GSPG

I didn’t see anyone being press ganged into playing. I just felt on these sea days when these sessions occurred along with all the demonstrations (with discounts if you turned up), offers, auction’s, reduction’s etc around the ship, it felt tacky to me. It would have been good at least if some of the large profit would have been donated to charity.

I don’t enjoy formal nights, but dress up as the others do and think what’s the point, who is all this for. Sceptical mind thinks more money for the company through the photographers. I also don’t like the way people behave looking quite judgemental in their £2,000 jackets compared to something from next. A fair amount of looking down one’s nose. As regards P&O getting things right through the amount of passengers now, I just don’t know. From my take on the ship the last fortnight, I got the impression loyal guests did not enjoy the experience through cutbacks, lack of food quality, technology for booking food and shows, families who got up very early to reserve beds and dominated in the infinity pools. Many people are still cruising first time out of covid, or just taken the cruise using up their FCC. But it’s not the same experience and product pre covid with cost cutting and what appears to be new customer target for the company in families. Trouble was apart from the pools, there wasn’t much there for the kids.

Sorry, but we have to get used to this thing now.

I’m not used to Bingo, but a couple of observations from the cruise. There must have been 400 in the Clubhouse playing bingo on several afternoon’s sea days. I guesstimate at £20 a go to play five games, there must have been at least £5,000 taken by the company on each of these sessions. Payouts for 4 the games ranged from £100 to £180. The last game, the full house offered £5,000 IF you called house by the time the 44th ball was drawn. Thereafter, a consolation prize was offered, usually between £200 to £300. Needless to say, no one called house by the 44th ball and in fact it took another 10 to 15 balls to be drawn to achieve a call. So not a bad money maker for the company, taking something like £4,000 in profit. As I believe bingo is heavily regulated, it was also strange where two calls for a line in an earlier game revealed the same identity card number being giving to the bingo caller which caused confusion that went ‘offline’ as the other games continued.

Returned on Iona yesterday. For now, to that list add. Very little choice in the buffet, and what there was there was bland.

Interesting if this is the case? Oh well, I could add this into this feefo’ review that not all parties were contacted! It’ll probably not make it online as mine will highlight a number of areas for improvement.

Thanks. If this is the case however, in our travel group why have the two who did not visit reception receive the survey? Is this a random coincidence?

The four of us returned home yesterday on Iona and all had separate cabins and booking refs . There were issues and observations which I will raise in other threads as I still digest our two weeks aboard, but let’s start with the post cruise survey. It popped up in two of our accounts yesterday shortly after we arrived home. As I type, two of us have still not received the survey. It may still be making it’s way towards them, but is it a coincidence the two not receiving yet had issues with their cabins and visited reception at least a couple of times each. I’m hoping I’m wrong but is it possible P&O are being selective who they send feedback to? Surely the best form of feedback for companies is receiving constructive feedback so they can improve in certain areas, that’s if they want to. I’ll post of course if their survey does come through. If it does, will it be the same?

Thanks. Just curious after having a good time why you are cancelling Arvia?

Anyway, back on topic and hope people still feel they can contribute without fear of arguement, and just need to move on from this one. Still interested to hear any accounts from those currently on this cruise. Has anything changed from when you left Southampton? Are all venue’s open? Are more people wearing masks?

Thanks. I have heard a lot of crew have gone down with covid on ships, hence service levels have dropped through the lack of staff. Do you suspect this is the case on Iona, or purely as there isn’t enough staff in the first place? Iona is currently on a two week trip to Spain and Portugal. I wonder how that cruise is ‘playing out’.

More importantly than money, I was thinking of saving themselves from a strong risk of getting seriously ill.

Hopefully things might have improved by Feb for you. As you mention fit to fly, yes this should be taken into account. When I still see people on board where it’s obvious they have health issues, they just should not be on there at this time. Health & Safety for passengers welfare? There are still dangerous waters out there for some, and they are being included.

Since the restart, it seems we are part of an experiment. Cruise lines appear to have set their own rules with subtle differences between each occurring, and now we can see reactive measures than proactive as each cruise plays out. Many people are desperate to cruise, and the lines know that. My beef at this stage from the evidence I see is that cruising should be stamped with a triple XXX for the vulnerable. I don’t think they are making it clear how risky it is for these people. And when on board, as they do know the risks guests are being instructed to mask up. Why, because they know some lives will be endangered because they weren’t filtered out and stopped from boarding in the first instance. To boot, that then will affect the experience and enjoyment of those considered safe, and would just feel under the weather for a couple of days. It feels like something out of the film Pinocchio and on Pleasure Island. ”You silly boys (sorry vulnerable guests) knew the risks, now pay for it (or at least accept it)”. But in this case did they really know the risks if a company is reaching out to them without these waivers of safety.

Thanks and after that experience, would you cruise again at this time? Or, as long as you are not considered vulberable, could you have put up with not being well, but just gone about the ship normally without any mask wearing.

And doesn’t that give you the impression “come back on board, it’s safe now”? If it’s not (more for the vulnerables even after being jabbed), I feel it’s some form of negligence. There’s a lot on board about safety etc, but in this instance seems that safety is being compromised by money. It’s hypocritical and double standards. Their main message, what they wouldn’t put out is it’s not safe for vulnerable people to cruise at this time, and omit from cruising. Sorry if this seems hard nosed, but it isn’t safe for some.

If okay, thought I would give this a bump as this cruise is half way through now and was wondering how they are ‘getting on’, as in any calls for mask wearing?

All the markets are falling, again. The Ukraine factor may have caused this with Russia’s annexation of four areas, and means at least the war will go on.

Ah thanks! My fault not digging further. Well spotted and passed on.

This may help some make a decision. Given the current threads and discussions on covid and mask wearing and insurance policies, to make you aware this is possible. I am quite surprised it is available given the problems being encountered and with people feeling THEY HAVE to travel. This may be a get out for sone until things change. You need to investigate mor, but below is a c&p. For any bookings made after 3 August 2022, if you wish to reschedule your holiday, you can take advantage of our fee-free flexible transfer policy if you've booked on a Select Price holiday. This means you can: Transfer your booking once. Transfer your booking to a P&O Cruises holiday of equal or higher value.

I won’t go into the details of this specific cruise, but it’s not this one. I have been following the availability of this cruise on a daily basis for 2 months now, and in summary I would sack those behind making sure the booking area of the site runs properly. It’s been shocking!

My gut feeling is that with people being jabbed has largely taken away the risk of serious illness. If people think they are ‘vulnerable’ in some way, I think it is naive of them to cruise and put themselves at risk. They increase their chances of catching it 100 fold. And as discussed even the testing before cruising has been pointless in many cases with large outbreaks on many ships. Cruising is definitely NOT the environment for those who think this illness will endanger them.

What would P&O do: Refund yours and your travelling family’s money? Give you all a FCC? Other? Thanks

That’s quite a decision to leave the ship Cathy. Wouldn’t they been able to get by on board?

I think people are/will have to get used to this. The novovirus was rife on ships before covid, and arguably made most more sick (quite literally) than covid where some don’t even know they had it, unbelievably! You’d also think by now all crew would have had it. Not to say you can’t get it more than once, but less should be suffering, you would have thought. I thought we were done with the masks on board. I don’t want to go back to those times and a reminder of the ‘darker days’. If it’s that dangerous, should we really be cruising still? Money before safety, to the detriment of the guests? It’s either okay to cruise or not, and the experience is spoiled by mask wearing. They should not get us on board with the experience changing half way through. It should be either all or nothing, before you sail.