3 in 10 cruisers won’t cruise again

[zap99]

29 minutes ago, newbie cruissy said:

I've just cancelled our July Iona cruise, we were able to take the deposit paid as FCC. I actually thought that was pretty good, since I was cancelling and not P&O. They would have had every right to offer nothing 

Good on them. If in a few weeks they offer FCC, I'll take it.

[newbie cruissy]

7 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Good on them. If in a few weeks they offer FCC, I'll take it.

I just rang them to cancel and asked, it wasn't "offered" as such. Had to be done as was nearing final payment date, and I wasn't going to risk that

[daiB]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

Does anybody know how many cases of coronavirus have been reported on a P&O ship?

As I said on a different thread I have heard of none.

 

This list covers the subject. Although an American site it covers all nationalities. Clearly the big American lines are have had the bulk of the problems 

 

 

[daiB]

Regarding the FCC’s I cannot now find the quote. I read so many threads in a number of locations and from many sources. 
 

The advice I gave still stands. If you just cancel before you pay your balance you get zilch. If you wait and take the FCC you have a chance of something.

 

 

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, daiB said:

Regarding the FCC’s I cannot now find the quote. I read so many threads in a number of locations and from many sources. 
 

The advice I gave still stands. If you just cancel before you pay your balance you get zilch. If you wait and take the FCC you have a chance of something.

 

 

Not quite true Dai, P&O do seem to be offering FCCs for cancelled deposits, whether this is only for a new confirmed booking or whether you can hold onto it for a future booking is not clear.

[daiB]

17 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Not quite true Dai, P&O do seem to be offering FCCs for cancelled deposits, whether this is only for a new confirmed booking or whether you can hold onto it for a future booking is not clear.

You could be right John as that seems to be one of those moveable feasts.

[newbie cruissy]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

Regarding the FCC’s I cannot now find the quote. I read so many threads in a number of locations and from many sources. 
 

The advice I gave still stands. If you just cancel before you pay your balance you get zilch. If you wait and take the FCC you have a chance of something.

 

 

Not true, I cancelled before paying balance and have my deposit as FCC

Edited April 14, 2020 by newbie cruissy

[daiB]

21 minutes ago, newbie cruissy said:

Not true, I cancelled before paying balance and have my deposit as FCC

At the time the question was asked this was not clear. Things are changing rapidly.

[newbie cruissy]

9 minutes ago, daiB said:

At the time the question was asked this was not clear. Things are changing rapidly.

Fair enough, I cancelled last Thursday 

[ToxM]

Just rebooked for 2022, taken advantage of longer to save and booked a better cabin and managed to find a date that coincides with a tombola birthday for me. 

 

Am taking a gamble that there will be a vaccine that has been distributed successfully and I and marital unit will have received it by the time we go. Or alternatively we will have survived a bout of it by then and will be (hopefully) immune. I cannot see myself cruising before either of the two points have come to fruition. I’ll take my chances with cruise cough and Norovirus (although I expect that to drop hugely in the future on cruises as people have finally had hand washing ingrained in them with any luck) but am unwilling to take a chance with Covid19. 

 

The cruise industry will recover - it might have a bit of a paradigm shift, but it will recover. The market may get smaller, but that means competitive edge will come back into play. I would rather cruise for a holiday than have to travel by air unless I was lucky enough to travel via Biz or FC, and then it would still be a bit of a no no for me. 

 

I hope P&O ups their suite perks by the time we go!

 

 

 

 

[DamianG]

12 hours ago, daiB said:

At the time the question was asked this was not clear. Things are changing rapidly.

 

On 24th March my TA advised that I could cancel before final payment and my deposit would be transferred to a FCC. I asked them to cancel on 5th April and this was confirmed as done on the next day. 

[terrierjohn]

13 hours ago, daiB said:

At the time the question was asked this was not clear. Things are changing rapidly.

 

29 minutes ago, DamianG said:

 

On 24th March my TA advised that I could cancel before final payment and my deposit would be transferred to a FCC. I asked them to cancel on 5th April and this was confirmed as done on the next day. 

Oh dear Dai, you have been rumbled.😉

[Selbourne]

15 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Not quite true Dai, P&O do seem to be offering FCCs for cancelled deposits, whether this is only for a new confirmed booking or whether you can hold onto it for a future booking is not clear.

I have just come off the phone to P&O. We had two cruises booked for this summer. Iona Maiden (now cancelled, so we have asked for a 100% cash refund as I wasn’t prepared to risk thousands of my money on FCC) and a 3 week cruise on Aurora in July / August. We had paid a £350 deposit on the latter with a £6,700 balance due next week. We had no intention of going, even if the cruise went ahead, so had written off the £350 in my mind.
 

Anyway, my £350 deposit has now been converted to FCC which we can use on any booking made by the end of next year. We did not have to make a new booking today so, having written that money off, we have lost nothing by having £350 on account, especially as it doesn’t have to be used against a cruise of equal or greater value (the usual conditions).

 

I have been very critical of P&O for being slow to react at the start of this crisis and for the unreasonable delays to refunds, using customers money to shore up their cash flow. I stand by those comments but I must now balance those remarks by saying that I have been very impressed by being able to potentially salvage my £350 deposit. Although I think that the cruise is very unlikely to go ahead, had I not paid my balance next week P&O could have legitimately pocketed my deposit or insisted that I transferred it to a cruise of the same value, which we wouldn’t have done. This act has restored some of my faith in P&O and I feel that I should say that. 
 

Finally, I asked about using the FCC for a summer 2022 booking once they are released (as we know, the T’s and C’s of the FCC say use by end 2021 on bookings to Mar 2022) and the chap at P&O said ‘yes’ we can do that. Please don’t take that as gospel, as I was surprised that he said that, but it could well be a possibility. 

[AndyMichelle]

I'm struggling to keep up... 

I try to avoid the nonsense for a day or 2, then find it has all changed again... 

Andy 

[daiB]

54 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

 

Oh dear Dai, you have been rumbled.😉

John Majortom said he was going to cancel and loose his deposit rather than taking  a FCC. Saying he was prepared to take the hit. So at that time it was not general  knowledge that you would still get a FCC anyway. Now if some TC’s had that information, fine but it was not general knowledge so again as ever you are wrong.

[jaydee6969]

1 hour ago, AndyMichelle said:

I'm struggling to keep up... 

I try to avoid the nonsense for a day or 2, then find it has all changed again... 

Andy 

I know how you feel, just come back to the site after a month break!

 

Back to the topic, we will cruise again in the future.  We should be on Britannia now, but have re-booked the same cruise next Easter for the 7+2 night cruises and upgraded our cabin too with the 125% FCC.  Plus we have a TA booked on QM2 in December with a stay in New York, plus 2 booked with P&O for July 2021 and October 2021.

 

We cancelled our Iona trip for the end of June, back on the 18th March before the final balance was due, and as per P&O website at the time, the deposit was automatically converted to an FCC for the same value.

 

Come release time for April 2022 cruises and beyond, I will still be booking up future cruises.

[terrierjohn]

49 minutes ago, daiB said:

John Majortom said he was going to cancel and loose his deposit rather than taking  a FCC. Saying he was prepared to take the hit. So at that time it was not general  knowledge that you would still get a FCC anyway. Now if some TC’s had that information, fine but it was not general knowledge so again as ever you are wrong.

Dai, thank you for your usual put down, even if as usual you are totally wrong   In fact P&O even backdated this procedure to anyone who had cancelled a cruise days before these new terms came into effect. I benefitted from this myself, I transferred my April Ventura cruise to a replacement Iona booking in Feb 21, after cancelling the original booking, and expecting to lose that deposit. I have only this last week discovered that this deposit had been converted to a FCC and credited against the new booking, when I finally received the confirmation booking documents from my TA.

[AndyMichelle]

45 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

I know how you feel, just come back to the site after a month break!

 

Back to the topic, we will cruise again in the future.  We should be on Britannia now, but have re-booked the same cruise next Easter for the 7+2 night cruises and upgraded our cabin too with the 125% FCC.  Plus we have a TA booked on QM2 in December with a stay in New York, plus 2 booked with P&O for July 2021 and October 2021.

 

We cancelled our Iona trip for the end of June, back on the 18th March before the final balance was due, and as per P&O website at the time, the deposit was automatically converted to an FCC for the same value.

 

Come release time for April 2022 cruises and beyond, I will still be booking up future cruises.

Welcome back Jaydee.. 

Andy 

[daiB]

31 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Dai, thank you for your usual put down, even if as usual you are totally wrong   In fact P&O even backdated this procedure to anyone who had cancelled a cruise days before these new terms came into effect. I benefitted from this myself, I transferred my April Ventura cruise to a replacement Iona booking in Feb 21, after cancelling the original booking, and expecting to lose that deposit. I have only this last week discovered that this deposit had been converted to a FCC and credited against the new booking, when I finally received the confirmation booking documents from my TA.

And your comment was not a put down?

If you knew all this at the time why did you not say so. Hindsight is wonderful.

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

And your comment was not a put down?

If you knew all this at the time why did you not say so. Hindsight is wonderful.

Did anyone else get the cc survey? 

Typically loaded questions with multiple choice answers which often didn't include what you wanted to say... 

That's how figures get manipulated... 

Andy 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, daiB said:

And your comment was not a put down?

If you knew all this at the time why did you not say so. Hindsight is wonderful.

If you really had read my post thoroughly, you would have noticed that I only received my booking docs last week. However I had seen a few posts advising that some people had been given FCCs for their deposits, so I was aware this was available.

[daiB]

2 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

If you really had read my post thoroughly, you would have noticed that I only received my booking docs last week. However I had seen a few posts advising that some people had been given FCCs for their deposits, so I was aware this was available.

And so you posted to help MajorTom.?

[Scriv]

Hi All -  just posting this link to the covid-19  (updated on 30 March) flexible cancellation terms on the website which explain the options for if you want to cancel your cruise before paying your balance.
 

I have cancelled mine for a July cruise before the balance due date and had the option of transfer deposit to another cruise or to get FCC to the value of the deposit paid.

 

https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories/flexible-cancellation-policy

Edited April 15, 2020 by Scriv

[Eddie99]

To return to the original post

 

I think Simon Calder is very good at his job (which he obviously loves).  He also makes himself available to broadcast media which can make him seem ubiquitous.  This probably irritates some people.  I’ll accept his ubiquity in exchange for his expertise 

 

I’m one of the 3/10, if you add “for the foreseeable future”.  I love cruising and have lots booked, right up to January 2022.  However, until there is a vaccine, or unless & until the virus mutates and burns itself out, there’s no chance of me getting on a cruise ship.
 

I can’t see how cruising can become viable again in the current circumstances.  I expect something will change but I don’t have the imagination to work out what that is.  

[Harry Peterson]

Agree with you absolutely about Simon Calder.  There’s nobody out there with the years of practical travel experience he has behind him (and real travel, not just theoretical) and the ability to convey his knowledge of the industry to readers, listeners and viewers.

 

As for the future, who knows?  Unless and until there’s an effective vaccine, and that’s a long way off, or some effective treatment, people are going to be very wary indeed about risking their lives on a cruise ship. Many of the present customers are already having to self isolate, and may have to do that for some months to come, again unless and until there’s a vaccine.