British Isles cruises from UK - ports of call issue, visit ashore are restricted.

[WeeCountyMan]

Apologies in advance if this has been flagged up elsewhere already, however it may be of interest to potential UK clients not yet aware.

 

Princess are offering cruises around the British Isles - but only those who sign up for ship organised excursions will be allowed ashore.

 

 

 

 

[majortom10]

I think most people had guessed that was going to happen as realistically they were never going to let people off the ship and wander around even if vaccinated.

[Tak8]

I understand the rationale.  Hopefully Princess will expand shore offerings since they are the only game in town.

[cbowls30]

this seems like an odd thing to do. 

The cruises are for UK people only who can prove  they have a vaccination, so why are they restricting shore excursions to only UK ports? sounds bizarre.

[dwhe]

7 hours ago, majortom10 said:

I think most people had guessed that was going to happen as realistically they were never going to let people off the ship and wander around even if vaccinated.

It smacks of Princess trying to pull in more money by making us take their excursions.

 

The cruises that demand this are for vaccinated UK cruisers only, all port calls will be in the UK.

 

The Government are talking about lifting all restrictions for UK residents in June (all being well) so why are Princess stopping us going ashore on our own in September, even on organised excursions you will mix with people on shore, they can't wrap you in a bubble.

 

By the way my Cruise starting on 5th Oct 21 Round Britain has no restrictions, you don't even have to be vaccinated.

Edited March 26, 2021 by dwhe

[majortom10]

28 minutes ago, dwhe said:

It smacks of Princess trying to pull in more money by making us take their excursions.

 

The cruises that demand this are for vaccinated UK cruisers only, all port calls will be in the UK.

 

The Government are talking about lifting all restrictions for UK residents in June (all being well) so why are Princess stopping us going ashore on our own in September, even on organised excursions you will mix with people on shore, they can't wrap you in a bubble.

 

By the way my Cruise starting on 5th Oct 21 Round Britain has no restrictions, you don't even have to be vaccinated.

It is not only Princess but Cunard and P&O are not letting you off the ship unless you are on a ships organised tour. With reference to your October 5th cruise there will be at least changes to ports because Guernsey has banned all cruise ships from stopping there for the rest of 2021 so you wont be going there and as far as allowed off ship independently and no vaccinations dont hold your breath there is time for that to change.

[dwhe]

I'm not surprised other lines are trying to rip people off.

Guernsey was a decision they themselves took, amid complaints that they acted to early and may yet, as you say, change their minds.

[WeeCountyMan]

Wales has just lifted internal travel restrictions - if there are ports of call there then it'll be interesting to see how Princess react.

 

Likewise other parts of the UK if/when there are similar easing of travel bans.

[wowzz]

It seems fairly obvious. Princess (and P&O) are only allowing vaccinated passengers onboard, with additional testing prior to embarkation.  So, theoretically,  there will be little chance of the  unvaccinated crew being infected. If you let pax off ashore in an uncontrolled manner, even if they have been vaccinated,  without screening prior to re-boarding, they could spread CV19 to the crew. 

Seems sensible to me, and if you don't like the policy, do as I have done, and don't book one of these cruises, rather than b***h and moan.

Edited March 26, 2021 by wowzz

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, WeeCountyMan said:

Wales has just lifted internal travel restrictions - if there are ports of call there then it'll be interesting to see how Princess react.

 

Likewise other parts of the UK if/when there are similar easing of travel bans.

No ports of call in Wales, as I'm sure you know.

[dwhe]

So they have a magic way of keeping the passengers away from the locals on their own excursions have they, I would be interested to know how, instead of holding up an umbrella they could hold up a whip and crack it anytime anyone steps out of line. No really I would like to see how they can stop interaction on their tours.

[donaldsc]

43 minutes ago, dwhe said:

So they have a magic way of keeping the passengers away from the locals on their own excursions have they, I would be interested to know how, instead of holding up an umbrella they could hold up a whip and crack it anytime anyone steps out of line. No really I would like to see how they can stop interaction on their tours.

 

One cruise line has already had to handle this problem.  They kicked the passengers off the ship and sent them home.  Good for them!!!

 

DON

[dwhe]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

One cruise line has already had to handle this problem.  They kicked the passengers off the ship and sent them home.  Good for them!!!

 

DON

Sorry I don't know what you mean, what problem, what did the passengers do.

How are the cruise companies that are insisting we take only their excursions keeping the excursioners apart from those on shore?

[dwhe]

donaldsc the only thing that I can find is that a family were kicked of a ship back in August 2020 for deviating from an excursion.

I still think it is motivated to generate income for the cruise lines.

[caribill]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

It seems fairly obvious. Princess (and P&O) are only allowing vaccinated passengers onboard, with additional testing prior to embarkation.  So, theoretically,  there will be little chance of the  unvaccinated crew being infected. If you let pax off ashore in an uncontrolled manner, even if they have been vaccinated,  without screening prior to re-boarding, they could spread CV19 to the crew. 

 

 

Since it takes several days after being infected for a test to show the presence of the virus, screening prior to reboarding would be useless in detecting exposure to the virus while on shore that day.

[kevinyork]

9 hours ago, dwhe said:

It smacks of Princess trying to pull in more money by making us take their excursions.

 

The cruises that demand this are for vaccinated UK cruisers only, all port calls will be in the UK.

 

The Government are talking about lifting all restrictions for UK residents in June (all being well) so why are Princess stopping us going ashore on our own in September, even on organised excursions you will mix with people on shore, they can't wrap you in a bubble.

 

By the way my Cruise starting on 5th Oct 21 Round Britain has no restrictions, you don't even have to be vaccinated.

We booked that one this week. Was a good price.  First Princess cruise.

 

I still think there is a chance they will bring in the need for a vaccination before then as everyone will have been offered one by then.

 

I will be unhappy though if they enforce their excursions only though as a way of getting off the ship.  I live in York and can get to Liverpool in two hours and wander around so why shouldn’t I be allowed to get off a ship and do the same?

[seapals2]

9 hours ago, dwhe said:

So they have a magic way of keeping the passengers away from the locals on their own excursions have they, I would be interested to know how, instead of holding up an umbrella they could hold up a whip and crack it anytime anyone steps out of line. No really I would like to see how they can stop interaction on their tours.

They bubble wrap you as you get off ... 😂😂

[WeeCountyMan]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

No ports of call in Wales, as I'm sure you know.

No, I didn't know. Otherwise I would have indicated such.

[wowzz]

22 minutes ago, WeeCountyMan said:

No, I didn't know. Otherwise I would have indicated such.

Sorry, I assumed you had seen the itineraries showing the ports of call, that was posted on this thread only a couple of days ago.

Edited March 27, 2021 by wowzz

[WeeCountyMan]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sorry, I assumed you had seen the itineraries showing the ports of call, that was posted on this thread only a couple of days ago.

No, I only clocked Simon Calder's recent article in the Independent and thought it might be worth flagging up these restrictions on the Princess forum, in case it had slipped under the radar of any Brits potentially interested in such a cruise.

 

If internal travel restrictions within the UK are lifted then I reckon Princess will have a problem trying to justify their "no go ashore unescorted" policy.

 

Of course, up here, north of Hadrian's Wall, the Scottish Government has separate travel rules compared to England and/or Wales.......that could muddy the waters (no pun intended) if they remain different when the around Britain cruising season kicks off !!!

 

 

[dog]

1 hour ago, seapals2 said:

They bubble wrap you as you get off ... 😂😂

love this. .  
But too early for me to consider cruise. 

 

[downsmead]

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

No ports of call in Wales, as I'm sure you know.

I believe the QE2 is scheduled to call into Holyhead on one of her U.K. sailings, a maiden port for her!

[Ombud]

8 hours ago, dwhe said:

Sorry I don't know what you mean, what problem, what did the passengers do.

How are the cruise companies that are insisting we take only their excursions keeping the excursioners apart from those on shore?

The passengers left the tour. Their ship, their rules. It's posted on the website: 

[susancruzs]

Thanks for your post, makes sense to me.  People complaining about it, saying it is a money grab, aren't looking at the big picture.  Big picture will fall into place this summer, things aren't set in stone, cruise lines will adjust to all the different rules country by country.  

 

I wouldn't expect anything to be exactly like it was before when cruising starts up, not in the least.  If one does, maybe wait until late 2022 to cruise.  This isn't about what passengers think should happen, it is about what cruise lines can do to bring a cruise experience in the safest manner.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by susancruzs

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, downsmead said:

I believe the QE2 is scheduled to call into Holyhead on one of her U.K. sailings, a maiden port for her!

I think you mean QE as QE2 retired some years ago.