J708 - Current Arcadia cruise-what's going on!?

[Vickitoria10]

My in laws are on this cruise, it's the last port tomorrow before returning to Southampton but it's been eventful! They've had 3 known medical emergencies, 2 which have required a helicopter to airlift a crew member and a passenger. They have an aft suite and both times had to vacate their cabin for safety. The first time was at 2am, they had to go to the belvedere restaurant where phones were banned and the flood/fire doors shut! They were out until about 3am. They've had it again tonight but went to the show as their cabin was out of bounds. They saw the other emergency taken off by ambulance. Sadly too they've also seen someone taken off the ship who didn't make it. It's been quite a cruise! They have been on many cruises and never known so many emergencies!

 

 

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[jh1809]

Poor them! Hopefully P&O will make offer something in recompense, such as a free bottle of champagne or maybe extra OBC.

 

If I ever feel wealthy enough to book a suite, I'll know now not to choose one that's aft.

[my marina bay]

My in laws are on this cruise, it's been eventful! . They have an aft suite and both times had to vacate their cabin for safety. The first time was at 2am, they had to go to the belvedere restaurant where phones were banned and the flood/fire doors shut! They were out until about 3am. They've had it again tonight but went to the show as their cabin was out of bounds.!

 

 

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That's a worry. Where other aft passengers evacuated in the middle of the night or just them? It sounds like a security issue to me.

[Selbourne]

We have an aft suite booked on Arcadia for next summer. I'm looking forward to it a little less now!

[daiB]

Selbourne we are talking of something very rare. I have never been on s cruise either a helicopter evac.

 

From what I have read they move people in case the helicopter crashes.

 

5 of our next 7 cruises are at the stern.

 

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[cruiser1955]

That's a worry. Where other aft passengers evacuated in the middle of the night or just them? It sounds like a security issue to me.

 

Happened to me on Arcadia in 2011 or 2012 on the last night of the cruise, just after midnight, as we were nearing Dover. All cabins aft of the aft lifts were evacuated before the Dover coastguard helicopter could land. Stewards and staff made sure everyone was out of their cabins. If I remember, they put a sign on cabins as they were evacuated. It is a safety issue in case of an accident with the helicopter.

 

As DiaB says, it is a rare occurrence.

[AnnieC]

Selbourne we are talking of something very rare. I have never been on s cruise either a helicopter evac.

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Never!!?? I've been on 20 cruises and have had a helivac on five of them, so 25% (and a medivac diversion on four). Perhaps I'm just unlucky, or rather perhaps some of those who travel on my cruises are!

[daiB]

In that case Annie, I think you should let us know which cruises you are booking so we can avoid them.

 

:) :) :)

 

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[davecttr]

There was a hele medivac last week from Azura on leaving Olden. I have also been aboard when others occurred. IMO they are more common than we think if you include all cruises worldwide.

[Caravancruisers]

Also had a helivac, mid North Sea several years ago (our first ever cruise...we were riveted!) and a medivac whilst at anchor in Norway another time.

Me thinks it is quite common.

[daiB]

There was a hele medivac last week from Azura on leaving Olden. I have also been aboard when others occurred. IMO they are more common than we think if you include all cruises worldwide.

Medivac's yes but not involving a helicopter.

 

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[Morgans]

Poor them! Hopefully P&O will make offer something in recompense, such as a free bottle of champagne or maybe extra OBC.

 

.

 

I'm not sure that compensation is appropriate in these circumstances for someone asked to move from their cabin. Just be glad it's not you being carried off the ship !

[Selbourne]

I'm not sure that compensation is appropriate in these circumstances for someone asked to move from their cabin. Just be glad it's not you being carried off the ship !

 

I think it's entirely appropriate. However justified it may be, to be asked to vacate your cabin at 2am in the morning during your hard earned and extremely expensive cruise is worthy of a financial gesture from a multi million pound business.

[pete14]

I'm not sure that compensation is appropriate in these circumstances for someone asked to move from their cabin. Just be glad it's not you being carried off the ship !

 

I think it was unfortunate that bottle of fizz or OBC was mentioned in the first post. I am sure it was not intended to look that way but I have to say that if anybody has to be taken off by helicopter, thoughts should be for their welfare, not compensation. Had P&O been in error, there may be more of a case but moving people out of cabins as a safety measure is a sign of them doing things right. Why anybody thinks they should be entitled to compensation in those circumstances defeats me I'm afraid.

[tartanexile81]

In the past three years we've had two helicopter medevacs. One in the North Sea and one in the Atlantic off Canada. We've had numerous unscheduled stops to drop off poorly passengers, the last one as recently as Britannia in June where we called at Skagen in Denmark.

[jh1809]

I'm not sure that compensation is appropriate in these circumstances for someone asked to move from their cabin. Just be glad it's not you being carried off the ship !

 

I think it was unfortunate that bottle of fizz or OBC was mentioned in the first post. I am sure it was not intended to look that way but I have to say that if anybody has to be taken off by helicopter, thoughts should be for their welfare, not compensation. Had P&O been in error, there may be more of a case but moving people out of cabins as a safety measure is a sign of them doing things right. Why anybody thinks they should be entitled to compensation in those circumstances defeats me I'm afraid.

 

I wasn't intending to imply that they were entitled to any compensation since, as you say, P&O had done nothing wrong and obviously handled the matter correctly. However being woken up in the middle of the night and being forced to vacate their cabin must have been an unpleasant experience, even though obviously minor in comparison to the poor person who had to be airlifted off, and I thought that it would be an appropriate gesture on P&O's part. Selbourne has made the point for me better than I have done.

[davecttr]

I think it's entirely appropriate. However justified it may be, to be asked to vacate your cabin at 2am in the morning during your hard earned and extremely expensive cruise is worthy of a financial gesture from a multi million pound business.

 

They moved you out of your cabin for your safety, not their convenience, or your profit.

[Selbourne]

They moved you out of your cabin for your safety, not their convenience, or your profit.

 

Not me. I wasn't on the ship. I was merely supporting the person who had suggested that some compensation was in order given that somebody had challenged that assertion. However, I do feel that your point is not relevant to this specific issue I'm afraid. Nobody was suggesting that they shouldn't have evacuated the passenger or that P&O shouldn't have vacated the cabins. Of course it is not P&O's fault, but neither is it the fault of the affected passengers that their nights sleep was disrupted as a result. This did not affect the whole ship, just a number of cabins at the aft. P&O making a gesture to apologise for the disruption would have no impact on the viability of the company but would have been appreciated by the affected passengers. I fail to see any substance whatsoever to the arguement that suggests that thinking that this is a sensible business approach in some way means that you have no regard for the ill passenger.

[davecttr]

Apologies for thinking it was you.

[Eglesbrech]

There do appear to be many, many more of these heli evacuations than there were in the past. Now it seems to be virtually every other cruise (Dai you need to avoid the cruises I go on as well:))

 

I don't know why this is the case, perhaps the demographics on ships have changed, health and safety legislation or the policy of what can be treated in the ship has, who knows.

 

They never used to move people out of cabins when this happened, only announced that you should keep off the balcony and public areas. We sat in our cabin and looked out the door and could see the helicopter coming in.

 

We often select aft cabins so we would have been affected if they had evacuated this area.

 

On a lighter note I can only imagine the scene of those coming out of cabins in the middle of the night, I don't look my best in my tartan jammies and hair sticking up (I am also extremely grumpy if I don't get my sleep). Bet you there were some sights to see.

[Josy1953]

I think it's entirely appropriate. However justified it may be, to be asked to vacate your cabin at 2am in the morning during your hard earned and extremely expensive cruise is worthy of a financial gesture from a multi million pound business.

We like the cabins looking out onto the wake and consequently have had to evacuate our cabin during the night on 2 occasions because there were helicopter evacuations and we have also been prevented from going to our cabin for a day time evacuation. It never entered my mind to think that we should be given compensation, none of us know if we will be the next unfortunate passenger. It is rare for these types of evacuations to take place, we have been diverted to ports several times and we have been on ships met at the next scheduled port by ambulances and I think that the ships prefer to offload passengers at a port unless it is a case of life or death.

[annieuk]

I am truly amazed that anyone would think they were entitled to any form of compensation for having to leave their cabin during the night as someone was being medivaced off by helicopter! We have experienced one such evacuation and we too were in an aft suite on Arcadia but it wasn't during the night so people were asked not to go out on deck or on balconies at the aft of the ship. My thought would be - the poor person, so grateful it's not me. Just think of what we've read recently of people rushing to help others in some of the terror attacks, and some putting themselves in danger. I'm sure they didn't expect any recognition of what they did.

 

These medical emergencies do happen on ships, that's why we all need to ensure that our travel insurance covers us for such an eventuality. These days some people seem to expect compensation in some form every time something unplanned occurs - it seems unfortunately becoming the norm in our 'blame' society.

[AdeAfloat]

Whilst commiserating with the need to evacuate the cabin in the stern of the ship we were given a sensible explanation when it happened to us on a recent cruise to Iceland in Arcadia. Having been on Fred Olsen ships in the past when helivacs occurred, I was always surprised that a large flying machine, usually with hundreds of litres of high octane fuel aboard, was allowed to hover over dozens of gawping passengers. The thought of what might happen in the event of it crashing on the ship was appalling. Thankfully P&O, and no doubt Fred, now ensure that the implications of this happening are minimised by evacuation.

[daiB]

Even to consider compensation for this is beyond believe.

 

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[Eglesbrech]

Looking at this from the other side of the equation there is of course an element of personal responsibility that we all have not to travel if we are aware that we are not fit to do so.

 

Before people shout me down I know that things can and do just happen with no prior knowledge (heart attacks, burst appendix etc etc) however think about all the noro cases that the ships blame on passengers falsifying the information they put on their medical forms? They travel when they know doing so will affect the health and convenience of others.

 

It feels like people are more selfish in this day and age. As an example we were on a flight where an older gentleman took a bad turn and everyone on the plane was sympathetic with the resultant diversion and inconvenience until we found out that he had travelled against medical advice and had recently been discharged from hospital.

 

While quite correctly this made no difference to what the crew did to assist a sick man, it did materially change the attitude of those on the plane!