whats happened to aurora?

[Phillip Toddy]

I feel for all of you who were disssappointed by the cancellation of the Aurora cruise.

 

But I am not the least surprised at the P&O administrative bungling that you are reporting.

 

We cruised on Aurora last March - Darwin to Singapore. The Goanese crew were terrific, very attentive and competent.

 

The people actually sailing the ship were also impressively competent.

 

But the English administration people were woefully incompetent. Just a few examples:

 

When we boarded and found our cabin to be wrongly configured, the admin people looking after boarding told us that we would have to ring someone.

When we rang the someone (English) they said that they would ensure the steward was informed. He was not informed.

The day trip to Bankok included sitting doing nothing for an hour while the P&O admin guide had her lunch - we then misssed some of the tour as we were running late

Disembarking for the shore trips always took ages and the confusion of the administators responsible for organising them was arrant

Announcements about such things a tour closing times were frequently wrong

Queues in the purser's area often formed around signs that apparently described their purposes with people only being told that they were in the wrong queue after standing around for hours (the signs were not changed though)

All of the above communications were conducted by the admin people with what the English call a "sarky" air of smugness.

In the end we I just gave up asking them for anything - I am sure they were plesed by this.

 

So don't be surprised if you never hear from P&O - it will turn out to be your fault anyway.

 

Phil

[transat_jon]

This morning when I got to work, I noticed Aurora has gone from Southampton.

 

Is she off back to Germany?

[Globaliser]

This morning when I got to work, I noticed Aurora has gone from Southampton.

 

Is she off back to Germany?

Maritime Matters is reporting:-

AURORA sails for Repair

 

January 26: P & O's AURORA sailed from Southampton tonight at about 7PM for repairs at Bremerhaven, Germany following her cancelled world cruise. SCRATCH, (Southampton City and Region Action to Combat Hardship), a christian charity aiding the effects of poverty to individuals and families in the Southampton area, was given the donation of 3 1/2 tonnes of food already stocked for the long cruise. AURORA is expected on the evening of January 28. It was reported that a hole will be cut in the hull allowing the problematic 180-ton electrical motor to be replaced.

[ladikara]

That was nice of them to donate the food. That is A LOT of food, that will feed so many needy people. :o

[ladikara]

Well great news. P&O called us! They attempted yesterday, but we were attending a funeral, so we missed the call.

 

Anyway, they did call today. Here's the scoop.

 

She said she only had under 10 people left to contact just on her list. We were near the bottom, but we don't know the reasons. I am sure it's because of us booking with the agency. (We found another person who was booked through the same agency and hadn't heard from anybody)

 

They refunded our money to the travel agency, and they said the agency should have given us the money back by now. So to me, the agency is trying to hold it for as long as they possibly can so they can earn some interest. :mad: Anyway she is going to call the agency in the morning and ask them to give us the money.

We asked about our plane tickets from San Francisco to Hong Kong, and they asked us to mail in our receipts and they will send us the refund. She gave us the contact name for the customer service department where whe need to mail it to, and said she will coordinate with the guy to get the refund sent to us.

 

They said they would have given us the 25% cruise credit off of the Princess cruise we are going on, but we would have had to book it through Princess in the UK. Not Princess in the US. I guess they don't really "talk" to Princess in the US, where they do with Princess in the UK. So i'm sure my parents will use the 25% cruise credit on another P&O cruise in the future.

 

Apparently the girl who called was VERY nice. She told my stepdad amongst all the "flirting" from her, he had a very nice accent. My mom said the girl just giggled and giggled. My mom just rolled her eyes. LOL! :D

 

I'm glad things are close to being settled. Just wanted to give everybody an update! -Kara