smilesonfaces

8 hours ago, 2BACRUISER said:

it dOes but its a balcony wouldnt be caught dead in an inside but as i said it called choice and it depends what you want nd what you are prepared to pay for it. . 

I was replying to the original poster who was quoting £2900 for 2 people for a week in an inside cabin. I still think that is expensive even for a balcony. I’m not particularly bothered about my cabin or its location. We have sailed in insides as well as balconies. I’ll go for what I see as the best deal at the time. I’m holding back from Marella for the time being because of the all inclusive drinks we won’t get our moneys worth from. 

That works out at over £200 pppd so that would be far too much for me for an inside cabin.

I keep looking at Marella but it is the all inclusive that is putting me off booking. If you are a big drinker then it may be good value. If you are happy with one glass of wine with dinner and soft drinks/ coffee in the day then Marella works out very expensive. If I had £2900 to spend I would be looking at Princess or Celebrity. 

40 minutes ago, david63 said:

That is an option but not one that I would consider.

 

There is no way that I would leave my car in a public car park for any length of time whilst I was out of the country. I would much prefer to spend an additional £100, or so, for peace of mind - after all I will have spent several thousand pounds on both the car and the cruise.

 

I also have the images of multi story car park fires in Luton and Liverpool in my mind and would rather not come back from a cruise to a burnt out car.

We have used it several times with no problems whatsoever. Not quite sure why you would think your car would get burnt out in a car park in a shopping centre with cctv, number plate recognition and a regular flow of people moving through it. It is as safe as anywhere as long as you take  sensible security precautions. It was certainly safer than Triangle which we used once and was truly awful, a public pay and display car park with no security whatsoever or a random persons drive like some people recommend. West Quay is no different to using a multi storey car park at any airport. 

West Quay shopping mall, £6 per 24 hours. Drop cases at ship first, go to park and walk back to the ship. Taxi back to the car park on return  £8. 

If you are now happy with your allocated cabin I would withdraw your bid before they change it. I was allocated a cabin and then this was changed a couple of days later when my bid was accepted. 

We did really well on an upgrade bid last year. This time the minimum bid was £200 each. To upgrade an inside to balcony direct with P & O no bidding mpneeded was £150 pp And when their bid is successful people seem to think they’ve “won” something😂😂

18 minutes ago, amurray88 said:

The spar was closed unfortunately so was just a wee tourist trap place with sweeties, postcards, drinks etc.

 

No issues at all and felt as though we could have taken on 4 kegs of beer and no-one would have cared. This is only in Tenerife though - the other ports, security has been carried out by P&O and I would say they would have been stricter.

Thank you. It’s mainly cans of pop but may also get a couple of bottles of wine if it isn’t a problem. I never considered the spar being closed. I’m sure there will be plenty of little shops about. 

2 hours ago, david63 said:

These last few comments just go to show that OBC works in the favour of the cruise line rather than the passenger. The point is that the majority of OBC is your own money so when you buy something to use it up you are in effect buying something just for the sake of buying it.

 

Much rather that the price was reduced in the first place or that P&O do as Princess do and have refundable and non refundable OBC - that way if you don't have to spend it all.

We have never had OBC. It has never seemed worth it to us. P & O are crafty, they now reduce prices of drinks packages, speciality dining so it encourages people to buy before they board.  They then use it up buying goods on the ship they didn’t actually want or need at an inflated mark up. P & O are usually the winners. 
it would be fairer if you could use credit before you sail as other cruise lines do. Better still just reduce the price. 

9 hours ago, amurray88 said:

We were there on 3 kings day (Tenerifes equivalent to Christmas day I understand) so most places were closed. We stopped in at a corner shop...bottle of wine, 2 cans of beer £10)

9 hours ago, amurray88 said:

We were there on 3 kings day (Tenerifes equivalent to Christmas day I understand) so most places were closed. We stopped in at a corner shop...bottle of wine, 2 cans of beer £10)

Was this the Spar ? I take it you had no trouble taking your bottles onboard ? 

All I could suggest is buy goods from the shops and put them on eBay/Vinted or the like when you are home.  

10 hours ago, amurray88 said:

We boarded on Friday...was late on (flight delay, baggage delayed, last bus from airport etc) so just got on board. Went into Tenerife today and picked a few things up - security was done by the port and they didn't blink an eye. Once on ship there were no questions asked at all.

 

Problem is, I've now had to request a bigger fridge for the 44 cans of beer and 7 bottles of wine we've brought on!

Could I ask please where you did your drinks shopping ? I know there is a spar shop not too far away. Is there anything like a hiperdino nearby ? It is more for cans of pop really, maybe a couple of bottles of wine. Thanks.

Once you have a valid Esta I would leave well alone. It doesn’t matter where you put as your first entry to the US, put the port or the first hotel. An Esta can be used many times during its validity That website is too temperamental to risk changing something when you don’t need to. 

7 hours ago, solentsam said:

10% off

Sindhu is 20% off and Epicurean £24 instead of £30 so a pretty good saving.

i do like the speciality restaurants so will stay up to book at midnight 2 weeks before ! 
I do think they should limit pre bookings to one per cabin though. 

If you booked direct with P & O there is the option to bid for an upgrade.( It is supposed to be being rolled out to travel agents but I’m not sure if this has happened yet) 

invitations are sent out from 81 days before your cruise. The  bid page will show you the minimum bid price acceptable. I bid £10 over the minimum and was successful. You place a bid and you should be notified if you have been successful but this may not  be until about a week before your cruise. Your bid is not guaranteed so it’s a gamble. 

Alternatively  ring whoever you booked with for a price. The price is based on what it would have cost when you originally booked. 
 

I believe upgrades are quite rare now. If you are upgraded it is more likely to just be a grade upgrade ie the same type of cabin to a “better” area of the ship rather than from inside to a balcony. P & O’s idea of an upgrade isn’t necessarily going to be the same as the passenger either ! 
 

if you particularly want a balcony I would be ringing who you have booked with for a price. I think an upgrade from inside to balcony is highly unlikely. 

No, it is for 7 nights. I am really happy with £85 a night each for a balcony although cruises do seem to have gone up so much this year and I did struggle a bit to keep in budget. They wanted more than that for the Premier Inn in Southampton !  I always have a cut off of £100 a night pp. Really lucky last year as got a Princess fare with drinks package for that. 

22 hours ago, Gettingwarmer said:

These are underneath the dome and buffet. Although balcony could be noisy, however a good price. Have to be careful with bidding and happy to accept what’s given. 

Yes, I accept it is near the buffet and sky dome and may be noisy. Easy to take lunch up to the balcony though ! I’m not really too fussy, we don’t go to bed early on holiday and I will put up with daytime noise. Price is what matters at the minute though. I would only bid if on a saver fare.  

I am pleased to say my upgrade bid was accepted. I bid £10 over the £120 minimum and have been upgraded from a PF saver inside to a deck 15 GB balcony and have paid £1200 for the week for the 2 of us, this is about £800 less than we would have paid.  The new bidding system has been perfect for us and will happily do it again.

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Congratulations.  Which ship are you sailing on and when? Did you get a cabin number at the acceptance or do you find out later?  Is that £1,200 for 2 or per person?  Thanks, sorry for asking so many questions but trying to understand the mechanics.

It is for both of us on Iona Norwegian Fjords in July. 
We booked a saver cabin direct with P & O because I had heard of the bidding process. To bid you have to have booked direct. You can bid once you are 80 days to the cruise. You are sent a guide with a minimum and maximum bid. I bid the minimum plus £10 each for a balcony cabin. We are now 3 weeks out and were allocated an inside cabin on Tuesday this week but on Thursday received another email with a balcony cabin number. The extra cost needs to be paid within 72 hours of the bid being accepted. 
 

I think the bidding system is great if you book a saver fare and are not fussy about where your cabin is. We have saved about £800 by doing it this way. To me that isn’t far off the cost of another cruise. I took a chance booking a PF saver inside but I knew I would still be happy if that was the cabin we were in. I probably wouldn’t do it with a select fare but I don’t tend to book these anyway. I never really understand paying for example an extra £500 to get £100 “free” OBC particularly when the location of the cabin isn’t really that important to me. 

On 6/4/2023 at 7:35 PM, terrierjohn said:

Why would anyone with even half a brain  take a risk like that, and pay for the privilege as well?

Ha ha, me with my half a brain has now received my upgraded cabin which I am very happy with. Booked an inside PF saver cabin, bid for a balcony. Very happy at a balcony for a week for £1200, probably less than a lot of passengers are paying for an inside 😂 

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

So, after the taxi cost,  West Quay will be about £40 cheaper ? 

If we can drop the bags off first we can walk it from West Quay so it would just be a taxi one way. It will depend on our embarkation time too. We had 11am on Princess but last time with P & O it wasn’t until 3.45pm so we would have the day to kill. 

Just now, wowzz said:

Out of interest, did you consider Parking4cruises  ?

Just now, wowzz said:

Out of interest, did you consider Parking4cruises  ?

I did price them up. It was £95. WestQuay is £35 and Just Park ranges from £50-70. Husband prefers West Quay

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

Nobody cares, lots of us do it... 

It might be worth just parking at West Quay for £5 per day and walking/Uber back. 

Andy

Yes, we have used West Quay previously and may do so again. I only drive an old car, either Just Park or the shopping centre are fine. 

That’s great, thank you both so much. If we do decide to use Just park would prefer to not be seen offloading the cases. We have used CPS before but just cannot justify the price this year ! 

5 hours ago, cruise saint said:

Yes, you can drop your luggage and wander back into Southampton. 

Is there somewhere to park while we drop the luggage off please or can you just pull over and take the luggage over. Don’t want to be getting a parking ticket ! We may use Just park and would prefer to have offloaded the cases beforehand. 

3 hours ago, gjw1989 said:

I've been scrolling through this forum but can't seem to find an answer to this. 

 

On Celebration Nights, is it possible to wear a smart shirt with a nice jumper, suit trousers and shoes?

 

 

That would be fine for the buffet but not MDR or specialty dining restaurants. P & O website is quite clear on dress code for celebration night. You would need a jacket and tie and no jumper.
 

“Celebration Nights give you the option to put your most fashionable foot forward. Elegance is the order of the evening… a chance to wow everyone with a favourite cocktail dress, tuxedo, ball gown, DJ, or a suit, jacket and tie. You may also wear formal national dress or military uniform.”