Summer 2022 - Brochure Launch

[terrierjohn]

12 hours ago, grapau27 said:

Towels on unused sunbeds saving sunbeds for hours too.

Probably towels will have been exchanged for face masks, if we ever go cruising again.

[wowzz]

11 hours ago, grapau27 said:

I absolutely agree.

No-one is forced to read anything.

I have hardly read this thread because we have no intention of booking 2022 until the middle of next year at the earliest.

Graham.

Graham - that makes two of us. No point booking anything at this stage for 2021, and if and when the dust settles we might look at 2023. 

[Adawn47]

20 hours ago, zap99 said:

When we can all start cruising again , early 2021. The protocols for the enhanced cruising experience should mean more availability for sunbeds.🤣

Do my eyes deceive me zap, or are you looking a little 'blue'😉

Avril

[zap99]

28 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

Do my eyes deceive me zap, or are you looking a little 'blue'😉

Avril

Thanks Avril, but I'm fine. I'm trying to find my way around the new layout, but noticed that some of the posts are just as negative. I have been enjoying our American cousins on some of the other threads. Some are really blunt with the soothsayers. Sorry but ' I think the world will end if we don't get a vaccine', or ' I'm never,ever going to cruise again with that nasty P&O' and then discussing which Suite to book for 2022', in the words of that Canadian Lady, don't impress me much, so I'm learning the art of ignoreanincompoopery.🤣

[jeanlyon]

Please note, we are currently experiencing online booking issues for Top Tier guests on our 2022 Summer collection holidays. Please try again later this evening, or call us on 0344 338 8003.

 

Their IT beggars belief sometimes!

[pete14]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Please note, we are currently experiencing online booking issues for Top Tier guests on our 2022 Summer collection holidays. Please try again later this evening, or call us on 0344 338 8003.

 

Their IT beggars belief sometimes!

Didn’t stop me booking by phone this morning, which I prefer anyway. Everything conducted in a friendly and professional way. As you have your favourite agent who seems to do everything for you unless problems crop up (you regularly tell us about having to phone P&O yourself), I am not sure why you chose to post your negative remark at the end. 

Edited November 9, 2020 by pete14

[jeanlyon]

Oh dear, was it something I said?  My Agent does do everything EVEN when problems crop up.    You get 3 different answers from P&O depending on who you speak to.

Edited November 9, 2020 by jeanlyon

[pete14]

50 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Oh dear, was it something I said?  My Agent does do everything EVEN when problems crop up.    You get 3 different answers from P&O depending on who you speak to.

I really don’t want us to fall out Jean but if your agent does everything even when problems crop up, why do ‘you get 3 different answers from P&O depending on who you speak to’. I can honestly say that is not my experience. You have posted several times recently over FCC, refunds and transferring cruises etc. Are these not conversations your agent should be having with P&O on your behalf? 

[Josy1953]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Please note, we are currently experiencing online booking issues for Top Tier guests on our 2022 Summer collection holidays. Please try again later this evening, or call us on 0344 338 8003.

 

Their IT beggars belief sometimes!

So a normal day in the world of P&O IT.  I have said many times that I don't understand why they don't seem to system test properly before implementing changes in their customer facing  systems.  I am not confident that I would have lasted for the 36 years I did in IT systems development if I had performed as P&O systems developers seem to.

[pete14]

2 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

So a normal day in the world of P&O IT.  I have said many times that I don't understand why they don't seem to system test properly before implementing changes in their customer facing  systems.  I am not confident that I would have lasted for the 36 years I did in IT systems development if I had performed as P&O systems developers seem to.

I cannot understand why anybody would actually book online when booking by phone with P&O or with an agent is so easy. That said, it does allow us to do a dummy booking to check availability and prices but once I know exactly what I want, it is phone every time. I am sure somebody will tell me why they do book online.

[Josy1953]

40 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I cannot understand why anybody would actually book online when booking by phone with P&O or with an agent is so easy. That said, it does allow us to do a dummy booking to check availability and prices but once I know exactly what I want, it is phone every time. I am sure somebody will tell me why they do book online.

What is the advantage of phoning rather than booking online if you are already online and have the the availability and pricing in front of you ? 

There is a remote chance that your first choice cabin can be sold to someone in front of you in the queue waiting to speak to an agent.

[pete14]

4 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

What is the advantage of phoning rather than booking online if you are already online and have the the availability and pricing in front of you ? 

There is a remote chance that your first choice cabin can be sold to someone in front of you in the queue waiting to speak to an agent.

I accept that there is a remote chance of a cabin being sold whilst you are on the phone but it is a chance I am prepared to take. Maybe it is an age thing, but for such an important and possibly expensive transaction, I prefer some direct human contact rather than a computer screen. I am happy to make smaller, less important purchases online though so I am at least part the way there. 🥴

[silkworms]

On 11/7/2020 at 3:01 PM, SausPud said:

Just bringing this topic/thread back on track.

Princess are doing Newcastle next year (2021) as I'm doing a British Isles cruise on Island Princess and we stop in Newcastle after Edinburgh. 

Yes, we have this Princess Cruise booked also.  A bonus that the first

night of the Edinburgh Tattoo is whilst we visit.  Princess excursions

very pricey but they are well worth it . Never been on Island Princess 

but it appears it is medium size and therefore can berth in the Scottish

Islands rather than just sail past.  Fingers crossed for July!

 

Terri

[majortom10]

I have always booked through a TA purely for the simple reason is that they have always been cheaper than booking direct with P&O and sometimes an amount of money that is not a minor amount and is better in my pocket than P&O.

[zap99]

59 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

What is the advantage of phoning rather than booking online if you are already online and have the the availability and pricing in front of you ? 

There is a remote chance that your first choice cabin can be sold to someone in front of you in the queue waiting to speak to an agent.

We too tend to book online. Not always, but mostly. We have never had a problem with the IT of P&O, celebrity,RCI or NCL. When we need to change, or clarify something we tend to do so by phone. Never had a problem there either. We booked our next Celebrity cruise by phone as we had some FCC. The young Lady answered my call with ' Hello Mr........, how can I help you today'. She then rebooked my 2020 Alaska cruise to 2021. Would you like the same cabin Sir. The price has gone up a bit, but I can honour last year's price and use the same booking reference. I may use that method again next time. Next time being as soon as we can. As their office is only 5 miles away she may only look after us locals.😁

[Bin man]

Just seen an email from p and o 17.40 this evening saying early exclusive booking is now open .Guess its nearly 12 hrs since opening .Think they have had trouble with the site most of the day . 

[Chrisdriving]

5 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

What is the advantage of phoning rather than booking online if you are already online and have the the availability and pricing in front of you ? 

There is a remote chance that your first choice cabin can be sold to someone in front of you in the queue waiting to speak to an agent.

I always do my homework online then phone also but choose the cabin online to ‘temporarily’ reserve it while i phone them.

Edited November 9, 2020 by Chrisdriving

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, pete14 said:

I really don’t want us to fall out Jean but if your agent does everything even when problems crop up, why do ‘you get 3 different answers from P&O depending on who you speak to’. I can honestly say that is not my experience. You have posted several times recently over FCC, refunds and transferring cruises etc. Are these not conversations your agent should be having with P&O on your behalf? 

Refunds were totally taken over by P&O, who excluded TAs from the process. So any problems associated with refunds and FCCs were entirely down to P&O cocking up the procedure.

[pete14]

11 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Refunds were totally taken over by P&O, who excluded TAs from the process. So any problems associated with refunds and FCCs were entirely down to P&O cocking up the procedure.

My reading of the lockdown and refund situation is that P&O, who were still managing to operate with employees working from home, probably at reduced overall capacity, took over the refunding or allocation of FCC for cancelled cruises primarily because many agents shut down their operations. Perfectly understandable on the agent’s behalf with no cruises operating and no money coming in, but people who booked through these shut agents would have been waiting much longer for them to re-open to be refunded, with no guarantee that their agent would ever open again.
Maybe P&O did ‘***** up’ the procedure in some respects but to pass the entire blame onto P&O seems most unfair to me, given the circumstances they were operating in and their increased workload in taking  over the agents’ responsibilities with reduced staff numbers. 

[pete14]

1 minute ago, pete14 said:

My reading of the lockdown and refund situation is that P&O, who were still managing to operate with employees working from home, probably at reduced overall capacity, took over the refunding or allocation of FCC for cancelled cruises primarily because many agents shut down their operations. Perfectly understandable on the agent’s behalf with no cruises operating and no money coming in, but people who booked through these shut agents would have been waiting much longer for them to re-open to be refunded, with no guarantee that their agent would ever open again.
Maybe P&O did ‘***** up’ the procedure in some respects but to pass the entire blame onto P&O seems most unfair to me, given the circumstances they were operating in and their increased workload in taking  over the agents’ responsibilities with reduced staff numbers. 

So ‘cocking up’ is allowed but removing the ‘ing’ isn’t. Very odd 🤔🥴

[jh1809]

My P&O mini-brochure has finally arrived this morning - far too late to be of any use, since I pre-registered for a cruise a week or so ago.

[jeanlyon]

I telephoned P&O as it was them that gave me the FCC for my October 2020 cruise that was then cancelled.  It was an 110% FCC for the deposit.  I rang them to make sure I could use the FCC for the deposit and was told "no".  Somebody on here suggested I rang again to speak to somebody else which I did and was told "of course I could use it for the deposit".  I then emailed my TA who was of the opinion that you could not use the FCC for a deposit, so he then contacted his commercial contact at P&O and got the reply that yes you certainly could.  His response to me was "Why on earth don't they keep their agents advised".  Since then, I also had a reply on FB Messenger from P&O that you cannot do this.  The right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.

 

So on that basis he is transferring my deposit from Next April's cruise and also using my FCC for the rest of it.

Edited November 10, 2020 by jeanlyon

[zap99]

5 hours ago, pete14 said:

So ‘cocking up’ is allowed but removing the ‘ing’ isn’t. Very odd 🤔🥴

I had fun with the little meatball things that they eat Oop north with peas, begining with F

[Denarius]

I have four future cruises booked at present, three in 2021 and one in Jan 2022. Three of them are rearrangments of cruises cancelled because of covid19,  the other a replacement for a cruise on Oceana cancelled when P&O sold the ship. I am not inclined to book anything else until I am reasonably confident that it will in fact go ahead, although an article in today's paper may possibly indicate a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8931375/Cruise-ships-set-sail-January-coronavirus-lockdown.html

[wowzz]

23 hours ago, silkworms said:

Yes, we have this Princess Cruise booked also.  A bonus that the first

night of the Edinburgh Tattoo is whilst we visit.  Princess excursions

very pricey but they are well worth it . Never been on Island Princess 

but it appears it is medium size and therefore can berth in the Scottish

Islands rather than just sail past.  Fingers crossed for July!

 

Terri

We did a Panama transit on the Island Princess a few years ago. As you say, a nice mid size ship. A minor downside is that there is no complete prom deck - you have to cut through the rear cabins to do a full circuit.