P&o - shame on you!!

[cclarke12]

But as I understand it, Celebrity didn't do the cruise out of the goodness of their heart - excellent PR though. The ship was chartered (i.e. paid for) by 4 travel companies that had package holiday makers they needed to get back to the UK and this was the cheapest easiest way to shift a lot of people more affordably than racking up hotel bills in Spain while waiting for other travel options to open up. P&O didn't happen to have a spare empty cruise ship, and they clearly did respond and sell cabins to people at Gibraltar as they got on our sailing. Yes, they may have got it wrong at the call centre, but as you say they are advertising segments as being available locally so why haven't you just booked it through that route then?

[Jimmys Chippy]

Jimmys Chippy. Please click on BMTs profile and read all his threads, he tells people that he over winters in Gib and flies back tomorrow while making out in this thread that he is stuck in Spain with no money and refused a passage on a P&O ship. He sails with RCI and then rubbishes P&O for not picking his family up. It makes interesting reading.

It appears from the threads that there is an obsession with bad mouthing P&O and clearly needs to address this problem somewhere else.

 

I know all of that, I just wanted BMT to explain himself.;)

 

It seems that they wanted (unneccesarily) to get out of the Costa Del Sol and thought they could get their mother on by throwing their money at them, and P & O rightly said no. If people were fleeing a war or lava flowing down Fuengirola high street then I'm sure P & O would have helped, but for those who've paid a premium to cruise at Easter and be told that for the remainder of their trip a load of Costa del Sol holidaymakers are going to gatecrash their holiday due to their travel plans being altered then it was never going to happen.

 

I'm not going to be too hard on BMT. He's had to spend winter in the Costa Del Sol.

 

And that's bad enough.

[MattyBarlow]

The Eclipse was in the right place at the right time. If there had been no ships from Celebrity group in Europe then they wouldn't have done the rescue. It was an excellent bit of PR on their behalf!

[BMT]

I know all of that, I just wanted BMT to explain himself.;)

 

It seems that they wanted (unneccesarily) to get out of the Costa Del Sol and thought they could get their mother on by throwing their money at them, and P & O rightly said no. If people were fleeing a war or lava flowing down Fuengirola high street then I'm sure P & O would have helped, but for those who've paid a premium to cruise at Easter and be told that for the remainder of their trip a load of Costa del Sol holidaymakers are going to gatecrash their holiday due to their travel plans being altered then it was never going to happen.

 

I'm not going to be too hard on BMT. He's had to spend winter in the Costa Del Sol.

 

And that's bad enough.

 

What a disgusting post!!

 

The TA was only TOO willing to take the money from us on P&O's behalf!! I have the e-mail to prove it, if you want to give me your e-mail address I will forward it to you as proof!! P&O just wern't interested in helping ANYONE stating twice, no segments. This isn't true.

 

We COULD have booked it, but didn't - as we thought it was disgusting to be charging people who, when it had calmed down a bit here, needed it more than we did. According to my info here, can't vouch for it, everyone who boarded in Gib paid 100 per day to Southampton.

 

What a horrible snobby thing to say quoting you "paid a premium to cruise at Easter and be told that for the remainder of their trip a load of Costa del Sol holidaymakers are going to gatecrash their holiday due to their travel plans being altered". What a compassionate person you are - NOT - if that's the way you feel!

 

I really hope you are not representative of P&O cruisers - I can only hope that not one of those on that cruise would have complained about a three day mercy mission by P&O.

 

We wintered here on the Costa del Sol - arriving in January after a Christmas/New Year cruise - one of the five or six cruises we do each year - but of course, you wouldn't, understandably, wish to spend three days on a P&O cruise ship with the likes of us Costas. So we will avoid P&O - haven't been on it for quite a few years. When we were on the original Oriana - first-class passengers and no-one objected to us as Costa holidaymakers - we enjoyed the line. The passengers at that time were ladies and gentlemen of course.:D

 

Sorry cheerleaders, P&O didn't step up to the plate!! And insulting me doesn't help their case - just shows a certain mentality.

[cclarke12]

Why shouldn't P&O have charged people? That makes no sense, and at £100 per day that is a lot cheaper than some of my colleagues paid for alternative flights to get home from mainland Europe. P&O were under no obligation to take on any stranded passengers, and most people who got on board at Gib will no doubt be claiming the money back from their travel insurance companies or from the airline that cancelled their flight. The passengers on Eclipse paid nothing because the tour operators they were travelling with were obliged to accommodate them and get them home, and they paid Celebrity to do this for them.

[BMT]

As far as I can make out, the tour operators paid ONLY for the fuel on Celebrity!! And Celebrity gave free drinks towards the end of the three days.

 

Obviously, P&O had no obligation to do anything - and that's just what they did - or didn't :D - do!! Sorry, but I am totally disgusted that a Company earning almost all its revenue out of the Brits did almost nothing - and that almost nothing was paid for, as per the advertised segment by a TA in Gib.

 

P&O denies doing segments, whilst actually doing them through an agent in Gib and advertising them on the Costa del Sol. Not nice - not nice at all P&O. Bit underhanded seems to me.

[LibraLass41]

All P&O's cruise ships were in use on cruises, Eclipse was empty after sailing over from the ship yard to prepare for her maiden cruise, it was much easier for Eclipse to sail out to Bilbo to aid stranded tourists and YES she was chartered by Thomson to pick up their customers, and was not picking up any 'general public.

 

Very unfair comments on P&O (did some people want PandO to turf off their cruisers and ruin their holidays to help air line land based holiday makers) - I don't think so!"!!!

[BMT]

All P&O's cruise ships were in use on cruises, Eclipse was empty after sailing over from the ship yard to prepare for her maiden cruise, it was much easier for Eclipse to sail out to Bilbo to aid stranded tourists and YES she was chartered by Thomson to pick up their customers, and was not picking up any 'general public.

 

Very unfair comments on P&O (did some people want PandO to turf off their cruisers and ruin their holidays to help air line land based holiday makers) - I don't think so!"!!!

 

If you read my previous posts, you would have noted that space WAS available, but P&O refused to make it available saying they didn't do segments. Absolutely untrue, as a Gib agent was advertising this segment and five others for purchase. This was in a free Costa del Sol paper. I have the e-mail quoting the price.

 

Thomson paid for the fuel only. Celebrity made the ship available, cancelling the people supposed to sail on her, fed, watered and gave beds to 2,000 Brits who were NOT their clients. Also gave free drinks towards the end. GOOD FOR CELEBRITY - and I bet not one of those stranded and rescued by Celebrity has anything except good words to say about them.

 

Keep going cheerleaders - the fact remains - P&O were just not interested in stranded Brits!!

[Jimmys Chippy]

We have arrived back in the UK

 

So good to hear that you nightmare journey has come to an end. Were the local newspaper interested in your stranded story?

 

One more point. You said you were willing to give your flights up to people who were in desperate need to get home. If that's the case, why were you angling to get your Mum on a ship to take her home, even though she wasn't due to return for around three weeks? Shouldn't that cabin been for someone who really needed it?

[fridaythecat.u.k.]

Just thought I'd sneak in here... not taking sides or anything in this mammoth debate.... but FYI if you want to multi-quote it is quite easy:

 

Immediately to the right of the "Quote" button, there is a small button with quotation marks on it: this is the multi-quote button. Click on this for each quote that you want to multi quote and then when you are done, press the Quote button. There! End of lesson :D