Maleth confirms end of P&O partnership

[carlanthony24]

8 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

With respect I think it is you who is missing the point. P& O have considerably increased their need for more long haul charter flights by putting Arvia in the Caribbean with Britannia.

It seems that the flight structure they've put in place is inadequate in terms of contingency, as more flights means that the likelihood of the delays and technical problems affecting cruise passengers increases by the same margin. Delays and tech problems cause knock on delays. To deal with that contingency plans are needed which provide replacement aircraft,  as often happens with most airlines. P&O do not have those contingency plans it appears.

I fully accept P&O cannot control delays but they can put plans in place to mitigate them.

I refer too Gettingwarmer post and others. They can not put plans in place if no aircrafts are spare they did what they could to get Maleth Aero. From experience if a problem occurs P&O will do the best to get you out or back but in terms of a flight going tech the airline are in charge to find another aircraft or company to take you. If they cancel then P&O step in like they did they managed to book people onto a Virgin Atlantic flight at very short notice because the outbound aircraft was too small. P&O can't do anything over replacement aircrafts where do you expect them to get crews etc that is down to the airline. They keep people on the ship the best they can during delays and then put them in hotels if needs be. Only so much they can do with information they may have had at the time.

 

If P&O had an airline then it would be down to P&O to sort.

Edited January 1 by carlanthony24

[jake 26]

2 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

I refer too Gettingwarmer post and others. They can not put plans in place if no aircrafts are spare they did what they could to get Maleth Aero. From experience if a problem occurs P&O will do the best to get you out or back but in terms of a flight going tech the airline are in charge to find another aircraft or company to take you. If they cancel then P&O step in like they did they managed to book people onto a Virgin Atlantic flight at very short notice because the outbound aircraft was too small. P&O can't do anything over replacement aircrafts where do you expect them to get crews etc that is down to the airline. 

 

If P&O had an airline then it would be down to P&O to sort.

So you agree that P&O have put 2 large ships in the Caribbean but have not got a comprehensive flight contract to deal with problems that occur. You say P&O can't do this or that, doesn't sound good for the customer.

I respect you are a big P&O fan and see no faults. We've had some wonderful cruises worldwide with them but I am a pragmatist and realise that sometimes if it's not working properly something is being done badly. 

I feel that the emphasis is to fill the ships even if the infrastructure to transport the flying pax is inadequate. Like Paul Ludlow ' 99% are happy'

[carlanthony24]

34 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

So you agree that P&O have put 2 large ships in the Caribbean but have not got a comprehensive flight contract to deal with problems that occur. You say P&O can't do this or that, doesn't sound good for the customer.

I respect you are a big P&O fan and see no faults. We've had some wonderful cruises worldwide with them but I am a pragmatist and realise that sometimes if it's not working properly something is being done badly. 

I feel that the emphasis is to fill the ships even if the infrastructure to transport the flying pax is inadequate. Like Paul Ludlow ' 99% are happy'

Long before when Ventura and Azura were in the Caribbean it was TUI & Thomas Cook and things were just has bad. People un happy with the carriers. Flights delayed by 24+hrs etc but people expecting P&O to magically make an aircraft appear and to get a company that may give better service is silly. If Thomas cook were still around you may have had the same problem. 

 

Rumours they are looking at BA this year. BA have the worst problems with IT and cancelled more flights than I guess Virgin Atlantic. People will then complain about this why did P&O pick BA and not Virgin. P&O take this advice onboard and go with Virgin again problems occur and then people say they should of gone with BA or whoever its a never ending cycle of problems. Yes you could pay for yourself to go but I say their is more negatives than positives. Miss the ship, no bonded luggage etc.

 

You expect P&O to have a contingency plan so they ask for another aircraft to be on standby realistically this would never happen.   

 

I have no harm saying I like P&O never had big problems made some complaints have had big flight delays even flown an airline I would say is on the same length has Maleth but that was not P&O faults that TUI had an aircraft go tech in the Dominican and had to wait for the crew to fly in the night before and have adequate rest we arrived just under 3hrs late in the end. Anyone who has done the fly cruises back in the day when TUI had 767's they were awful just has bad as Maleth. Looking at images the leg room looked a lot better than they were on the 767 and 747 that we had to fly even the service was a lot better on Wamos than TUI when we flew.

 

Last year the aircraft that was due to take us to Malta was diverted because the French got the wrong aircraft at like 10PM this happened we ended up being delayed 3hrs + while the company got a new aircraft and crew even though I guess people would say plenty of time to find another aircraft and find crew in 8hrs or so. Its not that simple again people blamed P&O for this how can you blame P&O for an aircraft being diverted. 

 

You go on a packaged holiday you expect TUI for instance to do xyz. They can't if they have no available aircraft or crew to rescue you hence they wet lease another company to help out.

Edited January 1 by carlanthony24

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, jake 26 said:

With respect I think it is you who is missing the point. P& O have considerably increased their need for more long haul charter flights by putting Arvia in the Caribbean with Britannia.

It seems that the flight structure they've put in place is inadequate in terms of contingency, as more flights means that the likelihood of the delays and technical problems affecting cruise passengers increases by the same margin. Delays and tech problems cause knock on delays. To deal with that contingency plans are needed which provide replacement aircraft,  as often happens with most airlines. P&O do not have those contingency plans it appears.

I fully accept P&O cannot control delays but they can put plans in place to mitigate them.

There are not enough planes around for P&O to acquire replacements. This has come about after the plans for Arvia in the Caribbean. 

Edited January 1 by Gettingwarmer

[laslomas]

Possibly changing the start and end dates of cruises on one of the big ships to midweek would relieve a bit of the stress to deal with so many passengers over two days.? But with the schedules already being available up to Spring 2026 I can't see that would be simple.

[Presto2]

2 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

There are not enough planes

Having read all of the posts and thought about it I think  this sums it up !

 

There are 2 large ships in the Caribbean now with, what people are saying, are fewer carriers and planes.

 

I'm no expert but listening to those in the know from pervious employment on here it seems like dominoes. If you depend on every domino, if there is an issue with one, then the whole pack goes down. In effect, there is no slack in the system .... one goes down due to any issues and there is nothing to fill in the gaps. 

 

I feel sorry for the staff on the ground for any airline as they are the ones who pick up the flack from the Great British Public (who can be a real unforgiving pain)

 

We are off to Barbados (am I really saying this?) on the 13th January and just praying that, above all, our Dreamliner gets us there safe and sound...

[jake 26]

8 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

There are not enough planes around for P&O to acquire replacements. This has come about after the plans for Arvia in the Caribbean. 

If you say so. I've worked in air traffic control for 30 years and it's amazing what can happen if needs must.

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, laslomas said:

Possibly changing the start and end dates of cruises on one of the big ships to midweek would relieve a bit of the stress to deal with so many passengers over two days.? But with the schedules already being available up to Spring 2026 I can't see that would be simple.

That's sort of says what I am thinking. There is no slack, so this would help 

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, jake 26 said:

If you say so. I've worked in air traffic control for 30 years and it's amazing what can happen if needs must.

Is that the same now or it is worse in your opinion?

[Winifred 22]

44 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

So you agree that P&O have put 2 large ships in the Caribbean but have not got a comprehensive flight contract to deal with problems that occur. You say P&O can't do this or that, doesn't sound good for the customer.

I respect you are a big P&O fan and see no faults. We've had some wonderful cruises worldwide with them but I am a pragmatist and realise that sometimes if it's not working properly something is being done badly. 

I feel that the emphasis is to fill the ships even if the infrastructure to transport the flying pax is inadequate. Like Paul Ludlow ' 99% are happy'

Are you directly involved and impacted or just expressing an arm chair opinion. I am more inclined to listen to the folk commenting on here that have personal involvement of how the airline industry works. I have no knowledge so would not deign to offer an opinion. What I can  understand is that these cruises were planned pre-pandemic, P& O are not responsible for the lack of charter planes available. Planes and crew can’t be magicked up out of nowhere. However brilliant your planning team is if there ain’t no planes and crew there ain’t no planes and crew. As they say one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but too many seem to be revelling on one incident and running with it. 

[molecrochip]

6 hours ago, CarlaMarie said:

I agree. As the passengers suspected something was amiss and knew that the plane wasn't taking off as scheduled, then P&O must have been aware. 

 

The cruise and travel blogger has since said they are going to take this further now they are home. He has been receiving messages from other passengers sharing their experiences. One in particular has shared with him how they had no means of getting mobility impaired passengers onto the plane - so they took them back to the terminal building and brought them on via a catering truck. 

This is plainly incorrect. Barbados use a scissor lift truck to board mobility impaired passengers. This is exactly what Gatwick or Manchester do if the plane is on a stand instead of an airbridge. This is standard practice in many airports worldwide - and is the same method as boarding the catering. It is the responsibility of the airport - not the airline.

 

4 hours ago, jake 26 said:

It seems that P&O have made a total mess of this in the planning for the 23/24  Caribbean season with ship passenger capacity in excess of 8,000. Surely the logistics of transporting 4,000 people weekly to and from the Caribbean on an 8/9 hour flight must have been high on the 'most important' agenda, factoring in contingency for delays and technical issues. It appears that the transportation planning was more likely a side issue.

I may be wrong but I can't think of any other cruise line who operate large capacity Caribbean cruises, like Arvia and Britannia are doing, who charter aircraft to fly pax on a 17 hour round trip to join and leave the ship. Most of the ships in the Caribbean are ex US, and thus many flights are internal US scheduled. 

I feel sorry for the staff of Maleth because they are probably doing their best, but on a hiding to nothing because P&O have put them in an invidious position where they are the scapegoats for any shortfall of expectations, or any technical failures.

P&O need to sort themselves out very quickly.

The charter contract will include the terms of contingency aircraft, and aircrew. Technical failures of aircraft are not the fault of P&O.

 

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

You seem to forget that airline capacity was drastically reduced during covid, and all airlines are struggling to cope with the current demand, and P&O's planned increased capacity was all pre covid. Following the demise of Thomas Cook, P&O were mainly using TUI, with Virgin picking up the slack, however both of those airlines are struggling to meet their own increased demand, as a result P&O had to find an alternative at relatively short notice. Rather than criticising them you ought to be grateful that they succeeded, rather than cancelling a slew of bookings.

I am sure that neither P&O or Maleth intentionally created the problems they have encountered, but hopefully the rest of this winter Caribbean season will now run more smoothly.

As I've stated many times previously, the charter market is not easy at present. Indeed P&O have not filled Arvia in the way they had intended due to restricted aircraft availability.

 

2 hours ago, jake 26 said:

Judging by the delays and dissatisfaction being aired on different sites I can't agree they have successfully addressed the problems, I can only see it snowballing, and the poor Maleth staff will suffer more undeserved vitriol because of bad P&O planning.(easy to blame covid).

They have increasingly relied on TUI (Cook's demise was way before covid), but by vastly increasing cruise capacity with Arvia there was no way that TUI could supply sufficient long haul flights, so it should have been recognised early as a major factor that additional flight capacity was needed.

I'm not sure that I should be grateful as I am not affected,  but if I was one of those who are affected I wouldn't be patting P&O on the back as you suggest.

Having had many P&O cruises worldwide over the past 20+ years I have always recognised them as a good reliable organisation, but in this instance they are certainly not living up to that.

P&O have been trying to secure a new long term charter partner to replace Thomas Cook since they went bust. There just currently isn't a partner available. Virgin were happy to step in during 2021 and 2022 as their route network was not back to full capacity post Covid and they had spare aircraft. This year that was not the situation hence turning to a new charter provider.

 

1 hour ago, jake 26 said:

Yes aircraft delays are common in the Caribbean during the season, but that is one of the factors that P&O would need to address when they dramatically increased their charter flight requirements when they added a ship with the passenger capacity of Arvia. It seems to me their flight planning department is nowhere capable, and yet it was always very good.

Barbados airport runs on a Caribbean time. It creates its own delays due to the light regulation unlike somewhere like Heathrow where airlines are penalised to keep to time. This is not in the control of P&O. As long as P&O have delivered all the passengers to the airport on time, its then the responsibility of the airport and the airline. Additionally, the continued bad weather in the UK is throwing additional delays into the process.

 

1 hour ago, Gettingwarmer said:

When they arranged the 2023 Arvia season several years ago there was sufficient planes flying. These were depleted during Covid and planes are now hard to find. They managed to find Maleth Aero to fill the void. Cruises are arranged long before flights become available  

Agreed. P&O have publicly acknowledged that its not ideal but the other alternative was cancelling significant numbers of passengers.

 

1 hour ago, jake 26 said:

With respect I think it is you who is missing the point. P& O have considerably increased their need for more long haul charter flights by putting Arvia in the Caribbean with Britannia.

It seems that the flight structure they've put in place is inadequate in terms of contingency, as more flights means that the likelihood of the delays and technical problems affecting cruise passengers increases by the same margin. Delays and tech problems cause knock on delays. To deal with that contingency plans are needed which provide replacement aircraft,  as often happens with most airlines. P&O do not have those contingency plans it appears.

I fully accept P&O cannot control delays but they can put plans in place to mitigate them.

Its not for P&O to have contingency plans. It will be specified in the contract between P&O and the charter operator what the contractual contingency plan is. Its then for the airline to manage.

 

35 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

So you agree that P&O have put 2 large ships in the Caribbean but have not got a comprehensive flight contract to deal with problems that occur. You say P&O can't do this or that, doesn't sound good for the customer.

I respect you are a big P&O fan and see no faults. We've had some wonderful cruises worldwide with them but I am a pragmatist and realise that sometimes if it's not working properly something is being done badly. 

I feel that the emphasis is to fill the ships even if the infrastructure to transport the flying pax is inadequate. Like Paul Ludlow ' 99% are happy'

They have a comprehensive flight contract however unless you're looking at a route like London - New York with multiple flights a day, any delay will be significant.

 

17 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Long before when Ventura and Azura were in the Caribbean it was TUI & Thomas Cook and things were just has bad. People un happy with the carriers. Flights delayed by 24+hrs etc but people expecting P&O to magically make an aircraft appear and to get a company that may give better service is silly.

 

Rumours they are looking at BA this year. BA have the worst problems with IT and cancelled more flights than I guess Virgin Atlantic. People will then complain about this why did P&O pick BA and not Virgin. P&O take this advice onboard and go with Virgin again problems occur and then people say they should of gone with BA or whoever its a never ending cycle of problems. Yes you could pay for yourself to go but I say their is more negatives than positives. Miss the ship, no bonded luggage etc.

 

You expect P&O to have a contingency plan so they ask for another aircraft to be on standby realistically this would never happen.   

 

I have no harm saying I like P&O never had big problems made some complaints have had big flight delays even flown an airline I would say is on the same length has Maleth but that was not P&O faults that TUI had an aircraft go tech in the Dominican and had to wait for the crew to fly in the night before and have adequate rest we arrived just under 3hrs late in the end. Anyone who has done the fly cruises back in the day when TUI had 767's they were awful just has bad as Maleth. Looking at images the leg room looked a lot better than they were on the 767 and 747 that we had to fly even the service was a lot better on Wamos than TUI when we flew.

 

Last year the aircraft that was due to take us to Malta was diverted because the French got the wrong aircraft at like 10PM this happened we ended up being delayed 3hrs + while the company got a new aircraft and crew even though I guess people would say plenty of time to find another aircraft and find crew in 8hrs or so. Its not that simple again people blamed P&O for this how can you blame P&O for an aircraft being diverted. 

 

You go on a packaged holiday you expect TUI for instance to do xyz. They can't if they have no available aircraft or crew to rescue you hence they wet lease another company to help out.

A fair summary, I've had a 24 hr delay before on a package holiday when a Tui plane when tech, and we had to wait overnight while it was fixed.

[carlanthony24]

8 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

If you say so. I've worked in air traffic control for 30 years and it's amazing what can happen if needs must.

I've been cabin crew for a well known airline before they went bust. Things can happen but once delays occur things go pear shaped really quick. I remember when Birmingham Airport had the IT melt down crews out of hours flights being cancelled delays for a good few days to try and play catch up. Airlines asking for help from other airlines. E.G Wamos, Privilege Style. Was hard to find aircrafts during the busy summer period let alone winter.

[jake 26]

2 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Is that the same now or it is worse in your opinion?

Flying is extremely safe, and the aviation industry works hard with one another to ensure that integrity is maintained. I'm sure Maleth is as safe as most and it's a shame their staff are having to put up with criticism. I think safety levels are maintained and improved all the time.

[carlanthony24]

7 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

A fair summary, I've had a 24 hr delay before on a package holiday when a Tui plane when tech, and we had to wait overnight while it was fixed.

Thank you for confirming things. Baring in mind something that may not have helped Maleth in Antigua was a notam about hours due to lack of staff and arrivals being regulated.

Edited January 1 by carlanthony24

[molecrochip]

20 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

There are not enough planes around for P&O to acquire replacements. This has come about after the plans for Arvia in the Caribbean. 

Agreed.

 

12 minutes ago, laslomas said:

Possibly changing the start and end dates of cruises on one of the big ships to midweek would relieve a bit of the stress to deal with so many passengers over two days.? But with the schedules already being available up to Spring 2026 I can't see that would be simple.

Its not that simple. Tui keep most of their long haul aircraft available for P&O at weekends during the winter. During the week, they fly them for their own customers to the Middle East, Far East and the Caribbean. These planes are in use 13 days out of 14 with day 14 being maintenance.

 

11 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

If you say so. I've worked in air traffic control for 30 years and it's amazing what can happen if needs must.

So you're aware of the sheer number of planes that were retired during the Covid period which has stripped all the spare aircraft out of the major airlines, in order to avoid them going bust. BA gave up their B747 fleet, and have not long brought their last A380 back into serice, Virgin gave up their B747s and A332s. Tui parked up a number of their Dreamliners and only have this season brought the last back into service.

 

2024 is where new deliveries for BA and Virgin will add a little slack back into the fleet programs. It was not expected that airtravel would recover so quickly - those doomsayers were wrong.

 

I've heard rumours of BA, Virgin and Norse (formerly Norwegian) being used.

[carlanthony24]

4 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

I've heard rumours of BA, Virgin and Norse (formerly Norwegian) being used.

Can you ask if they can hire Jet2 and use Airtanker A330's 😄

 

Honestly I would love if they do BA or even Virgin out of MAN.

Edited January 1 by carlanthony24

[Presto2]

6 minutes ago, jake 26 said:

Flying is extremely safe, and the aviation industry works hard with one another to ensure that integrity is maintained. I'm sure Maleth is as safe as most and it's a shame their staff are having to put up with criticism. I think safety levels are maintained and improved all the time.

Hi Jake thanks for your reply. Am no more worried re safety than I was many moons ago .... ha ha .. I will always revert to prayer at take off and landing 😀

Just wondering if you think things are worse or better in terms of planes having to be diverted as airlines are stretched.

[Presto2]

Just now, carlanthony24 said:

Can you ask if they can hire Jet2 and use Airtanker A330's 😄

Jet 2 oh please. Celebrity use Jet 2. Love them

[carlanthony24]

Just now, Presto2 said:

Jet 2 oh please. Celebrity use Jet 2. Love them

I won't go into too much detail but hopefully I will be back flying with an airline out of Liverpool.

[molecrochip]

On 12/30/2023 at 2:38 PM, carlanthony24 said:

If only Jet2 had the aircraft for Long haul. Even if they went after A321Neo LR people would moan that the aircraft is not suitable even though the likes of JetBlue, SAS to name a few use them for transatlantic flights. Jet2 tend to use 2-3 from Air Tanker for the summer season. People will moan again because it has no in flight entertainment and they use A330 same has Maleth. I wonder how many people have not heard of Air Tanker and would think its bad till they find out the operate military, government flights. 

P&O via Thomas Cook have used the Air Tanker aircraft before. It was around 2015-2017 and they used A330 aircraft which had been acquired from Condor (from memory). They didn't have seat back TVs and there was much disapproval then. Mentioned on here: https://www.airtanker.co.uk/about/what-we-do/civil-flying

 

Sadly, the A321LR can't make it to the Caribbean. 

[Interestedcruisefan]

32 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Having read all of the posts and thought about it I think  this sums it up !

 

There are 2 large ships in the Caribbean now with, what people are saying, are fewer carriers and planes.

 

I'm no expert but listening to those in the know from pervious employment on here it seems like dominoes. If you depend on every domino, if there is an issue with one, then the whole pack goes down. In effect, there is no slack in the system .... one goes down due to any issues and there is nothing to fill in the gaps. 

 

I feel sorry for the staff on the ground for any airline as they are the ones who pick up the flack from the Great British Public (who can be a real unforgiving pain)

 

We are off to Barbados (am I really saying this?) on the 13th January and just praying that, above all, our Dreamliner gets us there safe and sound...

At the end of the day holidays aren't being ruined

 

An unlucky few have been delayed and some badly

 

They will all be able to claim significant compensation 

 

Ive got plenty of holidays involving flights lined up next 12 to  18 months 

 

Personally for anything important I make sure I arrive at least 2 days before to allow for flight issues 

 

Coming back I'm more than happy to be delayed and claim some compensation towards my next holiday

 

And again allow a couple of days for anything important I'm coming home for

 

In Miami once I had a flight cancelled to New York and we had to delay 3 days due to snow 

[jake 26]

18 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Hi Jake thanks for your reply. Am no more worried re safety than I was many moons ago .... ha ha .. I will always revert to prayer at take off and landing 😀

Just wondering if you think things are worse or better in terms of planes having to be diverted as airlines are stretched.

I honestly don't think there is a change, maybe better utilisation

[Presto2]

4 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

At the end of the day holidays aren't being ruined

 

An unlucky few have been delayed and some badly

 

They will all be able to claim significant compensation 

 

Ive got plenty of holidays involving flights lined up next 12 to  18 months 

 

Personally for anything important I make sure I arrive at least 2 days before to allow for flight issues 

 

Coming back I'm more than happy to be delayed and claim some compensation towards my next holiday

 

And again allow a couple of days for anything important I'm coming home for

 

In Miami once I had a flight cancelled to New York and we had to delay 3 days due to snow 

Now I am retired (YEAH) I get you, but we no longer have elderly parents to worry about and their concerns and issues. 

 

It sounds like your view is like ours at the minute TBH and tend to err on the side of caution now but now that the ship will wait for us if we are with P&O. Not the same if you fly independently as most do with other cruise lines ..

[jake 26]

29 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Agreed.

 

Its not that simple. Tui keep most of their long haul aircraft available for P&O at weekends during the winter. During the week, they fly them for their own customers to the Middle East, Far East and the Caribbean. These planes are in use 13 days out of 14 with day 14 being maintenance.

 

So you're aware of the sheer number of planes that were retired during the Covid period which has stripped all the spare aircraft out of the major airlines, in order to avoid them going bust. BA gave up their B747 fleet, and have not long brought their last A380 back into serice, Virgin gave up their B747s and A332s. Tui parked up a number of their Dreamliners and only have this season brought the last back into service.

 

2024 is where new deliveries for BA and Virgin will add a little slack back into the fleet programs. It was not expected that airtravel would recover so quickly - those doomsayers were wrong.

 

I've heard rumours of BA, Virgin and Norse (formerly Norwegian) being used.

Some interesting views and facts being presented.

I am wondering, however, with Arvia and Britannia being in the Caribbean together with a possible total of 8,000 pax, so 4,000 turn round each week, how sustainable that is, given 3 aircraft per 1,000 thus 12 aircraft needed for a return flight. That is almost equal to the whole TUI 787 (Dreamliner) fleet.

Given the arguments I accept long haul aircraft are scarcer than what they were, so the requirements for 240 aircraft to fly 2 transatlantic legs over the 20 week Caribbean season. and there will be delays, tech probs, does make me think it's not sustainable

[doog442]

48 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

At the end of the day holidays aren't being ruined

 

An unlucky few have been delayed and some badly

 

They will all be able to claim significant compensation 

 

 

Exactly this.

 

In 2019 we got about £600 each (£1200) for a flight delay when in Cuba, which almost covered the cost of the Thomas Cook holiday itself. Fortunately we were kept at the all inclusive hotel, rooms retained, drinks flowing and compensation forms completed and submitted in the hotel lobby. I guess we were lucky but nowadays with long haul one always has to factor in flight delays.

 

These Caribbean cruises are sold as a package holiday and are ATOL protected so there's protection built in, I'm struggling with the thoughts of some that the ultimate responsibility is with the airline for the delays, I'm not sure that entirely dissolves P&O of their responsibilities.