Booking onboard - benefits?

[Eglesbrech]

It’s been a while since we ever booked a P&O cruise while onboard so I’ve lost track of what this actually offers by way of any benefits. I’m curious if it is actually worthwhile or if I’m just as well monitoring what’s on offer from the comfort of my sofa.

 

I’ve had a look and there seems to be low deposit and some sort of “up to” onboard credit. For anyone who has taken advantage recently (and willing to share) what did you get and are there any restrictions eg does it have to be a select booking? Was it eventually a better package than you would have got at a later date.

 

Any thoughts?

[david63]

One other thing that can happen is that there can be a "special offer" promotion for one or more cruises. I have known it be several hundred pounds off the price - but that is only attractive if it is a cruise that you are interested in.

[Selbourne]

On our recent cruise there was an on-board offer for double OBC on longer cruises (over 21 days from memory). They used to also have a low £50 deposit for bookings made on board, which was great if the price dropped as you could cancel and re-book, but I believe that’s no more?
 

Quite a few people on our Grand Tour booked on board for next years 65 nighter under the double OBC offer. Towards the end of the cruise, the Select price for the cruise dropped by far more than the value of the on board offer, but I’m not sure if many people picked up on that - I only knew as I had an email from our TA promoting it!
 

We learnt a valuable lesson with that cruise though (having always booked Select previously). Even under the best offer, people on our cruise who’d booked Select had paid £10k more than we did on a Late Saver. No on board offers will ever counter that!

 

As an aside, I wish that all ships would adopt the future cruises queueing system that we saw on Iona, where you are called when it’s your turn, leaving you free to wander off and be called when they are ready to see you. Great for people like me who don’t do queues 😂 
 

 

[bobstheboy]

It can be very advantageous. I posted on another thread my deal whilst onboard Arvia last September. We had booked the Iona 35 night in Jan 25 to Caribbean previously. They had a special offer of 10% discount, lower price, low deposit, free parking and £800 OBC. I quickly realised by cancelling my original booking and losing £150 pp deposit, I would still save a total of £!200. My excellent personal TA cancelled and I rebooked onboard.

[david63]

I think that the point about booking onboard is that you have to do your homework first - know what the current offer is if not onboard.

 

One other time when booking onboard can be advantageous is on opening day for a new season

[Fionboard]

Got a quote on Aurora last week. Extra obc and 10% off on Select price only. Deposit was 10% (£450). However, I was interested in Saver price and was quoted £200 more than my TA. Did not book.  

[Eglesbrech]

2 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Got a quote on Aurora last week. Extra obc and 10% off on Select price only. Deposit was 10% (£450). However, I was interested in Saver price and was quoted £200 more than my TA. Did not book.  

As @david63 says it pays to research in advance given your example above.

[yorkshirephil]

I find the staff on the future cruise desks are very knowledgeable and know how to use their system which some onshore staff aren't. We rebooked the same cruise that bobstheboy is on and got 10% plus triple OBC. We expected that we would loose the deposit to rebook but the lady we booked with used that deposit towards another cruise we were booking. Some of the low deposits have been removed from longer cruises and the £50  has been upped to £100 which is still good. There are sometimes flyers that come to your cabin with special deals. 

[Somerset Cruiser]

We were on Iona at Xmas, we booked for this coming Xmas and got a good deal. We've often got prices in the past but never booked. 

Strangely we were quoted a price which we accepted, I went back to the cabin to get a credit card, on my return the agent proceeded to enter our details the price went down and the obc went up!

We usually book with a cruise club, but we had booked that one direct with P&O therefore the new one is direct. Any connection?

[david63]

28 minutes ago, Somerset Cruiser said:

We usually book with a cruise club, but we had booked that one direct with P&O therefore the new one is direct.

You can always transfer your booking to your TA if you want to

[mrsgoggins]

When on board our 35-night Caribbean cruise in January we booked for January 2026 for the 10% discount (only offered on Select and 21+ day cruises) and double OBC.

 

Our January 2025 cruise I had booked some time ago with a well known TA who deals with P&O a lot and got a large discount, meaning I am paying a similar amount for the 2025 and 2026 35-night cruises - cabin in same area on same ship. The deposit was smaller by booking on board however, which I like.

 

Agree about going armed with prices and details of cruises you are interested in. 

 

 

[tring]

30 minutes ago, david63 said:

You can always transfer your booking to your TA if you want to

 

I think that only applies if you have booked your current cruise through the agent you want to transfer the booking to though.  That includes any cruise you had previously booked onboard and been able to transfer back to your agent, but not any cruise that has been made direct and remained as a direct booking with P&O.

 

Edited March 20 by tring

[mrsgoggins]

1 hour ago, tring said:

 

I think that only applies if you have booked your current cruise through the agent you want to transfer the booking to though.  That includes any cruise you had previously booked onboard and been able to transfer back to your agent, but not any cruise that has been made direct and remained as a direct booking with P&O.

 

My experience is that they will amend to your chosen TA if you insist. My recent 35 night cruise was booked direct. They were going to make my next booking direct also, saying ‘but that’s how you booked this one’. I pointed out that was true, but my next booking was through a TA I wanted the new booking sent to. They complied.

[terrierjohn]

On 3/20/2024 at 8:25 AM, david63 said:

One other thing that can happen is that there can be a "special offer" promotion for one or more cruises. I have known it be several hundred pounds off the price - but that is only attractive if it is a cruise that you are interested in.

But these will be slow selling cruises, a probably not very popular.

[jeanlyon]

We booked on board for this coming October.  An inside cabin and got £520 OBC and free parking.  The offer now is £140 OBC OR parking.

[david63]

6 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But these will be slow selling cruises, a probably not very popular.

Not necessarily. A few years back we were on a Christmas cruise and there was a good offer on the same cruise for the following year - according to some on our table that happened every year but only for a couple of days. All of this was pre Covid so things may have changed.

[happy v]

On Ventura at the moment and there are lots of posters for 10% off and double OBC. When you look closer it does say off certain select cruises!