HappyGiraffe

Looks like being able to book dining 120 days in advance is the long term plan. At least, that's when the email I got today says I can book for my 2026 cruise!

51 minutes ago, roomba920 said:

But don't just as many people go online to book every time they open up bookings? And why stagger it out? Wouldn't that give an advantage to some over others?

Normally it's only one or two sailings per day opening up dining bookings, but yesterday it seemed as though every cruise that's more than 14 days away but less than 120 suddenly opened dining bookings at the same time i.e. nearly 4 months worth of cruises released in one go!

Staggering the increase by e.g. moving to opening dining bookings 30 days ahead now and then 45 days from next week and so on would mean they only released a couple of weeks worth of cruises at a time to reduce overloading the booking system, while still giving everyone the same access as other people on their cruise.

Time will tell if they quietly switch to that approach or if it was just a glitch!

1 minute ago, roomba920 said:

I received the same e-mail. Are they saying that normally they wouldn't let us pre-book dining more than 14 days prior to sailing, but there was a glitch in the system, and some were able to pre-book (including myself)? If so, that's quite a break.

Think the jury is still out as to whether bookings were opened in error, or being able to book 120 days in advance is incoming policy but somehow no-one foresaw the battering the booking system would take if they emailed everyone in one go instead of staggering the roll out! 😂

2 minutes ago, Bin man said:

What ship was that for?

Ventura in June, but I imagine a lot of people on other cruises and ships will be getting a very similar message before the day is out!

Just had this email through:

Important information about Dining

We’re writing to you regarding some important information relating to your upcoming cruise. 

We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve been experiencing some issues with our dining booking system in My P&O Cruises. If you’ve tried to make any dining reservations that you weren’t able to check out, then we apologise for any confusion caused.  
 

What this means for you

If you have already been successful in making purchases via the dining booking system, then there’s no need for further action – all existing bookings will be honoured. And any new reservations you would like to make will be available for you to book 14 days before your holiday starts.
 

We will continue to work with our technology teams to address the issue that occurred and endeavour to allow you to make dining reservations sooner. Once this has been resolved, we will of course make you aware. 

Please note, our Customer Contact Centre will not be able to share any further information or make any dining reservations over the phone at this time.

We hope this hasn’t caused you too much inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you on board soon for a holiday like never before.

Just had the following email from P&O:

Important information about Dining

We’re writing to you regarding some important information relating to your upcoming cruise. 

We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve been experiencing some issues with our dining booking system in My P&O Cruises. If you’ve tried to make any dining reservations that you weren’t able to check out, then we apologise for any confusion caused.  
 

What this means for you

If you have already been successful in making purchases via the dining booking system, then there’s no need for further action – all existing bookings will be honoured. And any new reservations you would like to make will be available for you to book 14 days before your holiday starts.
 

We will continue to work with our technology teams to address the issue that occurred and endeavour to allow you to make dining reservations sooner. Once this has been resolved, we will of course make you aware. 

Please note, our Customer Contact Centre will not be able to share any further information or make any dining reservations over the phone at this time.

We hope this hasn’t caused you too much inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you on board soon for a holiday like never before.

1 hour ago, daiB said:

It appears to be 120 days before your cruise according to the P&O site.

We're substantially closer than that and definitely didn't have the option when I checked a few days ago, so maybe that's the source of the chaos if P&O have just switched from 15 days to 120 days and released 105 days worth in one go!

All sorted now, tried again when I thought it might be a bit quieter!

Ah I see what you mean!

8.131 is on a much quieter bit of the promenade deck than most and seems to have a decent sized balcony compared to most other standard balconies. The promenade deck widens at 8.205ish and that's where it starts getting busier with sunloungers/ chairs etc. Where you are will still have people walking past some of the time, but unlikely to have people lingering or stopping for a chat.

I'm another one who had dining pop up several weeks earlier than expected and then wasn't able to check out.

Guessing IT are too busy frantically sorting out teething issues with the Summer 2026 pages in time for tomorrow to deal with the niggles elsewhere?

Can you let us know what cabin type/grade you originally booked and the cabin number you've been allocated? Two windows between you and the sea sounds like one of the conservatory mini-suites, which are lovely cabins even if not an ideal location for you, and you could always leave the inner doors open to have less glass between you and the sea.

20 hours ago, doog442 said:

Having looked at the 'overspill thingy' I'm struggling to see what caused it, perhaps a combination of movement and a large guest jumping in.

 

Based on our experiences of Iona last year, the two weaknesses in the design seem to be that at times the "overspill thingy" filled up faster than it could drain, so if there was much movement in the ship then the water rolled up the nice conveniently-angled glass ramp and onto the balconies with a big splosh (especially from the corners if the ship rolled side to side) and that if someone was happily splashing water over the glass pool wall and managed to hit the right diagonal angle, there's not enough distance between the corner of the pool (on the right hand side of photo above) and the side of of the overflow to stop the water overshooting the overspill tray. We saw one little monkey who discovered this loophole and was making the most of it until a staff member caught up with him!

For future reference, P&O will give you the specific times they expect to be in port via email but only if you explicitly ask for exact times, otherwise they just resend the same vague descriptions. Sticking in some kind of acknowledgement that you know they're subject to change seems to help too. They take aaaaaaages to reply though.I'm glad you've been able to find the info you need one way or another!

When we were there in 2019, we found that there was a P&O excursion visiting both the Skylift and the Kjendall Glacier for only a few pounds more (£6ish if I remember correctly) than just doing the Skylift, so it might be worth seeing what else P&O are offering and if any of their combined offerings are better value? 

Full refund back on our card today 😀

Our cruise was Oceana E007P, sail date 22/03/2020, cancelled by P&O on 16/03/2020, refund requested via online form within about an hour of receiving cancellation email. Day 62, so may or may not have been processed by P&O within the 60 days.... just! I hadn't chased them at all yet, although I'd planned to if nothing by Monday.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of you get your refunds through soon!

Still waiting on Oceana 22nd March, requested within an hour or two of it being officially cancelled.Hopefully any day now then 🙂

14 hours ago, awmartin said:

Thanks for your reply, I was hoping anything over could be used as OBC.

Never mind I will have to find an expensive cabin instead.

I saw a reply to someone on twitter from P&O suggesting converting it to OBC would be ok, but I don't know if that's the official line and I can't find it again to check exactly what they said! Definitely worth asking when you rebook though. Or perhaps see if you could use it towards any pre-cruise purchases you make thought your account like excursions/ select dining?

1 hour ago, livinforcruisin said:

My question is regarding our seat bookings which we have paid for on both outbound and inbound flights.  Does anyone know if that payment would be included in the refund?  I cannot find anywhere on the flights section to cancel the seat bookings, only to change your seat.

One of the questions on the refund claim form is "Amount paid for your cruise booking (rounded to the nearest pound) including any flights and hotels booked through P&O Cruises (excluding any pre-purchased on-board experiences)" so I included it in the total amount we're claiming back. It doesn't explicitly say seat bookings though so will have to wait and see. 

1 hour ago, emam said:

 

How do you know which ships they are.

If you're on a PC you can hover over them with the mouse and/ or click to get more info about the ship, not tried it on a phone!

Has anyone contacted P&O via the "Contact Us" form on the website? If so, did you get an email confirmation that your message had been submitted? Bit concerned it didn't go through but don't want to submit it again when they're so snowed under if that's normal!

16 minutes ago, Hampshire Steve said:

N004 Just got the P&O email - Cancelled

 

 

Thanks for the update. We are booked on E007 which is the next departure that's not yet cancelled, so hoping they're discussing that now and we'll hear from them soon! 

2 hours ago, DollyDutchGirl said:

Happy Giraffe  - my post shows the full content of the FCO statement that is available on the gov.uk website.  It clearly states that the government’s CMO says that over 70’s and those with pre-existing health conditions should not take cruises for the time being. If any of us who are affected by the current government advice chose to still travel - insurance would become totally null and void....  Hope that helps.

Thanks, yes have been following the official .gov guidance. Was just trying to clear up the confusion before the website was updated, which seemed to stem from the media outlets showing the more ambiguous clip of Boris waffling at the end rather than the clearer prepared bit of the speech from earlier in the press conference!

1 hour ago, Vampiress88 said:

Why are we delaying the inevitable then? 
 

I always thought that a pandemic ended two ways. Either most build up immunity and it dies down or it becomes same as common cold/flu where it will never go and is reoccurring. 
 

I’m assuming that we are delaying for a vaccine? 
 

Partly to allow time for research to develop effective drugs and/ or vaccines but mostly to slow the spread of transmission to stop the NHS, social care and other systems being overwhelmed. E.g. if they expect 500 people in your town to need urgent hospital treatment for the virus but your local hospital only has the capacity for 50 people, then everyone's chances of survival are much better if those 500 people don't all catch it right at the beginning in one go! Ditto needing enough not-ill people at any given time to continue caring for the kids, elderly, sick and disabled and to make sure things like production/ distribution/ sales of food and medicines continue throughout. 

56 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Are you over 70?  We are, but I have received nothing.

Under 70 but with medical conditions. We booked direct, I'm the lead passenger on the booking, I received the previous messages about policy changes and we were due to sail in 10 days time. Still nada!

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I am a little angry and confused about how this impacts cruisers. I missed the live feed from the press conference and now I find it appears the BBC have been editing what was being said by missing the occasional word which can change the meaning.

 

What actually came out of the participants mouths is what I want to hear.

 

Over 70's should not cruise. What is the definition of over 70?  Are you over 70 one day after your 70th birthday? What about existing medical conditions. Some reports say over 70 with existing conditions, other reports say over 70 or existing conditions.

 

Aaargh the local BBC TV news has just done it again! Self isolate if you have a temperature or a persistent cough. This is elsewhere reported as a temperature or new persistent cough

 

WHAT IS THE TRUTH

The first time in the speech was both the over 70s and those with medical conditions. When it was referred to later in the press conference it was more ambiguously worded!

We depart within 14 days and received nothing today as yet.