Burgmeister

That's great thanks hallasm 

Thanks for the information hallasm. I'll have to take a look at the app. I do have data so that is straightforward enough.

Do I need to print a ticket from the app or can I just show an electronic version?

Also, can I buy 3 tickets on the same phone or would each of us have to buy a ticket on separate phones?

Finally, would taxis be an option? Are there likely to be some waiting or how long would it take to get one there if I phoned to get one? 

Thanks again for the information already provided 

Hi, we will be docking on 21st December at Oceankaj (P-O Arcadia). It is my understanding that the free shuttle bus doesn't operate at this time of year - is that correct?

We will have no Danish currency on us, just a credit card - is it possible to pay for public transport this way? We just want to see some of the Copenhagen Christmas markets. 

Failing that, are there usually taxis waiting for fares at the quay?

Thanks 

2 hours ago, Peanut006 said:

I cancelled on health reasons 16 March and still not got my refund, got a cancellation invoice

 

Michelle

Sounds like you may have booked with the same TA as me? Our cruise (due to depart 28th March) was cancelled on 16th March - still waiting.

1 minute ago, No pager thank you said:

Yes agree, you need to know if you are in the refund queue. 

I'm in the queue as I put myself in it tonight. I may actually be in the queue twice

Thanks for the advice No pager. Is there a time limit for applying for s75?

BTW, I knew who you meant by ML - I watched his show this evening.

Josy, it wasn't the eskimos it was the company that's name pretty much sums up what they sell

7 minutes ago, miniyorkie said:

Burgmeister. Similar story for a cruise the week prior to yours. My T.A today wasnt very helpful and said they could only trust P.O to do the refunds, although she said that p.o are to push the refund button tomorrow for the majority. So I have to wait till early next week to allow the  few days for transfer to card. 

What I don't understand is if they have requested the refund for me or if I now need to fill in the form on the P&O website and start the 60(+) day clock. The agent has been really poor with letting us know what is going on. I have used them before a couple of times but everything went well so they seemed good, once something goes wrong you really see what a company is worth and, to be honest, it isn't much!

If anyone asks me about cruise holidays (and they do at times) I'll definitely steer them away from this company

I'm currently being given the run-around. Our cruise was cancelled on 16th March (due to sail on 28th March). On the 21st I got an email from the large online cruise booking company (don't think i'm allowed to put company names on this forum) that we used to book our cruise with a cancellation invoice saying that they (i.e. the agent NOT P&O) would pay the refund in 8-10 weeks.

Yesterday I emailed our cruise consultant asking for an update on the payment situation but he is on furlough so it was forwarded to another agent. This evening I was sent an email from the other agent that said she had looked in to our booking and that the P&O will refund the money directly. This is completely contrary to what the cancellation invoice stated. 

I have had no communications from P&O at all about refunds. I'm beginning to think that the agent is trying to give me the runaround but I'm not sure who to go to next.

I guess I always have s75 with my credit card to fall back on but I've never done one of those before so not sure where to start - or even how long to give the agent/P&O to send me a refund before going down that route.

To be honest I'm really regretting going through an agent with my booking and I think that in future I will book direct - at least you only have one company to deal with.

35 minutes ago, newbie cruissy said:

Dilemma time - we are booked on our first cruise ever on Iona in July. We've paid the deposit only at the moment, but payment in full is due 12 Feb. We didn't take out travel insurance at the time of booking as usually do this nearer the time of travel, now reading that travel insurance taken out now will NOT cover any issues caused by the "C" word. 

 

We are a young, heathy family with no underlying health issues and would, at the moment, be happy to go on the cruise if it departs as advertised (especially with the extra £400 OBC provided 😉) 

 

To pay or not to pay, that is the question 

If payment date was 12th February then surely you have already missed the deadline?

I will take the refund for 2 reasons.

1. What if P&O goes bust? FCC is worthless in that situation

2. Given the number of people cancelling (voluntarily or otherwise) and receiving FCC that is a lot of extra cruise bookings to take when things settle down thus putting up demand and, in all probability, prices wiping out your 25% extra credit.

34 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

 

In some ways it is a worry that the UK seem to be out of step with everyone else and the government seemingly being complacent at the moment.

Italy have imposed severe restrictions and it doesn't seem to be working out too well for them. Their death rate (from the number of confirmed cases - and that's all we can work with) is very high because their hospital system can't cope.

People have died in the UK and, unfortunately, many more will. The Government knows this. As they have said, they are not trying to stop the virus (they know they can't) they are trying to let it spread in a more manageable manner so that the NHS will hopefully be able to cope a bit better (it will still be overloaded).

According to the WHO the international death rate is approximately 1.5% but the rate at which people require hospital treatment is 20% (15% require oxygen and 5% require intensive care) - that's a hell of a lot of people turning up all at once.

Will it work? Who knows. Let's hope it does but only time will tell

Anyway, this isn't particularly cruise related so I apologise for that and will refrain from commenting further on the Government's  response to the virus in general.

29 minutes ago, Elaine0138 said:

You are correct  they are asking people NOT to call 111 unless your symptoms persist for more than 7 days.

Or if your symptoms deteriorate and you need hospital treatment.

Sorry everyone, I didn't intend to start an argument. Thank you all for your helpful responses.

I was aware that under normal circumstances people were entitled to a refund but I wasn't sure whether there where extenuating circumstances coming in to play here

I noticed from the P&O website (the page that deals with Covid-19 issues) that they have cancelled a cruise from Dubai and everyone booked automatically received a 125% FCC. Would people, in that situation, be entitled to a full refund instead?

Currently people on the FCO list can cancel for a full refund. If they wait and their cruise is cancelled will they still get the full refund or only the 125% FCC - in which case would they be better off cancelling now? 

26 minutes ago, Burgmeister said:

But, as far as I can tell, Carnival haven't cancelled Carnival cruises either so it's not just British passengers that are being singled out by the company.

 

 

Actually, it appears that they have suspended US operations as have RCCI I believe. But are RCCI (or anyone else for that matter) still operating out of Southampton or is P&O going it alone at the moment?

5 minutes ago, indiana123 said:

Not just relevant to PO but generally, we have a question that we think is important regarding the logistics.

 

We think we may be missing something and you lot can sort it.

 

If we suspect we have it then we are being asked to self isolate and rightly so.  BUT we cant see anything saying it is compulsory to report it.  Therefore how can authorities know how many people locally, nationally or worldwide have it or what course it is taking?

 

 

This is definitely an issue. It would provide useful data for any future outbreaks of any virus if it were tracked properly. Unfortunately I think this is an opportunity missed

7 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

gotta try and hold onto some hope 

 

virgin will let us transfer holiday (obviously it’s more expensive though) to end of September and Disney say they will do the same with our pass but hubby doesn’t want to do that. I just don’t know what to do for the best at all. 
 

seems like it’s all a game of chance at the moment and it’s depressing me so I’m trying to hold out the hope. 
 

ive already told the kids we can’t go on either holidays now. They said they are upset put we can go a different day. Just hoping it all blows over soon and I can surprise them. Cruise isn’t important but the Disney one is for us 

Oh, absolutely you need to hold out hope. My daughter said yesterday that Disney was closing its Florida parks from tomorrow but I can't remember how long they have said the closure will be for. Presumably not long, at least initially.

27 minutes ago, staygulf said:

Even if your cruise goes ahead there is nothing to stop you cancelling. The cancellation is not dependent on a letter, only the refund is. So you could cancel and still get the refund when your letter is available. 

Ah, OK thanks. I wasn't sure about whether you had to get the refund all sorted before your departure date.

2 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

Is no one still holding out hope for holidays? 
 

I have about 5% hope left for my p&o April holiday and about 50% for Florida in May. 
 

there’s just no way of sustaining loss of revenue for these companies for such a long time. I’ll affect million of people just in the travel industry not to meantion the rest. 
 

I kinda feel like the panic and the crash in markets are going to impact us a hell of a lot and for a long time
 

 

Don't want to bring you down but, given the appearance of Mr Trump yesterday its looking very likely that the US will add the UK to the banned list. Also, advisors to the UK government expect that, when this thing really takes off in the UK, 95% (IIRC) of cases will be in a 9 week period which, if that started today, would take us up to mid May. Whether restrictions would be lifted in time for your holiday (or whether the situation in the US would be out of control) I'm not sure. Hopefully it will be fine for you.

Not holding out much hope for the people winning tickets on Ant and Dec's plane though!

13 minutes ago, pinkpanther52 said:

Fred Olsen has taken the very sensible decision to cancel all cruise until the end of May.

 

Not sure why P and O will not do the same unless the management at Carnival don’t think UK cruisers are important. 

 

Thankfully I cancelled having only paid my deposit I can use it for up to a year on a new cruise but at the moment have absolutely NO inclination to do so.

 

Think P and O have lost a future customer 😡

But, as far as I can tell, Carnival haven't cancelled Carnival cruises either so it's not just British passengers that are being singled out by the company.

To be fair, they are offering cancellations (for FCC admittedly) so if you don't want to go there is a way around it. When the numbers add up (cost of cancelling vs cost of sailing nearly empty ships) or if sufficient pressure is brought to bear then they will suspend cruises. They can't win really. I've already seen people on these forums moaning that they can't go on their cruise because they are over 70 (and insurance is likely invalid due to FCO advice)

Thanks Andy

Our cruise goes to the exotic ports of Rotterdam, Zeebrugge and Cherbourg. I'm just wondering when the 3 countries involved will join others and ban visitors (or, at least, require 14 day isolation).

Hopefully P&O will suspend all cruises soon and that would make things easier.

Sorry if this has been asked or spoken about but there has been a major flurry of posts since I last read this thread.

We are due to sail on Ventura on 28th March (having cancelled a trip to Hong Kong in February to avoid covid-19  ). My wife is covered by the FCO list  as she is taking medication to suppress her immune system but I am not sure what P&O mean by this "your refund will be subject to providing proof of your underlying medical condition" . I don't want to contribute to swamping P&O's phone lines if someone has already asked them the question. 

The exact wording on the FCO website "weakened immune system due to drug treatment or disease". Would a prescription be sufficient evidence in this case or would they require a letter from her doctor?

If they require a letter then we may not be able to get one to them before our departure date as the NHS down here isn't very quick and I can't imagine its getting any quicker given the current situation!

Stay safe everyone.

I believe that Warren Buffett has said that you buy when others are selling and sell when others are buying. It has to be said that human nature makes contrarian investing very difficult as everyone has an inbuilt "Herd mentality" that you have to overcome.

The history of stock markets is littered with over-reaction by investors - bubbles form due to overreactions by buyers and sell-offs are too extreme by sellers.

It seems that Covid-19 will pass reasonably quickly once it takes hold (I believe it was quoted this week as 95% of cases within a 9 week period). Once the initial waves have cleared people will begin, slowly at first, to start to travel again. I would think that Carnival are one of the lines most likely to survive this short, sharp shock and will come out the other side to fight another day.

That said, I only invest in funds rather than individual shares so its highly unlikely I will be buying Carnival shares directly. Given the falls around the world in stock markets I am very much looking forward to buying my next tranche at a significant discount. Its an ill wind...

15 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

Obviously the incubation period is two weeks so after at least 3 weeks you should be ok but only you can make that decision if you want to go on your cruise or not. 

Thank you for your input but you haven't answered the question I asked. If PHE don't name you as being at risk of contact can you answer the specific P&O question regarding contact?

Well, we are due to cruise at the end of the month and today there was a confirmed case at my daughter's school. This makes the whole discussion slightly less abstract to us than a lot of people on here. Currently PHE are tracing who this student has been in contact with and will give advice on what to do. 

Assuming my daughter isn't someone contacted by PHE can I answer the P&O question as "no we haven't been in contact with anyone with the virus"