P&O trialling once a day room service.

[grapau27]

26 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

They wont struggle to collect the cruise fare for every cabin so they should employ enough stewards to service the rooms twice a day. Having had conflicting reports whether this is happening or not if it does end up to be true it clearly shows another decline in standards on a P&O cruise and where will it end.

It happened to us and it upset my wife whose mam had died 6 weeks before this cruise and we just wanted to relax in our Suite not being told by the cabin steward that she could call at 7am with towels if we wanted a bath in the morning.

I think it is a crazy to trial this and we told P&O head office this.

Hopefully they listened and abandon this nonsense.

Maybe they should ask individual passengers if they want 1 or 2 room services a day if they want to make cuts.

 

 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, ONT-CA said:

 

Should the original posting have any validity, when a gratuity is offered to a bar person for having delivered an ordered drink, the result is more attention to needs as well as preferential repeat service.  Could then a cabin steward be similarly enticed into additional service?  After all, tip charges previously but not longer collected are now at our disposal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the op on this thread we paid our autogratuities plus we tipped our butler cash because he was excellent plus gave our cabin steward extra cash too.

[Harry Peterson]

15 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

It happened to us and it upset my wife whose mam had died 6 weeks before this cruise and we just wanted to relax in our Suite not being told by the cabin steward that she could call at 7am with towels if we wanted a bath in the morning.

 

 

 

Wouldn’t bother me in the least. We’re all different, fortunately. P&O isn’t a luxury line. In fact it’s barely mid-range, and the prices reflect that. There are more expensive lines that will provide better service, but there’s a price to pay for that.

 

Quite happy to use the same towels in my suite for 24 hours - no different from most hotels. And how many people feel the need to change the towels twice a day at home.

 

For me it’s a cut I can live with. The quality of the food, entertainment and guest speakers is far more important to us, but as I say, we’re all different.

[ONT-CA]

37 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Let's not fall out about silver service ---- just our observations from first cruise. It just doesn't feel as special. I do understand the changes but they are changes non the less.

 

Have thought of another loss though since writing the last post ....... alcohol policy changes ........

 

Compared to many of you we haven't been cruising that long but just look at the things we have listed in a relatively short time ..

 

Our first cruise with P&O was last year having found that we could sail out of Barbados.  We thoroughly enjoyed the cruise and are returning again in January.  But reading your postings made me feel like a Johnny come lately in having missed so much now gone.  You are right about the Carnival fixation on squeezing return for we have been witnessing it for decades and wonder in so doing, how they are going to maintain there passenger loyalty requirement.  While on a recent Princess sailing a fellow passenger noted that there was an inordinate number of new employees aboard of Chinese nationality.  To wit I replied, "Elementary my dear Watson"

[Selbourne]

The more I think about this, the more I doubt that this would ever become a permanent feature, other than perhaps on short party cruises. What on earth would the cabin stewards do in the evenings to make up their hours? Nobody is going to accept that their cabin remains unserviced until the evening, which is the only logical conclusion if, for example, they are given twice the number of cabins than they have at present. It just doesn’t add up. 

[jeanlyon]

To me it just feels like everything else that gets dumbed down these days.  As an ex British Caledonian stewardess, I flew on Virgin and BA and could not believe that they dragged a black bag through the cabin to collect glasses instead of using a tray.  I also couldn't believe that they shouted across our heads to the other trolley.  Couldn't believe the size of one of the stewardesses.  I would have been grounded and told to lose weight. 

 

I don't need my towels changed every day, as someone else said I don't do that at  home.  I just want to relax and enjoy my cruise.

[jeanlyon]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

The more I think about this, the more I doubt that this would ever become a permanent feature, other than perhaps on short party cruises. What on earth would the cabin stewards do in the evenings to make up their hours? Nobody is going to accept that their cabin remains unserviced until the evening, which is the only logical conclusion if, for example, they are given twice the number of cabins than they have at present. It just doesn’t add up. 

 

Tend to agree with you.  I think it might be just for very short cruises in which case it might make sense.

[claudiniusmaximus]

I don’t agree that they are cheaper than other cruise lines. A quick look on iglu just now for two week cruises of the med or baltics next summer had Royal Caribbean cheaper for most itineraries, some princess and celebrity cruises at comparable prices etc (some cheaper some more expensive). And when you consider almost every celebrity cruise includes drinks package as part of the price celebrity can be better value. 

 

P&O do offer some really cheap cruises - early season fjords, winter canaries stand out for me. Honestly speaking when I’m looking for a cruise during shoulder or peak season, I choose princess or celebrity for similar prices and (for me) a nicer experience. 

 

When I cruise on p&o these days I haven’t decided becausse of price because I can genuinely find what are cheaper or similar prices cruises with (in my mind) “better” cruise lines for better value. It’s either because they offer more 4 or 5 night cruises, or because they offer more 16/17 night itineraries or because the offer more sailings from Southampton off season. 

 

So they do offer a wider choice. But they aren’t necessarily cheaper. And the other lines do have evening turn down service and it is one of the “special” things about cruising for me. I will miss it (if it goes). If they are going to offer a no frills service AND offer no frills prices then that’s one thing, but offering no frills service while still charging similar or sometimes more expensive cruises than higher star lines it’s because I think they rely on passengers who cruise with them because of their unique selling point (their Britishness)or because they know that at any other time other than high season they offer far more than anyone else. 

[claudiniusmaximus]

Although just to contradict myself; if prices don’t rise to cover the free gratuities then they will be cheaper than most other cruise lines. 

[terrierjohn]

11 hours ago, claudiniusmaximus said:

Although just to contradict myself; if prices don’t rise to cover the free gratuities then they will be cheaper than most other cruise lines. 

Looking exclusively at summer 2020 prices for Southampton sailings which were recently released by most cruise lines, then I can definitely state that P&O prices for similar cruises at low summer rates are way cheaper than competition.  Launch prices for 14 night P&O cruises in the med or canaries were 20-25% cheaper than equivalent RCI cruises, on a per night basis, quite a lot of RCI cruises have been reduced to 12 days but are still higher priced than P&O 14 night cruises.

 

[jeanlyon]

Our 2 cruises booked for 2020 were fantastic value.  I haven't found any cheaper sailing from Southampton.  Or any with such good ports.

[Clodia]

Just got off Oceana this morning. The turn down service on the FIRST night has ceased; the Cabin Stewards ask you if you want anything at about quarter to 4 just before the drill. From the second night it's business as usual. Makes sense as the stewards work very long hours on turn around day so now they finish at 4.30. The rest of the time they work their normal split shifts.

[Eglesbrech]

26 minutes ago, Clodia said:

Just got off Oceana this morning. The turn down service on the FIRST night has ceased; the Cabin Stewards ask you if you want anything at about quarter to 4 just before the drill. From the second night it's business as usual. Makes sense as the stewards work very long hours on turn around day so now they finish at 4.30. The rest of the time they work their normal split shifts.

 

That makes much more sense. On day one everything would be set up anyway and if the staff are up early it gives them a bit of a break.

[happy v]

Well that explains it. We can all relax again.

It does make sense on the first day.

[daiB]

19 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

That makes much more sense. On day one everything would be set up anyway and if the staff are up early it gives them a bit of a break.

Yes this has been posted before in another place. I thought it was an Oceana thing because of the fly cruising and late departure time.  I wondered if this was the case with this report. 

 

I do love it when these rumours or the like, are reported and people come charging in to have a go at P&O. 

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, daiB said:

Yes this has been posted before in another place. I thought it was an Oceana thing because of the fly cruising and late departure time.  I wondered if this was the case with this report. 

 

I do love it when these rumours or the like, are reported and people come charging in to have a go at P&O. 

Or, alternatively, P&O have been doing a bit of potentially rather useful market research on the impact of any possible change.............

[daiB]

2 minutes ago, docco said:

Or, alternatively, P&O have been doing a bit of potentially rather useful market research on the impact of any possible change.............

 

No, this only doing the cabins once on Oceana has been happening for some weeks now. Clearly there is some logic to it being done that way. 

 

I suspect that P&O are quite aware of the resulting uproar for any change.

[Eglesbrech]

14 minutes ago, daiB said:

Yes this has been posted before in another place. I thought it was an Oceana thing because of the fly cruising and late departure time.  I wondered if this was the case with this report. 

 

I do love it when these rumours or the like, are reported and people come charging in to have a go at P&O. 

 

To be fair Dai this was not a rumour, it was reported by a regular poster after personal experience of it and he checked it with guest services.

 

[grapau27]

1 hour ago, Clodia said:

Just got off Oceana this morning. The turn down service on the FIRST night has ceased; the Cabin Stewards ask you if you want anything at about quarter to 4 just before the drill. From the second night it's business as usual. Makes sense as the stewards work very long hours on turn around day so now they finish at 4.30. The rest of the time they work their normal split shifts.

Thank you for reporting this.

We were on the 2 night cruise before you and cabin steward said it was both nights then P&O head office confirmed they were trialling this.

It makes sense for the first night and let's hope they are just trialling this for the first night.

Hopefully we can all breath a sigh of relief.

Many thanks Graham.

[grapau27]

46 minutes ago, daiB said:

Yes this has been posted before in another place. I thought it was an Oceana thing because of the fly cruising and late departure time.  I wondered if this was the case with this report. 

 

I do love it when these rumours or the like, are reported and people come charging in to have a go at P&O. 

Our 2 night cruise was from Southampton December 1-3 as was this 12 night cruise to the Canaries that the poster kindly updated us with.

I for one only report facts that personally affected us because I know it is true and the subsequent phone call to P&O head office guest services which they confirmed was true.

This was the first time in 49 cruises we had not had a nightly turn down but I as the op on this thread thank the previous poster for confirming what happened on Oceanas next cruise which indicated it was only the first night the turn down service is being trialled.

[grapau27]

44 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

To be fair Dai this was not a rumour, it was reported by a regular poster after personal experience of it and he checked it with guest services.

 

Thank you Eglesbrech.

Regards Graham.

[Harry Peterson]

55 minutes ago, daiB said:

 

No, this only doing the cabins once on Oceana has been happening for some weeks now. Clearly there is some logic to it being done that way. 

 

I suspect that P&O are quite aware of the resulting uproar for any change.

You've missed the thrust of the post, but no matter.

[daiB]

2 hours ago, docco said:

You've missed the thrust of the post, but no matter.

 

 No I am quite aware of the thrust of the post. Something happens on a one off basis, people pile in and condem P&O and then in the end little has changed.

 

This has happened quite a few times now.

 

BTW I would think that the on first night could we could all do without the evening turn down if only to give the staff some time off after a very long day.

[P&O SUE]

Interesting, when I was on Ventura back in June I was asked for the first night did we mind if he didn’t do the ‘full’ service.

Re changing towels twice, of course I don’t change them twice a day at home but I have a heated towel rail ! If my towels are still really wet in the evening I would want fresh ones.

[grapau27]

6 hours ago, daiB said:

 

 No I am quite aware of the thrust of the post. Something happens on a one off basis, people pile in and condem P&O and then in the end little has changed.

 

This has happened quite a few times now.

 

BTW I would think that the on first night could we could all do without the evening turn down if only to give the staff some time off after a very long day.

Dai we are certainly not condemming P&O as we have since booked a 7 night cruise on Ventura next summer when we will be in the 1001 points loyalty bracket.

To repeat, this trial affected us personally and by believing what P&O head office told us it is not nice to have your integrity questioned.

Regards Graham.