Big price drops - any advice/experience

[heathermk57]

I'd like to ask 'Heathermk57' how you found out about this 4 days sale, being so short you need to be 'on the ball' not to miss any such things, thanks.;)

 

Hi there. It was on the P&O website and also there is a banner at the top of this page (on the UK version anyway). :)

[Norfolk Brit]

I thought that p&o's pricing now was supposed to make it ONE PRICE, not one price that is hugely reduced ages before the ship is due to set sail !!

 

I've recently been getting prices on cruises, all now significantly cheaper than they were initially. The only difference the new policy seems to have made in practise is that every agent is quoting just about exactly the same price, as their margins have been shaved. It made negotiating rather dull...

 

The good news is that one can give the business to the most helpful travel agent, a species that is a little thin on the ground.

 

Mary

[terrierjohn]

There is a 4-day sale starting today, they are offering balcony cabins for the price of an inside cabin. Hope somebody can make some savings or take advantage of this. :)

I imagine that this offer, and other similar ones, will be for a guarantee cabin only. But I would be interested to know if anyone does manage to cancel and rebook in the same cabin and benefit from a big price reduction.

 

What with this sort of heavily advertised large discounting, the increased non refundable deposit, and the earlier final balance payment, it seems P&O are hell bent on eliminating early bookers entirely, in favour of a last minute scramble.

[Louand66]

Hi all,

 

I noticed that Pircessarebest said that you can go on the P & O Website you can see how many cabis are still available.

 

Is there any special way of doing this or just seeing what cabins are still for sale.

 

Cheers

 

Lou

[Thejuggler]

Just go through the booking procedure. Takes a while but you will get a list of what is available once you choose your grade.

 

We've been to a cruise show today and qute a few offers around including P&O upgrade, but of course it is limited to the larger ships with lots of balconies, mainly Ventura and Azura.

[allington73]

Just to update you on my ongoing saga (and start of thread)

 

The price of my cabins did drop by about £1000 about 2-3 weeks ago. But to cancel and then rebook would mean losing car-park and Onboard credit (and of course deposit) but would still mean me saving about £200. Anyhow I have been observing the prices for the last couple of weeks to see how things developed.

 

Friday the sale is announced - price is down to £1099 for balcony cabin....I ring up P&O at 1pm on Friday (13 hours after sale is announced) to find none of these rooms now available and fluid pricing has not updated the website. Outside cabin prices (what we were in) are now dearer than what we originally paid !

 

But we still could have ended up with balcony cabin for same price as what we origianally paid.

 

We need to pay our balance on 21st Feb so looks like we will we be paying our original price BUT did miss opportunities to get better cabin and/or cheaper deal.

 

Once this is done and dusted I think I will be writing a strong letter to P&O but cannot see it doing much good tbh

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

To be honest i cannot now see any benefits of booking early. I know some people prefer to have the same cabin year in, year out, but if that's the case, then pay top dollar and don't moan later. The current economic climate means that cruise ship sales are not reaching expectations and with the increase in the cost of fuel, costs are rising. Cruise lines need to fill their ships and if it means drastically reducing the cost of the cruise near to it's sailing date (and hoping the passenger will spend more onboard for drinks, excursions and those silly enough, lose money in the casinos) then that's what they will do. You have to keep checking prices regularly or you will miss the bargain. But my advice is, be flexible on cabin, destination and dates and you will sail really cheaply. There are people who live near Southampton who keep a bag packed ready incase they receive the call offering a cheap cruise.

[MattyBarlow]

To be honest i cannot now see any benefits of booking early. I know some people prefer to have the same cabin year in, year out, but if that's the case, then pay top dollar and don't moan later. The current economic climate means that cruise ship sales are not reaching expectations and with the increase in the cost of fuel, costs are rising. Cruise lines need to fill their ships and if it means drastically reducing the cost of the cruise near to it's sailing date (and hoping the passenger will spend more onboard for drinks, excursions and those silly enough, lose money in the casinos) then that's what they will do. You have to keep checking prices regularly or you will miss the bargain. But my advice is, be flexible on cabin, destination and dates and you will sail really cheaply. There are people who live near Southampton who keep a bag packed ready incase they receive the call offering a cheap cruise.

 

But the ones who have the least money (the families) are screwed as they have to book early to get the 3/4 berth cabins.

[Oarsman55]

Matty, I think you'll find that most of us have been in that position in the past - in my case, little money meant no cruises when I had a young family - UK holidays only. C'est la vie and your time will come.

 

Assume you're stuck with school holidays as well? If so, there's not a lot of discounting then either, exactly the same as when mine were young.

 

Shame, but nothing has changed. Called supply and demand.

 

Peter:)

[MattyBarlow]

Matty, I think you'll find that most of us have been in that position in the past - in my case, little money meant no cruises when I had a young family - UK holidays only. C'est la vie and your time will come.

 

Assume you're stuck with school holidays as well? If so, there's not a lot of discounting then either, exactly the same as when mine were young.

 

Shame, but nothing has changed. Called supply and demand.

 

Peter:)

Have no problem with supply and demand. It's the basic foundation of any business case. It's the shameless discounting when they can't fill the ships that annoys me.

[allington73]

I agree. We have to book early as we need 4-berth cabin but then get penalised for doing so.

 

We always travel with both sets of grandparents so total of 8 passengers.

 

I very much doubt P&O will see custom off our party next year

[Oarsman55]

Have no problem with supply and demand. It's the basic foundation of any business case. It's the shameless discounting when they can't fill the ships that annoys me.

 

And that's the law of supply and demand, with which you seem to both agree and disagree:confused:.

 

I don't think you'll find those taking advantage of the discounts view them as 'shameless' and you can hardly blame P & O, and many other lines, for wanting their ships to sail full of people who will spend money on board. Like you, I have every sympathy with those are obliged to book early for many reasons, but last minute discounting is how free markets work.

 

Peter

[cruiseanywhere2]

We booked last July for our Thomson cruise in May this year, all cabins in the catagory we've booked are sold out. We booked 3 weeks ago for our TA on Ventura on 10th March paying the getaway price for an AD suite and we got upgraded to an AC suite. We have always been lucky, but if you book early you've got the cabin you want, the airport you want and other extras e.g. free car parking so at the time of booking you must have felt your cruise was worth the money. If you are going to get upset by seeing discounts stop looking at the price after you've booked, simples!

[MattyBarlow]

We booked last July for our Thomson cruise in May this year, all cabins in the catagory we've booked are sold out. We booked 3 weeks ago for our TA on Ventura on 10th March paying the getaway price for an AD suite and we got upgraded to an AC suite. We have always been lucky, but if you book early you've got the cabin you want, the airport you want and other extras e.g. free car parking so at the time of booking you must have felt your cruise was worth the money. If you are going to get upset by seeing discounts stop looking at the price after you've booked, simples!

 

Simples? Yeah right. Remember that episode of the likely lads when they tried to avoid the football result?

[n7chap]

Celebrity Cruises will honor the price drops to your existing booking, P and O could learn quite a bit from them IMO. I would call or write to P and O advising them of this as they may change their policy. Good luck!

[davedex]

Celebrity Cruises will honor the price drops to your existing booking, P and O could learn quite a bit from them IMO. I would call or write to P and O advising them of this as they may change their policy. Good luck!

 

Go on mat get that pen out ( please!!)

[daiB]

Celebrity Cruises will honor the price drops to your existing booking, P and O could learn quite a bit from them IMO. I would call or write to P and O advising them of this as they may change their policy. Good luck!

 

They have to because of USA law. This has been discussed ever since I started to look at cruise websites.

 

Gan canny

 

Dai

[daiB]

Celebrity Cruises will honor the price drops to your existing booking, P and O could learn quite a bit from them IMO. I would call or write to P and O advising them of this as they may change their policy. Good luck!

 

They have to because of USA law. This has been discussed ever since I started to look at cruise websites.

 

Gan canny

 

Dai

[terrierjohn]

Just to update you on my ongoing saga (and start of thread)

 

The price of my cabins did drop by about £1000 about 2-3 weeks ago. But to cancel and then rebook would mean losing car-park and Onboard credit (and of course deposit) but would still mean me saving about £200. Anyhow I have been observing the prices for the last couple of weeks to see how things developed.

 

Friday the sale is announced - price is down to £1099 for balcony cabin....I ring up P&O at 1pm on Friday (13 hours after sale is announced) to find none of these rooms now available and fluid pricing has not updated the website. Outside cabin prices (what we were in) are now dearer than what we originally paid !

 

But we still could have ended up with balcony cabin for same price as what we origianally paid.

 

We need to pay our balance on 21st Feb so looks like we will we be paying our original price BUT did miss opportunities to get better cabin and/or cheaper deal.

 

Once this is done and dusted I think I will be writing a strong letter to P&O but cannot see it doing much good tbh

 

I am sorry you were unable to obtain a reduction of some sort; however your post did set me thinking since we are booked on the same cruise.

 

So before I posted the cheque for the balance to my TA, I rang her to see if she thought we might get a reduction. I thought this unlikely because we need an accessible cabin and therefore could not switch to a GTY type, a bit like you needing a 4 berth cabin.

 

Imagine then our surprise and delight when our TA eventually managed to save us over £1000, AND also kept our disabled cabin. How she managed it even she does not know, but I doubt that we would have had the same success if we had booked direct. It certainly confirms our opinion that using a good (in our case great) TA is the best way to book a cruise.

[MattyBarlow]

My fiancées sister is a Nanny for a senior manager at Carnival in Southampton. We were chatting to her and since Concordia, bookings are down considerably.