First P & O cruise questions

[cruiser3775]

I asked this question on the P & O area forum a few days ago, but got no answers. I guess it is not very active.  Hoping someone here might know.

 

I'm taking my first cruise with P & O Australia (Pacific Explorer) in December. Can experienced P & O cruisers help with these questions?

What are the dining time options?

Where can I find Menus (food and drink) and current prices?

Are there any Australian power points in cabin?

How do I find out the cost of things ordered in room service?

Can I get a kettle to make my own coffee in the mornings?  If not, can I order an insulated jug of hot water?

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

We have been on the Pacific Encounter, not the Explorer, but it is likely the answers to your questions will be the same.

 

Dining - I am sure I was able to select a dining time. It is either early (5pm-5.45) or late. When we got to our cabin there was a letter showing our dinner reservations but it was very easy to change them. On the Encounter, the (free) specialty restaurants are Angelo's and Dragon Lady. Angelo's was excellent. We didn't try Dragon Lady.

 

The MDR (Waterfront) menus for breakfast and lunch didn't vary in our seven-day cruise. The only indication I can give you on prices is that bottles of wine started at AUD$36.

 

Australian power points - yes.

 

I don't know where you can find the cost of things on room service, but there is a charge for everything. Kettles are not provided on Australian cruises. You could order a jug of hot water from room service an hope it is hot enough when you receive it.

[windsor26]

I believe room service started at $5 for a cup of tea and as we saw on the pool deck a burger is also about that and chips $3

 

When you embark go straight to the dining room where there will be people to take your week's reservations for time and restaurant choice which saves you going each day   You can cancel of course anytime you need to

 

The bottle of wine at $36 was in my opinion awful  it was like licking pennies  -urg ! -  The bar tender did let us try a sample before we purchased so we left it for another time an stayed with cider and shandy instead of wine for our cruise   The next price was quite high and did not look any better for us.

Dragon Lady has 2 menus and they change them after 3 days so remember that when you choose your days.

 

Have a great time   (you can take a few cans of soda on board (loose) in your carry on luggage

 

[arxcards]

The same inclusive dining options on Explorer as was for Encounter. There are some menus that were posted here over the past 6 months if you have a dig. The same menus have been in place for more than 5 years now, so likely to still be the same in December.

 

I will see if I can find a room service menu. We might have bought one home with us last year.

 

There were also photos of drink menus floating around here a few months back. Seems the initial P&O buzz following the resumption has slipped away, and there is not much P&O chatter here either. Drink and specialty restaurant prices will be dearer in December that they currently are.

[SinbadThePorter]

As far as dining goes, I would recommend skipping the MDR and alternating between Angelos and Dragon Lady. Book as far ahead as you can and do it in person at the reservation desk in front of Angelos (I think).

[arxcards]

37 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

As far as dining goes, I would recommend skipping the MDR and alternating between Angelos and Dragon Lady. Book as far ahead as you can and do it in person at the reservation desk in front of Angelos (I think).

Yes, they are.

[Aus Traveller]

59 minutes ago, windsor26 said:

The bottle of wine at $36 was in my opinion awful  it was like licking pennies  -urg ! -  The bar tender did let us try a sample before we purchased so we left it for another time an stayed with cider and shandy instead of wine for our cruise   The next price was quite high and did not look any better for us.

 

We drink white wine and took our waiter's recommendation. I think it was called 'Blue Sand'. We really enjoyed it. Angelo's has a different wine list. We had the de Bortoli prosecco. It was quite good.

[Ozwoody]

Hi cruiser3775

Very same questions we asked prior to 1st P&O Cruise, was very difficult getting detailed answers, however several people provided some menus.

Here are some I collected.

[Ozwoody]

Also as Aus Traveller said there will be a personal dining schedule in the room when you get there. see attached the one we received.

They got ours all wrong totally different to what we asked.

You will need to go get it change asap when on board at a main dining room, we had to go to the Dragon Lady, so check on site which is being used (see item 2 above).

 

We found all the restaurants were good.

[Ozwoody]

Oh and this was the only real coffee menu I seen on board, there were others but not as detailed.

[sewgood]

On our 10 day cruise in June on the Pacific Explorer the menu did not change the entire time in the Dragon Lady, we were told that this was a new change that they had made.

Hopefully they have changed it back to having two menus. You might want to check this out before making multiple booking in the dragon Lady.

The other dining rooms did change their menus after a couple of days, beside breakfast in the Waterfront.

The coffee was good at Charlie's bar down in the atrium. 😀

[Ozwoody]

4 minutes ago, sewgood said:

On our 10 day cruise in June on the Pacific Explorer the menu did not change the entire time in the Dragon Lady, we were told that this was a new change that they had made.

Hopefully they have changed it back to having two menus. You might want to check this out before making multiple booking in the dragon Lady.

The other dining rooms did change their menus after a couple of days, beside breakfast in the Waterfront.

The coffee was good at Charlie's bar down in the atrium. 😀

Yes my wife said their coffee was the best she has had at sea.🤙

Edited January 10, 2023 by Ozwoody

[temani]

I think most of your questions have been answered earlier, but thought I would add from our own experiences on Pacific Encounter to the GBR in late November. When we booked our cruise we chose the 'Plus' (I think it was called) fare, so drinks were included. We usually drink white wine and could each have up to 15 glasses of wine under a ceiling price each day - we never even got close to that amount! But mostly we drank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc which was very good. Ship's price was around AUD12-13 per glass. I think the name of one we preferred was Kim Crawford? If we ever wanted to buy a bottle of wine, then we had to charge that to our cabin. We did buy one bottle. Think that was around AUD43.

In our cabin, on boarding, was a list of the restaurants included in our fare. We had been rotated through all three - Waterfront, Dragon Lady, Angelos throughout the seven day cruise and we had already chosen the earlier sitting - ours was at 5.45pm each evening. You must either choose early or late sittings before boarding the ship. You can swap restaurants around as long as you give notice. We had downloaded the P&O App on advice once onboard, so no problems there. We didn't like Dragon Lady so opted out of that one. It was so dark in there, the people at the next table couldn't see what they were eating! We particularly liked Angelos, decor throughout was lovely and the food good, although only one menu change throughout the seven days. The pizza eatery was not open at all on our cruise.

 

[Bubbeh]

20 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

Oh and this was the only real coffee menu I seen on board, there were others but not as detailed.

Aren't you just the absolutely most helpful person on the planet?  I am in awe of your records management and attention to detail skill set.  Go you good thing!

[Bubbeh]

18 hours ago, temani said:

But mostly we drank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc which was very good. Ship's price was around AUD12-13 per glass

Yummy but a bit exy.  My advice, pre-load at Happy Hour and slosh into dinner.  What, no Happy Hour???  😜

[cruiser3775]

On 1/10/2023 at 1:15 PM, arxcards said:

The same inclusive dining options on Explorer as was for Encounter. There are some menus that were posted here over the past 6 months if you have a dig.

Sorry, I'm relatively new to Cruise Critic and it's a huge website. I guess I don't know how to "dig" .

Thanks for all the useful information.

Edited January 11, 2023 by cruiser3775

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Sorry, I'm relatively new to Cruise Critic and it's a huge website. I guess I don't know how to "dig" .

Thanks for all the useful information.

Apologies. I had planned to dig for you, but got side-tracked at work. There is likely a few others, but I did a "live" from the first cruise back on Pacific Explorer in May/June. There are some menus/drink prices from about halfway through. I think they are still current, but expect them to go up before you cruise.

 

[cruiser3775]

Thanks arxcards. I'm working my way through all 18 pages of it. Found the first beer and wine price boards - not cheap, but I'm glad to see they have Coopers, my favourite beer.

Do you remember if they had Australian power points in the rooms?

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

Thanks arxcards. I'm working my way through all 18 pages of it. Found the first beer and wine price boards - not cheap, but I'm glad to see they have Coopers, my favourite beer.

Do you remember if they had Australian power points in the rooms?

Yes, they do, plus a couple of USB sockets.

If You have a US to AUS pin adaptor, you can also pack that to pick up an extra power point.

 

[ozcruizier]

Hey which cruise did you book and what date? 

we're hesitating as well between P&0 and Princess for December 2023. 

 

best

[Aus Traveller]

31 minutes ago, ozcruizier said:

Hey which cruise did you book and what date? 

we're hesitating as well between P&0 and Princess for December 2023. 

 

best

If the itinerary is similar and the price not too different, without doubt, I would go for Princess. There are several 'bits and pieces' that you have to pay extra for on P&O that are included with Princess. Even if there was a difference of (say) $500pp for a 14 day cruise, I would go for Princess. If it was more than that, maybe not.

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, ozcruizier said:

Hey which cruise did you book and what date? 

we're hesitating as well between P&0 and Princess for December 2023. 

 

best

 

All else being equal, always Princess over P&O.

 

Only do P&O if the price is right and/or the itinerary is special.

[windsor26]

1 hour ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

All else being equal, always Princess over P&O.

 

Only do P&O if the price is right and/or the itinerary is special.

Yes  particularly as it is over Christmas  and you may want to get a cookie or mince pie during the evening or morning to go with a nice drink  which you can do free on Princess but not available outside meal times on P&O and will cost whatever you buy

[cruiser3775]

I chose the P & O cruise because of the departure port, that it is exactly on the right dates for me, has an itinerary that I like and I could book a well located cabin.

Having recently been on a Princess cruise, I can easily see that P & O charges for extras that are included on Princess.  I'm expecting to pay more on board, but the base price was lower anyway, so it will even itself out, I expect.

[arxcards]

6 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I chose the P & O cruise because of the departure port, that it is exactly on the right dates for me, has an itinerary that I like and I could book a well located cabin.

Having recently been on a Princess cruise, I can easily see that P & O charges for extras that are included on Princess.  I'm expecting to pay more on board, but the base price was lower anyway, so it will even itself out, I expect.

All 3 of the current P&O Australia ships are ex-Princess. We have been on Explorer 3 times as well as her previous incarnation as Dawn Princess twice. Each cruise on Explorer was chosen for a specific occasion/itinerary.

 

There is a familiarity of the layout compared to Coral Princess, and the cabin furniture hasn't changed.

 

If you want a hamburger for lunch, you will pay for it. If you walk into the buffet, you can have roast whatever and it is inclusive. The only food we pay for on P&O is for specialty dining, and that is no different to the other lines. We can survive without pizza, burgers and ice cream on a cruise.