P&O Cruises
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I wish I could give 0 stars.
I wish I could give 0 stars. This cruise has solidified that I will stay flying and never go on a cruise again, it breaks my heart because two of the four places we visited were beautiful and Skjolden especially was my favourite place and I’m sad to leave there. My issues and why I’ve rated this so low is because of P&O themselves onboard. I contacted about my dietary requirements. I am gluten free and low fat due to intolerances, I cannot process three big meals and have to eat frequent little meals to compensate. I was assured that I’d have a meeting with the head chef or speak with a manager to ensure my needs were taken care of. This meeting never happened. There was a message saying if there were any dietary requirements, to come to one of the restaurants to talk about them and was promptly turned away 15 minutes before closing being told they couldn’t help me. I was told to either go to reception, the buffet or wait until 8:30pm to eat and this was at 4pm. When we did go to the restaurant, we were put in a table of 8 and told we had to sit with strangers the first night to eat, as an introvert and neurodivergent, the thought of eating in front of strangers and having to make conversation whilst exhausted from travel and not being able to eat was horrible. We politely asked if we could be moved to another table and the waitress said “no, you’ll have to go to the host point and change it for tomorrow.” We never went back, we didn't feel welcome. If I socialise, it’s my choice, don’t force me, without warning as well. Reception was no better as every time we asked them something we were told “we can’t do that, we don’t know.” a running theme for the week. I then went to the buffet for advice and was told to go back to reception or eat at the buffet at my own risk, or speak to the head chef there, but when I did, the head chef had no clue what I was asking and most of the staff couldn’t understand what I was asking. I’m low fat! That’s not difficult to understand. So the entire week I’ve lasted on rice, some meats and tea, I’ve lost weight. The buffet was the same every day and most of it was cold, no themed nights until the last night and after seeing 4 different curries every night, instead, we had 8… the food is depressing, boring, bland and consisted of cold meats, carvery and curries all of which I couldn't eat. Also a bit of food chipped my friends tooth and her crown was lost, reception were useless in aiding her because it was a Sunday so nothing was open and said they’d help us Monday and we got no call or help. That being said, I lived off of the dietary counter with gluten free bread which I appreciate, but you can see how boring that can get really quick. The fruits had soap suds on it, you’re rushed to pick what you want 20 minutes before it closes. Also the guy who cleared our plates one morning scraped plates on our table, there’s a galley to do that. As a housekeeper myself, I wasn’t overly impressed with the room, the head housekeeper seemed nice. Upon further inspection (because I couldn’t find sweetener for coffee) we didn’t use the tea box until a few days in. My friendnoticed blood stains on her bedding that she didn’t make. In a week, bedding should be changed once, at least, unless requested other times, our bedding had not been changed and our tea box was half empty looking like it hadn’t been filled from the previous cruise. When I left a note asking for 4 of everything which is standard for two people and to have our sheets changed, the head housekeeper came and knocked on our door when we came back from the day, like she had waited for us and said if the tea box wasn’t filled when we arrived then it’s on request, which quite frankly is ridiculous, it should be checked everyday and that the linen won’t get changed AT ALL unless requested, so if there’s stains on there, or anything else, they won’t change them unless you ask. After that, she was very short with us and it was extremely uncomfortable. The room was dusty, drawers not wiped down or behind the bed and it was weeks of dust build up, it was poor at best. We watched wicked on the last day and paused for the one minute silence for VE Day, and then they PLAYED THE FILM DURING THE ONE MINUTE SILENCE. How disrespectful can you get????! If you don’t pay the £30 a day for wifi, good luck getting signal anywhere for roaming. Staff have no clue about anything, and other people who'd been on multiple cruises even commented how much of a shambles it was. Half the pools and hot tubs (Only two on board) were closed half the time and no one knew why. Can't hear announcements unless opening your door in the hallway or switching to the tv but you have to hear it to KNOW THERE'S AN ANNOUNCMENT. I won't go on another cruise, no matter how much P&O like shoving it down your throat while on board. I really wanted to enjoy it, and didn't. So heartbroken.