My reasons for cruising with P&O

There have been some comments in various threads recently on one of the cruise forums that I visit on the broad subject of ‘why cruise with P&O?’. I’m a P&O customer so I thought I’d respond here in the blog.

 

I ought to preface my comments by acknowledging that I am still a relatively new cruiser – it’s only just over 4 years since we did our first one (Sinfonia, May 2005). We’ve cruised with P&O twice – a short cruise on Oriana and a longer one on Ventura – and the two for next year will also be on P&O; again, a longer one (Ventura) and a short one (Arcadia). Those will be our ninth and tenth cruises, with four different lines.

 

Here are the things that attract me to P&O:

a) It’s very British. Having cruised a few times with non-UK lines I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed having ‘ordinary’ food to eat. Not so much the dinners, more what was available at breakfast or lunch. I’m not a fan of the ‘Full English’ at breakfast time but to have it available if i wanted it was good. And curries! – we never got those on Celebrity or MSC.

 

b) the itineraries. I accept that this might change after I’ve done a few cruises with them, especially now that (from 2010) they seem to be moving more to a series of set itineraries for a ship, e.g. the 14 night itineraries for Ventura and Oceana in 2010. But at the moment I’m finding them attractive.

 

c) the ships, and the range of ships. At the moment P&O have six different ships. (I know that next year they will have two the same out of seven.) And I also like the way that they are trying to use them differently – for example, the difference they are trying to make between Ventura and Azura is fascinating. I like the way they honestly & unashamedly have ‘child free’ ships. Some other lines seem to operate ‘child discouragement’ policies without actually saying “we don’t want kids”. Little touches like the self-service launderettes.

 

d) the formality. We enjoy the four formal nights in a 14-night cruise.

 

e) the prices overall – I’m cruising in a good balcony cabin next year for just about £100 per person per night, once I take into account a bit of OBC.

 

f) the onboard pricing policy. P&O is *much* cheaper than the american lines – I’m definitely not looking forward to the prices on Solstice this coming September. Drinks on Solstice seem to start at around 7$ and head skywards from there; plus of course all those prices are then ‘+15%’. In the case of P&O, the price you see is the price you pay, and it’s lower to begin with. Actually, I’m wrong – the price I see isn’t the price I pay. As a basic-level Portunus club member I get 5% discount! There’s also the absence of the nickel-&-diming that goes on with the american lines. For example, 10$ for the return shuttle at Mykonos, from Tourlas port into Mykonos town – it’s not much more than a mile! P&O’s shuttles are free, where they’re required.

 

g) not having to fly. We’re beginning to enjoy this more and more. I know it’s not a P&O-specific benefit, but they are the biggest line sailing ex-UK.

 

So what are the downsides?

a) it’s very British! Sometimes too much so. I’m not a fan of flag-waving, so the ‘Great British SailAways’ leave me pretty cold. And sometimes the company you meet can get a little “glass half -empty, moan whinge”. Probably the thing we enjoy most about Celebrity is meeting americans, in fact – they’re unfailingly positive (and polite).

 

b) the service, while good enough, isn’t as ‘in your face’ as on the US lines. I’d prefer to see a few more smiles.

 

c) the cost. On some of the ships (e.g. Azura and perhaps Arcadia) P&O seem to want a lot of money – about £140 a day for a balcony cabin in a lot of the 2010 brochure. That’s a lot – too much for me. I’ve posted about this before now – have a look here for an earlier post about pricing on Azura and here for another one on the general pricing for P&O cruises in 2010.

Celebrity Update

 

Solstice's first appearance at Santorini

 

 

There have been two developments of some note on the Celebrity front in the last week or so. First, Solstice (about which ship I have blogged before) started its first European cruise last Monday (4th May). This is the first of a series of 11-night itineraries from Rome into the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean seas, with calls at Santorini, Mykonos, an overnight stay at Istanbul, Kusadasi, Athens and (on the way back to Rome) Naples. These itineraries alternate with a 10-night version, which basically leaves out Istanbul but adds Rhodes, to provide a 3-week repeating pattern of cruises throughout the summer and autumn. These cruises were the ones that Galaxy did for the last two years, and we did the 10-night itinerary in 2007.

 

On Wednesday afternoon Solstice arrived at Santorini, and I was able to grab a webcam image of her in the caldera there (shown above). Roll on 28 September! – that’s when we embark on her for our 11 night cruise.

 

Also this last week, Celebrity has made significant changes to their Mediterranean deployments for 2010. It all began at the weekend, when all the Mediterranean cruises scheduled for Solstice and Equinox disappeared from the celebrity.com website. A day or two later the position became clearer. For reasons still unexplained (but probably to do with falling bookings from cruising americans) Celebrity have decided to keep Solstice in the Caribbean all year round next year; therefore her 2010 sailings in the Mediterranean (originally announced as a repeat of the 2009 programme) were all cancelled. Equinox has been shifted to replace Solstice on the 10 & 11 night eastern Mediterranean sailings, thus canceling her originally-planned 12-night Barcelona-Venice/Venice-Barcelona cruises. However there’s no replacement for her, so those cruises are cancelled. There was then some confusion for UK-based cruisers as it took Celebrity UK until Friday to respond to the itinerary changes which had already been announced on the Celebrity US website; indeed, on Friday morning the Celebrity UK website (celebrity.co.uk) still had the Solstice cruises in their 2010 Mediterranean brochure.

 

There’s no change to the northern Europe programme, however, which means that Eclipse will be doing her planned programme of cruises from Southampton.

Progress report on the lenses

I’ve done a few blog posts about my interest in photography, and the Leica equipment that I bought during 2008. I’ve continued to use it, and continue to very much enjoy it all; in fact I’m probably using it more than I expected. Below are (I hope) a couple of examples of recent pictures taken with the Leica and one or other of the lenses I have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two images were taken on the same walk in the countryside one day in early March. They were taken on Ilford XP2 film and professionally developed, but I scanned the negatives myself. I believe the country lane was taken with the 50mm, while the other was taken with my 35mm.

I am now beginning to wish I had something longer; a Leica 90mm would be ideal. This will have to be a second-hand purchase, however; I certainly can’t afford a new Leica 90m f2 Summicron ASPH – I have cruises to pay for, and one of those lenses would cost almost as much as our forthcoming cruise on Solstice. But hopefully I’ll be able to get a s/h Elmarit before the summer.

P&O Itineraries & pricing for 2010 – bold changes!

In the last week or so P&O have published their 2010/11 itineraries, both for their new ship Azura and also for the rest of the fleet. There are some interesting points.

First, several different pricing levels seem to be emerging. Certainly (as I’ve posted already) P&O are asking a lot of money for cruises on Azura. She’s a very close sister to Ventura – the only differences are in the details – but she’s priced a lot higher. For a standard balcony cabin Azura’s brochure prices seem to be set at around £140 per person per night. This is pretty high – in previous years that much money got you close to a mini-suite, or at least a ‘larger balcony cabin’. Ventura’s prices are rather lower – still over £100 pppn (which is my target), but not by so much. Her nightly rates for the same balcony cabin seem to be in the £120 pppn range. 

This pretty high pricing is extended to a number of the other ships. It’s difficult to compare the new pair (Ventura & Azura) with older ships such as Oriana & Aurora, but comparisons with Arcadia & Oceana are easier, and it turns out that Arcadia is just about as expensive as Azura. (Pity – I’ve been fancying a cruise on Azura for a while.) Oceana on the other hand is lot cheaper, down at the Ventura level or even a little bit lower.

So are P&O going to offer a different cruise experience on the different ships? They certainly seem to be marketing them differently: Ventura & Oceana are very much family ships, Arcadia & Azura are sophisticated & suited to couples (in fact, Arcadia is ‘child-free’, i.e. kids are not allowed), while Oriana, Aurora & Artemis seem to be aimed squarely at P&O’s traditional passenger base. But the message in the brochure is that a P&O cruise is a P&O cruise; there’s no suggestion that you’ll be getting something ‘better’ on Azura than on Ventura, for example.

Another change from previous years lies in the itineraries the ships will be running in 2010. Previously, each ship ran a range of itineraries, of varying lengths – the one thing you could say about P&O was the ships never did the same cruise twice running, at least not in the European season. Not any more. Oceana is the clearest example: from early April next year all through the summer and early autumn she will be doing the same 14-night western Mediterranean itinerary, over and over. Ventura also will be majoring with a standard 14-night western Med itinerary (different from Oceana’s), although she will also be doing side orders of 7-night cruises (Norway & Iberia). She won’t be doing Baltic cruises, however;  these will be done by Azura, along with a series of identical 16-night ‘central’ Mediterranean cruises. Arcadia will doing similar itineraries to Azura. Finally the remaining three ships will be doing the variety that we’re familiar with – longer cruises, to a range of destinations.

These are interesting and bold changes. It will be fascinating to see whether, in a year when many of their passengers will be feeling the financial pinch and caution might be the order of the day, P&O can make it work.

Azura – P&O want all the money!

I received the Azura brochure from P&O this morning.

The itineraries are not what I was expecting. There are no 14-night western Mediterranean cruises (surely, P&O’s bread & butter?); instead, all seven Med cruises are 16-nighters to the eastern Med (Venice). There are also some 14-night cruises to the Baltic, some 11 and 12-night cruises to the Canaries, and a few shorter cruises. I wonder if these itineraries are intended to dissuade families from choosing her? Azura does have family facilities but (as I’ve posted before) they aren’t marketing them especially strongly. 16 night cruises are unattractive to families because they are more expensive, of course, and also because they tend to not fit well with family holiday schedules. I also see that none of Azura’s cruises begin on a bank holiday weekend; again, cruises that begin on a bank holiday, especially 7-night cruises, are attractive to families, and Azura doesn’t have any of these.

I’ve also looked at the prices. I’m still working through it all, but it’s clear that they are high. Part of this is due to the longer cruises, of course, but that’s not the whole story. P&O seem to be looking for about £150 per person per night for a balcony cabin, which is a lot. This is markedly higher than the prices for Ventura’s first season in 2008: compare the price for A010 on Azura with that N811 on Ventura (both of these are/were 16 night E Mediterranean cruises in high season, so are quite comparable). Balconies started at £2249 for the Ventura cruise, while for the Azura cruise the start price is £2619 (after deducting the ‘early bird saving’). That’s a difference of almost £400 per person, call it £750 for a couple – total cruise price would be £4,500 on Ventura, £5,250 on Azura – that’s a significant difference, more than 15% more.

My conclusion is that I don’t think we will be cruising on Azura in 2010. I’m also starting to worry about the prices P&O will be charging for the rest of the fleet. The general brochure (which will contain these prices) should be published in early April or thereabouts.

In the meantime I’m still looking at those Celebrity prices for 2010: around £1400 per person for 14 nights from Southampton to the western Mediterranean on Celebrity Eclipse, or a bit more, including flights, for 12 nights from Barcelona to Venice (or vice-versa). These look to be much more attractive deals than what we currently know about P&Os plans for 2010. I await the rest of P&O’s 2010 details with interest.

Could this be a price war for 2010?

It’s the middle of March, and the cruise lines have begun announcing their itineraries and prices for – 2010! First off the mark (I think) is Celebrity, who published their summer 2010 European brochure (at least, the on-line version) about a week ago. I gather that P&O will announce 2010 itineraries & prices for Azura in about a week’s time, and the rest of the fleet sometime in early April. nd Fred.Olsen have got a printed Preview brochure out, and are taking bookings from the 18th.

Let’s go back to Celebrity. By summer next year they will have three Solstice-class ships in service and all three will be in Europe. The newest of them, Celebrity Eclipse, will be delivered from the Italian shipyard in spring next year, and will spend her first season cruising out of Southampton. These will mainly be 14-night cruises to the Baltic and western Mediterranean, with the occasional longer (eastern Med.) and shorter cruise (Iberia mini-cruise) thrown in. In other words, exactly the sort of cruises that Azura and the rest of the P&O fleet will be doing.

Price-wise, Celebrity have laid down a tough target for P&O to match. Their brochure prices aren’t uncompetitive but at the moment they are reducing all prices by up to £200 per person. Plus there’ll be free car-parking at Southampton for all bookings made this year. Thanks to these offers my usual on-line TA, Ideal Cruising, have quoted me a price of under £1400 for a 14-night western Med cruise in September, for a balcony cabin on either deck 7 or 8.

I’m looking forward to seeing what prices P&O will be publishing in a few weeks.

Aurora under way

In the end Aurora was parked at her berth for several days while her bearing was fixed. The repairs seem to have been successful and she left at tea-time on Thursday (Auckland time). That’s several days later than scheduled so she’s now heading for San Francisco as fast as she can – her current World Cruise ’sector’ ends there (and the next one begins, of course). There are a couple of Pacific island calls that have been cancelled; she’ll be a day late at Hawaii (which is still in the itinerary, it seems) and at San Francisco; and she may have to miss a call at Madeira in order to get back to Southampton on time, and to turn round and start her program of 2009 cruises.

But well done to the various engineers, both supplier and P&O, who worked on her in Auckland.

Azura and Aurora

A quick update on a couple of P&O issues.

First, Azura. During a conversation with my usual on-line travel agent yesterday I was told that Azura’s summer 2010/winter 2011 cruises will go on sale on 30 March, and that details of them (itineraries, dates, prices) plus further information about the ship will be available around 20 March. There’s no other information available yet, except that there is going to be a ‘big push’ on Azura during this period. Itinerary details for the rest of the P&O fleet won’t be available until after 30 March, and bookings for the other ships won’t open until the latter part of April.

Secondly, Aurora. Currently on her world cruise, I gather she is having problems with engine (or shaft) bearings: she has had to reduce speed to 13 knots and her itinerary is under threat. The good news is that it seems the relevant spare parts are on board, and a that a team of fitters from the supplier is traveling to Auckland to meet her there and do the necessary work. Hopefully she will be able to continue on her cruise after that, although her schedule may need to be adjusted. She’s supposed to be at Wellington on 5 March and Napier on the 6th (both of these in New Zealand, of course) but I gather she’s presently making straight for Auckland where there are suitable facilities for the repair. How long she’ll stay at Auckland isn’t clear yet, but that’s not a bad place to be delayed (as long as it’s only a delay, of course).

More information about Azura

On Saturday I received a booklet from P&O giving more details about their under-construction ship, Azura. She’s physically a sister to Ventura, and therefore also Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess (as well being a very close cousin to the rest of the Grand Princess class). P&O have a website here, but that’s all the information they’ve given so far. The booklet I received on Saturday filled in some of the blanks but not all of them – still no detailed deck plans, for example.

Although she’s going to be physically very nearly the same as Ventura it seems likely that P&O are going to market her differently.  The almost complete absence of the word ‘family’ from the booklet is noticeable, for example. I spotted two mentions: one in the section about the SeaScreen (aka ‘Movies under the Stars)’, where the phrase ‘family favourites under the sun’ was used; and again in the epilogue, where the phrase ‘multi-generational families’ was included in a list of groups to whom Azura will appeal. In fact, in chapter 6, there’s a mention of “a select number of multi-occupancy staterooms… sleeping 4-6 people” – I thought it was significant that these were specifically not described as ‘family cabins’. And there is absolutely no mention of children’s facilities. This is contrast to the marketing of Ventura, where the provision of family facilities is given a strong mention. Azura, it seems, is not being marketed to families (although there will be family facilities on board). Another hint of the direction for Azura will be the provision of (some) single-occupancy cabins, a first for P&O.

Let me go back to that comment in the booklet epilogue. This is it in full: “Her appeal will be far-reaching, from couples to singles and from groups of friends to multi-generational families, but the experiences she will offer will always be stylish, sophisticated and wonderfully serene.”. I think it sums up where P&O are intending to position Azura.

We’re told that an Azura brochure will be available in March. I’m increasingly attracted to Azura so I’m looking forward to mine.

More on “Poor P&O”

The topic of Ventura’s Christmas/New Year cruise won’t go away. There’s been quite a bit of press coverage, and yesterday there was a lengthy segment of Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 programme about it. One thing that especially strikes me about all this coverage are the very vituperative remarks about the alleged misbehavers: all the ‘chav’ comments. What could cause such ill feeling?

Well, I wonder if it could in part be envy, or frustration? I’ve just been looking at some of the prices for this cruise, which I believe was cruise N822/822A, which was broadly from 19/20 December to 3/4 January. Back in the P&O 2008 1st Edition brochure – the first time this cruise would have been mentioned, and the ‘Ventura launch’ brochure – a standard category JD balcony cabin was listed at £2,319 (the full ‘brochure price was £4,209 but anyone who’s cruised knows that you don’t pay any attention to full brochure prices). Reductions for cabin sharing (for 3rd and 4th occupants) were pretty small: 70% of the OH cabin rate for an infant, 15% for someone 16 and under, 10% for an adult (which would include a 17-year old child, of course). This is typical of the price markup for a cruise over Christmas & the New Year – the very similar cruises either side of Christmas were a lot less. Most TAs would have discounted those fares somewhat, but even so N822 was an expensive cruise for an early booker: a family of four (two parents and two children aged, say, 6 to 16) would have paid up to £8,500 for that JD cabin.

So I can well understand that if those who had paid that much learned that others on the same cruise had paid 50% of that amount, or less, for a similar cabin they might well be upset. Yes, intellectually we all know that if you were happy  to pay that amount when you booked it you ought still to be happy today; but in real-life, that’s not how it works, is it? So I suspect that there may have been some bitterness about the discounted prices. Add to that the fact that the ship must have been well over 100% occupancy (i.e. lots of 3rd & 4th occupancy beds occupied) and therefore very crowded; and three ports of call were cancelled, thus keeping all the passengers onboard in the pressure-cooker, and it’s not surprising that incidents happened, and caused so much bitterness.

All that said, I can’t help thinking that the whole thing appears to have been an unedifying spectacle, not only of the alleged behaviour of some but also of the appallingly prejudiced expressions of outrage from others. But I wonder how I would have felt if I’d been on board? I suspect it’s easy to be reasonable when you’ve not been subject to the pressures, and you haven’t spent £8,000.

Let’s go back to happier topics. Arcadia’s World Voyage seems to be proceeding smoothly; she’s in Athens today. There’s a good blog about it here, from James Cusick who’s a senior member of the crew.