P&O Cruises

Complaints

It’s my wife’s 70th Birthday in November, and my family and I are arranging a surprise cruise to the Whitsundays on the Pacific Encounter. This cruise will be a first time experience for all six of us. For this purpose, I have booked two adjoining Level 10 Penthouse Suites (Booking references 6VMH5K and 6VMH5P). At the time of booking, I was only able to get two adjoining “Three-Berth” suites, meaning that our four-year old grandson was booked in with us (#10422), while his parents and two-year old sibling were booked next door (#10424). However, on the P&O booking agent’s recommendation, I went onto a waitlist for a larger 5 berth suite, which we successfully received in March 2024. As a result, the parents and one grandchild are now booked into a five-berth suite (#10420), and for obvious reasons we now want to move the other child back in with his parents. A simple request? Not a bit of it! I spent an hour on the phone with “Harvey” at P&O at the end of May, and another 45 minutes with "Jacqui" and "Pam" today, trying unsuccessfully to make this change to our booking. I have been informed that this simple request not only requires the official intervention of the "P&O Inventory Team Onboard”, together with a $49 “cancellation” fee (!!!), but that such a move “cannot be guaranteed”. I was also told today that I may only get a decision "just before the ship departs" It has been suggested that we just wait until after boarding to effect the switch. However, the issue with this is that my wife is completely unaware the family are coming with us, and the entire element of surprise will be lost when we check in and the P&O desk asks “Where is the child?”! This is such a simple and inconsequential request, that it is inconceivable one must be subjected to such pettiness and a delay which now exceeds one month.

The toilet in our cabin overflowed to the extent that water overflowed into the robe area (where clothes are hung up). They had to extract water from carpet and hooked up a blower for several hours in our cabin. The carpet was wet and you couldn't access the bathroom without your feet or shoes getting wet. The noise was so loud that we left our cabin to get away from it. We are used to having an afternoon nap but we couldn't lie down for a rest or watch TV as it was very disturbing and annoying having the blower on continually for several hours. This happened the day before we disembarked the ship and it was a shame this had happened because we were enjoying our cruise. I have paid and booked another cruise Booking #6VGGWC departing 7 September 2024 for 3 nights. As compensation for the problem we had to deal with eg. the flooding in our cabin, could P&O consider upgrading our room (we have booked balcony) to a mini suite or giving us onboard credit to use during our 3 night stay. Thank you for the opportunity to submit our complaint and look forward to receiving some sort of compensation for the misfortune we experienced.

I am just needing an Insurance letter from p and o regarding missed ports on my recent trip ( arrived back on 7th June Adventurer. 1. Noumea due to conflict 2.Mystery islandbdue to weather. 3Suva (An alternate port the captain tried to get for us , also due to weather. 4. Dravuni Island, due to weather. We were at sea 10 ..of 12 days....

I just came off a cruise ex Brisbane I booked the grande suite the best cabin cabin on the ship To my amazement I could not 0rder liquor on room service or buy a miniatures to bring back to the room rum and scotch) We are both scotch and rum drinkers I complained and was told they are the rules Never again m_donoghue@bigpond.com Regards Michael donoghue

We are on an Around Australia cruise where they seem to have joined together a number of cruises, resulting in most passengers being unable to book tours and packages through the online portal. To make matters worse, the call centre staff are ignorant of this and continue to tell us there isn't any issue and to wait and access will be available 'later' resulting in many missing out on shore tours that are now booked out. The final straw is that we now have to pack up and disembark with our luggage 2 days before the end of our cruise, and waste half the day checking back in and reboarding so we can finish the cruise. This will mean missing shore tours that are booked for that day as it will take hours to disembark the whole ship and then have to re check in and board for the last 2 days. It is an absolute joke. I think at a minimum those affected passengers should be receiving a part refund for all the anxiety caused in the past 2 years trying to book and being told I was doing something wrong, and even one call centre person who wouldn't believe me that some passengers could book online where the rest of us couldn't, basically calling me a liar. This has been very distressing considering the cost of the cruise, and that it was supposed to be a celebration for us, not an ordeal.

Hi My name is Agatha and cruising this Sunday to Fiji. My guest code is 8573967812 The cruise is v 422. Just got a email with an itinerary update about not going to noumea due to the unrest. Which I totally agree with,but what I can not understand is why not going to an other island?or stay somewhere for two days. Other cruise liners have changed their intinery last week. Why not p&o? I am so disappointed that I am not looking forward to this cruise at all. I have saved up for so long to go and this happens. I know it’s out of your control but you had time to change island. There is no compensation,but I paid taxes to go to port. It be nice to get something like a room credit?or at least something, It’s not due to bad weather but you did have time to arrange something. Agatha.

My family recently booked a P & O 9 nights cruise going to the Great Barrier Reef in July 2024. We upgraded our family Balcony Room prior to payment to a Mini Suite so we could have access to the Byron Beach Club as we are travelling with two older teenagers. Also we purchased the Value Plus package for our family of four including the drinks package so we could choose our own room. Once all payment was made which totalled in excess of $8k, we tried to choose our room online however we weren't permitted to do so. I called P&O on several occasions and every time I was given a different answer as to why I couldn't select my room. Most recently I have been informed that there is no room available for us in the category requested and therefore we will be placed on a lower deck (deck 8) and not be permitted into the Byron Beach Club. This is not acceptable after we were promised access to Byron Beach Club when we booked. Last week we spoke with Supervisor Kim who explained that we were put on a waiting list but again no-one knows if or when we will get a room. We are travelling as part of a 21st Birthday group and instead of being excited and happy we are extremely concerned and anxious about not having been assigned the room we purchased. Kindly let me know why it has been so difficult for P & O to give us what we paid for. This is our first time on this cruise line and so far we are not happy with the service at all. Kindly help us to rectify this problem at your earliest convenience so we can relax and enjoy our holiday. Regards Audrey 0435118186

We were on the cruise Sydney to Phillip Island the 25th-29th April. We purchased shore tours directly through P&0 PHILIP ISLAND ORIENTATION $39.99 each for a family of 5. We had friends who also purchased the tour, ours were group 14. Our tour involved driving around for roughly 1hour and 15minutes we did not get any opportunity to get off the bus unlike the other groups who got 20 minutes at each location, out tour guide was great and knowledgeable however the reason why we picked this cruise was to see Phillip island and not from a bus window as we drove bye! Other groups got the experience that we paid and hoped for! It would of been cheaper to organise our own transporting to see the island ourselves! On top of that the edge pass!!! All the good activities were cancelled!! Out of the 8 activities booked my son did 3 activities that we booked, and was offered the technical shark replacing the titanic experience- which malfunctioned on his turn which cut his turn anyway! It's disappointing that the experiences we paid and hoped for being our first ever cruise ruined our experiences cruising with P&0

On a recent cruise, we flew from qld to sydney. We had 5 suitcases for the 3 of us. All checked in at the same time at the cruise dock. All labelled clearly with our names and cabin number. Once onboard we were "greeted" if you can call it that, by the younger one of our stewards, who clearly stated "we have 32 cabins to look after". My daughters and I all came to the same conclusion, dont be a nuisance. I understand you have to be patient with waiting for your suitcases. We boarded around 1pm, the first case arrived about 5pm. I cant remember the exact time 3 others arrived, but it was late, after 7pm. My daughter, Jessica's case did not appear. Whilst waiting for luggage my daughter, the one with the missing case' went to the pantry for some food and was disrespected at the Pantry, its a bit long winded, but she heard the staff member complain about her to a colleague as she walked away. In the meantime I'm still trying to locate her case. Please keep in mind, I'm exhausted and no-one from the ship seems to be helping me to find this vital suitcase. Three times I asked the stewards, and they said they'd look. Twice I went down to reception to tell them we were missing a vital suitcase. Jessica has a serious auto-immune condition and her medication was in that suitcase, along with her clothes. Twice I was told to go by myself to look down at the "confiscated luggage" and another deck where suitcases were still being sorted. No-one assisted me. By approximately 6.45pm, we were getting desperate, Jessica was overdue with her medication and of course we were now at sea. For the third time I went down to reception and again was sent to those 2 above mentioned areas. Her case was not there. The reception wanted Jessica to come down and give a description of the case, I rang the room and she came down and gave a very clear, concise description. As I could see she was getting upset, I said go back to the room and I'll try and sort this mess out. The reception lady then asked me to describe the case, my daughter had just done that!!. I'm embarrassed to say, that I then lost it. I wasn't abusive, but I was sobbing and my voice was raised, as I knew if that case wasn't found that they would have to get us off the ship due to medical reasons. I was so upset, so devastated and so disappointed. Anyway, finally around 8 to 9pm, the case was located, thank goodness. SO NIGHT 1, ruined. No drinks, no looking at the ship. Just stress, disappointment, and fear of what the heck are we going to do, if it wasn't found. I won't go into every little detail, but just examples of issues we experienced. Our toilet button kept sticking, I don't know how many times I told the stewards. So many times we had unflushed urine and/or faeces in our toilet, till the button "unstuck" itself. This went on for the entire cruise. It wasn't a plumbing problem, it was a sticky button problem. Our first shore tour day. Our phones were still on Australian time, so I rang for a wake up call to be safe. Thankfully, my daughters were now expecting them to stuff that up as well and somehow got their phone alarms to wake us. Thank goodness they did, as NO WAKE UP CALL. Again on every other P&O cruise when I have requested a wake up call, it happened. Stewards weren't cleaning cabin properly, so I'd bundle dirty dishes and put them near the bin so they couldn't miss them again. On at least 6 occasions, the Cafe on deck 5, lost my daughters order for her coffee. Long delays to get a simple cup of coffee. There were other little issues, but I'm not going into them all. Our final night. It was ruined for me, but thankfully not for my girls. I went and did some washing in the laundrette and put them in the dryer. After 3 tokens, I realised the dryer wasn't drying as it wasn't generating any heat. Reception replaced my tokens, but they weren't any use (I STILL HAVE THEM) as every other dryer on the ship was either out of order or being used. So my final night, was sitting in our cabin, drying the clothes with a hair dryer. That was a fun final night. Naturally they messed up with one of our suitcases at the dock, but we found it. There was more, but this frighteningly is the outline. I'm nervous to book another cruise. I love cruising, but this has really affected me. I feel we should get some sort of compensation, not a free cruise or a full reimbursement, just some kind of respectful future cruise credit, as I lost 2 nights of the cruise and my daughters lost one night of the cruise. Also, the food from the pantry was not up to standard. It was bland and the meat was tough. Its the first time I've lost weight on a cruise. So there were many times, I chose not to eat, as the food wasn't good.

I was charged for a Shore Tour I didn't book.