Does anyone have an idea when summer '23 cruises (to the Fjords) might be released?

[thornegirl]

24 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Can you request that your towels are changed and bathroom cleaned in the evening, we always shower before dinner and like the bathroom tidied while we are out for the evening?

No we were told they can't do that.  Have been on Britannia and Iona staycations and they were both the same.  Only serviced in the morning.

[majortom10]

P&O have experimented in the past pre covid regarding servicing rooms only once a day on a trial basis having just returned from QE where your room was cleaned as normal in the morning and then at night whilst at dinner or at a show like in the past the towels were changed, your bed turned back and choccies left on your bed I can only see this as P&O using covid as an excuse as a cost cutting exercise. There were things on Cunard that have been instigated which I can see being made permanently to save money and other changes that I hope dont remain but feel all cruise companies will use covid as an excuse to bring in changes to save money. 

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

P&O have experimented in the past pre covid regarding servicing rooms only once a day on a trial basis having just returned from QE where your room was cleaned as normal in the morning and then at night whilst at dinner or at a show like in the past the towels were changed, your bed turned back and choccies left on your bed I can only see this as P&O using covid as an excuse as a cost cutting exercise. There were things on Cunard that have been instigated which I can see being made permanently to save money and other changes that I hope dont remain but feel all cruise companies will use covid as an excuse to bring in changes to save money. 

I always thought the cutting of the evening service would be permanent. By using the stewards in the reataurants they can cut staffing levels significantly. If Cunard didn't overcharge for their drinks I would cruise more often with them. By over harging I mean they have the sme drinls as P&), add at least 20% to the price and then add 15% service charge on top. 

[majortom10]

1 minute ago, Cathygh said:

I always thought the cutting of the evening service would be permanent. By using the stewards in the reataurants they can cut staffing levels significantly. If Cunard didn't overcharge for their drinks I would cruise more often with them. By over harging I mean they have the sme drinls as P&), add at least 20% to the price and then add 15% service charge on top. 

Whilst I cannot argue with your sentiments equally the food on QE these last 7 days in Britannia dining room have been excellent IMO equivalent to eating in Epicurean  on P&O every night so well worth it and not being a big drinker I know which I would prefer.

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Whilst I cannot argue with your sentiments equally the food on QE these last 7 days in Britannia dining room have been excellent IMO equivalent to eating in Epicurean  on P&O every night so well worth it and not being a big drinker I know which I would prefer.

I agree the food and service is better, but Cunard is 5* and P&O more like 3/4. We are not big drinkers - a bottle of wine, and pre and post dinner drink. What annoys me is the identical bottle of wine on both ships costs so much more on Cunard ( or it did in 2019). I am on QE in January so it will be interesting to see what it is like then.

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, Cathygh said:

I agree the food and service is better, but Cunard is 5* and P&O more like 3/4. We are not big drinkers - a bottle of wine, and pre and post dinner drink. What annoys me is the identical bottle of wine on both ships costs so much more on Cunard ( or it did in 2019). I am on QE in January so it will be interesting to see what it is like then.

I totally agree with you. OK, the food might be better in the evening,  but when I have to pay £12 for a glass of wine to go with that meal, I feel I am being exploited!

I appreciate that not everyone is bothered about the price of drinks,  but when on holiday I like to indulge in the odd lunchtime beer,  pre dinner cocktail etc, and Cunard price these indulgences out of reach. 

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

I totally agree with you. OK, the food might be better in the evening,  but when I have to pay £12 for a glass of wine to go with that meal, I feel I am being exploited!

I appreciate that not everyone is bothered about the price of drinks,  but when on holiday I like to indulge in the odd lunchtime beer,  pre dinner cocktail etc, and Cunard price these indulgences out of reach. 

 

 

Somebody on the current Cunard ‘staycation’ cruise has posted the drinks price list over on the Cunard board. The prices are eye watering. I’m due to go on my first Cunard cruise next May. I can see I’ll be sticking mostly to non alcohol drinks, as I’m not going to pay those prices for a drink. 

[Selbourne]

11 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Somebody on the current Cunard ‘staycation’ cruise has posted the drinks price list over on the Cunard board. The prices are eye watering. I’m due to go on my first Cunard cruise next May. I can see I’ll be sticking mostly to non alcohol drinks, as I’m not going to pay those prices for a drink. 

Interesting. I was saying to my wife last night that I am wondering if Cunard might now be more suitable for us than the ‘new’ P&O. Whilst accepting that drinks prices on Cunard are significantly more, can I ask if their cruises are significantly more expensive on a like for like basis? If Cunard is a 4 or 5 star experience, versus P&O now being 3 star, I would expect (and be happy) to pay more for it but, in order to compare, I would want to look at the total cost rather than just one aspect. Thankfully we aren’t big drinkers, with our daily alcohol usage generally being one or two pre dinner drinks, around half a bottle of wine with dinner and a drink afterwards. 

[Cathygh]

21 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting. I was saying to my wife last night that I am wondering if Cunard might now be more suitable for us than the ‘new’ P&O. Whilst accepting that drinks prices on Cunard are significantly more, can I ask if their cruises are significantly more expensive on a like for like basis? If Cunard is a 4 or 5 star experience, versus P&O now being 3 star, I would expect (and be happy) to pay more for it but, in order to compare, I would want to look at the total cost rather than just one aspect. Thankfully we aren’t big drinkers, with our daily alcohol usage generally being one or two pre dinner drinks, around half a bottle of wine with dinner and a drink afterwards. 

As Dermotsgirl says, the prices are posted over on the Cunard board and are much higher than I remember. £12 for a glass of wine, the same wine is £8ish now on P&O, plus 15% service charge, so £13.80 if my Maths is right.  That's a rip off.  The cost of a balcony cabin is more than P&O but the service is better. Cunard has not been excluded from cuts. Silver Service in the Britannia has gone. ( It was there in 2015). I suspect they have the same meat etc supplier as P&O but the quality of cooking is more consistent. I have only been in the Brittania restaurant and have never been disappointed. One day I'd like to try Brittania  Club or even Grills but for now I am happy with P&O as I can do more cruises for less. However Cunard might be worth looking at as an alternative to Fred or Saga. I've not been on either of them so I can't compare.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thankfully we aren’t big drinkers, with our daily alcohol usage generally being one or two pre dinner drinks, around half a bottle of wine with dinner and a drink afterwards. 

Even that modest amount will set you back the best part of £100 a day on Cunard !

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

The prices are eye watering

And don't forget you have to add another 15% (from memory) service charge to the menu prices.

[Dermotsgirl]

53 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting. I was saying to my wife last night that I am wondering if Cunard might now be more suitable for us than the ‘new’ P&O. Whilst accepting that drinks prices on Cunard are significantly more, can I ask if their cruises are significantly more expensive on a like for like basis? If Cunard is a 4 or 5 star experience, versus P&O now being 3 star, I would expect (and be happy) to pay more for it but, in order to compare, I would want to look at the total cost rather than just one aspect. Thankfully we aren’t big drinkers, with our daily alcohol usage generally being one or two pre dinner drinks, around half a bottle of wine with dinner and a drink afterwards. 

It’ll be our first time on Cunard, so I can’t really comment on the cruise experience. 
 

The cruise we originally booked was due to sail on the 1st October this year. It is the year of our 40th wedding anniversary and my husband’s 70th birthday, so it was going to be a celebratory cruise. With that in mind we booked Britannia Club, and Club dining was the nearest thing to freedom dining. For a 19 night cruise it was a 5 figure sum…… so we had high expectations. It was the Venice cruise on QV, which, I understand is always premium priced.

 

We’ve  moved the cruise to a 12 night Round Britain cruise on QV next May, still in Britannia Club. The price is about 60% less than our original cruise, but still more than I’d expect to pay on P&O.

 

the price of drinks initially looks very steep, as prices are in dollars.

 

On a cruise day, we might have a pre dinner drink maybe a gin and tonic for my husband and a small glass of wine for me. Then a larger glass of wine each with dinner and later in the evening maybe a bottle of beer for my husband and a cocktail for me. This adds up to about £50 each evening after converting from dollars. I’ve noted what a Cathy said about 15% service charge being added on, so call it £60 a night. That’s £720 for the 12 nights. I literally haven’t got it in me to spend that much on alcohol in less than 2 weeks, especially when the actual intake is so modest!
 

Fortunately, the drinking side of things isn’t that important to us, so I think we’ll have the wine with dinner and stick to soft drinks for the rest of the time 
 

[Selbourne]

25 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Even that modest amount will set you back the best part of £100 a day on Cunard !

Understood, but my point being that if that’s, say, £50 a day more than P&O and the overall cruise experience is better, then that £50 is a bargain! Obviously that’s not the only additional cost (assuming that cruises are more expensive to start with) but if, for example, the MDR food is better we would pay extra for that. You pays your money and takes your choice I guess.
 

What I’m keen to understand is what the grand total expenditure of a Cunard (or Saga for that matter) cruise is versus the equivalent P&O one and if, say, it’s 50% more is it 50% better? We’d rather have 3 great cruises than 4 mediocre ones!

Edited August 21, 2021 by Selbourne

[Windsurfboy]

I think you must seperate P&O into,  Aurora  & Arcadia  versus the big ships. The smaller ships are 3.5/4 star vs Cunard's 4 ( Cunard definitely not 5) whilst the bigger ships are different market altogether so if you like Cunard you won't like those.  Cunard is  dearer ,  but the service in P&O in terms is room/suite was just as good. We must wait and see if it goes back to normal. Given the price difference,  the comparison should be P&O eating in speciality restaurants every night vs Cunard main dinning room.   

Edited August 21, 2021 by Windsurfboy

[Host Hattie]

2 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Somebody on the current Cunard ‘staycation’ cruise has posted the drinks price list over on the Cunard board. The prices are eye watering. I’m due to go on my first Cunard cruise next May. I can see I’ll be sticking mostly to non alcohol drinks, as I’m not going to pay those prices for a drink. 

Don't forget that Cunard prices are in $ so not quite as eye watering as they look at first glance.

[Selbourne]

21 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

I think you must seperate P&O into,  Aurora  & Arcadia  versus the big ships. The smaller ships are 3.5/4 star vs Cunard's 4 ( Cunard definitely not 5) whilst the bigger ships are different market altogether so if you like Cunard you won't like those.  Cunard is  dearer ,  but the service in P&O in terms is room/suite was just as good. We must wait and see if it goes back to normal. Given the price difference,  the comparison should be P&O eating in speciality restaurants every night vs Cunard main dinning room.   

Thanks. That’s very useful. We prefer the passenger profile of the smaller P&O ships over the larger ones, but when on them we miss the facilities of the larger ships (Epicurean restaurant etc). We did a ships tour of QM2 and thought that there were more similarities than differences with P&O. The cabins were pretty much the same (top suites aside) and the MDR lunch that we had was on a par with P&O, but I appreciate that experiences on a cruise will be different. 

[Cathygh]

I wonder if there's also duty included in the Cunard drink prices atm if theye are sailing in UK waters?

The best wine atsting I have ever been to was on QV in 2015. No sniffing and swirling, just here area slection of our wines from around the world, try them and see what you prefer. There was lots of choice, you could drink as much as you liked, ( easily 1-2 bottles each) and even at $75 dollars each I thought it was worth every penny, or cent I should say. Sadly this was not offered on our next cruise with them in 2019.

[jeanlyon]

On 8/19/2021 at 1:34 PM, wowzz said:

Let me first preface my comments by stating the obvious. The major cruise companies only survived the no-sail period by borrowing enormous sums of money at high interest rates. Any further lengthy period with no cruising could be terminal. Therefore they are likely to be ultra cautious for far longer than other forms of tourism. 

So, my crystal ball says that for the mid term:

• All adults to be double vaccinated
• Negative tests required at embarkation
• Mask wearing to continue to be enforced whilst moving around inside the ship, and also in the theatre and other large indoor venues
• Cabins to continue to only be serviced once per day
• No buffet
• No ship's choir
• Limited karaoke (!)
• Limited sail away parties 

To be honest nothing on my list seems too onerous to me, and as long as independent shore visits are allowed, we will continue to cruise.

We have had a few UK breaks over the last year or so - helped break the monotony,  but the weather was always iffy, the holidays were expensive for what they were (especially when you take the cost of eating out into account) and on returning home we never felt like we had been "away".  

   

Do you know for certain that there is no choir - one of our main enjoyments, along with going ashore on our own?  

Edited August 21, 2021 by jeanlyon

[cruisenewbie1976]

26 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

I wonder if there's also duty included in the Cunard drink prices atm if theye are sailing in UK waters?

The best wine atsting I have ever been to was on QV in 2015. No sniffing and swirling, just here area slection of our wines from around the world, try them and see what you prefer. There was lots of choice, you could drink as much as you liked, ( easily 1-2 bottles each) and even at $75 dollars each I thought it was worth every penny, or cent I should say. Sadly this was not offered on our next cruise with them in 2019.

I think this is exactly why all the seacation drinks prices have been bumped up, as they'll be having to pay duty on the alcohol. Hopefully they'll come back down again when normal sailing resumes, or will they decide to keep the prices as they are and make more money 🤔

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Don't forget that Cunard prices are in $ so not quite as eye watering as they look at first glance.

Correct I think many are thinking the prices are in £s which they are not and having just returned from QE beer is about $6 +15% and wines start from just under $8 +15%. Yes the prices are higher than P&O but when you take into account the superior food throughout the ship then unless you are a big drinker like I have said before I think it is a price worth paying. I wouldnt accept poorer quality food just so I can get cheap drinks. The food onboard QE last week in Britannia restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner was first class and of a very high standard and portion size.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Understood, but my point being that if that’s, say, £50 a day more than P&O and the overall cruise experience is better, then that £50 is a bargain! Obviously that’s not the only additional cost (assuming that cruises are more expensive to start with) but if, for example, the MDR food is better we would pay extra for that. You pays your money and takes your choice I guess.
 

What I’m keen to understand is what the grand total expenditure of a Cunard (or Saga for that matter) cruise is versus the equivalent P&O one and if, say, it’s 50% more is it 50% better? We’d rather have 3 great cruises than 4 mediocre ones!

Maybe the current prices have vat added and possibly duty as well, so they should reduce a bit once they are back to normal cruising.

[majortom10]

27 minutes ago, cruisenewbie1976 said:

I think this is exactly why all the seacation drinks prices have been bumped up, as they'll be having to pay duty on the alcohol. Hopefully they'll come back down again when normal sailing resumes, or will they decide to keep the prices as they are and make more money 🤔

The drinks prices have not been "bumped up" just for Seacation cruises as prices are normal Cunard prices. It was printed every day in the Daily Programme that is delivered to your cabin that all prices in the shops because of not calling at an international port would have an extra 20% added as VAT due to UK regulations but there was no VAT added anywhere else. Surprisingly the shops remained empty with very little selling due to the obvious cost with the VAT increase.

[cruisenewbie1976]

4 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

The drinks prices have not been "bumped up" just for Seacation cruises as prices are normal Cunard prices. It was printed every day in the Daily Programme that is delivered to your cabin that all prices in the shops because of not calling at an international port would have an extra 20% added as VAT due to UK regulations but there was no VAT added anywhere else. Surprisingly the shops remained empty with very little selling due to the obvious cost with the VAT increase.

Prices have definitely gone up on P&O. I've never travelled with Cunard so wouldn't know about them. And I'm referring to excise duty, not VAT. Two different things. Excise duty would never be shown as a separate charge on a price list or menu. 

[majortom10]

Just now, cruisenewbie1976 said:

Prices have definitely gone up on P&O. I've never travelled with Cunard so wouldn't know about them. And I'm referring to excise duty, not VAT. Two different things. Excise duty would never be shown as a separate charge on a price list or menu. 

Well prices are very similar perhaps a small increase since our last cruise with Cunard in November 2019 so I do not think they have been increased just for Staycation cruises whether it is excise duty or VAT.

[cruisenewbie1976]

3 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Well prices are very similar perhaps a small increase since our last cruise with Cunard in November 2019 so I do not think they have been increased just for Staycation cruises whether it is excise duty or VAT.

Fair enough. I've only been on Princess post covid and had a drinks package so didn't pay any attention to the prices. I just recall lots of comments about various drinks on P&O now being above the cap for their package.