More bad publicity for P&O

[FamilyCruiserUK]

More utter garbage reporting by z list reporters. Is this really news worthy considering all the issues in the world. Its the same as the utter garbage pop ups of people looking sad and cant afford to pay bills sitting there covered in bling, with lip filler with drinks on the table behind them. Sorry its a maiden voyage, things will never go to plan. Sad for those very few who were affected by it. Over 5000 on the cruise and only a few complaints. Anyone who expected a flawless cruise is/was naïve. Never hear reporting of people who had crap meals at mcdonalds!! 

Sadly though, bad news, garbage reporting on sad events sells. 

 

Rant over and happy new year all

[itf]

Getting worse PR wise

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64120526

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/p-o-cruises-arvia-ship-ruined-christmas-day-b2252867.html

 

Full disclosure - am booked on Arvia in April so hope things pick up!

Edited December 29, 2022 by itf

[Yorkypete]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

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

If a journo is proven to be lying he will be sued AND sacked as well. They rarely lie, unlike the cruiseline.

[Host Hattie]

16 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Sorry its a maiden voyage, things will never go to plan.

To be fair it wasn't supposed to be the maiden Voyage when most people booked. 

[Yorkypete]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

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.

I have complained to Carnival AND P&O for certain things. I did not do it for compensation as we were insured. Compensation is not the point...it is satisfaction on getting what you paid for. British people tend to say'oh well' and let it go. That is why peoploe can treat us like idiots and take advantage of us.If we do not complain nothing will ever change.

[wowzz]

I do wonder that if the Hotel Manager, Captain,  or whoever, had publicly announced that they were experiencing problems, that they were doing their best, and that everyone would get £100 obc, the situation would have been defused.

Obviously,  like everyone else not on board,  we only hear part of the story, but it does feel that P&O have lost the plot here . If they had given the onboard management team some more autonomy,  this debacle might not have happened.

By using some crisis management skills, the posts on social media might have read -

"Lots of issues on Christmas Day, but we were kept informed, apologies were given, and we were given compensation. Well done P&O!"

You turn a negative into a positive.

 

[carlanthony24]

41 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

I have complained to Carnival AND P&O for certain things. I did not do it for compensation as we were insured. Compensation is not the point...it is satisfaction on getting what you paid for. British people tend to say'oh well' and let it go. That is why peoploe can treat us like idiots and take advantage of us.If we do not complain nothing will ever change.

Disagree to be honest. You would be surprised with how many people do complain. 

[carlanthony24]

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I do wonder that if the Hotel Manager, Captain,  or whoever, had publicly announced that they were experiencing problems, that they were doing their best, and that everyone would get £100 obc, the situation would have been defused.

Obviously,  like everyone else not on board,  we only hear part of the story, but it does feel that P&O have lost the plot here . If they had given the onboard management team some more autonomy,  this debacle might not have happened.

By using some crisis management skills, the posts on social media might have read -

"Lots of issues on Christmas Day, but we were kept informed, apologies were given, and we were given compensation. Well done P&O!"

You turn a negative into a positive.

 

This is the thing even if P&O did give compensation at least some would be okay with it but also guarantee a lot of them would milk it for more. Was on Azura in March and because of covid were weren’t allowed off at any ports till we got to Malta everyone was still given compensation but their was still the odd few who tried to get more. I can’t remember the exact compo we got but it was adequate. 

[wowzz]

Just now, carlanthony24 said:

This is the thing even if P&O did give compensation at least some would be okay with it but also guarantee a lot of them would milk it for more. Was on Azura in March and because of covid were weren’t allowed off at any ports till we got to Malta everyone was still given compensation but their was still the odd few who tried to get more. I can’t remember the exact compo we got but it was adequate. 

I agree, it is a balancing act.

We were on Arcadia in April this year, when they had to flush the water system, so no water in the cabins. As we were in Cadiz, the suggestion was that we should go ashore for lunch.  We were given, iirc, £30 obc per person compensation.  Obviously the obc could not be spent ashore,  but it did help towards our bar bill !

By offering the "compensation " in advance, the situation was defused. I am sure one or two individuals would still be unhappy,  but everyone we talked to were perfectly happy with the way the situation was handled.

Unfortunately it was a lovely day in Cadiz, and we spent far in excess of £60 on wine and tapas! Perhaps I should have asked for more compensation! 

[carlanthony24]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I agree, it is a balancing act.

We were on Arcadia in April this year, when they had to flush the water system, so no water in the cabins. As we were in Cadiz, the suggestion was that we should go ashore for lunch.  We were given, iirc, £30 obc per person compensation.  Obviously the obc could not be spent ashore,  but it did help towards our bar bill !

By offering the "compensation " in advance, the situation was defused. I am sure one or two individuals would still be unhappy,  but everyone we talked to were perfectly happy with the way the situation was handled.

Unfortunately it was a lovely day in Cadiz, and we spent far in excess of £60 on wine and tapas! Perhaps I should have asked for more compensation! 

Haha that’s pretty good. We’ve been given hampers for a complaint we made onboard we just wanted to make them aware didn’t expect anything what so ever. I’ve complained on Twitter about a buffet breakfast with a hotel and one of the top bosses messaged me and gave some vouchers. Could this Christmas Day incident have been avoided? Potentially. 
 

[wowzz]

12 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Could this Christmas Day incident have been avoided? Potentially

Yes, because at some stage the management team must  have known it was going "Pete Tong", and should have taken pre-emptive action. 

[carlanthony24]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Yes, because at some stage the management team must  have known it was going "Pete Tong", and should have taken pre-emptive action. 

I guess. What we don’t know is what they were doing. They could of been doing things to try and solve. Maybe tied up with dealing with all the abuse they were getting. We will hear something in time no doubt.

[Yorkypete]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

This is the thing even if P&O did give compensation at least some would be okay with it but also guarantee a lot of them would milk it for more. Was on Azura in March and because of covid were weren’t allowed off at any ports till we got to Malta everyone was still given compensation but their was still the odd few who tried to get more. I can’t remember the exact compo we got but it was adequate. 

Of course it depends what the compensation is. If there are problems on the ship and people are offered FCC or extra OBC then I would reject both.  What is the use of either if you are not going to cruise with them again? P&O  treat their customers with diddain in many cases  but still carry on in the same old way, never changing their attitude.  We are on Iona next week and it will most likely be our final cruise withy P&O.

 

[wowzz]

Just now, Yorkypete said:

If there are problems on the ship and people are offered FCC or extra OBC then I would reject both.

So, what would you want ?

If it is a relatively minor issue,  giving everyone £30 or so obc immediately defuses the situation.  

 

[carlanthony24]

16 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Of course it depends what the compensation is. If there are problems on the ship and people are offered FCC or extra OBC then I would reject both.  What is the use of either if you are not going to cruise with them again? P&O  treat their customers with diddain in many cases  but still carry on in the same old way, never changing their attitude.  We are on Iona next week and it will most likely be our final cruise withy P&O.

 

Enjoy. It’s the same across most cruise companies they either offer FCC or OBC so they stay with them. I guess in your opinion and a few others they want something even more to be worth while. In reality it doesn’t work that way. You go to an airline they won’t offer anything different other to do with them.

 

People will always be unhappy with they get offered others will be fine. Has I said we couldn’t get off in any port and was given really good compensation. Select few wanted more. I want to say it was full cruise fare back and 25% on time. Effectively had a 2 week cruise for free. Nothing was too much trouble. Even then people could still claim off insurance. Cruise was fantastic.

 

Only downside was we were told we would have to do another antigen test for the crossing this wasn’t communicated before we joined. Which we feel it should have, management took the advice onboard. We didn’t get anything from it and neither did we think we should. We knew the problems so I guess we should of also expected it.

Edited December 30, 2022 by carlanthony24

[carlanthony24]

19 minutes ago, wowzz said:

So, what would you want ?

If it is a relatively minor issue,  giving everyone £30 or so obc immediately defuses the situation.  

 

It’s nice to talk to someone who feels the same way I do in regards to a few things. Not everyday you meet nice people.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

It’s nice to talk to someone who feels the same way I do in regards to a few things. Not everyday you meet nice people.

Stop it ! You are making me blush !

[Josy1953]

No matter what the offer is it is an acceptance by the company that they got something wrong.  Some people will be happy while others will consider the offer to be insufficient, that is a fact of life.  The loss of future bookings from the people who never cruise with P&O again is probably negligible in the great scheme of things.  As I have said before we no longer travel with P&O because their product no longer suits us but we are still giving our cruise £s to their parent company and I think that many of those who are saying never again to P&O will do the same.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Josy1953

[Harry Peterson]

However much people might try to defend P&O on this, and attack The Times and the passenger, it’s still indefensible, particularly when P&O could so easily have defused it all with a relatively inexpensive gesture or two.

 

If it reaches the gutter tabloids such as the Sun, Express and Mail they’ll make a lot more of it than The Times did - particularly if they latch on to this, which is actually rather worse:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2900271-britannia-christmas-2022-goes-live/page/5/

[BrianI]

A further report today in the Times. This time it’s about Iona which is reported to have had similar problems around the Christmas dinner.

When I started reading the report today i thought it was the same report from yesterday but then realised it was about Iona.

Brian

[Windsurfboy]

Life would have been so much easier  if they ,started ship off with easy old fashioned club dining for all, then moved to freedom and apps once team was up and working

[FamilyCruiserUK]

12 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

To be fair it wasn't supposed to be the maiden Voyage when most people booked. 

That is very true, but it ended up being a maiden voyage. I do feel sad for those that were affected and also the staff who struggled. I just get fed up with always hearing the negative issues from a small % of people. Lets hear what was good as well as what went wrong. 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

the negative issues from a small % of people. 

Of course, when you get to ships the size of Iona, a small proportion,  say 10%, equates to 500 passengers ! That makes for a lot of unhappy individuals. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by wowzz

[bobstheboy]

A classic case of Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Having been responsible for preparing many Contingency Plans, I know you must think outside the box, so you cover 99% of all eventualities.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

A classic case of Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Isn't  there a classic management saying that revolves a lot of "P's" !