Just Back From Ambassador's "Ambience"

[London-Calling]

The new Ambassador Cruise Line’s first ship “Ambience”, set sail on her maiden voyage from Tilbury to Hamburg, Germany, on the Wednesday 20th April and returned today.

Ambassador is the first new British cruise line to be launched for a decade.

 

The maiden cruise had already been rescheduled from the 6^th April, due to “supply chain problems” (fuel not being available at the Croatia dock, where the ship was being re-fitted).

  I was fortunate enough to be on-board, along with Ambassador’s CEO Christian Verhounig and other senior Directors/Managers.

 

Experienced cruisers on-board (and most were) expected some teething problems from a maiden voyage. However, some passengers experienced bigger issues than they bargained for.

 

Everyone that I spoke to was impressed with the range and quality of public rooms. The main restaurant’s food and service got better after day one and reached a very good standard. However the buffet was good from the very outset.  The various forms of on-board entertainment were also very good.

 

However, the issues were:

 

• The embarkation computer system, went down during boarding, causing some delays.
• A large number of cabins lost all hot water and had freezing air-conditioning, that could not be stopped, for at least a day and evening. (I needed extra blankets and a woolly hat to sleep).
• Alternatively, some cabins were far too hot, which also could not be adjusted by the passengers.
• Several cabins became flooded.
•  

One passenger complained to me about a very rattly cabin ceiling. They had to be moved twice.

 

Some resurfacing work and maintenance was taking place on the pool deck and in other parts of the ship. The deck crew appeared to be working around the clock on this.   I heard very loud drilling at 4.00am one morning. Brand colours were being painted to deck metal.

 

The reception desk struggled at times, to cope with passengers’ complaints or needs for information.

 

One passenger said to me: “This ship needed to stay in the dockyard for a few weeks more”

 

However, some of the issues were successfully resolved before we disembarked. I’m sure that all the others issues will also be resolved, in the coming weeks.

 

I think most passengers left the ship, feeling very positive about this new cruise line and ship. In fact many made repeat bookings whilst on-board.