your thoughts on P&O prices

[bonniecharlie]

We have just been looking at prices in a small P&O brochure they sent me, and I was wondering how they stay in business

Arcadia June Med inside £1,500 outside £1,665 balcony£2,160 14 nights

so our holiday will be with RCI/Celebrity again. We went with P&O every year until their prices kept creeping up, and now we have found these 2 companies, that's where we will stay

[tom_uk]

I think they get a lot of returning passengers through inertia and convenience. In addition, there hasn't been much competition for cruises out of Southampton. I think the arrival of Celebrity Eclipse next year will shake things quite a bit.

[LibraLass41]

I think they get a lot of returning passengers through inertia and convenience. In addition, there hasn't been much competition for cruises out of Southampton. I think the arrival of Celebrity Eclipse next year will shake things quite a bit.

 

 

I agree. I also feel the prices are very expensive, and was looking too at Arcadia in June to Med - £4K for a balcony cabin for two is expensive in anyones view....nothing booked yet, although Eclipse is very tempting....after sailing on her sister Equinox in July I am seriously considering her. £1400 for a balcony on her compared to £2000 on Arcadia per person priced up for Sept 2010.

 

Notice also, besides Eclipse, RCI have a ship Jewel of the Seas sailing from Harwich which may tempt a few too.

[Suebiker]

We have just been looking at prices in a small P&O brochure they sent me, and I was wondering how they stay in business

Arcadia June Med inside £1,500 outside £1,665 balcony£2,160 14 nights

so our holiday will be with RCI/Celebrity again. We went with P&O every year until their prices kept creeping up, and now we have found these 2 companies, that's where we will stay

 

Hi there

 

Basically we never pay brochure price and allways hunt around for better prices. We paid virtually the same price for a balcony on Ventura as we did on a balcony on IOS . However we much preferred our cruise on Ventura and would choose her over IOS even if it were more expensive.

 

Sue

[land ahoy!]

i received the same today ,it's main selling point being enticing offers or words to that affect ( ive already binned it )!!!they should also of sent a returns envelope.....i thought i must have received a mis-printed copy as the prices were that ridiculously over the top!!!!!! I can see i was not the only one to get one of these!!!!!!!! I totally agree with you ,how the hell can they justify those prices, once there loyal base of cruisers who book up the next 5 in advance start to question the price hike(which is long over due once they have finished moaning about something petty on board or the new cruise crowd who alot seem to detest maybe its a class thing)....P & O will feel a recession of there own,,,wouldnt that be a shame!!! I have been on 3 p&o cruises but not for the past three years.....wont be long before the big wigs of p&o get a call from watchdog..wouldnt that be interesting !!!!! every other industry seems to get scrutanised these days over there pricing isnt it about time the cruise companies did too... newsflash AZURA inside cabin £1600 june 2010 surely your tempted,,,lol...

[daiB]

i received the same today ,it's main selling point being enticing offers or words to that affect ( ive already binned it )!!!they should also of sent a returns envelope.....i thought i must have received a mis-printed copy as the prices were that ridiculously over the top!!!!!! I can see i was not the only one to get one of these!!!!!!!! I totally agree with you ,how the hell can they justify those prices, once there loyal base of cruisers who book up the next 5 in advance start to question the price hike(which is long over due once they have finished moaning about something petty on board or the new cruise crowd who alot seem to detest maybe its a class thing)....P & O will feel a recession of there own,,,wouldnt that be a shame!!! I have been on 3 p&o cruises but not for the past three years.....wont be long before the big wigs of p&o get a call from watchdog..wouldnt that be interesting !!!!! every other industry seems to get scrutanised these days over there pricing isnt it about time the cruise companies did too... newsflash AZURA inside cabin £1600 june 2010 surely your tempted,,,lol...

 

 

What a lot of ********* P&O prices have not got back, with regard to prices, to were they were in 2001 when we took our first cruise.

 

In the past few months people have complained bitterly that prices are too low. Look at all the rubbish written about Ventura and the Christmas cruise. Then, cheap tickets were blamed for the bad behaviour although there was no real evidence for this. However I note that Princess have had problems in Antigua with passengers fighting with police and that it was attributed to cheap fares.

 

Now you cannot have it both ways.

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

:cool:

 

Dai

[land ahoy!]

what on earth are you rabbiting on about? fighting in antigua due to lower fares,didnt see that in the small print in p&o brochure as to why they have put prices up....................

[ROSEBASKETS]

Slightly off at a tangent, so it will probably be deleted but, fighting with the Police in Antigua has nothing to do with cheap fares. It's to do with the fact that the locals were trying to rip off the the pax. The Police didn't support the pax, but instead sided with the taxi driver, now the cruise Co. have decided to stop elsewhere.

 

Seems to me that Antigua has lost thousands of tourist dollars over a few dollars for a taxi fare. For information the people involved in the incident were far from poor and certainly not working class.

 

More power to the passengers!

[balf]

P&O like many other lines rely on people who are so fixed in their ways that they will often only sail on one cruise line or even just one ship, and who play right into their hands by booking ahead for as many years as possible. I have spoken to some who would only ever sail on Fred Olsen Black Prince, now thankfully put out of it's misery.

 

If you think prices are too high, shop around, it's a buyers market right now. If I told how much we have paid for our next cruise on Cunard QV (in a different class above P&O IMO) you would not think cruise prices have rocketed.

 

David.

[jimphil]

Sue, Jewel of seas has been sailing from Harwich for a few years now, it is a beautiful ship - and would recommend it and the itinerary to anyone [been on 14 cruises all over the world].

[balf]

What a lot of ********* P&O prices have not got back, with regard to prices, to were they were in 2001 when we took our first cruise.

 

 

Dai

 

You are only partly correct. It's true that prices are around the same level as in 2001, and even those in 1999 when we had our first cruise. But what is not at the same level is the degree of service you got then compared to now. Prices have been kept lower by by the industry changing from a somewhat elite nich market to the mass market of today. Ships are bigger and getting even bigger still, allowing greater economy of scale. But there is no comparison between our magic first cruise and what is on offer now, except the basic price of course.

 

David.

[LibraLass41]

The problems of the Ventura christmas cruise were Yes probably caused by cheap cabins sold a few weeks before sailing, so some undesireables snapped them up and the proceeded to get drunk and spoil the cruise for passengers who had sadly paid full price and booked a year in advance...a marketing strategy that went very very wrong.

[lancashire_cruisers]

Sue, Jewel of seas has been sailing from Harwich for a few years now, it is a beautiful ship - and would recommend it and the itinerary to anyone [been on 14 cruises all over the world].

 

I agree that Jewel of the Seas is a beautiful ship. I was on her for our last cruise in August but for me, and this is purely personal opinion, I felt that the RCI 'product' was of an inferior quality to that of P&O and the food in particular was very poor.

 

Given that we paid the same price as we would for an equivalent P&O cruise I know where my holiday £££'s will be going.

 

Debbie:)

[LibraLass41]

Thanks Debbie, interesting comments...

[Juden2307]

I've booked my next cruise with Celebrity and it was mainly due to the itinerary however I would have probably still booked it as the prices for P&O have increased (IMO) considerably when compared with other cruiselines.

 

P&O are now not the only quality medium/big ship ex-UK line they have competition so they may find they are going to have to have more competitive pricing.

 

The price difference for me was over £1000 pp (for a similar cabin) which even when the "15% service charge" is taken into consideration this was still a lot less than P&O. The pricing for my next cruise is fluctuating but it is still cheaper than P&O's similar cruise.

 

My next booking may still be with P&O as I really enjoy their ships but they may not be my automatic choice anymore.

[MattyBarlow]

I wanted to do the Baltic in May next year and out of three possible cruises, Arcadia, Azura or Eclipse, Eclipse was by far the best Value. £1499 for a balcony concierge class cabin with free parking at Southampton and $275 OBC. P&O couldnt come anywhere near that and the prices for Azura were horrendous! Im now looking forward to my cruise on Eclipse :D

[terrierjohn]

Now that we have cruised most of the special placres we wanted to do, our cruise booking is becoming more focused on price/value. So we find ourselves perusing TA's special offer brochures and e-mails and choosing our cruises from them.

As a consequence we have a 2011 Caribbean cruise booked on Ventura which works out at £107 pp/day after OBC, for a Balcony cabin of our choice. We have also seen late availability offers that are well below £100p/day, and when our current crop of future cruises is finished I hope these sort of offers are still around.

The moral of this story, don't pay P&O brochure prices unless you want to continue subsiding my cruising.

[tom_uk]

Well, here's a thing.... I've just received an Azura mailshot from my on-line TA of choice. This mailshot is advertising the following prices:-

 

A005 (Baltic) balcony cabins from £1889 (quoted 'list' price £2449), plus free parking + some OBC;

 

A009 (7 night cruisebreak) balcony cabins from £835 (quoted 'list' price £1099), plus some OBC;

 

A010 (16 night Med) balcony cabins from £2269 (quoted 'list' price £2899), plus OBC;

 

A102A (Caribbean) balcony cabin from £1749 (quoted 'list' price £2249) + OBC.

 

I'm sure other TAs must be doing similar, or better, offers. So maybe P&O have found Azura hard to sell.

[LibraLass41]

Tom

I am considering a Baltic cruise next year, please can you email me that mailshot....you have my email address...

 

cheers

Suex

[cruisebore]

Another nail in the P&O coffin is the stories currently emanating from Ventura that they have stopped you bringing booze aboard.

Won't be long before they are charging US prices (but still only UK measures) with a 15% tip on top.

 

Cb

[old git]

having started cruising 2007 and done one every year since i find them quite reasonable compared to european summer holidays

 

as for prices since then, got a 14 nighter in 2009 cheaper than a 13 nighter in 2007.

 

keep smiling people

[LibraLass41]

Yes , if cruising in a inside cabin then the prices are quite reasonable....compared to a land based holiday. The prices double though for a balcony and a mini suite or suite is £1,000's more per person.

[old git]

never been in an inside cabin dear either outside or balcony.

 

keep smiling

[bee-ess]

Yes , if cruising in a inside cabin then the prices are quite reasonable....compared to a land based holiday. The prices double though for a balcony and a mini suite or suite is £1,000's more per person.

 

Totally agree - the inside cabin prices are comparable but there is a much greater prices difference between inside and balcony on P&O then the US Cruise Lines. Recently cruised the Med with Celebrity for 2 weeks in a Concierge class Balcony cabin for £1500 including flights. We have a cruise booked with P&O to the Caribbean in February in an inside cabin and considered upgrade to a low grade balcony and have been quoted £550 each for the upgrade.

 

I think that this quote and recent dealings with P&O Passenger relations over another matter will cause us to consider other lines in future.

 

In the past 2 years we have cruised with P&O, Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Celebrity and would only consider P&O 3rd in this list -

 

Celebrity -1st - Concierge cabin excellent as was everything else.

Holland - 2nd - Eurodam, Lovely Ship, underated Cruise Line

P&O - 3rd

RCI - Loved Hawaii but not the Radiance of the Sea at all.

 

P&O don't seemed concerned about keeping existing customers at all, most of their business comes out of Southampton, but they are not the only cruise line operating from there and their customers will eventually try the other cruise lines and not return.

[LibraLass41]

never been in an inside cabin dear either outside or balcony.

 

keep smiling

 

 

I've only been a inside once - on a 2n cruise to Zeebrugge - never again.

 

But a balcony cabin is around £2000 pp for a Med cruise now, that ain't cheap!