Comparing Princess with P&O

[Selbourne]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:13 PM, Dobbers said:

Recently on Britannia the Crystal room was jam packed for the silent disco, on other evenings it was half full. 

The Silent Disco was far from silent whenever we passed it, with lots of people singing VERY badly 😂 

[Camberley]

9 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The Silent Disco was far from silent whenever we passed it, with lots of people singing VERY badly 😂 

And I thought the Headliners singers had improved!

Edited July 26, 2023 by Camberley

[Pine Man]

On 7/21/2023 at 3:24 PM, terrierjohn said:

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our Princess cruise

Thanks to you, and others who contributed to this post, I decided to look further into Princess having only ever cruised with P&O before.

 

First of all I registered with the Princess site and immediately some, not all, of my P&O history was taken into account and I achieved Platinum status. 

 

Secondly, I started looking at some of the cruises on offer on Sky Princess next year and was pleasantly surprised at the cost. Slightly dearer but not too bad at all, and it certainly seems a better cruising environment.

 

Thirdly and luckily, before I committed myself, I just had notification from my retirement associated that they had negotiated a 10% discount with Princess on all cruises!

 

Fourthly, I just booked two weeks on Sky Princess to The Land of the Midnight Son!

 

Once again, thanks to everybody who contributed to this post and pointed me in the direction of Princess!

 

[heatherb1958]

I agree whole heartedly about P&Os Atriums , they are so boring , they have no heart even though they are the heart of the ship . The only one we do like IS Britannia because at least you can grab a bottle of wine there at the Glass house and sit and people watch 😆.  

Princesses newer ships have a fab Atrium , I was up dancing nearly everynight to the bands playing there on Enchanted and Regal and with all the bars on different levels never had a problem getting a seat.

We are on Britannia again  soon followed by Sky a couple of weeks later . Will enjoy both I am sure but Sky will have the edge .

[lebreos]

Is tipping still not included on princess? is there a tax on top of every drink too?

[david63]

24 minutes ago, lebreos said:

Is tipping still not included on princess?

It is not included unless you have either the Plus or Premium package.

25 minutes ago, lebreos said:

is there a tax on top of every drink too?

Yes - unless you have one of the packages that includes drinks.

[alpha whiskey]

Shame that Alfredo's and Gigi's will no longer be complimentary unless you have a plus or premium package. 

Also changes and charges to room service and ordering.

Plenty of details on the Princess boards if you want to delve deeper! 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by alpha whiskey

[Pine Man]

18 hours ago, Pine Man said:

I registered with the Princess site and immediately some, not all, of my P&O history was taken into account and I achieved Platinum status. 

My wife also registered on line and didn't receive any loyalty despite her cruise history with me being identical.

[heatherb1958]

2 hours ago, alpha whiskey said:

Shame that Alfredo's and Gigi's will no longer be complimentary unless you have a plus or premium package. 

Also changes and charges to room service and ordering.

Plenty of details on the Princess boards if you want to delve deeper! 

 

 

 

Yes that is a shame about the new changes with Princess, second  or even 3rd major change in less than 12months .... 

We paid £30 pp per day for our Plus  package last year on Enchanted , no Premium then. It was just for drinks,WiFi and gratuities .

Then Plus went up to £40  and then £50 when they introduced Premium with extra bits for Plus and Premium and now it is changed again. 

As much as we were beginning to love Princess again moving forward  we will only book when there is a deal on like the recent half price Plus package at £25 pp per day  or a last minute cheap deal. 

Bad move on Princess's part they have alienated a lot of loyal customers .

 

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, Pine Man said:

My wife also registered on line and didn't receive any loyalty despite her cruise history with me being identical.

Same happened to us. If you contact Princess they will match her loyalty to yours. You need to send them proof.

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Same happened to us. If you contact Princess they will match her loyalty to yours. You need to send them proof.

I registered with Princess this morning and my P&O loyalty didn’t cross over. I’ve called them and they weren’t sure why, but have taken my P&O loyalty number (and my wife’s) and are emailing that info to someone in the hope that it will be rectified. They mentioned that only P&O cruises prior to 2017 would be recognised? 

[daiB]

18 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I registered with Princess this morning and my P&O loyalty didn’t cross over. I’ve called them and they weren’t sure why, but have taken my P&O loyalty number (and my wife’s) and are emailing that info to someone in the hope that it will be rectified. They mentioned that only P&O cruises prior to 2017 would be recognised? 

I am afraid you may be too late. The recognition of P&O status stopped in 2017. You had to cruise with Princess before that date to retain your Princess status. I registered with them way back before 2010 but did not sail with them until 2016. So got in just in time. I is Elite. 🙂 after only 1 cruise. 🙂 . On the cruise we went on we were invited to the party for the top 10 most traveled passengers.

[Cathygh]

19 minutes ago, daiB said:

I am afraid you may be too late. The recognition of P&O status stopped in 2017. You had to cruise with Princess before that date to retain your Princess status. I registered with them way back before 2010 but did not sail with them until 2016. So got in just in time. I is Elite. 🙂 after only 1 cruise. 🙂 . On the cruise we went on we were invited to the party for the top 10 most traveled passengers.

That is correct but sometimes there are glitches in the system and people get the P&O loyalty transferred to Princess. My husband's loyalty was transferred and mine wasn't but Princess matched 

mine to his as a goodwill gesture.

.

 

[david63]

20 minutes ago, daiB said:

The recognition of P&O status stopped in 2017. You had to cruise with Princess before that date to retain your Princess status.

That is the official line but for some reason that nobody at Princess knows the loyalty is sometimes carried over even for cruises post 2017.

 

46 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I’ve called them and they weren’t sure why, but have taken my P&O loyalty number (and my wife’s) and are emailing that info to someone in the hope that it will be rectified.

Don't hold your breath - I went down that route to no avail.

[paulatsea]

Just had a look - never been on princess before - some very reasonable prices for 5/7 nights balcony with princess plus package -

£1200 ish for 7 nights sky princess 2024 from Southampton 

 

is this the normal type of rate ?

 

We usually only do adults only on p&o or Marella  - obviously depending on time of year - but outside school holidays are there many children on board and are they well behaved on cruises from Southampton  !! ?

 

 

[terrierjohn]

18 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

Just had a look - never been on princess before - some very reasonable prices for 5/7 nights balcony with princess plus package -

£1200 ish for 7 nights sky princess 2024 from Southampton 

 

is this the normal type of rate ?

 

We usually only do adults only on p&o or Marella  - obviously depending on time of year - but outside school holidays are there many children on board and are they well behaved on cruises from Southampton  !! ?

 

 

There were quite a few children on our July 8th Sky Princess cruise, however they were all very well behaved, so I would not worry too much if I were you.

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

Just had a look - never been on princess before - some very reasonable prices for 5/7 nights balcony with princess plus package -

£1200 ish for 7 nights sky princess 2024 from Southampton 

 

is this the normal type of rate ?

 

We usually only do adults only on p&o or Marella  - obviously depending on time of year - but outside school holidays are there many children on board and are they well behaved on cruises from Southampton  !! ?

 

 

Is that £1,200 per person or per couple? If it’s per couple then that does indeed compare very well to P&O given that it includes a drinks package. If it’s per person then, even with drinks included, that wouldn’t seem to be that much of a bargain, albeit I know that the P&O adult only ships can carry a hefty price premium.

[paulatsea]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Is that £1,200 per person or per couple? If it’s per couple then that does indeed compare very well to P&O given that it includes a drinks package. If it’s per person then, even with drinks included, that wouldn’t seem to be that much of a bargain, albeit I know that the P&O adult only ships can carry a hefty price premium.

Per person - yes I’m comparing to Aurora/Arcadia/Marella explorer 2 - all the adults only ships on balcony basis - I should have mentioned that !

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by paulatsea

[Josy1953]

1 hour ago, paulatsea said:

Just had a look - never been on princess before - some very reasonable prices for 5/7 nights balcony with princess plus package -

£1200 ish for 7 nights sky princess 2024 from Southampton 

 

is this the normal type of rate ?

 

We usually only do adults only on p&o or Marella  - obviously depending on time of year - but outside school holidays are there many children on board and are they well behaved on cruises from Southampton  !! ?

 

 

When looking at Princess check when US school holidays because Princess is an American line and many families bring their children to Europe in the summer.

I usually check with my American niece when their school holidays are because we have found in the past that there can be a lot of American children on board during their school holidays.  Her children are off from the beginning of June to the end of August this year but she tells me to avoid a couple of weeks either side because different states have slightly different holidays.

[Dermotsgirl]

8 hours ago, alpha whiskey said:

Shame that Alfredo's and Gigi's will no longer be complimentary unless you have a plus or premium package. 

Also changes and charges to room service and ordering.

Plenty of details on the Princess boards if you want to delve deeper! 

 

 

I haven't sailed on Princess - but it all seems quite complicated.

[CaptainPedantic]

6 hours ago, Pine Man said:

My wife also registered on line and didn't receive any loyalty despite her cruise history with me being identical.

Much to my wife's disgust, when we first registered with Princess back in 2010 with our P&O cruise history, I was credited with one more cruise than her, which made me really smug in the days when your cruise cards had the number of cruises printed on them 😛 at least she didn't twig that maybe I cruised without her...

[AndyMichelle]

48 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I haven't sailed on Princess - but it all seems quite complicated.

Our thoughts exactly. 

We were looking for an alternative/slightly better option than P&O, but couldn't really get my head around it, so decided 'better the devil you know' for now. 

Andy 

[Selbourne]

17 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Our thoughts exactly. 

We were looking for an alternative/slightly better option than P&O, but couldn't really get my head around it, so decided 'better the devil you know' for now. 

Andy 

Glad it’s not just me then 😂 I’ve looked at a few other operators and lost interest as it all seemed so ruddy complicated. I coped with Cunard, as the main differences were that the prices were in dollars and service charges were extra - plus, of course, the class system that they have 😂. Saga is dead easy to work out as everything is all inclusive - but the prices reflect that 😱.

[alpha whiskey]

1 hour ago, Dermotsgirl said:

I haven't sailed on Princess - but it all seems quite complicated.

Yes, much more complicated now... Shame really.

Nice and straightforward in 2022 with a take it or leave it, great value package at £30pppd for drinks,coffees, tips and WiFi

Instead of just putting the price up,  they've added a whole lot of faff! 🤷

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, alpha whiskey said:

Yes, much more complicated now... Shame really.

Nice and straightforward in 2022 with a take it or leave it, great value package at £30pppd for drinks,coffees, tips and WiFi

Instead of just putting the price up,  they've added a whole lot of faff! 🤷

TBH  there is not any more faff than P&O, their app and The Princess Medallion do almost the same things, and you can totally ignore them for MDR dining if you so wish, and Alfredos new pricing puts it on a similar footing to the Glass House and  Beach House. As regards the Princess Plus, then IMO unless there is a 50% reduction offer then it's probably not worth taking, and Princess do at least have regular offers on Princess plus, which of course never happens on P&O.

Otherwise the Princess experience is very similar to P&O, but a bit more upmarket, with more and better musical groups, and lots of entertainment taking place in the Atrium, instead of it being a wasted space as on Britannia, Oh and much superior customer service.