Oriana cruise 3-6-17 out of Southampton Northern Lights Cruise

I am located in the US and was looking into going on the P&O cruise on the Oriana on 3-6-17 out of Southampton.

I finally found a travel agent that could handle this for us and discovered that after you give the initial deposit it is not refundable.

I have never heard of this before as we have cruised about 30 times but never with this P&O before.

Then they require you to purchase their insurance based upon the age of the people going?

I am new to this but I think that is a little strange. I can get my own insurance from insuremytrip.com.

Has anyone gone on this cruise before?

Hi Grumpy100

Im afraid the deposit is non- refundable ...its to do with English law. There are (apparently) quite a few differences between English and US laws in as much as they relate to holidays.....not fully conversant with the details ...

Travel insurance is compulsory with P &O - but you certainly do not have to buy it through the Travel agent. If they (the travel agent) insist on it it tell them where to go as it is illegal! You can arrange your travel i surance with whoever you wish.

Finally, you might confuse a few people with your thread title! Many of us do indeed realise that in the US you use a different date format to us...so be aware you may get some strange comments!

This particular cruise is popular and will be getting booked up already so if you havent booked yet and do want to go , dont leave it too long - especially if you want a balcony or outside cabin.

A friend of mine went last year and said the trip was amazing!

Hope that helps....

Null

PS....I am going on Oriana in May this year ..will let you know what she is like! But she is going in for a major refurbishment in November December this year so should be sparkling for your cruise in March!

Hi Grumpy100

Im afraid the deposit is non- refundable ...its to do with English law. There are (apparently) quite a few differences between English and US laws in as much as they relate to holidays.....not fully conversant with the details ...

Travel insurance is compulsory with P &O - but you certainly do not have to buy it through the Travel agent. If they (the travel agent) insist on it it tell them where to go as it is illegal! You can arrange your travel i surance with whoever you wish.

Finally, you might confuse a few people with your thread title! Many of us do indeed realise that in the US you use a different date format to us...so be aware you may get some strange comments!

This particular cruise is popular and will be getting booked up already so if you havent booked yet and do want to go , dont leave it too long - especially if you want a balcony or outside cabin.

A friend of mine went last year and said the trip was amazing!

Hope that helps....

Thanks for your prompt reply. This is really a dumb question but I am from Florida so I wonder if I am going to be too cold. I guess if I dress right I should be warm. Right????

All the excursions seem pretty cool so probably will put down the deposit soon but will just go for the outside cabin and no balcony as I think it will be too cold most of the time.

Thanks.

Thanks for your prompt reply. This is really a dumb question but I am from Florida so I wonder if I am going to be too cold. I guess if I dress right I should be warm. Right????

All the excursions seem pretty cool so probably will put down the deposit soon but will just go for the outside cabin and no balcony as I think it will be too cold most of the time.

Thanks.

You will certainly need to get some thermals ! It will be very cold outside.. But beautiful beautiful scenery.

There are some useful threads about what to wear on these Northern lights cruises somewhere..

Outside cabin will be fine.

Thanks for your prompt reply. This is really a dumb question but I am from Florida so I wonder if I am going to be too cold. I guess if I dress right I should be warm. Right????

All the excursions seem pretty cool so probably will put down the deposit soon but will just go for the outside cabin and no balcony as I think it will be too cold most of the time.

Thanks.

We did this cruise in 2014 and with reference to being cold Ithink layers is the answer and for your information the night we went on the excursion "In search of the Northern Lights" in Alta it was -26 C.:eek:

Hi, it will certainly be pretty cold! Dress in layers and you should be fine. Inside the ship you won't be cold.

We have done a similar cruise. Lots of layers, silk is good. Good boots, possibly with ice grips. If you are lucky, you might see the lights from the ship, we did. The trip out late at night gives no guarantee but was an adventure. We spent 2 hours sitting in a snow storm so no lights, by a campfire, on a frozen lake, drinking hot chocolate. Magical . Waterproof overtrousers as well as coat, snood, 2 hats, scarf, thermal underwear but WELL WORTH IT. Also recommend dog sledging with huskies. Th e scenery is amazing and we had a couple of bright sunny days. Enjoy.

You need to be sure that your insurance gives full medical cover, that's a company rule; but as stated above, it doesn't have to be P&O's own insurance. And unlike US law, under UK law when you pay the deposit you are creating a binding contract - you can cancel your side of the contract but lose money according to the penalties in the contract; on the other hand, the cruise line is also bound by the contract and can't suddenly decide to charter the ship to a large group, as I understand occasionally happens in the USA.

Coming from Florida, I'd recommend thermals, waterprrof trousers and jacket which are also windproof, and good quality gloves, thermal socks, and a hat with flaps that cover your ears. If there's snow on the ground, which there will be in the north at least, then there are very good grips which pull over your shoe, rubber things with half a dozen little spikes, perhaps a quarter of an inch long. They work wonders for walking about. If you can't find them via the internet (google "snow spikes"), then get some when you reach Norway.

You need to be sure that your insurance gives full medical cover, that's a company rule; but as stated above, it doesn't have to be P&O's own insurance. And unlike US law, under UK law when you pay the deposit you are creating a binding contract - you can cancel your side of the contract but lose money according to the penalties in the contract; on the other hand, the cruise line is also bound by the contract and can't suddenly decide to charter the ship to a large group, as I understand occasionally happens in the USA.

 

Coming from Florida, I'd recommend thermals, waterprrof trousers and jacket which are also windproof, and good quality gloves, thermal socks, and a hat with flaps that cover your ears. If there's snow on the ground, which there will be in the north at least, then there are very good grips which pull over your shoe, rubber things with half a dozen little spikes, perhaps a quarter of an inch long. They work wonders for walking about. If you can't find them via the internet (google "snow spikes"), then get some when you reach Norway.

Thanks for this advice! I'm going to pass this onto my friend who wants to know what to wear for her Northern Lights cruise :)

Hello Grumpy100. We are on the same cruise in March this year so I will report back. If you have cruised with American lines previously I think you will find the P&O experience very different, and particularly so if you are used to the larger, modern, RCI action packed ships. Oriana is much older, more traditional and even though she is due for refurb at the end of this year I don't think she will be comparable to your previous cruises. We are hoping that the itinerary and landscape will bring the WOW factor but we are looking forward to sailing on Oriana and realise that she is not Ventura/Azura or the RCI/Celebrity/Carnival type of cruise.

Well we decided to go for it. I put the deposit down and also paid for the insurance. I don't care if the ship is old, so am I.....

As long as it is clean and decent and refurbished than that is fine.

A few years ago we went to Australia on a Princess cruise and that ship was about the same size and was now new either and it was.

Thanks.

I will look up what to buy for the cruise as far as warm clothing. I am retiring from Florida in May of this year and moving to the mountains of North Carolina so I can reuse whatever we get for North Carolina and the cruise. We are building a log cabin. Can't wait....

It will be our first winter this coming December in North Carolina so it will give me a good taste of the cold weather for our trip to Norway.

Yes things are different over here. When we book a Royal Caribbean Cruise the deposit is non refundable, yet when we read in the RCI forum you see numerous posts from Americans saying about cancelling and getting their deposits back. If we book and the price goes down there is normally nothing we can do other than lose our initial deposit and rebook.

Enjoy your cruise it will be lovely.