Last straw on Cut backs

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Britannia at Christmas definitely had smaller menu choice and I struggled to find variety in salads at lunchtime.  However the food standard was high in the MDR.  We ate three times in Epicurean and two dinner shows at the Limelight and service and quality was as good if not better than pre Covid.  I however missed the grab and go option on deck as it used to offer sandwiches and salads as a quick healthier option.  Truthfully couldn't see any need to remove that. In fairness it was a bit of a new ballgame for them at the time. 

 

The ship was in good condition and the crew consisted of a lot of people we knew well which was great.  Personally loved that cruise but we did have extremely reduced numbers onboard and only one known Covid case.

 

Regarding White Company products I believe it was always intended to move to large dispensers to cut back plastic waste.  Our room attendant knocked first day and asked if we would like bottles of conditioner and body lotion which I accepted gratefully.  Midway through without asking he left two more bottles as well. I recall RCI offering only one bottled all purpose concoctions nailed to the wall on Allure and the P&O offering was far superior to that.

 

I am taking my first post Covid Celebrity cruise on the Edge in June so will be interesting to see the differences.

 

I must admit I am alarmed about the reports of the condition of some of the P&O ships that are coming out but as my main choice is normally Britannia haven't experienced a problem.  During the lay ups I did a lot of local boat trips around the ships in Torbay and Weymouth and would say Arcadia, Aurora and Ventura definitely looked a little sad at that time, but then so did the QM2 and the reports of those back onboard her saying she's in fabulous condition.

 

 

We had a really bad MDR experience. Ended up eating in the Glass house for 4 nights. Service was so slow and the food just wasn’t as good as we had received on P&O before. 
 

I understand the white company thing, and to be fair to P&O, it was the same on Celebrity. Just made them stand out over the other lines. 
 

I hope you enjoy the Edge- we are doing the Beyond next Feb and it will be our first Edge class trip. We were going to book Azura for the Med this year, but got a great deal on the Reflection, so booked that instead. Our Christmas cruise put us off slightly! 
 

I’m sure the ships will be up so standard soon. The worry with the Azura is that it had just been in for dry dock. You would have thought those issues would have been sorted! Also the ceiling outside our cabin had no ceiling tiles and there was exposed wiring hanging out for the whole cruise. Not good!

 

[jeanlyon]

2 hours ago, Waju said:

Selbourne your wise words could have come straight from my mouth 🙂

 

P&O (and others too) need to give customers/passengers what they want soon or they won't be there to give them anything at all.  I understand we may all want different things but it was (mostly) working before covid,  wasn't it?

 

Slightly off topic but I would like to see some different places to visit on the likes of Aurora/Arcadia - there are only so many times you can go to Gibraltar, Barcelona, Lisbon, Cadiz etc etc.  I'd like a 28 night Greek Islands cruise please.

 

 

We have a 19 nighter on Aurora - October 2023 with Greek ports.  We also have some nice ports on our :April 2023 one.  Zadar, Trieste, Cagliari, Dubrovnik etc.

[gsmt47471015]

Agree entirely with the splitting up into different offerings for the two smaller ships and been adults only , invariably prices would be more expensive but feel that the market is there , however the fine line is overpricing against the likes of Saga and under offering on service 

[Amyracecar]

There are so many things to consider with stuff like this and there really is no answer that will suit everyone. 

Cruise ships have much more of a price variance than your average hotel on land, and I often wonder how they manage to provide the service they do at the prices they charge. For example, if I book an inside cabin and pay £85-100 per night, I'm very happy with a pretty basic service, as the available food choices and facilities more than make up for it. Even if you don't like the main dining room there are a few more options without charge. If I paid that in say, London, I'd probably have to stay somewhere pretty basic and eat at Wetherspoons, that's before taking any entertainment options into account. 

 

On the other hand, If i've booked one of the bigger suites and i'm paying £330 per night, then I think i'd be within my rights to wonder what i'm actually paying for. Some canapes, chocolate and strawberries don't exactly make up the £200+ per day difference, and the other perks aren't hugely difference-making. The extra space is worth it, but if I started to lose existing service points at that level then perhaps I really would think that i was being short changed. 

 

When we did Celebrity there was more of a difference for different cabin types, with the aqua-class cabins and suites having different options for dining etc, so there you probably did feel that you were getting your money's worth. Then if you choose to opt for a cheaper fare then you're still going to get a decent product, but without a few of the bells & whistles. It makes more sense to me. I don't want to get to a Titanic style class system or anything, but at least make it worthwhile paying a premium. 

 

I'm happy not to have a turn down service because staff are over-worked as it is, although I agree that having available towels to swap would be beneficial at times. Even if it's just self service. 

[jeanlyon]

Yes totally agree and that's why we book an inside cabin.  I have paid even less than that at £75 per night.

[Ardennais]

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

Personally I think that would be a brilliant idea in many ways... vintage style cruising aimed at a more experienced, more travelled, mature demographic who want a more relaxed, cruise experience. 

 

Maybe even the chance to be able to explore a much wider range of ports at a more leisurely pace. An appropriate entertainment offering and food offerings that either up to the standard of a good gastro-pub or a decent restaurant. And... a chance to explore independently on shore... with onboard advice and assistance at arranging busses, taxies and the like. 

 

However, I do think that the cost pppd would be higher. SAGA have gone down this route and their prices this year are £230-£290ish pppd. Pre-covid Fred Olsen muted "600 passenger exploration ships" at a starting price of £300 pppd and other lines are often more expensive.

 

The question is... are there enough people around willing to pay those sorts of prices and blow other competitors out the market?

I’m an ‘experienced’ cruiser still well short of 60. I don’t want club dining, or more formality if that is what the focus might be for the adult only ships.

 

The points you make in the second paragraph regarding food, entertainment and exploration are good, but they’re just as relevant for younger cruisers. Everyone expects decent food! 
 

I love Aurora, don’t get me wrong. But the photos I’ve seen of Saga convey a smarter product all round. So how could P&O charge those prices? 

[jeanlyon]

We now much prefer Freedom Dining.  Saga prices are eye watering even if they do include certain extras.

[gsmt47471015]

We nearly always go select with freedom dining and in most cases select an inside cabin of our choice , only go on balconies if the cruise is a long one ( in excess of 35 nights) this has enabled us to have many more cruises and financially means on every third cruise we are getting it free as opposed to the fare for three balcony trips, we spend minimal time in the cabin so in essence the balcony is a waste of money    

[silkworms]

1 hour ago, Glitterati said:

We had a really bad MDR experience. Ended up eating in the Glass house for 4 nights. Service was so slow and the food just wasn’t as good as we had received on P&O before. 
 

I understand the white company thing, and to be fair to P&O, it was the same on Celebrity. Just made them stand out over the other lines. 
 

I hope you enjoy the Edge- we are doing the Beyond next Feb and it will be our first Edge class trip. We were going to book Azura for the Med this year, but got a great deal on the Reflection, so booked that instead. Our Christmas cruise put us off slightly! 
 

I’m sure the ships will be up so standard soon. The worry with the Azura is that it had just been in for dry dock. You would have thought those issues would have been sorted! Also the ceiling outside our cabin had no ceiling tiles and there was exposed wiring hanging out for the whole cruise. Not good!

 

We were also on Xmas Azura, unfortunately for 28 days. The state

of Azura was indefensible, especially as it had been in dry dock.

We have also cancelled a summer Med cruise which was already

booked on Azura, could not bear the thought of another two weeks

on a ship in such bad condition!

[twotravellersLondon]

38 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

I love Aurora, don’t get me wrong. But the photos I’ve seen of Saga convey a smarter product all round. So how could P&O charge those prices? 

 

I think that's the point.

 

Can P&O attract a viable customer base for a revamped, rebranded Aurora as an exploration ship? I really don't know.

 

The other alternative of providing the same type of relaxed laid-back cruise, as the Black Prince, the Ocean Majesty, the Discovery and similar ships once did, seems to be rapidly disappearing... in a welter of new environmental regulations and the demand for increasing efficiency.

 

 

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

I think that's the point.

 

Can P&O attract a viable customer base for a revamped, rebranded Aurora as an exploration ship? I really don't know.

 

The other alternative of providing the same type of relaxed laid-back cruise, as the Black Prince, the Ocean Majesty, the Discovery and similar ships once did, seems to be rapidly disappearing... in a welter of new environmental regulations and the demand for increasing efficiency.

 

 

Aurora/Arcadia would need a different company name otherwise CONFUSION amongst the great unread passenger market. Also the ships are too old compared with the new Saga ones. They would need a multi million pound makeover like Celebrity Galaxy had when it moved to TUI and that cost 50 million euros! It ain't gonna happen.

[terrierjohn]

I wonder if the other cruise line forums express the same concerns about the type of cruise experience that their different size vessels might offer. P&O are not the only ones with a fleet of varied passenger size. In fact RCI, Celebrity, NCL, MSC, Princess and even Carnival itself have fleets varying from under 2000 passengers up to monsters of 5200 passengers.

As far as I know all of them have corporate adverts covering the entire fleet, but quite likely there will be similar differences in the demographics of ship size and itinerary.

So P&O are not unique in having variations in the style of cruising among their passengers. However their CC passengers might be unique in thinking their favourite cruise line is the only one having to cater for a wide variety of cruise styles under one corporate identity.

[Windsurfboy]

The natural home for Aurora  and Arcadia would be new Ambassador cruise line. If it survives.

 

Very hard to have two different offerings under one P&O name.

[Waju]

18 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

The natural home for Aurora  and Arcadia would be new Ambassador cruise line. If it survives.

 

Very hard to have two different offerings under one P&O name.

That's a good point Windsurfboy, we did 2 short cruises on Magellan and Columbus and had a great time so hopefully the new Ambassador ship might hit the spot!  Has the new ship even sailed yet?

[Britboys]

23 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

The natural home for Aurora  and Arcadia would be new Ambassador cruise line. If it survives.

 

Very hard to have two different offerings under one P&O name.

But P&O and Carnival would be extremely reluctant to sell popular ships to another UK-based cruise line as it would hasten the departure of a tranche of customers.

[Britboys]

2 minutes ago, Waju said:

That's a good point Windsurfboy, we did 2 short cruises on Magellan and Columbus and had a great time so hopefully the new Ambassador ship might hit the spot!  Has the new ship even sailed yet?

She has sailed from the shipyard in Croatia this afternoon and is due to start cruising from Tilbury in just over 3 weeks.

[gsmt47471015]

The only way we would use Ambassador come CMV is if they transferred Arcadia and Aurora to them.

[Bazrat]

After reading some of the comments about uncooked food some have received I wonder if the industrial size cooking equipment which they batch cook the food failed for a few cruisers on here because on various other sites have not read any complaints.

the other topic about carnival getting rid of the smaller ships I would have thought they found that adult only ships pay, so I doubt if they are getting rid or separating them any time soon.

[Bazrat]

4 hours ago, Glitterati said:

We had 3 cases on Silhouette, and the Captain announced case numbers daily. 
 

On Azura there were at least 30 people in quarantine cabins that we could see. We also spoke to many people who knew friends who had tested positive. We had to send crew over to the Victoria via Tender whilst tendered off St Lucia! We were left in the dark and had no correspondence over the cases onboard 
 

I called the potatoes uncooked as I don’t think they had even seen the oven. Even the waiter agreed. 

You will find that there was more cases of Covid on various US based cruise lines than there was on P&O.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I wonder if the other cruise line forums express the same concerns about the type of cruise experience that their different size vessels might offer. P&O are not the only ones with a fleet of varied passenger size. In fact RCI, Celebrity, NCL, MSC, Princess and even Carnival itself have fleets varying from under 2000 passengers up to monsters of 5200 passengers.

As far as I know all of them have corporate adverts covering the entire fleet, but quite likely there will be similar differences in the demographics of ship size and itinerary.

So P&O are not unique in having variations in the style of cruising among their passengers. However their CC passengers might be unique in thinking their favourite cruise line is the only one having to cater for a wide variety of cruise styles under one corporate identity.

The debate is probably due to the stated transition from one style of cruising to another.  There is a vicious backlash on the Cunard boards to Queen Anne before she's even finishing being built.  Apparently she's not a true Cunarder, too modern and built for a different type of passenger.  Sounds a rather familiar refrain.

 

The mainly American cruise lines and MSC tend to not have the adult only passengers so its far easier to appeal to all no matter the ship. Basically they offer a standardised product apart from size. The desire for adult only anything (remember the fury when pubs opened up to being more children friendly?) is very British and not widely adopted worldwide.

[Megabear2]

13 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

You will find that there was more cases of Covid on various US based cruise lines than there was on P&O.

There's also a lot more Americans believing the virus isn't more than a cold and mistakenly believing a heavy cold is the flu and comparing it to that.  Unfortunately at present it's the P&O and Cunard ships having the mass breakouts.  Interestingly (although I'm not sure so if I'm wrong excuse me) the age of the vessel in both the US and Europe appears to be relevant. Definitely Iona and Britannia while having outbreaks don't seem to have ever filled their quarantine area completely (again I may be totally wrong and it's just not filtered through on here or social media).

[Harryjacobs]

I have just booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza in Harrogate for £600ish which is £200 a night.  For that I get a room and breakfast and thats it.  I have also just booked 7 nights on Iona for the Fjords at £1800 for a balcony which is roughly £250 a night.  So for an extra 50 I get virtually unlimited food, entertainment and use of pools etc etc.

Personally I think P&O are cheap as chips and it means I dont get a chocolate on my pillow then that seems a fair trade to me!

[AuroraCruiser08]

8 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Some interesting points.

Aurora and Arcadia are Adults Only so already marketed differently.

Iona had ships own merchandise plus Joules,Ray Ban sunglasses, jewellery plus a good selection of After Shaves,perfume, face creams etc at good prices with regular daily offers.

Iona had a sweet shop and pharmacy sundries too.

I agree! They should definitely market this difference and promote that Iona has these different features! 

[terrierjohn]

4 minutes ago, AuroraCruiser08 said:

I agree! They should definitely market this difference and promote that Iona has these different features! 

But if you study the website or brochures, these differences are highlighted along with lots of detail about the bars and restaurants, and where ships, or areas of ships are adult only.

So your point is already covered.

[AuroraCruiser08]

44 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But if you study the website or brochures, these differences are highlighted along with lots of detail about the bars and restaurants, and where ships, or areas of ships are adult only.

So your point is already covered.

I must disagree though. I feel the the website isn't very clear unless you want to drill down. As you say it is there and I definitely agree with that. But if you are browsing looking for a cruise the Iona ships jump out but the Adult only ships don't and there is no difference between the ships in terms of onboard apart from being adult only. What we were thinking about was having those difference highlighted easily not just the new ships as well as offering a different experience on the older ships that's unique in the fleet.