Comparing Princess to P&O or Fred Olsen

[Li-shan]

I'm thinking about a Princess cruise from Southampton to the Baltic, but I've never been on a Princess cruise before. I'll be a solo traveller. For anyone who has sailed on Princess and also with P&O or Fred Olsen, how does it compare?

[Izzywiz]

 

Hi Li-Shan, I have cruised on Princess, P&O and Fred Olsen ships multiple times as well as ships from many other cruise lines. I have never sailed solo but have often made friends with solo passengers while taking part in quizzes, choir and other ship board activities. I also do a lot of cruise line shore excursions as a solo as my husband and I have different interests so  I certainly wouldn’t be concerned about travelling solo on any cruise line.

My first observation is that all the cruise lines on which we have sailed are more alike than they are different......en-suite cabins that are serviced regularly, several dining and entertainment options, passengers from all walks of life and a variety of ports of call.

The main differences for us have been in the small things.

I think Princess ships have a little more in common with P&O mainly because of the size of the ships. The 4 Fred Olsen ships, before the sale of Boudicca (my personal favourite) and Black Watch and the purchase of Bolette and Borealis, are much, much smaller than the P&O and Princess ships so have a much more intimate feel. 

Apart from that, to me, the main differences are probably that there will be a more international passenger demographic on Princess and food options geared more to North American tastes even though the ship will be based in Southampton. On board spending will be in US dollars.

As the ship is based in the UK, I believe that there will be familiar food items and I would expect there to be a hostess tray in your cabin. This is not the case with US company ships with home ports in other countries although we did have a kettle and mugs in our cabin on Diamond Princess when we sailed around Japan and on Sea Princess when she sailed around Australia.

We have enjoyed our P&O cruises but we don’t sail with them very often because we find their itineraries to be very limited and we are destination driven so FO is often our first choice. That said, we have a round trip cruise from Southampton to Canada and New England booked on Sky Princess for September 2022.

We are happy to sail with any of the 3 lines.