pisces14

Sounds as if it's improved since our last cruise on the Aurora. Our next P&O cruise is again on the Aurora so I'll check it out

That's right you don't pay. On Aurora there were sandwiches - all wrapped up so you can eat them on deck or even take them back to your cabin if you wish - there were baguettes and then boxed salads. My favourite salad was a sort of Tuna nicoise - a lot of tuna, good mixed salad with it, I remember sweetcorn, lettuce, cucumber, tomato and then a separate dressing in a little pot, I think it was some sort of soy dressing. I often didn't use that dressing but added some mayonnaise - available in sachets - and sometimes took a jacket potato to eat with it. There were also usually two small puddings in little pots, I think they were a sort of mousse type thing. There is also another section where they serve a hot dish, often fish and chips or curry but alongside it are jacket potatoes, a cold egg mayonnaise, mushy peas if it's fish and chips. Then there is soup and also things like hot dogs, burgers and chicken wings. The hot dishes are served to you but the others you help yourself. There is no charge for any of this. There are proper plates, knives and forks, not plastic, although plastic ones were available if you wanted them. No hot drinks served here but just round the corner from the Grab and Go was a bar but waiters were always wandering around to serve you drinks. You can just ask for iced water if you wish - no charge. We much preferred this to the buffet.

It's a personal preference of course but I much preferred the 'Grab and Go' on the Aurora when it was the 'Sidewalk cafe'. Then you had fresh bread and fresh baguettes made for you with your own choice of filling unlike the soggy pre-packed ones in the 'Grab and Go'. Yes, you can grab something and go but I preferred waiting in a small queue for something freshly made to order. Not a move that improved things as far as I'm concerned.

P&O Itenary is mostly around Europe with Southampton being the turnaround Port. So when Crew go shopping in Asda we still pay UK prices, we dont get a discount. When we sit in a cafe on our lunch off we still Pay Spanish Prices with the VAT.

 

All the information provided by me is correct. The name of the document is "Salary & Bonus Payment Scheme - Restaurant & Accommodation Crew". Its a 20 page document which explains the salary structure.

As someone who would like the staff to receive what is due for their hard work. What method of payment do you suggest. You have already said that the current clientele are not inclined to tip. So if the Auto gratuities haven't solved that what do you suggest?

:')

I'm a flight attendant for 24 years on a major US international airline. I have an endless barrage of stories regarding rude and obnoxious behavior that would make your head spin. One thing is for certain, rude behavior knows no boundaries of nationality, race, sex, or economic status. From my own personal experiences I have opinions of which nationalities are the most obnoxious and rude, and I can tell you American isn't one of them. That in itself might surprise you.

The first time I went to the USA one of the things which surprised me the most was how polite people were. Going around a supermarket in Britain I've very often been rudely pushed aside by someone's trolley. In the US, people would apologise if they came around the corner and almost touched your trolly with their trolley. It was a pleasure to shop there.:D

We rarely dealt with our P&O PCA because whenever we called she was never there. She seemed to work very strange hours/days. We have booked direct, but last time we booked with a TA and our PCA phoned up to ask why we hadn't booked through her. She was quite put out when I said we were looking at other cruise lines (which we were). Increasingly P&O do nothing to encourage or retain our loyalty - should they be surprised if we look elsewhere? She did phone to wish us "bon voyage" and called to ask how our last cruise had been, literally the day we returned! The main purpose of the call, though, was to ask if we wanted to book again, even though I've made it clear repeatedly that we don't have the time or funds to be serial cruisers, much as we would love to.

Funnily enough the last time my PCS phoned me was just after I booked a cruise with Cunard. She knew I had and wanted to know if I was interested in any P&O cruises. I assumed that because they are both owned by Carnival she must have been informed. I didn't ask her but I'm wondering now if I could have booked the Cunard cruise with her.:confused:

The sale of Adonia came to me after reading this.

 

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You're right of course. Why should P&O inform their customers of anything. :rolleyes:

Ummmm unsure about this one, however they have stopped the Personal Cruise Advisors which is a bit of a disappointment, these folk have now been merged into the reception team. More hands to the pump I guess and tough cheese to those regular cruiser who want continuity with their bookings.

 

Bal

I didn't know that. I booked our cruise next year with our PCS but that was last year. You'd think P&O would tell people they were going to do that.:(

Just because you don’t see a link between autogratuities and service does not mean no link exists.

I agree that as the system is set up at the moment, it is reasonable for people to remove autogratuities if they so desire. In my view, it is also reasonable for P&O to offer them the opportunity to reconsider later in the cruise. A simple letter seems to be a reasonable way to do this. It is interesting that you seem to think a letter asking for autogratuities not to be added in the first place is acceptable but not a letter giving people the opportunity to reinstate them when they have had the chance to assess the work of those who receive them.

Presumably, as on this and other threads, you appear to be critical of much that P&O offer, in the future, you will find an alternative holiday or cruise company that come closer to offering you what you want.

How very nicely put. Apart from those people who prefer to pay with envelopes, I've wondered why people remove a service charge before they've experienced the service. So the letter does give people the opportunity to rethink what they want to do. I know the cynics on here believe that P&O are ripping us off but no-one has any real proof of that. The poster whose thread was removed could be as was suggested by someone simply a member of staff with an axe to grind. I do remember him saying that he didn't think going back to the old system was a good idea, because today's clientele were not inclined to tip.

I've never thought about claiming for a missed port. We missed Bora Bora on a world cruise in 2013 and received £100 OBC each. I always thought that was because the Australians on board had started a petition to get some compensation. I'm not sure we are covered by our insurance anyhow.:confused:

If you want extras for having a suite then try Cunard. We had an upgrade last year, had 2 bottles of bubbly on arrival, fruit bowl in the room refreshed daily, chocolate truffles with turn down, 2 separate sundecks with the most amazing sun loungera- you were basically lying on a normal mattress! Separate dining room with a different menu to the normal dining room and also a separate bar as well. It was more expensive but you did get something different compared to what everyone else could use.

We are giving Cunard a try this year. We have booked the Queens Grill and I'm looking forward to seeing what the differences will be. One of the things we are most looking forward to is having our own table for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hello all

I have to say if I was fortunate enough to be able to afford a suite having my own sunbed on my balcony would be my number 1 advantage oh I can dream one day I will be lucky and have an upgrade to a suite or be offered a suit at an affordable price to me.

 

I can dream

I hope you get your wish one day.:)

Yes, that’s a very good point about in suite dining from the full MDR menu given the OP’s comments about dining in quiet places, which I can relate to. My wife has taken advantage of this when I have been off the ship in tender ports. I can imagine that, as a solo passenger, this could be of great benefit.

 

I’d forgotten the canapés. I should have listed them in my ‘don’t appreciate’ list. We have a good laugh when most arrive, although on our last cruise in a suite 2 or 3 of them over the fortnight were actually quite nice, which surprised us! We used to think that the birds swooping around the aft of the ship as we left a port were due to them looking for fish, until we realised they were wise to the aft suite passengers throwing the canapés off their balconies 😂

Naughty:')We always ask the butler now not to bring them as we are not fans either.

Unlike Selbourne I find the butler useful. Some of course are far better than others. They will bring your breakfast, lunch and dinner to your cabin. So if you are particularly tired you may prefer to eat in your suite one evening. You can choose exactly what you want from the menu of the day.

You will of course get the canapes each evening before dinner. He should take care of your laundry too.

Also, anything off the room service menu is free to suite passengers.

You are supposed to get priority on tenders going and coming back now but we've never found that to work either.

Apart from that as, has been said there aren't many perks for suite passengers on P&O. There really should be more.

There is only one butler on the Oceana so if we wanted to order room service when he was on his break, we had no option but to order room from the room service number. The first time we did they argued we had to pay but we pointed out that as suite passengers we didn't. We weren't charged and had no problem for the rest of the cruise.

You deserved your world cruise for working hard and no one has any right to say otherwise.

You make a very valid point though that everything on board ie food, entertainment etc is available to everyone and you certainly paid P&O handsomely for your cruise so you shouldn't be expected to pay more gratuitys.

I hope you had a fantastic time.

Graham.

 

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Thank you Graham. We did have a fantastic time and have made plenty of memories that will stay with us forever.

Very well put....if I had that kind of money for cruising though, I think I would be minded to sail with Seabourn or Regent or some such luxury line. I love P and O and for my budget they are great but I don't think they are worth £80,000 !

£80,000 for a world cruise is very reasonable. The reason we cruise with P&O is for their excellent itineraries to and from Southampton. The 6* lines are usually fly cruises and we no longer enjoy the hassle of airports or flying in general.

I really dislike the tendency of many British people to make snide remarks about people with wealth. It smacks of jealousy to me, which is a disease for which there is no cure.

 

Personally, I could not afford to spend £80,000 on a cruise and even if I did have that sort of money going spare I wouldn’t spend that on a cruise. No Cruise would ever be worth that sort of expenditure to me. However, I would never begrudge anyone who does have that sort of money to splash on a cruise. Good luck to them. I suspect that they have worked damned hard for it or are spending their inheritance on something that they have always dreamed of, such as doing a World Cruise in luxury.

 

As this thread is about facts, let me offer a couple more. Cabin stewards with Suites tend to look after slightly fewer cabins to compensate for the extra time they take to service. Their pay and reward structure does not penalise them for this. When a suite passenger is paying £80k for exactly the same cruise as an inside passenger paying £17k for an inside cabin, it is patently obvious that they are being charged for any additional servicing time so I think it’s good that P&O doesn’t seek to exploit them further, as some cruise lines do, by charging them more as a service charge.

 

Secondly, as with many things in life, whether it be holidays or products, prices charged for the very top end products often carry a price premium that is over and above the true additional cost to the supplier and this is done to help subsidise the ‘entry’ level price so that the headline prices are competitive. In the case of the example being discussed, even though a suite takes up more space, there is no way that the actual cost to P&O is £63k more than for a couple doing exactly the same Cruise in an inside cabin. It’s exactly the same food, same entertainment, same itinerary, access to the same ships facilities, same fuel cost etc etc.

 

I would therefore suggest that, if anything, suite passengers are far more likely to be slightly subsidising the headline price promoted for inside cabins than the other way around and therefore the snide remarks are particularly unwarranted.

Thank you for your post. I really appreciate it. I really wish I hadn't mentioned the cost of our cruise now. I did so because I wanted to point out the difference in the cost of our cruise compared to our friend. He had everything that we enjoyed apart from a larger cabin and the services of a butler. As you've pointed out we more than paid for that privilege. You're correct we weren't born with silver spoons in our mouths we've worked hard and made sacrifices in our lives to achieve what we have. It was a world cruise and something I'd always dreamed of doing.

Quite agree.

 

But if I had paid £80000 for a cruise I would believe that I was sufficiently privileged that I would not worry that I gladly paid a little more, though where the 4x came from, not my suggestion, I do not know, to staff as a thanks, when the only cruise they could go on would be one they worked on.

 

No wonder people on here think those who remove AG's are cheapskates.

For your information we HAVE always gladly paid the recommended gratuities and have also given extra to the waiting staff, cabin steward, butler and others. As I've already said those who book suites already pay a lot more than someone on an inside for the same service, food, entertainment etc. apart from a butler. Perhaps you should save your unwarranted for comment for those who think once they have paid for their cruise they shouldn't be expected to tip the staff for whatever reason they can think up.

There are a couple of flies in that ointment

1. When I go to the restaurant around the corner and purchase a fillet steak for my wife and myself it costs just under £60. When I go and have fish and chips for two it costs about £12. Now should I tip about £1.20 on each occasion because the service is about the same and takes the same amount of time? Or should I tip more when I order the fillet steaks because my meal costs more? I believe and do this later. Should not costs therefore come into the tip for my cruise?

2. You mention that the other consideration would be a suite because it has a butler. Now we are booked into a mini-suite and that does not carry the service of a butler, so that is not a consideration, but unless I have been seriously misled a mini-suite has a balcony about twice the size of a cabin and has considerably more internal space than an ordinary cabin, I hope therefore that the cabin steward will not clean twice as fast and cut a few corners, but will in fact have to take more time to clean and order our mini-suite than an ordinary cabin. But PO insist that the basic AG is the same whatever the cabin, now at the very least that is really not fair to the cabin steward or the passengers that have a much smaller and less costly cabin.

We paid £80000 for our world cruise in the cabin we chose, and someone we know paid £17000 for his inside cabin. We had the same food, entertainment etc. Of course it took the cabin steward longer to clean our cabin but why should we pay 4 times as much in gratuities. We had already paid 4 times as much for our cruise.

I know it's the same pro rata but when we did the 50 day Caribbean, USA and Amazon cruise, to see our cruise account debited £700 on day 1 did cause a sharp intake of breath.

 

In view of all the recent threads on this subject I still haven't made my mind up what to do on the next cruise. Will probably decide once onboard.

I must admit I have no idea how much was taken out for gratuities on our last world cruise but we had £2000 each OBC so I'm sure it more than covered it.

All depends really on what the cruise cost and many other factors. But for instance our 7 night cruise is close up to 4 grand and £100 in that is a very small percentage of the total price If that cruise had only cost £1000 or less for an inside cabin, that is a much greater cost to add in percentage terms.

I see your point but the fact is on P&O whatever you've paid for your cabin is in my view immaterial. Everyone has exactly the same service so should pay the same charge. With the possible exception of suite passengers who also have the services of a butler. Although, I'm sure like us most suite passengers will give extra in an envelope too. On Cunard of course Grills passengers pay a higher service charge than those in the Britannia class.

Until recently I have always paid the auto grats.

 

All of you who post here that still do then, no problem, it's a personal choice.

 

But I would ask the question as to whether you have a 'line in the sand'.

 

If P&O decide tomorrow to increase the AG to say £10 or £12 or any amount they decide, would you just carry on paying it regardless?

Our next cruise is with Cunard (our first with Cunard) and the auto-gratuities are $13.50pp

which I think is almost £10 and yes we will leave them on. Now whether P&O could get away with charging £10 or £12 I doubt very much. I don't think many will be paying £7pp.

Thats how i read it after i saw it on an email from another cruise site yesterday.

We have always tipped in line with the cruise companies recommendations plus a little more and it doesn't seem right that lots of people don't and that was the reason i emailed P&O and the crux of my conversation with the P&O guest relations lady.

 

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Thank you grapau I'm glad you saw it. As the thread has been removed I can't quote the actual words but that is more or less what the staff member said. If one is to believe everything he/she said as fact then one must also believe that as fact too. Which is the main reason like you that I think the gratuities should be included in the cruise price.

Sadly that is such a generalisation that it does insult those who have chosen, and for good reasons, not to use the AG system. Mainly because it is broken. The post on here that got deleted suggested heavily that PO got some of those AG's and that they were a pernicious way of trying to control staff.

 

I hope for their hard work, long hours and time away from home looking after, often difficult customers, and, like a good scout, is expected to smile and whistle under all circumstances do get good wages which they can comfortably live on and send plenty home. I also want to reward them for that hard work which can make a cruise a wonderful experience, but I will not pay a levy secretly, from us, administered by the cruise line, that can be used against staff to say my thank you for that. Before I started reading these threads, and particularly that deleted post, I was willing to pay PO the AG amount when I booked the cruise, because the recent rise is far too much, but now NO AG and tip the staff individually. That will mean, if I understand the PO policy, they will (given the possibility of losing bonuses because of not hitting targets) get their full bonus and get the cash tips I give them. That must sound good to staff.

 

I therefore resent the op suggesting and insinuating that I will not pay tips to the staff to reduce the cost of the cruise.

I saw the thread you refer to and I quoted something he wrote but my post has been removed too. However I remember most of it. The poster (a member of staff)whose thread was removed stated he/she didn't think going back to envelopes was necessarily a good thing because 'The current clientele don't tend to tip'. So you may not withhold tips but it looks like many do.

I only meant to attribute generosity to many cultures and religions.

Your then following post certainly stirred my morning coffee so to speak and I did a quick run through the items you covered. Yes, with the exception of the mail we do apply gratuities to these services either as presented or annually at, say, Christmas. We did at one time include mail but the new system now obliges us to go and pick it up :( The overall issue of tipping is of course appreciation, for who would want to express appreciation for rude or indifferent service.

 

As to the possible corporate acquisition of part of my daily gratuity there is little one can do if such is in fact the case. I liken it to the ship's use of duty and tax free alcohol whereby they can make a drink for as little as 50 cents and then have the gall to sell it for 10 dollars. But being aware of that equation does not stop me from ordering another when the situation warrants it...

I really don't want to get involved with another thread on tipping. I just want to say that I agree with everything you have said. As far as I'm concerned it seems to me that most people now cruising on P&O are simply looking for any excuse not to tip.