P&O Feedback Survey

[Raybosailor]

I received an email from P&O today asking me to fill out a survey and most of the questions gave me the impression that P&O are looking to trim down their cruise experience to a Thomson style cruise.
I know that I won't be the only one here to get this invite to air my views so I would be interested to know what your thoughts are on this subject.

For those that have not received the email or just not bothered to respond the subjects in question range from :
Peninsular Club would you still book with P&O if it was discontinued.
Do you prefer an all inclusive holiday
Do you like to relax on holiday and not worry about dress codes.

There were many more questions but the above three stuck out like a sore thumb to me.

[Dark Knight]

Perhaps it is more like moving into the 21st century
And realising that my generation and the one behind don't necessarily want or need "traditional" cruising with its dress codes and hierarchy
Looking to the future will keep PandO alive, harking back to the 1930's will kill it stone dead
Only my opinion

[Raybosailor]

Perhaps it is more like moving into the 21st century
And realising that my generation and the one behind don't necessarily want or need "traditional" cruising with its dress codes and hierarchy
Looking to the future will keep PandO alive, harking back to the 1930's will kill it stone dead
Only my opinion

They will be doing it without us then DK, we are no snobs but from the feedback I have had from people that have done the Thomson style cruises it is not our choice.

[Dark Knight]

What is a Thomson style cruise ?
You see many people disparage Thomson but all the real high end cruise lines got rid of formal nights and went all inclusive, years ago
Cunard and PandO are living on repeat business from a steadily declining pool of customers and they know they need new younger cruises before they have to give away cruises to fill the ships
Secondly PandO ships are lagging behind modern cruise ships that are being built today
Yet the much vaunted Britannia is out of date already and has repeatedly been compared to a chain hotel that floats
So while you may disparage Thomson don't forget the real Luxury lines adopt a casual , all inclusive ethos
Now I am not going to compare Thomson to PandO, coz you can't but the business model of Thomson is more widely used in the industry than the PandO one

Thomson will have 4 newer ships soon and don't be surprised if they start to take market share from PandO

[Gill W]

These sorts of surveys are a good indication on the ideas that they're coming up with.

I personally wouldn't mind an all inclusive holiday, as long as the price of the cruise didn't go up excessively - I don't drink much alcohol these days, but it'd be nice to have mocktails and decent coffee on tap.

As for the Peninsular Club, I wouldn't stop booking with P&O if they withdrew it. But I'd miss the 10% discount and now I've reached Baltic, it's bloomin' typical that the want to withdraw it. In any event, I've got 45 nights booked next year, and I want to do the 24 night New York cruise at some point, but apart from that, my next cruises that I'll book are likely to be on a different line.

The last question is an odd one - doesn't every one want to relax on holiday. And I'm not sure why dress codes are a worry. With dress codes, I just go with the suggested code for the evening. I expect what they are really asking is "do you still want formal nights. Dress codes isn't a big issue for me, so I'm not fussed either way really.

[wolfie]

I had the same e mail BUT couldn't get past page two. Must be something I said on page one!

[towny44]

We had a P&O survey recently, possibly the same one and with similar questions, but from memory it was because we had recently cruised with them. If P&O are only sending them to existing customers then I imagine the answers will be skewed to the current passenger mix.
I understand what you are saying DK but I think you will find that even the current younger age passengers prefer the traditional style of P&O, but are willing to see a gradual evolution in the product offered.
I also agree that once the 2 new Vision class ships ex RCI and the 2 Century class ships ex Celebrity (Mein Schiff 1 & 2) are enrolled into the Thomson fleet then they will offer a greater threat to P&O than the current ones do, but not unless they increase their UK sailings.
As far as formal nights and dress code, its interesting that most of the main stream lines, RCI, Princess, HAL, Carnival etc all still have formal nights, not sure about NCL and will be sampling Celebrity's Evening Chic in 10 days time, but reading the CC X thread it still seems that formal night dress code is mainly being followed, especially on Eclipse from Southampton. In fact I find very little difference in style between Princess, Celebrity and P&O, except for more Brits on P&O, so I doubt the dress code and "hierarchy", whatever that is, will impact on P&O's passenger numbers, but service standards and food quality certainly will.

[wolfie]

This wasn't a post cruise questionnaire.

[GillD46]

We also had a P&O questionnaire recently, and we have only cruised with them once in the last five years - and that was over a year ago. I'm afraid I trashed it

[Dark Knight]

Towny
Thomson are already increasing ex UK savings for next year
Once the newer ships arrive then there will be more UK savings and they are reinstating more northern itineraries

[Meg 50]

where's mine?

[towny44]

Towny
Thomson are already increasing ex UK savings for next year
Once the newer ships arrive then there will be more UK savings and they are reinstating more northern itineraries

Good to know DK, if they base one of their newer ships in Southampton I might try them for a Med or Canaries warm weather cruise.

[Raybosailor]

No this was not a post cruise survey and most of the questions were of the type what are your views if certain perks or aspects of a cruise were discontinued by P&O.

I would post up the link to the survey but it has a link to my IP address in it.

DK I was not trying to disparage Thomson at all, I had many package holidays with Thomson when the kids were young but since the advent of the all inclusive they seem to attract the "I don't care I'm on holiday brigade" and that is not our sort of holiday.
We had a month in Mallorca in May and had to walk past one of these hotels on a number of occasions and the noise coming from there was more akin to a football stadium than a holiday hotel. We stopped for a drink in a bar opposite this hotel and got talking to a young couple on honeymoon in the hotel and the young lady broke down as her husband explained what was going on in there. They resorted to "breaking out" as the guy put it just to get away for some peace, imagine that on a cruise you would have to go over the side.

[Raybosailor]

GillW wrote

I personally wouldn't mind an all inclusive holiday, as long as the price of the cruise didn't go up excessively - I don't drink much alcohol these days, but it'd be nice to have mocktails and decent coffee on tap.



Gill W, like you we don't drink that much alcohol but if we paid for an all inclusive package we would be subsidising the big drinkers.

[towny44]

My survey was not your typical post cruise enquiry, but contained some ideas for enhancements on new and/or current ships. The main items were for covered dome areas on the upper decks and what things would interest you, like water parks, luxury lido areas or garden type walks.
It all sounded a bit RCIish to me, so perhaps DK is correct and P&O are thinking of aiming for a different clientele.

[Raybosailor]

There was no mention of domes and water parks on my survey John but if P&O did build a ship with a water park on it we wouldn't go within a mile of it, just think of the noise they would generate.

[CaroleF]

I've just finished completing the survey. The impression I got was that they are going to revamp the Peninsualar Club. I didn't get the impression they wanted to do away with a Loyalty Club. They were asking about different aspects of what is offered at different levels and how important it is to me. For example they asked about things like a Cocktail Party, Lunch with Officers, on board discount and also things like how important were things like lapel pins! Not at all important! The survey also asked how many cruises we had taken with different companies over the last three years. It asked how important things like discounts when booking a cruise - how much discount you thought you ought to get according to the loyalty level you are at. I thought the survey was most comprehensive and now skewed in a particular way.

Carole

[CaroleF]

Sorry that should say, "not skewed in a particular way."

[GillD46]

I had ine just like that from Cunard, Carole.

[qbman1]

I haven't received one of these either. Not sure they "value my opinion" any more after my latest goldie rant !!

[qbman1]

I've just finished completing the survey. The impression I got was that they are going to revamp the Peninsualar Club. I didn't get the impression they wanted to do away with a Loyalty Club. They were asking about different aspects of what is offered at different levels and how important it is to me. For example they asked about things like a Cocktail Party, Lunch with Officers, on board discount and also things like how important were things like lapel pins! Not at all important! The survey also asked how many cruises we had taken with different companies over the last three years. It asked how important things like discounts when booking a cruise - how much discount you thought you ought to get according to the loyalty level you are at. I thought the survey was most comprehensive and now skewed in a particular way.

Carole

Great timing - just as Merv is about to go Caribbean, they move the goalposts again !!

[sunseeker16]

Amend the loyalty perks rather than remove them, surely?
Don't all the lines offer something (perhaps not Thomson)?

[qbman1]

That's probably the plan but I remember when they "amended" the Portunus Club, we were one cruise short of making Caribbean and they moved the goalposts which meant it took us another 2 years to gain promotion !!

[sunseeker16]

Mmm, we're probably about a year away now, so yes, they're probably thinking of making that five! Ho hum

[qbman1]

Their problem has always been that as time goes on, more and more people qualify for the higher tiers and they end up swamped with Goldies ! I remember a few Christmases back, the priority queue for Aurora was about twice the length of the regular queue !! You can just imagine the complaints !!