Recent P&o trip experiences

[gsmt47471015]

Then I must beg forgiveness for my punctuation error, as I was often told in my school reports, "must try harder", but then I'm nothing more than a  straight talking hard working Yorkshire man,   sorry person 😷

[wowzz]

I'm pretty much a glass " half full" type of person, and have no concerns whatsoever about our forthcoming European cruises,  but I must admit, the restrictions on excursions would most certainly deter me from even thinking about a Caribbean cruise at present.

[Bazrat]

After just doing a Caribbean cruise we never really noticed the restrictions, we followed the protocols so we could get off the ship and wander around the area when we could, and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience so much so we booked again for another one

[Baggy178]

I'm slightly confused.

The OP says they prefer independent excursions - yet chose organised trips on Antigua and St Lucia on this trip where independent travel was allowable.

Knowing Antigua well we strolled into town and caught a bus to Dickensen Bay and spent the day on the beach.

From memory the taxi back was 12 bucks.

Similarly on St Lucia we caught an organised taxi there and back to Rodney Bay although we could have walked into town and flagged one down.

St Kitts was restricted to organised trips - we were quite happy to spend a few hours in the port area stretching our legs and having a few cheap drinks.

We loved every minute of our Britannia re-positioning cruise, particularly six days at sea in glorious weather.

 

[Bazrat]

17 hours ago, Triggertravel said:

Whilst iam the happiest person alive that cruising is back up and running again I thought that it was important that I shared my recent trip experiences with you after getting off of Britannia last Saturday. We are not lovers of trips as we find them often too short and certainly overpriced as we like to explore independently , but in the current climate we was happy to book the trips as it just sempt so much easier with certain restrictions on certain islands .Madeira was fine free to roam Antigua we booked beach hoping by safari bus tour 4 hours £88 for 2  we got back to the boat 30 mins early as we were late setting off and was the last trip back. St Lucia we booked Marigot bay-pink plantation £84 for whilst waiting on the dock to goon our trip 2 families arrived to be told that there beach trip had left , and they wouldn’t be joining them although they arrived on time after getting through the massive ques??? It was chaos Our issue was that we stopped for a photo stop only in Marigot bay after the description  of the trip clearly said that you would actually go to Marigot bay to spend time there ? We were not even allowed of the bus to take the photos, we also arrived back at the boat 30 mins early st kitts was great we did the railway . If you’ve not done this I highly recommend it and finally Barbados you could only go ashore independently if you took a onboard pcr test at a cost of £25 each and worth noting Barbados have a 9pm -6am curfew meaning everybody back on board by 9pm we did the scenic Barbados and beach £108 fir 2 yet again very misleading in the wording it says you call at a botanical garden for a drink and walk the grounds totall waste of time  if you want to actually go in the garden s you have to pay $20 each but you’re only there for 30 mins anyway ?????  The beach was worth it tho Accra beach fantastic ……………just be very very careful in what you are booking as they don’t seam to be what they are selling you. I did go down and report this to them, and they did compensate us not a lot but they did …… I also get that this is all new ground fir the shire excursion team working under almost impossible restrictions but that needs to be reflective in the cost and time 

 

 

We did different tours apart from the scenic Barbados which beach aside was not worth the money, the tours we took dropped us off so we could wander around the towns before getting back to the ship apart from Barbados which was to far for us to walk back

[Bazrat]

5 minutes ago, Baggy178 said:

I'm slightly confused.

The OP says they prefer independent excursions - yet chose organised trips on Antigua and St Lucia on this trip where independent travel was allowable.

Knowing Antigua well we strolled into town and caught a bus to Dickensen Bay and spent the day on the beach.

From memory the taxi back was 12 bucks.

Similarly on St Lucia we caught an organised taxi there and back to Rodney Bay although we could have walked into town and flagged one down.

St Kitts was restricted to organised trips - we were quite happy to spend a few hours in the port area stretching our legs and having a few cheap drinks.

We loved every minute of our Britannia re-positioning cruise, particularly six days at sea in glorious weather.

 

We had a similar experience to yourselves, where we could not go independently than we booked trips, but St Kitts was amusing you had to have your passport but nobody checked it

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Don’t you means errors Avril?! 

I did, but then deleted the 's'. I'm considerate like that😉

Avril

 

[Triggertravel]

10 minutes ago, Baggy178 said:

I'm slightly confused.

The OP says they prefer independent excursions - yet chose organised trips on Antigua and St Lucia on this trip where independent travel was allowable.

Knowing Antigua well we strolled into town and caught a bus to Dickensen Bay and spent the day on the beach.

From memory the taxi back was 12 bucks.

Similarly on St Lucia we caught an organised taxi there and back to Rodney Bay although we could have walked into town and flagged one down.

St Kitts was restricted to organised trips - we were quite happy to spend a few hours in the port area stretching our legs and having a few cheap drinks.

We loved every minute of our Britannia re-positioning cruise, particularly six days at sea in glorious weather.

 

Just for clarity we booked all of our trips well before our departure date ,  as all of the ports that we visited at the time of our bookings  we’re  all under restrictions  . We found this the easiest and best option for us.like everywhere else in the world The situation was changing all of the time .as you will know Antigua got changed whilst we was on board . But on this cruise we decided to play safe and stick with the trips that we had booked . I hope that this clears up your confusion 

[gsmt47471015]

Triggertravel ,in your circumstances you had very little choice , you cannot predict how things will change and have to make a decision which is best for you at that time, at least you managed to enjoy some of the delights the Caribbean has to offer. as an aside we have always /will continue to mix and match pre booked and independent excursions to suit us

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Of course any other serious  health issue would also have the cruise company debark you at the port as it would in previous times. 

I think the problem is that the risk of being off loaded is now greater than previous times, what with being in a global pandemic.

 

In pre-Covid times, I regarded my risk of being offloaded at a port due to illness as very low indeed, as I'm reasonably healthy with no pre existing conditions. However, in Covid times, my risk factor has increased, as I could easily catch Covid, just like anybody else could.  Although that risk is still relatively small, due to P&O's screening procedures, the impact is big. I would be stressed out to the max if I (or my husband) caught covid on board and we were off loaded at a foreign port.  I also think people have forgotten that Covid can be a very nasty illness, even in the vaccinated.   If I catch Covid, I would rather be ill at home, instead of a hotel thousands of miles away.

 

Everyone will make their own decision, based on their own circumstances, on their attitudes to risk and  whether they are comfortable about being offloaded if the worst happens., Also, if an individual is incapacitated due to Covid, a lot of responsibility will fall on their partner or travelling companion. Therefore another consideration is how well the partner would be able to cope if left to fend for themselves. 

[Bazrat]

13 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I think the problem is that the risk of being off loaded is now greater than previous times, what with being in a global pandemic.

 

In pre-Covid times, I regarded my risk of being offloaded at a port due to illness as very low indeed, as I'm reasonably healthy with no pre existing conditions. However, in Covid times, my risk factor has increased, as I could easily catch Covid, just like anybody else could.  Although that risk is still relatively small, due to P&O's screening procedures, the impact is big. I would be stressed out to the max if I (or my husband) caught covid on board and we were off loaded at a foreign port.  I also think people have forgotten that Covid can be a very nasty illness, even in the vaccinated.   If I catch Covid, I would rather be ill at home, instead of a hotel thousands of miles away.

 

Everyone will make their own decision, based on their own circumstances, on their attitudes to risk and  whether they are comfortable about being offloaded if the worst happens., Also, if an individual is incapacitated due to Covid, a lot of responsibility will fall on their partner or travelling companion. Therefore another consideration is how well the partner would be able to cope if left to fend for themselves. 

An accurate post but looking at what could be a worst case scenario, but like you say everyone makes there own decisions to cruise or not we chose to cruise and really happy we did

[bee-ess]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

I'm pretty much a glass " half full" type of person, and have no concerns whatsoever about our forthcoming European cruises,  but I must admit, the restrictions on excursions would most certainly deter me from even thinking about a Caribbean cruise at present.

That was our opinion as well, we are happy to give Europe or Canaries cruises from Southampton a go but decided to move our Caribbean for this season - just seems to much hassle with testing requirements and poor value excursions. Don;t think it would be very relaxing if you cannot move around the islands freely.

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, bee-ess said:

That was our opinion as well, we are happy to give Europe or Canaries cruises from Southampton a go but decided to move our Caribbean for this season - just seems to much hassle with testing requirements and poor value excursions. Don;t think it would be very relaxing if you cannot move around the islands freely.

I understand your sentiments about cruising to the Caribbean any time soon, when we was at Barbados two other cruise ships turned up, so I cannot see there would be any incentive to lower there guard, but saying that it was one of the best cruises we have been on completely relaxed for fourteen days last day was a hassle though

[bee-ess]

38 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

I understand your sentiments about cruising to the Caribbean any time soon, when we was at Barbados two other cruise ships turned up, so I cannot see there would be any incentive to lower there guard, but saying that it was one of the best cruises we have been on completely relaxed for fourteen days last day was a hassle though

As you said earlier we all have a decision to make and I'm pleased it turned out well for you and that you enjoyed the cruise. We are probably overthinking it but the decision is made now and hopefully we will be able to go back next season, we are booked for 22/23 and reserved for 23/24 when hopefully thinks are back to normal.

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, bee-ess said:

As you said earlier we all have a decision to make and I'm pleased it turned out well for you and that you enjoyed the cruise. We are probably overthinking it but the decision is made now and hopefully we will be able to go back next season, we are booked for 22/23 and reserved for 23/24 when hopefully thinks are back to normal.

What we did was join a group on another well known site and there got accurate information not people’s opinions, plus there are numerous groups with people telling you there experiences of the cruise not what people believe happened