Waitlisted

Having been allocated cabins for our Britannia Christmas cruise much, much sooner than we were led to believe would be the case (yay!) and having had flight details confirmed (sort of yay - TC rather than Thomson) and having obtained specific port times (yay!), I went on the Cruise Personaliser to check s.th. and find that I can now view shore excursions, again much sooner than expected. However, these are shown as "waitlisted".

I would understand this to mean that they are already fully booked and we cannot get on them (should we wish to) unless s.o. cancels. Am I correct in this assumption or in P&O-speak does "waitlisted" mean you can view them but can't book yet? If they are booked up I will be annoyed since we were not notified in any way that booking had opened and we are still well ahead of the usual 12-week window when excursions bookings open.

This also raises concerns that we will not receive notification that flight seats can be booked, they will open early and we will end up not being able to sit together.

Have I got the wrong end of the stick about the excursions and am I worrying unnecessarily about the plane seats?

The p and o cruises website has a section about waitlisted excursions https://ask.pocruises.com/help/on-shore/waitlisted_excursion. It means that the excursion is sold out but I have found with most cruise lines that with sold out excursions, they are usually able to secure additional places for excursions.

In relation to flight seats, these usually become bookable twelve weeks before the cruise. I would keep checking when you are approaching twelve weeks before to see if they are bookable

Hi groovechick, we don't go until 2 jan but a couple of weeks ago I had a look and excursions were available.

I booked the only excursion I was interested in, paid and have got the receipt from P&O.

I was surprised that they were available so soon but all excursions at all stops seem to be available.

We went P&O last year and one of the excursions that we wanted was booked up, we were put on the wait list but after a few weeks we had an email telling us it was available and so booked it. So hope you get what you want.

On that last cruise I am sure that the seats became available 9 weeks before, and it was at the stroke of midnight, so no early to bed that night and if you are anything like me the excitement won't let you sleep anyway.

Have a great cruise, I have done 2 Christmas cruises any loved them both (love all cruises anyway).

Rick.

Hi, I've noticed that excursions appear waitlisted and later have spaces. For example on my recent Britannia cruise the excursion we wanted to do was either am or pm. The am was waitlisted so I booked the pm only to find a few weeks later the am had spaces (so I got a refund on pm tour and booked the am). I did wonder if they do this to encourage people to book the least popular time first, but they could have just added an extra coach.

I put us on a waiting list for an excursion for our recent cruise. The email they sent me said if any places became available you would be given 72 hours to confirm the places, but then they would be taken out of your basket. We were away for a couple of weeks before our cruise, and no places had become available, so I booked a private tour and expected that even if any places became available I wouldn't be able to confirm.

Cut to the cruise, 3 days on board, and the night before said excursion, we returned to our room to find 2 excursion tickets for 8.15am the following morning! I immediately went to reception, who sent an email to the excursions team, but I still had to get up and go off the boat at 8am to talk to them to explain we wouldn't be going on the excursion. The excursions coordinator told me that once onboard the cruise waitlist places are automatically allocated. Even if I had still been interested in the excursion, leaving it to the night before is too short notice IMO. So the moral of the story is, if you go on the waitlist and change your mind, remove yourself, otherwise you may end up with tickets at the 11th hour (literally!) :)

Worth knowing - thank you!

I understand that, in some cases, if there are enough people on the wait list for a specific tour, P&O will try to organize an additional tour. This happened to us recently on Azura.

Payment in full or deposit for booking excursions with P&O Cruise Personaliser never booked on ship always booked with Locals

Thanks all. I feel a bit less concerned now.

We may well end up DIYing in ports anyway, but I'm a bit annoyed that they've just released the excursions without any notice. I've been checking more or less weekly, but we've been away and every time I checked it said excursions will be released @12 weeks prior to cruise. Well, by my reckoning we're still at least 16 weeks off.

Thanks for the advice re the flights rickpo, I will do my sums and make a note of the anticipated date. Look like it will be a late night that day.

Thanks also gingerbumblebee - P&O really do seem to have a strange system that puts the onus on you the passenger to cancel, when it's the company that says excursions are unavailable in the first place. They also make more work for themselves IMHO.

My cruise leaves in less than 48 hours, a couple of days ago all excursions were available to book, but yesterday they all became 'wait list' only! I wondered if p&o stop bookings so close to departure? Anyone noticed it before? I've added our names to one we want so hopefully they may put more coaches on if there's enough demand.

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My cruise leaves in less than 48 hours, a couple of days ago all excursions were available to book, but yesterday they all became 'wait list' only! I wondered if p&o stop bookings so close to departure? Anyone noticed it before? I've added our names to one we want so hopefully they may put more coaches on if there's enough demand.

 

 

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Yes they are "closed" 48 hours before sailing. We joined a waitlist and when we arrived at our cabin the tickets were there!

Thanks sue, that's great news! I thought it was a bit strange.

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I would give them a call. It may well be that they actually haven't released them for booking yet but have put them up on the CP and are shown as wait listed. Have you actually tried to get yourself on the wait list for any excursions? I can't believe that all excursions have sold out that far in advance of any cruise but if they have the sooner you put yourself on the waitlist the better as they may just be seeing what the demand is..

Thanks sue, that's great news! I thought it was a bit strange.

 

 

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No problem, hope you get on the excursion you want and enjoy your cruise :)

Thanks, Im sure we will do, getting very excited - driving everyone mad in & out of the cases rearranging and checking / rechecking stuff [emoji38]

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When I looked at mine on cp, the only excursions wait listed were those on the day of arrival, all others were bookable.

Payment in full or deposit for booking excursions with P&O Cruise Personaliser never booked on ship always booked with Locals

There are many occasions when 'locals' don't do excursions to the places passengers may wish. The cruise lines more than not publish a a good choice which will match the cross section of their passengers wishes.

On one such Ventura cruise this one matched exactly what I required and was not available locally...

http://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2014/11/03/one-way-to-do-corfu/