P&O v Fred

[Selbourne]

1 minute ago, david05 said:

Saga do not allow smoking on balconies.

Excellent. Many thanks David. Frankly I’m surprised that anyone still allows it these days. Apart from the anti-social aspect of it, we are constantly told that the risk of fire from a discarded cigarette is a major concern on cruise ships 🤔

[Dermotsgirl]

38 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Excellent. Many thanks David. Frankly I’m surprised that anyone still allows it these days. Apart from the anti-social aspect of it, we are constantly told that the risk of fire from a discarded cigarette is a major concern on cruise ships 🤔

In addition to David’s comment, there is apparently a smoking area on deck 11, so hopefully easy to avoid ! 

[jeanlyon]

We have done quite a few on Fred and although I didn't enjoy Black Watch, we did enjoy the Braemar, went down to West Africa.  We have a P&O booked on Aurora this October and then Fred on Bollette next April.  It will be interesting to compare, because I think the food is generally better on Fred.

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I think the problem now tends to be those who Vape, as many seem to think that no smoking rules don’t apply to them 😡

 

I know what you mean about Dover and Tibury. They are a pain for us too. I’m hoping that we can find a suitable Saga cruise from Portsmouth. I know that they offer a chauffeur service, but ours would be a shared one (as we are more than 80 miles away), which doesn’t appeal. 

This is one area where Saga ticks the right boxes for us, as we live half way between Dover and Tilbury. Our upcoming cruise departs from Tilbury and comes back to Dover, so the chauffeur service is very useful with different departure/return ports. We also qualify for ‘sole occupancy’ of the vehicle, which is another plus, as wouldn’t really want to share 

[gsmt47471015]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks Barbara. We would only cruise with a balcony, so their policy of allowing smoking on balconies keeps them off our list. I’d also hate a cabin on the promenade deck. 
 

I completely understand the appeal for those who don’t live in the South though, with their Northern departure ports. We are only a couple of hours drive from Southampton and we were surprised at the number of Scots on our recent cruise. If we lived in Scotland, or even the North of England, I think that the appeal of cruising from Southampton would be severely diminished. I wouldn’t like the thought of having to drive for the best part of the day after we have disembarked and train or coach travel wouldn’t be options for us. 

We have tried all methods to get to Southampton with the exception of rail ,including overnight stays pre boarding. Cant say we enjoy any of them and it makes the journey home a chore , I know its our choice to live a six hour car journey away but we do get envious of people who will be sat at home with a suitcase unpacked before we are even a quarter of the way back.

Its the same with flying, most holiday departures are centered around the south and to fly from anywhere north incurs flight supplements , even though in lots of cases the aircraft and crew are based in the north 

[elmsliebev]

Emam, you briefly mentioned Ambassador in your orginal post. We did a cruise from Liverpool with CMV just before Covid (Isles of Scilly, Rouen, Honfleur etc), and I understand Ambassador has grown out of that line. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes the ship was old but very clean and the food was excellent - freshly made dosa at lunchtime, brilliant grill & Indian restaurants paid options, lovely staff. If we didn't already have 3 cruises booked over the next 18 months (P&O, Cunard, Oceania), I'd definitely be looking at Ambassador again - sailing from Liverpool was a delight! 

[tring]

It is the itineraries and ship environment, service etc. that have made us book with Fred.  We are quite prepared to travel to a port for those, even Dover which we always vow never to go near again due to having to drive around London and lack of appeal in the area.  We often spend more than one night pre cruise or stop off somewhere on the way to lengthen the holiday.  We had a lovely three days near Newcastle last year, before a Fred cruise and really enjoyed that time, including our visit to the Farne Isles, when landings were still allowed.  DH is from the Portsmouth area, but even though his parents are no longer around, we still go there from time to time and meet up with some of his school friends and generally just enjoy a few days around there, so Southampton not all that bad to us.  We have a Christmas cruise booked from Liverpool which is really good though as we would not want to travel south about the 21st Dec and return shortly after new year.  Would not be keen on. P&O ship at that time either nowadays, but have done it in the distant past, though Fred was cheaper than Arcadia for comparable cabins anyway.  We have paid almost £200pppn for a standard balcony on the P&O smaller ships, they are not as cheap as the big ones.

 

Fred has been offering free port transport for some cruises at times, but we would never want to be up at silly o' clock to be taken down, probably in a minibus, and board a ship the same day.  People talk about that with Saga, but their itineraries are no better than P&O so would never be worth spend that astronomical cost on them as the other perks do not appeal either.  Fred or P&O are the only UK departure we would generally consider now, but we often keep our eye on expedition cruise lines which we would consider splashing out for.

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by tring

[yorkshirephil]

1 hour ago, elmsliebev said:

Emam, you briefly mentioned Ambassador in your orginal post. We did a cruise from Liverpool with CMV just before Covid (Isles of Scilly, Rouen, Honfleur etc), and I understand Ambassador has grown out of that line. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes the ship was old but very clean and the food was excellent - freshly made dosa at lunchtime, brilliant grill & Indian restaurants paid options, lovely staff. If we didn't already have 3 cruises booked over the next 18 months (P&O, Cunard, Oceania), I'd definitely be looking at Ambassador again - sailing from Liverpool was a delight! 

We are cruising with Ambassador from Liverpool on Tuesday, looks a similar cruise to what you did with CMV. We have already had two cruises with them and Liverpool or Newcastle are certainly more convenient than a Southern port albeit we wouldn't book a cruise just because of the port of departure.

[Ilovemygarden]

14 hours ago, gsmt47471015 said:

Would definitely recommend Azamara , loved them and will look to sail with them again when a suitable itinerary and timing suit us , however they are more expensive 

I agree - small ships, great food, all inclusive drinks and lovely staff.   They do sometimes have some good offers on (even for solos) although I know lots of you on here don’t like to fly.   

[gsmt47471015]

9 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

I agree - small ships, great food, all inclusive drinks and lovely staff.   They do sometimes have some good offers on (even for solos) although I know lots of you on here don’t like to fly.   

They are a cut above all the other lines we have been on , the white night is quite something to behold , that been said two weeks is probably long enough for us as the evening entertainment can become a little limited , do agree that a lot of people prefer not to fly though 😀

[tring]

47 minutes ago, gsmt47471015 said:

They are a cut above all the other lines we have been on , the white night is quite something to behold , that been said two weeks is probably long enough for us as the evening entertainment can become a little limited , do agree that a lot of people prefer not to fly though 😀

 

We have found a one week cruise in the autumn to be a good option for us in the Med, but we spend longer in hotels.  For instance the most recent cruise we did on those ships was from Barcelona to Civitavecchia and we spent three nights either side in Barcelona and Rome, which was good.  We were in port everyday on the ship as well, some really unusual ports with them as well, so no sea days, which can often seem a waste to us.  On a longer cruise, (we do a lot of them on other lines), it is good to have time to rest and not feel you should be heading off to see what is out there.  The Azamara ships dock very centrally as well, which is often the case with Fred and sometimes the smaller P&O ships. 

[emam]

5 hours ago, zap99 said:

 Graham and Pauline don't seem to be put off by the trek down to that Southampton. 😊

 

We don't live far from them but I believe that they fly down, which is no good for us. 

 

I don't know what you thought of it but we weren't so keen on the itinerary last October. Our previous cruises we have been to some lovely places. It didn't spoil the cruise, but did make a difference, especially with it being our only holiday.

[emam]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

We are cruising with Ambassador from Liverpool on Tuesday, looks a similar cruise to what you did with CMV. We have already had two cruises with them and Liverpool or Newcastle are certainly more convenient than a Southern port albeit we wouldn't book a cruise just because of the port of departure.

 

Let us know on here how it was when you get back. Even though I would love the convenience of a Newcastle or maybe even Liverpool departure, I wouldn't book just for that reason.

[emam]

3 hours ago, elmsliebev said:

Emam, you briefly mentioned Ambassador in your orginal post. We did a cruise from Liverpool with CMV just before Covid (Isles of Scilly, Rouen, Honfleur etc), and I understand Ambassador has grown out of that line. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Yes the ship was old but very clean and the food was excellent - freshly made dosa at lunchtime, brilliant grill & Indian restaurants paid options, lovely staff. If we didn't already have 3 cruises booked over the next 18 months (P&O, Cunard, Oceania), I'd definitely be looking at Ambassador again - sailing from Liverpool was a delight! 

 

I wouldn't mind a weekend in Liverpool, so it might be worth thinking about.

[elmsliebev]

2 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

We are cruising with Ambassador from Liverpool on Tuesday, looks a similar cruise to what you did with CMV. We have already had two cruises with them and Liverpool or Newcastle are certainly more convenient than a Southern port albeit we wouldn't book a cruise just because of the port of departure.

Agree with you about the port of departure, it's just a happy coincidence when the right itinerary at the right price is a more local place! 

[zap99]

26 minutes ago, emam said:

 

We don't live far from them but I believe that they fly down, which is no good for us. 

 

I don't know what you thought of it but we weren't so keen on the itinerary last October. Our previous cruises we have been to some lovely places. It didn't spoil the cruise, but did make a difference, especially with it being our only holiday.

We thought the itinerary was OK, but a bit samey.  Looking at next year, more of the same. We have been looking at NCL, but all the big ships go to the same old ports. We are booked on Britannia for the Caribbean this Winter ,but probably will cancel.  We will probably do a couple of hotel holidays instead. Nothing in the P&O offerings is particularly inspiring  so will hang on and see what crops up.

[Dermotsgirl]

3 hours ago, tring said:

People talk about that with Saga, but their itineraries are no better than P&O 

 

Looking at their itineraries, most Saga cruises seem to have ports that rarely/never appear on P&O schedules.  It might appeal to people jaded with P&O itineraries.

 

For example, we have done several P&O and CMV cruises in the British Isles.  We go on our first Saga cruise, Round Britain, on Friday, and there are two ports new to us.  We've also booked another British Isles cruise with Saga for next year, and that one has 4 ports that we haven't visited before.

 

If people want different ports, Saga is worth a look 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Dermotsgirl

[zap99]

47 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Looking at their itineraries, most Saga cruises seem to have ports that rarely/never appear on P&O schedules.  It might appeal to people jaded with P&O itineraries.

 

For example, we have done several P&O and CMV cruises in the British Isles.  We go on our first Saga cruise, Round Britain, on Friday, and there are two ports new to us.  We've also booked another British Isles cruise with Saga for next year, and that one has 4 ports that we haven't visited before.

 

If people want different ports, Saga is worth a look 

NCL are doing some nice Britain,Ireland cruises as far up as Iceland.

[yorkshirephil]

51 minutes ago, zap99 said:

NCL are doing some nice Britain,Ireland cruises as far up as Iceland.

Some good prices too, I have my eye on the one around Ireland for next year

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Some good prices too, I have my eye on the one around Ireland for next year

The one that appeals most is on Epic in the med. Ugly ship, same old ports but a good price. We actually enjoyed epic. We are looking at October and the Northern cruises may be a bit grim. 4 more nights and we are platinum. 🤣

[Eglesbrech]

34 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Some good prices too, I have my eye on the one around Ireland for next year

Just done Ireland and it was lovely. Friendly people, good food and amazing views (on Fred).

Edited August 6, 2023 by Eglesbrech

[ann141]

3 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

Some good prices too, I have my eye on the one around Ireland for next year

We cruised with NCL around Ireland in May. Although the itinerary was great we were not impressed with what we felt was a very disorganized offering and in fact there were numerous complaints both onboard and once home and we were given a small refund.I think it was the first year NCL had offered this itinerary and hopefully some changes will have been made so that it is better next year.

[ann141]

5 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Looking at their itineraries, most Saga cruises seem to have ports that rarely/never appear on P&O schedules.  It might appeal to people jaded with P&O itineraries.

 

For example, we have done several P&O and CMV cruises in the British Isles.  We go on our first Saga cruise, Round Britain, on Friday, and there are two ports new to us.  We've also booked another British Isles cruise with Saga for next year, and that one has 4 ports that we haven't visited before.

 

If people want different ports, Saga is worth a look 

I agree that Saga offer different ports to P and O. Not as varied as Fred's offering but we have now sailed with Saga twice and feel they are worth the extra money if the itinerary includes several ports of call that will be new to us. If P and O , Fred and Saga had identical itineraries at the same price we would always choose Saga.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, ann141 said:

 If P and O , Fred and Saga had identical itineraries at the same price we would always choose Saga.

You and several thousand others. 😇

[nosapphire]

23 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Some really interesting and helpful comparisons have been given. I don’t know if this is still the case, but when I last looked at Fred Olsen (pre Covid) they still allowed smoking on balconies. This made them a complete no-go for us, so we looked no further. 
 

On that note, can anyone confirm what Sagas policy is? I can’t remember if I’ve asked them. If they allow smoking on balconies I will need to get a refund of our pre-registration fees!

Saga have a dedicated smoking/vaping area on deck 11, outside at the rear.

Smoking/vaping is not allowed anywhere else.

They do seem to enforce it - once had person in next cabin smoking on the balcony, told Reception who were horrified and said it would be reported. No more smoking after that, so presumably somebody had a stern word.

They seem to do most of their cruises now from Portsmouth, with some from Dover - Tilbury seemed to be a bit of a one-off this year. Shame, as that is the closest port for us.

You can pay extra for a private car (the extra applies to the difference between 75 miles and 250 (soon to be 300) miles, but it is expensive at, I think, £3.30 per mile. Or drive yourself, secure parking at the Port included in the fare.