Up goes the drink packages on P&O

[SuitesRbest]

 

And a limit on bottled water on the Alcoholic packages of only 6 per day!!!

 

 

 

 

Soft Drinks Package

AUD$15.00/per person per day

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The Spring Water Package

AUD$21.00/flat

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Alcohol-free Drinks Package

AUD$29.00/per person per day

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P&O Drinks Package

AUD$109.00/per person per day

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RECOMMENDED

 

P&O Plus Drinks Package

AUD$119.00/per person per day

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[MicCanberra]

Cheers

[arxcards]

Dearer packages, but the cheapest per day cruise fares.

 

The water cap is interesting, but would seem reasonable unless you were bathing in it. Perhaps the bottles of water are easily shared with those not on a package.

 

I am not a fan, as their packages have always been over-priced and often restricted to just menu listed items, especially for cocktails. No P&O on the horizon for us, so I guess I will stick to $65 Princess Plus, which also has internet and a few other less useful bits.

 

All the same, there will be a large number of P&O passengers that won't bat an eyelid.

[martin jenkins]

well the mocktails certainly don't look like that, and for $109 a day and you still have to buy your own coffee, err no thanks princess plus is a bargain.

Edited April 16 by martin jenkins

[ceeceeDee]

For once, we are coming out in front. 😉 For our upcoming Encounter cruise we booked value plus fair which included the Premium drink package (booked ages ago but I think the drinks package was $105 per day at the time). Received an email from P&O yesterday advising the change in drink packages and that because we were booked on a value plus fare, our drinks packages would be upgraded to P&O Drinks Plus at no extra cost (which includes specialty coffee, energy drinks and a higher 'up to' value on alcohol (cocktails up to the value of $20 for example. The old Premium package was capped at $16 and didn't include barista coffee, etc).  So we're 'saving' around $14 per day. However, one would imagine that the price of individual drinks will have risen accordingly. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I'm pleased about the upgrade and the barista coffee is a much appreciated bonus (I'll get my money's worth on that alone.😂) Have to admit it irked me to have to pay for it on our last cruise with P&O particularly when the 'free' coffee was absolutely woeful and almost undrinkable.

[cruiser3775]

I suppose this means the prices for drinks on board is also going up. There's no way i can justify spending $109 per day. Would appreciate seeing the new drinks list prices per glass and bottle of wine, if anyone is able to photograph them.

[Bubbeh]

On 4/16/2024 at 9:16 PM, arxcards said:

All the same, there will be a large number of P&O passengers that won't bat an eyelid.

I was a reluctant P&O cruiser a month ago, probably wouldn't do it again unless it was part of a packaged tour that I wanted to go on.  There was a bloke in our group who had the expensive premium drinks package and he was 'enjoying' a bourbon and coke at the 10am trivia session.  He'd worked out he needed to have 15 drinks a day to break even and he 4 days from port he was drinking 'for free'.  His wife on the other hand on the same package was only having 3-4 glasses of wine a day.  

[LittleFish1976]

On 4/17/2024 at 7:19 AM, martin jenkins said:

well the mocktails certainly don't look like that, and for $109 a day and you still have to buy your own coffee, err no thanks princess plus is a bargain.

Cunard's drink package is a bargain compared to that!

[Gwendy]

P&O drinkers don’t see 15 drinks a day as a limit, they see it as a challenge.

[ceeceeDee]

Woah, Gwendy, that's a bit harsh!😂 (Probably true in some quarters, however 🙄).

 

I manage to get my money's worth on a drinks package without drinking anywhere near 15 alcoholic drinks a day. Several barista coffees (I like to stay well caffeinated), the higher end cocktails and higher end wines by the glass and several bottles of water easily surpasses the daily cost of the package.

[Gwendy]

1 hour ago, ceeceeDee said:

Woah, Gwendy, that's a bit harsh!😂 (Probably true in some quarters, however 🙄).

 

I manage to get my money's worth on a drinks package without drinking anywhere near 15 alcoholic drinks a day. Several barista coffees (I like to stay well caffeinated), the higher end cocktails and higher end wines by the glass and several bottles of water easily surpasses the daily cost of the package.

Might sound a bit harsh, but on our last 3 P&O cruises had to ask to have our table in dining room changed on at least one night on each cruise.  couldn’t hear above the yelling and insane screeching from well lubricated fellow diners.

 

Will continue to cruise with them, because they are cheap and we can drive to port, but the demographic is going downhill fast.

[ceeceeDee]

8 minutes ago, Gwendy said:

Might sound a bit harsh, but on our last 3 P&O cruises had to ask to have our table in dining room changed on at least one night on each cruise.  couldn’t hear above the yelling and insane screeching from well lubricated fellow diners.

 

Will continue to cruise with them, because they are cheap and we can drive to port, but the demographic is going downhill fast.

Well, that would be irritating to say the very least! We've been fortunate enough not to come across overly inebriated yobs on any of our P&O cruises. (Mind you, we steer clear of the Lido deck at peak times). There was one cruise where we came across one of the overly lubricated who seemed to want to attach himself to us but we escaped fairly rapidly the first time and went into stealth mode when we saw him coming on subsequent occasions. 😂

Just as a matter of interest, were you on short cruises? The 3 and 4 day ones seem to attract the party animals. We tend to take longer cruises (7-12 days) which in our experience appears to attract a different demographic or maybe we are just lucky.

Mind you, if there are wall to wall (rail to rail?) drunks, what happened to the responsible service of alcohol? 🙄

[Gwendy]

2 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Well, that would be irritating to say the very least! We've been fortunate enough not to come across overly inebriated yobs on any of our P&O cruises. (Mind you, we steer clear of the Lido deck at peak times). There was one cruise where we came across one of the overly lubricated who seemed to want to attach himself to us but we escaped fairly rapidly the first time and went into stealth mode when we saw him coming on subsequent occasions. 😂

Just as a matter of interest, were you on short cruises? The 3 and 4 day ones seem to attract the party animals. We tend to take longer cruises (7-12 days) which in our experience appears to attract a different demographic or maybe we are just lucky.

Mind you, if there are wall to wall (rail to rail?) drunks, what happened to the responsible service of alcohol? 🙄

A mixture of cruises, the 2024 Melbourne Cup cruise, 8 days was pretty woeful as was the Fiji cruise, 10 days?  The 4 night cruise to Airlie Beach was ok as there were no drinks packages on sale.

We mostly cruise overseas generally on Princess but love the convenience and no flights with P&O.

[ceeceeDee]

We love the convenience of driving to the port. Saves air fares and accommodation at either end of the cruise. Our last overseas cruise was out of Miami and it was 27 hours between boarding the flight in Brisbane and landing in Miami. Exhausting. Fortunately we had 4 days in Miami before boarding the cruise so we had time to recover.

[Gwendy]

14 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

We love the convenience of driving to the port. Saves air fares and accommodation at either end of the cruise. Our last overseas cruise was out of Miami and it was 27 hours between boarding the flight in Brisbane and landing in Miami. Exhausting. Fortunately we had 4 days in Miami before boarding the cruise so we had time to recover.

We do live a long way from the rest of the world. Lol. Last year I did two overseas cruises, said I would never do the flights again, I am too old. But oops have booked one for next year.  

[ceeceeDee]

We did have a bit of a giggle after we boarded the cruise in Miami. We were talking to a few Americans and they were lamenting that they had to get up at some ungodly hour and drive 3 hours to the port. In our best laid back Aussie manner we casually remarked 'We're hearing you. We were 27 hours getting here'. The look on their faces was priceless! 😂

 

Never say 'never again', Gwendy! The overseas travel siren of the seas will get you every time!🤣

[joejoe 59]

On 4/26/2024 at 7:57 AM, Gwendy said:

P&O drinkers don’t see 15 drinks a day as a limit, they see it as a challenge.

A pretty derogatory comment.

I had a plus package on Princess & managed 5 drinks on one day out of 11, & that was my biggest day. 

We have an upcoming P&O cruise which we booked on the Here's to you sale, can't imagine I'll drink any more then last cruise. 

 

 

[ceeceeDee]

I dare say Gwendy had her tongue implanted in cheek with her comment. Either way, she has a point, there are some cruisers who would feel 'cheated' if they didn't down the limit of their drink package. I'm fairly certain there were a lot of pax 'going for gold' on our last P&O cruise who were six deep at the bar on the Lido deck when the State of Origin was on the big screen (and I'm NOT saying that footy fans necessarily drink more than other people). One of the reasons we avoided the the Lido on that occasion. We did see a few tired and emotional pax on our way elsewhere and there were some obviously seriously hung over people expiring on the pool loungers the next morning. Providing they don't impact my enjoyment of the cruise, I'm not really bothered. Honestly, there are heaps of other types of cruisers who are a pain the the whatsit. Those who are incredibly entitled and rude to crew, those who complain about every little thing, those who spend the entire cruise informing anyone within earshot that such and such a cruise line is better than P&O (why sail with P&O then??!! Takes me all my time not to say exactly that to them), the list goes on.

As I said in a previous post, I usually don't go within a bull's roar of 15 alcoholic drinks a day, but still get my money's worth out of a drink package with barista coffees (I'm a big coffee drinker), bottles of water and drinking the more expensive cocktails and glasses of wine.

[bazzaw]

On 4/26/2024 at 11:51 AM, Gwendy said:

Might sound a bit harsh, but on our last 3 P&O cruises had to ask to have our table in dining room changed on at least one night on each cruise.  couldn’t hear above the yelling and insane screeching from well lubricated fellow diners.

 

Will continue to cruise with them, because they are cheap and we can drive to port, but the demographic is going downhill fast.

The demographic was my problem to on our Pacific Endeavour cruise - SOOOO different to the demographic on Cunard Queen Elizabeth around Japan. 

[ceeceeDee]

4 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

The demographic was my problem to on our Pacific Endeavour cruise - SOOOO different to the demographic on Cunard Queen Elizabeth around Japan. 

Absolutely, but also a HUGE difference in the cruise fare! You really can't compare a budget cruise line to Cunard. It's like comparing first class to bottom of the line economy on an aircraft.😂 Even with nickel and diming (and let's face it most cruise lines are doing it), P&O is probably the cheapest option out there. When we choose to sail with them we set the bar for our expectations fairly low and the experience is usually above our expectations - so far. 'Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances'.🙂

[bazzaw]

3 hours ago, ceeceeDee said:

Absolutely, but also a HUGE difference in the cruise fare! You really can't compare a budget cruise line to Cunard. It's like comparing first class to bottom of the line economy on an aircraft.😂 Even with nickel and diming (and let's face it most cruise lines are doing it), P&O is probably the cheapest option out there. When we choose to sail with them we set the bar for our expectations fairly low and the experience is usually above our expectations - so far. 'Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances'.🙂

Just did a quick check re comparative prices - 10 nights on New Guinea cruise P&O FROM $1044  -- 10 nights Alaska cruise On QE FROM $1529. Certainly there is a 33% difference there and we would have flights to Canada for the Alaska cruise - but Americans and Brits would have flights to Brisbane for the NG cruise . No - $500 difference does not account for the different demographics!!!  

[Gwendy]

7 hours ago, bazzaw said:

The demographic was my problem to on our Pacific Endeavour cruise - SOOOO different to the demographic on Cunard Queen Elizabeth around Japan. 

No comparison at all.  I have cruised with 8 different cruise lines, P&O is definitely “special”, in a class of its own. Lol. 
Don’t get me wrong I will still cruise P&O, close to home, and cheap.