Welcome to Carnival Cruise Lines

[jsglow]

Carnival expects to absorb the affiliate in early 2025.

 

https://www.carnivalcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/carnival-corporation-strategically-align-portfolio-and-absorb-po

[Gwendy]

So sad, cheap and cheerful and can sail from home port.  Tried Carnival once, not impressed.  Have two cruises booked with P&O, bet everything goes downhill fast.

[Vader1111]

1 hour ago, Gwendy said:

So sad, cheap and cheerful and can sail from home port.  Tried Carnival once, not impressed.  Have two cruises booked with P&O, bet everything goes downhill fast.

Hard to go any further downhill, from where the company is already.

[Gwendy]

1 hour ago, Vader1111 said:

Hard to go any further downhill, from where the company is already.

My first ever cruise was on Pacific Sun.  Silver service afternoon tea, excellent main dining experience, sadly it went downhill from there, but it was a marvellous introduction to cruising. At that time  I was amazed at how large the ship was, later I cruised on MSC with 5000 passengers.

[Vader1111]

2 minutes ago, Gwendy said:

My first ever cruise was on Pacific Sun.  Silver service afternoon tea, excellent main dining experience, sadly it went downhill from there, but it was a marvellous introduction to cruising. At that time  I was amazed at how large the ship was, later I cruised on MSC with 5000 passengers.

My first cruise was also on the Pacific Sun, back in 2007.  While the P&O ships have improved since then, the service has gone backwards at a rapid rate of knots.  I doubt they will be missed, by the time they are subsumed into the Carnival megaline.

[Zetta83]

Does that mean pizzas and soft serves are going to be complimentary? This also means the P&O nights will no longer count to Princess. 
 

Wonder if the P&O nights will be added to Carnival’s. Maybe not.

[dollyhouse]

Another cruiser whose first cruise was way back on the Pacific Sun. Noumea, Isle of Pines, Ouvea. We had such fun it was the start of many years of cruising, on many different ships, both here and overseas. We have seen the world on cruise ships, including going to places which would have been super expensive if not on a cruise, including Antarctica, Iceland and Greenland. Every so often, though, we would take a P&O Australia cruise, however, each one seemed to us to be getting a little slacker in entertainment, quality of food and onboard facilities, for example  we watched sadly as libraries gave way to more bars, and promotions especially of drinks packages increased rapidly. Comedians got increasingly not funny relying on swearing and putting down audience members (we watched one so called comedian looking grubby in a flannelette shirt and jeans heckle an audience member about her weight so that she fled in tears and many including us, walked out), the nightly shows were real hit and miss, every day seemed to be full of jewellery, spa and drinking promotions. This was all pre-Covid. After Covid, we took one more cruise in May 2023 on P&O Australia and it was so woeful in every way we agreed never to sail with them again, however the serving crew with a couple of exceptions were as friendly and overworked as usual. It will be interesting to see how Carnival advertise their new Australia/NZ/Sth Pacific cruises: will they continue to emphasise drinking as the main pull, and also how much the cruises will cost.  

[Gwendy]

I have cruised with 8 different cruise lines.  P&O a poor relative in recent times, with its bogan demographic.  However I still loved to cruise with them, cheap, great crew, can drive to port, I just do my own thing watch the ocean go by and enjoy the ports.

[Gwendy]

12 minutes ago, dollyhouse said:

Another cruiser whose first cruise was way back on the Pacific Sun. Noumea, Isle of Pines, Ouvea. We had such fun it was the start of many years of cruising, on many different ships, both here and overseas. We have seen the world on cruise ships, including going to places which would have been super expensive if not on a cruise, including Antarctica, Iceland and Greenland. Every so often, though, we would take a P&O Australia cruise, however, each one seemed to us to be getting a little slacker in entertainment, quality of food and onboard facilities, for example  we watched sadly as libraries gave way to more bars, and promotions especially of drinks packages increased rapidly. Comedians got increasingly not funny relying on swearing and putting down audience members (we watched one so called comedian looking grubby in a flannelette shirt and jeans heckle an audience member about her weight so that she fled in tears and many including us, walked out), the nightly shows were real hit and miss, every day seemed to be full of jewellery, spa and drinking promotions. This was all pre-Covid. After Covid, we took one more cruise in May 2023 on P&O Australia and it was so woeful in every way we agreed never to sail with them again, however the serving crew with a couple of exceptions were as friendly and overworked as usual. It will be interesting to see how Carnival advertise their new Australia/NZ/Sth Pacific cruises: will they continue to emphasise drinking as the main pull, and also how much the cruises will cost.  

I have never seen such clear water as in Ouvea, great port until politics stopped ships visiting.  

[ceeceeDee]

On 6/4/2024 at 11:49 AM, Gwendy said:

So sad, cheap and cheerful and can sail from home port.  Tried Carnival once, not impressed.  Have two cruises booked with P&O, bet everything goes downhill fast.

Yep. We're on Encounter at Christmas. Wouldn't be surprised if our already low expectations drop a further notch or two. Have never been a fan of Carnival. The decor alone is enough to cause sea sickness

[ceeceeDee]

On 6/4/2024 at 1:08 PM, Vader1111 said:

Hard to go any further downhill, from where the company is already.

To misquote Sherlock Holmes.....

It depends on how much heat is applied to the butter to equate to how far the parsley sinks

[MBP&O2/O]

It's quite amazing how many people do not koww that the company, officially known as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, is no longer in existence. I worked for them as a Second Officer from 1975 to1980.

The company sold its assets over a period of time and ceased trading under this name circa 2005.

P&O Cruises and P&O Ferries carry the name only.

They have no affiliation to P&O SNC Ltd, aka "The P&O" 😄

[Over from NZ]

10 hours ago, Gwendy said:

I have cruised with 8 different cruise lines.  P&O a poor relative in recent times, with its bogan demographic.  However I still loved to cruise with them, cheap, great crew, can drive to port, I just do my own thing watch the ocean go by and enjoy the ports.

It's ironic; because out of Australia.. the bogans are on P&O.. their parents on Carnival and their Grandparents are on Princess. Once the young bogans get old, they transition through the lines haha. Same class of people.. just different ages 🙂 

[Vader1111]

20 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

It's ironic; because out of Australia.. the bogans are on P&O.. their parents on Carnival and their Grandparents are on Princess. Once the young bogans get old, they transition through the lines haha. Same class of people.. just different ages 🙂 

My version is...

• P&O Australia and Carnival both target bogan families
• Royal Caribbean target middle class families
• Princess targets the baby boomers
• Holland America targets the baby boomers' parents

[ceeceeDee]

Can't comment on HAL, but regardless of targets there always seems to be a fair cross section of all demographics on the others.

[dazadelaide]

Funny, we don't consider ourselves as bogans yet we have cruised on P&O many times.

I don't drink alcohol so I tend to be sensitive to being around those who drink in excess.

We go out and see bands and go to pubs about once a month and have done so for the last 40 years or so.

We have seen a lot of varying behavior on all types of cruises we have done ( 16 so far ) and yet the only fight we have seen was on a HAL ship in 2010.

So you can't generalize about people by the cruise line they use.

Daz

[Gwendy]

I have also cruised P&O numerous times, cheap and convenient.  I don’t consider myself a bogan, a glass of wine at dinner maybe every second night, but the major demographic is bogans. Drink packages have a lot to answer for.  My next two cruises are with P&O and then a change of pace back to Cunard for the next four.  Some heavy drinkers on Cunard, but they tend to nod off in the comfy lounge chairs. Lol

Either way any cruise is a good cruise.

[ceeceeDee]

On 6/12/2024 at 11:36 AM, Gwendy said:

I have also cruised P&O numerous times, cheap and convenient.  I don’t consider myself a bogan, a glass of wine at dinner maybe every second night, but the major demographic is bogans. Drink packages have a lot to answer for.  My next two cruises are with P&O and then a change of pace back to Cunard for the next four.  Some heavy drinkers on Cunard, but they tend to nod off in the comfy lounge chairs. Lol

Either way any cruise is a good cruise.

Quite possibly there is a fair percentage of bogans.............. We tend not to hang out on the Lido deck or the onboard pub so we are probably avoiding the majority.

[arxcards]

All cruise ships have varying degrees of bogans, grunts, snobs, yobbos,  tossers. Yes, P&O is pitched at "cruiselings", so there are plenty of them aboard. All cruise ships have mirrors too.

 

Life imitates cruising 😉

[ceeceeDee]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

All cruise ships have varying degrees of bogans, grunts, snobs, yobbos,  tossers. Yes, P&O is pitched at "cruiselings", so there are plenty of them aboard. All cruise ships have mirrors too.

 

Life imitates cruising 😉

Not just cruise ships either. At any resort there's a good chance you'll encounter all of the above.🤭

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Not just cruise ships either. At any resort there's a good chance you'll encounter all of the above.🤭

And your local shopping centre. Once upon a time, cruising used to be for the privileged, now most of us are privileged to be able to cruise.

 

Most ships will have other passengers that see things in a different way, and not just P&O. If you pick on a shortish Aussie cruise in school holidays, you are going to meet plenty of cruisers that don't know how to be cruisers in the traditional sense. As long as they paid their fare and can abide by the rules of the ship, they have every right to be themselves and enjoy the cruise on their own terms. 

[dollyhouse]

We have been on a mix of shipping lines, and each one has it’s own character, or used to, pre Covid. Yes, Princess and HAL are well patronised by boomers (like us), though HAL’s Noordam we cruised on in November was fairly below the standard of other HAL ships. We have cruised on middle range English ships, again boomer clientele, which have had their share of drinkers as their servings were amazing: big wine glasses filled to the brim, big beer glasses, MSC Poetica which was amazing in its variety of European passengers and a complete (great) shipboard experience, Hurtigruten another great shipboard experience, Princess and HAL preCovid out of US ports were also great. We will be on Princess in November out of Sydney and it will be interesting to see if it’s standards have slipped.

[dollyhouse]

Woops, MSC Poesia!