- Since P&O Australia was absorbed into Carnival Cruises, the ships have received some harsh critiques from reviewers and cruisers alike.
- However, a Cruise Passenger investigation shows that these critiques don’t tell the full story.
- A survey shows 66% of those who have sailed on the new ships had a good experience.
When Carnival Encounter and Carnival Adventure sailed their first sailings as new ships, not everyone on board was impressed, and patchy reviews from critics have continued. However, a Cruise Passenger survey on a message board for Carnival cruisers has revealed that these critics are a noisy minority, with the majority of those who have been on the ships reporting a positive experience.
The survey revealed that of those who have already sailed on the new ships, 70% reported having a good experience, and 21% reported having an ‘okay’ experience. Only 9% of those who have been on the new ships reported having a negative experience.
Furthermore, it appears the occasional harsh review hasn’t turned off many cruisers from planning to sail on the new ships in the future, as 97% of those who haven’t been on the new ships are planning to sail on them in the future.
This provides welcome news for Carnival, which took a risk by eliminating the beloved P&O Australia. It does appear that the new ships are being enjoyed by Carnival and P&O cruisers alike.
The numbers clearly show that while a few loud voices have been criticising the new ships, most Aussies cruisers are simply happy to be at sea at an affordable price.
A Carnival Cruise Line spokesperson told Cruise Passenger that bringing P&O Australia under Carnival was “ambitious” but they’ll continue working towards improving the new ships.
“The feedback from our guests and crew helps us in our efforts to continuously improve and provide memorable holidays.
“As the only cruise line to operate year-round in Australia, we know there are high expectations from our guests, and we intend to meet them. Combining operations is an ambitious undertaking and our team has worked tirelessly to achieve many of our goals, and we still have more to accomplish.”
Challenges ahead
So far, the project seems to be looking like a win for Carnival, but there are still plenty of challenges ahead.
For example, the new ships will soon go into a dry dock in Singapore, one at the end of this season and one at the end of the next cruise season. The cruise line will have to determine whether guests enjoy that the ships still have their P&O ‘flavour’, or whether they need to be fully transformed into a Carnival product.
One of the criticisms levelled against the new ships is that they don’t quite have all of the perks and amenities that generally come with a Carnival sailing, such as free pizza and soft serve.
While Aussies can generally accept this as part of the transition, they’ll probably be hoping that this will change moving forward. Furthermore, if the ships achieve their goal of attracting more overseas passengers, it’s likely that overseas passengers wouldn’t be happy either to feel like they’re missing out on regularly expected perks.
Another challenge for the cruise line will be maintaining variety amongst its offerings. P&O used to offer not only different destinations to Carnival, but also cruises out of a wider variety of ports. Pacific Explorer used to sail out of ports all around Australia and New Zealand, however, all Carnival ships now sail only out of Brisbane and Sydney. Furthermore, cruises are becoming shorter and a smaller variety of destinations are being explored, with almost all cruises either to Vanuatu, New Zealand or Queensland.
While Carnival has a monopoly on the budget market in Australia, as Royal Caribbean prices move up a tier, Carnival may have to add more variety to its itineraries to keep enticing repeat cruisers.
Also worth noting is that P&O would offer all sorts of themed cruises, such as 80s or Elvis cruises, which many guests have expressed that they hope will continue in some capacity.
What are people saying?
The new ships have been a heavy source of discussion, especially since an influential cruise blogger dubbed the new ships the “Temu of the Seas”. The review spoke of many criticisms of the ship, such as a perceived decline in food quality, lack of Carnival perks, slowed service and confused crew.
However, many cruisers don’t quite see it this way, with some accepting of the “teething” issues of the transition, and some even preferring the new ships.
One cruiser wrote that despite some issues, they were still happy with their cruise : “People need to understand that a massive change like this won’t be complete overnight. We did nine nights on Adventure last week and while not everything was perfect, we still had a great time. Still plenty of great food and fun to be had and wonderful shows to watch.”
Another cruiser wrote that they actually prefer the new ships.
“’I’ve been on ten P&O cruises and last Saturday got off the Carnival Adventure 12-night cruise. I found it better than P&O. I found the food in the pantry a lot better on the Carnival Adventure. A cruise is what you make it.”
Plenty of other cruisers wrote about shrugging off any negative reviews and simply enjoying themselves onboard: “Been on the Adventure four times in the last eight months. Enjoyed every cruise. Went with the attitude that we were there to enjoy our time and to have fun together. We have found that everything we love about cruising has been available for us. No complaints from us. Go with an open mind, and enjoy yourselves!”
However, there are also of course the critics.
One cruiser wrote: “I went on a 10-day cruise to PNG on April 29 on Encounter. It was so downgraded. Not enough staff. The staff was not happy. The sweets are self service… only two towel animals.”
Another cruiser wrote: “We felt standards had dropped from P&O. I sailed 44 times on P&O and I’m being treated as a first time cruiser, never again will I come on here.
“Standards of food, particularly at lunch for people like me who are gluten free, were non existent, and there were no choices, even in The Waterfront.
“Australia has a cruise culture, please don’t destroy that Carnival.”
While the survey results appear to indicate that the critics don’t represent the majority of cruisers, they still deserve to have their voices heard, and as indicated above, Carnival will be taking their feedback onboard as they move forward in developing the new ships.
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We also had been on the cruise got off last Monday, and we got off with the flu.we had booked with P&O. We were suppose to have had access to the Byron club but our card didn’t work. Went to desk they said no you need to pay another $30 per person.i said we had booked it already. Carnival didn’t honor it. The food was average and not very warm from the buffet. Bacon like leather and scrambled eggs not edible very wet and slimy. Other than that staff were friendly. And ship was very clean.
Can Carnival please consider a cruise that P&O did in 2024? It’ leaves Fremantle got to Broom and return. It was for 10 days and was affordable. This will be the only way I will get to see WA so please consider this. Thank you
I understand that Carnival feels picked on…. But hope they take on board the fact that people who express their concerns and discontent, are not the negative minority, but are faithful cruisers, doing so in hope that Carnival
Will take it on board and make appropriate changes.
Also please take into account that 1st time cruisers don’t know what to expect so that will be happier with the lower standards and just excited to be on a ship.
60/40 is not a split to be proud of.
Pity most of the comments are bad, as when all three of the ships were still with Princess, before being passed on to P and O, everything was fine, and the only reason we stopped cruising was because Princess stopped home porting in Melbourne. It was originally considered that P&O was the Bogans line, it now seems the title goes to Carnival!
After reading what you had to say regarding the changeover and the Aussie critics/cruisers etc l can only respond on what l personally have experienced. My hubby & l have cruised numerous times, but embarked/disembarked on many different fleets at overseas Ports. We have only sailed twice out of Australia but have disembarked Syd once & Bris 3 times, only 1 of those times with P&O Encounter from Singapore. We had a balcony mini suite. l thought the ship was as
good as any smaller ship, really enjoyed the speciality restaurants, main dining room for brekky and lunch and the waterfront for a more casual lunch & afternoon tea.
The entertainment in the theatre was great with lots is variety. The only complaint from me…. l would like to see a “dress code” enforced in the dining rooms & speciality restaurants…No singlets, thongs, swimwear, or stubby shorts!
(has always been my pet hate) Some don’t even bother to shower and arrive for dinner wearing what they have worn all day. Those types should NOT be dining ‘a la carte’ rather, buffet or at the pool areas!
We’ve sailed on Golden Princess many times in the last 9 years but now that’s it’s become Carnival Adventure the itineraries claim it will dock at White Bay. The International Terminal at Sydney’s Quay was far more convenient, White Bay being a mongrel of a location to get to or from. Has the upper superstructure been re-designed to permit sailing under Sydney Harbour Bridge?
Only interested in a return cruise from Fremantle . All the lucky . Don’t think I had any problem with children. Adults only area to relax , pool . Tradies should not block walking area of because of painting true the whole cruise .
My wife and I have recently returned from the May 5th, 12 night cruise to Fiji on Carnival Adventure. We weren’t impressed at all. The quality has gone down since P&O. I admit it was a cheap cruise, but the food was very bland and especially the bacon, was like leather. Some of the entertainment was good, but not up to the standard of previous cruises. We missed two islands because of the weather, but was only compensated by $20. The daily activities were only trivia or karaoke, unless you paid for Bingo or Deal or no Deal. Not any free activities. Fortunately we had a balcony and we could enjoy some fresh air. The ship needs a lot of TLC.
Husband and I just returned last Monday from a 9 night Carnival Adventure cruise with 8 other friends to Cairns and back. We have done 47 cruises but only one previously with Carnival, sailing from Honolulu to Sydney on Solstice – it was after that we vowed never ever to do another Carnival ship. However, to celebrate 50 years of friendship we booked with P&O in good faith, only to have things go pear shaped after Carnival gobbled them up. Due to the logistics of trying to get 10 people to sort out another date, itinerary etc, we decided to press ahead with the Carnival sailing. The ship itself was good, the food ranged from inedible (Dragon Lady which all 10 of us greed about and many others on the ship we overheard were also saying very negative comments) through to very average – in Waterfront my husband got served his mini spring rolls together with his main of Southern Fried Chicken which was cold and extremely oily, then most most of us chose the American version of Sticky date pudding which was burnt and the caramel sauce very grainy, the Indian staff in the Waterfront were like startled deer in the headlights and appeared to want to be anywhere else but working onboard, whilst the Philippinos were on top of their game, and smiling, as usual. Angelo’s was good but after 3 rotations we’d had enough. The food we paid for on board was great, e.g. made to order pizzas, chicken wings and Luke Mangan’s which we dined at twice…I would have eaten there every night if the budget allowed it, food and service were impeccable and everything you hoped for. Entertainment was very average except for Musicology which was very vibrant and lively, comedians were mediocre, bar service and waiters were good but cocktails were very watered down and they didn’t even have proper Bailey’s (offered some O’Leary’s brand “chocolate velvet cream” which was no substitute, even though they advertised Bailey’s in some of the cocktails). Suffice is to say it was a cruise made good by the 10 of us enjoying each other’s company, and not much else. Out of the 10 of us 7 got sick the night we disembarked the ship and/or shortly after, my swab came back as Influenza A and my husband’s as Rhinovirus, despite both having the flu shots, some 4 days later we are still of work and still feel like we’ve been run over by a truck. I will stick to my original plan and NEVER, EVER sail on a Carnival branded ship again.
We have travelled widely with Princess, Carnival and P and O and others. We were sucked into the last P and O cruise that was cancelled after one leg of our proposed cruise. The food onboard was crap, constant casseroles, the bed had no layer and we slept on open springs. The staff knew it was the death knoll and acted accordingly to kick off a few. We vowed then never to set foot on a former P and O again, albeit with the Carnival name and so-called refurbishment.
Having been on 5 previous cruises with Princess ships ,
We have booked our first cruise with Carnival and are hoping
to get all the same perks as Princess provided.
Cheers .Geoff.