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Iona naming ceremony

Jennizor

By Jennizor,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Just had an email now from P&O. 
 

Tell us what you thought of Iona’s naming ceremony.

 

Ha ha!

Just submitted mine. Tried to be constructive. Finished with a positive about the livestream working really well. Pleased that the survey gave lots of free text space and didn't just limit you to answering leading questions.

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I agree with most people that poor old Paul hasn’t got much charisma.

One thing is for sure, he is not "poor"!

I think the issue is that Mr Ludlow rose through the Carnival ranks, specifically in developing Princess in the UK,  and undoubtedly did a good job, but he was never in a role that required a major forward facing presence.  He was then promoted to head up P&O - in normal circumstances he would have made the occasional speech, and we would all have been happy. But with CV19 coming on the scene, suddenly he became the face of P&O, and Carnival hung him out to dry by not adequately preparing him for his media performances. 

 

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MX-Drew

MX-Drew

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I’ve got that too. I haven’t clicked on the link yet to answer. I agree with most people that poor old Paul hasn’t got much charisma.

“old” Paul, he is just a baby! My wife who had not had the “pleasure” of seeing or hearing Paul before kept saying things like “how did he get that job? He’s just left school” and “couldn’t they find a more boring speaker?”

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molecrochip

molecrochip

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, wowzz said:

One thing is for sure, he is not "poor"!

I think the issue is that Mr Ludlow rose through the Carnival ranks, specifically in developing Princess in the UK,  and undoubtedly did a good job, but he was never in a role that required a major forward facing presence.  He was then promoted to head up P&O - in normal circumstances he would have made the occasional speech, and we would all have been happy. But with CV19 coming on the scene, suddenly he became the face of P&O, and Carnival hung him out to dry by not adequately preparing him for his media performances. 

 

He did a very good job in repairing the relationship of Princess/P&O/Carnival U.K. with the travel agent industry and his predecessors destroyed it.

 

He may come across as boring but that was preferable to his smug appearance in the early cancellation videos. I agree that he wasn’t ready for such a public facing role / being P&O’s face during the pandemic.

 

In these situations, media training can be a godsend.

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Adawn47

Adawn47

Posted
Posted

I had an email this morning to watch the 'highlights' of Sundays Iona naming., so I thought 'Why not?' Well, all I can say is, if they were the highlights, I shudder to think what the rest must have been like. I know that a lot couldn't be done because of covid restrictions , but come on! It was more like 'The Ludlow and Barlow Show'. Nine o'clock at night, no champagne (British sparkling wine is available,) and no blessing of the ship, just a  glorified stage show with advertising. The only two highlights for me were seeing Iona welcomed into Southampton with the tugboats and the actual naming by Dame Irene Hayes. Very boring and disappointing.

Avril

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I had an email this morning to watch the 'highlights' of Sundays Iona naming., so I thought 'Why not?' Well, all I can say is, if they were the highlights, I shudder to think what the rest must have been like. I know that a lot couldn't be done because of covid restrictions , but come on! It was more like 'The Ludlow and Barlow Show'. Nine o'clock at night, no champagne (British sparkling wine is available,) and no blessing of the ship, just a  glorified stage show with advertising. The only two highlights for me were seeing Iona welcomed into Southampton with the tugboats and the actual naming by Dame Irene Hayes. Very boring and disappointing.

Avril

I agree with you Avril. Top notch and very entertaining. All those little kids rehearsing for ages and singing their little hearts out for us. Very proud they must feel. Good old Gary in fine voice. Southampton docks has never had it so good.🤣

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Adawn47

Adawn47

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Monorail Orange said:

^Well the whole show was only about half an hour, so surely they only cut out the bits of people walking to the podium.

 

Looks like its the full show above in post #34.

That's the one we saw, but the email said 'highlights' It was still 20min too long😉

Avril

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Adawn47

Adawn47

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I agree with you Avril. Top notch and very entertaining. All those little kids rehearsing for ages and singing their little hearts out for us. Very proud they must feel. Good old Gary in fine voice. Southampton docks has never had it so good.🤣

Yes Zap the kids were lovely, put Mr Barlow to shame. 😁 

Avril

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Monorail Orange said:

^Well the whole show was only about half an hour, so surely they only cut out the bits of people walking to the podium.

 

Looks like its the full show above in post #34.

I did wonder whether they had only paid the streaming platform for 30 minutes...? 

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terrierjohn

terrierjohn

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I did wonder whether they had only paid the streaming platform for 30 minutes...? 

I would have been more than happy with a 20-25minutes video show of Iona's interiors, followed by a brief naming and bottle breaking ceremony.

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I would have been more than happy with a 20-25minutes video show of Iona's interiors, followed by a brief naming and bottle breaking ceremony.

That would certainly have been more interesting.

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Monorail Orange

Monorail Orange

Posted
Posted (edited)

I still can't figure out as to why they've not shown it off. Even a 5 minute segment would have been appriciated.

 

Contrast to the Disney Cruise Line (admittedly a parent company in the entertainment industry) - they had a 35 minute stream showing their new ship off virtually as its still under contstruction. Wheras P&O had the ship herself right there and showed us diddly squat.

EDIT: BTW Paul Ludlow is not the only CEO that's not a natural in front of the cameras. (3:45)

 

Edited by Monorail Orange
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P&O SUE Great Review Rare

P&O SUE

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, wowzz said:

One thing is for sure, he is not "poor"!

I think the issue is that Mr Ludlow rose through the Carnival ranks, specifically in developing Princess in the UK,  and undoubtedly did a good job, but he was never in a role that required a major forward facing presence.  He was then promoted to head up P&O - in normal circumstances he would have made the occasional speech, and we would all have been happy. But with CV19 coming on the scene, suddenly he became the face of P&O, and Carnival hung him out to dry by not adequately preparing him for his media performances. 

 

 

13 hours ago, MX-Drew said:

“old” Paul, he is just a baby! My wife who had not had the “pleasure” of seeing or hearing Paul before kept saying things like “how did he get that job? He’s just left school” and “couldn’t they find a more boring speaker?”


“Poor “ and “old’ was just a phrase 😊

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Britboys

Britboys

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Monorail Orange said:

I still can't figure out as to why they've not shown it off. Even a 5 minute segment would have been appriciated.

 

Contrast to the Disney Cruise Line (admittedly a parent company in the entertainment industry) - they had a 35 minute stream showing their new ship off virtually as its still under contstruction. Wheras P&O had the ship herself right there and showed us diddly squat.

EDIT: BTW Paul Ludlow is not the only CEO that's not a natural in front of the cameras. (3:45)

 

Totally agree with you. I'm dumbfounded that the ship was finished months ago and all P&O has released is a very small number of renderings of cabins, atrium area and skydome.  No photos at all as far as I am aware. I can only but conjecture that either the interiors are such a departure from their usual style that they are worried it will put off the longstanding P&O cruisers or that they are so stunning they want it to be a huge 'wow' moment when pax board...

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