P&O compared to Celebrity

[Bluebury]

Hi all, hope that you can help. So far we have only done a few cruises - all being on either Celebrity or Azamara.

 

We have just booked a great deal on P&O Azura and as this is the first time on P&O we would like people's opinions on the differences.

Food

Service

Cabins

Entertainments

Atmosphere

plus anything else that you think would be useful for us to know.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts.

[goody1]

Hi,

My wife and I were on the Ventura in April and Silhouette in July. This was our first time with P and O although our fourth time with Celebrity. We love Celebrity however found the entertainment on the Ventura to be better. Not much to choose between the cabins, food probably slightly better on Celebrity. We found the service to be equally as good. We'd go with either again quite happily and base the choice on itinerary.

[Thejuggler]

Food. Celebrity buffet is larger and has a wider selection. P & O restaurant is nearer to fine dining. The desserts on P&O are far more imaginative and better presented. P&O speciality restaurants are Michelin star level.

 

Service. Similar but Celebrity just edged it. They seem to employ staff from far more Countries.

 

Cabins. Our balcony on celebrity Eclipse wasn't much smaller than a Superior balcony on Azura style ships.

 

Entertainment, it depends what you enjoy

 

Atmosphre, depends on the destination and passenger mix.

 

Eclipse was much easier to navigate around than Ventura and has far more public space.

[kevinyork]

5 times on P&O, once on Celebrity Eclipse. Celebrity IMO is way above P&O. Food is so much better, both in the buffet and MDR. The Celebrity ship had less passengers, although was bigger than P&Os, and the entertainment was better, especially the bands and singers around the ship. The cabins were the best we have had, especially the bathrooms which were 5 star oitel standard. Also ambience was more relaxed and classy.

 

If Celebrity and P&O were sailing to the same places, I would choose Celebrity anyday.

[KarateMan]

Poor choice of ship for P&O and I am in their top tier loyalty club. It will not compare to Celebrity in any way, shape or form. There are some things P&O do better such as structured entertainment and more theatre shows but Celebrity has the edge on them and are particularly better with larger ships and less passengers. If you go P&O then go for Aurora, Oriana, Arcadia, Adonia or even Oceana. Stay away from Ventura and Azura. They are cram packed with excessive passengers with queues down half the length of the ship just to get into the theatre.

 

Mind you the lines are very close in terms of quality and service, Celebrity does have the edge in some areas and P&O does better in others.

 

Ship choice is most important these days as some ships are too crowded compared to others. The trick is to work out which ones. If your a big city person you will love large ships, if you are a small town person then you will hate them.

[gadabout60]

I have cruised with Celebrity once on the Eclipse to the fjords, and P&O 4 times, 3 times on Adonia and once on Arcadia. I much prefer Adonia to Arcadia.

 

I think Celebrity edged the food in the MDR, and the speciality restaurants were much of a muchness on both lines (IMHO all excellent). Buffet on Celebrity far superior for choice and standard of food.

 

I don't worry much about the shows but would concede that Celebrity have a better range of singers etc in the bar.

 

Balcony cabins fine on Adonia and Eclipse - didn't like Arcadia cabin. Eclipse bathroom far superior.

 

However for some reason I just felt more at home with P&O - I felt passengers were on the whole friendlier and there was more sense of belonging.

 

I would go on Celebrity again if itinerary and price were right, but I felt that on the whole Celebrity was like staying in a modern, slightly impersonal hotel, while P&O is like staying in a slightly shabbier but more welcoming country house hotel

[clivep]

We've been on Celebrity 4 times (Century x2, Constellation & Summit) and the P&O Aurora twice with an upcoming one on the Adonia in 3 weeks time.

 

We're now at the Elite level with Celebrity due to the reciprocal benefits with RCI where we got to the Diamond level first. We've also been on Carnival, Costa, MSC & NCL.

 

Service: Celebrity have been the best. P&O as good as, or better than, the rest.

 

Food: Buffet OK on P&O but way less choice than the excellent buffets on Celebrity/RCI. Restaurant food very good on both P&O and Celebrity. On the other lines we prefer the buffet for our evening meals. I'm more a meat and 2 veg man and am not keen on the fancy stuff. The steak on Celebrity has been very good but often I'm not keen on the starters and soups. I find all the courses on P&O to be more to my tastes and excellent quality (apart from the steaks) so would rate P&O above Celebrity.

 

Cabins: All very similar. On P&O my wife likes the tea/coffee making facilities and the small bath in the en-suite (unfortunately our Adonia cabin won't have this).

 

We're not bothered about the entertainment, bar and other ship's facilities so for us a smaller ship is to be preferred.

[Lovemychoos]

Food. Celebrity buffet is larger and has a wider selection. P & O restaurant is nearer to fine dining. The desserts on P&O are far more imaginative and better presented. P&O speciality restaurants are Michelin star level.

 

I'm sorry, but I agree with other posters about Celebrity being far superior to P&O of late.

 

IMHO, P&O food has deteriorated over the past 5yrs or so, and I would say their main dining room is as far away from fine dining as it's possible to get! I would also add that I've had the worst meal, EVER, on a cruise in XVII on Azura :( and I can assure you, it was no-where near Michelin star level.

 

The biggest plus for us now on Celebrity, apart from the food and fantastic cabins, are the staff. Their attitude is - how can I do this for you, rather than - sorry, we can't do that :)

 

Don't get me wrong, we started cruising with P&O many years ago, and have taken well over 30 lovely cruises with them. However, of late, we found that, as a company, their attitude has changed towards their passengers, and the lovely, lovely staff do the best job than can within the constraints they appear to have now. We look our first Celebrity cruise in Oct 2011, and apart from the 175th Anniversary cruise on Oriana, haven't been on a P&O ship since.

 

We would choose Celebrity over P&O every time now, and for us, the Getaway fare fiasco was the final nail !

 

Lou

[Froxfield]

Hi Bluebury

 

I suppose the answer is "it depends"! We have experienced examples of poor service on Celebrity (an over-worked wine steward, "misposts" to the onboard account, surly customer relations, etc) and much that has been excellent. If you love Celebrity and it's "glitzy" décor a lot then you might find P&O rather bland. On the restaurant front, P&O still offer silver service rather than pre-plated meals and in consequence probably more veg. The MDR food is very traditional "English", so more meat and two veg than "international". One can enjoy either. P&O offer, I think, the best buffet breakfast with excellent speciality sausages: Celebrity is much more "American" even in its "English" breakfast section. P&O traditionally serve excellent curry!

Drinks are cheaper on P&O as are ship's tours (at least in our experience).

It is very much "You pays your money and takes your choice". I have no intention of ever being an exclusive user of either: and if we are talking service then Disney Cruise Line have to be the best!! (And there's no casino, which for us is a huge plus!)

 

Richard

[leylander]

Celebrity 5 star, P&O 4 star.

 

For me Celebrity were absolutely faultless. There was nothing that the staff wouldn't do for you. Eating in the MDR is like having your own butler service. If there was something you wanted that wasn't on the menu, they would search every dining room and get it for you. Tell them the night before what you wanted to eat the next evening and it would be there, whether it be on the menu, or not. If the choice of main meal was between T Bone steak or lobster, then ask for the lobster as a starter, with the T Bone as main.

 

I have nothing at all against P&O, I'm sailing to the Caribbean for a second time with them in Jan, but for me Celebrity have that little more excellence in everything they do.

[terrierjohn]

Bluebury, I hope you are not too despondent with the replies so far.

I have to agree that Celebrity is the better line of the 2, especially the S class ships, but P&O is not too bad and IMO Azura is a good choice. A lot of the P&O traditionalists prefer the older ships with wrap round prom decks but for us Azura is better. However we have only sailed on Arcadia and Adonia's sister ship Tahitian Princess, now renamed Ocean Princess, but Azura is far better than either of these.

If you have booked a good priced getaway fare then you will certainly get value for money, and perhaps you can let us have your comparison views when you return.

[Bluebury]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

Now that we have your opinions and know what to expect we will go with open minds and hopefully thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

 

It will be 2 weeks without shopping, cleaning, cooking or working - sitting (hopefully) in the sun and seeing places that we have never visited before - we have nothing to lose.

 

Can I please ask an additional question or two, we will be in an outside cabin - will we really struggle on sea days to find somewhere to sit outside (any clues on good spaces) also will there be robes and slippers in the cabin?

 

Thank you again

[Lovemychoos]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts.

 

Now that we have your opinions and know what to expect we will go with open minds and hopefully thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

 

It will be 2 weeks without shopping, cleaning, cooking or working - sitting (hopefully) in the sun and seeing places that we have never visited before - we have nothing to lose.

 

Can I please ask an additional question or two, we will be in an outside cabin - will we really struggle on sea days to find somewhere to sit outside (any clues on good spaces) also will there be robes and slippers in the cabin?

 

Thank you again

 

I'm sure you will have a fantastic time, and I'm sorry if my reply, in particular, seemed 'anti P&O', I would never disagree with what anyone posts on here, it's just that if you go on P&O expecting fine dining in MDR and speciality restaurants on a par with Michelin star restaurants, you would be disappointed.

 

We have cruised on Azura, and she's a lovely ship, just no longer for us. There are an awful lot of people in competition with you for the sunbeds, even more so, I'm sure, in hot weather. If you want to sunbathe all day, I'd say get up early, and just settle yourself for the day. You can get something from the grill or the self service and bring it back outside to your sun bed, and enjoy your meal in the sun :-)

 

Unless you are Caribbean level and above, no slippers I'm afraid, and no robes with P&O unless you are in a suite (they get slippers too)

 

Have a wonderful time.

 

Lou

[leylander]

Bluebury, I hope you are not too despondent with the replies so far.

 

Oh yes, don't get despondent. We did a Caribbean cruise on Ventura 5 yrs ago and absolutely loved it. We're going on Azura in Jan and can't wait. There's nothing wrong with P&O cruises. High standards in most things they do.

[helpthejuggler]

Hi Bluebury

 

On the restaurant front, P&O still offer silver service rather than pre-plated meals and in consequence probably more veg.

 

I might be alone in hating 'Silver Service'. It feels like extra 'poncery' for the sake of it to please your granny.

 

We like more vegetables than seems typical on US ships so we order a side of steamed veg to top up to our taste.

[Froxfield]

Celebrity 5 star, P&O 4 star.

 

For me Celebrity were absolutely faultless. There was nothing that the staff wouldn't do for you. Eating in the MDR is like having your own butler service.

 

I think my main point would be that I will not rush to say that such and such a cruise company is always "best" and that different people like different things which are not necessarily "better" or "worse": just different. And, of course it depends so much on personal experience. Your comment is a perfect example. Although I have nothing against Celebrity having enjoyed three cruises so far (Summit, Century and Infinity) and would use them again, I don't find them flawless and have found that they don't necessarily always achieve the level of excellence they assert. But one only has to look around this forum to see that all lines get criticism from time to time? I hesitate to give a ringing endorsement to Azura because my only P&O experience is on Arcadia (which we really enjoyed) and it is possible that the bigger ships are different.

 

By the same token, I note that helpthejuggler dislikes silver service. I have no strong feelings one way or the other, but I think it is a feature that marks out where P&O tries to position itself in this (over?) crowded market place. That is "traditional British".

 

I just love having all the alternatives to choose from and want to echo the reassurance already given to Bluebury that there is always something to like and enjoy.

 

Richard

[rubydoobydoo]

Loved Celebrity, IMO staff and service better than P and O, also food wonderful but lacking in vegetables

 

Love P and O, food very good, staff and service not so friendly as Celebrity

But cheaper than Celebrity

 

I think they both have their good and bad points but you will have a great time on both