Boarding again: P and O lies

[Host Sharon]

We had cold flannels and iced water on offer when we re-boarded Aurora at Malacca this March.

[Henderson1]

Iced water and iced orange on Queen Victoria especially if you tender but also on hot days when reboarding in port. I remember in St Petersburg because there was a queue they were coming along with drinks on a tray

[gadabout60]

Iced water and iced orange on Queen Victoria especially if you tender but also on hot days when reboarding in port. I remember in St Petersburg because there was a queue they were coming along with drinks on a tray

 

That's great. I have never experienced this on P&O but good to know they are doing this now

[Clodia]

Oooh, I'll look forward to the soup then, as we're going to Iceland next week!

[Presto2]

For what its worth, we have done Celebrity and P&O and love both, but for different reasons. Both are good and both have good points. Both, also have things that need to improve. We just go and enjoy what each has to offer ...................

 

Must admit, we do like the cold flannel and juice on Celebrity ......... but

hubby says the bar service around the pools is better on P&O and the prices for vino are way better ;-) Oh and the fact that we can bring on more vino from other ports or our wine tour - hic

 

Whatever, happy cruising to all P&O and Celebrity cruisers ;)

[gadabout60]

For what its worth, we have done Celebrity and P&O and love both, but for different reasons. Both are good and both have good points. Both, also have things that need to improve. We just go and enjoy what each has to offer ...................

 

Must admit, we do like the cold flannel and juice on Celebrity ......... but

hubby says the bar service around the pools is better on P&O and the prices for vino are way better ;-) Oh and the fact that we can bring on more vino from other ports or our wine tour - hic

 

Whatever, happy cruising to all P&O and Celebrity cruisers ;)

 

Agreed!

We are all different. We never sit round the pool on any ship - too busy. And we hate kettles in cabins - they take up too much space and we have them removed!

[Presto2]

Agreed!

We are all different. We never sit round the pool on any ship - too busy. And we hate kettles in cabins - they take up too much space and we have them removed!

 

Ha ha - totally agree --- but, we still love our cuppa in the morning though ;-)

Happy cruising :-) Not long to go for us now :D:D

[gadabout60]

Ha ha - totally agree --- but, we still love our cuppa in the morning though ;-)

Happy cruising :-) Not long to go for us now :D:D

 

Enjoy

I still have almost 3 months until next cruise :(

[Presto2]

Enjoy

I still have almost 3 months until next cruise :(

 

We booked this one last April 2015 so it is a long time coming :)

 

We have been on Oceana and love her warts and all so know what to expect.

Now, if we get a cold flannel and stuff it will be a shock :) (sorry P&O, a welcome surprise!)

[Corfe Mixture]

A most enlightening thread.

We stopped cruising with P&O in 2010. The reasons don’t really matter, but it was fly-cruise product related rather than service related. At the time we had around 130 nights which, I think, made us Sapphire in the old scheme and I think I was told I would be Mediterranean in the new scheme.

Ever since P&O write to me regularly with offers, using my full name so they clearly still have me somewhere in their records. This week, however, I had an interesting letter again addressing me by my correct name and pointing out the benefits of the loyalty scheme and inviting me to join at the lowest level. All rather strange as Princess, where we are now Elite, have an accurate record of all our P&O cruises.

So I popped over here with the intention of asking if P&O points expire, only to discover this thread.

Having read through the thread, I don’t think I will bother to inquire further.

Have any of you any idea how this thread looks to an outsider?

The thought of discussing priority boarding, perks etc over dinner every night and having to listen to ‘entitled’ people complaining because someone inadvertently makes a mistake is not my idea of a pleasant holiday and the thought of finding myself on a table with some, but by no means all, of the contributors to this thread leaves me totally cold.

My memory of P&O was that, whilst one occasionally came across someone who wanted to prove they had a better deal than everyone else, I don’t seem to recall the dinner conversations being that bad, and some were very amusing like the young couple who when grilled about their jobs by a rather pompous couple replied by saying they were in oil. Later, after the pompous couple had left, much to everyone’s amusement the rest of us discovered they ran a fish and chip shop. People like that made wonderful and amusing dinner companions during our time with P&O, but, having read this thread, I rather get the impression that they would now be a rare shaft of light shining through a dark cloud of moaners.

Thank you all for giving me an insight into how much P&O has changed over the last six years. I don’t think I will bother trying to get my cruise history restored.

[Presto2]

A most enlightening thread.

We stopped cruising with P&O in 2010. The reasons don’t really matter, but it was fly-cruise product related rather than service related. At the time we had around 130 nights which, I think, made us Sapphire in the old scheme and I think I was told I would be Mediterranean in the new scheme.

Ever since P&O write to me regularly with offers, using my full name so they clearly still have me somewhere in their records. This week, however, I had an interesting letter again addressing me by my correct name and pointing out the benefits of the loyalty scheme and inviting me to join at the lowest level. All rather strange as Princess, where we are now Elite, have an accurate record of all our P&O cruises.

So I popped over here with the intention of asking if P&O points expire, only to discover this thread.

Having read through the thread, I don’t think I will bother to inquire further.

Have any of you any idea how this thread looks to an outsider?

The thought of discussing priority boarding, perks etc over dinner every night and having to listen to ‘entitled’ people complaining because someone inadvertently makes a mistake is not my idea of a pleasant holiday and the thought of finding myself on a table with some, but by no means all, of the contributors to this thread leaves me totally cold.

My memory of P&O was that, whilst one occasionally came across someone who wanted to prove they had a better deal than everyone else, I don’t seem to recall the dinner conversations being that bad, and some were very amusing like the young couple who when grilled about their jobs by a rather pompous couple replied by saying they were in oil. Later, after the pompous couple had left, much to everyone’s amusement the rest of us discovered they ran a fish and chip shop. People like that made wonderful and amusing dinner companions during our time with P&O, but, having read this thread, I rather get the impression that they would now be a rare shaft of light shining through a dark cloud of moaners.

Thank you all for giving me an insight into how much P&O has changed over the last six years. I don’t think I will bother trying to get my cruise history restored.

 

I find this sad, as I think us Presto2s are good cruise companions and members of the P&O / CC threads. Sorry that you have judged us all by just some who 'do our heads in too' :( We don't moan ------ just love our holidays and enjoy every moment. Life is too short .......... :(:(

[dsrdsrdsr]

Have any of you any idea how this thread looks to an outsider? [/font][/size]

The thought of discussing priority boarding, perks etc over dinner every night and having to listen to ‘entitled’ people complaining because someone inadvertently makes a mistake is not my idea of a pleasant holiday and the thought of finding myself on a table with some, but by no means all, of the contributors to this thread leaves me totally cold.

My memory of P&O was that, whilst one occasionally came across someone who wanted to prove they had a better deal than everyone else, I don’t seem to recall the dinner conversations being that bad, and some were very amusing like the young couple who when grilled about their jobs by a rather pompous couple replied by saying they were in oil. Later, after the pompous couple had left, much to everyone’s amusement the rest of us discovered they ran a fish and chip shop. People like that made wonderful and amusing dinner companions during our time with P&O, but, having read this thread, I rather get the impression that they would now be a rare shaft of light shining through a dark cloud of moaners.

Thank you all for giving me an insight into how much P&O has changed over the last six years. I don’t think I will bother trying to get my cruise history restored.

Perhaps you aren't familiar with message boards in general? Life on a message board and life in the real world are seldom the same. For example, if all we ever read was the controversial bits of facebook, we would never leave the house - fortunately the controversial bits of facebook aren't representative of the wider world.

[Presto2]

Perhaps you aren't familiar with message boards in general? Life on a message board and life in the real world are seldom the same. For example, if all we ever read was the controversial bits of facebook, we would never leave the house - fortunately the controversial bits of facebook aren't representative of the wider world.

 

Like ;)

[dgs1956]

A most enlightening thread.

We stopped cruising with P&O in 2010. The reasons don’t really matter, but it was fly-cruise product related rather than service related. At the time we had around 130 nights which, I think, made us Sapphire in the old scheme and I think I was told I would be Mediterranean in the new scheme.

Ever since P&O write to me regularly with offers, using my full name so they clearly still have me somewhere in their records. This week, however, I had an interesting letter again addressing me by my correct name and pointing out the benefits of the loyalty scheme and inviting me to join at the lowest level. All rather strange as Princess, where we are now Elite, have an accurate record of all our P&O cruises.

So I popped over here with the intention of asking if P&O points expire, only to discover this thread.

Having read through the thread, I don’t think I will bother to inquire further.

Have any of you any idea how this thread looks to an outsider?

The thought of discussing priority boarding, perks etc over dinner every night and having to listen to ‘entitled’ people complaining because someone inadvertently makes a mistake is not my idea of a pleasant holiday and the thought of finding myself on a table with some, but by no means all, of the contributors to this thread leaves me totally cold.

My memory of P&O was that, whilst one occasionally came across someone who wanted to prove they had a better deal than everyone else, I don’t seem to recall the dinner conversations being that bad, and some were very amusing like the young couple who when grilled about their jobs by a rather pompous couple replied by saying they were in oil. Later, after the pompous couple had left, much to everyone’s amusement the rest of us discovered they ran a fish and chip shop. People like that made wonderful and amusing dinner companions during our time with P&O, but, having read this thread, I rather get the impression that they would now be a rare shaft of light shining through a dark cloud of moaners.

Thank you all for giving me an insight into how much P&O has changed over the last six years. I don’t think I will bother trying to get my cruise history restored.

 

Get into the real world!! I can't quite believe that someone would discard P&O because of perceived dinner conversations.

Personally I have never ever had a conversation about "boarding times" or indeed other issues like costs of cruises etc and nor would I entertain anyone trying to moan to me about their cruise.

[daiB]

Perhaps you aren't familiar with message boards in general? Life on a message board and life in the real world are seldom the same. For example, if all we ever read was the controversial bits of facebook, we would never leave the house - fortunately the controversial bits of facebook aren't representative of the wider world.

 

 

Interesting that you think CM is not familiar with forums, he has been around on the Internet for years.

 

I think he knows exactly what they are like.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Corfe Mixture]

Get into the real world!! I can't quite believe that someone would discard P&O because of perceived dinner conversations.

 

Sorry, but in the ‘real world’ as you put it, in the absence of actual experience, life is all about perception and the avoidance of situations one perceives will be unpleasant.

For example, we have cruised with Seabourn but not with Regent. However from the various information sources we have formed a perception that Regent have a similar product to Seabourn and we would be comfortable making a booking on Regent.

Similarly we have a perception, based not on our personal experience, but on following the discussion of others that Carnival and NCL are too informal for our tastes. This perception may be wrong but it does mean that we are unlikely to cruise on either of these lines.

In both cases, our perceptions lead us to conclusions, perhaps erroneous, about the people we would be meeting during our cruise and whether or not we would enjoy the experience.

We have very fond memories of what it was like to cruise on P&O some years back but acknowledge that, over the years, things change and not always for the better.

The point that I was making was that, in the absence of recent experience, I can only rely on perception and, whilst they may still be in the minority, there would appear to be a significant shift not only in the number of moaners, but also in the number of people who believe that the ‘entitled’ people have a right to moan.

Life is about choices and when choosing a cruise, newcomers will naturally gravitate to cruises where they feel they will be in the company of like minded people.

Yes you are correct that my perception may be wrong but, in the absence of recent experience, perceptions are all I have and, having read this thread, my perception is that, there is a significant possibility that I will spend too much time avoiding the ‘entitled moaners’.

Whatever, I did not contribute to this thread with the intention of becoming a moaner about the changes I perceive may have evolved in the P&O client base. I simply wished to make the point that this thread sends a poor message about some of the regular 'entitled' P&O clients.

[dgs1956]

.............. and the point I'm making is that nobody would discard a cruise line because they have come across one thread where people are complaining about boarding times.

Clear and concise?

[the english lady]

I think the problem is for whatever the reason is some people just like posting negative comments on here.

They would like us all to leave pando and wander over to celeb/princess/rc. The fact that most of us would hate sailing with them for various reasons is neither here nor there.

Have to say all the people we have met on various holidays have all been lovely people. Dining conversations only once in all my years discussed price. The majority of the table had booked cheap fares. Also on the table were a couple with a disabled daughter. They always had to pay full price and book as early as they could to make sure they got a cabin that would be suitable for her. After discovering this fact price was not discussed at all. Usually revolved around the port of call that day and what we had been doing.

I do not think I am entitled. I think I am jolly jolly lucky to be able to cruise full stop.

One cannot stop people posting negative comments all the time. You get to know the names and just disregard what they post.

We do look at other lines including the 6* ones. Usually the reason we do not proceed is we do not like flying now and everything involved with it. This means sailing from the UK , the 6* lines maybe do one cruise during their year that sails from the UK. Not a lot of choice there.

Only once on a cruise have I gone to a CC meeting and said who I was. All the other cruises OH and I just enjoy ourselves.

[silver service]

Like the english lady, we no longer fly either. This means cruising

Southampton, round trip. That means, really,p&o or cunard. That is

What we do.running out of new ports to visit.certaianly reducing the

Number of cruises being booked. Guess others are in the same boat!

Sorry about wandering off the main thread.

[dgs1956]

I think the problem is for whatever the reason is some people just like posting negative comments on here.

They would like us all to leave pando and wander over to celeb/princess/rc. The fact that most of us would hate sailing with them for various reasons is neither here nor there.

Have to say all the people we have met on various holidays have all been lovely people. Dining conversations only once in all my years discussed price. The majority of the table had booked cheap fares. Also on the table were a couple with a disabled daughter. They always had to pay full price and book as early as they could to make sure they got a cabin that would be suitable for her. After discovering this fact price was not discussed at all. Usually revolved around the port of call that day and what we had been doing.

I do not think I am entitled. I think I am jolly jolly lucky to be able to cruise full stop.

One cannot stop people posting negative comments all the time. You get to know the names and just disregard what they post.

We do look at other lines including the 6* ones. Usually the reason we do not proceed is we do not like flying now and everything involved with it. This means sailing from the UK , the 6* lines maybe do one cruise during their year that sails from the UK. Not a lot of choice there.

Only once on a cruise have I gone to a CC meeting and said who I was. All the other cruises OH and I just enjoy ourselves.

 

I agree. How can they be bothered going onto a Forum for a cruise they are not going to cruise on and spend there time moaning? I had a look at the MSC Forum the other day and people were asking why have some got it in for them? Not everyone will love P&O and everyone is entitled to an opinion but some comments are just ridiculous. It clearly frustrates some people that others can really enjoy P&O and I do wonder why they get so uptight about it. They do seem to get quite stressed over it. Personally I'm not at all concerned that some people prefer Celebrity over P&O, in fact that is good as it gives more choice. They really need to accept that others have different requirements from a cruise.

[Scriv]

I have put something similar on the other thread which deteriorated in the same way to say that I am close to despair with this cc forum now and have stopped coming along as often as I am just fed up of seeing threads get hijacked in this way and insults hurled at those who dare defend their views.

 

I really don't understand the mindset/motives/agenda of those who feel the need to come to a forum just to insult P&O and anyone who dares to like them and don't seem capable of discussion without insults. It's very sad actually.

 

Thankfully I have never come across this nastiness on board, so I am optimistic enough to believe that it is not typical of the real life P&O passenger.

 

On the other hand I have now met quite a few lovely posters from here on other forums and in real life and on board - people who you can discuss different things/opinions with in a reasonable way and people who, if they have reason not to be happy with their holidays, go about it the proper way to resolve it.

 

If this is being blinkered, then I am more than happy to be labelled 'blinkered' along with them. :)

[lancashire_cruisers]

As Dai says CM has been around the message boards for quite some time and indeed was a member of the now defunct forum on P&O's website.

 

It's such a shame that he received such a 'welcome' on this message board as if you'd taken the opportunity you may have found him to be a thoughtful, insightful and intelligent individual :(

[Corfe Mixture]

As Dai says CM has been around the message boards for quite some time and indeed was a member of the now defunct forum on P&O's website.

 

It's such a shame that he received such a 'welcome' on this message board as if you'd taken the opportunity you may have found him to be a thoughtful, insightful and intelligent individual :(

 

Hi,

 

Think I've worked out who you are (initials A & P from P come to mind)

 

Don't worry. I wasn't put off by the welcome. In fact I didn't find the responses that negative, given I was trying to point out to 'people inside the P&O tent' the extent to which the moaners create a poor perception of the P&O client base to 'people looking in from the outside'.

 

Interestingly, like the OP, the problem which caused me to drift over to this forum was also an incorrect communication in that P&O wrote to me in a manner which implied they thought we had never been on a P&O cruise and I wanted to ask the forum if points expired or that was simply a case of P&O having 'lost' our cruise history.

 

Fortunately, I was able to solve my problem without stamping my feet and telling P&O how important I think I am. Nor did I need to send a 'threatening letter with penny stamps' to the MD.

 

All I did was to phone them from France and spoke to a very nice person.

 

I explained that we haven't cruised with P&O since 2010 as we fly cruise and don't like the fact that P&O don't offer cruise only prices.

 

I politely explained my concern that my loyalty points might have been lost and asked them to look into it as, if we wish to take a cruise from Southampton, we would naturally gravitate towards P&O.

 

Answer, no problem, your points are still there. You are a Mediterranean member and these are your membership numbers. The letter (actually e-mail) was something sent out to people who are on our mailing list but have not cruised as members of the Peninsular Club (our last cruise was in the days of the Portunus club).

 

So, unlike the OP who seemed to regard it as almost a duty for 'senior' members of the Peninsular Club to make a big fuss over what Dai kept telling them was a non-existant problem, I was able to determine that my problem was non-existant without any fuss at all.

 

Take care hope to meet up again soon. We are off at the end of November to Hong Kong - 3 days, Sydney - 4 days (inc the ballet - Copellia), cruise to New Zealand on Dawn Princess (sister to Oceana - our P&O favourite) followed by cruise (again on Dawn) to Vanuatu and New Caledonia over Christmas and New Year returning home first week in January. Thank goodness for the free laundry service and the 1000 minutes of internet credit!!

 

Reason we are leaving at the end of November is that the flight cost savings arising from leaving before 1st December are more than paying for the pre-cruise stay in both Hong Kong and Sydney.

 

G & A

 

Apologies to everyone else for using this thread to send a personal message but I'm not entirely sure that Lancashire Cruisers is A & P. Could also be M & D, or J & M.

Edited August 2, 2016 by Corfe Mixture

[dgs1956]

As Dai says CM has been around the message boards for quite some time and indeed was a member of the now defunct forum on P&O's website.

 

It's such a shame that he received such a 'welcome' on this message board as if you'd taken the opportunity you may have found him to be a thoughtful, insightful and intelligent individual :(

 

The "welcome" received by that poster was brought about by the way they tarred all P&O cruisers with the same brush. A comment that quite frankly showed no talent for being thoughtful, insightful or indeed intelligent.

[Scriv]

Hi Corfe Mixture - I remember you on these forums a couple of years ago too, but you won't have any cause to remember me.

 

It's nice to hear from you again :)