Swopped from P&O to Princess

[Cruisemeister2002]

Having done all bar one cruise with P&O, the other funnily enough with Princess I have switch allegiance to Princess as our last cruise with P&O was a bit of a disaster. You name it and it went wrong. Room changed day before but obviously only we and a few others were aware. So card key on arrival at cabin was someone else's and also wrong dining arrangements. I had paid for a Celebration package and phoned P&O several days before travelling to check that it would be available on arrival. It wasn't and it took me 15 days of a 35 night cruise to receive all of the package. Immigration was a nightmare. Food was poor in the MDR. The only good or should I say excellent meals were in Sindu. We had booked a cruise with P&O to give them a last chance, but due to having watched cruise programmes on tv Princess looked wonderful ships. The cruise we have booked has 12 more nights and all drinks included, 2 x desserts per day and various other extras and cost £1600 more, so looks a relative bargain to me. Please feel free to fill me in on whether I am a bit deluded or that I am a genius. 

[Pine Man]

23 minutes ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

Please feel free to fill me in on whether I am a bit deluded or that I am a genius. 

Well if you're a genius that makes two of us!

 

I am also a disenchanted P&O cruiser. It got more and more like Butlins at sea with fights and drunkeness etc. and the food nothing like as good as it used to be.

 

After many, many years of cruising with only P&O I've only got one booking left with them next month BUT, having looked into Princess, I decided to try something different and booked 14 nights next summer on Sky Princess. Obviously a bit dearer than P&O but I'd sooner spend a bit more to get something a lot better - hopefully.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Pine Man

[Essex Racer]

We are the same it has been P&O for the majority of our cruises, but we now find Princess a better experience.

[gah_cruise]

40 minutes ago, Essex Racer said:

We are the same it has been P&O for the majority of our cruises, but we now find Princess a better experience.

I would be interested to know why you consider Princess a better experience.
We were thinking of Iona for next year .....but keep reading mixed reviews.  

[triple7tahoe]

When we first started cruising (1964), P&O was our best choice (Princess had not started). We did many cruises on the "old" P&O ships and loved them. We continued to cruise P&O but tried Princess when it became available. At the time I was amazed by the different offers on P&O for those in the UK as opposed to us Yanks. (Some things never change 🙂 ). For us that "last straw" was having a World Cruise on the Aurora, cancelled because of ship failure. Our daughters had taken vacation time to join us and Princess was kind enough to let us book a last minute cruise on the Sapphire Princess from Sydney. We took one more cruise with P&O and are now exclusively Princess. We have often wondered if we should give P&O another try; I think you folks have answered that 🙂

 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Honestly, I’ve really enjoyed our 2 P&O crusies and plan to go on another with family on the Arvia next year too. I would go back to P&O

 

In our experience P&O is much cheaper, especially in the school hols compared with other lines, so my expectations have been different.
 

I’d struggle to get a weeks cruise on Princess for the cost of our 2 weeks on Arvia next year, once drinks/ grats etc are paid.

 

We found the food and service to be fine but not great. It was cost & itinerary that draw us back & we enjoyed Iona with our daughter very much- she loved what was on board for her & the excellent kids club. We loved the style, cabin on Iona especially & facilities.

 

So, given the comparison in cost, my expectations for our first cruise on Princess was high. If you pay more, you absolutely expect better food & service. And if that’s what you are wanting, I found Princess to be excellent in both areas & hope you have as great an experience as I had on Sky Princess.

 

I enjoyed it so much we’ve booked a 16nt Princess Cruise next year too. Iceland & Greenland. We don’t usually do more than one cruise a year- certainly not more than 2 weeks, but we were just that impressed, & that relaxed after our cruise, we booked another the day we came back!

 

I don’t know if Princess are like how P&O used to be. But I def felt I got what I paid for and more with Princess.

 

[dides]

Well I started on P&O Canberra as a kid in the 1970s when we slept in the bowels of the ship next to the launderette with bunk beds, a port hole and shared bathrooms. We loved it though.  I picked up cruising again with my partner while completing our quest to "visit all 50 US states by the time he is 40". We randomly chose Sapphire Princess to take us to Ketchikan to tick off Alaska and two years later did Hawaii out of LA on the same ship. And we were hooked. As Princess wasn't doing many short cruises in the UK, we  supplemented our overseas Princess cruises by going on ten 2-3 day weekend cruise on P&O in two years! We managed to cruise on her whole fleet and then P&O Iona came out. This was only offering 7 day cruises so we bit the bullet. And after four days we wanted to get off. We were so bored..the entertainment and the food...just lacked something. It just wasn't Princess. We have now cruised on 9 cruise lines but keep coming back.

 

[Ranchi]

We did a cruise on Sky & one on Britannia about 6 weeks apart. Preferred MDR on Britannia. Preferred organised games on Britannia and also ballroom dancing. Thought Alfredo’s was excellent as was International Café on Sky. Preferred theatre shows on Sky. Liked the medallion and lightning fast embarkation on Sky. Plus package (15 drinks, gratuities & wifi ) excellent value (it was on offer at 1/2 price.) Drinks much cheaper on P&O ( hence the package) Princess Patter full of activities but most are non- hosted so many don’t really happen. Loyalty laundry service v good on Sky. Laundrettes free on Britannia ($7.50 on Sky) Free ice cream bar on Sky. Live Lounge entertainment pretty awful on Sky. Crown Grill & Catch at Rudi both more pleasurable than Epicurean on Britannia ( maybe we just had a bad experience in Epicurean.) Almost impossible to get a seat in most venues during the evening on Sky.  Also not a good look to have passengers sunbathing on towels due to shortage of sun beds on Sky. 
Room serviced twice a day on Sky (excellent steward)

Disembarkation better from Sky. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Ranchi

[gah_cruise]

2 minutes ago, Ranchi said:

 Drinks much cheaper on P&O

what size measures for wine and spirits?
Do P&O "free pour" ?

[charliedalrymple]

3 hours ago, dides said:

I picked up cruising again with my partner while completing our quest to "visit all 50 US states by the time he is 40".

 

Well, don't keep us in suspense!  Has your partner reached age 40 yet, and did he manage to visit all 50 states by then?

 

I finally could say that I hit all 50 when I did an Alaska cruise for my 60th birthday.  By the way, I'm a bit of a purist--I don't consider airport transits as having "visited" a state.  😁

[CaptainPedantic]

We much prefer Princess over P&O but we're not "Princess exclusive". We did give up on P&O back in 2016 having cruised extensively with them for years, after some unfortunate incidents on an Azura Christmas and New Year cruise. But we decided to try again on Britannia last year in the Caribbean and loved it. Sure, not quite the same as Princess but good value and the charter flights are a clincher. We've booked Britannia again this winter, having cruised twice with Princess earlier this year (and loved them both). Great to have so many options!

[CaptainPedantic]

13 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

I enjoyed it so much we’ve booked a 16nt Princess Cruise next year too. Iceland & Greenland.

 

We got back from the Iceland & Greenland cruise on Island Princess last month and it was INCREDIBLE. We booked it as a "once in a lifetime" trip but before we came home decided that we just had to do it again!

[skynight]

"The cruise we have booked has 12 more nights and all drinks included,"

Plan will include a max. of 15 alcoholic beverages per day and unlimited for most non-alcoholic beverages. 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

5 hours ago, CaptainPedantic said:

We got back from the Iceland & Greenland cruise on Island Princess last month and it was INCREDIBLE. We booked it as a "once in a lifetime" trip but before we came home decided that we just had to do it again!

That’s great to hear, thank you!

 

Norway and our cruise there on Sky Princess was amazing and there is a niggle of worry that the next cruise won’t come close to the incredible experience we had. 
 

hearing you are doing the cruise again is very reassuring. When are you going next time? 

[Cruisemeister2002]

Hi appreciate you answering my question. Not sure of your point though. With respect to what you have said I can fill you in on the difference. P&O was a 19 night cruise and the Princess is 31 nights. The package I took with Princess is the middle one of three. As you say 15 drinks at a max of $15 per drink with a 15 minute gap in between. That includes juices, coffees, wines and spirits. I did note that some of Princess excursions were quite expensive. But then we have been to many of the locations already and done most of the excursions. Some we have done via the cruiseline and some on our own. I may booked a couple more if they take my fancy. 

[CaptainPedantic]

1 hour ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

hearing you are doing the cruise again is very reassuring. When are you going next time? 

We didn't book it yet, as we have other plans for this year and next, but will definitely do it again. Honestly, our expectations were massively exceeded - maybe we got lucky with the weather and our tours, but we can't wait to do it again!

[CaptainPedantic]

1 hour ago, Cruisemeister2002 said:

15 drinks at a max of $15 per drink with a 15 minute gap in between

Small point, but I don't believe there is a 15 minute gap enforced any more for the Princess drinks packages - just a 15 drink limit from 6am each day

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

We sailed with P&O. We loved the Englishness of it. But after a sailing on Sky Princess we switched and have done 4 cruises with Princess since but we have had a couple of really disappointing cruises now so we have one more booked in April 24 to use up our FCC then we will change away from Princess. Not sure where to... may not be P&O. Might go for one of the more premium lines to see if it is worth the extra. We'll see.

[villauk]

On 9/7/2023 at 3:56 PM, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

That’s great to hear, thank you!

 

Norway and our cruise there on Sky Princess was amazing and there is a niggle of worry that the next cruise won’t come close to the incredible experience we had. 
 

hearing you are doing the cruise again is very reassuring. When are you going next time? 

 

I was on the Sky sailing with you and I felt like there were many pre P&O cruisers onboard. Even though we’ve never taken a P&O cruise ourselves (30th cruise, so not novices), all the long dresses and tuxedos (and of course the many British accents) made it feel like a typical P&O cruise - unsure if I’m correct? We don’t tend to cruise directly from Southampton, so it was probably more noticeable to us.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

41 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

I was on the Sky sailing with you and I felt like there were many pre P&O cruisers onboard. Even though we’ve never taken a P&O cruise ourselves (30th cruise, so not novices), all the long dresses and tuxedos (and of course the many British accents) made it feel like a typical P&O cruise - unsure if I’m correct? We don’t tend to cruise directly from Southampton, so it was probably more noticeable to us.

I think more formalwear on board might simply be more about the high number of British.
 

Though I’m guessing loads of us had before or do currently sail P&O I don’t think it matters about the Cruise line sailed. I’ve been on RCC from Southampton- lots of Brits. still loads of Tuxedo & gowns.

 

the figures said during the champagne waterfall were something like 1900 brits & 900 Americans (rough figures but around that). The rest of the cruisers were made up to so many other nationalities I couldn’t begin to list them. 

 

Personally I think that’s why the numbers we saw in black tie, tux & long gowns was actually less than our experience on our P&O cruises. Because the number sailing from other countries was much higher.

 

I’m not saying that’s bad. It’s not at all! & we like to be more chilled out on formal nights personally. 

[villauk]

1 hour ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

 

Personally I think that’s why the numbers we saw in black tie, tux & long gowns was actually less than our experience on our P&O cruises.

…and we thought how many there were 😀. P&O has never been on our radar as we do prefer a more international mix.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

1 minute ago, villauk said:

…and we thought how many there were 😀. P&O has never been on our radar as we do prefer a more international mix.

 

One of the reasons I liked Princess was because of it being more of an international mix 😊

 

But we do enjoy P&O, just not because it’s mainly Brits. Or that you are guaranteed to get a kettle 😂

 

 

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 9/6/2023 at 3:55 PM, Pine Man said:

Well if you're a genius that makes two of us!

 

I am also a disenchanted P&O cruiser. It got more and more like Butlins at sea with fights and drunkeness etc. and the food nothing like as good as it used to be.

 

After many, many years of cruising with only P&O I've only got one booking left with them next month BUT, having looked into Princess, I decided to try something different and booked 14 nights next summer on Sky Princess. Obviously a bit dearer than P&O but I'd sooner spend a bit more to get something a lot better - hopefully.

Yeah, fights and drunkeness and that was just the crew.

[brynmelyndavid]

I think the problem with comparing P&O to Princess is you are comparing Premier Inn to Hilton. P&O isn't a 'premium' line. We've cruised with them several times and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but more importantly we've enjoyed the price which has been very good value. The food has been consistently good, the drinks are from a much more limited range than Princess but very much cheaper, and the entertainment has been really good. Plus on a ship like Iona a standard balcony cabin has vastly more space than a standard balcony on Princess. Each has their own market and aims at a certain segment, but don't substitute one for the other expecting it to be like-for-like. Generally speaking you gets what you pays for!