Home Cruise Reviews Centre P&O Cruises Azura EXPECTATIONS vs REALITY
EXPECTATIONS vs REALITY
Diane CLANCY | January 21, 2023 | P&O Cruises | Azura
Dear Mr Ludlow
RE: EXPECTATIONS vs REALITY
As experienced cruisers for over 25 years, we thought you would be interested to hear about the reality of our latest experience on A301 sailing in the Canaries aboard Azura.
• TUI FLIGHT – Absolutely as it should be and it exceeded our expectations.
• TRANSPORT ARRANGEMENTS AT TENERIFE AIRPORT – organized chaos where we were forced to stand in a queue for an hour with no helpful communication. No passenger list no P&O help and a driver who forced luggage into an already overcrowded hold.
• ARRIVAL AT SHIP & MUSTER – great idea to just go to muster station – no delays
• OUR CABIN – sadly it looked tired with stained furnishings – but the sun was shining. We asked the steward where our champagne was as it was clearly not in the ice bucket presented with glasses. He said in the fridge, we looked and found it was Cava not Champagne, as your website states.
• OUR DINING ARRANGEMENTS – no information awaiting us in cabin re our requested second sitting on a table for 6
• WINE PACKAGE PURCHASED BY ‘PHONE – we were told that there was no record on our account of this £245 purchase but that the vouchers would be waiting in our cabin – not true. We actually received a ‘special gift’ card addressed to the purchaser and a form to complete and hand to the steward.
• ROOM SERVICE – since we were tired after a long day and had no information on our designated restaurant we decided to have room service and ‘phoned through with our order and decided to have a bottle of wine from our wine package. We were told that we could not have in our cabin, we challenged that, particularly since the ‘special gift’ card clearly states Cabin or Restaurant. We then underwent several visits by room service trying to sort out and eventually we received our vouchers. After all this disorganization our food was cold.
• MY HOLIDAY – did not work as it would not accept our pass card number
• FRUIT ORDER – our steward asked us to fill in what we would like – so expected to receive it
• TRIED MY HOLIDAY AGAIN – still did not work. So looked at the Daily Programme to organize Theatre booking, a number 7030 is published to call to arrange. We were In a holding pattern for 45 minutes with no answer. So we went to reception to book. Reception said that 7030 isn’t valid and we didn’t need to book Theatre anyway. So we ask why print it and why have a My Holiday section for Theatre?
• RESTAURANT/DINING ARRANGEMENTS – Reception told us to go to Peninsular so we did. We were told that we were booked in the Oriental for 2030, Table 85. When we arrived for dinner we were on a table for 2, so no company. Why were we not given advance information on this?
• FOOD IN ORIENTAL – mediocre to poor with steak which you could sole your shoes with (tried it twice, both times poor)
• CAPTAINS WINE COLLECTION – we chose this as it had wines we like and others we wanted to try. Sadly half of our requests resulted in …. that wine is not available.
• FOOD IN PENINSULAR – breakfast and lunch good.
• MY HOLIDAY – tried again and still not working so went to Reception who also had an initial problem, somehow it did not recognize the Pass digits. Eventually they resolved the problem.
• MY HOLIDAY – MY ACCOUNT – useful to keep tabs.
• CANAPES AND FRUIT – arrived mid week. Fruit was as ordered but half soft. Canapes tasteless – we did not eat more than one bite.
Our very first cruise was on Oriana back in the 90’s which was spectacular……this experience was very different.
We are booked through Bolsover for a Caribbean Cruise in January 2024 in the Ceylon Suite. Perhaps you could enlighten us as to a big question………..will it turn out to have the same problems as above or is Britannia better organized.
We sincerely hope you find these comments helpful for your staff and that necessary improvements may avoid criticism from other guests.
Kind regards
Diane J Clancy Terry Clancy
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