Fur coat and no knickers

[cruising.mark.uk]

Blimey.  Have I logged on to Mail online by accident?

 

I don't think badly behaved children are a peculiarly British problem.  I've done 10+ cruises with Costa and MSC and have seen far worse behaved children on all of those than I've ever seen on a P&O ship.  Put thousands of people together in a confined space and you will get a full spectrum of society and a full spectrum of behaviours, some of which you may not like.  You'll probably see or hear pretty much the same if you go to a football match or a festival or most town centres on a weekend evening.

[yorkshirephil]

6 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

This might be so with the bigger ships but I’ll share my experience of 2 cruises that spring to mind.

 

Celebrity is the cruise line we use most.  Our 1st and 2nd ever cruises with them were back-to-back on Constellation in 2015 in the Med out of Venice.  The first cruise was August and had many young families with children and I remember being impressed at seeing the Kids’ club activities around the ship and when they were brought into the theatre towards the end to entertain us.  They added to my enjoyment.  The follow-on cruise was into September and it became virtually adults only with an older demographic and had a completely different feel.

 

My first ever P&O cruise was a 7-night Easter holiday cruise with many children on board.  Again I was totally impressed by the many children we encountered, so much so that we booked an almost identical cruise taking our own grandchildren the follow year.  They were not warm weather cruises however, and I have found that this can play a part in the types of folk you get on board - let’s say that the ‘liveliest’ passengers we have encountered have been on Canaries cruises out of Southampton with Royal Caribbean and to a lesser degree, P&O (not Celebrity however).  
 

We are lucky enough to cruise often and even the ‘lively’ behaviour referred to was only occasional, and chalked up to experience and has not put me off either cruise line.  I should perhaps add that we don’t sunbathe and have never sat by a pool on a ship, so would never experience poor behaviour in these areas.

Most of our experiences of ships with kids onboard are similar to yours, however I would add we have never cruised during school holidays unless on an adults only ship. We have had cruises with quite a lot of kids onboard especially MSC and Princess when they have run a kids go free promotions and parents have been happy to take advantage. As with anything in life you always get the odd one who throws a tantrum or tries to push the boundries but such is life (the kids that is not just the parents😁), we were all kids once and probably did similar albeit a lot of us were brought up in the kids should be seen and not heard years.

I think a lot of kids miss out on actually being kids now and are expected to grow up too soon, especially with some pushy parents who deep down probably only want their kids to succeed but don't know where to stop. I have seen this numerous times while refereeing football for juniors when I took my grand kids at weekends. I do like to see kids enjoying themselves as I am sure most people do as long as they are reigned in if going too far, plus we all have different tolerance levels.

[Megabear2]

2 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Blimey.  Have I logged on to Mail online by accident?

 

I don't think badly behaved children are a peculiarly British problem.  I've done 10+ cruises with Costa and MSC and have seen far worse behaved children on all of those than I've ever seen on a P&O ship.  Put thousands of people together in a confined space and you will get a full spectrum of society and a full spectrum of behaviours, some of which you may not like.  You'll probably see or hear pretty much the same if you go to a football match or a festival or most town centres on a weekend evening.

Very true but perhaps the real problem is the decline of respect and morals across the board. Angry older people in a crowded buffet demanding and expecting to get the tea and cakes first and shoving people aside is another pet hate.

 

I totally agree with you about it being prevalent elsewhere, the difference presumably being birds of a feather flock together and on a ship it's even more obvious.

 

As for the Mail, please don't insult me ...

[yorkshirephil]

2 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Very true but perhaps the real problem is the decline of respect and morals across the board. Angry older people in a crowded buffet demanding and expecting to get the tea and cakes first and shoving people aside is another pet hate.

 

I don't think there is any doubt about the decline in respect and morals in general and that will only get worse over time. Who can blame the kids when some adults behave as they do, monkey see monkey do springs to mind. However I still think it is a minority and I find kids react better to grandparents and the kids club staff than they do to parents.

[Interestedcruisefan]

31 minutes ago, mrsgoggins said:

This might be so with the bigger ships but I’ll share my experience of 2 cruises that spring to mind.

 

Celebrity is the cruise line we use most.  Our 1st and 2nd ever cruises with them were back-to-back on Constellation in 2015 in the Med out of Venice.  The first cruise was August and had many young families with children and I remember being impressed at seeing the Kids’ club activities around the ship and when they were brought into the theatre towards the end to entertain us.  They added to my enjoyment.  The follow-on cruise was into September and it became virtually adults only with an older demographic and had a completely different feel.

 

My first ever P&O cruise was a 7-night Easter holiday cruise with many children on board.  Again I was totally impressed by the many children we encountered, so much so that we booked an almost identical cruise taking our own grandchildren the follow year.  They were not warm weather cruises however, and I have found that this can play a part in the types of folk you get on board - let’s say that the ‘liveliest’ passengers we have encountered have been on Canaries cruises out of Southampton with Royal Caribbean and to a lesser degree, P&O (not Celebrity however).  
 

We are lucky enough to cruise often and even the ‘lively’ behaviour referred to was only occasional, and chalked up to experience and has not put me off either cruise line.  I should perhaps add that we don’t sunbathe and have never sat by a pool on a ship, so would never experience poor behaviour in these areas.

Nice post

 

Like I say I've never had a cruise where kids have been any problem to me

 

Do remember our first P and O cruise some of the kids our daughter was joining with in teen kids club were wanting to be adults before their time though compared to kids on the US ships and that worried us a little bit. But nothing major. 

 

 

[zap99]

17 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

Blimey.  Have I logged on to Mail online by accident?

 

I don't think badly behaved children are a peculiarly British problem.  I've done 10+ cruises with Costa and MSC and have seen far worse behaved children on all of those than I've ever seen on a P&O ship.  Put thousands of people together in a confined space and you will get a full spectrum of society and a full spectrum of behaviours, some of which you may not like.  You'll probably see or hear pretty much the same if you go to a football match or a festival or most town centres on a weekend evening.

Some folk seem to get all the bad luck. Children in the pools, folk drinking in bars. In all our  cruises we have never experienced any these things. I am more interested in avoiding the person on their mobility scooter....out me way...coming through. At the very least they could put their baseball cap on the right way round in the MDR.🤣

[Interestedcruisefan]

3 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I don't think there is any doubt about the decline in respect and morals in general and that will only get worse over time. Who can blame the kids when some adults behave as they do, monkey see monkey do springs to mind. However I still think it is a minority and I find kids react better to grandparents and the kids club staff than they do to parents.

They certainly do react better to others than parents in general

 

I still say perhaps some things kids have declined in but in other ways they are also so much better overall

 

I'm talking overall for sure. Some kids in the UK don't even have  a chance due to their upbringing nowadays but we don't encounter them on cruise ships of course. They would never get close to opportunities like that

 

 

[doog442]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We try and avoid the School holidays, but will now avoid the adults only ships. Getting knocked over by folk filling in their complaint and claims forms whilst moaning about everything doesn't sound much fun.

 

It's the same with adult only hotels where the adults decide to behave like kids 🤣

 

I'm not sure the perfect holiday exists.

 

I've been on this forum since 2007. I don't post much but It's interesting to see the demographic on the P&O forum change more than any other cruise line. Some of the content is quite hilarious, some serious but many people simply don't like or cannot accept change.

 

At least Virgin for example have been totally honest with whom they're marketing too and what to expect whereas P&O appear to be in new territory in that regard. I'm not sure they're getting it right if the product being marketed is failing to meet expectation from certain people (which clearly it isn't).  

 

There's also a danger the name might be dragged down with it, as clearly there are marked differences with different ships operating under the same banner. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by doog442

[Interestedcruisefan]

Let's be honest as well even in the past we may have had better morals and respect and discipline but as a nation we were far far less open minded at the same time

 

Far less accepting of other cultures

 

Far less accepting of LGBT stuff

 

People were made to feel second or third class or very much forced to hide who they were etc

 

Some things have got worse

 

Some have significantly improved

 

Not at all related to the above but also I imagine facilities and care for disabled people on ships should have significantly improved over the years?

 

From snippets I read on here though - still some serious room for improvement

 

People in wheelchairs being pushed in front of at the lifts (by adults) I find unforgivable for example?

 

I don't use the lifts to see it happen but I wouldn't allow it to happen if I did

 

Who are we blaming that behaviour on?

Edited November 18, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[zap99]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Something else we share, then.  Unless you count Calella de la Costa in 1971 on our very first holiday together when it seemed de rigueur to lie on the beach and read paperbacks. We couldn't afford to do anything else!

I went with my friends in 1970. Exchange controls limited our expenditure to £49 for 2 weeks. Calella was great and it had a Wimpy bar.🤣

[yorkshirephil]

8 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

They certainly do react better to others than parents in general

 

I still say perhaps some things kids have declined in but in other ways they are also so much better overall

 

I'm talking overall for sure. Some kids in the UK don't even have  a chance due to their upbringing nowadays but we don't encounter them on cruise ships of course. They would never get close to opportunities like that

 

 

It is so hard for some kids now their parents split up get remarried etc etc which is part of what I meant that kids don't always get a chance to be kids as they can be used as pawns. However with cruising now being so cheap and kids go free plus reasonably well off grandparents there are probably more kids do get opportunities than 10-20 years ago. 

[zap99]

32 minutes ago, lancashire_cruisers said:

You can tell cruising is back to normal with the return of ‘all kids are Satan’ posts 😂😂

All getting a bit predictable really.🤣

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

I went with my friends in 1970. Exchange controls limited our expenditure to £49 for 2 weeks. Calella was great and it had a Wimpy bar.🤣

You could afford to eat out?!!!  We were on full board in a hotel lovingly described on Tripadvisor as 'Worst Hotel experience in 40 years of travel'.  It was cheap. We were very young. The 'en suite' shower was in the corridor outside the room.  And we were terrified that we'd be arrested by Franco's police for the very much frowned on public misbehaviour of holding hands in the street.

 

Really great holiday though!  Apart from the sunburn.

[Interestedcruisefan]

1 minute ago, Harry Peterson said:

We were on full board in a hotel lovingly described on Tripadvisor as 'Worst Hotel experience in 40 years of travel'.  

Bearing in mind those 40 years would have included 6 years of World War 2 that's some achievement for that hotel as well!!!

 

Lol

 

 

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

You could afford to eat out?!!!  We were on full board in a hotel lovingly described on Tripadvisor as 'Worst Hotel experience in 40 years of travel'.  It was cheap. We were very young. The 'en suite' shower was in the corridor outside the room.  And we were terrified that we'd be arrested by Franco's police for the very much frowned on public misbehaviour of holding hands in the street.

 

Really great holiday though!  Apart from the sunburn.

We had a great time...Best not go into too much detail.

[Interestedcruisefan]

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We had a great time...Best not go into too much detail.

Im starting to disbelieve there were better morals and respect back then!!

 

I reckon you lot got away with plenty of stuff

 

Lol

[yorkshirephil]

27 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Perhaps there should be a " class test " to ensure that ordinary people are screened out during the booking process.  We watched the Crown over the last few days. 🤔

I am sure there are plenty who would agree with a class test, I would love to see the P&O attempt at the new questionnaire for that one, it would keep most of us laughing for years. 

I will start it off;

Do you think you are better than others?

Should all children have to wear straight jackets while on board? I suppose if they built in air pockets they would double up as life vests.

 

Next please

[yorkshirephil]

 

1 minute ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

I reckon you lot got away with plenty of stuff

 

Lol

He's not the messiah he is a very naughty boy

[Harry Peterson]

38 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We had a great time...Best not go into too much detail.

Best not. I saw Panorama.

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

All the comments from people who prefer the ambiance and atmosphere of those small (adult only) ships do make more sense to me now

 

Those ships might not get the same love if families were on board making them busier and noisier. Even For those who love being around kids. 

 

Totally different vibe. 

 

Especially being smaller ships with less places to escape the hustle and bustle of families

 

Think I've been defending the big ships for the wrong reasons

We sailed for 17 nights on Aurora in August 2015 with our then teenagers as it was then a family ship. We then did 17 nights on Aurora in August 2018 and by then it was adults only. To be honest, it didn’t feel any different! 

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

This might be so with the bigger ships but I’ll share my experience of 2 cruises that spring to mind.

 

Celebrity is the cruise line we use most.  Our 1st and 2nd ever cruises with them were back-to-back on Constellation in 2015 in the Med out of Venice.  The first cruise was August and had many young families with children and I remember being impressed at seeing the Kids’ club activities around the ship and when they were brought into the theatre towards the end to entertain us.  They added to my enjoyment.  The follow-on cruise was into September and it became virtually adults only with an older demographic and had a completely different feel.

 

My first ever P&O cruise was a 7-night Easter holiday cruise with many children on board.  Again I was totally impressed by the many children we encountered, so much so that we booked an almost identical cruise taking our own grandchildren the follow year.  They were not warm weather cruises however, and I have found that this can play a part in the types of folk you get on board - let’s say that the ‘liveliest’ passengers we have encountered have been on Canaries cruises out of Southampton with Royal Caribbean and to a lesser degree, P&O (not Celebrity however).  
 

We are lucky enough to cruise often and even the ‘lively’ behaviour referred to was only occasional, and chalked up to experience and has not put me off either cruise line.  I should perhaps add that we don’t sunbathe and have never sat by a pool on a ship, so would never experience poor behaviour in these areas.

I was beginning to think I must be in a minority at not having come across many feral kids or loutish parents on our cruises.  But like you we no longer want to be sitting near the pools, never mind trying to swim in them.

We do notice the occasional noisy child, but not frequently enough to be bothered by them.  However when we do notice well mannered children, we do like to let the parents know, if we find the opportunity.

So maybe it is the areas of the ship that we frequent, that are not popular with these poorly patented children and ill mannered parents.

[Grandad John]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

I went with my friends in 1970. Exchange controls limited our expenditure to £49 for 2 weeks. Calella was great and it had a Wimpy bar.🤣

Flipping eck! Calella de la Costa, I too went with some mates circa 1967, 24 hours travelling each way😒. Flew from Manston airport, four of us all the same age from West Yorkshire, took us all a while to work out what a bidet was for!! We’d only just about managed to move in to ‘posh’ council houses with bathrooms instead of the good (not good, especially in winter when you had to take a bucket of water to flush the toilet as the cistern was frozen up) old outside lavvies. The good old days eh!

[FangedRose]

On a cruise several years ago a child had to taken to hospital as they had a head injury. The conversation centered around the fact that the child had been running (racing, careering, fooling) around the pool and what can you expect and it was their own (or the parents) fault.

 

The truth was that the child was ill with a high temperature and had passed out and hit their head as a result.

 

Trust the British public to immediately assume the worst of everybody except themselves.

[Adawn47]

21 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

Apparently Mars own Whiskas, hopefully they hever mix the recipes up. 🤮

Would anyone notice?😏

Avril

[zap99]

32 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

On a cruise several years ago a child had to taken to hospital as they had a head injury. The conversation centered around the fact that the child had been running (racing, careering, fooling) around the pool and what can you expect and it was their own (or the parents) fault.

 

The truth was that the child was ill with a high temperature and had passed out and hit their head as a result.

 

Trust the British public to immediately assume the worst of everybody except themselves.

Folk are quick to judge, often with nothing to go on but their own prejudices. Children enjoying themselves on holiday. They must come from Broken homes and be working class.🤣