molecrochip

Iona is the biggest ship to ever be scheduled to call at the SeaWalk. Unusually with the SeaWalk, the ship is at anchor rather than tied to the quay/moorings. Therefore, I believe the SeaWalk requires seas to be slight as the ships must also switch of their engines when alongside. Suggestion is that the sea conditions have not been right and there is now questions as to whether there will ever be the correct conditions.

And if it helps, I hear that those who test positive on board Azura, are not disembarked but remain on board in quarantine until they are negative and then generally fly back from Malta, the next time the ships calls.

I'm talking UK numbers. But I'm told that the ship's numbers are following the trends of the home port country. I don't have specific numbers.

Unlikely, the incidence of Covid has dropped dramatically. The latest reported data on positive cases were the lowest they have been since May 2021. You are now more likely to catch one of the nasty cough & colds that are going around than Covid.

This isn't uncommon and depends on scheduled / available berth. I can't remember the port but we were due to berth with the quay to our East. The wind was coming from the East and the captain deemed it too dangerous. There was a spare passenger dock which put the quay to our South East and this was attempted. The captain confirmed that by leaving his engines on, driving at the dock, he could safely maintain position. as the different angle reduced the force of the wind enough. The next ship in (smaller) couldn't dock at their scheduled position - and by now there was no spare passenger docks available. They missed the port. I can't confirm its a one-off but do understand its temporary and is related to the Sea Walk therefore outside of P&O control.

LNG tanker usually comes from just north of Bergen and transfer is undertaken at Haugesund. It’s the only port Iona calls at that they can bunker from a ship of sufficient size. At the moment there is no LNG facility at Southampton so still has to come in from another location. It was coming from Rotterdam. Whilst in Southampton, Iona bunkers diesel. The two operations cannot take place at the same time and there’s not enough time to do both on the same day.

Not unusual in hotel circles either. Most chain hotels are owned by third parties. When they change brand, usually a hotel is debranded the last day of operation for said brand. At midnight it leaves an unbranded hotel full of guests. In some cases guests are told in advance, but not always. At least one major operator keeps hotels on their website up until 23:59 local time as they profit from every direct booking. Oceana didn’t go to Newcastle for stripping - she went as it was cheap berthing. Same as Azura. Less crew required on static ship. Oceana was called back from Newcastle early to be unloaded in Southampton. Azura took her place. Not that much gets unloaded. Hotel IT/Stock/Branded items mainly. Most other stuff transfers and is included within valuation. I remember the sale of Oriana specifically including the 7 or 8 grand pianos! Aurora still expected to H&W for dry dock. I understand the rumour about cleaning, repairing and painting the hull may be true.

On Britannia there are on the portrait wall mounted TV screens for the current day.

Not so. ATOL requires a flight to be part of the package. ATOL then protects that booking by levying a fee which P&O pickup. Something like £2. Until you have a form booking, you don’t have a flight reservation thus no ATOL protection. The ABTA scheme is a bonding of the agent client account. If booking direct P&O act as supplier and Travel Agent. The bonding protects against failure whatever stage of the process holds the money. Both schemes were relaxed slightly to cover FCCs during the pandemic.

Lots of rumours about both adults only ships. No smoke without fire… hmm. What I will say is that sold doesn’t mean immediately going. If sold at all! Branding issues may also play a factor in the final reckoning.

Hearing it could be a problem with sea walk or one of the moorings. There are a number of other ships crossed through that have cancelled calls.

P&O never stopped calling at Amsterdam. They just got very selective. Most ships didn't but some did. In a post covid world, its easier (and safer?) to dock in Amsterdam and with ships not at full capacity, the economics between paying for a fleet of coaches v paying the tax is not as stark. Also, I believe the original proposal was tax was due on the full passenger capacity irrespective of if the ship was full. Not its actual guest loading.

Sorry, misread. But should be available

The OP said in their follow up post that a refund or rebook was available. So nothing to defend.

But enough cash that they could pay that Pandemic debt off. They just chose not to. And my 2017 was just an example to make the point that the ship if market was decided long before the Pandemic. All our choices may have been different if we had forseen a 2 year pandemic.

Right, R201N was a very unusual case. Lots of learnings there for the company. They are not ignoring the problems but its important to sift out the general complaints from real issues. For most who had a bad cruise, the acknowledgement that they weren't happy together with the 25% back will be sufficient. If you have a specific issue then please go back to them by email.

UK based ships have eased mask restrictions again - sorry my info was a week out of date! However, Azura is currently Malta based so has to abide local restrictions.

So the Limelight acts on Iona appear to change on a Monday and then do a week on Iona (across two cruises). It may be that one of your acts has had to pull out so their replacement cannot yet be confirmed. Re theatre shows: Iona has two different Headliners shows per week cruise. Festival is bookable in advance and the other is bookable once on board. SkyDome performances also bookable once on board. Some are weather dependent so cannot be confirmed 4 weeks out (too much motion makes acrobatics etc. difficult/dangerous).

Except the decision was taken in, say, 2017 and no one predicted a pandemic.

Sorry you won't be booking P&O again - bye bye. No one is ignoring your emails or messages, they are just being dealt with in order of receipt and clearly they have not got to yours yet. If you want to use the FCC there is a process to sort it out so that you can make your booking. No one is ignoring your calls either - they are busy on other calls. The admin staff are amazing however there is not enough of them and they are stretched thin. They are trying their best and more staff are being recruited to support them every week. Please bear in mind that this is a company that has had $billions of losses through no fault of its own over the past two years so throwing money at extra staff is not a simple decision. So be annoyed that the entire process start to finish is taking too long, but don't attack the staff who are trying their best

Re mask mandate in the theatre: P&O have a duty to their stage performers who a performing without masks as much as they do to their passengers. They reasonably discharge this duty by enforcing the mask rule on entry/prior to lights out.

Masks must be worn in the embarkation terminal until you are on the ship. This is because there may be people in the embarkation terminal who are unknowingly positive. Beyond that, mid-cruise embarkation/debarkation follows local rules. Back at the final terminal for final debarkation, it is strongly recommended. But if like me, you managed to pack your pile of mask/disembarkation documentation in your suitcase the night before, you'll find that they still let you off without issue.

On the app, yes. But call the holiday helpline or visit reception or the theatre podium before the show and its fine.

Do consider that some of the Facebook groups are run by travel agents who may be moderating the content.

Lift restrictions went at the end of March if not earlier. At same time, all seats in Theatre in use except for front row. Theatre, Cinema, Spa and Medical Centre still require masks. Sounds like either a trial or misunderstanding on Britannia. The reason for taking cabin numbers on the way in to the Theatre is to match against bookings - its not Covid related. There has been some good feedback re the bookings for the Theatre as opposed to those who used to turn up and not get seats.