pandocruises.co.uk Reviews 

Our 2 week cruise in March this year to Madeira and Canary Islands was lovely. The crew were so nice and helpful. Sandeep who kept our room clean and gave advice on what to do during the day. Hendra and Robin who worked in the Pearl restaurant went above and beyond to make sure we had our food perfect, so much so we dined in the Pearl every morning and evening at the same table. Vegan options were very good and they made my wife some added dishes specially for her. We had the balcony room 5640 which was well laid out and clean and we watched the sea looking for dolphins and managed to spot a Porpoise. This was our first cruise and seeing the size of the Iona was a bit daunting but it meant there was plenty space to explore, Lots of people on board but its a big boat so I felt it was ok. All in all a pretty good experience particularly waking up before light to see the Iona had arrived in the port of Funchal Madeira with the street lights all over the hillside creating a magnificent sight. Will definitely be going on another cruise.

P and O cruises we got your money and don't give a toss attitude spent a large sum on a 17 night cruise ship was described as a modern part of there fleet nut was a 26 year old rust bucket out dated and bad decor with rude unprofessional and badly trained staff had several bad issues we complained as soon as we got home and they havant even had the decency to acknowledge our complaint my advice don't book with them avoid

Just got back from our first cruise with p and o on the venture. Firstly the boarding was quick and faultless, staff at Southampton were great. We booked a superior balcony suite which was very clean and comfortable, we also paid for a wifi package which turned out to be very poor had to go to reception most days for them to log us back in not worth the money we paid. We also had the deluxe drinks package but be aware you're only entitled to 15 alcoholic drinks in a day. The food in the restaurants was fantastic as were the staff except for the buffet restaurant where the food was bland and not very much choice, also the food in the buffet was never hot just tepid. One afternoon our friends had boiled eggs and they were completely frozen still had ice on them, we had to call the waiter to get them removed, a senior member of staff called over to us later to apologise. Entertainment was also poor for a cruise, overall we have travelled with three different cruise companies and this is the worst of them don't think we'll book we these again

never had any problems with p and o cruises, due to personal reasons had to cancel cruise, the customer services team was really great and helpful and money was refunded next day

the wheelchair races every night with last person going over the side meaning1 less wheelchair in this world made that cruise great

The Loch Ness monster, the Yeti and P and O customer services...which one actually exists?...yes, you're right, it's the Loch Ness monster

Just come off Azura and the corner cutting is eye watering. Very few waiting staff by pool or in restaurants and those that are there are run off their feet. Poor entertainment, no turn down surface and so on and so on. Been on Azura many times and was bitterly disappointed.

We have a cruise booked and paid for on Arvia in November. Would have cancelled, based on our recent Azura experience, but paid for in full so cancelling not an option. Just received an email to inform us that our long hall flight to Barbados on the 25th of November out of Manchester will have no in flight entertainment. They arrogantly tell you to download films on your electronic devices to take on the aircraft. Obviously not happy about this but the reason there is no in flight entertainment is because P&O have not chartered a TUI or Virgin plane as per usual, they have chartered a very old Maltese plane from Maleth Aero!!! I am a nervous flyer and these planes are old beyond belief! What company takes people on an expensive, luxury Caribbean Cruise holiday on an old plane with no in flight entertainment? P&O ! Shows the cost and corner cutting is continuing at any opportunity and the value of the customer is nil. So not looking forward to our holiday and we are done with this company. There are much better companies out there with an interest in the customer rather than giving the least they can for the maximum they can charge.

Southampton to Barbados 27 th Oct .Sold me a suite with a picture that shows a balcony on line for £6500 then when it came it was a suite without balcony . family suite !
Today I wake up to offer that allows me to buy a balcony suite based on a bid. When I challenged this weeks ago they told me absolutely no suites with balconies left !
Charles Lewis 15/08/59

I go on a cruise pretty much every other year. I have been on Royal Caribbean, Tui and P and O cruises previously. This year my friends suggested going on a P and O cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. I had been on a similar cruise with P and O in 2014 on the Azura, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, that cruise was with 5 people and we were planning to be a party of 10. The Iona is a much larger ship than the Azura, and we were assured in writing that as long as we were all linked together in the system, we would have no issues booking for a table for 10 in the restaurants, trips etc.
We were told that the speciality restaurants could be pre-booked 2 weeks before leaving, and then we just needed to see the restaurant manager to confirm we needed a table for 10. We all got together at the allotted time and tried to pre-book restaurants and trips. No booking allowed anymore than 4 seats at a time to be booked, so we eventually ended up trying to book 5x2 etc. separate bookings at the same time for a speciality restaurant. Apart from the Sindu restaurant, at a non preferred time, which we managed to pre-book. Other attempts at seperate bookings resulted in a number of successful bookings (e.g. 3x2) were made, but always at least one was rejected. The same thing happened with the trips. We ended up with people having to book different trips, as we couldn't keep together.
On board, things just got worse. We went to Sindhu restaurant 3 hours prior to meal and requested 10 sitting together, which was confirmed by the manager. However, on arrival we were split into 6 +4. Tables had gap approximately 3 feet apart and could have been moved together, but apparently could not be moved together. There was no obvious reason for this i.e. no blocking of path etc. No explanation was given e.g. health and safety etc. just wouldn't do it. I couldn't beleive I was on a cruise, they were so inflexible.
On other occasions we went to the pearl or coral restaurant, for example, and got a table for 10 but the table could only comfortably hold 8 persons. This is a huge ship, why no bigger tables? other speciality restaurants were seated in different places in a 6+4 format. They wouldn't even allow a guys and gals split 5+5.
The rest of the nights (besides the Sindu booking) we were at the mercy of the booking App. You had to request a booking at a restaurant and went into a queue (sometimes 40 long). The only way we could get some confidence we were going to eat dinner, was by queuing on pretty much every restaurant, and waiting for one to give us a place. On one night we missed an entertainment booking because we had to make a decision between the entertainment or eating. On a positive note the app was easy to use and intuitive but it just didn't work practically for us.
The cabins were spotless as you would expect and we had no issues here.
However, the service was pretty bad. I don't blame the service staff who were courteous and working very hard from what I could see. The ship was just undermanned. Seeing a queue 10 deep plus at the bar on the IONA was not expected, but happened frequently. I can't remember this on any of the cruises I had been on before.
On the last stop on the cruise Haugesund, we were told we would not be stopping because there was a sidewind which made docking the IONA risky. I was disappointed but took it on the chin, after all safety first. However, a few hours later a letter turned up, obviously thoroughly checked by P and O legal department, which gave proof to our insurances that we did in fact miss a port. This was very efficient. In my eyes too efficient. When I got home and read some of the blogs, missing a port on this trip doesn't seem to be an infrequent occurrence. The theory is the IONA is marginal in size, for the docking capabilities of the local ports. It doesn't need much weather-wise to cause an issue.
In summary, this is by far the worst cruise I have been on. Keeping in mind I have been on a similar cruise previously with P and O and thoroughly enjoyed it.
If we had been a party of 2 or 4 maybe it would have been a little better. My advice is, if you are a large party don't go and be prepared to have an uphill battle with booking on the APP for all aspects.
Another point I would like to make is the after sales service. I gave up waiting on the phone and asked for some comments on a number of these issues and others on the website contact form. 3 weeks later I am still waiting for an answer.

Waiting on a response from their accessibility team…..

We got home to find an additional £102.50 had been taken out of our credit card.
We spent no money after our final transaction on 8th June.
Waited nearly an hour to speak to customer services who said they cant tell us why this money has been taken !!
Nobody can tell me why!!!
Fuming !!

P&o gave me a balcony cabin that was nothing like the one on their website. Reception on board don't deal with complaints and nor do customer services, they just ignore every email hoping that you will go away
They don't deal with excursion problem even though they take your money for the trip

The cruise was fine, unfortunately they charged my bank account twice for our on board account. We got home to find our account £1500 overdrawn without that facility being agreed. We have Neen home nearly a week and still not got the error rectified. Trying to speak to a real person is nearly impossible without resulting to subterfuge. Took two days to finally speak to someone , but still facing a computer says no situation. How many people have that sort of money spare to just absorb and wait for them to get their finger out. So stressful and the custom service lady was rude and showed no empathy. At one point she rudely said to me " please don't try and tell me how our banking system works" I said please don't be so rude, I am not telling you how it works, I'm telling you it doesn't work. Just an horrific situation after a lovely holiday.

P&O are absolutely crap ripped me right off
Please please stay away from them

We've sailed with P and O many times and as usual everything was of the usual high standard. The main disappointments on this cruise however involved the following. We'd booked a disabled cabin so that we could get my husband's wheelchair through the cabin door. However, when we were embarking we were told our cabin wasn't a disabled one and that as we'd been expecting to have an easily accessible one, we'd have to 'prove' that the cabin we'd been given instead was suitable for my husband. The P and O female employee who told us this then told my husband that in order to be allowed to board the ship he'd have to demonstrate to her he could walk raising his legs high in the air until she was satisfied he'd be able to access the step into the cabin's toilet. If he couldn't do this we were told we'd have to return home. She explained this was P and O's policy, but in such a loud and assertive way and in full public view, that we all found the experience very humiliating. Once he'd 'proved' to her that he could do as she asked , albeit with some difficulty and much embarrassment, we proceeded to the security section. Here, I was told there was no need to take my shoes off, only to have the buckles set off an alarm (as they always do) . An older security employee then shouted at me when I couldn't understand what he was asking me to do i.e to remove my shoes and hold them while passing my arm through the security arch. I was then told, once again loudly in the middle of a very busy area, to walk round to the employee who had 'viewed' my shoes, 'to go and look at the picture of them to see why the alarm had gone off' which I declined to do. When we finally got to our cabin we found it was so small that my husband couldn't use his walking frame to walk to the balcony. A Mr Baal however was very understanding and extremely helpful and he managed to get us moved the next day to a larger cabin even though reception had told us that there were no other cabins available Even though it wasn't a lot larger it did mean the door was wide enough for my husband's wheelchair and the distance between the end of the bed and the wall was just wide enough for my husband to walk using his walking frame. This mix up over cabins did mean that we lost two days of the cruise in terms of the time it took to move our things to another cabin and for my husband to be able to use the whole of the first cabin and to look out of the window in the second cabin as it was dark by the time we were able access the second one. We found this very frustrating as it was only a 7 day cruise. Mr Baal and all the other employees who were not of UK heritage were outstanding in terms of their customer care skills, but it is those of UK heritage it would seem who let P and O down We'll be finding out shortly why the employee who took our booking initially didn't allocate us a disabled
cabin. We've been told that we will have to wait until P and O customer services can listen to the telephone call we'd made originally as the adviser failed to put any notes on the system

Do not buy wi fi on ship cost me £18 per day only to be informed that it doesn't work in your cabin and is turned off every three hours It is then very difficult to reconnect RIP OFF P AND O

P and O's online booking system is designed to only allow the booking of 1 cabin. If you are a family requiring 2 cabins you will need to make 2 bookings . You can link your dining to sit together on the same table by telephoning the call centre. The waiting times we experienced was 30-45 minutes. P and O claim that they are experiencing a busy period but it didn't matter which month or time of day we phoned we still waited and waited and waited. So quite clearly P and O do not employ enough staff and or can't retain them. Be warned that when you book through a travel agent you can not call P and O directly but must go through your travel agent. As a family with 2 cabins P and O only allow you to link your dining arrangements not your flights and not your accommodation. In our case although we all live at the same address, one cabin was allocated flights from Gatwick and the other from Heathrow. To get on the same flight we had to phone the call centre and join the lengthy queue.
To sit together on the plane we paid for seat allocation. You can only book seats for 1 booking reference at a time. So with 2 bookings we used 2 devices in the hope that no one got in between the 1st and 2nd allocations and took the seats.
We paid for Saver fare and were allocated cabins on decks 10 and 12. P and O do not link family bookings. The only way to get adjacent cabins or cabins on the same deck is by purchasing Select fare. This costs an extra £300+ per person which for a family of 4 is £1200+.
Mandy of P and O said that our two cabins were on the same category. The one on deck 10 had a part obstructed view, the balcony was overlooked and it had a metal balcony guard. The cabin on deck 12 had no obstructions, was not overlooked and had a clear balcony guard. Both cabins cost us exactly the same price. Be aware that cabin Saver fares are allocated cabins very close to sailing times and not on a first come first served basis with all other passengers. These cabins may be the least attractive and less comfortable ones on board as the Select fares will grab the more better cabins.
Internet packages with streaming cost £252 for one device. £932.40 for 4. Without streaming £168 for 1 device. £621.60 for 4. All costs are 10% more on board.
The non alcoholic package with coffee is £279.30 per person. The alcoholic package is £559.30 per person and every adult in the same cabin must buy this though children under 17 get a free child's package included. So a cabin of 2 adults will cost £1118.60.
P and O have introduced a system
of pre-booking seats for entertainment. We have received emails to say that booking is now open but our accounts do not show any entertainment available to book. We are naturally concerned that the entertainment may be fully booked when we have access to it. You should read other people's comments on various forums about this. Some claim that they felt compelled to book for the entire cruise so that they wouldn't miss out but admitted they might not attend each booking. Some said by the time they had access to the booking system the seats for the theatre, comedian, shows, films etc were taken. Others complained that it took the spontaneity out of cruising.
I wrote this pre-cruise because this experience and extra costs has made me question why book with P and O. When I add all the extras together: the drinks, the internet usage, excursions, select prices, insurance, travel and parking, I can probably get an all inclusive cruise with another company without the hassle of a very badly managed call centre.

We had a new year cruise on P&O's Arcadia, we were asked 48 hrs before our departure to delay our arrival by two hours as they had an outbreak of Norovirus on board and they wanted extra time to clean the ship. We did. When we finally got on board, after the worst check in experience I have ever experienced, we found our cabin, we knew that the ship was old, and commented on how fresh the public areas looked, however, when we entered our cabin it was a different story, it was very tired and not particularly clean, we even found a dirty sock under the bed and pubic hairs in the shower.
We struggled to get a drink at any of the bars, there was nowhere near enough staff for the amount of customers, the service levels were appalling, when you found someone to serve you, you still had to wait an age to get your drink.
On new years eve I became very ill and started vomiting, and in the evening things got even worse, being a diabetic I started to go Hypo, it is impossible to get anything quickly on board the ship, luckily my sister had some Hypo-stop in her cabin.
The next day I was a lot better, however, there was an announcement from the captain saying that there had been a lot of cases of Norovirus on board and that it had been bought on board during the embarkation process, (despite the fact they had it on board the previous week!) so now we were not allowed to serve ourselves in the Buffett!
I have been a P&O customer for many years and have never encountered such poor service, bad hygiene, and bad standards of food. That said the two stars that I have given this review is for the Crew, they have been put under so much pressure due to P&O's cost cutting.
Maybe it is time to look to a different cruise line for my holidays.

Booked a cruise with the so called "on board loyalty team". Was informed that cruise would not be sold cheaper in future...........NOT THE CASE.........6 months later P and O sent me a marketing e.mail which I looked at and found that, if I had waited and booked on-line (like I usually do) the cruise would have been in the region of £500 cheaper. Yes, I know that the conditions state that prices CAN change, but I do NOT expect to be miss-sold a cruise by P and O staff who told me that the cruise would not be sold cheaper in future. I did politely request an on-board credit for the difference, but P and O/Carnival would not do this. P and O = NO LOYALTY TO CUSTOMERS. WOULD RATE THEM AS NO STARS IF I COULD

I have just returned from a cruise on Britannia, it really was my worse experience of any cruise I have been on and I have been cruising since 1973, I will never ever go on this ship again and doubt very much I will cruise with P&O again. The cliantel has really gone way way down hill. People were actually fighting over sun beds I witnessed it. A woman staggering around drinking from a prosecco bottle annoying everybody she came upon not on 1 but many occasions, where was security? behaviour like that should never be allowed. I do not like the freedom dining arrangement I like my table set time with my waiter for the duration of the cruise. The food in the Buffet was very poor, no fresh vegetables,frozen peas, frozen carrots, frozen green beans, everything was a luke warm unappetising mush. Deck 16 aft was absolutely filthy it most definitely was not cleaned overnight or early morning, cushions on chairs and floor really filthy, our cabin was ok and our cabin steward was really good, that was the only good point . If P&O are attracting this type of cliantel I will never ever cruise with the company again. I do not object to anybody having a drink but I abhor FOUL MOUTHED DRUNKS with no consideration for anybody else.