Oriana passengers praise P&O over handling of ship delay

[Pennbank]

From Travel Mole

http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?c=setreg&region=2&m_id=s~_rn~Ad~A&w_id=30771&news_id=2016099

 

Passengers on board P&O Cruises's Oriana have praised the company for the way they were treated when their cruise was cut short due to bad weather yesterday.

 

P&O Cruises was forced to delay a departure by 24 hours due to strong gales which prevented the ship from moving to a terminal in Southampton where passengers could board safely.

 

The 1,500 delayed passengers were put up in local hotels and offered a 50% refund on the four-night cruise to Guernsey and Belgium.

Meanwhile, those who were due to disembark after a 12-night Norway and Northern Lights cruise were given the option of staying on board for an extra night in port or leave at 8pm last night.

 

Many posted messages on Facebook thanking the cruise line for the way it had handled the situation.

 

"We're in the premiere inn Southampton. P&O have been amazing," said one.

 

But she said other passengers had been over demanding.

 

"We've seen some disgusting customers demanding the Hilton Hotel due to their 'grade' of cabin and even having chairs and wine brought to them whilst waiting for a taxi outside and even so much as having a P&O member of staff being a sun block for these disposable people.

 

"All the staff we've dealt with have been brilliant. We've had dinner bed and breakfast along with the other things. Yes it was manic but it has been a logistical nightmare. My hat goes off to P&O and their professionalism."

 

Another said: "Wow been blown away today at P&O's professionalism, their staff have been polite, professional and calm, the ladies at The Grand Harbour Hotel deserve a medal, we will be booking P&O again it's rare to find a company that go the extra mile."

 

Passengers who were due to take the four-night cruise are due to board at lunchtime today and will still call at both locations.

 

 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

 

Interestingly

When Cunard Queen Elizabeth sailed from Southampton on 19th December 2014 for Amsterdam Dutch Christmas Market Q423 for 4 nights but was unable to dock anywhere apparently due to winds, but just sailed the English Channel

for 3 days and returning back to Southampton a day early for repairs only an on board credit of £48 was given !

Edited April 1, 2015 by Pennbank

[daiB]

From Travel Mole

http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?c=setreg&region=2&m_id=s~_rn~Ad~A&w_id=30771&news_id=2016099

 

Passengers on board P&O Cruises's Oriana have praised the company for the way they were treated when their cruise was cut short due to bad weather yesterday.

 

P&O Cruises was forced to delay a departure by 24 hours due to strong gales which prevented the ship from moving to a terminal in Southampton where passengers could board safely.

 

The 1,500 delayed passengers were put up in local hotels and offered a 50% refund on the four-night cruise to Guernsey and Belgium.

Meanwhile, those who were due to disembark after a 12-night Norway and Northern Lights cruise were given the option of staying on board for an extra night in port or leave at 8pm last night.

 

Many posted messages on Facebook thanking the cruise line for the way it had handled the situation.

 

"We're in the premiere inn Southampton. P&O have been amazing," said one.

 

But she said other passengers had been over demanding.

 

"We've seen some disgusting customers demanding the Hilton Hotel due to their 'grade' of cabin and even having chairs and wine brought to them whilst waiting for a taxi outside and even so much as having a P&O member of staff being a sun block for these disposable people.

 

"All the staff we've dealt with have been brilliant. We've had dinner bed and breakfast along with the other things. Yes it was manic but it has been a logistical nightmare. My hat goes off to P&O and their professionalism."

 

Another said: "Wow been blown away today at P&O's professionalism, their staff have been polite, professional and calm, the ladies at The Grand Harbour Hotel deserve a medal, we will be booking P&O again it's rare to find a company that go the extra mile."

 

Passengers who were due to take the four-night cruise are due to board at lunchtime today and will still call at both locations.

 

 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

 

Interestingly

When Cunard Queen Elizabeth sailed from Southampton on 19th December 2014 for Amsterdam Dutch Christmas Market Q423 for 4 nights but was unable to dock anywhere apparently due to winds, but just sailed the English Channel

for 3 days and returning back to Southampton a day early for repairs only an on board credit of £48 was given !

 

 

I find it interesting that people do not make comment when P&O get it completely right and do exactly the right thing in difficult circumstances. This thread would be 20 posts long if someone perceived that the company was doing something wrong.

 

Do certain people only comment on bad news?

[P&O Lynn Knickers]

Thank you for posting this.

Its a good news story for sure

 

 

 

 

.

Edited April 1, 2015 by P&O Lynn Knickers
Lynn likes nice things

[daiB]

Thank you for posting this.

 

Its a good news story for sure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

Yes very good news. But no one else seems to think so. Perhaps it is too positive.

[jenny wren]

Well done p and O....it must have been a nightmare trying to find hotel accommodation during the Easter school holidays.....as well as organising the coaches, parking, checkin staff, etc etc.:)

[tartanexile81]

Well done P&O - a job well done.

 

We were on Oceana when she was delayed in port by the weather for 2 days in 2014 and although our cruise was 28 days long we still had to miss a port. I have to say that everybody we spoke to on the cruise felt the captain had made the right call so it's shame you had the moaners and groaners with you on this one.

Edited April 1, 2015 by tartanexile81

[P&O SUE]

I was reading the comments on Facebook last night and the overwhelming majority were praising P&O - they couldn't have done more by the sounds of it!

[Britboys]

As Dai will know, whilst I am a fan of P&O, I will also criticise when I feel it necessary. On most occasions like this however they do tend to get things right and I must say they seem to have worked a blinder on this one. I guess it may have helped that their HQ is in Southampton :).

A few years back we were on Oriana off of Villefranche when the weather blew up a storm. We didn't get back on board until about 10 at night but again, we were well looked after and P&O made sure we were all fed locally at their expense.

[starryuk]

Yes, I too would like to commend P and O.

 

A couple of years ago my travelling companion had to return to UK due to an emergency at home. A member of staff spent the best part of a day organising 3 connecting flights to get her back. Paperwork ready, taxi waiting at the port as we docked, an escort off the ship all happened smoothly.

Very professional.

Probably the thing which impressed me most was the phone call from P and O on my return, enquiring after my companion and how the rather complicated journey had panned out.

[Skovgaard]

Without prompting, numerous phone calls and e mails P&O new what had to be done and like the professionals they are did it

 

They put peoples safety first

They made sure those people waiting to board had accommodation FOC and would still get to see the 2 ports of call

They could have stopped here but no 50% of the cost of their cruise would be refunded

 

However the poor passengers wanting to get of must have thought they were on a roller coaster with the high winds, their poor tummy's, nothing P&O can do about the weather

 

Well done P&O this is why I choose to travel with you

[AchileLauro]

:)Sounds like the sort of service that P&O of old were once famous for and which made the company such a loyal customer base, and not the type of customer service that they have been associated with in recent times.

 

Well Done P&O.

Edited April 2, 2015 by AchileLauro

[indiana123]

All I can say, and have said before, is P and O were brilliant to us when we had a problem before sailing. We were given a personal contact who was very good, very polite and very professional.

[tring]

Without prompting, numerous phone calls and e mails P&O new what had to be done and like the professionals they are did it

 

They put peoples safety first

They made sure those people waiting to board had accommodation FOC and would still get to see the 2 ports of call

They could have stopped here but no 50% of the cost of their cruise would be refunded

 

However the poor passengers wanting to get of must have thought they were on a roller coaster with the high winds, their poor tummy's, nothing P&O can do about the weather

 

Well done P&O this is why I choose to travel with you

 

 

We were on the disembarking cruise. One of the the press reports was wrong in that we were not at sea, but had tied up just along from QEII terminal early morning. Hence no rocking of the ship. We were, however, told we would be disembarked late in the day and were thinking we would be having to scramble to find a hotel late at night. It was about 3.30pm in the afternoon when it was eventually announced that we could stay on board overnight. That was quite alarming and soft drinks/coffee, (and later in the day, some alcoholic drinks), did not make up for that. I would be interested in when the incoming passengers were told that they would be delayed by a day, and if it was before we were told we could stay overnight. We were not treated so well in that respect, but admittedly local people had nothing much to worry about.

 

We had asked reception for a delay letter so we could have claimed a delay fee from our insurance - but that did not materialise and we did not have chance to chase it up, as I had norovirus by the next morning so we were 'escorted off the ship' quite quickly.

 

I posted this on another thread last night:-

 

Not long arrived home after disembarking Oriana this morning. A lot of hanging around yesterday and at one point (early afternoon) we were told that we would be disembarked late yesterday, which was very alarming as we would then have had an 8 hour journey home, so would have been searching for a hotel late at night! As it happend they announced a couple of hours later that it would be a late night docking and that we could stay onboard overnight - we has been given access back to our cabins by then. Poor cabin stewards effectively had 2 change around days though as they had already done the cabins for new arrivals.

 

We did not dock until soon before 9pm, when only self help disembarkation people could get off. Luggage was then taken ashore and other people could disembark if they wished, between 11pm and midnight. P&O also ran a shuttle for anyone wanting to go into Southampton between about 10.30pm and 1pm.

 

We were glad to get off the ship as we had been quite ill for the last week with a chest infection, (diagnosed as flu for my husband - it seems the flu injection is not very effective this year). He was prescibed Tammyflu and we both had ant-biotics. I was also sick that last night, (norvirus onboard), so was given an injection by a nurse, which made me just about well enough to get home. Just about everyone was coughing for the second half of the cruise. I missed the second day in Alta and we both missed Begen and Stavanger as ports, although I went for a short walk in Bergen.

 

I missed the Northern lights trip, but did see them from the ship the day we were sailing back south near Tromso. The good news is that we did see the solar eclipse, but no thanks to P&O who would not give the Captain permission to spend that time at sea, so we were more likely to see the eclipse. As it happened it was too windy to dock that morning and the Captain managed to let the ship drift into a very small area of clear sky, so we saw totality and some of the partial eclipse as the cloud cover varied, (but was almost complete). I rekon there must have been a lot of calculation being done on the bridge at that stage, as the sky was almost covered in cloud. We would not have seen the eclipse if we had been docked as per schedule and according to P&O instructions.

[Wiz201]

puts my mind at ease if we ever have similar problems on our cruise in three weeks time, although hopefully nothing like that will happen.

[Host Sharon]

As everyone says I think P&O got this right, after all weather is beyond anyone's control. Exactly the same happened to me on Discovery a couple of years ago. We were a day late arriving home AND I had work the next day, but like Oriana we were told different expected times that we could disembark as things progressed. I don't think any company can be precise in these cases. As for the flu/cough on board, once again this can happen in any confined situation. I caught a similar one on Zaandam in January.

[Brayman]

As everyone says I think P&O got this right, after all weather is beyond anyone's control. Exactly the same happened to me on Discovery a couple of years ago. We were a day late arriving home AND I had work the next day, but like Oriana we were told different expected times that we could disembark as things progressed. I don't think any company can be precise in these cases. As for the flu/cough on board, once again this can happen in any confined situation. I caught a similar one on Zaandam in January.

 

 

I've had a cough for three weeks now and I haven't been near a cruise ship since last July!

[MS75]

As everyone says I think P&O got this right, after all weather is beyond anyone's control. Exactly the same happened to me on Discovery a couple of years ago. We were a day late arriving home AND I had work the next day, but like Oriana we were told different expected times that we could disembark as things progressed. I don't think any company can be precise in these cases.

 

 

Of course the weather is beyond anyone's control but it didn't help that particular morning when passengers were woken up at 5:15am with an almighty thud and then a "dragging" for a few minutes then your Captain confirms over the ships tannoy system that he'd hit the wall all with the front port side of the ship.

 

Kudos to the Captain for his honesty to his passengers but people on the Oriana who were expecting to be be going home that day were more worried about the small boat pulling alongside the front of the Oriana later in the day between announcements obviously in an attempt to see if there was any damage to the ship than the bad weather which we had already seen with our own eyes.

 

It also didn't help matters when during day three of our cruise the Captain (again kudos for honesty) announced through the tannoy system at the Faroe Islands that the ship had a problem with the port side boosters.

 

Those tannoy announcements are not exactly the kind of thing you want too hear especially after having now read various comments on previous recent cruises from passengers who have mentioned the same problems with the engines and the boosters.

[Host Sharon]

I've had a cough for three weeks now and I haven't been near a cruise ship since last July!

 

Time book another cruise methinks ;)

[Wiz201]

I work in an enclosed unit within the office; illness passes around us with a click of a finger!

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

I work in an enclosed unit within the office; illness passes around us with a click of a finger!

 

It's like that at my place. Always the same people going sick though:rolleyes:

[wilson2579]

I have just returned from the Oriana today and can't praise P and O enough. We were so well looked after when we found we couldn't board on the 31st. We were taken to the Holiday Inn at Portsmouth where there was a rep and given full board, bottles of wine and water. After breakfast the next day we were also given as much coffee and pastries as we cared to have before being transported back to the terminal at 12.45.

P and O have been very generous with £60 OBC for husband and myself, 50% refund and a cocktail night, which doesn't normally happen on mini cruise, with free drinks as an apology from the captain.

I will be emailing P and O thanking them later on today. Great way to look after their passengers.:cool:

[mrbluesea]

Fully agree that the shore staff were brilliant thank you for all of the help finding us somewhere to stay before the cruise. Poor weather is an act of god and so would not expect any financial compensation but it's nice it's was made a available. Wacking the front of the ship when trying to dock suggests an error of judgment and perhaps this was the reason for the more generous compensation.

 

But again the shore staff were brilliant.

[Presto2]

I have just returned from the Oriana today and can't praise P and O enough. We were so well looked after when we found we couldn't board on the 31st. We were taken to the Holiday Inn at Portsmouth where there was a rep and given full board, bottles of wine and water. After breakfast the next day we were also given as much coffee and pastries as we cared to have before being transported back to the terminal at 12.45.

P and O have been very generous with £60 OBC for husband and myself, 50% refund and a cocktail night, which doesn't normally happen on mini cruise, with free drinks as an apology from the captain.

I will be emailing P and O thanking them later on today. Great way to look after their passengers.:cool:

 

It is good to read such positive feedback - well done P&O.

[Presto2]

Of course the weather is beyond anyone's control but it didn't help that particular morning when passengers were woken up at 5:15am with an almighty thud and then a "dragging" for a few minutes then your Captain confirms over the ships tannoy system that he'd hit the wall all with the front port side of the ship.

 

Kudos to the Captain for his honesty to his passengers but people on the Oriana who were expecting to be be going home that day were more worried about the small boat pulling alongside the front of the Oriana later in the day between announcements obviously in an attempt to see if there was any damage to the ship than the bad weather which we had already seen with our own eyes.

 

He let you know what was going on - better than not saying anything and everyone worrying sick about what the sound was / if there was a major issue.

Yes he hit the wall, but he admitted it and from what I understand it wasn't life threatening and you all got home safe in horrific weather conditions.

[cacheandcruise]

Just a quick reply but we were extremely impressed with P&O's handling of these events and will contact them also.