bee-ess

More Caribbean reductions for Jan-Mar. All cruises are now further reduced to 999 inside and 1299 balcony. On sale until Dec 16th.

There is a fuel supplement but it is included in the advertised prices.

When we first went after using cheaper cruise lines we thought

"a different class"

but now we feel "out of touch".

Sorry

We did get our ESTAs when cruising the Caribbean just in case there was an emergency of any kind....but they were issued free at that time ...I think you have to pay now (but not very much)......should we cruise the Caribbean again then we will renew them...I do like to have all eventualities covered!! :)

I have just had to renew ours - $14 each.

I wonder just why P&O can't compete with that.

 

They cannot compete with Celebrity on the product in my opinion and now it seems they can't on price either.

We have only been on Celebrity twice - in 2009 we cruised on Summit and thought it was good but not vastly superior to P&O. We then cruised on Solstice at the end of 2012 and felt that it was vastly superior to Ventura in March 2013. I don't think that Celebrity had changed that much but that P&O's standard had dropped significantly. We have booked Celebrity again for 2014 and feel that free drinks package, tips and OBC makes it for a us a good deal (albeit not quite as good as the OP's).

You are right that P&O should be able to compete but stupidity like the situation that the OP found with the Dining choice will make their customers look elsewhere. Situations like this and the Vantage fare debacle will finish them and now many are just waiting around for a Getaway or whatever they get renamed to, which forces P&O to run cruises with many passengers on low fare which in turn forces them to downgrade the product to trim costs.

I feel now that P&O are good for last minute deals and also the Caribbean with the 'free' flights but I would not pay full fare now for the product on offer.

Sounds good, P&O can't compete with that - which agent did you use ?

Just had notification of slight change to our Caribbean itinerary in Jan and noticed St Lucia and Antigua now have afternoon departures instead of early evening. Does anyone know what time afternoon departures are likely to be? Hope it's not too early as Antigua is one of our favorite islands and was hoping to have a good day there.:(:(

We had this problem with Ventura n March - we left everywhere at 5PM when it said 6PM originally. Have been a few times to Carib and the normal time was always 6PM with very slight variations, now it seems that 5PM is the norm which is a bit annoying as it is nice to sail out at sunset around 6PM. Again the itinerary that you book from says Early Evening for all ports which is from 6PM but they will probably just change them gradually back to Afternoon.

Taken from P&O website

Each port visit will vary according to the cruise and port. For each cruise we will indicate next to each port the anticipated arrival and departure times as follows:

Early Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midnight and 08.59am

Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00am and 11.59am

Early Afternoon: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midday and 02.59pm

Afternoon: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 03.00pm and 05.59pm

Early Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 06.00pm and 08.59pm

Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00pm and 11.59pm

Try this one

http://ships.cruisett.com/

Click on ship name then month.

Yes, if there are 2 ships one has to dock about a mile out of town and its not pleasant. Not much to do in Roseau and unless you do a trip it's not really worth getting off. We seem to go to Dominica every time we go to the Caribbean and don't even bother getting off now.

Lets just hope that the disingenuous price promise doesn't turn into a Gerald Ratner type moment.

I certainly hope not, but this could just be the case, the recent Getaway prices have been lower than ever and there comes a point where it doesn't become viable without dropping the standard even further. I cannot see how they are making any money out of flying passengers to the Caribbean and giving them a balcony cabin for £999.

If there are still cabins left you will quite likely end up above the engine.

 

I'm sorry but I don't agree with this comment - our last 3 p&O's have been getaways and we have had a good upgrade from the grade purchased each time. Others on here have also had good upgrades on Getaways.

I was talking about the March 2013 t/a' Getaways which were significantly cheaper than the standard Jan/Feb/Mar 2 weekers. Traditionally the offers post xmas are not as good as pre xmas.

I've been going for the last 13 years and in my experience there are always better offers before Xmas than after. Last year P&O had good offers on the 2 week and 3 week transatlantics but not so much on the standard 2 weekers. Think the reason for that is that more people want to go post xmas as the weather is reckoned to be better (less rain) and also the Caribbean 'season' for holidays is considered to be spring.

It is a real job to guess what will happen this year, we are looking for March as balconies are currently cheaper then we have paid in the past for inside cabins - I have never seen the Caribbean cruises so cheap, when you consider that it includes the flight - £999 for balconies at present is a giveaway. They must be struggling to fill the ships I think.

We are really unsure what to do - I think there may be surge of booking immediately after Xmas which may cause the prices to go up- decisions, decisions.

I have to say that having been to the Caribbean a few times that P&O do handle it very well. Even allowing you spend the last day on the ship up until departure time is not something that all the US Cruiselines allow as quite often they have not been involved in the flight part of the cruise. I think that the transfer from the plane direct to the ship is excellent with no bother with luggage or immigration. Earlier this year we had a scheduled BA fight which we would never choose again as we had to handle our own luggage and go through immigration - very messy. Praise where it is due - this is something P&O do very well, and being out of the cabin at 8:30 is a small price to pay.

Big +1 for both Cosol in St Lucia and Rhum Runner in Grenada.

P and O number is 0843 not 0845 ... isn't that cheaper? I thought that was more like local rates?

 

But Nick phoned from work so didn't pay anyway.

I think 0843's are cheaper but not good news if you have inclusive 0898/0845 as lots of packages do now. In that case you can use 'saynoto0870' website to find a 02380 STD number.

If I could go before Xmas I would grab one of these - £999 for balcony inc flight is a bargain. Even the post Xmas are reasonably priced at £1199 inside and £1499 Balcony.

Just noticed that pre-xmas Getaway Caribbean cruises are £999 for Balcony cabins - that is as low as I have seen ever. We are looking for March - might they come down to this low then ?

We were on a new years cruise on Ventura. When the pattern appeared to be only two shows per night we spoke to the Cruise Director. She advised as some passengers may have seen the same shows on the previous 2 week cruise they had decided to just have two shows on our cruise, despite the overcrowding and dissapointed passengers who could not get in to the theatre.

 

Yes Kevin you are correct, we had the same problem on the Ventura T/A home in March. We only ever had 2 shows and there were numerous rows outside the theatre as 2nd Sitting pax never got a seat but the CD Hughie was not interested in complaints.

Try and get on one of the Charter flights if you can.

The charters land, you are bussed direct to the ship. No customs or immigration to go through. Your luggage arrives at you cabin. Job Done !

 

With BA you will have to do the full airport thing then have to carry your own luggage on board and to your cabin.

Yes, I'd agree with this. We had a BA scheduled flight in March and immigration and luggage was a nightmare. On previous years we have always gone charter and you get straight off the plane onto the bus and straight to the ship as PanCan says.

Slobs, people on getaways do not get upgrades they are fitted in to the ship at the convenience of the company. If you are unlucky you will get a cabin in a poor position that no one else wants. On the other hand someone may have dropped out from their top of the range cabin and you are allocated that one.

 

It is all pot luck.

 

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

I am sorry Dai but you are incorrect on this - we have done 3 Getaways and had good upgrades each time and choice of dining each time. e.g. Obstructed outside to A Deck midships outside, F Deck Balcony to a larger C Deck Balcony and F Deck inside to B Deck inside.

Hi can anyone tell me if we can go to Prickly Pear Island in Antigua on our own? I have been looking at the excursions and there is one to the Island it is called Crusoe Island Escape, but it is rather pricey and I know from experience most of the excursions you can do on your own at half the cost. We have not been to Antigua before but we usually do our own thing on the Islands that we have been to. Also if anyone has been what's it like?? Thank you

I don't think you can book this independently if a cruise ship has booked the space - it is not very big. We were booked on this with P&O in March and I was unable to book independently, the tour was cancelled in the end due to sea swells and being unable to land so cannot comment on what it is like. This is the email to book yourself - miguels_ha@hotmail.com

Best Overall Cruise retailer - really ?

Must be the fact no-one gets any website problems booking a cruise with P&O - what do you think.

Well done P&O for the other awards, but I can't accept this one.

We have cruised on Ventura 4 times - first 3 times were good but the last time (T/A back from Carib Mar 2013) was not at all good, we had many complaints, mainly about the entertainment, especially during the day with many days at sea. No complaints about the food however but we and others we spoke to felt that the standards on this cruise had been 'cut to the bone', I know that they sold many cheap Getaways on this cruise but this is no excuse, not everyone had paid Getaway fare. We did pay a cheap fare and honestly did not feel that it was not worth even what we paid. We complained to P&O and were given a generous OBC to use on another cruise and full refund for an excursion that was very poor.

We at that point decided to finish with P&O but after a rethink decided to book another cheap cruise to use our OBC and booked a week on Oriana in July and it was wonderful, no complaint at all. So we wonder if the dropping of quality of the product is across the fleet or just on Ventura where there seems to be a greater level of complaints or were they just not making too much effort on the transatlantic we did in March. It has soured us for Ventura for sure but not P&O if the price is right - not sure that the product is worth the Select fares though, I feel that there will still have be a Getaway equivalent for last minute fares.

I wouldn't say they have lost my trust, it is just that I have had my eyes opened by cruising with Celebrity and my priorities have changed

 

I don't want to sail from Southampton again in a hurry as I have found that P and O are now having too many sea days for my taste, top that with unpredictable weather, and I also find the itineraries are not thrilling me either

 

I totally agree about the itineraries, there are only so many places you can go from Soton on a 'standard' 14 night holiday. There are some good itineraries on P&O but not for 14 nights as they mostly go from Southampton. Even the Caribbean itineraries are the same every year.

I for one would rather that the fares had not changed as I only consider P&O's current Standard to be worth the money at the Getaway rates.