months before P&O communicated it - so they continued to sell the cruise dishonestly) and the reason for the cancellation - Carnival ‘bumped’ the P&O ship and replaced it with Queen Victoria. 

That’s shocking, but I can’t say I’m surprised! I think we mentioned before that we might have been on the same Britannia cruise which changed 50% of the ports just after the final balance was paid. 

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Of course I understand your personal preference and the reason for avoiding tender ports. Do you think that Iona will ever visit tender ports? 

I don’t know whether or not any are planned, but I would think that they might try to avoid them whenever possible. With P&O’s target audience for the largest ships being the ‘new to cruising’ market, it wouldn’t give them a good first impression of what cruising can entail.
 

I still recall tendering operations on some of P&O’s largest ships that have gone on for hours and caused much frustration amongst waiting passengers, especially those trying to keep youngsters occupied whilst waiting for prolonged periods. 

[jaydee6969]

Starting to see posts via various travel agents sending out to passengers that the cruise I am on G216 will also now not be stopping at Geiranger but all day at Hellesylt instead.  Reasons hinted at are Seawalk issues that should be resolved soon.  Also involves MSC Grandiosa being moved to Geiranger from Hellesylt.

 

No official word from P&O, but TA's are pumping out the messages and calls to PAX.

 

As G215, G216 will have a sail by of the 7 sisters, with additional excursions offered.  Including trips to Geiranger, which just seems to me to be a slap in the face to pay extra to go there.

[gsmt47471015]

3 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

Starting to see posts via various travel agents sending out to passengers that the cruise I am on G216 will also now not be stopping at Geiranger but all day at Hellesylt instead.  Reasons hinted at are Seawalk issues that should be resolved soon.  Also involves MSC Grandiosa being moved to Geiranger from Hellesylt.

 

No official word from P&O, but TA's are pumping out the messages and calls to PAX.

 

As G215, G216 will have a sail by of the 7 sisters, with additional excursions offered.  Including trips to Geiranger, which just seems to me to be a slap in the face to pay extra to go there.

So Grandiosa has now taken Iona's berth?????

[jaydee6969]

Just now, gsmt47471015 said:

So Grandiosa has now taken Iona's berth?????

I think it's more the other way around.  Iona has taken Grandiosa's berth.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I don’t know whether or not any are planned, but I would think that they might try to avoid them whenever possible. With P&O’s target audience for the largest ships being the ‘new to cruising’ market, it wouldn’t give them a good first impression of what cruising can entail.
 

I still recall tendering operations on some of P&O’s largest ships that have gone on for hours and caused much frustration amongst waiting passengers, especially those trying to keep youngsters occupied whilst waiting for prolonged periods. 

Although not as big as Iona, RCIs Ibdependance has a switch back roll on facilty to take passengers down to the tender loading platform, and by using shoreside tenders everyone is able to go ashore; and the process is very slick with no long queues waiting for tenders.