Good points of P&O

[arendale1]

Loving this thread!

First cruise with P&O next week and am now looking more forward to it than I was (due to a certain issue).

We plan to have a great time and will be reporting back on this thread with all the positives (hopefully lots!) 😊

I will report back on said issue elsewhere 😉

[grapau27]

21 hours ago, emam said:

This has probably already been asked before, but as there are so many negative comments going around about P&O, can you please give us some good reasons why you cruise with them. Many of you cruise multiple times a year so you must have something good to say about them. 

 

PLEASE  do not post negative points on this thread.

Food and drink choice (old speckled hen beer) are aimed at a British pallet.

Drinks prices very reasonable.

Entertainment is always excellent because it is aimed at a British clientele.

The sailaways especially from the last port are always patriotic and emotional.

Afternoon tea is something we always look forward to.

[vwgolf]

Never had a problem with P&O. The main reasons we regularly cruise with them is because we can sail from Southampton and they are relatively inexpensive. The food is good, if not spectacular, and service excellent. Good sized, clean ships that are well maintained too. The entertainment can be cheesy (eg the "Great British Sailaway") but otherwise all good for me! 

Edited April 4, 2019 by vwgolf

[mercury7289]

Southampton,Southampton,Southampton.

 

It works for us.

 

 

 

[galeforce9]

I echo the points above.   

 

I especially like Aurora and have sailed since the early Oriana days.  I recently tried P&O after a break of 7 years and was pleasantly surprised. 

 

You really can’t beat the excellent P&O fried breakfasts and my favourite  “luxury” line doesn’t come anywhere close.  

 

It’s nice to leave from Southampton and the coaches work really well.  

 

I like the choice of gins and fever tree tonics especially. 

 

The Caribbean tier lunch is fantastic.  

 

I enjoyed the choice of costa coffee and the coffee cards which I believe are sadly going.  

[Narrow boat girl]

Thank you everyone for all these great comments we booked our cruise quite a while ago, after completing some research and thought we had made the right decision for us. Shortly after that there was quite a lot of negative comments on various forums.We thought we had made a really poor decision, but my faith has been restored..... Thank you only 4 weeks to go can't wait

[Clodia]

Have always liked P and O for the following reasons:

 

Traditional, without being stuffy. Love the formal evenings

Good food and service in the main restaurants, with the chance to get something a bit special paying for Speciality dining

Generally decent speakers

Good gyms

Prom decks to walk around

Some decent live music

No multi language announcements.

Reasonable drink prices with no added gratuities "for your convenience"(!)

Now moving to included tips.

Decent shore excursions often with very good guides.

 

BIG disadvantage: huge solo supplements. I had NEVER thought of trying a 6 star line until I was quoted a totally ridiculous price for a cruise on Aurora this Autumn. I laughed out loud and said I could do Silversea for that. And so this late Autumn I am doing a 2 week Silversea cruise for the same price I was quoted for Aurora, with all drinks and tips included, no extra charge for any dining, included flights and transfers etc etc. 10% solo supplement meant price match. No brainer.

[arendale1]

1 hour ago, galeforce9 said:

I echo the points above.   

 

I especially like Aurora and have sailed since the early Oriana days.  I recently tried P&O after a break of 7 years and was pleasantly surprised. 

 

You really can’t beat the excellent P&O fried breakfasts and my favourite  “luxury” line doesn’t come anywhere close.  

 

It’s nice to leave from Southampton and the coaches work really well.  

 

I like the choice of gins and fever tree tonics especially. 

 

The Caribbean tier lunch is fantastic.  

 

I enjoyed the choice of costa coffee and the coffee cards which I believe are sadly going.  

When are the Costa cards going?

[galeforce9]

5 minutes ago, arendale1 said:

When are the Costa cards going?

Don’t want to hijack the thread.  I thought possibly with the introduction of one of the new drinks package options.  I hope I’m wrong 

[annarack]

- Departure from Southampton is great as we have small children, hence can easily take all their stuff inc buggy

- Kids club/night nursery for the right age groups for our family

- Deluxe cabins/suites for extra space, but at a reasonable premium, compared to other lines

- Destinations we enjoy

- Good dining options and service

- Good level of comfort

- Fits with our budget

- Sindhu

- Epicurean breakfasts when in a suite

 

[groovechick]

On 4/4/2019 at 7:49 PM, galeforce9 said:

Don’t want to hijack the thread.  I thought possibly with the introduction of one of the new drinks package options.  I hope I’m wrong 

I may be behind the times or have missed something galeforce, but I was under the impression the drinks package idea had been quietly dropped because the one trialled recently did not go down well.

[groovechick]

What we like about P&O:

Sailing from Southampton - it's not a deal breaker for us, but the embarkation times mean a reasonably leisurely start to our holiday.

Tea-making in cabin (love my morning cuppa)

Reasonable drinks prices

Brilliant kids clubs (sadly no longer needed)

Generally good, sometimes excellent food. Speciality restaurant supplements are still not too pricey.

Buffet (yes, I know not everyone likes it, but DD adores buffet breakfasts. If you get swept aside in the corridor one morning by a slip of a girl, it's probably her powering her way to her cooked breakfast!)

Sea days - sailing from Southampton means more of these - we love lazy days at sea

Formal nights - in our day jobs/ordinary lives  neither me nor DD get to dress up, so we love a chance to glam up

Friendly people, from the staff to fellow pax. On other lines we've found the mix of nationalities tend not to chat (inhibited by the language barrier, maybe?), whereas on P&O often someone will strike up a conversation in a lift, in a bar, etc.

Entertainment - not to everyone's taste, including ours sometimes, but we have seen some really good acts/shows, we like  a good quiz or two, I enjoy the dance classses.

We cruise much less frequently than most on this forum, but every time we do we have a fab holiday with wonderful memories and are thankful we have the opportunity.

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, groovechick said:

I may be behind the times or have missed something galeforce, but I was under the impression the drinks package idea had been quietly dropped because the one trialled recently did not go down well.

 

The range of drinks packages has now been adopted permanently.  The full package is £49.95 per person per day :-0.

[Bazrat]

35 minutes ago, Britboys said:

 

The range of drinks packages has now been adopted permanently.  The full package is £49.95 per person per day :-0.

This conversation should really be on its own thread 

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

 

The range of drinks packages has now been adopted permanently.  The full package is £49.95 per person per day :-0.

The full drinks package on P&O is £39-95pppd.

[Britboys]

53 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

The full drinks package on P&O is £39-95pppd.

 

My apologies - yes, of course you are correct.

[Slugsta]

OP, please try not to worry about negative comments. Some people are not happy unless they have something to complain about!

 

We have cruised with 6 cruise lines and they all have their good, and bad, points. However, we keep coming back to P+O for the following reasons -

 

Lots of choice of round-trips from Southampton. I cannot sit comfortably for long but can manage the 45 minutes to Southampton and then the world comes to me 🙂

Consistently competitive prices, including onboard.

Prices onboard in £, so easy to keep track of spending.

Few PA announcements and those they do have are in English only (some lines repeat everything in multiple European languages).

Good food. I enjoy trying food from different cultures, so the fact that the menus cater to the English palate is a mixed blessing, but the quality is usually good.

Friendly service.

Proper formal evenings.

Good entertainment. For us this includes quizzes, hosted bridge and passenger choir as well as theatre entertainment.

 

I'm sure I have missed things, but this is what I can think of that is particular to P+O. 

Edited April 6, 2019 by Slugsta

[Selbourne]

The main reason that we cruise with P&O is because my wife is a wheelchair user and they are extremely accommodating for disabled guests. 

 

The other things that we like are;

 

- Southampton to Southampton cruises (no flying)

- Mostly British passengers

- Cashless system onboard

- Service standards in the restaurants

- Select Dining Restaurants

- No smoking on balconies (we refuse to try any cruise line that still allows this)

 

There are an increasing number of things that we now don’t like about P&O, but I will honour the OP’s request and not mention them. Thankfully, they are still outweighed by the positives. 

[grapau27]

50 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

The main reason that we cruise with P&O is because my wife is a wheelchair user and they are extremely accommodating for disabled guests. 

 

The other things that we like are;

 

- Southampton to Southampton cruises (no flying)

- Mostly British passengers

- Cashless system onboard

- Service standards in the restaurants

- Select Dining Restaurants

- No smoking on balconies (we refuse to try any cruise line that still allows this)

 

There are an increasing number of things that we now don’t like about P&O, but I will honour the OP’s request and not mention them. Thankfully, they are still outweighed by the positives. 

Great post Selbourne.

Even though we are high loyalty on RCCL and get some fantastic loyalty benefits  we have 2 P&O cruises booked for a total of 21 nights in the next 11 months because of what yourself and others have said about P&O good points.

[NoFlyGuy]

I would agree with most of what's been said.

As someone who will not fly it's great that P&O sail from Southampton year round (1hour 40 mins for us on average).

I know others like Saga, CMV and Fred also sail year round but they are either more expensive and none have freedom dining which we like.

Only cruised P&O and RCI and for us the food in the MDR seems fairly equal.

Drink prices on P&O reasonable - couldn't possibly do any RCI cruise now without it being 'all inclusive' because of the drinks prices. I know they bump up the cruise cost when all inclusive but at least one can plan.   

[branddad]

Some great and honest reviews.

We were not sure we would take to cruising, but we decided to give it a go last year. After quite a bit of research and reading of reviews we chose P&O Britannia for a Caribbean cruise.  It was everything we expected and more.  We loved it so much we were not long back before we decided to book a cruise again for this years holiday, and again booked the Britannia and even booked the same cabin.  Be our first time out of Southampton so will be a whole new experience.

69 days to go

[Tonyrefail1]

Great Topic.

We are coming from NZ in Oct for 19 nts on Arcadia and reading these great replies cant wait to catch up with come friendly Brits.

[the english lady]

A brilliant thread.

For us, its because it suits and fits us. Main thing being sailing from Southampton (we now live across the water from the port,so can see the ships going out..they come in too early for me to see that). 

Drinks are sensibly priced. As long as they dont put up the payg prices, to make the package seem more attractive.

having prices in £ ..not all of us are currency exchange whizzes.

The ship is not full of musac everywhere (in corridors and lifts etc)

I totally agree with the poncy but not too ponsy comment. We like the dress code, and its only 2 on a 7 night cruise.

[Harry Peterson]

Only two positives, I'm afraid (having just returned from 12 nights on Azura):

 

1  It's probably cheaper than a lot of other better companies.

2  The food's varied and good.

 

I'm not allowed to mention the many reasons for it's being cheaper in this thread, so I'll leave it at that.

 

 

[Bazrat]

20 hours ago, docco said:

Only two positives, I'm afraid (having just returned from 12 nights on Azura):

 

1  It's probably cheaper than a lot of other better companies.

2  The food's varied and good.

 

I'm not allowed to mention the many reasons for it's being cheaper in this thread, so I'll leave it at that.

 

 

So there was absolutely nothing else good about your 12day cruise which is a pity I am sure we would have liked reading the positives.