Eglesbrech

Day 3 cont. No seats or sunbeds available on the top decks but we were in luck and had sun on our balcony so enjoyed that. Well the dinner queues continue. There was an argument in our one last night with raised voices when the young lady at the desk seated someone from the “not booked” queue ahead of booked. She politely explained that most people onboard had been unable to book any tables so they were trying to be fair by mixing in a few from the queue. I feel really sorry for the staff. I’m also not happy about constantly being kept waiting but I don’t take it out on the people just doing their job. I have the feeling the dinner queues were a little less as people have just given up and now eat at the buffet (as many were told they should do on the formal night when there were just no tables). Some are also eating very early, we spoke to a couple who have been going at 5.30 to eat and they can walk straight in and get great service apparently. Personally I don’t want to eat at that time of the day but it is an option. Dinner took over 2 and a half hours last night from the queue, for a standard 3 courses (no salad, coffee etc). That’s every night so far that the waiter has been working on his own so having to do water, drinks, orders, clearing the table, resetting. The maitre d is even helping to reset. After that length of time there would have been no point in trying for a seat at the theatre as people are now going 30 minutes ahead of time just to get a seat. I am avoiding it anyway as they are packed in like sardines in a can with no social distance whatsoever. So a quiet after dinner drink then? No. Not a single seat to be had in any bar in any part of the ship. After walking round about a dozen times we eventually got a table and had to then scrabble around for chairs. Does anyone remember the old childrens game of musical chairs well Sky Princess now has this on a grand scale. If anyone so much as rises from a chair there are 3 other groups ready to pounce and only the quickest get the seats. I timed it last night and the slowest table to go was 10 seconds! At least the dirty glasses etc are being removed a bit quicker. The deck attendants have been co-opted into lifting glasses. I know it’s them because they have on their normal uniform with “deck attendant” written on the back. I do worry about working hours but presume management has a system for this. Day 4 Copenhagen Stuck out in the new port and we can see the langalinie port from here which is empty so I don’t know why we are miles out of the city (and it’s not ship size as we have been there in big ships). We have been here many times before so opted to use the shuttle bus provided by Princess for $20 per person (takes about 20 minutes). The drop off point is a side street a few minutes walk from half way up the Stonget. Good location for shopping, Tivoli gardens, the Town Hall and Nyehaven. A bit further walk for the Gyfen fountain and mermaid by perfectly easy to walk to. There were only 2 taxis at the port when we left, there were none when we came back. Buses / trains are available but it’s a good walk from the port to get to the stops / stations from where we are docked today. There were several HOHO buses at the port and they went to the Mermaid etc and did round trips back to the port. They were mobbed as well. Sorry I didn’t see the prices. Anyway Copenhagen is always fun and today was no exception (in spite of poor weather, bit drizzly).

Masks are now simply recommended not required and they are being worn by almost no one in any part of the ship including lifts and the theatre. The staff all still have them on but very few passengers.

Oops. Thanks for the correction, that should have been 100 NOK so about £8.50. So yes much more expensive in pounds than NOK but I suppose they have to do it round numbers and also pay exchange rates. To be fair in the U.K. we don’t accept NOK! I really hope things improve for you for next week but fore armed you can book up in advance anything you really want now.

I can only talk with personal experience for the restaurant as we don’t tend to do buffets, the buffet comments are based on second hand from other guests. We used Official Rapid Tests as they use independent local pharmacies (with some in more rural areas which was great for us) for an in person test with results and a certificate in 15 minutes. We have used them twice now and a good experience both times. NB as they use independents, service /experiences may differ from area to area.

I contributed to a live from Sky on 28 March. The WiFi was not perfect then but usable. Same this time, slow and sluggish but just about usable.

Day 3 Kristiansand Ordered room service breakfast to avoid the bun fight at the buffet or yet another queue for the restaurant. It came in the 30 minute slot we selected and the hot food was hot. Also a very nice fruit plate so all good. The gods of cruising are smiling on us again, beautiful sunny weather for this pretty little port. We have been here several times before so just had a long walk about. The old town is quaint with typical Norwegian style painted wooden buildings, the newer part has some nice shops. The fish market area has great seafood, pricy but very good. Friendly, welcoming locals. The shops in the harbour will take Krona and euros, in town most took cards or Krona. The little train ride (which does a circuit of the old and new town) will take Krona, pounds and Euros but the charge was much higher if not paid in Norwegian Krona. 10NOK 15 pounds, 15 Euro. Nice port for a morning walk and an afternoon on the balcony reading.

I’m not that technical so I’ll ask my oh if he can do it for you re the patter. Im sure that Princess will have it sorted by August. So many people are complaining on here head office will be well aware there is an issue by now and hopefully address it for future cruises.

Day 1 Beautiful sunny day in Southampton for embarkation. Embarkation was really excellent, we were through check in and onboard by 11.30 from an 11am check in time (although I understand that those after 12 noon had a very long wait to get on). Luggage delivery was also prompt. The cabin is immaculate so all good there. We have arranged with the steward for a turndown service, it is now something you seem to need to ask for (last 2 cruises) but no problem with it being provided. The ship is far too busy and everywhere you go there are queues for all the bars, Alfredo’s (excellent food as ever) the International Cafe etc. Because it’s so sunny the outdoor decks are full to overflowing so I have repaired to my balcony for some peace and quiet. I hope the bar service improves as 30 to 40 minutes wait for waiter service is poor and the app is simply not working for drinks orders, it just cancelled them after a period of time!. Anyway day 1 is always a bit hectic so let’s hope it improves once everyone has settled in. I don’t know the official numbers onboard as yet but there were several announcements for those who had not visited the muster stations or watched the safety video and at after 2pm 2000 people had still to do so. An hour later 1000 still outstanding. It doesn’t help that watching the safety briefing on the TV screen does not appear to register as “done”, only on a device (for us anyway). Seems to be a lot of new cruisers looking at the medallions who are perhaps not familiar with how it all works now. Many of the crew have changed since just 8 weeks ago and some of the new faces appear perhaps just a little inexperienced. Some old faces as well so there will be great mentors for the newer staff. I do feel that Princess are pushing everything onto technology which would be fine it it worked perfectly but it’s like the curates egg, good in parts. Looking forward to a lovely cruise to Scandinavia on the beautiful Sky Princess. Day 2 sea day Well the ship is full, 99% of capacity for apparently the first time and it shows. There is no space anywhere, particularly in the evening, it feels more like being in a busy shopping mall than a ship. The service is dreadful. This is no reflection on the hard working staff who are trying their very best but there are simply not enough of them for the numbers onboard. Tables lie with dirty dishes on them, the bar areas are overrun with glasses and the staff look frankly frazzled. One member of staff who I won’t identify in any way was so frustrated they vented about greedy head office filling the ship but not upping the staffing levels. Constant queues for just about everything, as an example the queue for afternoon tea stretched from the restaurant right out and round to to the casino! Once seated the service was slow, no tea refills etc. The food is still good but very slow in coming and there are no pre booking left available for the restaurant for the whole week. Queues are are a constant feature unless you want to eat at 5.30 or are lucky and hit a lull (which I’m sure some people have). The app is a complete waste of time, no point in ordering on it as it just doesn’t come and an hour after the order is placed and they are “preparing it” it simply gets cancelled. Spoke to management about the issues and nothing is going to change. They are aware that they are short of staff and aware of the problems this is causing as many, many guests are making their feeling known formally and this is only the end of day 2. So basically our cruise is written off as being one with long queues and bad service. I had intended to book another cruise while onboard but that won’t be happening. I will looking for reviews from others over the coming months to see if the cruises I have already booked get cancelled, based on what HQ do to sort the staffing issues on here. Anyway I still intend to make the most of it and enjoy the ports.

Sending loving thoughts and prayers to you and your family at this sad time.

Yes we got punted to an American call handler by Celebrity who knew precisely nothing about European / U.K. cruises. Princess can however beat that with an incoming call in the middle of the night to check we were “all set” with the medallion. I thought it was a prank call but no, it was genuine. Obviously no one told them there was a time difference! Credit where it is due they called us to check we were coping with the technology which would have been appreciated by some (but not the timing of the call).

Thanks for mentioning the Dundee sailing. I have just had a look and they have some interesting trips. The free match day tickets for Essex cricket ground are just a little random for sailings from Scotland but heyho someone may appreciate them.

Ditto, that and a flood of emails almost daily.

In my recent experience several of the cruise companies I deal with along with a variety of other types of service providers have dreadful customer service. Companies used to employ mystery shoppers to test their call responsiveness and the expected pick up time was within 30 second’s. Now people seem happy if it’s 30 minutes! Government departments are no better eg passport, DVLA, OPG etc. Customers can’t avoid the government agencies as we are a captive audience but I think holiday companies and other places where spend is purely discretionary need to be aware that customers will take so much and no more. At the moment any cruise line who could gear up to answer calls consistently quickly would probably poach business from the others.😀

We were on Sky in March /April and being pre booked made no difference whatsoever on the first few nights. There were still queues regardless and we got sent away from the Ceilo (pre booked) as the queue was up the stairs and people kept piling out of the lifts and skipping it. This was the first cruise back in the U.K. so they may have improved things now and have more staff. It did get better as the cruise went on but we tended to eat quite late when things were quieter. We never went back to that restaurant and went between the others depending on capacity. Both very nice and airy. Visited Ceilo once for a wine tasting and it looked a nice venue too. No, no consequences for skipping a booking (but cancel the table as courtesy, easy enough to do on the app). As an aside we thought the food was generally good with sufficient choice and served hot.

Good point. If the service someone receives is not good that is probably what will eventually happen. Regular passengers may give the company the benefit of the doubt on the basis of great past experiences but newer customers may not. The problem for now is that people have booked in good faith expecting the excellent service they have previously enjoyed on Celebrity. The passenger can’t do anything about that booking (well at least not in the U.K. where we lose our large deposits if we cancel and have to pay final balances several months before sailing). The cruise line can do something, stop selling last minute upgrades or filling every cabin if that would mean there are insufficient staff to passenger ratios. While this strategy may cost in the short term it’s probably better than potentially losing customers. Lets hope that any issues are just a temporary blip. Unfortunately they seem to be affecting most cruise lines at the moment.

We got a letter in from Fred Olsen yesterday. They have just reduced their cruises for later this year , there are some nice options in late August, early September depending on where is convenient for you to leave from.

Updated on 11 May. Updated yet again on the 17 May. Take careful note of the “at or near the terminal” part of the statement.

It’s cold shinnbone “pate”. It is a meat and jelly paste which is lovely on toast. Boiled to death and the left to set and eaten cold. It is spelled hough but pronounced potted Hawk so you may have tried it without knowing.

I know there was a previous discussion on this but my school dinners were braw. There was a head cook who did what she wanted to do, not what the “school board” mandated. So we got hearty soups, stew, stovies, potted hough , fish in milk, herring in oatmeal etc and for dessert amazing rhubarb crumble, caramel cake, baked apples and syrup sponge. We ran about a lot in the cold to burn the excess calories!

I went to Butlins several times a long, long time ago. I can say without fear of contradiction that no P&O ship was ever (even at its very worst) anything like Butlins. Butlins / Pontins was great in its era and being honest we enjoyed aspects of it. You can however in no way compare the accommodation, the food, the service or the amenities to a cruise ship. Some of the entertainment was actually very good as these holiday camps had “big names” of their day. They also used to have sports personalities doing masterclasses. I would give Butlins a miss now though Zapp if I were you. 😀

No you are in no way responsible and I don’t think I implied that even tacitly? I would have done the same as Happy cruiser in the circumstances and yes the strategy was indeed great. However it should not have been necessary and that is my point. Have a great day yourself and have you seen the thread about discounts for teachers, it may be of interest to you.

But presumably not particularly positive for those left with sub par service (as described above) in the MDR. Cruises are not a cheap holiday for anyone from an inside up to a top suite. There is an expectation of a certain level of service across all those grades. If you don’t have the staff to fulfil those promises / expectations then stop selling so many cabins. And yes the almond croissants are excellent.

I got absolutely shot down in flames last year when I pointed out that most of the ship was sailing at a vastly reduced capacity but the retreat areas, Luminae etc were stuffed to full capacity. Consequently those paying the most were actually in danger of having the least social distancing. I agree that if the ships know that they just can’t provide adequate coverage then they should not accept any move up bids on suites (or any other grade).

That is indeed potentially the issue. If you don’t have the staff to provide adequate service to full price paying guests then don’t accept last minute upgrade bids and dilute the service.

I have been responsible for very large groups of staff in my working life. In my experience customers expect and deserve to get the service they booked and paid for. Having a “crystal ball” with regard to workforce planning is par for the course for any professional manager surely? Not easy but absolutely part of the job. If a company cannot provide the service they have advertised and indeed charged a significantly high premium for then it is for them to find a way to resolve the issue: it’s not for the customer to “try hard not to add to the burden unnecessarily”. Stop and think about what you are suggesting. That guests should pay for a service which is not provided to them. Where does that stop? At what point does that become generally unacceptable?