Goodbye to P&O

[Ocean Mouse]

Our 5 week roundtrip cruise to the Caribbean was due for final payment today. After our experience on our last cruise we have decided we will not be going.

This means losing our deposit but as we booked this cruise nearly two years ago the money is long gone and its loss is not regretted. Far less painful than forking out another £8k+ for something we would not enjoy 

So an aft facing balcony cabin on deck D should be available shortly. I hope it finds a good home

[Harry Peterson]

Sorry to hear that. I think you’re one of an increasing number moving away from P&O, and I’m probably another after years and years with them, very happily.  Are you switching allegiance, or stopping cruising altogether?

[Eglesbrech]

4 minutes ago, Ocean Mouse said:

Our 5 week roundtrip cruise to the Caribbean was due for final payment today. After our experience on our last cruise we have decided we will not be going.

This means losing our deposit but as we booked this cruise nearly two years ago the money is long gone and its loss is not regretted. Far less painful than forking out another £8k+ for something we would not enjoy 

So an aft facing balcony cabin on deck D should be available shortly. I hope it finds a good home

Sorry to hear that you have decided to cancel.

 

If you are happy to share, what went wrong to make you cancel?

[Ocean Mouse]

I suppose like a lot of British people we sailed P&O because it was very convenient to sail from Southampton but for us they are moving too far "down market". Definitely continue to cruise. Recently tried Oceania, fabulous cabin, service and ship but eyewateringly expensive. Next up Princess. Have previously sailed with MSC (wonderful transatlantic, dreadful within Europe), Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. We are going to expand our horizons 😁

[sweep2907]

Following many cruise forums, these sorts of posts are prevalent on all of them. Every cruise line is losing long time loyal customers. On flip side they are gaining many many new passengers new to cruising. Grass isn't always greener and times are a changing where cruise passengers will flip companies year on year. The old days of staying loyal to one brand are coming to an end. Most cruise companies are putting a lot of their effort into attracting new passengers rather than working on keeping loyalty. 

[alpha whiskey]

8 hours ago, sweep2907 said:

The old days of staying loyal to one brand are coming to an end.

Yes, I agree, and guilty as charged!

Thankfully there is now so much out there to choose from as well...and so many different offers to draw you in!

It's nice to mix up the brands; see what others are doing.

Some are better than others, but never had a bad one yet.

Nearly time for Black Friday! 👀

 

 

[sweep2907]

4 minutes ago, alpha whiskey said:

Yes, I agree, and guilty as charged!

Thankfully there is now so much out there to choose from as well...and so many different offers to draw you in!

It's nice to mix up the brands; see what others are doing.

Some are better than others, but never had a bad one yet.

Nearly time for Black Friday! 👀

 

 

I agree, I was only ever P&O but there are some amazing alternatives out there. However I will still book with P&O when itinerary and price suit etc 

[alpha whiskey]

11 minutes ago, sweep2907 said:

I agree, I was only ever P&O but there are some amazing alternatives out there. However I will still book with P&O when itinerary and price suit etc 

Definitely. P&O offer a great product, competitively priced. Love both the new ships.

They have me as a future customer for sure, but will still keep my eyes on the other lines too! 😉

Edited October 6, 2023 by alpha whiskey

[david63]

9 hours ago, sweep2907 said:

Most cruise companies are putting a lot of their effort into attracting new passengers rather than working on keeping loyalty. 

And that is also in their interests as loyalty costs money in that they are giving things to loyal passengers whereas new passengers are paying for them.

 

The really big downside for me with P&O is their lack of interesting itineraries but in fairness this applies to most of the cruises out of the UK - there are only so many places that you can get to and from in two weeks (it is also a symptom of having been cruising for many years).

[Cathygh]

For us it will depend on what the new itineraries are for 2025. We have just booked late deal to the Caribbean on Britannia, to use up the FCC. As I have said before P&O aren't going to the places I want to go to in the next few years, but we will consider more late deals in future.

[bobstheboy]

I have never ben loyal to one brand and have sailed on most of the medium priced brands. The passenger make up is changing with cruises become competitive with hotels. I am lead by price, itinary and ship. Great choices these days and long may it continue.

[Megabear2]

I've only two more P&O's booked at this stage mainly based on the repeat itineraries.  Previously I'd happily go on four or five a year but would pick itineraries with a little variety. For instance I've grown tired of absolutely everything going to Cadiz and Barcelona, previously these could be La Coruna or Vigo just for variety, and now we get the port cuts.  14 night cruises with 6 ports simply don't appeal as much.  I notice even the Caribbean cruises from next year are losing a port, no more St Kitts for Britannia or La Romana for Arvia.

 

This removal of ports is not exclusively P&O either.  The Cunard voyages also have suffered this.  Last week in the US press the CEO of RC could be read saying they want to keep people onboard using the ships as the destination.  This seems to be now a general idea across other brands.

 

I currently have 6 Cunard cruises booked over the next 2 years and 2 on P&O.  I will hope for something interesting in the new releases. Although a little disappointed with the itineraries both lines still have a selection of decent fly cruises.

[Eglesbrech]

2 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

I have never ben loyal to one brand and have sailed on most of the medium priced brands. The passenger make up is changing with cruises become competitive with hotels. I am lead by price, itinary and ship. Great choices these days and long may it continue.

Ditto. I have never been a loyalist. While the perks of the loyalty schemes are a nice to have they were not enough of an incentive to stay with one company seeing the same shows, going to the same ports etc.

 

P&O were always in the mix somewhere but less frequently recently in view of the changes to the product. They still offer a decent holiday for a fare price but that offering reflects the new significantly lower prices.

 

Yes, great that we all have more choices.

[Selbourne]

17 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

I think you’re one of an increasing number moving away from P&O, and I’m probably another after years and years with them, very happily.  

It might be worth giving them one last try before you write them off Harry. I was probably in the same place as you until July. Having not cruised since the end of 2019 (the staycation cruises not remotely appealing to us), I had read countless reviews concerning all the cutbacks and was coming to the view that that P&O had become too much of a budget operator for us.

 

We already had a couple of P&O cruises due (booked at launch a few years back) but weren’t looking forward to them due to all that we were reading. I decided to nip this in the bud by booking a short notice cruise on Britannia in July at an excellent price (amazingly, we managed to get an accessible balcony cabin). We went with low expectations, but it was a ‘filler’ holiday and if it wasn’t on a par with previous cruises it wouldn’t be the end of the world, as the itinerary was good and we had paid very little for it. 
 

I don’t know if you followed my live blog, but we enjoyed the cruise. We weren’t going out of our way to look for the cutbacks, but having cruised regularly with P&O over the last 25 years, we couldn’t help but notice them and there were a good couple of dozen things that we picked up on. However, and this is the key thing, in all honesty very few of them had an impact on our enjoyment of the holiday. With most of them, there was a workaround. I did a separate post on this after the cruise. The only one that still sticks in my mind as being a negative that we couldn’t work around was the reduction in guest lecturers. We find sea days to be quite boring (we cruise for the ports and the other cruise ship style ‘entertainment’ doesn’t appeal to us). The other big negative was that Freedom Dining was a bit of a mess at peak times, as the app system doesn’t work when they allow walk ups and use pagers as well. We have changed our Ventura bookings to Club dining as a result (which is a shame, as we prefer Freedom) but ironically Freedom dining worked much better on Iona (where less people avoid using the app as most cruisers are first timers).

 

Other things that we expected to have a problem with we didn’t. I had read countless reports about food in the MDR being poor but, in all honesty, we found it to be fine on both Britannia and Iona. In fact, we had better consistency in the MDR than we did in the (extra cost) specialty restaurants, especially on Britannia. 
 

We tried our first Cunard cruise this year and, yes, it was better than P&O but, ordinarily, their prices are quite a bit more, so I guess it’s a case of you get what you pay for. The approach I have taken is that I have lowered the maximum price pppn that I’m now prepared to pay with P&O to a level that I think still offers great value and I am managing to make bookings at or below those prices. Whilst the cheapest cruises are on Iona and Arvia, we are discounting those having tried Iona. Britannia and Ventura are also offering very reasonable prices on some cruises, and they might be the ones for you to give P&O another try before finally deciding to ditch them. We are on Ventura in a few weeks time so I’ll be able to see how that now compares with Britannia. Recent reviews haven’t been good (particularly the MDR) so it will be interesting to see how we find it. 
 

Having been 100% loyal to P&O, 50% of our future cruises are now with Cunard. We have also been keen to try Saga, but @Dermotsgirl recent excellent comparison has made me question whether they will be worth paying 3 times the price per night that we are now paying with P&O. So my advice would be to find a low priced cruise that appeals to you (probably on Britannia) and give them a go again. If it confirms your belief that P&O is no longer for you then it hasn’t cost you much to find out. However, like us, you might be pleasantly surprised! 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, david63 said:

And that is also in their interests as loyalty costs money in that they are giving things to loyal passengers whereas new passengers are paying for them.

 

The really big downside for me with P&O is their lack of interesting itineraries but in fairness this applies to most of the cruises out of the UK - there are only so many places that you can get to and from in two weeks (it is also a symptom of having been cruising for many years).

We are grateful that we did our fly cruising when we were younger and more active, along with some very enjoyable Saga long haul holidays.

So that now we are older, and less mobile, Southampton sailings on larger ships with more facilities are perfectly acceptable, despite the limited warn weather ports, and even though P&O standards have declined, they still offer a good value holiday, and year round sailings.

[zap99]

2 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

I have never ben loyal to one brand and have sailed on most of the medium priced brands. The passenger make up is changing with cruises become competitive with hotels. I am lead by price, itinary and ship. Great choices these days and long may it continue.

Although not completely happy with P&O, we will continue to holiday with the down market masses. Looking at the threads for other cruise lines, they all seem to have folk that think they are moving down market. Perhaps the masses are where the cash is.?🤫

[zap99]

3 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Ditto. I have never been a loyalist. While the perks of the loyalty schemes are a nice to have they were not enough of an incentive to stay with one company seeing the same shows, going to the same ports etc.

 

P&O were always in the mix somewhere but less frequently recently in view of the changes to the product. They still offer a decent holiday for a fare price but that offering reflects the new significantly lower prices.

 

Yes, great that we all have more choices.

Funny old world. Accusations of moving down market....

 

To where we holiday.🤣

[sandancer]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

We are grateful that we did our fly cruising when we were younger and more active, along with some very enjoyable Saga long haul holidays.

So that now we are older, and less mobile, Southampton sailings on larger ships with more facilities are perfectly acceptable, despite the limited warn weather ports, and even though P&O standards have declined, they still offer a good value holiday, and year round sailings.

Exactly like us. Started cruising in 1990 and did some marvelous cruises, Panama Canal, Alaska, Australia, South Pacific etc and visited some ports we would never have dreamt we would go to, such as Komodo Island in Indonesia, to visit the dragons. We were lucky enough to see the Pink Dolphins in Hong Kong and go to the ballet in the Sydney Opera House. However, those days are long gone and now we find cruises closer to home and if possible from Southampton so P&O is now our regular choice. The generous OBC means we often eat in the speciality restaurants. So while I totally understand the OPs decision, we won’t give up on P&O just yet. 

[amurray88]

I've just booked my first P&O (well experienced on Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC) and I've been a bit underwhelmed by their service. 

 

How are they compared to RCCL, MSC and NCL in your experience? First impressions are worse than all of them?

[zap99]

12 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

I've just booked my first P&O (well experienced on Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC) and I've been a bit underwhelmed by their service. 

 

How are they compared to RCCL, MSC and NCL in your experience? First impressions are worse than all of them?

We have sailed with NCL, RCL, X P&O and others. .All are fine, but a bit different. When we grow up, we may move up market.

 

ZAP. 74.

[amurray88]

13 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We have sailed with NCL, RCL, X P&O and others. .All are fine, but a bit different. When we grow up, we may move up market.

 

ZAP. 74.

I think that's the difference....we've more or less always done an interior cabin on a "budget" or middle market line (apart from getting a free balcony upgrade on a guaranteed cabin on MSC).

 

Maybe if we ever have a bit more surplus cash when we're older we'll consider going a bit more upmarket but I've got to say, I can't see past Oasis class ships at the moment, they are incredible. Just a bit too pricey to do once or twice a year.

 

We got the Azura with flights for 3 of us for £1,100 for 7 nights which I felt was pretty good given we'll not spend much onboard and we'd be hard pushed to get flights/luggage/full board hotel for that sort of money I'd think.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Funny old world. Accusations of moving down market....

 

To where we holiday.🤣

I made no such accusations Zapp?

[terrierjohn]

37 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

I've just booked my first P&O (well experienced on Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC) and I've been a bit underwhelmed by their service. 

 

How are they compared to RCCL, MSC and NCL in your experience? First impressions are worse than all of them?

I always USE a well known and respected on-line TA, so the frequently reported poor customer service of the shoreside P&O is not a problem.  Fortunately, although not top class, the on board service is much better, not quite as in your face as RCI, but still normally quite acceptable.

[zap99]

27 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I made no such accusations Zapp?

Of course you didn't.  Sorry. I just wonder what class are the people accusing P&O of going down market, to cruise line they booked themselves.

[zap99]

39 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

I think that's the difference....we've more or less always done an interior cabin on a "budget" or middle market line (apart from getting a free balcony upgrade on a guaranteed cabin on MSC).

 

Maybe if we ever have a bit more surplus cash when we're older we'll consider going a bit more upmarket but I've got to say, I can't see past Oasis class ships at the moment, they are incredible. Just a bit too pricey to do once or twice a year.

 

We got the Azura with flights for 3 of us for £1,100 for 7 nights which I felt was pretty good given we'll not spend much onboard and we'd be hard pushed to get flights/luggage/full board hotel for that sort of money I'd think.

We have never sailed on Oasis class. This was on Anthem. Now that's what I call classy.