Viking Mars Boarded today Wellington Cancelled!

[Beanspiller]

On 1/25/2023 at 11:05 AM, Pushka said:

Adelaide didn't ban the ship but we just couldn't get our international border entry for passengers sorted with little notice. Adelaide is never the first arrival port for international arrivals. 

Viking Orion was banned from in port anti fouling, hence it was done outside the 12 mile zone. That was the information distributed in writing by Viking. They would know, wouldn’t they?

[Pushka]

11 minutes ago, Beanspiller said:

Viking Orion was banned from in port anti fouling, hence it was done outside the 12 mile zone. That was the information distributed in writing by Viking. They would know, wouldn’t they?

And I got my information from the South Australian Government. In writing.  It was not done in port because immigration couldn't process border control, to allow the ship to berth so it was moored off into international waters. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Pushka

[Beanspiller]

6 minutes ago, Pushka said:

And I got my information from the South Australian Government. 

Let’s just say that the communication between Federal (customs aka borderforce), State (Primary Industries) , Viking and passengers seems ‘interesting’…..

[Pushka]

17 minutes ago, Beanspiller said:

Let’s just say that the communication between Federal (customs aka borderforce), State (Primary Industries) , Viking and passengers seems ‘interesting’…..

Likely. Trouble is that it was very short notice, Christmas break and personnel on leave. Bit of a cluster really. Tourism was more involved than Primary Industry. 

[Heidi13]

15 hours ago, Pushka said:

I’m very sorry you are having these issues.

 

I know this is no consolation whatsoever but Australia and NZ only opened up to cruises post Covid just a couple of months ago.  Clearly we’ve lost many skills sets in terms of managing cruises. It probably wasn’t the best time to come here but thought it wouldn’t be this difficult either. Just hope it improves rapidly. 

 

This is an excellent point, as the initial post-COVID cruises in Iceland, UK, Europe & Caribbean also had numerous challenges. Add NZ starting to enforce their hull fouling standards and it is always going to cause issues of missed ports.

 

The 2 Princess ships didn't help matters either, with the Ruby Princess back in 2000 and then the Majestic Princess with 800 cases immediately after cruising resumed.

[Mkarpi]

Why did the ship not stop at Dunedin? Why was Wellington canceled? What is the cruise director telling the passengers? We have the same itinerary February 21.

[Mkarpi]

Just got off the phone with Viking (totally not helpful). Spoke to the agent, her lead agent and then a supervisor. Since we are on the same cruise from Sydney to Auckland starting 2/21, wanted to know why the current trip that left Sydney on 1/24 was not stopping in Dunedin or Wellington and if that would impact the 2/21 itinerary? They sounded like politicians... never answering my questions or concerns directly, only saying that our itinerary had no changes at this time. When I pressed them on why the current voyage was not stopping while other cruise lines were stopping in these ports, never got a direct answer, only that those changes did not affect our itinerary. I left it that if we were not advised of changes before boarding only to find the same ports were being excluded, we would be expecting full compensation. They know what's going on but are unwilling to inform passengers until the last minute, so they don't get cancellations. Very unprofessional. The problem is definitely with Viking Mars as Cruise Mapper and Marine Traffic.com definitely show all other cruise lines are docking in Dunedin and Wellington on the same days Viking is supposed to be there. Viking needs to come clean with their future passengers.

[harbourside]

So is Viking Mars, now going Christchurch to Napier.  No replacement for Wellington??

[katlew]

9 hours ago, Pushka said:

Likely. Trouble is that it was very short notice, Christmas break and personnel on leave. Bit of a cluster really. Tourism was more involved than Primary Industry. 

I had a border force agent tell me in Melbourne that they had been waiting for us on Tasmania. It was all messed up.

[Pushka]

5 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

This is an excellent point, as the initial post-COVID cruises in Iceland, UK, Europe & Caribbean also had numerous challenges. Add NZ starting to enforce their hull fouling standards and it is always going to cause issues of missed ports.

 

The 2 Princess ships didn't help matters either, with the Ruby Princess back in 2000 and then the Majestic Princess with 800 cases immediately after cruising resumed.

The Ruby Princess legacy has been astounding. It effectively brought Covid to Australia in mid March 2020 and caused  27 passenger deaths.  Once that washed through Australia had no deaths until a leakage in the eastern states. And is a major reason why cruising in Australia has been fraught with difficulties on resumption. It will improve by this time next year. NZ has other issues compounding this. Hulls. Who'd have thought. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Pushka

[Pushka]

29 minutes ago, katlew said:

I had a border force agent tell me in Melbourne that they had been waiting for us on Tasmania. It was all messed up.

That sounds about right. Border force couldn't get their act together in time to have you brought to shore. 

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Mkarpi said:

Just got off the phone with Viking (totally not helpful). Spoke to the agent, her lead agent and then a supervisor. Since we are on the same cruise from Sydney to Auckland starting 2/21, wanted to know why the current trip that left Sydney on 1/24 was not stopping in Dunedin or Wellington and if that would impact the 2/21 itinerary? They sounded like politicians... never answering my questions or concerns directly, only saying that our itinerary had no changes at this time. When I pressed them on why the current voyage was not stopping while other cruise lines were stopping in these ports, never got a direct answer, only that those changes did not affect our itinerary. I left it that if we were not advised of changes before boarding only to find the same ports were being excluded, we would be expecting full compensation. They know what's going on but are unwilling to inform passengers until the last minute, so they don't get cancellations. Very unprofessional. The problem is definitely with Viking Mars as Cruise Mapper and Marine Traffic.com definitely show all other cruise lines are docking in Dunedin and Wellington on the same days Viking is supposed to be there. Viking needs to come clean with their future passengers.

 

Since the L/A Office is only a sales office, it is not surprising that they are not privy to operational issues on a current cruise. The ships do not report to L/A.

[harbourside]

Today you are supposed to be in Wellington.  Where are you.  On a go slow to Napier????

 

[Pushka]

10 minutes ago, harbourside said:

Today you are supposed to be in Wellington.  Where are you.  On a go slow to Napier????