We arrived on early on Friday 22nd June and by the time the first passenger were going ashore the weather had taken a turn for the worse with torrential rain and gale force winds.
As I now live in Liverpool I was intending to remain on the ship until the afternoon, so was happy to sit on the upper decks and and watch how the terminal operates.
There are two ways off the floating stage, one via a small building which houses security checks (not used as the ship has her own) and a tourist info desk and small shop. After walking through this building you then use the same, rather dilapidated, covered ramp as incoming Isle of Man passengers which takes you up onto Princes Parade opposite the new, temporary, turnaround facility. The second ramp is an open air one which leads you up onto the road near to the No12 office building.
For some unknown reason, the excursion coaches were parked on the empty plot at the northwest end of Princes Dock and not on the newly landscaped turnaround car park, which meant passengers had to use the open air ramp and then walk along Princes Parade in the driving rain to get to the coaches, this was not a good introduction for first time visitors, and also meant they completely missed the tourist info desk. The incline on the ramp at low tide was far too steep for many of the passengers and whilst a minibus appeared to be operating from the stage to the coach park for some people it was far too small and infrequent to cater for all that needed it. There is also a small "buggy" which appears to be only used by staff, I never saw any passengers being carried on it.
We disembarked during the afternoon and used the main, covered, ramp which was fine.
Early in the evening, the Captain told us we would not be sailing to Dublin due to the high winds and would remain in Liverpool overnight and sail to Cork at 16:00 the following day.
A lot of crew and some passengers disembarked at various times during the evening/night and the cruise terminal staff who were left on duty all night were doing a good job pointing people in the right direction to enjoy Liverpool's nightlife.
The following day, the Cruise Terminal remained closed and it was as if we didn't exist. No disabled transport, no tourist office, no shop, nothing. Passengers were just left to their own devices. To be fair to the cruise terminal staff (only 2 of them at a time) who were on duty, they continued to do a superb job in giving out advice and directions and helping passengers up the steep ramp to the shore. But the terminal managers and Liverpool council need to explain why they just ignored a ship with 1900 passengers on board and provided no facilities whatsoever.
In the other ports that we berthed alongside we were greeted and bid farewell by bands (Cobh and Belfast), or a pipe band (Invergordon). But all was silent in Liverpool, I know they normally play piped music with a Liverpool theme when ships are sailing, but for us again, there was nothing.
Speaking to passengers after we had sailed, everyone was very enthusiastic about the city and were impressed with the redeveloped waterfront, but no-one seemed impressed with the terminal and especially the gradient on the ramps. A few passengers were from the Southampton area and had been following the on-going dispute over the repaid subsidy, a couple asked me why we weren't using the new terminal and were surprised that this was it, and wondered where the £21m had been spent.
My solutions to the various comments above:
- A covered walkway needs to be developed to get passengers from the ship to the coach parking area.
- A system of ramps which give a less steep incline at low tide.
- The building with tourist information, and toilets etc open at all times when a ship is alongside.
- A proper disabled/less abled transfer facility which runs at all times.
