Ventura N924 30 August (ijmuiden, Bruges, St Peter Port) - feedback?

[Harry Peterson]

Just out of curiosity,  did this cruise visit St Peter Port as planned?

 

And did the Amsterdam shuttle buses work OK?

[the english lady]

From what was posted on FB no they couldn't tender to Guernsey.  I haven't read either of any problems with the Amsterdam shuttles either.  I know there were problems when they first started but seems to work very well now.

[Harry Peterson]

28 minutes ago, the english lady said:

From what was posted on FB no they couldn't tender to Guernsey.  I haven't read either of any problems with the Amsterdam shuttles either.  I know there were problems when they first started but seems to work very well now.

Thanks for that. Getting into St Peter Port seems rather less likely than not getting in!

 

 

[the english lady]

Interesting discussion on there on should they still include it. Obviously if they do include it they can do duty free.

There are only so many places you can go to close by, again why they include it. Some seem to get in every time they cruise and some don't.

 

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Just out of curiosity,  did this cruise visit St Peter Port as planned?

 

And did the Amsterdam shuttle buses work OK?

We got into St Peterport on Thursday 29-8-19 on the previous cruise.

 

Edited September 6, 2019 by grapau27

[Harry Peterson]

3 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

We got into St Peterport on Thursday 29-8-19.

Well done!  It's somewhere I'd like to visit but it's a very hit and miss affair. Were you on one of the smaller ships?

[grapau27]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Well done!  It's somewhere I'd like to visit but it's a very hit and miss affair. Were you on one of the smaller ships?

Ventura.

We went to Cherburg, La Corunna,Santander and St Peterport Thursday 29th August.

Graham

[kenhem]

We were due to stop at Guernsey in July on Arcadia. The captain made an announcement the day before that it may be in doubt because of weather conditions. The following morning it was decided to go ahead with the tenders as the weather had improved. After a few hours the weather turned again and the swell increased and an announcement was made that there would be no more passengers allowed to disembark and the tender operation for those returning from Guernsey was suspended. There were some unfortunate passengers stuck on a tender which had left the harbour point but not yet reached the ship when the decision was made to suspend the tender operation, they were stuck for 2 hours bobbing about on the tender until conditions improved as they couldn't return to the harbour either. Fortunately they were able eventually to get all passengers who went ashore back on board.

[brian1]

Posting from Marella Explorer with city terminal wifi in Amsterdam.I really can't understand Carnivals attitude.8 Euro extra passed on to passengers,no big deal.Customer satisfaction is worth more than principles.

[bee-ess]

17 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Posting from Marella Explorer with city terminal wifi in Amsterdam.I really can't understand Carnivals attitude.8 Euro extra passed on to passengers,no big deal.Customer satisfaction is worth more than principles.

 

I agree - we would happily pay the 8 Euro each rather than faff about with the shuttles.

I'm sure that everyone would as long as it was explained at booking time.

[Old_tilly_billy]

The shuttles worked perfectly well. There were slight queues on arrival but after an hour or so no queues whatsoever. There were at least 15 coaches on arrival. No problems on return either. 

 

We did  miss St Peter port because of high winds which were forecast  again the Captain made an announcement the day before questioning if we would be able to tender. I would like to have a backup port call and make the decision earlier than on the day. 3 sea days on a 7 day cruise is a bit much   

[Harry Peterson]

44 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Posting from Marella Explorer with city terminal wifi in Amsterdam.I really can't understand Carnivals attitude.8 Euro extra passed on to passengers,no big deal.Customer satisfaction is worth more than principles.

 

23 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

 

I agree - we would happily pay the 8 Euro each rather than faff about with the shuttles.

I'm sure that everyone would as long as it was explained at booking time.

Too right. We cancelled because of the Ijmuiden fiasco (having booked it when it was advertised as docking in Amsterdam) but had it been just a case of paying a few Euros we'd not have done so.

 

So to have only actually called at one of the three advertised ports would from our point of view have been an utter waste of money. 

[grapau27]

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

Posting from Marella Explorer with city terminal wifi in Amsterdam.I really can't understand Carnivals attitude.8 Euro extra passed on to passengers,no big deal.Customer satisfaction is worth more than principles.

I agree.

[AndyMichelle]

5 hours ago, kenhem said:

We were due to stop at Guernsey in July on Arcadia. The captain made an announcement the day before that it may be in doubt because of weather conditions. The following morning it was decided to go ahead with the tenders as the weather had improved. After a few hours the weather turned again and the swell increased and an announcement was made that there would be no more passengers allowed to disembark and the tender operation for those returning from Guernsey was suspended. There were some unfortunate passengers stuck on a tender which had left the harbour point but not yet reached the ship when the decision was made to suspend the tender operation, they were stuck for 2 hours bobbing about on the tender until conditions improved as they couldn't return to the harbour either. Fortunately they were able eventually to get all passengers who went ashore back on board.

We had a similar experience on Aurora in June.

We got in to St Peter Port, but took one look at the swell and decided to stay on board.

People were literally being thrown on/off the tender and many were stuck for quite a while when the tenders were suspended.

In fairness to Captain Turnbull, the sea was calm when we anchored and he managed it very well.

Watching that has put us off tender ports.

Andy

[eddie11]

The time I’ve been most frightened in a tender was St Peter Port.

Up and down range, for folk trying to leave the tender and reboard the ship, was probably 5’.  Horrified watching a Dad trying to hand his bulky, maybe 30 months to 3 yo, over to shipboard crew

We were ?lucky, being well back in the tender and not required to leave for 30 minutes or so.  It was a bit quieter then and I was happy to accept all helping hands

 

It’s far from the easiest tender port

[Clodia]

When I got into St Peter Port I almost wished I hadn't. Terrifying ride in both directions. Mine was the last tender before operations were suspended, and we bobbed up and down for ages before we could get off. People being sick all over the place, screaming, shouting. Wouldn't do it again. Apparently even in relatively calm seas the strait between the island and where the ships anchor is always tricky. That was on Azura a couple of years ago.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Clodia
typos

[grapau27]

13 hours ago, eddie11 said:

The time I’ve been most frightened in a tender was St Peter Port.

Up and down range, for folk trying to leave the tender and reboard the ship, was probably 5’.  Horrified watching a Dad trying to hand his bulky, maybe 30 months to 3 yo, over to shipboard crew

We were ?lucky, being well back in the tender and not required to leave for 30 minutes or so.  It was a bit quieter then and I was happy to accept all helping hands

 

It’s far from the easiest tender port

Several years ago we encountered 8-10 feet tender movement at At St Peterport and 1 person only was getting off each time the tender moved up which was risky for everyone.

On Ventura they have a little moving bridge to cross which negates 1-2 feet of movement of the tender.

[Host Sharon]

While I have only managed to get ashore in Guernsey twice out of 4 calls, when I did manage it the seas were pretty OK. On one of the calls I missed they were tendering in the morning only as the forecast for the afternoon was deteriorating so I didn't bother, so only 1 call technically missed and that was on QE2. I note Arcadia is also using a small "bridge" with her tenders and it does make life a lot easier.

[the english lady]

For those that are still moaning about Amsterdam. The Mayor and council there do not want the cruise ships there. They imposed the tax to try and put them off. Same as Venice, same as Barcelona. While people could just get off wander round a couple of hours, go back on board  for lunch, then come off for another wander, they are not spending money, but costing the town money.At least if you have a 40 minute journey, you might actually spend some money buying lunch ashore. Buying a couple of souvenirs does not make up for the damage that 1000s of cruise passengers do.

[Harry Peterson]

12 minutes ago, the english lady said:

For those that are still moaning about Amsterdam. The Mayor and council there do not want the cruise ships there. They imposed the tax to try and put them off. Same as Venice, same as Barcelona. While people could just get off wander round a couple of hours, go back on board  for lunch, then come off for another wander, they are not spending money, but costing the town money.At least if you have a 40 minute journey, you might actually spend some money buying lunch ashore. Buying a couple of souvenirs does not make up for the damage that 1000s of cruise passengers do.

All true of course, and you can see exactly where they’re coming from - as with Venice.

 

Nevertheless, for a pretty trivial 8 Euros per person per day it would have been possible to completely transform the visit by docking in Amsterdam rather than Ijmuiden. That was what was sold, and that was what should have been provided.

[brian1]

Amsterdam welcomes cruise passengers,they make lots of money from them,regardless of eating lunch ashore or not.The locals do more "damage" dropping their dogends everywhere.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, the english lady said:

For those that are still moaning about Amsterdam. The Mayor and council there do not want the cruise ships there. They imposed the tax to try and put them off. Same as Venice, same as Barcelona. While people could just get off wander round a couple of hours, go back on board  for lunch, then come off for another wander, they are not spending money, but costing the town money.At least if you have a 40 minute journey, you might actually spend some money buying lunch ashore. Buying a couple of souvenirs does not make up for the damage that 1000s of cruise passengers do.

I assume that you have stopped cruising or intend to, if that is your true belief.

[Harry Peterson]

11 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Amsterdam welcomes cruise passengers,they make lots of money from them,regardless of eating lunch ashore or not.The locals do more "damage" dropping their dogends everywhere.

Not true I’m afraid. Compared with tourists who stay overnight, cruise passengers spend very little in the city. 

 

Amsterdam is grossly overvisited now, and it can well afford to pick and choose. It’s an affluent city that can manage quite well without tourism, and most of the locals would happily see an end to it. The 8 Euros charge is perfectly fair and reasonable as a compromise.

 

I’m assuming your dogend comment is just a joke.

[the english lady]

2 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I assume that you have stopped cruising or intend to, if that is your true belief.

Very nearly. Age and health.

However more and more places are realising that welcoming 1000's of people for 6 hours is a double edged sword and some places have decided that the money that may be spent is far out weighed by what it is actually costing them. 

Barcelona and Venice and Dubrovnik, the locals do not appear to want the cruise ships visiting in such great numbers. I am sure the places will increase. As the ships increase in size the places they can visit (and be welcome) will reduce.

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

All true of course, and you can see exactly where they’re coming from - as with Venice.

 

Nevertheless, for a pretty trivial 8 Euros per person per day it would have been possible to completely transform the visit by docking in Amsterdam rather than Ijmuiden. That was what was sold, and that was what should have been provided.

When we couldn't get into Amsterdam on our new years eve cruise 2015 it was because of strong winds and Ventura doesn't have azipods so couldn't safely navigate the canal into Amsterdam.

The following new years eve there was no wind and we got into Amsterdam.

I would happily pay the supplement to dock in the centre of Amsterdam.