P and O rip off

[daiB]

Noooooooooooo

 

 

Book Early Book Often:cool:

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[Britboys]

This has also happened to us with our Oriana Cruise next week. Although it is now full, just after 'balance due' time, there were offers from all the major TA's, with our grade of inside cabin being £400 cheaper than when we booked (almost as soon as bookings opened). The only reason we book early is to get 2nd sitting at dinner. Outsides were also available at £100 less than our inside. And yes, it does make you :mad:.

 

I understand why P&O do it but I just wish they would be more like some of their competitors and give early bookers complimentary upgrades in such situations - as happened to us with Fred Olsen last year :).

[balf]

T The only reason we book early is to get 2nd sitting at dinner. .

 

This does seem to be a costly way of getting your chosen dining sitting, when you can get the same for nothing simply by seeing the M.D. who is always at the dining room on boarding day. We book late and have never failed to get our choice of dining sitting.

 

David.

[geologygeek]

Princess have also recently refunded us to the tune of £80 due to fuel surcharges being reduced

 

Fuel surcharges are a whole different kettle of fish and don't worry they might be going back on anyway! Just wondering if the price went up them would you parents be willing to pay the difference? I understand that it's annoying, but that's the way it goes - pretty much all cruise companies are the same.

[Elaine0138]

This seems to be a common thing with P&O they did the same thing to us on our December 2008 Ventura cruise the mini suites were less than our balcony by several hundred pounds. Will never book in advance again if we ever decide to sail with them again

[lancashire_cruisers]

I think a bit of perspective is called for here. If you aren't fussed about the itinery, what type of cabin you're in, it's position in the ship, or your dining selection then there are bargains to be had at the moment.

 

If however you want a particular itinery at a particular time then early booking generally gives the best overall package in terms of price, free parking, OBC etc.

 

P&O do not honour price drops like the American lines but you can request to be on their upgrade list.

 

You pay your money you take your chance.

 

Debbie:)

[Norfolk Brit]

If you aren't fussed about the itinery Debbie:)

 

Once you've been on the cruise travel agents' mailing lists for a year or so and studied form, you can pretty reliably predict which itineraries will become discounted. As someone else has said these are largely bog-standard Med, Baltics, Caribbean fly cruises, Canaries, short cruises. Last year very few in the school summer holidays, but this year they seem to be filtering through. Unusual itineraries and longer no-fly cruises (eg Southampton/Caribbean) probably need to be booked early. Discounted balcony cabins are likely to be in short supply for ships that have few, however I've had a few offers lately featuring these.

 

Doubtless there are some exceptions to these rules, which someone is about to point out:).

 

Mary

[Adammara]

We were due to go on Arcadia on June 20th, we had booked a suite as soon as bookings opened, as a special treat. P&O wrote to us, giving us a £400 voucher for a future cruise, as the prices had been reduced. So we looked how much it was reduced by, £1000 !!!. Not to happy on that.

 

Fate took a hand and my wife was very ill in February, and Saga would not renew our travel insurance until she got an all clear. We got the all clear 5 days after we were due to pay the balance to the TA, who had kindly extended the final payment date. Unfortunately, Saga really messed up, and said we could have cover, but failed to tell us, so we defaulted on payment and cancelled the cruise. We are still waiting for Saga to refund our deposit.

 

We tried to transfer our deposit to another cruise, but P&Os stringent rules meant we would have to book another cruise of the same value, and as my wife is now retiring early than planned, it not a affordable action, We have a cruise on Arcadia booked in September, and have no further P&O cruises planned. Booked 2 on Celebrity instead, who have a more flexible attitude to transfers.

 

We have been lucky enough to do 26 P&O cruises over the years, at the cost of tens of thousands of pounds, and thats all the thanks you get.

 

We shall now enjoy trying out all the other cruise lines, over the next few years.

 

Richard

[lancashire_cruisers]

Once you've been on the cruise travel agents' mailing lists for a year or so and studied form, you can pretty reliably predict which itineraries will become discounted. As someone else has said these are largely bog-standard Med, Baltics, Caribbean fly cruises, Canaries, short cruises. Last year very few in the school summer holidays, but this year they seem to be filtering through. Unusual itineraries and longer no-fly cruises (eg Southampton/Caribbean) probably need to be booked early. Discounted balcony cabins are likely to be in short supply for ships that have few, however I've had a few offers lately featuring these.

 

Doubtless there are some exceptions to these rules, which someone is about to point out:).

 

Mary

 

That was sort of my point but put so much more eloquently by you:D.

 

Debbie:)

[lostinvegas]

P&O are in business at the end of the day. As the customer you have a choice, the important thing is to book you cruise when its best for you at a price you are happy to pay.

 

If the price and condititons change after that then they change. When you book you are informed of the booking conditions, you know the rules. If it worked the other way and P&O said sorry guys some people have paid a higher price and to be fair to them were charging everyone more, you need to pay another 10%. Everyone would be up in arms.

 

Now we had exactly the same problem as the op. We paid x amount then got a flyer from our TA advertising our cruise at a much lower cost. I just ignored it. I worked hard saved my money and paid a price I was happy to pay. I went had a great holiday and did not worry about it.

 

I made a mistake booking early because I can be quite flexible with the time I have off and I have learnt from that mistake. I will put it down to experience. I had a great time and would happily travel with P&O again.

 

Chris

[sillysausage]

i believe the price i paid is the price the holiday is worth, I am happy with the price i have!

If someone gets a better deal, at risk of not getting a deal at all, or not getting an ideal location, then that is their choice

 

i am satisfied i will get my money worth in my holiday! and i am happy with the price i have paid- OTHERWISE i would NOT have booked the holiday in the first place

[Britboys]

This does seem to be a costly way of getting your chosen dining sitting, when you can get the same for nothing simply by seeing the M.D. who is always at the dining room on boarding day. We book late and have never failed to get our choice of dining sitting.

 

David.

 

Thanks for that David. It is certainly food for thought :D. We are just a bit paranoid about not getting 2nd sitting - for us that would really spoil a cruise.

[david,Mississauga]

To UK passengers, the policy of Cunard is more frustrating than that of P&O. Cunard has a P&O-type policy for UK passengers, but Canadian and US residents may cancel up to 90 days before the voyage without penalty. For our recent transatlantic crossing, Cunard slashed the fares about four to five months in advance. Rather than ask for the lower fare, we told the TA to keep the fare approximately the same but take a much higher grade stateroom. There were a few postings on the Cunard board from unhappy UK passengers who had to cancel and therefore forfeit the deposit, then re-book. Sure they still saved money, but not as much as those of us on this side of the pond.

 

It does seem odd that the same line would have different rules depending on where the passenger lives. P&O is no longer marketed in Canada (there are no rates in dollars, only sterling) so no doubt the same rules would apply to us - as they did on our three P&O cruises that we took several years ago.

[daiB]

To UK passengers, the policy of Cunard is more frustrating than that of P&O. Cunard has a P&O-type policy for UK passengers, but Canadian and US residents may cancel up to 90 days before the voyage without penalty. For our recent transatlantic crossing, Cunard slashed the fares about four to five months in advance. Rather than ask for the lower fare, we told the TA to keep the fare approximately the same but take a much higher grade stateroom. There were a few postings on the Cunard board from unhappy UK passengers who had to cancel and therefore forfeit the deposit, then re-book. Sure they still saved money, but not as much as those of us on this side of the pond.

 

It does seem odd that the same line would have different rules depending on where the passenger lives. P&O is no longer marketed in Canada (there are no rates in dollars, only sterling) so no doubt the same rules would apply to us - as they did on our three P&O cruises that we took several years ago.

 

 

 

But interestingly it is marketed in the US. I have seen them on a US TA site.

 

 

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[Bispham Boo]

Easy Jet do not give you money when someone pays far less for a ticket!!!! and is sat next to you.

 

Actually, EJ used to - I booked about 4 years ago, the price went down, so I emailed them and they refunded me the difference. Not sure if they still do that as I've not flown with them for a while (no reason, just not done their routes).

[oscarandmilliesmum]

I opened this thread so perhaps it`s time to close it. There appears to be a common theme running through your replies. Unfortunately we Brits appear to accept getting ripped off, Americans do not, hence American owned cruise operators have to respond favourably to passenger complaints with regard to their policies and proceedures. Customer service, in all aspects of life in the UK, is poor compared to our friends across the water. Having travelled around the world, on business and pleasure, I have always found levels of service far superior to that of the UK. If you don`t ask, you don`t get ! Or in the case of P and O - you can ask but you still won`t get ! We have cruised with Celebrity, Princess and Royal Caribbean 2-3 times each and P and O only once back in 2004. The reason we have not cruised with P and O again is due to the complete disregard for their passengers once they have your money. Just a little more flexibility and common sense when assessing each individuals issue/complaint would be appreciated instead of a blanket statement. Anyway, I`m off on a cruise with Princess this weekend, bon voyage !

[Uncle Rabbit]

We have come back from our first (and last) P and O cruise in May 2009. I can see how they have upset people with this pricing con. We will not go with P and O again because of 2 things. First, there is absolutely no fresh milk on board Oceana. It may be the same on all their ships. Second, I lost trust and confidence in the bar staff when a pot of tea arrived as a cup with a tea bag hanging out of it and a filter coffee was served made with a sachet of instant. These last 2 items I personally challenged and were found to be so. We're on another 2 Celebrity cruises this year and the American sevice will be superb. Vote with your wallets and leave P and O alone.

[LibraLass41]

Also, (sorry I am ranting now) P and O should take a leaf out of Canadian Affairs book. My hubby and I booked a Rockies Landtour/Alaskan cruise last September with Princess. We have arranged our own flights with Canadian Affair from Manchester to Calgary and paid in full (we leave June 7th). 4 weeks ago we noticed Canadian affair had reduced the flight price by almost £200. We contacted them and politely asked them to consider refunding us the difference as we had booked early to get the best price and seats. They were very obliging, refunded us the difference immediately, apologised for us having to contact them and explained that they did not want to put us off using them in future and more importantly disuade us from booking early. This is what I would describe as good customer relations. Princess have also recently refunded us to the tune of £80 due to fuel surcharges being reduced. We didn`t even have to ask. P and O have a lot to learn !

 

 

 

I have just returned from a P&O cruise on Oriana and had our £82 fuel surcharge refunded as well, so its not just Princess! It was refunded to our ob account onboard, so that pleased a lot of people who don't read forums and didn't know they were getting it back (I did) it paid for a bottle of wine every night at dinner onboard for a week near enough, :)

[balf]

We will not go with P and O again because of 2 things. First, there is absolutely no fresh milk on board Oceana. quote]

 

The ocean liners many years ago used to have a cow on board to supply fresh milk. Sadly this has long gone out of practice so it is not possible now to get "fresh" milk at sea. It is in fact difficult to get really fresh milk on land unless you live on or next to a dairy farm. You would be surprised how old the milk you get from your milkmann or the supermarket really is.

 

David.

[LibraLass41]

SO which cruise ships serve 'fresh' milk then?

 

This problem can be overcome on pando. Just before boarding at Southampton, we stop at a service station and I buy a pint of s/s 'fresh' milk (like supermarket it has a use by date a week in advance, so how can this be fresh if you buy it a day before the best before date?)

I take it onboard and put in the cabin fridge. This lasts for cabin tea and coffee until the first port of call a couple of days later. Then I buy another pinta before boarding after the day at shore and so on....

This brilliant plan has always worked, except my cruise last week our fridge wasn't working and took 3 days to get replaced, by which time my pinta had gone off:rolleyes:

 

But this wouldn't stop me sailing pando.:)

[Uncle Rabbit]

In answer to 'which cruise line serves fresh milk'-Our last 2 Celebrity cruises on Constellation served it in all areas.

[Gerrym]

Sue, we have just got off Solstice as you know.

 

Fresh milk was in abundance every day. We would take a carton down to our room most days and pop it in the fridge.

 

Of course the down side is that Celebrity do not have tea/coffee making facilities in the room.

 

 

 

 

Gerry

[LibraLass41]

I will check this fresh mik subject out next month on Equinox Gerry! Wonder why Celebrity can provide it and not Pando:confused:

[balf]

In answer to 'which cruise line serves fresh milk'-Our last 2 Celebrity cruises on Constellation served it in all areas.

 

 

Problem is it may not be "fresh" as we normally mean fresh to be. As far as I know Barbados is the only port in the Carrabean where stocks are taken on board, so if you are on a weeks cruise port to port your "fresh" milk will be at least a week old at the end. Probably more as you won't see many cows on any of the islands, so milk and indeed all the foodstuffs will be imported.

 

David.

[ovccruiser]

SO which cruise ships serve 'fresh' milk then?

But this wouldn't stop me sailing pando.:)

 

Cunard serve fresh milk, either full fat or skimmed, don't forget, you can freeze milk so there is no reason not to serve fresh milk