molecrochip

Correct. No plan to go back to old way as far as I’m aware.

Try the Quays. Highly recommended at any time of day. You also gave the main dining room for waiter service breakfast.

Oriental is fixed seating. Meridian and Penninsular are freedom

Shall we do away with the ABTA/ATOL wrap around protections too, as the Americans don’t have these or similar.

All that is being done is moving upgrades from day 1 at reception to online. I don’t know re Select v Early Saver. Due to timing, I don’t think Saver fares will be eligible. I also don’t know if it’s too bid wins. An inside cabin could be £1k to upgrade to a suite but that may be out played by a mini-suite who bids £400, if a balcony bid can then upgrade for £400 to spare mini-suite, if an inside can then upgrade for £400 to spare balcony. I suspect the algorithm is commercially sensitive and a dark art!

Booking conditions inside/outside U.K. are different so not so simple to implement. Started with US but should rollout. Can choose the grade you bid for. If you’re in a balcony and bid for a suite, you either get a suite or stay where you are - you don’t find yourself in a mini-suite. Yesterday internally. First emails went to customers yesterday too. You can pay upfront the list price to guarantee a certain cabin. This is about bidding to fill empty cabins. I don’t believe so. I think it’s done on cabin type not cabin grade. Correct. It won’t suit everyone.

This was announced yesterday. It will be on cruises with available cabin space. It’s being rolled out ship by ship across 2023. You choose your bid price - per person, first two in cabin. You’ll get notification to bid anytime from 12 weeks out, with winning bids announced anytime from 4 weeks out. Had been really popular on other brands.

I’m confused. As far as I can see, the rules have not changed so I don’t understand these changes.

It’s important that they’ve mentioned wider refit dates. Plans will now being formed for these. I’m now expecting these ships to hang around longer than previously expected. Although overarching comment that any ship is sold for right price.

One hopes that things are looking up. Carnival corp, P&O's parent company today released its Q1 figures. Q1 includes the Wave period which motivates bookings for the year ahead. Headlines: - Loss was lower than expected. (bear in mind that most profit is made in Q3) - EBITDA was higher than expected. - Fuel was $31m worse than predicted - Revenue was 95% of 2019 levels (some ships e.g. Costa still note back). - Highest booking volumes for an quarter in history. Record breaking in North America and Australia. - Record Q1 customer deposits - record broken by 16%. - Positive cash in-flow from operations for first time post Pandemic. - More liquidity than at end of Q4.

I would find it odd that B deck is affected. The plant room for the pools is usually directly below the pools - Riviera, Deck A at most. I wonder if its just a general burst pipe.

Completely agree. Also large numbers of people just weren't bothered. A real effort is now made for world cruises to book bands - as it generally suits the clientele.

The on sale dates are what I was told on Thursday. I was expecting pre-reg to begin post Easter but have not been told any specific dates.

Fair point

I tend to find doing something else whilst on hold such as cooking dinner, cleaning, washing or work helps avoid lost time.

Give them a call and they can swap it. First check if you are giving up more OBC than the cost of parking.

It’s a strict no no on P&O. It may be physically possible but the TV brackets aren’t design for that access.

Give the call center a buzz. They can update it. You then get sent an email asking you to confirm preferences. Never worked out why it doesn’t always work, but you’re not the first!

Scheduled.

Iona and Arvia have done away with lettering the decks to avoid confusion.

Make sure you bookings are linked and it shouldn’t be an issue. Normally one extra cabin is waved through. If any issue, explain you need their assistance to board the ship. Have a great time. Congrats on you anniversary.

But P&O is trying to change target audience from 45+ to multi-generational, the rest aren’t. Inside cabins go serve a purpose. Many cruisers start with inside cabins then ‘graduate’ to higher grades. Except that’s the point. A balcony on Iona is at a lower price point than an inside on Aurora or Oriana have historically been. An inside is therefore at an even lower price point. I found a 2009 book recently. Oriana insides were £100pppn. Nowadays an Iona inside is £70pppn and balcony is about £95pppn. Firstly the decisions were P&Os not Carnivals. P&O is very much in charge of its own destiny. P&O are aiming to be a holiday choice for cruisers and non cruisers alike. Their market ambition is those who would otherwise jet off for a week. No more Iona class ships bring built and currently only two Sun Princess (sphere) class ships being built. That said, I don’t feel there is a big difference between the two. I think a different points based system would be a great idea. Maybe it should be mileage based. Get a point for every nautical mile at balcony level with 0.75 for insides, and 2 for suites. Then give 1 point for every pound spent on board. You then have a system like the airlines whereby you can cash-in 150,000 points for a balcony cabin for a week? You actual loyalty tiers are then based on either mileage over last 2/3 years or lifetime. Just a thought.

In you case, there has been a change of itinerary. P&O have chosen to renumber the cruise as they will then presumably be able to identify which passengers booked on which itinerary.

A suffix is added for one of three reasons. Either it’s a part cruise - so a 14 night Britannia Caribbean cruise B401 may have two one week options B401A and B401B. Or it’s a cruise that starts on either a Friday or Saturday, so 14 night Arvia cruise on the Friday is K401 but Saturday is K401A. These numbers are normally ABCDEs. World cruise sectors are numbered differently. Finally, each cruise is numbered sequentially. When a cruise is changed, it needs a new unique cruise number, say Baltic cancelled and replaced with Med cruise, the replacement uses a N, P or R suffix so as to differentiate. With this last category, it’s worth noting that dry docks, charters etc get cruise numbers and they always start with just the standard form G123. Sometimes, a cruise is changed before it even goes on sale therefore the cruise number may be advertised as G123P from day one. Its absolutely no cause for concern.

But that’s costed into what they charge in the first place. It’s probably 4% on a two week cruise to cover costs of that extra cruise after 140 nights. That then covers the cost of the new cruise with the hope you then spend onboard to make them profit. I wouldn’t expect free internet until it’s had a massive upgrade at some point in the next two years. It is true that money is spent on attracting the new likely to chose a balcony cruiser, rather than the loyal cruiser on their 23rd inside cabin cruise. P&O are in heavy redefinition mode, if Iona wasn’t proof then Arvia’s introduction is. Some loyal cruisers will be lost along the way…. It causes me sadness…. But someone made the decision and forward we go.