So what did we think of it
So how was it overall? What’s hot and what’s not?
Good:
The accommodation was excellent. Spacious, comfortable, properly equipped, cleaned daily. Decent en-suite shower room. The food was excellent. Well cooked, well presented, imaginative menus, lots of it and wine on the table. The crew were friendly and courteous to a fault. We had virtually unlimited access to all areas of the ship unless safety issues were involved [pilot on the bridge; rough weather limiting deck access; engine room etc] and were made welcome in all areas at any time of day or night. The public areas were clean and tidy.
A leisurely paced journey, staying away from hateful airport departure lounges and a detailed view and partial understanding of the world of freighter ships.
Middling:
Constant air conditioning and no [practical] way to open a window. We were warned before purchasing our tickets that the view from our cabin may be obstructed. I believe that in anything like an efficiently run container ship, the view will always be obstructed. Certainly we had no exterior view for the majority of the voyage, and that we did have was only partial. This will of course vary from ship to ship and the state of container trade. We would have liked the DVD player in the passenger’s salon to have worked before Tahiti, as effectively there was no entertainment to supplement the books and tapestries we had brought. The ‘gym’ was hopeless. Table tennis is difficult when the boat is moving a lot, and the bicycle and rowing machine were so cranky we regarded them as useless.
Bad:
Information from the travel agents was woeful and arrived like drawing teeth. This was not restricted to the travel agent we used in Sydney although two parties on this voyage had booked through the same person at the same agency. Our French co-passengers had used an agency in Paris and felt similarly under-informed. In our case, the Sydney agency were unable to answer basic questions. For reasons of professional propriety [?] CMA CGM felt unable to answer our direct questions and suggested that our questions be routed though our travel agent. We did this, and much of the information that returned was wrong – some of it simply ignorant. The agent said email was not available to passengers; we were allowed unlimited access to email, subject to a small extra payment based on quantity of use which we felt was modest; the ship board shop is not like an ordinary shop and only opens when the captain feels like it.
Perhaps most importantly, even though we knew that as ‘self-loading cargo’ our interests came very low down on the ship’s priorities we all felt seriously under informed about the stops the ship would make. The timetable stated that we would be calling at Norfolk, Virginia between 21st and 22nd October. We berthed [able to go onshore] around 2000 and we sailed at around 0200. The dates were correct, but effectively we were unable to go onshore. The same thing happened in Manzanillo. This cut two out of eight stops that we had expected to be able to go ashore.
Good:
The accommodation was excellent. Spacious, comfortable, properly equipped, cleaned daily. Decent en-suite shower room. The food was excellent. Well cooked, well presented, imaginative menus, lots of it and wine on the table. The crew were friendly and courteous to a fault. We had virtually unlimited access to all areas of the ship unless safety issues were involved [pilot on the bridge; rough weather limiting deck access; engine room etc] and were made welcome in all areas at any time of day or night. The public areas were clean and tidy.
A leisurely paced journey, staying away from hateful airport departure lounges and a detailed view and partial understanding of the world of freighter ships.
Middling:
Constant air conditioning and no [practical] way to open a window. We were warned before purchasing our tickets that the view from our cabin may be obstructed. I believe that in anything like an efficiently run container ship, the view will always be obstructed. Certainly we had no exterior view for the majority of the voyage, and that we did have was only partial. This will of course vary from ship to ship and the state of container trade. We would have liked the DVD player in the passenger’s salon to have worked before Tahiti, as effectively there was no entertainment to supplement the books and tapestries we had brought. The ‘gym’ was hopeless. Table tennis is difficult when the boat is moving a lot, and the bicycle and rowing machine were so cranky we regarded them as useless.
Bad:
Information from the travel agents was woeful and arrived like drawing teeth. This was not restricted to the travel agent we used in Sydney although two parties on this voyage had booked through the same person at the same agency. Our French co-passengers had used an agency in Paris and felt similarly under-informed. In our case, the Sydney agency were unable to answer basic questions. For reasons of professional propriety [?] CMA CGM felt unable to answer our direct questions and suggested that our questions be routed though our travel agent. We did this, and much of the information that returned was wrong – some of it simply ignorant. The agent said email was not available to passengers; we were allowed unlimited access to email, subject to a small extra payment based on quantity of use which we felt was modest; the ship board shop is not like an ordinary shop and only opens when the captain feels like it.
Perhaps most importantly, even though we knew that as ‘self-loading cargo’ our interests came very low down on the ship’s priorities we all felt seriously under informed about the stops the ship would make. The timetable stated that we would be calling at Norfolk, Virginia between 21st and 22nd October. We berthed [able to go onshore] around 2000 and we sailed at around 0200. The dates were correct, but effectively we were unable to go onshore. The same thing happened in Manzanillo. This cut two out of eight stops that we had expected to be able to go ashore.
posted by Liz and Kit at 11:59 AM
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