pisces14

I think I read the suites on Oceana are wonderful, have a great time x

 

 

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The balconies are huge but I wasn't impressed with the suite I'm afraid.

I disagree entirely - I am not a particularly experienced cruise traveller and the first time I made a cruise booking I certainly "read up" on everything the booking entailed. There might be a few people that go into any kind of booking with blinkers on but the vast majority of people parting with their hard-earned cash for a cruise - maybe a few thousand pounds - will not have the surprises that you are suggesting. The issue of gratuities is not kept under wraps.

I did the same I read what was expected although I had always known that gratuities were part of the culture of cruising. What I hadn't realised until I started reading cruise forums was that other people had such a problem with paying them. I have never thought the paying of gratuities has been kept a secret by any cruise company.

Rather a rude and patronising answer. Stop assuming that just because people discuss the issues on auto gratuities they do not want to reward staff. On the contrary if you had read the posts you will see that nowhere have I personally said I would not pay. BUT I am not happy paying large amounts of money to P & O if they do not ensure the staff are rewarded. If you are tired of the posts them stop reading them

Sorry Sparky I replied to ozzysdad instead of you. I realised my posted sounded personal. I was actually generalising and meant anyone cruising should pay gratuities. As I said to bee-ess that could be auto-tips or in an envelope but my opinion is everyone should. I don't think I'm alone in getting sick of these tipping threads.

That is your choice - don't assume that everyone who cancels the autotip doesn't tip or want to tip.

 

We want to be sure that the staff that serve us get their reward depending on the level of service they offer, with autotip this depends on their customer satisfaction results. What happens to the money if they don't get a high enough rating.

 

We tip by envelope because we want the be sure that the staff serving us actually get the money, but now we cannot even be sure that they can keep it because they may have to hand to over to a kitty.

 

So P&O need to provide some transparency on this - as it stands there is no way to ensure that the staff serving us are guaranteed to get the money.

I'm not assuming anything I said anyone who doesn't pay the gratuities. Which could be either leaving on the auto-tips or paying by envelope. I can't help but wonder how many people who remove the auto-tips actually give anything at all.

Just to add, that £1.2mil does seem a lot over 99 days, but if you then break that down to a weekly figure, and then split the figure by the number of crew in the tip pool, the actual sum per person is only around £400 per week (back of a fag packet calculation). This does not seem excessive to me, given the hours worked.

However, I would still prefer to see the tips incorporated in the fare, so the the 99 day cruise was £1200 more expensive.

 

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Absolutely it should just be incorporated into the fare. As I said earlier that is the fairest solution. As you have said this is going to be a never ending story until that happens.:rolleyes:

The Blue Peter badge is in the post, as for gratuities there are two choices either pay the tips or cancel them, cancelling them doesn't give you any less right to go cruising despite what some would have you believe.

Thanks for the badge. I didn't mean you personally should stop cruising I actually meant everyone who doesn't pay should stop cruising. You're quite right people who don't pay the tips still have the right to go cruising. My opinion is that they shouldn't.

Very daunting! Did think about asking for discount!!!

We've done 105nights kept the auto-tips on and still gave extra to our waiters, cabin steward, butler and others. I really do get a little tired of these threads with people continually finding reasons why they shouldn't pay gratuities. Either pay up or stop cruising.

RC gratuitys are a lot more plus 18% tip automatically added to every drink.

P&O have faults but tipping levels are reasonable.

I agree £6pp is not a lot of money and certainly a lot less than we'll be paying on our next cruise with Cunard who again unlike P&O add a % to every drink.

So what if other companies have higher undisclosed optional service charges.

 

Any amount added to a customer's bill without prior notification is distasteful, and that is compounded by the fact the customer knows that it will not be P&O that will suffer if it is not paid, but the staff (which P&O deliberately underpay).

 

You are trying to defend an unpleasant practice that ought to have disappeared years ago, and has in most civilised countries.

You're quite right if the tips aren't paid it is the staff who suffer, which is why I would never remove the tips. So why do people do it? That is what is distasteful. If they feel so strongly about P&O not paying the staff more perhaps they shouldn't cruise. I don't feel guilty about cruising because the staff who work on P&O are probably far better off than the majority of their fellow countrymen and I am helping to keep them in employment. If I removed the tips that would as you say be unfair to them. As Wowzz says we are just going around in circles. The only fair way is for P&O to include them in the price of the cruise.

Wow! well done for being so thoughtful. Clearly you can afford another £12 a day added to your holiday. However, many people cannot and object to having to supplement the wages for the crew. If I choose to holiday in a Hotel in London for example I would not expect to pay an additional £12 a day to the hotel staff so why should Cruises be any different? Gratuities are for good service not to be used as a supplement for the crews wages and then used as a form of emotional blackmail against those people who do not wish to participate in this P&O company rip off.

So don't cruise with P&O.

I think the auto tip 'removers' are for some reason more vociferous, and seem to take a perverse delight in telling everyone about their actions. Personally, I think us auto tippers are the silent majority!

 

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You're probably right.(y)

Well done - I was beginning to think that I was the only one who did this, after reading so many posts on this and other threads about removing the 'iniquitous ' auto tips the moment you set foot on the ship.

 

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No you're not alone this is what we do too. I haven't looked at this thread before because I'm so fed up of reading threads about tipping and wondering just how many of are left who don't remove the Auto-tips.

Sadly I see this as the start of a cull of the smaller P&O ships, Oceana, Aurora and indeed Oriana are all vulnerable with the advent of the new mega ship. Unfortunately the smaller ships attract an older passenger .. sorry guest! who spend less and therefore are not very profitable. Watch this space.

Bal

We are older passengers but nevertheless spend a lot of money on our cruises. We drink wine every night, spend in the shops, send our clothes to the laundry and book all our excursions with P&O. I do however share your fear that the smaller ships will be the first to go. I'll never book the larger ships so we'll have to spend our money elsewhere, when and if that happens.

The Aurora would be my choice. I didn't like the Oceana but it depends on what people are looking for in a cruise. The Oceana is a sun ship which is probably why it was docked in the Med for the summer. Everything revolves around the atrium. If you like a noisy ship that's the one for you.

Wow, we really are on the goody two shoes thread here are we not. We regularly cruise with various lines but mostly with P&O and our bar bill is rarely less than £1000. I have to say that neither of us have been falling down drunk but we have enjoyed our drinks and that is, like the French, we drink with our meals . By the way I now lots of ex pats in Spain and France, none of whom are alcoholics. I trust that on your next cruise you will all be tucked up in bed by 2200 and tut tut along at the rest of us who enjoy a drink and a laugh with rest of the guys. By the way how many of those of you who decry alcohol are actually nicotine junkies!!

 

Oh and we actually quite like Benidorm!!!

 

 

 

Peter and Jenny

We certainly aren't goody two shoes. We just buy our drinks on board. Wine at dinner every night, pre dinner drinks and the odd glass at lunch too. I'm afraid we don't smoke though.;)

We've never taken alcohol on board with us (no room in the suitcases). Although we have bought the odd bottle of something to try at different ports. It wouldn't bother me if they stopped letting people bring alcohol on board as we book a cruise for the destinations. It certainly wouldn't be a deal breaker for us and from some of the comments on here it sounds as if some people's behaviour is going to affect things in the future. I too hope they don't go the way of the All inclusive.

I just had a peek in to the mini suite one day. I didn't see the bathroom so I hadn't realised there wasn't a separate shower in the mini-suite which there is in the suite which I do prefer. I did think that apart from the suite having a much larger balcony and of course a butler, it was much better value for money.

Have you thought about the mini suites at the aft of the ship. The one on C deck was the same size as our suite without the dividing cupboards between the living area and the bedroom. It looked very spacious.

Indeed. But can you say it with Rob Brydons accent? :')

I did;)

I drink a lot of tea. I'm not an expert, but I do know that Twinings is a more premium product than PG Tips and is a lot nicer to drink. I also like chocolate and the freebie chocolates of recent years aren't as nice as they used to be. They can't seem to decide whether they are milk chocolate or mint chocolate so have a strange 'somewhere in between' taste, but are more akin to baking chocolate than, say, Cadburys Dairy Milk. The freebie drinks at the priority boarders lunches and Captains Drinks parties etc are now cheap and not very nice plonk. The fizz is about as far removed from Chamapge as a sparkling wine can be and leaves an unpleasant after taste (as does the white - the red is passable).

 

 

So, are all these things (and others) cost cutting? Of course they are. It would be naive to think otherwise. But do they prevent me from cruising with P&O? No. Personally, I would rather pay a little more and have more premium products, but I understand that in these highly competitive, cost sensitive times, that isn't going to happen. They certainly aren't significant enough issues to make me switch cruise operator. But, then again, I'm someone who doesn't get upset by the pillows going on the floor when the steward makes the beds, so perhaps I'm not a good barometer :)

Cheap plonk, cheaper tea,suspicious tasting chocolates and bedding placed on the floor. Ah This is the Life.:D

I think you are being unfair on Zoe here. She makes a reasonable point which I guess some may disagree with. It is not her first post.

 

Your scepticism towards first time posters should be directed to les999 who appears to have joined the forum just to start this thread and not supplied a shred of evidence for his allegation.

I think Balf was referring to Les999's post not Zoe.

Sorry I've just realised I said on embarkation day in my previous post. I meant on dis-embarkation day of course.

About 3 years ago on embarkation day we were still in our suite and the cabin steward asked if he could start changing the bed for the next passengers. I really wish we hadn't said yes now. (What you don't see you don't grieve over)After watching him drag the duvet and the cover all over the floor and stepping all over it a few times, I wouldn't have considered the sheets or the duvet clean. So it doesn't matter how often the sheets are changed I'll never regard bedding on ships as clean.:(

Sorrento was fabulous - and popular - on Oriana too before they made it The Beach House. Personally, I wish they would have different things on different ships. I am not bothered about the Glass House or The Beach House.

I do agree Sorrento in my opinion was the best of the speciality restaurants.

I did like the Glasshouse on the Aurora mainly because it was so easy to get a table at lunchtime.;)

You may well be right. We used the Glasshouse quite a few times on our 16 night cruise on Aurora in May and were often the only people in there at lunchtime. In fact, at its busiest, it never seemed to be more than 25% full. By contrast, it can often be a struggle to find a table in the Glasshouse on Britannia. We are going on Arcadia for the first time next year and much as we love the Epicurean on Britannia, we would very much like to try the Ocean Grill as we have read excellent reports about it. Not all formats translate well on all ships. We didn't like Sindhu on Aurora (but found it to be very good on Britannia and Ventura) and the Epicurean was poor on Ventura whereas we have found the Britannia one to be superb on 3 different cruises over 3 different years. One of the restaurants we enjoyed most was Oriana

Rhodes - sadly no more.

We were on the world cruise on the Aurora in 2015 and used to regularly have lunch in the Glasshouse. We loved it but sometimes we were there on our own. When it had been the Cafe Bordeaux it was always packed at lunchtimes but perhaps because then lunch was free.;)