Getting landed at Geurnsey success rate

[bbtablet]

I read a lot about Geurnsey visits being abandoned due to a combination of poor weather and the need for tendering. Some have suggested there is only a 50/50 chance of getting in.

Ventura regularly has Geurnsey as its last stop on the way home, and I am on such a cruise next month.

Can those who have been unfortunate enough to have lost this stop in the past say whether any OBC compensation is offered please?

tai

[arlowood]

We've missed Guernsey twice in cruises over the past 3 or 4 years. On one occasion it was blowing a hooley but on the other it looked relatively calm but the Captain said that the local coastguard had warned of a change in the sea conditions later in the day so the tendering was abandoned in case anyone got stuck on the island. 

 

Can't remember getting any compensation in the form of OBC or treats (wine or similar). I think it is just viewed as the luck of the draw where tenders are needed.

 

Hoping for third time lucky as we are due in Guernsey as the first post on our 7 night Western Med cruise on Arcadia departing 30th August

[Palaceman]

13 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

I read a lot about Geurnsey visits being abandoned due to a combination of poor weather and the need for tendering. Some have suggested there is only a 50/50 chance of getting in.

Ventura regularly has Geurnsey as its last stop on the way home, and I am on such a cruise next month.

Can those who have been unfortunate enough to have lost this stop in the past say whether any OBC compensation is offered please?

tai

If the reason for the visit being abandoned is because of bad weather there will not be any OBC compensation as such an eventuality is covered by cruise travel insurance. From personal past experience this can be as much as £300 each.

[tring]

We have had two cruises with Guernsey scheduled, one successful, the other not, but hardly statistically significant in itself.

 

On the unsuccessful cruise, we were taken to Cherbourg, so there was no loss of a port anyway, hence no extra perk given.  The cruise line will almost certainly have a plan B in place, Cherbourg being a possibility as very near.  I would much prefer to have a possibility of docking in Guernsey though, rather than have an itinerary that is only expected to get to Cherbourg.  Hence, personally I would not be complaining about a port change, if it was dictated by the weather. 

 

[Britboys]

10 minutes ago, tring said:

We have had two cruises with Guernsey scheduled, one successful, the other not, but hardly statistically significant in itself.

 

On the unsuccessful cruise, we were taken to Cherbourg, so there was no loss of a port anyway, hence no extra perk given.  The cruise line will almost certainly have a plan B in place, Cherbourg being a possibility as very near.  I would much prefer to have a possibility of docking in Guernsey though, rather than have an itinerary that is only expected to get to Cherbourg.  Hence, personally I would not be complaining about a port change, if it was dictated by the weather. 

 

P&O and Cunard often just turn it into another sea-day if not able to tender pax ashore...

[tring]

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

P&O and Cunard often just turn it into another sea-day if not able to tender pax ashore...

 

Oh dear, that is not good then and could be bouncing around at sea as well, depending on the actual sea conditions.  Our cruises including Guernsey were going back a number of years to when most of our cruises were with P&O, but must admit I cannot be sure they were both with P&O, in fact I am now thinking the one when we went to Cherbourg was a Fred mini cruise - we used to do a lot of them as well, especially if the ship was changing home port.  DH's parents used to live in Gosport and I have a couple of cousins in Southampton, so we often used the mini cruises as transport one way to/from Liverpool, so we only needed a one way train journey and could have a short holiday at the same time.  

 

Does that apply to all, (or most), P&O missed ports now?  I thought we have had replacement ports in the past for at least some missed ports, though I do remember missing La Coruna on the way back to the UK and no replacement there because the ship was going slower than usual because of really bad seas.  I presume with the bigger ships, finding a suitable replacement could be very difficult.

 

Barbara.

 

  

[mrsgoggins]

We have had 4 successful trips to Guernsey, the last time being last month on Ventura.  Tender took ages getting back to ship because they used one of the big local boats rather than a ship's lifeboat, but otherwise unmemorable.  

[Britboys]

2 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Oh dear, that is not good then and could be bouncing around at sea as well, depending on the actual sea conditions.  Our cruises including Guernsey were going back a number of years to when most of our cruises were with P&O, but must admit I cannot be sure they were both with P&O, in fact I am now thinking the one when we went to Cherbourg was a Fred mini cruise - we used to do a lot of them as well, especially if the ship was changing home port.  DH's parents used to live in Gosport and I have a couple of cousins in Southampton, so we often used the mini cruises as transport one way to/from Liverpool, so we only needed a one way train journey and could have a short holiday at the same time.  

 

Does that apply to all, (or most), P&O missed ports now?  I thought we have had replacement ports in the past for at least some missed ports, though I do remember missing La Coruna on the way back to the UK and no replacement there because the ship was going slower than usual because of really bad seas.  I presume with the bigger ships, finding a suitable replacement could be very difficult.

 

Barbara.

 

  

It happened to me on Oriana Barbara. We anchored off for a few hours and then pootled around. I think it depends how far ahead they are aware of potentially difficult weather. On another Oriana cruise we were doing the Azores and there was some adverse weather. The Captain thought tendering was going to be impossible so they diverted to another island in the Azores where they could actually dock alongside.

[tring]

6 minutes ago, Britboys said:

It happened to me on Oriana Barbara. We anchored off for a few hours and then pootled around. I think it depends how far ahead they are aware of potentially difficult weather. On another Oriana cruise we were doing the Azores and there was some adverse weather. The Captain thought tendering was going to be impossible so they diverted to another island in the Azores where they could actually dock alongside.

 

Yes, we were docked in Cherbourg, but on a smaller ship, I expect.

 

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

P&O and Cunard often just turn it into another sea-day if not able to tender pax ashore...

And keep the port fees and taxes that everyone has paid as pure profit.

[Valfan]

2 hours ago, bbtablet said:

I read a lot about Geurnsey visits being abandoned due to a combination of poor weather and the need for tendering. Some have suggested there is only a 50/50 chance of getting in.

Ventura regularly has Geurnsey as its last stop on the way home, and I am on such a cruise next month.

Can those who have been unfortunate enough to have lost this stop in the past say whether any OBC compensation is offered please?

tai

I'd have settled for a 50/50 chance. I've only had a 20% success rate with cruises scheduled to visit Guernsey - been booked on 5 (from memory at least 3 of them were on Ventura), but only got there once. On all 4 failed attempts we just had an extra day at sea. No OBC compensation was due as the missed port was due to bad weather - although the first time it happened we were looking out the window at a very calm sea, a proverbial millpond, when the announcement was made.

[Josy1953]

It is very hit and miss we have been fortunate in that we have tendered into Guernsey 5 times and the only problem we had was coming back to the ship on one occasion.  We boarded the  tender to return to the ship but had to go back into the harbour and wait an hour before finally successfully getting back to the ship.  My sister has been on 3 cruises when they failed to get in.  I don't  think that my sister got any sort of compensation from Princess or Cunard.

[Bill Y]

Visited Guernsey in 2017. Two days before the Captain tried to soften us up by saying as it was a tender port then it was dodgy and the chances were not good, this led us to believe this was a regular occurrence with Guernsey as although we have not been able to tender at other ports never  had been pre warned like this before.

 

The good news was the weather was good and we tendered, the bad news was that the Captain was concerned that conditions may deteriorate in the afternoon so as a precaution we would have to leave at lunch time.

 

The problem seems to be that a Captain dare not risk not getting the ship back to Southampton early the next morning.

[CCFC]

I was there last week, have to say I have never had to miss Guernsey due to the weather, been there 5 times now.

[jeanlyon]

If you're not aware, the tide can run at 14 knots with a spring tide down the Alderney race, so even a wind of Force 5 can limit landing by tender into Guernsey.  As a former yacht sailor I know the difficulties really well.

[showingdiva]

I was in Cherbourg a few weeks ago.   It was a planned destination, not displaced from Guernsey.   On MSC Virtuosa, which is 181,500t, so can take a fair size of ship.   Always knew Cherbourg as a ferry, fishing, yacht port, but was very pleasantly surprised.  Lovely place.   

That said, she was clearly as big a cruise ship as the locals have seen in a long time, as many arriving to see her overheard with exclamations of "merde!"

Last time I was in Guernsey with P&O, huge queues, tender was rolling all over the place, then hit the side of the ship.   

[jeanlyon]

1 hour ago, showingdiva said:

Last time I was in Guernsey with P&O, huge queues, tender was rolling all over the place, then hit the side of the ship.   

Exactly!

[Bazrat]

We did Guernsey tender was great not a problem 

[Jill85]

12 hours ago, CCFC said:

I was there last week, have to say I have never had to miss Guernsey due to the weather, been there 5 times now.

We have never missed Guernsey either.