WorldofLauraJane

P&O are a cruise line that I’ve always spoken highly of when speaking about cruises with anyone for a number of reasons. I’ve done five cruises with P&O, one on Britannia (2016), three on Iona (2021, 2022 and 2026) and one on Arvia (2024).

My recent cruise onboard Iona has made me see P&O in a very different way as I felt that there was a lot of changes compared to previous cruises but not in a good way. When chatting with some fellow passengers onboard they were thinking the same too and were talking about cruising with different lines instead.

Something that I am finding with P&O is that they are very repetitive which may suit a lot of their regular cruisers but to me it becomes very boring. There are different reasons as to why I’m finding they are repetitive in what they do as a cruise line, the main example for me is the itineraries they are doing each year. Each year as they bring out the ‘new’ itineraries I’m not seeing much of a change as I look at them I will only see potentially one port change but then the rest of the ports will be the same as previous years, I also notice that they have a lot of sea days in comparison to other cruise lines. P&O are one of the cheapest cruise lines which is an appeal but it does make me wonder is that because they are not docking at many ports so this means they don’t have to pay a lot of port fees. 

I recently did a 14 night cruse which included 6 sea days and 6 ports which included one of those ports being overnight. When you compare a 14 night cruise to a lot of other cruise lines they will include more ports and less sea days for example in September I have a cruise booked with Princess which is 14 nights but there is only 4 sea days. 

Over the last four cruises that I’ve done with P&O the shows from the entertainment team have been the same shows. Personally I feel that it would be good to see them change the shows every couple years so that it isn’t going to be the same ones on each cruise. Due to this we opted to not go and see the shows in the main theatre that the entertainment team put on.

Whilst onboard there are some cutbacks that are easily noticed by those who have cruised with P&O previously. Cabins used to feature robes but these were no longer in the cabins to be used as well as slippers that would be in the wardrobe. 

Despite some of the points that I’ve made which can be seen as negative there are some positives to cruising with P&O. 

They are a cruise line which can be within budget for a lot of especially with the way prices are rising at the moment in all aspects of life. They are one of the most reasonably priced for shore excursions, there are some cruise lines who are expensive when you are looking at shore excursions. P&O offer a good range of shore excursions to passengers which come at a reasonable price as I’ve seen some cruise lines charge more than double the price for an excursion that is the same as P&O are offering. They will often have good incentives to get people to book with them as they offer onboard spending which can be massive for some people as this can often cover the cost for the duration of the cruise for anything that is spent onboard. When booking a cruise there is also the option for those who will sail from Southampton to either have free coach transfer to Southampton or free car parking at the port. 

Do you have any thoughts on the way P&O have changed over the last few years?