> Cruise News - Updated Daily > Couple feeling feverish about P&O Cruises

I still can't figure what you're saying, Gordon - are you actually of the opinion that the cruise line should have allowed someone who was not adequately immunised on to their ship? Or are you simply arguing for a refund? THAT is my real question.

Spartan

Brown (presumably the PM) and me are miles apart.
He is Scottish, I'm Welsh and I used to belong to his Party, well certainly the one that existed before he and Tony inserted the NEW into the title.

If ever I did have the misfortune to (as you say) 'run the Country,' unlike my 'prudent' namesake, I would not be handing out billions of pounds of your money to prop-up avaricious and auriferous driven bankers to enable them to continue in the style to which they have become accustomed.

I probably would be moved to reintroduce 'the stocks' thus allowing you to vent your spleen on the wealthy wasters with a volley of vegetables and over-ripe tomatoes.

I would prefer to think that my hand-outs would go those most deserving - the many, not the few, like those of us who have contributed all our lives into the 'system' which inspired Beveridge, Lloyd George and Aneuryn Bevin to create it so as to ensure that when we reached non-working age we, and our dependents, would be cared for.

Instead, the system has been 'milked' by those who have not contributed one penny into it.
The National Health Service is stretched to breaking-point partly as a consequence of uncontrolled immigration.
The Education Service is unable to employ enough interpeters for the benefit of its multi-cultural pupils.
There is insufficient housing stock for our own needy citizens, mostly due, again to uncontrolled immigration and deluge of political asylum seekers.

Yes, you're right, it IS a good thing that I am not in charge of the Country, for I would raid the coffers of the exchequer to ensure that those most deserving, including an adequate retirement pension that kept pace with inflation, was awarded to pensioners of my generation and those before us who, for a great deal of their life, have experienced need not greed, social depravation, wars, bombs, rationing, Baroness Thatcher and the poll tax!

I probably would have been guilty of emptying the coffers, but at least the money would have gone to a more deserving cause than those currently pursued by our political masters, often to appease the war mongering aspirations of our cousins across the pond.

Keep smiling, Gordon

There has been a regrettable lack of communication somewhere, and the original story really only gives one side - part of which is contradictory. Contacting the media with complaints seems to be in vogue nowadays, but I don't see that P&O are under any obligation (moral or otherwise) to air the issue in a local newspaper. So in what way are P&O being 'intransigent'?

Yes, we're all sorry for anyone who makes a mistake (and Mrs Painter admits to not reading page 4 of the information she received some weeks before the cruise), but that doesn't mean that big-bad-business is automatically in the wrong.

Here's a hypothetical question: Suppose I book an Amazon cruise. Suppose I'm sent information some weeks before the cruise telling me I must have a vaccination for Yellow Fever. Suppose I arrive for my cruise without having had the vaccination. What should the cruise line do?

Please (and with respect) begin answers with: "The cruise line should...". Thanks.

Regards

__________________
Dave

"Team leader" this is regional manager material

With a policy like that I will overlook all the others and volunteer to be your campaign manager.


Vote for Gordon Rhys


"Imagine" Crew members
How much can we make on those old vegetables down in the hold?

Just picked up this thread (been cruisin'). I booked a cruise recently through this site. We will be sailing in the same area and were told by the agent that we will both need a Yellow Fever jab. I wonder if it is standard
practice to tell their clients this info, or whether it's a result of to the case under discussion.

Dear Dave, as requested.

The cruise line should:
Take another look at this case = fairly judge the circumstances that created it.

One of the two passengers did not have a yellow fever vaccination certificate, the other one did.

At the point of embarkation one of the two was cleared to board.
The other one was not.

They are a newly married couple going on honeymoon for which they had jointly paid in excess of £4000 for.

How could the cruise line expect one to board without the other.

Were P&O expecting Shylock's demand for a pound of flesh?

Yes one of the couple had made a mistake, regrettable but not a capital offence.

Would P&O miss the £4000? No, they had already received it.

Would P&O financially suffer as a result of refusing boarding, NO.

In actual fact they would gain by not having to feed 2 less passengers, or having to service their vacant cabin.

What have P&O gained out of this pedantic stance? = Nothing, quite the contrary, probably have suffered a damage to their reputation.

What are the options for P&O?

Hang on to the money and do nowt - causing simmering discontent.

Patch things up - how?
By extending an unconditional 'gesture of good-will' by either refunding the whole £4000 or by offering a commensurate cruise as a form of compensation with the proviso 'don't do it again.'

And there you have my opinion, it will not appeal to many, it will infuriate a few, it will be ignored by several, and if they are reading this - it will give the disappointed couple hope, if anyone from P&O are reading it, especially Carol, they will merely shrug their shoulders and say, tough, there's one born every minute.

Gordon Rhys-Williams

And as this is the Amazon......gosh how grateful would the pahranas be for a good meal?
Very green, recycling and all that and looking after the fauna and flora.

If you have a policy and rules which govern set situations what would be the point of making exceptions?

Will P & O suffer from bad publicity?

Will they change their policy for future non-compliance?

Should they have acted differently?

None,no, no, no. ....Neil

It's a damn good job you're not a Customer Relations Manager or a Magistrate Neil, you would quickly become comparable to 'hanging-judge Jeffries' and as immovable as the lady who said, No, No, No, the lady's not for turning.

In what quotation does the line, "The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle dew from Heaven upon the place beneath?'

Do you do mercy Neil?

The word is worth looking-up, and which identifies ideally that which inspires my particular input on this subject, merciful rather than merciless, probably a bit 'sloppy-sounding' to you, but that's how I was brought-up and taught.

Gordon Rhys-Williams