Reincruiseinated

Thanks all for the quick feedback.

I shall advise my friends to re-check with their TA and to specifically ask about arrival/departure times as that could affect any tours they have booked privately (they are not up to speed on the internet so can't do this sort of stuff themselves).

Thanks also for the "heads up" on that refund article in the telegraph, I'll attempt to copy the link below but it may not work as I'm not much better at this stuff than my aforementioned friends .....http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/how-to-save-700-a-year-on-your-electricity-bill/story-fnlrw4is-1227039173204?nk=3563effc8f5d828c42956a935cbddf86 It's down the page a bit hopefully :)

We have friends booked to depart BNE on a 14 day NZ cruise from 29/9/14 and they've been told by their TA that there are no destination changes for this trip :)

Maybe running repairs have brought Sea Princess back to normal operation ?

This is excellent news if it is the case but I thought I'd check on their behalf in case anyone here has more up to date info, thanks :)

I just got home from the Treasures of Asia Grand Adventure cruise on the Sea Princess. The reports of the ship limping around are ridiculous in the extreme.

The ship does have a crankshaft issue with a generator which will be getting repaired in Singapore over a 3 day stop over. unsure of dates

Obviously the generator issue did mean a decrease in speed but to the naked eye you wouldn't have noticed.

The trip was wonderful and i will be posting a full review tomorrow.

I agree that the ship also seemed to be going fine on our trip which was before yours. In fact it was often doing over 19 knots and on occasions over 20 knots (according to the TV display in our cabin).

At the time I wondered why they really needed to cancel 2 ports and arrive late at 2 others and that was never explained to me as the crew didn't seem to know either. In fact one poor steward told us he had arranged for his family to meet him in Bali but only found out with short notice that the itinerary had changed but the family were too committed to their travel and thus were in Bali without him.

Definition of "Infiltrate"

 

"to enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.) surreptitiously and gradually, especially in order to acquire secret information"

 

I love a good conspiracy theory. The Grey Army is obviously on the attack!!

 

cheers

 

Stu

We shall recruit the young and gullible !

We shall brainwash them into devoting their lifetime in pursuit of ageing.

Our cunning plan is that they shall eventually replace us and keep the movement going forever ;)

A lot of older people go to the bingo every day and that is a BIG revenue raiser.

"Older people" also do Ship organised Tours when in Port and I reckon there'd be some profit in that. Personally, I couldn't afford "Port Tours" until the kids left home so, when I was a younger cruiser, I spent less onboard than I do these days :D

There has been a mass infiltration of the elderly older demographic in all cruise lines.

I have been cruising on and off for over 40 years and I simply haven't noticed any change. For example, on my first cruise in 1970 most of the people on board were around my age and again, on my last cruise a few weeks ago, most aboard were around my age :)

I therefore don't see any problem :cool:

In my opinion, whilst on the Northern Explorer 22 June, Broome port was a major problem for Captain Kent and Sea Princess concerning the wharf. Passengers were up in arms with the major queue going around the ship waiting for the necessary shuttle tickets to get off the ship which took hours because no one can just get off the ship and walk to the end of the wharf. Even taxis/any vehicle has to have a special permit to drive across the wharf to the ship and back into town. Broome wharf restrictions. Gas pipes I think and security. Even if you had family/friends on the other side of the wharf to meet you, you had to go by shuttle to the other side and you needed tickets.

Many people gave up and didn't get off the ship as it didn't arrive until 2pm on day 1 anyway and the shops closed at 5pm! Lots of people/elderly people missed out. Next day the ship left at 1pm so if you weren't early birds like us and got off the ship at 5am to go do amazing things in the Kimberleys, you missed out. I just think Captain Kent is fed up with passenger complaints !!

I was also on the 22/6 cruise and agree that Broome was a bad experience with friends of ours taking three hours to get off the ship and then coming straight back on the same bus as they were too late into town to do anything. Luckily we had a tour booked and our wait was only about an hour (although they informed us at the start of the cruise that our particular tour was shortened by a third "due to rescheduled late arrival in Broome" so we didn't get the tour we were expecting but at least we were taken off the ship quicker than most).

Mind you, having a tour pre-booked didn’t help us in Darwin where we were told to be at the Vista lounge at 6.10AM for Customs’ processing. So we dutifully joined the queue at 10 to 6 and an hour and a half later we were finally through to then have breakfast and numerous coffees to stay awake before meeting ashore for our 9.00am tour. One positive was that I did get to see sunrise through a window whilst standing in line in the Vista lounge (I normally don’t see many sunrises).