Passenger numbers

[hollyjess]

Hi fellow cruisers. It looks as if the cruise lines will be cutting back on the number of passengers on each ship to allow for social distancing. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas now this will be done. I have got a cruise booked for next June on Ventura in an accessible storeroom and we are both over 75 with health issues. It will be interesting to see if they cut out the elderly and disabled first. Would love to hear your views.

[Peanut006]

I have a similar issue. I have an accessible cabin booked and an inside across the corridor(we are taking three grandchildren with us) on Iona July 2021. We are nervous  they might cancel one cabin type which would mean not all our party would be going which would our course make us cancel or re book. 

Michelle 

[grapau27]

6 minutes ago, hollyjess said:

Hi fellow cruisers. It looks as if the cruise lines will be cutting back on the number of passengers on each ship to allow for social distancing. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas now this will be done. I have got a cruise booked for next June on Ventura in an accessible storeroom and we are both over 75 with health issues. It will be interesting to see if they cut out the elderly and disabled first. Would love to hear your views.

Hi Hollyjess.

The first consideration will be government advice regarding health and age issues.

Hopefully as long as cruising is allowed your accessible cabin will be okay.

If it is down to economics all the expensive Suites and Balcony cabins will be occupied and only the cheapest inside cabins will be unsold depending on the passenger capacity allowed for adequate social distancing.

 

[AndyMichelle]

22 minutes ago, hollyjess said:

Hi fellow cruisers. It looks as if the cruise lines will be cutting back on the number of passengers on each ship to allow for social distancing. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas now this will be done. I have got a cruise booked for next June on Ventura in an accessible storeroom and we are both over 75 with health issues. It will be interesting to see if they cut out the elderly and disabled first. Would love to hear your views.

Sounds like they are putting passengers anywhere if you are in the 'storeroom'... 😊

Don't you just love predictive text.... 

Andy 

[No pager thank you]

Hello,

 

This came up a little while ago.  The feeling was that capacity management measures are already in play (i.e. inflated prices for new 2021 bookings) and that enough passengers will choose to "self cull," by moving their deposits.

 

If it comes to it, economics will drive the issue most probably, but as I say, I haven't heard anything recently suggesting that anyone will be forcibly "bumped."

 

Hope this helps.

[Selbourne]

27 minutes ago, hollyjess said:

Hi fellow cruisers. It looks as if the cruise lines will be cutting back on the number of passengers on each ship to allow for social distancing. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas now this will be done. I have got a cruise booked for next June on Ventura in an accessible storeroom and we are both over 75 with health issues. It will be interesting to see if they cut out the elderly and disabled first. Would love to hear your views.

Your question assumes that the ship will be full, which I very much doubt. Many will have cancelled already (due to concerns that the virus will still be an issue then - which it almost certainly will - or an inability to get insurance cover) and P&O are probably capping bookings for next spring summer on the basis that if cruises go ahead they would have to operate on lower passenger numbers. 
 

If they do have to cancel some bookings, I can’t see age or disabilities being a factor. Both would be discriminatory and they would end up in very hot water. The fairest way would be to cancel the bookings of those who booked last, but we are talking P&O here and they don’t have a great track record on doing what is right for the customer. The right approach for them would be to cancel those in inside cabins but, in reality (for the reasons I’ve stated) I doubt it will get to that. I think that enough people will cancel themselves so that forced cancellations aren’t an issue. 

[Dermotsgirl]

I'm also of the opinion that enough people will have cancelled their cruises or transferred their cruises to a later date, so that the numbers left on any sailings would be low enough to allow for social distancing.

 

I've noted from other areas of the board that in the USA, the CDC have said that the cruise companies should restart with cruises of 7 days or less. If the same approach is taken in this country then P&O would be faced with major rescheduling anyway 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, hollyjess said:

It will be interesting to see if they cut out the elderly and disabled first. Would love to hear your views.

I think P&O are in enough trouble without multiple lawsuits on their hands for discrimination. I would have thought it would be done by cruise cost on cruises already booked, and simply reducing the number of cabins for sale on the newly released 2021/2022 holidays.

Avril

[Ardennais]

I wonder whether whole sections of a ship will have to be left vacant for possible quarantine scenarios, and if so, that would include insides, outsides and balconies in a particular section. So there might be adjustments to booked cabins. It doesn’t make sense just to leave the insides empty, scattered all over the ship. 

[terrierjohn]

37 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I think P&O are in enough trouble without multiple lawsuits on their hands for discrimination. I would have thought it would be done by cruise cost on cruises already booked, and simply reducing the number of cabins for sale on the newly released 2021/2022 holidays.

Avril

I agree that makes sense from the revenue point of view, but I would hope they would go on date of booking  which would be a much fairer measure.

[joeecco]

I can’t find where I read it again but I read last week on the P&O website that next years sailings have already been capped and that some cabins are not on sale. For example, our wedding cruise in July is looking pretty full when you look at available cabins but a percentage of those aren’t occupied and won’t be sold until restrictions are lifted so I think that’s well handled (so far I admit!)

 

I also agree with everyone that lots of people have cancelled or postponed next years sailings anyway. 
 

 

[purplesea]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The fairest way would be to cancel the bookings of those who booked last,

 But who can prove who booked what when!!

3 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Sounds like they are putting passengers anywhere if you are in the 'storeroom'... 😊

Don't you just love predictive text.... 

Andy 

 Predictive text is often good for a laugh.

 

On one occasion I sent a text to my daughter to say I had given my grandaughter some Calpol and it was changed to scalpel🙄l

[terrierjohn]

28 minutes ago, purplesea said:

 But who can prove who booked what when!!

 Predictive text is often good for a laugh.

 

On one occasion I sent a text to my daughter to say I had given my grandaughter some Calpol and it was changed to scalpel🙄l

I imagine the date of your booking summary could be used by P&O to decide which bookings to cancel.

[majortom10]

So basically all those that booked  when the 2021 programme went on sale will be the first ones to be kicked off whatever their stateroom because they will have paid the lower prices than those that booked later. Sorry but cannot believe that is the way P&O would reduce passenger numbers. We booked our cruise on Britannia in May 2021 when released in Sept/Oct 2019 in an inside stateroom which we have since upgraded to a balcony stateroom but we are doing our bit in helping P&O because we are going to cancel it tomorrow and move it to May 2022 Baltics on Britannia in a balcony stateroom.

[molecrochip]

P&O have already capped availability. That is why there has been limited availability for the last six months. Limited availability pushes prices up.

 

There are plenty of cabins empty but not available to book. We wanted a specific cabin which was empty and the inventory team had to take another off sale to release the one we wanted.

 

Passengers are also shifting their cruises to 2022 as others have pointed out.

 

The plan is not to kick anyone of a cruise however cabins may be changed to enable a sterile area and quarantine area to be semi-permanently implemented.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

semi-permanently

Sorry, but isn't that impossible. Its like saying you are semi pregnant.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

P&O have already capped availability. That is why there has been limited availability for the last six months. Limited availability pushes prices up.

 

There are plenty of cabins empty but not available to book. We wanted a specific cabin which was empty and the inventory team had to take another off sale to release the one we wanted.

 

Passengers are also shifting their cruises to 2022 as others have pointed out.

 

The plan is not to kick anyone of a cruise however cabins may be changed to enable a sterile area and quarantine area to be semi-permanently implemented. 

Are you saying that all the future cruises now have sufficient empty capacity so that all ships can run at the acceptable reduced capacity?

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Sorry, but isn't that impossible. Its like saying you are semi pregnant.

Semantics wowzz, I assume moley means ready to be switched back to passenger cabins once they are no longer needed for a possible quarantine area.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Semantics wowzz, I assume moley means ready to be switched back to passenger cabins once they are no longer needed for a possible quarantine area.

So why not just say "temporary". 

Yes, I know I'm being pedantic! 

[terrierjohn]

50 minutes ago, wowzz said:

So why not just say "temporary". 

Yes, I know I'm being pedantic! 

Yes you are and its so unlike you.😇

[Selbourne]

9 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Are you saying that all the future cruises now have sufficient empty capacity so that all ships can run at the acceptable reduced capacity?

I would guess ‘yes’ John. As we are now 8 months into the pandemic, with no sign of it abating, and almost as many months into P&O’s flexible transfer policy, I’d be staggered if it’s not the case that enough passengers have cancelled / transferred  from each and every cruise to achieve the required social distancing - or at least will have done so by balance due date. Obviously I don’t know for certain, but if P&O has already placed a cap on all currently planned cruises, the combination of that and the inevitability that further passengers will pull out as each month goes by will probably mean that forced cancellations won’t be necessary. That is forced cancellation of individual bookings. I am less confident that we have seen the last of the whole cruise cancellations. 

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I would guess ‘yes’ John. As we are now 8 months into the pandemic, with no sign of it abating, and almost as many months into P&O’s flexible transfer policy, I’d be staggered if it’s not the case that enough passengers have cancelled / transferred  from each and every cruise to achieve the required social distancing - or at least will have done so by balance due date. Obviously I don’t know for certain, but if P&O has already placed a cap on all currently planned cruises, the combination of that and the inevitability that further passengers will pull out as each month goes by will probably mean that forced cancellations won’t be necessary. That is forced cancellation of individual bookings. I am less confident that we have seen the last of the whole cruise cancellations. 

I agree more cruise line cancellations now seem inevitable, but I have my fingers firmly crossed that a vaccine will be available early next year, thus saving my July cruise from cancellation.

Am I being too optimistic?

[pete14]

56 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I agree more cruise line cancellations now seem inevitable, but I have my fingers firmly crossed that a vaccine will be available early next year, thus saving my July cruise from cancellation.

Am I being too optimistic?

I hope not because having had two cruises cancelled already, we are on Aurora in early August and would really like to be there.

[Dermotsgirl]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I would guess ‘yes’ John. As we are now 8 months into the pandemic, with no sign of it abating, and almost as many months into P&O’s flexible transfer policy, I’d be staggered if it’s not the case that enough passengers have cancelled / transferred  from each and every cruise to achieve the required social distancing - or at least will have done so by balance due date. Obviously I don’t know for certain, but if P&O has already placed a cap on all currently planned cruises, the combination of that and the inevitability that further passengers will pull out as each month goes by will probably mean that forced cancellations won’t be necessary. That is forced cancellation of individual bookings. I am less confident that we have seen the last of the whole cruise cancellations. 

I think there will be more whole cruise cancellations before the pandemic is over.

 

I suspect that some people are doing what we are doing, and waiting for P&O to cancel their cruise, so that we may get a refund of our deposit.

 

We are booked on the 6th March Iona cruise. Only the most extreme Pollyanna would still believe that P&Os first cruise for a year would be a two week cruise to Spain in less than 4 months time. Therefore it is only a matter of time before it is cancelled.

 

However, I suspect that P&O are going to wait until after the balance due date until they cancel this cruise. So I think the reality is that I’m not going to get a refund. I’ll either have to forego the deposit or be forced to transfer to a later cruise.

 

The balance due date for payment to my travel agent was on the 6th November. I’ve advised them that I’m not paying the balance, and after a lot of hoo-ha they’ve extended their deadline to 26th November as this is the ‘last date they can send the money to P&O’. I don’t think they have quite grasped that I’m not paying, and I won’t be too happy if they insist I’ve got to make a decision 10 days before the P&O deadline..... so just waiting to see what happens. 

[majortom10]

Think the breaking news of availability of a vaccine is good news for cruising and certainly green shoots for the cruise companies.