P&O Payment terms (for April)

[No pager thank you]

Grateful for some advice and opinions please, a tricky problem...!

 

We are due to go on Iona in early April.  P&O, ever flexible with their latest announcements, want the balance on 2 January (normal 90 days).  This will be the 7th, and final, cruise that we had booked from the "old" brochure, all others having been cancelled, including Christmas.  It's a direct booking, so locked in to the P&O T&C's, with no fewer than three friendly reminders so far, just so we don't forget amidst new year's celebrations.

 

Now, we have been on two "lockdown" cruises, the Fred Olsen maiden from Liverpool on Borealis (probably wouldn't go again), and a round UK cruise on Princess (might go again, but wasn't completely bowled over either).  In our view, the measures on board are an irritant, compliance wanes, but we can put up with it.  Even the daft apps, which seem to have been added to the P&O experience.  We are all triple jabbed and careful people.

 

What's making us wonder is the itinerary: 

 

1) Rotterdam (Netherlands) - currently in a "full lockdown" with curfew.

2) Hamburg - I believe that Brits were effectively banned from Germany, with travel curbs, which must affect cruises.

3) Zeebrugge - largely the same as above, but not as severe I understand it.

 

We are reluctant to play the "pay it off" and wait for the FCC "game," as we had a good fare to begin with, and have never been convinced that better value is necessarily to be had with 25% bonuses.  There are also the oft complained of restrictions with transferring balances including the FCC.

 

3 months is a long time and it probably will be better by then, or the variant will have morphed to Sigma by then.  However, P&O are pretty stuck with this particular itinerary at the moment.

 

So would you "ditch and switch," or "pay and hope," or "press 1 to book a new cruise," and see if you reach a friendly P&O agent? 

 

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

Hope that everyone had a good festive period!

[davecttr]

6 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Grateful for some advice and opinions please, a tricky problem...!

 

We are due to go on Iona in early April.  P&O, ever flexible with their latest announcements, want the balance on 2 January (normal 90 days).  This will be the 7th, and final, cruise that we had booked from the "old" brochure, all others having been cancelled, including Christmas.  It's a direct booking, so locked in to the P&O T&C's, with no fewer than three friendly reminders so far, just so we don't forget amidst new year's celebrations.

 

Now, we have been on two "lockdown" cruises, the Fred Olsen maiden from Liverpool on Borealis (probably wouldn't go again), and a round UK cruise on Princess (might go again, but wasn't completely bowled over either).  In our view, the measures on board are an irritant, compliance wanes, but we can put up with it.  Even the daft apps, which seem to have been added to the P&O experience.  We are all triple jabbed and careful people.

 

What's making us wonder is the itinerary: 

 

1) Rotterdam (Netherlands) - currently in a "full lockdown" with curfew.

2) Hamburg - I believe that Brits were effectively banned from Germany, with travel curbs, which must affect cruises.

3) Zeebrugge - largely the same as above, but not as severe I understand it.

 

We are reluctant to play the "pay it off" and wait for the FCC "game," as we had a good fare to begin with, and have never been convinced that better value is necessarily to be had with 25% bonuses.  There are also the oft complained of restrictions with transferring balances including the FCC.

 

3 months is a long time and it probably will be better by then, or the variant will have morphed to Sigma by then.  However, P&O are pretty stuck with this particular itinerary at the moment.

 

So would you "ditch and switch," or "pay and hope," or "press 1 to book a new cruise," and see if you reach a friendly P&O agent? 

 

Thank you for your help in advance.

 

Hope that everyone had a good festive period!

I would ditch and switch if I could as no guarantee things will be better in April. It is your call of course.

 

If I knew that Omicron was coming and what it meant for my January cruise I would have ditched and switched but how now left with a very expensive cruise - over £2000- that I cant get out of going on unless I contract COVID which I don't want to do ESPECIALLY on the cruise.

[wowzz]

Your cruise is really about the destinations,  so any restrictions about visiting ashore will have an impact.

We are  cruising to the Canaries slightly before you, and even if we cannot go ashore we will have some sunny warm weather (hopefully) to enjoy.

In your shoes, I would cancel. 

[janny444]

I too would ditch and switch....April will soon come round and yes we may all be back to normal cruising but more than likely restrictions will still be in place and do you really want to pay your final balance and then have the uncertainty and the wondering is the cruise going to be as I want it to be ....for me the uncertainty would outweigh the lovely anticipation of going on a cruise in a way that  I would fully enjoy.

[Dermotsgirl]

I find myself in a similar position.

 

My cruise is in May, originally booked in October 2019. I've got to pay my travel agent at the end of January.

 

In your position, I wouldn't be paying. You've indicated that you didn't really enjoy your cruises in the Covid era, so I doubt if you really want to be paying any more money to them for a cruise that your probably aren't 100% about doing.  I think they will resist cancelling any more cruises,  so if you paid, you could end up  paying for something you don't really want.

 

In your position it sounds like what you would prefer to do to to 'ditch and switch'

 

Personally, I'm considering just 'ditching' and losing my deposit.  I've lost a lot of my inclination to cruise, and I'm getting sick of the entire palaver.  If I switch to the same 2023 cruise, I face going through the entire thought process again this time next year, for a holiday that I don't really want to do. I just want to draw a line under it 

 

[Ardennais]

At the risk of being labelled ‘negative’, I would also ditch and switch. The only type of cruise I would even consider for next summer would be a round Britain cruise, 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 minute ago, Ardennais said:

At the risk of being labelled ‘negative’, I would also ditch and switch. The only type of cruise I would even consider for next summer would be a round Britain cruise, 

Actually, my cruise that I'm thinking of ditching is a Round Britain cruise - but I don't think I'm going to be able to bring myself to pay a large sum of money for it in January, when everything is so uncertain, and the pandemic situation is not going to be very good. 

 

 

[Eddie99]

I think I’d ditch & switch too

 

I’ve switched all 2022 cruises to 2023 & 2024(!) and generally cleared my mind of cruises.  (Cue one or two posters leaping in to accuse me of … I’m not sure? - spoiling their fun?  No, I don’t want to do that.  Saying they shouldn’t cruise? - Not me.  I try not to tell others what to do when it doesn’t affect me (though I’m sure I do at times - none of us is perfect))

 

Should the situation change for the better I think there will be plenty of opportunities to grab something - all those new ships!

 

For me, much of the pleasure of cruising, or holidays in general, has been the planning and anticipation. If that vanishes, to be replaced by “Will it go or not?  Will we get on?  Will we be safe?  Will we visit all the ports and be free to enjoy them?” I would lose much of the “added value”

 

You will make your own choice, of course, but is it possible that, in composing your post, you have answered your own question?

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

I would ditch and switch if I could as no guarantee things will be better in April. It is your call of course.

 

If I knew that Omicron was coming and what it meant for my January cruise I would have ditched and switched but how now left with a very expensive cruise - over £2000- that I cant get out of going on unless I contract COVID which I don't want to do ESPECIALLY on the cruise.

Dave  I am assuming that P&O are now allowing fully paid cruisers to switch their booking to a later date, or at least I am hoping that is the case as with Omicron now looking as though it will peak in Feb. we no longer fancy going on our Feb Canaries cruise.

[bee-ess]

I would ditch and switch. my complaint is that you are being asked to make a decision on what things will be like in April, who knows ? I think in the current circumstances there should be 30 day payment terms at which time you would have a clearer picture of conditions.

Edited December 27, 2021 by bee-ess

[Jennizor]

Having been on Britannia 4-18 December, the first thing we did when we got home was to cancel our May Eastern Med cruise on Azura. Whilst we loved being on Britannia it was spoilt by all the hoops we had to jump through before, during and after the cruise. It was all very stressful. We are also booked on Azura in September but for the moment we are not cancelling. We will wait until things get better but will cancel if we feel nothing has changed sufficiently. Iona in Feb 2023  may be our next cruise. Very sad though.

[wowzz]

52 minutes ago, Eddie99 said:

I think I’d ditch & switch too

 

I’ve switched all 2022 cruises to 2023 & 2024(!) and generally cleared my mind of cruises.  (Cue one or two posters leaping in to accuse me of … I’m not sure? - spoiling their fun?  No, I don’t want to do that.  Saying they shouldn’t cruise? - Not me.  I try not to tell others what to do when it doesn’t affect me (though I’m sure I do at times - none of us is perfect))

 

Should the situation change for the better I think there will be plenty of opportunities to grab something - all those new ships!

 

For me, much of the pleasure of cruising, or holidays in general, has been the planning and anticipation. If that vanishes, to be replaced by “Will it go or not?  Will we get on?  Will we be safe?  Will we visit all the ports and be free to enjoy them?” I would lose much of the “added value”

 

You will make your own choice, of course, but is it possible that, in composing your post, you have answered your own question?

I think that everyone can only make decisions based on their own judgement. There is no right or wrong.

We are of an age whereby we can see the time rapidly coming when we will be too old to cruise, take foreign holidays etc, and are therefore disinclined to cancel our forthcoming cruises. If you like,  it's a now or never atitude, but that's just us. 

[davecttr]

27 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Dave  I am assuming that P&O are now allowing fully paid cruisers to switch their booking to a later date, or at least I am hoping that is the case as with Omicron now looking as though it will peak in Feb. we no longer fancy going on our Feb Canaries cruise.

I checked the T&C for future cruise credit on the P&O site and it lists the standard 90 days cancellation conditions. I would be grateful for clarification of the current rules and regs

 

Some people were allowed to change a January cruise but I think it was because of a change of rules imposed by foreign countries concerning children going ashore.

[paulatsea]

Difficult - if you got a good price as you said I would stay with it - by April I think things will be much clearer about what is likely to happen and how we will have to live with things.

(if it had been very expensive I would probably ditch)

 

if it’s cancelled you get the FCC or a refund I assume ?

if it’s not I would go anyway and hope for the best - it’s not ideal but it’s nice being at sea on a ship and hopefully you get some stops.

 

one of my friends said yesterday “we are in snipers alley mate - live life to the max” !!

 

especially as in our case we are nearer the end than the beginning !

 

good luck - once decided don’t look back.

 

paul

 

 

 

 

[terrierjohn]

51 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I checked the T&C for future cruise credit on the P&O site and it lists the standard 90 days cancellation conditions. I would be grateful for clarification of the current rules and regs

 

Some people were allowed to change a January cruise but I think it was because of a change of rules imposed by foreign countries concerning children going ashore.

If you booked through a TA I would recommend asking them to see if you can cancel and switch, or ring P&O if you booked direct. We are waiting to see if the cases continue to increase through early January, before we make a final decision to see if we can switch.

Edited December 27, 2021 by terrierjohn

[wowzz]

Interesting to read on that other social forum, that P&O are still allowing people to switch cruises scheduled to depart on Jan 3rd. 

It does appear that P&O are being flexible if you ask, but are not going out of their way to publicise the policy.

[bbtablet]

To help make these decisions we need to know how things are developing day by day, and if you aren't aware of it a very interesting thread on the Cunard pages is currently following the difficult Queen Mary 2 cruise currently in the Caribbean. Every day brings more problems and for a good read I would recommend starting at the beginning of the thread:

Cruise Lines A - O;   Cunard Line: Merged:Outbreak on QM2 as it pulls into New York?

 

The latest is that they have had to miss the last two ports.

 

I am now certain I made the correct decision to cancel a very similar 28 days trip on her which starts mid-Jan.

[davecttr]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Interesting to read on that other social forum, that P&O are still allowing people to switch cruises scheduled to depart on Jan 3rd. 

It does appear that P&O are being flexible if you ask, but are not going out of their way to publicise the policy.

I intend to test your suggestion tomorrow 

[Denarius]

6 hours ago, davecttr said:

I would ditch and switch if I could as no guarantee things will be better in April. It is your call of course.

 

If I knew that Omicron was coming and what it meant for my January cruise I would have ditched and switched but how now left with a very expensive cruise - over £2000- that I cant get out of going on unless I contract COVID which I don't want to do ESPECIALLY on the cruise.

I am in the same position. I am due to sail on Azura in 2 weeks time. When I booked the cruise in Sept of last year after we had been asked to "eat out to help out" and had been assured that things were getting back to normal, I never dreamed that 16 months later we would have been in the position we are now. Even when I paid my balance 3 months ago we were still being told that whilst covid was still around the vaccines would protect us and that restrictions would not be reintroduced; then came omicron!. Had I known what I know now I would neither have booked nor paid my balance. I no longer wish to sail. Not because of the risk of infection from omicron but because restrictions (re)introduced to counter it make cruising a much less attractive proposition as far as I personnally concerned. But unless P&O agree to move my booking - unlikely - my only course of action is to cancel and salvage what little I can.

[Denarius]

8 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I intend to test your suggestion tomorrow 

So do I! I will visit my travel agent tomorrow.

[wowzz]

21 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I intend to test your suggestion tomorrow 

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

[Selbourne]

27 minutes ago, Denarius said:

But unless P&O agree to move my booking - unlikely - my only course of action is to cancel and salvage what little I can.

If you end up in that scenario (where you don’t want to risk going but can’t cancel), is an option to tell P&O a few days before sailing that you have tested positive for Covid? Unless I am mistaken, that would get you an automatic FCC and I don’t see how they can ask you to prove it.

[davecttr]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

If you end up in that scenario (where you don’t want to risk going but can’t cancel), is an option to tell P&O a few days before sailing that you have tested positive for Covid? Unless I am mistaken, that would get you an automatic FCC and I don’t see how they can ask you to prove it.

I think you will find they will ask you to prove it somehow. My LFT test results are emailed and texted to me and I imagine the same applies to a PCR test, if positive you will be logged somewhere in the NHS.

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I think you will find they will ask you to prove it somehow. My LFT test results are emailed and texted to me and I imagine the same applies to a PCR test, if positive you will be logged somewhere in the NHS.

What about if it was a family member, work colleague etc?.

[Selbourne]

6 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I think you will find they will ask you to prove it somehow. My LFT test results are emailed and texted to me and I imagine the same applies to a PCR test, if positive you will be logged somewhere in the NHS.

If so then that’s clearly not an option, but a number of folk on this forum have cancelled at short notice due to someone in their party testing positive. Perhaps one of them can answer whether tor not they had to provide proof and, if so, what that ‘proof’ was? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you aren’t asked to prove it, as it would be quite easy to ‘create’ proof given that nobody has access to your NHS records other than the NHS!