Compulsory offshore excursions due to Covid with P&O

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, WECRUISEUK said:

It's all based on educated guesswork.

Or in the case of a high percentage of the public including our 'betters' it is uneducated guesswork.

[Windsurfboy]

10 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Or in the case of a high percentage of the public including our 'betters' it is uneducated guesswork.

Who needs to be able to add up when you can speak latin 

[ScratchTheRat]

Why is everyone thinking Tuesday? Is Tuesday special in some way? 🙂

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, ScratchTheRat said:

Why is everyone thinking Tuesday? Is Tuesday special in some way? 🙂

Tuesday is the day when P&O normally issue news about future cancellations. 

[joeecco]

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Tuesday is the day when P&O normally issue news about future cancellations. 

I really hope I’m wrong because I just want to know the latest but I can’t see them announcing anything until the week after Boris’s roadmap now they’ve left it this close to the 22nd Feb announcement.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, joeecco said:

I really hope I’m wrong because I just want to know the latest but I can’t see them announcing anything until the week after Boris’s roadmap now they’ve left it this close to the 22nd Feb announcement.

You may be right, but Moley did say that Gala 2 would be named shortly, and that P&O would want to get the bad news out of the way first.

[Selbourne]

24 minutes ago, joeecco said:

I really hope I’m wrong because I just want to know the latest but I can’t see them announcing anything until the week after Boris’s roadmap now they’ve left it this close to the 22nd Feb announcement.

I fear that the reality is that the P&O announcement will purely be about the next batch of cancellations (probably around 2 months worth, as they cancel them in batches of that sort of volume). As we know, if they cancel until, say, the end of June, that doesn’t mean that cruises will start in July, just that they minimise their hit to cash flow by just cancelling just two months at a time. I would think that next weeks road map is highly unlikely to give a start date to cruises, so will have no relevance to what P&O does. 

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, ScratchTheRat said:

Why is everyone thinking Tuesday? Is Tuesday special in some way? 🙂

Pancakes!

[Eddie99]

🥞 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, joeecco said:

I really hope I’m wrong because I just want to know the latest but I can’t see them announcing anything until the week after Boris’s roadmap now they’ve left it this close to the 22nd Feb announcement.

I did notice on the news that Boris was giving a Downing Street press conference today at 5pm so there could be some small hints then. Maybe😏

Avril

[grapau27]

2 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

I did notice on the news that Boris was giving a Downing Street press conference today at 5pm so there could be some small hints then. Maybe😏

Avril

Today was the target to get the top 4 cohorts vaccinated so I think that will be what today's briefing will be about.

[FangedRose]

On 2/2/2021 at 3:38 PM, joeecco said:

So at what point do we get back to some sort of normal? We can’t spend the rest of our lives  running off if someone gets a little close. 

Yes we can. I can quite happily.

[FangedRose]

On 2/2/2021 at 5:08 PM, majortom10 said:

Well if that is the case and will be there position then I am afraid many people, including myself, will be very upset and can see many more not ever sailing with P&O again and a minority will take legal action giving P&O more bad publicity. My next cruise on Arcadia in August which was booked in Sept/Oct 2019 way before Covid if P&O cancel then I will want a cash refund of my deposit and not FCC. If they dont cancel and refuse to return my cash deposit and expect me to either stay on the ship for 19nts or book their "bubbled" excursions then I will be definitely taking legal action.

You won't be cruising with anybody. All cruise companies will be enforcing very similar protocols.

[jeanlyon]

Yes I'm afraid so.  I won't be cruising under those conditions.

[mercury7289]

A good number of guests on the cruises that we have taken, are disabled and use wheelchairs and a good number of them are unable to walk into a coach

I wonder how the bubble excursions will work for them?

[mercury7289]

8 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

A good number of guests on the cruises that we have taken, are disabled and use wheelchairs and a good number of them are unable to walk into a coach

I wonder how the bubble excursions will work for them?

Should have added that the normal Mercedes type vans, which are used in many ports and take 4 wheelchairs would constitute a hazard in regard to social distancing.

What are P&O Protocols regarding this issue?

Any thoughts?

[Selbourne]

24 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

A good number of guests on the cruises that we have taken, are disabled and use wheelchairs and a good number of them are unable to walk into a coach

I wonder how the bubble excursions will work for them?

I wondered about this as well. Until around 5 years ago I was able to get my wife onto a coach by lifting her legs up the steps, one at a time, but it was always stressful trying to ensure that we secured seats at the front as she couldn’t move along through the coach and often elderly passengers (not particularly disabled, beyond a walking stick), had nabbed them. She can’t support herself long enough for me to do that now, so coaches are out. We now prefer to look around ports on our own, as I am able to push her around without any challenges or embarrassment. 
 

Just one of the reasons (masks being another) why we have said from the outset that we don’t intend to cruise again until on board restrictions are lifted, so that we wouldn’t have to face these issues. 

[Eddie99]

I’m sure you won’t be the only one to eschew cruising for practical reasons Selbourne, as well as aesthetic ones

The new procedures, as far as we know them, together with memories of less than hygienic habits from other guests, will prevent us booking for the foreseeable future.

We might even save our cruising pennies for one ‘meaningful’ cruise per year and go for one of the 6* lines.  However, they are almost exclusively fly-cruises and the leisurely, stress free, start from Southampton (or another southern port) is a big plus

[mercury7289]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I wondered about this as well. Until around 5 years ago I was able to get my wife onto a coach by lifting her legs up the steps, one at a time, but it was always stressful trying to ensure that we secured seats at the front as she couldn’t move along through the coach and often elderly passengers (not particularly disabled, beyond a walking stick), had nabbed them. She can’t support herself long enough for me to do that now, so coaches are out. We now prefer to look around ports on our own, as I am able to push her around without any challenges or embarrassment. 
 

Just one of the reasons (masks being another) why we have said from the outset that we don’t intend to cruise again until on board restrictions are lifted, so that we wouldn’t have to face these issues. 

Selbourne, as you are aware, we are in the same situation, and have the same challenges, we have not seen any details from cruise company's, regarding addressing this important issue

[terrierjohn]

9 minutes ago, mercury7289 said:

Selbourne, as you are aware, we are in the same situation, and have the same challenges, we have not seen any details from cruise company's, regarding addressing this important issue

We are in the same boat (no pun intended) and the numbers of passengers who need accessible shore excursions are a very small percentage of the total, so it's no surprise that P&O have not addressed this issue yet.

However by the time cruising restarts most of these passengers will have probably had both jabs and, if the vaccine has protected us from serious illness, then social distancing will probably not be of such significance.  So the standard Mercedes Sprinters should still be viable, however I wonder if P&O will be prepared to offer these at a lower than normal rate.

[tring]

17 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

I’m sure you won’t be the only one to eschew cruising for practical reasons Selbourne, as well as aesthetic ones

The new procedures, as far as we know them, together with memories of less than hygienic habits from other guests, will prevent us booking for the foreseeable future.

We might even save our cruising pennies for one ‘meaningful’ cruise per year and go for one of the 6* lines.  However, they are almost exclusively fly-cruises and the leisurely, stress free, start from Southampton (or another southern port) is a big plus

 

The occasional good cruise on one of the smaller up market ships is what we think may be our future along with no cruise holidays.

However our idea of a leisurely, no stress start would be a flight from Manchester, if necessary with stop offs or airport hotels during the journey to ensure daytime flights only.  The journey to Southampton is far more stressful and can also mean unesseccary sailing which can be in bad sea conditions.  Can possibly see your point if you live near Southampton.

[Eddie99]

Yes we do

We appreciate what an advantage this is

[mercury7289]

Sorry, totally disagree. each guest should be dealt with on there merit, not viewed as a small part on the whole.It is not a cost issue in MHO cost equals choice. Cruising is paused officially until 26th April ,final balance though TA shortly becoming due, for cruises after that date, so issue is very relevant at this time, is it a cruise to no where for these guests? If so no choice! Answers needed!

[terrierjohn]

39 minutes ago, tring said:

 

The occasional good cruise on one of the smaller up market ships is what we think may be our future along with no cruise holidays.

However our idea of a leisurely, no stress start would be a flight from Manchester, if necessary with stop offs or airport hotels during the journey to ensure daytime flights only.  The journey to Southampton is far more stressful and can also mean unesseccary sailing which can be in bad sea conditions.  Can possibly see your point if you live near Southampton.

Strange how we are all different, I quite enjoy the drive down to Southampton, makes a change from the short journeys we normally do from home.  But we always stay overnight in or near Southampton to avoid any stress that motorway delays might create. Similarly we quite enjoy the first 2 or 3 sea days, which lets us relax into our cruise, which we try to ensure is at least 12 nights to make it worthwhile, but I do agree that this is much better if the weather is warm and sunny, I guess it's just as well that we don't mind travelling to Southampton, because we can no longer fly.

 

[Ardennais]

I wish Southampton was closer but we don’t really mind the drive down. We also like the first few sea days too - it’s a chance to switch off from work and ease ourselves into the cruise.