First P&O Sailing - Is it usually like this?

[skip121]

Hi All,

 

This is my first post on here, so I hope I've popped this in the right place. Apologies if I've missed something!

 

My family and I finished our Norweigian Cruise onboard Iona yesterday and we got off with a pretty poor impression of P&O, which is a huge shame as we have friends who rate it very highly and we were very excited prior to our cruise. I wanted to bring this up here in case we simply had some bad luck and P&O is usually a better experience than the one we had. The 3 major issues we had were:

 

1) Our difficulties started when we booked through a travel agent, we paid to select a standard balcony cabin and selected one Mid-Forward on deck 16, up until a few days before departure P&O's portal was still telling us our cabin had not been allocated. Repeated calls to their customer service team were met with the same response of "try again tomorrow".
We finally received our cabin allocation 2 days before departure only to find we'd been given a cabin on deck 5 forward, distinctly not what we had chosen, we specifically selected our cabin at booking. P&O simply told us to speak with our travel agent and when we finally got through they claimed P&O had given us a 'substantial upgrade' to this new cabin as we had left the 'consider me for upgrades' box ticked. A quick glance at the standard balcony cabins on deck 5 will tell you they are in no way an upgrade from the standard balconies higher up. This was particularly frustrating as our son can get slightly motion sick and we'd chosen to be closer to the middle for that reason. After speaking to P&O again they insisted there was nothing they could do and no other cabins available. We decided to make the most of it and hope for the best.
Once onboard we found our balcony door did not seal fully and every gust of wind could be heard all night, on top of the thumping from the limelight lounge directly above us. 

 

2) We found the customer service onboard Iona was utterly awful from beginning to end. We are all pretty relaxed and mild people in our family but the rudeness from some of the staff seriously pushed me to the limits of my patience, which is a pretty hard thing to do.
Whether it was the staff at our muster station barely stopping their conversation to acknowledge us, our cabin attendant looking like he'd rather be anywhere else than giving us the world's quickest explanation of how the in/out magnet for the door works, more waiters/bar staff than I can count barely raising more than a grunt during their entire interactions with us (this was more often the case than not), the keel and cow waiters who brought the meals for all but 2 members of our party and insisted point-blank the others hadn't ordered anything or finally the waiter at the gelato stand who walked off to talk to a colleague in the middle of us giving our order (literally mid-sentence).
The worst part was the daily battles to order any sort of drink with our non-alcoholic drinks package. Every single bartender or waiter had a completely different approach to taking our drinks orders and seemed to invent new rules/complications each time. Some only needed one of our cards to order, some needed all of them, some telling us they couldn't bring drinks to a particular seating space while their colleagues had done so just before.

The biggest difficulty came when trying to order alcoholic drinks, particularly with dinner. Every single time was like a battle to explain we understood we'd have to pay, on one occasion the waiter told us because of our package we couldn't have any alcohol at all and no matter how we tried to tell him we'd done it multiple times already he wouldn't budge. Only when his senior colleague came over did he finally accept it (he promptly grunted at us for the rest of the meal).

 

We've sailed on Royal Caribbean and Disney cruises before and have always left so amazed at the customer service of the staff and how welcoming and attentive they are. Iona's crew felt the exact opposite, where the goal was to make you feel as unwelcome as possible and to be as irritated as possible at having to do anything for you. It felt like even the crew that were 'good' were only good in comparison to their peers. This pretty much ruined a lot of our time on Iona for us which is a huge shame as we're usually pretty difficult to upset and yet every single day was filled with these bad experiences. Quick shout out to the Oasis Spa team for being the exception to this!

 

3) Last one I promise! The 'My Holiday' browser/app thing. Aside from being barely usable, it often failed to let us book things, wouldn't load, left out bookings from our diaries and was just a general pest, both prior to boarding and onboard. 

One thing, in particular, was the lack of any messaging function, which meant that trying to meet up with family members we were travelling with was such a pain and our Son was restricted in how easily he could go off with friends he'd made onboard.

It feels like P&O need to do something with this, both Royal Caribbean and Disney have much better apps, and apparently so does Princess, so I don't understand why P&O's was this bad.  

 

I'm sorry for this huge rant, I hope it doesn't upset anyone, but it really shocked me how bad this cruise felt compared to others we'd experienced and how our friends talk about their experiences with P&O. I could have gotten over the cabin and the annoyance of the technology but the customer service was probably the worst I've ever experienced in any capacity, let alone whilst on a cruise.

 

So coming to the end of this monster post I just want to ask, should we avoid P&O in the future or was this just a bad experience? I'd love to hear if anyone has had a better experience!

Edited April 18, 2022 by Host Sharon
travel agent named

[kalos]

17 minutes ago, skip121 said:

One thing, in particular, was the lack of any messaging function, which meant that trying to meet up with family members we were travelling with was such a pain and our Son was restricted in how easily he could go off with friends he'd made onboard.

 

Sorry to read your cruise wasn't a happy one ,I cannot speak for others but we have had some

great times with P&O and hope your next cruises are better . As for not being able to contact 

your family in other cabins .Did no one make you aware that you could use your cabin phone 

to phone your family's cabin phone ?  I forget how it is done others may explain how .

Take care 

[Harry Peterson]

Sorry to hear things didn't go as well as you'd have liked on your first P&O cruise.

 

First, the booking procedures.  There are big risks in not booking a specifically chosen cabin, and personally I wouldn't do it.  I know exactly where I want to be (and where I definitely don't want to be!) and unless I can be sure f getting that I won't book at all.  At the moment, even with Select bookings, accommodation specifically chosen can change, and it's risky. Upgrades are ALWAYS risky, because P&O's view of the word 'upgrade' is usually different from the customer's.

 

Second, the customer service onboard.  Frankly I'm amazed.  I'm not in any way doubting what you say, but I've never (with one exception, and that was a Customer Service Manager) encountered anything but excellent customer service.  Did you talk to anyone in a senior position on the ship about it?

 

Can't comment on the app, I'm afraid - no experience of it.

 

You'll get a variety of responses to your post, which I hope will help you.  P&O does have its faults, but they tend not to be on the customer service side.  Often on the accommodation, but Iona's a newish ship, so maybe that's not an issue.

[awmartin]

56 minutes ago, skip121 said:

Hi All,

 

This is my first post on here, so I hope I've popped this in the right place. Apologies if I've missed something!

 

My family and I finished our Norweigian Cruise onboard Iona yesterday and we got off with a pretty poor impression of P&O, which is a huge shame as we have friends who rate it very highly and we were very excited prior to our cruise. I wanted to bring this up here in case we simply had some bad luck and P&O is usually a better experience than the one we had. The 3 major issues we had were:

 

1) Our difficulties started when we booked through Iglu, we paid to select a standard balcony cabin and selected one Mid-Forward on deck 16, up until a few days before departure P&O's portal was still telling us our cabin had not been allocated. Repeated calls to their customer service team were met with the same response of "try again tomorrow".
We finally received our cabin allocation 2 days before departure only to find we'd been given a cabin on deck 5 forward, distinctly not what we had chosen, we specifically selected our cabin at booking. P&O simply told us to speak with Iglu and when we finally got through to Iglu they claimed P&O had given us a 'substantial upgrade' to this new cabin as we had left the 'consider me for upgrades' box ticked. A quick glance at the standard balcony cabins on deck 5 will tell you they are in no way an upgrade from the standard balconies higher up. This was particularly frustrating as our son can get slightly motion sick and we'd chosen to be closer to the middle for that reason. After speaking to P&O again they insisted there was nothing they could do and no other cabins available. We decided to make the most of it and hope for the best.
Once onboard we found our balcony door did not seal fully and every gust of wind could be heard all night, on top of the thumping from the limelight lounge directly above us. 

 

2) We found the customer service onboard Iona was utterly awful from beginning to end. We are all pretty relaxed and mild people in our family but the rudeness from some of the staff seriously pushed me to the limits of my patience, which is a pretty hard thing to do.
Whether it was the staff at our muster station barely stopping their conversation to acknowledge us, our cabin attendant looking like he'd rather be anywhere else than giving us the world's quickest explanation of how the in/out magnet for the door works, more waiters/bar staff than I can count barely raising more than a grunt during their entire interactions with us (this was more often the case than not), the keel and cow waiters who brought the meals for all but 2 members of our party and insisted point-blank the others hadn't ordered anything or finally the waiter at the gelato stand who walked off to talk to a colleague in the middle of us giving our order (literally mid-sentence).
The worst part was the daily battles to order any sort of drink with our non-alcoholic drinks package. Every single bartender or waiter had a completely different approach to taking our drinks orders and seemed to invent new rules/complications each time. Some only needed one of our cards to order, some needed all of them, some telling us they couldn't bring drinks to a particular seating space while their colleagues had done so just before.

The biggest difficulty came when trying to order alcoholic drinks, particularly with dinner. Every single time was like a battle to explain we understood we'd have to pay, on one occasion the waiter told us because of our package we couldn't have any alcohol at all and no matter how we tried to tell him we'd done it multiple times already he wouldn't budge. Only when his senior colleague came over did he finally accept it (he promptly grunted at us for the rest of the meal).

 

We've sailed on Royal Caribbean and Disney cruises before and have always left so amazed at the customer service of the staff and how welcoming and attentive they are. Iona's crew felt the exact opposite, where the goal was to make you feel as unwelcome as possible and to be as irritated as possible at having to do anything for you. It felt like even the crew that were 'good' were only good in comparison to their peers. This pretty much ruined a lot of our time on Iona for us which is a huge shame as we're usually pretty difficult to upset and yet every single day was filled with these bad experiences. Quick shout out to the Oasis Spa team for being the exception to this!

 

3) Last one I promise! The 'My Holiday' browser/app thing. Aside from being barely usable, it often failed to let us book things, wouldn't load, left out bookings from our diaries and was just a general pest, both prior to boarding and onboard. 

One thing, in particular, was the lack of any messaging function, which meant that trying to meet up with family members we were travelling with was such a pain and our Son was restricted in how easily he could go off with friends he'd made onboard.

It feels like P&O need to do something with this, both Royal Caribbean and Disney have much better apps, and apparently so does Princess, so I don't understand why P&O's was this bad.  

 

I'm sorry for this huge rant, I hope it doesn't upset anyone, but it really shocked me how bad this cruise felt compared to others we'd experienced and how our friends talk about their experiences with P&O. I could have gotten over the cabin and the annoyance of the technology but the customer service was probably the worst I've ever experienced in any capacity, let alone whilst on a cruise.

 

So coming to the end of this monster post I just want to ask, should we avoid P&O in the future or was this just a bad experience? I'd love to hear if anyone has had a better experience!

We have just returned from the same cruise. This was our 11th cruise with P&O and our 2nd on Iona. We did notice there was some lack of service that we were used to and some of the staff were a bit “ vacant” but this is not the standard and we could only think that time they have spent away and the changes are beginning to show. We noticed the same with our cabin attendant that he was very reluctant to make much conversation but he covered his duties well.

[jeanlyon]

Having never travelled on something as big as Iona, I can only say that the service 3 years ago, which was the last time we cruised, was excellent.  However reading other reviews of recent cruises, I am not that surprised.  Very sad.

[Josy1953]

I am sorry that you had such a poor experience on P&O, I had problems on P&O in 2000 and found that on board the staff were just not interested but I wrote to the MD when I got home not expecting much response.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a phone call from his secretary acknowledging receipt of my complaint.  A few weeks later had a letter of apology and a very nice hamper containing extremely nice food and drinks.

I have not been with P&O since but I have not completely ruled them them out for the future.  Anyone can have a problem but it is how it is dealt with that is important.

[purplesea]

Sorry to hear of you didn't enjoy your cruise . We sailed on Iona in January and found the service by the staff excellent, and on a par with previous cruises. 

[molecrochip]

@skip121 I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your experience but think it’s great your sharing you honest feedback.

 

Please take the time to send your feedback to Paul ludlow’s office. Google should give you an email address as posting it here is frowned upon.

 

Sounds like you are core target market and this is not the first impression you should have been left with. People need to feed this back so the proverbial behinds get kicked. From your account transactions, cabin number etc, the relevant staff can be identified.

 

Re your cabin, you were sold one of two fares. Either Saver whereby you buy a grade of cabin, in your case balcony, and can be anywhere on ship. The alternative is Select which allows you to book a specific cabin. If Select doesn’t have any specific cabins for selection then your TA couldn’t claim deck 16, mid-forward as it would default back to anywhere.

 

As you could never see a cabin allocation you didn’t get an upgrade, just a cabin allocation. Both your anticipation and actual allocation were GC grade. As you booked through a travel agent, P&O we’re right to push you back to them to resolve as that’s part of their contact with the travel agent.

 

This point is your TA's fault. A lot of people on here use a different travel agent it book direct.

 

@jeanlyon it’s not a ship size issue, it’s a poor crew issue and 100% not acceptable.

[jeanlyon]

Moley, I haven't sailed since 2019 and even then on Aurora, I noticed a change in service.  Not much, but it was there.  Things had changed and not for the better.  Sign of the times I think.

[miaandmum]

We are onboard now and this is by far the worst  cruise we’ve ever been on. We’ve sailed with P&O snd royal caribbean before and none have been like this. Staff are miserable, don’t want to engage and like you, I stood at ripples this morning and the person serving walked away from me mid sentence!  Everyone on the cruise seems miserable, rude staff and passengers and no one looks happy. Frankly, can’t wait to get home. There’s something very off about this cruise and can’t put my finger on why. 

[dazlight]

I found the app ok. You had to log out and log back in a lot to get on it though. 
 

On service in the crows nest and Brodie’s we didn’t have a problem getting a drink. Took longer in the club house though. The restaurants wasn’t to bad. We would order a wine a good 10 min before we wanted one. 

[Harry Peterson]

Surprised to see the reports of apparently unhappy staff, because I’ve never encountered that and the onboard service has always been first rate.

 

I wonder if word has spread of the P&O Ferries fiasco, and the Cruises people now realise they’re in an even worse position, pay-wise, but not getting the public sympathy, or indeed any sympathy.

[DamianG]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. We were onboard the previous week and had no issues with the app whatsoever. However, if you are used to being able to use it for different means on other cruise lines, such as contacting other passengers, then the P&O version definitely is not as sophisticated. Maybe it comes down getting a better version on a more expensive cruise? That is no excuse poor service though.

 

Generally we had good service, and on occasions it was excellent. I did comment however, that a few times we felt "invisible" to staff when waiting to order drinks, particularly in the Crow's Nest and the Glass House. If we were sat some way from the bar, then often staff didn't come round to where we were to offer drinks, despite the fact that we were definitely seated in the venue (i.e. particularly in the Glass House which wraps around the Atrium). Similarly in Vistas, where staff didn't seem to tour the whole venue taking orders, and were more focused on those sat nearest.

 

I would definitely send your feedback to P&O and see what their response is. 

Edited April 18, 2022 by DamianG

[Cathygh]

I am sorry to hear you have had such a disappointing time. I do wonder if Covid amongst cabin stewards means they are struggling to cover the cabins? If that is the case passengers should be told,. However the waiter in Ripples is just rude, and the waiter who didn't know how drinks packages work is in dire need of training. Also waiters take orders in different ways is different bars as it depends how good the internet is in each area. They need to identify and correct that before they roll out an app.

Regarding the app, it's just dreadful. The Cunard one is slightly better in that it works more consistently. I heard P&O were aiming to develop in to something akin to the Princess Medallion app and if that is the case, they shouldn't bother. I am preparing to go on a Princess cruise next month and the app is very unstable - it loses things I've input, finds them a few days later, it told my husband he needed to uplaod a photo when it was clearly there, I could go on. 

[BouncingWheel]

7 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I am sorry to hear you have had such a disappointing time. I do wonder if Covid amongst cabin stewards means they are struggling to cover the cabins? If that is the case passengers should be told,. However the waiter in Ripples is just rude, and the waiter who didn't know how drinks packages work is in dire need of training. Also waiters take orders in different ways is different bars as it depends how good the internet is in each area. They need to identify and correct that before they roll out an app.

Regarding the app, it's just dreadful. The Cunard one is slightly better in that it works more consistently. I heard P&O were aiming to develop in to something akin to the Princess Medallion app and if that is the case, they shouldn't bother. I am preparing to go on a Princess cruise next month and the app is very unstable - it loses things I've input, finds them a few days later, it told my husband he needed to uplaod a photo when it was clearly there, I could go on. 

I think you are confusing the Princess online check-in process system with their onboard app.

I sailed on a summer sailcation with them last year and I agree that the check-in process was appalling suffering the same type of issues you mentioned. However, once onboard the app worked well and one big bonus to some (which some people mentioned they would very much like) is that you can track others down in your group with the Find functionality - my wife found me twice after we did different activities. Even on small ships that could save some legwork.

[Harryjacobs]

May I ask, did you report the faulty balcony door to your steward?  We had a problem with our cabin and told the steward.  Within 30 mins maintanence arrived to correct the problem.

Our sailing was  back in September and the staff were just outstanding.  If you want to see truly dreadful staff then have a weekend break at Butlins like we did earlier this year.

[Mollag]

13 hours ago, molecrochip said:

@skip121 I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy your experience but think it’s great your sharing you honest feedback.

 

Please take the time to send your feedback to Paul ludlow’s office. Google should give you an email address as posting it here is frowned upon.

 

Sounds like you are core target market and this is not the first impression you should have been left with. People need to feed this back so the proverbial behinds get kicked. From your account transactions, cabin number etc, the relevant staff can be identified.

 

Re your cabin, you were sold one of two fares. Either Saver whereby you buy a grade of cabin, in your case balcony, and can be anywhere on ship. The alternative is Select which allows you to book a specific cabin. If Select doesn’t have any specific cabins for selection then Iglu couldn’t claim deck 16, mid-forward as it would default back to anywhere.

 

As you could never see a cabin allocation you didn’t get an upgrade, just a cabin allocation. Both your anticipation and actual allocation were GC grade. As you booked through a travel agent, P&O we’re right to push you back to them to resolve as that’s part of their contact with the travel agent.

 

This point is Iglu’s fault. A lot of people on here use a different Derbyshire based travel agent it book direct.

 

@jeanlyon it’s not a ship size issue, it’s a poor crew issue and 100% not acceptable.

Good luck with reporting anything to Ludlow and all his sidekicks we sent our first email to them about our problems on Aurora on 23 March still not had a response Wednesday is day 28 then it’s over to ABTA

[Camberley]

What a real shame about your experience and I really wouldn’t you blame you if you are done with P and O: well, with the points that were under P and O’s control rather than the travel agent side of things.

 

We have always found that issues on board have been dealt with speedily and efficiently by the staff and for a non-upmarket cruise company, it has maintained a mostly good standard overall - even in recent times. A few slips here and there but the heart remains.
 

But while I’ve found their customer services on board to be very good, they do verge on disinterest, even incompetence, with their responses when contacting them when back on land. Contacts with senior management etc have often been futile and there has almost always been a “we don’t care” mentality, with corporate spin often a key part of any response. But put your points to them nonetheless just in case they have developed a level of real customer interest.
 

But it is a pity you felt they were not good. And it is not as if you need to give P and O a second chance if you felt they - rather than the clear issues at the travel agent’s end - blew it. I hope you enjoy cruising with whatever company you go with next.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Camberley

[gsmt47471015]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Surprised to see the reports of apparently unhappy staff, because I’ve never encountered that and the onboard service has always been first rate.

 

I wonder if word has spread of the P&O Ferries fiasco, and the Cruises people now realise they’re in an even worse position, pay-wise, but not getting the public sympathy, or indeed any sympathy.

Have to say that on all our cruises with P and O we have had nothing but excellent service bar one , and that was only due to the fact that the staff had changed over mid cruise and were not fully up to speed with some new procedures in the mdr. We have ( that is my other half who is on the social media mullarky) made many long standing friends with the staff and tend to catch up with them on future cruises and were even invited to India to attend his wedding before the dreaded  put paid to that.

As I've stated before its sometimes how you approach people , and we tend to get to know all the staff we encounter in a friendly and interested manner , not just on P and O, it has certainly made our onboard lives a nice experience😊   

[terrierjohn]

I have not cruised with P&O since Covid, but my I always found their onboard CS attitude was that their job would be far better if it was not for the passengers, perhaps not everyone but enough to give me a negative vibe. Similarly I often found that the senior restaurant staff exhibited a do as I say attitude with the waiters, and rarely helped even at very busy time. This contrasted massively with our Celebrity experience where even the very senior staff would "muck in" and clear tables, and reset them during busy periods.

Despite these negative comments, we do still cruise with P&O, but mainly because they sail year round from Southampton, and have many more sailings, and they are generally far cheaper  especially at launch.

[LondonLad60]

"... but my I always found their onboard CS attitude was that their job would be far better if it was not for the passengers"

In the same way that Basil Fawlty said he could run a perfectly good hotel if it wasn't for the guests...

[J110]

Hi There I’m really sorry to hear you didn’t have a good cruise. Please do report through the usual channels though as there is no excuse for rudeness and we have never experienced anything like that.

I have not had the same experience as the last 2 posts though.

We have been twice now since lockdown ended but not on Iona. Cruises before we really enjoyed. Plenty of staff and any issues re cabin promptly dealt with by steward who was brilliant.

Reception staff can be a different matter though.

Since lockdown have been on  Sky Princess with a new crew. Ship no way full which probably helped.Cabin steward appeared and did say he was covering many floors - we had treated ourselves to a suite this time as so cheap but we really didn’t need him much. MDR had some very rude waiters though which we did complain about as did others.

App to register to board was a pain but did work eventually and on board Princess it was great for us .Worked brilliantly on deck and by pool area.

— However Waiters weren’t sure if we’d ordered drinks via app or wanted serving so sometimes it seemed like it was a lot longer to wait than usual. Everything was with a smile though.

Brittania in Oct was just about ok but a lot of crew were waiting to go home as contracts were ending after the upcoming transatlantic.

We always book direct with select fare and choose cabin. Usually by phone — Just our preference and we don’t select upgrade as we prefer to be just either side of mid and between passenger decks.

Crows nest staff were brilliant and plenty of them. Many had been with p and o some time. Brodies bar had a lot less staff than usual . Crystal room bar was often closed early. Main complaint was how cold the theatre was.
Ship though was not quite full but about 80% as they had picked up some passengers who had been cancelled from Ventura.

Plenty of staff on duty in buffet but Epicurean service was slow and Glass house food a bit disappointing.

One main restaurant was still closed which caused chaos but staff did say if app wasn’t working properly just to pop down and they would sort for us.

—- sorry this is a bit longer than planned but— 

I do wonder though if as the ships are getting busier the new staff are struggling to cope and there are still not enough to cover. I believe they still quarantine for a period once they get on board. It was 2 weeks.
Many would have had the luxury of working on only part filled ships for some time. I have seen other reports where people thought there were a lot of staff on Iona so it is odd unless they have been transferred elsewhere or are ill.

We have 2 cruises booked this year with P and O due mainly to cruise credit from cancellations so we will see what happens but none on Iona as it is too big for what we need but should have been great for families.

One is very soon and other early September so will post findings.
 

[davecttr]

As far as interaction between waiters in bars etc and customers my several years experience led me to wonder if they were trained in how to NOT make eye to eye contact with passengers. I must say there have been lots of wonderful staff though.

 

edit - the Glass House food has become more disappointing over the years and IMO was best in the original Ramblas on Ventura. Are they still trying to sell the revolting octopus? 🤢

Edited April 18, 2022 by davecttr

[Fionboard]

Worst service I have had was on Iona. Much better recently on Ventura. 

[Cathygh]

6 hours ago, BouncingWheel said:

I think you are confusing the Princess online check-in process system with their onboard app.

I sailed on a summer sailcation with them last year and I agree that the check-in process was appalling suffering the same type of issues you mentioned. However, once onboard the app worked well and one big bonus to some (which some people mentioned they would very much like) is that you can track others down in your group with the Find functionality - my wife found me twice after we did different activities. Even on small ships that could save some legwork.

That is reassuring to know that things are better on board.