Shore Excursions

[slug33ukuk]

Anyone know if you can book shore excursions on Cruise personaliser and pay for them when getting on board with OBC?

[terrierjohn]

12 minutes ago, slug33ukuk said:

Anyone know if you can book shore excursions on Cruise personaliser and pay for them when getting on board with OBC?

Unfortunately not, although you do receive your Peninsular club discount.

[Megabear2]

Another reason why all this OBC isn't all it's cracked up to be!  If you're the sort of person who doesn't drink much, use the spa or buy bags, jewellery, watches whatever you can find yourself scrambling to spend it.  Excursions used to be able to be pre purchased with OBC (up until about 8 or 9 years ago if my memory serves me correct) and in light of P&O using OBC as a tool to entice bookings it would be nice if they could allow it again.

[Camberley]

Most of our OBC goes on the speciality restaurants most eves. And the rare excursion IF any really appeal.

 

Occasionally use it to buy some tat from a shop or two. On this current cruise there were actually 2 books I was interested in buying but when I got a signal I went online and bought them on Amazon for less than half the onboard price: waiting for me now at home! But the food and cocktails swallow up the OBC both happily and easily.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Camberley

[Britboys]

Travelling solo and on the smaller ships, I've seldom had a huge obc. The most I've ever had will be for next summer, at £265 (plus free parking). Assuming no changes, I'll also get £60 shareholder obc making £325. I'm by no means a big drinker but I think it will be easy to spend that over 12 nights...

[Megabear2]

3 hours ago, Britboys said:

Travelling solo and on the smaller ships, I've seldom had a huge obc. The most I've ever had will be for next summer, at £265 (plus free parking). Assuming no changes, I'll also get £60 shareholder obc making £325. I'm by no means a big drinker but I think it will be easy to spend that over 12 nights...

I'm probably one of the smallest spenders onboard as I book/pay for everything up front, particularly on ships using US$ as I can pay in sterling.  My average bill for drinks on P&O comes in well under £150 in 14 nights when I'm on my own.  My bill on Regal included one very expensive excursion booked last minute and still came in below £200.  

 

I generally end up offloading any OBC on the Retreat or the spa.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Megabear2

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm probably one of the smallest spenders onboard as I book/pay for everything up front, particularly on ships using US$ as I can pay in sterling.  My average bill for drinks on P&O comes in well under £150 in 14 nights when I'm on my own.  My bill on Regal included one very expensive excursion booked last minute and still came in below £200.  

 

I generally end up offloading any OBC on the Retreat or the spa.

I usually buy a wine package for dinners so that makes quite a dent in it straight away... Mind you, for 12 nights I won't bother with that as I don't get through 3 glasses with dinner. Most of my recent P&O cruises have been 16 nights or more.

[Billish]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

I usually buy a wine package for dinners so that makes quite a dent in it straight away... Mind you, for 12 nights I won't bother with that as I don't get through 3 glasses with dinner. Most of my recent P&O cruises have been 16 nights or more.

How much would you save by buying a wine package ? We normally buy the house "plonk" at around £18 a bottle. 

[Britboys]

14 minutes ago, Billish said:

How much would you save by buying a wine package ? We normally buy the house "plonk" at around £18 a bottle. 

The wines in the packages are more mid-range so if you usually go for wines at the lower prices, not much saving. I think the packages save about 10 -15% but it is several years since I sailed with P&O so I could be out of date...

[Megabear2]

6 hours ago, Britboys said:

I usually buy a wine package for dinners so that makes quite a dent in it straight away... Mind you, for 12 nights I won't bother with that as I don't get through 3 glasses with dinner. Most of my recent P&O cruises have been 16 nights or more.

Neither myself or the other half drink much wine so not much use to us when we are alone. Last year on staycation with the family we bought the wine package to share with the family (there were 10 of us) particularly as it had prosecco and we hadn't met up for 2 years. Paid for it before sailing and got 15% discount. Great until we got onboard where the waiters in the restaurant refused to accept the vouchers as they were too busy to collect the wines in the package which were not apparently kept there. Whole thing became a farce and we ended up with 8 out of 12 unused.  We complained onboard and was met with blank stares.  On return I complained and mentioned it on the questionnaire. Eventually we were refunded and given £150 FCC as an apology.  Ironically when we sailed on Britannia at Christmas one of my "gifts" from P&O on the insurance issues was another wine package.  We managed to use 6 of the 12 bottles, mainly in Epicurean and Limelight.  

[Britboys]

10 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Neither myself or the other half drink much wine so not much use to us when we are alone. Last year on staycation with the family we bought the wine package to share with the family (there were 10 of us) particularly as it had prosecco and we hadn't met up for 2 years. Paid for it before sailing and got 15% discount. Great until we got onboard where the waiters in the restaurant refused to accept the vouchers as they were too busy to collect the wines in the package which were not apparently kept there. Whole thing became a farce and we ended up with 8 out of 12 unused.  We complained onboard and was met with blank stares.  On return I complained and mentioned it on the questionnaire. Eventually we were refunded and given £150 FCC as an apology.  Ironically when we sailed on Britannia at Christmas one of my "gifts" from P&O on the insurance issues was another wine package.  We managed to use 6 of the 12 bottles, mainly in Epicurean and Limelight.  

Certainly not P&O at their best....

[slug33ukuk]

We have provisionally booked our excursions,  but have not put in card details as yet. We are thinking of canceling them last minute along with putting in card details and booking them as soon as we get on board using our OBC. We know there is a chance that the ones we booked might be gone, but we have a lot of OBC and its the only way to spend it.even if we don,t get the "discount" We are not "big"drinkers, and the drinks package would cost over £1000 anyway which is extortionate, cheaper to pay as you go for us.

Anyone else had this situation ?

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, slug33ukuk said:

We have provisionally booked our excursions,  but have not put in card details as yet. We are thinking of canceling them last minute along with putting in card details and booking them as soon as we get on board using our OBC. We know there is a chance that the ones we booked might be gone, but we have a lot of OBC and its the only way to spend it.even if we don,t get the "discount" We are not "big"drinkers, and the drinks package would cost over £1000 anyway which is extortionate, cheaper to pay as you go for us.

Anyone else had this situation ?

I must admit the huge levels of OBC that P&O are currently offering would tax our abilities to spend it all over a 2 week cruise, along with our shareholder OBC.

[slug33ukuk]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I must admit the huge levels of OBC that P&O are currently offering would tax our abilities to spend it all over a 2 week cruise, along with our shareholder OBC.

We have that and military obc as well

[gsmt47471015]

38 minutes ago, slug33ukuk said:

We have that and military obc as well

The joy of early booking usually means a meagre obc allowance ,however on most occasions the price of the cruise increases to beyond what the extra obc makes up, not going to comment on military obc as that thread was removed because of people having differing views on it😆 

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 8/5/2022 at 4:35 AM, Megabear2 said:

Neither myself or the other half drink much wine so not much use to us when we are alone. Last year on staycation with the family we bought the wine package to share with the family (there were 10 of us) particularly as it had prosecco and we hadn't met up for 2 years. Paid for it before sailing and got 15% discount. Great until we got onboard where the waiters in the restaurant refused to accept the vouchers as they were too busy to collect the wines in the package which were not apparently kept there. Whole thing became a farce and we ended up with 8 out of 12 unused.  We complained onboard and was met with blank stares.  On return I complained and mentioned it on the questionnaire. Eventually we were refunded and given £150 FCC as an apology.  Ironically when we sailed on Britannia at Christmas one of my "gifts" from P&O on the insurance issues was another wine package.  We managed to use 6 of the 12 bottles, mainly in Epicurean and Limelight.  

I know it's several months away but I am concerned where packages are bought that staff are ill informed about how vouchers are used. We have on a few occasions purchased an Ultimate Package which basically allows you Continental Breakfast in bed with 1/2 bottle of Champagne. Flowers, a set of Champagne flutes, Speciality dining for two twice, Spa treatment of a facial or massage for myself and wife, Formal Photo Portrait in a frame, desserts in cabin twice, box of chocolates and last by not least P&O slippers and dressing gowns Whoopee. Problem was last time staff on the ship didn't seem to know much about how they were used. I booked a massage, my wife a facial. I went in for my massage, come out about an hour later and my wife was still sat in the waiting area. Another appointment was made, which was then cancelled and finally she received the facial. When we went for the speciality dining we basically had to explain that we kept the vouchers after the first time so as to book the second time. Add to this several flowers died after only a couple of days. They were replaced and the same thing happened again, replaced again. That was back in 2018 and I did on return complain to P&O and received £150 OBC for our next cruise. To make matters even more complicated the first cruise was cancelled due to Covid and the second we pulled out of due to a change of itinerary ( No US ports of call) and each time I had to explain about the OBC as we normally take the coach option and obviously the OBC was an extra.

[bbtablet]

22 hours ago, slug33ukuk said:

We have provisionally booked our excursions,  but have not put in card details as yet. We are thinking of canceling them last minute along with putting in card details and booking them as soon as we get on board using our OBC. We know there is a chance that the ones we booked might be gone, but we have a lot of OBC and its the only way to spend it.even if we don,t get the "discount" We are not "big"drinkers, and the drinks package would cost over £1000 anyway which is extortionate, cheaper to pay as you go for us.

Anyone else had this situation ?

Yes - exactly describes our situation too.

We have found that tours placed in the basket pre-cruise can be left there for a very long time without the basket being cancelled/timed out. We hope this means that even if a trip sells out, our places are still there, but we don't know for sure. This would let us "reserve" tours until just before the cruise and only pay for them at the last minute (say, a week before departure) in order to still get the discount.

However, as you say, it would be best to use the excessive OBC and therefore not "pay" for them at all, but this means waiting until the cruise starts, not getting the discount, and running the risk of your chosen tours being full.

A dilemma indeed!

This time we have failed safe and paid for the tours pre-departure.

Incidentally we had a port changed on our last cruise, due to bad weather, and the discounted amount we had paid before boarding was refunded to our card - that was fine.  However the replacement port hurriedly put on tours for which we were charged against our OBC and so no discount!

[kruzseeka]

Do you remember how long it took for the refund to go back on your card?  We paid for an excursion prior to departure but were unable to go (isolated).  We were assured by Reception that it was in hand, I also rang P&O on our return but are still waiting three weeks later.  

[Bazrat]

On 8/16/2022 at 11:46 AM, terrierjohn said:

I must admit the huge levels of OBC that P&O are currently offering would tax our abilities to spend it all over a 2 week cruise, along with our shareholder OBC.

You can give us the excess my wife would have no trouble spending it 😜

[bbtablet]

1 hour ago, kruzseeka said:

Do you remember how long it took for the refund to go back on your card?  We paid for an excursion prior to departure but were unable to go (isolated).  We were assured by Reception that it was in hand, I also rang P&O on our return but are still waiting three weeks later.  

If you mean you cancelled it once on board because you couldn't go on it (Covid?), do you remember how many days or hours notice you gave Reception on the ship?

 

There is a cut-off (something like within 2 days of the tour) which means you cannot get a refund thereafter unfortunately - it's in the terms of issue.

[Gettingwarmer]

20 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

There is a cut-off (something like within 2 days of the tour) which means you cannot get a refund thereafter unfortunately - it's in the terms of issue.

If you’re in isolation i.e. the doctor knows about it you would be covered for a refund anyway. 

[kruzseeka]

15 minutes ago, bbtablet said:

If you mean you cancelled it once on board because you couldn't go on it (Covid?), do you remember how many days or hours notice you gave Reception on the ship?

 

There is a cut-off (something like within 2 days of the tour) which means you cannot get a refund thereafter unfortunately - it's in the terms of issue.

About 2 hours notice but I was told I had to move to an isolation cabin with immediate effect so I had no choice but miss the excursion.  My OH who at that point was negative was told he could stay in our original cabin and could get off the ship but not go on an excursion.  So neither of us could go. 

 

This situation is not the usual cancellation policy.  Technically we didn't cancel - we were following orders!  They were quite clear we would get a refund for the excursion and the agent I spoke to at P&O said she'd fill a form in and certainly didn't question the refund.  I just thought it would have been actioned by now although I've read plenty about how long it takes for monies to be paid back. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

You can give us the excess my wife would have no trouble spending it 😜

Don't worry we would find a way, but theres only so much perfume you can buy.

[FangedRose]

5 hours ago, kruzseeka said:

About 2 hours notice but I was told I had to move to an isolation cabin with immediate effect so I had no choice but miss the excursion.  My OH who at that point was negative was told he could stay in our original cabin and could get off the ship but not go on an excursion.  So neither of us could go. 

 

This situation is not the usual cancellation policy.  Technically we didn't cancel - we were following orders!  They were quite clear we would get a refund for the excursion and the agent I spoke to at P&O said she'd fill a form in and certainly didn't question the refund.  I just thought it would have been actioned by now although I've read plenty about how long it takes for monies to be paid back. 

Should have had almost immediately. I was told to isolate on Wednesday,  refunds were back on my credit card by Friday. Didn't have to tell anybody. I'm assuming the medical centre put some kind of notification on my account and it happened automatically. 

[kruzseeka]

51 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

Should have had almost immediately. I was told to isolate on Wednesday,  refunds were back on my credit card by Friday. Didn't have to tell anybody. I'm assuming the medical centre put some kind of notification on my account and it happened automatically. 

That's interesting.  I was told categorically on two occasions by Reception that it was in hand so I  should have been reimbursed by now.  I'll follow up again.  Thanks.