When is an overnight stay NOT an overnight stay?

[devonuk]

Just got off the Arcadia (J317) to Norway for 12 days and got on board to find out our ‘overnight’ stays in Tromso and Narvik actually departed at 01:30 with a return to the ship at 01:00. We do not (along with lots of others) consider this to be overnight as per our confirmation which blandly stated an ‘early morning’ departure. Before we put pen to paper to follow on from our on board complaint does anyone have any thoughts or information that would help our cause or dissuade us from continuing to complain?

Ultimately we were required to cut short our private northern lights excursion etc. by several hours. 
Also, was the departure of our Captain post cruise preplanned or was this a sudden change perhaps to do with our loss of power in an horrendous storm which caused the azipods to ‘cut out’ which was all very scary 😦 

 

[david63]

I suspect that the response from P&O will the standard "for operational reasons" excuse.

 

41 minutes ago, devonuk said:

was the departure of our Captain post cruise preplanned or was this a sudden change perhaps to do with our loss of power in an horrendous storm which caused the azipods to ‘cut out’ which was all very scary

Same as above

[devonuk]

14 minutes ago, david63 said:

I suspect that the response from P&O will the standard "for operational reasons" excuse.

 

Same as above

The ‘booking’ with the port was always for a 01:30 departure according to my subsequent research 🤔

Edited December 5, 2023 by devonuk
Error

[CarlaMarie]

This is similar to last weeks 4 night cruise to Amsterdam on Aurora, with an overnight stop and early morning departure of 4am.

 

Before booking any cruise we check each ports arrivals/departures schedule, especially where an overnight is mentioned. 

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, devonuk said:

Also, was the departure of our Captain post cruise preplanned or was this a sudden change perhaps to do with our loss of power in an horrendous storm which caused the azipods to ‘cut out’ which was all very scary 😦

No it seems he was due to leave now. 

[Bill Y]

I don’t know if you have the word “overnight” anywhere? I would expect overnight to be just that, no respectable hotel would expect you to vacate your room by 01:30. However your cruise is shown in a brochure I have as “Evening in port” I don’t know if it’s changed since you booked?  P&O used to quote: “Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00pm and 11.59pm” & “Early Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midnight and 08.59am, these timings are guidelines only and the actual times may vary”. When a true overnight is scheduled ie NYC then the brochure often trumpets “Two days in port” although that can be different to two whole days in port. Unfortunately even if a change has happened the first response will be on the lines of operation reasons and claim on your travel insurance.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Bill Y

[devonuk]

Ours was trumpeted as 2 days in port in both Tromso and Narvik and our confirmation shows ‘overnight’ in both. In addition the online itinerary etc. also showed 2 days in both 🤷‍♂️ This is why there was so much confusion and anger at not gettIng a full overnight. The hotel analogy was one I used with the onboard customer services manager. 
 

[devonuk]

40 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

I don’t know if you have the word “overnight” anywhere? I would expect overnight to be just that, no respectable hotel would expect you to vacate your room by 01:30. However your cruise is shown in a brochure I have as “Evening in port” I don’t know if it’s changed since you booked?  P&O used to quote: “Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00pm and 11.59pm” & “Early Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midnight and 08.59am, these timings are guidelines only and the actual times may vary”. When a true overnight is scheduled ie NYC then the brochure often trumpets “Two days in port” although that can be different to two whole days in port. Unfortunately even if a change has happened the first response will be on the lines of operation reasons and claim on your travel insurance.

Thank you this has been very helpful, are these guidelines somewhere easy for me to find?

[devonuk]

1 hour ago, Gettingwarmer said:

No it seems he was due to leave now. 

Thank you 👍

[pete14]

Our recent cruise on Aurora to the north of Norway was the same but I didn’t pick up any adverse comments. I realise it says ‘overnight in port’ but it also says depart early morning’ and that this could be a bit confusing, but I don’t see any real cause for complaint.
 

I must say that I think it is a bit unfair to expect crew members to man the gangway and scan you back onboard in the early hours of the morning in potentially extreme cold weather.

Edited December 5, 2023 by pete14

[Dobbers]

We had exactly the same thing on our Arcadia to Norway cruise a few weeks ago. We felt the same about the wording of overnight, when it said departs early morning I was thinking 7am 😳

[Megabear2]

I have one of these on my Cunard voyage in January 2025.  It advertises as "overnight" and offers the following:

 

26 Jan 2025 - 27 Jan 2025

Arrives Early morning

Departs Early evening

 

That seems a definite guide to having a full overnight, whereas yours looks a lot like any time after 00:01 would technically be correct.

[jeanlyon]

Yes I have an overnight in Madeira on Arcadia next year.  Arrives Early Morning, depart early Evening the next night.

[CarlaMarie]

49 minutes ago, devonuk said:

Ours was trumpeted as 2 days in port in both Tromso and Narvik and our confirmation shows ‘overnight’ in both. In addition the online itinerary etc. also showed 2 days in both 🤷‍♂️ This is why there was so much confusion and anger at not gettIng a full overnight. The hotel analogy was one I used with the onboard customer services manager. 
 

Although the cruise overview is misleading, the booking confirmation however would have been correct by stating an 'early' morning departure and not promising 2 full days in both ports. If you go via your arrival time, which was 'morning', 'early morning' would have been any time prior to this. 

[devonuk]

As an aside the shore excursion pages online were showing ‘excursions to follow’ for the 2nd day in Tromso and Narvik 🤦‍♂️

All very confusing 😬 

We know of passengers who booked private tours on the ‘second day’ in Tromso based on this 😦

[devonuk]

Keep your thoughts coming as it’s all very interesting and helpful 👏

[Bill Y]

1 hour ago, devonuk said:

Ours was trumpeted as 2 days in port in both Tromso and Narvik and our confirmation shows ‘overnight’ in both. In addition the online itinerary etc. also showed 2 days in both 🤷‍♂️ This is why there was so much confusion and anger at not gettIng a full overnight. The hotel analogy was one I used with the onboard customer services manager. 
 

Your paperwork certainly gives the impression of overnights as the man on the on the Clapham omnibus would understand it. So different to the Jan 23 - Apr 25 brochure that only has a couple of "evening in port symbols" certainly worth a complaint or two.

 

I am certain I have read on CC that people on ships excursions have spent well into the early hours waiting for the elusive lights, others that have previously done these cruises (too cold for me) will no doubt confirm one way or the other.

1 hour ago, devonuk said:

Thank you this has been very helpful, are these guidelines somewhere easy for me to find?

I found these descriptions on the P&O website some years ago, I don't think that they publish them now, I made a note of them in 2018 as people were always asking for more details of the vague descriptions given. 

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, devonuk said:

Just got off the Arcadia (J317) to Norway for 12 days and got on board to find out our ‘overnight’ stays in Tromso and Narvik actually departed at 01:30 with a return to the ship at 01:00. We do not (along with lots of others) consider this to be overnight as per our confirmation which blandly stated an ‘early morning’ departure. Before we put pen to paper to follow on from our on board complaint does anyone have any thoughts or information that would help our cause or dissuade us from continuing to complain?

Ultimately we were required to cut short our private northern lights excursion etc. by several hours. 
Also, was the departure of our Captain post cruise preplanned or was this a sudden change perhaps to do with our loss of power in an horrendous storm which caused the azipods to ‘cut out’ which was all very scary 😦 

 

We’ve done the Northen Lights cruise twice on Aurora and both times we had a full overnight in Alta followed by a 1.30am departure the second night. As for the second ‘northern’ port (Tromso the first time and Narvik the second) they were also shown as overnights, but in reality were around 1.30am departures. I agree that this isn’t really overnights and P&O should be clearer, but we didn’t complain about it as we’d had great sightings of the Northen Lights on the first cruise and on the second cruise the weather was poor so the lights were never going to be visible anyway. 

[Interestedcruisefan]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

Our recent cruise on Aurora to the north of Norway was the same but I didn’t pick up any adverse comments. I realise it says ‘overnight in port’ but it also says depart early morning’ and that this could be a bit confusing, but I don’t see any real cause for complaint.
 

I must say that I think it is a bit unfair to expect crew members to man the gangway and scan you back onboard in the early hours of the morning in potentially extreme cold weather.

There's plenty of staff available to do things like that though 

 

And it's just part of the job

[Interestedcruisefan]

Normally I wouldn't be concerned at all about an overnight leaving at 1.30am 

 

Would never normally consider that it would impact anybody at all in a negative way

 

But clearly in this location with potential night time excursions into the early hours it does become an issue 

 

[Selbourne]

3 hours ago, CarlaMarie said:

Before booking any cruise we check each ports arrivals/departures schedule, especially where an overnight is mentioned. 

Where do you find those? Somebody mentioned the ‘what's in port’ website but that seems to be as vague as the P&O info. 

[CarlaMarie]

21 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Where do you find those? Somebody mentioned the ‘what's in port’ website but that seems to be as vague as the P&O info. 

 

I search for example 'Port of Amsterdam arrivals and departures' and then the official port website should appear (Very similar to the Southampton VTS page). Most ports will list their cruise call schedules separately.

 

I don't use the what's in port site as like you say it is vague and is not updated like the port pages. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by CarlaMarie

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, CarlaMarie said:

 

I search for example 'Port of Amsterdam arrivals and departures' and then the official port website should appear (Very similar to the Southampton VTS page). Most ports will list their cruise call schedules separately.

How far in advance do they go?   I'm aware from the Cunard forum that people are piecing together 2026 itineraries but most ports I look at for P&O ships have the usual blanks.

[Selbourne]

9 minutes ago, CarlaMarie said:

 

I search for example 'Port of Amsterdam arrivals and departures' and then the official port website should appear (Very similar to the Southampton VTS page). Most ports will list their cruise call schedules separately.

 

I don't use the what's in port site as like you say it is vague and is not updated like the port pages. 

Thanks. Our next cruise has 28 ports of call, so I was hoping that I could take the lazy option and find one website that had them all 😂 

[CarlaMarie]

7 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

How far in advance do they go?   I'm aware from the Cunard forum that people are piecing together 2026 itineraries but most ports I look at for P&O ships have the usual blanks.

 

They are all different and it heavily depends on the size of the port and the port location. Smaller ports will have a years schedule on their sites, whereas others will have their schedule going into the following year.