Arcadia refused entry to Freeport!

[yorkshirephil]

37 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I see they were in Fort Lauderdale, I think yesterday, were there any problems going ashore there?

 

I read a few posts about the queues and waiting for the ship to be cleaned but nothing that seems to tell the full story. As usual when anybody posts anything negative all the Arcadia lovers that are not on the ship shoot them down.

[jeanlyon]

They missed the Bahamas and ended up in Fort Lauderdale.  So it was obviously noro which stopped them disembarking in Freeport.

[jeanlyon]

They were told to go ashore in Fort L for at least 6 hours to allow for a deep clean, but they still weren't told why they were not allowed into Freeport!  Rather obvious I would have thought.

[tring]

1 minute ago, jeanlyon said:

They were told to go ashore in Fort L for at least 6 hours to allow for a deep clean, but they still weren't told why they were not allowed into Freeport!  Rather obvious I would have thought.

 

Thanks for the update Jean.  Bit of a cheek not allowing anyone on the ship at that time without allocating any sort of landside facilities, if that is what they did.  I wonder if they gave some sort of financial allowance for that, if facilities not supplied.  I would expect that.

 

Does anyone know if this is this something P&O have done previously?

 

[jeanlyon]

Didn't sound like it  Here is a quote "Amazingly enough Ft Lauderdale let us in, and after quite a long drawn out process we boarded a shuttle bus to the local mall.Not really my choice , but we headed to the free WiFi and found half the ship there"

 

She also said there were about 50 cases of noro on board.

Edited January 15, 2023 by jeanlyon

[tring]

17 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Didn't sound like it  Here is a quote "Amazingly enough Ft Lauderdale let us in, and after quite a long drawn out process we boarded a shuttle bus to the local mall.Not really my choice , but we headed to the free WiFi and found half the ship there"

 

She also said there were about 50 cases of noro on board.

 

Amazing there was not a mutiny, though I presume passengers are just happy they are trying to do something about it.  The US authorities will be overseeing everything now, (I understand they have staff checking all over the ship, even normally), but they will be moving on to other countries.

 

Hope it is all under control soon,

 

Barbara

[Britboys]

Why oh why are P&O so secretive about these things? They know either the correct or indeed false information will get out via social media which only causes more angst. Having spent many years in customer service type roles, it is not knowing that annoys people the most. Clear and open communication is invariably better...

[Britboys]

39 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Didn't sound like it  Here is a quote "Amazingly enough Ft Lauderdale let us in, and after quite a long drawn out process we boarded a shuttle bus to the local mall.Not really my choice , but we headed to the free WiFi and found half the ship there"

 

She also said there were about 50 cases of noro on board.

Hopefully it was one of the city centre malls. Plenty to see and do in central Fort Lauderdale.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Hopefully it was one of the city centre malls. Plenty to see and do in central Fort Lauderdale.

I happily spend two weeks there regularly. I'm sure the Mall will be delighted to have all these visitors as over the past 6 or 7 years Americans have rather fallen out of love with their malls.

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Why oh why are P&O so secretive about these things? They know either the correct or indeed false information will get out via social media which only causes more angst. Having spent many years in customer service type roles, it is not knowing that annoys people the most. Clear and open communication is invariably better...

That's what I was thinking.

 

My perception is that it didn't used to be so bad. When I was on board, I used to feel we got fairly clear updates about what was going on. If there was Norovirus onboard, we'd be told about it

 

A change seems to have happened from the restart of cruising.  They will do anything not to mention the thing we can't talk about, but that seems to have spilled over in to other communication too.

 

The trouble is, an information vacuum is created, and to fill it, people start speculating. It'd be much better if they were  clear and open with updates

[jeanlyon]

Well if you have to stay off the ship for 6 hours to allow a deep clean, it's rather obvious what the problem is.  Agree, they need to be clearer.  Like when they move someone's cabin and say "operational reasons"  Ha ha.

[Eglesbrech]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks for the update Jean.  Bit of a cheek not allowing anyone on the ship at that time without allocating any sort of landside facilities, if that is what they did.  I wonder if they gave some sort of financial allowance for that, if facilities not supplied.  I would expect that.

 

Does anyone know if this is this something P&O have done previously?

 

We were put off a Marella cruise when it had noro onboard and needed to deep clean.

 

They provided a transfer, a day room in a hotel, breakfast, lunch, pool towels, complementary drinks and a transfer back. They took us to the other end of the island, presumably so we couldn’t see what was going on but we were well looked after.

 

While it was not in any way ideal customers felt they were treated well. 

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

That's what I was thinking.

 

My perception is that it didn't used to be so bad. When I was on board, I used to feel we got fairly clear updates about what was going on. If there was Norovirus onboard, we'd be told about it

 

A change seems to have happened from the restart of cruising.  They will do anything not to mention the thing we can't talk about, but that seems to have spilled over in to other communication too.

 

The trouble is, an information vacuum is created, and to fill it, people start speculating. It'd be much better if they were  clear and open with updates

Spot on!  Denial seems to be the name of the game now. Lost count of the number of people recently, all talking of having had bad coughs and colds, with loss of senses of taste and smell, all stressing carefully ‘but not Covid’!  Without testing of course.

[Fionboard]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks for the update Jean.  Bit of a cheek not allowing anyone on the ship at that time without allocating any sort of landside facilities, if that is what they did.  I wonder if they gave some sort of financial allowance for that, if facilities not supplied.  I would expect that.

 

Does anyone know if this is this something P&O have done previously?

 

At Xmas we back to backers were given £30 each obc for taxis into Southampton. I chose to stay in cabin instead.

[tring]

11 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

At Xmas we back to backers were given £30 each obc for taxis into Southampton. I chose to stay in cabin instead.

 

But still nothing for drinks by and at least snacks to that would have been freely avaiable on the ship.  Not many people will go off for that time in any port, particularly Southampton.  Cannot charge taxis or drinks to obc when ashore either.