Age groups on P&O ships

[sjp1974]

I am single and in my forties and have been mainly on the Adult only ships Arcadia and Aurora mostly on two week cruises with family members. I have often noticed on these ships the lack of single or solo cruisers in the 30+ and 40+ age groups.  Most of the passengers in these age groups that I have seen on these ships have been couples.  I can only assume that the main issue is cost for solo or single cruisers.  I am on a 30 night cruise on Arcadia next September to USA and Canada.

[david63]

I'm not sure what it is that you are asking here but if it is will there be many/any singles of your age on that cruise then I would suspect not, basically because the majority in that age group will be in employment and as you say the cost for a single can be quite high.

 

I doubt that there is any way that you can know which ships/cruises will attract singles in your age group but I would probably be looking more at the "family" ships as they tend to attract a lower passenger age demographic than the adult ships.

[Selbourne]

10 hours ago, sjp1974 said:

I am single and in my forties and have been mainly on the Adult only ships Arcadia and Aurora mostly on two week cruises with family members. I have often noticed on these ships the lack of single or solo cruisers in the 30+ and 40+ age groups.  Most of the passengers in these age groups that I have seen on these ships have been couples.  I can only assume that the main issue is cost for solo or single cruisers.  I am on a 30 night cruise on Arcadia next September to USA and Canada.

I wouldn’t worry about it. The average age on your cruise will probably be around 75, but that brings many advantages for a solo cruiser of any age IMHO. Most will be very established cruisers who are used to sharing tables and make very interesting dining companions. We have cruised on Aurora many times and have been on cruises where we were probably in the youngest 20% of passengers, yet these have been some of our most enjoyable cruises. Age is just a number, after all. 

[Fionboard]

I cruise mainly on the two smaller ships as a solo. They are popular so can be very expensive, particularly for a balcony cabin. Even so, their cruises seem to sell well. If Aurora were to go, I think they could fill Ventura as an adults only ship. 

[majortom10]

I wouldn't pay the price for a balcony cabin on Aurora or Arcadia prefer to cruise with Cunard for similar price.

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

I wouldn't pay the price for a balcony cabin on Aurora or Arcadia prefer to cruise with Cunard for similar price.

But no loyalty tier benefits and much more expensive drinks! 

[Winifred 22]

32 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

But no loyalty tier benefits and much more expensive drinks! 

The internet benefit is currently worth having, the free lunch,  the parties, priority boarding. I don’t drink much so drink prices don’t bother me Shareholder OBC covers what I do drink. 

[majortom10]

54 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

But no loyalty tier benefits and much more expensive drinks! 

Small price to pay for superior cruise experience, better staff and better food. Loyalty tier benefits are virtually non existent and don't drink that much to worry about extra cost. Proves one thing though that you are staying loyal to P&O with poorer food and cruise experience just because of loyalty benefits. P&O must love you.

[zap99]

18 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Small price to pay for superior cruise experience, better staff and better food. Loyalty tier benefits are virtually non existent and don't drink that much to worry about extra cost. Proves one thing though that you are staying loyal to P&O with poorer food and cruise experience just because of loyalty benefits. P&O must love you.

Bit too posh for us commoners.

[carlanthony24]

25 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Small price to pay for superior cruise experience, better staff and better food. Loyalty tier benefits are virtually non existent and don't drink that much to worry about extra cost. Proves one thing though that you are staying loyal to P&O with poorer food and cruise experience just because of loyalty benefits. P&O must love you.

Does not matter who they go with. They may think the food is good enough. Its a subjective opinion a lot won't like, a lot will. Personally Cunard the dress code if they still require a jacket each night not to our liking we consider it more formal than casual. We feel its catered more for people who want a posher experience like Zap99 has said.    

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

if they still require a jacket each night

They don’t. We didn’t find Cunard stuffy or too formal - and we were in Princess Grill! 

[zap99]

46 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

They don’t. We didn’t find Cunard stuffy or too formal - and we were in Princess Grill! 

We didn't dress up last week. We went to the Toby carvery.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

Does not matter who they go with. They may think the food is good enough. Its a subjective opinion a lot won't like, a lot will. Personally Cunard the dress code if they still require a jacket each night not to our liking we consider it more formal than casual. We feel its catered more for people who want a posher experience like Zap99 has said.    

You do not need a jacket every night on Cunard that has been outdated for some time.

[majortom10]

I think many have a false misconception with regards to cruising with Cunard without knowing the full facts and believe things that are no longer necessary. They have formal nights. Where black tie or dark suit are required just the same as P&O the rest are of similar dress of smart casual/ smart attire. Also like P&O if you don't want to adhere to the dress code you can eat in the buffet restaurant and there are lounges/ bars where you can go exactly the same as P&O.

[jeanlyon]

What I do know is that it's all in dollars, the drinks prices are ludicrous etc. etc.

[david63]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

What I do know is that it's all in dollars, the drinks prices are ludicrous etc. etc.

What has being in dollars got to do with drinks prices being ludicrous? - which they actually aren't until you add the service charge on.

[Josy1953]

We prefer Princess, Celebrity and Cunard to P&O but we go with P&O during the winter because DH has a health condition that means that he can't fly.  If the other companies had ships based in the UK year round it is likely that we would never go with P&O. 

At the end of the day you get what you pay for and P&O is good value for money.

[Snow Hill]

10 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

What I do know is that it's all in dollars, the drinks prices are ludicrous etc. etc.

I find it odd that an iconic British cruise line chooses to price drinks etc in Dollars rather than sterling. Do they charge your credit card in dollars when settling on board account at end of cruises, thus rendering customers liable to currency exchange charges. 

[gsmt47471015]

34 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I find it odd that an iconic British cruise line chooses to price drinks etc in Dollars rather than sterling. Do they charge your credit card in dollars when settling on board account at end of cruises, thus rendering customers liable to currency exchange charges. 

Yes they do ,best advice is to pay with a card that does not carry a conversion charge

[Winifred 22]

34 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I find it odd that an iconic British cruise line chooses to price drinks etc in Dollars rather than sterling. Do they charge your credit card in dollars when settling on board account at end of cruises, thus rendering customers liable to currency exchange charges. 

They do but I add a Nationwide credit card that does not charge any  foreign transaction charges and offers very favourable exchange rates so makes no odds to me really. I think there are several cards now that do not charge fees or transaction charges. Bit of a bonus really as the dollar figure is less than the  pound total on my statement so I always think I have paid less!! 

[Selbourne]

44 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

I find it odd that an iconic British cruise line chooses to price drinks etc in Dollars rather than sterling. Do they charge your credit card in dollars when settling on board account at end of cruises, thus rendering customers liable to currency exchange charges. 

Yes, I would prefer that they charged in £, but I recall that our final bill, once converted from dollars, was less than I expected, as our credit card company does not charge any fees and has a good conversion rate. 
 

We’ve only been on one Cunard cruise so far but have two more booked for next year so will have an even better idea by then, but the only things that we didn’t like compared to P&O were the dollar pricing, the service charges on drinks and the fact that they still add a daily tip charge (which, admittedly, you can remove, but we didn’t as service was so good it wouldn’t have felt right). 
 

Based on Queen Mary 2, I would say that the cabins are no better than P&O. We are on the brand new Queen Anne next year, so it will be interesting to see how the accessible cabins compare to the excellent one that we had on Iona. Fingers crossed that the lifts will be bigger than on Iona, but with several thousand less passengers it will hopefully be much less of a problem if they aren’t. 
 

Where we felt that Cunard scores over P&O is in the overall cruise experience, in particular food, guest lecturers, ambiance and a generally more premium level of service. We are prepared to pay more than we would for a P&O cruise on that basis, but we still enjoy P&O and, if you book at the right time, the value is excellent. 
 

Many people bemoan the fact that P&O is almost exclusively British passengers and lacks the international mix that other cruise lines have. Ironically, this is one of the reasons why we really like P&O, although in recent years we have noticed a lot more international passengers. I suspect that our next two Cunard cruises will have a more international mix than our first, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts on our experience. 

[yorkshirephil]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I would prefer that they charged in £, but I recall that our final bill, once converted from dollars, was less than I expected, as our credit card company does not charge any fees and has a good conversion rate. 
 

We’ve only been on one Cunard cruise so far but have two more booked for next year so will have an even better idea by then, but the only things that we didn’t like compared to P&O were the dollar pricing, the service charges on drinks and the fact that they still add a daily tip charge (which, admittedly, you can remove, but we didn’t as service was so good it wouldn’t have felt right). 
 

Based on Queen Mary 2, I would say that the cabins are no better than P&O. We are on the brand new Queen Anne next year, so it will be interesting to see how the accessible cabins compare to the excellent one that we had on Iona. Fingers crossed that the lifts will be bigger than on Iona, but with several thousand less passengers it will hopefully be much less of a problem if they aren’t. 
 

Where we felt that Cunard scores over P&O is in the overall cruise experience, in particular food, guest lecturers, ambiance and a generally more premium level of service. We are prepared to pay more than we would for a P&O cruise on that basis, but we still enjoy P&O and, if you book at the right time, the value is excellent. 
 

Many people bemoan the fact that P&O is almost exclusively British passengers and lacks the international mix that other cruise lines have. Ironically, this is one of the reasons why we really like P&O, although in recent years we have noticed a lot more international passengers. I suspect that our next two Cunard cruises will have a more international mix than our first, so it will be interesting to see how that impacts on our experience. 

We felt that Cunard offer a better experience overall, the guest lecturers much better and varied, the food overall was better albeit not much more choice. It was great to have dinner with other nationalities and find out about their way of life compared to ours. We loved the afternoon tea although there have been cutbacks it is still a great experience. The dress code is a bit more formal although they have dropped the jacket on non formal nights which is fine. We felt that the entertainment around the ship was better, that is of course subjective. We use Cunard for the cruises itineraries that P&O don't do, they are definitely more expensive overall but sometimes you get what you pay for.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Snow Hill said:

I find it odd that an iconic British cruise line chooses to price drinks etc in Dollars rather than sterling. Do they charge your credit card in dollars when settling on board account at end of cruises, thus rendering customers liable to currency exchange charges. 

I would guess that the exchange rate used by your card company will be much more advantageous that letting any cruise line do the exchange.

[majortom10]

12 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

What I do know is that it's all in dollars, the drinks prices are ludicrous etc. etc.

If you look at drink prices of spirits a single measure on Cunard is larger than the standard 25ml served on P&O so if you take that into account pro rata not all drinks are ludicrously expensive. It is like  comparing prices in a Wetherspoons with a general gastro pub prices and personally don't want to spend my time in an inferior Wetherspoons just to save an mount of money.

[Fionboard]

16 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

The internet benefit is currently worth having, the free lunch,  the parties, priority boarding. I don’t drink much so drink prices don’t bother me Shareholder OBC covers what I do drink. 

And half price laundry is handy on longer cruises.