Another cruise programme

[Ray66]

ITV - Thursday 2nd July

 

Billion Pound Cruises: All at Sea

 

Documentary exploring how the coronavirus pandemic brought the £129bn cruise industry to its knees and hundreds of ships around the world to a standstill over the course of six extraordinary weeks.

 

It seems to be focusing mainly on the Diamond Princess fiasco.

 

[jocap]

Thanks... I book that tomorrow, when next week's programmes are available.

[babs135]

I'll watch it, if only to see how fair it will be or just another cruise industry bashing programme.  

[sandancer]

Well I watched and certainly felt like a cruise bashing programme. Princess mainly. 

[AidenL]

19 hours ago, sandancer said:

Well I watched and certainly felt like a cruise bashing programme. Princess mainly. 

We watched it last night too, and I would tend to agree. It was a fast moving situation during those days in March. 

[jocap]

And they quoted the Cruise Critic poll towards the end, about future cruising.

I agree that it was so fast moving in March, and no-one had the answers... I felt that the captain and crew on board every ship did the very best they could at the time.

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, jocap said:

I felt that the captain and crew on board every ship did the very best they could at the time.

 

With a few unfortunate exceptions this is often the case. However, from experience, the Master and crew are often let down badly by shore managers.🙁

[babs135]

It was an interesting programme!  One could only sympathise with those involved in the Diamond Princess debacle.  At that particular point in time nobody really fully understood the magnitude of what was unfolding and how to handle it;  however could the same be said for other lines?  HAL are now having to face a class action suit over the way they dealt with the Zaandam and I'm surprised, knowing how quick the Americans like to sue!, that there aren't more suits.  Maybe they are still to come.

 

But what about those passengers who were still booking despite DP's predicament and I put myself in this category?  Ill health through 2019 had meant a cancelled cruise and no chance of any sort of holiday but by late January 2020 we were given the all clear to resume holidays and we rushed to the travel agent who found us a super deal - four nights in Miami and a week's cruise to the Caribbean in February.  We booked just 10 days before flying out to the States.  At the time of booking we knew about the Diamond Princess but we were so desperate for a holiday that it didn't permeate through to us that there was the potential for a problem.  As it happened we had a great time and as far as I'm aware no one was ill - Symphony of the Seas.  Maybe we were just lucky.

 

Should the travel agent have drawn our attention to what was happening?  Did she even know?  

 

[nosapphire]

5 hours ago, babs135 said:

It was an interesting programme!  One could only sympathise with those involved in the Diamond Princess debacle.  At that particular point in time nobody really fully understood the magnitude of what was unfolding and how to handle it;  however could the same be said for other lines?  HAL are now having to face a class action suit over the way they dealt with the Zaandam and I'm surprised, knowing how quick the Americans like to sue!, that there aren't more suits.  Maybe they are still to come.

 

But what about those passengers who were still booking despite DP's predicament and I put myself in this category?  Ill health through 2019 had meant a cancelled cruise and no chance of any sort of holiday but by late January 2020 we were given the all clear to resume holidays and we rushed to the travel agent who found us a super deal - four nights in Miami and a week's cruise to the Caribbean in February.  We booked just 10 days before flying out to the States.  At the time of booking we knew about the Diamond Princess but we were so desperate for a holiday that it didn't permeate through to us that there was the potential for a problem.  As it happened we had a great time and as far as I'm aware no one was ill - Symphony of the Seas.  Maybe we were just lucky.

 

Should the travel agent have drawn our attention to what was happening?  Did she even know?  

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when the news was starting to come out I think most of us knew about it, and simply thought it was something happening the other side of the world, would not cause us any problems.

We all know better now, but then - we would not have worried about it at all.