Incidents on board and security

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I won't shoot you down because I believe it is a factor, I do remember in the not too distant past that people were complaining that P&O were one of the few lines that did not have a drinks package and needed to "get with the times". The old saying " be careful what you wish for" springs to mind.

But, as others have said, other lines with drink packages do not seem to experience the same issues. The problem is that P&O guests are 100% Brits, and alcohol and Brits is a toxic combination,  especially when football is stirred into the mix.

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear - it was made up by the news reporter, not someone from this board.

 

The reason it got such wide coverage was because the news reporter was reasonably well known and sailing on Britannia at the time.

 

 

 

You obviously didn't get what I ment that story ran on this board for days

[zap99]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But, as others have said, other lines with drink packages do not seem to experience the same issues. The problem is that P&O guests are 100% Brits, and alcohol and Brits is a toxic combination,  especially when football is stirred into the mix.

I noticed that some Arvia Caribbean cruises are cruise only. Perhaps they are trying to attract some Americans to keep us under control. 

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

I noticed that some Arvia Caribbean cruises are cruise only. Perhaps they are trying to attract some Americans to keep us under control. 

Nice thought, but P&O do not make it easy for non Brits to book a cruise, do they ?

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

I'm not sure what this has to do with cruising in general, let alone P&O specifically.  We might as well be debating whether posters are aware of any boisterous and, potentially - at times - criminal behaviour in our local town centre on a Saturday night.  Four or five thousand people plus alcohol will always lead to incidents.  Why should a cruise ship be any different?

 

And there is no definitive 'truth' about these incidents.  People who were there will be able to give us their view / perception, but that is only the 'truth' for them.  Ask 10 people to describe exactly the same incident and you are likely to receive 10 very different versions of events. 

 

Everybody will have their own perception and tolerance level for behaviour of this type - some will find anything beyond sitting in lounge chairs sipping sherry and discussing the weather unacceptable, others will take a live and let live approach to individuals and groups enjoying themselves in a more boisterous fashion, up to the point where it becomes a public nuisance or real harm is done.  What defines real harm will differ from person to person and their assessment of the likelihood of it occurring may factor into their decision as to whether or not to cruise with a particular line on a party cruise over Spring Break in the same way that it might if they were considering going to a nightclub on New Year's Eve.

But expectations also come into play. Anyone who has been on a number of P&O (or other) cruises over a number of years would not expect to encounter such rowdy and potentially threatening behaviour. To date, it has certainly not been the sort of situation you would expect to encounter aboard a P&O ship.

[Bill Y]

19 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But, as others have said, other lines with drink packages do not seem to experience the same issues. The problem is that P&O guests are 100% Brits, and alcohol and Brits is a toxic combination,  especially when football is stirred into the mix.

Yes and to really put the cat among the pigeons suggest that football matches aren’t shown on P&O ships, after all Cricket and Rugby attracts a better class of yob.

 

Joking aside P&O said they were banning clothing with logos and slogans. Yet another example of introducing rules to appeal to the punters but having no intention of enforcing them.

Edited January 9, 2023 by Bill Y

[Bazrat]

12 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Yes and to really put the cat among the pigeons suggest that football matches aren’t shown on P&O ships, after all Cricket and Rugby attracts a better class of yob.

 

Joking aside P&O said they were banning clothing with logos and slogans. Yet another example of introducing rules to appeal to the punters but having no intention of enforcing them.

You will find some of the passenger's complain about what people ware, not on here obviously 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, paulatsea said:

Agree - the packages are abused by some which results in lots of others having to suffer including the staff.

 

Perhaps they could be graded - from say 1 - 2 bottles wine pp or Equivalent at a good price upwards to hyper expensive for unlimited.

I expect some lines already do this but I don’t know.

 

personally I never get a package but I know lots enjoy the flexibility and convenience and having premium drinks etc

 

 

NCL now $109 per day. You can get 20% off a bottle of wine if you have it. However they do give it away a lot as well in a package.

[kalos]

36 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I won't shoot you down because I believe it is a factor, I do remember in the not too distant past that people were complaining that P&O were one of the few lines that did not have a drinks package and needed to "get with the times". The old saying " be careful what you wish for" springs to mind.

 

I agree and I don't think P&O or Brit cruisers have the monopoly on the problem .

A simple search on Google or YouTube will show that Carnival Princess and others have 

had their moments . The people fighting were not British in a lot of the scraps but had a 

fair few to drink .  A small percentage causing a big problem for others onboard .

Any cruise ship has got to get a grip and find a balance between high spirits and  a zero 

tolerance to unacceptable behaviour that endangers others .

[paulatsea]

4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

NCL now $109 per day. You can get 20% off a bottle of wine if you have it. However they do give it away a lot as well in a package.

Wow - that’s expensive !

[Megabear2]

21 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Yes and to really put the cat among the pigeons suggest that football matches aren’t shown on P&O ships, after all Cricket and Rugby attracts a better class of yob.

 

Joking aside P&O said they were banning clothing with logos and slogans. Yet another example of introducing rules to appeal to the punters but having no intention of enforcing them.

 My family and I were onboard Britannia for the Euros final when England lost to Italy. Despite the disappointment there were no incidents, assumedly due to everyone supporting England. As a very keen follower of one of the clubs with notorious supporters I have two very subtle training shirts with a hardly visible badge on them.  Christmas 2021 I wore one to the gym as I'd forgotten my normal top.  I was stopped as I entered the gym and told sorry it's not allowed.  Fair enough.

 

I also got stopped for wearing a Dagenham & Redbridge tshirt in the gym many years ago on a Cunard ship.  So the rules were definitely there, now they are clearly relaxed.

 

Reading Moley's post elsewhere about demographic of the cruisers P&O wants I assume this relaxation if part of that.

[happy v]

I think the football shirt thing is due to perception. A few years ago we were traveling with my brother and he turned up at the airport in his football shirt. Now I know he is not boisterous or a hooligan yet I was embarrassed by it. I told him to put a shirt on coming home 

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, crompton21 said:

The clown was a fabrication, the event however did happen, which I am sure most on here will accept:

 

A FORMER stockbroker has been jailed for kicking a passenger 'like a penalty' and punching another man when a violent brawl erupted during a cruise ship's late night buffet.

The drunken fight broke out after Paul Evans and Tabatha Young, who were dating at the time, became angry when a family asked them to stop swearing as they dined on board P&O's Britannia ship.

First Young - a popular YouTuber - attacked fellow holidaymaker Sarah Gardner, a nurse who had retired to the Horizon Buffet with her husband Justin Gardner and her two daughters after attending a family disco.

I think the problem was that the reporter made a link between the lunch time Great British Sailaway and the altercation in the buffet about 10 hours later.  People got the impression that there was a mass brawl at the sailaway party !

 

The clown bit was completely untrue 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

You obviously didn't get what I ment that story ran on this board for days

It's a chat board, so people will chat about news reports.  

 

I wasn't posting on the forum at that time, perhaps I need to go back and see what was said! 

[alun.jones.nl]

56 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Yes and to really put the cat among the pigeons suggest that football matches aren’t shown on P&O ships, after all Cricket and Rugby attracts a better class of yob.

Now I see that the loss of the Sports TV channel on the Arvia maiden cruise was not a technical problem but a safety decision 🤣

[Bazrat]

37 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

It's a chat board, so people will chat about news reports.  

 

I wasn't posting on the forum at that time, perhaps I need to go back and see what was said! 

No problem but the conversation on here degenerated into a debate of falling standards, all bought about by some one posting a newspaper report which turned out to be based on a lie 

[Bazrat]

3 hours ago, crompton21 said:

The clown was a fabrication, the event however did happen, which I am sure most on here will accept:

 

A FORMER stockbroker has been jailed for kicking a passenger 'like a penalty' and punching another man when a violent brawl erupted during a cruise ship's late night buffet.

The drunken fight broke out after Paul Evans and Tabatha Young, who were dating at the time, became angry when a family asked them to stop swearing as they dined on board P&O's Britannia ship.

First Young - a popular YouTuber - attacked fellow holidaymaker Sarah Gardner, a nurse who had retired to the Horizon Buffet with her husband Justin Gardner and her two daughters after attending a family disco.

 you are correct in that a fight did happen the couple who took part was arrested, but the clown incident was played out on this site to further some people's view of falling standards.

[zap99]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

But expectations also come into play. Anyone who has been on a number of P&O (or other) cruises over a number of years would not expect to encounter such rowdy and potentially threatening behaviour. To date, it has certainly not been the sort of situation you would expect to encounter aboard a P&O ship.

To be honest, it's not a recent fanomonum. Years ago the question was asked ' what shall we do with a drunken sailor?'

[yorkshirephil]

3 minutes ago, zap99 said:

To be honest, it's not a recent fanomonum. Years ago the question was asked ' what shall we do with a drunken sailor?'

So shave their bellies with a rusty razor then as I am not sure the captain would be pleased with one of the other choices.

[doog442]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

But, as others have said, other lines with drink packages do not seem to experience the same issues. The problem is that P&O guests are 100% Brits, and alcohol and Brits is a toxic combination,  especially when football is stirred into the mix.

 

Although I kind of agree that statement does need levelling up. The worst examples of bad behaviour I've witnessed on a regular basis have been Mexican / Caribbean all inclusive land based resorts and the culprits were without fail American. So you up the price (thinking you can price it out ) and  go to an adults only where even the  better off decide to behave like kids.... New York cops...Consultants..the lot.   So you move east to avoid the Yanks  only to come across the Russians in Mauritius and the Maldives and they make the Brits look like kindergarden kids. 

 

So Its not just the Brits. Our last Celebrity cruise was livelier in the drunken alcohol aspect than P&0 (and that was before Celeb had their drinks package) and they were mostly American - very , very loud . Our Princess cruise from Soton last summer they basically gave the drinks package away. 90 % Brits - no issues. 

 

In the OP's case, a home port and Christmas ( perhaps a few large groups hanging out their football allegiances ) but I'd argue against this wholly being a P&0 or Brit problem reading of incidents elsewhere.

 

No matter the establishment or price, I avoid anywhere at Christmas or New Year. That's due to a career dealing with the carnage that this time of year brings and trust me I've seen it all. A Christmas or New year cruise is an absolute no no...and yes I've seen the Poseidon Adventure  

Edited January 9, 2023 by doog442

[paulatsea]

14 minutes ago, doog442 said:

 

Although I kind of agree that statement does need levelling up. The worst examples of bad behaviour I've witnessed on a regular basis have been Mexican / Caribbean all inclusive land based resorts and the culprits were without fail American. So you up the price (thinking you can price it out ) and  go to an adults only where even the  better off decide to behave like kids.... New York cops...Consultants..the lot.   So you move east to avoid the Yanks  only to come across the Russians in Mauritius and the Maldives and they make the Brits look like kindergarden kids. 

 

So Its not just the Brits. Our last Celebrity cruise was livelier in the drunken alcohol aspect than P&0 (and that was before Celeb had their drinks package) and they were mostly American - very , very loud . Our Princess cruise from Soton last summer they basically gave the drinks package away. 90 % Brits - no issues. 

 

In the OP's case, a home port and Christmas ( perhaps a few large groups hanging out their football allegiances ) but I'd argue against this wholly being a P&0 or Brit problem reading of incidents elsewhere.

 

No matter the establishment or price, I avoid anywhere at Christmas or New Year. That's due to a career dealing with the carnage that this time of year brings and trust me I've seen it all. A Christmas or New year cruise is an absolute no no...and yes I've seen the Poseidon Adventure  

That’s really interesting - thanks for that.

noted !

 

 

[Somerset Cruiser]

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I also got stopped for wearing a Dagenham & Redbridge tshirt in the gym many years ago

Did they want to know if you knew John Still? 

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, doog442 said:

Our Princess cruise from Soton last summer they basically gave the drinks package away. 90 % Brits - no issues. 

I agree. I don’t think that these people had drinks packages, beer is cheap enough anyway. I think it was last minute cruise prices and it being Christmas. 

[Ardennais]

After my time at university, I went right off alcohol. I find it sad that so many people lose control so easily these days after having a few too many drinks. I don’t care what anyone says, alcohol seems to make people lose their filter, and even modest drinking loosens the tongue. How has alcohol become such a core part of people’s lives? 
I always think too that people generally behave better when children are around. 

[P&O SUE]

What an awful experience for you Megabear.

I hope it was a one off as we watched the FA cup semi final onboard Britannia with Liverpool fans and the atmosphere was good.The Christmas cruises do seem to attract a new and perhaps different crowd? 

 

The only drunken behaviour I’ve noticed onboard a ship was on Princess! I’m just stating this because it seems to some only P&O have drunks.