P&O Cancelling Baltic Cruises

[Old_tilly_billy]

Only booked this last week one of the Black Friday deal oh well never mind

[terrierjohn]

Not particularly enamoured with the alternatives proposed, but I guess that  without St Petersburg they are struggling to sell Baltic cruises, so it's not surprising.  However Baltic cruises in our experience generally offer warmer weather than Iceland, Norway or UK cruisers, so I think we will be opting out. Unfortunately as we need an accessible cabin I doubt we will find an alternative warm weather cruise with an available cabin.

[Britboys]

Hmmm, interesting. That's most of the Baltic cruises between the beginning of June and the end of September...

[daiB]

48 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Not particularly enamoured with the alternatives proposed, but I guess that  without St Petersburg they are struggling to sell Baltic cruises, so it's not surprising.  However Baltic cruises in our experience generally offer warmer weather than Iceland, Norway or UK cruisers, so I think we will be opting out. Unfortunately as we need an accessible cabin I doubt we will find an alternative warm weather cruise with an available cabin.

We are effected as well but we have just asked our TA to cook the replacementcruise wherever it goes. As it happens she read out the itinerary for the replacement and it sounded quite good.

[daiB]

4 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Hmmm, interesting. That's most of the Baltic cruises between the beginning of June and the end of September...

Its the war, I suspect that it is a Carnival thing and that their insurers are not happy about any Baltic cruiswes at this time.

[daiB]

repeat post

Edited December 5, 2022 by daiB

[Britboys]

6 minutes ago, daiB said:

Its the war, I suspect that it is a Carnival thing and that their insurers are not happy about any Baltic cruiswes at this time.

But there is still one Britannia and an Aurora cruise going there Dai. It will be interesting to see whether other Carnival Corp Lines continue to sail. It may be just that there is low demand...

[Astrajet]

We were booked on one of these cruises and had already decided to cancel.  Fortunately our TA had suggested waiting a while before we cancelled. We have already booked a replacement (slightly lower value so unable to transfer) and have three others booked. So we will miss out on the OBS offered but at least now we will get our deposit back and not have to forfeit it by cancelling.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Astrajet

[Bakerybill]

They have cancelled the Baltic cruise but will not have an alternative until 9th Dec. £100 on board spend offered but only if you book before end Dec. Iceland and British isles are likely replacements. I won't be going 

[Hollers]

Just noticed it now. A shame, but I guess it is security related. Also more people will be choosing not to book the Baltics with the current situation as it is. 

Not a surprising development. I will be interested to see what the alternatives are when they are released.

[majortom10]

Iceland is a beautiful country and is a good alternative to the Baltic's. Makes you think it was poor senior management to even consider cruising in that area and do soon.

 

[daiB]

15 minutes ago, Britboys said:

But there is still one Britannia and an Aurora cruise going there Dai. It will be interesting to see whether other Carnival Corp Lines continue to sail. It may be just that there is low demand...

True but then again the low demand is due to the war.

[TigerB]

We had a great Baltic cruise in September onboard Britannia and felt totally at ease and safe. When we booked it two years previous we were really looking forward to St Petersburg, but the current situation put paid to that.

The ship was less than 70% full, whereas the Mediterranean cruises that preceded and followed it were almost full; so I reckon folk were cautious about travelling. Probably the same next year.

[molecrochip]

Summer 2023 went on sale in November last year. Baltic cruises were fully available to book.

 

In Feb they cancelled the 2022 Baltic Cruises and all calls to Russia.

 

Then they withheld from sale the 2024 cruises to the Baltic in the spring when the rest of Summer 24 was released. These were later replaced with alternative cruises.

 

They have now taken a decision to cancel 2023 Baltic Cruises. I’m led to believe the bookings were low and lots of people had cancelled/moved their cruises to others outside of the Baltic.

 

Likely that the couple still going are because bookings are higher.

[Fionboard]

Can't understand lack of interest in Baltic. Loved it in August 

visiting Danish and Swedish ports plus Riga, etc. Shame.

[Aud761]

We were booked to go on the B318, one of the cancelled ones. I believe the main problem for people booking is the lack of clarity about what is happening. This will not be helped by the cancellation of these cruises.  If this is truly because of lack of demand then I wish they would be upfront about it , or they could do a bit of advertising for these cruising. The baltics is a beautiful area to visit during the summer and I was really looking forward to going back. I'm almost afraid to rebook in case whatever I book gets cancelled again. And I'm not in the least bit excited about a British Isles cruise, whatever they pretend!

[Ulsteinvik]

If it would not be safe in the Baltic, they would cancel all cruises. So it is clearly a lack of demand..

[jeanlyon]

4 hours ago, Fionboard said:

Can't understand lack of interest in Baltic. Loved it in August 

visiting Danish and Swedish ports plus Riga, etc. Shame.

i can totally understand it.  It's just not safe in the Baltic.  Russia has a piece of land there.  Anything couldl happen.

[Host Sharon]

Having spent 3 weeks in the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia last August, I felt totally safe. There are lots of other interesting ports in lieu of St Pete's - Riga, Tallinn, Skagen, Goteborg, Kemi, Ronne, Visby etc. and the weather was perfect. Would happily go back next year. Perhaps there are just too many Baltic cruises to fill them all. What would cause me not to book however, is the probablity the cruise would be cancelled and thus it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Host Sharon]

13 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

i can totally understand it.  It's just not safe in the Baltic.  Russia has a piece of land there.  Anything couldl happen.

Why is it not safe? Has there been a single incident this year involving tourists or cruise ships? Other lines are still sailing there, including the ultra-cautious Saga.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

i can totally understand it.  It's just not safe in the Baltic.  Russia has a piece of land there.  Anything couldl happen.

Other than the tiny land locked enclave between Poland and Lithuania,  there is only St Petersberg on the Baltic and that is quite a distance along a narrow inlet that would be relatively easy to isolate with a few NATO  submarines if Putin did escalate things in the region. So I don't believe that security is the reason.

Like Moly I  think the reason is diminishing bookings, but I can't really see that extra Norway, Icland or round Britain cruises are going to be any easier to fill, unless they offer distressed pricing like Princess did last year on Enchanted Princess, which could well result  in a much lower return, than keeping the Baltic cruises.

Edited December 5, 2022 by terrierjohn

[Goosebear Mum]

I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May?   For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual.  I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings 
 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Goosebear Mum

[Aud761]

The lack of St.P didn't bother me particularly. I would like to visit it but at the moment am happy to give it a miss. There are so many other interesting places to visit around the baltic sea. 

[Host Sharon]

1 hour ago, Goosebear Mum said:

I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May?   For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual.  I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings 
 

Which leads to another question - why has Aurora’s dry docking been cancelled?

[Angel57]

4 hours ago, Host Sharon said:

Which leads to another question - why has Aurora’s dry docking been cancelled?

When was she due to go in for that Sharon?