Tahitian Treasures 01/07/11

[The_Big_M]

Same thing with the Pacific Sun's latest trip, which encountered extreme weather. Passengers missed three stops and got a lousy $50 o.b.c. A little bit of generosity and genuine understanding would serve P&O well, instead of playing Scrooge.

 

That's surprising and disappointing if true. The port charges for 3 stops should have been greater than $50 alone, and are usually refunded on other lines.

[robinph]

Well I wrote to P&O telling them how disappionted I was and they blamed my travel agent saying they sent an email letting them know of the change of itinerary at the same time their website still listed Apia and they were selling this itinerary with Apia included. :mad: I also contacted my travel agent who contacted P&O and was told that Apia was not cancelled and was still on the itinerary. It seems P&O don't really train their staff well. I had to resend the info to my travel agent from P&O so she could clear it up finally with P&O and yes Apia has been cancelled.

 

Annoyed at P&O! They just keep blaming my travel agent.

 

I really hope this is not an indication of the level of service we will receive once we are on the Pacific Pearl?

 

It's funny how P & O managed to post an obscure little notice on FB on the 17th Dec 2010 about the cancellation,( I wonder how many people that had already booked would have seen it, not a mention of this change anywhere else, even their recent newspaper advertisments have been quoting Apia as a call ) but it took them nearly another month to ammend the itenarary on their website, enough time to lure some more unsuspecting customers into booking this cruise thinking that they would be going to Apia, coincidentaly this was also ammended after the 180 day deadline for any refund of deposits, your not going to try and tell me this was an oversight,yet another sneaky move on P & O"s part as far as I'm concerned. Robin:mad::mad:

[Rasa Sayang]

Same thing with the Pacific Sun's latest trip, which encountered extreme weather. Passengers missed three stops and got a lousy $50 o.b.c. A little bit of generosity and genuine understanding would serve P&O well, instead of playing Scrooge.

 

I think you're drawing a fairly long bow there.

 

I don't see why P&O should have to give any sort of refund because of weather they have no control over.

 

I believe the $50 O.B.C. was a good gesture on their behalf- they were not obliged to pay a cent.

 

Conversely, if a port was missed due to a breakdown or similar fault on their part - then they are liable.

 

When The Pacific Sky broke down in the Malacca Straits in 2006 we missed two ports and spent over 24 hours anchored just off the sea lanes.

 

The end result of that was P&O refunded each passenger $350 dollars - in cash, not O.B.C.

 

On another occasion on the Pacific Dawn Christmas Cruise in '07 when the tour of Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nourmea was such a rotten event due to the fact they were cloed for the day and the arrogant french guide who was called in had a rotten attitude - P&O refunded the complete cost of the tour to each passenger - once again something they did NOT have to do.

 

And before anyone jumps on me and accuses me of being one of those P&O "stooges" :D:p - I think in the case of missing Apia on the Pearl, P&O needs a swift kick up their backside.

 

A bloody rotten situation, and those affected have every right to be annoyed. :mad:

[robinph]

Well I wrote to P&O telling them how disappionted I was and they blamed my travel agent saying they sent an email letting them know of the change of itinerary at the same time their website still listed Apia and they were selling this itinerary with Apia included. :mad: I also contacted my travel agent who contacted P&O and was told that Apia was not cancelled and was still on the itinerary. It seems P&O don't really train their staff well. I had to resend the info to my travel agent from P&O so she could clear it up finally with P&O and yes Apia has been cancelled.

 

Annoyed at P&O! They just keep blaming my travel agent.

 

I really hope this is not an indication of the level of service we will receive once we are on the Pacific Pearl?

 

Hi Silverwillow, I too rang P & O and the consultant I spoke to could not find anything in his information to say that P & O had notified T/A's of this change but said "I'm sure they would have sent a blanket email to all T/A's advising of the change", so I then spoke to my T/A and surprise surprise no email was recieved from P & O. The only possible reason P & O could give me for cancelling Apia was maybe they could'nt get the staff to work on the docks on a Sunday, or maybe customs do'nt work on a Sunday.....if this was the case you would think this sought of thing would be looked into before setting an itenarary! Robin:mad::mad:

[silverwillow]

Yeah I can understand that P&O is not responsible for the weather and we will take our chances on missing ports due to the weather but to miss a port because it's Sunday is a bit off in my opinion. I am not an expert but when I look at the itinerary it's obvious that missing Apia will save fuel (see pic below). If they wanted to change this without compensating their passengers they should have made these changes before selling this cruise with Apia on the itinerary. I have read a few posts recently where people have said that they buy the cruise and the ports are just a bonus, well I am the opposite I buy a cruise for the itinerary as I know I can get a resort style holiday on dry land. In fact I am off to Bali in 6 weeks.

 

[Wilkono]

I think you're drawing a fairly long bow there.

 

I don't see why P&O should have to give any sort of refund because of weather they have no control over.

 

I believe the $50 O.B.C. was a good gesture on their behalf- they were not obliged to pay a cent.

 

This is very true, and more than likely the $50 o.b.c was enough to satisfy some passengers. Conversely, it's also true that some passengers would complain even if they were given $500! :p

 

While there's no obligation to refund anything for missing stops in rough weather, it would serve P&O well to offer a little more than $50. But that's just my opinion.

[Rasa Sayang]

it's also true that some passengers would complain even if they were given $500! :p

 

That is so true.

 

On the Pacific Sky episode I mentioned, several really grotty passengers baled up the Captain near the Pursers office and were behaving quite menacingly as they voiced the loudest and ugliest complaints.

 

As if it was the Captain's fault that the prop shaft bearings had disintegrated. :rolleyes::eek:

 

The Captain [stefano Ravera] had to resort to using his full authority and threaten them with maritime discipline if they didn't back off.

 

And those on this forum who have sailed with this particular gent would agree he is the most easy going and genial bloke around - and a great sea Captain:).

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I do agree that P&O should have contacted booked passengers and advised of the change, and given them the chance to cancel. After all it was them who changed the plans, not you.

Having said that, and heard P&O's reason, I do believe that Samoa is a very religous country and just about everybody goes to church on a Sunday. That would not leave many people available to run any tours.

However I am sure that on one cruise we did , we called on a Sunday, and they had everything open for us as usual. Many of the passengers came back and said how much they enjoyed listening to the singing coming from the many churches that dot the Island.

I remember clearly that it was a Sunday though , as when were leaving the Captain apologised for not sounding the horn as it was Sunday, and he was not permitted to.

[silverwillow]

Yes, I have heard it is a great day to see Samoa and I would rather go and wander around than not go at all. There was no shore tours run in Isle of Pines and Wala on my last cruise and it didn't worry me.

 

I think you raised an interesting point though, given that P&O can't make money selling shore tours now coupled with the fuel savings of not going to Apia makes dropping the port very financially attractive to them. Still this should have been sorted before they started selling the cruise.

[robinph]

Well I did it .... I pulled the pin on our 28 day Tahitian Treasures cruise 1st July on the Pearl, I have'nt been able to shake these niggly feelings I have had for quite a while now that this cruise was not right for us, I have tried to ignore negative comments about the ship but once a seed is planted..... 28 days is a long time if things are'nt quite as you were expecting and I was not willing to risk our hard earned money on a revised Itenarary to what we booked (this was the main reason for booking this cruise as we were initially booked on the Dawn Princess 8th April and had to cancel) and P & O were offering a similar Itenarary, and even though we have travelled on all P & O ships in the past,we have found our preferences lie with Princess and RCL, and with P & O's lack of communication and their false advertising regarding the Pearl, and the growing negative comments I just did'nt feel that we could go this cruise with an open mind. We were still just inside our 120 days to transfer to another P & O and I would like to have tried a small 10 dayer on the Pearl to see for ourselves what the ship was like ( you can tolerate things for a short time if they are not quite what you were expecting), but unfortunatley the Itenarary of the Pearl did not suit us so ended up booking an 11 nighter on the Jewel in May, at least that goes to Pentecost which we have never been to. We are now booked on Radiance of the Seas 34 night round Australia Feb 2012, we feel a lot happier with this decision, even though I am dissapointed at not doing the Tahitian Itenarary this time I hope to be able to do it one day on a Princess ship:(:) Robin

[Bella cruiser]

Sorry to hear that Robin, this cruise sounds fantastic to me but we are unable to go ourselves because unfortunately it's too long and hard to get time off work, shame as it also includes school holidays which would have been fantastic for us.

 

I still don't understand why they pulled the pin on Apia, it doesn't seem to make sense they could have easily substituted Pago Pago to keep everyone happy.

 

Jenny

[oskarNZ]

Commiserations and congratulations Robinph.

 

I'm all to aware of that niggly feeling and once it's there, it's hard to shake.

 

A cruise in May and then another next February sounds like a pretty fantastic substitute. Happy cruising.

[cruisin-m]

I got my hands on some travel brouchures for all of the various locations this trip was going to including samoa.

 

After what I read I think it was a blessing that P&O are now skipping the call at Apia on Sunday. The brochure suggested that you vacate the streets on Sundays and move about slowly and quietly should it be necessary to do so. It said the locals are offended by people frequenting the area on Sundays as it is highly religious day to Samoans and this was in particular reference to Apia.

 

So 2000 people running around Apia would be a nightmare for them.

 

Definitely made the right choice, they just could have communicated the reason why a bit better instead of leaving it for us to find out.

 

Robinph it's sad you pulled the plug on this beautiful itinerary and what is undoubtledly the nicest ship in the current P&O fleet having seen them all.

I think you would have been pleasantly surprised by the Pearl in my opinion it's definitely a lot nicer ship then the Jewel is by a long shot.

Whatever you feel most comfortable and happy with would be the best though, I guess.:)