Anyone pre-registering ready to book late 2022/early 2023?

[MX-Drew]

49 minutes ago, tring said:

What I would like to know is if P&O would be prepared to change a cabin to another in a better location, should one become available at a later date? 

I believe they will but only a phone call or email will tell you for sure.

[Son of Anarchy]

49 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I suspect it depends on the cruise and not all will sell out in that way.  Are you now booked on the world cruise for 2023?  If not can I ask which cruise you have booked?

 

The thing with longer cruises, especially worldies, is that there will be more people who have decided do do one (? on retirement), along with people who originally were booked on cancelled ones.  I doubt many people have a real hope of the 2022 ones going ahead unaltered, so a transfer does seem to be a no brainer to me.

 

Being able to pre-register with P&O and having a firm booking for a grade and price is certainly an advantage for those of us without priority booking, if we definitely want to do a cruise and the cabin is a secondary decision.  What I would like to know is if P&O would be prepared to change a cabin to another in a better location, should one become available at a later date? 

Yep, Worldie.  I suppose one of the other things that complicates those types of cruises is the sectors.  I assume (a word I hate!), that all cabins are available for the launch, but of course most people book a specific sector(s).  Which has the effect that cabins can and will be sold more than once over the whole period of the Worldie.  And of course, if someone has pre-registered ahead of launch day, they are ahead in the queue for a specified cabin. Had to book by phoning in order to get extra OBC (due to previous occ), which may have reduced specific cabins.  I looked on line whilst waiting and could see that cabins were dropping off from availability.  The lady I spoke with mentioned that some may have been booked via pre-registering with TAs.  Pleased with what we got.

 

Hope you get your preferred choice tomorrow.

[wowzz]

20 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

Very unusual but very handy in your case. 

The TA I use is the same one that many others on here use. 

I'm not sure that the very many TAs request such a long advance payment as the period you mention, although one does spring to mind - I certainly wouldn't countenance booking through one that wanted payment 8 weeks early. 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Yep, Worldie.  I suppose one of the other things that complicates those types of cruises is the sectors.  I assume (a word I hate!), that all cabins are available for the launch, but of course most people book a specific sector(s).  Which has the effect that cabins can and will be sold more than once over the whole period of the Worldie.  And of course, if someone has pre-registered ahead of launch day, they are ahead in the queue for a specified cabin. Had to book by phoning in order to get extra OBC (due to previous occ), which may have reduced specific cabins.  I looked on line whilst waiting and could see that cabins were dropping off from availability.  The lady I spoke with mentioned that some may have been booked via pre-registering with TAs.  Pleased with what we got.

 

Hope you get your preferred choice tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the reply, yes lots of different things can affect a worldie booking.  Glad you got a cabin you are happy with and I hope you really enjoy the cruise when it comes around.

 

Barbara

[ann141]

3 hours ago, MX-Drew said:

I believe they will but only a phone call or email will tell you for sure.

On a cruise in 2019 we wanted a C cabin on Ventura but when we booked there were none available.I kept looking and saw that one was available a few weeks later so phoned up and was moved.Similarly on another cruise we had booked an inside cabin but later decided we wanted to upgrade to a balcony.I just phoned up and transferred paying the price a balcony would have cost at the time of booking.

[MX-Drew]

15 minutes ago, lindylooellalouise said:

Last year Same one rang me up to say if I paid the balance early and IF my cruise was cancelled then P&O would have to add an extra 25% to what I had already paid but was not prepared to have more money tied up with agents or cruise companies still waiting for refunds from  March when transatlantic cruise was cancelled I’ve been told it can take upto 120 days.

I had a similar thing happen to me with a Celebrity cruise. When it was cancelled I applied to Celebrity for a refund only to be told they had not received the money from Iona's godmother's company. The Agent hadn't even paid the balance at Celebrity's balance due date! Then I contacted the agent and they said they will have to pay the balance to Celebrity and Celebrity will refund the full amount.

Motto of the story, never trust an agent, do it yourself and then you have only yourself to blame.

[bungle66]

2 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I had a similar thing happen to me with a Celebrity cruise. When it was cancelled I applied to Celebrity for a refund only to be told they had not received the money from Iona's godmother's company. The Agent hadn't even paid the balance at Celebrity's balance due date! Then I contacted the agent and they said they will have to pay the balance to Celebrity and Celebrity will refund the full amount.

Motto of the story, never trust an agent, do it yourself and then you have only yourself to blame.

Like you, I'd rather book directly. This year particularly I think there is less chance of P&O going bust than many TA's

[janny444]

4 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

Like you, I'd rather book directly. This year particularly I think there is less chance of P&O going bust than many TA's

A number of years ago the TA that we had booked with...Gills cruising....suddenly went bust....P&O just took over the booking ....honoured the discounted price received through the TA and kept all of the booking details and requirements the same

[lindylooellalouise]

13 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I had a similar thing happen to me with a Celebrity cruise. When it was cancelled I applied to Celebrity for a refund only to be told they had not received the money from Iona's godmother's company. The Agent hadn't even paid the balance at Celebrity's balance due date! Then I contacted the agent and they said they will have to pay the balance to Celebrity and Celebrity will refund the full amount.

Motto of the story, never trust an agent, do it yourself and then you have only yourself to blame.

Absolutely agree with you, we’ve been badly bitten and it’s only come to light because of the pandemic we’ve only received a portion  refund of what we’ve paid to the TA and now we’ve been told we will have to wait 120 days for the remainder.

[Screwy123]

Registered for Arcadia Worldie 23. Find out in the morning from the TA if we’ve got what we wanted. Doing HK to Dubai.    Hopefully.!

[bee-ess]

52 minutes ago, janny444 said:

A number of years ago the TA that we had booked with...Gills cruising....suddenly went bust....P&O just took over the booking ....honoured the discounted price received through the TA and kept all of the booking details and requirements the same

Same happened to us when our TA Gillette went bust a few years ago.

[tring]

1 hour ago, ann141 said:

On a cruise in 2019 we wanted a C cabin on Ventura but when we booked there were none available.I kept looking and saw that one was available a few weeks later so phoned up and was moved.Similarly on another cruise we had booked an inside cabin but later decided we wanted to upgrade to a balcony.I just phoned up and transferred paying the price a balcony would have cost at the time of booking.

 

Thanks a lot for that information Ann.  I had heard about the upgrade price being the same as the cost when you booked, which would be very useful in this case, but they could always change that.  We asked about an upgrade on Arcadia about 18 months ago when a lot of cabins were left and they were selling them cheaply.  They wanted a vast price for us to upgrade, but we had booked when prices were very high, so expected, but thought it worth asking.

 

We have done well with upgrades near to the sailing date on Fred in the past - they often ring to offer a reduced price upgrades - some people take issue with that, but you do not have to accept, though if you do you can choose any available cabins number, (unlike the P&O automatic upgrades).  Fred will make a charge if you want to change cabin number but do not upgrade to another cabin grade.  Handy to know the criteria used by different cruise lines. 

[MX-Drew]

2 hours ago, janny444 said:

A number of years ago the TA that we had booked with...Gills cruising....suddenly went bust....P&O just took over the booking ....honoured the discounted price received through the TA and kept all of the booking details and requirements the same

The problems occur when the TA stays afloat.

Like you when Thomas Cook went bust Celebrity took over the booking and honoured the discount but when the TA is still going it is very hard indeed to get the cruise company to talk to you about the booking let alone taking the booking over.

[janny444]

29 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

The problems occur when the TA stays afloat.

Like you when Thomas Cook went bust Celebrity took over the booking and honoured the discount but when the TA is still going it is very hard indeed to get the cruise company to talk to you about the booking let alone taking the booking over.

Hi....yes...if TA stays afloat more difficult but my point  to bungle 66 was  if your TA goes bust then P&O take the booking over

[Cathygh]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks a lot for that information Ann.  I had heard about the upgrade price being the same as the cost when you booked, which would be very useful in this case, but they could always change that.  We asked about an upgrade on Arcadia about 18 months ago when a lot of cabins were left and they were selling them cheaply.  They wanted a vast price for us to upgrade, but we had booked when prices were very high, so expected, but thought it worth asking.

 

We have done well with upgrades near to the sailing date on Fred in the past - they often ring to offer a reduced price upgrades - some people take issue with that, but you do not have to accept, though if you do you can choose any available cabins number, (unlike the P&O automatic upgrades).  Fred will make a charge if you want to change cabin number but do not upgrade to another cabin grade.  Handy to know the criteria used by different cruise lines. 

We have been offered an upgrade form Balcony to suite on Aurora a few years ago, before she became adult only. £100 for a mini suite and £200 for a suite, about 10 days before sailing. We took a suite as we thought we would never be able to afford it again.

[pete14]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

Thanks a lot for that information Ann.  I had heard about the upgrade price being the same as the cost when you booked, which would be very useful in this case, but they could always change that.  We asked about an upgrade on Arcadia about 18 months ago when a lot of cabins were left and they were selling them cheaply.  They wanted a vast price for us to upgrade, but we had booked when prices were very high, so expected, but thought it worth asking.

 

I know it is a bit late now but if it was a few months before sailing, it may have been worth cancelling, probably writing off the deposit and then rebooking straightaway at the reduced price. 

[tring]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

I know it is a bit late now but if it was a few months before sailing, it may have been worth cancelling, probably writing off the deposit and then rebooking straightaway at the reduced price. 

 

See your point, but in our case it was less than a month before sailing and we had made the full payment.  We had booked that cruise as a transfer from a 23 night fly Med cruise the previous year, because we needed to move MIL to a care home near us (250 miles from her home) about a month before the cruise.  It was me who pointed out to DH that we could hardly swan off for 23 nights shortly after that!  So had to loose deposit or find something sailing within a year that was the same price more.  There were only cheaper 14 night med fly cruises and even if we did b2b we would still have had to pay more for one of those cruises.  P&O do not make it easy.  We did enjoy that subsequently booked Baltic cruise though.  

[Eddie99]

BBC article on cruising/strong bookings for restart

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56906506

[MX-Drew]

6 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

BBC article on cruising/strong bookings for restart

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56906506

Some interesting comments there, like Virgin saying guests and crew will be vaccinated. That opens up the question, how are Virgin getting the crew vaccinated. It seems this is being said by some cruise lines but not backing it up with the how.