Britannia

[purplesea]

 

1 hour ago, shot2bits said:

Glad it will be repaired and safely in service again. We are doing the canary island cruse in 3 weeks, at one point I thought it might be in doubt. Getting very bad press on FB about food and cleanliness.

Is the reaction about food and cleanliness referring to the ship?

As I have seen reports online regarding the above on various news channels but about the accommodation that the passengers were transfered to.

We are on board in two weeks.

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

What was there before? I thought that period is usually a Canaries cruise in previous years - it seems to be in 2025 as well.

Maybe they are just being prepared

[Eglesbrech]

22 minutes ago, purplesea said:

 

Is the reaction about food and cleanliness referring to the ship?

As I have seen reports online regarding the above on various news channels but about the accommodation that the passengers were transfered to.

We are on board in two weeks.

The only things I have seen refer to the Majorca hotel, not Britannia. 

[kalos]

Britannia has just been given clearance to sail .

[kalos]

8 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

What are the odds of P&O boarding the passengers for the next cruise today and then telling them that they are not sailing for a couple of days ? 

 

No more bets please 😉

 

Should be dropping lines anytime now,.

One lifeboat removed so sailing with less pax than planed .

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by kalos

[AndyMichelle]

And she's off... 

[Bin man]

Watched her leave but the only life rafts I can see missing are the canister type on the starboard stern and the damaged large lifeboat still onboard covered in a green tarpaulin 

[Dermotsgirl]

They’ve done well 

[kalos]

Just now, Bin man said:

Watched her leave but the only life rafts I can see missing are the canister type on the starboard stern and the damaged large lifeboat still onboard covered in a green tarpaulin 

Sorry was watching TV and for some weird reason wrote life boat .That is still onboard

with a green tarpaulin  tied to it as you say . It is indeed a life raft canister and it's rigging that was removed .

Teach me trying to multi task 😉

 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

We left Britannia about 9am this morning and I took the below pics from the walkway. There was further damage towards the aft but could not photograph that from the walkway.

 

[Bin man]

Thanks for picture .Looks a bit of a write off wonder how long to replace a lifeboat or can it be repaired ? My neighbours car took 9 months to repair shortage of parts don't think they will have a spare lifeboat to fit 

[Suebiker]

4 hours ago, bluebelle said:

Friends are joining / have joined the ship today, and I hope it all goes well for them.  Why did P&O make 350 people fly home if the ship is safe to travel?

Because the ship was at full capacity with alot of children onboard as it was school holidays - there wasn't sufficient lifeboat space.  It is likely the next sailing doesn't have as many children onboard as it is not school holidays.  Brittania has 3650 berths with a maximum capacity of 4406. (Using extra berths for kids)  

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

5 minutes ago, Bin man said:

Thanks for picture .Looks a bit of a write off wonder how long to replace a lifeboat or can it be repaired ? My neighbours car took 9 months to repair shortage of parts don't think they will have a spare lifeboat to fit 

Yes the lifeboat looks a write off. Further back I could see during our sailing that the railings around the canister style life rafts was badly damaged.

My personal thoughts are that day 2 in Palma should have been aborted as it was already predicted by the Captain on day one that the weather on day two would be wet and windy. The advance weather charts did show storms for Sunday. We had got off the ship to stretch our legs and so had to endure a miserable 5 hours in a disused terminal with no lights, water or food. Not sure £40pp OBC makes up for a wasted day.

I suspect the resulting costs to P&O  ( damage to Britannia and the merchant tanker, port costs, tug costs, repatriation of passenger costs, additional fuel costs etc) might make P&O look in the future at relocating the ship to a safer port when bad weather forecast- in this instance Valencia might have been a better option instead of staying in Palma.

[purplesea]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

The only things I have seen refer to the Majorca hotel, not Britannia. 

That is all I've seen too.

[Megabear2]

How many on-board this sailing?

[kermchem]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

How many on-board this sailing?

Solent Ships youtube channel reports 3503 passengers and 1346 crew as the numbers the radio operator gave to Southampton VTS

[GSPG]

2 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Yes the lifeboat looks a write off. Further back I could see during our sailing that the railings around the canister style life rafts was badly damaged.

My personal thoughts are that day 2 in Palma should have been aborted as it was already predicted by the Captain on day one that the weather on day two would be wet and windy. The advance weather charts did show storms for Sunday. We had got off the ship to stretch our legs and so had to endure a miserable 5 hours in a disused terminal with no lights, water or food. Not sure £40pp OBC makes up for a wasted day.

I suspect the resulting costs to P&O  ( damage to Britannia and the merchant tanker, port costs, tug costs, repatriation of passenger costs, additional fuel costs etc) might make P&O look in the future at relocating the ship to a safer port when bad weather forecast- in this instance Valencia might have been a better option instead of staying in Palma.

I saw a YT of someone who appeared to be experienced in maritime regulations etc, and the question from him was around the mooring ropes.

It seems that there are various permutations in the number of, and how ropes are tied, depending on conditions etc.

His observation seemed to suggest the ropes used at the time of the storm were wrongly set up, or inadequate.

May be a case of wherever a ship is moored, if the wrong set up is used in extreme conditions, the outcome of the ship moving away from it’s mooring will largely be the same.

Whatever happens to it thereafter is the unknown.

 

[xAlanox]

Hi everyone,

 

My family and I, was on the ship when the accident happened. Also one of the hundreds who was asked to leave via a letter in the cabin. Which we as a family of four did. We had a balcony room and have footage. 

 

What happened is pretty much clearly documented, it all happened on the 27th August 11am. 

 

A lot of promises was made by the ship crew, the ones who asked you to come off, yet all of the things that was promised was broken due to exceptional circumstances (flight delays, ship crashing, weather etc). 

 

It was lucky that the oil ship was there to stop the Britannia from sustaining major damage in the bottom part of the ship.

 

Anyways, cut things short, staying in Alcudia was not great, the hotel was seriously badly designed with standing water ponds attracted a lot of mosquito’s. Also traveling from Fedra III build to reception took at least 15mins of walk, to the restaurant was at about 10 minutes. 

 

I understand that P&O tried their best and many things was out of their hands, it’s just the holiday and cruise that was paid for was pretty much non-existent from the moment the crash happened. Especially for those who agreed to leave. 

 

P&O staff did try their best to make things work out and as comfortable as possible. Its just that I paid for a cruise holiday (first holiday since covid) with my family and now im back home, we are all left with bitter sweet feelings. 

 

P&O really needs to understand exactly what the passengers when through since leaving the ship the hours of standing in queues, the not knowing which airport.. the time we had to wake up. There was a lot of suffering mentally and physically. 

[molecrochip]

@xAlanox Thank you got your honest comments. Please formally feed them back to head office.

 

You are entitled to a pro-rata refund of your holiday so make sure you get that.

[P&O SUE]

7 hours ago, xAlanox said:

Hi everyone,

 

My family and I, was on the ship when the accident happened. Also one of the hundreds who was asked to leave via a letter in the cabin. Which we as a family of four did. We had a balcony room and have footage. 

 

What happened is pretty much clearly documented, it all happened on the 27th August 11am. 

 

A lot of promises was made by the ship crew, the ones who asked you to come off, yet all of the things that was promised was broken due to exceptional circumstances (flight delays, ship crashing, weather etc). 

 

It was lucky that the oil ship was there to stop the Britannia from sustaining major damage in the bottom part of the ship.

 

Anyways, cut things short, staying in Alcudia was not great, the hotel was seriously badly designed with standing water ponds attracted a lot of mosquito’s. Also traveling from Fedra III build to reception took at least 15mins of walk, to the restaurant was at about 10 minutes. 

 

I understand that P&O tried their best and many things was out of their hands, it’s just the holiday and cruise that was paid for was pretty much non-existent from the moment the crash happened. Especially for those who agreed to leave. 

 

P&O staff did try their best to make things work out and as comfortable as possible. Its just that I paid for a cruise holiday (first holiday since covid) with my family and now im back home, we are all left with bitter sweet feelings. 

 

P&O really needs to understand exactly what the passengers when through since leaving the ship the hours of standing in queues, the not knowing which airport.. the time we had to wake up. There was a lot of suffering mentally and physically. 

I’m so pleased you’re home now. How many nights did you have to stay in the hotel?

Edited September 2, 2023 by P&O SUE

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

We received a letter in our cabin ( deck 8 ) to say that we may be asked to leave . I just ignored the letter as it was pretty clear from others that had been down to reception that it was highly unlikely that anyone would be forced to leave the ship and be flown home. There is no way I would have voluntarily left the ship and left myself at the mercy of P&O making arrangements for hotel and flights as I feared they would just take the cheapest options. 

[Megabear2]

8 hours ago, xAlanox said:

Hi everyone,

 

My family and I, was on the ship when the accident happened. Also one of the hundreds who was asked to leave via a letter in the cabin. Which we as a family of four did. We had a balcony room and have footage. 

 

What happened is pretty much clearly documented, it all happened on the 27th August 11am. 

 

A lot of promises was made by the ship crew, the ones who asked you to come off, yet all of the things that was promised was broken due to exceptional circumstances (flight delays, ship crashing, weather etc). 

 

It was lucky that the oil ship was there to stop the Britannia from sustaining major damage in the bottom part of the ship.

 

Anyways, cut things short, staying in Alcudia was not great, the hotel was seriously badly designed with standing water ponds attracted a lot of mosquito’s. Also traveling from Fedra III build to reception took at least 15mins of walk, to the restaurant was at about 10 minutes. 

 

I understand that P&O tried their best and many things was out of their hands, it’s just the holiday and cruise that was paid for was pretty much non-existent from the moment the crash happened. Especially for those who agreed to leave. 

 

P&O staff did try their best to make things work out and as comfortable as possible. Its just that I paid for a cruise holiday (first holiday since covid) with my family and now im back home, we are all left with bitter sweet feelings. 

 

P&O really needs to understand exactly what the passengers when through since leaving the ship the hours of standing in queues, the not knowing which airport.. the time we had to wake up. There was a lot of suffering mentally and physically. 

A15FE712-90B5-492D-A16D-73F77251CFE6-2300-0000077480DC818F.mov

Thank you for telling us your experience. I hope things are soon settled for you.  May I ask do you have any idea how many paying passengers (as opposed to staff family members etc) were moved to the hotel?  I assume P&O kept you all together in order to maintain easy contact however was that the case?  Did you get "selected" and was there any option if you didn't  wish to "volunteer"?

 

I also assume you were free to come and go as you wished and not just left in the hotel awaiting news but perhaps you could confirm that was the case.

 

Once again thank you for sharing your experience, I hope all goes well for you.

 

 

[JeanieC,Aston]

Hi

I believe the hotel was the Bellevue Apartments complex in Alcudia,,it’s a massive complex probably the biggest on the Island.

Probably the only place to house all those who left the ship.

It’s still a firm favourite with Brits,,,built in 1974 might be getting a bit rough now,,,it was rough 40 years ago when I went.

Btw Alcudia is notorious for mossies due to the standing water of ponds and canals which are a feature of Alcudia.

[lincslady]

Just read the Tripadvisor comments about this place - some people seem to have thought it ok, but not those who were put there by P and O, who probably have higher standards.  I am sure it was very difficult to find places for over 300 people to stay for a few nights - and those who felt they were obliged to go, when others just refused and did not, doesn't help with how they feel towards P and O, sadly.  I hope they get some sort of recompense for being upright obedient citizens!  I am not blaming anyone who said no, and stayed on board by the way.  

[xAlanox]

We stayed at the hotel for 2 nights. @P&O SUE

 

@Megabear2 I would say there was definitely over 200 paying guest that left the ship. Yes P&O kept us all together at the Bellevue Apartments, correspondence was via SMS messaging. 

 

The Britannia ship was looking a bit worse for wear, we stayed on Deck 15 on the even side, one of the rooms was leaking so bad it was coming out to the deck corridor, there was blue cloths on the ground, but when you walked past, it was splurging as it was so wet. 

 

@HalifaxYorksCruiser I wish we did what you did, how was the rest of the ships journey and what did they offer you some sort of compensation?  Yes we did feel we were at the mercy of P&O arranging things for us. It was terrible, and if this becomes national news, no passenger would ever leave the P&O ship if they were ever asked

 

@molecrochip Yes they offered and paid 4 nights of Pro-Rata in to my account already. 

 

There is so many things unclear, like our onboard accounts, they just took money £170 from my wife’s account, which was cleared daily on the 30th August, when we were already away from the ship. 

Normally I presume we would get a statement on the last day. It’s looking more than likely we will get nothing and just have to pay whatever P&O charges. I will of course contact them on Monday to query this.