Aurora adults only

Actually I quite like the Sinatra era music. Years ago it was all on Radio 2 but now that is what Radio 1 used to be. You can no longer find music from the 40s and 50s. And at least it has a tune unlike most modern rubbish.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We have never cruised on an Adults only ship but we tend to cruise in term time with Cunard, Fred Olsen and the smaller P and O ships. The only annoyance we have had was on Aurora. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, late sitting dinner, bars and the late show. I could often hear a child screeching or screaming. I never worked out if it was the same child or different ones. I was just glad our cabin was well way from any such noise. Unfortunately children are noisy. Parenting can help but children will always make some noise. Adults are not completely quiet either.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Actually I quite like the Sinatra era music. Years ago it was all on Radio 2 but now that is what Radio 1 used to be. You can no longer find music from the 40s and 50s. And at least it has a tune unlike most modern rubbish.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Ironically so do I but having a 5 year old seems I’m doomed to years of automatic tuning, Lego movies and embarrassing dance crazes😂

I agree. I think even those of us who welcome the move to adult only would agree that family bookings should not have been taken a matter of months ago for summer 2019. The scenario that you describe must be heartbreaking for those involved. P&O certainly don’t cover themselves in glory with these situations.

Extremely poorly handled by P&O and as I said previously tantamount to sharp practise which is so unusual for an American company.

I have dealt with a good many American companies over a an extended period of time and one thing that has always stood out has been excellent customer service provided, to the extent that they put the majority of British firms to shame. In the case of P&O the reverse has happened. P&O used to be a British company that provided superb customer service resulting in brand loyalty. Customer service has certainly taken a definite dive since Carnival took over, most unusual for an American company. They simply don't care who they disappoint just as long as they can fill their berths.

Commercial concerns before honour each and every time.

I agree. I think even those of us who welcome the move to adult only would agree that family bookings should not have been taken a matter of months ago for summer 2019. The scenario that you describe must be heartbreaking for those involved. P&O certainly don’t cover themselves in glory with these situations.

Totally agree - really not sure what they were thinking of. Would not be happy if we had booked a few months back to be told that they were changing the ship / we could not sail on her. Just not good planning at all and terrible customer service.

P&O do not appear to have covered themselves with glory of late, displaying an extremely cavalier attitude to those who have booked well ahead in good faith, only to have their bookings cancelled. The Aurora debacle follows that of Adonia; cruises cancelled when transferred to Fathom, cruises cancelled when sold to Azamara. Ironically, Azamara is one of the lines to which I alluded in an earlier post, one of those which accept children but do not specifically cater for them. Perhaps P&O could do this on Aurora, if only in respect of cruises booked in good faith before the change was announced. A transition period if you like. Or is that too simple?

They must have known way back that they were going to do this. It could have been announced a lot earlier that from a certain date it would become Adult only, then people would not have booked.

From PO's bottom line point of view and from several family posters to this thread, early reservations have been transferred to another of the fleet. NOT to a competing line. We shall never know the actual statistics related to the eventual sail away line of all the early, family bookers. What we seem to know is that the general posters to CC/PO are becoming less enamoured with PO, resulting from a succession of own goals public relations wise. However, to what extent CC/PO posters represent a true cross-section of the lines intended guest demographic is open to question.

Not happy at all. Booked for Scottish school holidays in October 2019 on the first day bookings opened to ensure we had the cabins and cruise we wanted. What are we supposed to do now? No other cruise that is during this time is the same length, price or itinary. 5% compensation off a further cruise is insulting and doesn't cover the price hikes 5 months after booking. No unruly children in our group and never have been just parents with well travelled 15, 18 and 22 year olds with a collective 78 cruises under their belts. In all the times we have cruised we have seen more badly behaved adults than children so are happy to unload them from our family holiday to ships dedicated to their needs...alcohol...bullying staff....sunbed hogging whilst napping in their cabin...pomposity and bragging. They are welcome to an adults only ship. My issue is that P&O took my booking knowing full well it would be cancelled. Very poor. Will see what we think of them now on the 3 cruises we have booked for this year and decide if this will be our last year. Im sure Princess and Celebrity will welcome us back.

They must have known way back that they were going to do this. It could have been announced a lot earlier that from a certain date it would become Adult only, then people would not have booked.

Don’t think they have known that long as I think the change was triggered by the selling of Adonia which was a Carnival decision. In the corporate world it would take 6 month or so for a final decision to be made and to work out what changes there were to happen and where and when. Giving 13 months notice is reasonable given some of the changes made by other lines at times.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Not happy at all. Booked for Scottish school holidays in October 2019 on the first day bookings opened to ensure we had the cabins and cruise we wanted. What are we supposed to do now? No other cruise that is during this time is the same length, price or itinary. 5% compensation off a further cruise is insulting and doesn't cover the price hikes 5 months after booking. No unruly children in our group and never have been just parents with well travelled 15, 18 and 22 year olds with a collective 78 cruises under their belts. In all the times we have cruised we have seen more badly behaved adults than children so are happy to unload them from our family holiday to ships dedicated to their needs...alcohol...bullying staff....sunbed hogging whilst napping in their cabin...pomposity and bragging. They are welcome to an adults only ship. My issue is that P&O took my booking knowing full well it would be cancelled. Very poor. Will see what we think of them now on the 3 cruises we have booked for this year and decide if this will be our last year. Im sure Princess and Celebrity will welcome us back.

I totally agree with you. That's no compensation for being let down in the way you have. It's not easy to plan holidays if you have work & family to book your holiday around but P&O seem to be catering more & more for a retired, elderly passengers who don't have those commitments. You are spot on with the unruly adults aswell, we've seen far more badly behaved adults than we have seen kids. RCI etc will be getting my business in future aswell!

I totally agree with you. That's no compensation for being let down in the way you have. It's not easy to plan holidays if you have work & family to book your holiday around but P&O seem to be catering more & more for a retired, elderly passengers who don't have those commitments.

I fully sympathise with those who have been disappointed on this occason..... but retired and elderly people also have family and commitments to work around and regardless of age or stage of employment, we ALL invest a lot of time, emotion and money into choosing our holidays and are disappointed if these are cancelled for no fault of our own.

People who had booked on the adult only Adonia were also disappointed only recently, so I don't see how you can say P&O are catering more and more for the retired and elderly - especially as there are 4 other family friendly ships in the fleet plus another two huge ones in the offing for the families and young market compared to three adult only ones now but with the constant threat of Oriana disappearing..

I fully sympathise with those who have been disappointed on this occason..... but retired and elderly people also have family and commitments to work around and regardless of age or stage of employment, we ALL invest a lot of time, emotion and money into choosing our holidays and are disappointed if these are cancelled for no fault of our own.

 

People who had booked on the adult only Adonia were also disappointed only recently, so I don't see how you can say P&O are catering more and more for the retired and elderly especially as there are 4 other family friendly ships in the fleet plus another two huge ones in the offing for the families and young market compared to now three adult only ones but with the constant threat of one of those disappearing.

Have you seen or heard the entertainment on-board P&O?! If that's not catering towards the elderly amongst us I don't know what is!

Have you seen or heard the entertainment on-board P&O?! If that's not catering towards the elderly amongst us I don't know what is!

If you scroll back you will see my stance on some of the entertainment on board.

Bitterly disappointed that Aurora is becoming adults only. She's my favourite ship and my daughter's. I didn't mind Azura, but didn't like Britannia. Although our children are now adults (if we'd been cruising this year DS would have had his last cruise in kid's club) it's unlikely that Aurora's demographic, or that of any of the adult only ships, will suit people in their late teens/early 20s. We may get to sail on Aurora again (if she's still with the fleet) when DD and DS branch out into holidays on their own but I think we, too, may have to bite the bullet and look at lines like Celebrity/RCI/Princess, as ships around 3,000 pax capacity seem to be my limit. I really don't think the mega ships are for me - I like a ship that looks like a ship.

P&O seem to be catering more & more for a retired, elderly passengers who don't have those commitments.

Ventura, Azura and Britannia are recent additions to the fleet. All of them are family ships. The two new ships will probably be family ships too.

The adult only cruise fleet is primarily made up of old ships with (possibly) only a few years left before disposal. Hardly a big investment in OAP market. Just a convenient way to get squeeze the last revenue from old and out of date ships.

I will agree that announcing this after bookings have been taken is unfair. But it seems the way P and O deal with their customers. Also offering derisory compensation towards a possibly now more expensive and less suitable cruise is an insult. After the Adonia and Oriana situations I don’t have think P and O are concerned. Aurora has also followed the same cavalier approach.

Is upsetting loyal customers a good idea when you will soon have two big new ships to fill and you are in a competitive market.

Best wishes, Stephen.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Have to disagree about "recent additions" to the fleet. Ventura was launched in 2008 and Arcadia 2005 not a great deal of difference in age.

I fully sympathise with those who have been disappointed on this occason..... but retired and elderly people also have family and commitments to work around and regardless of age or stage of employment, we ALL invest a lot of time, emotion and money into choosing our holidays and are disappointed if these are cancelled for no fault of our own.

 

People who had booked on the adult only Adonia were also disappointed only recently, so I don't see how you can say P&O are catering more and more for the retired and elderly - especially as there are 4 other family friendly ships in the fleet plus another two huge ones in the offing for the families and young market compared to three adult only ones now but with the constant threat of Oriana disappearing..

I agree with everything you have said. P&O are replacing Adonia with Aurora as an adult only ship and are bringing on line 2 more huge family ships which will have a much larger capacity than Aurora so they are in fact catering more for families than for the retired and elderly. I hope that if / when they pension off Oriana that they will make Oceana adult only so that we still have the choice of 3 adult only ships.

Have to disagree about "recent additions" to the fleet. Ventura was launched in 2008 and Arcadia 2005 not a great deal of difference in age.

Three least old ships in the fleet might be a more accurate description then.

Not happy at all. Booked for Scottish school holidays in October 2019 on the first day bookings opened to ensure we had the cabins and cruise we wanted. What are we supposed to do now? No other cruise that is during this time is the same length, price or itinary. 5% compensation off a further cruise is insulting and doesn't cover the price hikes 5 months after booking. No unruly children in our group and never have been just parents with well travelled 15, 18 and 22 year olds with a collective 78 cruises under their belts. In all the times we have cruised we have seen more badly behaved adults than children so are happy to unload them from our family holiday to ships dedicated to their needs...alcohol...bullying staff....sunbed hogging whilst napping in their cabin...pomposity and bragging. They are welcome to an adults only ship. My issue is that P&O took my booking knowing full well it would be cancelled. Very poor. Will see what we think of them now on the 3 cruises we have booked for this year and decide if this will be our last year. Im sure Princess and Celebrity will welcome us back.

I sympathise with all those who had their holiday cancelled however ther is no such thing as a badly behaved child just lazy parents

I agree with everything you have said. P&O are replacing Adonia with Aurora as an adult only ship and are bringing on line 2 more huge family ships which will have a much larger capacity than Aurora so they are in fact catering more for families than for the retired and elderly. I hope that if / when they pension off Oriana that they will make Oceana adult only so that we still have the choice of 3 adult only ships.

People seem to think that a large ship is for younger passengers and family’s. This seems to be the case for other cruise lines but unless P&O fit these new large ships out with amusements like ice skating rinks, flow riders etc what are they actually doing to encourage the younger market? They can build the largest ship in the world but if they don’t put things onboard to attract younger passengers they will fail their target market and the older passengrs. Where then does this leave P&O?

It will be interesting to see how they define the niche of the two new ones :) .

Not only have P&O dealt with it badly but they have changed the wrong ship to adult only. They should have changed Ventura or Azura to adult only as far as we are concerned. We have sailed on both and as a family don't like either of them that's why we chose Aurora.

Not only have P&O dealt with it badly but they have changed the wrong ship to adult only. They should have changed Ventura or Azura to adult only as far as we are concerned. We have sailed on both and as a family don't like either of them that's why we chose Aurora.

What would Noddy do?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Not only have P&O dealt with it badly but they have changed the wrong ship to adult only. They should have changed Ventura or Azura to adult only as far as we are concerned. We have sailed on both and as a family don't like either of them that's why we chose Aurora.

If they changed Azura or Ventura to adult only, I wouldn't be sailing on them. Hated Azura.