Summer 2025

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Now that the cheapest prices seem to be between balance due date and sailing, rather than at launch as it always used to be, there’s no way that we would book so far in advance if we didn’t need an accessible balcony cabin. If we could use a standard balcony cabin we would be booking cruises 10-12 weeks before sailing now!

Possibly true for cruises from Southampton: not so much so for fly cruises where the choice of airport and seat choice is an important factor.  

Not sure a cheap cruise that involves a flight from Bristol in a rubbish seat is a bargain for us.

[cruisefan2012]

I like to book in advance as it gives me time to pay for it as I always travel solo

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Possibly true for cruises from Southampton: not so much so for fly cruises where the choice of airport and seat choice is an important factor.  

Not sure a cheap cruise that involves a flight from Bristol in a rubbish seat is a bargain for us.

Fair enough. We only do ex Southampton cruises. When we could fly, we went to the USA Premium Economy from Bristol, but we don’t live in Lincolnshire 😉 

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Fair enough. We only do ex Southampton cruises. When we could fly, we went to the USA Premium Economy from Bristol, but we don’t live in Lincolnshire 😉 

True - the point I'm making is that by waiting until the last minute,  you can't always get the most convenient airport, especially if you don't live in the SE.

[Presto2]

13 hours ago, TigerB said:

Unfortunately, we're in the same boat as Selbourne, and others who require an accessible cabin. If there is a cruise we really want to do, we have no option but to book a loooonnnnggg time in advance, more often than not when the cruise is released. I wish we didn't have to do so, but that is the way it is.

Hi, I get that and appreciate that you need to book early. We've often booked about 18 months out for special cruises and if we know which cabin we want etc.

 

[Dermotsgirl]

Going back to Selbourne’s discussion the other day about Saga, and the benchmark figure of £500 per couple per day.

 

I was looking at Fred Olsen for 2024 into 2025, and thought that the prices were surprisingly expensive. The benchmark figure, per couple, per day was always over £400, with about £450 being quite normal. This was for an ocean view cabin on an older ship. I think there was a £100 OBC offer, but drinks/ tips not included. Whereas the Saga prices are for balcony cabins, on new ships, with drinks included, tips, travel to ports, WiFi, some excursions, etc. 

 

in this context, it makes Saga seem more reasonable. 
 

I enjoyed our Fred cruise, in 2018, and it was more expensive than P&O, but not excessively more. At this sort of pricing, I don’t think I could consider Fred, unless it was some where that I REALLY wanted to travel 
 

 

[Britboys]

17 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Now that the cheapest prices seem to be between balance due date and sailing, rather than at launch as it always used to be, there’s no way that we would book so far in advance if we didn’t need an accessible balcony cabin. If we could use a standard balcony cabin we would be booking cruises 10-12 weeks before sailing now!

But that's not necessarily going to be the case this time next year though. As always it is a gamble. Folks wanting to sail on Iona & Arvia who are not bothered about getting a particular cabin are probably very likely to get a good deal, maybe Britannia too. Anyone's guess with Azura & Ventura but Azura is likely to have competition from other lines for the fly-cruises and if Ventura continues to offer winter cruises ex Southampton to Iberia then I would imagine there will good late deals available there too. The situation with the two smallest members of the fleet how could well be different. Whilst there have been a few good late deals on them recently, I'm not sure that will be a regular thing going forward...

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Dermotsgirl said:

Going back to Selbourne’s discussion the other day about Saga, and the benchmark figure of £500 per couple per day.

 

I was looking at Fred Olsen for 2024 into 2025, and thought that the prices were surprisingly expensive. The benchmark figure, per couple, per day was always over £400, with about £450 being quite normal. This was for an ocean view cabin on an older ship. I think there was a £100 OBC offer, but drinks/ tips not included. Whereas the Saga prices are for balcony cabins, on new ships, with drinks included, tips, travel to ports, WiFi, some excursions, etc. 

 

in this context, it makes Saga seem more reasonable. 
 

I enjoyed our Fred cruise, in 2018, and it was more expensive than P&O, but not excessively more. At this sort of pricing, I don’t think I could consider Fred, unless it was some where that I REALLY wanted to travel 
 

 

Fred Olsen's launch prices over the last two or three years have been crazy. I looked at an interesting itinerary which was advertised as have reduced single supplement and the cheapest inside single cabin was £221 per night.

[Britboys]

18 hours ago, Presto2 said:

I am just amazed that they may be available any time soon ----- am I the only one who thinks booking 2 years in advance is a LOOOONNNNGGG time. (Said as a couple who have sometimes booked up to 18 months in advance). I suppose it is each to their own but the older I get, 2 years seems a long time.

Perhaps I am turning in to my mum 😉

No you are not. I never think 2 years ahead. My ideal this year would be for the main 2025 launch to be mid-August. That way, I could book on-board with the (hopefully) £50 deposit. Mind you by the time I am on board in the Summer, I'll know whether I want to book another P&O cruise or not.

[SarahHben]

I couldn't sleep last night and ended up browsing  online for summer 2025 cruise itineraries. I found a link that seems to show P&O summer '25 itineraries, I don't know if it's genuine or not but I also found several mentions of release dates in April so not too far away. 

 

If it is genuine it looks like the ships will stay in roughly the same areas as this summer and next,

 

 

[cruisefan2012]

3 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I couldn't sleep last night and ended up browsing  online for summer 2025 cruise itineraries. I found a link that seems to show P&O summer '25 itineraries, I don't know if it's genuine or not but I also found several mentions of release dates in April so not too far away. 

 

If it is genuine it looks like the ships will stay in roughly the same areas as this summer and next,

 

 

Could you have another look and see which ship/s are sailing up to Iceland, Which ports and when pleaseeeeeee, I would love you forever haha - thank you x

[zap99]

On 3/24/2023 at 11:12 PM, wowzz said:

True - the point I'm making is that by waiting until the last minute,  you can't always get the most convenient airport, especially if you don't live in the SE.

We only booked our Caribbean on Britannia early to ensure we could get premium seats. Financially that was a mistake.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

We only booked our Caribbean on Britannia early to ensure we could get premium seats. Financially that was a mistake.

I suppose it is a balance between comfort and price. And, we wanted a wake view cabin, so had to book early.

[SarahHben]

11 minutes ago, cruisefan2012 said:

Could you have another look and see which ship/s are sailing up to Iceland, Which ports and when pleaseeeeeee, I would love you forever haha - thank you x

As I said, I don't know if this is correct info, but the brochure I can see online has 3 itineraries for Iceland:

22nd May '25 16 nights on Aurora

Southampton / Skjolden / Alesund / Akureyri / Isafjordur / Grundarfjorour / Reykjavik (2 full Days) / Belfast / Southampton.

 

27th June '25 pretty much the same as above but in reverse.

 

1st August 21 nights on Arcadia

Southampton / Glasgow / Grundarfjorour / Reykjavik (2 full Days) / Isafjordur /  Akureyri / Honningsvag / Lofoten Islands / Narvik / Kristiansund / Alesund / Southampton.

 

There are various sail pasts as well.

 

Sorry about any wrong spellings!

[cruisefan2012]

1 minute ago, SarahHben said:

As I said, I don't know if this is correct info, but the brochure I can see online has 3 itineraries for Iceland:

22nd May '25 16 nights on Aurora

Southampton / Skjolden / Alesund / Akureyri / Isafjordur / Grundarfjorour / Reykjavik (2 full Days) / Belfast / Southampton.

 

27th June '25 pretty much the same as above but in reverse.

 

1st August 21 nights on Arcadia

Southampton / Glasgow / Grundarfjorour / Reykjavik (2 full Days) / Isafjordur /  Akureyri / Honningsvag / Lofoten Islands / Narvik / Kristiansund / Alesund / Southampton.

 

There are various sail pasts as well.

 

Sorry about any wrong spellings!

Thank you x 

[Britboys]

43 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

I couldn't sleep last night and ended up browsing  online for summer 2025 cruise itineraries. I found a link that seems to show P&O summer '25 itineraries, I don't know if it's genuine or not but I also found several mentions of release dates in April so not too far away. 

 

If it is genuine it looks like the ships will stay in roughly the same areas as this summer and next,

 

 

What a surprise, not! But thanks for looking and posting.

[tring]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

I couldn't sleep last night and ended up browsing  online for summer 2025 cruise itineraries. I found a link that seems to show P&O summer '25 itineraries, I don't know if it's genuine or not but I also found several mentions of release dates in April so not too far away. 

 

If it is genuine it looks like the ships will stay in roughly the same areas as this summer and next,

 

 

 

I searched and found a well known agent's website listing Arvia Summer 2025 cruises, but not the other ships.  It listed on sale dates of 26th April for high tier Peninsular members, with general sale dates of 27th April for March - June cruises and 28th April for July to October cruises.  The Arvia cruises are all listed as 14 night  cruises going to the Western Med with different inside cabin "from" prices for the individual cruises. 

 

Given those on sale dates are likely correct, when would people expect the itineraries to be available for public viewing on the P&O website?  I doubt we would be interested in booking, but feeling curious regards prices as we will be on board about six weeks after the release dates, so hopeful the release offers will still be in place then, which coupled with onboard advantages could be worth perusing  what is available for the smaller ships.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by tring

[cruisefan2012]

Is Britannia doing anything exciting in Summer 2025 ? 

[SarahHben]

3 minutes ago, cruisefan2012 said:

Is Britannia doing anything exciting in Summer 2025 ? 

A mix of Med; Norway; Northern Europe & Scandinavia; Spain, Portugal & Canaries; and a British Isles cruise

[wowzz]

12 minutes ago, SarahHben said:

A mix of Med; Norway; Northern Europe & Scandinavia; Spain, Portugal & Canaries; and a British Isles cruise

Same old !

[SarahHben]

Just now, wowzz said:

Same old !

That's the advantage of being new to cruising, it's still new 😊

[Windsurfboy]

If you want a rear suite you must book at launch.

 

If nothing changes we like many will have exhausted summer Southampton cruises. 

[sogne]

27 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

If you want a rear suite you must book at launch.

 

If nothing changes we like many will have exhausted summer Southampton cruises. 

 

[sogne]

Found them   nothing really new  except perhaps Morocco. 

Can anyone tell me the benefits of booking on board as we will be if launch dates indicated are correct? 

E.g. OBC & deposit.

 

[terrierjohn]

10 minutes ago, sogne said:

Found them   nothing really new  except perhaps Morocco. 

Can anyone tell me the benefits of booking on board as we will be if launch dates indicated are correct? 

E.g. OBC & deposit.

 

Deposit only £50pp, and possibly a little extra OBC.