How cheap can a cruise get? - Free apparently!

[sewgood]

I wanted to title this P&O stole our cabin but decided to put a more positive spin on it.

 

Opened up the email this morning to find this from P&O for the cruise which we booked on the Explorer NOT on the Pacific Adventure as per below.

We decided to take the free cruise in the oceanview as we had already booked airfares and hotel for Sydney.

 

Just found out that a guarantee cabin on P&O is not guaranteed.

P&O must have a different interpretation of the word "guarantee"

 

Anyway happy enough given the circumstances to get the free cruise, would rather have the minisuite but that was no longer a choice.

 

---------------------------------------

 

Thank you for your loyalty and choosing P&O Cruises Australia for your holiday.
 

 

We are extremely sorry to advise that the room type that you have booked is not available due to the ship change from Pacific Adventure to Pacific Explorer. Regrettably this means you will not be able to travel in a mini-suite room on this cruise.
 

 

We sincerely apologise and understand your disappointment. Our team is making every endeavour to accommodate all guests and would like to offer you alternative options:

 

1. Free Cruise On Us*: Accept an Oceanview room on the cruise and we will process a full refund¹ of the amount you have paid for your cruise ticket. This means your room on X221N is free; or

 

2. 50% Refund and a Balcony Room: Accept a Balcony room on the cruise and receive 50% refund of the amount you have paid for your cruise ticket^1; or

 

3. Future Cruise Credit: Receive a Future Cruise Credit³ to the value of the fare amount you have paid for you to book a cruise of your choice PLUS A$400 Onboard Spending Money² per person. You can redeem this credit on sailing of your choice; or

 

4. Full Refund: Receive a full refund. ¹

[Cbtours]

Id be more than happy to take the free cruise whoo hoo

[losfp]

Bloody great deal. Grab and run! 😄 😄 

[sewgood]

Well you can't beat the price.😁

[joejoe 59]

Sounds good to me😀

[Chiliburn]

20 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Well you can't beat the price.😁

Ask them if they can do it a bit cheaper .  LOL

[CDaze71]

GREAT DEAL. I'd take the oceanview for sure.

[challis]

it would have been nice to go in the mini suite on Explorer,

 

there better than adventure mini suites,in my own experience

 

full seperate bathtub,double balcony,higher up deck,there 2 balcony cabins combined as 1 really

 

 were as  on adventure its a stretched out balcony cabin,with bigger balcony

 

p@o must be charging someone  a pretty penny to not want to give you the mini suite on x221n !!!

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, sewgood said:

Well you can't beat the price.😁

My Mum would have said "Shoot them in both legs before they get away"! Go for it.😁

[NSWP]

No.1 or  No.2.     Not April fools day is it? lol

Edited April 29, 2022 by NSWP

[arxcards]

Two things in play here, and their generosity is based on the fact they couldn't live up to their guarantee.

1) Lots more mini suites on Adventure than there are on Explorer

2) They should have known whether you would be accommodated on your cruise way before now. The extra squeeze is from them deciding not to cruise at full capacity, and for keeping cabins of various types free if needed for quarantine.

 

Some years ago we chose to be squeezed off an overbooked cruise for a full refund and a replacement cruise for free plus $200 OBC. Right place, right time - although the minis on Explorer are as good as any out there.

[sewgood]

55 minutes ago, NSWP said:

No.1 or  No.2.     Not April fools day is it? lol

No this was for real.😵

 

4 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Two things in play here, and their generosity is based on the fact they couldn't live up to their guarantee.

1) Lots more mini suites on Adventure than there are on Explorer

 

We booked this cruise on the Pacific Explorer not on the Pacific Adventure, on the first day it was released, the day that the Government anounced when the cruise was going to be lifted.

So we can't work out why the Adventure is mentioned in the email.

Yes they did replace the Adventure with the Explorer for the same dates and the same ports but they cancelled all the bookings on the Adventure, we know as we had our booking cancelled on it and chose to have it transferred to the replacement cruise a year later. Then they started completely new bookings on the Explorer.

Different voyage number completely.

Surely they knew how many mini suites the Pacific Explorer had when they opened the new bookings.

 

I would take a guess and say that they did the usual oversell and not as many dropped out as normal due to the cruise being very close to sailing and passengers are very excited to set sail again.

 

Soon after final payment we had a text message offering us options 2, 3 and 4 if we gave up the mini suite which they said would be available to a few passengers who were the first to contact them. We thought that would be the end of it and some people would take up the offer, maybe nobody did and this is why they had to chose passengers to remove from these cabins. I don't know how they selected them.

 

Anyway we are lucky to have family on this cruise who are in a suite and as yet haven't had their cabin taken off them so we will just have to hang out on their balcony.😁

There's nothing we can do to get the mini suite back so we might as well enjoy our free cruise and have a laugh about it. I know we will still enjoy our cruise especially after 2 and a half years of not cruising.

 

Lesson learned, a guarantee cabin on P&O is anything but guaranteed.

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, sewgood said:

No this was for real.😵

 

 

We booked this cruise on the Pacific Explorer not on the Pacific Adventure, on the first day it was released, the day that the Government anounced when the cruise was going to be lifted.

So we can't work out why the Adventure is mentioned in the email.

Yes they did replace the Adventure with the Explorer for the same dates and the same ports but they cancelled all the bookings on the Adventure, we know as we had our booking cancelled on it and chose to have it transferred to the replacement cruise a year later. Then they started completely new bookings on the Explorer.

Different voyage number completely.

Surely they knew how many mini suites the Pacific Explorer had when they opened the new bookings.

 

I would take a guess and say that they did the usual oversell and not as many dropped out as normal due to the cruise being very close to sailing and passengers are very excited to set sail again.

 

Soon after final payment we had a text message offering us options 2, 3 and 4 if we gave up the mini suite which they said would be available to a few passengers who were the first to contact them. We thought that would be the end of it and some people would take up the offer, maybe nobody did and this is why they had to chose passengers to remove from these cabins. I don't know how they selected them.

 

Anyway we are lucky to have family on this cruise who are in a suite and as yet haven't had their cabin taken off them so we will just have to hang out on their balcony.😁

There's nothing we can do to get the mini suite back so we might as well enjoy our free cruise and have a laugh about it. I know we will still enjoy our cruise especially after 2 and a half years of not cruising.

 

Lesson learned, a guarantee cabin on P&O is anything but guaranteed.

 

Sorry, misread by taking too much notice of the error in the email.

 

Lots of places offer a guarantee or your money back. I guess that is what applies here too.

 

They aren't sailing at capacity for the early cruises. Yes, oversold, but by having an outdated system vs a deliberate oversell.

 

We might be in the same boat yet. We cruise in 32 days, and we booked on a suite "guarantee". At this stage, we don't have a cabin number, which is weird when there are only 8 to pick from. I am crossing fingers, but as they haven't offered me a deal, I figure I am still on the ship. I should be, after all, they guarantee it 😂

[sayaguru]

We got a free river cruise once. Our Danube cruise was cancelled 5 days before (still in drydock). They wanted us to change to the following year but the travel agent explained we were Australian and already in Europe  so they moved us to a different cruise and refunded our money. Nice!!