More bad publicity for P&O

[Host Sharon]

I know we only tend to hear about poor experiences as happy passengers don't post so often but this does not reflect well for P&O.

 

Passengers’ Christmas Day ‘ruined’ on P&O cruise | News | The Times

[Harry Peterson]

The main thrust of this, though, is contained in the following quote from the article:

“However, several passengers have complained about long queues for meals, a chaotic booking system and lack of wi-fi.“

 

Inexcusable, of course, but perhaps reinforces the old advice about avoiding maiden cruises!

[kalos]

It seems the bigger the ship, can bring bigger problems and with hindsight, who 

came up with the bright idea to marry up a maiden voyage with a Christmas cruise ?

Doing a bit of online detective work I have found the person who was contacted by

the Times and other papers who like to trawl social media .

We will call her Mrs W .. Who was contacted by the paper, was telling them she had

seen a couple being sat down to a bare table , not even a table cloth for their Christmas 

dinner at 11pm.

P&O  got to find out about this and invited her and a few others behind the catering scene,

to hold their hands up and say sorry and give them a free dining experience meal and few 

gifts to try and make up for it .

A nice gesture but what about all the other souls who had to endure P&O's Christmas let

down ,on Christmas day /night ? 

I hope things get better and P&O do the right thing by the rest of the passengers who are

also onboard the ship.

[carlanthony24]

The journalist was hungry for a poor review. People will do anything for a bit of compo nowadays. Wonders if the journalist would do a review on an American ship based in the UK if they had the same problems and the article still doesn’t give the full story.

[yorkshirephil]

11 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

The journalist was hungry for a poor review. People will do anything for a bit of compo nowadays. Wonders if the journalist would do a review on an American ship based in the UK if they had the same problems and the article still doesn’t give the full story.

The media will spin any story to suit their needs, sadly lots of people believe the stories. Facecloth is littered with Arvia posts, albeit lots are not very complimentary but there are a lot of people enjoying themselves on this cruise. The media seem not to have reported that. Yes P&O do need to get their finger out and sort some of these issues, not just on Arvia or they will lose customers, however they will also gain new ones, especially with the bargain prices currently on offer.

 

 

[kalos]

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

The media will spin any story to suit their needs,

 

I feel sorry for Cap't Camby who was FORCED to make an announcement !

Sounds better than decided to, that's if you're a journalist  .

 

 

[bobstheboy]

It's in the Express as well.

 

These type of stories are good copy for newspapers. It does seem the dinner arrangements for Christmas Day were poorly planned. The Hotel Manager would be ultimately responsible, along with Restaurant Managers.

[TigerB]

Cue the photos of folk with their sad compo faces in their local rags, when they return.🙄

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

The main thrust of this, though, is contained in the following quote from the article:

“However, several passengers have complained about long queues for meals, a chaotic booking system and lack of wi-fi.“

 

Inexcusable, of course, but perhaps reinforces the old advice about avoiding maiden cruises!

To be fair to most of the people that booked this Arvia cruise, it wasn't originally the maiden cruise.  The cruise before was due to be the maiden, but that was cancelled.

 

As I said elsewhere on this forum, with this cruise now being the maiden AND the Christmas Cruise, there was going to be a lot of pressure on the crew.

 

However, it should be noted that there are similar FB reports about the Iona MDR Christmas meal, about queues and low quality food.

 

 

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

I know we only tend to hear about poor experiences as happy passengers don't post so often but this does not reflect well for P&O.

 

Passengers’ Christmas Day ‘ruined’ on P&O cruise | News | The Times

Is this the same Times reporter who was on twitter asking for people's bad experiences so he could do a negative story ?. Sorry, I missed his tweet asking for unbiased stories from folk who enjoyed it.

 

[zap99]

24 minutes ago, TigerB said:

Cue the photos of folk with their sad compo faces in their local rags, when they return.🙄

We popped into O'Neil's lunchtime. No macaroni cheese. None. Not a single macaroni. I'm just trying to get the right email for the Times before I threaten to expose this scandal. A big voucher could be comming my way.

 

[Josy1953]

I think that if things on board are wrong then passengers are right to complain, what I don't agree with is going to the media in the hope of getting compensation. 

We have not actually been on P&O ship since a really bad cruise in 2019 on Oceana.  We complained on board and were given a bottle of wine and a meal in a speciality restaurant which we accepted as a goodwill gesture and left it at that.  We had been home about 2 weeks and were contacted by P&O passenger relations department who told me that they had received a copy of our complaint and asked if they could send us a gift as a goodwill gesture.  We received a beautiful wicker hamper full of really nice foods and wine.

I  wonder whether if we had been obnoxious to the staff on board  would we have gotten that hamper, I suspect not.l

[molecrochip]

No such thing as bed press!

 

I will comment but am waiting til NYE is over to see if the problems have resolved.

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

To be fair to most of the people that booked this Arvia cruise, it wasn't originally the maiden cruise.  The cruise before was due to be the maiden, but that was cancelled.

 

As I said elsewhere on this forum, with this cruise now being the maiden AND the Christmas Cruise, there was going to be a lot of pressure on the crew.

 

However, it should be noted that there are similar FB reports about the Iona MDR Christmas meal, about queues and low quality food.

 

 

My experiences of P&O xmas meals is they were mediocre at best, almost as if the allowed food spend per passenger was the same as any other day.

[TigerB]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We popped into O'Neil's lunchtime. No macaroni cheese. None. Not a single macaroni. I'm just trying to get the right email for the Times before I threaten to expose this scandal. A big voucher could be comming my way.

 

Are you practising your sad compo face for when the press photograper comes around?😉

[TigerB]

56 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

No such thing as bed press!

 

Our lass said the exact same thing. When we had guests staying, I said I couldn't be bothered to iron the bedding; I suggested we buy a bed press from Amazon instead. She looked at me and said there's no such thing.

 

 

 

...........

Sorry, I couldn't resist!😉

[zap99]

47 minutes ago, TigerB said:

Are you practising your sad compo face for when the press photograper comes around?😉

I will tell him,loudly. I'm an oap  this macaroni crisis has ruined my retirement.

 

Ps. Predictive left ruined alone this time.🤣

[Yorkypete]

3 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

The journalist was hungry for a poor review. People will do anything for a bit of compo nowadays. Wonders if the journalist would do a review on an American ship based in the UK if they had the same problems and the article still doesn’t give the full story.

Neither do P&O. They openly lie. They lied to me and they lie to others. I would not believe a word they say.

 

[Yorkypete]

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I think that if things on board are wrong then passengers are right to complain, what I don't agree with is going to the media in the hope of getting compensation. 

We have not actually been on P&O ship since a really bad cruise in 2019 on Oceana.  We complained on board and were given a bottle of wine and a meal in a speciality restaurant which we accepted as a goodwill gesture and left it at that.  We had been home about 2 weeks and were contacted by P&O passenger relations department who told me that they had received a copy of our complaint and asked if they could send us a gift as a goodwill gesture.  We received a beautiful wicker hamper full of really nice foods and wine.

I  wonder whether if we had been obnoxious to the staff on board  would we have gotten that hamper, I suspect not.l

Do people do it for more compensation? or do they do it because they are ignored with complaints until the matter is taken further? The sarcasm and bias shown on here against customers is amazing. People have bad experiences but don't complain...they just moan a little and book another cruise. P&O will never improve their customer support/relations unless people do complain and take it further.

 

[itf]

Anyone who got onboard compo won't be able to talk about it anyway, P&O make you sign an NDA. Or so I've heard...

[kalos]

1 hour ago, TigerB said:

Sorry, I couldn't resist!😉

 

Have you had to walk 500 miles and then you been advised to walk 500 more?

 

If so you could be entitled to compensation.

Call Pro Claimers now.

[Josy1953]

30 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

P&O will never improve their customer support/relations unless people do complain and take it further.

They will not improve their customer relations as long as the people who complain just complain and then continue to give their hard earned cash to P&O.

[carlanthony24]

58 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Neither do P&O. They openly lie. They lied to me and they lie to others. I would not believe a word they say.

 

Everyone lies somewhere but journalists more so in my opinion. You rarely see good things from them. Up to you what you want to believe I always say two sides to a story

[carlanthony24]

1 hour ago, Yorkypete said:

Do people do it for more compensation? or do they do it because they are ignored with complaints until the matter is taken further? The sarcasm and bias shown on here against customers is amazing. People have bad experiences but don't complain...they just moan a little and book another cruise. P&O will never improve their customer support/relations unless people do complain and take it further.

 

We have done complaints on board and never expected compensation. We just wanted to make them aware this is happening. Out of the blue they sent us things through the post done stuff with our booking. I think we had one bad cruise just a 2 nighter then staying on for the main holiday and there was quite a few drunks etc. They got dealt with quite quickly.

 

People definitely do it for compensation. Article about a boy buying a scratch card him and his dad in the photo holding the scratch card up. Article about Gatwick airport people waiting hours for luggage because their Jet2 flight was diverted because of the weather. Officially Jet2 doesn’t have Gatwick as a main base for themselves so the dispatches, baggage handlers all sub contracted compared to other bases were it’s their own staff. I believe the main story was to do with a boy didn’t have his wheelchair and was damaged and he didn’t have a place to sit down on so they sat him on the conveyer belt because they were all off they said. You wouldn’t do that at all because of health and safety and surely if he needed it more someone would have happily gave up their seat. People blame the airline but at the end of the day it’s Gatwick that has the responsibility to unload etc but if it was say Birmingham where Jet2 have their own staff for unloading etc it would be Jet2 at fault.

Edited December 29, 2022 by carlanthony24

[doog442]

5 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

It's in the Express as well.

 

These type of stories are good copy for newspapers. It does seem the dinner arrangements for Christmas Day were poorly planned. The Hotel Manager would be ultimately responsible, along with Restaurant Managers.

 

Has it made the Mail yet. Can't wait for my mum to ask me what boat we're going on again in Feb.

 

Incidentally many land based resorts, restaurants and hotels creak, groan and sometimes fall down at this time of year so I'm hardly surprised with a new ship and crew.