The Cruise Ship on ITV

[Scamp1]

Have just seen the first 5 minutes of this "documentary" - Oh dear, oh dear!
Is the commentator off "Come dine with me" ?
This is as much like cruising as a donkey derby is to the grand national!
M

[Kenmo1]

Mandy is going to get right up my nose before the end of this series. Oh dear.

[Ray Scully]

As A Elite member of the Princess loyalty club I resent being called a snob on national television

Even if I am one

Ray

[Boris+]

Hmm, yes well - we'll see - at the moment I feel a generous 50-50 sort of reaction.

It's going to be an interesting little series. The ship itself doesn't look too bad, but passengers don't really seem to know how to dress for a formal night; and if they've just done embarkation why are all their formal bits of clothing in the laundry?

Oh well - we'll have to wait and see.

Em

[Scamp1]

The problem with programs like this is that they are SO bad that you get addicted to them!
Can't wait for the next episode - OK, I am joking!
M

[jay-ell71]

So far, not impressed with the presentation. The hairdresser is quite trying, what made her join a cruise ship. The blonde Vet's assistant is over the top, and the blonde's husband, the Vet is completely overpowered by her. Also she called the ship a boat. Quite comic really. Did the laundry deserve such coverage? Maybe next week's offering will give us an insight into the passenger's point of view.
I won't be able to resist, as Scamp1 says, these programmes are addictive.

[Manoverboard]

It was for me in parts amusing and informative but it also showed the worst aspects of cruising ... with that Mandy creature leading the field

Princess was nothing like that when we cruised with them but P&O certainly are.

[Dancing Queen]

It was for me in parts amusing and informative but it also showed the worst aspects of cruising ... with that Mandy creature leading the field

Princess was nothing like that when we cruised with them but P&O certainly are.

I thought the same Moby, as for Mandy .. I'm sure we've probably all met her at some time

[oldbluefox]

Mandy - nightmare.

What's all that about having a food fight with the Captain?

[towny44]

Hope it improves but so far not a patch on the 1998 BBC Jane McDonald programme, in fact the FO Balmoral documentary was a better presentation, and the passengers were a bit classier.

[sunsetsail2night]

I was interested to watch this programme because I have three cruises booked on Brittania and have been given to understand that the two ships are identical - does anyone one know if this is so. Not bad if you qualify as an elite passenger after only 180 nights! As the cruise was starting in the States, it wasn't a surprise to see many passengers not in formal dress for the formal night - Americans are not known for formality. Wonder which department will be featured next week and whether Mandy has been thrown overboard?

Brenda

[daib GC]

It was for me in parts amusing and informative but it also showed the worst aspects of cruising ... with that Mandy creature leading the field

Princess was nothing like that when we cruised with them but P&O certainly are.

Facinating that this is clearly what P&O is like and not princess. But you are wrong it is Princess.

Perhaps it just shows that there is not a lot different between all of them. Don't know if it was deliberate but most of the staff seemed to be British, was there any US staff?

[screwy]

After watching that i'm glad i'm not looking to do a cruise for the first time, think i'll stick with P&O thank you...some one throw that Mandy and her miserable looking husband overboard.

[Suekersh]

Just watched this as we recorded it last night. A bit confused about Mandy's cabin. The first shot if the cabin showed her sat on the balcony and full length patio doors. When she was discussing putting makeup on etc she said a lady needs a window and it showed a small window as you get in an outside cabin. Anyone else notice this? There are no basic outside cabins on this ship only balcony cabins. The other thing I noticed was that Mandy's cabin had a sofa which makes it a superior deluxe cabin, but the balcony looked very very small.

[Manoverboard]

It was for me in parts amusing and informative but it also showed the worst aspects of cruising ... with that Mandy creature leading the field

Princess was nothing like that when we cruised with them but P&O certainly are.

Facinating that this is clearly what P&O is like and not princess. But you are wrong it is Princess.

Perhaps it just shows that there is not a lot different between all of them. Don't know if it was deliberate but most of the staff seemed to be British, was there any US staff?

Indeed it was Princess but it is possible that the British TV producers have arranged for a pile of Brits to be on board to add a touch of Britishness for a British audience and in so doing have artificially altered the natural culture of an American ship ?

[jay-ell71]

This is getting very deep!!! (bogus Brits on board?.)

The Continuity of this production is very poor. We did notice the discrepancy of the layout of the terrible Mandy 's cabin! I don't think we ever saw the captain. Perhaps he doesn't want to be associated with this.

The programme does Princess no favours.

[david63]

Is Mandy going to be in the entire series?

[towny44]

Just watched this as we recorded it last night. A bit confused about Mandy's cabin. The first shot if the cabin showed her sat on the balcony and full length patio doors. When she was discussing putting makeup on etc she said a lady needs a window and it showed a small window as you get in an outside cabin. Anyone else notice this? There are no basic outside cabins on this ship only balcony cabins. The other thing I noticed was that Mandy's cabin had a sofa which makes it a superior deluxe cabin, but the balcony looked very very small.

Sue, we also noticed the balcony and window as well, but Mandy did seem to imply that she had chosen this cabin specifically because it had a window. So I presume it will perhaps be a corner cabin or similar, and the window is an extra feature because of this. The balcony depth is the same across all cabin grades, the only exception are some aft cabins and those below the curved glass bottomed walkway, which have slightly wider curved balconies.

[Boris+]

I can identify with the comment made earlier that Americans don't always go along with formal dress code (and it applies to many nationalities), however, I have to say that when we first met our cruise pals on QV (on the Hawaii cruise) they had some formal kit, but weren't completely 'up to speed'.

Cruises we've done with our cruise pals since then - well they've got the Jewson lot - and our pals have become sticklers for the dress code!

I'm still going to 'keep a weather eye' on this little series, and just maybe in 2016 we'll give Celebrity and Princess a go - but I have a sneaky suspicion that for us Cunard will stay our favourite. We want to see the dining bits really.

Em

[Ranchi]

Does no one else have sympathy for Mandy? She most probably had a production crew urging her on to make statements which were mercilessly edited and the post dubbed by some smart aleck presenter with an estuary accent!

[david63]

Does no one else have sympathy for Mandy?

Not if she got a free cruise out of it

[screwy]

Had a belly full of yanks in Jamaica, ive no wish to be stuck on a ship with them.!

[Silver_Shiney]

We were very interested in this, having found out that our P&O points are worth more on Princess. The ship looks nice, what little we've seen of it.

As for the programme... we hadn't noticed the discrepancy in that female's cabin (it took only 30 seconds for her to get up our nose, but as has been said, she could have been egged on by the TV crew and then unfairly edited). I'm sure the narrator is a nice guy, but he sounds very "down market". That head chef obviously wants to play to the camera, so he's annoyed me already. We'll continue to watch it out of morbid curiousity!

I had an email from Princess this morning (I've had several this week, actually) so decided to follow it through rather than simply delete it unread. Unless I've missed something, the UK is a destination, they don't do cruises from here. We're looking ahead to the future, as we're planning a worldie when we retire in 10-11 years' time. Princess's only worldie (at the moment) is round-trip from LA starting from in excess of £14,000, and that does not include flights. Cunard's round-trip from Southampton is considerably cheaper, no flights required. I don't think we'll be bothering with Princess.

[jay-ell71]

Is it possible that the Producer of this programme is someone who "doesn't like cruising" even though s/he has never been on one......... and so is picking out all the unlikeable features, particularly, Mandy.

[Silver_Shiney]

Is it possible that the Producer of this programme is someone who "doesn't like cruising" even though s/he has never been on one......... and so is picking out all the unlikeable features, particularly, Mandy.

The notion can't be discounted