I would go with Cunard all the time. No contest for me

Sue

Sue...I realy do fancy the QV one but I do worry that it might be a bit too fussy for us
I like to dress up but not every night and hubby would put his tux on maybe 2 nights max
He realy hates wearing a tie and often prefers shirt and slacks

Which P&O ship, some are child free and this may influence your choice.

With Cunard there are 3 "dress" styles. Formal, semi-formal and casual (called something else). Formal is self -explanatory, semi-formal for men is a jacket and tie and casual still requires a jacket. Our experience on 2 cruises on the QM2 is that 95% of passengers comply. For 10 nights, it will probably be 3 formal, 3 semi-formal and 4 casual.

P&O is much less "fussy" but, as Sue has said, no contest!! Regarding the balcony, if this is adding substantially to cost, when exactly in December would you sit out in it?? For the earlier December 4 night QV cruise the CruiseKings state the following:

Book now and you will have enough time to knit a balaclava for wearing whilst on your balcony!

Reply

Do Cunard still operate a two tier class system ?

Kath x

Thanks for the replies
The PO ship is Arcadia ( child free)
Balcony is the only grade left for the 10 night and the 4 night one in December on QV
I know both will be cold, we were froze in June in the same area and we still have our silly Norweign hats
Kath...The class system I think is no more than if you booked a suite on say NCL or RCCL ...I think there are just a couple of areas off limits
FO also have a christmas market one
Or do we do the Brillaince in January lol
I couldnt find anything last week I liked no I have found 4

Kath HT Admin wrote:

Do Cunard still operate a two tier class system ?

Kath x

They do, the princess and queens grill category passengers have a separate dining room and other perks (all at a significant cost for the chosen category). Everyone else (95%+) on the ship eats in the superb Britannia restaurant. The "class" system is seamless....certainly, as Britannia passengers, we have never been aware of it. Cunard is truly 5 star cruising, with lots and lots of "normal" people and we did not encounter any real snobbery!

Thanks for that Graham. Was worried about feeling like a second class citizen.

Kath x

Kath, are you heading off on a Cunard cruise?

No but have looked at them.

My next one is on Oriana again in just over two weeks.

kath x