Aurora adults only

[9is]

We were booked on a 16 night to the Azores. The itinerary was why we booked. Just been confirmed we are on Azura instead. On the two cabins we had booked It has come out over £1000 cheaper so we can’t complain really, although we have lost 3 night onboard and a better intinerary. Swings and roundabouts.

Selbourne you are correct. We were offered 5% of the value of our original cruise as a future cruise credit and a full refund. They would hold the credit for 12 months against our accounts.

Our children love cruising and have been on all sizes of ships and they love them all. My youngest first cruise was when she was 4 months old. It was to Svalbard on Thomson spirit. Quite a small ship. My son who was 4 at the time loved this cruise in particular. As there were only about 20 children of all ages onboard they became a bit of a family with the big ones making a fuss of the little ones. Cruising has been such a benefit to my son and even his teachers can see the impact it has had on him with his knowledge of the things he has seen. Hope everyone else in a similar situation gets an acceptable outcome.

[jeanlyon]

I’ve sailed on Aurora twice and if it is going to be adults only it looks like I won’t sail on her again. Such a shame, I liked the ship but after sailing on Oriana I can not do another adults only cruise. I don’t want rowdy children running around but I also don’t want to sail on what was almost a care home at sea. Aurora had a good mix of ages onboard and suited everyone who didn’t like the massive ships.

 

You must do the wrong cruises. We have sailed 6 times on Oriana and I have never found her like a care home. There were lots of folk in their fifties, some a lot younger than that and of course some a lot older. We are in our 70s, but like second dining, the shows, staying up late etc. What a terrible generalised comment.

[DamianG]

Looks like we narrowly avoided a rebooking nightmare as we seriously considered an August 2019 school holiday cruise on Aurora before deciding to bite the bullet and try Ventura instead (despite all the negative stories about school holiday cruises on that particular ship).

Oriana and Aurora will always be 2 of our favourites but for now it looks like we're stuck with 3k+ passenger ships for our school holiday cruises out of Southampton. We're loyal P&O customers but might have to start looking elsewhere from 2020 even if it means spending a bit more and not having any loyalty benefits.

Damian

[smj777]

One of the smaller ships, over 55s only. Service and gratuities included. No restriction on drinks brought on board at any time. Free WiFi,

Entertainment aimed at older passengers, quizzes not to include modern pop music or film questions More mobility access cabins and the newspaper delivered every day to your cabin. You'd need to book straight away before they were all snapped up.

[pisces14]

Aurora is my favourite ship. We usually do long cruises and although there have been children on board we've hardly seen them. I've never found Oriana to be like a care home and I really don't understand why people say that. I doubt if the Aurora will be any different than it already is and although it's a shame for people with children I'm sure it will appeal to people of all ages as it does now.

[majortom10]

When we did our Oriana cruise got fed up of hearing daily entertainment in bars and even the entertainers in the theatre singing Frank Sinatra and Matt Munro songs it was boring.

[Josy1953]

Reckon that's the end for Oriana - will be a shame, we are on a weekender on her on Friday. We have had more cruises on Oriana than any other ship and will miss her if she goes.

I have seen on Twitter that P&O are responding to tweets about the disappointment at the loss of a family ship saying

"With the departure of Adonia, we must look to ensure that our fleet is still equally balanced with a selection of adult only ships and family friendly ships.". This suggests that this decision is more to do with Adonia's than Oriana's future.

[Clipper Chick]

Sailed on Oriana to Canaries 30 Jan to 11 Feb 2018. I am mid 50's and did not feel in any way I was on a care home in fact I found the older passengers as a whole way more friendly and engaging than those my age group. It is such a shame that some people are so prejudiced over age. They should remember that they will get old themselves. I hope Oriana stays as she is the first P&O ship I have sailed on and I have booked 2 further Aurora and Arcadia as a result of the friendly welcome I had from the regular P&O passengers I met.

[jeanlyon]

Age is not about a number. It's to do with being reasonably healthy and fit and a state of mind. My husband is nearly 80, and walks the dogs daily and people say to him "good ness you walk fast". We love our cruises and our DIY excursions. We mostly enjoy the entertainment and particularly like a late night tipple listening to the piano in Tiffanys (Oriana). Our first Aurora cruise April 2019, looking forward to a new ship.

[Denarius]

I suspect like on Oriana, they will replace the children's areas with cabins. On Oriana they installed 12 balcony cabins, 4 outsides and 11 insides, 2 of which are singles. Cabins make more money than restaurants...

Sadly true..

My first ever cruise in the early 1990s was on the Cunard Countess, which had a wonderful lounge bar in the position occupied by the childrens clubs on Aurora and Oriana. This had large sliding doors which could be left open in suitable weather, giving seamless access to the tables on the rear deck outside. I had hoped that P&O might have done something similar when they made Oriana adults only, but it was not to be. As you say, cabins make more money, so a wonderful opportunity was lost. Cannot see Aurora being any different.

[lancashire_cruisers]

Sailed on Oriana to Canaries 30 Jan to 11 Feb 2018. I am mid 50's and did not feel in any way I was on a care home in fact I found the older passengers as a whole way more friendly and engaging than those my age group. It is such a shame that some people are so prejudiced over age. They should remember that they will get old themselves. I hope Oriana stays as she is the first P&O ship I have sailed on and I have booked 2 further Aurora and Arcadia as a result of the friendly welcome I had from the regular P&O passengers I met.

 

When our daughter was young we did a number of term time cruises with a mostly adult only passenger profile on board.

 

 

On those cruises we found the opposite to be true and the attitudes and behaviour of those so-called adults towards me and my family was nothing short of disgusting. The other families onboard also suffered similar treatment.

 

These experiences are what form my view of the atmosphere onboard adult only ships not the age of the passengers. It is also the reason why I will never set foot on an adult only ship.

 

We had some fantastic cruises on both Aurora and Oriana and I'm so sad that families will no longer have the opportunity to have that same experience.

[cruisebore]

Will they reschedule all her cruises to those they operated on Adonia?

[Bennybluehat]

You must do the wrong cruises. We have sailed 6 times on Oriana and I have never found her like a care home. There were lots of folk in their fifties, some a lot younger than that and of course some a lot older. We are in our 70s, but like second dining, the shows, staying up late etc. What a terrible generalised comment.

You obviously weren’t on the same cruise we were. I have much respect for elderly people and enjoy their company, that wasn’t the issue. The problem was all the entertainment was aimed at the over 60s and there literally was nothing put on for younger passengers. It was a Northern lights cruise and you had to be relatively fit to do the excursions as well as be mobile enough to move around on ice and snow which wasn’t the case for many passengers, so you are wrong making the comment that we were on the wrong cruise as we were in the minority that could do actually do dog sledding, snowmobiling etc. We even spoke to a couple in their 80s who said they had no intention of leaving the ship, they only cruise on Oriana because their every need is cared for whilst onboard. It was actually quite depressing with no young blood around.

[EJMcruiser]

This was to be expected after Richard Branson announced his ships will be adult only. Guess P&O are a bit worried about loosing some of their regulars.

[rdmaidment]

As a family we are very disappointed that P&O have taken this move. Aurora is also our favorite ship by a considerable margin. We frequently cruise on her and had 3 trips booked.

 

Whilst I can understand why they are making this move in the light of Adonia going what really niggles us is the lack of planning and that P&O make changes after they have accepted bookings for the period in question. I now feel how aggrieved people were when Adonia was sold and people's cruises were cancelled as a result putting people to extra effort, inconvenience and expense.

 

We booked an Aurora cruise for August 2019 and have now had to change. P&O have given 5% future cruise benefit in respect of the original cruise cost as a sweetener but this doesn't really cover the inconvenience and costs associated with the change.

 

We booked when the cruises were released which gave us a 5% early booking discount which is no longer available. Also Select prices have generally gone up over this period for holiday's in peak periods. We have ended up moving our Aurora August booking to an early saver booking at Easter on Britannia and moving our Easter Azura select booking to Summer 2019. Whilst rather convoluted we were able to save £500 on our Easter cruise and the change means that the 2 cruises we have will have different itineraries which if left unchanged they would have been the same as the original Aurora August itinerary was different to our Easter cruise on Azura. We still ended up £700 worse off though even after the £500 saving at Easter but hats off to the P&O representative who understood our reasons and waived the £100 transfer fee for the Select booking change.

 

P&O seem to be moving goal posts after people have booked (alcohol policy and gratuities for example) which doesn't show great regard for their customers.

 

I don't see why certain ships can't be adult only for most of the year and allow children in school holidays. I suspect the real motivation is to add cabins to Aurora like they did for Oriana which makes this not feasible.

[Flo71]

Does this mean that the cruises listed as on the Aurora on P&O website are the same but now adult only or will there be changes to destinations too?

[Millers]

When we did our Oriana cruise got fed up of hearing daily entertainment in bars and even the entertainers in the theatre singing Frank Sinatra and Matt Munro songs it was boring.

 

 

 

I am in my late 60’s and have made this comment quite a few times. The entertainment, while very good, is generally of a certain type, ballads and easy listening. The problem, of course , is that P and O can’t please everybody all of the time and so must please some of the people some of the time.

 

 

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[Eglesbrech]

Everything P&O do is about making money and if inconveniencing customers is part of that then tough luck, they will do it anyway. This attitude has probably always been there, they are a business after all however in the last couple of years it has become much more obvious with Adonia and now this - among other things.

 

I could be completely wrong but I presume that they make less money per capita from families? Cabin space on a smaller ship is more scarse while the big ones have lots of cabins to fill so they are happy to have families to fill them. The smaller the ship the tougher the environment to make a per capita profit as there are less people to smooth it out.

 

 

I have never cruised with children. As an adult I know they will make money from me through the initial booking, drinks, select restaurant bookings, trips, the odd purchase from the shops etc. I am curious as to how children generate revenue once onboard as I genuinely don't know. Do they charge for the children's clubs for example?

 

 

Those affected by this have my sympathy, P&O really do need to get their act together and forward plan better rather than accept bookings then change them.

[joro44]

It is quite simple, families fill cabins, duos don't, but only out of term time. The grey pound is needed to fill the fleet out of term time and season.

[kerryincork]

This entertainment for the over 60's is not really for them more like the over 90's. I think it is a strange time dilation that the young do when thinking of older people and add 30 years to their age.

 

My Mum who is in her mid sixties was in to punk music when she was a teenager. She still likes that music. She was also in to the beastie boys when she was in her late 20's, she is not in to this old music which was the music of her parents.

 

My Dad was in to Northern Soul and R&B when he was a teenager. Again he doesn't want to listen to music that was old when he kid.

 

I have challenged the entertainment in the past and they always say they are playing it for the older guests. I do wonder if they have actually asked them if they wanted to listen to it?

 

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[AchileLauro]

P&O seem to be moving goal posts after people have booked which doesn't show great regard for their customers.

 

Totally agree in fact in some cases what they are doing is mis-selling or even taking money under false pretences.

 

We tried booking a 2018 Aurora family cruise only to be told that cabins that we required as a family were not available and advised by an on-board future cruise sales person to book instead for 2019. Our daughter particularly wanted to take our granddaughter on Aurora as she is named after the ship. Aurora (the ship) has been a family favourite which we have sailed on several times. We were not at all interested in booking on Azura or Ventura as we have sailed on both and simply do not like these ships. It was to be Aurora or nothing.

 

So we booked a cruise for July 2019 while on-board in early December. I said at the time that knowing our luck about the possibility of Aurora going adult only. The sales person said that simply wasn't going to happen as P&O had just spent such a large amount of money on making improvements to the children's facilities' on the ship. Well Wednesday we received the fateful letter informing us of the changes and the cancellation of our cruise.

 

Surely P&O could have done the honourable thing and given advance warning of their intentions and not disappoint customers. The company has become quite disreputable as far as I am concerned this is the second time that they have let us down. Fool on me for allowing myself to be talked into returning to the company after being treated so shabbily last time. We shall definitely not be sailing with P&O again.

[grush240]

This entertainment for the over 60's is not really for them more like the over 90's. I think it is a strange time dilation that the young do when thinking of older people and add 30 years to their age.

 

My Mum who is in her mid sixties was in to punk music when she was a teenager. She still likes that music. She was also in to the beastie boys when she was in her late 20's, she is not in to this old music which was the music of her parents.

 

My Dad was in to Northern Soul and R&B when he was a teenager. Again he doesn't want to listen to music that was old when he kid.

 

I have challenged the entertainment in the past and they always say they are playing it for the older guests. I do wonder if they have actually asked them if they wanted to listen to it?

 

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Got to agree with this completely P&O and others really haven't changed their idea of what the older clients want for entertainment in years. My wife and I have always been in to rock and still go to concerts now I've retired, seen Saxon, Thunder. Bad Company and 5 Finger Death Punch in the last couple of years, then go on a ship and find Sinatra et al, we usual leave after one drink. I don't do Bingo so that really leaves a big gap in the entertainment.

Kev

[majortom10]

Got to agree with this completely P&O and others really haven't changed their idea of what the older clients want for entertainment in years. My wife and I have always been in to rock and still go to concerts now I've retired, seen Saxon, Thunder. Bad Company and 5 Finger Death Punch in the last couple of years, then go on a ship and find Sinatra et al, we usual leave after one drink. I don't do Bingo so that really leaves a big gap in the entertainment.

Kev

 

It is amazing how many 60-70yr olds grew up in the 1960s and loved the likes of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who and many more and no more like to listen to Frank Sinatra or Matt Munro and the likes than youngsters in their 20s of today would but unfortunately P&O dont seem to listen.

[Scriv]

This entertainment for the over 60's is not really for them more like the over 90's. I think it is a strange time dilation that the young do when thinking of older people and add 30 years to their age.

My Mum who is in her mid sixties was in to punk music when she was a teenager. She still likes that music. She was also in to the beastie boys when she was in her late 20's, she is not in to this old music which was the music of her parents.

My Dad was in to Northern Soul and R&B when he was a teenager. Again he doesn't want to listen to music that was old when he kid.

I have challenged the entertainment in the past and they always say they are playing it for the older guests. I do wonder if they have actually asked them if they wanted to listen to it?

Sent from my VTR-L09 using Forums mobile app

 

Yes,it really does make you wonder. I think back to a challenge on The Apprentice when the youngsters had to design something for the 50s-60s age market and got it laughably wrong.

 

I think this has happened on P&O. The emphasis on war time and on Vera Lynn on our cruise on Oriana last year to the Northern Lights was almost painfully embarrassing as well as totally inappropiate for the age demograph, especially as there was a much younger age demograph because of the nature of the cruise. Our group was 55 - 65... I am mid sixties and also grew up on the Beatles, Stones, hippy era - but the very few we came across who might have been of that age were appalled and cringed and wondered why.

 

Many of us gave feedback and have given so over and over again since - but I don't think they listened.

[Selbourne]

I know that we are well off topic now, but I have also long held the view that the entertainment on P&O ships is stuck in a time warp. Most shows seem to fall into the categories of 'geriatric' or 'holiday camp' and the special guest acts are 'has been's' or 'never been's'. There are some exceptions, but they are few and far between. We enjoyed a Darren Day performance in the Limelight Club on Britannia a few years back, so booked to see Clare Sweeney in the same venue the following year. At the outset, she mentioned that the average age of passenger on board that cruise was 48. We are older than that but almost groaned out loud when she then proceeded to sing 'We'll meet again' by Dame Vera Lynn, accompanied by all the arm waving etc. I despair. Add this to the 'Are we all having a good time?' and 'say hello to the person sat next to you' twaddle that the Cruise Directors (or Entertainment Managers) come out with and I am at risk of chucking myself overboard.