Are P&O much cheaper?

[stecee]

We have sailed with NCL, RCI, Princess and P&O
I think P&O offer great value for money. I’ve just booked us on a 7 night cruise on Azura from Malta up the Croatian coast then calling in to Corfu on the way back. I priced up several cruises with different cruise lines and P&O were very competitive and a big plus is that flights are included in the price.
We sailed on the Azura a few years ago to the Fjords and really enjoyed the cruise.
I agree that P&O ships don’t have the wow factor of some of the other cruise lines but our 2 cruises with them have been really enjoyable.

[Love*my*hols]

Originally Posted by katiec68

Well there are lots of things to consider.

We travel as 2 adults and this is what we look at.

Ports of call is our top and price is second, although it has to be value for money!

For instance - we did a transatlantic from Southampton, Iceland, Canada to New York for £3000 for both of us - now a similar cruise is about that each!

We paid £2000 for P&O to the fjords in 2016 and have just paid £2500 for Celebrity to the fjords in May this year - however the Celebrity price included the drinks package.

Now Celebrity are doing a "basic" package - basically cruise only - and adding on the next level package of (most) drinks, internet and tips will cost about £35 a day - and we drink no-where near that much so adding on the extra is not worth it for us.

So you need to compare like for like - P&O do a drinks package at £35 a day each, but their prices are pub prices so if you dont drink that much the package can work out expensive. (You can also take on a bottle of wine each and we take diet cokes with us so that also keeps the cost down).

I feel P&O are maybe not so geared up for kids as say RCI, but then if you are on a weeks cruise with 5 ports you wont have that much time to spend on board.

Thats not to say P&O dont offer anything for kids - they do - but just not as much as maybe some other cruise lines.

P&O are defiantly not straight laced, and you will find that all the kids tend to stick together - you will often find a large table of teens at the midnight buffet - all very good natured!

You can find lots of videos on YouTube to give you and idea of what your ship is like, and also join some of the Facebook groups - although beware a lot of them are quite miserable whatsits and can give - in my opinion- quite negative or picky reports!

I have also found on doing my research that if a cruise line has a "new' ship - like Celebrity Beyond (it was only launched in May) - that ships cruises will be more expensive than the older ships - but maybe thats just me!

i think it also depends where you are going - friends have just come back from Alaska where the things available on the ship were not as important - where as if you have lots of sea days you will maybe want a few more things to do!

So - if the cruise has the right ports and is the price we like then everything else comes in second place.

The other thing to consider is whether it is worth paying the extra to pick your cabin - again I would say that depends on the price difference.

We have just booked a new year 23 cruise to Spain and Portugal for 2 weeks with P&O at £1800 in a balcony - we have gone for the saver option so dont get to pick our cabin as the "select" option was nearly £1000 more. Having been on the ship twice already we didnt feel the need to pick our cabin this time. If the difference had been around £400 we might have chosen the other option and picked our cabin.

If you are unsure as to where to pick your cabin midships and the lower decks (not the lowest decks) are best - say deck 9 or 10 out of 15.

DH hates anything to do with ferries etc and always has his seasick tablets- it was only when the captain pointed out that we couldn't dock due to force 9 winds that DH even noticed it was rainy outside

We have only cruised P&O/Princess and and older Celebrity ship - but i am reliably informed that RCI is the way forward for entertainment! I would avoid MSC like the plague - its like a posh ferry around the Med, rather than a cruise ship (so i am told!)

Happy planning!

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We have just booked this,paid £2300 including £560 onboard credit and free car parking . We went on the same cruise last year and remember saying at the end that we enjoyed it but it was a bit boring ! However,we decided we would rather be on a cruise being bored than at home and we are going to make an effort to find different things to do this time