terrierjohn

From her webcam she looks to be in Southampton already, and Marine traffic website shows her on her berth at the Mayflower terminal, and Oceana is still at the QE11 berth.

Note that you are UK based Freddyboy, well our experience with a May 2014 cruise has been 100% positive.

We booked early, last May, because DW needs an accessible cabin and as a result paid a high price. However I noticed 2 price drops in newspaper ads, one in Nov 13 and another this Jan, Princess via my TA honoured both and we have ended up with a 40% reduction on the original price, for 3 cabins including 3 children.

Needless to say we will be checking out their 2015 UK sailings as soon as they are announced.

I would like to clear up peoples misunderstanding of pre registration, Firstly i would just like to explain that what happens is you will pay a deposit, confirm cabin grade, then on launch date (27th March) you will be allocated a cabin of that grade, the reason why P&O do this is they would rather your booking be made direct with them than you use a travel agent who will take a commission. Any travel agent that is claiming to "pre-register" you is technically lying as they will just call P&O on launch date and try and get you a cabin.....by preregistering with P&O you make a firm commitment to travel and can be safe in the knowledge that you will definitely be travelling on the voyage you pre register on.

That's b******t, any TA worth his salt will ensure that they obtain a cabin of your choice, and possibly even the number you desire. Carnival are trying like mad to regain the trust of TA's after a string of disasters they brought on themselves by trying to reduce their commission, so they will ensure that TA customers get at least equal service to their own.

However it does not worry me because if I want to sail on this class from Southampton I will be booking a Royal Princess cruise, in that way I can guarantee that I will receive all price drops as a reduction in final price rather than a vague promise of extra OBC or a possible upgrade, very little of which ever happens.

We have a Celebrity Passages confirmation bought last June on Eclipse, it states that it has no expiry date.

The exclusions clause states, "cannot be used for certain cruises or promotions, such as those chatered by third parties, certain price programs and sales campaigns and may not be used for certain customised group programs (ie value add groups)."

This is subject to UK and ROI terms and conditions so may differ from US ones.

I don't think tipping upfront is bribery, and whether or not it gets better service is unknown, unless someone does a statistical survey and has 2 cabins per steward operating the different systems.

That seems very unlikely so until then it's rather pointless either proponent claiming that their policy produces the best service.

We should each follow our own paths.

We have just taken advantage of a price drop on our May cruise which has the UK equivalent of 3 for free. We had used a FCC on the initial booking and still maintained the OBC as well as the past passenger reduction, and received the new perks as well.

If UK passengers are now getting a better deal than US ones, this must be a first!;)

On a cruise I have never felt the need to "tip" up front, and yet I always find that the cabin steward responds to any friendly request I might have, and as a result he normally get a little extra at the end of the cruise.

As far as the auto tip is concerned I quickly learned on these boards that this is the major part of the service staff wages and not really your standard gratuity, and I would never consider cancelling it.

My answer would be, try it if you don't like it don't go again.

Which really should be the view we take about any holiday type or destination. We have tried several others that attract the detractors who've never done one, like Saga, coach tours and theme parks, and thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Some people approach everything with a closed mind, and you just have to pity them for their lack of adventure.

Duck tails are added to reduce fuel consumption rather than improve stability.

Don't the feathers when they get wet increase the drag?:rolleyes::cool:

She seems to call 5 times in Bergen in 2015: http://www.cruise-norway.no/Arrivals.aspx?zone=8&start=25.04.2015&end=30.09.2015&ports=8

At least it should be the ship with 141250 GT.

 

The dates.

-Apr 27

-May 18

-Jun 29

-Jul 20

-Sep 03

 

So usually the seems to sail from Southampton on Saturdays.

Some of these dates could belong to it's twin sisters, Royal or Regal Princess.

Southampton is going to be crowded with big ships in 2015, as well as Britannia, Royal Princess and Anthem of the seas are all based there in 2015.

Just had an e-mail from some TA to say that Allure OTS will be sailing the Med in 2015, presumably Regal Princess will also be in Europe, and maybe NCL Breakaway or Getaway.

We had better be prepared for big crowds in some ports next year.

If you wanted recent history why not suggest sailed in last 6 months or something like that. Otherwise until June you aint gonna get any reasonable stats.

I am quite happy to leave it to Celebrity's new ship design team. If their next generation of ships can improve on the Solstice design to the same degree that Solstice improved on the Millenium class, then I will be highly delighted to continue cruising on Celebrity.

Those Orkney schedules certainly seem to suggest she will be in Southampton especially as Island Princess looks like she is taking over the Royals route. If this is the case i find it strange that Carnival would over shadow Britannia by bringing another ship of the same class to Southampton.

I suspect they will both be overshadowed and outsold by Anthem OTS.

Royal Princess based in Southampton???

Well it is if this thread is correct.

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1964909

Southampton is going to be crowded with big ships in 2015, as well as Britannia, Royal Princess and Anthem of the seas are all based there in 2015.

Hopefully they'll address this by offering more fly-cruises around Greece and Turkey, perhaps use a Greek Isle as a home port, the concentrate on the western Med with the Southampton itineraries.

Although we no longer fly I would have no objection to P&O basing another ship in the Med for fly cruises. However it has been pointed out on another thread that P&O are having to bribe TA's with lots of freebies to drum up bookings for Ventura this summer, so seems unlikely unless there is a last minute rush.

I would also like to see some alternative Western Med itineraries that did not include Rome & Venice and included some Balearic islands as well as different Spanish & French ports. But I imagine they will want to keep Rome and Florence, if only to attract new and infrequent repeat cruisers.

I thought there had been a discussion on these boards last year that about £100 pppn was about the right price. This would give you a starting price of at least £700 for a 7 night cruise.

Does anyone who wants to spend less than this amount ever stay in half decent hotels in the UK.,plus you normally have to pay for your food on top.

You have all your meals included on board , and drink prices are cheaper than ashore.

Also if you read these boards before booking you would know in advance that if you book one grade and wish to upgrade you will always be quoted the prices when booking, not what they are now.

If it is any help I had to contact customer services about something and was told the turnaround for queries was at least 20 days. Not really good these days, but if you are waiting for a reply that is the sort of timescale you are looking at.

And if you go for a superior room in a decent hotel, you expect to pay more...

and don't get any entertainment nor such a selection of bars nor an ever changing view .. .. . .. .etc

I despair of these typical P&O cruisers who despite seeing far more competitive offerings of much superior products continue to defend their "wonderful" cruise line.:confused::confused::confused:

Why not make the price more realistic in the first place and forget all the controversial discounting,

A week on Azura to the Fjords was advertised at around £1200 each for a standard balcony cabin which to be honest is more than we want to pay for a weeks break in Aril or May. Last year on Getaway we eventually paid £599 each and some people even less than that.

Why not just advertise it a £750 ish in the first place, then you get the early bookers and draw in the people with a smaller budget? without all the grief of discounting, adding OBD etc.

How ridiculous, stop being so sensible.:cool::rolleyes:

We have a vantage fare cruise booked for world cruise section. We booked early and vantage as itinerary matched our needs. We have to take on the chin fact that same cruise is now close to three thousand pounds less on getaway. However I noticed that the getaway difference between an outside and a balcony was only a £100 per person, so I contacted TA to get a quote to upgrade to balcony and the price was £700 each person. The ship is a balcony heavy one and this suggested to me that quite a surplus of balcony cabins available but even so the extra quoted was as if we had booked the balcony at original fare ; no concession at all.

 

I have e mailed customer services 10 days ago asking for clarification but so far no reply.

 

Anyone had any luck on similar .

 

Happy cruiser ( mostly)

 

Carol

Have you paid the balance yet? If not try to cancel and rebook at the lower price.

Also docking 22 April, 24 June, 22 September; so 4 stops in total for Gibraltar.

Gibralter is going to become a far more regular stop for all Med cruises, as it allows the cruise to keep its drink and shop prices VAT free. Now that most N African ports are being avoided there are fewer Med. ports that are no longer part of the EU.

Hi will travelling on emerald to Baltic in June stateroom E325 all the pictures I have seen show bed under window is it possible to have this changed Thankyou for your for comments .

All obstructed and even non obstructed cabins on E deck have exactly the same set up as standard balcony cabins with the bedhead against a side wall, as per this link.... http://www.princess.com/learn/ships/ep/deck_plans/?stateroom=E325

You can have the bed set up as a queen or as 2 singles with a bedside table between them.

If X will let you transfer the booking, including the deposit, and you can get your own flights cheaper then go with that.

If not you still have the best deal currently available.

41497655[/color]]Why on earth are you going on about this. We all know prices drop nearer to sail date. Yes the prices are cheaper' date=' but you get 2nd in line for dining choice,table size,chance of an upgrade etc.

You would have to be A very silly person in deed to think that vantage/select fares would remain until sailing date.

There are no price promise guarantees with select fares. Also if a cruise is selling well they may never issue early saver fares, you would just have the very cheap fares close to sailing date,with no choices.[/quote']

Not sure what your point is but Princess have have reduced my May cruise in line with their current much lower offer. I also understand that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity will honour price drops as well, and in all these cases the original reservation retains the same cabin and dining choice.

So why don't P&O?:mad:

Can someone advise on this please, does the sofa in a mini suite make up into a 2 person bed, or is there a pullman bunk above it?