majortom10

The main reason I can find that was disappointing is Cunard obviously knew about dry dock and missing Lisbon prior to leaving Southampton. They should have told customers and given option of cancelling or at least an amount of OBC as a gesture.

I agree that if I was on this cruise I would not be very happy either. Many of the Cunard "geeks" who will not have a wrong word said against Cunard whatever they will do or say. It was obvious they knew about dry docking prior to this cruise leaving Southampton and all cruisers should have been informed and the opportunity of cancelling with no losses and full refund. But of course Cunard will not do that because it is all about money not customer loyalty or satisfaction. I think I am right, if not I am to be corrected, but do not think anything of any sort of compensation for disruption and missing of port has been offered. It is totally different when ports are missed due to circumstances beyond Cunard's control but this one is not and totally different. What makes it more insulting in my eyes is the arrogance of Cunard and the "spin" to make out that this is "a once in a lifetime opportunity".

To my knowledge there are no happy hours or drinks offers on P&O. The prices of drinks is exactly the same price whichever bar and at any time of the day.

On Arcadia maiden we had a gentleman sharing our table at breakfast. He said he was going to put a complaint in about the sausages and grabbed a card that used to be on the tables to fill in. One person at table noticed he didn't have sausages on his breakfast his reply was no but they look disgusting. We also had a pair of elderly ladies sit with us in the atrium of Britannia on her maiden cruise. They asked us if we had any complaints about the ship as they pulled out a pen and a roll of paper with a long list on. We said it was only first morning and as of then we were impressed by the ship and liked her. They didn't seem happy and when a waiter approached asking politely if they would like to order coffee/tea and they responded very rudely and I'll mannered why should they pay for coffee when it's free in the buffet and got up and stormed off. We somehow seem to attract people like this on holiday but my theory is only if needed complain about things that have happened to you and affected you and not others.

Britannia is our most favourite P&O ship and like many have said we were also on Britannia Maiden cruise and certainly wasn't a disaster. The only problem we had was the standing in the rain in a queue to get back on the ship on St Patrick's Day. Would be interested to know why you say it was disastrous.

Easy when you have purchased with Equiniti and have share certificate. Just e-mail full name, date and cruise number and share certificate number. Never had a problem since purchase in 2011.

Yes but as we all know strong brands can fail P&O are no different. Especially when they have to fill Arvia/Iona 365 days of the year especially in colder months when children are at school.

That is why P&O will never change because people will always stick up for them and blame the "gutter" press. Surprisingly we were on Ventura maiden voyage and there were all sorts of issues and poor service on restaurant. Excuse given by P&O was that it was their first "large" ship and the powers of be thought that they could run Ventura with same number of staff as Arcadia/Aurora and they were sadly mistaken as they were seriously understaffed. 14yrs on and things don't seem to have changed much.

No the health questionnaire pre cruise has ended.

End of the day P&O will do as they have always done and ignore the bad press and the bean counters will count the money. P&O for years have always treated their customers with contempt knowing that however bad it is people will still book with them again and make excuses and stick up for P&O.

Always had the belief that most illnesses start in the buffet due to peoples poor hygiene practices. Nobody forces you to have full menu in MDR and you can share a table and meet people and only have a main course or just starter and dessert.

End of the day it all depends on how much you drink and is not for me to say whatb people drink so can only speak on a personal level. We dont drink alcohol that much so never had a drinks package on P&O/Cunard and only had them on Princess when £30pppd which when you take into account gratuities and internet was excellent value but at £50pppd as in 2024 it is too expensive to get value for money for what we drink so a non starter for us.

It won't really worry me as it will be a long time, if ever, we cruise again with Princess after our cruise in June. Just thought it might interest those that were complaining about drinks package on P&O. We paid £30pppd in June for Princess Plus then they increased price and then later included extra benefits and now have increased it again further for 2024. £50pppd is a large increase and increasing price of drinks limit to $15 is all relative as no doubt wines we were drinking in Vines under $12 will have by now increased to $15.

Which is exactly what we do when we cruise, we only fly once a year to Austria and have never had any issues at Birmingham airport.

We found many wines on our last Princess cruise in June under $12 never mind £12 ($15 approx).

Just food for thought for those that cruise with Princess and have been critical of price of P&Os drinks package. This morning received a Princess brochure for 2024 and the price of Princess Plus has now gone up to £50pppd. There are some extra benefits but personally think that is a bit expensive even when taking gratuities into account at a price of £1400 for a couple on 14 nt cruise.

We love sea days and have done a few roundtrip TAs 7 days to NY 1 day in NY and 7 days return on QM2. Love the ship our favourite of all and never get bored for one minute as there is always something to do and very interesting speakers every day. Good job we are all different or else we would all be on Aurora.

Nothing wrong with Birmingham airport. I suppose it depends on how far you have to travel to airport from where you live.

Yes and the food at Brewers Fayre is crap.

What paying for a luxury cruise and missing Lisbon and then being stuck in a dry dock for 2 nights. Sorry if I was on that cruise I would not be very happy and I would be making my feelings known.

According to The Times last week hospitalisations with flu are at there highest in last 4 winters and are higher than COVID.

We were in 5100 in November and we were not impressed with poor overall standard of our cabin, sorry PG suite.

There are many complaints on various Faceache pages and also another cruise forum I use. Many people are not happy with Cu ard at the moment There is even one who has a cruise booked with Cunard on QE from Aus to NZ in QG. He has been informed by Cunard that because of overbooking he will be downgraded to Britannia Club. He is not happy and don't blame him.

Certainly issues were not sorted out completely as she did say that the letters were still not correct and that she "had given up the will to live". She does not know whether documentation provided will cause problems when claiming off insurance. We all hope it is good enough if it doesn't or even if it does the stress caused is down to Cunard and their incompetence in the last 48 hrs which is not good enough. The staff should by now be well trained on how to deal with COVID and provide right documentation for their insurance claim which they are clearly not. Sorry to upset people especially those that won't have a wrong word said against Cunard but gives the impression they don't care and just want you off the ship and not bothered about your insurance claim. .

It is not just a one-off that affected baw53 and nobody can justify the very poor customer service they have received on the ship which at an awful time was made worse in some ways by Cunard. We also noted that our cruise in November was not as good as last November where the food was not as good and service throughout the ship below Cunard's normal high standards. There are also many complaints on other cruise forums and also Faceache of recent cruises on Cunard so possibly more widespread that you want to believe.