Trouble on Britannia.

[majortom10]

3 hours ago, davecttr said:

We were berthed at the old mole in Arricife, no new berth back then and a Cunarder turned up, due to dock at the commercial berth. The waves were too high so she sailed around in circles for a couple of hours and than sailed away. Our captain was most amused. Later we heard that some passengers on the Cunarder wanted us to leave our berth so they could dock, them being a superior cruise line 😁

 

I suppose nowadays the Cunarder is always scheduled to get there first 😒

I suppose as both cruise lines are under Carnival UK and the Carnival plc I suppose it depends who booked the berth first.

[Selbourne]

30 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I suppose as both cruise lines are under Carnival UK and the Carnival plc I suppose it depends who booked the berth first.

Not necessarily. We were due to go to Flaam on Britannia a few years ago. Carnival cancelled our port call to make way for Queen Elizabeth. We ended up in the Norwegian coastal ports rather than the spectacular fjords, so we were definitely second class citizens that time!

[majortom10]

4 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Not necessarily. We were due to go to Flaam on Britannia a few years ago. Carnival cancelled our port call to make way for Queen Elizabeth. We ended up in the Norwegian coastal ports rather than the spectacular fjords, so we were definitely second class citizens that time!

But how would you know that you were cancelled to make way for QE. There could be any number of reasons why it happened and having done many cruises with P&O and Cunard they never reveal the truth and always play thier cards very close to their chest.

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

But how would you know that you were cancelled to make way for QE. There could be any number of reasons why it happened and having done many cruises with P&O and Cunard they never reveal the truth and always play thier cards very close to their chest.

You are right that P&O don’t tell the truth. They stated that they we weren’t going to Flaam due to operational problems with the port. I smelt a rat so emailed the Flaam harbourmaster asking for information on what the ‘problem’ was. Much to my surprise, he was extremely helpful and emailed me stating that there were no problems along with a full explanation with screenshots of the relevant details, changes and reasons. These showed the date that Britannia had been originally booked for the port call and the date it had been cancelled (which was well before it was communicated to passengers - as we know, port changes often aren’t communicated until after balance due dates). The reason for the cancellation and date of the cancellation were also shown and his email expanded on this. The cancellation was at the request of Carnival (not the port as had been implied) and the reason was that Carnival had decided to prioritise Queen Victoria over Britannia.
 

I presented this evidence to P&O and received a financial settlement from them in return for a non-disclosure agreement. The reason why I am prepared to share this information is because in an act of incompetence that rivals P&O’s IT department, the NDA was incorrectly worded and placed the onus of confidentiality on P&O, not me!

Edited June 25, 2022 by Selbourne