Goodbye to P&O

[sweep2907]

When talking about cruise prices have gone up significantly, we need to compare with the years since COVID where companies needed cash flow back or Pre-COVID. Those of us who have been cruising a while know P&O prices currently are way down on what they were 5+ years ago. My 2014 Caribbean Cruise in November on Ventura was £2200 for a balcony back then and remember we had gratuities added daily to on board account back then. Now I see people grumble at paying £1800 for balcony on the amazing Arvia! P&O been offering such value since 2021 that some of the new prices do seem steep to some but in the grand scheme of things are still good value for what is being offered.

[Trimone]

We are actually been moving back to P&O, we got fed up with itineraries selected by NCL, we got passed platinum in 2022 and decided we needed a change, we did a European cruise with P&O this year, it wasn’t perfect but are willing to try Arvia in the Caribbean early next year.

I think since Covid the social side of cruising has suffered more so than land based holidays, and maybe the grass isn’t greener it’s just changed.

[yorkshirephil]

On 10/8/2023 at 4:36 PM, Harry Peterson said:

Cunard’s still doing proper talks, then. Good to hear. Rula Lenska - the wonderful Rock Follies!

On our recent Cunard cruise we had a good selection of guest speakers, including Bear Grylls, Robert Thirsk (Canadian astronaut who spent 6 months on the space station) Several science and adventure based speakers plus several others. I would say the best selection we have ever had, I will add that was over almost six weeks. 

[yorkshirephil]

On 10/20/2023 at 3:27 PM, sweep2907 said:

When talking about cruise prices have gone up significantly, we need to compare with the years since COVID where companies needed cash flow back or Pre-COVID. Those of us who have been cruising a while know P&O prices currently are way down on what they were 5+ years ago. My 2014 Caribbean Cruise in November on Ventura was £2200 for a balcony back then and remember we had gratuities added daily to on board account back then. Now I see people grumble at paying £1800 for balcony on the amazing Arvia! P&O been offering such value since 2021 that some of the new prices do seem steep to some but in the grand scheme of things are still good value for what is being offered.

I think cruising with P&O is the cheapest it has ever been when you take the amount of OBC added in many cases. Before we retired we used to look at some of the bucket list cruises from P&O such as Canada/USA around South America, Caribbean and world cruise segments, now that we are retired and in a position to take these cruises I can't believe how cheap they are. Back in the day people used to discuss having a bargain on the adult only long cruises if they were £100 per night for an inside, now you are looking at sub £80 per night with enough OBC to cover most of the spend and no tips included. We plan on taking full advantage as I cannot see it lasting much longer.

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

On our recent Cunard cruise we had a good selection of guest speakers, including Bear Grylls, Robert Thirsk (Canadian astronaut who spent 6 months on the space station) Several science and adventure based speakers plus several others. I would say the best selection we have ever had, I will add that was over almost six weeks. 

We had a good selection of speakers on our recent Princess cruise to USA/Canada cruise which was 24 days

[yorkshirephil]

13 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

We had a good selection of speakers on our recent Princess cruise to USA/Canada cruise which was 24 days

We haven't been with Princess for a few years so will look forward to our Sept USA/Canada cruise.