Bad Behaviour Onvboard (P&O)

[Rasa Sayang]

Do not believe all you read in your or our newspapers.

 

They sound just like ours.

 

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. :D:)

[stopgo]

Dai b

 

Have you reached the dizzy heights of Gold status within the Portunus club?

If not, I think Mr Esdale should immediately give you honorary status for your unfailing loyalty to the brand.

 

Regards

Cb

I wish he would cut down his cruise list. It takes far too much room up, all these posts could have fitted on one page.

[BrianI]

Balf, CHAVS never heard of that term before. What does it mean, a lager lout or a bogan or something like that?

Definition from Wikipedia

Chav, Chava or Charva is a slang derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing (baseball caps are also common) who often fights and engages in petty criminality and are often assumed to be unemployed or in a low paid job. The term may originate from the Romany term "Chavvy", which is a general term for young person. In its English form it is generally derogative and appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005

 

Brian

[daiB]

I wish he would cut down his cruise list. It takes far too much room up, all these posts could have fitted on one page.

 

Do you like things nice and neat on on page them:D

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[Gerrym]

The majority of the people on the ship knew little or nothing about this. Therefore did not have there cruise ruined.

 

Do not believe all you read in your or our newspapers.

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

Dai

 

 

Dai, I fully understand why you are so pro Ventura in your posts, but can you explain to me how you could possibly know that the majority of the people on the ship knew little or nothing about this?

 

Were you on the ship for this cruise?

 

Did you interview everybody?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Gerry

[stopgo]

Do you like things nice and neat on on page them:D

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

Its just too long Dai, a two line post and twentynine entrys and links. By the time I have got to the end, I have forgotten what your post was. Its boreing reading the same things over and over again. It will get to the point when a full page will be devoted to past cruises. Maybe there should be a list of names on another part of the board, we can then click on a name and all their cruises will come up.

[lostinvegas]

This does worry me a little. One of the reasons for paying so much money to go on a cruise is so we don't have to put up with "insert name for anitsocial behavour"

 

Now I know the papers talk rubbish most of the time. But it is a worry, I really hope their is sufficient security on board.

 

I go on holiday to Las Vegas on a regular basis and its a fantastic place to go. I went to the boxing last December to watch Ricky Hatton. The football houligan element turned up and ruined Vegas completely. I was embaressed to be English.

 

I am looking at the holiday positively, but P&O will have to be carefull there are plenty of other cruise companies out there, we very almost booked on Celebrity this time, hopefully all will be well and I will be booking P&O next year.

 

Incidently an old friend of mine was on this cruise I think I will give him a bell and get the story from the horses mouth.

 

Chris

[cruisebore]

Its just too long Dai, a two line post and twentynine entrys and links. By the time I have got to the end, I have forgotten what your post was. Its boreing reading the same things over and over again. It will get to the point when a full page will be devoted to past cruises. Maybe there should be a list of names on another part of the board, we can then click on a name and all their cruises will come up.

 

 

Dai

 

Why do I only get your signature with no following cruise history?

What have I done to upset you;)

 

Regards

Cb

[daiB]

Dai

 

Why do I only get your signature with no following cruise history?

What have I done to upset you;)

 

Regards

Cb

 

OMG I have been robbed.:eek:

 

Do not let stopgo leave the website.

 

:)Happy Cruising:)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[tom_uk]

Dai

 

Why do I only get your signature with no following cruise history?

What have I done to upset you

 

Apologies if everyone know this, but one of the configurable properties in your Profile (in Edit Options - Thread Display Options) is to untick 'Show Signatures' and 'Show Avatars'. If you untick these, once you're logged in you don't see sigs & avatars in posts. You do see them until you log in, of course.

[stopgo]

Can't be bothered with all that nonsense. Strikes me there are too many people on here with too much time on their hands.

[daiB]

Can't be bothered with all that nonsense. Strikes me there are too many people on here with too much time on their hands.

 

Err the pot calling..............................

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[stopgo]

This does worry me a little. One of the reasons for paying so much money to go on a cruise is so we don't have to put up with "insert name for anitsocial behavour"

 

Now I know the papers talk rubbish most of the time. But it is a worry, I really hope their is sufficient security on board.

 

I go on holiday to Las Vegas on a regular basis and its a fantastic place to go. I went to the boxing last December to watch Ricky Hatton. The football houligan element turned up and ruined Vegas completely. I was embaressed to be English.

 

I am looking at the holiday positively, but P&O will have to be carefull there are plenty of other cruise companies out there, we very almost booked on Celebrity this time, hopefully all will be well and I will be booking P&O next year.

 

Incidently an old friend of mine was on this cruise I think I will give him a bell and get the story from the horses mouth.

 

Chris

Sorry LIV but this post worrys me. Your saying that people in low income's cause all the trouble, this is simply not true Bad behaviour cuts right through the economic and social groups. Your implication that by paying large sum of money, that you should not have to put with bad manners and unruley behaviour upsets me. I think makeing sweeping generalisations is unhelpful and distasteful, and I think an apology is needed.

[mann overboard]

Oh dear!

And I was having such a pleasant afternoon.

[G'ma]

Cruise lines need to step up and recognize that the profile for cruise passengers has changed radically over the past 5-8 yrs. With super cheap rates being offered as a normal part of doing business, cruising has attracted a certain clientele of low character and little or no regard for rules, laws and no knowledge of cruising at all.

 

They ignore the rules, do what they want-when they want, have no regard for other passengers onboard. They drag their brats along and turn them loose to run rampant throughout the ship, annoying others with their screaming, obsenities and bad behavior - without a thought of discipline. The adults (and the underage) drink themselves into a stupor, stagger around becoming a problem to others. They drag as much alcohol onboard as they can get away with and proceed to drink as much as they can to the point of becoming dangerous to be around. Rules? - Their answer is "it's my vacation and I can do what I want"...thereby causing disruption, fights and other hostilities on the ship. They are rude, loud-mouthed, disgusting and cause too many problems - problems that must be addressed sooner or later and which leads to unpleasantness.

 

Until the cruise companies become serious about smuggling alcohol, become serious about confiscating it, become serious about cutting off alcohol purchases onboard by those obviously drunk...it will only get worse. Until they start actually enforcing the rules onboard about saving deck chairs, seats in the lounges, controlling children and other infractions, things will only get worse.

 

They all need to hire and train more security who need to be visible and observant day and night......and who actually enforce the rules, take control of the drunks, drag the brats back to their parents. Use the option to remove disruptive people from the ship.... Put some teeth in the missed port policy....with onboard announcements, in the daily paper, signs at the Guest Services desk, hand-outs at checkin.

 

These morons are the minority....most cruisers are well-mannered, polite, obey the rules and cruise to have a good time. It's that minority, however, that is ruining the cruise experience for many of us who love cruising and who cruise often. Nobody with half a brain wants to spend the week dodging fists, listening to arguments, fights, avoiding the "barf and puke" crowd or monitoring other peoples brats.

 

Wake up, cruise lines.......or you will lose your base one day and your ships will have to be filled with troublemakers who will double your costs and eat in to your bottom line.

[snikrup]

I was very upset to read this yesterday. I wouldn't have read it had it not been for my brother who sent me the article thinking it was "funny" (I worked on Ventura from March until September last year). I soon put him right - don't worry! I know the people on board the ship who are responsible for family functions (I worked with them) and I am 100% sure that they will have done their upmost to sort the problems. The security staff on board are fantastic people and the four night supervisors on board are some of the most hard working people you will meet. I know one gentleman who will have been paged and then I know he would not have gone to bed the rest of the night but would still have been at work for a 12 hr day with 200% enthusasm at 7am the next day. Ventura is a big ship though! It takes about 5 mins to walk from one end to another (My cabin was at the back, and the crew internet room is at the front!) and there are not enough staff on board to deal with the night shift. It is shoreside who are to blame for that - this is what angers me. I could go on, but I won't!!

[scapel]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article5489227.ece

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From The Sunday Times

January 11, 2009

 

 

Ocean cruise ends in almighty brawl

 

Passengers got that sinking feeling after ‘chavs’ boarded a P&O liner

 

Helen Brooks and Maurice Chittenden

 

 

div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;} WHEN it set sail for its latest tour of the Caribbean, the liner Ventura was brimming with festive cheer. This weekend, however, it is awash with claims that “chav” holidaymakers had turned it into the cruise ship from hell.

P&O is bracing itself for a flood of complaints from returning passengers about a “them and us” divide which saw guests who had paid up to £7,500 a cabin taking refuge from fighting families and underage drinkers. Some claim that youths were caught trying to set fire to a Christmas tree.

It may be the first of many holiday cruises to suffer from the credit crunch. Would-be passengers who had placed a 10% deposit decided they could not afford the full cost of the cruise and cancelled.

Instead, P&O filled the rest of the 3,300 places aboard ship with holidaymakers who were seeking a last-minute sunshine bargain.

Cruising etiquette went overboard with the new breed of cut-price passengers, who tried to reserve sun beds all day by draping towels over them and allegedly sent their underage children to the ship’s 12 bars to stock up on alcohol.

A brawl between two families from Manchester apparently broke out over who was drinking the better champagne.

Children threw food at stewards and abused the ship’s officers when asked to stop. Even the captain was booed when he tried to count down to midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Bad weather meant that the £330m ship, which was launched in Southampton last year, missed three of the six islands on its itinerary. Instead, it made an unsched-uled stop at another port to put ashore two youths who were behaving badly.

Barbara Stone, 69, from Old Windsor, Berkshire, said: “I booked months in advance and paid £8,000 for four people. I then heard on board that people had picked up tickets for £900 per person a few weeks before the cruise started.

“I’ve been on 14 cruises now and this one was definitely the worst. My friend saw a 14-year-old boy who was blind drunk in the lift. We also heard that a fight took place because a waiter wouldn’t serve alcohol to a 14-year-old and the boy’s father became aggressive.”

Richard Rawlings, 20, a student from Wilmslow, Cheshire, who was on the boat with his father Nigel, 52, an accountant, his mother Joy and his 17-year-old sister, said: “We paid £15,000 for two cabins. When we got on board we heard people had got it much cheaper. It was full of chavs. Kids were trying to torch the Tamarind lounge and there was a big fight between two Manchester families.

“Someone was cut with a broken glass on New Year’s Eve. I was threatened when I tried to sit on a sun lounger - somebody had tried to reserve it all day by leaving a towel on it.”

Alan Osborn, of Berkham-sted, Hertfordshire, a retired company director who was on board with his wife Joyce, has sent a six-page letter of complaint to his cruise agent. “We have been on many cruises but were very disappointed with this one. It was the first cruise where I have heard people boo the captain,” he said.

“Two men spent the night in Ventura’s cells and were put ashore, while two young men who tried to set fire to a Christmas tree were apprehended by a criminal lawyer who was among the passengers.” Osborn, who paid more than £4,000 for his cabin, added: “There was an atmosphere on the ship which I likened to the worst days of Benidorm and the lager louts.”

Heather Pearce, another passenger, said: “Large aggressive groups of people were drinking lots. To get away from the mobs we went down to the Havana bar. In the bar I just felt like it was going to boil over.

“This huge family were throwing cigarette butts overboard and we were stood watching the butts land on the cabins underneath. Usually on a cruise boat there is a lot of security around, but on this one we just didn’t feel safe.”

Crew members aboard the Ventura - launched by Dame Helen Mirren in April and now in Barbados awaiting its next cruise – said only four security staff were on duty at night.

They confirmed that one incident on New Year’s Eve escalated into a fight in the Havana bar between two youths and two adults. An entertainments officer tried to break it up until security guards could arrive. One of the youths was cut in the face with a broken glass.

Officers said they were unaware of an attempt to set fire to a Christmas tree and insisted the “torching” incident in the Tamarind lounge involved a young passenger popping balloons with a cigarette lighter.

They claimed that under18s could get alcohol on board only through their parents or by bringing it onto the ship.

The officers admitted, however, that two youths, together with an adult guardian, were put ashore at St Vincent for contravening rules on bad conduct.

A P&O spokesman said: “Should anyone wish to contact us formally in writing then we will respond to them immediately and thoroughly investigate the concerns.”

The spokesman said only 4% of passengers had cancelled in the two months prior to departure and cabins had been filled without “undue discounting” - although he admitted that reducing ticket prices by up to 50% was not unusual.

Security let this get out of hand.

Fighting over chairs? Security come out and make a ruling and who doesn't like the ruling can be confined to their cabin or go to the brig.

[NSWP]

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE DEFINITION OF ' CHAV '

 

I DO NOT THINK I WILL INTRODUCE IT INTO THE AUSTRALIAN VERNICULAR ALTHOUGH WE DO SPEAK THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH AS YOU WOULD KNOW.

 

I THINK WE WILL KEEP OUR CHAVS AS 'BOGANS' OR FERALS.' !!

 

Anyway it will be interesting to see P&O UK's response to all this, maybe a goodwill letter with a future cruise 20% discount to those who complained? That is the norm. here.

[sierracruisers]

Very loosely a chav is someone with little taste who wears bling and has an amount of money.:eek:

 

It is used as a derisive term by those who would look down on such people.

 

It is a load of ********** (Insert whever term you wish)

 

Happy Cruising

 

 

 

 

 

Dai

 

Oh darn, that makes me a Chav.--minus all the big bucks.:rolleyes: Do Blinkies count as bling? (Magnetic pins that flash and blink) Our CC group love our blinkies.

[sierracruisers]

Definition from Wikipedia

Chav, Chava or Charva is a slang derogatory term applied to certain young people in the United Kingdom. The stereotypical image of a chav is a white aggressive teen or young adult, of working class background, who wears branded sports and casual clothing (baseball caps are also common) who often fights and engages in petty criminality and are often assumed to be unemployed or in a low paid job. The term may originate from the Romany term "Chavvy", which is a general term for young person.In its English form it is generally derogative and appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005

 

Brian

 

Never mind--I guess I'm not a chad.

But seriously, I'm known for jumping on board last minute for the best deal.--Bargain shopping is a sport in the US.;) But I would never think to cause such trouble. I rarely drink onboard because it makes me sleepy, so one should be careful who they label as the troublemakers without having first-hand knowledge.

[NSWP]

So a male Chav is a CHAV, would a female chav be a CHAVESS ? And what about a CHAVS child, would it be a MINI CHAV. The mind boggles.

[Sparkle 123]

There was a lively discussion about this cruise on Jeremy Vine yesterday.You can listen to it on bbc iplayer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/vine/

Click on the right hand menu "Listen again" its on the last 15 mins of the programme. Glad we went on Celebrity this Christmas now!

Enjoy...

Lisa

[jocap]

:DHusband booked me a surprise cruise on Ventura for our 30th anniversary in Oct. on Saturday. He also bought me the Sunday Times next. day. Now my friends dissolve into hysterics when I tell them about my lovely gift! It'll be GREAT!!!-jocap.

[lostinvegas]

Sorry LIV but this post worrys me. Your saying that people in low income's cause all the trouble, this is simply not true Bad behaviour cuts right through the economic and social groups. Your implication that by paying large sum of money, that you should not have to put with bad manners and unruley behaviour upsets me. I think makeing sweeping generalisations is unhelpful and distasteful, and I think an apology is needed.

 

Please quote me where I said "people in low income's cause all the trouble" or anything similar?

 

I am paying a lot of money to holiday on a cruise with P&O, a company I have traveled with before who have a reputation for good security and well mannered customers.

 

I said nothing about people on low incomes. You will notice I was also carefull in my original post not to brand anyone with any labels (unlike everyone else).

"insert name for anitsocial behavour"

 

Unlike some other people on this forum I usually back up what I say with fact or personal experience and not hear say.

 

If you knew anything about me or where I come from your view of my post would be very different.

 

I think you are the one who should apologise.

 

Chris

[The Welsh Man]

Chris,

 

Did you have a chance to speak to your pal who was on this cruise?

 

Take Care

 

Carl