P&O UK dropping standards

[CT-65]

Flew to Barbados Mar.8 - 2013 to pick up Ventura....we have been before on her but never flew across the Atlantic before. Sailed down to Grenada then back up the islands to our last port of call in the Caribbean..Tortola.Then we were supposed to go to Madeira on the way back but as reported in the press the ship broke down in mid Atlantic & limped allegedly to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We did have a few issues on this cruise which we have addressed with P&O's MD Carol Marlow which we have never had to do before but as of yet we have not had any reply in anyway shape or form & have reason to believe that we may not get one at all because they seem to brush complaints under the carpet so you would assume that they just like taking your money & taint the holiday with poor service & lack of communication....I will let fellow cruisers imagination decide what the ending might be in this particular case.

[Cosmic Rays]

Flew to Barbados Mar.8 - 2013 to pick up Ventura....we have been before on her but never flew across the Atlantic before. Sailed down to Grenada then back up the islands to our last port of call in the Caribbean..Tortola.Then we were supposed to go to Madeira on the way back but as reported in the press the ship broke down in mid Atlantic & limped allegedly to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We did have a few issues on this cruise which we have addressed with P&O's MD Carol Marlow which we have never had to do before but as of yet we have not had any reply in anyway shape or form & have reason to believe that we may not get one at all because they seem to brush complaints under the carpet so you would assume that they just like taking your money & taint the holiday with poor service & lack of communication....I will let fellow cruisers imagination decide what the ending might be in this particular case.

 

Give her a fortnight and then try again, asking for the 'courtesy of an acknowledgement or a reply'. See if that works and if not ask your TA to intervene if they haven't already done so. Did you book directly with P&O or through a TA?

 

If you do get a reply from one of her minnions, don't be put off as they don't usually read the letters, or if they do, only what they want to rather than addressing the real issues...............I found this last year.

[CT-65]

I sent letter to Carol Marlow on the 3rd April so would have expected something but to no avail but as I said in forum we have heard of them not replying to other cruisers.....but I am a very patient man.

[CT-65]

Sorry Colin...Should have acknowledged your last mailing.

 

As you may have read I sent letter on the 3rd April.

The other issues which are of concern in our case is that when we joined the ship in Barbados the other members of the cruise which had been on the ship a week longer were told or found out that Madeira was scrubbed but the latter customers were not. The ship was then due for a refit in Germany & we have reason to believe that we were misled because they wanted to get the ship back ASAP for that refit. The taxi drivers in Ponta Delgarda knew we were coming & therefore we potentially missed out on further sunshine on our holiday. As it was they also knew we were going to experience bad weather when we got there & proceeded with a sight seeing trip with panoramic views...that was going to be & was impossible due to the weather. There was mountain fog.That trip should have been cancelled.

[Host Sharon]

In my experience you need to raise any issue on board first. That way they have a chance to address it, and also that way the issue is logged at the time. Good luck.

[bee-ess]

Sorry Colin...Should have acknowledged your last mailing.

 

As you may have read I sent letter on the 3rd April.

The other issues which are of concern in our case is that when we joined the ship in Barbados the other members of the cruise which had been on the ship a week longer were told or found out that Madeira was scrubbed but the latter customers were not. The ship was then due for a refit in Germany & we have reason to believe that we were misled because they wanted to get the ship back ASAP for that refit. The taxi drivers in Ponta Delgarda knew we were coming & therefore we potentially missed out on further sunshine on our holiday. As it was they also knew we were going to experience bad weather when we got there & proceeded with a sight seeing trip with panoramic views...that was going to be & was impossible due to the weather. There was mountain fog.That trip should have been cancelled.

 

I was on the same cruise and I don't that anyone believed the story of 'engine troubles'. I personally was not that bothered but given the awful weather in the Azores Funchal would have been a better option. Even if it was true about the engine problems a fuller explanation would have been welcome, rather than the rather limp explanation given over the tannoy.

 

I had some complaints about the entertainment and I'm still waiting for a reply. We were on 2nd Sitting Dinner and found it difficult to get into the theatre for 10:30 show on hardly any night over the 3 weeks. Whatever happened to the pre-dinner shows that were on the last time I went on Ventura ?

[Denarius]

Get real!

Carol Marlow is P&Os Chief Executive, not a member of their customer relations department. It is not her job to deal personally with complaints from customers, even those who regard themselves as sufficiently important to demand a personal reply. Any complaint addressed to her will be directed to the appropriate department and answered by them unless someone there regards it to be of sufficient importance to warrant her personal attention. This will be very rare.

[English Voyager]

Get real!

Carol Marlow is P&Os Chief Executive, not a member of their customer relations department. It is not her job to deal personally with complaints from customers, even those who regard themselves as sufficiently important to demand a personal reply. Any complaint addressed to her will be directed to the appropriate department and answered by them unless someone there regards it to be of sufficient importance to warrant her personal attention. This will be very rare.

The OP has yet to receive a reply after 3 weeks, so hardly an endorsement of P & O's customer service.

In my case, having written, via e-mail, to David Dingle, I received a reply from a Customer Services Executive,utilising a 'no reply' e-mail address,which did not deal with the central issue raised by me.

So the OP, if and when he receives a response from P & O, may well remain dissatisfied.

[Stix777]

With reference to Venturas 'breakdown' i understand a large crack had appeared on one of the upper decks and was 'moving' with the momentum of the ship hence the 'engine trouble' and reduced speed, plus the urgent need to dock the ship in hamburg. Any passengers on this voyage remember any restricted areas on the upper decks?:confused:

[Laticfanatic617]

With reference to Venturas 'breakdown' i understand a large crack had appeared on one of the upper decks and was 'moving' with the momentum of the ship hence the 'engine trouble' and reduced speed, plus the urgent need to dock the ship in hamburg. Any passengers on this voyage remember any restricted areas on the upper decks?:confused:

 

i always remember being onboard her in 2009 and walking back to our cabin we always stepped onto/across what sounded like a huge metal sheet/slab type thing in the corridors that always made a noise as you trod on it .. makes you think it might not have been a new thing?

[bee-ess]

With reference to Venturas 'breakdown' i understand a large crack had appeared on one of the upper decks and was 'moving' with the momentum of the ship hence the 'engine trouble' and reduced speed, plus the urgent need to dock the ship in hamburg. Any passengers on this voyage remember any restricted areas on the upper decks?:confused:

 

No, this is wrong - the crack happened earlier in the Caribbean Season (not sure exactly when) and was 'patched up' then. The crack did not cause this problem. I was on this cruise and the crack in deck 16 did move slightly and 'creak' but was not restricted.

[davecttr]

As I understand it Venturas problem was with one of the electric propulsion engines on one of the prop shafts. Not having full power they would be forced to cruise at a reduced speed to not overstress the other motor. Diverting to the Azores cut the sailing time to the UK by a day compared with going via Madeira so allowing for the slower speed.

[davecttr]

The striving for a low headline price will continue but where will it end?

 

Standards can only drop so far before the cruise experience is no longer good enough to retain return passengers.

 

answers?

 

Change the targetted passenger base to one that will accept the lower 'standards'

 

Get the pasengers to pay for more things onboard to increase revenue, maybe

 

room service

safes

tickets for shows

pay for meals

shuttles

tenders

etc

etc

 

I bet they are considering all these :eek:

[daiB]

The striving for a low headline price will continue but where will it end?

 

Standards can only drop so far before the cruise experience is no longer good enough to retain return passengers.

 

answers?

 

Change the targetted passenger base to one that will accept the lower 'standards'

 

Get the pasengers to pay for more things onboard to increase revenue, maybe

 

room service

safes

tickets for shows

pay for meals

shuttles

tenders

etc

etc

 

I bet they are considering all these :eek:

 

 

No no no no no, the answer is, and you will like this Dave, get rid of Getaway fares and put the prices up to 2001 rates. :rolleyes:

 

Bet you could get a sun lounger then and you could pick your cabin and dining room when you arrived at the ship and everyone could dine with the captain. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

You cannot have low fares which people shout out for and maintain things as they were.

 

Personally we do not notice any change, the food is just as good the staff are brilliant and we enjoy every cruise. We must do ...have you seen how many we have booked.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

 

 

 

Dai

 

:cool:

[Josy1953]

The striving for a low headline price will continue but where will it end?

 

Standards can only drop so far before the cruise experience is no longer good enough to retain return passengers.

 

answers?

 

Change the targetted passenger base to one that will accept the lower 'standards'

 

Get the pasengers to pay for more things onboard to increase revenue, maybe

 

room service

safes

tickets for shows

pay for meals

shuttles

tenders

etc

etc

 

I bet they are considering all these :eek:

 

Don't forget P&O fall under the Carnival umbrella and if we look at how Princess are targetting a less discerning passenger and are filling their ships I think that it is only a matter of time before we start to see jeans and shorts in the dining room on formal nights as has happened on Princess.

[capasamari]

We were on 2nd Sitting Dinner and found it difficult to get into the theatre for 10:30 show on hardly any night over the 3 weeks. Whatever happened to the pre-dinner shows that were on the last time I went on Ventura ?

 

We were on Oceana over New Year, also on second sitting dinner. We only managed to see one show out of eight over the four nights and had to split up and sit singly to do this.

 

We weren't at all impressed and have no plans to book further cruises having done quite a few over recent years.

 

Carol x

[dsrdsrdsr]

Sorry Colin...Should have acknowledged your last mailing.

 

As you may have read I sent letter on the 3rd April.

The other issues which are of concern in our case is that when we joined the ship in Barbados the other members of the cruise which had been on the ship a week longer were told or found out that Madeira was scrubbed but the latter customers were not. The ship was then due for a refit in Germany & we have reason to believe that we were misled because they wanted to get the ship back ASAP for that refit. The taxi drivers in Ponta Delgarda knew we were coming & therefore we potentially missed out on further sunshine on our holiday. As it was they also knew we were going to experience bad weather when we got there & proceeded with a sight seeing trip with panoramic views...that was going to be & was impossible due to the weather. There was mountain fog.That trip should have been cancelled.

I think you'll find the decision to visit Ponta Delgada was made before they knew what the weather was going to be that day.

 

As for the fog on the island, I think you'll find very few tour companies will give you your money back if the weather doesn't do what it says. I went on a 6-day holiday to Lake Garda in May 2002, and it rained for 4 days out of 6. I didn't try and get my money back on the grounds that they shouldn't have run the tour - do you think I missed out?

[annieuk]

We booked a tour on Ponta Delgarda and it did say on the details of the trip that it would run whatever the weather and that sometimes it could be cloudy and dull or even wet so we knew that when we decided to book the excursion. We were lucky, it was a sunny day, or at least the morning was and we had a great trip around that lovely island. It does pay to read the details of the trip that is being considered.

[antsp]

Don't forget P&O fall under the Carnival umbrella and if we look at how Princess are targetting a less discerning passenger and are filling their ships I think that it is only a matter of time before we start to see jeans and shorts in the dining room on formal nights as has happened on Princess.

 

I sail on Princess all the time, what makes you think P&O passengers are better than Princess.

[Josy1953]

I sail on Princess all the time, what makes you think P&O passengers are better than Princess.

I have also been a dedicated Princess passenger having done 25 Princess cruises but their standards have fallen so low that I no longer want to even consider them any longer. The lastt Princess cruise that we did on the crown princess on formal night there were people in the main dining room dressed in shorts, tee-shirts and flip flops, those of us who had made the effort to dress formally were very definitely in the minority. I appreciate that people have the right to dress as they wish but the current target market of Princess is definitely not what it used to be and I would even go so far as to say that they are targetting the people who have no concept of dressing nicely and in some cases have very ppor manners. Please don't take this as an attack on all Princess passengers because as in every aspect of life there are good and bad people, I personnaly think that Princess are now attracting the a different group of cruisers by offering lower prices in order to fill their ships.

[carhirer]

In anticipation of our forthcoming Ventura cruise, I thought I would google "sample menus".

 

I found this and thought "Wow! petits fours and devils on horseback". And £1.20 for a Courvoisier!!

 

http://*********************po-ventura/restaurant-menus/club-dining-dinner-menu

 

But then I realised this was a 2009 menu. The current sample menus look like this

 

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/PO/life-on-board/example_menu

 

Still looks good. And understandably without the little extras, given the fierce price and cost-cutting. But it is an indication of what they have had to drop in a mere 4 years.

[carhirer]

Sorry - dunno what happened to the first link. But if you want to look at the 2009 menu google Iglu + sample menu + Ventura

[bazzaw]

I have also been a dedicated Princess passenger having done 25 Princess cruises but their standards have fallen so low that I no longer want to even consider them any longer. The lastt Princess cruise that we did on the crown princess on formal night there were people in the main dining room dressed in shorts, tee-shirts and flip flops, those of us who had made the effort to dress formally were very definitely in the minority. I appreciate that people have the right to dress as they wish but the current target market of Princess is definitely not what it used to be and I would even go so far as to say that they are targetting the people who have no concept of dressing nicely and in some cases have very ppor manners. Please don't take this as an attack on all Princess passengers because as in every aspect of life there are good and bad people, I personnaly think that Princess are now attracting the a different group of cruisers by offering lower prices in order to fill their ships.

 

Cruiselines are no different to any other business - they go to wherever the money is. The money in the cruising world used to be (in the long distant past) with a certain type of person - now it lies with another group of people. The current group of people who cruiselines are pitching to -- those that fill the ship up and spend money onboard - are perhaps different from previous peoples who cruiselines made their money from.

 

The cruiselines are now pitching their product to a market where they believe the money to be -- it is a fine balancing act for them, but in the end this is what Company Executives are paid to do -- make maximum profits for their Company owners.

 

It will ever be thus

 

Barry

[Cosmic Rays]

I agree fully with Josy1953 and we have cruised with Princess 10 times and only twice in Europe with them on the Grand and Star. They are our favourite line too...........

Bottom line though is that there are now too many cruise ships and berths that need to be filled - with whoever - and cruises are now priced accordingly to achieve that goal. The only solution is to move up to 6* if you can afford it - we can't - but still want to see the World and cruising is the fun way to do it in our view.............

[bazzaw]

I agree fully with Josy1953 and we have cruised with Princess 10 times and only twice in Europe with them on the Grand and Star. They are our favourite line too...........

Bottom line though is that there are now too many cruise ships and berths that need to be filled - with whoever - and cruises are now priced accordingly to achieve that goal. The only solution is to move up to 6* if you can afford it - we can't - but still want to see the World and cruising is the fun way to do it in our view.............

 

We are in the same boat as you -- we are not wealthy and 10 years ago would not ever have dreamed that in a few years time we would be cruising all over the World.

 

We have been on a wide range of ships -- from P&O AUS to Cunard. They are all good as far as I can see - and I know nothing about so-called "falling standards". Our ancestors were either 10 Pound Poms back in the 60's , or Brits who given a free one way ticket to the Colonies by the King even further back. So - by my observation, standards have certainly improved muchly since either of those times. :)

 

Barry