Disappointment at St Peter Port.

Could you clarify what you mean by this comment? We have always found P&O staff to be scrupulous about the gap test. So much so that my wife has sadly given up on any chance of disembarking in a tender port, which is a great shame as we are doing a USA / Cananda cruise next year and she really wanted to see all the locations but won't be able to.

Interestingly on our July cruise on Adonia I (stupidly) did not read the newspaper correctly and thought we got our tender tickets in the Curzon lounge. Went in there - did the gap test - and then discovered that was the meeting place for excursions and passengers exploring on their own had to go to Andersons

Went to Andersons and queued up to get our tickets - but no gap test in there. I asked the entertainemnt officer supervising and she said we didn't have to do it

So complete hit or miss!

Just booked the mini cruise to St Peter Port next week and hoping we manage to get there. I have been successful three out of four times in the past.

Don't cruise P&O much now so I am completely puzzled by the term "gap test"?

Are you saying there is some kind of test to see if pax can step into a tender? It won't affect us but it may affect my mother on future cruises. She is mobile but a bit unsteady, with poor vision and just needs to take her time getting in and out of a tender. She was thinking of booking a Fjords cruise with her three friends who are all getting on a bit but fairly healthy for their ages.

Should she be worried about this gap test as there are quite a few tender ports on the Fjords cruise she is hoping to book.

Just booked the mini cruise to St Peter Port next week and hoping we manage to get there. I have been successful three out of four times in the past.

 

Don't cruise P&O much now so I am completely puzzled by the term "gap test"?

 

Are you saying there is some kind of test to see if pax can step into a tender? It won't affect us but it may affect my mother on future cruises. She is mobile but a bit unsteady, with poor vision and just needs to take her time getting in and out of a tender. She was thinking of booking a Fjords cruise with her three friends who are all getting on a bit but fairly healthy for their ages.

 

Should she be worried about this gap test as there are quite a few tender ports on the Fjords cruise she is hoping to book.

Passengers using a tender have to be able to step across a gap of 18 inches unaided and in a reasonable time. Usually the actual gap between tender and ship is far less than that, but the challenge for those with mobility issues is that the tenders can go up and and down by a foot or more, even when moored against the ship. Understandably, P&O have passenger safety foremost in their mind, so those passengers who have declared a mobility issue prior to booking will be requested to attend a tender briefing on those cruises, only where there are tender ports on the cruise (usually the first sea day) and, at the end of this, everyone is asked to step, unaided, over a mat marked with two lines 18 inches apart. If successful, they tick off your name. If not, they will advise that you may not be able to disembark by tender, but the decision will rest with the deck officer. They have the mat present at the tender dock for those who did not attend the briefing or where it may be in question. If you do not wish to disembark by tender, you do not need to attend the briefing or perform the test. If your mother has not declared a mobility issue, she won't need to go through this and, as long as she can safely board the tender she will have no issue. Ironically, although the test necessitates having to board unaided, P&O staff are always present and assist!

On Adonia in July,the gap test, stepping over to lines 18 inch apart was being used at the departure lounge before boarding, and the also in the designated tender lounge before getting to the tender.

On Adonia there are also 9 steps to negotiate to get to the tender.

If unsure practise at home, make up a cardboard box 18 inch wide but very shallow in depth,and train to step over it.

It helps to bend the push off knee.

Who are these other lines that have alternative arrangements if they cannot get in a certain port.

Just done a quick trawl through the other boards and found the same comments about missed ports as on here.

Certainly Princess ran their two nighter last year with a reserve port in mind. They are a lot more expensive than P&O on the weekend at Guernsey. They have run longer at Guernsey leaving later in the day giving opportunities to go to Sark etc. with the line. P&O seem to leave earlier. We went on to Le Havre one year after Caribbean Princess failed to tender, think that was on a British Isles circumnavigation. . They also make a point of launching a tender with crew on and the captain comments on it. At this point one or two passengers on board were agreeing with the "It's too rough" opinion expressed watching the boat bobbing up and down. . This year Princess have scheduled it as a three nighter with Cherbourg following day. It seem prudent to add a night and a second port as well as having a reserve port anyway. Incidently the 2018 Princess Guernsey weekender is going down in price and looks comparable to P&O bearing in mind an extra day/port.

Regards John

Thank you Selbourne and Mercury for that info. Never known it on any other cruise line or indeed P&O before. My mother cruises with P&O often and me very rarely. I much prefer Azamara and Silversea!

She shouldn't have much trouble stepping across a gap of 18 inches as long as they allow her time. Actually it's her vision that causes her the most problems. She has macular degeneration. I will let her know that she can book her Fjords cruise with her friends when the price comes down a bit.

Now I just hope we make it into St Peter Port next Sunday. :)

Strange this morning Marine Traffic was showing Venturas ten ders going to and fro.... Shame for those on Oriana. Have to say,re comments re folk on Oriana. You can be elderly, a couple and infirm but you can still want to get off and explore.

 

Sent from my SM-T310 using Forums mobile app

Maybe if you had been on the cruise instead of sat at home on the PC you would have known they were testing the conditions and NOT taking passengers ashore.

We were on Ventura and got ashore in the afternoon, not sure why Oriana did not use Venturas tenders.

Well two to Tango .. I wasn't being confrontational just curious. I was just tracking the ship getting excited about our cruise.... and to be honest find your comment unnecessarily sharp .... perhaps you have post cruise blues ????

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

Well two to Tango .. I wasn't being confrontational just curious. I was just tracking the ship getting excited about our cruise.... and to be honest find your comment unnecessarily sharp .... perhaps you have post cruise blues ????

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

Yes am a bit upset with P&O (see my post on balcony smoking). sorry no blues but if you had been sat on the ship all morning looking over what seemed to be a very calm port with tenders bobbing about you would feel a bit tetchy about someone "presuming" . The local ferry was going back and forth with no problems even though it was smaller than the tenders. I understand they must put safety first but they always seem to over react when in channel ports.

Who are these other lines that have alternative arrangements if they cannot get in a certain port.

 

Just done a quick trawl through the other boards and found the same comments about missed ports as on here.

I have to say that most other times we have had problems with tendering P&O have found another port. Toulon instead of Cannes and Ajaccio instead of Monaco. We missed La Coruna once and headed straight for Tenerife and had an over night. I think the problem with St Peter Port is to do with the duty free situation. They want to give every opportunity to get into the port as if they don't then people cannot have their duty free purchases. I suspect that once we leave the EU Guernsey may miss out on cruise ship calls.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Well two to Tango .. I wasn't being confrontational just curious. I was just tracking the ship getting excited about our cruise.... and to be honest find your comment unnecessarily sharp .... perhaps you have post cruise blues ????

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

I agree, almost everyone who posts on cc will not be on a ship at the time they are posting.

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

Yes am a bit upset with P&O (see my post on balcony smoking). sorry no blues but if you had been sat on the ship all morning looking over what seemed to be a very calm port with tenders bobbing about you would feel a bit tetchy about someone "presuming" . The local ferry was going back and forth with no problems even though it was smaller than the tenders. I understand they must put safety first but they always seem to over react when in channel ports.

Sometimes its only when you are getting on or off the tender from the ship that you realise the safety issue.

We have been on a tender when it was moving up and down several feet and people were getting off 1 at a time.

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

I have to say that most other times we have had problems with tendering P&O have found another port. Toulon instead of Cannes and Ajaccio instead of Monaco. We missed La Coruna once and headed straight for Tenerife and had an over night. I think the problem with St Peter Port is to do with the duty free situation. They want to give every opportunity to get into the port as if they don't then people cannot have their duty free purchases. I suspect that once we leave the EU Guernsey may miss out on cruise ship calls.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Very good point.

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

Well two to Tango .. I wasn't being confrontational just curious. I was just tracking the ship getting excited about our cruise.... and to be honest find your comment unnecessarily sharp .... perhaps you have post cruise blues ????

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

Either that or no manners

Oops!

Incoming,hard hats on.

Could you clarify what you mean by this comment? We have always found P&O staff to be scrupulous about the gap test. So much so that my wife has sadly given up on any chance of disembarking in a tender port, which is a great shame as we are doing a USA / Cananda cruise next year and she really wanted to see all the locations but won't be able to.

There are always a number of people who really struggle to step into the tender, even in flat calm seas when the tender and ship are constantly level with virtually no movement.

It find it hard to understand how these people passed the gap test, but I assume they must have done so.

However if they struggle on a flat calm seas I can understand why P&O might be concerned if it was likely the sea would get up later. So P&O are overly cautious and decide not to operate the tenders.

It has a lot to do with confidence.

Yes am a bit upset with P&O (see my post on balcony smoking). sorry no blues but if you had been sat on the ship all morning looking over what seemed to be a very calm port with tenders bobbing about you would feel a bit tetchy about someone "presuming" . The local ferry was going back and forth with no problems even though it was smaller than the tenders. I understand they must put safety first but they always seem to over react when in channel ports.

I can understand your disappointment but please dont take it out on me for making a relatively normal statement about Marine Traffic showing tenders going to and fro. It was a statement of fact.. and an innocent, easy mistake to make

Sent from my SM-T310 using Forums mobile app

I have been lucky to visit Gursney twice and passengers have got to land twice. That being said, after our first tender experience in 2013 which was fine on the way out but involved a huge swell and being held in the bay as they could only let one boat back at a time, it was enough to stay on-board second time around. The crew on the tenders first time had to lift people out of the tender as the difference or 'gap' was huge. They were also arguing across their radio counting passengers and comparing how many had been ill. Our tender was the last back for a while. Not a nice experience for crew or passengers and enough to put me off tendering for a while!

We have had a bad experience on 2 of the 3 occasions that we have used a tender at Monaco. Going ashore was fine, but rough sea conditions on the return to the ship made it a very uncomfortable experience. Of course, P&O can't do anything about sea conditions and safety is always paramaount, but even taking that into consideration, I don't feel that they handle these situations very well. On both occasions, our tender has been dispatched from the relatively calm harbour the second it is full and then forced to sit, bobbing around in rough water, for 10-20 minutes due to the time it is taking to disembark previous tenders. As a result, multiple passengers were getting sea sick and becoming quite distressed. To my mind, the obvious solution is to delay the dispatch of each tender until they know that a tender dock on the ship is going to be available for it very soon after its arrival back at the ship. This should not be beyond the wit of man, yet they steadfastly refuse to do it. I am sure that anyone else who has experienced this would much prefer to stand in a queue on terra firma than be made to feel wretched or witness others that are for what can seem like an eternity. In fact, it's so horrible that I have told my wife that, in the event of an emergency in a severe storm, I am not going anywhere near the lifeboats and will go down with the ship!

You lot are not filling me with confidence! First cruise next month and we're calling at Guernsey.

I'm now slightly worried about tendering - I can do the gap test no bother, but I'm visually impaired and it affects my balance. I also can get a bit nauseous on smaller boats 🤢

Still, all part of the adventure I'm sure!

What Gap!---Sorry.

You will be fine,They have assistants, to steady you on and off.

Only a short journey to shore.

Yes, it is part of the adventure

My experience of stopping at Guernsey was, to say the least, interesting. The weather was fine but there was a real swell on the water. When I went down to board the tender - I was on a trip - the tender was bobbing around against the side of the ship. There were two officers who were practically lifting each person onto the tender. I was the next person to go aboard the tender when the officer in charge stopped me and said, 'Wait!' I stepped back and eventually he said no he would try having the tender move further towards the other end of the ship and see if there was more shelter. I must say the passengers already on the tender looked very uncomfortable, bobbing around. Eventually there was a loud bang as the tender hit the side of the ship. Another tender was brought alongside further back, behind the other one, and I got aboard that, again with an officer either side of me, helping, well sort of lifting me aboard. We eventually set off and the passengers in the first tender had to all disembark and go ashore on another tender.

On the return journey the ship was using one of the St. Peter Port boats, much larger, much more stable. So in that instance everything was done to try to get the passengers ashore but I would think it came very near to cancelling the stay.

We once had the experience in the Caribbean where the Captain cancelled a stay and many passengers complained saying the weather was perfectly fine and started all sorts of theories as to why the stop was cancelled, saving port fees etc. all the usual stories. We were supposed to be stopping in Jamaica and as we approached my husband looked out over the balcony - it was a beautiful sunny, hot day and the sea looked smooth. My husband has done a lot of big boat sailing, Fastnet race, that sort of thing, and he said, 'I reckon it's going to be a problem stopping here - there's a real swell there, I don't think we're going to make it.' Well, he was right. The Captain announced he was going to review the situation and would let us know and eventually he said he was very sorry but it was just not safe to try to stop and the call was cancelled. Lots of very unhappy passengers as you can imagine. I think it just goes to show that unless someone knows a lot about the wind and the tides and the swell, a beautiful, fine day does not necessarily mean it's safe to try to stop.

Could you clarify what you mean by this comment? We have always found P&O staff to be scrupulous about the gap test. So much so that my wife has sadly given up on any chance of disembarking in a tender port, which is a great shame as we are doing a USA / Cananda cruise next year and she really wanted to see all the locations but won't be able to.

We are the same Selbourne we no longer bother on Grand Class ships, however Solstice class ships do sometimes offer roll on/off facilities. Although on our only visit to Guernsey on a Princess ship we stayed aboard while the family went ashore, but they were using a local ferry as well as the smaller ships tenders and we did notice that a couple of wheelchairs were rolled onto the ferry. We still feel that it's better safe than sorry though.

I had a very unpleasant experience tendering back from Guernsey a couple of years ago; the Captain told us it was perfectly safe but it was like a corkscrew, and it was! Not too bad going ashore, though huge bobbing about once out of the lee of the ship, but the wind really got up towards lunchtime and the tender back was very slow with about 25 minutes of severe bobbing up and down and hitting the pontoon before we could get off; dozens of people were sick and everyone was frightened. The Captain stopped tender operations after we all got back on and it was another 3 hours before they could bring the remaining passengers back.

All this took place on a lovely warm sunny day in late April; it was the wind and the swell that caused the problems. I didn't mind the outward journey too much but was really scared on the return and practically kissed the ship on getting onboard again!

I think the Captain always knows best in these situations.