Last minute deals P&O

[Mollag]

12 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

As suspected I have my upgrade options, minimum.bids:

 

Larger outside £250pp

Balcony £550pp

Deluxe Balcony £860pp

Mini suite £1820pp

Suite rear £3140pp

 

No change on the new booking prices. The balcony would be a saving of over £1700 if it came near the minimum bid.  Seriously considering it.  Are there any really bad Balcony cabins, particularly noise related?  Thanks.

I didn’t take much notice of our upgrade offer but I think they wanted £1160 for the deluxe balcony. On the 65 nighter we were in a sea view which I think you are for this one and the minimum bids for a deluxe balcony were double the ones offered to our friends in an inside cabin so I’ve no idea how they work it out 

[tring]

6 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Thank you. I've never sailed on Aurora so have no idea about her cabins so this is very helpful

 

 

Glad to be of help, since you are so helpful to others.

 

Just wondering if you are sailing solo on Aurora.  As upgrade prices are pp for two people, I think a single traveller has to pay both of those, hence double the upgrade cost charged, if successful.  DH just found that written in the T&C's, so was correct for us.  It also says if you do not pay for the upgrade (they do not take payment automatically), then you will not get your own cabin back, but would still get a cabin of the same grade.  We were toying with not paying if we did not like a location offered as we would have been happy with any in our initial grade, but we felt there was a chance they could have put us in a cabin of a different grade, but a bad one.  Worth reading all the gen about the bidding system.

 

 

Edited June 4 by tring

[Selbourne]

18 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Glad to be of help, since you are so helpful to others.

 

Just wondering if you are sailing solo on Aurora.  As upgrade prices are pp for two people, I think a single traveller has to pay both of those, hence double the upgrade cost charged, if successful.  DH just found that written in the T&C's, so was correct for us.  It also says if you do not pay for the upgrade (they do not take payment automatically), then you will not get your own cabin back, but would still get a cabin of the same grade.  We were toying with not paying if we did not like a location offered as we would have been happy with any in our initial grade, but we felt there was a chance they could have put us in a cabin of a different grade, but a bad one.  Worth reading all the gen about the bidding system.

 

 

I’ve not really looked into the bid to upgrade Ts and Cs, as the ones that we’ve been offered have never been good value, but I was under the impression that if you made a bid you lodged your payment details at the time and, if you were ‘successful’ then you were locked into having it. I didn’t realise that you could pull out of it if you didn’t like the ‘upgrade, that was allocated? 

[Megabear2]

40 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Glad to be of help, since you are so helpful to others.

 

Just wondering if you are sailing solo on Aurora.  As upgrade prices are pp for two people, I think a single traveller has to pay both of those, hence double the upgrade cost charged, if successful.  DH just found that written in the T&C's, so was correct for us.  It also says if you do not pay for the upgrade (they do not take payment automatically), then you will not get your own cabin back, but would still get a cabin of the same grade.  We were toying with not paying if we did not like a location offered as we would have been happy with any in our initial grade, but we felt there was a chance they could have put us in a cabin of a different grade, but a bad one.  Worth reading all the gen about the bidding system.

 

 

Thank you.  I am travelling with my husband for this one - our entire adult family are travelling  I was thinking of bidding just above the minimum to see if anything happens.  At the moment there seem to be quite a few cabins free but if course we could end up with anything!  My husband has never sailed in anything less than a balcony do if we don't change it will be interesting.

[tring]

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I’ve not really looked into the bid to upgrade Ts and Cs, as the ones that we’ve been offered have never been good value, but I was under the impression that if you made a bid you lodged your payment details at the time and, if you were ‘successful’ then you were locked into having it. I didn’t realise that you could pull out of it if you didn’t like the ‘upgrade, that was allocated? 

 

You need to study the ins and outs as published by P&O, we went through it all and think we go to the bottom of it, but worth making your own assessment.  I think it is on the website, but as we understood it, (this is just from memory and of course rules can change):-

 

if you do not pay for the upgrade you will not remain in your original cabin, which is likely the main crux.  I assume they would have offered your cabin to someone else in the bid system, or possibly sold it, so that is understandable.  It also says you will not  be upgraded (fair enough if you do not pay for it).  Also said said you will be in a cabin of the same grade you booked.  That sounded clear enough and would have kept us happy, but we wondered if a cabin of our grade would be available to put us back into.  If not, we had presumed they may have to put us in something a bit higher grade, for instance there are bigger outside cabins - but some of them were adjoining cabins and not in the best location in our opinion, so seemed a risk to us.  We only went ahead on the understanding that we would take any upgrade which may have been provided, but I would be interested what would have actually happened if we did not do so.

 

As I said this was just our understanding and of course, the T&C's can change, so everyone would need to look into it themselves.  When we went through the system, fairly recently they were taking card details before we made the bid, but it did say they do not use those details to take payment if successful.

 

 

 

[tring]

We have a one weeker booked on Arcadia as a B2B with a longer cruise later this year (booked on Aurora a month ago).  We booked it as an extra cheap week, since we then got the 10% B2B discount on both cruises.

 

We booked a mid ship obstructed view partly for economy and also as there were no balcony cabins in locations we would have wanted. 

 

The upgrade bid prices are now visible and they want a minimum of £420 for a balcony and £130 for a full view outside.  When booking, a mid ship balcony would have cost about another £300pp and the full view, which are on a very low deck, would have been about £100 more. So presumably we could get upgrades far cheaper by doing it without the bid system and choosing a cabin location and that would still be the case if we did not have the extra -10% discount!  We may yet cough up the extra £300pp for a balcony, but only if we are happy about cabin location, but for two crossings of the BOB and four port days, not sure it is worth it.  We know those partially obstructed view cabins are a good size and we are very mid ship.

 

 

 

[Megabear2]

Today is the first after the end of the promotion which has been running for some time and also the 8th day after final payment for my August Aurora cruise.  As expected we have movement ...

 

Inside  Saver £2598  Select £2998 + £100 OBC

 

Outside Saver £2858 Select £3578 + £120 OBC

 

Balcony £3998 Select £4858 + £130 OBC

 

Deluxe Balcony £4998 Select £5558 + £130 OBC

 

Mini Suite £10,038 + £280 OBC

 

Full suites are now sold out - there had been two aft available yesterday.

 

Therefore my current upgrade offer to move to balcony from outside is a total of £4798, so £60 below the on sale price today.  Our OBC is £340.

 

Based on my BIL's inside Lido deck day 1 booking the Saver fare today is £600 cheaper than he is paying.

 

I expect a new promotion in a day or two and no doubt there will be another price change regarding OBC at that time.

Edited June 5 by Megabear2

[Megabear2]

Yes, across the board most Select fares have risen.

 

The cruises in the next six months are beginning to see the "normal" adjustments, ie Select fares rising or stable dependent on how they're selling and savers dropping.

 

I'm following an October Med cruise - 5th with Gary Barlow onboard.  The Saver dropped this morning to below £1,000.  I would expect possibly one more drop by about another £100pp and that will be the bottom line. The change on prices on the big two are very predictable!

Edited June 5 by Megabear2

[Ilovemygarden]

On 6/3/2024 at 2:29 PM, tring said:

 

Apart from small amounts which would cover part of our normal bill, we do find that extra OBC can actually be a problem.  Our recent cruise was booked as a spare of the moment thing, after dinner (and wine) one night as it was as it covered the special occasion.  When we were told of the very large OBC, it seemed an added advantage, under the circumstances.

 

A cruise we have for later this year was partly booked to cover a cruise we needed to change and is a repeat of something we did last year and enjoyed.  The OBC, (extra another onboard booking), is causing us some headaches TBH.  We are not big drinkers, spa users and rarely take excursions, though as the cruise is a repeat, we thought some excursions will be useful.  Realising that about three months pre cruise a number of things are booking up, we booked those excursions recently.  We may cancel one or two just before the cruise if they are still available at that stage and risk the chance of re booking onboard, though will only do that for ones we would not fret too much about if we cannot re bookwith OBC.  We still envisage a fair extra OBC for us and the speciality restaurants on the ship are not something we want to use much really.  On our recent Aurora cruise we were happier with the MDR much of the time, the only bad meal in there being when we decided to go for the paid for (?Signature) menu.  Whilst he starter and sweet from that menu were "ok", the main course meat was appalling, with the beef being totally over cooked and dry - never had anything like it.  We have concluded that the MDR kitchens are not able to cope with something different, when they must be hard taxed just producing the normal menu items, so would not risk that again.

 

I am sure we will use the OBC somehow, probably on speciality restaurants (if we can get bookings once on the ship), or hit the shops if need be.  I am sure that is what P&O want though, rather than have people just spend a large OBC on things they would spend money on anyway.  We do have shares, but that only gives fairly small amounts, so is a benefit to us most of the time.

 

 

 

I have to agree about the steak from the ”signature” menu - mine was the same on Arvia last month.  The worst meal I had on board!  

[Megabear2]

Weekly Update on the prices on my August cruise:

 

Inside  saver from £2698      Select £2958

Outside  saver  £2998  Select £3458

Balcony  saver £3998 select £4698

Deluxe Balcony £4998 Select £5398

 

This means the inside and outside savers have moved back up by £100, tye balcony cabins have stayed the same but each grade's select fare has seen a drop.

 

If the "theory" is correct the saver prices will have now reached their lowest point and start to fluctuate very little until the sail date.

 

My upgrade bid would now be dearer than the current select price on sale.

[Enjoyacruise]

Has anyone noticed that the ‘headline’ price on P&O cruises seems to occasionally increase as you go deeper into the booking process?

 

By means of example I am interested in a Caribbean cruise on the Arvia 9th November. Inside early saver price showing £1349 per person. Solo price £2199 which is ok as it is only slightly more than I paid last year. However when I go to the next page and opt for early saver rather than select the price jumps to £2608. Hence not bothering to ask my travel agent to book it. 

The cruise is a peninsular cruise if you book select but that is irrelevant to my query. 
 

I have had this previously when about to book a Mediterranean cruise. My travel agent implied it is an occasional glitch on their system. 

[Winifred 22]

43 minutes ago, Enjoyacruise said:

Has anyone noticed that the ‘headline’ price on P&O cruises seems to occasionally increase as you go deeper into the booking process?

 

By means of example I am interested in a Caribbean cruise on the Arvia 9th November. Inside early saver price showing £1349 per person. Solo price £2199 which is ok as it is only slightly more than I paid last year. However when I go to the next page and opt for early saver rather than select the price jumps to £2608. Hence not bothering to ask my travel agent to book it. 

The cruise is a peninsular cruise if you book select but that is irrelevant to my query. 
 

I have had this previously when about to book a Mediterranean cruise. My travel agent implied it is an occasional glitch on their system. 

Sometimes the headline price is for the lowest cabin grade of that type, often forward. If they have all gone the quote then comes for say mid aft/ mid forward or mid with the associated price rise. 

[FangedRose]

13 hours ago, Winifred 22 said:

Sometimes the headline price is for the lowest cabin grade of that type, often forward. If they have all gone the quote then comes for say mid aft/ mid forward or mid with the associated price rise. 

It is ALWAYS the price for lowest grade.

[FangedRose]

14 hours ago, Enjoyacruise said:

Has anyone noticed that the ‘headline’ price on P&O cruises seems to occasionally increase as you go deeper into the booking process?

 

By means of example I am interested in a Caribbean cruise on the Arvia 9th November. Inside early saver price showing £1349 per person. Solo price £2199 which is ok as it is only slightly more than I paid last year. However when I go to the next page and opt for early saver rather than select the price jumps to £2608. Hence not bothering to ask my travel agent to book it. 

The cruise is a peninsular cruise if you book select but that is irrelevant to my query. 
 

I have had this previously when about to book a Mediterranean cruise. My travel agent implied it is an occasional glitch on their system. 

You are misreading the "headline price". It was always say somewhere "prices from £××××". It is an advert, like sale prices online will shout "upto 50% off".

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, FangedRose said:

It is ALWAYS the price for lowest grade.

But not if you opt for a cabin in a higher category during the booking process.

[FangedRose]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

But not if you opt for a cabin in a higher category during the booking process.

That is what we are saying. The "come and get me price" in the advertising is for the lowest grade cabin in that category. If you pick a higher grade cabin you will pay more.

[Enjoyacruise]

I simply wanted the cheapest inside cabin priced for solo occupancy plus opted for a forward cabin which had a £nil addition.Nor did I opt for a change of airport or any other extras.  Hence my puzzlement at the price jumping from £2199 to £2608 

 

if the cabins at the lowest level have gone (which I don’t believe they have) then I would have hoped and expected the site to be automatically updated. 
 

Don’t get me wrong I am a P&O fan. It’s just that this type of price increase as you near the payment details is annoying!

 

 

 

[yorkshirephil]

49 minutes ago, Enjoyacruise said:

I simply wanted the cheapest inside cabin priced for solo occupancy plus opted for a forward cabin which had a £nil addition.Nor did I opt for a change of airport or any other extras.  Hence my puzzlement at the price jumping from £2199 to £2608 

 

if the cabins at the lowest level have gone (which I don’t believe they have) then I would have hoped and expected the site to be automatically updated. 
 

Don’t get me wrong I am a P&O fan. It’s just that this type of price increase as you near the payment details is annoying!

 

 

 

This wasn't a case of the system automatically picking the select fare as opposed to saver was it?

[Enjoyacruise]

5 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

This wasn't a case of the system automatically picking the select fare as opposed to saver was it?

No, unfortunately not

[Megabear2]

Latest update on my monitored cruise on Aurora in August.

 

Inside Saver £2798 Select £3058 OBC £120

Outside Saver £3098 Select £3598 OBC £200

Balcony Saver £3398 Select £4698 OBC £280

Deluxe Saver £4998 Select £5398 OBC £280

Mini Suite Select £9858 £400 OBC

 

Inside cabins are now rising again. Outside savers have risen £100 but select has dropped £100.

 

Interestingly the balcony cabins are the ones they are reducing significantly.  The select price has not changed since 10 June, having dropped on 5th to £4858.  The lowest select fare was 30 May at £4698. We are now at a much lower saver fare with a £600 drop since 10.6.24.  The select stays the same.

 

Deluxe balcony is unmoved.

 

Looking at the balconies currently on sale there are around 12 on Deck C, most of mid forward, mid aft and aft on Deck A with a handful of midships and 10 Lido Deck. 

 

I have now made my upgrade bid 2 days ago at just above the minimum which would make any balcony offered just over £150 more than the current on sale select fare and substantially above the saver (the balcony saver is now £300 less than the price I paid for my outside F deck cabin).  We shall see.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

Not necessarily a deal, just a comparison. We booked G501 Caribbean 35 nighter on Iona on board at launch and paid £4526pp with £250pp for a GC grade select balcony. This is now £4199pp with extra, but unspecified OBC.

[Mollag]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Latest update on my monitored cruise on Aurora in August.

 

Inside Saver £2798 Select £3058 OBC £120

Outside Saver £3098 Select £3598 OBC £200

Balcony Saver £3398 Select £4698 OBC £280

Deluxe Saver £4998 Select £5398 OBC £280

Mini Suite Select £9858 £400 OBC

 

Inside cabins are now rising again. Outside savers have risen £100 but select has dropped £100.

 

Interestingly the balcony cabins are the ones they are reducing significantly.  The select price has not changed since 10 June, having dropped on 5th to £4858.  The lowest select fare was 30 May at £4698. We are now at a much lower saver fare with a £600 drop since 10.6.24.  The select stays the same.

 

Deluxe balcony is unmoved.

 

Looking at the balconies currently on sale there are around 12 on Deck C, most of mid forward, mid aft and aft on Deck A with a handful of midships and 10 Lido Deck. 

 

I have now made my upgrade bid 2 days ago at just above the minimum which would make any balcony offered just over £150 more than the current on sale select fare and substantially above the saver (the balcony saver is now £300 less than the price I paid for my outside F deck cabin).  We shall see.

 

 

Did you notice if they’re still selling it with 2 full days in Helsinki? According to new itinerary it’s now an afternoon arrival 

[Selbourne]

49 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Not necessarily a deal, just a comparison. We booked G501 Caribbean 35 nighter on Iona on board at launch and paid £4526pp with £250pp for a GC grade select balcony. This is now £4199pp with extra, but unspecified OBC.

Whilst I am under no illusion that launch prices are no longer the cheapest that you will ever get a cruise for, I’m surprised that the cruise is cheaper 8 months out, which is usually an expensive time to book. I’d expect it to be a lot higher than launch prices now, with big price drops kicking in after balance due date, although I guess that longer cruises are more challenging to fill with last minute bookings. 
 

The price per night still seems quite steep for Iona though. I wonder if the fact that there are only 7 Caribbean ports has resulted in less early take ups than they might have expected? 

[Megabear2]

5 minutes ago, Mollag said:

Did you notice if they’re still selling it with 2 full days in Helsinki? According to new itinerary it’s now an afternoon arrival 

No longer 2 full days.  Arrives early afternoon, departs afternoon.  Very poor.

 

Tallinn is also pretty rubbish. Arriving evening which is actually late night, departs afternoon.  Aarhus arrives early evening, departs early evening.  

 

Unfortunately the email saying more port time is a complete lie.

[Mollag]

14 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

No longer 2 full days.  Arrives early afternoon, departs afternoon.  Very poor.

 

Tallinn is also pretty rubbish. Arriving evening which is actually late night, departs afternoon.  Aarhus arrives early evening, departs early evening.  

 

Unfortunately the email saying more port time is a complete lie.

It’s just standard P&O now. They haven’t even sent our TA the new timings yet

forgot to say there still selling excursions for the first morning in Helsinki 

Edited Saturday at 11:17 AM by Mollag