The start of our trip to the USA was meant to be the highlight of the Inside Passage cruise starting on 24 April for the 12-night trip to Juneau. Unfortunately, far from being the highlight of our trip, it was not the experience we were expecting or had been promised in the company’s various promotions.

We had not been at sea for 24 hours when the ship suffered the first of several significant sanitation failures which resulted in delay to our scheduled sailing on the second day. Because of this delayed sailing there was a 4-hour period of dead time which is not the level of activity we expected. Later in the first part of the cruise after further malfunctions, we were told by the crew that at certain times of day the sanitation system was struggling to cope with the demands of a full complement of guests. This is an extremely strange admission to be made because it suggested that, at its advertised capacity, the ship was unable to routinely cope with a full complement of guests and crew.

It became clear when we entered Alaskan waters that the itinerary was changing but we were not given explanations as to why. The next day’s itinerary was presented with no explanation/justification for any changes to the issued itinerary. Later it was established that neither the ship’s Captain nor the guide leader had a copy of the itinerary we had been provided with. This flags a significant lack of coordination between your sales team, ship’s crew/guides and the information provided to guests. Read more