davecttr Posted June 17, 2023 #1 Share Posted June 17, 2023 (edited) According to the maritime tracking sites Britannia should have arrived at Kirkwall in Orkney at 7.00 am today but she is currently over 100 miles to the north west. Has there been a late change of itinerary? One site has her at about 9 knots pursuing an eastwards course Edited June 17, 2023 by davecttr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molecrochip Posted June 17, 2023 #2 Share Posted June 17, 2023 Isn’t Kirkwall tomorrow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted June 17, 2023 Author #3 Share Posted June 17, 2023 Just now, molecrochip said: Isn’t Kirkwall tomorrow? listed on the cruise sites as today the 17th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molecrochip Posted June 17, 2023 #4 Share Posted June 17, 2023 Whether it was originally today and changed, I don’t know, but it’s definitely due tomorrow - Sunday 18th. Doesn’t help that the ship has set their eta, which publicises via AIS, as Today! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davecttr Posted June 17, 2023 Author #5 Share Posted June 17, 2023 I found the itinerary on cruise mapper and you are right, Kirkwall is tomorrow the 18th. I was worried about mechanical problems as I should be aboard on Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlaMarie Posted June 17, 2023 #6 Share Posted June 17, 2023 5 minutes ago, davecttr said: listed on the cruise sites as today the 17th? Yes definitely listed as today. There doesn't seem to be a port issue as the Riviera has docked as planned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlaMarie Posted June 17, 2023 #7 Share Posted June 17, 2023 5 minutes ago, molecrochip said: Whether it was originally today and changed, I don’t know, but it’s definitely due tomorrow - Sunday 18th. Doesn’t help that the ship has set their eta, which publicises via AIS, as Today! I was going by her AIS. I wonder if she will get there a bit earlier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermotsgirl Posted June 17, 2023 #8 Share Posted June 17, 2023 There has been some interesting comments elsewhere about this cruise. The passengers are having to pay 20% VAT on all purchases and services (including drinks and food) The reason for this is that all the ports are in the UK. Normally, a Round Britain cruise will have at least one non UK port, e.g in Guernsey, Ireland or France), meaning that UK VAT is not applicable for the whole cruise. It's quite unusual for all ports on an itinerary to be in the UK, so people have been surprised by this, and say that they would have hoped that P&O would have flagged this up before the cruise, rather than them finding out when on board. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molecrochip Posted June 17, 2023 #9 Share Posted June 17, 2023 P&O's website was selling it as tomorrow, Not sure where. Even the cruise agent who had advance sale on this one has it dated as tomorrow. So not sure why some sites list it as today.... or why the ship set it as today on their navigation consol. This has been a weird cruise all the way through... originally a Baltic cruise, then replaced by an around Britain cruise which went on general sale. It was then pulled from general sale and made an exclusive cruise with one agent + entertainment. It later went on general sale again as there were so many cabins left. It is likely that because it was a replacement cruise, that non-UK port options were limited. For example, P&O wouldn't usually book Britannia for Guernsey, Cork or Dublin due to her size. Brugge, Le Harve or Cherbourg might have been options but it all depends on the rest of the itinerary being able to move a day one way or other. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #10 Share Posted June 17, 2023 We have been on a cruise just visiting Belfast and Liverpool, no VAT then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #11 Share Posted June 17, 2023 Maybe the Agent had the same problems NCL had recently. Not got right documentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molecrochip Posted June 17, 2023 #12 Share Posted June 17, 2023 No, I think there was something technically different. Can’t remember if it agreements by the cruise lines or a government thing… but it was to get the industry moving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #13 Share Posted June 17, 2023 9 minutes ago, molecrochip said: No, I think there was something technically different. Can’t remember if it agreements by the cruise lines or a government thing… but it was to get the industry moving. Maybe technical but not to do with only being UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlaMarie Posted June 17, 2023 #14 Share Posted June 17, 2023 From what I have heard, there are about 800 new cruisers and 2800 in total onboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermotsgirl Posted June 17, 2023 #15 Share Posted June 17, 2023 42 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said: We have been on a cruise just visiting Belfast and Liverpool, no VAT then. Was this just after the restart, by any chance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermotsgirl Posted June 17, 2023 #16 Share Posted June 17, 2023 43 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said: Maybe the Agent had the same problems NCL had recently. Not got right documentation. NCL wouldn’t serve drinks at all in some U.K. ports. I wondered if it was because they had misunderstood the regulations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #17 Share Posted June 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said: Was this just after the restart, by any chance? Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9265359 Posted June 17, 2023 #18 Share Posted June 17, 2023 36 minutes ago, molecrochip said: No, I think there was something technically different. Can’t remember if it agreements by the cruise lines or a government thing… but it was to get the industry moving. Quite probably, because the cruise lines would have wanted to do ‘foreign’ stops but it would have been the UK (and foreign) governments preventing it. This time it’s P&O’s choice to do a ‘trips around the bay’ cruise and not go foreign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermotsgirl Posted June 17, 2023 #19 Share Posted June 17, 2023 1 minute ago, Gettingwarmer said: Yes I’m wondering if the cruiseline paid the VAT out of their own coffers. They were trying to entice people back, so clobbering the passengers with VAT would not have got people rushing back to cruising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #20 Share Posted June 17, 2023 1 minute ago, Dermotsgirl said: I’m wondering if the cruiseline paid the VAT out of their own coffers. They were trying to entice people back, so clobbering the passengers with VAT would not have got people rushing back to cruising. That needs more confirmation, purely speculation. This was an agent led cruise originally only available through them. Some strange cruise to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dermotsgirl Posted June 17, 2023 #21 Share Posted June 17, 2023 30 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said: That needs more confirmation, purely speculation. This was an agent led cruise originally only available through them. Some strange cruise to be sure. I thought we were just having a conversation 🤷♀️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap99 Posted June 17, 2023 #22 Share Posted June 17, 2023 1 hour ago, molecrochip said: P&O's website was selling it as tomorrow, Not sure where. Even the cruise agent who had advance sale on this one has it dated as tomorrow. So not sure why some sites list it as today.... or why the ship set it as today on their navigation consol. This has been a weird cruise all the way through... originally a Baltic cruise, then replaced by an around Britain cruise which went on general sale. It was then pulled from general sale and made an exclusive cruise with one agent + entertainment. It later went on general sale again as there were so many cabins left. It is likely that because it was a replacement cruise, that non-UK port options were limited. For example, P&O wouldn't usually book Britannia for Guernsey, Cork or Dublin due to her size. Brugge, Le Harve or Cherbourg might have been options but it all depends on the rest of the itinerary being able to move a day one way or other. We were in Guernsey on a holiday. This is a picture of a ship visiting the Island. 2015.. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gettingwarmer Posted June 17, 2023 #23 Share Posted June 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said: I thought we were just having a conversation 🤷♀️ We were. I was just commenting on your wondering. I wish we knew more but I doubt we will get the full answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarlaMarie Posted June 17, 2023 #24 Share Posted June 17, 2023 31 minutes ago, zap99 said: We were in Guernsey on a holiday. This is a picture of a ship visiting the Island. 2015.. This may have been for one of her "private" cruises. I know that they do have them occasionally, and they last only a couple of nights (you will notice a gap in the cruise schedule). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zap99 Posted June 17, 2023 #25 Share Posted June 17, 2023 (edited) 13 minutes ago, CarlaMarie said: This may have been for one of her "private" cruises. I know that they do have them occasionally, and they last only a couple of nights (you will notice a gap in the cruise schedule). It was a proper cruise. We were on a Spain/France Britannia cruise that was scheduled to call into Guernsey. Didn't happen as it was a bit too rough. B720. JULY 2017. Edited June 17, 2023 by zap99 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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