Drinks package/policy changes?

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, S1971 said:

So with that in mind, they should stop selling alcohol packages and bottles in the shop, revert back to selling in onboard bars only.

 

That may indeed be the best solution but once again as they are trying to compete for the AI package holiday family they have rather painted themselves into a corner on this one.  

 

It seems ironic that the very youngest adults appear to be very anti alcohol but their parents and grandparents get very stressed and uptight about its availability. Strange world for the leisure industry to try to juggle balls in unfortunately.

[MellyMoo1989]

13 minutes ago, posford said:

My last I put on this.

 

It is all down to profit.  Nothing else.

 

If it is all down to people like me spending about £20000 per year on P&O cruises, year on year, cancelling, perhaps they will realise it was not a good change.

 

I don't think as many people as you seem to think will cancel their cruise just because they can't take a litre of spirits on board. People don't go on cruises just to be able to have a drink on their balcony.. Don't get me wrong I'm a bit disappointed I wont be able to take a bottle of Southern Comfort, but I can certainly do without it for two weeks, with the (IMO) generous choices on drinks menus I won't be going thirsty.

[yorkshirephil]

3 minutes ago, Bartender1 said:

This may be a cynical view but how long will it be before P&O stop selling room service alcohol or when you attempt to purchase a bottle of your favourite tipple they've run out of stock.

If the accountants get there way probably sooner rather than later, as they will look at profit and not customer satisfaction or goodwill. Someone needs to help out with the Carnival dept mountain.

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, posford said:

Fair enough.

For someone who has spent over £250,000 over the years with P&O.

I will not be told how to spend my holiday.

What you spent was your choice who you spent it with was your choice, the company are not obligated to pander to your wishes ultimately it's your choice who you sail with.

[Megabear2]

29 minutes ago, posford said:

My last I put on this.

 

It is all down to profit.  Nothing else.

 

If it is all down to people like me spending about £20000 per year on P&O cruises, year on year, cancelling, perhaps they will realise it was not a good change.

So a bottle of your favourite tipple overrides all the other things you mentioned in this rather nice post from last December. That's rather sad.

[david63]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

I suppose if a supermarket starts checking everyone's shopping that would also be unacceptable to some but they are losing money each day. 

Supermarkets are way ahead as they know how much is "shrinkage" and add that to the cost of products, so in other words those of us that are honest are paying for those who are dishonest.

[david63]

31 minutes ago, MellyMoo1989 said:

with the (IMO) generous choices on drinks menus

Unless something has changed recently I would not say that P&O have generous choices on their drinks menu, certainly not compared to pre Covid.

[david63]

Just a thought - I wonder if we will see an increase in OBC to encourage more spending in the bars?

[Lee Jones Jnr]

1 hour ago, S1971 said:

 

Who knows, but I certainly wouldn't pay that sort of money for a P&O cruise, adult only or not.

 

Perhaps it's time for land based for a while.

Cunard are decent value if you don’t mind a slightly dressier definition of smart casual

Edited May 7 by Lee Jones Jnr
Missed a bit

[posford]

Megabear.

you completely miss the point.

It is part of the total cruise experience.

 

It was only that we had the previous policy that we enjoyed the experience so much.

 

with less mobility with us both the balcony has become much more important.

[Megabear2]

7 hours ago, posford said:

Megabear.

you completely miss the point.

It is part of the total cruise experience.

 

It was only that we had the previous policy that we enjoyed the experience so much.

 

with less mobility with us both the balcony has become much more important.

Thank you for your explanation.  Unfortunately much as we would like it to be the case our individual needs and preferences are not necessarily going to be in line with those of others and on this occasion the change clearly is something you as an individual are very unhappy about.  I note you are going to take the cruise upcoming and hope that you have a great time regardless of the new rules on spirits being taken onboard.  Going forward only you will know if the new experience is something you wish to repeat and whatever your final decision is I hope you find something suitable for your future needs.

 

Times are changing in the cruising world, the clientele is very different to the past, particularly on mass market lines.  As some mentioned above of these only Cunard now stands out as allowing personal alcohol to be brought onboard and the cynic in me says that Carnival will look long and hard at this in the near future.  

 

As someone who has complained vociferously on this forum about drunken behaviour of some guests on recent cruises, I would be very two faced if I said I was surprised that this action has been taken.  Whether I agree with P&O "punishing" all for the sins of that handful is a moot point, they are P&O's vessels to do with as they like and in light of the videos on social media of major alcohol fuelled problems and bad behaviour on the Carnival ships sailing from the US it is very easy to understand the board of all Carnival companies may wish to prevent a lax approach causing problems on any of their lines.  Bad publicity is not something they would want at a time when they are rebuilding cruising after the hatchet job done by press and governments through the pandemic. Sledgehammer and nut? Possibly, but it is what it is, nothing personal to anyone just a corporate decision out of individuals' hands.

Edited May 8 by Megabear2

[Winifred 22]

9 hours ago, posford said:

My last I put on this.

 

It is all down to profit.  Nothing else.

 

If it is all down to people like me spending about £20000 per year on P&O cruises, year on year, cancelling, perhaps they will realise it was not a good change.

They won’t even notice you are gone. As others have said they are a business at the end of the day and entitled to make any profit as they see fit to do. 

Edited May 8 by Winifred 22

[Snow Hill]

Is this the start of change in a policy of what alcohol you can bring onboard? From the accountants point of view only allowing alcohol purchased onboard to be drunk on board would maximise the profit from those sales, especially with the markup on the price of a single alcoholic drink and non alcoholic as well.

 

To make the changes in one fell swoop would cause a bigger uproar no doubt, factor it in over couple of years then maybe different. So this year prohibit spirits, next year add wine to the list of prohibited items. At the same time raise the price of drinks packages and exclude certain drinks from said packages.

 

The airlines have been doing it for sometime, what used to be included in the fare is now chargeable and you can’t go elsewhere whilst in transit. What next a charge for the number of cases you take onboard that would be a nice little earner from the accountants point of view.

 

Let’s face it Cruise Lines are like any other business they are there to make a profit.

 

Am I being too cynical about the accountants involvement in respect of this policy change?

 

 

[S1971]

40 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you for your explanation.  Unfortunately much as we would like it to be the case our individual needs and preferences are not necessarily going to be in line with those of others and on this occasion the change clearly is something you as an individual are very unhappy about.  I note you are going to take the cruise upcoming and hope that you have a great time regardless of the new rules on spirits being taken onboard.  Going forward only you will know if the new experience is something you wish to repeat and whatever your final decision is I hope you find something suitable for your future needs.

 

Times are changing in the cruising world, the clientele is very different to the past, particularly on mass market lines.  As some mentioned above of these only Cunard now stands out as allowing personal alcohol to be brought onboard and the cynic in me says that Carnival will look long and hard at this in the near future.  

 

As someone who has complained vociferously on this forum about drunken behaviour of some guests on recent cruises, I would be very two faced if I said I was surprised that this action has been taken.  Whether I agree with P&O "punishing" all for the sins of that handful is a moot point, they are P&O's vessels to do with as they like and in light of the videos on social media of major alcohol fuelled problems and bad behaviour on the Carnival ships sailing from the US it is very easy to understand the board of all Carnival companies may wish to prevent a lax approach causing problems on any of their lines.  Bad publicity is not something they would want at a time when they are rebuilding cruising after the hatchet job done by press and governments through the pandemic. Sledgehammer and nut? Possibly, but it is what it is, nothing personal to anyone just a corporate decision out of individuals' hands.

 

But surely P&O/Carnival have caused their own problems, they've changed their cruising model to accommodate cheap baseline prices cruises, with that comes the behaviours some have witnessed.

 

@posford is the victim P&O's inability to deal with a very small minority of people onboard causing anti-social issues, if this happens remove them at the next port it's that simple, doing so will be 100% more effective than stopping the odd bottle of spirit in the cabins.

 

P&O have created their own perfect storm, cheap cruises and alcohol packages but they seem to want to put the blame on the customer.

[S1971]

26 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Is this the start of change in a policy of what alcohol you can bring onboard? From the accountants point of view only allowing alcohol purchased onboard to be drunk on board would maximise the profit from those sales, especially with the markup on the price of a single alcoholic drink and non alcoholic as well.

 

To make the changes in one fell swoop would cause a bigger uproar no doubt, factor it in over couple of years then maybe different. So this year prohibit spirits, next year add wine to the list of prohibited items. At the same time raise the price of drinks packages and exclude certain drinks from said packages.

 

The airlines have been doing it for sometime, what used to be included in the fare is now chargeable and you can’t go elsewhere whilst in transit. What next a charge for the number of cases you take onboard that would be a nice little earner from the accountants point of view.

 

Let’s face it Cruise Lines are like any other business they are there to make a profit.

 

Am I being too cynical about the accountants involvement in respect of this policy change?

 

 

Not cynical at all, I see it as pure profiteering.

 

That's fine, but time will tell if this will continue to encourage new customers once the loyal older ones have gone elsewhere.

 

For a lot of families a cruise would not be an affordable annual holiday despite the cheaper baseline prices at the moment, the more P&O chip away the less enticing they'll become.

 

@posford is what appears to be extremely loyal with several cruises a year, how many of them can they afford to lose?

 

As I said before, P&O should deal with those causing the issues not alienate your loyal customers.

Edited May 8 by S1971

[Chrish2]

10 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

It's about time  someone stood up for P&O.

 

P&O is not a charity. 

 

Cabin Prices have come down in real terms. The Business model, has changed, more profits coming from on-board spend. 

 

P&O drinks prices are reasonable.  They can’t be expected to stock every brand,  but as long as they have an entry brand , a medium brand and a top range whats to complain. 

 

In the old days when they were happy for people to drink their own in cabin, they made a handsome profit on cabin, on board spending was a bonus.

 

I'm sure of you wrote to the right person in P&O and said I'm  happy to pay another £30pp per night if you let me bring own drink for in cabin consumption they'd be very happy. 

 

But those of us who drink in bars and restaurants would not be so happy

 

How P&O handle situations has become arrogant. If they wanted this change then it should have been well before paid in full dates for the cruise, and ideally a “from 2025” type thing.
 

Instead of treating customers with some respect they pull short notice changes. I’m especially thinking of the customer who emailed P&O only days ago to clarify and was given the existing policy in force at the time. Maleth flights are another example, instead of having a fair policy for those who had reached paid in full they took the “ha ha we have your money now” route (remember some people had already PAID for premium economy due to their height).

 

This behaviour really runs people the wrong way, new clientele and old clientele alike.

[Josy1953]

I think that the move away from P&O has already begun.  We now only do 1 cruise a year with P&O.  We met up with recently with a number of people who we originally met on P&O cruises and they are all doing the same as us.  

If one of the other lines did regular winter cruises out of Southampton I doubt if we would do any P&O cruises but DH can't fly so we will continue with winter cruises on P&O.

[AndyMichelle]

This is done in typical P&O fashion, I think we all agree the way they do things is not right. 

The decision we have to make is whether this extra 'cutback' is one too far. 

For us personally, it won't make that much difference but I understand others considering it a deal breaker. 

'Spoons' have just dropped 18 drinks from their offering. Their customers now have a choice to make, choose from the current menu or find another pub... We have the same choice to make. 

Andy 

[Norwayfan1]

A few years ago, we took a bottle of P&O-branded wine into the buffet with us, to drink at dinner. We had won it on board. (That was in the days when they gave out more prizes and fewer 'golden stickers'!!!)

 

A member of staff soon appeared, to tell us politely that we would need to pay the corkage fee if we wanted to bring wine with us. When we showed him the label on the bottle and explained we had won it, he went off and brought us some glasses to use.

 

If P&O have problems with the drinking behaviour of some passengers they should deal with that appropriately - just as they should deal with sun bed hogging and other anti-social behaviours.

 

So I imagine the change to the alcohol policy is more likely to be profit-driven, rather than an attempt to deal with rowdy behaviour. 

 

It's clear to everyone that the company is aiming for a new generation of customers. So many of the nice touches have gone over the years, and the first-time cruisers won't miss them.

 

I do wonder, though, are they creating a new generation of passengers loyal to P&O - or will this new generation be keen to explore cruising more generally, with a willingness to try other lines and itineraries, do fly-cruises etc etc, especially if they can bag a good baseline fare/special offer that tempts them to try elsewhere?

 

If P&O want even a reasonable amount of repeat business, rather than a succession of one-off purchases, their overall cruise offering needs to measure up favourably against the competition - entertainment, activities, food quality and the like. I'm sure we'll have differing opinions on whether it does.

 

Drinks prices, packages etc are just one aspect cruisers will consider, when making their comparisons.

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by Norwayfan1

[S1971]

7 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

This is done in typical P&O fashion, I think we all agree the way they do things is not right. 

The decision we have to make is whether this extra 'cutback' is one too far. 

For us personally, it won't make that much difference but I understand others considering it a deal breaker. 

'Spoons' have just dropped 18 drinks from their offering. Their customers now have a choice to make, choose from the current menu or find another pub... We have the same choice to make. 

Andy 

 

Like you, it doesn't really impact me but I agree for others it may well be a cut to far.

 

MDR menu choices have been reduced as have buffet options yet more additional pay restaurants added, alcohol packages added but now no alcohol to be taken onboard, limited shuttle service but a pay option is available the list is getting longer and longer.

 

Reduced baseline prices are all well and good, but given the cutbacks are they cheap in real terms, only if you want the very basics maybe.

[Mostonian]

Not really too bothered about the new policy as always buy via Room Service. Just hope that P&O realise that they will have to carry enough  stock to service this possible increase in Room Service demand. What a farce that would be if they were to run out of stock.

[Josy1953]

Reduced baseline prices are all well and good, but given the cutbacks are they cheap in real terms, only if you want the very basics maybe.

 

You may be right but in my opinion it is a Carnival decision to have a cheap option to tempt newcomers to the cruise market.  Those of us who have been cruising for many years have seen a lot of cutbacks and are reaching a point where P&O are too far behind other lines for us to continue to sail with them.

[Selbourne]

I’ve deliberately not engaged much with this debate as it doesn’t affect us. We never take alcohol on board (either at embarkation or in port), we don’t drink in our cabin or on our balcony and we feel that on board drinks prices are reasonable. They are certainly no more expensive than any pubs we use and to complain that you can buy them cheaper in supermarkets is daft IMHO. The only fair comparison is against pubs and hotels. 
 

The choice of drinks can be quite limited in some of the bars, and indeed from room service so, even though prices are reasonable, I do have sympathy with those who enjoy a particular tipple and the only way to achieve that is to take a bottle with them. 
 

As for the motivation for this change, I’m inclined to fall on the side of trying to drive up on board spend rather than to deter drunkenness. If it was the latter, then offering drinks packages runs contrary to that objective. Whilst many of us feel that the drinks packages are over priced (even before the possible increase) and wouldn’t drink anywhere near enough in any given day (especially on port days) to make them even remotely viable, those whose prime motivation is to get drunk every day will certainly buy them and won’t be taking bottles on board when they are getting their booze ‘free’ with their drinks packages. O.K. they might have pre-dinner drinks in their cabin but one bottle, out of their entire holiday consumption with a drinks package, will be a minimal contributor.  
 

Those who are motivated by drinking to excess won’t be remotely deterred by the policy change. As well as access to drinks packages, the new policy would be dead easy to dodge by ‘smuggling’ bottles on board within suitcases. Let’s be realistic, they won’t be caught by doing this and there’s no consequence if they were. The sole risk is a bottle smashing if it wasn’t wrapped adequately. Whilst it’s not something I would do (for reasons stated) if a bottle of something special that you can’t buy on board was a deal breaker, even for moderate to light drinkers, then I’m sure that most people would do the same rather than ditch the cruise line.

[Mollag]

10 hours ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Thanks

I thought it was those ships,,,I wasn’t sure.

You stated in a previous post about people taking opened bottles from the dining rooms which they do and is fair enough but the giveaway is the people bringing full bottles which have quite obviously been used several times before I.e. well stained to the bars several nights on the run and shouting at the staff when they try to remove the empty bottle because they’re taking it home as a souvenir 🤷‍♂️😂

[S1971]

7 minutes ago, Mostonian said:

Not really too bothered about the new policy as always buy via Room Service. Just hope that P&O realise that they will have to carry enough  stock to service this possible increase in Room Service demand. What a farce that would be if they were to run out of stock.

 

But that's where the hypocrisy of P&O shows, according to a previous post they are stopping it partly due to Carnivals HESS policy (Health & Safety) in short.

 

Yet they'll allow you to purchase onboard for cabin use 🤔

 

It makes no sense other than profiteering.