A Tail of a couple of ‘Princess Tragics’, Who Sailed P&O Australia for The First Time

[Ozwoody]

Introduction

A Tail of a couple of ‘Princess Tragics’, 
Who Sailed P&O Australia for The First Time, and give their impressions of sailing with them. 

 

We have previously never considered sailing with P&O Australia, as we had always heard, “it is a party cruise line for the older teens and young couples who liked to party hard”.
Many of the news reports seemed to confirm this, so it never appealed to us, to truly consider it for a cruise.

Our first Sea Cruise was in the early 2000’s on the Diamond Princess, which had been organised by an in-law. Did we like it? 
They dam well nearly had to pry me off that boat, and have lived to cruise every chance I’ve had ever since. 
We have clocked up just over 400 cruise days since, including several world cruises.

So, I would describe us as reasonably seasoned cruisers. But still babies to some .

Being of the older generation we have always gravitated to Princess, although we have sailed Cunard as well.
Princess in general, has been considered the cruise line for the more senior members of the population.

 

The following is our experience of P&O Aust. as I found it, and is my humble opinion, given for what it is worth, as a critique of how it compared to me, with my Princess experiences.
I have broken it down into smaller blocks, of related areas, to try and make it easier read. 

Hopefully I have achieved that.

 

Part 1

This was our experience.

 

The Cruise

As with all the other cruisers since late 2019, we have been in hiatus during the Covid epidemic. But fortunately, life has been reborn in 2022, and cruising is alive again.

 

So, when, one day in October, the very in-law who got us hooked, said he had booked the P&O Pacific Encounter for a cruise to Vanuatu, and asked, will you come with us.

We were truly in mixed emotions.

However, after much encouragement, we eventually said YES, we’d love too.

 

But, ahh P&O???

Umm, back cruising yes, but P&O? Aren’t they for the younger crowd???

I don’t think we qualify for that.

My in-law assures us, they are not just a party boat, as they have sailed P&O previously, and their great he assures us. Well as he’s the one who got me hooked in the first place, his word should  be good enough for me

So, with great excitement we have agreed to join them, on the pacific cruise. Eyes bright and bushy tailed.

 

Our introduction to P&O Australia cruising.

The cruise ad said the cruise would cost us around $800 each, we both thought that was a good price.

However, when we tried to book it, we found, it pays to read the fine print, that was for a quad cabin, suddenly it was actually costing us around $1500 each for a twin share cabin.

 

Well dam it, it’s been three long years since we cruised, to hell with it, so told the TA to book it.

 

He manages to get us adjoining deluxe balcony cabins in a great location Mid Deck Level 10, and we’re very happy little vegemiters’.

 

With great enthusiasm, we start the process of logging onto P&O cruises web site, and registering all our cruise details, and planning our cruise.

As experienced cruises we tackle this with absolute confidence.

 

 

 

 

Part 2

The P&O web site said download the P&O app.

 

The Apps

Well, covid has managed to continue to complicate this it seems. But we have followed the CC threads of others who have jumped forward as soon as cruising opened in OZ. So knew about this modern life, that requires that everything has to be done with an App on your phone.

Been reading all about the Medallion App on Princess, so an App for P&O was no surprise.

 

But ahh, on downloading the P&O App, led to a whole bucket of “um what’s???”

 

First: On down loading and installing the app, the very first thing the app told me to do was….,

Tell me I needed to download and install the app????  Huh I just did??

Now that’s not a good start in giving confidence in an app, is it?

 

Secondly: On logging in it tells me I have to download and install a second app called “VeriFLY”, just to load all the covid info?

So, to cruise with P&O you have to use two different apps? Not linked?   Really?

 

If princess can do it with one app, why can’t P&O?

Oh well no big deal, just go with the flow.

 

Well, I would have if either of the apps, had of flowed.

But both I found to be glitchy at best.

P&O’s app, kept getting lost and asking me “Who put the pineapple in the pool”.

Don’t ask me! I have no idea what that meant?

 

Long story short, after flicking between apps, and the web site several hundred times, (that may be a tiny little over exaggerated, but not by much) we were able to get everything sorted, green ticks, boarding times, baggage tags, dining times, dinning linked to our in-laws booking, and etc. (Confirmed early dinning by the way, but we will come back to that).

 

After much searching and asking questions on CC, I decided to buy the $25 soft drinks package, seemed expensive but from what I could find out I thought it probably was worth it. (More on this later too)

 

We are ready, we are excited, we only have one more hurdle to complete the “conformation we are well bit”, and the “final RAT test”, all is organised, and completed at the due times.

 

Our TA even got us swapped to adjoining disabled cabins, that had not been booked just before the cruise, so we had pleasure of a huge cabin with a large bathroom, and a really huge balcony. We are very excited for our imminent embarkation on our first cruise in three years. Yay.

 

[Ozwoody]

Part 3
Embarkation Day
We have booked a P1 under cover car park, at the BICT, so the car would be safe from hail and only a short walk to the terminal. I was worried that parking might be a bit short on, so turned up a little early, but when we got there, there was heaps of spaces right up close to the terminal. Very happy vegemiters. Life is good.

 

Now in all fairness to P&O, my expectations that their boarding process would be similar to our previous Princess cruises, was a bit unrealistic, different organisations and covid, I suppose, are bound to have different approaches. 

 

But, to hold a huge crowd of people on the forecourt, while waiting, for all priority boarders to arrive, seemed a little lacking in organisation to me. 
A second priority line could have sped up boarding, and not have required the sailing to be delayed over two hours. (More on this later too).

 

However, once the go ahead for general Pax to load, the processing did flow smoothly, and we were on board and checking out our cabin happily.

Now walking through the general areas of the ship, was very pleasing, everything looked brand new and very smart, very impressive.

 

But once we started exploring our cabin, some problems started to pop up, the room frankly looked very tired, and contrasted with the finish in the public areas. 
Then we noticed the bar fridge door was hanging on one hinge, no biggie, but disappointing. (Nothing in the fridge by the way).
But then we tried to have a look at our balcony, initially I thought the door was locked by a hidden latch somewhere, but sadly not the case, the door was just incredibly stiff to operate, so much so that, it took a great amount of muscle to slide it. There was no way my wife could move it at all.
Later we were to find out that, not only was it difficult to open, it did not close completely, and that the crack left, would howl all night with wind noise.
That wonderful spacious balcony was also quite shabby as well, huge but shabby. The balcony furniture didn’t look very clean either.

Well, you win some and you lose some there you go, it was not the end of the world. We have a trip to enjoy.

 

Another small hiccup.
However, on arriving at our cabins we received our dining confirmations, which when opened, confirmed late sittings for all meals, and that our in-laws, which were supposed to be linked to us, were at different dining rooms from us, for every single night. 

What happened to our confirmed linked early dinning? 
Our first impression with the MDR experience was disappointing.

 

We went straight down to the Waterfront restaurant on level 5 mid ship to sort it out, as that was where we were told to go. Only to find they had transferred the dining room reservations to the Dragon Lady level 6 stern, which required going back up two levels, then through a twisting route through level 7 to the back of the ship, then down to level 6. 
Not a big deal but still a little annoying. 

Good job we did as it turned out. As the early bookings for the MDR’s was tight and it was a lot of fiddling by the poor girl trying to find spots for four people at each of the dining rooms. 
Full credit to her keeping calm under pressure and working to make people happy. 
While we were waiting on the girl sorting out our dining, a large group was forming behind us with the same problems.

Not the start of a cruise, that I would think inspires confidence in the ship management.

[Ozwoody]

Dinning

The Pantry

Our group decided to check out P&O’s Pantry for lunch, their alternative to Princess’s Horizon buffet.

Their take on the pantry in their brochure was, it is a series of take away shops (Supposedly 9 Deliciously Different Venues).

An extract from their dinning ad below: -

Bye-bye buffet! The Pantry is unlike anything you’ve seen on a cruise before.

It offers interactive dining with a range of stylish, individual outlets offering contemporary

Australian and international cuisine.

Night or day, there’s something for everyone in The Pantry.

 

The outlets were called: Curry House (Indian), Mexicana (Tex-Mex), Kettle & Bun (Baked Bread, Sandwiches, & soups), Sugar Bar (Sweets & pastries), Hook's Fish & Chips (local fish and chip shop), Stix (Asian), Fat Cow (Roasts), McGregors Garden (selection of fresh salads), and Nic & Toni's (Mediterranean dishes).

 

The way they were advertised and photos printed, made it seem like they were individual shop like outlets.

However, it was mostly just a basic buffet, rudimentally divided off into sections. With the Kettle & Bun & McGregors Garden located in the standard location for these things on the island serveries.

The Sugar Bar was located just outside of the island buffets in its own island.

 

The first impression was, it looks interesting, and the food looked good, so we thought we would try it.

We all had something different, and the general consensus was, the food was not bad, in fact quite good.

It was a bit chaotic at first with people swirling back and forth from one outlet to the other, but seemed to sort its self out, as people located their preferred food choice.

Overall, first impression was not bad, different but not bad at all.

 

Impression after using the pantry for several days

Well, my feelings over several days dwindle a little bit.

 

Sadly, my wife found the salads disappointed after the first day, wilted lettuce, and tough chewy carrots, etc didn’t appeal to her.

 

BREAKFAST

For Breakfast most of the “outlets” served the same or similar foods, the “Hook's Fish & Chips” served the same thing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Somehow, hot chips don’t do it for me for breakfast.

Most areas served bacon, beans, eggs, and sausages, plus some other basic items.

Found the breakfast meals offered, were very boring after a couple of days.

Especially disappointed with the cereals which were very limited, and no bran.

 

LUNCH

For me I found that the offerings were the same or a variation of the same things each day, from each of the “outlets”.

Variations it seemed to me to be in the spices/herbs used that day.

Sometimes the food was very tasty, and on other times a bit tough and chewy.

But not disastrously so.

 

DINNER

What surprised me was the evening meals were similar to the lunch, as well.

 

Not sure about Nic & Toni's, did not find it. I think maybe it was the small section in the middle, (lucky if it was 800mm wide), that had a single pasta dish of some sort changed daily, wedged between a couple of narrow columns on the buffet.

 

My overall impression was that the Pantry concept was interesting, but was not an improvement on the standard buffet. I felt that Princess buffet from my experience offered a far more varied food offerings, during the course of a cruise.

 

A rider here, if you’re the young party generation, you may find the pantry concept just what you like, but for this old dude, fast food outlet styles, just don’t do it for me.

 

We did look at going to a MDR for breakfast, but on arrival the que was right out into the plaza area, and people were saying there was a 15-to-20-minute at least wait to get in.

Later we found out you could book with your phone; it was still a wait but you could sit somewhere until you got your text message to enter.

Sorry, queuing for breakfast whether by line up or phone isn’t for me, so Pantry it was, at least I could just walk in and get something straight away. Even found that there always seemed to be a table vacant to sit at.

At least that was until the covid hit.

 

Service in pantry

Staff in pantry do not get you drinks, or bring coffee and tea around like princess, you have to get them yourself.

Also did not seem enough staff to clean tables, so quite often had to wait for the tables to be cleaned.

Staff seemed to be flat out all the time. All staff both serving in buffet, and the table cleaning were very friendly and tried to be helpful, and all worked hard. Just needed more staff out on the tables.

 

 

[Ozwoody]

 

Dinning2

Main Dining Rooms (MDR)

The complementary MDR’s are ANGELO'S (Italian), WATERFRONT RESTAURANT (Modern Australian Cuisine), and DRAGON LADY (Asian-Fusion).

 

For the first night we tried ANGELO'S.

The staff were excellent, the décor pleasant, the menu had a good selection.

However, for a complimentary restaurant, I was perplexed to see prices beside some items.

The quality of the food we had was excellent, timing of delivery was faultless. We all enjoyed our meals.

Thumbs up for Angelo’s.

 

Second night we ventured into the DRAGON LADY.

Now this was an experience; at first, I thought we had arrived to early and they had not turned on their lights yet. But no, that is the ambiance they were featuring, dark and mysterious. They led us through a very dark dining room to a table we could hardly see. Then to our amusement handed us dark coloured menus to choose from. After a bit of explaining we could not see the menu, believe it or not, a torch was produced. As we giggled a bit, and said to each other, it doesn’t matter what we have, we won’t be able to see it anyway.

But just then, we were rescued by a group just sitting down next to a window, when one of them got up and opened the curtains near them, quickly followed by others near windows, hallelujah let there be light and there was.

Having now being able to see the menu we were pleased again to see an interesting selection, and also noted that again there were prices next to some items in a complimentary dining room.

We ordered, and again was very pleased with the quality of our meals.

Another thumbs up.

 

Third night was the WATERFRONT RESTAURANT.

This was a port night, so the restaurant was quite empty for the early session, but pleased it was well lit, and again the décor was pleasant.

Menus were produced, and again excellent selection of courses, including prices beside some items.

And as with the other two dining areas the food was of a very high standard, all of us thoroughly enjoyed our chosen meals.

That’s three thumbs up, very happy dinners.

 

Summation of our Complimentary Dining experience.

The food was excellent, the staff very attentive and proactive, atmosphere was great in all complimentary venues. Thought it was strange that with the sheer number of “Specialty Dining Restaurants” on board, that they would have the audaciousness to add chargeable meals to the complimentary dining room menus.

We never got to try any of the specialty restaurants, cruise was to short and other things got in the way, but assume they would all have been excellent as well.

 

[Ozwoody]

 

Dinning3

Drinks

I took the $25 soft drink package, seemed very expensive considering Princess package cost around $15.

I tried to check around, but found it difficult pre cruise to get any soft drink menus.

Finally, just before the cruise, I was given the costs of the sodas and coffee/hot chocolate, but still no info on fruit juices or mocktails.

Based on someone saying he thought the mocktails were around $8-$10, decided to go with the soft drink package.

 

Well, when we actually were on the ship, I found out why it was difficult to get drink info.

The simple reason was, that there is precious little in the way of drink menus on the ship, outside of wine, spirits and cocktails.

There was one menu for hot drinks, I found on the ship, unfortunately it was affixed to a wall on the pool deck, and they would not let me take it back to our cabin.

  

After several days I discovered a second drink menu that finally answered most of my questions on soft drink prices. It too was on the pool deck, and called the “Magrodome family pool” menu, which included prices for mocktails and soft drinks including soda, fruit juices, and water.

 

The mocktail part was a revelation, in that I had been asking in various bar areas what mocktails were available, each time I asked the various waiters would say there was three, and then rail of a list so quick, all I got was one word at the beginning (lychee) and one at the end (watermellon). I tried several times to catch the middle one, but failed.

As the thought of a lychee mocktail did not grab me, settled into watermelon ones, they were nice, so no hardship.

 

On Princess, they had one called “Chocobanana”, even now my mouth waters and my eyes roll in bliss.😋

 

So, I was very frustrated with P&Os mocktails, and still had no way of knowing if the drink package was worth it. That was until I found the menu on the pool deck, then all was revealed.

There are actually seven mocktails available, one called “Sweet Tooth” that sounded particularly nice, Milk, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, and a pinch of salt.

Alas did not get to try it as we were then in quarantine for covid.

Also found the cost of the mocktails was $5.25, and the juices were $3.50, and sodas $3.50.

So, to answer the question “was the drink package worth it”, as I would normally on a cruise have two hot chocolates, and two mocktails, and one fruit juices, per day, that would be: -

Hot chocolate    – large             $5.40 x 2           = 10.80

Mocktail                                       $5.25 x 2           = 10.50

Fruit Juice @ dinner                   $3.50 x 1           = 3.50

                                                                                  = 24.80

So barely for me, but probably most people would get good value for money.

 

Oh, and another thing that amused me was that, P&O do not use soda fountains, they use standard drink cans, if you order a coke, they crack open a can each time. Besides taking longer to disperse drinks, it seems a very un-green thing to do, they must go through hundreds of those cans a day maybe a thousands, whatever.

Just seemed a very un-environmental way to serve drinks.

 

The drink menu problem was not just confined to me, my brother-in-law, was having a similar problem with beer, in the bar areas, as again the menus did not cover what beers were available or the cost for them to select.

Out side of the wines and cocktails, you were left asking what was available and what was the cost. As the waiters were extremely busy serving people, they were not that forthcoming with detailed answers, leaving us frustrated and annoyed. Not the best way for P&O to encourage people to return sail with them.

 

However, the good news is, that according to my wife, and she is a fussy one when it comes to coffee, the coffee in the level 5 atrium was the best she has had at sea. So, P&O to get her tick of approval you must be doing something right in the coffee shops. Her only complaint was she wished all the coffee areas used porcelain cups, and not those paper cups which are ghastly at best.

Same goes for the Hot chocolate in those paper cups, their also ghastly to drink from.

 

I believe the one area, where P&O could easily lift their game, is by providing, in all bar areas a proper extensive, priced, drink menu. It shouldn’t be that difficult to do.

Also, they need more drink staff, as it can be very hard to get someone to take your order at times.

 

I felt very sorry for the staff, when they got harassed, by people who were frustrated in trying to get someone to serve them. It’s not the waiter’s fault, they were under staffed.

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Ozwoody

[Ozwoody]

 

Port Visits

Our first port of call was Noumea, as this was a port we had not visited previously, we were looking forward to our visit. However, as the ship did not dock until around 4pm and access to leave the ship was not given until around 4:30pm, plus we had to line up to get a ticket to leave, as a shuttle bus was required to take us from the port to the CBD Cruise Terminal. Couple that, with the shops closing at 5pm, we considered it a waste of time to line up for a shuttle ticket.

 

The official reason for our late arrival given by the captain was unfavourable seas.

 

Quite frankly I believe the problem was the fact we departed Brisbane 2.5 hours late, possibly due I believe, to the boarding procedures commented on above re embarkation. Really believe they needed two lines with the second for the priority embarkies. Those extra hours if we had left on time, would have given us 3.5 hours in Noumea, and would have made the port a viable visit. Alas we were to be very disappointed.

 

Don’t know why the ship did not berth at the new Cruise terminal in Noumea, which we could see in the distance. Maybe its still not certified for docking yet?

 

As it turned out, we were destined to not actually to get to visit any of the scheduled ports, as the very next morning my wife was not feeling well, and then tested positive for covid.

But as we had visited the other two ports a few times, it was not as big a disappointment as Noumea was.

 

 

[Ozwoody]

Ship Response to Covid
On Hil testing positive to covid that morning, I also took a rat test, and returned a negative result.
We immediately contacted the med centre and told them my wife had a faint positive result to her rat test. They advised a doctor would visit her shortly. A nurse turned up later that day, checked the rat test, confirmed she had covid, told her she was confined to cabin, and that antiviral tablets would be deliver to her shortly.
She then told me that I could leave the cabin, wearing a mask, to go to the Pantry for food for us, but I was to return straight to the cabin to eat it, I was not to eat any meals outside the cabin. I could also get drinks but they also were to be brought back to the cabin for consumption. She also handed us several sheets of paper.

 

The antiviral tablets arrived late that afternoon.

 

To be clear; we accepted all the above requirements as a responsible course of action. 
And to be fair to P&O we needed to take some responsibility for our situation. Once on the ship we did relax our mask wearing.
However, one of the info sheets we were given in our cabin on embarkation day, said masks are now no longer required on board. There was, I must admit, a note at the bottom that said masked recommended if unable to maintain social distancing in crowded areas.
We unwisely accepted the advice, and with virtually no one wearing masks, didn’t as well. That was our mistake, we own it, can’t blame anyone else for it.

 

But P&O’s subsequent management of the covid situation was woeful as far as I’m concerned. 
Once the nurse left, that was the last, we heard from P&O until the night before disembarkation.

One of the sheets the nurse left us was a room service menu, the other was a covid isolation information sheet.
The info sheet told us that our cabin has extra sheets and towels, disinfection sprays, and wipes, stored in a cupboard, as the room stewards will not be allowed to service our room. 
Sensible, we accepted that, and expected that would be the case.

The main problem was that none of the linen etc, or the cleaning gear that they said was in the room, wasn’t.
At first, we didn’t notice the missing items, as we were coming to terms with not being able to leave the room.
We were unsure in the beginning, if the room service was still being charged for, we thought it would not be, but they did not specifically state that it was free. The room service menu was pretty basic, pies, hamburgers, pizzas, sandwiches, and etc. when we asked service desk, what we could order, they referred us to the room service menu. When we asked room service what we could have to drink, they advised us anything on the menu except alcohol drinks and power drinks like Red Bull. Five versions of canned soda drinks is not an extensive list.

 

When I think about it, why couldn’t we have been given a MDR dining room menu to order from, surely that could have been possible.

 

So, except for a couple of days Hil tried some of the room service items, I did the run up the steps to the Pantry and back down the lift with Hil’s breakfast/lunch/dinner, then up again to grab my meals and back to eat with her.
That brief bit of freedom each day at least got me a break from the room, alas poor Hil was not so lucky, and slowly got a bit stir crazy. 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Ozwoody

[Ozwoody]

 

Part 2 covid

On the afternoon of the second day of isolation, we looked for the stated supplies, and found they did not exist. We checked every cupboard and under the bed, nothing. Mentioned to the service desk we did not have them, they advised that it would be supplied by a special crew in PPE. So, we waited, next day no one came. The following day we checked with room steward he said he would check for us. Next day he asked had they been, advised him no they hadn’t, he said he would chase them up, told him not to worry we were disembarking the next morning anyway.

 

Basically, I don’t believe they (P&O) wanted to know us, or even acknowledge we were confined for duration of the cruise. Hil said several times, no one seems to care how we’re fairing, and I think she was right.

 

That last day we received a disembarkation notice, giving us a meeting place and time to leave and to have our bags outside our door by 5pm, for them to be picked up for unloading. We duly put our bags out just before 5pm.

 

At about 7pm we received our first contact from P&O, since the nurse, by someone who said he was organising our disembarkation. We told him we had received disembarkation info earlier that day, we were to be disembarked at 9:30am group 11. He said oh ok, stick with that then, and hung up.

 

A little later, someone else rings up, to tell us that we are to stay in our cabin in the morning, and someone will come to escort us off, and that we were not to put our bags out, they would have someone collect them from us.

Told him they had already gone, and that we had a disembarkation group notice.

He then instructs us to ignore that, and that they will come for us about 10am tomorrow.

 

Well, the next day we waited, slowly 10am rolls around, then 10:30, then at 10:45 Hil rings the service desk asking what’s happening? She is told stay in your cabin, you are due to be picked up between 10:30 and 10:45, someone should be there in about 15 minutes. By this time, it was already 10 minutes to 11am!

 

Finally, we receive another phone call about 11am, to tell us to make our own way to deck 7 via the forward stairs. As we headed down others were joining us at each level.

When we reached the stair foyer at level 7, we were a group of about 20 to 30 people at least, couldn’t get an accurate count as people were still up the stairs and around corners.

 

There we were stopped all bunched together, as none of the staff seemed to know what was happening.

A staff member in uniform arrives with a bunch of envelopes, and starts reading out names, as there is a number of us, wrapped around corners and up the stairs, very few people responded to the names called out.

Turns out they were account statements, and they were checking all bills had been paid.

I thought you have got to be kidding, you’re checking us now? You have our bank card or debit cards on record, why in the world would you be checking it now.

When this was expressed to the staff, they seemed embarrassed, and then suddenly someone takes control, and makes the decision to lead us off the ship, like a party of primary school kids to collect our bags in the BICT and funnel us through to customs. Then like a bunch of naughty children we were herded out to await special transports to take people home. As I had my car there, I peeled off to it, and headed home.

 

Sadly, in no way has P&O endeared its self to us, with their treatment (or lack thereof) of passengers, unfortunate enough to contact covid, during a cruise.

I have read the experiences of others, on other lines, and from what they say, they were treated with much more respect than us.

Leaving us with out change of linen etc for nearly a week, was just plain NOT acceptable.

And lack of food options was abysmal. Running up and down for me to get six decent meals a day, was ridicules.

P&O you have to lift your game, this was nowhere near good enough.

 

PS: So far, we have had no contact from P&O re reimbursement for the drink package I did not get to use to any real degree. Nor have we been advised on any consideration that may be offered, for being restricted to the cabin for 5 days. Which evidently other cruise lines do.

 

 

[Ozwoody]

 

Summary Of Cruise

Putting aside the covid thing, mostly the cruise was (or would have been if not contacted covid) a reasonable cruise.

 

There were a few incidents that fell short in my opinion, like the embarkation, dinning assignments, condition of cabins.

But not bad enough to spoil a cruise.

 

Some Other Thoughts on P&O vs. Princess Cruise

In comparison with Princess Cruises, we noted the following points.

 

Free Stuff

A lot of the small things that princess includes free, P&O charge for, or just don’t provide.

 

For Instance

Like little fruit tarts and biscuits in the Horizon that you could pick up and take with you to nibble on later.

P&O charge you a $1.50 for their biscuits, and no little fruit tarts at all. There was a sweet tart in the desert bar, but more sweet, than treat.

On Princess the Hamburgers and pizzas are free.

Nibbles and light meals are free in the deck 5 café on Princess.

There is table service for tea and coffee, and drinks, in the buffet area on Princess.

During the dinner period in the Horizon, there are a selection of cheeses and crackers that can be selected and taken to your cabin to enjoy, on your own or with friends. P&O had only a couple of cheeses, and those sliced thinly.

 

There is no loyalty program with P&O Aust. Nothing to make you feel they want you to come back.

It made me feel like they just don’t care if you return or not.

It also seemed to me, they were just happy to cycle through the party types, that are content to be in packed cabins, and do the odd short boozy cruises.

 

The other feeling, I developed (rightly or wrongly) over the course of the cruise was that, everything on P&O was designed to gouge every single dollar they could extract from you.

 

In final Sum Up

Would I cruise with P&O again?

Well definitely not P&O Australia, evidently P&O UK is a totally different experience, or so I am told by people who have travelled on both.

Even my in-laws who have sailed P&O UK previously, said they would not sail with P&O Aust. again as well.

 

If you’re into a quick getaway, your young and enjoy a party boat, you would probably love it.

But for this old fuddy duddy, P&O Aust. Is not my type of cruising.

We will stick with Princess.

Although several other lines have been recommended to us, and in due course if the opportunity presents itself, we would probably give them a go.

 

Well, for what it’s worth; that’s my experience and how I felt about our cruise with P&O Aust.

It’s just my opinion, others may feel differently about them.

 

Happy cruising, and smooth seas.

 

Regards

 

[arxcards]

Awesome. An enjoyable read so far, and lots of nodding. I will get to read through the latter half on my work breaks tomorrow. We will pretty much cruise on anything, but we do board P&O with a different set of expectations than we do for Princess - very different. We have cruised P&O mostly for specific itineraries/events or as part of large groups.

 

Sadly the priced items are making it onto MDR menus on a lot of ships. Royal has had it for many years, usually for a specialty steak or surf & turf. Princess also has a paid surf and turf option now too. Angelo's and Dragon Lady debuted on Aria & Eden seven years ago. The menus are still the same, so for us they are not the attraction they were the first couple of times.

 

I agree that The Pantry is still largely a buffet, or at least a shared area cafeteria. If you just want one thing, it would be a different experience, but it seems you need to go to 3 stations to put together a complimentary meal, but the stations on the newer Princess ships also require a bit of hopping from one section to the next. I do like that they are mostly not self-serve though.

 

For you, what was Star Princess is now Pacific Encounter. They P&O style the public areas, but the cabins all remain the same except for some new carpet and bedding. We cruised in an aft mini on Dawn Princess 13 years ago, and it had a broken jet in the spa bath. We cruised in the same cabin on Pacific Explorer in May, and it still has the same broken jet in the tub.

[Cbtours]

46 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

 

Summary Of Cruise

Putting aside the covid thing, mostly the cruise was (or would have been if not contacted covid) a reasonable cruise.

 

There were a few incidents that fell short in my opinion, like the embarkation, dinning assignments, condition of cabins.

But not bad enough to spoil a cruise.

 

Some Other Thoughts on P&O vs. Princess Cruise

In comparison with Princess Cruises, we noted the following points.

 

Free Stuff

A lot of the small things that princess includes free, P&O charge for, or just don’t provide.

 

For Instance

Like little fruit tarts and biscuits in the Horizon that you could pick up and take with you to nibble on later.

P&O charge you a $1.50 for their biscuits, and no little fruit tarts at all. There was a sweet tart in the desert bar, but more sweet, than treat.

On Princess the Hamburgers and pizzas are free.

Nibbles and light meals are free in the deck 5 café on Princess.

There is table service for tea and coffee, and drinks, in the buffet area on Princess.

During the dinner period in the Horizon, there are a selection of cheeses and crackers that can be selected and taken to your cabin to enjoy, on your own or with friends. P&O had only a couple of cheeses, and those sliced thinly.

 

There is no loyalty program with P&O Aust. Nothing to make you feel they want you to come back.

It made me feel like they just don’t care if you return or not.

It also seemed to me, they were just happy to cycle through the party types, that are content to be in packed cabins, and do the odd short boozy cruises.

 

The other feeling, I developed (rightly or wrongly) over the course of the cruise was that, everything on P&O was designed to gouge every single dollar they could extract from you.

 

In final Sum Up

Would I cruise with P&O again?

Well definitely not P&O Australia, evidently P&O UK is a totally different experience, or so I am told by people who have travelled on both.

Even my in-laws who have sailed P&O UK previously, said they would not sail with P&O Aust. again as well.

 

If you’re into a quick getaway, your young and enjoy a party boat, you would probably love it.

But for this old fuddy duddy, P&O Aust. Is not my type of cruising.

We will stick with Princess.

Although several other lines have been recommended to us, and in due course if the opportunity presents itself, we would probably give them a go.

 

Well, for what it’s worth; that’s my experience and how I felt about our cruise with P&O Aust.

It’s just my opinion, others may feel differently about them.

 

Happy cruising, and smooth seas.

 

Regards

 

Excellent review. Thanks ozwoody. Very interesting review.

[Chiliburn]

Good review, I would like to go on P&O again but it’s just the food and coffee over a period of time would break you.

[Rassa]

@OzwoodyThanks for your review because there is not much out there about P&O Aust but I really like the Princess and RCCL experience.   I have a P&O one booked for next winter, which I will still do, but I think I will give the current sale a miss.   P&O UK was fine.

[Ozwoody]

9 minutes ago, Rassa said:

@OzwoodyThanks for your review because there is not much out there about P&O Aust but I really like the Princess and RCCL experience.   I have a P&O one booked for next winter, which I will still do, but I think I will give the current sale a miss.   P&O UK was fine.

Hi Rassa

Don't fear your cruise next winter will be fine, our P&O Aust. cruise was fine just not the style we like. our only real downer was the covid part, a fact of life at the moment. 

That was one place however that P&O could have made better for us, but it wasn't the end of the world.

Regards 

[Galesa]

Thanks for the review. Had a choice recently between P&O and Princess for a cruise on February. With CC help chose Princess. Glad I did now!

 

BTW, clue to the demographic they're used to with no bran for breakfast:).

[suey]

Thanks for the review, I am travelling on P & O tomorrow after 8 years of Princess and RCL cruises. It is only a 3 day so I figure I can put up with it for the short time. Princess is now my preferred line but of course started out on  P & O years ago, so it will be interesting 😀

[Ozwoody]

13 minutes ago, suey said:

Thanks for the review, I am travelling on P & O tomorrow after 8 years of Princess and RCL cruises. It is only a 3 day so I figure I can put up with it for the short time. Princess is now my preferred line but of course started out on  P & O years ago, so it will be interesting 😀

It will be fine, their not bad, really, just different to Princess.

We just love our special little treats that we get with Princess.😁

Edited December 8, 2022 by Ozwoody

[sewgood]

Hi John and Hilary,

Thanks for the enjoyable read this morning.

My husband as well tried P&O for the first time this year and like your wife really liked the coffee from Charlie's cafe on the ground floor.

We are just back from our first cruise on HAL and he didn't like the paid coffee at all, just as well the cruise called into Melbourne for two days so he could get his coffee fix. 😁

My favourite thing on our P&O cruise was the breakfast in the main dining room, they had a lot of contemporary selections on the menu like roasted sweet potato with green goddess dressing, super yummy!

[Tripmode33]

Yes, thank you for the detailed review - really appreciate that. As long term Princess cruisers, we've booked our first P&O for May. We like the three ex-Princess ships they have. I think if you go prepared with a little research on their dining and other procedures and food/drink menus, and like Arxcards suggests, set your expectations at an appropriate level, then you'll be able to enjoy the cruise.

[NSWP]

Great review Woody.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, suey said:

Thanks for the review, I am travelling on P & O tomorrow after 8 years of Princess and RCL cruises. It is only a 3 day so I figure I can put up with it for the short time. Princess is now my preferred line but of course started out on  P & O years ago, so it will be interesting 😀

Another name from years gone by, and nice to read your post,

In some ways ,P&O hasn't changed at all. The more I think about it though, some things are hard to recognise compared to the old P&O. 

[Ozwoody]

50 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Hi John and Hilary,

Thanks for the enjoyable read this morning.

My husband as well tried P&O for the first time this year and like your wife really liked the coffee from Charlie's cafe on the ground floor.

We are just back from our first cruise on HAL and he didn't like the paid coffee at all, just as well the cruise called into Melbourne for two days so he could get his coffee fix. 😁

My favourite thing on our P&O cruise was the breakfast in the main dining room, they had a lot of contemporary selections on the menu like roasted sweet potato with green goddess dressing, super yummy!

Hi guys

We too would have probably ended up at the main dinning room for breakfast, had not covid taken our options.

From what I heard it was excellent there. 

Still hate que's but.☹️

[nnps]

Agree pretty well with your summation. I would only consider P&O at the right price. Generally P&O is much cheaper than Princess. It's a bit like Jetstar and Qantas. If you want a basic, no frills cruise then P&O works for me.

[Aus Traveller]

Thanks for the review. We were on the same cruise as John and Hilary. Our cabin was great. We prefer Princess, but we got our P&O balcony for a great price so were very happy. We had most of our meals in the Waterfront (great) and two dinners in Angelos (excellent). We have cruised with P&O before so we knew that they charge for items/services that are free on Princess.

 

BTW, the cruise terminal in Noumea isn't new. We have docked there numerous times over several years. Sometimes we have had to dock at the container wharf because the harbour near the cruise terminal needed dredging to allow a large ship to tie up. I suggest that this is the reason we were at the container wharf. We decided we wouldn't bother going ashore. From our balcony we could watch the loading of buses for the short trip to the cruise terminal and felt it was very badly managed by P&O staff resulting in long queues.

[GUT2407]

We would largely agree. Only done the one P&O, much rather Princess, seems a lot of petty charges on P&O. Would we sail with them again? Yep if friends were going, if the itinerary was right or if guest entertainers took our fancy, but they offer nothing that would lure us from Princess not even pricing, but I guess that’s why Carnival Corp keep multiple brands, to offer variety.