P&O Cruises AU Reviews 27

Dangerous practices on cruise…
Am currently on a cruise in Cairns staff are very good entertainment ok
However purchased a soft drink package over the phone with P&O were told drinks that were available but not told they were were served with a cup full of ice and left over cans that had been used to 1/2 fill another customers drink cans left on bar and are dangerous in my view, anything could be put in them , not sure even if this is legal
When I asked for a full can of soft drink with the can open in front of me they told me only by glass with the method described above so I declined any the drink
If P&O do this to save money on soft drinks my thought is what are they doing to save on alcohol
Seems most of the nice food you have to pay for as well, regular food served seems to be same most of the time.
I will never cruise with P&O again ,they make you send your vaccination COVID proof with the booking ,and have a RAT Test 24 hrs before boarding , but their drink package policy is very dangerous for customers and seems more geared around saving money ,

Took my money twice!!!!
My partner and I are booked on the 4 day 80's cruise this month. There are a few other friends coming along as well. One friend, who was overseas at the time, asked if I could also book (and pay) for him and his partner on the same cruise. This I duly did. The next day on checking my account, P&O had taken the money out for my friend's ticket from my account TWICE. After much hassle (its very difficult to get to speak to an actual person), I was finally through to some offshore operator. It was very noisy and hard to understand. When I asked her what all the noise in the background was, she said "oh they are all celebrating reaching their targets". She could not help me but suggested I send an email. She could not give me an email address but directed me to the website. Again, tricky to navigate this site but eventually sent an email. No response. I tried calling again and chasing up. Eventually passed along to someone who said "yes, I see the payment. Our accounts dept will reimburse you within 14-21 days!!!". I asked why it was going to take so long to return my money (when it had only taken them minutes to steal it in the first place). She said if I needed it sooner, I should contact my own bank (more chasing up). I asked to be put through to her manager she said "no, I will not put you through. There is nothing more to be done and the managers are busy".
Anyway EVENTUALLY got my money returned. No apology, no compensation for being out of pocket, nothing. I would have thought that for all the hassle, lost time, money, etc. they may have done something by way of recompense/apology. I have just received my cabin allocation and not even a slight upgrade for all the inconvenience. Very bad form.

5-6 weeks ago I went onto my Cruise control site to book my tours well in advance so as not to miss out however I was unable to click into the tours to book as it kicked me out and I had to re log in, I did this repetitively with no success. I tried again in different venues and computers but the same thing happened. I tried the "captain chat" but that was even more frustrating. Approximately 3 weeks ago I rang the 0800 number to get it sorted however the operator was unable to book it for me either as she couldn't get into the site ether she indicated I should give it a day or two as she would report the issue to their IT team. To get to this stage I was on the phone for approximately 1 hour. I did try again but still had the same issue. By this time I was getting VERY annoyed! I rang back to see if I could make a manual booking but apparently the tours I wanted to book were now full!!!! this is NOT OK. I'm now on a waiting list (No guarantees) this phone call took about 1.5 hours and was especially frustrating as I was speaking with a staff remember who was a "non English as their first language" person requiring me to repeat my self multiple times including spelling words this was extremely frustrating. I rang back and asked for an email to send a letter of complaint to the Quality team of P&O I was given this review page instead! This is just the last straw if I hadn't already paid for my cruise I would be thinking seriously about cancelling. I definitely won't be advocating for P&O to friends and family. I have missed out on the tours I particularly wanted to do due (a once in a lifetime opportunity to see whales with their calves) to no fault of mine it is an IT issue which shouldn't have happened. P&O get your "sh...." sorted I'm afraid this doesn't bode well for my cruise experience, it has left a very unpleasant taste in my mouth.

My experience with P&O has been rather disappointing and frustrating.
It all started with a cruise taken to Tasmania from Sydney in November 2022. We have cruised with both P&O and Carnival on several occasions prior, and were mainly pleased and relaxed after the holiday.
This has come to a screeching halt after the several dealings with the so called “customer care representatives” who added to my frustration and anger.
We contracted covid whilst onboard, and were treated like second class persons with gross incompetence running rife amongst the staff of every department onboard including the medical staff. I am disabled and my wife is my carer, we were both incredibly unwell and received little to no assistance whilst confined to a small cabin.
In confinement you rely on others for everything, as you cannot get things without leaving the cabin, we were entirely at the crews mercy.
After the bill was stuffed up and a many instances of incompetence was shown like not giving us a menu so that we knew what was on offer or what to eat, constant phone calls asking where my partner was (in the same room), not rechecking covid tests etc we were informed that we were being disembarked at White Bay(sydney) with no way of getting home to the south coast of nsw.
When we recovered, I called the customer care persons (overseas(of course)) on several occasions and spent hours on the telephone getting nowhere, only to be eventually treated very rudely and abruptly by the (case manager) and still got nowhere.
I then ended up writing physical letters to the head office in Sydney on three occasions and told them I will never cruise with them again, in my first, second and third letter to which they sent me cruise credits!! This goes to show the total disassociation the staff have with customers and reality!
I have, after months of arguing and writing to head office, I finally had a call from a lady from head office, who agreed that our treatment was “appalling,and“inappropriate” stating that we would be compensated.. we are still waiting.

My husband and I are NOT typically cruisers. However, P & O offered a 5 night trip on the Pacific Explorer that would take us directly into the path of the April 20 solar eclipse. I had low expectations, especially after reading so many negative reviews. However, as VALUE FOR MONEY I am giving this cruise 5 stars. It is definitely a budget cruise line but they charged accordingly. The cabin was small, but no smaller than on most other cruises. Everything in the room functioned well except for a quite antiquated television. There was plenty of room to hang up/stow all our clothes so that we could put our empty suitcases under the bed. Shower was really good.

The public areas were very clean, nicely decorated and well maintained. We did not participate in any of the regular entertainment, but did attend the special astronomy lectures which were outstanding. We also did not use any of the upcharged or special dining and only ate at the main dining area. Food was not fabulous but was fine with reasonable variety as would be expected at a buffet style venue. After five days we were glad to be done with it, but it was okay. Dining room was sometimes crowded at peak hours, but we always found a table

Staff everywhere were amazing. For a company that does not encourage tipping, it was outstanding. Everyone was helpful, courteous and friendly. We ended up cash tipping our room steward Iris as she was such a hard worker and always greeted us by name.

While we would probably opt not to take a P & O cruise again, it is because primarily we are not cruisers and if we did we would opt to spend more for more luxury but I would not hesitate to recommend this cruise company to someone on a tighter budget.

I have always defended P&O cruises from naysayers - It's a budget cruiseline - the food isn't as fancy as others, the ships are a bit older. But the staff are always lovely, the entertainment is pretty good and the destinations are great. It's a cheap family holiday. BUT - this last cruise (and I've been on many) really let me down. I'm not a gambler, but this time around I thought I'd give Blackjack a whirl. Jumped on one of the machines, popped my card in. Long story short, I won a little bit and was informed by the machine that the winnings would be credited back to my method of payment for the gamble ie: my credit card. No worries. I get home. It's now over a month since the cruise - no winnings. Contact P&O - they refer me to Ocean Players Club. Contact OPC. 4 months I can expect to wait before I see it and apparently being sent out by cheque? WHAT? Is it the 70's? And 4 Months!! It will be interesting to see how much I have to pester them to get it or they hope that people just forget about it after 4 months. Really disappointing that this isn't posted anywhere in the casino. I'm going on a Royal Caribbean cruise next. They just may be my new cruise line of choice after this BS.