P & o shore excursions - can I book before I go - using on board spend?

We have just booked on Britannia in September and have got some on board spend. We have seen some excursions, but do not know if we have to wait till we get on board to book them. If we book now will they take them from the on board spend or charge them to credit card?

You cannot use your on board spend if you book in advance but you still get your Peninsular discount. However, the price is usually lower booking in advance.

Brian

They are the same price whether you book on board or in advance, but you need to be aware of two things. If you book in advance (via Cruise Personaliser), you will receive any loyalty discount you are entitled to. If you book on board, the full price is deducted from your on board credit (as it is for any on board spend) until your credit is all used and only then do you receive discount. Sharp practice in my view. The other thing to note is that some of the most popular tours sell out before the ship sails and it is not always possible for additional capacity to be added, so you may be disappointed. I have known half a dozen or more tours to be sold out before departure date.

They are the same price whether you book on board or in advance

Not necessarily. I've got pre-cruise information including prices for half a dozen excursions on Arcadia's Christmas cruise last year that were £2 per head more on the on-board booking form - admittedly not a great difference but still a small benefit for those booked early to make sure of a place on their preferred excursions.

Thanks for info. This is our first time with P & O, so we do not have any loyalty points. We have cruised mainly with Princess and rarely had any on board spend, but I think that any excursions booked in advance went straight on our credit card. I was looking on the P & O site, to ask the question, but could not find a link.

I agree with Kent chris. P and O are now stating that the excursions will be cheaper to book beforehand. They only increase by a small percentage(I think I read 5%) but if you haven t got OBC you want to use onboard and it is an excursion you definately want to go on, I suggest booking in advance

To ensure you get a place on an excursion I would defiantly book before you go, I am sure you can find other things to spend you OBC on. :)

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They are the same price whether you book on board or in advance, but you need to be aware of two things. If you book in advance (via Cruise Personaliser), you will receive any loyalty discount you are entitled to. If you book on board, the full price is deducted from your on board credit (as it is for any on board spend) until your credit is all used and only then do you receive discount. Sharp practice in my view. The other thing to note is that some of the most popular tours sell out before the ship sails and it is not always possible for additional capacity to be added, so you may be disappointed. I have known half a dozen or more tours to be sold out before departure date.

Hardly sharp practise Selbourne, you either get it free if you only just spend your OBC, or you get your 10% discount on everything you spend above your OBC.

But ONC isn't free though is it? Let's not pretend P&O are giving us something here.

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Hardly sharp practise Selbourne, you either get it free if you only just spend your OBC, or you get your 10% discount on everything you spend above your OBC.

It's entirely sharp practice and I frankly can't see how anyone can logically interpret it any other way. As we all know, P&O use varying OBC along with varying prices. It is NOT free money but part of the totality of the financial outlay. To promote that loyal customers receive a discount on On-board spend but then not provide it until all OBC is used up is 100% sharp practice, pure and simple.

The OBC is 100% discount, they then take 10% (or whatever your loyalty level is) off of that which is still zero, so not sharp practice at all :)

The OBC is 100% discount, they then take 10% (or whatever your loyalty level is) off of that which is still zero, so not sharp practice at all :)

We are paying for the OBC in the purchase price. Anyone who thinks P&O are 'giving' us anything needs to have their head examined. I can't quite understand what you're saying about the loyalty discount, but it doesn't kick in until your OBC is spent. So loyal customers getting extra OBC when booking on the ship, are not only paying in advance for the OBC.....they are losing out on their loyalty discount. So it's a win-win situation for P&O.

I won't even get started on them only offering a 'guaranteed' cabin for a Select price. That's a pure rip off.

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I have to agree with Selbourne I'm afraid.

By rights you should receive both the on board discount relative to your tier; in addition to any on board spend.

If P&O wait until you have used your on board spending money to begin deducting your discount, then you are NOT receiving both benefits. You also, of course, use up your on board discount quicker because the tier discount is not being applied.

The tier discount is marketed as a percentage off all of your on board purchases, but this is not true and is, therefore, false advertising.

Thank you Cruise Puss and Chris P Bacon (love that name by the way). I was beginning to think that I was the only person on here who understood basic maths!

Here's a real life example of how we are disadvantaged by this approach. We have a cruise booked for this summer which, unlike most of our other bookings, we didn't book when they were first released. It's for a Suite (for us) and an adjacent balcony cabin for our daughters. We got a great OBC package (£1,000 between both cabins) BUT the basic prices had gone up since launch. Overall, we were probably about 'even' with the 'overall' package but the way it was configured meant that we paid a lot more for the fare with a roughly corresponding amount of extra OBC.

Had we booked originally, almost all of our on board spend would have been subject to our loyalty discount. Let's say for the sake of arguement that this would equate to £100 loyalty discount. But, as we now have loads of OBC we will probably gain no loyalty discount, as all on board spend will be charged at full price with no loyalty discount applied. This loss of £100 is not compensated for in the base price as we paid more for it than if we had booked earlier. Yes, we can get loyalty discount for excursions and select dining IF we book them in advance, but then we may struggle to spend all our OBC when on board.

Now, I fully appreciate that in the scheme of things, this loss of £100 is a small amount of the entire holiday outlay, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you are a loyal P&O customer over, in our case, 20 years. Several friends have encouraged us to try other cruise lines but we like the 'Britishness' of P&O and would prefer to stick with them, but ironically a lot of that decision has been driven by the fact that we are climbing up the loyalty tiers nicely. But, if one of the principal benefits is the discount (which, until you get to Caribbean tier - which we are not - it is), P&O's approach does make you think twice about feeling 'loyal' to them.

With the vast increase in the number of cabins that they now need to fill, as well as the increased competition, perhaps it's time for P&O to reconsider this policy?

Just got back from the Caribbean on Azura. After being lured to the loyalty desk by a flyer for a great deal on a balcony for the corresponding cruise next year, we were left disappointed. The lady went into the system and then said that those cabins were gone. But we could have a higher grade. Ok.....but she then said those were gone because the offer had been popular. So we went onto the next grade, until we got to a price we didn't want to pay.

I know we don't tend to mention actual prices, but I'll just say this. Relative to this cruise we've just done, we were offered an extra £200 OBC, but the cost for a similar balcony cabin was £1200 more. A net increase of £1000. Now I know P&O are a commercial organisation, and they need to make a profit for their shareholders. But £1000 increase? [emoji15][emoji15][emoji15]So any discussion on 'free' OBC has to be looked at in context of the overall price you are paying. If I'd kept my bill, I'd do a little check to see what loyalty discount (%) we actually got, when you take into account that they don't discount your OBC.

Part of me doesn't blame them for taking the money whilst the going is good, but they are playing a dangerous game. I say that because as much as we love cruising, we could have three decent holidays for the cost of the Caribbean cruise. Thats where we are right now. We will cruise again and I'm sure, on P&O (among others). But we'll cruise less.

P.S. I think Branson enters the market in 2020. That will be interesting!

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I will be very interested to see what Virgin will offer!

As for the OBC I agree it's just a way of manipulating the overall cost to reel in the bookings. The effect being to wipe out loyalty benefits which were poor in the first place.

I understand that they are going to communicate a revision of the loyalty benefits after the world cruises. I believe this will change the points you receive depending on the type of cabin etc. I really hope they upgrade the benefits that those points earn.

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I will be very interested to see what Virgin will offer!

 

As for the OBC I agree it's just a way of manipulating the overall cost to reel in the bookings. The effect being to wipe out loyalty benefits which were poor in the first place.

 

I understand that they are going to communicate a revision of the loyalty benefits after the world cruises. I believe this will change the points you receive depending on the type of cabin etc. I really hope they upgrade the benefits that those points earn.

 

 

 

 

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That's the first I had heard about a potential change to loyalty points, so I shall await with great interest. Having had three cruises in Suites over the past two years, I do hope that any tiered approach based upon cabin type will apply retrospectively to points already earned as we may get to Caribbean tier earlier than we thought (assuming that they don't change the whole thing)!

That's the first I had heard about a potential change to loyalty points, so I shall await with great interest. Having had three cruises in Suites over the past two years, I do hope that any tiered approach based upon cabin type will apply retrospectively to points already earned as we may get to Caribbean tier earlier than we thought (assuming that they don't change the whole thing)!

I have heard that they were looking at changing the system, but I hadn't heard about anything relating to cabins.

Going on your comment re. booking Suites - do you think they will go back to 2005 as that was when we had our first Suite!:D:D:D

I have heard that they were looking at changing the system, but I hadn't heard about anything relating to cabins.

 

Going on your comment re. booking Suites - do you think they will go back to 2005 as that was when we had our first Suite!:D:D:D

I don't know, but I still haven't forgiven them for the fact that our first P&O cruise in 1996 stopped counting towards our loyalty points following the last revision to the scheme, especially as it was 18 nights! I guess if they 'drop' further past loyalty points then that will be all the excuse I need to try another cruise line. On a serious note, I doubt that they will re-calculate points based on past cruises (especially if it benefits customers), but we can live in hope.

To be honest, the loyalty club benefits are so derisory, they're not worth worrying about:(

To be honest, the loyalty club benefits are so derisory, they're not worth worrying about:(

Maybe to you, but 10% off everything I spend onboard isn't derisory to me. We also appreciate the early embarkation, priority disembarkation, the lovely lunch and cocktail party. They work for us

It was some time ago but the revision was announced on the last live chat Christopher Edgington did on this forum, I think he said the target date was last summer so if I'm right it's a project which has over run. I was recently told they are now rolling out after the worldies and the point accrual will be based upon cabin and fare type - assuming it's true. They won't change your accrual for past cruises, but as we have seen before they might change what they provide. I am wondering whether they might take the opportunity to formalise boarding according to time and withdraw early boarding privileges currently enjoyed by Caribbean+ but only time will tell. I would love to see them scrap the slippers and pins and properly reward loyalty.

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It was some time ago but the revision was announced on the last live chat Christopher Edgington did on this forum, I think he said the target date was last summer so if I'm right it's a project which has over run. I was recently told they are now rolling out after the worldies and the point accrual will be based upon cabin and fare type - assuming it's true. They won't change your accrual for past cruises, but as we have seen before they might change what they provide. I am wondering whether they might take the opportunity to formalise boarding according to time and withdraw early boarding privileges currently enjoyed by Caribbean+ but only time will tell. I would love to see them scrap the slippers and pins and properly reward loyalty.

 

 

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Nooooo, not the slippers! What am I supposed to wear at home!! :D:D:D

Nooooo, not the slippers! What am I supposed to wear at home!! :D:D:D

Cardboard and an elastic band should be a good substitute [emoji23]

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Thank you Cruise Puss and Chris P Bacon (love that name by the way). I was beginning to think that I was the only person on here who understood basic maths!

 

Here's a real life example of how we are disadvantaged by this approach. We have a cruise booked for this summer which, unlike most of our other bookings, we didn't book when they were first released. It's for a Suite (for us) and an adjacent balcony cabin for our daughters. We got a great OBC package (£1,000 between both cabins) BUT the basic prices had gone up since launch. Overall, we were probably about 'even' with the 'overall' package but the way it was configured meant that we paid a lot more for the fare with a roughly corresponding amount of extra OBC.

 

Had we booked originally, almost all of our on board spend would have been subject to our loyalty discount. Let's say for the sake of arguement that this would equate to £100 loyalty discount. But, as we now have loads of OBC we will probably gain no loyalty discount, as all on board spend will be charged at full price with no loyalty discount applied. This loss of £100 is not compensated for in the base price as we paid more for it than if we had booked earlier. Yes, we can get loyalty discount for excursions and select dining IF we book them in advance, but then we may struggle to spend all our OBC when on board.

 

Now, I fully appreciate that in the scheme of things, this loss of £100 is a small amount of the entire holiday outlay, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when you are a loyal P&O customer over, in our case, 20 years. Several friends have encouraged us to try other cruise lines but we like the 'Britishness' of P&O and would prefer to stick with them, but ironically a lot of that decision has been driven by the fact that we are climbing up the loyalty tiers nicely. But, if one of the principal benefits is the discount (which, until you get to Caribbean tier - which we are not - it is), P&O's approach does make you think twice about feeling 'loyal' to them.

 

With the vast increase in the number of cabins that they now need to fill, as well as the increased competition, perhaps it's time for P&O to reconsider this policy?

Selbourne I never doubted your maths on this,but without wanting to sound too much like my friend Dai, chief P&O cheerleader,you did sign up for this as it is in the T&C's, but of course who ever reads them.

Now if you want to improve the loyalty scheme I am fully behind you, but IMHO at least with our level of spending and OBC the loyalty discount is trivial.

However I would like to see some of the Princess and RCI group benefits rolled out to P&O., 50-250 mins free internet on Princess and Celebrity, one off mini bar set up for Elite members on Princess, free pre-dinner drinks on the RCI group, anytime embarkation for all members on Princess and RCI group, to name but a few.

And finally I hope any review will not slow down my elevation to the Caribou peerage, which should happen after my 2018 Caribbean cruise.