P&O Reviews

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.

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.