Britain's biggest cruise operator is becoming 'Butlins on Sea', Which? survey finds (today's Telegraph)

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

 

In November we still had a flower and wine waiters on Aurora but no turn down service the first night. Frankly the solitary ‘flower’ has become a joke and we wouldn’t miss it. Equally, given the pressure that the cabin stewards are under on changeover day that didn’t bother us. As for wine waiters (who are increasingly few and far between and can take a while to get to us) I can see advantages for the passengers if the regular waiters take that on, as long as it isn’t the straw that breaks the camels back, as they do work damned hard as it is. 

I don't see an issue with the same waiter dealing with food and drink, but they were under immense pressure, making it comical at times. 

I really felt for them. 

Andy 

[crompton21]

13 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Definitely no flowers at New Year on Ventura, or wine waiters.. But, as I have said before, things may be different at that time of year or it may have been trials. 

They did seem drastically under staffed, so that might explain why our food waiters were taking drink orders. 

Andy 

 

In (early) December we had a flower and a wine waiter on Ventura!  Bizarre.

[Harry Peterson]

45 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

I wonder if anyone is on Azura now and can give an update on the sewage smell that Harry mentioned.

Still there, I’m afraid, and actively being discussed on Facebook, which has of course a much wider audience than these forums. Also under discussion, whether the refit, which seems pretty limited, will deal with it.

[Vampiress88]

I’m not sure why the normal waiter can’t take the drinks order? 
 

we did when on azura in May have a lady take our drinks and a man who served us. The lady however I wouldn’t have known she was a “wine waiter” to be honest I don’t think we pay that much attention as it’s only my hubby that drinks wine and that’s only really on cruises or if he’s drinking my bottle while I’m trying to cook which throughly annoys me. 
 

we tend to go to the glass house to read the description then try some. I usually have water. I don’t know why but I can’t stand the smell or taste of wine/beer. I can just manage vodka or gin and that’s rare.
 

I have no idea if I have seen a flower. I would say no. They probably don’t give it us cos the kids anyways. 
 

what did annoy me and I did feed it back to p&o was it said that kids would get special bedding and a little surprise (jelly beans) I thought this would be lovely and make mine feel really special but we didn’t get this at all. They emailed me asking for a review. I told them all the good and the bad. The smell on azura is apparently getting sorted on the refit and they sent a massive box to my house with sweets and little gifts for my kids who were so happy that they wanted to go back even more. 
For me, especially as I have worked in complaints before, I understand that things go wrong with a company but it’s how they deal with my issues and how I go away feeling that I see is more important. 
 

I found the staff really nice. They seems especially lovely to the kids, chatting with them and making sure they had what they wanted, spoiling them a bit really. I actually found the most miserable staff were the ones in the kids club but I think I can understand that a bit too.  
 

surely by now most people know what they are getting for their money. 
 

oh and the other thing that annoyed me was some of the drinks etc weren’t available to order. I did suggest that maybe they just blank it out on the menu as it is in other bars / restaurants in the uk. They noted that 

Edited February 5, 2020 by Vampiress88

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Still there, I’m afraid, and actively being discussed on Facebook, which has of course a much wider audience than these forums. Also under discussion, whether the refit, which seems pretty limited, will deal with it.

Does it affect a large area Harry? 

Just asking as there was an area on Oceana in one corridor that stunk, but it was easily avoided. 

I know it should be dealt with regardless, but just wondered if it would really affect my enjoyment. 

Andy 

[Vampiress88]

10 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Still there, I’m afraid, and actively being discussed on Facebook, which has of course a much wider audience than these forums. Also under discussion, whether the refit, which seems pretty limited, will deal with it.

this is from guest relations 

 

“

We are aware of the smells within the public areas on board Azura. This is as you suggested due to the location of the sulphur tanks. A maintenance team will be boarding over the coming days to ensure that these smells are kept to a minimum. The ship is also due a re fit in 2020. We anticipate that this area of concern will be directly addressed at that time. Please do accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. 
I hope that despite these matters raised, you did enjoy other aspects of your voyage. I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us and I assure you that we pay great attention to the feedback we receive from our passengers. 

It was a pleasure to read your comments about Dipika. When the next generation form a bond with staff from all corners of the world it is such a pleasure to see and hear. ” 

this is what they emailed me when they got back my feedback

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

They emailed me asking for a review. I told them all the good and the bad. The smell on azura is apparently getting sorted on the refit

That's interesting as one of the big complaints seems to be that the smell is not being dealt with in the refit... 

There you go Harry, Vampiress88 has it straight from the horses mouth... 

We shall see.. 

Andy 

[Harry Peterson]

5 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

this is from guest relations 

 

“

We are aware of the smells within the public areas on board Azura. This is as you suggested due to the location of the sulphur tanks. A maintenance team will be boarding over the coming days to ensure that these smells are kept to a minimum. The ship is also due a re fit in 2020. We anticipate that this area of concern will be directly addressed at that time. Please do accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. 
I hope that despite these matters raised, you did enjoy other aspects of your voyage. I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us and I assure you that we pay great attention to the feedback we receive from our passengers. 

It was a pleasure to read your comments about Dipika. When the next generation form a bond with staff from all corners of the world it is such a pleasure to see and hear. ” 

this is what they emailed me when they got back my feedback

Thanks. That’s a useful insight. Presumably they’ve been using the same wording for years - the maintenance team comment rings a bell from a year or so back, but the problem existed well before that.

Edited February 5, 2020 by Harry Peterson

[Harry Peterson]

12 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Does it affect a large area Harry? 

Just asking as there was an area on Oceana in one corridor that stunk, but it was easily avoided. 

I know it should be dealt with regardless, but just wondered if it would really affect my enjoyment. 

Andy 

Not a huge area, Andy.  Somewhere near Maliba as I recall, inside and outside. Easily avoided, unless you need to be in that area, and I’m sure it won’t spoil your enjoyment.

[Vampiress88]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Thanks. That’s a useful insight. Presumably they’ve been using the same wording for years - the maintenance team comment rings a bell from a year or so back, but the problem existed well before that.

when you went. What was your personal experience with this smell?

 

i know mine and I was pretty peed off about it at the time. But I have to look at the holiday as a whole. Not everything will always be perfect unfortunately. 

[forest_factor]

Interesting reading the Butlins comments, 

 

Back when P&O had its own forum Ventura used to be the Butlins at sea,   

P&O evolve with a changing generation, I have seen a decline in certain areas, but matched but an improvement in others, I started way back in the 80's on very old school style ships with one main restaurant and a buffet area. You could say that now the choice is far better, we sailed on the Oriana back in 1997 and a family were thrown off, same with the old Arcadia the year after, family asked to leave the ship it's no new thing, but what has changed is social media has now allowed us all to find out about the negatives, like trip advisor it's far easier to tell a negative story than a positive one.

 

The fundamental change is the price it is far cheaper to cruise and like it or not that may then attract a certain type of person, it works both ways, having said on Cunard it is also very stuffy, as I said in my previous post, the ships are now large enough to avoid the thing you may or may not want to see. 

 

I am sailing at Christmas on Britannia with no worries or concerns, still love P&O and still get excited booking and now take two daughters with me, who also love to cruise, so all in all P&O never lost me, I evolved with the changes, sometimes you might need to do the same.

[Vampiress88]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Not a huge area, Andy.  Somewhere near Maliba as I recall, inside and outside. Easily avoided, unless you need to be in that area, and I’m sure it won’t spoil your enjoyment.

for us it was when we wanted to sit in the sun near that bar. God know which one it’s called but it’s in the middle of the ship at the top, the burger bits underneath. For us it was the first Full day that we had a problem with the smell. We couldn’t sit at the top and have cocktails we sat near the burger bit instead and had them as it wasn’t “wafting” to there. 
hubby saw them on our third full day at the port hooking them up to some kind of massive tubing. He explained to me it’s to get rid of waste. We didn’t have a problem after that. And the second full day we didn’t go near that area. 
 

but it’s like the middle of the ship so it was bad if you walked out those doors near malbar and the bar with blue lights. So with people going out for a smoke it kinda drifted in 

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, Vampiress88 said:

when you went. What was your personal experience with this smell?

 

i know mine and I was pretty peed off about it at the time. But I have to look at the holiday as a whole. Not everything will always be perfect unfortunately. 

It was very noticeable, and very unpleasant, but we simply gave it a wide berth. It didn’t affect the cabin, and that was the main thing. I raised it with them along with the other issues, which affected us much more, and they sent a polite but standard response.

 

The food was very good, as was the service, and both are very important to me, so I certainly wasn’t looking for anything from them, though fixing the various cabin issues without having to contact the CEO in the US would have been appreciated. And, knowing your background, I can assure you that I’m always politeness itself if an issue has to be raised. If it’s not resolved, though, and I meet with a blank refusal to allow me to talk to the Customer Service Manager because he’s told the reception staff not to allow anyone to talk to him, I’m not the sort just to go away and accept the situation  -  hence the email to the CEO, which produced instant results and a very apologetic CSM.

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

 

I can tell you with certainty that 98.547278% of statistics are made up. 

That doesn't surpriseme in least. 

[Vampiress88]

3 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

It was very noticeable, and very unpleasant, but we simply gave it a wide berth. It didn’t affect the cabin, and that was the main thing. I raised it with them along with the other issues, which affected us much more, and they sent a polite but standard response.

 

The food was very good, as was the service, and both are very important to me, so I certainly wasn’t looking for anything from them, though fixing the various cabin issues without having to contact the CEO in the US would have been appreciated. And, knowing your background, I can assure you that I’m always politeness itself if an issue has to be raised. If it’s not resolved, though, and I meet with a blank refusal to allow me to talk to the Customer Service Manager because he’s told the reception staff not to allow anyone to talk to him, I’m not the sort just to go away and accept the situation  -  hence the email to the CEO, which produced instant results and a very apologetic CSM.

see I wouldn’t ever expect people to just agree to “go away”. Complaints are complaints and they have to be addressed. I fee I am probably an even worse customer as I know what things should be followed and if I don’t get what I pay for then unfortunately I am like you in that I don’t back down. And yes it sometimes takes emailing the ceo to get somewhere. I did with p&o since I was in a unique position with cruises for this year and luckily it got resolved. Had it not then I wouldn’t have let it go. I just give credit where credit is due. I have more issues currently with virgin telling lies to me than with p&o. 
 

you’ve also got to realise and this is for every customer with any company that certain advisors/representatives only can do so much. They all have a limit of what they can offer and sometimes you just have to take it far enough to get the correct response or get through to the person with the best knowledge or authority. 

[terrierjohn]

7 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

does it tell you how much everything is increasing by? I didn’t see any posts like this. Must have missed it 

It was a fairly small photo, and I could not enlarge it, which is unusual.

[bee-ess]

36 minutes ago, forest_factor said:

Interesting reading the Butlins comments, 

 

Back when P&O had its own forum Ventura used to be the Butlins at sea,   

P&O evolve with a changing generation, I have seen a decline in certain areas, but matched but an improvement in others, I started way back in the 80's on very old school style ships with one main restaurant and a buffet area. You could say that now the choice is far better, we sailed on the Oriana back in 1997 and a family were thrown off, same with the old Arcadia the year after, family asked to leave the ship it's no new thing, but what has changed is social media has now allowed us all to find out about the negatives, like trip advisor it's far easier to tell a negative story than a positive one.

 

The fundamental change is the price it is far cheaper to cruise and like it or not that may then attract a certain type of person, it works both ways, having said on Cunard it is also very stuffy, as I said in my previous post, the ships are now large enough to avoid the thing you may or may not want to see. 

 

I am sailing at Christmas on Britannia with no worries or concerns, still love P&O and still get excited booking and now take two daughters with me, who also love to cruise, so all in all P&O never lost me, I evolved with the changes, sometimes you might need to do the same.

Excellent post

[Harry Peterson]

2 hours ago, Britboys said:

But whatever way you look at it, it was a very small survey.  If there were around 500 responses from P&O customers, that's around a quarter of the pax on one single cruise on one of the smallest ships of 6+ vessels in the fleet.  And as I have previously suggested, Which members/responders are perhaps not likely to be terribly representative of the P&O customer base as a whole.

Probably as large an independent survey as you’re likely to get - I’m not aware of any larger ones that have been independently funded.

 

You may be right about members of the Consumers Association. They probably have certain expectations. But the survey covered several cruise companies, all on the same basis, and P&O was the one that drew the most criticism. The same sort of survey though always shows Aldi and Lidl at the top end, so it’s more a question of value perhaps. They see Aldi as offering good value, but not P&O. 

 

Personally, I’m happy to accept that P&O offers good value for its low prices - it’s just that I’d rather pay a little more to get back to where it used to be. 

[Denarius]

2 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

But the cabin flower hasn't gone. We had one on oceana last week. We also had an excellent wine waitress (again reported as "gone"). The only noticeable difference was we had to  request face cloths (instantly supplied) and no turndown on the first night. 

This was exactly my experience on Azura last month. All present and correct apart from the sweets (not missed) and the facecloth, which my steward supplied when asked. Unfortunately, the imfamous smell was present and correct as well!

Edited February 5, 2020 by Denarius
post expanded

[majortom10]

Main dining waiters have taken your drinks order in MDR for a number of years on Princess with no problems whatsoever why should P&O be any different. They usually do what other cruise lines have done years before.

Edited February 5, 2020 by majortom10

[cjthedjeu]

Our last cruise on Britannia was July last year and we had a wine waiter in our MDR and never had any problems getting a second drink if required as he was always around. I guess it may be more difficult on freedom dining as they are not as aware when most people are turning up for dinner and actually looking for drinks.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Not a huge area, Andy.  Somewhere near Maliba as I recall, inside and outside. Easily avoided, unless you need to be in that area, and I’m sure it won’t spoil your enjoyment.

It must be intermittent as I never smelled it at all when I was on in March last year.

[Windsurfboy]

I haven't been on P&O for 3 years, Aurora  Cape town to UK. Last 3 cruises have been Cunard. To the chagrin of the Cunard fans, I found the general atmosphere on P&O just as smart. On Formal nights 99% plus adherence to dress code. I think people just like moaning.

Perhaps a 17 night leg at the end of a world cruise attracts a different clientele.  But people should take into account the length and timing  of cruise. 

 

Solent Richards review of his 4 week Canada cruise earlier in this thread is a better guide of what to expect.

[bee-ess]

24 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

You had to burst my bubble John. 

I want my flower and Flannel back then... 😊

Andy 

Perhaps the wine waiter disappeared with them 

[Eglesbrech]

5 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

I don't see an issue with the same waiter dealing with food and drink, but they were under immense pressure, making it comical at times. 

I really felt for them. 

Andy 

The issue for me (and I fully appreciate I may be odd in this) is that a wine waiter actually knows something about wine and could previously have recommend a proper match to go with the food you were ordering. The waiting staff don’t have either the time or more probably the knowledge to do so. 
 

I really like wine with dinner (sometimes a different one with each course) and one of the pleasures of a cruise used to be trying something a little bit different from the wine list but pretty safe in the knowledge that if the sommelier had said it would be fine, it would be fine. You would not end up with something that overpowered the food or food that wiped out the wine. 

 

With my much more limited knowledge I end up going for wines that I am familiar with, safe options.

 

I know this is not something that will not bother many, perhaps most passengers and I accept that times change but sometimes the wines are not even served at the correct temperature anymore. The whites are stored so cold that they are tasteless until they actually warm up a bit.