pete14

Great news. Enjoy your cruise and hopefully restore you positivity with P&O

Thank you for staying with us and giving more information. From my experience, if you get a letter from your GP stating you are unfit to travel due to a new condition which has surfaced so close to departure, I cannot imagine that any reputable insurance company would refuse payment.

Agreed. After all, this is the P&O board. Other cruise lines have their own boards. It is not the first time a new poster has started a contentious and critical thread, never to be heard from again, maybe this new poster will be sufficiently grown up to provide us with an update. Hopefully he/she will do so.

In this case, there is nothing they can do. This is an insurance problem, not a P&O problem. If P&O were to make a payment, it could open the floodgates for people to look at a long range weather forecast and decide to get a refund if they cancel because it is forecast to rain. I am not suggesting that OP is doing this, clearly from what they say, they are not, but terms and conditions are clear to people when they book and advice to buy insurance prior to travel, and the need to have it on departure, is made clear. This week, I had to cancel a cruise that leaves on Saturday because of family illness and a C word contact. My insurance have said they cover it, hopefully they do. I never for a minute expected P&O to go outside their t&cs and refund any of what I paid. Expecting a service agent to break the rules of their employment and refund thousands of pounds never even crossed my mind and pressurising them to do so would be unacceptable in my opinion.

Seems an odd price until you realise it is 3 for a pound.

It always amazes me that some people seem to object to large profits being made out of an activity that they choose to involve themselves in, in the hope of winning a large profit themselves. Profits from onboard spend by those who choose to spend, increase the bottom line figure on a cruise, perhaps contributing to the lower fares that people like.

Sorry for misleading anybody, I assumed that a single trip policy only kicked in at the start of the trip. The second point is well made though and it beggars belief that some who buy such a policy leave it until a few days before they leave, thereby missing out on the extra cover an early purchase provides.

As everything seems to be P&O’s fault at the moment, it isn’t hard to work out who would get the blame.

I don’t suppose anybody was forced to join in. They chose to pay and play, knowing the prizes on offer. I don’t see anything wrong with a company that has to make a profit, doing so. There may have been 400 players on that occasion but there was no way of knowing how many would choose to turn up. On other occasions, it may be only 50 or less. I don’t expect there were many who chose to play who expected to make a profit on the deal.

I have sympathy with your plight but I am not sure you are criticising the correct target. If you are deemed medically unfit to travel and have medical evidence to support this, your insurance policy will cover you (unless you have chosen to take out a single trip policy that will not start until the day you leave). That is not the fault of P&O who I believe advise taking out annual policies to cover such eventualities. All you need to do about your excursions is to go online and cancel them. The refund should be triggered by your cancellation.

They were probably pasta their best before date

If I left Charlie in charge of where we go, we could end up anywhere, and certainly nowhere near where we wanted to be.

And of course from me

We may make a visit some time this week

Does it really matter about the colours? I have printed ours for upcoming cruise on a black and white printer. I cannot imagine they will be rejected for that.

Can I take this opportunity to publicly declare that I will not be standing to be elected as a fish and chip purveyor (or anything else)?

Do you mean that 100 have been spotted or one has been spotted 100 times?

I am not suggesting anybody tries this but years ago, we were on an excursion coach with an eccentric guide. She was very meticulous with her counting to ensure everybody had got back on the coach after a stop. She did get rather confused though when a gentleman on the back seat (not me), put his hat on a walking stick so it was visible and ‘eligible’ to be counted. I am not sure she found it as funny as many of us did.

There is hardly any point going at 20 knots and docking at the next port in the early hours of the morning.

What a relief. I couldn’t bear the thought that such things happened in Stoke.

Not here in Stoke on Trent surely 😉

I can well understand that about 15 formal nights on a 55 night cruise (based on 2 per week) would become a chore and lose the feeling of being special rather quickly. However, I think reducing formal nights on all cruises to 1 per week would sound the death knell for the formal night. How many would pack suits and sparkly dresses for one formal night on a 7 night cruise, or even two formals on a 12-14 nighter?

‘Named and shamed’? What better way is there to check that people are back on board before departure than using the ship’s communication systems? My wife was ‘called’ in this way some years ago. She was on the ship so she rang the number they gave and told them so. No problem. How on earth could she be ‘shamed’ when only a small handful of people onboard knew who she was. It is just a name that means nothing to anybody else. Far better this way, than sailing on schedule and the captain not being certain that everybody is back onboard, or if not, who is missing.

Just the thing for attracting the over 60’s to have their booster!

Intelligent, good looks, air of excitement and cute humour. Sounds like a few who post on here! No suggestions please, I don’t want to be overwhelmed with compliments. 🥴🫣