Fortunately I've read many more good reports from Cruises around the world, than I have bad ones!

I had an excellent Cruise on Fred Olsen's 'Black Watch' in August 2000. The food was excellent. There were no problems with the sanitation either. In fact it looked like a very clean ship. I understand that there have been complaints about this ship in the past?

(Note: I do not work for Olsen, Travelpage or any travel company or cruise line!)

Please don't take this the wrong way but how exactly did you happen to speak to "...well over half the passengers on board the 'Aegean Spirit'"?

I understand from your web site that your mission is to "To encourage the improvement of package holiday standards and to ensure that enjoyable foreign travel is available to the maximum number of people". How do you accomplish this?

In the past it appears you have taken legal action against the tour operators and actually "...secured an out of Court settlement for undisclosed damages".

Is that your intent here?

Joe at TravelPage.com

And as for no boat drill...I dont believe THAT at all...

So it is not surprising then that often see totally contradictory passenger reviews on this forum. (Just look at the two 'Black Watch' passenger reviews - are we even talking about the same ship?)

These maintenance problems of course happen in Hotels too, but they can simply call in a whole range of experts, with a whole range of resources to fix the problems. On a ship at sea, such remedial work is not so easy. The onboard maintenance team have to try and maintain and repair EVERYTHING! (Cruise ships only visit the dry dock for a few weeks every couple of years).

I am not trying to make excuses for the cruise line. I'd like to see ships more regularly maintained and inspected in dry dock. (Even my car gets looked at annually, which is more than I do!) I am simply offering an explanation how passengers can have a very different experience on the same ship. A nightmare cruise does not necessarily mean that every cruise on that ship, or with that cruise line, will be poor.

However, we have Vulcania telling us that he spent a month on the Aegean Spirit recently - a month on a low market short cruise ship?? A freebie? Which btw, he says was "VIGOROUSLY" inspected SEVERAL times by the Greek Government. To start with Greek ships are surveyed by Classification surveyors for their certification. They have very few Inspectors so the level and frequency of the inspections is rather in doubt. I guess you were told that by your friends in the Piraeus office eh.

Then we have Malcolm who's hardly got his feet wet telling Brenda to take a cruise!!!!

As for Aegean Spirit goes, after the Express Samina went down the Greek authorities did indeed have a crackdown on substandard ships. (Although Express Samina went down due to neglegence rather than the ships inherent design or standard.) I don't doubt there were problems on the Christmas cruise but I also believe we only have one side of the story. Also, an old ship doesn't automatically mean a bad ship, it is all to do with the quality of the people and maintenance, and thus there are some modern ships which could be considered floating tubs if service standards and food quality are your basis for judgement. Also, if mechanical performance is used as as basis to junk a ship then you would be sending a number Carnival Cruises latest ships to the scrapyards due to failing azipods and the like.

I don't think we are "...after Brenda" as much as trying to present a balanced view of the subject. One of the reasons this site was created was to provide information to people interested in learning more about the cruising options available to them.

In addition to the professional reviews by Mark and Chris, we also provide any passenger an opportunity to post their own review. So far, thousands of cruise passengers have done so. See "Reader Reviews" to the left.

I encourage anybody contemplating a cruise to research their options fully before committing their hard earned resources. Time and again passengers with different experiences and expectations provide very different opinions about the exact same cruise.

All we are saying is make sure you do your homework before deciding.

I'm sure some passengers were disappointed with their cruise on the 'Aegean Spirit'. Maybe many of them were.

But all we have heard so far is from Brenda who's web site seems to indicate that her mission is to connect passengers who feel they have been wronged, with lawyers who might be willing to represent them in legal action against the cruise lines and tour operators.

Just make sure you consider all the available information before drawing your conclusions.

1) I'm not "after" Brenda, or anyone. If you read carefully, my 1st post agrees that the situation on the 'Spirit' was a disgrace.

2) My second post offers an explanation how passengers can have a very different experience on the same ship. It is NOT an excuse on behalf of the 'Spirit' or any other ship/lines.

Then we have Malcolm who's hardly got his feet wet telling Brenda to take a cruise!!!!

Well Peter, I think that everyone should try a cruise! Maybe you are of the opinion that only a person who has taken say 10 cruises can legitimately express that opinion?

The Beauty of this forum is that it allows people to voice their opinions whether they have take zero, one or one-hundred cruises. That includes both myself and Brenda. (I certainly do not regard myself as an 'expert, so no one else should either!)

I'm sure Brenda does a very good job of representing cruise passengers that have had a poor experiences. However, 'poor experiences' are just one side of the coin.

I would suggest that Brenda in her work, is mainly exposed to the 'down' side of Cruising ? Her posts EXCLUSIVELY reflect this. As we all know millions of cruisers have a ball!

Would appreciate hearing if anyone has been on the ship since then.

quote:

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Originally posted by Agnes:
We are scheduled to sail on the AGEAN SPIRIT February 3 in the Canary Islands. After reading all of this, is this vessel safe? Should we be worried?

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Agnes, I have not had any first hand experience of this ship/line, or heard any further news. However, I can give you my personal opinion, for what it is worth.

The cruise line would not want any more bad publicity, or compensation claims, so I would assume that they would have dealt with the problems as a matter of urgency? The crew should be a little extra-eager to please!

If you do have any problems onboard, small or large, do report them immediately - they can often be rectified there and then. Waiting to you get home is too late.

My advice is try not to worry too much and enjoy your cruise. Please, please report back to this forum on how it went. Enjoy

quote:

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Originally posted by K&K:
I don't think anyone can make a rude statement and by putting a smiley face at the end it makes it OK. I guess being Cruise Director has its privilages as Joe has edited/deleted some of my posts for a less rude statement. Kevin

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My posts have been edited and deleted too on occasions! Even Cruise Directors are moderated!(Quite rightly too)