USA and Caribbean

This was our 18th Cruise 9 of which have been on P&O.

We have never complained before but-

From the moment of entering the cabin we started to notice the cuts made since our last P&O cruise in 2017.

The “bean counters” have run riot and all the little niceties such as bath robes, face cloths and a bar of soap were not provided and our balcony was filthy. The list is extensive but is possibly best exemplified by the daily crossword puzzle which they have somehow managed to squeeze onto a paper measuring 4inches X 6 inches.

Whilst the restaurant menus looked extensive – in reality, cheap alternatives to the norm had generally been substituted and the cooking was definitely below standard. They have probably created a world shortage of green beans and chunky chips!

The food in the buffet was similarly disappointing.

Nearly everyone considered the standards to be unacceptable and the most frequent comment was people would not sail with P&O again.

The first port of call was in Tenerife – on a Sunday! and most of the facilities were closed, the second was the following Sunday in Barbados where there was hardly even a bar open.
When raising this with customer relations it was suggested that we could have realised this at the time of booking by studying the itinerary!!!!!!!

The passengers were mainly elderly often with mobility issues but many offshore excursions were unsuitable due to the terrain or lack of the necessary transport for wheelchairs etc.

Following the problems caused by covid we had thought that P&O would pull out all the stops to encourage cruise travel but sadly this did not appear to be their intention, the ship was only about half full – whether or not this was caused by covid or previous experience is debatable.
We could go on but suffice it to say that we will be cancelling the cruise we have booked on Arcadia for July.