where to book

[miss-heli]

Last year we tried NCL and booked through an American travel agent in $ and with the brill. exchange rate we had a tremendous deal.

Back with P & O this summer...anybody got any advice where to book to get the best deal on P&O this year.

Many thanks

[supered]

Hi mis--heli

Welcome to the board.

 

Unfortunately forum rules dictate that we cannot give advice about specific agents etc. However, I would recommend booking via a specialist cruise advisor/agent as they will be able to give you the best advice and the best price. Although I have heard that a well known high street travel agent whose name rhymes with Bomas Rook will price match anything, even online. But my experience with them was rubbish so I won't go back. Just my opinion as others fine them brilliant.

 

Our personal cruise advisor gave us a cracking deal on our upcoming Oceana cruise, saving about £200 each on the P&O direct online price!

 

I think I am right in saying that specific travel agents can be mentioned on the P&O Community so you may get some luck with recommendations there.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Eddie

[BrianI]

P&O approved travel agents are listed on their website. Some of these will give you a good price

http://www.pocruises.com/TravelAgents.axd

Brian

[the english lady]

we went with a specialist online cruise ta last cruise , this time they could not beat the deal we got with high street ta fc. I think its a case of going to 2-3 different ta's and see which one suits you best. we always know what sort of cabin we want and usually where abouts we would like it, but may just be us.

[Nippy Sweetie]

I just booked with a high st TA after doing lots of research on prices online. They guaranteed to at least match lowest prices I could find. We got what seems to me to be a huge amount off P&Os online prices & a much better grade of cabin+ a chance of a further upgrade. Worth shopping around. Good luck

[jeanlyon]

my TA isn't on that list, although very well know. I usually save a bomb on published prices, and get the cabin and dinner sitting I want.

[chyanmor]

my TA isn't on that list, although very well know. I usually save a bomb on published prices, and get the cabin and dinner sitting I want.

 

 

We book with another one in Scotland not on that list and they have always seem to beat all of the ones on that list with onboard credit, cabin and dining arrangements. Plus they are a pleasure to deal with.

[southwinds]

we book with one of the specilist ones on the P&O ta list, I would say try some on there check thier web sites compare prices . We book via phone with one in the Derbyshire area. Get excellent service, I think you can be sure P&O would not be recommending an agent that wasnt on good terms with them.

SO try their list.;)

[Host Walt]

Some personal thoughts on this subject:

 

Generally speaking the "deals" available on websites are equally available at high street agencies. It can be most helpful if one establishes a good rapport with an agent in a high street shop because that agent can work special arrangements more effectively. For example, frequently previously booked cabins are freed up and the cruise line will advise agents by fax, so you could wind up breaking the queue, as it were, if you are waiting for a particular cabin or deck location.

 

Also, when price deals are announced, the high street shops may get word from the line's reps by fax before the deal is announced to the trade such that a good agent may snag the deal even before the web agencies are even aware of it.

 

We snagged such a deal on another line several years ago when we told the agent that we were interested in a 7 day cruise sailing on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday 3 weeks hence. We sat back and received a call the next day. She did all the work and we had a great trip at a ridiculously low price. Plus she arranged a good deal on the hotel room at the embarkation port and provided a nice bottle of wine for us.

 

And remember, agents pay P&O for the privilege of being listed on P&O's site, so, while P&O are screening those agents, the list does not include all qualified agents; just those willing to pay the asking price.

[southwinds]

The P&O list is a good starting point for those new to booking cruises. I am sure no one believes that these are the only ones available... However I have heard of most of them from other cruisers and the one we use is on there, the one we use is P&O's biggest customer... I would guess these are the agents who put the most work P&Os way , what I do know is that the agents are given an further discount to offer based on the volume of sales so the larger agents often get better deals, also some agents get exclusive deals. So what you find is that again us regulars shop around the big agents and look out for exclusive deals.

[lostinvegas]

This always seems strange to me, I always thought the cheapest way to book would be directly with P&O from their website: no middle men to pay a commison to and no telesales people for P&O to pay?

 

Certainly when we booked with Carnival we got the best deal (when searching around) from their website.

 

Maybe someone could answer the question why its cheaper going with an agent? if booking P&O

 

We used an agent recomended to us by some friends who had traveled before (they are on the P&O list). They gave us a better price than the high street agents, they managed to get us on flights from Birmingham and on 2nd sitting dinner which were our prefrences.

 

We booked with them previously on P&O so knew the service we could expect.

 

It was interesting talking to the people on ur table on the first cruise we booked. They were all last minute bookers like us. We had all booked with different agents but paid roughly the same price. 1 of the couples had a sightly bigger and better positioned inside than the rest of us, they put this down to booking 3 cruises a year with the same agent.

 

Chris

[Norfolk Brit]

This always seems strange to me, I always thought the cheapest way to book would be directly with P&O from their website: no middle men to pay a commison to and no telesales people for P&O to pay?

Chris

 

Utterly baffling to me too. I used to work for a large holiday company, and we actively encouraged direct bookings to avoid paying travel agent commission. Hotels have also finally caught up with this idea, and it is now often cheaper to book direct with them than through a website. Very strange.

 

Mary

[lostinvegas]

As I have mentioned before on this site I go to Vegas a lot. If you book directly on the hotels website its always the best price so I cannot understand why its not the same with P&O.

 

Chris

[diat68]

There is a well known online TA at present giving 20% discount with P&O - think it might end at the end of January. Can't name the agency - but it rhymes with 'shoes' co.uk. Hope this helps!