WARNING: P&O cost cutting.

We have just returned from a cruise on the Aurora to the Med.

In order to "stay competitive", they say, P&O have reduced shore time at the destinations to the point where you don't have time to do a half day excursion and then explore on your own for the rest of the day. In most places we were only in able to get ashore for 3 or 4 hours.

On previous cruises, we would leave around 6pm. On the cruise, the norm was having to be back on board by 3.30.

Aurora then poddled along at around 18 knots to the next destination.

This seems, from talking to staff, to now be common policy on P&O cruises to save fuel and port costs.

No complaints about service on board, but 9 sea days out of 16 days cruising and short times ashore at such wonderful destinations as Dubrovnic, Cefalonia and Cadiz is NOT the holiday I expected. It also became a major topic of conversation among passengers. Some amusing discussions about a group refusing to come back aboard as a protest.. But it didn't happen.

I will be writing a letter!

Have others experienced the same?

Yes I agree. I noticed it on the itinerary on our cruise on Oriana. It's really disappointing. Our Fred Olsen cruise is totally different, mostly back on board at 5pm and the same for our next one with them.

Yes I have heard this from a couple of people recently, we are booked to go to the Canaries in Oct, some of the trips are all day ones so I am hoping we won't be arriving late or leaving early at the ports, but who knows it might get changed.

We are only doing 5 stops this time on a 12 nighter, last time we did this trip for 13 nights I am sure we made 7 stops, so it looks like less ports might be the way forward too, I didn't check it out properly when we booked, my fault :mad:

I like to spend as much time as possible ashore so won't be happy if they are cutting costs like this

Janis

We are moving more and more towards Fred O - we just enjoyed it more.

The distances involved don't help either. reaching the adriatic from southampton means you will be steaming over 6000 miles in ?? days.

Contrast this with the Ventura fly cruises next year where the distance covered is about 3000 miles in 14 days.

Trouble is, I wouldn't go on Ventura, didn't like Azura - far too big and don't want to fly cruise. Quite enjoy the sea days at the beginning, but to then only have half a day in port is really not fair at all.

What I find strange (and really quite crafty) is that P&O don't publish the times before you go. With other cruise lines - Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean) - you know exactly what you are getting when you book. We have never had the times change (apart from when a port has had to be cancelled completely due to weather conditions) and they are published 12 - 15 months ahead. How can you organise private excursions if you don't know what time you will be arriving and leaving?

Did you not see the itinerary with the port times before you booked and boarded? Or did they change them while you were at sea?

Did you not see the itinerary with the port times before you booked and boarded? Or did they change them while you were at sea?

Where would you find them and I'll look at the cruise I'm taking in a few weeks time.

You can find approximate timings on your Cruise Personaliser. It says things like "Arrive early morning - depart afternoon". On my upcoming cruise to the Eastern Med, we are doing no ship tours at all. All are DIYable.

You can find approximate timings on your Cruise Personaliser. It says things like "Arrive early morning - depart afternoon". On my upcoming cruise to the Eastern Med, we are doing no ship tours at all. All are DIYable.

That's what I thought. Just looked at my CP and that's exactly what it says e.g depart late afternoon, early evening etc. but no specific times mentioned. I'm sure they used to put times on the CP. As already mentioned, it makes it difficult to plan your time ashore.

I have just looked at the cruise planner

Only 5 stops and 3 of them are afternoon departure, it does not say a time :confused: I didn't read the itinerary properly as is says 7 ports, but 2 of them are Southampton !:rolleyes:

I have checked the itinerary for our last Canaries cruise with P and O and there were actually 8 stops for a 13 nighter, the times are listed as arrive 8am and depart 6pm for 7 of the 8 ports

I didn't realise until now that we are getting 3 less ports for only 1 less night cruising, the final payment is due next Sunday and I have been thinking about cancelling but we are going with my sister and BIL and it will be their first ever cruise and the whole reason for going is for our 30th wedding anniversary, I don't want to spoil things for them but I wish I had checked things out more before we booked

I would rather change cruises but my sister won't fly so we are a bit restricted, you live and learn and if this cruise is not first class then it will be our last with P and O, in my opinion Celebrity was far better, only things was the very high drink prices and gratuities.

I think we will be trying Princess next

The only one of ours that says early evening is Venice. Also you can check on Cruise TT which gives the schedule for each ship.

For instance, I am really looking forward to Malta and our departure time on CruiseTT is 1500! Can you imagine what time we have to be back on board!!

Did you not see the itinerary with the port times before you booked and boarded? Or did they change them while you were at sea?

We knew how many sea days there were because that was quoted.. the rest was not clear on booking and we simply expected the same or similar to our last cruise with P&O... Won't make that mistake again!

The only one of ours that says early evening is Venice. Also you can check on Cruise TT which gives the schedule for each ship.

 

For instance, I am really looking forward to Malta and our departure time on CruiseTT is 1500! Can you imagine what time we have to be back on board!!

Thanks for the heads up

The times stated are 3 ports 8am to 5 pm, 1 port 7am to 5pm and 1 port 8am to 6pm

I hope these are correct but they don't really tally with the info in the CP

The only one of ours that says early evening is Venice. Also you can check on Cruise TT which gives the schedule for each ship.

 

For instance, I am really looking forward to Malta and our departure time on CruiseTT is 1500! Can you imagine what time we have to be back on board!!

Thanks for the info on cruise tt, never heard of it before. I've just printed off my port times. Thanks again:)

Going on my first P&O cruise soon, a 3 night break on Oceana. I rang up and asked what the times were, not as long as I am used to with RC and Princess, but not too bad.

However, if I was going on a longer cruise, it would be a deal breaker for me if the time in port was substantially diminished, in fact, this is the reason I have not booked with P&O previously.

You need to have your wits about you before you book, with any cruise line, but especially one that doesn't freely offer up the times of arrival and departure beforehand.

This is a big deal for us - leaving ports at 3:30 is no use. It is getting more and more difficult to find out the port times for P&O cruises, TT is not accurate at all. In the Caribbean in March on Ventura we left port at 5PM every day when it used to 6PM, you then used to get the sunset as you left port instead of an hour out to sea and that was bad enough. We are doing Celebrity Med next year and the major ports such as Rome are published as 7PM - can''t imagine what P&O's will be for Rome. When you view a potential cruise on P&O website the itinerary details as very vague, some don't even tell you which dates you are at a particular port, let alone state times. If they are starting to leave ports consistently at 3:30/4:00 we need to consider carefully if we cruise with them anymore.

A lot of my ports are 5 pm departure, but Malta is 3.30 pm Gib is only half a day whereas on Fred it was a whole day. Fred's ships are much smaller and slower, but they still manage a full day in port.

The only reason has to be money-saving, the ship goes at half speed and they save money on fuel and port fees. Not pleased.

What about arrival times? Are P&O arriving later?

What are the queues like to get off?

On Artemis, Arcadia it was fine, but on Azura getting back on board was a nightmare. Waiting for 45 minutes in the heat in a queue of people.

Following a recent cruise on Ventura to the western Med.

Southampton

3 days to Valencia arrived at 09:00 Back on board at 16:30

Next day at Barcelona arrived at 08:30 Back on board at 16:00

Next day at Monte Carlo arrived at 09:00 last tender at 16:30

Next day at Civitavecchia arrived at 07:30 Back on board at 18:30

Next day at Ajaccio arrived at 08:30 Back on board at 14:00

1 day at sea

Next day at Gibraltar arrived at 12:00 Back on board at 17:00

1 day at sea

Next day at Vigo arrived at 08:30 Back on board at 16:00

1 day at sea

Southampton

I guess the only port I would have wanted longer at was Ajaccio which was far too short.

The average speed of the ship when I checked most days was around 18-19 kts. I checked because on some days I thought we were going particularly slowly. This turned out to be an optical illusion depending on which deck I was viewing from, faster from the prom deck than when viewed from the sun deck where it appeared slower (makes sense of course).

While you can check your cruise once you have booked, is there any way you can check port times prior to booking? On another cruise it might make me change my mind about booking.

Cheers,

BR

You guys are right about short visits. Just checked our itinerary on Arcadia next year. Gibraltar, 27 April, 8am to 1.30pm. Not a lot of time. I won't have time to do a golf excursion into Spain. Just a walk into town and a look around, maybe go up and see the monkeys and get bitten. I was there in 2009 on Crown Princess, we had a full day then in Gib.

Just about all the other Ports are 5pm or 6pm departure.

You guys are right about short visits. Just checked our itinerary on Arcadia next year. Gibraltar, 27 April, 8am to 1.30pm. Not a lot of time. I won't have time to do a golf excursion into Spain. Just a walk into town and a look around, maybe go up and see the monkeys and get bitten. I was there in 2009 on Crown Princess, we had a full day then in Gib.

 

Just about all the other Ports are 5pm or 6pm departure.

You are lucky. Gibraltar must be the most boring place on earth. The best bit is the harbour itself, seen from the ship.

You are lucky. Gibraltar must be the most boring place on earth. The best bit is the harbour itself, seen from the ship.

Been there, done the apes and rock. Next visit is an afternoon call so i will just go into town for a beer.

Anyone know a good pub?