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Confession time

wowzz

By wowzz,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted

Sorry friends, but I have a confession to make.

Mrs W asked how we were going to celebrate her birthday in March.  "Same as always", I said,  "Fish and chips,  schooner of sherry  and double  bread and butter in Papa John's on the pier at Cleethorpes". "No", she said, " next year, as I will be reaching a significant age".

So, I had to think fast, and suggested a special  cruise.  Looked at some river cruises,  but March is not really ideal (I blame her parents! ).  And then I found a short 7 day cruise from Southampton.  Balcony  (almost a mini suite) cabin, free drinks, free wifi,  and no need to spend money on petrol, overnight hotels and meals, or parking,  and the ship will only be a year old.

But my friends it's Saga. And do you know what? I booked it!

Joking aside, I know I will get all the Saga  jokes,  I know the age profile will be a little elderly (but probably no  more than on our last Oceana cruise), and the entertainment may be a little staid,  but taking  into account all the extras, the price was too good to miss. 

Given the way that P&O are moving, with ever bigger ships,  and attracting the Saturday evening ITV market,  I have a feeling that I may not be the only one  moving cruise lines in the future. 

Andy - obviously not you, as you are still far too young,

So, confession over, but still looking forward to being on Arcadia in April.

  

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Eglesbrech "Live from...." Rare

Eglesbrech

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I’ll be really interested to hear how you find SAGA for cruising and how it compares with P&O..
 

We have done several land based holidays with them and they have always been excellent, they look after you really well. The age group was no older than the average winter cruise is.

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Purdey16

Purdey16

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My other half has mentioned about doing a saga cruise but only because we were trying to look for something different but it will be interesting to know how you find it all for future reference, I'm sure Mrs W will enjoy it better than fish and chips and you can look at it as a warm up to your April cruise on Arcadia 😉

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Harry Peterson

Harry Peterson

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Wowzz, first may I congratulate you on your normal birthday celebration venue choice - Papa's on the pier at Cleethorpes is exceptional.  Proper Yorkshire-style haddock and chips, skin off, perfectly cooked every time in beef dripping, wonderful restaurant and setting.  I travel a lot, but it's one of my top favourites, along with the other Papas north of the Humber. No better!

 

You'll enjoy Saga I'm sure.  Good friends of ours have switched away from P&O to Saga altogether and won't now go back.  They were loyal P&O customers for many. many years but say the Saga experience is infinitely better in every respect.

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AndyMichelle

AndyMichelle

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8 hours ago, wowzz said:

Sorry friends, but I have a confession to make.

Mrs W asked how we were going to celebrate her birthday in March.  "Same as always", I said,  "Fish and chips,  schooner of sherry  and double  bread and butter in Papa John's on the pier at Cleethorpes". "No", she said, " next year, as I will be reaching a significant age".

So, I had to think fast, and suggested a special  cruise.  Looked at some river cruises,  but March is not really ideal (I blame her parents! ).  And then I found a short 7 day cruise from Southampton.  Balcony  (almost a mini suite) cabin, free drinks, free wifi,  and no need to spend money on petrol, overnight hotels and meals, or parking,  and the ship will only be a year old.

But my friends it's Saga. And do you know what? I booked it!

Joking aside, I know I will get all the Saga  jokes,  I know the age profile will be a little elderly (but probably no  more than on our last Oceana cruise), and the entertainment may be a little staid,  but taking  into account all the extras, the price was too good to miss. 

Given the way that P&O are moving, with ever bigger ships,  and attracting the Saturday evening ITV market,  I have a feeling that I may not be the only one  moving cruise lines in the future. 

Andy - obviously not you, as you are still far too young,

So, confession over, but still looking forward to being on Arcadia in April.

  

I think it's the way to go Wowzz.. 

I'm obviously not as old as you, (is anyone?) but I'm getting steered in that direction. 

I think Saga ships will just be like a 'posh' Aurora for atmosphere and clientele etc. 

I just need to save up and we will be with you... 

At least you will save on the double bread n butter... 😊

Andy 

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lujaha

lujaha

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Firstly, how can Saga passengers be any older than the Oceana cruise I've just been on?  We are in our early 70's and felt quite young at times!  They keep sending us brochures and the ships do look lovely.  But and it's a big but, they are so expensive.  At the end of the day, they are doing the same itineraries, but at luxury ship style prices.  Enjoy your special cruise next year and I look forward to reading all about it.

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wowzz

wowzz

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3 minutes ago, lujaha said:

Firstly, how can Saga passengers be any older than the Oceana cruise I've just been on?  We are in our early 70's and felt quite young at times!  They keep sending us brochures and the ships do look lovely.  But and it's a big but, they are so expensive.  At the end of the day, they are doing the same itineraries, but at luxury ship style prices.  Enjoy your special cruise next year and I look forward to reading all about it.

I agree with you about the ages! My wife said exactly the same thing after our recent Oceana cruise.

The prices are expensive, but for the one week cruise we have booked, we will "save " at least £500 versus a similar P&O cruise, so suddenly the price becomes more attractive, especially given the quality of Saga over P&O.  Obviously the savings on hotel and travel costs are more amortized over a longer cruise,  and therefore the savings become less pronounced. 

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Britboys

Britboys

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Good for you.  I sailed on Saga Ruby back in 2013 when I was only in my early fifties and loved it.  The quality of the food and entertainment was exceptional.  The pax may be somewhat 'mature' but I found them to be very sprightly with alert, enquiring minds leading to interesting conversation.

I love the look of their new ship and her and her sister-ship are a great size.

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AndyMichelle

AndyMichelle

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4 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Good for you.  I sailed on Saga Ruby back in 2013 when I was only in my early fifties and loved it.  The quality of the food and entertainment was exceptional.  The pax may be somewhat 'mature' but I found them to be very sprightly with alert, enquiring minds leading to interesting conversation.

I love the look of their new ship and her and her sister-ship are a great size.

We enjoy the company of interesting, older people with stories to tell. 

We have met some great characters. 

Andy 

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Selbourne "Live from...." Rare

Selbourne

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I agree with you about the ages! My wife said exactly the same thing after our recent Oceana cruise.

The prices are expensive, but for the one week cruise we have booked, we will "save " at least £500 versus a similar P&O cruise, so suddenly the price becomes more attractive, especially given the quality of Saga over P&O.  Obviously the savings on hotel and travel costs are more amortized over a longer cruise,  and therefore the savings become less pronounced. 


I shall also be very interested to hear how you get on. We are starting to become a little disillusioned as to P&O’s direction of travel (the Saturday night ITV market isn’t us either), but we are going on Iona with a (reasonably) open mind as we love the Select Dining Restaurants and the cabin facilities will be excellent (just as well, as we may spend quite a bit of time in it)! That being said, it’s the Maiden Cruise and we have some first class acts, which offsets P&O’s usual ‘stuck in a time warp’ offerings in that department. We like Aurora, but the lack of Select Dining options (no Epicurean) and ancient cabins (even post refit) are starting to slightly compromise even that ship for us. 
 

I have got as far as requesting a Saga brochure but haven’t priced anything yet. We are happy to pay more for a better experience, but as we are only a few hours from Southampton we never need hotels and travel costs are small. Mrs Selbourne thinks we are far too young for Saga but the average age in our last few Aurora cruises has been mid 70’s so I doubt it. 
 

Edit - we are nowhere near our 70’s, but you know what I mean!

Edited by Selbourne
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annieuk

annieuk

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We have done exactly the same thing.  We have done over 25 P&O cruises but P&O are moving in a direction that doesn't suit us - we're not ITV Saturday evening viewers either.  We have been a couple of Fred Olsen cruises but they are expensive, very old ships with very small cabins.  Yes the food is excellent and the staff are great but that's not enough.  We liked the look of the two new Saga ships and we've read some reviews of Spirit of Discovery and heard from some friends who've been on her and we think we'll enjoy it.  Yes it's not cheap but when you factor in the all inclusive drinks. free transport to and from the ship, free WiFi and the insurance - although as we already have insurance we've taken the small discount instead - yes it's probably still a little more expensive than P&O but not by too much.  So we are off on a short cruise in April to try out Spirit of Discovery.  Our favourite P&O ships are Aurora, Oceana and Arcadia.  We've been on Azura and Ventura but not Britannia.  So we'll see what we think but if we like it I think our P&O days may be numbered.

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wowzz

wowzz

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3 minutes ago, lujaha said:

Can someone explain the "Saturday evening ITV crowd".  I have just booked Iona for next year.  I don't like Paddy Mcguiness, but quite like Ant & Dec, so don't mind if they are on board!  

The CEO of P&O recently said that the new ships were designed to appeal to the ITV Saturday night audience, so, in marketing terms, I suppose he means C1s and C2s.

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Denarius

Denarius

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6 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

I think it's the way to go Wowzz.. 

I'm obviously not as old as you, (is anyone?) but I'm getting steered in that direction. 

I think Saga ships will just be like a 'posh' Aurora for atmosphere and clientele etc. 

I just need to save up and we will be with you... 

At least you will save on the double bread n butter... 😊

Andy 

I have not sailed on Saga's ocean going ships, but have been on their land tours and small ship voyages in Croatia. The age profile was very similar to that of P&Os family ships during term time, and much lower than that on my last cruise on Oriana.

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Harry Peterson

Harry Peterson

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40 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Yes, but I was trying,  for once, to be diplomatic!

C2DE then, as against the former ABC1? 

 

I try to be diplomatic, but there are certain subjects (not this one) that wind me up - notably racism (often starting with 'I'm not racist but......') and companies such as, but certainly not exclusively, P&O denying customers their legal rights by bluffing them into believing that they don't have any.

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lujaha

lujaha

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35 minutes ago, wowzz said:

The CEO of P&O recently said that the new ships were designed to appeal to the ITV Saturday night audience, so, in marketing terms, I suppose he means C1s and C2s.

This is getting worse!  Just had to look up C1 and C2 and DE.  I presume P&O passengers are normally AB's.  We have just started cruising with P&O because it is cheap, and as pensioners we have to economize on holidays a bit more these days.  We like it well enough but upmarket it isn't.

 

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Adawn47

Adawn47

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1 hour ago, wowzz said:

The CEO of P&O recently said that the new ships were designed to appeal to the ITV Saturday night audience, so, in marketing terms, I suppose he means C1s and C2s.

Can someone please explain all this to me. I am TOTALLY confused. I've tried looking on Google but all that comes up with is the vertebrae and I know its definitely not that.😕

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