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.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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.

6 hours ago, 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.

 

 

Welcome. I hope you are enjoying Southampton.  It is possible to book P&O voyages from the US via their travel agent partner Vacations To Go.  There has been a flurry of US travellers choosing P&O recently and they have all enjoyed the experience. Britannia is actually the P&O flagship and will be enjoying a special UK cruise in 2025 to celebrate her 10th birthday if that could be of interest to you.

Apart from this her two newer large sisters Iona and Arvia are considerably larger and offer family cruising as does Ventura, another family ship.  The two refined old ladies of the fleet Aurora and Arcadia are adult only ships and offer more interesting longer voyages. The remaining ship is Azura who offers Mediterranean fly cruises through the summer months and moves to the Canary Islands for the Winter.

I am sure you would be most welcome onboard and it is certainly a different experience to the main US lines.