“Thank you Paul” she said. “Thank you to you, your colleagues and to your wonderful crew for giving us the holiday we have been waiting for, we can’t quite believe we are really on board after waiting so long.”
This sentiment was echoed by many guests I met when I travelled on Iona a couple of weeks ago and it made me so proud. Every single one of you has been part of this journey and our return to service. Whether you have been at the front line (and I am well aware that has not always been easy) or behind the scenes, on board or in the office, we should all take these words as a personal and individual compliment and acknowledgement of the months of collaboration with internal stakeholders and external parties.
Collaboration was certainly evident when Britannia made her first turnaround in Barbados on Friday 5 November. Ship and shore came together to make this as smooth as possible for our incoming and disembarking guests and was a significant milestone in our return to service and Caribbean itineraries. We are already making preparations for Arvia’s maiden season there in January 2023 and what an extraordinary achievement that will be as she will be the largest ship ever to home port in Barbados.
The launch of our summer 23/winter 23/24 programme also reassured us that demand for our holidays is still strong. The Med, Caribbean, Norway and fly/cruises all performed well and created positivitey across social media as guests began planning and discussing future holidays.
And we must focus on these achievements and successes. I know we still have some outstanding issues, whether with resource, technology or simply reassuring some guests that it really will be the holiday they have been waiting for, but we have come so far and I see, hear and read so much positive sentiment from many channels.
Sometimes it is too easy and human nature to focus on the small negatives without seeing the much bigger and much brighter picture of what we have done so well. Of course, there is still some uncertainty with a few international ports and around the guidance for shore experiences and testing and I’m sure this will be the way of the world for quite some months. But…. at P&O Cruises we have three ships sailing (soon to be four), we’re doing very well on our crew vaccinations and our guests are having very happy holidays and telling us so by their NPS scores. This feedback is so important both to our morale and to shaping constant improvement. It’s visible evidence that we’re doing the right things and we’re giving our guests what they want.
Similarly, the Culture Survey, which went live on Monday 8 November, is a vital and demonstrable way to give feedback to your peers and senior leaders. As with the NPS scores we want to know what we are doing right and where we could improve across all aspects of our business. Speaking up, giving praise and evaluation is the way we can shape this company to be the very best it can be and by doing so it makes it a safer, compliant, more enjoyable and not to mention more successful place in which to work.
I understand that there are some of you who may be reticent to return to the office. We do understand this but human beings thrive on personal interaction – we are wired to be with other people and to spark off each other and support one another. Being at home on back-to-back zoom calls is exhausting and can be very solitary and draining.
Carnival House is slowly regaining its old spirit of camaraderie and collaboration so I would ask you all to come in a few times between now and December. I think – and hope – you will be surprised by how welcoming it is and how good it is to see your colleagues in person once again.
Thursday’s guest speaker is England cricket captain Sir Andrew Strauss. His talk is entitled ‘Embracing Chaos’ – perhaps reference to the importance of being adaptable to change. I very much look forward to hearing his first-hand experiences and wise words.
A thank you to those involved for organising this session and thank you to you all – this business is a part of you all and P&O Cruises is back because of you.
As always please do drop me a note either on the Insider or on email if you have any questions, comments or simply want to say hello… or even better, come and say hi the next time you see me in Carnival House.
Take care everybody,
Paul