Update: it appears that P&O are also refunding people offloaded from the ship with a refund for the days lost - which is the least they could do!

In my opinion, the passengers assigned to that lifeboat should have been removed. Also they should have been given a full refund plus expenses and had P&O handle all hotel, transfers and airfare costs.

Shame on P&O! 20% off a future cruise? Unacceptable! They're officially blacklisted from my future cruise bookings!

I agree despicable for the cruise line to treat customers that way, and to not give them a full refund on the cruise plus travel expenses at the very least

I would be enraged if I was offered such an unsatisfactory level of compensation! Thank you for the video!

It was not half way through the cruise as you continue to state, its was one port away form heading home

Welp. I can cross P&O off the list of cruise lines I would ever consider using. Completely unacceptable. Thanks, Ben!

I would have expected a full refund, transfers home, and Full Future Cruise Credit for a later sailing, based on just how much each passenger paid for the cruise they are being off loaded from. If it is peak season there, I am sure P&O are aware of that, and were trying to NOT make major payouts so that they could keep the money already collected for the voyage currently sailing. Refunds, transfers home, and FCC's would hurt their bottom line. I am sure they lost a good portion of customers with this stunt !!

I was on the pool deck when the moorings snapped, to clear one thing up, it was made clear to anyone that received a disembarkation letter, if the wish to stay on bored they can, no need to go to reception or inform anyone, just continue the cruise as normal and ignore the letter. that was a captain announcement. I'm not saying p&o did or didn't handle it well, but captain Patrick Maguire was very professional, stayed calm and did his job.

I was seriously considering booking a cruise with P&O next year, reconsidering that now. Very poor service to those poor passengers! Thanks for reporting on this!

Yes the passengers assigned to those muster station lifeboats should have been the ones to be sent home. With a full refund and full future cruise credit. Or I would never cruise with them again.

I feel like it's always P&O, MSC, or Carnival.

I'm curious if the man who refused to disembark was eventually made to disembark anyway, or did they let him stay on? P&O's offer to impacted passengers is an insult! Yes, they should have chosen those who were assigned to that lifeboat to leave!

We were passengers on this cruise and we were never told we would have to leave the ship and we were in a basic inside cabin. P & O asked for volunteers who would like to leave to go to reception and put their name down for a flight home. They had more volunteers than they needed because we know a couple who put their names down but were too late as they had already got the amount they needed. We went to reception and said we didn't want to fly home and they told us that nobody was going to be forced to go if they didn't want too.

Second thought: For those write that they are reconsidering a planned cruise with this line-to make the choice effective (if you decide not to go), you MUST tell the cruise line of your deliberations and what caused you to change to another line. Likewise, if they finally do the right thing and you chose to sail with them, let line know what specific action they took in this matter that swung your decision in their favour. Cheers.

Ben, THANK YOU. Your report was SO much more info than some others. Also, I love your background!

The incident is just one of "breaking mooring lines" this year. QM2 did that in CIVI a month or more ago. Odd....I am booked on QM2 next May & June, and in between on the Britannia. Because I am from USA, I bought travel insurance through my agent when booking P&O, and now I am off to read about "trip interruption". I love your videos. And I agree, based on your muster station, that is how you should be determined for flying home. FULL REFUND of the vacation is in order. DO BETTER P&O.

Well I seen the p&o letter to passengers, and like you guys…. I assumed it would be the people who are in the damaged muster area, making this totally fair… instead they’ve picked and chose who to disembark! So wrong.

P & O? IS OFF MY LIST OF SHIPS ID USE!

As others have said - P&O are off our list to cruise with. Disgusting behaviour and so mean-spirited. I hope there's a class action suit against them and they are FORCED to pay everyone effected!

Never ever accept the “coupon” or “discount” unless you are sure it is satisfactory to you. Depending on the International law and countries involved, once you accept anything, then it is considered the matter closed. You may not be able to sue because you accepted the terms. Tricky for sure. They should have asked for volunteers. I feel sure that some guests would be nervous about continuing.

My other half is terrified of flying, it’s why we cruise. So this would be his worst nightmare being asked to leave from an island port. At least if it have been mainland Europe we could have found a train option. Not sure how he would deal with this!

Wow, id hate to be those passengers. It really says a lot about a company how they behave in crisis and this is not good

If they asked the passengers assigned to the damaged life boat to disembark , that would be reasonable as long as they were properly compensated by giving them a refund PLUS a free future cruise. Otherwise, cancel the cruise for everyone and give them compensation. You could ask people to volunteer to disembark but reassigning muster stations mid cruise might not work out well.

This is shocking, glad everyone is ok but p & o need to give their heads a wobble…. Puts me off booking with them.

The ships bridge crew should have seen the approaching squall and deployed extra mooring lines to handle the wind loads imposed on the ship. In addition, the engines should have been prepped to power thrusters and azipods to supplement the holding power of the lines. Looks like lazy ship handling. As to the 20% refund - that is a insult on every level. P and O simply does not value their customer base if they behave like this. Bottom line - it was a rather heavy handed debacle to get people off the ship so they could finish the cruise without losing even more money. P and O was the main focus and the passengers somewhere down the line.

They weren’t in control of the weather but they are completely in control of how they handled it afterwards which was dreadful… we’re due on Britannia in three weeks and intrigued to hear other people’s thoughts whilst on board

I was on a tender in Bora Bora. The staff member operating the tender had no clue as to what he was doing and crashed into an outrigger canoe . As he tried to maneuver the tender he made the crash worse. People on the tender were screaming and crying. Finally with help of other pilots we disconnected from the canoe and back to th dock. After that all was well we were put on another tender. It was a very frightening experience and one Im glad I survived

Recall that P&O is owned by Carnival Corporation. Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard

Goodwill gesture? That's a joke, although I expect those sent home are far from amused. A 100 percent refund should be the least P and O should offer. This sort of high-handed approach by cruise lines will eventually hurt them. NCL and Carnival have also made pathetic offers in the past to guests whose vacations have been ruined by vessel issues like failing propulsion and disruptive maintenance/renovations. Happy that you guys tell it as it is and are not in the cruise lines' pockets.

It feels like members of the Carnival Corp. make negative headlines every month. I wonder what else has to happen until people start to heed the following: *If you consider Carnival, you would better not cruise at all.*

I agree with you Ben they should have been reimbursed their full fair and given a free cruise.

Hey Ben. This has been circulating. Oh my.

The "gesture of goodwill " was only offered to people on board, it was £40 onboard credit. Also I'm pretty sure the people that had to fly home got more than the "gesture of goodwill" .

I certainly would NOT expect a full refund AND a free cruise. That's crazy. I think your reaction is ridiculous. There's a lot of confusion over this situation, a lot of "he said, she said" and people reporting different things.

20% is an insult. We have family in UK and thought about a P&O cruise with them. Sorry, never going to happen now.

An auction is the only fair way to pick those to be kicked off ship. Then everyone kicked off will be happy.

I agree with everything you said.. passengers picked by lifeboat and a bigger discount...

Would this fall under any EU compensation laws? I know they are very strict on airline and delays, bumped flights, boarding denials, etc. and will often force the airlines to give you more than their initial offers.

I agree with your evaluation and impressed you quickly issued this.

Was in Mallorca a week ago onboard anthem I’m so glad i wasn’t in Mallorca yesterday hopefully nobody is badly injured but I think they should just fully refunded those people or gave them a free cruise in a higher tier cabin they should’ve done as you said to remove those passengers assigned to the lifeboats

I agree, those assigned to that muster station should have been asked, and there cruise refunded.

It does seem a lot of this video is however based on hearsay and gossip. As, reading through the various blogs, Facebook groups, and forums - I've heard more stories than not that people had all volunteered to leave in the end (after initially being selected), that the 20% discount on future cruises offered was for all passengers, and not just offloaded ones - so we don't know what else is being offered to those. The T&Cs clearly state they will get their money back for lost days in any case. I wonder if this video and its final conclusion might be a bit premature.

Not much you can do, when you are in the middle of an ocean.. This is why I take land trips.

I got off the ship literally as this happened , people were asked to volunteer on the basis of refund of the 5 missed days and a 20% future discount. Which adds up to approx £4000 for a family of four. Plus there were not 321 passengers removed or even asked to be forced to move off the ship. Many of the 321 people that left were p and o staff from non essential areas so that as few volunteers as possible were needed. And the lifeboat was destroyed not damaged. There’s no mention of the 1500 passengers ashore in buildings without lights water food and using torches to go to the toilet for 8 hours waiting for the ship. Having three kids under 10 and an 81 year old mum waiting for 8 hours was torture tbh but the people still on board had an hour and half in cabins then normal operation. The 1500 stuck in terrible conditions should get something from p&o.

Hello Ben, as I’m sure you know, P&O is now owned by Carnival Corporation. It I were one of the passengers being affected by this ridiculous policy, I’d lodge a formal complaint with both P&O’s home office AND Carnival’s’ Corporate Headquarters. In the complaint to Carnival’s office, I’d indicate possible plans for a class action lawsuit, since Carnival’s HQ is in Miami, subject to US laws. An American would have to be the lead in a US Court, but I’d guess at least one US citizen was inconvenienced by this.

So, for those involuntarily disembarked, they received no refund - even partial - for the current cruise? If so, that’s truly unconscionable on P&O’s part!

20% offered but will hopefully and probably be improved on but that is the wrong way to go.

I thought of you two when I saw this headline 😂 I remembered your vid lol Eesh what a kerfuffle!

Captain should have had the engines on standby if the storm was that bad, just in case what did happen happened. Won't ever find me on a P and O cruise

P & O Used to be one of the best, if not the best of cruise lines. Then they were taken over by Carnival. I experienced one cruise with P & O after the takeover. The staff and many passengers were an absolute disgrace. It was like a second rate holiday camp at sea. Never again.

they should of asked who would like to leave and give a everything back and a free next cruise ! i agree

Im currently on symphony we sailed right past britannia visibly damaged we docked in palma de mallorca and we could see them

Well that's not going to help their reputation much.

I hope everything is fixed before I go on in October

I hate how P&O handles situations. Whenever someone goes wrong, they always try to brush things under the carpet and pretend it's business as usual and have done this for years! Completely unacceptable!!

Horrible customer service. We all understand accidents happen but people save up to take a trip and then dashed by this accident. They need to reimburse. They are cheapskates!!!

Planes flew this storm and sóme on board the flight thought their plane would crash. Screaming,crying.not severe turbulence though

Where passengers who refused to leave the ship still forced to do so. Or where they able to continue with their cruise

So, obviously, I now consider P&O on the “do not book” list of bad acting cruise lines. I wonder how many passengers this bad behavior costs them?

I will never book a cruise with P&O!

Sounds like P&O will be losing customers.🙄

agreed. complete reimbursement no two ways about it, dont book P&O!!

P&O is not a cruise line that I would anticipate making use of given it departs from Southampton

offloading the lowest fare with full compensation (at least for the lost days of the cruise plus an amount [say the 20%]) seems the fairest in this case... it is possible, that initially there was an offering volunteer offloading (surely some people were scared to continue after the incident?) then, when the rest were chosen by some system (probably by lowest necessary refund cost.)... so, it is possible neither side is lying.

Well I suggest people read the comments from people who were actually on the cruise as it seems not quite as made out. I was a bit shocked so decided to read the comments first. It seems nobody was forced to leave and those who volunteered to leave were compensated for the missing days plus the 20% off next cruise. Also it seems they were inundated with volunteers which I guess is not surprising due to the extreme weather and many had had enough. So for those with upcoming cruises perhaps stop worrying.

That's it for P&O. I was thinking of a cruise next year with them. Forget about it now! Outrageous response to a problem and lousy customer service. I hope the 300+ sue them for full fare and all travel expenses.

To me the obvious way to do it is to offer a full refund plus discount on a further cruise etc., then see how many take them up on the offer. But yes full refund plus costs as a bare minimum.

Why should they have a full refund when the holiday was due to finish Friday so they are only missing a couple of days. Sorry I’m still travelling with P&O and we said we would have accepted the offer of 20% off a future cruise and flight home.

They should have offered substantial compensation, enough to coerce enough souls to disembark voluntarily!

Those assigned to that muster station was what I assumed.

I'd like to have seen them try and get me off the ship without explaining why I had been chosen. I would have wanted a full refund and a large discount off any future cruise.

Thanks

Your studio background is really cool 🙂

Loved how you said moorings 😊 its moor-ings

I defnetly book p&o😊

Those Large 5000+ Passenger Ships are a Big Accident waiting to happen. Of course some ports are banning those Giants already.

What a rip off! Shame on them!

What !?…. Cheap company… sailed with MSC this year and got reimbursed 50% for minor engine problem that cut short our itinerary 😅… they should have been compensated accordingly 😮

That’s quite awful that only 20% was refunded to those chosen to disembark. Cancelling an entire sailing might have been too drastic, but certainly a complete refund should been extended.

Here in Australia- P&O seem to be in Covid recovery mode. No real “duty free”, most items cheaper on land, unlike pre Covid when you did actually get great duty free deals. Plus the cost for the Black Circus is ridiculously high @ $250 ish for a V.I.P ticket & $60 GA….. Not to mention hand me down ex-Princess ships that are dated & in need of repairs.

Full refund, 100% future credit. Perhaps remove the passengers who live local to the port less inconvenient. Another reason why you should purchase travel insurance.

I agree with everything you said Ben! I have been researching a Northern Lights cruise and had settled on P & O. Luckily I haven't booked yet. I will be looking for another crouise line!

They basically deactivate your door key and evict you like that

I agree with you Ben I think the cruise passengers should have got a full refund, and a free next Cruise. I don't think I'll ever sail on P&O.

There is also crew that use life boats but they can not leave a cruise half way through.

Not completely accurate as volunteers were asked for and some passengers did disembark voluntarily. I’m guessing there wasn’t enough volunteers so P&O then selected people. Refunding the lost days and 20% off a future cruise is a poor deal so maybe if they had improved the offer they would have had enough volunteers.

Did the man who refused to get off still have to get off?

What I think is I will never cruise this line!

Just 20% off a future cruise? Well that has put me off ever traveling with P&O in the future.

Disgraceful..This is a PR nightmare for them. Sounds like a classic Carnival Corporate move.

I was told that cruise ships have two extra life boats. Maybe I was misinformed but what about all those inflatable life boats you see through out the ship, in canisters.

just another nail in the P&O coffin

Things go wrong, the measure of any service provider is how they deal with the issue. I have no reason to doubt the events and P&O do not come out of this well. It will put many people off cruising with them.

Great video-you called it correctly. P&O should be ashamed.

Great vlog!

Love your videos!

No P&O for me ever.

I can see a lot of law suits coming.

I agree with you