AZURA REVIEW (cruise 22nd April)

[tom_uk]

 

.....

 

Right away I noticed that we had no information in the cabin for what was on that day - more important was that we had no notice of when the lifeboat drill was either. ( I got this info from reception myself, the muster station was on the back of the cabin door as per usual)

 

:cool:

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise.

 

There certainly should have been information in your cabin about the day's activities, and information about the muster drill. There should have been two documents: a) the cruise overview, with details of the highlights to come (well, their idea of the highlights!) and b) the day's Horizon. That would have included timings of events, etc, from noon onwards, and (on looking at our last copy) it would have included an entry for the Passenger Drills. The cabin steward should have put these out for you, together with your dining assignment notice and any other things specific to you that they already knew about.

[alvin moondust]

I dont have a vast amount of cruise experience, as so far we have only been on Ventura in the Caribbean.

 

But our opinion of that ship was that the staff (largely Indian i think) were very good indeed. Our cabin steward was helpful, cheerful and smiling, and good at his job!

The restaurant waiters were also friendly without being 'in your face' The only staff I found annoying were the photographers constantly wanting to guide you in to the next photo opportunity:(

 

Nicola is quite fussy, having worked in hotel mangement and a very posh Swiss restaurant in the past herself:D, So for her to be very complimentary means they were doing a good job:)

 

The only examples of rudeness or ignorance we saw on Ventura came from the odd passenger:mad:

 

We will be on Azura ourselves in the near future so I will be able to give a comparison between the two ships then.

[Captain Beefheart]

I travelled on the Azura 2 yrs ago and didn't find the staff very friendly and certain parts of the ship not very clean compared with Princess, last year went on the Ventura (sister ship) and found it totally different.So i suppose it depends on the crew at time of sailings .

[jeanlyon]

I'll just add my tuppence-worth. I did not like Azura at all, far too big for me, noisy and crowded.

 

However, I found the crew just like all P&O ships - friendly, caring, helpful. In fact, having them mostly come from the same place - Goa - must be good for their morale and camaraderie. The food was also excellent. So unless standards have dropped in 2 years, I guess I will find out on Oriana in September.

[tom_uk]

 

 

However, I found the crew just like all P&O ships - friendly, caring, helpful. In fact, having them mostly come from the same place - Goa - must be good for their morale and camaraderie. The food was also excellent. So unless standards have dropped in 2 years, I guess I will find out on Oriana in September.

 

I agree with that. On the odd occasions when that hasn't been the case, it's been a single individual.

 

In fact that's my current explanation for the differences in experience. There are usually around 1000 crew members on a P&O ship - a few less for some ships, a few more for Ventura & Azura. But of that number, I reckon that most passengers will only regularly encounter a dozen or so: their cabin steward, their regular waiters, their wine waiter, the bar staff at whichever bars they use, and perhaps a few others. (Not that I'm saying 'regularly encounter'..) If one of that dozen is having a bad week - or isn't the right person for the job - then they can greatly affect that passenger's experience of the cruise, even though they might be the only crew member who's having problems. And of course, if that's your cabin steward or one of your waiters, you'll be seeing them throughout the cruise.

[tillybilly321]

I travelled on the Azura 2 yrs ago and didn't find the staff very friendly and certain parts of the ship not very clean compared with Princess, last year went on the Ventura (sister ship) and found it totally different.So i suppose it depends on the crew at time of sailings .

 

 

 

I would also agree. The length of the cruise also makes a difference, a very short cruise does not give any one time to build up a rapport with any staff member.

 

We did 17 nights on Ventura last spring and couldn't fault any of the staff, had some very interesting conversations with our cabin steward. We then had a 3 night break on Azura in Sept and we never even saw our steward ! I have no idea even if they were male or female. The cabin was kept spotlessly clean and tidy however, and the lack of personal interaction never bothered us at all.

 

Back on Ventura in June for a couple of weeks so will be interested to see if the staff are as cheerful as they usually are.

[groovechick]

ON RCI Voyager of the Seas 2 years ago: cabin steward Robert - wonderful, waitresses Marianne and Fadla (both from Rio) - wonderful; head waiter - rubbish; entertainments director - rubbish (didn't even know who she was until 3/4 of way through cruise).

On P&O Aurora last year: cabin steward Teo - wonderful; waiters Jack and Terence - awful. Terence was slightly better, Jack was surly to the point of being downright rude. Anytime we queried any of the menu items or asked for anything slightly different, he was incredibly brusque and dismissive. Only cracked a smile on the last night - obviously in the hope of a tip. This was a great contrast to our wine waiter, Arvin, who was fun, efficient and friendly, always joking with our son and always acknowledging us if he saw us around the ship. Other waiters in bars OK, but I wouldn't have called it exemplary service.

I'm getting very worried - we're booked on Azura in August (have to go then because of school age children), for the longest time we've ever cruised, and I keep reading such unsatisfactory things about Azura, even taking into account pax different expectations and approaches to cruising.:(

[daiB]

ON RCI Voyager of the Seas 2 years ago: cabin steward Robert - wonderful, waitresses Marianne and Fadla (both from Rio) - wonderful; head waiter - rubbish; entertainments director - rubbish (didn't even know who she was until 3/4 of way through cruise).

On P&O Aurora last year: cabin steward Teo - wonderful; waiters Jack and Terence - awful. Terence was slightly better, Jack was surly to the point of being downright rude. Anytime we queried any of the menu items or asked for anything slightly different, he was incredibly brusque and dismissive. Only cracked a smile on the last night - obviously in the hope of a tip. This was a great contrast to our wine waiter, Arvin, who was fun, efficient and friendly, always joking with our son and always acknowledging us if he saw us around the ship. Other waiters in bars OK, but I wouldn't have called it exemplary service.

I'm getting very worried - we're booked on Azura in August (have to go then because of school age children), for the longest time we've ever cruised, and I keep reading such unsatisfactory things about Azura, even taking into account pax different expectations and approaches to cruising.:(

 

 

Ignore the reviews, good and bad and go with a positive attitude and you will have a great time.

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai:cool:

[jeanlyon]

Dai - I would agree with that, because you have to be unlucky to get surly or brusque staff. i haven't had one yet.

 

We have also been on Fred Olsen and the staff are Philippino. Again, couldn't fault them. Friendly, after a few days, knew what you liked. Amazing.

 

A friend has just been on the Marco Polo, with Eastern Europen staff. As a seasoned cruiser she hated every minute. They were rude, off hand to the point of rude and when she had been out all day, she found a letter saying "Dear Shirley, I tried to clean your room but the Do not disturb notice was on your door. I shall be cleaning your cabin at 18.30 this evening!"

 

I don't think so. She made a complaint to the front desk. Firstly, I do not wish to be addressed by the cabin stewardess as "Shirley". Secondly, she will clean the cabin when I want, not when she wants.

 

The food was terrible and she would never go again.

[Suebiker]

Hi Guys,

 

I started this thread so I would like to wind it up with a few points mentioned above. It would seem that we are split 50/50 for those who where actually on-board for this cruise, some agreeing with me 100% and others saying they had an excellent cruise - It would be interesting to know if the latter had many past cruises to compare this one to ?

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I will leave you with mine ( this is also aimed at P+O ) :

 

Do you think to crew an entire ship with people from just one nation was wise, I have found that this breeds laziness, contempt, a slack attitude to the work ethic as well as not being fair to other working nations.

 

May I also make it very clear to everyone including Cruise Critic " I AM NOT A RACIST ", I simply am stating an opinion that is backed up when you sail with Cunard, Princess and especially Royal Caribbean you will have host of amazing crew members from all over the world - working together in harmony and actually looking you square in the eye for a change, not hiding their heads when you look in their direction.

 

My next cruise is booked, it is with Royal Caribbean on the Independence of the Seas, she is an excellent vessel with a wonderful attentive staff of whom I am really looking forward to meet. :cool:

 

I wish everyone who is happy to sail with P+O many happy future cruises, but if you haven't done so yet, try any other line, any line, give yourself something to compare P+O (average cruises) to. :cool:

 

Hi Stephen

 

I would have to disagree with you, Having been on Independence of the Seas - we had an awful cruise. We found the complete opposite to you - we had very poor service both in our cabin and in the restaurant and the main reason we went back to P and O was because we found we had much better service on P and O ships. I think possibly we were just unlucky but I have to admit I didn't find the staff on IOS very helpful at all with the exception of one young lady in the buffet who was exceptional.

 

Personally I love the staff from Goa and the Phillipines and think they give some of the best service in the world! They work incredibly hard and very long hours.

 

I find it interesting that your experience is so different to mine and can only put it down to different styles of service!

 

Sue

[tartanexile81]

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I will leave you with mine ( this is also aimed at P+O ) :

 

Do you think to crew an entire ship with people from just one nation was wise, I have found that this breeds laziness, contempt, a slack attitude to the work ethic as well as not being fair to other working nations.

 

May I also make it very clear to everyone including Cruise Critic " I AM NOT A RACIST ",

 

I wish everyone who is happy to sail with P+O many happy future cruises, but if you haven't done so yet, try any other line, any line, give yourself something to compare P+O (average cruises) to.

 

For a start you are inaccurate in saying that P&O crew a ship with staff from only one nation. Yes, there are many staff from the Goa and Mumbai area (as you find out when you have time to chat them) butthere are also many of the bar and cabin stewards from the Philipines and there are very many other nations represented across the ship in the shops, spas, engineering, deck etc - but maybe on a weekend cruise you didn't get the chance to find that out.

 

You may not consider yourself racist but I find your post upsetting as you imply that the staff on P&O are lazy, contemptuous and have a slack attitude to work, due their single nationality as you preceived it. I feel your post should be reported.

[Bobbyjean]

I have been on cruises with Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but found P&O to be different. The service was usually excellent, but the staff are not as interactive as friendly (as mentioned on this thread, this is probably because they are instructed to keep some distance). On other cruise lines, staff interact with my son in the corridors, chat with us quite a bit at dinner, always say hello with a big smile. On P&O they serve passengers and retreat into the shadows.

 

Personally we prefer the friendly as we get the impression the staff are happier - of course they might just be putting on a front, who knows. On P&O we get the impression they are clinging on to the old-fashioned master/servant relationship of 100 years ago. I also get the impression many P&O passengers love having "servants" for a while.

 

As for the majority of staff being from the same country, this means they will chat more among themselves, are less isolated etc. - it would be the same if they were all from the UK. I am not sure how this affects the standard of service though.

[tillybilly321]

I have been on cruises with Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but found P&O to be different. The service was usually excellent, but the staff are not as interactive as friendly (as mentioned on this thread, this is probably because they are instructed to keep some distance). On other cruise lines, staff interact with my son in the corridors, chat with us quite a bit at dinner, always say hello with a big smile. On P&O they serve passengers and retreat into the shadows.

 

Personally we prefer the friendly as we get the impression the staff are happier - of course they might just be putting on a front, who knows. On P&O we get the impression they are clinging on to the old-fashioned master/servant relationship of 100 years ago. I also get the impression many P&O passengers love having "servants" for a while.

 

As for the majority of staff being from the same country, this means they will chat more among themselves, are less isolated etc. - it would be the same if they were all from the UK. I am not sure how this affects the standard of service though.

 

 

 

It could also be a cultural difference between the different nationalities. Lets face it we Brits are renowned for being reserved. Can you imagine a ship staffed entirely with Brits :eek:

 

Fillipino's are extremely outgoing and friendly and always interested in what is going on. Perhaps the Indians are a little more reserved and just come across as being a little formal or disinterested. It could just be the way we interpret them.

 

I have never had any problems with any member of staff on a cruise. They work long hours, spend months away from their families and get treated very badly by some passengers, so if they have an "off day " I can fully understand it.

[alvin moondust]

 

Lets face it if you wanted a ship where the entire crew are lazy with a bad attitude due to nationality, all you have to do is staff it entirely with English eighteen year olds:D

[daiB]

I have been on cruises with Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but found P&O to be different. The service was usually excellent, but the staff are not as interactive as friendly (as mentioned on this thread, this is probably because they are instructed to keep some distance). On other cruise lines, staff interact with my son in the corridors, chat with us quite a bit at dinner, always say hello with a big smile. On P&O they serve passengers and retreat into the shadows.

 

Personally we prefer the friendly as we get the impression the staff are happier - of course they might just be putting on a front, who knows. On P&O we get the impression they are clinging on to the old-fashioned master/servant relationship of 100 years ago. I also get the impression many P&O passengers love having "servants" for a while.

 

As for the majority of staff being from the same country, this means they will chat more among themselves, are less isolated etc. - it would be the same if they were all from the UK. I am not sure how this affects the standard of service though.

 

 

You are correct, in that there training, is not to be "in your face" not an expression I like. However as I have said if you show that you want to become more friendly they soon come out of there shells as it were.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

:cool:

[STEPHEN LARKIN]

Instead of being small minded and making snide comments ( Bolton Belle ) , you of all people should know that it is the fine detail on a cruise that can make it very memorable.

 

Those small luxuries or a member of staff going that extra mile to make you happy is what makes any cruise special - sadly with P+O I saw very little of this.

 

Enjoy your day. :cool:

[groovechick]

Thanks Dai and Jean,

 

I'm sure like many on here we work very hard all year and save hard for our annual holiday, so we go with a positive attitude. Long before we had children we went on a P&O cruise that could have been classed as disastrous - the ship almost ran out of food, ran out of fresh water (we were asked to conserve water - reminded me of being a kid in the '70s :D), our coach nearly crashed on the drive back from Cairo to Safaga,.., and many more incidents, but to us it was all the more memorable for it. I don't think we're very demanding passengers, but as DH and I both work, or have worked in "customer-facing roles", we know when we're getting bad service and our waiters were awful, as the other pax on our table and the other tables they served agreed. Incidentally, I also found some of the staffs in the shops to be very disinterested and we were often told incorrect opening hours, etc.

[chrissycpm]

Hi Stephen, I was on this cruise too,,

 

Maybe there was something in your water? You say food, service and cleanliness was good, but you complain that you had to wait over 1 hour for your tender to guernsey?. Everyone else had to wait too, how can you hold P&O accountable for the severe fog that we had from leaving Zeebruge on day 2 to arriving in Southampton on day 4"" get a life for gods sake.

 

We were so impressed with everything on Azura we have rebooked for june13. And as you can see by my countdowns I am ls a regular cruiser with royal Caribbean, with a a further cruised booked for just over 2 weeks on Indy and also 1 for September. You get what you pay for and I'm more than happy with my deluxe balcony at £179" also the food was amazing especially the Indian night, entertainment was first class, cleanliness was outstanding, and friendliness of staff was superb.

 

Azura, see you in 6 weeks,can't wait :)

[jeanlyon]

I am still trying to understand the concept of "P&O passengers liking the boss/servant feeling". What a total load of contemptuous rubbish!

 

I simply like good service. I have been in a service industry, in fact I still am. Service is good or bad.

[chrissycpm]

I am still trying to understand the concept of "P&O passengers liking the boss/servant feeling". What a total load of contemptuous rubbish!

 

I simply like good service. I have been in a service industry, in fact I still am. Service is good or bad.

 

?.....

[Bobbyjean]

You are correct, in that there training, is not to be "in your face" not an expression I like. However as I have said if you show that you want to become more friendly they soon come out of there shells as it were.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

:cool:

 

We did try to be friendly - maybe not enough - but could never get rid of the awkward feeling. We like to feel like we are in the same "class" as everyone else, including all the staff. They just happen to be at work.

Same feeling going to ports such as Ocho Rios. The poverty you see there really gets you down!

[jeanlyon]

We did try to be friendly - maybe not enough - but could never get rid of the awkward feeling. We like to feel like we are in the same "class" as everyone else, including all the staff. They just happen to be at work.

Same feeling going to ports such as Ocho Rios. The poverty you see there really gets you down!

 

???

[amberpop]

On all our cruises with P&O we have had crew from all over the world and have never had a problem with service at all. There is nothing more difficult than working will the public as I know through working in the health service, but, I was brought up to give people the same respect that I would like in return.

On our last cruise we had a lovely waiter who was very shy but always chatted to us when he had the time. One evening when we were talking to him a passenger on the next table said to his family, "look they are talking to THE INDIAN again!!" We were furious, if we hadn't have been in a public place aka the restaurant we would have given him a piece of our mind. We have also found the restaurant staff, waiters behind the bars, cleaners, and cabin crew to be very hard working indeed.

[daiB]

On all our cruises with P&O we have had crew from all over the world and have never had a problem with service at all. There is nothing more difficult than working will the public as I know through working in the health service, but, I was brought up to give people the same respect that I would like in return.

On our last cruise we had a lovely waiter who was very shy but always chatted to us when he had the time. One evening when we were talking to him a passenger on the next table said to his family, "look they are talking to THE INDIAN again!!" We were furious, if we hadn't have been in a public place aka the restaurant we would have given him a piece of our mind. We have also found the restaurant staff, waiters behind the bars, cleaners, and cabin crew to be very hard working indeed.

 

The fact that you were in the restaurant would not have bothered my, I would have laced into them and reported him for racism.

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[jeanlyon]

I was just about to say the same - my husband would certainly have said something.