Bazrat

15 minutes ago, david63 said:

And that is the whole point that P&O rely on. having said that the same applies to all cruise lines and always has.

My first P&O cruise was in 1996 on Oriana shortly after she entered the fleet and apart from the "She's not like Canberra" comments I have no idea what things were like on P&O before then but accepted is as the norm.

Totally agree with your comments, we came to cruising late and really enjoyed the experience, then I joined this forum to find out what others have lost, to us to be honest it didn't matter all that mattered was we enjoyed the experience.

16 hours ago, Denarius said:

I have read this thread with interest.

I first sailed with P&O in 1997 having previously sailed with Cunard and Costa. They were not cheap but represented fair value for money. Whilst I continued to sail with other lines P&O became my first port of call. Over the next 20+ years I sailed with them around 40 times and at times attained the Baltic tier of the Peninsular Club. Over the years however, I have noticed a steady deterioration in the cruise experience; mainly little things which taken in isolation are of no great consequence but which taken together and cumulatively represent a gradual slide from up market luxury to cheap and cheerful. P&O undoubtedly now provide excellent value for money, but the overall cruise experience is no longer what it was. But to get the latter, you need to be able and prepared to pay significantly more. In real terms, similar to what P&O charged 30 years ago and what Saga, Viking etc charge now!

The problem is how will the new cruisers know what they missed without ever experiencing it, they go on a cruise enjoy themselves not burdened by what the older generations had.

On 3/24/2024 at 2:36 PM, terrierjohn said:

On our current Iona cruise the biggest change we are noticing is the number of overweight passengers there are on board, and quite a number could described as morbidly obese, some quite young but mainly among the elderly retired. So it appears that the withdrawal of trays might have reduced wastage, but possibly the passengers are now eating it all rather than leaving it!!

The age range of all passengers goes from very young families right up to the very elderly, so no significant noticeable change in the age demographic for a 14 nt winter sun cruise.

Overweight passengers listen I am the correct weight but the wrong height, if I was 3ft taller my weight would be perfect.

We was on Arvia last year and was looking to book the Christmas cruise on Britannia, the price onboard we thought was reasonable until my wife received an email offering a bigger discount with more onboard credit, the young lad who took our booking had to check if it was genuine, as of yet the price is still cheaper than now plus we have more onboard credit.

We have cruised regularly since covid on various lines, and to be honest what have been removed we have not missed.

31 minutes ago, gadabout60 said:

Also add in desserts that you can’t resist instead of being bland and watery and decent cheese

my last cruise was on Britannia last year and food was ok to good - but still not what it used to be!

there is of course now an option to upgrade in mdr but it is only 1 item for each course throughout the whole cruise

agree of course that food is subjective but Selbournes posts have resonated with some P&O cruises of recent years 

To be honest we never really remember the quality of food only if it is bad than we don’t go back to that particular restaurant.

34 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I still firmly believe that the quality, and look of the MDR food is due to the standards demanded by the chief chef.

However like @Selbourne I do think the hexagon shaped roast potatoes do need to be dropped and replaced with something that genuinely looks and tastes like a roast potato, and green beans should no longer be a daily staple, and sauces need to have more taste and substance.

Hexagon shaped roast potatoes that’s a new one on me, didn’t have them on Arvia but will be looking out for them on Arcadia soon.

When we go on a cruise or any holiday we put aside a certain amount we are prepared to pay for food and drink, our onboard credit normally means we don’t dip into our fund but I don’t go on holiday to count the pennies.

21 hours ago, gadabout60 said:

But Selbourne has reported that only 20% of mdr food was very good - the rest was mediocre or worse.15 years ago 80% would be very good - better cuts of meat, much bigger choice of veg, flavoursome desserts, decent cheese etc. Personally I would rather a cruise line gave us decent mdr food rather than cut prices to a ridiculously low and unsustainable level. I am not a foodie either but on a 60plus night cruise like this one I would have started to find the mdr a trial

Selbourne gave us his opinion of the food which might not be the same as yours or mine it was just his opinion, until we have tried such a cruise I can only give my opinion of the food we have had onboard.

7 hours ago, gadabout60 said:

Cruising on some cruises with P&O is interesting. Standard food offering in MDR and buffet is universally agreed not to be great but some very cheap cabins sometimes to be had.

I for one - and I suspect many Aurora passengers would agree -would be happy to pay say £10 more per day and go back to the P&O dining experience of 15 years ago.

perhaps not so relevant on the newer ships but certainly on cruises like this one 

No idea what cruising was like 15 years ago being a relatively new cruiser, paying extra so you can return to some past days is not something I would agree with, the food we have had on various cruise ship’s across various lines as always been good but alas we are not foodies but like decent food.

We will be going in a EV not a Tesla everything should ok, your best bet would be to join a Tesla dedicated site they will be more capable of answering any questions you might have.

Funny story we booked an appointment for the future cruises on the app and turned up on our allotted time, we went to the dedicated desk to be loudly shouted at by a woman saying we was jumping the queue at which point the young lad behind the desk said hello Barry and Sharon please sit, I looked at the woman who kicking up the fuss and explained we was in a virtual queue do you wish for us to join your queue, alas still waiting for an answer 

After our TA on Arvia we had no problems with getting a table in the mdr or saying that in any restaurant where we had to use the app, the atmosphere was to our liking only got lively in the dome, would we sail on her again yes.

11 minutes ago, zap99 said:

One of our sales managers lied 50% of the time. It was difficult to know which 50%.

Just out of interest was they saying you was doing a good job.

1 hour ago, Yorkie69 said:

It is the lack of information from Maleth or P&O’s to ensure a 9+ hour wait in an airport could easily have been avoided.

When we was in the States we was delayed at Newark for 6 hrs, only information we was given was to keep an eye on the boards.

We was in Martinique a few months ago and we encountered no problems with the people just very poor upkeep of the pavements because I almost broke my big toe on one of them, we walked around the town it was okay nothing special then I hurt my toe and my impression went downhill after that.

On 2/2/2024 at 8:21 PM, Yorkie69 said:

Apologies but a week into the cruise and this is the first time we have had any time with internet to update on how things planned out on our flight from Gatwick. As you know, we were 6.5 hours late to depart and arrived into Antigua 21:00. We were told on the plane by the pilot that the delay was indeed known by all parties the previous day as the plane needed maintenance in France and bad weather meant it had to put back the flight time.It was decided to not tell passengers and just ensure we were at the airport in case any time could be made up. It wasn’t and the plane was still in France at 1pm. We were told that a P and O rep would meet us at the airport and explain and apologies, they weren’t and the delay was not acknowledged by any staff on the ship, frustrating many of us. We went to reception on the first day to explain our frustration and was told the flight liaison officer would contact us. After a further two days and no one contacting us we again returned to reception to be advised that the flight liaison officer had left a message on our phone, they hadn’t. We again were told we would be contacted. On day five, with still no contact to discuss our flights we were told again we would be contacted that day but we refused to move until the manager responsible had come to see us. Ten minutes later we had our flight delay invoice/details. We have been given a free meal in the Epicurian too for the poor way the whole episode was dealt with. For balance, the cruise has been amazing so far and all the staff have been as excellent as ever. I do feel that the reception staff have been told to fob people off with regards to the flight issues as it seems most people complaining are getting similar statements around a manager contacting them but having to keep chasing up the issue. You can see the smile disappear whenever anyone says “Maleth Aero” at reception! One week

left before the flight back and we just hope that the delay isn’t as severe.

The flight itself was ok but the plane is poor. My seat had tape around the 1970’s orange valour head rest to keep it together! The cabin staff were very good and drinks and food were ok.

I hope all those that are flying to the Caribbean don’t suffer with Maleth (the Flight liaison Officer stated the contract will not be renewed) as it was like flying a poor Ryanair flight long haul.

So the original flight was delayed because of bad weather in France so the plane was delayed and the company’s was hoping to make the time up which they was unable to do, so the biggest complaint is lack of information from Maleth which seams to be a justified complaint as I  have read many times.

1 hour ago, TigerB said:

 

 

 

The rolling eyes emoji and the laughing emoji in the reactions from @terrierjohn, @SeaJane, and @Angel57 clearly went over your head then!🙄

Nope just chose to ignore it

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

Presume like any other company. TrustPilot you can just write reviews without a reservation number etc. Feefo you actually need a link to write the review. So TrustPilot I would say is more fake in hindsight just look at the reviews for Feefo on it....

That's my view after reading some of the comments 

2 hours ago, TigerB said:

 

I use Facebook; reviews on there are always impartial and balanced.......... aren't they?🙄

Obviously if you believe that who am I to argue, but saying that if you join a specific group who are actually going somewhere you will find useful information.

3 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

The Maleth fiasco is certainly pulling down the P&O rating on Trustpilot and other review sites, it must be costing Maleth a fortune in flight compensation payments as P&O refer customers to Maleth to claim, whether customers are receiving compensation is not known.

 

There was a response from P&O to say that TUI will be providing flights next year, but isn’t that what they said for this year. 
 

The review of Maleth from an employee point of view, yes these could be just disgruntled employees, is isn’t good either frequently stating business is disorganised, a shambles, chaotic,and worryingly if true flight hours for crew have been exceeded. 

Trust pilot is not the site I would use to get a balanced view

23 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We have no idea about the good old days with cheese wheels, drinks with the captain, gin and IT before dinner. We just enjoy things as they are now.

Why did you have to mention the cheese wheels ?, you know that will bring up endless conversations about falling standards 

5 hours ago, Tomcruise92 said:

That's completely understandable, I'm not saying it's bad at all and I'm glad you are happy with the service. All I'm saying is, if P&O up their prices again to similar prices to competitors/other lines in the premium line category, they should reflect that by upping their product to match. If you can pay the same and get more elsewhere, they may start to lose business. Ps. I'm in my 30s so I too have no idea about the good old days, my only comparison is with other lines.

I get we’re your coming from about them increasing prices but like I said if it becomes expensive and in my view not good value for money I would just switch cruise lines.

On 1/26/2024 at 7:25 AM, Tomcruise92 said:

If P&O increase their prices to pre pandemic levels, fine that's their choice. However, they really must then return to the premium cruise lines category and improve their service (dining,  evening turndown, coffee with room service breakfast (baffling), a proper app, ability to pre-book a table in the MDR and generally be a little more consistent across the line). Some of the new cruises are the same prices as Princess, HAL and Celebrity, yet with a significantly lower category product.

 

To be honest we are happy to pay for what we get, we have no idea about the good old days of p&o just the fact the cruises we have now we have enjoyed to the point we have booked further cruises for this year and next, the price we pay seam reasonable for what we get if not we would very happily move to another cruise line.

On 10/24/2022 at 6:24 PM, Snow Hill said:

Looks very cramped I guess P&O don’t want you sitting on your balcony when you could be sitting on deck and potentially spending money.

The balcony we had on our last TA on Arvia was more than adequate for our needs.