Help - why the Caribbean?

[Presto2]

Just now, Bizzie07 said:

Thanks for that.  My daughter are her boyfriend are going to the Caribbean for his 30th and I was going to upgrade them as a present so that is good to know.

WOWZZ has said they go fast 😉

[sandancer]

55 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

WOWZZ has said they go fast 😉

They certainly do. You need to book them on the day they are released. 

[Bizzie07]

10 minutes ago, sandancer said:

They certainly do. You need to book them on the day they are released. 

They don't go till next January but I will phone tomorrow and find out the details.  Thanks

[sandancer]

The seats are released around 13 weeks before the date of sailing I think. 

[wowzz]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

I think you should ask yourself why you should NOT do a Caribbean cruise. The only negatives I can see are the relatively long flight times (but not that long compared to, say, flying to Singapore) and jet lag. Everything else is a positive.

We did a DiP tour on Guadeloupe when on Arcadia. The town itself is extremely small. 10 minutes and you have seen it all !

A few photos from our DiP tour

 

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

It was £204 pp each way.

When we considered the price of the cruise and the on board spend (and as it was a special cruise) we thought 'what the heck'. When we looked at the benefits it seemed the best thing to do as it is a long flight and the perks seem really good.  Hubby needs extra leg rooms seats so perfect for him. I don't and can lie down in the extra space 🙂 🙂 🙂 

 

She didn't ask about the seats when booking - if it wasn't for WOWZZ I don't think we would have known anything about it. 

Just as well that I came back today!  Glad to be of help. 

[wowzz]

32 minutes ago, sandancer said:

The seats are released around 13 weeks before the date of sailing I think. 

The seats are released 14 weeks prior, but that is only to select your actual seats, and pay for them. 

If you want to be in the PE cabin, you need to select that option early.

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

A few photos from our DiP tour

 

You were very lucky wowzz, when we visited on a private tour the place was dead and Catherine's beach bar was empty and the restaurant across the street was closed. I assume most of the patrons in your photo were from the ships tour?

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

You were very lucky wowzz, when we visited on a private tour the place was dead and Catherine's beach bar was empty and the restaurant across the street was closed. I assume most of the patrons in your photo were from the ships tour?

Absolutely - the place was dead (sic) apart from cruisers trying to get a beer !

We had a reasonable day out, and every time we watch DiP it's nice to think that we have actually been there, but it was a bit of a let down seeing it in the flesh! 

[Gettingwarmer]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

Absolutely - the place was dead (sic) apart from cruisers trying to get a beer !

We had a reasonable day out, and every time we watch DiP it's nice to think that we have actually been there, but it was a bit of a let down seeing it in the flesh! 

When we went on a tour  we just drove through the town and up to the Botanical Gardens where one of the murders took place in the show.  It was vey pleasant and then we continued to a waterfall. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Gettingwarmer

[pennib]

Presto- I don’t know where you would be flying from but remember that you get penalised if you fly from anywhere except Gatwick at £100 per person. For example our cost for the flights for the Britannia Christmas cruise for the both of us is £1088. Swallow quickly!!

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, pennib said:

Presto- I don’t know where you would be flying from but remember that you get penalised if you fly from anywhere except Gatwick at £100 per person. For example our cost for the flights for the Britannia Christmas cruise for the both of us is £1088. Swallow quickly!!

We booked our flights from BHX with no supplement, as part of a P&O promotion.

[Presto2]

8 hours ago, pennib said:

Presto- I don’t know where you would be flying from but remember that you get penalised if you fly from anywhere except Gatwick at £100 per person. For example our cost for the flights for the Britannia Christmas cruise for the both of us is £1088. Swallow quickly!!

Hi, yes we had to pay another £100 each supplement - to be honest, we are used to it as most prices for holidays are from a London airport and we have to pay a supplement.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Hi, yes we had to pay another £100 each supplement - to be honest, we are used to it as most prices for holidays are from a London airport and we have to pay a supplement.

You were a bit unlucky with your timing. If you had booked a few months earlier you would have avoided the supplement. 

 

[Bizzie07]

On 2/11/2023 at 2:34 PM, Presto2 said:

Well thank you everyone. We have just moved the cruise from Azura to the Caribbean in January 2024.

Aft cabin E deck so we are more than happy. Many thanks for the heads up re the flight seats WOWZZ we had no idea about those.

Anyway, have paid £6696 with £600 on board spend for the cruise including the premium seats for the flight so are well happy with that. Off to change my signature now --- excited already !!!!!

Thank you everyone 🙂 

Just a heads up.  My daughter booked a cruise last week to Caribbean on Arvia Jan 24.  Checked today and the price dropped £1,800.   Phoned P&O and had to cancel original cruise and re-book new cruise.  Lost original deposit but overall saved £1,200.  Worth checking out!

[Presto2]

22 minutes ago, Bizzie07 said:

Just a heads up.  My daughter booked a cruise last week to Caribbean on Arvia Jan 24.  Checked today and the price dropped £1,800.   Phoned P&O and had to cancel original cruise and re-book new cruise.  Lost original deposit but overall saved £1,200.  Worth checking out!

We've just checked and the prices have dropped. When we added it up though once we had knocked off the deposit loss we would save about £200, but am worried that if we cancel and then try to rebook we may not be able to have the upgrade seats we managed to get. Not sure if it is worth the risk,

Good prices though now for anyone who is booking now !!!!!

[Bizzie07]

2 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We've just checked and the prices have dropped. When we added it up though once we had knocked off the deposit loss we would save about £200, but am worried that if we cancel and then try to rebook we may not be able to have the upgrade seats we managed to get. Not sure if it is worth the risk,

Good prices though now for anyone who is booking now !!!!!

That was also a concern but the girl confirmed upgrade seats etc were available before the original one was cancelled.

[galeforce9]

On 2/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, jaydee6969 said:

 

Death In Paradise is filmed on the Guadeloupe islands.  When we eventually cruise the Caribbean we will try and select  a cruise that stops there.  Not many do.

We did an independent private death in paradise tour in Guadeloupe.  Fab.  We were on seabourn.  Went to Catherine’s bar, the beaches, the harbour, police station, church, the botanical gardens etc. Also to longueteau rum distillery and the National park 

Edited February 18, 2023 by galeforce9

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Bizzie07 said:

Just a heads up.  My daughter booked a cruise last week to Caribbean on Arvia Jan 24.  Checked today and the price dropped £1,800.   Phoned P&O and had to cancel original cruise and re-book new cruise.  Lost original deposit but overall saved £1,200.  Worth checking out!

I wonder if P&O have over estimated the market for UK cruisers to the Caribbean.

Obviously the economic issues over the last 12 months will not have helped,  but trying to find 5000 people a week to fill Arvia might be a stretch too far.

And, trying to be tactful, in order to fill the ship,  the prices are being dropped to a level that will attract a different demographic to the normal P&O clientele. 

[Yorkypete]

39 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I wonder if P&O have over estimated the market for UK cruisers to the Caribbean.

Obviously the economic issues over the last 12 months will not have helped,  but trying to find 5000 people a week to fill Arvia might be a stretch too far.

And, trying to be tactful, in order to fill the ship,  the prices are being dropped to a level that will attract a different demographic to the normal P&O clientele. 

Perhaps smaller ships would be better. The number of American based ships visiting the area is phenomenal and I would imagine that very soon passenger numbers visiting ports will be restricted.

 

[wowzz]

22 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Perhaps smaller ships would be better.

Sorry, no idea what you mean. 

Smaller P&O ships ? 

How small ?

 

[zap99]

5 hours ago, Presto2 said:

We've just checked and the prices have dropped. When we added it up though once we had knocked off the deposit loss we would save about £200, but am worried that if we cancel and then try to rebook we may not be able to have the upgrade seats we managed to get. Not sure if it is worth the risk,

Good prices though now for anyone who is booking now !!!!!

If we do the same we save about £200, allowing for the lost deposit and extra OBC. Worth doing, but will provably hang on for now. Lesson learnt about booking early...again.😡

[sandancer]

Out of interest I just checked fares on our March 24 Arvia cruise and there is little change since we booked. This may be because it is a repositioning cruise and I think is quite popular. Certainly for us the biggie was no overnight flight home. 

[doog442]

On 2/18/2023 at 7:05 PM, Bizzie07 said:

Just a heads up.  My daughter booked a cruise last week to Caribbean on Arvia Jan 24.  Checked today and the price dropped £1,800.   Phoned P&O and had to cancel original cruise and re-book new cruise.  Lost original deposit but overall saved £1,200.  Worth checking out!

 

Thanks for that. Just jumped on it and booked an aft view cabin on deck 11 for Jan 20th 🤣

 

Excellent price to boot with the OBC. 

[Peanut006]

20 hours ago, sandancer said:

Out of interest I just checked fares on our March 24 Arvia cruise and there is little change since we booked. This may be because it is a repositioning cruise and I think is quite popular. Certainly for us the biggie was no overnight flight home. 

Same here, we are on that repositioning cruise too and hardly any difference and less OBC

 

Michelle