P&O 'U' turn - port times

[geomagot]

yep, you're right kruzsee, the ship has got to get back to barbados, we asked them to drop margarita and they did! oops!

 

at the time it didnt occur to me there wouldnt be anywhere else to call at?

 

we also did the beach transfer (player del aqua) last march but it was a public holiday that day and absolutely heaving (also no alcohol being served due to religious holiday.....locals were bringing their own in brown paper bags)

 

I'm am tempted by the latin gems because of the bonaire stop but the extra sea day is putting me off a little, however this itinerary is slightly better value, probably because of the reduced port fees

 

I guess tabago or trinidad would still be too far to travel and i wouldnt want to see a half day in aruba or curacau (I'm guessing...but i thinks trinidad would be a cheap port of call tho)

 

I am currently tracking a cruise on dream in caribbean for next spring fares are going down at the moment.....but how long can i hold my nerve?

[kruzseeka]

yep, you're right kruzsee, the ship has got to get back to barbados, we asked them to drop margarita and they did! oops!

 

at the time it didnt occur to me there wouldnt be anywhere else to call at?

 

we also did the beach transfer (player del aqua) last march but it was a public holiday that day and absolutely heaving (also no alcohol being served due to religious holiday.....locals were bringing their own in brown paper bags)

 

I'm am tempted by the latin gems because of the bonaire stop but the extra sea day is putting me off a little, however this itinerary is slightly better value, probably because of the reduced port fees

 

I guess tabago or trinidad would still be too far to travel and i wouldnt want to see a half day in aruba or curacau (I'm guessing...but i thinks trinidad would be a cheap port of call tho)

 

I am currently tracking a cruise on dream in caribbean for next spring fares are going down at the moment.....but how long can i hold my nerve?

 

 

Nerves of steel geo - that's what you need! That's what I thought until two seasons back when our Jan/Feb Caribbean cruise went down the pan and we ended up going late March at a much higher price than I'd let slip by!!! :eek: Yes I stuck it out for too long! :( Still we went in the end and a valuable lesson learned! So no advice from me I can appreciate your dilemma. Hope it all works out ok for you and at a price you're happy with! :)

[kruzseeka]

Sea Days are a definite win win for the cruise lines, no port fees and a captive audience to pay for drinks. Probably less fuel burn too, as they can chug along a a steady pace.

 

We noticed the P&O (think it was Aurora) pulled into Dubrovnik after us, and by the time we had got back to the Majesty around 3ish she was gone:eek:, I wondered why they had shuttle buses running into town, I would hope they would be free and not chargeable.

 

The last Caribbean on the Dream we did was based on the lack of sea days, P&O were a similar price, but the sea days swung it for us.

 

It's nice to get into some of the smaller, lesser known ports, I loved Koper and Sibenik.

 

Geo has a good point about Thomson having their own airline, some of the other lines have some good cruise only deals going from places like Venice, Rome, and Barcelona, but you try getting a cheap flight from a regional airport that all fits in, and then factoring in the transfers, maybe an extra night in a hotel. Sometimes Thomson headline prices seem expensive, but when you have worked it all out and consider the convenience you get, they are not such a bad deal.

 

That would be the cruise our friends were on - they were not happy bunnies especially since some of the shortened stops hadn't been notified to them until they were on board!!!:eek::eek: Now if the planners were able to get the ship from port A to port B overnight when the original itinerary was published why the need for an early departure once on board? Clearly money-saving!

 

Imagine how mad they were though when they got home and found a letter with a revised timetable for port stops on their September Black Sea cruise!:mad::mad:

 

Perhaps this too will be reinstated with the U-turn but I wonder for how long or as some are suggesting has the reversal may be prompted by their lawyers who might have trouble defending a so many changes of itinerary when no factors like weather, mechanical failure or political unrest is involved. The only other explanation being financial - to the Company's end!

 

Like you we went with Thomson last winter to the Caribbean - two more days on the islands was too much of a sacrifice for us - even for a better ship.

 

Yes geo perhaps we shot ourselves in the foot a bit complaining so much about MI although we did have a fab day at Playa del Agua. You were so unlucky there. The Thomson trip were the only people on the beach - and yes the cocktails were flowing too - I remember them well (almost!) So sorry you weren't able to enjoy a similar experience. All the Dutch islands seem to get a good press though so Bonaire should be a nice stop - just at the price of losing somewhere else unfortunately.

 

I had a really good look at Google Earth to see if I could spot anywhere else that was a possiblilty in the MI area but came up with a blank. Would be nice to find somewhere though.

[gillhalfpint]

I couldn't understand the complaints about MI as we loved it in January. We did the morning trip out on Natural Wonders. We had a great boat ride out through a National Park on the lagoon full of mangroves. A maze of a place, and the guide even caught a sea horse in a large jar that we could pass round before returning, plus star fish. Lovely place. Next stop a marine museum which had all sorts of marine life including a large turtle pool. I loved the stop in the wilds where you could imagine the likes of the Lone Ranger and Tonto riding through the massive cacti along dusty trails. Wonderful trip with a great guide. When we got back to the ship we had lunch and then walked to the public beach for the afternoon. I enjoyed my swim here and we had beds with canopies too. We were able to buy bottles of the local beer for $3 and took photos of the Dream from the beach. There was a nature reserve adjoining the beach and we could watch the pelicans from the beach. To me MI was one of the best stops we had, and I was disappointed to find it was dropped.

 

We are looking forward to Tropical Treasures and Latin Gems in January though, and there are 3 new places for us to explore, but we will miss MI very much.

[CRUISIN LINDA]

Just been reading a blog from someone who is on the Crown Princess at the moment, dong the same cruise as we are doing in September. He says that they left at 4pm today from Flam instead of 5pm, to protect Princess's own tours (his words)

 

Now, we have booked a trip on the Flam railway with 8 others through cc roll calls which doesn't get back to Flam until 3.40pm as our itinerary shows the ship leaving at 6pm :eek: So are they going to do this on our cruise? Is this more money saving exploits (same company as P&O):rolleyes:

[geomagot]

Just been reading a blog from someone who is on the Crown Princess at the moment, dong the same cruise as we are doing in September. He says that they left at 4pm today from Flam instead of 5pm, to protect Princess's own tours (his words)

 

Now, we have booked a trip on the Flam railway with 8 others through cc roll calls which doesn't get back to Flam until 3.40pm as our itinerary shows the ship leaving at 6pm :eek: So are they going to do this on our cruise? Is this more money saving exploits (same company as P&O):rolleyes:

 

what a disgrace!:mad: they sailaway early to make it difficult for people to book their own tours!?....and it seems to be a worrying trend?

 

I noticed early sailaways on ancient wonders (about 4pm/5pm) and, I also noticed that some nights the ship was completely stopped!:(

[CRUISIN LINDA]

I may have been a bit hasty in condemming Princess. Apparently there has been a bad fire in a tunnel near Bergen and 55 people were hospitalized. The ship's trip was a boat trip combined with bus trip back (or vice versa) through the tunnel. So the people who had booked through Princess were still able to do the boat trip, but are being taken to a place called Vik, so the ship had to leave early to pick them up, in order to keep to schedule.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/05/55-people-hospitalized-after-truck-catches-fire-in-tunnel-in-western-norway/

 

Not sure if it will affect our trip, but TBH, I would have thought, though, a big ship like the Crown, would have been able to make up the time :rolleyes: They do pootle along in the night, as we know ;)