Pacific Dawn Management have the Public Relations skills of Basil Fawlty!

My husband and I had the unfortunate experience of sailing on the New Year’s Eve cruise aboard P&O’s “Pacific Dawn”. Our holiday was pretty much ruined within a few hours of boarding the ship thanks to the Basil Fawlty like attitude of management which can only be described as rude, accusatory, condescending and disgusting. At 2.00pm we noticed a high pitched ringing noise (very similar to that of tinnitus) coming from the air-conditioning vent in our cabin. We rang reception and notified them of it, they said they would send someone to check it out. An hour later we still had not had anyone come by so we rang reception again to ask what was going on. They said they would get someone to come and check it out. Within about 15 minutes an Accommodation Manager arrived and we told him about the noise and showed him where it was coming from. He stood there and listened and blatantly, to our faces, said he couldn’t hear anything! Gobsmacked we said “what, you can’t hear that noise?” and he was adamant he couldn’t. We told him it was coming from the air-conditioning vent and it needed to get fixed because we could not possibly stay in the cabin with that noise for the next 12 days. He said he would get someone else to come and see if they could hear the noise. A little while later he returned with 2 other members of staff and then promptly left without a word. Thankfully these 2 could hear the noise but didn’t appear to have a clue what to do about it. We were told that the ship was full and there was nowhere they could move us to. We felt that we were being accused of lying about and/or exaggerating the noise just to try and get an upgrade. Again we reiterated that we knew what the noise was and where it was coming from and that we didn’t want to move, we just wanted it to be fixed. They said they would get a maintenance person to come and look at it. In the meantime another Accommodation Manager turned up to listen to the noise. He said absolutely nothing to us, walked in, heard the noise and walked straight back out again. At this point we were becoming quite perplexed, we almost felt like it was a joke like we were on Candid Camera because no one was listening to us or seeming to take it very seriously. After waiting 2 hours for the maintenance person to arrive we gave up and called reception again to find out what was going on. About 15 minutes later another member of staff turned up with a maintenance person. The maintenance person listened to the sound and told us that he was going to need to get someone else to help him with fixing it. After waiting another 2 hours for the maintenance person to return we called reception again to find out what was going on. They did not know what was going on but told us they thought someone was trying to find us a new cabin. Sick of being fobbed off by phone I went and saw reception in person. I spoke to a lady there who said “Oh, haven’t you heard from the accommodation manager, they found you a new cabin and want to show it to you?” “No” was obviously my very frustrated answer. So my husband and I were escorted to a cabin that was right at the front of the ship on a level higher than we were and offered that. Someone had just moved out of it we were told, so alarm bells are already ringing that there was a problem with the room. We walked into a dark and tiny cabin that was clearly inferior to the level of cabin that we had paid for. So we said no, just fix the noise in our cabin because we want to stay there. For several hours we waited to hear from someone and we were hungry and thirsty, not having been able to leave our cabin all day because we didn’t want to miss someone coming to fix the noise given some people were saying they couldn't even hear it! Again, sick of waiting, I visited reception who told me that someone was coming to look at it and that we should just go and get some dinner. Typically, upon returning from dinner there was a note to say that maintenance had come by to fix the noise and to call them upon our return. Our room was hot and the air-conditioning had been turned up on high. The noise was there but not as loud. We turned it back to cool and as soon as that happened, the high pitched ringing noise returned! My husband called them and was told that the noise was fixed. He said it wasn’t and that the noise had only subsided because they had turned the air-conditioning up. Did they really think we were that stupid that we wouldn’t notice what they had done?? Again, he reiterated that the problem was with the air-conditioning and that they needed to fix it. Nothing happened again for several hours until 11.00pm when I was so angry that I went back around to reception. This time I got a man who basically told me that they had offered us a new cabin, which we had refused to take, and therefore they had done their duty and we were just going to have to put up with the noise. I asked to speak to the Manager. Finally, I got a nice lady called Lynn, who was aware of what was going on and offered to come to the room and listen to the noise. Not only could she hear the noise, she agreed with us on what it was and knew the right person who could come and fix it. Within 5 minutes she was back with another maintenance person who also knew what the problem was. He went to get another maintenance person who came with a ladder and duct tape. They took the panel off from the ceiling and duct taped around the whole tube and within 5 minutes it was fixed and the high pitched ringing noise had disappeared! Lynn was the first, and only person, all day to actually apologise to us for the awful inconvenience we had experienced. By the time they had left it was 11.30pm at night, 9 and a half hours after we initially reported the problem telling them exactly what it was and that we wanted it fixed. Instead, for 9 and a half hours we had between 10-15 people traipse in and out of our cabin not knowing what to do about it and accusing us of lying about it to get an upgrade. I don’t think we have ever felt so frustrated by a situation so much in our entire lives. If they had of listened to us straight away it could have been fixed in under 30 minutes.

The next morning we visited reception to speak to them about compensation. We had lost a whole day of our cruise sitting in the cabin waiting for people to come. We had a quick dinner and didn’t get to take part in any of the entertainment activities that had been on the day and night before. It had cost us $324 for each day of the cruise so we felt that was the least we should be refunded. The Accommodation Manager who apparently couldn’t hear the noise the day before met us in our cabin and presented us with a $30 wine voucher (we gave that back as we don’t drink wine) and said they would give us a $50 on board credit. He said it in such a way that he really thought it was a great offer that we should be privileged to receive! Gobsmacked, for the second time in barely 24 hours, we declined the offer and asked to see the Manager. After waiting 15 minutes one of the Managers came and saw us. She offered us a $100 on board credit and pretty much told us to take it or leave it because we weren’t going to be getting anymore. We explained that we thought we should be refunded the $324 for the day but she said that we had only been inconvenienced for 9 hours, not 24 hours, so the $100 was based on that. Flabbergasted by this unbelievably awful display of customer service we took the $100 and went back to our cabin in disbelief. Words cannot describe how insulted we felt, it was literally like a slap in the face.

The next day we went back to reception to let them know how unhappy we were with their service and that we were thinking of leaving the ship when we arrived in Fiji, which was true. The attitude that we got was that we were over-reacting to the situation but soon enough we were being summoned to the Director’s office for a meeting. Here we met the Director, who could only be described as Sybil Fawlty. I half expected the box of chocolates, nail file and cigarette in her hands, but we did get the “I know, I know, I know”. Her apologies held the sincerity, genuineness and empathy of a well-seasoned politician who really didn’t care and was only covering her butt by seeing us. She said she was sorry that they had not lived up to our expectations, the problem was, they hadn’t even cared enough to try.

I understand the ship will be getting a refit in March. May I suggest that management use this time to go on a Royal Caribbean cruise and see how well they treat their customers. A refit might make it prettier on the outside but it’s the inside that needs to be fixed here. As they say, you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter and that's all they will be doing here unless they take a real hard look at themselves.

I sympathise with you re the noise. We cruised on this ship in 1997 when it was still the Regal Princess and had an almost identical problem with a hideous noise coming from the aircon vent. We also had to go through hoops to get anyone to pay attention - when we began sleeping in the theatre at night to get some peace, they finally did and we got a new cabin.

Perhaps this ship has some intrinsic issues that no matter how many cosmetic refits it has, those core issues remain.

So to summarise, on the day you boarded, you noticed a noise, and they fixed it by 11:30 p.m. that same day.

You then demanded compensation, and were given $100.

That sounds more than reasonable. Things aren't perfect always, on ANY line.

All the rest appears to be a drama of your own making. There was no need for you to hang around all day. The fact they were visiting shows they were paying attention to the issue- and trying to resolve it promptly. Clearly, they were trying to resolve it, but since you didn't suggest putting duct tape, I don't see how you can claim that they should have listened to you earlier. They listened to you, and agreed there was a noise. The issue was resolving it, which was done the same day.

And as for the last, exaggerating the damages is just that, an exaggeration.

Given you didn't mention anything else, it appears every other day of the cruise once it was fixed was fine.

It would be interesting to hear how the other 96% (4% approx "lost" in your endeavour to have the problem rectified. I agree Big M that the $100 compensation is very fair and I would have been happy to have the problem rectified and received the compensation and move on with enjoying my cruise.

Well that is a shame you experienced that, we have cruised on Pacific Dawn 8 times and found the staff to be very attentive and accommodating. They are wonderful and caring. Maybe cruising is not for you, as it does not suit everyone. Hope your next holiday, whatever and wherever it may be, is more rewarding for you . :)