October onwards cruisers…

[ToxM]

So a few people on the board are getting close to the final payment dates - which if your cruise is after the 2nd October (I believe that’s the date) means it’s the normal payment time rather than the reduced final payment conditions/dates. 

 

So …. I thought it would be useful for us October babies (as it were!) to have a thread to follow, wring our hands, worry and hopefully celebrate when we know what is going on or can share information. 

 

October is I believe the first time the adults only ships will be going back into service as well, so that’s also a milestone and discussion should be shared about that as well. 

 

To start us off … 

 

My situation: 

Arcadia cruise to Fjords - 28th October (in a blooming suite!)

Parking booked

Hotel Booked

Cruise paid (I like to plan to pay off a bit early just in case life/washing machine exploding gets in the way)  

 

I am honestly sitting and waiting. If it is cancelled I have to take the money and apply it to next year’s cruises, and can’t replace it with another P&O cruise as I don’t have any annual left next year cause of cruises booked. I really don’t want to take the money away from P&O, but this is how it will have to be. 

[SeaJane]

We are booked on Arcadia for the cruise before yours - 9th October to the Med. We booked onboard in October 2019 so only paid a deposit of £50 each. However we are also booked in a suite so the final payment due is about £10,000! We would obviously love to go, but do not feel we shall want to commit that amount of money in July, if that remains the final payment date, when it is most unlikely that we shall know at that point what the situation will be in the scheduled ports or if there will still be restrictions onboard.

[jaydee6969]

54 minutes ago, ToxM said:

To start us off … 

 

My situation: 

Arcadia cruise to Fjords - 28th October (in a blooming suite!)

Parking booked

Hotel Booked

Cruise paid (I like to plan to pay off a bit early just in case life/washing machine exploding gets in the way)  

 

 

We are on the same cruise, and we also have booked a suite.  A first time for us in a suite and particularly looking forward to it.

 

My balance to pay date is still some time away, on the 30th July 2021.  

 

My concern is the varied destinations these ships have scheduled could cause issues and lead to cancelling all the sailings rather than keep a few.  I do hope not.

[L751]

We are booked on Britannia on the 9th Oct around the Med, hoping they will extend the final payment

[tring]

1 hour ago, ToxM said:

So a few people on the board (and I notice on a few of the book of face groups) are getting close to the final payment dates - which if your cruise is after the 2nd October (I believe that’s the date) means it’s the normal payment time rather than the reduced final payment conditions/dates. 

 

So …. I thought it would be useful for us October babies (as it were!) to have a thread to follow, wring our hands, worry and hopefully celebrate when we know what is going on or can share information. 

 

 

Good idea, useful to have a combined thread for this. 

 

We (and a number of others from this board) have booked a Princess cruise to the Med.  Not P&O, but I do think sharing of that info will be useful to all of us.

 

Sailing date 22nd October Sky Princess to The Med.

 

Balance payment due 23rd July, -  though I have been told on the phone by Princess that we will know more before balance payment or it will be put back.  The  Princess Seacations only have a 60 day payment window. 

 

I am now following this thread and can perhaps invite those who are booked on the same cruise to like this post, rather than have your thread full of the same information (unless they prefer to do their own post of course).  I, or perhaps one of the others, will will give any info we get about our cruise.

  

Edited June 6, 2021 by tring

[Son of Anarchy]

Booked on Ventura for early December.  All paid up via FCC.  Hotel sorted, with the ability to cancel, but leaving parking till nearer the time.

 

Not 100% convinced it will go as advertised.  Wait and see.  Quite happy to do ship's tours at some ports and stay on board at others in the event that we can only go ashore on organised trips.  

[Rupert2251]

27 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Good idea, useful to have a combined thread for this. 

 

We (and a number of others from this board) have booked a Princess cruise to the Med.  Not P&O, but I do think sharing of that info will be useful to all of us.

 

Sailing date 22nd October Sky Princess to The Med.

 

Balance payment due 23rd July, -  though I have been told on the phone by Princess that we will know more before balance payment or it will be put back.  The  Princess Seacations only have a 60 day payment window. 

 

I am now following this thread and can perhaps invite those who are booked on the same cruise to like this post, rather than have your thread full of the same information (unless they prefer to do their own post of course).  I, or perhaps one of the others, will will give any info we get about our cruise.

  

We are with Princess also, balance due 14 July, are Princess saying they will move the payment to a later date?

[tring]

11 minutes ago, Rupert2251 said:

We are with Princess also, balance due 14 July, are Princess saying they will move the payment to a later date?

 

I was told some time back that it had been put back to 60 days, but I think she may have been thinking of the Seacations.  We are booked direct with Princess and still 90 day window.  The person was very informative about a number of things though and sounded very heartfelt when she said they had no intention of taking more cash from us if it all needed to be refunded, so either decision regards need for tours/itinerary changes etc. are likely to be known before balance payment or balance payment will likely be out back.  We will have to see though (no firm promises), methinks it will be difficult for them to make final decisions early, but my thoughts are also that if they feel the cruise will be iffy they will just pull it, but we will see.

Edited June 6, 2021 by tring

[Rupert2251]

4 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I was told some time back that it had been put back to 60 days, but I think she may have been thinking of the Seacations.  We are booked direct with Princess and still 90 day window.  The person was very informative about a number of things though and sounded very heartfelt when she said they had no intention of taking more cash from us if it all needed to be refunded, so either decision regards need for tours/itinerary changes etc. are likely to be known before balance payment or balance payment will likely be out back.  We will have to see though (no firm promises), methinks it will be difficult for them to make final decisions early, but my thoughts are also that if they feel the cruise will be iffy they will just pull it, but we will see.

Thanks for the info.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, L751 said:

We are booked on Britannia on the 9th Oct around the Med, hoping they will extend the final payment

We are on that sailing as well and the July balance date is far too soon for us to make a sensible commitment.

[Windsurfboy]

A useful thread

[ann141]

I am on the same cruise as Barbara (Tring) October 22 on Regal Princess .As we have only paid £50pp deposit and the balance is £2000 which I realise is a lot less than others have paid, I am not unduly worried.I think that if things are still doubtful in July then Princess (and P and O ) are likely to extend the balance due date and if things look more promising we will pay the balance. I can understand people feeling more hesitant if a large balance is due or if they want to visit a particular destination but as ours is a cruise to the Med then as long as it visits some Med ports I shall be happy.If we have to do the ship's excursions or wear masks onboard etc it will curtail the enjoyment somewhat but for us it is an 'Extra' cruise rather than something special.I hope for everyones sake decisions are made sooner than later but with things changing all the time it must be difficult for cruise companies to make decisions.For those who have booked via a TA and whose balances are due before P and O, I suggest contacting the TA and asking for an extension date.We did this for a cruise last year which was then cancelled before the new date so we only had to claim the deposit back

[majortom10]

2 minutes ago, ann141 said:

I am on the same cruise as Barbara (Tring) October 22 on Regal Princess .As we have only paid £50pp deposit and the balance is £2000 which I realise is a lot less than others have paid, I am not unduly worried.I think that if things are still doubtful in July then Princess (and P and O ) are likely to extend the balance due date and if things look more promising we will pay the balance. I can understand people feeling more hesitant if a large balance is due or if they want to visit a particular destination but as ours is a cruise to the Med then as long as it visits some Med ports I shall be happy.If we have to do the ship's excursions or wear masks onboard etc it will curtail the enjoyment somewhat but for us it is an 'Extra' cruise rather than something special.I hope for everyones sake decisions are made sooner than later but with things changing all the time it must be difficult for cruise companies to make decisions.For those who have booked via a TA and whose balances are due before P and O, I suggest contacting the TA and asking for an extension date.We did this for a cruise last year which was then cancelled before the new date so we only had to claim the deposit back

We have a cruise booked on Cunard's QV on November 1st and we have a large balance due through our TA and they wanted it 17 weeks before sailing and I queried this last week and they put it back so now we have to pay it 14 weeks in advance. 

[safathome]

We have Iona 11 Dec 20 G139 Soton - Hamburg, Rotterdam (overnight) zeebrugge- Soton 18 Dec

they want balance by 12 Sept 20. 

[Cruiserjules]

Like L751 and Terrier John, we are also on the Britannia 9th October.

Our balance thru our "online cruise specialist" TA is due on 11th June, though I negotiated it not being due till 22nd June (ie after the proposed 21st June announcement)

 

We've also paid for our pre-cruise hotel and parking

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Cruiserjules
added info

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, ann141 said:

I am on the same cruise as Barbara (Tring) October 22 on Regal Princess .As we have only paid £50pp deposit and the balance is £2000 which I realise is a lot less than others have paid, I am not unduly worried.I think that if things are still doubtful in July then Princess (and P and O ) are likely to extend the balance due date and if things look more promising we will pay the balance. I can understand people feeling more hesitant if a large balance is due or if they want to visit a particular destination but as ours is a cruise to the Med then as long as it visits some Med ports I shall be happy.If we have to do the ship's excursions or wear masks onboard etc it will curtail the enjoyment somewhat but for us it is an 'Extra' cruise rather than something special.I hope for everyones sake decisions are made sooner than later but with things changing all the time it must be difficult for cruise companies to make decisions.For those who have booked via a TA and whose balances are due before P and O, I suggest contacting the TA and asking for an extension date.We did this for a cruise last year which was then cancelled before the new date so we only had to claim the deposit back

Ann - aren't you on Sky Princess ?

Edited June 6, 2021 by wowzz

[ann141]

5 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Ann - aren't you on Sky Princess ?

Yes, sorry! Sky Princess in October but Regal Princess in September 🙂 

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, ann141 said:

Yes, sorry! Sky Princess in October but Regal Princess in September 🙂 

Now you are just showing off!

[lujaha]

I am on October 28th cruise on Arcadia.  Not in a suite!  Let's keep this thread going, it will be useful.  I have booked with an agent.  Haven't checked recently the payment date.  Fingers crossed we go.

[downsmead]

We are on the Britannia 19th November, and are part of a group of 8, with cabins ranging from a suite to insides. My daughter is unhappy with the possibility that the ports will not be fully open and therefore we will be unable to explore fully, or have to take ship excursions. We have decided to wait until August to see how things are going and then decide what to do. Unfortunately a few of us have 2022 booked up and hence moving the deposit to another cruise is not an option, but will just then lose our deposit. 

[7th cruise]

We have bitten the bullet and moved our 31st October Canaries cruise on Ventura to a 7 day staycation on Iona at the end of August 

[rumbalizw]

Am booked on the Ventura on 14th October. Paid with FCC. If it's cancelled ,then we'll use that for October 2022 cruise .

We've factored in excursions. Parking was,part of the incentive, and I've not paid much  for the pre cruise hotel .Just a waiting game ,isn't it .

Edited June 7, 2021 by rumbalizw

[molecrochip]

My understanding is that if the cruise line is not comfortable that the sailing will proceed as scheduled (with minimal changes) then the payment date will be moved back.

 

Whilst some people do pay early, there is a desire to avoid having many refunds again. Carnival had to recruit additional staff to clear the refunds in the end.

[Adawn47]

29 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

My understanding is that if the cruise line is not comfortable that the sailing will proceed as scheduled (with minimal changes) then the payment date will be moved back.

 

That's what we're waiting for, it happened with our June cruise which was subsequently cancelled. If our July 11th balance due date is moved then we will cancel and move the deposit once again. 

Avril

[Son of Anarchy]

37 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

My understanding is that if the cruise line is not comfortable that the sailing will proceed as scheduled (with minimal changes) then the payment date will be moved back.

 

Whilst some people do pay early, there is a desire to avoid having many refunds again. Carnival had to recruit additional staff to clear the refunds in the end.

I appreciate that you may not be able to post details of it, but is there a plan to "re-invent" planned cruises in the event that there are major changes to scheduled itineries?  Or is the plan to simply pause operations over the winter in the event of major schedule changes?