CPS Parking & Coach Transfer - Cabin Grade Disparity

[TigerB]

I was looking at one of our future cruises (B324N) earlier, just to see if there was any difference to what we paid; this is what I discovered regarding the OBC and how much you give up for 14 days parking or coach transfer.

 

 

For an inside cabin:

 

For a balcony cabin:

 

For a suite:

 

 

So, in respect of two adults in the cabin, the parking or coach transfer will cost you £90 of your total OBC allowance if you're in an inside cabin; for a balcony cabin it will be £120, and for a suite it will be a whopping £290.😯

 

Two weeks parking with CPS for that same period is £243. With Portside Meet & Greet it's about £150. Triangle are full.

 

I just wonder how many folk booking suites, perhaps folk that are less likely to research or plan for example, leave their trust in P&O to sort everything, without realising they are unecessarily losing a good chunk of their OBC.

It's not just P&O either; Carnival are doing the same for Cunard bookings.

[Scorpio41]

We take the OBC and stay at a hotel with park & cruise. Stay overnight park the car and it includes a taxi to and from the port.

 

[Fionboard]

15 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

We take the OBC and stay at a hotel with park & cruise. Stay overnight park the car and it includes a taxi to and from the port.

 

Me too, Holiday Inn package is good.

[pete14]

I don’t think it has ever been any different. People are given the choice of which benefit they want and they make their decision. Our son is accompanying us on a cruise later this year. We chose to forego his small amount of OBC for an inside cabin and used it for CPS parking and have kept the larger sum of OBC for our higher category cabin. I guess some will make their choice without looking at the options carefully but P&O can hardly be blamed for their lack of attention whilst booking.

[TigerB]

12 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I don’t think it has ever been any different. People are given the choice of which benefit they want and they make their decision. Our son is accompanying us on a cruise later this year. We chose to forego his small amount of OBC for an inside cabin and used it for CPS parking and have kept the larger sum of OBC for our higher category cabin. I guess some will make their choice without looking at the options carefully but P&O can hardly be blamed for their lack of attention whilst booking.

 

I'm criticising P&O or Carnival, they are running a business and are beholding to their shareholders. My point was that I didn't realise there was such a disparity.

Given that CPS is currently £243 for two weeks, and you would struggle to get two weeks parking elsewhere for under £100, if you had an inside cabin you are quids in. That's the same for a balcony cabin, for us anyway, where I was too late to secure a spot with Triangle for £100, and the next cheapest was £150; so, we were happy to forego £120 OBC for parking.

The point I was trying to illustrate was that some folk who book a suite may not be confident enough or have the wherewithal to make their own independent arrangements, and leave it to P&O or their travel agent to sort everything out. It is those that are perhaps unwittingly losing out. But, c'est la vie. 

[pete14]

33 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I don’t think it has ever been any different. People are given the choice of which benefit they want and they make their decision. Our son is accompanying us on a cruise later this year. We chose to forego his small amount of OBC for an inside cabin and used it for CPS parking and have kept the larger sum of OBC for our higher category cabin. I guess some will make their choice without looking at the options carefully but P&O can hardly be blamed for their lack of attention whilst booking.

Of course, people travelling on a coach from the likes of Glasgow and Newcastle receive a larger amount in kind than those travelling from places further south such as Birmingham or Oxford. 

[pete14]

7 minutes ago, TigerB said:

 

The point I was trying to illustrate was that some folk who book a suite may not be confident enough or have the wherewithal to make their own independent arrangements, and leave it to P&O or their travel agent to sort everything out. It is those that are perhaps unwittingly losing out. But, c'est la vie. 

I would be very surprised if people booking directly with P&O or a good travel agent who specialises in cruises were not advised at the time of booking if they were inadvertently making a financially unwise decision. An advantage of not booking online or with a travel agent who does not specialise in cruise bookings.
I also suspect that people who book suites are rarely first time cruisers  and so are unlikely to lack confidence when booking. Either that, or they have so much spare cash not to care.

[Bill Y]

On 2/9/2023 at 6:03 PM, TigerB said:

I was looking at one of our future cruises (B324N) earlier, just to see if there was any difference to what we paid; this is what I discovered regarding the OBC and how much you give up for 14 days parking or coach transfer.

 

 

For an inside cabin:

 

For a balcony cabin:

 

For a suite:

 

 

So, in respect of two adults in the cabin, the parking or coach transfer will cost you £90 of your total OBC allowance if you're in an inside cabin; for a balcony cabin it will be £120, and for a suite it will be a whopping £290.😯

 

Two weeks parking with CPS for that same period is £243. With Portside Meet & Greet it's about £150. Triangle are full.

 

I just wonder how many folk booking suites, perhaps folk that are less likely to research or plan for example, leave their trust in P&O to sort everything, without realising they are unecessarily losing a good chunk of their OBC.

It's not just P&O either; Carnival are doing the same for Cunard bookings.

Interesting, I had no idea that the deduction in OBC for the car parking option was dependant upon what type of cabin you book, I don’t know how they justify that, sometimes ferry costs depend upon car length, so does P&O’s contract depend on that and P&O assume that suite bookers will have limousines and inside booker will have smart cars?

 

We tried to book parking a few weeks ago for the end of May and found that prices had gone up considerably or were fully booked.  There was Cruise Azure but with only mobile numbers and no one on C C had any experience of them, so we asked our TA if we could change to the P&O parking option, this was done. When we booked this cruise in 2021 it was just OBC, parking or coach, we thought at the time that we could arrange parking cheaper than the £150 OBC that we were offered. There did not seem to be much OBC being offered then probably due to the amount FCC floating around then.

 

So its nice to know for the future that the deduction of OBC is dependant upon type of cabin booked, as we had not taken this option before.

[snaefell]

For me it is a no brainer,there is no way I want to be driving 260+ miles at the start & end of a cruise,I would much rather let someone else do the driving while I relax & enjoy the scenery & save putting miles on my motor.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

For me it is a no brainer,there is no way I want to be driving 260+ miles at the start & end of a cruise,I would much rather let someone else do the driving while I relax & enjoy the scenery & save putting miles on my motor.

If you lived far enough north to have to meet the coach at 7:00am about a 45 minute taxi ride away, and your wife was disabled and needed nearly 2 hours to get ready, then you might think differently.

[carlanthony24]

2 hours ago, snaefell said:

For me it is a no brainer,there is no way I want to be driving 260+ miles at the start & end of a cruise,I would much rather let someone else do the driving while I relax & enjoy the scenery & save putting miles on my motor.

If myself and the family decide to do a cruise from Southampton again personally would rather drive down and back and share the driving. We can stay overnight in a hotel which makes it a nice relaxing start to the holiday. 

 

We just feel the coach is more hassle. We don't want to have to stop at a service station on the day we board for instance could be onboard by around 1PM if not  earlier, and on the way back having to wait for everyone else to join the coach when we could be maybe halfway home at the time the coach actually sets off. 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by carlanthony24

[TigerB]

3 hours ago, snaefell said:

For me it is a no brainer,there is no way I want to be driving 260+ miles at the start & end of a cruise,I would much rather let someone else do the driving while I relax & enjoy the scenery & save putting miles on my motor.

For us, the coach transfers are just not possible as they are not wheelchair accessible. So, if it's a Southampton to Southampton cruise we'll drive down the day before and stay in a hotel, most likely Newbury.  Anyway, regardless of whether we travel down the day before or not, our holiday starts when we leave the house.

[majortom10]

We have only used coach once and we had to be picked up at Keele services on M6. Which is north for us so going in opposite direction to Southampton. When we got on coach, which had come from Glasgow, we set off and coach driver announced next service station was stopping an hour for breakfast. Obviously those who had been on from Glasgow were delighted for us we had been on coach and service station for 1.5hrs and was as close to home than when we started. Never again.

Edited February 11, 2023 by majortom10

[jeanlyon]

We don't have the coach option from anywhere near us.  It's either OBC or car parking.  On my upcoming cruise, I swapped our £120 per cabin OBC and took the parking, especially as it's a 19 night cruise.

[Bill Y]

19 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

We don't have the coach option from anywhere near us.  It's either OBC or car parking.  On my upcoming cruise, I swapped our £120 per cabin OBC and took the parking, especially as it's a 19 night cruise.

A wise choice especially with the price and availably of parking now. I was pleasantly suprised when P&O allowed us to swap.

[snaefell]

Being the only driver sharing the drive isn't an option for us,add to that arthritis in my hands,fingers,thumbs & wrists which,on a bad day,can make driving extremely painful & the coach is also a safe option for us.

[TigerB]

5 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We don't have the coach option from anywhere near us.  It's either OBC or car parking.  On my upcoming cruise, I swapped our £120 per cabin OBC and took the parking, especially as it's a 19 night cruise.

That's good for 19 nights.👍

[Waju]

20 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We don't have the coach option from anywhere near us.  It's either OBC or car parking.  On my upcoming cruise, I swapped our £120 per cabin OBC and took the parking, especially as it's a 19 night cruise.

That's a bargain, I looked at CPS yesterday for a 16 night cruise and they wanted £247 - might have even been £267, I can't remember I was looking at so many cruises/options.

 

I think next time we may try the multi storey car park option but worry that if the port parking has become so expensive lots of other people will do the same and it will be full,  Imagine getting down to Southampton for your cruise and not being able to park anywhere 😲

[Fionboard]

Cruise package at Holiday Inn includes 15 days parking and costs on average about £240 depending on time of year (not available during boat show though).

[jeanlyon]

Parking4 cruises is still pretty good.  It's £143 for 19 nights.  We only had £120 OBC per cabin, so still better to swap, but I will use P4C next time when we go on Fred.

 

Blinkin' eck.  Just did a quote with CPS for the same cruise.  £287!!!  Double Parking 4 Cruises.

Edited February 12, 2023 by jeanlyon

[GOQ]

On 2/11/2023 at 2:17 PM, snaefell said:

Being the only driver sharing the drive isn't an option for us,add to that arthritis in my hands,fingers,thumbs & wrists which,on a bad day,can make driving extremely painful & the coach is also a safe option for us.

I cannot drive for more than an hour so I have no option but to travel down to Southampton by taxi, train or coach. I also have a bit of a problem dragging my suitcase and carry bag around.

 

Traveling by train I have to drag my suitcase from taxi to station, on/off 2 trains, taxi again to cruise terminal, then drag again to the luggage pod at the cruise terminal.

 

I once had no option but to take a taxi all the way, my taxi driver loaded my cases but sitting in a taxi for 4 hours was rather uncomfortable.

 

By comparison, traveling by coach is brilliant. The Taxi driver loads my bags into the taxi and drops them at my coach pickup. The Coach driver picks up my cases and loads them into the coach. OK 5 hours on the coach but half way we get a 45 minute stop whereby I can have a little walk to iron out the kinks in my joints.

 

Then my case ends up outside my cabin. A lot of physical and mental stress taken away.

 

[purplesea]

We do not have the option of getting a coach so normally travel up by train. We book assistance to help with the luggage when we have to change trains. It also takes out the worry of wondering which platform we have arrived at and where is the next platform we are departing from?

[snaefell]

We are quite lucky in that our pick up point is Chester,not far from us & they have tended to only pick up once after us in the past so it isn't too bad usually,the last time we did it though the return journey was on Good Friday,due to traffic jams the journey took 7 hours,just glad it wasn't my fuel wasting away in the queues!