What a huge disappointment! We’ve never cruised on P &O before (been on royal Caribbean and Celebrity)and probably never will again.
The new ship was lovely but the amount of passengers to staff was a joke! Clearly they are either struggling to recruit or more likely cost cutting.
The set up of the “app” for booking restaurants was a joke as pretty much all the restaurants were constantly fully booked especially the Epicurean that was impossible to get a table in! But once inside the restaurants that claimed they were fully booked then there was lots of empty tables which clearly indicated it was a staffing problem rather than no availability with lots of staff doing 2 jobs eg cabin cleaner in the morning/afternoon and waiter in the eve with very little time off at all! The cabins were lovely but definitely felt narrower than expected, again I’m sure to pack more cabins in to make more money! No water as is usually given and only shampoo and soap in the cabins with no other toiletries or extras, unlike usual expectations, again cost cutting.
The main decks sunbed situation was unbelievable with people saving them from 5.30 in the morning and officers needing to be called to try and resolve heated arguments! We booked into the Retreat, again after a lot of trouble with the booking system being contradictory, but that wasn’t much better as people were sneaking in or taking more than their 2 beds even though some people couldn’t get a bed at all and were even sitting on the deck floor! Not what you expect when paying substantially extra for this service.
The manager tried really hard to sort but had to deal with some extremely rude passengers.
They had around 45 passengers in 2 weeks being caught and having to do “the walk of shame” out of there.
Overall it was not the standard we were told P&O offer and certainly wasn’t helped by the fact they had sold huge numbers of cabins in the last 2 weeks before sailing at ridiculously cheap prices encouraging the wrong type of clientele and packing them in without the staff and facilities to properly service them all.
It really felt like a Butlins holiday camp standard , as one guest said “should be called Peasyjet like EasyJet rather than P&O, basically Peasants Only!” I’m quite sure this isn’t the reputation P&O are wanting or looking for.
They really need to sort it out , and quickly.
