Drinks package/policy changes?

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

I think suites on P&O are great value . Physically as good as any other.

 

Price wise half the price of say Cunard QG or a Saga midship suite.

 

Yes you don't get much as other lines in extras , but even with the cost of speciality restaurants every night, plus excellent wine and champagne. You can create everything you get on others for less. Anyway that's the experiment I'm  trying. The only negative is gamble in hoping to book restaurants.  With the huge rear balcony on aft suites you can avoid sunbed wars

Cunard Queens Grill is an entirely different experience to having a suite with P&O though, so not comparable IMHO. Using speciality restaurants every night wouldn’t appeal to us, other than perhaps on a 7 night cruise, as I’d find the menus too restrictive and repetitive. I like the choice and variety of the MDR menus, even though with P&O the menu descriptions can sound fabulous whereas what actually arrives at the table can be a little less impressive!
 

One thing that could persuade us back to higher level accommodation (than a balcony cabin) with P&O would be if they could come up with the equivalent of Cunard’s Britannia Club. When we went on QM2 (admittedly in Princess Grill, but similar concept) we absolutely loved having a fixed table that we could turn up to whenever we liked for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole cruise, with no pagers, apps or queueing whatsoever. It was ten times better than what we’d been used to with P&O and massively enhanced our cruise experience as a result. By contrast, when we stayed in suites with P&O, the sole dining privilege was breakfast in a speciality restaurant and even that we abandoned some days as the experience had been spoiled by a screaming baby and some unruly toddlers whose parents didn’t give a damn about the fact that it was ruining it for everyone else (admittedly that’s a bad parenting rather than P&O issue though, so can happen on any ship). 

[david63]

35 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

One thing that could persuade us back to higher level accommodation (than a balcony cabin) with P&O would be if they could come up with the equivalent of Cunard’s Britannia Club. When we went on QM2 (admittedly in Princess Grill, but similar concept) we absolutely loved having a fixed table that we could turn up to whenever we liked for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole cruise,

That is the one thing that would persuade us to come back to P&O.

 

Even Princess offering of "Reserve" dining is better than anything that P&O have to offer in respect of dining arrangements.

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Sorry you can get much better hotels in UK than premier Inn,  or holiday in  express for £200 a night.  Stayed in a great 4 star hotel outside Worcester on way up to northwest for that money.

You may well be able to and I do, but if you have to be in a certain place on a certain date it is extremely difficult.  If it's so simple perhaps you can find me a 4* hotel in London for 12-14 June with easy tube access to Hornchurch? Best I get is various Travelodges way out on the outskirts such as Wembley (nothing wrong with them I hasten to add).  

 

As I said £98 average Harrogate in a whole range of hotels which is good value.  Within 30 miles of London very little hope of anything under £200 a night for anything other than the cheaper chain end of the market.

[Windsurfboy]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Great re the dining.

 

We have not tried SAGA as yet. We are finding MSC Yacht club suits us well.

 

Yes you can pay for the mini bar but on P&O not pre booked theatre seats nor a nice quiet private lounge and restaurant which we enjoy. I also really enjoy avoiding almost every queue but others may not find that an issue.

 

We'll  put YC on our list, but  we like to sail out of UK. 

 

[showingdiva]

8 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

We'll  put YC on our list, but  we like to sail out of UK. 

 

 

MSC Virtuosa (including Yacht Club) out of Southampton, summer '24, '25 and '26.

 

MSC Preziosa out of Southampton winter '24 / 25 on loop of Hamburg / Rotterdam / Bruges / Le Havre

[Peter Lanky]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:32 AM, Lee Jones Jnr said:

Why are cars allowed to carry four, five, six passengers but motorbikes are not?

The customer has a choice. This is the policy, these are the prices, cruise or don't, buy or don't.

In the end the market determines the value, if enough people feel strongly enough to ditch cruises and drink off license in hotel rooms then the cruise market will change.

In the end, if people want to cruise (or dine out) they will put up with the rip off prices of drinks, just do without the drinks or try to beat the system (hip flask in handbag etc.) It's 'business' but it doesn't mean it is right.

 

Imagine buying a car and being told you can only fill up with petrol at a motorway service station.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

17 minutes ago, Peter Lanky said:

 

Imagine buying a car and being told you can only fill up with petrol at a motorway service station.

 

 

If your car only ran on a motorway  like cruise ships only sail on the ocean, then that's a better comparison.

[Megabear2]

17 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

If your car only ran on a motorway  like cruise ships only sail on the ocean, then that's a better comparison.

And if you don't want to nullify your guarantee you have to use a main dealer ...

[Windsurfboy]

21 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

You may well be able to and I do, but if you have to be in a certain place on a certain date it is extremely difficult.  If it's so simple perhaps you can find me a 4* hotel in London for 12-14 June with easy tube access to Hornchurch? Best I get is various Travelodges way out on the outskirts such as Wembley (nothing wrong with them I hasten to add).  

 

As I said £98 average Harrogate in a whole range of hotels which is good value.  Within 30 miles of London very little hope of anything under £200 a night for anything other than the cheaper chain end of the market.

 

Yes but this is about hotels for a UK holiday versus cruise  ships. Sorry but I don't think 30 mins from Hornchurch on a specific date qualifies as typical.

 

We wanted to stay overnight  this time last year in North West,  but noticed it was Eurovision in Liverpool.  Oops no cheap deals for 50miles of Liverpool. 

 

Prices are supply and demand . Pre Covid there was just over 600,000 thousand hotel rooms in UK (excluding air bnb etc) . This fell by up to 50,000  due to covid, the government has also taken 50,000 off the market.  So prices have gone up. Would be even more but for the expansion of air bnb etc

 

Hence the cheapest cruise prices are very good value compared to hotel,  but at top end even P&O suites prices still plenty of exceptional UK hotels for that money.  Unless you want a holiday in Central London. (Nightmare) 

Edited May 12 by Windsurfboy

[zap99]

2 hours ago, Peter Lanky said:

In the end, if people want to cruise (or dine out) they will put up with the rip off prices of drinks, just do without the drinks or try to beat the system (hip flask in handbag etc.) It's 'business' but it doesn't mean it is right.

 

Imagine buying a car and being told you can only fill up with petrol at a motorway service station.

 

 

Drinks price mark ups are no different to restaurants and hotels. About 80%. If folk don't want to pay those prices...don't drink. The margin on food is about the same as alcohol. Taking our own drink and food into restaurants doesn't really appeal.

[thornegirl]

Anybody seen menus with the price increases since the drinks package uplift?

 

I'm assuming that prices have increased across the board.  

[vitrocmax]

4 minutes ago, thornegirl said:

Anybody seen menus with the price increases since the drinks package uplift?

 

I'm assuming that prices have increased across the board.  

 

I expect the increase will kick in today on Arvia, I wouldn't expect them to change mid cruise. If we manage to board today we'll find out this evening. 

[Peter Lanky]

34 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Drinks price mark ups are no different to restaurants and hotels. About 80%. If folk don't want to pay those prices...don't drink. The margin on food is about the same as alcohol. Taking our own drink and food into restaurants doesn't really appeal.

Rather more than 80%, in fact I'd say more like 300%-800% depending on the establishment. It can't be compared with food which takes skill and imagination to prepare in many cases. There is no skill and minimal effort required to open the screw cap on a bottle of wine or Scotch and pour it into a glass.

Many people drink in restaurants because they feel obliged to, in a similar way that they feel obliged to tip in restaurants, because their fellow diners put pressure on them either silently of vocally. I don't comply in either case.

[thornegirl]

6 minutes ago, vitrocmax said:

 

I expect the increase will kick in today on Arvia, I wouldn't expect them to change mid cruise. If we manage to board today we'll find out this evening. 

That would be helpful as the drinks menu prices on the P&O website are from May 2023.

[zap99]

20 minutes ago, Peter Lanky said:

Rather more than 80%, in fact I'd say more like 300%-800% depending on the establishment. It can't be compared with food which takes skill and imagination to prepare in many cases. There is no skill and minimal effort required to open the screw cap on a bottle of wine or Scotch and pour it into a glass.

Many people drink in restaurants because they feel obliged to, in a similar way that they feel obliged to tip in restaurants, because their fellow diners put pressure on them either silently of vocally. I don't comply in either case.

I used markup incorrectly.  I Should have used margin.

[Selbourne]

5 hours ago, Peter Lanky said:

In the end, if people want to cruise (or dine out) they will put up with the rip off prices of drinks

I just don’t accept that P&O drink prices are a rip off. As previously mentioned, they are no more than any pub or restaurant that we use ashore. You just cannot compare the cost of a bottle of booze bought from a shop versus the individual drink price in a pub, restaurant or cruise ship. As with any service business, the cost to buy the product is only a small amount of the cost of supplying the service.

[jeanlyon]

Selborne, agree.  I don't find them a rip off either.   No difference to what we pay in a pub in the UK.  Each year we have a UK holiday in the car and stay in nice pubs.  A bottle of wine is usually about £22, (basic) and a large glass is about £7 to £9.  Same on the ship.  The room is anywhere from £85 to £115 per night including breakfast, so dinner is obviously on top of that.

Edited May 12 by jeanlyon

[gsjnd]

16 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I just don’t accept that P&O drink prices are a rip off. As previously mentioned, they are no more than any pub or restaurant that we use ashore. You just cannot compare the cost of a bottle of booze bought from a shop versus the individual drink price in a pub, restaurant or cruise ship. As with any service business, the cost to buy the product is only a small amount of the cost of supplying the service.

Totally agree. I think the P&O drink prices are pretty reasonable.

[Eglesbrech]

58 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I just don’t accept that P&O drink prices are a rip off. As previously mentioned, they are no more than any pub or restaurant that we use ashore.

I would not suggest they are a rip off as we have had the same or more in hotels abroad.

 

That said they are certainly not the prices we would generally expect to pay at a restaurant or pub at home. All things are relative.

[Selbourne]

11 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I would not suggest they are a rip off as we have had the same or more in hotels abroad.

 

That said they are certainly not the prices we would generally expect to pay at a restaurant or pub at home. All things are relative.

We live ‘down south’ where prices are more inflated 😉

[AndyMichelle]

Our local pub wine list. 

You connoisseurs will tell me if this makes P&O expensive? 

Our nearest comparison was a bottle of Zinfandel Rose on board was £25, £26.50 here. 

Andy 

Edited May 12 by AndyMichelle

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Our local pub wine list. 

You connoisseurs will tell me if this makes P&O expensive? 

Our nearest comparison was a bottle of Zinfandel Rose on board was £25, £26.50 here. 

Andy 

My local pub has a decent bottle of Chenin, Pinot Grigio or shiraz for around £15. Beers like Stella are £4.30 a pint, Moretti £4.60. Cheaper beers are £3.50.

 

Food is £10.25 for a large portion of fish and chips (£8.00 for pensioner portion). Fahitas are £10 for veggie, £12 for chicken and £13 for steak. Steak pie etc around £10.
 

 

[AndyMichelle]

9 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

My local pub has a decent bottle of Chenin, Pinot Grigio or shiraz for around £15. Beers like Stella are £4.30 a pint, Moretti £4.60. Cheaper beers are £3.50.

 

Food is £10.25 for a large portion of fish and chips (£8.00 for pensioner portion). Fahitas are £10 for veggie, £12 for chicken and £13 for steak. Steak pie etc around £10.
 

 

That shows the divide. 

No pints under a fiver down here, except 'Spoons', Peroni £6.20. 

Any meal in a decent pub is around £18, even a burger. 

A steak starts now about £20, a decent cut nearer £30.

Large cod & chips, take away from the chippie is over a tenner. 

Andy 

Edited May 12 by AndyMichelle

[Windsurfboy]

Sorry  this is a a cruise not the local pub .

 

One should expect better food accompanied by better wine than your local pub .

 

If you want a cheap meal then you can get a microwave meal and cheap wine from supermarket. That's not why you go on a cruise. 

 

I've  been looking at the P&O wine list , the mark up varies,  some are 300% , notably those wines in the £ low 20s. However there most expensive wine Gervey Chambertin has a mark up of well under 200%, better than many restaurants on land

Edited May 12 by Windsurfboy

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

That shows the divide. 

No pints under a fiver down here, except 'Spoons', Peroni £6.20. 

Any meal in a decent pub is around £18, even a burger. 

A steak starts now about £20, a decent cut nearer £30.

Andy 

There is a massive divide both in drinks prices but also in wage rates.

 

A steak is about £16 here and a massive mixed grill with steak, lamb, gammon, sausage, chicken etc £20.