Best way to attract people back to P&O Cruises when some semblance of normality returns?

[Vampiress88]

My opinion is that we won’t have a vaccine. 
 

it’s going to get to a point when we risk assess our lives and some will go back to flights/cruises some will not. 
 

I still fear we won’t know the extent of what the virus has done until future years. As I feels with some it’s chicken and egg. Which came first. Your classes as a statistic under the covid19 but that nights not have been the cause just what was present in your system. 
 

I think it’s a very hard thing and I wouldn’t want to be in a high level position with any company right now. 
 

selfishly I need all these companies to go back to the way they were before very quickly as it’s having a knock on effect to majority of people’s livelihoods and I find it extremely worrying. 
 

The company who my husband works for their shares have dropped from 750 to 250 in the last few weeks. They are cutting 8000 jobs. That’s 15% of the workforce. 
I am bricking it as we would say cos if my husband is one of those I cannot support my family on my wage and although my job is currently ok that doesn’t mean that the pandemic might not effect us in a few months. 
 

I wouldn’t say I am in great health. I have an underlying condition but luckily it’s not one on the shielding list but everything’s can’t just stop. 
 

ive mentioned my gran on here before who is 88. She is home alone and fed up. She used to have something to do every night since my grandpa past and she would rather be out “risking it” and actually live her life than be stuck at home. 

[Harry Peterson]

12 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

My opinion is that we won’t have a vaccine. 
 

it’s going to get to a point when we risk assess our lives and some will go back to flights/cruises some will not. 
 

I still fear we won’t know the extent of what the virus has done until future years. As I feels with some it’s chicken and egg. Which came first. Your classes as a statistic under the covid19 but that nights not have been the cause just what was present in your system. 
 

I think it’s a very hard thing and I wouldn’t want to be in a high level position with any company right now. 
 

selfishly I need all these companies to go back to the way they were before very quickly as it’s having a knock on effect to majority of people’s livelihoods and I find it extremely worrying. 
 

The company who my husband works for their shares have dropped from 750 to 250 in the last few weeks. They are cutting 8000 jobs. That’s 15% of the workforce. 
I am bricking it as we would say cos if my husband is one of those I cannot support my family on my wage and although my job is currently ok that doesn’t mean that the pandemic might not effect us in a few months. 
 

I wouldn’t say I am in great health. I have an underlying condition but luckily it’s not one on the shielding list but everything’s can’t just stop. 
 

ive mentioned my gran on here before who is 88. She is home alone and fed up. She used to have something to do every night since my grandpa past and she would rather be out “risking it” and actually live her life than be stuck at home. 

That’s a very perceptively and nicely written piece, Vampiress, and I share your concerns.

 

It’s a very difficult situation, and more so for younger people like you than older people like me.  

 

There has to come a point when the balance tips towards younger people, and saving the economy, because without an economy there’s no NHS, no social welfare - nothing.

 

It’s very little consolation, I know, but things rarely end up as bad as they first seem to be.  History shows that.  Things will get better again - hopefully sooner than you might think. 

 

 

[kalos]

2 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

That’s a very perceptively and nicely written piece, Vampiress, and I share your concerns.

 

It’s a very difficult situation, and more so for younger people like you than older people like me.  

 

There has to come a point when the balance tips towards younger people, and saving the economy, because without an economy there’s no NHS, no social welfare - nothing.

 

It’s very little consolation, I know, but things rarely end up as bad as they first seem to be.  History shows that.  Things will get better again - hopefully sooner than you might think. 

 

 

 

Spot on Harry 

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Fair point, but I think most of them can be accused of that. Like many of them, he also almost always starts his answer with “Thank you for the question” whilst probably thinking the exact opposite!

Wouldn't it be refreshing is one of them started, " well that was a stupid question. How on earth can anyone know the answer to that .Idiot, next question". Some of the media people just like the sound of their own voices.

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by zap99
Punctuation

[Vampiress88]

51 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

That’s a very perceptively and nicely written piece, Vampiress, and I share your concerns.

 

It’s a very difficult situation, and more so for younger people like you than older people like me.  

 

There has to come a point when the balance tips towards younger people, and saving the economy, because without an economy there’s no NHS, no social welfare - nothing.

 

It’s very little consolation, I know, but things rarely end up as bad as they first seem to be.  History shows that.  Things will get better again - hopefully sooner than you might think. 

 

 

I do hope so

 

only good thing to have come out of this is working from home. Have asked for this for years. I like it so far but only done a few days. 
 

Can’t wait for schools to be back to normal. The kids are really missing having someone to play with other than each other. I still hate home schooling which I have to look forward to after work. 
and the kids have reset all my tv this morning so that’s gonna take a few hours to sort. 
 

I would hope that to attract us back that p&o will have lower prices and have a more varied itinerary etc. 
from a business perspective I’m not sure these are things that they will accept be able to afford to do

 

I think prices might go up and I am still in two minds of if to put a deposit down for another cruise. 
 

I am hoping that holiday companies don’t go under and I can go back to Disney next year too. 
 

but holidays aside if our jobs are safe and we aren’t snowed under with bills etc. I’ll buy a tent and we can camp out in the back garden. 

[kruzseeka]

35 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Wouldn't it be refreshing is one of them started, " well that was a stupid question. How on earth can anyone know the answer to that .Idiot, next question". Some of the media people just like the sound of their own voices.

 

 

Hear, hear!  I'd love one of them to be that honest.  Don't you just get fed up with the journalists trying to out do each other in asking the 'probing - I'll put them on the spot' questions when the answer to almost all of them is - 'we've got to see what happens!'   Or else - 'didn't you hear the last question which is just about the same as yours?'

[Harry Peterson]

Back to the attracting people back theme, how about this from Carnival in the US?  Something for P&O to emulate?

 

Would you book a cruise for $28 a night? Carnival bets on budget travelers for planned August 1 restart

 

https://fortune.com/2020/05/04/carnival-cruise-budget-travelers-coronavirus-deals/

 

From yesterday, Carnival was selling 5 day cruises from Galveston to Cozumel, Mexico in early August from $139 + taxes, fees and port expenses.  Not sure how much the add-ons amount to, but it's a pretty attractive price!

[KnowTheScore]

Thus far in the thread no-one has addressed the single biggest problem with P&O or any other cruise line trying or hoping to attract customers back.   The fact is that business very quickly and initially dropped off as a result of the Diamond Princess debacle and all the other ships who followed the same protocols.

 

There are literally 10s of 1000s of people who would HAPPILY jump on a ship and take their chance with SARS-COV-2 or indeed Norovirus or any other virus.   They look after their health, eat the right foods, maintain a strong immune system and so on.  

 

However . . . .   these people WILL NOT jump back on board while ever the cruise lines persist in operating the same draconian protocols when a passenger or crew member presents with the virus.  Those protocols saw cruise lines quarantine EVERYBODY to their cabins for 2 weeks whether inside, outside or balconies.  As I said 4 months ago, that is not acceptable.

 

That kind of protocol will NEVER be acceptable and unless and until P&O/Carnival can agree with the WHO and CDC and other health authorities on a different protocol, then cruising is simply dead in the water.

 

To attract people back on ships P&O absolutely MUST put to paper, contractually, a set of protocols that GUARANTEE to customers that if there is one case of COVID-19 on-board, that the rest of the passengers will be allowed to carry on enjoying their holiday regardless.   That the infected person is immediately removed from the ship and quarantined at the nearest port.

 

Unless that happens, very very few people will ever step on board again.

 

The virus is not going away.  There will always be a risk that it keeps cropping up in every country in the world just like Flu.

 

We simply can not operate a holiday business model that mandates quarantining of all passengers when one person goes down with a virus.

 

The protocols have to change simple as.

 

More than that too.   You cannot operate a cruise line if every country and every port of call is going to refuse entry to a ship if there is someone on board presenting with COVID-19.    That will just result in cruises becoming constant holidays at sea never stopping anywhere.   Fine if they advertise it as such and adjust the prices very dramatically downward as a result.

 

We are a LONG way off cruising ever going back to normal.   Not because people are afraid to catch the virus (the majority are not) but because they fear the totally unacceptable treatment they would be exposed to if someone got the virus.

 

Something has to give, and it has to give soon, otherwise it's game over for cruising.

 

.

Edited May 5, 2020 by KnowTheScore

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Wouldn't it be refreshing is one of them started, " well that was a stupid question. How on earth can anyone know the answer to that .Idiot, next question". Some of the media people just like the sound of their own voices.

 

Or think they know better than the experts.

Avril 

[AnnieC]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Wouldn't it be refreshing is one of them started, " well that was a stupid question. How on earth can anyone know the answer to that .Idiot, next question". Some of the media people just like the sound of their own voices.

 

It can only be a matter of time before one of them does a Gordon Brown and leaves their mike on.😀

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Wouldn't it be refreshing is one of them started, " well that was a stupid question. How on earth can anyone know the answer to that .Idiot, next question". Some of the media people just like the sound of their own voices.

 

I am also getting extremely annoyed at the repeated requests for the govt to apologise for the lack of PPE leading to NHS deaths. Believe the govt or not I am certain that no one involved with the efforts to provide PPE has done anything other than their best to try and source all that is needed. So why on earth should they have any need to apologise.

Edited May 5, 2020 by terrierjohn

[zap99]

8 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I am also getting extremely annoyed at the repeated requests for the govt to apologise for the lack of PPE leading to NHS deaths. Believe the govt or not I am certain that no one involved with the efforts to provide PPE has done anything other than their best to try and source all that is needed. So why on earth should they have any need to apologise.

If , next week there is a plague of ear drum boring bugs that enter your brain and eat it, no doubt it will be the Government's fault for not having the foresight to stockpile 74 squillion sets of ear plugs and not having a vaccine. Just in case costs an awful lot of money. Just in time is how supply chains operate.

[wowzz]

7 minutes ago, zap99 said:

If , next week there is a plague of ear drum boring bugs that enter your brain and eat it, no doubt it will be the Government's fault for not having the foresight to stockpile 74 squillion sets of ear plugs and not having a vaccine. Just in case costs an awful lot of money. Just in time is how supply chains operate.

But with regard to CV19, a pandemic exercise carried out in 2018 [?] clearly identified the lack of PPE, but no action was taken to increase stocks. JIT is all very well, in a time of normality, but when you have a order/delivery time in excess of 8 weeks, and the lack of PPE has already been highlighted, to be caught short, so to speak, is indefensible, however you look at it. 

[KnowTheScore]

28 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I am also getting extremely annoyed at the repeated requests for the govt to apologise for the lack of PPE leading to NHS deaths. Believe the govt or not I am certain that no one involved with the efforts to provide PPE has done anything other than their best to try and source all that is needed. So why on earth should they have any need to apologise.

 

They need to apologise, not for their effort in currently doing what they can, but for putting the entire country in the situation in the first place where PPE stocks were run down over the past few years, having drastically reduced the budget for PPE stockpiles.   The government have had established plans for emergency responses since 2013.  You can freely download that document.  It outlines the preparedness requirements and associated protocols for national emergencies such as earthquakes, terrorist events and virus outbreaks.  The document mandates that adequate equipment MUST be maintained for emergency response workers which include police, fire services, ambulance crews, health workers and so on.

 

Successive past governments have allowed emergency stockpiles of PPE to dwindle, they have allowed stocks to go out of date and as a result got caught with their trousers down when the virus broke out.   Consequently the NHS has been critically short of PPE.  It's worse than this though.  The government should have mandated the wearing of surgical/flimsy masks by the public when they are out and about.  That would have MASSIVELY stemmed the spread of the virus.   They couldn't do so because they hadn't even got enough masks for the NHS let alone enough to hand them out to the public.

 

The value of government PPE stockpiles fell by over 40% in the past 6 years.   The Guardian reported that:

 

"Analysis of official financial data suggests £325m was wiped off the value of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) emergency stockpile, reducing it from £831m in 2013 under the Conservative-led coalition government to £506m by March last year."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/revealed-value-of-uk-pandemic-stockpile-fell-by-40-in-six-years

 

Goodness know how many cases would have been prevented if we had all been issued with masks to wear when we are out and about at supermarkets, shops and garages?!!  How many deaths would have been prevented.   This is not a fault of the existing government, it is the legacy left by previous successive governments (May, Cameron etc).

 

It is nothing short of a tragedy and a complete and utter scandal and there MUST come a reckoning when this is all over.

 

.

 

[zap99]

4 minutes ago, KnowTheScore said:

 

They need to apologise, not for their effort in currently doing what they can, but for putting the entire country in the situation in the first place where PPE stocks were run down over the past few years, having drastically reduced the budget for PPE stockpiles.   The government have had established plans for emergency responses since 2013.  You can freely download that document.  It outlines the preparedness requirements and associated protocols for national emergencies such as earthquakes, terrorist events and virus outbreaks.  The document mandates that adequate equipment MUST be maintained for emergency response workers which include police, fire services, ambulance crews, health workers and so on.

 

Successive past governments have allowed emergency stockpiles of PPE to dwindle, they have allowed stocks to go out of date and as a result got caught with their trousers down when the virus broke out.   Consequently the NHS has been critically short of PPE.  It's worse than this though.  The government should have mandated the wearing of surgical/flimsy masks by the public when they are out and about.  That would have MASSIVELY stemmed the spread of the virus.   They couldn't do so because they hadn't even got enough masks for the NHS let alone enough to hand them out to the public.

 

The value of government PPE stockpiles fell by over 40% in the past 6 years.   The Guardian reported that:

 

"Analysis of official financial data suggests £325m was wiped off the value of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) emergency stockpile, reducing it from £831m in 2013 under the Conservative-led coalition government to £506m by March last year."

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/revealed-value-of-uk-pandemic-stockpile-fell-by-40-in-six-years

 

Goodness know how many cases would have been prevented if we had all been issued with masks to wear when we are out and about at supermarkets, shops and garages?!!  How many deaths would have been prevented.   This is not a fault of the existing government, it is the legacy left by previous successive governments (May, Cameron etc).

 

It is nothing short of a tragedy and a complete and utter scandal and there MUST come a reckoning when this is all over.

 

.

 

But will all that get us cruising again,?

[KnowTheScore]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

But will all that get us cruising again,?

 

 

Nope

 

Cruising is currently a non-starter unless and until the cruise lines can agree different protocols with WHO/CDC when dealing with on-board COVID-19 cases.   In this respect these global health authorities hold all the aces and have the cruise lines by the short and curlies.  The opportunity will imho be taken to get these huge off-shore based cruise line conglomerates to play ball and establish themselves in proper countries and to contribute proper taxes.  They will be squeezed imho.

 

Regardless, unless they change the "Diamond Princess" type protocols it's game over for the time being.

 

.

 

[zap99]

24 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But with regard to CV19, a pandemic exercise carried out in 2018 [?] clearly identified the lack of PPE, but no action was taken to increase stocks. JIT is all very well, in a time of normality, but when you have a order/delivery time in excess of 8 weeks, and the lack of PPE has already been highlighted, to be caught short, so to speak, is indefensible, however you look at it. 

Strangely enough about 3 weeks ago we ordered some face masks. They arrived Friday . All the way from China. Smelt a bit of fish though.

 

ps. They are black, so we can wear them in the MDR on our Iona cruise in August. Eating Marco's Beef Wellington may be an challenge.

Edited May 5, 2020 by zap99
Added

[TinyDavid]

Another interesting thread wasted 

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, KnowTheScore said:

 

 

Nope

 

Cruising is currently a non-starter unless and until the cruise lines can agree different protocols with WHO/CDC when dealing with on-board COVID-19 cases.   In this respect these global health authorities hold all the aces and have the cruise lines by the short and curlies.  The opportunity will imho be taken to get these huge off-shore based cruise line conglomerates to play ball and establish themselves in proper countries and to contribute proper taxes.  They will be squeezed imho.

 

Regardless, unless they change the "Diamond Princess" type protocols it's game over for the time being.

 

.

 

I think we will, but will need to wash our hands and perhaps avoid the buffet.

[Adawn47]

14 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Strangely enough about 3 weeks ago we ordered some face masks. They arrived Friday . All the way from China. Smelt a bit of fish though.

 

ps. They are black, so we can wear them in the MDR on our Iona cruise in August. Eating Marco's Beef Wellington may be an challenge.

You could always cut a hole out around the nose and mouth area like the intelligent American woman. Apparently she found it difficult  to breathe easily with it on😏

Avril 

[zap99]

6 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

You could always cut a hole out around the nose and mouth area like the intelligent American woman. Apparently she found it difficult  to breathe easily with it on😏

Avril 

To quote some Lady from rural Florida.

 

"It's them dammed Mexicans in Miami drinking there Corona beer from bottles. We drink American beer from alloominum cans. You can't get no virus from alloominum."

Edited May 5, 2020 by zap99
Punctuation

[Adawn47]

2 minutes ago, zap99 said:

To quote some Lady from rural Florida.

 

"It's them dammed Mexicans in Miami drinking there Corona beer from bottles. We drink American beer from alloominum cans. You can't get no virus from alloominum."

Must be a relative of the "hole in the mask" woman. 😉

Avril 

[zap99]

30 minutes ago, TinyDavid said:

Another interesting thread wasted 

David. Only if you let it happen. Stay on topic and they won't win.

[wowzz]

To sort of return to the thread, has anyone else noticed that the price differential between P&O and Princess cruises out of Southampton seems to be getting smaller? A combination of P&O increasing their prices,  and Princess reducing theirs ? I have a £500 deposit that I need to transfer to a P&O cruise, but I'm tempted to just forfeit it and cruise with Princess instead - better quality (imho) and now with only a slight price premium. 

[TinyDavid]

8 minutes ago, zap99 said:

David. Only if you let it happen. Stay on topic and they won't win.

Thanks Zapp99 

Good point well made so back on topic 

I think the detail in this post https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5301/ is a good start especially not penalising anyone who is refused embarkation but they need to ensure that is extended to the entire party travelling together.