AchileLauro

4 hours ago, vwgolf said:

We started our cruising life with Thomsons before it came Marella. Having been with several cruise lines now I think it's safe to say that Marella is pretty much on a par with P&O, or at least when P&O has become. The ships tend to be older and a little rougher round the edges and the food and entertainment is about the same quality as P&O. Where Marella wins hands down is the friendliness of their crew; perhaps over-friendly for some tastes but it suits us.

We cruised with Marella just prior to Christmas. It was our first cruise with that company though we have sailed with other companies many times before. The only complaint that we had was that the swimming pool on Marella Dream was unheated.

While we have never had any complaints about any of the staff on P&O (other than reception staff which seem to operate entirely different to all other crew members) we found the staff on the Marella Dream exceptional. The standard of the food in the main dinning room where we took most of our meals was particularly good also. Rather strangely we did notice though that a significant number of passengers appeared to avoid the main dinning room and just used one of the two excellent self-service restaurants for all their meals. 

We considered both the food and the general ambiance of the self-service restaurants on Dream to be better than on any of the P&O ships that we have sailed, even Aurora which is our favourite P&O ship. We would definitely consider sailing on Dream again at some time in the future.

20 hours ago, crompton21 said:

Would you service your car just before you sell it?

20 hours ago, eddie11 said:

That thought passed through my mind too ... 🙁

Mine also.

I wonder if Marella are interested in Oceana as I understand that they are looking to acquire additional ships.

Have to agree that the jacuzzi shown in the photograph is simply disgusting. I wasn't overly impressed with Oceana when we sailed on her but things seem to have been allowed to go further down hill by the seems of it.

Never mind two new bright shiny mega ships on the horizon, which is what the public want apparently. 

On 10/26/2019 at 2:17 PM, majortom10 said:

They said that about Oriana and look what happened to her. If she is for sale and they get a genuine offer then they will do like they have always done sell her and cancel whichever cruises are affected.

Highly possible and likely.

They cancelled our family cruise on Aurora when they sold Oriana and converted Aurora to adult only. They even had the nerve to send us a letter informing us of the change starting with the line " you will be pleased to hear that Aurora is going adult only".

Well I can tell you that we certainly weren't pleased. 

Customer relations and Carnival just don't go together.

Tablelamp you haven't got your ships confused have you, and when you say dome you aren't referring to the sliding roofs over the swimming pools are you?

Only Aurora, Arcadia and Ventura have sliding roofs over pools as far as I know. I don't know about Britannia because I've never been on her and have no intention of ever doing so. 

What dome?

It's some years since we were on Oceana so things might have changed but I have no recollection of any dome other than the domed canopy over the small pool near the terrace bar.

I do however recall sitting outside the Plaza buffet to eat several times though usually from the grill rather than the actual buffet. It's not normal practise for P&O to only bring out tables and chairs at certain times of the day so I would usually expect any tables and chairs to be available  24 hours a day.

No idea about Britannia but we were fortunate enough to be Aurora some years ago when Caravan had a jazz session in the crows nest one evening. It was absolutely superb and there wasn't a spare space to be had in the room, we were packed in like sardines. One particular musician in the group really stood out (Jesse), boy do I wish that I had talent like that.

I then read of another jazz evening on a different ship which by all reports wasn't so successful with large numbers of the audience walking out covering their ears. My thoughts were that the reports were probably exaggerated and the music simply wasn't to the taste of the writer. However two years ago we were again on Aurora and read in horizon that the resident band (not Caravan) would be playing jazz late one evening again in the crows nest lounge. This time it was modern jazz and it wasn't very long before we too were joining the long line of passengers leaving the lounge covering our ears and shaking our heads.

Sometimes P&O get the entertainment right but when they get it wrong they get it very wrong.

6 hours ago, anthonywebb8 said:

we have just came back we paid the full price and we had to pay for shuttle buses to town 4 euros each and at Gibraltar we had to pay 12 euros.

By "full price" I take it that you mean select fare?

Admittedly it's been a few years since we were last on a P&O cruise that stopped in Gibraltar and things may have changed but on the last three occasions there were no shuttle buses provided by P&O other than for disabled passengers. Shuttle services were available but these had nothing to do with P&O.

In fact the only occasion that we can remember P&O providing shuttle buses for all passengers when in Gibraltar was a very long time ago when we berthed in the admiralty dockyard. 

The trouble you have MrandMrsCoz is that you have effectively gone through two middle men, your mother in law and the travel agent. So you don't know for certain what was said or agreed or explained when the booking was made. 

If it was my mother in law making the booking for the entire party we would all probably land up booked onto different ships and going on different cruises. I wouldn't trust her to buy a ticket for the car park never mind arrange a family holiday. 😈

We've been fortunate enough to have enjoyed several overnight stays or very late departures over the years. Definitely something that should be done more often in some ports.

46 minutes ago, Tablelamp said:

A shame P and O do not offer them in more ports.   People who have paid the Select price get free shuttle busses but on my last 19 day cruise, they were only offered in two ports.

Why a shame? 

Shuttle buses are only usually provided where necessary.

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

I know Britannia has been in at least once,maybe twice & they did have a ship scheduled to call last year but they sold the vessel(was it Aurora?).

 

 No it was stolen.  LOL

Debarking as in removing the bark from a tree or felled timber?

3 hours ago, Denarius said:

I suspect that the reason for the changes in terminology is that cruises are now marketed as a holiday in a mobile resort hotel with a keel rather than as a voyage to interesting ports. Many passsengers (sorry, guests) are more interested in the entertainment and dining facilities onboard than the ports to be visited, which are viewed as a mere distraction. Or am I being too cynical?

Half of the "guests" don't know anything about where they are going and care even less. Passengers on the other hand may be slightly more discerning. 😉

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

I always thought a cabin is called a stateroom.

Yes I've also heard cabins referred to as staterooms too, a vast overstatement in my opinion considering the size of many cabins. LOL.

For myself when I look from a distance at many modern ships and the multi layers of window box balconies I can't help thinking of pigeon holes and aviaries. To then use the term stateroom seems a bit ridiculous.

You forgot the purser is now the hotel manager and decks have become floors. 

How long before the captain becomes the driver? 😉

I suppose dumbing down is inevitable as now there is a lesser class of person cruising. 😈

All joking aside I find it all very irritating, after all  I don't know about you but I want to sail on a ship not just stay in a hotel that just happens to float.

1 hour ago, Dileas01 said:

Not surprised that there was trouble after a P&O so called “patriotic”afternoon. Although I am British I am not English and on two previous cruises, one P&O and one Princess, from Southampton I have had to put up with almost continual snide so called jokey comments from a fair number of English passengers regarding both my name and the part of the UK I am from. On both cruises it reached a crescendo after the alcohol fuelled Rule Britannia “patriotic” sail away when the comments  changed from half jokey to wholly offensive. Had done 4 P&O cruises before but never again with P&O and never would I book any cruise on any line out of Southampton. Suggested to both P&O and Princess that for sail away parties less Rule Britannia and more Summer Holiday might be better but of course got no response.There seems to be an increasing boorish uncouth element on those cruises from Southampton and on P&O in general. Also it seems to reflect the increasing ugly side of some parts of so called British nationalism. 

It may or may not have been a relevant factor in this case but I agree entirely with what you say about the "Great British" sailaway. I too am British and claim to be from no particular country in the U.K. as I was born on the border in an area that historically sometimes was regarded as one country and on other occasions another. In my view the GBS only winds the worst sorts and encourages tribalism. 

7 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Just been reading about it the BBC news site.  How disgusting.  This is going to start happening more and more on the huge ships I fear.

I fear that you may very well be right.

Absolutely deplorable behaviour. It now makes you wonder about jurisdiction and if there will be any legal consequences for those involved.

15 hours ago, john watson said:

 

I should avoid French Connection  stuff with their logo on it.

 

Regards john

What's wrong with the French Connection? Maybe not every body's cup of tea but much better than more recent offerings on a similar theme and with far less bad language. I though Gene Hackman played a very good part as Popeye Doyle.

Probably one of the main reasons that they request keeping balcony doors shut is so as not to compromise in any way the fire protection strategy for the ship. Not just with regard to fire containment within cabins but also in respect of a very complex smoke control plan which persons other than ships architects and fire engineers would probably be unaware of. Look up Star Princess fire if you want to get an insight into this. P&O made quite a few significant and very expensive alterations to several of their ships following the enquiry into that fire, including extending the sprinkler system to cover external balconies. 

3 hours ago, FiftyOnePlus said:

 

 

Unfortunately, thats the problem with partial transits, as they can easily opt out of it. A full transit is hard to get out of.

 

The trouble you face is that T&Cs state they can change the itinerary for any reason and don't have to compensate.  Its also advised not to book a cruise based on ports of call or areas advertised as travelling to due to the same reason.

You are lucky they offered you anything as quite often, cruise companies dont offer anything at all,

 

You should, however, been able to cancel without penalty.

 

Whilst P&O Cruises will do its best not to cancel or to make any significant alteration after a booking has been made, it shall nevertheless be entitled at any time prior to departure to cancel the Contract or to change and/or curtail the Package where this reasonably becomes necessary on operational, commercial or other grounds. P&O Cruises will inform the Guest of any such cancellation or change of Package as quickly as possible (with, where appropriate, written confirmation as soon as reasonably possible thereafter). If P&O Cruises makes a significant alteration to the Package it will inform the Guest or his/her travel agent as soon as reasonably possible. The Guest will have the choice of either accepting the alteration, accepting an offer of an alternative Package of comparable standard if available (P&O Cruises will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value) or cancelling the Package and receiving a full refund of all monies paid.

I would strongly argue that cancelling the Canal constitutes a significant change and that by the very fact that they have informed you of the cancellation beforehand that they too consider it to be a significant change. Therefore in accordance with their own terms and conditions P&O should be offering to cancel the cruise with a full refund.

Of the P&O ships that we have sailed on we would rate them in the following order of preference;

Oriana - was our favourite but only by a very slight margin over Aurora. We sailed on Oriana three times. Oriana was taken out of the equation when she became adult only.

Aurora - Again taken out of play when she became adult only and P&O cancelled our 2019 booked cruise.

Oceana - We had a great holiday on this ship but wouldn't rush back. Decoration tacky and fed up of tripping over buckets that were placed to catch the leaks from the ceilings.

Azura - Much nicer ambience and decoration to Ventura but certainly wouldn't want to travel on her again. The design of the ship is simply dreadful.

Ventura - Very disappointing. Most definitely won't be cruising on this ship again.

Arcadia - Never got to sail on her. P&O cancelled the cruise at short notice and we only got to find out about the cancellation by chance when surfing the internet.

Britannia - Have absolutely no desire to sail on this ship and never have had. Totally unappealing in appearance and in all probability with all the poor attributes of Ventura and Azura but on a larger scale.

It's all irrelevant any way as due to the way that P&O have let us down badly now on two occasions we have resolved never to travel with any Carnival company ever again.

We have just returned from a 3 nighter cruise.

 

Many passengers joined this ship wanting a "taster" cruise. The age range was 20-60 rather than just over 60s. The ship had a vibrant upbeat atmosphere due to the younger passengers. We dined with some lovely people.

The reason for our cruise was to see the D-Day Landing day beaches. We went on a P&O excursion to the American landing day beaches which was great. The second excursion we booked was for the Enlish landing day beaches which was cancelled due to lack of interest!! We have been on many cruises where excursions are cancelled but we really didn't expect this cancellation!

 

We tried to go independently but the taxi was £400 ! so we passed on this.

 

This cruise attracted many Hen and Stag parties mostly all good but again a small minority just behaved badly. Some completely drunk,/noisey/rowdy/ and inconsiderate to their fellow passengers meaning getting no sleep.

 

So I will never do a 3 night cruise again!!!!

I think that you would have to get back on the ferry to get to an English beach Izzywalker.

If you meant Gold or Sword landing beaches then they weren't the preserve of solely the English and are normally referred to as the British beaches though they did have large contingents from other nations also. Juno beach was mostly the Canadians along with free French and Norwegians.

I've noticed that P&O are certainly in no rush to return deposits for cruises that they have cancelled.

Funny how when we paid the deposits the money was taken straight away yet the refunds are still to come.

If they changed Azura or Ventura to adult only, I wouldn't be sailing on them. Hated Azura.

We too disliked Azura and even more so in the case of Ventura. Hence the whole family's desire to continue sailing on Aurora which is/was our favourite.

Oriana was our favourite until P&O changed that to adult only.

Not only have P&O dealt with it badly but they have changed the wrong ship to adult only. They should have changed Ventura or Azura to adult only as far as we are concerned. We have sailed on both and as a family don't like either of them that's why we chose Aurora.