Cabin selection

[MickD]

Just a quick question please.

Daughter has booked her honeymoon cruise for Nov 25 and booked a select fare at the basic price.

She knows that at that price it will be a forward standard balcony, but dosnt know why she can’t select a cabin, just comes up as guaranteed, and non changeable allocation before sale date.

Am I wrong in thinking that one of the alleged benefits of select was to be able to chose your cabin ?

tia

[majortom10]

19 minutes ago, MickD said:

Just a quick question please.

Daughter has booked her honeymoon cruise for Nov 25 and booked a select fare at the basic price.

She knows that at that price it will be a forward standard balcony, but dosnt know why she can’t select a cabin, just comes up as guaranteed, and non changeable allocation before sale date.

Am I wrong in thinking that one of the alleged benefits of select was to be able to chose your cabin ?

tia

If she has booked a Select Fare she will have been able to choose her cabin when she booked.  Don't understand how she can only book a guarantee this far in advance. Only option because she was offered a guarantee was it at a cheaper price.

Edited October 16, 2023 by majortom10

[MickD]

1 minute ago, majortom10 said:

If she has booked a Select Fare she will have been able to choose her cabin when she booked. If she has not then she has booked Early Saver. There is only one Select price so cannot book at basic price.

 

[MickD]

Nope just did a dummy booking myself, booked select only gave me the choice of forward without paying extra to move location, as they have done away with codes, and no cabin was available to select only a guaranteed cabin 

[crompton21]

Assuming you mean November 2025, not November 25th 2023 then I assume she has booked a pre release "slot" for one of the newly released cruises.

When they go on general sale, which starts tomorrow (dependant on loyalty tier) then you can book a specified room at time of booking.  Booking select at pre launch does not allow you the opportunity to specify a room number.

 

[MickD]

15 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

If she has booked a Select Fare she will have been able to choose her cabin when she booked.  Don't understand how she can only book a guarantee this far in advance. Only option because she was offered a guarantee was it at a cheaper price.

The cruise is A545 on Azura on Nov 21st 2025 select fare for 2 is £1888 for lowest grade standard balcony which used to be hf code but now is just forward.

Only strange thing after selecting select fare is that it then takes you to a page that shows the upgrades for moving to midship etc it states if you want to choose your cabin please book select fare, but after going back 3-4 times and making sure I had chosen select fare, it still dosnt offer cabin choice.

But is still charging £1888 saver fare is £1758 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[MickD]

2 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

Assuming you mean November 2025, not November 25th 2023 then I assume she has booked a pre release "slot" for one of the newly released cruises.

When they go on general sale, which starts tomorrow (dependant on loyalty tier) then you can book a specified room at time of booking.  Booking select at pre launch does not allow you the opportunity to specify a room number.

 

Yes Nov 2025 thank you that explains it, after the launch date ie tommorrow do you know if she can select a cabin online from her booking or will she have to make a phone call ?

[crompton21]

2 minutes ago, MickD said:

Yes Nov 2025 thank you that explains it, after the launch date ie tommorrow do you know if she can select a cabin online from her booking or will she have to make a phone call ?

I would think that would involve a phone call as I have never seen the ability to change a room being available online.  

[MickD]

5 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

I would think that would involve a phone call as I have never seen the ability to change a room being available online.  

 

5 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

I would think that would involve a phone call as I have never seen the ability to change a room being available online.  

Thanks but looks as though the cruise is on general sale, website dosnt mention anything about pre launch bookings 🤷‍♂️

[crompton21]

4 minutes ago, MickD said:

 

Thanks but looks as though the cruise is on general sale, website dosnt mention anything about pre launch bookings 🤷‍♂️

Go to the website landing page, scroll down until you find the box entitled secure your winter 2025/2026 holiday today, click on that and it explains the dates (although it will not explain what I have told you as the fact that you cannot choose a room isn't mentioned)

[Spike11]

10 minutes ago, MickD said:

 

Thanks but looks as though the cruise is on general sale, website dosnt mention anything about pre launch bookings 🤷‍♂️

The difference is that for the November 2025 cruise you click on a big red button which says “Secure now” , rather than the usual “Book”. There should be an explanation of what this means though.

[majortom10]

43 minutes ago, MickD said:

Yes Nov 2025 thank you that explains it, after the launch date ie tommorrow do you know if she can select a cabin online from her booking or will she have to make a phone call ?

Didn't realise that cruise wasn't on sale yet. After tomorrow she will be able to book a cabin with Select Fare and choose her cabin number and have a choice of OBC, free parking or coach travel. She will be able to do this online or IMO phone a dedicated cruise TA and they will give you more advice and might be cheaper than booking online.

[terrierjohn]

44 minutes ago, MickD said:

Yes Nov 2025 thank you that explains it, after the launch date ie tommorrow do you know if she can select a cabin online from her booking or will she have to make a phone call ?

I never book direct, always use an online TA, especially for launch bookings where the TA will ensure I get one of the cabins I want. 

However after Wednesaday she should be advised a cabin number, and if it doesn't suit her she should be able to change to a more suitable cabin.

[tring]

12 hours ago, MickD said:

 

Thanks but looks as though the cruise is on general sale, website dosnt mention anything about pre launch bookings 🤷‍♂️

 

No it is not yet on general sale, but your daughter has likely pre registered with P&O and paid a deposit, meaning she will have a booking for a specific grade of cabin.  Unless she has done lots of P&O cruises with about 200 nights onboard, she is not a Caribbean or above loyalty member, so she will not be able to make the full booking for a specific cabin before Wednesday.  She will then get notification from P&O of the cabin number she has been allocated, later on Wednesday morning.

 

If she is not happy with her allocated cabin she can then ring P&O to change her cabin within that grade.  She would also be able to upgrade her booking, if she wants to pay more for a better location (i.e. a higher grade cabin).

 

Many people do not pre register with P&O, so do not know exactly how that system works, which has caused some confusion here.  We have pre registered with P&O, but would prefer to choose our cabin before committing ourselves to a booking, so now pre register with an agent, or book a cruise which is already on sale, which allows for that.

 

Only cruises up to September 2025 are fully on sale as yet, the following winter season goes on sale in the next few days, depending upon loyalty level of the purchaser and the date of the cruise.  P&O website should explain that, if you can find where it is mentioned.

 

 

Edited October 16, 2023 by tring

[MickD]

6 hours ago, tring said:

 

No it is not yet on general sale, but your daughter has likely pre registered with P&O and paid a deposit, meaning she will have a booking for a specific grade of cabin.  Unless she has done lots of P&O cruises with about 200 nights onboard, she is not a Caribbean or above loyalty member, so she will not be able to make the full booking for a specific cabin before Wednesday.  She will then get notification from P&O of the cabin number she has been allocated, later on Wednesday morning.

 

If she is not happy with her allocated cabin she can then ring P&O to change her cabin within that grade.  She would also be able to upgrade her booking, if she wants to pay more for a better location (i.e. a higher grade cabin).

 

Many people do not pre register with P&O, so do not know exactly how that system works, which has caused some confusion here.  We have pre registered with P&O, but would prefer to choose our cabin before committing ourselves to a booking, so now pre register with an agent, or book a cruise which is already on sale, which allows for that.

 

Only cruises up to September 2025 are fully on sale as yet, the following winter season goes on sale in the next few days, depending upon loyalty level of the purchaser and the date of the cruise.  P&O website should explain that, if you can find where it is mentioned.

 

 

Thanks, few things are not quite correct though, she didn’t pre register, and as of yesterday I hadn’t either.

But by going onto the P&O website just armed with the cruise number I started to make a booking as a member of the general public, I was able to do everything, select dinner times choose either saver or select, could have upgraded to a higher category at a higher cost.

The only thing I couldn’t do is choose a cabin number.

After speaking to P&O yesterday and being told IT were going to look into it, the website is now not allowing you to book and is stating general sale tommorrow, so obviously a technical fault from P&O

Because yesterday there was a big red button that said secure cruise but that has now been removed.

[tring]

59 minutes ago, MickD said:

Thanks, few things are not quite correct though, she didn’t pre register, and as of yesterday I hadn’t either.

But by going onto the P&O website just armed with the cruise number I started to make a booking as a member of the general public, I was able to do everything, select dinner times choose either saver or select, could have upgraded to a higher category at a higher cost.

The only thing I couldn’t do is choose a cabin number.

After speaking to P&O yesterday and being told IT were going to look into it, the website is now not allowing you to book and is stating general sale tommorrow, so obviously a technical fault from P&O

Because yesterday there was a big red button that said secure cruise but that has now been removed.

 

That will be because the system is now ready for that season's cruise to go on sale to the priority booking members at 8.30pm today (Caribbean and above level in the loyalty club have priority).  So pre registrations will have almost certainly have been stopped for everyone to ready the system, (it will not be able to manage both).

 

If it is not booked, your daughter could either pre register with an agent, giving a few preferred cabin numbers, or she could ring P&O tomorrow morning, Wednesday, to book.  Agents will be busy booking priority members early this morning, but agents should be available from, say, mid morning today to still take pre registrations for non priority members.  The early winter cruises will be available for general booking, by anyone tomorrow, and the cruises for, (I think January onwards), will be available to book on Thursday. 

 

Agents can book and choose cabins, but pre registrations by P&O do not get placed into specific cabins until about 10am on the day you can book a cruise.  People who have pre registered with them, then need to wait to be notified of their allotted cabin number, before they will let those customers ring and change their allocated cabins.  Hence, as the big cruise agents (they call themselves cruise clubs and are online, or on the phone generally), tend to choose their cabins within about 30 minutes, they get an earlier choice of cabin number for their pre registrations.  Booking direct with P&O early tomorrow morning, should work in theory, but the phones will be very busy, so will be incredibly difficult to get through tomorrow.  I think the agents usually book in the order the pre registrations are received, so your daughter will not be first on their list, but still a better bet than ringing P&O tomorrow morning IMO.

 

Hope that helps clarify the way the booking system works, which is a bit odd.  Less people are booking early now as the price advantages do not always work that way (since covid, some cruises are being reduced to sell them), so you should be able to still get a fair choice of cabins, even later tomorrow.  So no real need to worry too much about getting a cabin allocated immediately, unless there is a preference for a specific few cabins in very a popular location.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by tring

[tring]

1 hour ago, MickD said:

Thanks, few things are not quite correct though, she didn’t pre register, and as of yesterday I hadn’t either.

But by going onto the P&O website just armed with the cruise number I started to make a booking as a member of the general public, I was able to do everything, select dinner times choose either saver or select, could have upgraded to a higher category at a higher cost.

The only thing I couldn’t do is choose a cabin number.

After speaking to P&O yesterday and being told IT were going to look into it, the website is now not allowing you to book and is stating general sale tommorrow, so obviously a technical fault from P&O

Because yesterday there was a big red button that said secure cruise but that has now been removed.

 

Just to clarify one more point.  The "secure cruise" button which you saw yesterday was actually the ability to pre register the cruise with P&O and (as I and another poster has said), you cannot choose preferred cabin numbers if you pre register with P&O, but you would have been assured of a cabin in a specific grade at a specific price. 

 

Pre registering with an agent does not actually give you a firm booking until they contact you to confirm the cabin they have saved for you - it is only then that agents take your deposit. 

 

We have pre registered a popular cruise with a cruise agent and we have priority booking, so it can be booked for us today.  We want one specific cabin number as we have booked the previous cruise and do not want to change cabin on change over day.  We had a text to say our cruise has been secured at 08.43am (soon after the cruise was on sale for us), so hopefully they will have nabbed our preferred cabin number.  The text also says they will call us later today to finalise the details of our holiday (that  is when they take our deposit and make our booking a firm one).  That is the way pre registration works.  We use a very popular cruise agent who does a lot of P&O bookings, but CC does not allow agents to be mentioned on here, so I cannot name them.  There are other cruise clubs though, so an online search should come up with a few possibilities if you do wish to pre register. 

 

I am hoping we have the specific cabin number we requested for our new cruise, but not heard as yet - it can sometimes be afternoon before the agents get around to ringing everyone they have saved cruises for as obviously it is a very busy day for them.  Keeping our fingers crossed.

 

EDIT FOR MY PREVIOUS POST:-

 

Obviously I meant to say at the beginning of that post that bookings can be made by priority members from 8.30 AM today, not 8.30PM!!!!  🙂

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by tring

[tring]

2 hours ago, MickD said:

Thanks, few things are not quite correct though, she didn’t pre register, and as of yesterday I hadn’t either.

But by going onto the P&O website just armed with the cruise number I started to make a booking as a member of the general public, I was able to do everything, select dinner times choose either saver or select, could have upgraded to a higher category at a higher cost.

The only thing I couldn’t do is choose a cabin number.

After speaking to P&O yesterday and being told IT were going to look into it, the website is now not allowing you to book and is stating general sale tommorrow, so obviously a technical fault from P&O

Because yesterday there was a big red button that said secure cruise but that has now been removed.

 

Just had a call from our agent and she was not been able to book the same cabin, but has been able to book the cabin next door, so we will have to move to there on our change over day.

 

Our cruise is an Azura cruise and the other fly cruises are a bit different to the cruises from Southampton.  As each week is available to book on three different cruises (a one weeker, a two week cruise combining that week with the previous week, or a two week cruise combining that week with the following week).  So P&O only put certain cabins on sale for each of those cruises and there are gaps between the available cabins when you look at the booking system.  Hence, it is possibly the cabin we are in for our first cruise was never available to be booked for our chosen second cruise, which is the 16 nights trans location, which finishes in Tenerife.  Hence some more flexibility is needed regards cabin choice on the fly cruises as there will be less cabin options for each individual cruise.  

 

Done now for us, hope all goes well for your booking.  Do you realise if you book a deck C balcony cabin, they have much bigger balconies than the other decks, even though they are standard balcony cabins?  They are about double the length from the patio door to the rail at the end of the balcony.

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by tring

[tring]

5 hours ago, MickD said:

Thanks, few things are not quite correct though, she didn’t pre register, and as of yesterday I hadn’t either.

But by going onto the P&O website just armed with the cruise number I started to make a booking as a member of the general public, I was able to do everything, select dinner times choose either saver or select, could have upgraded to a higher category at a higher cost.

The only thing I couldn’t do is choose a cabin number.

After speaking to P&O yesterday and being told IT were going to look into it, the website is now not allowing you to book and is stating general sale tommorrow, so obviously a technical fault from P&O

Because yesterday there was a big red button that said secure cruise but that has now been removed.

 

Great apologies for the number of replies to your post, but of course you can just book via the P&O website tomorrow morning, when you will be able to see available cabins.  That is something we do not normally think about on launch days as the website does sometimes crash and in the early morning, cabins could be booked quite quickly, so may have been sold before you can select them - a bit like booking airline seats when they first go on sale.  As less people seem interested in booking so far ahead now though, the chances of any problems will be greatly reduced, so should be fine.

 

We did manage to get into the booking system for the cruises around about when we have booked and most cabins seem to have been allocated to the shorter, 8,9,7 night cruises (including the one we have booked for the previous cruise, so they obviously do not want to sell many of the longer cruises, which work out cheaper on a pppn basis.  Of course they have their flights in place and will want to use them, whilst charging more for the cruises.  So we did pretty well getting the cabin next door. 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by tring