Hello everyone
May I thank you for your good wishes; it’s been lovely to receive such messages of support.
I have penned responses to your questions and suggestions, but forgive me if I haven’t been able to answer every comment. I try to respond every now and again when time allows. I would have also liked to respond to you all individually.
I love the suggestion from Southwinds of having a museum and public area in our new head office, but space is at rather a premium, instead we’re looking into having a small travelling historical collection on all of our ships at some point in the future. We’ll keep you posted.
I understand your concern regarding the use of the terms ‘guests’ and ‘holidays’. You’ll always be our ‘passengers’ and this is something that will never change. The term 'holidays' is a little different. For you, our past passengers, we will always talk about cruises; after all we are a cruise company offering cruises. However, when we talk to people new to cruise, the term ‘holiday’ is more familiar to them, so we like to use a mixture of both when we talk to them.
I am very worried by a couple of your comments regarding cost savings and service (particularly from our head office). Can I reassure you that our passengers’ experience, whether on board or ashore, is our key focus and we are committed to providing you with an ever improved standard of service.
We will certainly try harder to minimise towels being left on sun beds and to reinforce our dress code, which is very important to us.
John, you had some great suggestions; the bridge and engine tours being one. Unfortunately due to the world in which we live, both bridge and engine room tours are off the agenda for now. I hope we’ll be able to reinstate them one day as we’d love to show you how it all works. I also think it’s great that you would like to see more officers from the deck and technical side around the ship, as well as wanting to hear more ship progress announcements from the bridge. We’ll see what we can do on both counts.
Jane M recommended a permanent world cruise that would allow passengers to join a ship in various locations around the world throughout the year. We look into this each year to see whether it’s something we think our passengers would like, but so far roundtrip cruises from Southampton have been the popular option.
Elaine, your comments regarding entertainment are really helpful. We always try to bring in new entertainers, as well as offering our passengers’ favourites. Perhaps we need to look for a greater variety of new acts. We will look at our entertainment cycle.
Alan44 and anonymous - great idea about the laundry package, I will look into it.
There are lots of you who mentioned that you are joining us on our Christmas and New Year cruises, so I just wanted to say that I hope you all have wonderful time.
With kind regards,
Carol
James Cusick
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21 comments:
Hello Carol,
Like a lot of your passengers my wife and I have taken many, many cruises with P&O. Never had a bad one and always look forward to the next. I know that this suggestion might be a bit contentious for those who are making there way towards Gold Tier status, but is it not about time to introduce a further tier with perhaps a starting level of say 5000 points. As you know there are many folk who take 4,5,6 or even more P&O cruises each year and a new tier would be recognition of that level of loyalty.
I am not sure that many extra benefits need be added, other than perhaps a reception with some of the senior officers, whatever, that aspect could be left to the ingenuity of the portunus team.
It is a delight that you are taking the time to undertake the blog, well done you.
Regards
Michael and Shirley
Carol thank you for your latest blog and responses to the comments. I understand your points about bridge and engine tours, that's a shame but I understand. Perhaps another time, probably when I am dead and buried.
Thank you, being able to see more of the deck and engine officers onboard would be nice, we only ever seem to see the white and gold striped officers! Nice people of course, but we never meet the others. I know they are busy people but just to see them walking around much more, talking to other passengers & crew would make so much difference. Looking at all these young boys and girls you have working onboard now makes me wish I chose a sea life.
Hi
just about (10 days or so) to embark on our first cruise - to the Caribbean - thanks to all loyal P&O cruisers, who made it easy, along with the heritage, to choose P&O for our first trip. Looking forward to it so much, with an open mind, and hopefully will be not put off by the oft said remark - 'cruising's not like it use to be'! Good work Carol to place yourself in the front line - your responses so far I think are what people want to hear - let's hope there are some outcomes - I'll let you know after my cruise.
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Carol
Please don't think I was criticising the entertainment. I don't actually go on a cruise for just the entertainment, but if there is an act I really want to see I make sure I go and see them (and yes I go and see Tom O'Connor everytime, because like you say he is a P & O favourite). I understand it is very difficult to find entertainment that a) suits all age groups (for instance I actually quite liked some of the comedians that appeared in the tamarind club on our Ventura cruise, but they didn't seem to go down too well with some of the older passengers onboard - I am in my late 40's and my husband is 50) b) when planning entertainment you don't know which of the passengers on a specific cruise will have been on a P & O cruise in excess of 20 times (as myself) or even more in a lot of cases. So I can understand it is very difficult. Unfortunately not all passengers are as understanding (IMO).
As for savings and service. Some of the new ideas (e ticketing for instance) is so much more convenient (again IMO). After all lots of other businesses use them nowadays. Airlines for instance and for christmas I have got my husband tickets to see Michael Buble (now it would be nice to see him on a P & O cruise - with a nod and a wink) and I am having to print my tickets off my computer. This is clearly the way forward. Of course not all passengers have access to a computer and this is of concern to some, but I assume the travel agents could do this on their behalf. I am sure in years to come no one will bat an eyelid at the e tickets. Most of the information you require you get from our passports numbers anyway, so I guess that tickets in reality are not even really needed. Well in fact I know they are not as I booked a cruise with less than 24 hours before departure and all I had to do was turn up with my passport.
Anyway, as a long term passenger I hope you find my feedback useful.
Elaine (aurorabore)
Nothing about the forum then, as the first point of contact for quite a few potental passengers/customers/holidaymakers, the forum should not be dominated by groups of bullies. It is after all a free advertising & advice platform "manned" by volunteers who should be able to do so without being harassed.People should not be allowed to post under different names & if someone is banned then they should stay banned, unless invited back by the Admin team, not just reappear as someone else to carry on disrupting. The Moderator/s should have the capability & judgement to discipline who is in the wrong not just those the gang do not favour.
Regards John.
Hi Carol,
It is great to see that you are listening to your passengers. Providing you look into the enforcing the dress code and the issue of towels on sunbeds then I see no reason to try other cruise lines.
I realise this is a difficult subject but it would be good if you could ban smoking on balconies. This year we were next to two chain smokers and it was often too unpleasant to sit on our balcony and we even had to close the patio door to stop it coming in the cabin.
Yes, smoking is the hot potato on the Community forum as ever!
However, the non smokers have most of the ship and they still cruised when smoking was even more widespread on board and I can't remembe mnay complaints then. It is just since the UK legislation was brought in that they feel they need to have the whole ship to themselves.
Please lookat the reasoned responses from some non smokers who say that the smoke soon disperses and does not drift onto balconies and into cabins.
BTW,
balcony doors should be kept shut!
Maybe there should be smoking and non smoking decks. It would be very discriminatory to tell smokers that they can't smoke on their balconies. I always book a balcony cabin because I am a smoker. I found it very offensive that every time I walked out onto my balcony on the last cruise my neighbours were parading around in the nude, they were of a very mature age and everything was saggy and baggy, maybe they thought that we couldn't see them but the reflection was in our glass balcony safety rail. I would not think of asking to have nudity banned, just let them know that they can be seen.Everyone has paid for the right to a hassle free holiday and why should smokers be punished, you are not meant to leave the balcony door open, it states that on the door.
After taking many cruises with your company, I have just heard from friends that are at present on Ventura on a fly-cruise, that you have changed your policy of seating. They have received a letter saying that you are no longer giving the same seats on the homeward journey as the seats you had on the outward journey. They now find that they are at different end of the plane, not seated together. Cannot understand why you are doing this, I do realise that aircraft have different seating plans but to seat couples away from one another at different end of the plane seems crazy. Why have you stopped allocating seats that you had on outward flights.
If this is so why then do you not charge for pre-allocated seats other cruise lines do this??
Well I see the old smoking issue has raised it's ugly head on here! Whilst I am a non smoker and never had a desire to try the dreaded weed, I still realise that smokers cannot go the duration of their cruise without smoking. My dad smokes and he can't go more than a couple of hours without gasping for one - being a non smoker I don't understand it and always joke with him about it. What the actual answer is to keep both smokers and non smokers happy is IMO quite a tricky one! As someone earlier here suggested maybe there should be designated smoking cabins, but you may have a cruise that is predominantly full of non smokers and those rooms would not be able to be filled. Certainly as a non smoker you can smell the nocotine on the fabrics and furnishings of a cabin that has had smokers in before you and yes, some may mock, but you can smell it through the walls on some occasions from the cabin next door. I guess it depends on how many people in the neighbouring cabin are actually smoking!
Like I say it's a really tricky and sensitive subject and it must be difficult to come up with a satisfactory solution for ALL passengers. After all the cabin is a smokers home for the duration of their holiday.
Elaine (aurorabore)
I don't think that anyone should smoke in their cabin, balconies and designated smoking areas elsewhere should remain though.
Carol, please do not forget that some long time P & O cruisers do not have internet access and still need to be treated in the way they are used to. Obviously I have access but am making this comment on behalf of my neighbour that doesn't and is not likely to.
Regards RLS Yeovil
In my booklet that is titled "Your Holiday Information", on page 7 it states,"Smoking on board" "Smoking will be permitted on balconies, designated areas of the open deck and one designated public room. Smoking will no longer be permitted in staterooms or other public areas", as was the case this year for our Grand Voyage.
This booklet was received by post to me quite a few weeks ago and I will abide by the above whether it is changed by the time I embark in 11 weeks or through my 9 weeks on the ship. It was a major consideration upon booking and as I have a dated document addressed to me the above statement will be adhered to.
Maybe there should be smoking and non smoking ships,seems that child free is in great demand, why not smokers and non smokers, it would be very difficult to have smoking and non smoking decks, a good itinerary will catch all payers.
I beleive even if there were never smokers there would be an issue of some sorts.
Carol.. thank you for the response. Lovely to see someone take notice much like dear Lord Sterling would do.
Look forward to reading more and see how the future of cruising on much loved P&O will contiue under your watchful eye.
thank you
Hi Carol, why do P & O not do a cruise that takes in Iceland, Greenland and Norway which is in the school summer holidays? You have R005 on Aurora in 2010 but this is the only cruise calling in on these countries where children are allowed on board and its during school term time. This makes it difficult if you are either (a) a teacher or (b) have children of school age which you don't want to take out of school for a cruise. There are lots of cruises going around the Med during the school summer holidays but none at all going to Iceland/Greenland where children are allowed on board.
Whoooooooooo Hoooooooooooooo looking forward to cruising on the Adonia, have been on Artemis a few times and was very sorry to hear she was leaving the fleet. But hey ho you have another smaller shop coming to your fleet. off on Oceana in January. Merry Christmas and a Happy New you to you all.
Sandie Wilson
Dear Carol,
I'm a young cruise ship lover, living in Cherbourg. I don't know if you have some memory of that, but we met us in Cherbourg, just after the ceremony of the call of QM2, on 2008, july 15th.
Since that, my position in Cherbourg has been enough changed, and I thank Cunard very munch for the help to open me all the doors.
I invit you to discover my website : http://shipscherbourg.overblog.com (unfortunatly, I haven't done the english translation yet...) and hope you keep a very nice memory of Cherbourg !
Regards
Mathieu BURNEL
(if you would have some picts of Cherbourg, I would be very happy to send them)
Hello Carol,
Please can you explain P&O's thinking on not allocating the same seats on the inbound flight as the outbound flight. Is it correct that the best seats will go to the people who book first? Will this mean that some passengers will not be seated next to their travelling companions?. I think if this idea goes ahead you will have alot of very unhappy passengers. I for one will not book a fly cruise unless I am seated next to my partner as I hate flying
Hi Carol,
I have been following your blog with intrest while cruising on Arcadia's Christmas Markets cruise.
I just wanted to say what a lovely cruise it has been in all respects despite the last minute change of the ports of call.
People have been moaning about things but from my point of veiw everything has been fantastic.
The only thing I would change is some of our fellow passengers.
Best Regards
Steve
Have just returned from Arcadai's Winter wonderland cruise and had a great time.
One thing that was not very nice was the smoking in the pub. Smoking was allowed on one side but the smell and smoke was all over the whole pub. We would have liked to go in there but couldn't because of that.
If P & O intend to go to cold climates it would be an idea to check the ship is warm enough. Most of the public rooms were very cold.
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