Why Do the Brits Like P&O

[Harry Peterson]

18 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

MDR, they will bring you anything you like, they just sometimes need reminding that you want it on the same plate, or at least at the same time... 

Andy 

Worth knowing - thanks Andy. 🙂

[crompton21]

34 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

"they will bring you anything you like"

 

There is a comment...but I won't lower the tone.

Edited February 24, 2020 by crompton21

[kalos]

I like my breakfast in the MDR on a table for two and sometimes you get nearby tables  

with people unaware they make you smile .
One time a  guy on a table was ordering his breakfast  and asked for a full English  .
Then he went on to say  but no bacon,no tomatoes,no fried bread,no hash browns, no black pudding

no mushrooms ....

Think he ended up with beans on toast with a sausage on the side.

The look his Mrs gave him whilst ordering! Yet the waiter never batted an eye lid .
I also like the buffet but if I use it , then it's just before 7 am , peace and quiet and food is just put out fresh with no mess.
 

Edited February 24, 2020 by kalos

[AndyMichelle]

18 minutes ago, kalos said:

I like my breakfast in the MDR on a table for two and sometimes you get nearby tables  

with people unaware they make you smile .
One time a  guy on a table was ordering his breakfast  and asked for a full English  .
Then he went on to say  but no bacon,no tomatoes,no fried bread,no hash browns, no black pudding

no mushrooms ....

Think he ended up with beans on toast with a sausage on the side.

The look his Mrs gave him whilst ordering! Yet the waiter never batted an eye lid .
I also like the buffet but if I use it , then it's just before 7 am , peace and quiet and food is just put out fresh with no mess.
 

I think that could be partly to do with how P&O word the menu. 

It is often perceived that you have to either order the P&O breakfast or the full English. 

Still funny though... 😊

Andy 

[Britboys]

Whilst we are talking P&O food - This thread is not the first time I have seen someone compare the mdr food to School Dinners.  All I can say is that I wish my old schools had served dinners something like I have since had on P&O.  I have on occasion eaten in a Wetherspoons pub and whilst the food has been very acceptable for the price paid, I can still happily say that on my most recent P&O cruise I still felt the mdr food was better than a Wetherspoons.  I totally accept it is not fine dining any more but imho it is still a step up from a standard local pub...

[KnowTheScore]

5 hours ago, Britboys said:

Whilst we are talking P&O food - This thread is not the first time I have seen someone compare the mdr food to School Dinners.  All I can say is that I wish my old schools had served dinners something like I have since had on P&O.  I have on occasion eaten in a Wetherspoons pub and whilst the food has been very acceptable for the price paid, I can still happily say that on my most recent P&O cruise I still felt the mdr food was better than a Wetherspoons.  I totally accept it is not fine dining any more but imho it is still a step up from a standard local pub...

 

I guess the nature of the problem Britboys is that the food quality is not consistent across the fleet and isn't even consistent on an individual ship.   Much depends on who the Executive Chef is on your ship.  Yet regardless, one meal can be like a school dinner, another like Weatherspoons and another can be truly lovely and tasty.   It's a complete lottery and if you cruise often enough you come to learn what dishes to avoid.   Puddings I find really poor now where they previously used to be really good.  Some starters are abysmally small and sparse, some main courses also.  We don't need massive portions on a cruise I know but some dishes just take the biscuit.

 

I appreciate also that if there are any problems with food you can inform the waiter and he/she will fix it or bring another dish but then you put the entire dining table out of kilter and sequence.   You end up making everyone else wait for you because your fixed dish came after they'd all eaten their courses.   It's just poor.  The food should be good quality consistently and should certainly be way better than pub food for the £000s we are paying.

 

I wish I could buy a cruise ticket that did not include the food and instead Pay As You Go with food same as you do with drinks, but of course the cruise lines ain't gonna let us do that.  We get given lesser quality food, and less of it for the same ticket price as before.  Hence for me the value or money proposition is adversely affected.  That amongst hundreds of other disappointments, cuts and niggles is why I am switching cruise lines now.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by KnowTheScore

[davemorton]

But the amount you are saving by booking P&O over some other cruise lines easily leaves a buffer to go to a pay option every night.  I had a cruise last year where I did not get my dining option, so used to just dine in the pay options, usually the glass house where a lovely meal can be had for very little.  Yes, thats not the point, but its an option, and not an expensive one. 

Look for solutions, not problems. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by davemorton

[emam]

31 minutes ago, KnowTheScore said:

 It's just poor.  The food should be good quality consistently and should certainly be way better than pub food for the £000s we are paying.

 

 

You really can't complain when you keep getting cruises for free (£000s)

[KnowTheScore]

31 minutes ago, davemorton said:

But the amount you are saving by booking P&O over some other cruise lines easily leaves a buffer to go to a pay option every night.  I had a cruise last year where I did not get my dining option, so used to just dine in the pay options, usually the glass house where a lovely meal can be had for very little.  Yes, thats not the point, but its an option, and not an expensive one. 

Look for solutions, not problems. 

 

Yep I share that idea and very nearly did exactly that on an Arcadia cruise some years ago.

 

However the problem now is that I have found even the alternative dining restaurants to be of far lesser quality that they used to be too.  On Ventura recently I found Sindhu restaurant to be extremely lesser quality than before and the Beach House I have previously found very very average.   I agree with you that the Glass House can be a good alternative and they used to do special food tasting nights which I've done but unfortunately on Ventura the restaurant during the day is open to people parading past when they pile out of the theatre and during the day you have people sitting there reading books, playing cards, knitting or just lolling there asleep.  Hardly an enticing venue to go and have a meal in.    There is one tiny cordoned off section of Glass House on Ventura which is okay if you can get a table.

 

Either way though what ever price I am paying for the cruise is little different to the year before and the year before that and yet we are now getting far worse food and much less of it on the plate.  And the food is just one of a plethora of aspects that have likewise degraded.

 

[Elaine0138]

On 2/23/2020 at 7:32 PM, jeanlyon said:

Ridiculous, they are employed from India, most of them.  They are hardly going to need a reference from you!!

Actually one of our cabin stewards on P&O ask if we could give him a reference  as he wanted to transfer cruiselines and he was so grateful we had written one for him about how we had found his work ethos  that he tried to hand us back half his gratuities. We never heard from him again so no idea if he did move cruiselines or not.

[Elaine0138]

19 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

I really would like to do a Disney cruise or royal Caribbean. 
 

just tight and don’t want to pay for them though. Might go have a nosy at prices now. 

You would need to re mortgage to sail on Disney I priced the one out of Dover to the Baltic  and back to Copenhagen, and for a balcony it was coming in at £11000 for the cabin

Edited February 25, 2020 by Elaine0138
typo

[Vampiress88]

2 minutes ago, Elaine0138 said:

You would need to re mortgage to sail on Disney I priced the one out of Dover to the Baltic  and back to Copenhagen, and for a balcony it was coming in at £11000 for the cabin

yes I very much doubt we will ever do a Disney cruise. Would rather just go florida in a villa for about the same price. 

[Elaine0138]

12 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

yes I very much doubt we will ever do a Disney cruise. Would rather just go florida in a villa for about the same price. 

The ships are beautiful, very classic style inside which surprised me, the shows are amazing. The adult only area is bliss for a great chill out when the children are in the clubs. 

[davecttr]

About the Glasshouse - The venues on Azura and Ventura follow the original concept of a relaxed casual bar where you can pay for food by the item. The have a dining area but the majority of the area is 'bar' and the bar itself is lengthy.  They even retain the smart casual code on formal evenings, although the P&O site states otherwise. The retrofitted Glasshouses in other ships show that P&O are trying to turn them into a restaurant, obviously because they make more money out of food than drinks. Take Britannia for example. a soulless place overlooking the atrium and declared formal on formal nights. this is a joke because it is a transit area so you get a constant stream of casually dressed people wandering through. Also true of Oceana, the Rotten Compost formal/ nah, it is the main access to the theatre.

[Adawn47]

I think that the difference in food quality is mostly down to the chefs not only the Executive Chef.. I have only once had to, quietly, complain and return a meal that I personally found inedible. Gammon. It was so salty. I noticed a few other people were doing the same. A chef came to the table and politely  told me that gammon is salty because it's cured in brine. I told him i knew that but if you soak it in cold water a while before cooking it wouldn't be that bad.. I've never ordered it since but Frank says it's lovely. I ordered the South Atlantic Char one evening. When the waiter asked how it was I told him it was lovely but could I please have the other half of the  goldfish. He smiled at me and bought me another piece.14 cruises in and those were my only issues. I hope I haven't jinxed it now!!!!!.

 

[Vampiress88]

I have an issue with the dinning because I don’t like the majority of the food.  Not really p&o’s fault and it’s not like I don’t know what food I am to expect when I go. 
 

Some people do find the oddest things to complain about. 
 

worst I had was mahi mahi. Oh and snotty eggs but I am picky 

 

I don’t know what people ought to think really. It’s not like it’s a normal restaurant. It’s feeding thousands. The kitchen will be so busy and there is bound to be a few mistakes here and there it’s inevitable. 
 

but even though majority of the time I’m not going to like the menu. The food isn’t bad. It’s an average standard. I am still getting exactly what I paid for. I can always pay more and eat in the other restaurants if I wish. Or go on a different line for probably double if not more the price the I really would expect excellent food. 
 

some of the prices we have paid for these cruises makes it so worth it. Last year it was £135pn and this year it’s £182pn. This is for all of us. 
 

I don’t have to cook. I don’t have to clean up. Kids can’t moan cos they are hungry. We get to see different places without having to drive. And I can finally get a date night, maybe. 
 

don’t know how people moan.  Cruises are great and so far p&o have been good as a travel company for us. 
 

im glad I have this cruise this year and Iona next year keeps me going knowing I’m getting good deals. Unfortunately iona will be our last big holiday for a year or two. 

[Adawn47]

We find the hardest thing about cruising is deciding what to wear what to eat and 'what shall we do today/tonight. 😆

[Son of Anarchy]

I must admit, some of the MDR menus could do with updating.

 

Breakfast for example. Last weekend we had breakfast in a Wetherspoons prior to getting a train.  I had a muffin with smashed avocado, pico de something and smoked salmon.  Aboslutely lovely.

 

The only time I had anything like that for breakfast on PandO was on Christmas day on Oriana.

 

The MDR breakfast specials haven't changed since we started cruising over 10 years ago.  In this respect Wetherspoons do appear to be better than PandO.

 

[Elaine0138]

2 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

I must admit, some of the MDR menus could do with updating.

 

Breakfast for example. Last weekend we had breakfast in a Wetherspoons prior to getting a train.  I had a muffin with smashed avocado, pico de something and smoked salmon.  Aboslutely lovely.

 

The only time I had anything like that for breakfast on PandO was on Christmas day on Oriana.

 

The MDR breakfast specials haven't changed since we started cruising over 10 years ago.  In this respect Wetherspoons do appear to be better than PandO.

 

We only cruise P&O so my husband can have devilled kidneys for breakfast 😄

[Vampiress88]

14 minutes ago, Elaine0138 said:

We only cruise P&O so my husband can have devilled kidneys for breakfast 😄

 
sorry but 🤢

[jake 26]

29 minutes ago, Elaine0138 said:

We only cruise P&O so my husband can have devilled kidneys for breakfast 😄

Only in the MDR on Fridays, sadly.

[Bazrat]

23 hours ago, Britboys said:

Whilst we are talking P&O food - This thread is not the first time I have seen someone compare the mdr food to School Dinners.  All I can say is that I wish my old schools had served dinners something like I have since had on P&O.  I have on occasion eaten in a Wetherspoons pub and whilst the food has been very acceptable for the price paid, I can still happily say that on my most recent P&O cruise I still felt the mdr food was better than a Wetherspoons.  I totally accept it is not fine dining any more but imho it is still a step up from a standard local pub...

i like your comparison of weatherspoons and the MDR both give acceptable food but aimed at a different market,i have said before the glory days of cruising have finished but some still look back and cannot move forward. 

[jeanlyon]

I wonder if your perception depends on whether you are a foodie or not.  I eat to live, not the other way round, so although I obviously want something tasty for dinner, sometimes I am really surprised.  I have had some god-awful fish dishes and one night I wondered about the lemon sole.  Pretty ordinary fish really, but I had it.  It was wonderful.  Compared to the other fish I had, there was no comparison.  I just wish they would do some different chicken dishes.  Not roast.  chicken in a sauce would be nice.

 

Putting the food aside, what else is there.  We love our drinks in the Crows Nest.  Nothing like sitting up there with a glass of wine as the sun goes down, waiting to go down for dinner.

 

A show after dinner is fun.  Sometimes we go, sometimes we don't.  Getting ashore to do our own thing is great.  I have the plan and the other 2, my husband and our friend follow.  We have done some super trips.  Taormina on the train.  So easy, so cheap.  Can't wait for Lisbon.  We are catching the train to Sintra.  It's 3.6 Euro.  can we afford it?

[Adawn47]

20 hours ago, KnowTheScore said:

 

Yep I share that idea and very nearly did exactly that on an Arcadia cruise some years ago.

 

However the problem now is that I have found even the alternative dining restaurants to be of far lesser quality that they used to be too.  On Ventura recently I found Sindhu restaurant to be extremely lesser quality than before and the Beach House I have previously found very very average.   I agree with you that the Glass House can be a good alternative and they used to do special food tasting nights which I've done but unfortunately on Ventura the restaurant during the day is open to people parading past when they pile out of the theatre and during the day you have people sitting there reading books, playing cards, knitting or just lolling there asleep.  Hardly an enticing venue to go and have a meal in.    There is one tiny cordoned off section of Glass House on Ventura which is okay if you can get a table.

 

Either way though what ever price I am paying for the cruise is little different to the year before and the year before that and yet we are now getting far worse food and much less of it on the plate.  And the food is just one of a plethora of aspects that have likewise degraded.

 

We find the amount of food served over 3 or sometimes 4 courses is more than enough to satisfy our appetites. If you want extra vegetables/ meat/fish or dessert, ask. If there's a course where nothing appeals to you, the waiter will  offer an alternative. The worst meals we've ever had  in the MDR were  on another cruise line. We lasted 3 days and had to eat in the buffet for the remaining 16. The food was a little better but not much. 

[Rupert2251]

Can I just ask why Disney cruises have anything to do with this thread? The OP asked why do the Brits like P&O?