P&O cruiser trying Cunard

I think Tartanexile has hit the nail on the head regards the entertainment and speakers! Take some good books

That is not to say we don't enjoy our Cunard cruises but definitely have more fun on P&O.... The worst thing about Cunard is the entertainment particularly the speakers and entertainment in lounges.

My enjoyment of cruises is not based on "having fun" (which is why I avoid American lines offering a "fun vacation"), but I dare say P&O does offer more fun than Cunard. I don't go to lounges with entertainers on any line so can't comment. Cunard speakers are much better than P&O, but do tend to be more "heavyweight" so may not appeal to all.

If you go to afternoon lectures at the theatre or to see afternoon films it is possible to just go in a private box free of charge in the theatre, not many people know this. In the evening the theatre boxes are bookable and expensive I think.

The only thing with the boxes is they have a tall curved glass screen in front of them which you have time look through and which reflect the lights of the stairs.

The daily sheet mentioned the cost is $55 per couple, which includes the pre-show drink and a champagne in the box.

We have just returned from a two way Transatlantic crossing on QM2 our first Cunard ship and it will be our last....we were not impressed....yes you get bathrobes but so do you on Princess! We booked an early saver inside cabin...not a last minute cheap deal...and were given an interconnecting cabin where we could hear every word spoken next door! Not good! ...we were given late sitting dining in spite of our request for first sitting...however the very nice Maître d' did manage to find us first sitting places on the third night.....we did notice several empty tables on first sitting, I don't know why they were not being allocated.

We felt the lectures were comparable to P & O with talks about wartime naval conflicts, interviews with Celia Imrie (good), Fidelis Morgan (Who?? An actress apparently), two female gold medal winning hockey players (good), a Q and A session with Comedian Mike Doyle (excellent) , talks on the 'new' generation' of Fabergé eggs which were being sold on board.....all very similar to P and O..........what was different were the shops.....much more expensive presumably because of the exchange rate.....still run by Harding brothers but much smaller range of products (especially Citizen watches particularly as we were looking for one!)...however there was a Michael Kors shop which appeared to have little custom, and the Harrods range and Barbour clothing, but all very expensive.....when the Sekonda watches were brought out for a sale, watches that on P and O would sell for £30 were priced at $70 (£55)!! We did get a good buy with spirits though two one !itre bottles of (Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin) spirits for $25 (£20).

The food was good although the buffet was to be avoided because of the dreadful layout.....but we thought the $49.95 each cover charge for the Verandah restaurant was outrageous!

We struggled to find anything other than classical music to listen to, we did come across Purple Haze one day at the covered pool, and channel 45 on the TV but that seemed to be it, it would have been nice to have a choice.

Mostly Philippine crew but several Eastern European.....We found a few staff to be a bit miserable, particularly in Commodore club, bar staff giving double measures and charging for them when we hadn't asked for doubles...passengers having to put out their own sun beds on the aft prom deck and piles of dirty cups and dishes left all day on the towel bin in the same area.

We were disappointed that Cunard did not live up to our expectations and we look forward to our Christmas cruise on Oriana.

The acknowledged benefits are:

The accommodation (Bathrobes and slippers supplied)

The Service

The Food (including the superb buffet and free room service)

The drinks and cocktails (eg a Long Island Iced Tea is actually a bar steward made Long Island Iced Tea, not an 'interpretation' poured from a carton)

The Dancing (balls)

The live entertainment

The quality talks

The varied daytime activities

The total lack of pomposity, snobbery, arrogance, moaners, and bad manners.

Last, but in no way least, there are "The Cunarders".

 

To précis the Cunard benefits in one word, it would be "Class"

 

You will discover there is no going back.

Having just returned from a week on Cunard for the first time I would agree with some of those things, but certainly not all. To make clear, I travelled in steerage, aka Britannia on Queen Elizabeth on Cunard on a week's cruise to Norway. So taking the points above

Accommodation - The cabin accommodation is slightly better than P&O in some respects but certainly not all. I thought the wardrobes were cheap and nasty like something from MFI and I much prefer the open wardrobe style on Ventura. The TV was much better, a 26" Samsung which will happily play stuff from a USB stick (and there is even a menu option to do that). Bathrobes and slippers don't thrill me.

The public area accommodation is very similar, but a bit better maintained than some of the elderly ships P&O has, and more importantly someone seems to have sat in the chairs to test how comfortable they are before buying them.

Food - Breakfast and lunch not wildly different to P&O. The buffet was less crowded as more people seem to use the MDR for breakfast and lunch, but not much different with the food itself. Disappointed to not see curry on the lunch menu that I like on P&O.

The main difference was the evening food in the MDR was better than P&O. Not hugely, but what was on the menu was actually delivered, and delivered properly cooked (e.g. no overcooked fish), and not a green bean in sight. Cunard on a bad day is about the same as P&O on a good day.

The Veranda restaurant, their 'pay extra' restaurant, is very poor in comparison to similar on P&O. An American idea of what a French restaurant should be, where they completely missed replicating the French experience with the food (which was not as good as the MDR in most respects) but got it perfectly right with the snootiness of the staff.

Drinks and cocktails - Expensive to very expensive. Beer £5.40, so not much more expensive, a double G&T £12, and wine very exorbitant with the cheapest bottles on the menu at £30 (all the above including the 15% service charge).

Service - Not any significant difference to P&O as far as I could see, apart from the bars, where it was substantially worse because there were insufficient staff. The nationalities of the service staff is substantially different to P&O, with many more eastern European staff, and to be honest some of them seemed less enthusiastic than the staff on P&O. In their posh Commodore bar people were regularly waiting over 15 minutes to get their drinks after ordering.

The dancing - Yes. If you like to dance then Cunard would be the company for you. A proper dance floor and dance band every night, professional dancers, and even official dance partners.

The live evening entertainment - Not really any different to P&O, and I thought their equivalent of the Headliner shows were not as good as P&O. Being a mid size ship the QE cannot provide the variety of entertainment you get on a big ship like Ventura.

The daytime talks - From the people billed to appear these looked good as they were 'names' you might have heard of rather than 'people with a story' that you get on P&O. However they didn't quite live up to expectations, although as with the food, a bad day on Cunard seemed about the same as a good day on P&O.

Daytime activities - Slightly fewer of the swollen feet talks and some interesting activities. Plus their cinema projection is far better than P&O's amateur efforts, so actually enjoyable to watch a film.

Customers - A hugely more international group on my cruise up to Norway, with many Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and quite a few Japanese. Age range was slightly different from P&O with fewer of the very elderly and fewer of the under 35s. However the most significant difference was the average BMI index of the passengers was considerably lower than on P&O.

Dress - Formal nights were little different to P&O, but actually slightly more men wearing dark suits rather than DJs, probably due to the number of international passengers flying before or after.

Informal nights - Just like the old 'semi-formal' nights on P&O. Obviously nobody wearing very casual wear, but really just most men wearing a jacket over what they probably would have worn anyway with a smattering wearing a suit. The ladies taking the opportunity to look good.

Embarkation - Back to P&O of old. Sure you are shown a time they would like you to turn up, but if you arrive a lot early it is not a problem and they will get you on as soon as they can.

So Cunard vs P&O. I would put them in the same class, Cunard being a B+ and P&O a B-, but not so far apart that P&O on a very good day couldn't surpass them. So is it worth the extra cost of the far, and then extra cost of the on-board spend? Possibly, but not definitely.

Having just returned from a week on Cunard for the first time I would agree with some of those things, but certainly not all. To make clear, I travelled in steerage, aka Britannia on Queen Elizabeth on Cunard on a week's cruise to Norway. So taking the points above

 

Accommodation - The cabin accommodation is slightly better than P&O in some respects but certainly not all. I thought the wardrobes were cheap and nasty like something from MFI and I much prefer the open wardrobe style on Ventura. The TV was much better, a 26" Samsung which will happily play stuff from a USB stick (and there is even a menu option to do that). Bathrobes and slippers don't thrill me.

 

The public area accommodation is very similar, but a bit better maintained than some of the elderly ships P&O has, and more importantly someone seems to have sat in the chairs to test how comfortable they are before buying them.

 

Food - Breakfast and lunch not wildly different to P&O. The buffet was less crowded as more people seem to use the MDR for breakfast and lunch, but not much different with the food itself. Disappointed to not see curry on the lunch menu that I like on P&O.

 

The main difference was the evening food in the MDR was better than P&O. Not hugely, but what was on the menu was actually delivered, and delivered properly cooked (e.g. no overcooked fish), and not a green bean in sight. Cunard on a bad day is about the same as P&O on a good day.

 

The Veranda restaurant, their 'pay extra' restaurant, is very poor in comparison to similar on P&O. An American idea of what a French restaurant should be, where they completely missed replicating the French experience with the food (which was not as good as the MDR in most respects) but got it perfectly right with the snootiness of the staff.

 

Drinks and cocktails - Expensive to very expensive. Beer £5.40, so not much more expensive, a double G&T £12, and wine very exorbitant with the cheapest bottles on the menu at £30 (all the above including the 15% service charge).

 

Service - Not any significant difference to P&O as far as I could see, apart from the bars, where it was substantially worse because there were insufficient staff. The nationalities of the service staff is substantially different to P&O, with many more eastern European staff, and to be honest some of them seemed less enthusiastic than the staff on P&O. In their posh Commodore bar people were regularly waiting over 15 minutes to get their drinks after ordering.

 

The dancing - Yes. If you like to dance then Cunard would be the company for you. A proper dance floor and dance band every night, professional dancers, and even official dance partners.

 

The live evening entertainment - Not really any different to P&O, and I thought their equivalent of the Headliner shows were not as good as P&O. Being a mid size ship the QE cannot provide the variety of entertainment you get on a big ship like Ventura.

 

The daytime talks - From the people billed to appear these looked good as they were 'names' you might have heard of rather than 'people with a story' that you get on P&O. However they didn't quite live up to expectations, although as with the food, a bad day on Cunard seemed about the same as a good day on P&O.

 

Daytime activities - Slightly fewer of the swollen feet talks and some interesting activities. Plus their cinema projection is far better than P&O's amateur efforts, so actually enjoyable to watch a film.

 

Customers - A hugely more international group on my cruise up to Norway, with many Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and quite a few Japanese. Age range was slightly different from P&O with fewer of the very elderly and fewer of the under 35s. However the most significant difference was the average BMI index of the passengers was considerably lower than on P&O.

 

Dress - Formal nights were little different to P&O, but actually slightly more men wearing dark suits rather than DJs, probably due to the number of international passengers flying before or after.

 

Informal nights - Just like the old 'semi-formal' nights on P&O. Obviously nobody wearing very casual wear, but really just most men wearing a jacket over what they probably would have worn anyway with a smattering wearing a suit. The ladies taking the opportunity to look good.

 

Embarkation - Back to P&O of old. Sure you are shown a time they would like you to turn up, but if you arrive a lot early it is not a problem and they will get you on as soon as they can.

 

So Cunard vs P&O. I would put them in the same class, Cunard being a B+ and P&O a B-, but not so far apart that P&O on a very good day couldn't surpass them. So is it worth the extra cost of the far, and then extra cost of the on-board spend? Possibly, but not definitely.

Thanks very much for the info which seems to cover everything I wanted to know. From what you say it seems we will not find a lot of difference to P&O apart from costing quite a bit more.

We have just returned from a two way Transatlantic crossing on QM2 our first Cunard ship and it will be our last....we were not impressed....yes you get bathrobes but so do you on Princess! We booked an early saver inside cabin...not a last minute cheap deal...and were given an interconnecting cabin where we could hear every word spoken next door! Not good! ...we were given late sitting dining in spite of our request for first sitting...however the very nice Maître d' did manage to find us first sitting places on the third night.....we did notice several empty tables on first sitting, I don't know why they were not being allocated.

We felt the lectures were comparable to P & O with talks about wartime naval conflicts, interviews with Celia Imrie (good), Fidelis Morgan (Who?? An actress apparently), two female gold medal winning hockey players (good), a Q and A session with Comedian Mike Doyle (excellent) , talks on the 'new' generation' of Fabergé eggs which were being sold on board.....all very similar to P and O..........what was different were the shops.....much more expensive presumably because of the exchange rate.....still run by Harding brothers but much smaller range of products (especially Citizen watches particularly as we were looking for one!)...however there was a Michael Kors shop which appeared to have little custom, and the Harrods range and Barbour clothing, but all very expensive.....when the Sekonda watches were brought out for a sale, watches that on P and O would sell for £30 were priced at $70 (£55)!! We did get a good buy with spirits though two one !itre bottles of (Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin) spirits for $25 (£20).

The food was good although the buffet was to be avoided because of the dreadful layout.....but we thought the $49.95 each cover charge for the Verandah restaurant was outrageous!

We struggled to find anything other than classical music to listen to, we did come across Purple Haze one day at the covered pool, and channel 45 on the TV but that seemed to be it, it would have been nice to have a choice.

Mostly Philippine crew but several Eastern European.....We found a few staff to be a bit miserable, particularly in Commodore club, bar staff giving double measures and charging for them when we hadn't asked for doubles...passengers having to put out their own sun beds on the aft prom deck and piles of dirty cups and dishes left all day on the towel bin in the same area.

We were disappointed that Cunard did not live up to our expectations and we look forward to our Christmas cruise on Oriana.

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From what you say it seems we will not find a lot of difference to P&O apart from costing quite a bit more.

Absolutely.

There are far more similarities between the two than differences, but it seemed that if you dared to mention P&O to either other passengers or crew then there was a little intake of breath as if you had made some terrible faux pas.

(Snip)

For us, the atmosphere on Cunard may be described as understated but for us it is just boring. We area mature couple and we enjoy all our cruises but for us P&O is less stuffy and more relaxed which is what we want. That is not to say we don't enjoy our Cunard cruises but definitely have more fun on P&O and find the whole experience more sociable. The worst thing about Cunard is the entertainment particularly the speakers and entertainment in lounges.

This mirrors our experiences as well. I would also add P&O's more reasonable drink prices and - in my opinion - better food.

I found Cunard catered more to American tastes - meat heavy and very little veg in the evening meals.

I also find Cunard's dress code to be overly restrictive, insisting on a jacket every evening. I found P&O's combinations of formal nights and "smart casual " more appropriate for what is supposed to be a holiday after all.

Cunard had superior speakers I think, but otherwise P&O wins for entertainment- Headliners far better than Cunard's equivalent which we found to be real end of the pier stuff.

I am sure you will enjoy Cunard and it is fun to try another line and compare, but as noted above P&O is more "fun", prices more reasonable, with better food and entertainment in our opinion.

The acknowledged benefits are:

The accommodation (Bathrobes and slippers supplied)

The Service

The Food (including the superb buffet and free room service)

The drinks and cocktails (eg a Long Island Iced Tea is actually a bar steward made Long Island Iced Tea, not an 'interpretation' poured from a carton)

The Dancing (balls)

The live entertainment

The quality talks

The varied daytime activities

The total lack of pomposity, snobbery, arrogance, moaners, and bad manners.

Last, but in no way least, there are "The Cunarders".

 

To précis the Cunard benefits in one word, it would be "Class"

 

You will discover there is no going back.

:D

Having been on Elizabeth when we were unable to dock at Amsterdam I can assure you that "Cunarders" can moan with the best of them ;)

:D

 

 

Having been on Elizabeth when we were unable to dock at Amsterdam I can assure you that "Cunarders" can moan with the best of them ;)

Were they Red Tops?

Red Tops are not true Cunaders ;)

We also tried out Cunard and agree with Tartanexile81 ( yet again). We much prefer the friendliness of the crew on P&O and a more relaxed atmosphere than we found on the Queen Elizabeth. It was nice to try out, but we happily return to P&O :)

Were they Red Tops?

 

Red Tops are not true Cunaders ;)

What's a red top?

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One more point - unless things have recently changed, you don't get tea, coffee & kettle in your cabin on Cunard.

Not sure of the reasoning behind this, but it was a real relief to find these on our first p&o cruise.

One more point - unless things have recently changed, you don't get tea, coffee & kettle in your cabin on Cunard.

 

Not sure of the reasoning behind this, but it was a real relief to find these on our first p&o cruise.

We were on a transatlantic to New York on QM2 in November 2016 and there were tea, coffee and kettle in our cabin. Not sure if the other Queens have them yet.

I've cruised with both lines several times. Most recently with P&O. I agree with pretty much everything that's been said about them.

The rather steep drink prices on Cunard meant I probably spent less on board than I would do with p&o. The service is slightly better on Cunard, but not by much.

I though cunard's food was better, but on the last cruise p&o seemed to have significantly up their game in this respect leaving little difference. Green beans aside.

Passengers are of a slightly more refined class on Cunard, although I didn't detect anyone that was out and out snobby.

If you happen to be an unfortunate nicotine addict (as I am), the smoking areas on p&o seem to be populated by Jermery kyles's guests, while on the Queen Victoria, the smoking lounge was the liveliest and most fun place on the ship for good conversation.

I enjoyed both. They are more similar than they are different. On balance my heart likes Cunard, my wallet thinks p&o is better value. Bit like deciding between m&s and Sainsbury's....

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We were on a transatlantic to New York on QM2 in November 2016 and there were tea' date=' coffee and kettle in our cabin. Not sure if the other Queens have them yet.[/quote']

I believe they have them in all cabins now on Queen Victoria.

 

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What's a red top?

 

 

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I don't know either - would someone care to enlighten us please?

One more point - unless things have recently changed, you don't get tea, coffee & kettle in your cabin on Cunard.

Not true: QM2 and Queen Victoria have in-cabin tea/coffee facilities and Queen Elizabeth will after her next refit.

What's a red top?

 

 

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New customers on Cunard have a red stripe on their cruise card, and it appears to be a way for the regular Cunard customers to identify and look down on such people.

A few other minor points.......regarding towels ....we had bath towel size on QM2 but bath sheet size on P and O, of equal quality we felt....the in cabin biscuits on both lines are identical and not to our liking......there was quite a soot problem on the promenade deck sun beds aft and port side, so be careful if you have light clothing on!!

New customers on Cunard have a red stripe on their cruise card, and it appears to be a way for the regular Cunard customers to identify and look down on such people.

Similar to the way P&O cards ( and probably many other lines'), print a customer's loyalty ties on them I guess.

Similar to the way P&O cards ( and probably many other lines'), print a customer's loyalty ties on them I guess.

It is, but people travelling with P&O don't have a disparaging term for people who have not travelled with the company before.

Were they Red Tops?

Red Tops are not true Cunaders ;)

New customers on Cunard have a red stripe on their cruise card, and it appears to be a way for the regular Cunard customers to identify and look down on such people.

Incorrect statement. On Cunard there is a defined difference between those who are cruising for the time with Cunard, and Red Tops.

Incorrect statement. On Cunard there is a defined difference between those who are cruising for the time with Cunard, and Red Tops.

Why?????