P&O vs Celebrity

[LibraLass41]

Our Steward on Arcadia was in his early 30's - a family man, he told me his son would be 7 on boxing day, so, not only would he miss christmas with his family he misses his sons birthday too! He goes home on leave at the end of january after a 9 month stint working 7 days a week 7am till 10pm..... and he wasn't even miserable:o He was polite, spoke very good english, and wished us a good day every day.

 

They are amazing the staff onboard. Just think about their lives and ours:rolleyes:

 

Sue

[PandO Boy]

Come on LibraLass - surely you wouldn't mind sailing from Dover or Harwich for a change? Celebrity have used these ports for many years and no doubt will continue to do so in the future, so you could easily enjoy a couple of weeks on Constellation.

[Pontius Navigator]

Two points - formal dining first.

 

We have just come from a 14 day cruise on the Constellation - 3 formal nights. On looking now to the Aurora next year, a 12 day cruise, there are 4 formal nights.

 

On ports, we have now used Dover, Southampton Cunard and Southampton P&O. P&O wins hands down.

 

Dover harbour parking was like a merrygo round. We drove in, went round once, got our ticket, drove round again to just 20 yards fromour first stop. Then everything was put into a 7 seat mini-bus. We were then driven some distance to the ship, baggage was portered away,check in was smooth, boarding was rapid. On return baggage was portered to a bus and we were dropped off at the car whose bonnet emblem had now been removed :(. We were away from the port 45 minutes from reporting to the ship disembarkation point.

 

Cunard is further in to the town than P&O. We arrived, Mrs PN and baggage were off-loaded and I then drove to the far end of the hall where the car was booked in. On return we collected the keys, were directed to the right car park, returned to the baggage hall and loaded up. Busy but not bad.

 

P&O is the easiest to access. We drove to the embarkation lounge. Unloaded baggage which was portered away, handed over car keys and checked in. On return we collected baggage on a trolley, collected car keys, crossed to the car park and away.

 

In all no dramas anywhere but the P&O arrival certainly was smoothest.

[LibraLass41]

P & O boy you are naughty trying to tempt me onto a Celebrity ship:D

 

Dover is a hell of a drive from Bath compared to Southampton (2hrs) I thinks its about 6hrs. But I wouldn't dismiss it. Perhaps in '09 I'll try Celebrity - too many ships , so little time;)

 

Libra

[Pontius Navigator]

P & O boy you are naughty trying to tempt me onto a Celebrity ship:D

 

Dover is a hell of a drive from Bath compared to Southampton (2hrs) I thinks its about 6hrs. But I wouldn't dismiss it. Perhaps in '09 I'll try Celebrity - too many ships , so little time;)

 

Libra

 

We are on Aurora next August. We will probably book Oceana the week after. We have just refreshed our memory of Oceana. Certainly the cabins look a little blander than Celebrity but there is a kettle in the room so we can have a decent brew of tea. The public areas however are as good as, if not better. The Oceana has a wonderful library whereas Constellation has just a small heap of books and most of them had been coloured in.

[K8T]

Having done both - most P&O because it is easier to get to, they are both very similar and you wouldn't be disappointed.

 

Meals on P&O seem to be more formal, although avoid the buffet, it does get a bit mad at busy times. Having said that we were on the Galaxy in November and we could never find a spare place, the waiters didn't carry our trays atall and I was wandering around, a tray in one hand and a two year old toddling in the other. We also found that the tables weren't cleared very quickly, which has always been the case on P&O. In fact our daughter ate her food up so quickly, so the 'man didn't take it away!'

 

On Galaxy the American feel was quite strong regarding food, particularly if you didn't eat in the main restaurants. Plenty of Pizza and pasta unlimited and fries in the early evening, which we found difficult if we didn't take our daughter into the main dinner, as she seemed to be having 'fast' food every evening at 5.30, as nothing else was available - but then they are not really 'geared up for kids'.

 

P&O food is available from 5.30 upstairs and is informal for children, although adults on the late sitting tend to pop in too! Pizza is usually available too, but you can get veg freely outside of the restaurant, which unless we ordered it specifically on Celebrity was only available in the restaurant at the set meal times.

 

There are two sittings on both ships, service in the restaurants is similar, but we found on Celebrity, people don't seem to dress up quite so much, in fact one man was at dinner (not a formal one), with what looked like a vest on - not pleasant!

 

In the mornings on Celebrity, there were waffles and pancakes with syrup etc., which isn't really part of the British culture and you won't find a special station on P&O for this, which there was on the Galaxy, the queues were long too.

 

The ship was lovely on Celebrity, similar to P&O, Galaxy was looking a bit tired in places.

 

To the other posters comparing P&O, the Oceana is not one of my favourites in the P&O line, but I am surprised at the attitude of the staff, we have never found this and certainly last June they were perfectly fine, but there are signs of cost cutting around the ship with towels in the rooms and not at the pool, no bathrobes and the unlimited tea and coffee all day only on at certain times, but what is that compared to a lovely cruise experience.

 

Whatever cruise you are on, think yourself lucky, don't compare and wish you were elsewhere, enjoy what you have, there are many who will never experience what you can:).

 

Fingers crossed the Oriana refit doesn't let this lovely ship down.

 

Kate

[Citizenship]

No contest!

 

Celebrity wins every time.

 

With the singular exception perhaps, of our 'over confident and borish' restaurant wine waitress, I'd best describe the cruise as otherwise faultless, throughout.

 

Peter.

[upwarduk]

I have sailed Celebrity twice ( Infinity to Alaska ) & Transatlantic on Galaxy.

We are booked on Mercury Sydney to Auckland Jan 20th 2008.

 

We sailed P&O Artemis Oct 2006 - Iberian Delights.

We choose Artemis as she is an Adult only ship. We were possibly in the youngest 25% on board- My husband is 63, I am 65. We thought we ought to try sailing from Southampton, instead of paying airfare. I did not like the 3 sea days at the beggining & especially at the end of the cruise- saling back to winter!

 

I did like the kettle in the cabin & the cheese & biscuits to end our evening meal. I was told by seasoned P&O cruisers not to think Artemis as typical of P&O.- she does not have a bath in the bathroom, but oh boy she had a passenger laundry room, which many people made use of- that I will miss when on Mercury; I will need to do laundry after having left home 10 before we embark and only having 20kg luggage allowance for our flights half way around the world.

 

If price is a consideration Celebrity wins hands down, a travel agent on the Transatlantic said she always recommends Celebrity, 5* cruising at 4 * prices.

 

I wrote a review of the Artemis cruise, doing plenty of comparisons. It can be found at:

 

http://cruise.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=586

[Pontius Navigator]

Celebrity, 5* cruising at 4 * prices.

 

That is what we thought we would like. It ended up 5* prices and 4*plus . . .

 

Mind you we really need to return to P&O to recheck. Certainly on the QE2 we travelled 3*+ in the cabin and 5* outside it! Not only a library but a proper book shop where you could buy books.

[tom_uk]

Certainly on the QE2 we travelled 3*+ in the cabin and 5* outside it!

 

That was always possible with the major lines, wasn't it? - in addition to the grand suites, there were also First Class cabins that were quite basic and Inside, thus allowing the passenger to enjoy 1st Class facilities around the ship but have a more economical trip. I believe there were quite a few 2nd Class (or Tourist Class) cabins that were better, as cabins, than the worst 1st Class.

 

I believe P&O ships of the past included this, as well as the Cunard liners.

[Pontius Navigator]

Tom, agree. My sister in law was 'upgraded' to the next class. Essentially they moved from an upper 3rd to one or the worst 2nds. It was noisy and rattled. Our cabin could be linked with a minor corridor door to the mother in laws to give a 2 bedroom suite.

 

On the QE2s Princess class some suites were by the Promenade deck door and you could look in. Also some balconies were in full view too.

[MattOsprey]

We loved P & O and HAL and X and Princess. But overall we prefered P & O.

 

The problem is always price. I have booked for my wife and I to go on Diamond Princess to Hawaii for 15 nights. Inside cabin and scheduled direct flights from Heathrow. With 46kg checked baggage allowance. Total price for 2 is £1700.

 

Everything is cheaper through US companies. Unfortunately we can't book P & O this way or we would use them more.

 

We found that P & O was more civilised and formal. This is what we like. Not everyone is the same.

 

That said any ship going somewhere nice is great!

[Pontius Navigator]

Standards do change over time. We found that Celebrity Constellation was disappointing in several areas but got a mild flaming in the Celebrity section.

 

A regular Constellation sailor, this was her 15th trip on that ship, has just posted her critique and it exactly mirrored our experiences in several areas; she didn't post any positives.

 

Her gripe was the bland and boring nature of the food. The Indian pastry chef managed to produce a variety of different looking deserts that lacked vanilla and tasted the same. This was mentioned on our cruise too.

 

On my last formal dining night I just looked at the menu and it simply failed to awaken any spark and I love good food.

[carlybaby]

Oh dear, now you have me worried. We have been on Century, Galaxy and last year the Millenium but in 8 weeks time we are going on the Arcadia.

 

We are really looking forward to this cruise especially as it is with P & O. We thought the best of the Celebrity cruises was on the Galaxy but we were very disappointed with the Constellation last year. Yes, the food and service was great but the entertainment, especially the evening was very poor. There were not very many Brits on board and we were most offended by the 'comedian' when he could only get laughs at the Brits expense. Not acceptable.

 

Another thing we could not understand was that once the show was over everyone went to bed. It was like walking round a ghost ship after 11 o'clock.

 

I really hope that P & O are OK as we have booked 2 of the Weekender's one on the Oceana and the following weekend on the Aurura next September 2008. Has anyone been on the Weekenders to Bruges?

[tom_uk]

Welcome, Carlybaby.

 

Like you I've cruised with celebrity a couple of times but not yet with P&O.

 

I agree with your comment on Celebrity: on 10-night cruises on Galaxy we certainly found that the ship was pretty dead by midnight, except in the casino... However, my understanding is that the P&O weekenders tend to attract a party crowd so I think you can expect the bars to be open until late, late, late. Although we haven't yet been with P&O we did a two-night cruise with NCL - the Norwegian Jewel inaugural from Dover in August 2005 - and there were some people at breakfast in Amsterdam who I don't think had been to bed at all. I believe that P&O weekenders tend towards this end of the spectrum, at least in part!