P&O to go All Inclusive.

P&O Cruises have always said that they would not do drinks packages, and to be honest I have always thought it would have to be expensive for them to do it to make it worthwhile, if it was too cheap then you’d end up perhaps having people cruising for the wrong reasons.

Well P&O has announced that they are trialling a new drinks package for a month on board the Azura from the 21^st July and it has had quite a bit of a mixed response.

It is currently only on the Azura as a trial and they will then review how it goes before choosing to revert back or roll it out fleetwide.

So, what is the cost? Well its £39.95 which is equivalent to about $50.00 which some may say when you look at the packages on board NCL and RCI that it’s not a bad price, but P&O have always been much cheaper for drinks, similar to that of a Pub in the UK. So, a 7-night cruise would cost you £279.00 for the All-Inclusive Drinks Package, MSC does a similar package at £168.00 for the week, and if you look at a Classic Package on Celebrity it’s a similar price to that of the one on P&O.

However, with MSC, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean you can sit around the pool and drink until your heart is content, some days you may have 7 glasses of wine and others you may have 14 – you’re not limited.

One of the most important things you need to know about the P&O Package is that you are limited to 15 Alcoholic drinks per 24-hour period which is from 6am to 6am. So, if you have 5 ports and 2 sea days, you need to make sure you are getting your monies worth. The allowance is 6.95 per drink. If it’s over this you will receive a 20% discount on the cost, as well as this discount on smoothies, juices, bottles of wine and canned drinks.

You can choose from an array of beers, single measure spirits, wines by the glass and cocktails. Another restriction is that you can only order one drink at a time and you have to wait 15 minutes between drinks.

However, one of the benefits I think is great is that if you are travelling with Children under the age of 16 will receive the Soft Drinks Package completely free.

If you do decide to do the drinks package, you will receive Unlimited draft soft drinks, mocktails, primo Costa coffees and Tea pigs Teas and of course Hot Chocolates, on top of this small bottled waters.

The other restrictions on these are that all adults in that stateroom must purchase the drinks package and sharing of the packages is not allowed.

It is only available on cruises of 5 nights or more, you do have to purchase on the first or second day of the cruise and be for the entire cruise. The package is non-refundable if you wanted to remove it.

Personally, for P&O I think it is too pricey for what you are getting, and there are too many restrictions, Princess charge £47.00pp per day but that’s unlimited so why are P&O limiting it? Perhaps it’s to stop people from drinking too much at one time, but then again, we aren’t seeing major problems on other cruise lines.

What do you think? Would you do this package at this price?