Arvia maiden cancelled

[wowzz]

I feel desperately sorry for those who have lost their cruise.

But, as has been said, Maiden cruises are always "high risk". P&O are not alone in cancelling a maiden cruise. 

And, God knows,  I am not a P&O apologist,  but P&O are not responsible for the construction falling behind schedule. 

In a situation such as this, what exactly is P&O meant to do ? I suppose they could have cancelled a few weeks earlier,  but other than that they do not have many alternative options. 

I suppose a more generous compensation package would have softened the blow a little.

Edited October 25, 2022 by wowzz

[Angel57]

46 minutes ago, besberry said:

I'm on the Christmas cruise, now the maiden, but I've never truly believed it'll happen!

I’ll keep my fingers crossed your cruise happens Mick.

Gill 

[Windsurfboy]

Sad for everyone, but never seen reason for people loving maiden voyage.  High risk. Perhaps it gives you insight to Her Majesty who used to say , " the world smells of wet paint". 

 

Glad we're not booked till June 2024 when hopefully everything  will be hunkydory,  and all restaurants open , all staff fully trained. 

[TigerB]

We're on the third (now second) in January. Just two weeks ago we were going to book the maiden voyage when the special fares dropped. We decided not to because it may have taken the shine off our intended cruise, and our kitty wouldn't thank us for putting her in the cattery again.

[MX-Drew]

42 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

What fires ? 

Really? I think in the end there were three fires but at least two. The last one was just after the float out.

[MX-Drew]

What I don’t understand is why are P&O a little more honest with the issue? Something like due to earlier incidents during the build the final completion has been delayed etc. or due to unplanned repairs to a movable structure on the Ems the transfer to the North Sea has had to be delayed with the knock on effect of the hand over date to P&O being delayed etc.

 

May be they think (and they maybe right) this is too detailed for some / most to understand. I would certainly appreciate the honesty a lot more.

[MX-Drew]

Still time to book with Fred, I have just received an email offering festive cruises. They weren’t slow.

[Host Sharon]

7 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

Still time to book with Fred, I have just received an email offering festive cruises. They weren’t slow.

Looking at Fred and Saga right now. At least when Saga delayed Adventure’s maiden, everyone was automatically booked for the new date, unless they didn’t want to, and we got 15% fcc.

[molecrochip]

2 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

What I don’t understand is why are P&O a little more honest with the issue? Something like due to earlier incidents during the build the final completion has been delayed etc. or due to unplanned repairs to a movable structure on the Ems the transfer to the North Sea has had to be delayed with the knock on effect of the hand over date to P&O being delayed etc.

 

May be they think (and they maybe right) this is too detailed for some / most to understand. I would certainly appreciate the honesty a lot more.

Likely there are restrictions in what can be said listed in the contract between ship builder and P&O. If the ship is not delivered as agreed, P&O will want to keep their powder dry in order to extract the maximum compensation possible.

 

The fires did not cause much impact in the end - not to final delivery date. Afterall, you never get the entire ship finished on the same day so it’s a case of areas that should have been finished earlier still being finished on time - just not as early.

[Ian5509]

yes it’s been cancelled.

Whilst I can accept ship is not ready I think P&O have been cynical if not committing fraud 

we got a price reduction of around 30% over two weeks ago and still waiting for refund.

I called them same day to find out why and was assured there was no issue with ship 

them today it’s cancelled and even though we get a refund of course the only compensation is 10% against a future cruise based on the discounted fare not the fare we booked 

If WE had cancelled today we’d have lost 50% of the cost 

to make it worse they are inviting us by draw to attend a lunch on board to look at the ship on 20th December 

Apart from the logistics of passengers all over UK travelling to Southampton at their own cigar for lunch it reminded me of Bullseye with the come and have a look at what you could have won 

 

So really P&O cruises ARE as bad as P&O ferries in there business dealings 

[Son of Anarchy]

Gutted for those booked on the maiden.  It would be interesting to know at which point P&O knew that this cruise was no feasible, bearing in mind they were recently discounting this cruise.

[molecrochip]

4 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Gutted for those booked on the maiden.  It would be interesting to know at which point P&O knew that this cruise was no feasible, bearing in mind they were recently discounting this cruise.

Discounting was due to capacity released post covid.

 

My understanding is that the ship is sat ready to transit the Ems and should have done so at the weekend. Obviously the ship is the responsibility of the ship yard at this point. Therefore it would only have been at the weekend which the ship yard officially missed its milestone.

 

Contract law is a funny game. While I suspsect that P&O may have suspected last week of the problem, they needed to wait for it to play out before cancelling the cruise so that the losses incurred are the fault of the shipyard. Pre-emptively cancelling the cruise may have prejudiced the compensation payable under their contract with the shipyard.

 

As late as yesterday Southampton port were showing Arvia's departure on 9 December. So I do believe that this was a decision made this week.

[Yorkypete]

29 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Discounting was due to capacity released post covid.

 

My understanding is that the ship is sat ready to transit the Ems and should have done so at the weekend. Obviously the ship is the responsibility of the ship yard at this point. Therefore it would only have been at the weekend which the ship yard officially missed its milestone.

 

Contract law is a funny game. While I suspsect that P&O may have suspected last week of the problem, they needed to wait for it to play out before cancelling the cruise so that the losses incurred are the fault of the shipyard. Pre-emptively cancelling the cruise may have prejudiced the compensation payable under their contract with the shipyard.

 

As late as yesterday Southampton port were showing Arvia's departure on 9 December. So I do believe that this was a decision made this week.

P&O...come and look at the ship you COULD have been on. What a shame you can't be on it now, but never mind....we don't care.

 

[MX-Drew]

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Likely there are restrictions in what can be said listed in the contract between ship builder and P&O. If the ship is not delivered as agreed, P&O will want to keep their powder dry in order to extract the maximum compensation possible.

 

The fires did not cause much impact in the end - not to final delivery date. Afterall, you never get the entire ship finished on the same day so it’s a case of areas that should have been finished earlier still being finished on time - just not as early.

I understand what you’re saying but P&O have a track record of using the stock phrase “For reasons beyond our control” and never a semi reasonable explanation in my opinion. 
Also, sorry but to say the fires did not cause much impact etc is my opinion rubbish. Agreed the entire ship is not finished on the same day but there is only a finite number of workers so once they have finished one area they will be required elsewhere and may well not be available not only to redo the work in the fire damaged area but that has to be cleared and cleaned first so it is logical to think there is some impact. 
 

This is just my opinion and I could well be wrong but I have experience in project planning and after this is just one big project.

[jeanlyon]

there is already a thread on this topic.

[bobstheboy]

34 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

there is already a thread on this topic.

Yes, I posted within seconds of the other one. I also asked for my thread to be removed. Okay ?

[Pippa04]

4 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Likely there are restrictions in what can be said listed in the contract between ship builder and P&O. If the ship is not delivered as agreed, P&O will want to keep their powder dry in order to extract the maximum compensation possible.

 

Will any of this compensation be passed on to the pax whose holidays have been cancelled do we think?

[MX-Drew]

11 minutes ago, Pippa04 said:

Will any of this compensation be passed on to the pax whose holidays have been cancelled do we think?

Yes they get a massive 10% FCC.

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, MX-Drew said:

I understand what you’re saying but P&O have a track record of using the stock phrase “For reasons beyond our control” and never a semi reasonable explanation in my opinion. 
Also, sorry but to say the fires did not cause much impact etc is my opinion rubbish. Agreed the entire ship is not finished on the same day but there is only a finite number of workers so once they have finished one area they will be required elsewhere and may well not be available not only to redo the work in the fire damaged area but that has to be cleared and cleaned first so it is logical to think there is some impact. 
 

This is just my opinion and I could well be wrong but I have experience in project planning and after this is just one big project.

That is a reasonable position apart from one big problem.  P&O are not responsible for the construction of the ship.

Shouldn't your comments, plus similar ones made by other posters,  be directed at the German ship yard ?  After all, it is their fault that the ship is late.  

[MX-Drew]

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

That is a reasonable position apart from one big problem.  P&O are not responsible for the construction of the ship.

Shouldn't your comments, plus similar ones made by other posters,  be directed at the German ship yard ?  After all, it is their fault that the ship is late.  

No P&O aren’t responsible for building the ship but they are the ones passing on the information or do you believe the ship yard sent similar information to P&O information (which somehow I doubt very much).

[Megabear2]

Regardless of who's to blame for the late delivery the p...poor offer of compensation is rather insulting, particularly as the cruise would have been so close to Christmas and many as a result will have difficulty rearranging time off work etc.

 

The firm I worked for had schedules every year to ensure the workload was spread through the whole of December and early January.  This schedule was organised in October to ensure as many as possible got off the days they wanted and once agreed it was nigh on impossible to change your requested days.  There will therefore be people trapped in this type of scenario who will need to source another holiday at what is a normally busy period with encumbent high prices or else be forced to sit at home twiddling their thumbs as they've saved annual leave allowance to take this trip.

 

The casual flippant message sent to these people is very poor.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Megabear2

[No pager thank you]

To add to this, we are booked on the Christmas sailing on Our Vera, so now the Maiden, as it currently stands.  I'm sorry for those who actually paid for this experience and have been let down again.

 

However, it was telling yesterday that when we passed a message on to friends in conversation, their response was,

 

"So are they going to cancel your cruise in a couple of weeks time then?"

 

"What will you do if they cancel Christmas too  - will you just stay at home, you'll not get something else that close that's affordable. "

 

Response was, "Well, mid December cruises are not peak fares and they were struggling to fill it, Christmas will cost them a small fortune as some passengers are paying a lot more, so they'll be reluctant to do that, even if she's not quite ready."

 

The 10pc premium (and a lottery for a "look what you could have had" tour) is not enough to compensate for the costs of rebooking a holiday at that notice and you can do without the worry. 

 

Yes its T&Cs, but yes it's also trust, reputation, and customer confidence.  Takes you back to the 90 day balance due issue when these scenarios are at play.  Absolutely P&O should not have been promoting bookings on a cruise this week that they thought could have been cancelled.

 

Sorry again for those affected and hope that you get chance to sail on the new ship soon.

[Megabear2]

There's extremely little availability of cruises of any length from Southampton in the whole of December according to leading t/a websites. Apart from Iona on 17 December they also appear to either be over the Christmas period for lengthy trips or to cold weather places like Norway.  Anyone who cannot fly or deal with the cold is therefore more or less totally without choice.  A couple of Fred's from Portsmouth and Liverpool, a Cunard on QV and a couple of Sagas.  

 

Overall there's actually more space on actual Christmas cruises and many don’t like being away during that period or cannot take leave then.

 

 

[twotravellersLondon]

16 hours ago, paulatsea said:

What fires ? 

 

 

In July, fires in a storage room and also in one of the cabins. They caused over £50,000 worth of damage.

 

Then at the beginning of September in the pool equipment room. The ship was evacuated. The fire went on for a couple of hours. At the time it was said that there were no injuries, that construction work would continue and that the fire wouldn't delay the delivery date.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, MX-Drew said:

No P&O aren’t responsible for building the ship but they are the ones passing on the information or do you believe the ship yard sent similar information to P&O information (which somehow I doubt very much).

 

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Regardless of who's to blame for the late delivery the p...poor offer of compensation is rather insulting, particularly as the cruise would have been so close to Christmas and many as a result will have difficulty rearranging time off work etc.

 

To be clear, I am not defending the way that P&O have handled the situation, or the dismal level of compensation. 

But some posters were insinuating that the issue was due to factors within P&O 's control, which is not the case.