Iona Fjords 24th June 23 itinerary change

[CarlaMarie]

57 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Maybe they are unable to meet the Norwegian requirements of no diesel fuelled ships in Geiranger Fjord, Iona has duel fuelled engines and is known to use diesel. 

 

I think they have until 2026 to meet the new requirements, but they may be starting to put restrictions in place now. 

[daiB]

On 6/9/2023 at 5:14 PM, BouncingWheel said:

Any knowledge why? Is it due to ship size/passenger numbers or something else?
 

First they don’t stop at Gerainger and now they don’t even travel down the Fjord anymore. If this is another permanent change then they should look at sending Iona’s to other areas of the world where they can travel and dock as per the itinerary.

Not size, We were stopped going there a few years ago in Asura/Ventura. 

[Klou142]

8 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

 

I've just checked the itinerary on our Cruise Planner; the cruise-bys are still showing for the 13th, but Olden has dropped off. Our tour for Olden is still showing. As Andy writes, there is likely to be an IT glitch. 

I really can't understand the IT glitch, it's not like P&O have ever had IT problems before!🙄

 

 

I travelled on the 27th May cruise and my cruise planner never showed Olden the whole time. It only showed the cruise-bys. It did say port day and show my shore excursion and we definitely did dock in Olden and it was beautiful. So yes probably an IT glitch.

[kruzgal]

11 hours ago, showingdiva said:

Having very recently completed all four scheduled ports on a non-P&O ship similar in size to Iona (which doesn't and never has advertised Geiranger), I can fully understand why there may be reasons why ships this size sometimes have to miss ports / instigate "plan B" etc.    It's the transparency, or lack of, that's one of the on-going reasons I'm not currently booking a P&O cruise,

 

Personally, I loved the near 70 mile sail into Olden and the cruise stop itself, and would have been disappointed not to experience the (self-booked) Flamsbana railway at Flam.

Before it started sailing Iona did advertise Geiranger. That is what is so frustrating. 

[showingdiva]

30 minutes ago, kruzgal said:

Before it started sailing Iona did advertise Geiranger. That is what is so frustrating. 

 

And that's why there needs to be transparency.   P&O's itinerary change may be something that's completely outwith their control.   Or not.    But they, and any other cruise line who does similar, needs to be level with their passengers, some of whom, as mentioned already in this thread, may have booked that particular cruise to visit and experience the port that they're cancelling / altering.   Cancelling a port at short notice during the cruise because of weather / safety related reasons is entirely different.  

[kruzgal]

Totally agree. There is no transparency at all with this decision. 

[mikey22664]

I booked our cruise for july in April 2022 and the booking confirmation clearly states that we leave Hellesylt mid morning to sail to Geiranger

Edited June 10, 2023 by mikey22664
Mistake

[davecttr]

Last year there were a number of reasons given by P&O as to why Iona could not call at Geiranger. these included pilot and port issues and ended up with the position of the port mooring buoys being wrong for Iona. Geiranger has a floating 'sea walk' which extends out to the ship moored in deeper water.

[kruzgal]

Exactly. When we booked we were supposed to moor there. Now we won’t even be sailing up, which was added a ‘compensation’ for the pulling of this port as a stop from the itinerary due to ‘operational issues’. They then wait until after final payment for the busy summer cruise period to pull that as well. Very low behaviour by P&O and they then have the cheek to suggest we can book one of their excursions instead at great expense. 

[Chrisdriving]

Do they let you disembark?

It is easy to get to Geiranger from there. 

 

 

https://www.fjordtours.com/things-to-do-in-norway/car-ferries/geiranger-hellesylt/
 

Also if you can hire a car at Olden it is only a couple hours drive, we drove there from Andalsnes before, a similar distance and really easy.

Edited June 11, 2023 by Chrisdriving

[ParisHilton]

Same email for Aug 12th. (Anyone else here on that).

I wonder how many changes they can make without it being a misleading ad, or not delivering the service agred.

Or is it just "the wrong type of water" sort of excuse we've got used to here in ol blighty.

[AlpineBliss]

I’ve also had this email for my cruise departing August 19. I wonder where one would stand on the cancellation policy if wishing to do so, surely it’s no longer the cruise we’ve been sold?

[kruzgal]

It isn’t the cruise we were sold at all, but since we are past final payment and have 3 cabins booked I don’t see what we can do. Ironically on the P&O website Geirangerfjord is still listed on the itinerary, very misleading. I have submitted a complaint..doubt they will respond! 

[AlpineBliss]

I sent the following to P and O this morning and await their response:

I was very disappointed to receive an email saying this cruise will not be going through Geirangerfjord nor subsequently going past the Seven Sisters. Could you please provide an explanation as to why this is? Furthermore, you need to update your website ASAP, as it is still advertising this as part of the cruise. I also think it's somewhat audacious to mention your own excursions in the email, as a way to still go through Geirangerfjord! Perhaps offering this as complimentary would be more appropriate?

Edited June 12, 2023 by AlpineBliss
Typo

[Selbourne]

52 minutes ago, AlpineBliss said:

I sent the following to P and O this morning and await their response:

I was very disappointed to receive an email saying this cruise will not be going through Geirangerfjord nor subsequently going past the Seven Sisters. Could you please provide an explanation as to why this is? Furthermore, you need to update your website ASAP, as it is still advertising this as part of the cruise. I also think it's somewhat audacious to mention your own excursions in the email, as a way to still go through Geirangerfjord! Perhaps offering this as complimentary would be more appropriate?

I wish you well but can unfortunately predict the outcome. After a prolonged period of silence you will be told that it’s down to ‘Operational reasons’. If you push back and say that’s not an acceptable response you might get a small token gesture, such as a small amount of OBC or a gift on board. If you push back yet again you might get a small financial sum in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement. This has been P&Os form for years. You will never get an honest answer as to the reason. It’s not their style. 

[kruzgal]

I have contacted them via messenger and been given the ‘operational reasons’ response. I have now submitted a complaint via email. We booked this trip on the day of release in November 2021 when Iona was actually scheduled to stop in Geiranger. Now we won’t even be sailing up the fjord as promised. P&O suggesting in their email that we book one of their shore excursions just added insult to injury. Perhaps they would like to pay the £525 it’s going to cost us for a rib tour. It’s so disappointing  as I was looking forward to the cruise and also our return to P&O since our last cruise with them in 2015. If we had known this was going to happen we wouldn’t have booked this ship or itinerary. Feeling very let down.

[AlpineBliss]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I wish you well but can unfortunately predict the outcome. After a prolonged period of silence you will be told that it’s down to ‘Operational reasons’. If you push back and say that’s not an acceptable response you might get a small token gesture, such as a small amount of OBC or a gift on board. If you push back yet again you might get a small financial sum in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement. This has been P&Os form for years. You will never get an honest answer as to the reason. It’s not their style. 

Well considering this will be my first cruise I’m not off to a great start. Don’t think I’ll bother with P and O again and I haven’t boarded the ship yet!

[ParisHilton]

On 6/12/2023 at 8:55 PM, Selbourne said:

I wish you well but can unfortunately predict the outcome. After a prolonged period of silence you will be told that it’s down to ‘Operational reasons’. If you push back and say that’s not an acceptable response you might get a small token gesture, such as a small amount of OBC or a gift on board. If you push back yet again you might get a small financial sum in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement. This has been P&Os form for years. You will never get an honest answer as to the reason. It’s not their style. 

I love a bit of 'free' credit.  Any tips on best to get some? I've started by emailing P&O to express disappointment at the change of itinery. 

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, ParisHilton said:

I love a bit of 'free' credit.  Any tips on best to get some? I've started by emailing P&O to express disappointment at the change of itinery. 

You are asking the wrong person I’m afraid. The only times that I have received compensation from P&O is when we have had major problems. Once when we had multiple problems with a suite and the other time when an itinerary changed beyond all recognition from what we had booked and I obtained evidence that this was known by P&O months before it was communicated to passengers. I would never try to create complaints purely for the purpose of gaining a freebie. 
 

I am deeply unhappy about this latest itinerary curtailment and P&Os failure to provide a reason why, but can’t be bothered to complain as it will be a battle and any compensation will be negligible. We used to cruise exclusively with P&O, but are now starting to branch out to other cruise lines. This latest episode, along with some of the recent changes that have been made to the on board experience, just confirm that we are doing the right thing. We hope to still cruise with P&O when the price is right, but loyalty works both ways. 

[CarlaMarie]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

You are asking the wrong person I’m afraid. The only times that I have received compensation from P&O is when we have had major problems. Once when we had multiple problems with a suite and the other time when an itinerary changed beyond all recognition from what we had booked and I obtained evidence that this was known by P&O months before it was communicated to passengers. I would never try to create complaints purely for the purpose of gaining a freebie. 
 

I am deeply unhappy about this latest itinerary curtailment and P&Os failure to provide a reason why, but can’t be bothered to complain as it will be a battle and any compensation will be negligible. We used to cruise exclusively with P&O, but are now starting to branch out to other cruise lines. This latest episode, along with some of the recent changes that have been made to the on board experience, just confirm that we are doing the right thing. We hope to still cruise with P&O when the price is right, but loyalty works both ways. 

 

Very well put Selbourne and that is exactly how we feel. 

[Son of Anarchy]

19 hours ago, ParisHilton said:

I love a bit of 'free' credit.  Any tips on best to get some? I've started by emailing P&O to express disappointment at the change of itinery. 

We had a major change to the itinery for a 35 night roundtrip TA about a month before departure last year.  Phoned up to cancel.  P & O immediately offered to refund  our OBC as cash, which was quite a substantial amount as we had booked on board so had extra OBC.  Which would have the knock on effect of 10% loyalty discount on board from the word go so a little bit of benefit from that.

 

Ended up cancelling, with no loss of deposit.

[Jazzytelly]

I have read people on other lines saying the same port has been changed so perhaps it’s to do with the port and not P & O. 

[Selbourne]

2 hours ago, Jazzytelly said:

I have read people on other lines saying the same port has been changed so perhaps it’s to do with the port and not P & O. 

If so, P&O would do themselves a lot of favours if they confirmed that!

[Scorpio41]

Just a question.
Has Iona ever docked in Geiranger and these port cancellations are a new thing?

[Selbourne]

49 minutes ago, Scorpio41 said:

Just a question.
Has Iona ever docked in Geiranger and these port cancellations are a new thing?

Iona was originally scheduled to call at Geiranger for most cruises and all current cruises were initially sold as such (which is why we booked as we wanted to go there). 
 

Some time later, P&O announced that Iona would no longer go to Geiranger but, after a port stop at Hellesylt, as a compromise would do a transit most of the way towards Geiranger, “to see the World Heritage Site that is the Geiranger Fjord”. This would pass the Seven Sisters waterfall etc before turning around and heading back out to see. 
 

There has now been a second change to the itinerary in that even this has been cancelled and Iona will return directly to sea after departing Hellesylt. In P&Os typically arrogant manner, there has been no explanation or justification for this whatsoever and they have the audacity to say that we can still go to Geiranger, or the fjord, but must pay for an excursion to do so 🤔

 

So, yes, this is a new change. Unfortunately the thread title confuses matters as it refers to just one cruise, but the itinerary curtailment appears to affect ALL Iona fjord cruises. I suggested that the thread title was corrected to remove the specific cruise, but that didn’t happen. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Selbourne