My P&O Website Down?

[Barbadossunshine]

53 days out and managed to book Restaurants and pay except The Beach house. Thanks @daiB for the heads up it’s now 120 days out.

Edited April 16 by Barbadossunshine
Missing name

[AndyMichelle]

6 hours ago, daiB said:

It appears to be 120 days before your cruise according to the P&O site.

Something to consider for those 'late' bookers... 

Chances are it's MDR freedom or buffet for them. 

So you can book restaurants before final payment is due? 

This is a massive change of policy, maybe for the better, who knows... 

Andy 

 

[roomba920]

Strangely, it's showing on "My Orders", though I never got an email. Also, it shows the order date as Jan. 8, 2024. So strange.

Edited April 16 by roomba920

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

Yes, I was also successful a short while ago - and payment went thru quickly (altho only wanted one evening in the Limelight).

I didn’t get an email (maybe cos booked thru a TA) and sailing early June.

I assume the act has been announced then? 

Risky strategy if not, it could be @kalos playing the spoons😂

Andy 

[Angel57]

1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

I assume the act has been announced then? 

Risky strategy if not, it could be @kalos playing the spoons😂

Andy 

Yes, it’s Ray Quinn. Not the best, but certainly not the worst!

Think I’d prefer @kalos on the spoons to be honest.

[kalos]

20 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

Yes, it’s Ray Quinn. Not the best, but certainly not the worst!

Think I’d prefer @kalos on the spoons to be honest.

Don't think they could afford to have me 😉

Such classics as "cotton eyed Joe " on the spoons is quite a stirring sound,

Better than the electric triangle version ..That was shocking 🙃

[Windsurfboy]

Got the majority of my bookings eventually at 10pm last night, for Epicurean and limelight  and Sindhu.  Added Mizu.. for Sushi this morning , very quick this morning.  Glad I persevered.

 

So have speciality bookings for every night. All at discount and no trying on board.

 

Downloaded my orders for safety. 

[Windsurfboy]

Interesting when I was having trouble yesterday afternoon  phoned up , the lady knew nothing about any change in timings,  thought it was still 14 days for speciality restaurants. 

[jual]

All working fine this morning

[Megabear2]

There's a message on my three current P&O bookings if I look at dining, it wasn't there yesterday.

 

Quote

 

Important Information

Due to website issues with our Summer 2026 new collection this morning please call 0344 338 8003 to book.

[CCFC]

Yesterday I could book the Limelight club, today its gone. Also had an email today saying you can now book dining but its all gone to "Coming soon" 

[Windsurfboy]

Weird I can still  book  10 minutes ago, but glad I have all I  want, before they change things again

[terrierjohn]

Maybe some Russian govt approved mobsters have hacked the P&O website and all your money has now been converted to roubles.🤣

[HappyGiraffe]

Just had this email through:

 

Important information about Dining

 

We’re writing to you regarding some important information relating to your upcoming cruise. 

We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve been experiencing some issues with our dining booking system in My P&O Cruises. If you’ve tried to make any dining reservations that you weren’t able to check out, then we apologise for any confusion caused.  
 

What this means for you

 

If you have already been successful in making purchases via the dining booking system, then there’s no need for further action – all existing bookings will be honoured. And any new reservations you would like to make will be available for you to book 14 days before your holiday starts.
 

We will continue to work with our technology teams to address the issue that occurred and endeavour to allow you to make dining reservations sooner. Once this has been resolved, we will of course make you aware. 

Please note, our Customer Contact Centre will not be able to share any further information or make any dining reservations over the phone at this time.

We hope this hasn’t caused you too much inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you on board soon for a holiday like never before.

[Windsurfboy]

..... in Brewery comes to mind.

 

Any well done to those who managed to book , saves me staying up to midnight 

[CCFC]

I only got the email to say you could book yesterday! Thought to myself, I'll do that tomorrow...

 

(June 14th Britannia)

[roomba920]

8 hours ago, HappyGiraffe said:

Just had this email through:

 

Important information about Dining

 

We’re writing to you regarding some important information relating to your upcoming cruise. 

We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve been experiencing some issues with our dining booking system in My P&O Cruises. If you’ve tried to make any dining reservations that you weren’t able to check out, then we apologise for any confusion caused.  
 

What this means for you

 

If you have already been successful in making purchases via the dining booking system, then there’s no need for further action – all existing bookings will be honoured. And any new reservations you would like to make will be available for you to book 14 days before your holiday starts.
 

We will continue to work with our technology teams to address the issue that occurred and endeavour to allow you to make dining reservations sooner. Once this has been resolved, we will of course make you aware. 

Please note, our Customer Contact Centre will not be able to share any further information or make any dining reservations over the phone at this time.

We hope this hasn’t caused you too much inconvenience and look forward to welcoming you on board soon for a holiday like never before.

I received the same e-mail. Are they saying that normally they wouldn't let us pre-book dining more than 14 days prior to sailing, but there was a glitch in the system, and some were able to pre-book (including myself)? If so, that's quite a break.

[HappyGiraffe]

1 minute ago, roomba920 said:

I received the same e-mail. Are they saying that normally they wouldn't let us pre-book dining more than 14 days prior to sailing, but there was a glitch in the system, and some were able to pre-book (including myself)? If so, that's quite a break.

Think the jury is still out as to whether bookings were opened in error, or being able to book 120 days in advance is incoming policy but somehow no-one foresaw the battering the booking system would take if they emailed everyone in one go instead of staggering the roll out! 😂

[roomba920]

3 minutes ago, HappyGiraffe said:

Think the jury is still out as to whether bookings were opened in error, or being able to book 120 days in advance is incoming policy but somehow no-one foresaw the battering the booking system would take if they emailed everyone in one go instead of staggering the roll out! 😂

But don't just as many people go online to book every time they open up bookings? And why stagger it out? Wouldn't that give an advantage to some over others?

Edited April 16 by roomba920

[HappyGiraffe]

51 minutes ago, roomba920 said:

But don't just as many people go online to book every time they open up bookings? And why stagger it out? Wouldn't that give an advantage to some over others?

Normally it's only one or two sailings per day opening up dining bookings, but yesterday it seemed as though every cruise that's more than 14 days away but less than 120 suddenly opened dining bookings at the same time i.e. nearly 4 months worth of cruises released in one go!

 

Staggering the increase by e.g. moving to opening dining bookings 30 days ahead now and then 45 days from next week and so on would mean they only released a couple of weeks worth of cruises at a time to reduce overloading the booking system, while still giving everyone the same access as other people on their cruise.

 

Time will tell if they quietly switch to that approach or if it was just a glitch!

[yorkshirephil]

6 hours ago, HappyGiraffe said:

Normally it's only one or two sailings per day opening up dining bookings, but yesterday it seemed as though every cruise that's more than 14 days away but less than 120 suddenly opened dining bookings at the same time i.e. nearly 4 months worth of cruises released in one go!

 

Staggering the increase by e.g. moving to opening dining bookings 30 days ahead now and then 45 days from next week and so on would mean they only released a couple of weeks worth of cruises at a time to reduce overloading the booking system, while still giving everyone the same access as other people on their cruise.

 

Time will tell if they quietly switch to that approach or if it was just a glitch!

Switching to that approach would probably be a smart financial move as they would have a considerable amount of peoples money in the bank in advance. However maybe not so good for people who want to use OBC when they get aboard but find the speciality restaurants full. As they say "You can't please all the people all the time"

[Megabear2]

One thing I enjoyed on Celebrity Edge was being able to reserve my paid for restaurants immediately on booking my cruise.  There were only certain times available but it was a fair spread. Once the released slots were full you could join a waitlist or just sort it out once onboard.  It was a good incentive for early booking of the cruise as it was first come first served.  We booked four months out and still managed to get all our first choices so not too restricted.

 

Releasing at 120 days and 60 days is also used in WDW for their restaurants.  Those staying in Disney properties have reservations opened at 120 days and those off site property start at 60 days. The reservations do not open in blocks but on a day by day basis, ie in a 14 night stay there are 14 releases of all restaurants on the properties.  This system gives everyone access on the same day so those staying shorter periods also get a fair crack of the whip.  Personally I really like this system, yes it is a little time consuming but it does stop en bloc bookings at X days out.

 

P&O have a massive demand for very few slots overall in their restaurants and I understand from discussions that one of the big complaints their newer cruisers have expressed is that they have big difficulties in reserving those restaurants once onboard. 

 

Perhaps they will move to a different timescale to offer those who book earlier to have the booking timeframe as a "benefit".

 

 

Edited April 17 by Megabear2

[HappyGiraffe]

Looks like being able to book dining 120 days in advance is the long term plan. At least, that's when the email I got today says I can book for my 2026 cruise!

[Windsurfboy]

Hopefully they will move to this in stages.

 

It won't  benefit passengers as you will just have to book ASAP as it opens 120 days ahead rather than 14 days ahead.  Doesn't generate any more availability.  Just helps P&O cash flow.

[Clodia]

THe unexpected early booking had a significant impact on what was left for my 10th May cruise on Britannia; I had to be a bit flexible with timings when I booked on Thursday!

Edited Saturday at 04:00 PM by Clodia