Big ships big problems…

Having read the news article this week relating to the Harmony of the seas incident, I found it interesting to read the customer comments and feedback.

A 42 year old Phillappines national member of staff sadly died whilst carrying out a safety exercise on board, and four other staff members were also injured. During the exercise a life raft fell approximately 33 feet (10 meters) which resulted in the staff members death and investigators are still looking into exactly what happened.

Most of the comments below the article were from passengers saying they would not entertain these monster ships and would like to see some smaller new ships launch. This was also the view shared by many of my passengers I have spoken to this week who just happened to mention this incident to me.

So is bigger better???

P&O have just announced launching their new ship for 2020 which will accommodate 5020 passengers. Since the departure of the Adonia I know many repeat passengers were hoping the next new ship to join their fleet would have been something with the long repeat loyal P&O passenger in mind. Sorry folks it would seem this is not the case.

In my opinion these mass market cruise lines are being a bit selfish and it’s all about the money and bringing fresh blood to the market. It seems to me they are happy to cast aside the loyal passenger that has kept them afloat for the last 60 years and be happy to push these mature passengers who may only prefer a smaller ship due to lack of mobility and familiarity to the likes of Fred Olsen and Cruise and Maritime. Well I can certainly confirm both of these lines are more than happy to accept these passengers business and welcome  them on board.

For me I have to agree, bigger is not better just more confusing and a big headache. Give me a River cruise anyday…..