How does a US citizen book a P&O cruise?

How can a US citizen book a P&O cruise? Do they have a US ofiice I can call? I want to pay in US dollars-credit card. PLEASE HELP. Need an answer by Monday night.

I would contact P and O direct via this website. There is a space bottom right to ask them a question by email. It is a Bank Holiday weekend over here at present so there might be a quick response but failing that I would check with one of the UK based cruise travel specialists found on this website. Gills, Bolsover, Cruise Thomas Cook etc.

http://www.pocruises.com/

The internet has got to be the answer, contact P&O direct on their web site and your cruise is only a few clicks away.

I beleive P&O has an office in the Princess headquarters building in Valencia, CA.

I don't have a phone number, but perhaps the Princess switchboard could trasner your call, or provide the correct toll-free number.

How can a US citizen book a P&O cruise? Do they have a US ofiice I can call? I want to pay in US dollars-credit card. PLEASE HELP. Need an answer by Monday night.

Some US based internet sites do book P&O. But we are not allowed to say which ones.

:):)Happy Vacations (hint):):)

:cool:

Dai

When I was looking into a P&O cruise, I asked my TA. She contacted the US contact on my behalf, and would have been able to book for me. So yes, US citizens can definitely book, but I believe I would have had to pay in pounds, and pay any conversion fees that my CC would charge. (I never actually booked though, so I may be wrong here.)

I know this reply is too late for the OP, but incase someone does a search at a later date, for the same information.

Go to the main P O cruises .co.uk site, click contact us, it then opens a page that actually has a heading Overseas booking. Select the country you are from and it will give the name of a travel agency you can use. Yes, there is a well known one in the US :)

I was out and about today and was thrilled to see 4 ships in port. We watched the Arcadia pull in, and my husband and I agreed that we would love to look into a cruise on her.

Although quite old, this thread, found in a search, did help us out, and I wanted to say Thank You to those who contributed.

L

I was out and about today and was thrilled to see 4 ships in port. We watched the Arcadia pull in, and my husband and I agreed that we would love to look into a cruise on her.

 

Although quite old, this thread, found in a search, did help us out, and I wanted to say Thank You to those who contributed.

 

L

Hi and thank you for sharing this with us. I have just been online to the NYC Port Webcam and Arcadia can be clearly seen at her berth. I visited NYC a few years ago on Aurora and enjoyed it so much I have booked to return on Arcadia in 2018, when the ship is in port for 2 nights!:):):)

We're in Toronto, Canada and have just gone through a booking with P&O UK.

Here are my observations:

1. P&O UK (there is another, separate division, out of Australia) is very UK-centric.

2. There do seem to be TAs in NAM that will book P&O but they seem few and rather vague about it. The advantage is that they book you in a NAm currency and the exchange rate with the UK pound is very favourable right now.

3. We decided to use a UK TA, because we had some UK pounds and thought it made sense to use them. The UK TA cruise specialist was good (all correspondence was by email).

4. We were informed by the TA that P&O needed a UK address in order to proceed with the booking. Don't know why. This was not a problem for us, but may be for other non-Brits.

5. The nice thing is that the price quoted was an 'all-in' price. Port fees, taxes (if any - is there any sales tax?) were all included in the up-front quoted price.

6. The P&O website does not allow non-UK residents to book directly on line (again, don't know why; sister company Cunard is quite transparent when it comes to residence of customer). They give a phone number to call (we didn't need to use it).

7. Once booked, we went online with our reservation # to enter details into P&O's "cruise personalizer" (passports, etc.). In contrast to the booking process, this is quite international, requesting citizenships and country of residence, etc. Not at all UK-centric. Perhaps it's the same program that other Carnival divisions use..

Never cruised P&O before; once we tied in with the UK TA, things went well. In fact, the TA price was just slightly lower than the P&O website price.

I can't help but think that P&O is missing out on a fair bit of business by limiting their marketing outside the UK. Since Cunard and P&O are part of the same company, perhaps there has been some strategic decision about market segmentation. But this is a sheer guess on my part; I have no evidence to this effect.

Can anyone shed more light, please?

It's very British-oriented cruise line (not just in terms of the website).

By which I mean the Union Jack livery all the way up to blasting out "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Rule Brittania" (sort of unofficial national anthems) while in foreign ports. The staff hand out Union Jack flags to passengers to wave at sailaways, the entertainment in the theatre when we were on it had World War 2 theme nights the food is designed to appeal to British palettes, many of their ships permanently sails out of Southampton all year round etc etc. It has a very British identity, it's part of the make up of the line (even though it's American owned). It's not that they are losing guests by not being more international on the website, it's more that they are gaining passengers but having such a very British identity if that makes sense.

It's very much marketed at the British cruiser. They sort of know their market and do that part of it well. Personally I think it's overdone, but I think it's one of the reasons it's such a popular line here and many who cruise with them love that aspect of it.

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There are a few things that us Brits really like (or dislike)

Kettles in cabins (some people MUST have their cup of tea in the morning made with boiling water)

No added gratuity to drinks

More reasonable on board Daily Service Charge

Marmite always available for breakfast!

Proper bacon;)

I like it because it is British orientated. I love travelling abroad and meeting other cultures in their own lands, but I do like my cruise ships British orientated, cheesy bits an' all....

I also like all prices on board being in pounds and not dollars and also having the British sockets.

We're in Toronto, Canada and have just gone through a booking with P&O UK.

Here are my observations:

...

It is indeed a bit difficult booking P&O from Canada and the USA. My travel agent (a cruise specialist) says it can be done though one particular agency in Toronto. It wasn't always difficult. Until the mid 1970s P&O had an office in Vancouver and even in downtown Toronto, across from Union Station. They were available to the public as well as travel agents. After they closed there was a relationship with a Canadian travel agency who acted as the P&O agent in Canada. We had three cruises on the Canberra in the late 1980s to early 90s. P&O sometimes offered special deals to Canadians. One year there was a free night in a London hotel before and after the cruise, transfers between hotel and Waterloo Station and transfer by (first class) boat train to and from Southampton. Fares were in Canadian dollars.

It seems Carnival doesn't think the Canadian and US market is worth the effort.

I would like to cruise on the Oriana. In a pinch we can handle a one-way flight across the Atlantic, but a round-trip is most unpleasant. Our favourite method would be both ways by sea. Given the lack of frequent Atlantic crossings by sea - thank you Cunard for what you do have - it is difficult to coordinate a sea crossing with a P&O cruise that appeals to us. Perhaps some day it will work out:).

I know this is an old thread, but we are in Southampton today and can see P&O's Britannia from our hotel room.  As someone living in America, it would be interesting to try this line.

Sailing for the first time in November from Barbados on the Britannia. Booked with Vacations to go in Texas.  Everything is done in dollars and payments are done through them. Very easy to deal with and very helpful with any questions anytime. QueenieMi.

On 4/26/2024 at 6:03 AM, Smokeyham said:

I know this is an old thread, but we are in Southampton today and can see P&O's Britannia from our hotel room.  As someone living in America, it would be interesting to try this line.

 

 

U.S. citizens can not book directly with P&O. You have to book with Vacations To Go.

5 hours ago, roomba920 said:

U.S. citizens can not book directly with P&O. You have to book with Vacations To Go.

Not entirely true, our Canadian relatives booked a cruise with us through our UK TA, two cruises actually, one with P&O and one with Royal Caribbean.

13 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Not entirely true, our Canadian relatives booked a cruise with us through our UK TA, two cruises actually, one with P&O and one with Royal Caribbean.

I'm confused by your response. Did I not state U.S. citizens, not Canadian, or N. American citizens???

I would assume that US  passengers would equally be able to use a UK TA. Basically it's no different to buying any service on line you pay by credit card and are charged in sterling.

Previously other US citizens have reported being being redirected to the said online agency when trying to book with P&O. Our US TA told us she is not allowed to book P&O but can book Cunard. 

Apparently one thing that is significantly different with booking a UK based cruise from the US and the UK is with the insurance requirement. For cruises booked from the UK insurance requirement is far greater than for the same cruise booked from the US - so much so that it is almost impossible to find adequate cover in the US.

The question as to whether anyone checks the insurance cover is another matter altogether.

The P&O directed agency won't cover U.S. citizens. I may be incorrect, but I believe the reason U.S. citizens are exempt from the travel insurance requirement by P&O, is due to P&O only offering one choice. It is illegal in the U.S. to require a citizen to purchase something while only giving one option. You can require insurance, but you have to offer a choice of selections. I thought this may fall under U.S. antitrust law, but a search found that insurance is exempt from that law. I think it just comes down to FREEDOM.

39 minutes ago, roomba920 said:

The P&O directed agency won't cover U.S. citizens. I may be incorrect, but I believe the reason U.S. citizens are exempt from the travel insurance requirement by P&O, is due to P&O only offering one choice. It is illegal in the U.S. to require a citizen to purchase something while only giving one option. You can require insurance, but you have to offer a choice of selections. I thought this may fall under U.S. antitrust law, but a search found that insurance is exempt from that law. I think it just comes down to FREEDOM.

Actually P&O do not offer any insurance.  Holiday Extras is a recommendation but they are not stating passengers have to buy from them and actually a very limited number of passengers do buy that policy, preferring to buy elsewhere.

Basically the Holiday Extras/P&O link is a business agreement but nothing more than a recommendation.  Just so the matter is clear, the terms and conditions about insurance are not exclusive to P&O, all the major cruise lines including Cunard, RCI, Celebrity, MSC, Princess and NCL have the same clause regarding  insurance being a requirement to travel.  Holiday Extras is an independent business offering exactly what it states: extras that travellers may require such as parking, overnight accommodation, transfers etc and insurance is just another arm of their business model.

Freedom has absolutely nothing to do with the requirement for insurance. It is a protection for customer and company alike. It is not just cruise lines that ask for travellers to be insured but is across the whole travel industry.  UK travellers have very high level of legal rights built into their holiday packages (with a cruise coming under that heading) and the insurance comes into that.  

You need to remember that residents of the UK do not have private medical insurance as a general rule as health care is provided free by our Government at the point of need with no ceiling.  Unlike US guests we therefore do not have a fall back in the event we are taken ill or have an accident whilst onboard a cruise ship so to offer protection to individuals travel insurance is a mandatory requirement imposed by the cruise line or other travel provider.  It is not anything other than a protection for both the passenger and the provider and is designed to offer both peace of mind in the event of a problem.

With respect it is a cultural difference to risk not freedom that dictates the requirement. UK travellers are much more risk adverse and as such would prefer to have the peace of mind that in the event of the worst they do not have to worry about possible enormous bills and financial stress or ruin.  Incidentally we are heavily charged by insurers for travel to the US due to the very high cost of medical treatment there due to no state provision as would be available in most other countries in the world.

I stand corrected, thank you. Although, I've never had to purchase travel insurance from the aforementioned RCI, Princess or NCL as a requirement.