Do NOT book early with P&0 Cruises

[Tangie47]

If you read all the marketing literature shovelled out by P&0, you might think that you get a better deal by booking early. You Don't.

We booked a cruise with them on Azura a year ago and paid £2,200 for a balcony cabin. Today, a year later, they are advertising the same type of cabin for £1,559! That's £700 cheaper.

 

I have written to complain to P&0 but would you believe, they haven't even had the courtesy to reply.

 

Lesson to be learned - leave it to the last minute. Not only do you save money but they haven't had use of your deposit for a year.

[jodanuke]

Happens on all cuise lines, which is why as I am able to, book as late as possible

[cruiseluvva]

It is annoying I know, but you can't be certain it will happen and so you do risk not getting on the cruise you want.

 

Perhaps it's better not to check the price after booking?

[MattyBarlow]

It's all part of the game.

[cruiseanywhere2]

I have booked early and late. Early if I want a particular cruise and a certain cabin, after I've booked I rarely look at the price and if I do and the price has gone down I console myself with the thought I was happy with the price at the time and I've got the cruise and cabin I want.

When I've booked late it's because we, (myself and my husband) have booked leave but no holiday, then we take the chance on the cabin (sometimes this works out better, sometimes not)

I'm afraid it's a case of "you pays your money, you take your chance"

[Adammara]

They reduced a cruise we had booked by £1000, wrote to us and told us they would knock £400 of a future cruise.

 

Not surprisingly, we don't plan to cruise with P&O again.

 

Richard

[Rum Rat]

Were you satisfied with the price at the time?

 

Had the price gone UP, would you have contacted PandO and offered the increase?

 

:rolleyes:

[tom_uk]

If you read all the marketing literature shovelled out by P&0, you might think that you get a better deal by booking early. You Don't.

We booked a cruise with them on Azura a year ago and paid £2,200 for a balcony cabin. Today, a year later, they are advertising the same type of cabin for £1,559! That's £700 cheaper.

 

Can I ask which cruise and when?

[timetravellers]

If you read all the marketing literature shovelled out by P&0, you might think that you get a better deal by booking early. You Don't.

We booked a cruise with them on Azura a year ago and paid £2,200 for a balcony cabin. Today, a year later, they are advertising the same type of cabin for £1,559! That's £700 cheaper.

 

I have written to complain to P&0 but would you believe, they haven't even had the courtesy to reply.

 

Lesson to be learned - leave it to the last minute. Not only do you save money but they haven't had use of your deposit for a year.

 

We had a similar thing happen to us last year plus the last minute bookers got massive upgrades and we didn't. We wrote to P&O to pass comment. They blamed the TAs!!

[ROSEBASKETS]

Happens all the time, anyone who is flexible with dates, who wants a 2 bedded room, doesn't care which floor, forward or aft, doesn't mind children or geriatrics, doesn't mind what the weather will be like and isn't fussy should never book well in advance, but should be prepared for disappointment and shouldn't moan if they couldn't get what they wanted.

 

On the other hand if you want to be certain of getting on ship on a particular cruise, in a certain cabin or one with disabled facilities, larger balconies, extra beds, connecting rooms, on a certain deck or higher up, a certain cabin number, going out of school holiday time or during "oldies months (March and September) SHOULD book well in advance.

 

I'm sorry I can't be more sympathetic but we've all been caught out with something we could have paid less for or bought and wish we hadn't, that's marketing for you!

 

You should also note that if you choose to go on a cruise at very short notice eg with family or friends who have already booked and there is limited space available P&O can DOUBLE the brochure prices, as they tried to do with us a couple of years ago. You pay your money you take your choice!!!

 

Do your research and/or learn from your mistake:rolleyes:

[Elaine0138]

We were caught out with P&O too, unlike other lines they will not pass on the reductions.

 

Could you cancel and rebook

[macca46]

My thoughts are similar to what others have already posted.

If you want something specific about a Cruise, Cabin type, location etc best book early and some early booked Cruises have some good deals.

If you are flexible you can get some very good last minute deals on most Cruise lines.

Early or late seems the best bets.

[annieuk]

We always book very early because we want a specific cabin. Our forthcoming cruise on Azura was booked about 17 months ago and we got the cabin we wanted, the dinner sitting and hopefully table size we wanted and we got some OBC. In recent months I have looked at our grade of cabin and the price quoted was more than we paid and now,they have all been taken. I agree, if you are happy at the time you book with what you have paid then forget about it. If you are willing to take the chance of a last minute deal then fine - it's just not for me.

[jeanlyon]

I think it depends entirely on the cruise you are wanting to book. If you want Canaries or fly cruise to the Caribbean, you could easily wait until the offers start. We booked US/Canada out of Southampton for August 2011. P&O have a sale on at the moment, but the cheapeast cabin is still £500 more pp than we paid, plus our OBC, free parking, choice of sitting etc.

[Oarsman55]

I think it depends entirely on the cruise you are wanting to book. If you want Canaries or fly cruise to the Caribbean, you could easily wait until the offers start. We booked US/Canada out of Southampton for August 2011. P&O have a sale on at the moment, but the cheapeast cabin is still £500 more pp than we paid, plus our OBC, free parking, choice of sitting etc.

 

Bang on. After a couple of years of studying 'form', the other ones that I can confidently predict will be discounted will be the spring Western Med cruises.

 

At the moment, I'm getting mailings offering 14n on Ventura or Azura at around £1500 for a fortnight in a balcony cabin; last year, this eventually went down to around £950 for a decent balcony - as there are even more sailings from Soton this year, I would expect some of these to come down to at least this level.

 

As Jean said, it depends on when and where you wish to go.

 

Peter

[BonBon69]

I have to book in advance as my mother is a wheelchair user but I asked RCI to re-costed this year's cruise as we booked 13 months in advance, so paid more for it than the discounted fares they were offering, and they will recost the cruise once for you with no charge and we saved £600 each on the original price, however, the cruise did go up again 3 weeks later so there was a very small window of oppotunity to do this - P&O said that they don't offer this service but will also not increase the fare we have been quoted, so that's fair enough.

[jeanlyon]

Yes I don't find it unfair. You make the choice when you book. We have done three cruises with P&O, one on Artemis to Black Sea, 26 nights, another to Egypt & Eastern Med, 25 nights and one on Azura to Central Med. Only the Azura one went down slightly, we could have saved about £100 each on an inside cabin, not sure about balconies, I don't book them. The other two longer cruises were always much more expensive than when we booked at the first opportunity, plus we got our choice of sitting, cabin, free parking OBC etc.

 

Agree that Western Med would also be worth waiting until offers.

[Thejuggler]

Strange how reduction in costs of cruising exercises people as if it's a unique situation, but they are no different to any other holiday.

 

Look at net, teletext or the local travel agent any day of the week. If you are prepared to take what's there and can leave within a few days you can get huge discounts on any holiday.

 

Cruising is no different and the potentially higher price of booking early is the opportunity cost of getting exactly what you want when you want it.

 

I have a friend who only goes on cruises which have been reduced to £50 a night per person or less per night - he takes what is there and has been known to leave within 24 hours, but there are only two of them, he works part time for himself so can manage workloads around the months he wishes to go away. He has now been on so many cruises his issue is one of finding ports he has never been to!

[Rum Rat]

OK

 

Who is Tangie47?

 

Own up. One of you out there posted as Tangie47 :rolleyes:

 

Good response :D:D

 

What was it, a dig at the moaners? Those who want the best all ways? Or what?

.

[chocolateduck]

Strange - would you go back to your electrical retailer if you bought a tv months ago and then they had a sale reducing the price and expect them to give you the difference.

 

If you happy to pay the price you paid fine if not then why did you book it?

[ROSEBASKETS]

Chocolate Duck ----- Rum Rat

 

What next? Marzipan Mouse?

 

Talking to yourself is a kind of madness ;)

[Jo and Rob]

It is swings and roundabouts really. As we are four getting a cabin for four can be quite tricky. We booked our Summer holiday on Celebrity Eclipse over a year ago because we wanted to guarantee we had a cruise Summer holiday and their price was so much cheaper than anything with P&O, Royal Caribbean or Princess.

 

However, we have just found a last minute booking with P&O at a great price for all four of us at Easter, with a lower price than the early bird saving and much higher OBC (£65pp instead of £25). we booked it because of the great price but got the last outside cabin so could have easily lost out.

 

Also the current website prices are Spring Savers where you get no OBC, pay everything up front and if you cancel lose 100%, the entire cruise price. We could have gone for that offer but chose to pay slightly more for OBC and a 45% cancellation penalty instead.

 

My philosophy is book the cruise you know you want in advance and then keep an eye on last minute deals for bonus cruises. We picked up a week on the Costa Serena in an outside cabin in the Adriatic and Aegaen for only £1450 for four of us ! That sailed from Venice, to Greece, Turkey and Croatia and was the best value holiday we have ever had, even after we added flights with Ryanair that only cost £438 for all of us including their "little extras" (suitcase charges etc) :) We are restricted by school holidays but if you are not there are some great deals to be had.

[BrianI]

With children you can loose out two ways. Firstly most 4 berth cabins in school holidays get booked up quickly and secondly there is a limit that P&O put on each of the four child age groups so once that limit is reached they will not take anymore bookings for that age group even though cabins maybe available.

Brian

[Jo and Rob]

With children you can loose out two ways. Firstly most 4 berth cabins in school holidays get booked up quickly and secondly there is a limit that P&O put on each of the four child age groups so once that limit is reached they will not take anymore bookings for that age group even though cabins maybe available.

Brian

 

Gosh that means we were even luckier!

[Rum Rat]

Chocolate Duck ----- Rum Rat

 

What next? Marzipan Mouse?

 

Talking to yourself is a kind of madness ;)

 

 

Pardon? :confused:

 

Lower the speakers please

 

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