themanwithahat

P&O appear to be taking somewhat of a beating in the reviews at the moment. I'm on Oriana over Christmas, and to be honest it's got me a little concerned.

 

I wonder if it's a case of those who are unhappy making it known, and those who are happy not doing so, or is there some systemic downward trend in the P&O service?

I don't know about the latter. We've just been on Azura and really enjoyed it ; transport botch up at La Rochelle but other than that it was great.

I do sometimes wonder. A review of our cruise stated something like 'the waiters didn't interact much' (paraphrase). Our waiter interacted so much I was worried he might get into trouble or run out of time. I've read things that are simply wrong "there are no movies you can watch on the cabin TVs".

One also has to be realistic. You aren't paying megabucks any more, so if you are expecting first class everything you'll be disappointed. But I really enjoyed it and so did the missus and the children ; good food, good entertainment and so on.

I think they will tell you if they are obscured ; with regards to your first question we are going on A427P (25th October) and we got the cabin allocations on 7th October.

East on Ventura is the equivalent and last January, in the Carribean, was good. As was the food and wine tasting dinner in the Glass House, both providing vegetarian food for us.

No problem for us booking once on board.

I thought East was fabulous. They did a special offer for the first night (free bottle of wine I think, maybe a reduction as well) so they don't seem to be snowed under. Did visit the White restaurant (which I didn't really rate) and that wasn't that full either. This was in school holidays which might make a difference.

Same here. He managed to get a suit that easily doubled as really formal with a dress shirt and bow tie, and was also very suitable for smart nights.

 

Well, I couldn't tell it wasn't an actual dress suit!:)

I don't have a Dinner Jacket, I just wear a suit like that - dress shirt and bow tie, and no-one seems to mind.

I rather get the impression they aren't literalistic about it ; it is being seen to make the effort to smarten up that matters.

My sister and her family recently went on Celebrity, she's been on two or three P&O cruises ; they seemed to think overall it was about the same, some ups and some downs, which kind of fits Jo and Rob's list. When I was looking at possible cruise lines, Celebrity struck me as one we would probably like, given that we like P&O.

As no cash changes hands onboard you will be given a credit-card type thing. This acts as a key to your cabin and you also hand this over every time you buy or use anything that has to be paid for. You will also be asked to sign a copy of the receipt if you pay for anything - so there is no way that charges will appear unexpectedly.

The TV is also an interactive information thing and you can use it to check what has been charged to your account.

The only thing that is done without your direct authorisation is, I think, the tips.

We liked afternoon tea, but had to stop going as we were on first sitting at 6 30 pm and it just did not work. We just couldn't cope!

The food is ridiculous really ..... eat every meal and you get very fat :)

..and in addition the menu changes every day.

 

You may also use the MDR for breakfast and lunch, but it isn't necessarily the same one you use in the evening. It's all very civilised :)

I think it partly changes ; there are two halves to the menu,one which is the same every day, and one which changes.

The P&O Coach does drop you outside the town, it's probably a 15 minute or so walk. I don't know if the taxis can go in town or not, the buses can't.

On Ventura recently we had a chat with one of the performers who was in the show, he seemed a very nice lad, don't see this at all. I think the lines are very selective about who they take on and it's hard work.

We have done something like this as well for A427P in October. Yes, you need to link the bookings together, if you do that, so P&O told me they will try to put you on things like the same sitting (organised by the restaurant manager).

I asked if it would affect the cabin allocation and the lady said no, because that was done by computer automatically. However, as a computer programmer it strikes me as quite likely that cabins will be allocated sequentially against the empty cabin list so because they are (I think) sequential bookings on the system with a bit of luck we should be near to each other.

But there are no guarantees of anything ; my Sister and her family ended up at diagonally opposite corners of one floor, but this isn't a problem unless your daughter is not old enough to take reasonable care of herself. On Azura/Ventura even in the worst case scenario its only 3 minutes walk and there are the free phones.

Dining is not guaranteed either ; if we aren't on the same we shall ask nicely for a change. I understand a lot of people like a change for various reasons, but we would make no request other than we be together which may make their lives easier rather than harder, maybe. If not we have to lump it, use the buffet and I did read somewhere that after the first couple of days they aren't bothered who comes on freedom dining, though not sure if this is right.

But the reality is ; you got it real cheap, and for that you get no guarantees.

How can you be a snob on P&O ? Is it that much more expensive than Thomson ?

(I've never been on Thomson but I have relatives who do regularly who wouldn't go if it was cheap and horrible)

Hi - I uploaded a 7 day set of menus and onboard magazines (and East and White Room) for Ventura in April 2014. Should give you a decent idea.

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2025644

I would definitely ring P&O again and ask to speak to a senior person. I am not sure whether they guarantee that linked bookings will be kept together or if they will just do their best to try to keep them together. It is unfortunate that they are on linked bookings rather than all of them being on one booking which I think they have to keep together.

If you want two cabins it appears to be impossible to do it as one booking - we booked for 2015 to take son and daughter and they have their own login, documents etc.

I am also curious about the Aurora's family "feel" . Do a lot of families with children sail on the Norway cruises? I did see that Arcadia is adult only. Don't get me wrong, I love children and work with them every day during the school year. I took my own children on a cruise when they were pre-teens, so I am not against children on a cruise as long as they are well behaved. Just curious about this.

My sister went on a P&O Norway cruise about a year ago - she said the shorter times in port didn't matter so much ; the places were nice to explore but not extensive.

I think you will find P&O very "British" in many ways. But that's not a bad thing.

I've been on two cruises on Ventura in the school holidays, saw very few children, and the ones I did see were very pleasant. There weren't hordes of children rampaging about.

I do sometimes wonder. I read CC reviews, because I think the line would suit us.

But I read reviews of Cruises I've been on (P&O) and I wonder, are they on the same cruise as me. Things like 'kids running everywhere' when the only ones I've seen were at a Cricket session and occasionally at breakfast/lunch. "Awful food" ? Compared to the Savoy or something ? No films on the TVs - yes there were - we watched one - lots of these sorts of things.

I mean, if someone had only been on the ultra luxury cruises perhaps they might look bad by comparison, but objectively, they aren't bad.

I'm not so sure it's trolling. I think they are shills either by competing or the groups themselves.

Some of it is probably just people who love to find something, anything to complain about.

I'm sorry her dog died. I don't want to sound heartless ; I've got three dogs of my own, but you aren't going to get insurance that covers you for something like that.

Hi. We've been on a couple of P&O cruises and I have picked Celebrity as one we would probably like after reading up (including this forum!).

After our last cruise I scanned all the copies of "Horizon" (the daily onboard news/entertainment/leisure paper) and uploaded it so potential P&O cruisers could see exactly what goes on on board.

Does anyone know if a similar document is available for a Celebrity cruise anywhere ?

Many thanks.

Well we have tried today to change a cruise we had booked with Fred for January, It appears that even if you have a good reason (medical) they won't let you change anything. We will now have to claim on the insurance and book something different with Thomson or P&O:(

 

Even if we had booked the owners suite on the cruise we had chosen to change we still couldn't change our cruise I don't understand why? Surely they don't want to loose business like this sadly this has put me off Fred for good has anyone else have a similar experience?

And ? That's why travel insurance almost always has a cancellation cost.

I did those as well, though like Horizon it's quite a long download.

Menus

http://www.studio2.org.uk/Menus.pdf

Well, there were a few people of your age but I'm 50 and I felt like one of the more youthful passengers :) If you want to be in with lots of early 20s it probably isn't the ideal liner (I don't know, one of the US lines might be better)

I would say that one of the things I have noticed on both the cruises I've been on so far is how sociable people are and things like age and social class don't seem to matter much.

Staff did say that the age grouping did partly depend on the time of year ; in the school holidays they thought there were more younger people and families, which makes sense I suppose.

Hi - I'm sorry if this has already been answered already.

We've been on a couple of P&O Cruises and I'm eyeing up Celebrity. I note that they charge for 'premium soft drinks'. Can anyone enlighten me as to what this actually means in practice ? Are things like Coke free for example ?

Many thanks.

Any opinions from anyone whose been on both on how they compare would be o f interested too.

Luggage is almost like Southampton. We few Birmingham -> Genoa then Venice -> Birmingham. We checked in and picked up at BHX, but the luggage from the other airports to/from the ship was handled by P+O - e.g. on arrival we didn't see it until it turned up in the cabin.

We are due to sail from Venice on the 4 June on the Ventura. P&O tell me that our cases will be delivered to our cabin having checked in at Birmingham. The flight is due to land at 9.15am so I expect us to be at the port for 10.30 ish. This could leave us plenty of time to walk into Venice before we check in at the terminal. Has anybody done this and can give guidance of whether this is possible, the latest time to check in would also be useful. I am mindful that there will be a safety drill to attend etc. etc.

 

The reason I ask this question is I suspect that once you complete the check in process within the cruise terminal it would not be possible to then go wandering around Venice.

We went from Genoa -> Venice recently. There whole thing was very organised, so plane -> bus -> ship. I don't doubt you could make your own way, but at your own risk.

Venice Airport was a mess, so you might be a bit on the optimistic side. But it is possible. It is nowhere near Venice itself (e.g. the city), it's out on the mainland, they are linked by a long bridge. There are probably very good public transport links though. The port itself is probably about 45 minutes from Venice however you go.

We found it quite efficient, we were on board late morning / early afternoon which would give time to explore Venice. Really though, if you want to get a day in your exit or entry port, you might be better off booking a stopover.