Celebrity vs P&O

[Gardyloo2]

We're longtime Celebrity Cruisers, and have sailed most of the U.S. mainstream lines. We've never sailed them, but P&O has a couple of transatlantic cruises that have interesting ports: like San Maarten and Azores on the same trip between U.S. and Southampton. I know P&O is a Carnival brand, but can anyone comment on pros and cons of this line?

Edited December 15, 2015 by cutelittle
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[DYKWIA]

Drinks will be considerably cheaper and tipping less. Wider variation of ships. Lots of British on board, with enetrtainment etc aimed at that market. Although some variation of rules from ship to ship - generally dressier with stricter rules on formal nights. Generally perceived to be a ring below Celebrity in terms of quality.

[MR_T]

Drinks might seem cheaper but the size & strength of the drinks are nowhere near as good... IMHO [emoji16]

 

P&O will be a lot dressier and as mentioned will have a lot more Brits onboard...

 

In my opinion they are worlds apart from celebrity S/Class ships,

 

Service is not as good on p&o... I think you can notice that there's a higher ratio of crew to guests on celebrity

 

As with any posts these are my thoughts and I'm sure others will post differently but the above is from my personal experience as a uk cruiser that's been on both [emoji4]

[lovescarborough]

Totally agree with other posters, one cruise on P&O Azura was more than enough!. Yes, the drinks are cheaper, if you can find a waiter to serve you and of course a place to sit down. Bars were extremely crowded every evening. The main thing to note is the number of passengers on a comparable sized ship to Celebrity is considerably more due to the much higher number of inside cabins. This in turn takes away a lot of public space. On sea days there is just nowhere to sit and don't even bother with the buffet as you queue for ever in a tight space and then find there are no available tables . People just sit at the tables all day long. We used room service for breakfast and lunch for most days. Getting into the theatre is a non starter unless you are prepared to stand and queue for half an hour before the performance. One last moan on hygiene, I have never seen so many public area toilets blocked and out of action for the whole cruise, and hand sanitisers are just not used. Stick to Celebrity, we have !

[techwatcher]

We generally sail on Celebrity but we did a a short 5-day cruise on P&O out of Southampton to Amsterdam, Zeebrugge and Guernsey in June this year.

 

Some thoughts on comparison with Celebrity:

 

1. Embarkation/disembarkation - fine, well organised, as good if not better than Celebrity. We Had to wait about 30 minutes on embarkation to be checked in - lots of seats so no big deal.

2. The ship; we were on Arcadia, not a new ship and styles have moved on since she was built, but it was fine. Certainly not in the same class as Celebrity S-Class though.

3. Food was better than expected, and better than Celebrity in our experience. We dined mainly in the MDR and food was always hot and reasonably tasty. We had so-called Freedom Dining, which like on many cruise lines, isn't really.

4. Service was a bit 'rough around the edges' in places. At the time P&O had just launched a new ship, Britannia, and experienced staff had been sent there and there were lots of new and inexperienced staff on Arcadia.

5. Entertainment - typical cruise line fare. We didn't care for the shows but dipped our toes into a couple - singing especially was amateurish. The entertainment staff didn't engage with passengers - they'd turn up one minute before something was due to start and disappear one minute afterwards.

 

It's all rather more 'British' than Celebrity; senior officers are British and they have a Hotel General Manager rather than a Hotel Director.

 

Overall P&O didn't impress us enough for them to become our new favourite but if an interesting itinerary came up we would cruise with them again.

[Adammara]

We left P&O in 2009, several reasons, one being falling standards of service. Celebrity was a refreshing change after P&O, but sadly we have seen the same happening to Celebrity since. We loved Aqua cabins and Blu, the loss of the daily water is no big deal, but along with all the other changes , we no longer feel that even Celebrity are that 'special'.

 

We have come back from a few nights in a UK Holiday Inn, we have reached their second tier of loyalty, and had an 'executive' room. We had 2 bottles of water a day, chocolates and biscuits, and tea coffee and hot chocolate. The staff and service were great, and the food was good, and importantly for us, a table for two, at any time we liked.

 

A better option is probably Cunard, if you don't mind dressing up!

[upwarduk]

We've done 2 P&O cruises, both on the adult only ships, one of which is still with the fleet-Arcadia.

However, we have since been loyal to Celebrity:

a) Initial price was cheaper, balcony cabin on Mercury, cost less than partially blocked view outside cabin on Arcadia.

b) I didn't like the buffet on Arcadia, queued for ages, whole area was narrower and cramped.

 

The bar prices however are more like British pub prices on P&O. We don't buy wine on Celebrity unless we have a beverage package.

Entertainment was more geared to the British.

 

I may however be looking again at P&O, as we are getting older, have less disposable income and the way Celebrity's pricing structure is going I think they may be pricing themselves out of our market, especially as we can sail from Southampton, so in most cases can save on air fare.

 

Look carefully at the adult only ships, as ex teachers we don't like sharing our vacation with 500+ noisy children.

 

Here is a link to a review that I wrote after our Arcadia cruise:

 

http://cruise.fr.yuku.com/topic/2557/Arcadia-J910-Fjords-amp-Iceland-1607-310709#.Vm_nFK_fWK0

 

Comparison of Artemis to Galaxy

 

http://cruise.fr.yuku.com/topic/586/Jackie-amp-Adrians-Iberian-Delights-PampO-Artemis-2410#.Vm_o8q_fWK0

Edited December 15, 2015 by upwarduk

[Gardyloo2]

Thank you for the excellent information. Jackie, your reviews were outstanding and helpful.

 

Love the new colors of the ships, they look very British. Now I realize what I saw a couple of cruises ago in the Caribbean. They looked like NCL ships, but not quite.

 

One of the things I really like about Celebrity is the lack of smoking (asthma). How's the smoking on P&O? I'm guessing, being European, much less restricted on smoking areas.

[upwarduk]

To be truthful I really cannot remember. I too suffer from asthma and hate smoking, so we obviously avoided smoking areas. I have a feeling that it was allowed on balconies, but it's now a while ago since we sailed on P&O.

[wendychloecruiser]

Of the MANY issues I had on P&O's Azura, some petty some less so...was the seeming inability for the Brits to do a salad bar. Iceberg lettuce and a bit of cucumber. That's called a salad. I realise this sounds insignificant but all the food was very stodgy and I found it difficult to eat lightly, especially at lunch.

[Beanb41]

We have been reading on Facebook that many Australian P & O customers are becoming real grumpy with the service they are being offered. Most of the outside activities are attracting additional charges and room service is now a chargeable activity. It appears that for P & O ships operating out of Australia at least cruising fares are but a base cost and bear little resemblence to the actual costs.

[Chunky2219]

It's a five or six years since we sailed P&O but I think it's important to split the product into several different categories.

 

The mid-sized ships like Oceana, Aurora, etc. are really likable and to my mind, the food and service was miles better than Celebrity MDR is today. However, we found the public spaces to be a bit tight in the evenings, finding a seat in bar after a show involved being one of the first out of the theatre. We regularly look at cruises on these ships but like-for-like pricing has been higher than X and the ones we are interested in seem to fill quickly. The pricing issue is swinging back the other way now though as X tries to sell more stuff as "free" but jack up the price. As a vehement anti-smoker I can live with their policy.

 

P&O have now moved toward mega-ships Azura, Ventura, Britannia, which cram lots more bodies on board without a proportionate increase in public spaces. I've never sampled one, but friends who have done describe them as cattle boats in comparison with the older vessels.

 

Over in the Pacific, P&O is a completely different product that has a more holiday camp reputation. Looking at one of their ships berthed alongside Solstice in Sydney was like comparing my present car with my first clunker 40 years ago.

 

 

.

[upwarduk]

Over in the Pacific, P&O is a completely different product that has a more holiday camp reputation. Looking at one of their ships berthed alongside Solstice in Sydney was like comparing my present car with my first clunker 40 years ago.

 

Unfortunately P&O Australia get everyone else's cast offs!

 

Eg ex Arcadia- Ocean Village- Pacific Pearl.

They have recently acquired 2 ex Hal ships:

Ryndam is now Pacific Aria

State day is now Pacific Eden.

Edited December 17, 2015 by upwarduk

[Spursgirl]

The Celebrity offering is not as good as it was but the decline in quality is nowhere near as marked as it is on P&O. Just my opinion.

 

I find the food resembles school dinners, the crew often a bit miserable and the entertainment akin to a holiday camp.

 

This is hardly surprising as the UK market is often offered amazing deals where you wonder how they can possibly be making much profit.

 

I don't anticipate returning to P&O any time soon but would happily sail Celebrity if the itinerary and price were right.

 

Sorry to be rather damning. As I said this is just my view.

[upwarduk]

State day is now Pacific Eden

 

 

That should be Statendam, spell check :eek:

Edited December 17, 2015 by upwarduk

[vino123]

The Celebrity offering is not as good as it was but the decline in quality is nowhere near as marked as it is on P&O. Just my opinion.

 

I find the food resembles school dinners, the crew often a bit miserable and the entertainment akin to a holiday camp.

 

This is hardly surprising as the UK market is often offered amazing deals where you wonder how they can possibly be making much profit.

 

I don't anticipate returning to P&O any time soon but would happily sail Celebrity if the itinerary and price were right.

 

Sorry to be rather damning. As I said this is just my view.

 

Totally agree Spursgirl.

School dinners is exactly how I would describe the food I experienced 2 years ago on the Aurora. Marrowfat peas have no place on a dining room menu in my opinion! Don't even get me started on the service! Plus I much prefer to sail with different nationalities than mainly British ( I am from the UK) but we love talking to people from other parts of the world. Makes life more interesting!