P&O and Princess

[JamesOceanVillage]

Are P&O simular and if not what are the differences, Thanks

[tom_uk]

a) P&O used to own Princess, before Carnival took them both over.

 

b) Even now there is a degree of common management and many of the P&O officers spend time on Princess ships, e.g. Captain Dowds, currently master of Ventura, has also served as Captain of Ocean Village, Oceana, Arcadia and Emerald Princess.

 

c) I believe there is some carry-over between the two lines' loyalty schemes.

 

d) many of Princess' ships will be familiar to experienced P&O passengers: they have about 10 Grand Princess class ships (all pretty similar to Ventura) and they also have (or had - some have been sent to remote locations) the other three 'Sea Princess' ships - Oceana is the fourth of this class.

 

e) All that said, Princess is very american-oriented: the on-board currency is the US$, the menus will be for american tastes, and policies on board will be american policies e.g. the drinking age is 21. (There is an exception to this: generally, whichever ship is sailing out of Southampton for the summer will adopt the UK drinking age of 18; but all other on-board experiences will be american.)

 

f) in the case of the Mediterranean fly-cruises most of the passengers will also be american, so there won't be so many UK families. My experience with US passengers on Med cruises with Celebrity is that most are quite well-off, well-educated, not especially young, and quite happy with a line that operates policies to provide formality & elegance, and I would expect Princess' Mediterranean fly-cruises to be pretty similar. The Southampton-based ship will be more British, though.

 

 

Does that give you a feel?

[Marmaduke]

I agree with the previous post by Tom UK although you also get quite a few Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis on Princess Mediterranean Cruises which makes for a very nice mix of passenger.

[JamesOceanVillage]

So on Ventura has it got a horzontal buffet under a different name?

[tom_uk]

So on Ventura has it got a horzontal buffet under a different name?

 

Sorry, I'm not understanding your question. What do you mean by 'horzontal buffet'?

[Norfolk Brit]

Sorry, I'm not understanding your question. What do you mean by 'horzontal buffet'?

 

Having been forcibly placed in a horizontal position by a huge ferocious chav, one has to lie down to eat?

 

Sir Martin

[bobarnie]

Having been forcibly placed in a horizontal position by a huge ferocious chav, one has to lie down to eat?

 

Sir Martin

 

 

Eh ???

 

What a muppet ! lol