Benefits of a suite

[Sir Cumference]

Please could someone advise me of the benefits of having a suite on P & O ships? I've looked on the new web site but can't find the old FAQ section. Many thanks in anticipation 🙂 

[Selbourne]

17 minutes ago, Sir Cumference said:

Please could someone advise me of the benefits of having a suite on P & O ships? I've looked on the new web site but can't find the old FAQ section. Many thanks in anticipation 🙂 

The main benefit that we find is the larger cabin which means that when the ship is busy you can retreat to your own personal space. Bathrooms are a lot better, with separate shower cubicle and whirlpool baths. The next best thing we appreciate is the ability to have breakfast in a Select Dining restaurant. Epicurean on Britannia is our favourite but be aware that some families with babies or very young children book suites so it’s not always the tranquil start to the day that you would want it to be. The breakfast menu is very restricted but very good quality. 
 

Other benefits;

- Priority embarkation at 1230 or earlier (you are first on board), preceded by a small area with complimentary tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes

- Access to the priority boarders / high loyalty grade ‘welcome aboard lunch’. They say it’s champagne but it’s not it’s cheap fizz or house wine with a limited range of hot and cold snacks. We find it to be a low rent experience so skip it and head to the Glasshouse for a really nice lunch and decent drinks (all at cost, but worth it IMO as we usually have the place to ourselves as no one knows it’s open).

- Butler - waste of time in our view as they are quite intrusive (turning up for no real reason) and seem to be angling more for tips than providing a genuinely useful service. Where they are useful is for providing room service (which you get all food items free if you are in a suite) and in-suite dining. We can’t see the sense in eating inside your suite, but we have had some meals on aft balconies down the fjords. 
- Daily Canapés - these are very poor quality and a bit of a laughing stock on these forums, justifiably!

- Priority Tender embarkation (although this doesn’t work that well)

 

I am sure that there are other benefits that I have forgotten, but those are the main ones as I recall. Other than the extra space and the breakfast, it’s not a great deal for the big price premium and we’ve stopped using them as a result. Other cruise lines provide much more apparently, but we’ve only cruised with P&O. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Selbourne

[Selbourne]

I should also say that suites vary enormously, even within the same ship, and some are problematic. We love aft corner- wrap suites and have had good ones on Ventura and Arcadia (although we didn’t like Arcadia as a ship) but had major problems with one on Britannia (noise from Live Lounge, soot on balcony and noise from a plumbing plant room which services several other cabins being located in our suite!). On Britannia our favourite suites are the forward facing ones. Much bigger than the other suites (although the figures don’t suggest it, as the area under the sloped ceiling in the bedroom isn’t counted), but the balconies are very shallow. We don’t see the point in midships suites as you don’t get the panoramic views of the aft or forward suites and on some ships you can be woken at 6am every morning by the deck crew dragging the deck chairs around overhead to wash the decks down. It’s well worth using this forum to do a lot of detailed research on good and bad suites. 

[Sir Cumference]

Thank you, Selbourne. What does a Butler do?

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, Sir Cumference said:

Thank you, Selbourne. What does a Butler do?

Not a lot, in our experience! Apparently you can ask them to unpack for you. We wouldn’t dream of asking them to as it seems very subservient, but some do. They turn up a couple of times a day and tinker with a few things in your cabin (ice bucket etc). Nothing major and a little intrusive. They turn up each evening with the c**p canapés. You phone the butler number to order room service food, then it’s all free. You can ask them to make Select Dining reservations (somewhat pointless as you can easily do it yourself from your cabin phone). The most useful thing (we find) is the ability to provide restaurant meals (breakfast or dinner) to have on your balcony. We have probably had half a dozen different butlers and only really found one of them to be genuinely friendly and helpful. The others had an air of doing as little as they could whilst angling for an end of cruise tip. Other than the ability to dine on your balcony, we would dispense with them as the negatives almost outweigh the positives in our view. Others will have different experiences. 

[annieuk]

We have had suites on Azura, Ventura and Oceana and have never found the Butler intrusive.  In fact the opposite, they have always been exceptionally helpful.  We have never asked them to pack or unpack for us.  When they bring the canapes each evening (yes the canapes do seriously need upgrading) they ask if we want to have breakfast in the cabin - if we do then we can choose anything from the main restaurant menu, including hot food and the butler will bring and serve it at an agreed time - lovely to have on the balcony in sunny weather.  The butler will also serve lunch or dinner if you wish again taken from the main restaurant menu.  He is responsible for all your food and drink so will sort out any requirements you have.  We have also found that the butlers are really good at sorting out any Select Dining bookings you want to make and they are very knowledgeable about all sorts of things.  When we've been in the Caribbean we always like to have a bottle of Pimms and when we've run out -P&O don't stock bottles of Pimms only cans unless they've changed - one of the butlers told us where to find some in the Caribbean at one of the ports.  We've always found a butler enhances our cruise.  Maybe P&O don't always make it clear what the butler will do so that passengers who haven't had a suite before don't know how they can be used.

[ollienbertsmum]

Post-COVID one of the big advantages might be that you can stay secluded in your suite and so reduce the risks of getting an infection.  

 

It may well be that the only people who are cruising are those that have tested and have antibodies to the virus so it may not be something that future cruisers consider.

[Sir Cumference]

Thank you for your help.

 

I note that you said that room service items were all free of charge to suite guests - does that apply to drinks in the fridge, or are they chargeable as usual?

 

I've tried everywhere to find a copy of the room service menu on the P&O web site but san't find one - could somone please direct me to the right place?

 

Many thanks in anticipation 🙂

[pete14]

5 minutes ago, Sir Cumference said:

Thank you for your help.

 

I note that you said that room service items were all free of charge to suite guests - does that apply to drinks in the fridge, or are they chargeable as usual?

 

I've tried everywhere to find a copy of the room service menu on the P&O web site but san't find one - could somone please direct me to the right place?

 

Many thanks in anticipation 🙂

It does not apply to drinks in the fridge so possibly best to ask your butler for them to be removed as they are not cheap. Not sure about how to find menu online but it is pretty restrictive - nothing really exciting. I believe you can ask your butler to arrange for meals from MDR menu to be delivered to your suite. Be prepared for butler to set table with cloth and cutlery even you are eating room service lunch (burger etc) on your balcony.

[kenhem]

46 minutes ago, Sir Cumference said:

Thank you for your help.

 

I note that you said that room service items were all free of charge to suite guests - does that apply to drinks in the fridge, or are they chargeable as usual?

 

I've tried everywhere to find a copy of the room service menu on the P&O web site but san't find one - could somone please direct me to the right place?

 

Many thanks in anticipation 🙂

Attached is I believe the latest room service menu

POC H16275 PO Room Service Menu ROF WEB.PDF

[zap99]

On 4/26/2020 at 12:52 PM, ollienbertsmum said:

Post-COVID one of the big advantages might be that you can stay secluded in your suite and so reduce the risks of getting an infection.  

 

It may well be that the only people who are cruising are those that have tested and have antibodies to the virus so it may not be something that future cruisers consider.

But if you catch Norovirus you can get your seclusion far cheaper than a suite.

 

[Sir Cumference]

Thank you, everyone 🙂

[ollienbertsmum]

6 hours ago, zap99 said:

But if you catch Norovirus you can get your seclusion far cheaper than a suite.

 

 

Whichever the virus, I think that a suite would be my preferred form of seclusion.