Sutho

The best Cruise director we have ever had was Gary Glading Unfortunately he moved to Cunard!

I was under the impression he went to Norwegian Cruise lines. Unless he has moved back to the Carnival brands and is now at Cunard. He was good for P&O.

I have done plenty of World Cruises and the formality drives a lot of the passengers mad. They hate it under certain circumstances. The best example I can give you is the tropics. The Caribbean, The Equator, Asia, Top end Australia. All of these are in the tropics and the heat is intolerable. Many passengers resent getting dressed up in these climates particularly when the ships air conditioning is turned up to please the women in skimpy dresses. The men are forced to swelter in the heat. It is no use going on deck in the tropics when you are dressed up in formal gear.

The cross between casual and formal is the biggest problem for P&O. It is ridiculous and annoying and only complicates packing.

World Cruises will always be popular. They will not drive their passengers away. If people want to defect to Fred Olsen or Saga then let them, P&O needs to set their standards higher than those lines and not aim to compete with the bottom feeders.

In my opinion P&O have to change quickly, they have made some changes in the past that only made them worst. Ten years ago the cruise line was not as big as it was now and people had less choice. Now with larger companies like Royal Caribbean and Celebrity making bigger mark P&O are losing passengers to them. I have recently tried Celebrity and while there are a lot of things Celebrity does better, P&O still does have their advantages.

P&O need to

• Define their market - They cant be all things to everyone.
  
• Become more inclusive - none of this "pay to use" crap that only panders to the likes of "precious darlings" that like to be wrapped in cotton wool. Things like "The Retreat" have to go, paying to use pools has to go. P&O are mass market. They are not premium. All this class distinction garbage will drive the younger market away. You don't see Royal Caribbean or Celebrity charging more for stupid areas on their ships like "The Retreat"
  
• Scrap the formality. Just have smart casual and formal. Join the 21st Century. Its time to force out the passengers who went to school on Noah's Ark and were born just about the time the dinosaurs became extinct.
  
• Stop p---ing people off by reducing the fares. Create a fare structure that will sell cruises and make the cruises interesting to go on. I am no longer booking ANY P&O cruise in advance anymore thanks to their last minute price drops months out from a cruise.
  
• Stop the cut-backs. This is only driving the loyal passengers away who find cruising is not what it once was. Trust me ten years ago P&O was much better than what it is now and I was only 20 when I did my first cruise with them.
  
• Bring back decent on board credit. That has reduced significantly since Carnival took over.
  
• Improve the World Cruise program. They are repeating too much of it now and not being very creative with different itineraries each year.
  
• With ships like Ventura and Azura they need to smash out a few hundred cabins and give the space back to the passengers. Those ships were only designed to cater to 2,600 and were drawn up in the early 90's. You cant turn a antiquated ship into a 21st century ship by slapping a few extra decks on top. Look at Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. They have much larger ships with less passengers and more passenger space. I know which ships I would rather be on. Trust me I will never book a cruise on Ventura or Azura ever again.
  

I think it's very unfair to mention names of staff on a public forum. Especially when they cannot reply.How would you feel if it was you or a member of your family or a close friend who was being publicly criticised?

If you have problems with a cruise member of staff then raise it on board and fill in the post cruise survey and if you wish to follow up with a letter then write privately to the cruise company.

It should be no different to any other job. Public officials, polititians are all named and shamed based on performance. Public company directors are answerable to shareholders and their performance is made public. Why should it be any different for a poor performing cruise director. If their performance is poor and people keep naming the same one then they shold be dismissed as our money is paying their wages when we purchase a holiday.

I wonder how long it will take P&O to recover. All it has done is go downhill continually. The price schemes, cancelling cruises like the failed Azura world cruise, poor marketing, the miserable new loyalty scheme. The whole line seems to be dumbed down more and more. Ships missing refits and sailing with maintenance issues. I think the recent world cruise Aurora has it had mechanical problems and had to be repaired during the voyage. Is the company avoiding necesarry maintenance to save a few $$$ here and there and then making repairs as things break.

It used to be my favourite line. Now I have no cruises booked with them for the forseeable future. The sounds of all this make it look like the managing directors were pushed out rather than sacked.

Previous poster says 'Cancelling cruises willy nilly and leaving passengers out of pocket with hotels, annual leave from work that cannot be rearranged, is not the way to run a business. '

 

Can we have some evidence of these claims.

Which cruises have been cancelled leaving pax out of pocket please.

The Azura World Cruise for 2013 was cancelled early 2012 when passengers had made bookings and arrangements. That is one example I can think of.

I am not an expert on P&O's management but did see the cruise line going down hill. Look at my cruise history. All P&O. This year it has been Celebrity and Princess and next years ones are Princess. I have no P&O cruises booked into the foreseeable future.

I have been encouraging all my older relatives to go out and travel and spend their money. It is thanks to me that my grandparents started cruising and it was only after I went on one first and gave them computers, internet so they could discover more about it. Its better to enjoy your own money rather than some fat-cat banker or financial guru "stealing" it in the GFC.

Come September I will be very happy to vote out one part and get back in the true professionals. Australias boom times for me and my cruising was money earned and saved prior to when the current goverment came into power. Ever since savings and ability to earn have taken a tumble compared to pre 2007.

Without getting into the politcal or economic aspects, I dont think any Australian expects our dollar to stay like it. We are used to the American dollar being stronger. This is just a good time for us and we know it will come to an end. When I first went to America our dollar was only worth around 50c or 60c. For us this is just a bonus.

It is also an election year here and there could be many changes after September.

For me personally I would love to travel to America now but the GFC took care of that and I am limited in where my funds can take me.

For a start I can only imagine the Royal Australian and New Zealand navy's will have ships there also. Unfortunately for others that would like to be there cruise ships and tourist camps are the only option. I am surprised the Silverseas ship is being chartered as that would be extremely expensive.

I think it is very hard to form an opinion on this. On the one side we all have relatives who were in battle there and while it would be nice to be there on a ship for the historic 100 years, on the other side it is not a good idea to turn such a memorial into a party event.

The other thing to consider here is what the government and people of Turkey think of all this. Technically they did not do anything wrong, did not commit any hostile act and were simply defending their country from invasion during that war. I think as time passes and people become more aware that Turkey was not an enemy or did not do anything to deserve invasion the commemorations become more subdued in that area over time.

Though one thing I think is it is sad to see cruise lines cashing in on this and I think they are aware of the sentiment and it is possibly unlikely we will see too many cruise ships advertise for such an event. Perhaps the shipping lines are still thinking about this one.

It depends on your budget. You can either stay at a really expensive fancy hotel that is right in the centre of the city or go for the average hotels which may or may not have a view or be in a location that is your first choice.

It might pay to make a list of things you want to do in Sydney and turn up and do it on your own rather than pay for excursions. Sydney is easy to get around and if you had a list of places you really want to see then people will be able to help.

Further to it the Diamond Princess entered service on March 13th 2004 and the Sapphire Princess on June 13th 2004.

http://www.princess.com/news/backgrounders_and_fact_sheets/factsheet/Diamond-Princess-Fact-Sheet.html

http://www.princess.com/news/backgrounders_and_fact_sheets/factsheet/Sapphire-Princess-Fact-Sheet.html

The Diamond Princess was always to be the lead ship and Princess had to maintain it as the lead ship. So when the fire broke out on Diamond Princess it was easy to switch names with the Sapphire Princess and have the Diamond Princess enter service on schedule. In fact the orininal Sapphire Princess was ahead of schedule and repairs to the damaged Diamond Princess (renamed Sapphire Princess) was so fast that the newly named Sapphire Princess managed to enter service ahead of schedule 3 months after Diamond Princess entered service.

All the stories on wikipedia are garbage and I have taken the liberty of changing some. Their contracts and building started well before the Carnival merger when P&O was still in control of Princess. If the Carnival merger had not happened Princess might have built more ships in Japan as Carnival seemed to favour Italy and Finland to build their ships. Princess had a habbit of awarding contracts all around the world. France built the Coral and Island Princess, Japan built the Diamond and Sapphire Princess, Italy built the Sun and Grand class. The original Royal Princess was built in Finland. The Sky Princess (Pacific Sky) and the Star Princess (Arcadia, Ocean Village and Pacific Pearl) were built in France. Since the Carnival merger all ships have been built in Italy.

Its the other way around. The sapphire caught on fire and is now sailing as the Diamond.

No it was actually the Diamond Princess that caught fire and was renamed to Sapphire Princess. The reason I know is 1.) because I have cruised on Sapphire Princess for its maiden season and it was common knowledge.

The clue is the order of the ships. The order always was Diamond Princess and then Sapphire Princess. The Diamond Princess was always to be sent into service first. So when the fire occured on the original Diamond Princess it set its schedule back as the Diamond Princess was due to enter service they had to push ahead with Sapphrie Princess and it was renamed Diamond Princess to avoid changing all the paperworkd regarding the passengers.

The entry on wikipedia is wrong.

The original Diamond Princess caught fire and it is the ship we know today as Sapphrie princess the one that caught fire.

Also for reference check http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=652

and http://www.cruisemates.com/forum/chit-chat-cruisers/261607-diamond-princess-fire-photo.html

A quick google search will prove it was the original Diamond Princess that caught fire. Some imbecile has written wikipedia wrong so I will change that now.

Itineraries are published. Looks like a good opportunity to go to Japan in 2014. Diamond Princess is a great ship and I would prefer it over the Sun Princess any day.

The ship that caught fire under construction is sailing under the name Sapphire Princess as of this very day. It was to be the Diamond Princess.

I have always wanted a good cruising reason to go to Japan and looks like I just might have it next year. It says 9 days. I wish they would publish it as nights as days is a sneaky way of including embarkation and disembarkation day as a full day onboard.

I just did the helicopter ride with Blue Sky Helicopters and loved every minute of it. I now have my name down on a waitlist for a Blue Mountains flight. I was the one who booked in to see Celebrity Solstice and captured all the photographs of it. I would highly reccommend the Blue Sky helicopter people. The pilot Mark is a photographer and he owns the business and set it up with photography in mind. He flies with photography in mind and knows how to manouver the helicopter to get all the right shots.

In my opinion I would suggest the helicopter flight would be the best option for the following reasons:

1. You see more of Sydney, beaches, Opera House, Bridge, Many, Bondi, the entire harbour
   
2. You can take your own camera and use it as much as you want.
   
3. The helicopter has a window down option on the front door and doors off for the back doors. There is no wind draft that comes in.
   

Also if you do the helicopter ride there is another option regarding the bridge. It is the "Pylon Lookout" only $11.00 to enter and you climb 200 stairs to the top and you can take your own camera. http://www.pylonlookout.com.au/

From the Pylon Lookout you get to see this:

As far as capturing more sights go then the helicopter ride and pylon lookout would be the best option.

As far as the bridge climb goes it is entirely up to you. It looks like you have made up your mind slightly that you think the helicopter is the best option. I suspect you are keen to use your own camera and that may be the reason you prefer helicopter over bridge climb.

Also regarding helicopter rides if anyone is keen to share a seat then I am more than happy to pay my share to go up again to photograph cruise ships in Sydney with anyone who wants to do a private charter.

I have decided to go for the package for my upcoming cruise. I weighed up the options and figured that it would be more cost effective for me to purchase it.

1). I like fresh juice for breakfast and it is included.

2). I like soft drinks with lunch and snacks throughout the day.

3). With any alcohol I may have of an evening I calculated it would take me over the cost of the package considering I would have bought a few soft drinks earlier in the day.

It also had coffee and other sorts of non alcoholic drinks included.

Ok now the secret is out that I did a helicopter ride to see the Celebrity Solstice I can now say that I did snap the Oosterdam in dry dock. These are large as they went to facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151131911774037.453721.519959036&type=1&l=d82807aeb2

Just a quick question from someone who is a regular swimmer and loves a daily swim.

I am off on Celebrity Solstice in March 2013 and am really looking forward to it. The season will be just after summer so cooling slightly. Just wondering if Celebrity heats the pools regularly to comfortable swimming temperatures even just to get in stretch out and move around a bit. I have read some reports in the hotter places that the pools are not heated (which is probably a good thing) but am keen to hear experiences with when pools are heated and how hot.

I have noticed in recent times that one of my regular cruise lines seems to be not heating pools to save on energy consumption/fuel costs.

Its called the squat effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_effect

The Oasis of the Seas a 72m tall ship managed to fit under a 65m bridge in that manner: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Oasis_of_the_Seas

I forgot to mention that the faster the ship goes the lower she will be in the water. The Captain and Third Officer did explain this phenomenon but I did not take it in. I was also not sure we were not being treated to Dutch humour.

That is correct the faster it goes the deeper it sits in the water. Ships have made it under bridges in the Great Belt near Denmark when they are technically too high to fit under a bridge. They just go at it at full speed and hope for the best.

I hope they are right. It might be worth going down to watch. 2m is not allot of clearence considering the ship is likely to be high in the water due to all the fuel it will consume on the way over. I wonder if Vista ships can suck in ballast water to bring their hull lower in the water.

Assuming that the Captain is right then it may suggest that the height given to me by HAL on their facebook page is actually Keel to funnel rather than waterline.

Either way it is not allot of room.

On all bridge visits the dimensions should be easy to find. They need the measurements for pilotage etc. So they do know the height, width and every other measurement of the ship. My bets are on the ship not going under the bridge.

I hope it hasnt changed and if it has there would have been an announcement.

The points used to be always shared between P&O and Princess because as many are aware P&O were the owners of Princess and P&O Australia prior to the Carnival merger. Now when P&O changed to Penunsula Club they no longer recognise Princess loyalty. As far as I am aware Princess still recognise P&O and P&O Australia.

Just an update I asked on HAL's facebook page about their height and what bridges they can fit under. Not too long ago I got this response on facebook page on HAL's wall.

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Holland America Line Hello Tony! We reached out to our staff onboard the Vista class ships to find this answer for you. From the waterline to the top of the funnel the Vista class ships are approximately 58 meters high. Our Vista class ships have sailed under the Bridge of the Americas in Panama, the Lion’s Gate bridge in Vancouver, B.C., and the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, California just to name a few. We hope this information was helpful. Happy Cruising!