P&O Newbie

Hi all,

My Mum and i decided to book a week on the Britannia next May, just to try out a P&O cruise. Itinerary isnt the best (France, Spain and Guernsey), but we did not particularly want to fly out to the Med as we are sailing round there on the Celebrity Reflection in the summer.

My family and i have cruise Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, and we find Celebrity to be the best for us, so comparisons would be great!

Questions:

- Will there be formal nights on a 7 night voyage? I checked the P&O site and it said it was just smart casual for our sailing? Slightly confused as i thought P&O always had a black tie night!!

- Sailaways: Princess had the best sailaway parties, and are few and far between on RCI and Celebrity. How do P&O rate- is there one every time you leave port?

- We are sailing end of May/Start of June from Southampton: Has anyone sailed at this time, if so, what is the weather/bay of biscay like at that time of the year?

- Can you take alcohol on board? If so, how much!

- One thing i love about Princess and Celebrity is the grill around the pool- how do P&O's burgers match up?

- We are considering buying a day pass for The Retreat, with the hope that if the weather isnt great, we have access to 2 hot tubs, rather than fighting for the 2 that serve the main two pools. Has anyone bought a pass and is it worth the money?

Any other tips or comparisons to RCI/Celebrity/Princess would be fab!

Thanks!

On a typical 14 day cruise, there are 4 formal nights. We just had 4 on a 12 night cruise, so I'd be surprised if there are none.

Bah of Biscay is hard to call, but according to one if the crew, Winter I'd generally bad. Bug a storm could hit any time I guess?

You can take alcohol on board for use in your cabin. But if you bring it outside of there, you will be charged 'corkage'. Not aware of any limits on it, but be aware that if you buy any from the ship's duty fee shop, you won't get it until the night before you leave.

The grill food is ok. Nothing special, but nice enough.

We didn't buy a place in the retreat, but we're very close. Think it was £20 for the day.

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Hi,

-You have two black tie nights for every seven nights you spend on board, so you definitely won't have no formal nights

-P&O do have sailaway parties at every port that have dancing and music but the best one would be the great British sailaway (you'll be having it as you leave Guernsey) - a lot of Pimms involved so good for me! :)

-The weather should be lovely; it won't necessarily be swim-in-the-ocean weather but it should be sunny. The Bay of Biscay has been terrible in April for us but Britannia's a large ship so you shouldn't feel much movement.

-You can take a "reasonable" amount of alcohol on board to drink in your cabin - apparently it can be commonplace for people to take it up to the lido and add spirits to non-alcoholic drinks. P&O don't specify how much you can take on board, but you can take some on at each port if you want to.

-Can't comment on this, not had one of P&O's burgers for a while!

-It's £25pppd just to get in - we never use it as we're up by the main pool with our teens who wouldn't be allowed in.

We've found P&O to be comparable to Princess as they're similar in a lot of ways; but it's quite blatantly obvious P&O are making drastic cutbacks - we noticed this in 2013 and my parents who have recently got off a cruise on Arcadia mentioned P&O are cutting corners.

P&O really are a lovely cruise line though. I think they combine the perfect amount of traditional and modern cruising. I've yet to try out Britannia but I would have to say I believe she is more on the modern side.

Nevertheless, have a great trip and let us know how it went in June. :)

Dan

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Please only drink any alcohol you take on board in your cabin.

Some people may think they are clever taking drink elsewhere. But the waiters are not stupid. Eventually these so called clever people will spoil it for everyone and pando will end up like the other lines with no drink allowed.

Just returned (Friday) from Britannia and the beefburgers at the Lido Grill are dire and best to be avoided. The french fries are very thin frozen and only takes a few minutes to cook but they still "blanched" them at 9-30 in the morning even though the grill does not open until 11am, best avoid at all costs. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask and will try to answer to best of my ability and knowledge.

Hi,

 

-You have two black tie nights for every seven nights you spend on board, so you definitely won't have no formal nights

-P&O do have sailaway parties at every port that have dancing and music but the best one would be the great British sailaway (you'll be having it as you leave Guernsey) - a lot of Pimms involved so good for me! :)

-The weather should be lovely; it won't necessarily be swim-in-the-ocean weather but it should be sunny. The Bay of Biscay has been terrible in April for us but Britannia's a large ship so you shouldn't feel much movement.

-You can take a "reasonable" amount of alcohol on board to drink in your cabin - apparently it can be commonplace for people to take it up to the lido and add spirits to non-alcoholic drinks. P&O don't specify how much you can take on board, but you can take some on at each port if you want to.

-Can't comment on this, not had one of P&O's burgers for a while!

-It's £25pppd just to get in - we never use it as we're up by the main pool with our teens who wouldn't be allowed in.

 

We've found P&O to be comparable to Princess as they're similar in a lot of ways; but it's quite blatantly obvious P&O are making drastic cutbacks - we noticed this in 2013 and my parents who have recently got off a cruise on Arcadia mentioned P&O are cutting corners.

 

P&O really are a lovely cruise line though. I think they combine the perfect amount of traditional and modern cruising. I've yet to try out Britannia but I would have to say I believe she is more on the modern side.

 

Nevertheless, have a great trip and let us know how it went in June. :)

 

Dan

 

 

 

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Thanks, i'll remember to take a couple of formal dresses with me then! I love formal nights, we were so disappointed when Celebrity announced they had got rid of them in favour of "Evening Chic", which is basically smart casual :(

I only ask about the burgers, as the ones i ate on Princess were some of the best i've ever had. I am normally a very healthy person, but they just taste so great!!

I've heard of the Great British Sailaway, i cant wait for that as i love Pimms!

We wouldnt be taking cases of booze on board, but we may bring a bottle of wine and a small bottle of spirit to keep in the room!

I've noticed major cruise cut backs since my first cruise in 2007. The first two cruises (2007 and 2008), we got Chateaubriand served on Formal night in the main dining room! Also, the flight was chartered, and was done by Titan Air, a private charter airline!!!!!

Also, with the first cruise, as our arranged flight wasnt till the evening, Princess shipped us all off to a 5* hotel for the day to relax free of charge! I bet that hasn't happened in a while!

My parents have always wanted to try P&O, and if this goes well, we will be booking a family cruise for August 2018 from Southampton to Rome. My Mum and i are sussing it out first!

Thanks for your response!

Please only drink any alcohol you take on board in your cabin.

Some people may think they are clever taking drink elsewhere. But the waiters are not stupid. Eventually these so called clever people will spoil it for everyone and pando will end up like the other lines with no drink allowed.

Don't worry, we would only be taking a bottle of wine for the room, and possibly a small bottle of spirit!

You are entitled to bring wine onboard Celebrity, Princess and Royal Caribbean, but no spirits. Which suits us fine as we like a glass of wine when getting ready, and will purchase drinks at dinner.

We are lucky on our summer cruise with Celebrity that we have all been given free premium alcoholic drinks packages, so we wont need to bring any onboard! I wish P&O did things like that...

I also enjoy the Princess grill plus Pizzeria. Do they have pizzeria on Britannia?

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You might find my review/comparison from earlier this year of interest...

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2295846

You might find my review/comparison from earlier this year of interest...

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2295846

Thanks for the link to your review kruzgal. I just read it all with interest, as we're going on Britannia the week after next. We've cruised with Princess for the past eight years, so it was good to read your views on P&O. I'm disappointed that you can't get free ice cream, or fruit juice during the daytimes, but it was expected. I didn't see a mention of whether they have a pizzeria with the grill on the lido deck, do you know?

We will go with open minds, and expect some differences. I am sure we'll enjoy it.

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Yes, you could get pizza but I really liked the food from the 'grab and go' fridge so used that quite a lot - sandwiches, wraps, mousse type desserts etc.

There will be differences, and if you are aware of them before you go then I think that helps, but I am sure you will have a good time.

We are now looking at a cruise on Azura for February so I guess that says it all, and I still think for the Caribbean you can't beat P&O purely from a logistics point of view. The problem with Royal, Celebrity etc is that they typically 'homeport' in Fort Lauderdale, Miami etc which means 2 days sailing down to the Caribbean and 2 days sailing back. It's the equivalent to an American wanting to visit the med but sailing from Southampton when they could fly straight to Rome and join a med cruise from there. It doesn't make sense unless the cruise is really cheap (which they generally are not) or you want to visit the country the ship is sailing from (which we don't as we have done Florida many times independently).

Yes, you could get pizza but I really liked the food from the 'grab and go' fridge so used that quite a lot - sandwiches, wraps, mousse type desserts etc.

 

There will be differences, and if you are aware of them before you go then I think that helps, but I am sure you will have a good time.

 

 

 

We are now looking at a cruise on Azura for February so I guess that says it all, and I still think for the Caribbean you can't beat P&O purely from a logistics point of view. The problem with Royal, Celebrity etc is that they typically 'homeport' in Fort Lauderdale, Miami etc which means 2 days sailing down to the Caribbean and 2 days sailing back. It's the equivalent to an American wanting to visit the med but sailing from Southampton when they could fly straight to Rome and join a med cruise from there. It doesn't make sense unless the cruise is really cheap (which they generally are not) or you want to visit the country the ship is sailing from (which we don't as we have done Florida many times independently).

I couldn't agree more about the logistics of the P&O fly/Caribbean model. When we did our Caribbean cruise on Princess back in 2012 we spent a couple of nights before and after the cruise pad it out to a two-week holiday so we could visit Florida again as we sailed from Fort Lauderdale I believe. For a 10 night cruise I felt a bit disappointed because you spend quite a while on the plane there (I LOATHE flying - don't know how to express it enough) and you don't really see that much so it's a bit disappointing really. I think P&O really have have hit the nail on the head this time; they also don't visit the crowded Caribbean ports from what I've seen.

I've vowed I never want to be flying long haul again again (already done 4 return trips and that's 4 times too many!); one day when the DC have left home DW and me will sail transatlantic both ways :D

Dan

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If it wasn't for the high cost we would have booked the Azura trip. However, to get a chosen cabin in a decent location is too high cost at the moment, especially when compared to our forthcoming Celebrity trip which includes all our drinks. We may well take a land trip instead this time, but P&O is certainly worth considering in our view, especially to the Caribbean.