A popular influencer has blasted cruise line P&O for its ‘abysmal’ service and ‘inedible’ food on a recent voyage.
Emma Metzger, 28, from Brisbane shared a video detailing her eight-day journey of the Pacific Islands with her husband on board the Pacific Encounter.
She described her first P&O experience as ‘absolutely awful’, citing terrible food, uninterested staff and cancelled onboard activities.
Ms Metzger told her 200,000 followers in a TikTok video that she expected much more even though P&O was the cheaper option among the various cruise lines.
‘It was really understaffed, so there was one bartender on at each bar, so you wait 20 minutes for a drink, whereas on Princess Cruises you have an app and your drink will just come to you and find you wherever you are,’ she said.
‘I do understand that P&O is supposed to be the cheaper option but we looked at how much we spent on the last Princess cruise, which was three days longer, and what we spent on this one, it was not actually that different. Maybe a $500 difference.
‘The experience is worlds apart.’
Emma Metzger, 28, recently had a terrible experience on an eight-day trip on the P&O cruise ship Encounter
Ms Metzger, from Brisbane, said the ship’s staff were unenthusiastic and that the on-board activities were lacklustre (pictured, stock image)
Ms Metzger claimed that the food was so bad she had to spit it out.
‘This food genuinely, I’m not even joking, most of the meals were inedible,’ Mrs Metzger said.
‘I’ve never had that cliche experience of spitting food out into my napkin but I did, that’s how bad it was.
‘I could talk forever about how bad the food was, two of the three dining rooms that you go to were horrific.’
During the voyage, Ms Metzger asked P&O staff if their service had been impacted by the upcoming merger.
She claimed that they ‘didn’t really care’ about her questions.
‘Potentially this is because they’re losing their jobs with the new takeover,’ she said.
The company will merge with Carnival Cruises in March, when the P&O brand will be retired and its ships integrated into Carnival’s existing fleet.
Despite asking staff why the service was seemingly so bad Ms Metzger said she was still met with uncaring responses (stock image of P&O Pacific Encounter)
Ms Metzger also claimed that at least half of the onboard events were cancelled without informing passengers.
‘We’d go to them and they just weren’t on,’ she added.
When ordering drinks, the couple ran into similar disappointments when her husband was declined a Long Island Iced Tea.
Ms Metzger felt unappreciated as a passenger as she slammed the ‘half a**’ attitude of P&O staffers.
‘The point of a cruise is to have that luxury experience,’ she said.
Despite her experience however, Ms Metzger insisted that her criticisms were just of P&O and was ‘not reflective of cruising in general’.
‘So if you’ve just been on this one and think that people recommending cruises are crazy that’s not true,’ she added.
A P&O spokesperson said its staff tried hard to make every passenger’s experience a unique and special one.
‘Our kitchens prepare meals for 3000 guests every day, and we are sorry if this guest feels her dining experience fell short of her expectations,’ the spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The vast majority of P&O crew have accepted roles with Carnival Cruise Line into the future and are looking forward to continuing to see our beloved Aussie guests on-board our ships.’
