Traderboy

I know that the main place is the International Cafe (on deck 5) However I seem to remember that some of the other bars serve barista coffee. Is this correct? Also can you get barista coffee in the main dining room?

Yes we purchased Plus after Dec 14 2022 so this means no charge for room service other than items such as sushi, pizza and steak. Is that right?

We set off in a weeks time to Haugesund, Alesund, Olden Skjolden and Stavanger. I now know we are doing the lift at Olden, a boat cruise at Stavanger, a walk up to the viewing place at Skyolden. Can we easily walk around Haugesund and Alesund or do we need some transportation?

TRLD, I think you are right about the P&O split personality. Those hankering after the good old days prefer Aurora, Arcadia . Azura, Ventura (once described as the 'Butlins' cruise ship) and the Britannia heralded the move to much larger ships such as Iona and Arvia. I'm assuming that the change in ship size allows them to be very competitive on price. As others have said the drink prices and the ship excursions are more reasonably priced than the American cruises ships. However, on Princess and Celebrity, we find that the basic drink package/ basic WiFi /tips paid is an excellent way of avoiding the extra costs. How did P& O get away with the tips included pricing? This seems a complete anathema when you consider the low pay of the excellent cruise staff. Perhaps people have generally returned to the old notion of tipping for good service. I hope so. Anyway those P & O old days are gone now. We loved it while it lasted : Arcadia, Adonia, Oceana, Canberra, Oriana, etc... What do others think?

Hi TRLD Presumably you know that Princess have two ships operating all summer out of Southampton. I wouldn't want to be on any cruise in the school holidays, especially not P & O.

Thank you Jean for this very helpful description of your recent Japan cruise. We too have been on a recent Asian cruise on Celebrity Millenium. The general standard of the Celebrity experience was very good and far superior in my opinion to what is available on P&O. We did have a few niggles though especially about the included basic WiFi and the basic drinks package. Everything is geared to persuading you to upgrade. Another problem we thought was lack of space allocated to indoor seating particularly when the weather precluded any outdoor activity. Far too much space on the ship was given over to Shops and the Casino. Yes I know that is where they make a lot of money. The ships excursions were far too expensive - though very well organised. We did not feel the need to pay $60 for a speciality restaurant. The food in the main dining room was excellent. We’re still unsure whether we prefer Princess Cruises ahead of Celebrity because we have all the benefits of elite loyalty tier. On Celebrity we seem to have no benefit at all from our blue tier or whatever they call it. We have now been on 2 Celebrity cruises.

We started our cruising with 4 P&O cruises . We have never returned for 2 main reasons: 1. we came to dislike the ‘solely-British’ vibe 2. the ‘always included’ trend seemed to pass P&O by. We have recently seen the new 2026 P&O cruise programme. There are some nice European itineraries with what seem to be quite attractive prices. Can anyone please update us with the current P& 0 experience. Is it possible to pay about £40 a night for a drinks package, WiFi included and tips paid? Another issue is whether our Princess loyalty package of Elite is transferable on to P&O? I expect not, though our initial 4 P&O cruises did count towards our Princess loyalty level.

You are quite right Rick. Princess Medallion net is a far better system . I’ve never had a problem with their WiFi

I’m amazed at how some of you are prepared to defend what is essentially a total rip-off. They want you to pay $8 extra per day to even send a single photo . They call it Premium WiFI when it is not. It is akin to the internet of the 1990s

If you have the new Princess package is room service charge waived?

Can someone please update me regarding what is available. Also what are the costs? is it any different for Suites ?

You have all made my point. it is not worth paying Celebrity for Premium WiFi. Premium WiFi does not match its name. At times it is not even in existence! You are wasting your money if you pay for it

The point is that a simple photo is not a large upload. The data involved in downloading say the BBC website (including lots of pictures) far exceeds what I am talking about. This is allowed on the basic WiFi package. In my opinion they do it on purpose - to make money for Celebrity. Not because they cannot handle the data uploads.

I have the basic Princess package so this apparently includes two casual eateries. Does this mean I can eat in Alfredos at lunchtime twice without paying?