P&O using Thomas Cooks A 330 aircraft

[Compo55]

Hi Fellowcraft,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have just checked a website which lists the seat pitch for all airlines, and they show Thomas Cook with 30" and Thomsonfly with 33" on longhaul flights. That is a big difference when you are stuck on a plane for that number of hours.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Globaliser]

... they point out other flights are offered through the brochure at extra cost, basically P&O are saying if you don't like it, book your own flight.

Frankly, if you could book other (scheduled) flights so that you are not on a charter, why wouldn't you? Almost always the better solution.

[Brian Raine]

Compo 55 sorry for the delay replying. I received the usual aknowledgement letter Monday" we received your letter will reply in due course blah blah" signed by some little clerk on YTS.Costa got an earbashing as well for our pre Xmas cruise , likewise they are not responding yet.

[Petrochelli]

Having joined cruise critic a few days ago I am having my eyes opened with regards to fly/cruise. My wife and I have cruised with P/O 5 times always on the Adonia (which we thought was magic) and as we are 40years married this year thought we would celebrate in style by booking the Arcadia for a 15nighter flying from Glasgow returning from Acapulco.

But what have we let ourselves in for, cattle class travel perish the thought I am 6ft 1in tall a rather well built (wifes a good cook) so where the heck am I going stetch my legs when my knees are at my chin?

Is the ship sailing without any charisma and a drab decor which matches the senior officers attitude.

 

Surely the food is not as bad as some of the comments made in this forum.

If this turns into a holiday from hell I could be getting a divorce as the cruise was my idea and the wife does not take any prisoners. So oh dear what have I done.

 

Cheers Petrochelli (Might need him)

[Bar-fly]

Hi Petrochelli

Look on the bright side Tom Cooks might have improved the seat pitch on the A330 by the time you go.

Although we report back our findings on this site it's Thomas Cook that we should all be complaining to, although P&O should also be pushing them to increase the seat pitch for their own customers, and for lov2cruzuk the Thomson flight that we returned on was very good with much more room.

And please Petrochelli don't get the wrong end of the stick about the food on Arcadia its not bad at all but it could be better, you will see what we mean when you compare it to Adonia which was superb, I will be most interested to hear what your wife thinks on your return, its just in my case the food was not always very warm and its also quite probable that people sitting nearer to the kitchens will find their food a lot hotter, it was also not presented as nice as some other ships.

The Arcadia herself is quite nice inside with paintings and arty pots etc, and some really beautiful model sailing ships in glass cases decorating the public areas, although some people think the layout of the ship is not very good, I myself found that the decor of Arcadia is much nicer than the rather sparten Oriana which is very short of nice paintings and only had bits of framed tapistary along the companionways.

Enjoy yourself and let us know what you think on your return.

[flea b]

Hi Taf, are you going on the 21st Dec? We are and also flying from EMA to Barbados. Not got any details yet, I thought it would be with Thomson though as they do fly from EMA - Barbados on Fridays with P&O. Fiona & Andy.

[Petrochelli]

Hi Fellowcraft,

Appreciate your comments and advice and we are sure we will enjoy ourselfs (as usual) with the money we spent we cant afford not to.

Rest assured if its not up to P/Os standard letters of complaint will be sent to the appropriate people. While I may be a Apprentice at this fly/cruise business I am a past master when it comes to complaining when standards are not what we paid for.

Cheers Petrochelli.:)

[mancunian]

Petrochelli

Which Panama cruise are you on. We are going on the 13th December - flying to Barbados from Manchester.

[Petrochelli]

Hi Mancunian,

We join the Arcadia on 23rd February so the excitment of packing, airport and long flight still to come.

Cheers Petrochelli.:) :)

[Willum UK]

I started a thread on the P&O pages of cruisecritic about the relative merits of P&O and Royal Caribbean International some time ago, as we were thinking of cruising with P&O in the Caribbean after a few RCI cruises. A visit to a P&O evening put us off when they refused to sell us a 'cruise only' rather than a fly-cruise. A good friend of mine returned last week from New Orleans having cruised from Barbados on Arcadia . He complained of being packed like sandines on a Monarch flight out of East Midlands airport.

We ended up choosing a cruise on RCI's Jewel of the Seas out of Fort Lauderdale, the cost was £450 for a superior balcony cabin. With Virgin Atlantic offering flights to Florida for £350, it will be some time before I choose P&O unless they drop this ridiculous refusal to offer a cruise only price.

[mancunian]

Petrocelli

Please will you give us a report on flight and ship when you return.

 

Have a good cruise

[mancunian]

Petrocelli

Please will you give us a report on flight and ship when you return.

 

Have a good cruise. I think the ship will be fine. Many people really seem to like Arcadia it is just a few bad reports. More worried about the flight really.

[Glenndale]

Hi Willum,

So you've stuck with RCI?

At that price I might have been tempted to book for a fortnight!

One thing though with P&O you can fly from a local airport.

We flew with Thomsonfly from East Mids in December and have to say the flight wasn't too bad at all.

The inflight entertainment wasn't a patch on VA or BA but not having to drive down to Gatwick or Heathrow more than made up for it.

The bonded containers for luggage is another big plus point.

Have a good cruise.

[Glenndale]

Hi Willum,

So you've stuck with RCI?

At that price I might have been tempted to book for a fortnight!

One thing though with P&O you can fly from a local airport.

We flew with Thomsonfly from East Mids in December and have to say the flight wasn't too bad at all.

The inflight entertainment wasn't a patch on VA or BA but not having to drive down to Gatwick or Heathrow more than made up for it.

The bonded containers for luggage is another big plus point.

Have a good cruise.

Sorry about the double post !!

[Petrochelli]

Hi Mancunian,

As this is our first time on the Arcadia I dont think there will be any problems with a small report on flights, ship or any aspect of the cruise.

I must say that finding this web sight has been very interesting to say the least. The number of different opinions about all P/O ships has made very interesting reading and will certainly influence my future choice of ship when we book another cruise.

Kind regards, Petrochelli:)

[Willum UK]

Hi Willum,

So you've stuck with RCI?

At that price I might have been tempted to book for a fortnight!

One thing though with P&O you can fly from a local airport.

We flew with Thomsonfly from East Mids in December and have to say the flight wasn't too bad at all.

The inflight entertainment wasn't a patch on VA or BA but not having to drive down to Gatwick or Heathrow more than made up for it.

The bonded containers for luggage is another big plus point.

Have a good cruise.

Sorry about the double post !!

 

Morning Glendale,

 

Lots of double posts on CC.com lately - site problem no doubt.

Yes, we went with RCI, at the price it was hard to say No. Will spend the second week knocking a small ball around vast acres of Florida looking for a hole!

Cannot understand why scheduled airline flights are so much cheaper than chartered flights this Autumn to the US.

You're right about local airports, I would prefer East Mids or Doncaster, and would certainly try to use these if P&O would sell the cruise only. The good Mrs Willum will not countenance crossing either the Bay of Biscay, or the North Sea, so Southampton, etc based cruises are out.

A number of people on these boards are suggesting that to keep their customers, P&O need to improve their flights, I think that a better way is to offer an alternative of the cruise only. However, I've probably overstated that by now!!

Off subject totally - but following hospitalisation I cannot get to Welford Road, Leicester for some time, thank goodness for Sky Sports!

 

Regards

 

Bill

[Brian Raine]

Mancunian HOORAY I have had a reply from P&O regarding the abominbal flight to Acapulco, GUESS what,only platitudes again. 2 pages of the usual drivel, do all these cruise line representatives all go to the same school to generate this drivel???. I think the cruise lines believe we passengers have very short memories and will forget the trials and tribulations of the past and go ahead again anyway.

Our next cruise is with Costa out of Hong Kong , in May, we have arranged all our own flights and hotel so any complaints will be doen to me.

[Brian Raine]

Mancunian HOORAY I have had a reply from P&O regarding the abominbal flight to Acapulco, GUESS what,only platitudes again. 2 pages of the usual drivel, do all these cruise line representatives all go to the same school to generate this drivel???. I think the cruise lines believe we passengers have very short memories and will forget the trials and tribulations of the past and go ahead again anyway.

Our next cruise is with Costa out of Hong Kong , in May, we have arranged all our own flights and hotel so any complaints will be doen to me.

[Brian Raine]

Compo 55 HOORAY after several weeks of waiting I received a reply from P&O , guess what , it was full of the usual , well rehearsed platitudes. It appears nothing will change , passengers will still be treated as cattle until there is a marked drop in numbers.The P&O spokesman did say that the charter lines were being looked at with a possiblity that another company will join the ranks of TCook/Thomson/Monarch, who is anyones guess.

[englishlee]

Getting back to the original thread. I think the blame lies with P&O not the airline. I believe that there is nothing stopping P&O specifying a particular seat pitch on whatever aircraft they charter. Yes it would put the prices up because fewer people would be able to fit into the same aircraft, and because the aircraft would need to be taken out of service for a few hours whilst they reconfigure it - but it can be done.

 

Thomas Cook operate a charter from the UK to Eastern Canada on behalf of a UK tour operator and they offer a 35" seat pitch, normally it's much less than this. On that route it's a 757 that's operated but the principle is the same, it can be done if the will is there (and the money).

[Compo55]

Hi Brian,

 

Thanks for letting us know that you had a reply from P&O, even although it wasn't very helpful. We will just have to wait and see what airline we end up on in December. Arcadia should be in the Panama Canal tomorrow, so will try and have a look at the view from their webcam.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[KimmyUK]

Abbafan,

I think I saw in an earlier thread that you were going to be in the aft of the Arcadia. Was it a good cabin? I'm not going until next January -08 but have just got back from MV Noordam Holland America. Wow, what a ship, great food, and we travelled by BA to New York independently. Should I cancel Arcadai next year?

[daiB]

Abbafan,

I think I saw in an earlier thread that you were going to be in the aft of the Arcadia. Was it a good cabin? I'm not going until next January -08 but have just got back from MV Noordam Holland America. Wow, what a ship, great food, and we travelled by BA to New York independently. Should I cancel Arcadai next year?

 

NO.

 

See my post on "Keep to P&O"

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

[Single Cruiser]

Interesting thread this. I'm not on P&O but on it's younger sister Ocean Village and found the seats cramped on Thomas Cook charters from the UK to the med the other year, I'm flying to Barbados to join it in 6 weeks time and guess that will also be an A330. As a direct result of this thread I've decided to upgrade to a premium seat.

[Brian Raine]

compo55 Keep a look out for BALBOA, we docked there, it is the actual port area for Panama City. The PC tour is quite good , if hot.they took us the the original Spanish seetlement, lots of old brick walls.The grubbiest part of PC is the area built by the US after they chased out Noriega.The old wooden shacks were replaced with 50's style tower blocks, painted yuk clours. Fortuneatley the bus did not stop there, very much a tourist no go area , like the pavellas of Rio.