topster5

After having been told several times on the phone , even up to and including this morning, that cabin allocation for this cruise would take place today, now a message has come up that it's not till Wednesday. Very annoying.

Thanks for your replies. [emoji1]. Did you get good cabins???

 

 

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Yes, we're happy with our cabins for that one!

We are going on 2nd October and only got our cabin allocation on Friday just gone ( 16th Sept.) , so two weeks prior

That's useful to know about Morocco, thanks, Whoops. We've got stops in Morocco on two upcoming cruises and I must admit I had wondered about this, and whether we'd be better of staying aboard. Can't stand being hassled by beggars.

I would get a balcony , definitely, for Norway. You don't want to miss a second of that breathtaking scenery - there is nothing like it when you get up from your bed and walk out straight onto your balcony and literally gasp at the fjords towering all around. And yes, the suites do have bigger balconies. It all just depends how much you want to spend. The view will be the same !!

Try not to buy anything ashore! Last time we went to Norway, five or six years ago, we went on a trip and bought six postcards, six stamps for the UK and a small bottle of water. It came to £19.

I'm only just getting over the shock now.

The extra discount comes from their commission from P&O which I believe is around 8% - used to be higher! Obviously if you book direct with P&O they get to keep that 8%!

Thanks for that info, very interesting

...

I would like to understand clearly how travel agents can offer better prices than P&O themselves? Not talking about the 5% or 10% discounts for previous customers, or for reserving well in advance for 2018. If they are able to offer additional discounts over and abovethese discounts that the cruise company are offering - how? Do they get a commission from the cruise company? or are they selling cabins that they have bought and are selling on?

I mean, I would like to know how it actually all works. Do travel agents reserve a certain number of cabins from P&O and they are effectively selling them on to us, the customers? If so, what's in it for P&O? Why would it be advantageous to them for people to go through a travel agent? if they know they can fill the ship anyway, why involve a third party?

Just would genuinely like to understand the concept of the relationship between cruise line and travel agents and how the prices can vary depending on how you buy your cabin.

But that's what I'm saying, Jean - is there extra in it? as we have paid less by by booking direct on this occasion than 'R' Ltd are offering : we 've got a better grade of de luxe balacony cabin guaranteed , at a cheaper price than their cheapest grade of de luxe balcony cabin.

We booked by phone with P&O on this occasion

And yet, looking online on a certain well known cruise Travel Agent, begins with letter 'R' - not sure whether we're allowed to mention by name - the cheapest grade of deluxe balcony they are offering is dearer than what we have paid P&O direct for the grade of cabin we have got guaranteed, and we have a grade two grades higher guaranteed.

Do you use a high street travel agent or online?

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm wondering now whether we will be at a disadvantage when the cruise we've pre-registered for in Oct. '18 goes on sale, as it's been mentioned that Travel Agents get priority time when the phone lines open on launch day of cruise going on sale, to reserve preferred cabin for their customers.

this is very heplful, thank you

No, Pete, afraid not; we booked direct. Will that make a difference?

Sorry, yes, my mistake, got a bit mixed up there - we have got a few booked! the one we have pre-registered for is October 2018.

So, I wonder whether it is the case that I will be able to choose my cabin on the day the cruises are released for sale? There are particular cabins I'm interested in

We have also pre reg for j814 and J815 so see you in 2 years time. Hope you are not after the same cabin as me lol.

I've never pre-registered before, but I've recently pre-registered for a cruise in March 2018. When the cruises actually go live on sale, can one phone up and choose a cabin at that time?

If you are by the lifts, maybe you will not have a problem, looking at the distance of the cabins by there, to where the nightclub is? That's a quite a bit more of a distance away... it's not as if you're directly above the club, as we were going to be.

Hope you have a great cruise

P.S. the stage in the Havana Club can be seen on the deck plan - it's on the port side, aft, and I understand the loudspeakers are located in that area

Hi there, just read your post. We'd been booked onto Cruise N701 on Ventura for 2nd January and reserved Suite E732, which my husband subsequently noticed was directly above the Havana nightclub, and moreover , directly above the stage and loudspeakers.

After a couple of days deliberation we eventually cancelled and switched to another cruise; we're now going on Ventura in March instead and have a suite aft, but now not above the nightclub.

You could phone up and ask what your options are, and weigh up want you would rather do. This is what we did as we didn't want to spend the coming months thinking about it and wondering whether we were going to have a problem , which might take the shine off off the holiday. Also there is nothing worse than getting on board and being dissatisfied with a situation with noise or whatever. Are there any cabins left at that grade at all?

My view was that it was worth making the alteration to our plans, because we are not night owls and we felt there could well have been a noise issue which would have affected our holiday and we didn't want to risk it.

Hey, we're going on this cruise too !! can't wait!!

we have now changed suites

Thank you so much, Mike, for taking the time to post this info.

Yes, I did a bit more research yesterday and read that the suite we'd booked (E732) was directly above the loudspeakers in the nightclub below.

As you say, we are 'early nighters' so in view of that took the decision to change suites.

The suite itself looks fabulous and indeed for someone who might themselves be out till all hours partying it looks like it would be an excellent choice!

This will be the first time we've had a suite, in a cruising history of about 14 cruises, all with Cunard and P&O, so we don't want to be disappointed.

it may wellbe that it might in reality have been not too bad/ not as bad as we imagined, but I didn't want to spend the forthcoming months wondering about it!

Many thanks again, and happy cruising!

Thank you for this input

That is useful to know, perhaps we will switch back

Many thanks for your reply. We have decided to change suites, but not change cruise. P&o allowed us to change to a suite at the front of the ship, without incurring a penalty.

Hi, We've had the Strathmore suite (A750) on Ventura & it was lovely. Huge balcony, no metal support & very, very quiet. No noise from the pool deck above & at the end of the corridor so no passing traffic, only one other suite next door. To sit on the balcony & watch the wake I found very peaceful. You can even lie in the whirlpool tub & watch sailaway!!However, having just returned from a weekender on Ventura I would not recommend E732!! I stupidly assumed that even though it was above Havanna, as it was a suite & commanded such a premium payment, the soundproofing would be sufficient - how wrong was I. The base from the music in Havanna could be heard very clearly and until very late. Being lower down in the ship, the vibration when the reverse thrusters were in use was awful & woke us very early. There was a huge metal beam running through the balcony and although at the end of a corridor, it was next door to a standard balcony cabin & lets just say our neighbours were not very considersate & the walls very thin :mad:

Thanks for this valuable info - we have just booked E732 for January and I am now considering changing due to the possibility of noise