eddiecat

Very informative John. Princess have obviously had this problem in the past and ave rectified it. I suspect that their BX grade of cabin is cheaper than BA BB and BD grades to compensate for the inferior product.

But P&O are selling these BX cabins at the same price as an average balcony cabin! Feel like we’ve lost money in all of this.

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I have done a bit of research on this cabin issue and I have found out some interesting facts.

 

Princess Cruise line had a ship built in 1995 called Sun Princess. This was the original ship which gave rise to the name "Sun Class" ships. Other ships followed; Dawn Princess 1997, Sea Princess 1998 and finally Ocean Princess 2000. At some point P&O acquired two of these Sea Princess became Adonia for a while and left the fleet but P&O also acquired Ocean Princess and renamed her Oceana. So Oceana is the same design as all the aforementioned Sun Class ships and they are all very similar in layout if you care to look at online Deck Plans particularly those provided by the cruise lines..

 

If you understand the basis of cabin grades, there is a first letter denoting cabin type; inside, outside balcony etc. but the second letter indicates the grade level or quality with A being best then B and so on. On Sun Class ships P&O grade Oceana balcony cabins HA, HB, HC, HD, HE and HF and from what I can make out the cabin in this thread falls into HD (I am a bit colour blind). So that is mid-range in terms of quality. Princess grade their Sun Class ships BA, BB, BD and BX there are only four BX grade balconies listed; B730, B732, B735 and B737. Princess list these four balcony cabins as: Non standard layout, Twin config only, 2 fixed lowers and 2 upper pullmans.

 

My conclusion is that Princess have identified four dodgy balconies and put big red flag warnings on them, X is a long way down the alphabet and the frank description, whereas P&O have lumped them in on a forward, mid-forward, midship, mid-aft and aft classification system ignoring the obvious less than satisfactory facilities offered by these four balcony cabins.

 

Regards John

Gosh this makes me even more frustrated with P&O. Such a disappointment and they’re refusing to do anything.

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Had a word with the customer service department of our TA, they will be ringing up everyday for cancellations, it’s the best they can do.

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Whilst I have sympathy with the predicament you find yourself in, your agent is the one at fault here, not you and not P&O. You accepted a guarantee Cabin in a certain grade and that is exactly what you have got. If the agent told you that it is a cabin just like all other balcony cabins, it is they who are at fault. Proving you were told that will be difficult though because the agent will presumably deny having said it.

 

 

 

Hopefully P&O can sort it out for you although it will be out of goodwill and not obligation. I don’t suppose you are the first people this has happened to. If you both choose to sleep in one of the single beds, at least you will be cosy but try to avoid garlic with your evening meal.[emoji42]🤢[emoji40]

Problem we have is that the cabin technically has only 1 bed. The other 3 are temporary. The TA never said this was even a possibility, they told us our cabin would be the same as any other balcony cabin. P&O aren’t willing to help and said it was “our fault for booking through a 3rd party”. Can’t argue with them but they were dismissive. We then rang the TA, who was also understanding but there was nothing they could do. However they did acknowledge that the price we paid was unfair and not correct for our grade cabin. We asked who to complain to and said “we will get back to you tomorrow”. Feels like we are just being ignored despite having not been told clearly the T&C’s of the cabin... just feel like screaming! Losing all hope.

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Looking at a certain website whose name must not be mentioned on this forum, the highest price for the most basic balcony on the OP's cruise was £3106pp in January 2018.

Yep, we booked the cruise on the 5th of January.

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Called P&O AGAIN, to no avail. Told once more that we would be “called back at some point today”. Fingers crossed they actually call us back. They did say we had been put on a wait list, so I suppose that’s good, however just feeling as if they think we are lying or being difficult.

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Good luck eddiecat I would be upset too I wouldn't expect to go on holiday as a couple and be given twin beds . Let us know how you get on . I guess why they can't just switch you with someone else is that maybe all the rooms have been allocated and once you get a room I don't think they move you unless it's an upgrade . Can u imagine being given a room then getting moved to a worse one that customer would end up complaining too

Very true, thank you for understanding. As you said, as it's a couple holiday it's disappointing to have fixed twins. We will sort it out hopefully, I will definitely post what the outcome is when we find out.:)

I'm intrigued on which cruise this is. You can book a balcony on a 14 night Eastern Med cruise departing 19th July on Oceana, the start of the school holidays, for £2,500 and that's select price.

Ours is 2 weeks, starting on the 14th of June.

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My opinion is they have looked at your age and decided that you are more likely to put up with the cabin than someone who is over 60 and will complain endlessly once aboard, but again this is speculation on my part.

 

It may have something to do with those who booked the same grade as you and their loyalty numbers or may just simply be down to computer generated random allocation.

 

I would have thought that allocating you a double and then being able to sell a 4 berth for more money makes better business sense, but P&O work in mysterious ways.

Our thoughts exactly. A party of 4 would be better suited ( and more money for P&O) than us! Anyway I’ll ring at lunch time and see if they’ve actually kept their word about trying to arrange something.

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If a double bed is more important to you than a balcony it may be worth suggesting to P&O that you would be willing to swap with someone who booked an outside. I'm fairly sure that someone in a standard outside with a double would be willing to swap to a railway balcony with single beds. It would only take a few phone calls from them.

Well what we can’t understand is why they wouldn’t swap our cabin with someone who has bought the same grade cabin as us, but has asked for a twin bed configuration with non fixed beds. (So beds could be pushed together)

Like I’ve said before, if we are stuck with this room then that’s fine, I just want to exhaust every possibility of getting a better cabin before giving up.

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Hi eddiecat. I'm really not sure if this is even possible, but have you considered asking them if they would be willing to transfer you to another (similar itinerary) cruise on Oceana later in the year, perhaps? Or is the date of this cruise fixed in stone for you? :)

We live in Guernsey and have already booked our flights to Gatwick. Flights are incredibly expensive and we wouldn’t be refunded so no chance of changing the date.

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Hi eddiecat.

 

I could understand that if they had a spare cabin available, then they might possibly be able to change your booking. However, I have just looked at the P&O website and the cruise is still showing as completely sold out. Can I ask you what in these circumstances you are expecting P&O to do?

Yes P&O has already explained that to us so we understand that there hands are tied and it’s a difficult situation. They didn’t say what they could do however he said he would speak to managers over the weekend and see if there were any spare cabins or cancellations, but they could at least have a bit of courtesy and ring me back when they promised they would yesterday.

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Any update on the action taken, or efforts made, by your TA?

Nope, none. When I rang our TA on Friday in the morning they said they would talk to P&O and get back to me but never did. So I rang them again late afternoon and they told me there was nothing they could do. Then, I rang P&O directly and they said they would ring me Monday morning but still NOTHING! Starting to get very impatient.

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Still no call back from P&O when they were supposed to call us yesterday! If they haven’t called by lunch time I am going to be one unhappy customer.

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I'm not sure if you've cruised on Oceana before Eddiecat, however we have and what I will say is this...

 

Oceana is a really lovely, welcoming ship. Hopefully, P&O will come up with something for you and you will be able to change cabins BUT even if they don't, I'm sure that you will have a wonderful cruise. As I mentioned in my previous post on here, we have never heard of 'railway cabins' before, but I'm pretty certain that if they were that bad then everyone would have been mentioning them online and they're not, so please try not to worry. It's a lovely itinerary, on a very special ship (that captured our hearts years ago and hopefully she will do for you too). Chillax, go with the flow and have a good cruise. We will. Best Wishes. :)

Very true. It is a wonderful itinerary, I’m very excited regardless of the cabin! I hope they do sort something, if not I won’t worry about it until I get on board. Thank you for the support, it’s really good to know talk to someone who has been on the ship :)

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Re the price paid for this cruise, perhaps it is high because of the price of flights? Just a thought....?

Yes, however the flights only came to around 200£ a person for the journey there and back. So the cruise itself still comes to around £3000 a person. It costs so much money to do this holiday, point is I just wanted it to be what we expected no surprises or strange cabins! ( plus we live on an island called Guernsey and flights to gatwick from here are very expensive )

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Why are you winding up a 19 year old? Have you nothing better to do? You've made your point, I'm sure she's grateful for your support (not) Time to take your leave and go back to the American boards, I'm sure you're a hoot over there (with a capital H) :rolleyes:

Thank you for the support! I posted this on TripAdvisor as well and I got some very angry folks telling me it was all my fault and I got what I deserved. Whereas on this forum everyone has been amazing, can’t thank everyone enough. You have all made me feel so much better :)

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I am sure if you make P&O and your TA aware that you are not happy with your cabin there is every chance even at this stage that even though the cruise is sold out there will be cancellations and something might become available and you wish to be considered if it does.

They’ve been contacted. The TA was useless however after having a conversation with P&O they seemed as if they were going to do everything in their power to resolve this. However, it is fully booked and they said there might not be anything they can do. I’ll let you know what they say when they get back to me tomorrow!

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Agreed Tom .

Hindsight is a wonderful thing .If we had known sooner we could have pointed her in the direction

 

of the P&O guru of Tennessee :rolleyes:

 

Some would do well to research the word HELP as that is all she was asking for .

Thank you. It’s not wrong of me to assume that the Oceana would be like any other of her sister ships? We did do research but it seems unfair to assume we went through the possibilities of cabins with a tooth pick! Anyway thank you again for your support. This post was only to see if people understood my disappointment and whether anyone had any suggestions :)

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But the op is an experienced cruiser, loyal to P&0, so surely she would have known about the dangers of booking a guaranteed cabin?

 

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I absolutely know the risk. However I had no clue that there could be such a big variety in what they call a “standard balcony cabin”. These “railway cabins” are totally unique to Oceana. I think the TA should have warned us about how much the Oceana differs from other ships in the fleet. Anyway your opinion, maybe we could have done more research but there are only a few of these cabins on the ship so seems unfair to blame me.

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With this kind of attitude, I'm sure you will make the most of whatever cabin you get and enjoy your cruise. However, I completely understand your disappointment and hope you can get this resolved to your satisfaction.

Thank you :) I'll be sure to let everyone know what happens when P&O get back to me.

Just thought - not sure you’ll get an answer on Monday as it’s a bank holiday. In my experience I’ve had to wait for a “working day” to get an response from someone with any clout.

Hope it works out for you.

 

 

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I was thinking this too, perhaps he forgot it was a bank holiday. Anyway, he promised Monday so I expect Monday. If not, then it will be an extra 24 hours until we find out whether the situation has been resolved or not.

The OP may find the balcony more accessible with the layout it has. Sometimes floor space can be very limited with the beds pushed together. I had to crawl up from the bottom of the bed last time!

 

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True! Due to the Oceana being an older ship, the cabins tend to be smaller than the newer ones so there might be some positives to having this perhaps disjunctive room. However I'm sure as people understand, it would be preferred if we could have the Queen layout cabin that we thought we would have. :)

That's an informed decision but sometimes I read complaints from people who have only cruised one line and I just want to scream "stop giving them your money every time then!" Once you've tried a few it's fair enough.

 

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Very true! It's always good to experience the variety of cruise lines there are before making any commitment to one. Even then, I believe each cruise line has something different to offer, for example MSC, perhaps wasn't a gastronomical adventure however their cabins were clean, bright and spacious and the ship was fabulous too.

Well. Bear in mind it was our first cruise so we didn't have anything to compare it too. We really liked it, however. Especially during the day when the upper bunks were raised and there was a bit of room!

 

 

Our teenager would thrown on the doors and sit on the balcony enjoying brunch, in fact she preferred the peace and quiet to the lounges and the poolside.

 

We thought about taking it again this year but weren't so fussed about the itinerary, so Azura instead.

 

I think you'll have a good time. Don't get too wound up about it.

Thank you so much. Really put me at ease. Was mostly worried about it because I couldn't find any photos or reviews of cabin B737 anywhere so it's really good to hear from someone who's experienced the room :)