Pine Man

Done the same except that when I got to the door it wasn't shut properly so, when I tried to put the card in, the door opened and I walked in to find two people sitting on 'my' bed!!.

Good to hear that you are enjoying your first SAGA cruise. Your report is excellent and highlights a number of things I'd wondered about. I've only ever cruised with P&O and have recently being considering the alternatives. Unfortunately, on a purely cost basis, SAGA always seems to come near the bottom of my list and, as I live near Southampton, that also tends to keep it near the bottom. I know it's difficult to compare cruise companies, and what is included, but I've recently decided on Princess for my next cruise, which is roughly half the price of SAGA but without some of the extras. I will certainly keep my options open and continue looking for alternatives to P&O, which has been likened, on recent cruises, to Butlin's at Sea!!

I have been cruising for many years and only used P&O. I have now booked a cruise next June on Sky Princess and saw that, although the C5 program featured Regal Princess, it appears to be the sister ship of Sky Princess but a few years older. Seemed like a great way to find out about Princess and their cruises BUT what a waste of time. It's got little or nothing to do with Princess. The people featured might just as well have flown to the various locations as the ship hardly ever appeared to be at sea! As has been said, they never queued to get on or off the ship. They did very little on the ship and, as yet, don't appeared to have had any meals, apart from afternoon tea. I'm not sure what criteria were used to select the 'lucky' passengers, but, and at the risk of upsetting someone, what a bunch!

My wife and I are creatures of habit, and taking into account our last ten cruises we know precisely what our needs are likely to be on a day to day basis. Each of us will pay for two coffees, one soft drink, one cocktail and one glass of wine each day. Maybe fractionally less on port days depending on how long we are likely to be ashore. Neither of us has any need for WIFI as we can get ourselves updated free of charge when ashore. On our next cruise we will have $300 OBC. Taking this into account with the current prices, the gratuities and the service charges, it should be about $200 cheaper than taking out the Plus package. There could be additional savings if we substitute drinks in the Platinum lounge for the cocktails, where I believe they are discounted to members. Better to buy what you want, when you want it without having to worry about making sure you use up all your Plus allowances and also consider that it is unlikely that Princess are selling packages that risk them loosing money!!

One surprising thing about Princess that is different to P&O - I've just booked an excursion on my forthcoming cruise and it was paid for out of the On Board Credit!

I did see share with others and that is what I selected but no facility for the table size. I'll wait and see what happens on the first night and take it from there. Thanks for your response.

I was able to reserve a dining plan for every night at the same time sharing a table in Cielo on Sky Princess but no choice of the size of table was given. Have I done something wrong?

Thanks I'll give it a go.

Having recently booked my first cruise with Princess, and only having previous cruises with P&O, I am trying to get my head round the dining process! On P&O we always had Club Dining (set time and table size) and when I booked our forthcoming Princess Cruise I asked if my wife and I could have fixed dining, preferably on a table for six. The agent said it would probably be ok but nothing showed on my cruise documents about dining. Is this something that I have to do via the cruise personaliser or will it just happen?

I rang the Captains Circle and they advised me to email Princess with proof of previous cruise history so that they can, hopefully, deal with my wile's loyalty.

Thanks, I'll ask and see what happens.

My wife also registered on line and didn't receive any loyalty despite her cruise history with me being identical.

Hi my first post here. Having used P&O for many years I have decided to try out a Princess cruise next year. Before booking the cruise I registered on line and was given the Platinum loyalty level, which appeared to take account of some, but not all, of my P&O cruise history. My wife also registered on line but, despite accompanying me on all previous P&O cruises, she was not given any loyalty level. My query is, should she have the same level as me and, if not, will my loyalty benefits be applied to her when we sail together next year. Many thanks.

Thanks to you, and others who contributed to this post, I decided to look further into Princess having only ever cruised with P&O before. First of all I registered with the Princess site and immediately some, not all, of my P&O history was taken into account and I achieved Platinum status. Secondly, I started looking at some of the cruises on offer on Sky Princess next year and was pleasantly surprised at the cost. Slightly dearer but not too bad at all, and it certainly seems a better cruising environment. Thirdly and luckily, before I committed myself, I just had notification from my retirement associated that they had negotiated a 10% discount with Princess on all cruises! Fourthly, I just booked two weeks on Sky Princess to The Land of the Midnight Son! Once again, thanks to everybody who contributed to this post and pointed me in the direction of Princess!

Apart from going underneath it😉

You can take food from the buffet to wherever you want BUT you won't have a tray to carry it on anymore!

...but there must be a limit - surely?

Happened to me twice after I had got home and a separate charge was sent to my credit card company. I 'disputed' the charge with my company who sent a query to P&O on my behalf. P&O never replied to them (nothing new there!) and the charge was written off.

What's wrong with the tap water? On my last cruise I used it twice a day to take medication, I didn't notice any unpleasant taste and P&O say it's safe to drink.

My apologies, that wasn't too clear in your post.

Probably worth a fraction of the value of the car it has displaced to a less secure place😉

I seem to remember, on an earlier cruise on Britannia, the captain explained to everybody how to work out which side of the ship was port and which was starboard. He went on to say that before deciding which side was which it was important to know where the front of the ship was and gave the following advice - 'The lifts all face the front of the ship when you get out, then added, apart from those that don't!

From P&Os website:- “Our theme nights offer a great opportunity for guests to dress up in line with the theme. Themes can include 60s, 70s, tropical, Western, and black and white nights.” However the last time we cruised, last September, we were told that, due to covid protocols, themed nights were stopped! How on earth Covid is affected by the clothes you wear is still a mystery to me.

I know you have probably had your question answered now but as a matter of interest I have found the best contact for this sort of issue is actually with your card provider. I have had a couple of 'false' charges on my Amex card and all that had to be done was 'Dispute The Charge' with Amex who then dealt with the company that posted the charge and suspended it until resolved. (Neither company bothered responding to Amex and the charge was cancelled)

Couldn't agree more. I was waiting for the announcement so I could book a couple of nights but I don't think I'll bother now!