P&O Aus - getting the most of your cruise - on board cash - other benefits ?

[Whoey]

Hi all, I recently booked a 2006 cruise for my family of five (on the Pacific Sun) via an Agent and received Past Passenger discount (additonal 5% off the funside savers 20%) . Was wondering what other deals people know about? Specifically what do you ask for / request / demand when making a booking. Apart from waiting for the end of year sellout (50% savings etc) for a pretty average deck, are there any other techniques people use to get the "best deal possible" or do people pay remaining balance of the flat 20% funsaver discount amounts ?

P&O direct over the phone seem very much locked in to the flat prices and are pretty much inflexible. I recommend an Agent always because they specifically WANT your business and I have found most do all they can to help you out.

Anyone know any recommended tips or things people do to get the most out of their P&O Aus cruise ? Such as on board cash deals in the booking and or Captains Circle (what is this and how does it help?)

Thanks!

[Neicy& Ron]

We booked our cruise some 4 months ago through : www.globenettravel.com.au

The service we recieved was excellent.

We paid $1840 each and conditions were that we were that we would not find out where we were on the ship until departure date.

Well we have recieved our tickets and we are in a upper deck queen bed cabin which has a price of $3765 each.

No extra discounts or specials.

But at that price we are not complaining.

Regards
Ron & Neicy

[Kazza1]

This is my first time on Cruise Critic and my family of 5 are also booked to go on our first cruise in June 2005 . I found that being a family of 5, we were unable to take advantage of any specials because we needed to book a long time in advance to get the cruise we wanted with a 5th rollaway bed, kids club and a good deck (we booked in July 2004 and cruise in June 2005). You mentioned that you got an extra 5% discount for being a past cruiser ( was that cruise on the Pacific Sun with your children? ). I was wondering about the Kids clubs. I have been reading Cruise Critic and cant wait for reviews ( can only find 1 other review ). I know there is a few people that are on the ship now and will be returning in a couple of days.

[ali-ali-oh]

I too have been searching for reviews etc as we are going on a P&O cruise in June also, but on the other side of the world by the looks of things.

We also cruise with Celebrity but are giving P&O a crack because they are going from England, which of course is more convenient. Have you checked the boards on P&O's own site? I found quite a lot more info on there than I did on here. This is a great site, but mainly active for American based cruises and I know P&O don't market themselves very well in the States.

Don't know if that helps but I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[Whoey]

Neicy & Ron, we also booked through globenettravel in qld. Service was exceptional and the person went out of their way to answer all my questions. I called about 10 different local agents (I live in Melbourne) and no one would match their prices. Your deal is amazing, one of those 50% off cruises I guess, like Kazza1 being a family those cruises are apparently unavailable to us, due to the low number of children allowed on each cruise (they fill up quickly and by discount time we would end up waitlisted). Once my kids grow up I am SURE my wife and I will utilise these great deals from time to time. The fact you were allocated an upper deck is fantastic and such great value. Which ship are you sailing on ?

Kazaa1, I agree with all you said, it is complicated and bordering on discriminatory towards families with the rules etc. P&O need to market "packages" to families, sure the facilities Kids club etc are really good but on a budget it gets expensive ! Also, the booking system of requiring two bookings for a family, they have to improve that. Imagine if they marketed directly to past passengers of five with a deal such as pay for two adults (say at the 20% fare) and all kids are free ? I know they are doing a mid 2005 family cruise (I think its Pacific Sky - not sure) that is something like this but I came across this deal on the Internet by chance, there seems to be no direct marketing.

The Past Passenger discount only applied for us because we sailed for our honeymoon a couple of years ago and we paid the Deposit amount by end of January 2005 for our Feb 2006 cruise. To get this discount you HAVE to pay WAY in advance. I think Past Passengers extra 5% applies to all P&O, i think once you have paid deposit etc thats it you get no additional benefits, such that if they discount the cruise later on its tough luck.

Even considering the neccesity to book WAY in advance due to 3 kids (I so get how you feel about this!) I still believe for a family it IS a value holiday. The only other option that includes *child care* is Club Med I think and I priced Club Med bali for 11 nights at $11,000 Aus (inc flights etc), we are doing our 11 night cruise for $9000 and that includes spending money and we are on Empress Deck Outside (windows) cabin

I sort of get the feeling P&O dont really like or want to promote the 5 bed deals. I was told they only allow a small number < 10 I think on the Pacific Sun hence the urgency to book ASAP.

Anyway, happy to talk to you more about this... pm me if you like

cheers.

[Whoey]

AliW - P&O Aus website is a good site, it has a lot of information and is quite smart looking - user friendly. If anyone is travelling P&O Aus I recommend looking at the Site Help (sitemap) - can be found on the bottom of main page. There are quite a lot of things I didnt know where on the site.

However, they dont mention anything beneficial like how to get a better deal and of course why should they - its a business after all ! I have heard the UK P&O website is even better - more international and apparently they respect their past passengers very well with some sort of a loyalty points system for on ship discounts and captains Club type of membership levels ??? I would look into this because I have read reviews that membership of this club does get you discounts on the ship and treated a bit special (why not !)

I wish the Aus P&O would go the same way, for example the Past Passenger discount (aus code is PP4 by the way) of 5% is NOT mentioned on the Aus website, you have to know about it (how I ask !!!). We were lucky enough to find an Agent who WANTED to help us get our best price and asked US if we were past passengers (which we are).

anyway, enough from me - enjoy your cruise !

[Kazza1]

Whoey

I do agree with you that it is still a great value family holiday.
We are going on cruise N518 for $6996.00 ( 11 nights, 6 ports on the Empress deck - outside cabin also)
If all goes well I think we will be booking a cruise for next year and make cruising our family holiday. I would like to go on N605 (Feb 2006) as it is our 16th wedding anniversary and it goes to three ports in Fiji - but school starts back and we will have one starting Kindy. When I first looked at a cruise to Fiji, we were unable to go because the Pacific Sky (who was based in Sydney then) doesnt have 5th rollaway beds . We then picked a cruise on Pacific Sun (N435) that went to Fiji, but was put on a waitlist (that cruise was cancelled due to the hurricanes).
I saw a news headline this morning about cyclone warning for the South Pacific, but couldnt find any more info at that time.

better go now,
Kazza1

[Whoey]

Kazaa1, I looked at N518 and I am curious as to how many children over 2 years 11 months you have by June 2005? How many kids are you paying for on your cruise ? $6998 is a good price for 2 adults and 1 over 3 child (is that right)? We are paying more then that but then we are paying for 3 children fares.

Anyway, we are doing N607 (11 nights) because N605 is too close to school for us and the other cruises in March / April seem to be a bit wishy-washy like 7 - 10 nights. N607 is the best fit for us, due to our youngest *just* being 3 by then. I do admit its not the best stops (no Fiji) but you cant have everything and it fits too well for other reasons.

I dont know if you know this but all children that you dont pay for, i.e. under 3, are your responsibility 24 x 7 - they get NO child care ! The $500 is worth the child care alone we think (per child) to get some us time.

Dont get me wrong, we love time with our kids but say after a big night drinking / dancing the last thing we want to do is deal with the kids ALL day

We will go exploring with our kids to all the shore visits (absolutely!!!) and have a great time, but in some ways we want some us time too and the child care, presuming it is good quality, is a fantastic benefit.

Could you do me a favour and please review your cruise from the Parents perspective, i.e. the goods / bad things you find for your kids. Maybe review the child care in general and *fun things for the kids to do* stuff ? I would greatly appreciate that. Any tips about this stuff would be ace.

Regards.

[Whoey]

Kazza1, yeah it is a bit annoying Pacific Sun is the ONLY ship offering the 5th bed - I guess the cabins are slightly larger then Pacific Star and Pacific Sky ? I live in Melbourne and Pacific Sky will be based here from the middle of 2006 one and off working Asia market as well - I presume based in Asia over our Winter - I really dont know yet. You never hear ANYTHING about children on the larger ships, like do P&O / Princess want families of 5 on these ships (probably not..?)

For obvious reasons it would suit us to travel on a Melbourne based cruise (more spending money) but like you mentioned no 5th bed... what a bummer. There is a LOT of talk about P&O Aus scrapping Pacific Sky probably sometime in 2007 and doing exactly the same as they did with Carnivale Jubilee (became Pacific Sun). That is the Carnivale Holiday which is 99% the same as Jubilee - same deck plan etc, becoming Pacific Sky's replacement. That would suit us perfectly (5th bed etc).

Oh well, you can always come on N607 like we are and hang out ?

cheers.

[Kazza1]

Whoey,

All our boys are over 2yrs and 11mths. By June 05, they will be 10, 5 1/2 and 4 1/2, so we had to pay a small fee for them. When we booked most of the other cruises 4th and 5th child were free. There was a different brochure than the current one. P&O brought out a book listing the cruises on Pacific Sun from Oct 04 (maiden voyage) till Sept 05. The prices were cheaper, 4th and 5th children were mainly for free and you got 20% off if you booked before 31/10/04 (after that it went to the new brochure, which will change again after 30 April 05). We paid $3144.00 per adault, $556.00 for 3rd person (child), $76.00 for 4th person (child) and $76.00 for 5th person (child). So booking a year ahead we got the 20% and we saved $1000.00.

I dont know how old your other children are, but when we were shortlisted last year, we called P&O to see how the list was going. The lady that helped us was really nice (and knowing how excited our children were), she sent them a copy of the kids club program, the news letter, a movie list (as my eldest is a movie buff) and some other info about shore tours (I think). Because Pacific Sun had not arrived yet, the information was from Pacific Sky, so Im not sure if they are run the same way. I might try calling them again to see if they can send a current Pacific Sun kids club program. He liked the idea that there is a pager system and that if we give permission, he can have a key to the kids club to come and go.

We have printed up all the tours for our ports, but dont realy know which one's are suitable for kinds. They might tell us on the ship. I think they do a tour talk and may be able to recommend child freindly tours.

When we get back I will do a review from "a parents point of view" (as there is none) and will try to pass on any info that will make the cruise EVEN MORE ENJOYABLE for the kids.

Kazza1

[Crunchie]

I'm not sure if they still do it, because of the problem's they've been having as a business, but Flight Centre used to have a "Lowest airfare guarantee", which of course extended to cruises as well. shop around, and then take the lowest price you can find to them, and see if they can do any better. Often they can, but if they can't, just book with the travel agent you got the quote from, because often some agencies have special deals with the cruise line. I booked through Harvey World Travel, and my agent was fantastic. he was able to get us really good last minute deals, as we had to cancel the cruise we were originally booked on because one of our group members was very ill.

[Whoey]

Crunchie, I did go to a flight centre branch in a major shopping centre here in Melbourne and the specific agent I dealt with was young and did not get back to me at all. I called him three times to followup and get a price and ultimately he said they wouldnt do any better then standard P&O rates and I was like huh ? Anyway once I got the great prices & help from globenettravel this Agent was hesitant to match the price but said they would. This particular Flight Centre agent gave the impression the complexity of our 2 adults 3 kids booking for P&O would be a hassle for him to quote on and book, really turned me off that specific branch. Not to say all Flight centre are liked that of course, I wont go back to that branch to say the least.

Ultimately it came down to attitude and the service from my Agent at GlobeNet was genuinely impressive and I rewarded that with my business. It really impressed me that globenet asked ME if we were past passengers and recommended the 5% extra discount which I knew nothing about after speaking with no less then 10 other agents. Plus they answered all my many questions promptly and actually listened to what I had to say. Price is very important to everyone especially people like Kazaa1 and myself on a family budget, but that good old thing called Service, I believe is lacking in some of the agents I spoke to, not all, just some.

[Whoey]

Kazaa1, by the time of our cruise (late Feb next year) my three will be girl 7 1/4, boy 5 1/4 , girl 3.01 (just 3). As i mentioned I saw somehwere that P&O have a mid this year cruise (it might even be N518 i cant recall) that has 1 or two kids free!

Your deal is better then ours even with the 5% extra we got off (because we paid for 3 x kids fares), so you should be very happy with it !!! We would love a copy of the kids club guide (paperwork), maybe you could get a spare one(second copy or whatever) and mail it to me when you get back ? Your boy being 10 years old will definately be allowed to go his own way as P&O allow this with your permission, our oldest at 7 is probably still too young for that.

We did a HEAP of shore tours on our honeymoon cruise and I must admit most of them were a little dissapointing. Not to say the places you go arent great to see etc but the one day we did our own thing (Vanuata Vila) was in our opinion the most FUN. I noticed with N518 you are going to Noumea and Vila. Noumea is a pretty average place, people are quite rude (or so we found) and its a bit dingy - especially where the ship docks. I recommend a tour here, we went to a small island with a lighthouse which had the most awesome beaches and it could be walked around in 20 minutes or so. What I am saying is definately get out of Noumea and go on a tour somewhere.

Vila is a good place to wander, nice shops and friendly people so maybe do that for a while? Like most stops Vila also has great beaches but you need to jump on a tour to get to them (I think...) We are going to both of these places as well on our cruise and I think we will do as I just said for both.

I am already eager to read your "parents review" ! If you do manage to get a copy of the kids club guide before your cruise let me know ok?

Cheers.

[Whoey]

Kazza1. quick question for you:

When you booked your cruise P&O had 4th and 5th kids free (admin cost only). Was this just a lucky timing think that this offer was available at your booking time in 2004 or did you get direct marketed this information?

My point is if they do this again it would be nice to hear about it at least in Streamers and preferably as an invitation to past family of five passengers, see what I mean?

That would be a very attractive option to us and probably yourselves at a later date, do you agree?

[Kazza1]

Whoey,

Thanks for the info on Noumea. I had also read the review (and pictures) from Chris on the other site, were he said that Noumea was scummy and that he paid $10.00 for a transfer to the other side. The people that didnt transfer were really disappointed. My husband and I looked at the tour info a while ago and liked the sound of the Amedee Island tour. After choosing that tour, it was good to hear that you have already been on it. (Think it will be good for the kids with a playground, lighthouse, picnic etc..)
Any other recommendations?
Lahore's photo was good. The ship looks packed. We have told the kids that on a weekend when Pacific Sun is in Darling Harbour, we will take them to see it. The two youngest dont understand how big the ship is and to see it fit under the Harbour Bridge by 4m they will think that its mad.

Regards,
Kazza1

[Whoey]

Kazaa1,

We went to the Cascade's Waterfall at Vila Vanuata, paid for bus trip and a bit of local fruit afterwards (was $40 each I think). Was nice to see the waterfall's but felt a bit ripped off when two couples caught a taxi and followed the bus there and then back to port - paid $5 each I think. Doesnt matter, cascades was nice.

As I said previously the tours were all good but we wont go on many this time. Most likely just do one in Noumea due to the obvious reasons. Amedee Island was simply stunning, awesome beaches, friendly people. We did a glass bottom boat tour which was really quite good (at Amedee island). We also walked the island in 20 minutes which was fun. I recommend Amedee Island very much, I think there was a small ice cream shop too. Was a large speedboat to get there (left from the end of the docks) and this trip was fun in itself (boat went fast, your boys would probably like that).

I made lahore's photo my desktop, its the best Pacific Sun shot I have so far

[Whoey]

Kazaa1, Pacific Sun will be in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup cruise (oh duh) late October early November and we will take our kids down to St. Kilda beach / Station Pier area for Fish and Chips on the beach. We are actually cruising with some other family members and friends (13 of us!!!). We will all meet up together and go see the ship !!!

Did you read that Menu in the other post (sumashy's), the food reads fantastic! Makes me very excited to go !!! I have been looking at the Carnivale Jubilee (and sister ship Holiday) deck plans to see any little differences to the Pacific Sun layout. It's pretty much the same but one or two little things here and there.

Have a look if you get some time... :
http://www.cruise4.com/DeckPlans/CAR...iday-menu.html

It looks as if the Shark Shack Children's area might be a new addition or a revamp of another room (it doesnt show on the Carnival deck plan). The other Turtle Cove's children centre LOOKS very small and I think I heard someone saying it IS a bit too small. Not much we can do about this I guess.

I have way too much free time at work - haha !

[Kazza1]

Whoey

I have P&Os desktop picture of Pacific Sun. Great idea to have lahores picture (its about time for another Pacific Sun desktop). I have an office at home and every time I pass it, I look at my computer and wish June would come.

All the food sounds and looks delicious (Samushys menu and the pictures in the brochure).

A group of 13 sounds fantastic. You will all have a ball. Any other children in that 13 for your kids to hang with?

Had a look at the Jubilee site. Shark Shack is new and Pelican Bay Childrens Centre replaced the childrens pool. I have also heard that Turtle Cove is small. I called P&O today to see what age group the Pelican Bay was and she didnt know it was even there . I was told that there is only two age groups - 3yrs to 5yrs 11mths (Turtle Cove) and 6yrs to 12yrs11mths (Shark Shack). She said the Pelican Bay may be used for the night child minding, but she didnt know.

Regards
Kazza1

[Whoey]

Kazaa1, we have another couple and two young boys travelling with us, in fact I got the number wrong its actually 15 people The two boys are family and our kids play with them a lot so its all good, similar ages and all.

I have found it is pure luck to get a good knowledgable person on the P&O number. Some of them know so much its impressive others are just there to take bookings and go ask their supervisor almost every question. I have rarely hung up without an answer and I think they run a reasonably good service, some of my questions have been very specific. For example, I have a video camera and on most holidays I like to watch back a days taping. As the ship has a tv in each room I wanted to know if you can plug in standard RCA video leads to watch my camera. The girl had to go ask the supervisor who knew that the tv's are locked down and you cant do this sort of thing. Thats a better answer then "I dont know" and I was satisfied to know that.

I am ALWAYS coming up with kids related questions and I bug P&O pretty often, doesnt cost anything (I use my work phone - lol) so why not ?

The ONLY thing I dont like about Pacific Sun is the lack of a decent Promenade deck. That is an open to the air sunning deck, the few reviews I have read most people say it is difficult to get personal space under the sun. This was one of the things we liked best about FairStar when we went on her 7 years ago. We have lots of stops at beach locations so will work on the tan there.

I wish there was an AUS P&O forum whereby questions (FAQ) could be investigated and built upon with questions like we have. I noticed you dont have an email listed against your user account, feel free to email me on losferwords@hotmail.com if you would like to talk some more.

I feel like this thread has turned into our family cruise discussion and I wonder how relevant / interesting it is to other people.. ?

Regards.

[Kazza1]

You should be able to Email through Cruise Critic.
Email address is ozcoast@iprimus.com.au

Kazza1