P & O cost cutting apparent

I have just returned from a 24 night cruise on Arcadia and felt that the standard of food was below what I would have expected the choice and quality was down and clearly they have been forced to reduce standards. Although the staff was excellent and I feel they are being let down by constraints imposed by head office to save money. The delivery and collection of baggage was a shambles with the result that disembarkation was half and hour late. Despite having priority embarkation and disembarkation this appeared to count for little. The present pricing policy is something of a lottery and despite the price promise I feel that booking to far in advance is not likely to prove worthwhile unless a specific cabin is required. I have cruised with P & O on 25 previous occasions my experience with the last cruise coupled with a very poor response from passenger services over booking a previous cruise has convinced me not to cruise with P & O again.

Unfortunately most of us buy on price so it is not surprising that the cruise lines sell on price.

I have just returned from a 24 night cruise on Arcadia and felt that the standard of food was below what I would have expected the choice and quality was down and clearly they have been forced to reduce standards. Although the staff was excellent and I feel they are being let down by constraints imposed by head office to save money. The delivery and collection of baggage was a shambles with the result that disembarkation was half and hour late. Despite having priority embarkation and disembarkation this appeared to count for little. The present pricing policy is something of a lottery and despite the price promise I feel that booking to far in advance is not likely to prove worthwhile unless a specific cabin is required. I have cruised with P & O on 25 previous occasions my experience with the last cruise coupled with a very poor response from passenger services over booking a previous cruise has convinced me not to cruise with P & O again.

That seems a good idea to me.

Gan Canny

Dai

I too believe p&o's standards have slipped in the the last couple of years.So much so that we have sinced cruised with celebrity and found the standard a lot better , like p&o standards were before the cost cutting! . Will still cruise with p&o but only on seven day cruises or less and celebrity on longer cruises

I too believe p&o's standards have slipped in the the last couple of years.So much so that we have sinced cruised with celebrity and found the standard a lot better , like p&o standards were before the cost cutting! . Will still cruise with p&o but only on seven day cruises or less and celebrity on longer cruises

We too think that the overall service on Celebrity is better than P&O, and in our experience the prices on Celebrity have been lower than on P&O, including drinks and shore excursions.

Strangely on our Arcadia cruise, which was some years ago now, we also thought the food quality was rather poor. But on our recent Azura and Ventura cruises the food was excellent, very similar standard to Celebrity.

Overall we still feel that P&O offers a very good cruise experience, and where we can get a reasonable early booking deal, essential as we need an accessible cabin, then we will be happy to continue cruising with them as well as Celebrity.

I too believe p&o's standards have slipped in the the last couple of years.So much so that we have sinced cruised with celebrity and found the standard a lot better , like p&o standards were before the cost cutting! . Will still cruise with p&o but only on seven day cruises or less and celebrity on longer cruises

I agree entirely. I sailed on Ventura over Easter and the cost cutting since my previous cruise on her (in 2011) was painfully apparent, both in the restaurant and buffet menus and in the evening entertainment. This summer I sailed with Celebrity (on Silhouette) and found their standards of service and food way above those on P&O; when I last sailed with them a few years ago I would have put food very much on a par. Celebrity do not major on formal entertainment, so P&O still has the edge if production shows in the theatre is your priority. General entertainment in the smaller venues was however, better and more varied. There was a jazz quartet and singer, a classical piano trio, a pop group, an accapelo vocal group, electric and accousic guitarists and other acts which I did not see. Much better than the diet of bland duos and cheap passenger participation activities like quizzes and karaoke served up by P&O nowadays.

If P&O stalwarts like myself (23 cruises) and the OP (25) are becoming dissillusioned the P&O really do need to pull their socks up.

We can all vote with our feet. Moaning will not change anything.

We can all vote with our feet. Moaning will not change anything.

To put the other point of view after 20 cruises we are still very happy with P&O. We do not see the downgrading that people talk about I have looked for reviews of this very cruise and found that there are more positive comments than negative

I fully agree with silver service if you do not like what is on offer then do not use P&O.

Then if you want to cruise from the UK you will find you are very limited.

Gan Canny

Dai

We can all vote with our feet. Moaning will not change anything.

Surely the customer is always right? Why shouldn't 'moaning (complaining) change anything?

I'm still gutted they have cancelled most of the sailaway bands now from Southampton!! What is a sailaway from a drizzly cold Southampton berth without a band? Just a chance to flog champagne and take photos to sell!

Another cost cutting exercise - say £400??? bring back the band I say!

Surely the customer is always right? Why shouldn't 'moaning (complaining) change anything?

 

I'm still gutted they have cancelled most of the sailaway bands now from Southampton!! What is a sailaway from a drizzly cold Southampton berth without a band? Just a chance to flog champagne and take photos to sell!

 

Another cost cutting exercise - say £400??? bring back the band I say!

Seven ships with say 25 departures per year. Thats £70,000. The bean counters will have noticed.

I think ALL the cruiselines have started 'penny pinching'. Been on RCI and Princess this year and the food quality has certainly deteriorated, especially on our Princess cruise. We are sailing on Aurora in January and I will wait and see what the standard of food is compared to our Ventura cruise last year. Also noticed on Princess (and RCI to a lesser degree) that the quality of service in the dining room has deteriorated but I think this is due to the waiters having to service more tables now than they did in the past. Also found it offputting to arrive back in our cabin at around 6-ish in the evening after a day by the pool to find our beds turned down for the night:eek: Again assume the stewards are having to service many more staterooms than in the past.

It's obvious that P&O are not filling their ships. In an effort to do so they are offering cruises at rediculously low prices e.g. Eastern Med 23 nights £999. To balance the books something else has to give. I'm not at all surprised.

Princess for some reason continue to fill their ships, e.g. Diamond Princess has been sailing full for the last 3 months. You can't even purchase a stateroom upgrade. The result is better food, service and standards.

I think ALL the cruiselines have started 'penny pinching'. Been on RCI and Princess this year and the food quality has certainly deteriorated, especially on our Princess cruise. We are sailing on Aurora in January and I will wait and see what the standard of food is compared to our Ventura cruise last year. Also noticed on Princess (and RCI to a lesser degree) that the quality of service in the dining room has deteriorated but I think this is due to the waiters having to service more tables now than they did in the past. Also found it offputting to arrive back in our cabin at around 6-ish in the evening after a day by the pool to find our beds turned down for the night:eek: Again assume the stewards are having to service many more staterooms than in the past.

Dorset Cruiser, just saw your post. Which Princess ship did you sail on?

I have sailed on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria this year in either Queens Grill or Princess Grill suites, the food in the Grills is excellent with virtually unlimited choice. One of the Cruises was considerably cheaper than an almost identical cruise on P & O in a balcony cabin. Seems with present economic climate to wait for a good offer is best policy. You may not get choice of cabin but with suites it is unlikely to make a lot of difference, however not all suites are wheelchair accessible.

Dorset Cruiser, just saw your post. Which Princess ship did you sail on?

Crown Princess from Venice to Rome.

Crown Princess from Venice to Rome.

Thanks for that. We sailed on the Crown in 2010, but don't recollect the food being bad. I just wonder if service is not so good because it has an extra passenger deck which means there are more passengers using the same amount of public space as the other ships....just a thought.

This year, we had a lovely Christmas/New Year on P & O in the Caribbean and also did a 2 nighter, but in August we cruised with Princess (Grand Princess) which we hadn't for a while; we have to say IMO the food in the dining rooms was definitely a notch, if not a couple, above the P & O cruises. In fact, the whole ambience of the ship seemed happier.

Have done several Princess cruises over the past few years and MDR food on the Crown was def. the worst we have encountered. That is not to say that it was all bad but, for instance, we had 3 steak meals and only 1 was good. HC food was good.

It's obvious that P&O are not filling their ships. In an effort to do so they are offering cruises at rediculously low prices e.g. Eastern Med 23 nights £999. To balance the books something else has to give. I'm not at all surprised.

 

Princess for some reason continue to fill their ships, e.g. Diamond Princess has been sailing full for the last 3 months. You can't even purchase a stateroom upgrade. The result is better food, service and standards.

Why do you think it is obvious that P&O are not filling their ships? Last minute bargains are to be had on almost all cruise lines, none of them like sailing with empty cabins.

Personally I have never sailed on any cruise that was not full, regardless of the cruise line, and my experiences on Princess, P&O and Celebrity have been virtually identical, with Celebrity just edging out the other 2 as our favourite.

As to the original question posed by the OP, no I do not think that standards from the cruise lines are slipping, but certainly they appear to be from some of the passengers.

Why do you think it is obvious that P&O are not filling their ships? Last minute bargains are to be had on almost all cruise lines, none of them like sailing with empty cabins.

Personally I have never sailed on any cruise that was not full, regardless of the cruise line, and my experiences on Princess, P&O and Celebrity have been virtually identical, with Celebrity just edging out the other 2 as our favourite.

As to the original question posed by the OP, no I do not think that standards from the cruise lines are slipping, but certainly they appear to be from some of the passengers.

Look at the P&O website at the moment and view the amount of getaway fares available. P&Os main customer base is the British passenger. Rarely do you sail on a P&O ship with lots of other nations. On the other hand, Princess, Celebrity and HAL attract American, Japanese, Chinese, Australian passengers and more. On our last Princess cruise there were only 300 Brits out of over 2900 passengers. Unless P&O can increase exposure to the wider world then things will not improve IMO. Even Art Auctions have been pulled from P&O ships because they weren't profitable compared to the US. Australia is, apparently emerging as a buoyant cruise passenger market.

My wife and I are sailing P&O on Friday for the first time, so unfortunately, or fortunately, we have nothing to compare the standards to, we will do as always, take it as we find it and judge it on that.;) Phil

Look at the P&O website at the moment and view the amount of getaway fares available. P&Os main customer base is the British passenger. Rarely do you sail on a P&O ship with lots of other nations. On the other hand, Princess, Celebrity and HAL attract American, Japanese, Chinese, Australian passengers and more. On our last Princess cruise there were only 300 Brits out of over 2900 passengers. Unless P&O can increase exposure to the wider world then things will not improve IMO. Even Art Auctions have been pulled from P&O ships because they weren't profitable compared to the US. Australia is, apparently emerging as a buoyant cruise passenger market.

Art auctions were pulled because they were a pain and nobody wanted them. I have never seen any report of anybody complaining about them. You really have a chip on your shoulder about P&O. Always having a dig.

Gan Canny

Dai

Art auctions were pulled because they were a pain and nobody wanted them. I have never seen any report of anybody complaining about them. You really have a chip on your shoulder about P&O. Always having a dig.

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

Agree entirely. Who will bid me £1000 for this painting worth £100? There's sure to be some sucker onboard.

With Whitewell you at least get respectable works of art by Doug Hyde etc at the same fixed price that you would pay at their shops in the UK.

Look at the P&O website at the moment and view the amount of getaway fares available. P&Os main customer base is the British passenger. Rarely do you sail on a P&O ship with lots of other nations. On the other hand, Princess, Celebrity and HAL attract American, Japanese, Chinese, Australian passengers and more. On our last Princess cruise there were only 300 Brits out of over 2900 passengers. Unless P&O can increase exposure to the wider world then things will not improve IMO. Even Art Auctions have been pulled from P&O ships because they weren't profitable compared to the US. Australia is, apparently emerging as a buoyant cruise passenger market.

Are you by any chance a politician?? Since you seem to have their knack of always answering one question with another.

The original post related to standards dropping on P&O, granted this will always result in subjective answers, which is fine because we are all entitled to our opinion. However as DaiB says you do seem to have it in for P&O which tends to make your posts rather predictable.

But I will try to give you my opinions on your latest comments. Yes P&O are almost exclusively marketed at UK passengers, so you will get mainly Brits on board. However our Eclipse cruise from Southampton in Sept. was similarly mainly Brits, probably less than 100 North Americans on board; and I believe that Princess sailings from the UK also have predominantly British passengers. Now IMO this is a very strong reason for P&O to ensure their standards do not slip below these other lines, or they will lose passengers.

There were also no art auctions on the Eclipse, this might be because with mainly Brit passengers Celebrity have also come to the conclusion that they are not worthwhile. Incidentally my view is that because American houses tend to be much bigger than ours, they have far more empty wall space, which is why they like to buy paintings.

Finally as to your current main point about the volume of discounted offers from P&O, I suggest you check out any online cruise TA and look at all the other non P&O discounted offers which are regularly offered. Mainstream cruising really is a cut throat business just at present.

Many P&O cruises appear to be well subscribed, one a friend is going on in Feb. is fully booked for balcony cabins apart from one grade which has a getaway price £100 less than full price.

I agree fully about the subjective ness of so much of cruising, food, entertainment and the decor of ships.

Agreement is almost impossible.

Gan Canny

:cool:

Dai