Prices!

[wowzz]

15 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

£50pppd is a large increase and increasing price of drinks limit to $15 is all relative as no doubt wines we were drinking in Vines under $12 will have by now increased to $15.

When you strip out the autotips and the wifi, the actual drink element of the package works out at around £30. Makes P&O's £39.95 look poor value for money, especially as so many of the P&O drinks are priced over the package price ceiling.

[Adawn47]

5 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm the same as you

 

I've had balconies before cruise ships and hotels. Quite simply never used them anywhere near enough to justify the extra cost.

 

You guys who like balcony cabins.

 

When do you use your balconies?

 

 

 

First thing on a morning drinking a coffee and watching the day begin. Most afternoons at sea I'll have a quiet read  and my husband likes to draw or do Soduko. Watching the ship arriving or leaving port, and having the occasional breakfast or lunch. We sometimes have a quiet drink before bed, it's beautiful on a night to relax and look at the stars .

Having a balcony is very important to us on a cruise.

Avril

[mercury7289]

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm the same as you

 

I've had balconies before cruise ships and hotels. Quite simply never used them anywhere near enough to justify the extra cost.

 

You guys who like balcony cabins.

 

When do you use your balconies?

 

Morning ,noon and night, have also slept on it.Star gazing and cognac,whats not to like.

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

When you strip out the autotips and the wifi, the actual drink element of the package works out at around £30. Makes P&O's £39.95 look poor value for money, especially as so many of the P&O drinks are priced over the package price ceiling.

It’s all the daft restrictions that makes the P&O drinks package a complete non-starter for us. Beer aside, most of what we drink is excluded. Mrs Selbourne will have a G&T comprising a double measure and a Fever Tree tonic. The drinks package only allows a single measure and the cheap and nasty tonics. We would generally order a 250ml glass of wine and couldn’t be bothered to be chasing down the ever diminishing staff to refill the small glass that the package allows. If we go to a show after dinner we would get a double measure of something. Only a single allowed. I could go on but, for us, when on holiday we like to drink what we fancy, not what we are ‘allowed’. 

[Josy1953]

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Make that 3 of us 😂. I remember being fascinated by the loading of steel on a ship in St Petersburg when we first went there and berthed in the commercial port rather than the new cruise terminal. Mind you, I also love passing Oil Rigs when heading up to Norway. Sadly, my wife and daughters just roll their eyes at me when I endeavour to point out these interesting things!

 

 

My husband also likes looking at the oil rigs, wind turbines and other ships.  When we are out at sea his binoculars are a must have.

[alpha whiskey]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

My husband also likes looking at the oil rigs, wind turbines and other ships.  When we are out at sea his binoculars are a must have.

For my husband it's all about the cranes! The taller and noisier they are, the more exciting! 

Also watching out for the rare breed of pier runners🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃

Edited December 29, 2022 by alpha whiskey

[zap99]

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

When you strip out the autotips and the wifi, the actual drink element of the package works out at around £30. Makes P&O's £39.95 look poor value for money, especially as so many of the P&O drinks are priced over the package price ceiling.

£30 is better than £40, but that is still £840 for 2 people on a two week cruise. Getting towards what we would spend ,but still a couple of hundred more.

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, alpha whiskey said:

For my husband it's all about the cranes! The taller and noisier they are, the more exciting! 

Also watching out for the rare breed of pier runners🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃

We always like to watch for the pier runners or strollers in some cases when they don't realise that they are supposed to get on board before the ship sails 🙂

 

[zap99]

1 hour ago, alpha whiskey said:

For my husband it's all about the cranes! The taller and noisier they are, the more exciting! 

Also watching out for the rare breed of pier runners🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃

We pop back to the cabin after lunch. DW informs me she has a couple of soaps to stream on 5G.....I can go out on the balcony and have a look at the big mobile cranes moving the containers, or there is always some drying paint to keep an eye on.

[jeanlyon]

11 minutes ago, zap99 said:

£30 is better than £40, but that is still £840 for 2 people on a two week cruise. Getting towards what we would spend ,but still a couple of hundred more.

Same here.

[P&O SUE]

17 hours ago, Neecy1 said:

We love having a balcony. This was our view when we woke on our recent cruise in November. Can you guess where it is?

I say Madeira (Funchal) too, are we right?

[P&O SUE]

I had inside cabins at first as that’s all we could afford, they were fine. 
The last two cruises I’ve been on have been balconies, absolutely loved them. Love watching the sea and it’s nice having that personal space especially if up on deck it’s really busy. 
We often spend the last couple of hours before dinner chilling in the cabin so it’s obviously nicer to do with the balcony. 
I would say you don’t know how nice a balcony is until you have one.

I would have an inside cabin again if price dictated it but I find I spent more time in my cabin if I have a balcony. 

On our first cruise it wasn’t great weather one day. We spent about an hour in our inside cabin after being onshore then went up to top deck. Found it was now sunny and warm so had to go back to the cabin to get the sun cream etc and then go back out again! Just little things like that are easier.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

£30 is better than £40, but that is still £840 for 2 people on a two week cruise. Getting towards what we would spend ,but still a couple of hundred more.

Our bar bill/coffee bill on Princess would be in the region of £2400  for a two week cruise,  so for us the package is a fantastic deal.  

[majortom10]

End of the day it all depends on how much you drink and is not for me to say whatb people drink so can only speak on a personal level. We dont drink alcohol that much so never had a drinks package on P&O/Cunard and only had them on Princess when £30pppd which when you take into account gratuities and internet was excellent value but at £50pppd as in 2024 it is too expensive to get value for money for what we drink so a non starter for us.

[Solent Richard]

18 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I'm the same as you

 

I've had balconies before cruise ships and hotels. Quite simply never used them anywhere near enough to justify the extra cost.

 

You guys who like balcony cabins.

 

When do you use your balconies?

 

For starters....

 

******

 

 

No wine boxes at our party...

 

 

Enough? I could go on.

[Solent Richard]

3 hours ago, alpha whiskey said:

For my husband it's all about the cranes! The taller and noisier they are, the more exciting! 

Also watching out for the rare breed of pier runners🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃

 

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We pop back to the cabin after lunch. DW informs me she has a couple of soaps to stream on 5G.....I can go out on the balcony and have a look at the big mobile cranes moving the containers, or there is always some drying paint to keep an eye on.

 

I guess you guys would feel in paradise sailing into Colombo...

 

 

[grapau27]

58 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

I had inside cabins at first as that’s all we could afford, they were fine. 
The last two cruises I’ve been on have been balconies, absolutely loved them. Love watching the sea and it’s nice having that personal space especially if up on deck it’s really busy. 
We often spend the last couple of hours before dinner chilling in the cabin so it’s obviously nicer to do with the balcony. 
I would say you don’t know how nice a balcony is until you have one.

I would have an inside cabin again if price dictated it but I find I spent more time in my cabin if I have a balcony. 

On our first cruise it wasn’t great weather one day. We spent about an hour in our inside cabin after being onshore then went up to top deck. Found it was now sunny and warm so had to go back to the cabin to get the sun cream etc and then go back out again! Just little things like that are easier.

Good post Sue.

We know people who always stay in inside cabins which is fine but they tell everyone they sail in balcony cabins or suites 🤔

[doog442]

5 hours ago, Selbourne said:

It’s all the daft restrictions that makes the P&O drinks package a complete non-starter for us. Beer aside, most of what we drink is excluded. Mrs Selbourne will have a G&T comprising a double measure and a Fever Tree tonic. The drinks package only allows a single measure and the cheap and nasty tonics. We would generally order a 250ml glass of wine and couldn’t be bothered to be chasing down the ever diminishing staff to refill the small glass that the package allows. If we go to a show after dinner we would get a double measure of something. Only a single allowed. I could go on but, for us, when on holiday we like to drink what we fancy, not what we are ‘allowed’. 

 

We had the drinks package on our last Princess cruise in July as it was excellent value however we're back on P&0 in Feb (Caribbean) for the first time since 2017 when things were far less restrictive.

 

I'm just wondering the best way for us to structure things drinks wise this time.  The plan is to take on our allowance of a bottle of Gin and Jack Daniels in Barbados. Does anyone know if there's duty free at the port to buy these - I presume there is. Do folk just order tonic and coke etc to the cabin or take it on as well - I don't really want to be lugging too many soft drinks on board.

 

I'm not a big day drinker, so a G&T pre dinner and a couple of Peronis in the evening will suffice, a cocktail or two for the better half, some soft drinks during the day.

 

We found with Princess we were drinking for the sake of it simply because of the package, it was daft really, especially over 14 days. 

[Yorkypete]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Our bar bill/coffee bill on Princess would be in the region of £2400  for a two week cruise,  so for us the package is a fantastic deal.  

Are the British cruisers all alchoholics?. How many of you are there to spend £1200 on drinks per week. I presume with the amount of cruises taken some on here are millionaires! lol.

[Harry Peterson]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Our bar bill/coffee bill on Princess would be in the region of £2400  for a two week cruise,  so for us the package is a fantastic deal.  

Hats off to you, Wowzz, and to others like you. Genuinely! You’re subsiding our cruises!

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Are the British cruisers all alchoholics?. How many of you are there to spend £1200 on drinks per week. I presume with the amount of cruises taken some on here are millionaires! lol.

Don't forget we are talking Princess prices here. So a couple of speciality coffees during the day,  four or five bottles of water, a couple of lunch time drinks,  perhaps an afternoon cocktail,  and then some glasses of wine before,  after, and during dinner. Very easy to hit the £100 a day mark without trying.

The actual break even point for Princess Plus is around the three glasses of wine a day mark, so you don't have to be an alcoholic for it to make economic sense.

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Hats off to you, Wowzz, and to others like you. Genuinely! You’re subsiding our cruises!

Princess obviously think it makes sense, as they are pushing the package like mad.

[yorkshirephil]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Our bar bill/coffee bill on Princess would be in the region of £2400  for a two week cruise,  so for us the package is a fantastic deal.  

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

You've met my wife then !

[davecttr]

Is a discount available on back to back cruises? I am thinking of replacing my 14 night xmas/new year cruise next year as I really don't wan to fly plus I will have over £3000 to spend, those Marella cruise can be expensive!. I am looking at Iona G338 and G339. Twenty one days for £2202 inside. An alternative is G338 for 14 nights and G403 for 7 nights in February. However G403 comes in at £899 and I just booked the same cruise for this February and the price was £502