Dreamgirl1957

Hi gdh peter , yes we did get £200 FCC after a few complaints ( I think it was the final letter we also sent a copy of to carnival that helped ) we havnt used it yet . Not sure how to use it really, we can only afford one cruise a year and had this year's, next year we are booked with Thomson so we can either use it towards 2014 's which is last year we can use it or I thought we might try one of those 2 or 3 night ones if they havnt all been cancelled , just not sure yet :)

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My formal dress from last year. Husband LOVED it.

 

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Hi Susie , just love the dress :):)

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Dreamgirl1957, that is a very interesting post. There is nothing more annoying than being treated really badly through no fault of your own. It is also well documented on this site that I have been badly treated by P&O cancelling my cruises. I lost Annual Leave, hotel and associated expenses and received nothing in return.

 

But rest assured, what goes around, comes around. P&O have alienated a considerable percentage of their loyal customers and many are now deserting them. Unless they adopt a more customer focused business plan their days are numbered. The ships companies do a fantastic job but are let down by a shoreside organisation that is not imho, fit for purpose. This week Carnival announced it is separating it's more successful Princess booking operation from P&O/Cunard. That speaks volumes!

Thanks for your reply PRINCESS THE BEST , I very much agree that p&o need to look at their self and how they operate on many levels. They seem to have a very self absorbed attitude . Possibly not the best way to phrase that and I'm sure I will be put right but it's the only way I can think of. They are years behind some cruise companies in the way they look after their customers in my opinion :(

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We had our Ventura cruise to Canaries on 27th May 2013 cancelled!

 

We had already sailed with P&O the year before and had a great time. This booking was part of a five couples (family) holiday.

 

We were not given any comparative alternatives for the same dates.

 

We were informed of the cancellation by post.

 

We had booked early so that one of the guests can book a disabled cabin and we could all benefit from the early booking discount.

 

When we tried to rebook the closest cruise to our cancelled one, the disabled cabins were not still available nor could we still get the early booking discount.

 

Needless to say all five holidays have now been cancelled and none of us has a good word to say about P&O.

 

We have all now booked with Princess cruises.

 

I can safely say we will never book with P&O again, their staff attitude was very poor, they could not care less, we've been treated very badly by P&O, we will never put ourselves in this position again with this company, not only that but we will tell all our friends of our experience and to stay away from P&O.

Hi Spendypenny, I really feel for you, P&O have been very unfair. Let’s face it we all have our own personal reasons as to when we book, early or late and if we book early then I feel particularly with P&O that we pay for the privilege in lots of ways. Yes they offer discounts , you get your choice of cabin etc but then you will sit with someone one night for a meal to find they have booked at the last min, , got the type of cabin they like and paid less than half of the “ early saver “price!! P&O seem desperate sometimes to get in those early bookings with lots of hype and a touch of drama with “ these prices won’t last long” and even worse the first day price hikes as you try to book to find your chosen grade keeps going up as the day goes on. You book then find as the months go on perhaps you should have waited…..

I agree in your case as so many people to consider and wanting a disabled cabin you really have to get sorted early for peace of mind just like those people who need to work around their jobs and allocated leave dates. Because of these factors P&O are more than happy to fill their tills one minute but then treat you very badly as soon as it suits them.

I worked as a TA until last year and sold many many P&O cruises, in fact it was P&O I always mentioned first to new cruise customers. When I wanted to book a cruise for this year (2012) I didn’t hesitate and decided on P&O, no contest. I studied the brochures just like everyone else and chose a cruise. Early on the first day in April 11 that my date could be booked I was ready at 8am to get it booked. It took till lunchtime as they were selling the grand event (which I wanted) and myself and a colleague tried and tried both on the phone and net to get through as we saw the balcony grade I wanted go up and up in price until by the time we got through at about 12 it had gone right out of my price bracket!

I booked our second choice but felt very downhearted. My DH and i then thought about it and decided that as we hadn’t got our first choice we really should have gone for the Caribbean so we rang and changed it ( to Ventura , Caribbean, November 2012 ) paying an admin fee of £100. By now we had more than doubled our initial booking value.

Some 14 months later ( summer 12) with 90% of our cruise paid for and much excitement we found out that due to my husband’s work and big changes in the weather during 2012 that we needed to change our holiday dates and go away in July instead of Nov. We were gutted but didn’t have any choice (wont bore with the details as already posted on here about it all and its boring really), anyway I rang P&O to ask if I could change our cruise, quite happy to pay another amendment fee of course. They refused point blank; I’ve got to admit that at 55 years old I was near to tears, we had paid £527 deposit plus £100 amendment fee and were told in no uncertain terms we would lose £627 (and get a refund of any other money paid which was around £2000). I pleaded, I said it was ridiculous, we still wanted to go on holiday and we would spend the same or more whatever it took to be able to re-book. We also wanted to travel earlier so they would have had longer to re-sell our original cruise and we would be filling unsold cabins etc. I said we were happy to pay original price for our new cruise even though it had now been heavily discounted…what more could I do or offer?

They still refused, only one change will be allowed per booking etc etc....whatever the reason, we lost the £627.

We booked for July with RCI , had a lovely cruise but I think P&O were very wrong and I know this scenario has happened to hundreds possibly thousands over the years, they have such silly outdated rules. It seems that whatever way round it is P&O are the winners, you cannot make more than one change , it’s their rule so you lose all of your deposit, on the other hand, they chose to change or cancel your cruise and what do you get , £50 obc ?? This doesn’t help if you needed a particular date. They said to us it was our choice to cancel!! We did not want to cancel at all, just change our dates.

All (well the vast majority) of other cruise lines allow unlimited changes with an amendment fee, why oh why can’t P&O?

Next year we are booked with Thomson again, a very fair company who allow for life’s hiccups and realise we are not all retired and living in a perfect bubble when things don’t crop up!! When we were on a previous Thomson cruise and they had a problem and had to miss one port ( giving us an extra night in Venice as a bonus ) they actually gave every passenger £150 cash as compensation, even children ! Funny how so many people like to call Thomson for one reason or another but I think they treat people very fairly indeed most of the time. ( Apart from last min ship changes !)

Also funnily enough I feel much happier booking early with Thomson (booked first day prices released for 2013 so eighteen months in advance) as I know I can change my booking if needed and more than once. Also although they do have some good late deals they have no where near the amount of empty cabins to nearly give away at the last min like P&O so you don’t feel quite so ripped off.

I think P&O need to look more at putting their loyal customers first.

Love your new dresses, especially the teal gown. Teal is such a "hot" color for the season.

Love them both :)

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Not a movie---but still one of my favorite pre-cruise things to watch: I Love Lucy!!! There is a series of about 4 or 5 episodes that are simply hilarious!! Getting the passports, missing the boat, boarding the boat--every episode just brings a smile:) remembering them.

I will have a look for them, are you in US, bet we can't get them in UK, used to love I love Lucy when I was younger, can't remember any on a ship though .

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Cruise of the gods, hilarious, Rob Brydon, James Cordon etc, very funny :)

 

 

Just received this in the mail. I ordered it from e-bay and it is even prettier in person. Deep, rich color and fits me well.

Now I am finished shopping for this cruise coming up. Need to save a few dollars to enjoy the ship.

Hi, I really like your dress, nice style and looks like it will look fab on. Will look on ebay UK to see if anything similar :)

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This is my dress for formal night on Royal Caribbean 5 day to Bermuda...is it too much?

 

Wow, one of the nicest dresses ive seen for a while, love it !!! Vicki :):)

Fab review, really enjoyed reading it. We are on Brilliance next month for a 11 day Fjords so now looking forward to it even more, thanks for all your time and effort . :):):)