P&O or RCI

Willum UK · January 8, 2007

My wife and I have cruised three times so far, each time with Royal Caribbean, and all have involved flights from the UK to the US with cruises around various Caribbean islands. We shall be attending a P&O evening in Nottingham, England next Monday evening (15th) to see what P&O ships have to offer.

Does anyone on these boards have any experience of both lines and various ships? It would be useful to get some views on how the two lines stack up against each other.

Thanks everyone!

Bill

10/04 Sovereign of the Seas - 4 nights - Nassau

11/05 Serenade of the Seas - 7 nights Southern Carib.

12/06 Mariner of the Seas - 7 nights Western Carib

Glenndale · January 9, 2007

Hi Bill,

We have travelled on RCI to the Caribbean on Explorer and because of immigration hassles we would prefer to do the Caribbean with P&O simply to avoid this sort of thing.

Certainly, we would avoid a back-to-back cruise, as our changeover day experience was not good, in fact it was awful.

The P&O Caribbean fly cruises generally fly in and out of Barbados and it is a fairly stress free process, especially as you can fly from local airports such as Nottm. East Mids.

Luggage is taken from you at the airport and reappears to meet you in your cabin, similarly on your return you will leave it outside your cabin on the last night and meet up with it again at your home airport.

On our last cruise we embarked in New Orleans and because the luggage was packed in bonded containers it was no trouble at all.

If effectively losing a day of your holiday in the middle is not a problem then there is little difference between the two lines as far as standards go.

Obviously, the P&O ship is geared towards British tastes with regards to food.

The quality of food was variable, we had a particularly bad leg of lamb which was ‘tough as old boots’ – the head waiter’s solution was to bring a steak knife LOL – but it truly was inedible, other meals were fair and some really good – it’s pot luck on your choice and whether the chef’s having an off day.

On RCI I suppose the same goes – on both lines they will replace any dish you’re not happy with but let’s face it no one’s going to die of starvation on a cruise ship and maybe it did us good to miss the odd main meal!

We had an excellent meal at Arcadian Rhodes (extra charge).

Tea and coffee making facilities in all cabins with biscuits regularly replenished and P&O allow passengers to bring alcohol onboard for consumption in your cabin.

Entertainment is very much on a par although obviously being on a British ship quizzes will have questions you are more likely to be able to answer e.g. sporting questions regarding football and cricket and not baseball or American football.

Staff on both lines are friendly and efficient and tours offered are very similar in content and cost.

As I said earlier I would avoid RCI/Celebrity/Princess etc. in the Caribbean but happily sail on them to the Med and Baltic.

The P&O ships in the Caribbean give you a choice between family ships and child free – one good thing about the child free was that there were no crying children / babies on the flights.

There are children’s activities organised on P&O which apparently are very good, although I’ve not had any personal experience of them.

Formal nights are very well observed on P&O, on a table near us on Explorer we witnessed flip flops on a formal night which was not very edifying, plus the usual shorts, baseball caps and T shirts. RCI seemed reluctant to enforce the dress codes.

No rock climbing walls or ice rinks on P&O, I enjoyed going ice-skating on the Explorer.

Any holiday is what you make it – go along to the P&O evening and no doubt there will be many other cruisers you can chat to, who have experienced other lines.

I hope this has helped – but bear in mind you could elicit a response from someone else totally at variance with mine! It’s all down to individual opinions!

UK family · January 10, 2007

Hi Willum

Having cruised with P&O for many years- and been very happy with them, we decided to try out RCI and Princess last year. There is no comparison! I would echo completely what Glenndale says.

P&O certainly is our chosen cruise line, however, of course it isn't perfect and are well aware of the general feeling of declining standards on all cruise lines as they try to cope with masses.

We found RCI (Splendour of the Seas) a bit on the noisy side, and the food a bit like a BHS on a Saturday lunchtime!

I would agree entirely with Glenndale about the immigration concerns if you visit any American port. This is why we shall be cruising the Caribbean in the winters back with P&O again - it really it effortless, and that is what we like with our holidays.

In actual fact, last year, we felt that we would really like Princess, so booked our three week cruise out of SH on one of their ships, but now having been on a Princess cruise it has made us cancel it. I realise that the ships out of UK may be very different from the Caribbean, but am not prepared to risk wasting hard earned dosh trying it out to be honest!

To get a bit of the P&O "flavour" take a trip over to the P&O Cruise Connections Site - it is a very friendly site with lots of very up to date info/tips, with people writing in from current cruises etc - the downside is that the site can be a little slow!

Hope you can get some balanced views, but feel Glenndale has said probably most of what I would. I may add that if you like more of a British feel to your cruise (in food/entertainment/decor/ambience etc) then stick with P&O - if you are open to a more international menu/brighter decor/maybe a party atmosphere then opt for an American cruiseline. We personally will not choose to go with an American cruise line again after our sampling last year of different cruise lines - but that is purely a personal opinion. In addtion to the poor food choices/noisy areas the overall experience with a ship full of Americans wasn't good. Oh well! Each to our own as they say! If you go to the review section - then onto Crown Princess, you can take a look at our review, along with several other different experiences.

Happy cruising:)

Willum UK · January 10, 2007

Glenndale and UK Family

Thanks for the responses. I shall see what the Nottingham evening brings.

As for immigration I've not had any problems, but then I haven't chosen the fly/cruise option. I've always taken a scheduled flight some days before, and perhaps I've just been lucky but we have gone straight through. One tome in fact we were the first into a completely empty immigration hall!

American cruise ships have a "can do" attitude amongst the staff, and if we choose to go with P&O (who have some better itineries in my view) I hope that they have the same attitude.

Thanks again, oh and noticing that Glenndale is based in Leicestershire and me being a season ticket holder at Welford Road, this could inluence my decision LOL

Bill

Sparkle 123 · January 10, 2007

Hi Bill

Having just come back from our first P&O cruise I can offer you my opinion!

We usually cruise with Celebrity and have been on RCI a couple of times too.

As you are aware, one of the best things about RCI/Celebrity is the fact you can book cruise only and sort out your own flights and save a considerable amount of money at the same time.

We chose to cruise on the Arcadia because the itinerary was fantastic (Panama and Mexican Riviera) and it is a child free ship.On the whole we enjoyed the entertainment better than the American ships and also liked the fact that they don't add a 15% gratuity to their drinks prices, plus they allow you to take booze onboard! Also liked the tea making facilities in the cabin.

The only area which I felt did not compare as well to RCI was the buffet restaurant. At lunchtimes it was very hard to find a table and it had the feel of a canteen about it. The choice of food was also far less than on the american ships, no sushi bar or tapas and no midnight buffets, having said that we certainly did not starve and always enjoyed our meals in the main dining room and if you are a curry lover theres always a different one on the menu every day!

P&O use charter flights which sound good on paper but we felt a bit like cattle at times! If they gave you a discount for booking your own flights it would be better.

Most of the wait staff and cabin stewards are from Goa, and are generally very pleasant, and the recommended tipping amount is about half of RCI as they pay their staff a higher basic wage, which explains the extra willingness to please on the American cruise lines!

Personally we quite like to chat to the Americans, in fact we have become great friends with an American couple we met on a cruise. I'm sure all nationalities have their good and bad points!

In conclusion we would cruise on the Arcadia again if the right itinerary at the right price comes along but I would also say the same for RCI/Celebrity although I wouldn't do a Christmas cruise on RCI as I have heard they are full of kids!

By the way I was born on Leicester if that helps!

Enjoy your cruise evening and if you see a good deal go for it!

Sparkle 123 · January 10, 2007