For those that like to go with the crowd

[Ray B]

Just seen the report that Costa Cruises are to build another two ships making that four new build on the books. The two new ships will take 6600 pax. Now, I have been on Azura and Ventura (not tried Britannia yet) but I just can not get my head around the size of these things. they may not be the biggest ships but they are in passenger capacity. No good every one turning up at 12 noon hoping to get on them, bit of a queue I should think.

Ray

[Mervyn and Trish]

We like Azura and Britannia but that would be a step too far for us. But the good news is that if Costa navigate those like they did Concordia it would be the island that sinks next time, not the ship!

[towny44]

Merv, how do you know one of the new ships is to be called Costa Navigator?

[ITWA Travel Writer]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

[Dark Knight]

Scribbler, you are on the wrong site to get a wide reaching, informed view of cruise ships, this site is for blinkered PandO die hards ( mainly) who think the sun shines out or Oriana's funnel.
So to expect the majority of this forum's members to embrace either change or innovation, is akin to trying to capture a unicorn and ride it to work.
I know you have tried to educate the bigoted and narrow minded but you may as well try to teach a frog to speak Cantonese, I find that it is easier to let them wallow in their sense of self entitlement and leave the rest of the cruise world to those who can see beyond Soton and Pando
I will now await the usual trite and rather inane replies from those without the courage to look past Pando

[barney]

Well done DK

Your usual diatribe but no mention of snobs or ten bob millionaires

The medication is obviously working

[The Tinker]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

Ok - obviously I do not know you but am I the only person on here who is finding some of your comments/posts offensive lately or have I lost my sense of humour lately?

[Dark Knight]

Well done DK

Your usual diatribe but no mention of snobs or ten bob millionaires

The medication is obviously working

Why thank you Barney, I am trying a whole new range of adjectives and descriptives of late but you have rather proved my point for me and for that I am grateful

Ta ever so

[Dancing Queen]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

Ok - obviously I do not know you but am I the only person on here who is finding some of your comments/posts offensive lately or have I lost my sense of humour lately?

I think you must have missed some of John's (ITWA) other posts Tinks, there has been a good bit of banter recently between him and a couple of others, nothing offensive as far as I'm aware.

[Ray B]

I see the Thomson cruise rep is up and about early. Oops, fell into his trap.
With a lot of these new ships now to be run on LNG, some of the ports that the ships will bunker at will now have to build large gas installations. The transfer of gas to the ship may have more safety issues than oil, and the thought of hundreds of tons of liquid gas on the ship may give some cause for concern. It makes you think, what if there is a fire on board. I am sure all of these things have been looked at , so don't be going and having nightmares, happy cruising.


Ray

[towny44]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

Ok - obviously I do not know you but am I the only person on here who is finding some of your comments/posts offensive lately or have I lost my sense of humour lately?

I think you must have missed some of John's (ITWA) other posts Tinks, there has been a good bit of banter recently between him and a couple of others, nothing offensive as far as I'm aware.

I was a bit surprised by this post from John ITWA, not sure what prompted either his comment about MSC when the OP was talking about Costa, nor his wild accusations about Brits thinking we are better than anyone else.

[Dark Knight]

I see the Thomson cruise rep is up and about early. Oops, fell into his trap.
With a lot of these new ships now to be run on LNG, some of the ports that the ships will bunker at will now have to build large gas installations. The transfer of gas to the ship may have more safety issues than oil, and the thought of hundreds of tons of liquid gas on the ship may give some cause for concern. It makes you think, what if there is a fire on board. I am sure all of these things have been looked at , so don't be going and having nightmares, happy cruising.


Ray

Raymondo

no more the Thomson rep, than many of the Pando reps on here, no trap was set ,mon Ami, just me usual musings on the world of cruising

[Dancing Queen]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

Ok - obviously I do not know you but am I the only person on here who is finding some of your comments/posts offensive lately or have I lost my sense of humour lately?

I think you must have missed some of John's (ITWA) other posts Tinks, there has been a good bit of banter recently between him and a couple of others, nothing offensive as far as I'm aware.

I was a bit surprised by this post from John ITWA, not sure what prompted either his comment about MSC when the OP was talking about Costa, nor his wild accusations about Brits thinking we are better than anyone else.

John, I didn't read it as a wild accusation about Brits thinking they are better than anyone else, has there not been this us/them ( Scots ) banter since the lead up to the election, there has been plenty said about the Scots and I've read those comments in the same way and don't think they were made to be offensive just a bit of harmless fun or at least that is my opinion.

[Gill W]

As somebody who has recently had an Epiphany, and realised that I prefer the medium sized ships, I doubt if I'd ever sail on a ship that big. But I'd be curious to have a look round and see what it was like. I'd imagine there'd be lots of choices for meals and entertainment, but people still like to go to popular things like the shows - I wonder how big the theatre will be?

I find that it is easier to let them wallow in their sense of self entitlement and leave the rest of the cruise world to those who can see beyond Soton and Pando

Now, Mr DK, you keep banging on about this mysterious sense of self entitlement. As a person who has mainly sailed on P&O, I've been wracking my brains about what I feel I should be entitled to, and I really haven't got the foggiest. Can you enlighten me - what exactly is it that I think I should be entitled to?

[barney]

You'll be lucky Gill

DK is virtually 'care in the community' now with his obsesssion with P&O and all who sail in her

He seems not to understand that we KNOW that there are alternatives but still have a preference to a particular company.

[Dark Knight]

Barney,
I have sailed with Pando and believe me I have little interest in anything they have to offer, you see I also know there are alternatives and I use them , unlike some on here ,who have only been on one cruise line and yet are quick to tell people who sail on other lines that they are wrong , the ones that are quick to denigrate other ships and cruise lies with no knowledge at all of that ship/line/company.
Whenever anyone dares to say they don't like the much vaunted PandO , the usual suspects come out of the woodwork and say the most stupid things to try to defend their much beloved Pando, with no knowledge
So whenever the blinkered few trot out the usual nonsense, I feel it is only correct to remind them that Pando and by default Soton are not the be all and end all of anything and that in the cruising world Pando are just a pile it high, sell it cheap, mass market line who are going more and more mass market every year... shocking I know, but alas true

the sense of entitlement is pervaded by those who think they are something special ,as they sail with PandO and that because of this ,they can do as they please, that they are somehow more important or better than people who go elsewhere for a cruise, this forum has plenty of the " Butlins at sea" Floating block of flats" types, who think things like boarding times don't apply to them, as they have done 3 cruises and are now in some sort of special club or who insist they tell people how to dress, when to dine, where they can smoke etc, when really is none of their business

the truth is much more prosaic: Its a floating hotel , so whilst some people might believe the PandO hype and buy into the marketing spiel foisted on them by the forum's resident PandO cheerleaders, I have seen it first hand and it ain't all that
So whilst I may not be the "right type of cruiser" or a "traditional cruiser" or whatever BS people want to apply to justify their snobbery, I know the difference between hype/ BS and the real world and am quite happy to go with other companies for a cruise.

People may not like or understand my views and for that they are fully entitled to their opinion, as am I

hope that clears up any misunderstanding I may have caused and obviously this does not apply to everyone in here nor to every PandO cruiser but sadly it applies to enough

[towny44]

Well Barney you certainly seem to have set fire to DK's fuse somehow.
I had considered relpying to his post sentence by sentence, but presumably he is not aqddressing me since I don't always sale P&O, however I do wonder who these usual suspects are as no one immediately springs to mind.
Maybe DK just had a touch of indigestion and felt the need to vent his bile on someone.

[Silver_Shiney]

Now this is where all you skeptics need a wee lesson about the cruise industry.

Many people mock the Mediterranean Shipping Company, known better as MSC for various reasons. However what you probably do not know is that ships captains, no mater how experienced they appear to be, who have sailed with Costa, P&O and other Carnival subsidiaries and apply to join MSC, must before they are allowed to sail as Captain, spend at least two years sailing one of their large cargo ships in order to see if they are capable of reaching the demanding standards of the Mediterranean Shipping Company in order to captain one of their cruise Liners.

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

I understand what you are saying about MSC's applaudable high standards, but don't see what that has to do with a Carnival Group line building two behemoths.

As for the comment about "Brits", in my experience (and remember I'm Glaswegian) it's the Scots (a race of people who think music comes from bagpipes ) who make the distasteful claim to be "the best people in the world"

[Gill W]

the sense of entitlement is pervaded by those who think they are something special ,as they sail with PandO and that because of this ,they can do as they please, that they are somehow more important or better than people who go elsewhere for a cruise, this forum has plenty of the " Butlins at sea" Floating block of flats" types, who think things like boarding times don't apply to them, as they have done 3 cruises and are now in some sort of special club or who insist they tell people how to dress, when to dine, where they can smoke etc, when really is none of their business

the truth is much more prosaic: Its a floating hotel , so whilst some people might believe the PandO hype and buy into the marketing spiel foisted on them by the forum's resident PandO cheerleaders, I have seen it first hand and it ain't all that
So whilst I may not be the "right type of cruiser" or a "traditional cruiser" or whatever BS people want to apply to justify their snobbery, I know the difference between hype/ BS and the real world and am quite happy to go with other companies for a cruise.

People may not like or understand my views and for that they are fully entitled to their opinion, as am I

hope that clears up any misunderstanding I may have caused and obviously this does not apply to everyone in here nor to every PandO cruiser but sadly it applies to enough

Why the heck would I think I'm special just because I've mostly sailed on P&O, or think I'm better than people who sail on other lines? That seems a totally alien concept to me

And I loathe the hackneyed old Butlins on Sea and floating block of flats bandwagon - I love it when people think up new insults

I wouldn't dream of telling people how to dress or what dinner seating they should have - as you say, it's really none of my business!

As I have done quite a lot of P&O cruises now, I've achieved Caribbean level, but I can't help that. I'm not going to turn down a 10% discount on my on board spend. P & O have confirmed that I can turn up when I'm ready and get priority boarding - but I'm not barging people out of the way to get to the check-in desk, or looking down on the 'serfs' who have to wait a little longer.

After all, at the end of the day it's just a holiday - but it's a holiday I like, and I've done often.

At least you qualify your rant, sorry I mean comments with the qualification that it doesn't apply to everyone in here, because it certainly doesn't apply to me.

I think you've developed a cartoon stereotype in your head, because nobody on here is really like your description.

There's one person on here, who doesn't post that often and doesn't sail with P & O exclusively, who I find rather patronising with his comments about 'proper cruisers', but as he's not exclusively P&O he can't really be counted as one of your P&O cheerleaders

[Gill W]

And all you Brits who think you are better than everyone else and that your standards are higher than everyone else, well you all need to wake up and smell the coffee!!

I'm not being funny or anything, but the last time I looked, Scotland was part of Great Britain, so the term 'Brit' applies to Scottish people as much as the English or the Welsh.

So, you are a Brit too - like it or not, you are one of us!

(I didn't include Northern Irish people, as strictly speaking it's the United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland)

[barney]

I rest my case M'lud

Bonkers in the nut !

[Dark Knight]

why thank you for your most erudite of responses Barney

Gill
Having actually been on 2 Pando cruises and seen the type of passengers on them , I don't feel it is a cartoon stereotype, it is in fact, first hand knowledge of meeting some of the most snobbish people I have ever had the misfortune to meet, not to mention the chavs
so while some people may think Pando is something special, I know first hand it is actually no different than any other mass market cruise ship, albeit a bit newer, nothing more

[Gill W]

OK, so there were a few snobs and a few chavs....... but surely the other 2000 in between were normal people who you could meet anywhere?

In any walk of life you get a few people at each end of the spectrum, but the vast majority of people on any cruise ship, whether it's P&O or not are there to enjoy a good holiday, not to look down on people or run around in their string vests getting bladdered

Yes it is a mass market cruise ship, but I like their product, and for the 'big' cruises I'll continue to choose them, although I hope to try a few other lines for short breaks.

If I thought that my fellow cruisers were all, without exception, snobs or chavs, I'd have found a new line a long time ago.

I've found the reality is, the majority are nice people, just like me (and you, although you hide it sometimes!! )

[Dark Knight]

I've found the reality is, the majority are nice people, just like me (and you, although you hide it sometimes!! )

How very dare you , it has taken years of finely honing my cruise forum persona to get to this level of idiocy.

[Kenmo1]

How very dare you , it has taken years of finely honing my cruise forum persona to get to this level of idiocy.

I think you deserve 10/10 for the real effort you have put into that skill.

Maureen