Cruising doing well.

[daiB]

7 hours ago, CarlaMarie said:

 

You are spot on. What actually is P&O's identity in the market? They have had both Iona and Arvia built fairly recently, yet the amenities onboard for families and children are fairly limited - yet they want to attract the young families.

Sorry they dont they want to attract them in the school holidays and the figures show that they are. However for the rest of the cruises they ave to attract older cruisers as that is where their bread and butter is, 

 

P&O has an identity of a cruise line concentrating on cruises ex Southampton for most of the year with a fly cruise element of one ship ball year round and a 2 ship season of 5 months in the Caribbean. Linked are the world/long cruises in Jan/Feb/ March which are adult only. They are not a cruise line for with brash activity based attractions and never have been.

[yorkshirephil]

5 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

Onboard Arvia last week it was discounted by 10% and either £1100 OBC or car parking and £850 OBC. Cancelled original booking and rebooked. Very happy.

 

Balcony cabin.

I will be taking a look when we get n Aurora, A10% discount with extra OBC will likely make me rebook. As we have booked select inside the savings will be less than yours it is still worth having. We were considering swapping to saver inside and losing the deposit as our ta has the cruise at £1969. When we booked inside saver was £2549.

[sweep2907]

P&O cruises plan in aftermath of Covid was to attract lots of new customers at very attractive prices. Once this was achieved, they were then going to increase prices. As mentioned having 100% occupancy is not much good for profitability if 3500 people are paying £70pppn when you consider fuel, overheads, food etc all gone through the roof. Expect to keep seeing prices steadily rise as they are there to make money at end of the day and have large debts from 2020 to 2021 to repay.

[mrsgoggins]

21 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

 

Celebrity and Princess can't appeal to new first time  cruisers remotely as well purely down to pricepoints MB

 

Regardless of quality or offering which I'm not disputing. 

 

Hence the big numbers of new cruisers cruising for the first time in the UK will be P and O new customers right now

 

Don't think there can be any argument there?

 

I have read (I think) most of your posts and you always make some good points.  However, you are very fond of sweeping generalisations IMO!

 

For instance:

Older people prefer the traditional holiday camps to young of today who want more choice and more activities - especially outside in nature 

 

Really?  As an older person I've never set foot inside a holiday camp and nor have any of my friends to the best of my knowledge - well, maybe Center Parcs, but I doubt that counts.  In an earlier post you gave a few so called 'Facts' and my life is too short to go through them one by one, but I doubt there is actual evidence for some of your claims.

 

We've been independent travellers for all of our married lives and have gravitated towards cruising as an 'ages and stages' development, plus I wanted to see Alaska, Fjords, places in Spain and the Canaries etc which were never on our radar, and can now see the ease and benefits of cruising for all ages, providing you do your research and know what you are buying.  

 

My first ever cruise was on Princess (Alaska) and my next 2 were with Celebrity, and these remain my favourite 'go to' cruise lines.  For me, the biggest advantage of P&O is that we can sail from Southampton without troubling an airport, where I would guess we have spent more time over the past decades than most on these boards.  I should add that we have enjoyed each P&O cruise and felt we had value for money with the one exception of Iona earlier in the year, and even then we enjoyed the cruise but it wasn't the value experience you are so fond of relating and we didn't really care for the ship.

 

Anecdotal experiences aside, I think the comment about Ant and Dec viewers being P&Os target was very interesting and probably spot on, (without being demeaning).  I know many young people who would not fall into that category, I also know many young people who spend quite a bit on alcohol - I'm a non-drinker.  As I said, you make many fair points,  but I think you would make your case better if you were to tone down the generalisations. 

[Gettingwarmer]

5 hours ago, mrsgoggins said:

 

My first ever cruise was on Princess (Alaska) and my next 2 were with Celebrity, and these remain my favourite 'go to' cruise lines.  For me, the biggest advantage of P&O is that we can sail from Southampton without troubling an airport,

This is exactly my cruising history. I travel to see places, not necessarily following the heat. ICF does not always appreciate the troubling aspects that people have found on Iona and Arvia. That said we are travelling on Arvia in 2025 to some new places in the Med and hope things have sorted themselves out by then. 

[solentsam]

We are both in our late 60's, and have been cruising with P&O for nearly 20 years (27 cruises) My wife is a wheel chair user and we have been on Iona three times and Arvia twice, we have two other cruises booked one on each. We have sailed with all of the fleet  some more than others but now Iona and Arvia are our favourites they are far better for accessibility than the rest of the P&O fleet and we love the extra dinning options. we were on Arvia in July school holidays yes it was busy, but we expected that. We used the MDR's occasionally but not all the time and found the virtual queuing reasonable at the times we dined around 7:00 waits of about 20-40 mins.

[daiB]

8 hours ago, solentsam said:

We are both in our late 60's, and have been cruising with P&O for nearly 20 years (27 cruises) My wife is a wheel chair user and we have been on Iona three times and Arvia twice, we have two other cruises booked one on each. We have sailed with all of the fleet  some more than others but now Iona and Arvia are our favourites they are far better for accessibility than the rest of the P&O fleet and we love the extra dinning options. we were on Arvia in July school holidays yes it was busy, but we expected that. We used the MDR's occasionally but not all the time and found the virtual queuing reasonable at the times we dined around 7:00 waits of about 20-40 mins.

Spot on. Love Iona, for exactly the same reasons. We are on Arvia in May and Iona next week.

Edited October 3, 2023 by daiB

[Interestedcruisefan]

On 10/3/2023 at 9:30 AM, mrsgoggins said:

 

I have read (I think) most of your posts and you always make some good points.  However, you are very fond of sweeping generalisations IMO!

 

For instance:

Older people prefer the traditional holiday camps to young of today who want more choice and more activities - especially outside in nature 

 

Really?  As an older person I've never set foot inside a holiday camp and nor have any of my friends to the best of my knowledge - well, maybe Center Parcs, but I doubt that counts.  In an earlier post you gave a few so called 'Facts' and my life is too short to go through them one by one, but I doubt there is actual evidence for some of your claims.

 

We've been independent travellers for all of our married lives and have gravitated towards cruising as an 'ages and stages' development, plus I wanted to see Alaska, Fjords, places in Spain and the Canaries etc which were never on our radar, and can now see the ease and benefits of cruising for all ages, providing you do your research and know what you are buying.  

 

My first ever cruise was on Princess (Alaska) and my next 2 were with Celebrity, and these remain my favourite 'go to' cruise lines.  For me, the biggest advantage of P&O is that we can sail from Southampton without troubling an airport, where I would guess we have spent more time over the past decades than most on these boards.  I should add that we have enjoyed each P&O cruise and felt we had value for money with the one exception of Iona earlier in the year, and even then we enjoyed the cruise but it wasn't the value experience you are so fond of relating and we didn't really care for the ship.

 

Anecdotal experiences aside, I think the comment about Ant and Dec viewers being P&Os target was very interesting and probably spot on, (without being demeaning).  I know many young people who would not fall into that category, I also know many young people who spend quite a bit on alcohol - I'm a non-drinker.  As I said, you make many fair points,  but I think you would make your case better if you were to tone down the generalisations. 

To quote facts you do have to generalise though and there are always exceptions to the rule as you point out - but that doesn't change the overall facts

 

For example - of course there are some young people who like to drink lots but the stats do show young people aged 16 to 24 are drinking less alcohol than ever before since stats were introduced

 

And this was in response to a poster suggesting all young people on the big ships just want to have drinks packages and lay round the pools

 

Am I wrong to question that generalisation myself with some facts about young people in their defence?

[Interestedcruisefan]

On 10/3/2023 at 1:39 PM, Gettingwarmer said:

This is exactly my cruising history. I travel to see places, not necessarily following the heat. ICF does not always appreciate the troubling aspects that people have found on Iona and Arvia. That said we are travelling on Arvia in 2025 to some new places in the Med and hope things have sorted themselves out by then. 

On the big ships I honestly believe if people go looking to find problems they will find them

 

Equally if you show some nous and common sense you can always find good things to do and places to go

 

And of course not everything will be perfect but far more will be right than wrong and just walk away from the not so perfect bits

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

To quote facts you do have to generalise though and there are always exceptions to the rule as you point out - but that doesn't change the overall facts

 

For example - of course there are some young people who like to drink lots but the stats do show young people aged 16 to 24 are drinking less alcohol than ever before since stats were introduced

 

And this was in response to a poster suggesting all young people on the big ships just want to have drinks packages and lay round the pools

 

Am I wrong to question that generalisation myself with some facts about young people in their defence?

You're assuming the poster referred to "young" people as in the age group you keep banging on about. At 68 I'd call anyone onboard from 25 to 45 "young" when I refer to them in the cruising sense as this is the age group of "young families".  I think you may find that a large number of  these people do want to do as mentioned and lay in the sun drinking (nothing wrong with that I hasten to add).  If the "young", ie age group you keep referring to are onboard Iona and Arvia they are very much in the minority at present otherwise we would be hearing the ships referred to as like Club 18-30 holidays.

 

Talking of generalisations, perhaps you should stop making them and other assumptions about us older folk, believe it or not we aren't in our dotage and are quite capable.

[Gettingwarmer]

2 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Equally if you show some nous and common sense you can always find good things to do and places to go

This is what you want from a cruise. I want a decent cabin and good food enjoyment in proper restaurants as priorities. Not the same as you, so try to reconcile. 

Edited October 4, 2023 by Gettingwarmer

[Fionboard]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

You're assuming the poster referred to "young" people as in the age group you keep banging on about. At 68 I'd call anyone onboard from 25 to 45 "young" when I refer to them in the cruising sense as this is the age group of "young families".  I think you may find that a large number of  these people do want to do as mentioned and lay in the sun drinking (nothing wrong with that I hasten to add).  If the "young", ie age group you keep referring to are onboard Iona and Arvia they are very much in the minority at present otherwise we would be hearing the ships referred to as like Club 18-30 holidays.

 

Talking of generalisations, perhaps you should stop making them and other assumptions about us older folk, believe it or not we aren't in our dotage and are quite capable.

Well said. I am 75 and find the continual sneering at "elderly" folk quite insulting. We are not  all decrepit. We are experienced, frequent and well travelled cruisers. We know what we like and are entitled to our opinions. 

[Eglesbrech]

4 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Well said. I am 75 and find the continual sneering at "elderly" folk quite insulting. We are not  all decrepit. We are experienced, frequent and well travelled cruisers. We know what we like and are entitled to our opinions. 

The current narrative seems to be a total disrespect for anyone who is over 50.

 

While I get just as annoyed at references to “snowflakes”  by far the most disrespect, patronising comments and disregard is aimed at seniors.

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

To quote facts you do have to generalise though and there are always exceptions to the rule as you point out - but that doesn't change the overall facts

 

For example - of course there are some young people who like to drink lots but the stats do show young people aged 16 to 24 are drinking less alcohol than ever before since stats were introduced

 

And this was in response to a poster suggesting all young people on the big ships just want to have drinks packages and lay round the pools

 

Am I wrong to question that generalisation myself with some facts about young people in their defence?

I tend to think you mistake facts for your idea of what is happening in the real world. Unfortunately your grasp of reality tends to differ from that of quite a few other posters on here.