princess daphne

[cruizerofperth]

spoken to CIC again, a specialist has flown to the ship to rectify the A/C problems, they are being resolved as we speak.

[opshop]

Thanks Jimmy We will take the duty free on board with us and take a chance. We will argue the point wth them lets see who wins probaly not us. Let you know how we go. Monica

[matilda]

Hi Everyone,

It has been very interesting reading this thread these last few days! I am very glad to see that the air conditioning is being repaired, as we speak! As for the rest, well, we are 'glass half full' people, so will join our 6th March with an open mind and a positive attitude, and see how we get on.

As I understand it, the reason travel irons are banned is for safety. They don't want you to leave an iron switched on, and forget it, and cause a fire on board. Kruzermum, when we were on the sister ship, The Funchal, going from Athens to Fremantle, in Nov/Dec 2006, I took a travel iron on board. I did all our laundry in the wash basin in the cabin, and hung it on one of those circular contraptions with lots of pegs (that we took with us - $2 in Reject), in the shower. By the time things had drip-dried, they hardly needed ironing. I didn't use the iron much at all, and that cruise was 35 nights.

Opshop, Kruzermum, and Chris@aanet - Bon Voyage!

From Lesley and Des

[Kruzermum]

Hi Opshop,

Just by chance you happen to browse here again between packing your suitcase and all the last minute chhores. I wanted to wish you a wonderful crusie. Have a fabulous time and we all can't wait to hear your glowing reports of the PD.

 

HAVE FUN :)

[cruisebuddiesinoz]

Hello everyone, This is my first post and I have joined expressly to support the comments made by Kiwiboy as I was also on the same Princess Daphne cruise. In some instances I think his comments are charitable, as I think in several instances things were far worse.

This was a New Year's Eve cruise and due to the very bad weather, which nobody could help, the night was a fizzer. The outdoor party was transferred inside, however the balloons had burst during the day because of the heat. It had been "all hands on deck" with the blowing up of the balloons during the day. There was no helium, or even hand held pump, all were done by mouth...such is the cost cutting of the ship. Although the NYE party didn't really go ahead due to the weather, I would have thought they could have then had a NY day party, perhaps at 5pm before dinner...so we didn't feel like we had missed out on the whole purpose of the cruise. Also, if the weather is bad enough that people are throwing up on the carpet in the communal areas (including the restaurant), then why are seasick bags not put out everywhere?? Even the bar staff were throwing up...although they were getting to the bathrooms on time. I wasn't very confident with the ablility of the cruise director or his staff. I also found the cruise director unnerving as he wears foundation/make up. His staff have a very interesting sense of humor that can come across as rude. "Come on everyone get on your tours as we want you off the ship". The same person when conducting a dance class told the group that it was "chaos" and that they were "crap". One lady was told off as she wanted to go and get a drink. "Where do you think you are going? Get back here"

I was also surprised on this cruise that they did not have a "repeat cruiser" party which I consider to be common place.

There were definitely issues with rust coming out of taps and the toilets - and at one time "all" toilets on deck 7 were not working - no flushing. A safe not being in the cabin was a real surprise. Daily newspapers (not the daily guide) have to picked up from reception which no one seemed to be advised about. The airconditioning was dreadful. Out of six travelling companions, five of us became ill with coughs and chest infections. I am still coughing and can't speak properly today. The library was ridiculous. there were only about 20 books, the majority in German. Take lots of books as the shows are dreadful and there is little to do! The TV is also limited, with no TV guide provided, so you do not know what is on. Also, as you would guess due to the age of the ship (1955) there is no movie theatre and also, as mentioned, no laundry. For those lucky enough to have a fridge (most cabins don't) your minibar may be non existent. You are supposed to have items in there, which when used, are replenished. However, the problem is that the items are not put in the fridge in the first place. If you want to use it, check that it is turned on. If you want ice for the cabin, the bar staff give you four to six blocks of ice only. You have to pay for room service breakfast and have to deliver your handwritten order to reception. Dinner is one sitting. But the most important thing, I think is the food. I give it two stars. This is only the second cruise I have been on where I have lost weight. Most items are frozen or canned, except the "bullet" surprise peas which were rehydrated. I usually rank food between "Spam" level and "Lobster" level. This was "Spam" level. Very basic food, which some people might like, but I thought it was of poor quality. Food is recycled, so Christmas pudding for dinner one night was still coming out for afternoon tea five days later. I did not like the buffet. I was worried that it is outside in the heat and the items were not cold enough. It is only open at meal times, so if you don't get to the buffet or dinner, that is it. No alternate restaurants, or pizzerias...so eat your fill! It was difficult to get a signal for the internet, the reception staff were not helpful at all (Unfortunatley I did not meet Tracey). The internet was meant to be accessible until 11pm on the last night. As we were confirming our hotel accommodation is was switched off at 10.20pm. We were told that they would not be switching it back on.

On this cruise, eat what you can and enjoy the ports. The ship did have one of the better Baked Alaska Parades I have seen, however I would not return to CIC.

[jimmy4au]

Hi Cruisebuddiesinoz

We were on the same trip as you were,totally agree with all your comments.

We have sent a letter to cic and our travel agent which cic replied we will get it of and get back to you.Which i think thats the reply everone will receive.

My wife and myself also ended up sick as well because of the airconditioning.

Will have to see other reveiws people on other trips when they get back.

[Kiwiboy]

Hi Cruisebuddiesinoz

 

We are so glad we got off in Ho Chi Minh. The cruise appears to have deteriorated further once we left. We knew the sea conditions weren't going to improve so my partner didn't want to have another few days in bed.

I too got a bad chest infection on board and had to get medical attention when we got back to Singapore. I still have a bad chesty cough that won't budge. I was voiceless for at least 3 days.

We have also written to CIC and got their stock reply. We don't hold out much hope for any sort of decent apology, but our travel agent is following it up with her agent in Sydney.

The rusty water appeared in our bathroom the night before we left. By the morning it was running down the walls of our cabin:confused: As we were on deck 7, I can only assume it was coming from the cabins on deck 6.

Good luck to all who are booked on future cruises. If things get really bad you can always band together and mutiny!:mad:

[hagis]

Hi Cruisebuddiesinoz

 

We are so glad we got off in Ho Chi Minh. The cruise appears to have deteriorated further once we left. We knew the sea conditions weren't going to improve so my partner didn't want to have another few days in bed.

I too got a bad chest infection on board and had to get medical attention when we got back to Singapore. I still have a bad chesty cough that won't budge. I was voiceless for at least 3 days.

We have also written to CIC and got their stock reply. We don't hold out much hope for any sort of decent apology, but our travel agent is following it up with her agent in Sydney.

The rusty water appeared in our bathroom the night before we left. By the morning it was running down the walls of our cabin:confused: As we were on deck 7, I can only assume it was coming from the cabins on deck 6.

Good luck to all who are booked on future cruises. If things get really bad you can always band together and mutiny!:mad:

Hi We are due to go on the ship 20th Feb for 14 days hope thing improve by the or we have just wasted a lot of money

[chris@aanet]

Hi We are due to go on the ship 20th Feb for 14 days hope thing improve by the or we have just wasted a lot of money

 

I wouldn't hold my breath!

[chris@aanet]

Hi We are due to go on the ship 20th Feb for 14 days hope thing improve by the or we have just wasted a lot of money

 

 

Hagis,

 

Why don't you do what we are all doing. Contact CIC and express your concerns.

 

The more of us that do so, the more likely they will take note and do something to improve the situation.

[chris@aanet]

 

I too got a bad chest infection on board

 

If things get really bad you can always band together and mutiny!:mad:

 

 

Sure Kiwiboy, but it won't do much good if we're all dead!

[Kruzermum]

Hagis,

 

Why don't you do what we are all doing. Contact CIC and express your concerns.

 

The more of us that do so, the more likely they will take note and do something to improve the situation.

 

That's right Hagis,

you should contact CIC and we can hopefully set the standard for your cuise in Feb 20, 2011. :)

[cruizerofperth]

Well we fly out tonight to board the cruise ship tomorrow. If the internet allows, I will try to give you updates as we go along. Looking forward to seeing you on board Opshop.

 

I am going in with the mindset that we will have a fabulous time, at least we know some of the things we have to make allowances for, but regardless, Wish us luck!!

 

Cathy

[Kruzermum]

Well we fly out tonight to board the cruise ship tomorrow. If the internet allows, I will try to give you updates as we go along. Looking forward to seeing you on board Opshop.

 

I am going in with the mindset that we will have a fabulous time, at least we know some of the things we have to make allowances for, but regardless, Wish us luck!!

 

Cathy

 

Bon Voyage,

 

Have a marvellous time! I am sure you will:) keep us all posted and we are all thinking of you sailing the clam waters and visitng beautiful destinations whilst enjoying lovely food and cocktails.

 

have fun:)

[happyg]

I contact my travel agent today, who in turn contacted CIC in Sydney. I thought I should show her response.

 

First I’ve not seen the email from your client they usually are passed onto me – anyway, yes we have seen the write ups, first off the air-conditioning presented huge problems on the first cruise, so we had a technician flown in from Europe 30 dec to sort this out, from daily reports this is being fixed and continues to get better, I have my Queensland sales manager onboard at the moment and she has reported good things back to me as I’ve been questioning her about these reviews.

Passengers onboard who have had problems with the air conditioning in their cabins have been given an upgrade at no cost, regardless of what some are saying.

The overall rating for both the Christmas cruise and the New Year cruise has been 80% each time, however, as we strive to meet a 90% rating naturally we are looking at all ways to increase this, unfortunately anyone reading the reviews would expect the ship to be rating at 50% or less.

 

As your clients have read the review on cruise critic I thought they might be interested to read the email I received last night from a Perth agent, her clients cruised on both the Christmas and New Year cruise.

 

Princess Daphne

 

Dear Sue, We had a wonderful time on the cruise ship. Our cabin 339 was lovely. Night entertainment was out of this world. The food was great no problems being a vegetarian. The day trips were good. I would be happy to go on the cruise ship again. marie and andy

 

So obviously CIC are aware of the complaints and are attempting to fix the problems. Lets hope by the time we sail in March the aircon will be fixed 100%.

 

Lynne

[jimmy4au]

Hi Lynne

Was that reply from cic or your travel agent.On our cruise people werent upgrade just shifted to another cabin on the same deck.They could tell u anything what you whant to hear 80% cant stop laughing about that figure.

[chris@aanet]

 

Dear Sue, We had a wonderful time on the cruise ship. Night entertainment was out of this world.

Lynne

 

Perhaps they got out of this world for their night entertainment.:p LOL

[happyg]

The response I posted was sent to my travel agent by Ann Hope, CIC Sales and Marketing Manager and then emailed onto me.

 

I havent seen too many (if any) 'positive' posts from that particular cruise.

 

I am inclined to agree that 80% 'happy' respondents is a good 'marketing' pitch!! None seemed to have jumped onto this websiste to say hello.

[happyg]

Jimmy4au

 

You mentioned that some of the tours are boring for the price. Knowing that peoples tastes arent all the same, what would you recommend based on the fact that the ship wants tours booked before we go on board!

[seabourndt]

really sorry reading how bad it was, i do hope you get some compensation!! you certainly deserve something. only done 2 cic cruises on ARION and FUNCHAL. things were not great we broke down in SAFAGA for a week and saw a lot of EGYPT. But nothing like you are saying. my thoughts are with you, a cruise should be a good expeience. i have done over 50 cruises and not experienced anything like this!

my friends lesley are going on her march i do hope it is better than you are saying

dave

[RMS Olympic]

I was really interested in sailing this ship knowing her age and history.

I do not need all the things the new big ships offer, but I do expect a clean ship with good service.

From the sounds of these comments.....the entire product seems poor and run down. I will cross her off my list...thank you for saving me from a poor cruise that would have been pricey.

My thoughts are with those that may find this ship a big dissapointment.

Now back to searching for a old ship that is well run.

Thanks

Tom

[Kruzermum]

Hi,

 

I need some help. There seems to be some conflicting information between CIC brochure on the PD and what our cruiser friends are posting.

 

Can someone please advise of the following questions

 

1. Dress code for the dining room (not on formal nights) in the evening for men and women (is it only skirts or dresses for ladies or can we wear pants?) My friend seesm to believe that if we don't wear skirst or dresses every night we will be refused entry.

2. Do they also have a bufett dinner option every night?

3. Do they charge to bring your Continental breafast to your room? (CIC brochure states all meals are paid for)

Thanks in advance

[cruisebuddiesinoz]

Hello Everybody,

Since this blog seems to have the attention of CIC I thought I would take the liberty of adding some further comments concerning the NYE Cruise. Although, some of these comments main seem trival, without mentioning them they may never be addressed by CIC. Also when combined these issues, of course, add to the poor cruise experience for the passenger.

As you can gather from previous blogs we had very bad weather which resulted in considerable flooding within the ship. Fortunately there were only about 180 passengers on the cruise which meant rotation of cabins could occur. I did hear someone ended up in three different cabins. I am not aware of anyone being upgraded as part of this process. I did hear that one lady was not happy with her water logged cabin and the only way she could get a more suitable cabin was to pay $1500 to upgrade. My cabin ceiling leaked throughout the cruise, but it was not sufficient enough to make me want to move particularly as I became more and more unwell. (We ended up booking a hotel room for the day in Singapore between the ship and the airport so we could try and recover a bit before the flight). The cabin felt damp and within four days my facewasher (from home as none are supplied) had developed black mould. This mould had also formed overnight between the bath and the flyaway shower curtain. Naturally the facewasher had to be thrown away. After the flooding water dripped throughout the ship, in the restaurant and in the card room/library/internat cafe (which is all the same small room). It also dripped in the show lounge and the Neptune Bar. I am aware of at least six slips/falls of both crew and passengers due to the water. The show lounge was closed for awhile with the carpet under water. For the remainder of the cruise you had to be careful where you sat as the furniture remained wet and dripping continued. The ship smelt damp and on purchasing medication from the shop on board, the sales attendant stated that really all the carpet needed to be ripped up as it was impossible to fullly dry it due to how wet it had got and the humidity.

 

In relation to my cabin, I was surprised that in the bathroom it did not have a cabinet or shelves. There was one shelf about 15cm from the floor, but that had the toilet rolls on it. The tiled floor was terribly bad, it was a different colour and seemed worse than the floor of our friends' cabin, however I did not think either was of acceptable standard. The main concern, however, was the shower over the bath. The bath was not inbuilt and raised off the floor. It was quite a step up and over to get into the bath to have a shower. There was one handrail, but this was to assist you to get out of the bath, so it was very low and just above the bath level. The shower rail was plastic and seemed to be retractable, so you couldn't grab onto it if the ship moved. I felt very unsafe having a shower. For two days when either my husband or myself showered, the other stood on the other side of the shower curtain so as to steady the other. The linen used on board is very thin, but I found it to be clean. Our friends, however, said that their towels were stained with brown marks and looked dirty. The basins in the cabins did not have plugs.

 

Dress code for dinner I thought was quite casual. Ladies did wear pants as well as dresses and towards the end of the cruise I did see one man wear shorts and another a t-shirt. We had two formal nights and a "gala" night, but we didn't know what the dress code was for "gala". I had suggested to my fellow travellers that I thought it was a spelling mistake and it should have been "galah". It would have been nice if CIC had told us about the theme nights, particularly the NYE themes as we would have bought applicable outfits.

 

In relation to tours I thought they were overpriced and you didn't quite get what the description told you that you would.

 

Another cost cutting issue is the coasters in the bar. They are very thin cardboard and are recycled. The bar attendants have a stack on their trays which are water damaged and bent. You order a drink, a coaster is put down and then it is picked up and reused later. I witnessed both of these actions happening. However, I didn't order many drinks on board as the cocktails I did get were warm. All the ingredients were room temperature and then with cold ice put in. A lot of the cocktails were pineapple juice based and I found that they curdled due to not being cold.

 

I would very much like the artificial cats made of fur removed from the shop and to not be available for sale. I remember awhile ago on a Current Affair, or a show like that, exposing that these "toys" are from China and are made of actual cat fur. They were removed from department stores, but you can still see them at times in "Reject" shops.

 

In conclusion, I would like to know where CIC got the 80% rating. I'm not saying I don't accept it, I would just be interested in knowing where it comes about. I also note the quote from Marie and Andy as saying "I would be happy to go on the cruise ship again." When I really like a ship I say "Can't wait to go back." "Will book again". "Loved it"...."happy to go back" doesn't sound that convincing to me.

 

I have previously cruised on older ships and have enjoyed the history and the care of the cruise lines in maintaining these ships (Saga Ruby and Sun Vista as examples). I think that the CIC management should volunteer to do "Undercover Boss" because I really believe what they think is happening, isn't. Also, I don't think they should focus on those passengers who are content with their service. In business you are only as good as your worst criticism. If CIC doesn't believe that, then the cruise line will never improve.

[chris@aanet]

As you can gather from previous blogs we had very bad weather which resulted in considerable flooding within the ship. Fortunately there were only about 180 passengers on the cruise which meant rotation of cabins could occur. I did hear someone ended up in three different cabins. I am not aware of anyone being upgraded as part of this process.

 

The cabin felt damp and within four days my facewasher (from home as none are supplied) had developed black mould. This mould had also formed overnight between the bath and the flyaway shower curtain. Naturally the facewasher had to be thrown away. After the flooding water dripped throughout the ship, in the restaurant and in the card room/library/internat cafe (which is all the same small room). It also dripped in the show lounge and the Neptune Bar. I am aware of at least six slips/falls of both crew and passengers due to the water. The show lounge was closed for awhile with the carpet under water. For the remainder of the cruise you had to be careful where you sat as the furniture remained wet and dripping continued. The ship smelt damp and on purchasing medication from the shop on board, the sales attendant stated that really all the carpet needed to be ripped up as it was impossible to fullly dry it due to how wet it had got and the humidity.

 

 

Another cost cutting issue is the coasters in the bar. They are very thin

In conclusion, I would like to know where CIC got the 80% rating. I'm not saying I don't accept it, I would just be interested in knowing where it comes about. I also note the quote from Marie and Andy as saying "I would be happy to go on the cruise ship again." When I really like a ship I say "Can't wait to go back." "Will book again". "Loved it"...."happy to go back" doesn't sound that convincing to me.

 

Hi cruisebuddiesinoz,

 

Thankyou for the additional information. At least we all know what to expect.

 

I certainly hope the carpets have been replaced throughout affected areas, but given their cost cutting measures, I doubt it. The carpets are going to smell awful.

 

I too have been wondering about the 80% satisfaction rate. By what measure do they come to this conclusion?

 

I also agree with your comments regarding the quote from Marie & Andy. To me it sounds contrived.

 

This cruise company lacks a good public relations department. They should be be writing a letter to everyone on future cruises to say we have had problems but we are working to rectify them. Surely this would be far less costly than damage to their reputation and lost business.

[jimmy4au]

Hi cruisebuddiesinoz

Agree with all you have written.I tried to go to dinner with dress shorts but was told NO long pants only.As for Marie & Andy think they must have had one of the 6 balcony suits and never came out of there the hole trip LOL.