Who has decided to take a summer staycation cruise?

[P&O SUE]

48 minutes ago, tring said:

I see Britannia is scheduled to continue departing from Southampton at 6pm, at least in the short term.  I am thinking that P&O ships used to sail earlier than that on embarkation day - am I right or just dreaming it?  I am thinking it has been changed because of covid.

Most did but Britannia nearly always sailed at 6pm, I think because of the larger number of passengers. We sailed that time in 2017.

[tring]

8 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Most did but Britannia nearly always sailed at 6pm, I think because of the larger number of passengers. We sailed that time in 2017.

 

Thanks.

 

I was just wondering how it may impact other cruises, such as the Princess one we have booked for 22nd October.  Princess must have been listening to my mind at the time as we got an email from them about ten minutes ago saying Sky Princess will be leaving at 5pm instead of 4pm and in the the first port, Cadiz, will also arrive and depart an hour later than planned 🙂

 

They also say our revised excursions will be available within two weeks, so looks like they intend the cruise (to the Med) to go ahead and for us to pay our balance at the end of July as was previously the case.  All getting exciting now, but I still expect to see itinerary changes before we sail - we will see though.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by tring

[P&O SUE]

2 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Thanks.

 

I was just wondering how it may impact other cruises, such as the Princess one we have booked for 22nd October.  Princess must have been listening to my mind at the time as we got an email from them about ten minutes ago saying Sky Princess will be leaving at 5pm instead of 4pm and in the the first port, Cadiz, will also arrive and depart an hour later than planned 🙂

 

They also say our revised excursions will be available within two weeks, so looks like they intend the cruise (to the Med) to go ahead and for us to pay our balance at the end of July as was previously the case.  All getting exciting now, but I still expect to see itinerary changes before we sail - we will see though.

 

Fingers crossed for you.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Most did but Britannia nearly always sailed at 6pm, I think because of the larger number of passengers. We sailed that time in 2017.

P&Os tardy approach to embarkation nearly always resulted in delays for the bigger ships, 5:30 rather than 4:30 was quite normal.  However that was under the old  muster drill arrangements, so the new turn up to register, then watch the video on the cabin, should save at least 30-45 minutes.

[Bertie Doe]

15 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

P&Os tardy approach to embarkation nearly always resulted in delays for the bigger ships, 5:30 rather than 4:30 was quite normal.  

In a couple of years time, with passenger to crew ratios are 4 : 1 when things return to 'Normal', folk will look back with nostalgia, with a tear in their eyes, to the balmy Summer or 2021, when the ratios were nearer 1 : 1 😢

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I do wonder how check in will work when capacity is increased to 50% if they still have to carry out Covid testing. I fear long delays in the terminal building. 

[Bertie Doe]

6 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

 I fear long delays in the terminal building. 

 Called the 'Terminal Building' for good reason. 😓

[ohnonotmeagain]

7 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks.

 

I was just wondering how it may impact other cruises, such as the Princess one we have booked for 22nd October.  Princess must have been listening to my mind at the time as we got an email from them about ten minutes ago saying Sky Princess will be leaving at 5pm instead of 4pm and in the the first port, Cadiz, will also arrive and depart an hour later than planned 🙂

 

They also say our revised excursions will be available within two weeks, so looks like they intend the cruise (to the Med) to go ahead and for us to pay our balance at the end of July as was previously the case.  All getting exciting now, but I still expect to see itinerary changes before we sail - we will see though.

 

I am becoming more and more convinced this cruise will go ahead...... until the curved ball !!!! but sincerely hope it will happen, even with any changes.

[tring]

23 minutes ago, ohnonotmeagain said:

I am becoming more and more convinced this cruise will go ahead...... until the curved ball !!!! but sincerely hope it will happen, even with any changes.

 

Yes, I think the latest notifications are a very positive move, there is more activity on the roll call as well.  Since the ship will be up and running for the staycation cruises, Princess will want to take her somewhere.  We were able to access our tickets today for a Fred cruise we have recently booked for the 12th July as well, since we were bunked of two other cruises for June/July due to overbooking.  Hence a very positive day for us.

 

[tring]

Thinking we may book a P&O staycation for September, or possibly August.  Can I ask if they have only been sold as early savers throughout (seems to be all that is available now), or was there previously some choice?   I seem to remember the location of the cabin could be chosen, but am not clear on that.

Edited July 5, 2021 by tring

[sandancer]

I booked on 18th June and we were only offered a guarantee. 

[Cathygh]

9 minutes ago, tring said:

Thinking we may book a P&O staycation for September, or possibly August.  Can I ask if they have only been sold as early savers throughout (seems to be all that is available now), or was there previously some choice?   I seem to remember the location of the cabin could be chosen, but am not clear on that.

We booked on launch. You only had choice of saver fare and all standard balconies were the same price but you could request a grade. Then a few weeks later some obc was added

 

 

[lindylooellalouise]

23 minutes ago, sandancer said:

I booked on 18th June and we were only offered a guarantee. 

Are you able to print e tickets and luggage labels, we are booked on this cruise but can’t print these out yet but are able to check in

[sandancer]

We are not cruising until end of August. Sorry, I should have made it more clear that I was replying to Tring. 

[Bobblehat71]

2 hours ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Are you able to print e tickets and luggage labels, we are booked on this cruise but can’t print these out yet but are able to check in

 

I'm booked on the 15th July and cant print e-tickets ,labels etc yet.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

I'm on Britannia starting Sunday... just printed tickets!!! YAY! Now it is sinking in that I have booked a cruise! So excited 🙂 
 

[Waju]

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I'm on Britannia starting Sunday... just printed tickets!!! YAY! Now it is sinking in that I have booked a cruise! So excited 🙂 
 

Can I ask please, have your tickets only just become available to print?  I'm waiting to print mine - we go a week on Thursday - and they're not available yet!

 

Hope you have a GREAT cruise.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

They have only just become available but I only booked yesterday online so to be honest I am surprised they came through so quickly. If you booked a while ago then you might want to call customer services and check. They were very helpful when I called.

[SouthCoasters]

6 hours ago, Cathygh said:

We booked on launch. You only had choice of saver fare and all standard balconies were the same price but you could request a grade. Then a few weeks later some obc was added

 

 

I didn't know it was possible to request a grade. We go July 25th (after being overbooked and cancelled off the July 4th), and have not had a cabin allocated yet. Would it be worth us somehow requesting a particular grade and how would we go about it? Thanks

[lindylooellalouise]

3 hours ago, Bobblehat71 said:

 

I'm booked on the 15th July and cant print e-tickets ,labels etc yet.

Hi our have just become available on our VP bur we now have different arrival times. Our e ticket says 1 pm and our boarding pass says 3,45 pm 

[Cathygh]

31 minutes ago, SouthCoasters said:

I didn't know it was possible to request a grade. We go July 25th (after being overbooked and cancelled off the July 4th), and have not had a cabin allocated yet. Would it be worth us somehow requesting a particular grade and how would we go about it? Thanks

My TA did this for us, I hadn't realised you could request a grade until she told me when booking opened. So on Britannia she booked us an HA  standard balcony which was the same price as all the other standard balconies. You might be able to request one at this stage but if you book direct with P&O you can't. Hope that helps

[Pink-belle]

I picked and paid for a grade booking with P&O direct.  

[SouthCoasters]

 

Thanks very much for that info.

We booked direct with P&O this time. The TA that we booked the original July 4th booking with have said that they are retaining a £26 non-refundable deposit. Probably in the small print and I hadn't noticed. 

I'm not entirely sure what kind of grade we should be requesting if we were to.

Our balcony with a sofa on the July 5th was C735 right on the aft. I was really looking forward to that, but aware of potential soot issues. I think there are only 28 cabins at the back, not including the suites, so it felt like we had a bit of luck, and wanted to roll with it. 

[indiana123]

We are on Iona on 18th September.  Do you think there will be 5000 others with us now?

Edited July 6, 2021 by indiana123

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

6 minutes ago, indiana123 said:

We are on Iona on 18th September.  Do you think there will be 5000 others with us now?

Very likely! Once legal restrictions are removed I cannot see how the cruise lines can financially justify not filling the ship. We will see 🙂