Selbourne

What’s the cheapest price per night you’ve seen Saga cruises? I think I’d probably struggle to justify spending more than £450 a night.

My understanding is that you have to cancel and re book. Otherwise, if you upgrade it’s usually based on the fares at the time you booked. The trick P&O seem to be opting now though is to cut the prices after the balance due dates, which gets the capacity up (the profit coming from the on board spend), but stops those who have already booked from benefitting.

Blimey. Apparently is an 80 minute walk each way. Could be an option for the fit. Not much else to do in Olden 😂

I don’t like the Saga system either. First time we’ve used it, but I agree with your comments. We looked through all the itineraries and dates, settled on 4 possible cruises and then agreed a maximum price that we would be prepared to pay. Because of the way that it works, most of the maximum 35% discounts had already gone by the time we were called (we only pre registered around a month before). The maximum was 30% on one and the Egypt one (which we also liked) had been selling really well and was already only a small discount. The two standard accessible balcony cabins had already sold, but I asked out of interest what the price would have been and it was £16,980. That’s £679 a night. No thanks!

I researched this for a cruise that was cancelled due to Covid, and if I recall correctly, there’s a bus from Olden to the Cable car and you can buy a ticket that includes the Sky Lift. Worth a bit of Googling. Failing that I would think that a cab would be far cheaper than a P&O excursion (if such things exist in Olden)!

Sincere apologies everyone. Andrew has spotted something that I missed in what I now think is a very misleading advert. The advert states 7 nights from £494 plus free upgrade to a balcony cabin. I haven’t been able to access the link all day (due to high demand, I suspect) but I’ve just been able to, and the headline £494 is indeed an inside with balconies showing as from £642, so that would equate to £183 per cabin per couple per night. I wish that I could post the advert as I don’t think I’d be the only one to have read “from £494 plus FREE upgrade to a balcony” as meaning that balcony cabins were from £494. Not having followed prices on these cruises I have no idea how much of a saving the ‘free’ upgrade is worth. Once again, apologies for creating unnecessary confusion.

As I stated earlier in this thread, the £494 per person (balcony cabin) offer is currently being offered on a forthcoming batch of 6 Iona Cruises and 2 Britannia ones. I cannot name the agent but most P&O regulars on this forum use them. I suspect that they are the biggest TA that places bookings with P&O, so have been given priority. The P&O website is still showing much higher prices. I’d love to post the link but forum rules won’t allow it.

That is, literally word for word, our approach now! We have two P&O cruises booked for this year and one (with Cunard) booked for next year. Was hoping that our 2nd 2024 cruise would be with Saga but launch prices are more than we are prepared to pay. None of the current P&O 2024 cruises appeal enough to warrant the current prices but, if closer to sailing the prices plummet, who knows. The problem will be accessible cabins though.

It’s pure guess work, as it’s obviously a case of supply and demand. June is more popular for the Fjords than April and May, but as it’s still off peak for a monster family ship I very much suspect that there will be deals to be had, as they will probably struggle to fill the ship outside of school holidays without some really good ‘bums on seats’ offers. The profit will then come from the on board spend. They might be just via selected TAs though. Best not to look once you’ve booked!

That’s the best approach. We have to book at launch to secure an accessible balcony cabin and, prior to this year, prices have never been lower than the price we paid at launch. That’s all changing now though, as P&O have so much more capacity to fill. The repetitive itineraries won’t be helping either. The two future P&O cruises that we have booked are unlikely to drop much from what we paid, as one is in August and the other is below our new P&O maximum of £200 per night for a balcony cabin (and that’s for a Superior Deluxe as well). Both cruises are currently more than we paid, but that might change a month or so prior - but not by very much I suspect. Also, the chances of getting an accessible balcony cabin at that late stage will be negligible.

See post #7 and #9

Sorry - should have said in the first post - the P&O website wasn’t showing these very cheap prices when I looked earlier. Seems as though one or more preferred TAs have been given first dibs. So comparing what people have paid to what is shown on the website is (for now) misleading. Cheaper prices are available.

See previous post. The biggest discounts won’t be until a month or two before departure - always after balance due date!

I suspect that they will release cheap Iona Fjord cruises in batches, or have a rolling programme. The latest Iona one is currently 20th May. I suspect that the June ones will be discounted in 4 to 6 weeks time. July and August probably won’t be a problem for them due to school holidays. You will probably be lucky in September, although discounts may not be as heavy as (less popular) April and May.

You didn’t pre-register then? I did, only because you had explained it previously 😂 Had the call on Saturday. We had shortlisted 4 cruises that we might be interested in, but had given ourselves a maximum price that we’d be prepared to pay for the cheapest accessible balcony cabins (there’s only 2 per ship). They were all too expensive. Worked out at between £524 and £680 per night (for the two of us). Whilst we know that Saga are several steps up in quality from P&O, we have said that with the ‘new’ P&O we probably wouldn’t be prepared to pay any more than £200 per night anymore for a balcony cabin. Even allowing for the drinks package and the improved quality, we don’t think we can justify more than £500 a night for Saga. We aren’t bothered about excursions, Wi-Fi or shared transfers from home and Dover is a lot more of a drag to get to (for us) than Southampton. We might have been tempted to go for the cheapest one just to try them (which we are keen to do) but the departure date was only 2 weeks after our first Cunard cruise - and one port is the same! We have rolled the pre registration fee over to Summer 2025!

Same here. We’ve booked a Cunard one instead.

Rest assured that, with prices now plummeting in the months before sailing, we would book very close to departure were it not for the fact that we need an accessible balcony cabin. I have tried to get on a few of the current cheapies but no accessible cabins available (plenty of normal ones though).

Thanks. I hope that you are correct. I have no desire whatsoever to book over 2 years in advance, especially as launch prices no longer seem to be the way to guarantee the cheapest prices, but (as you will know) if you need an accessible cabin you sadly have no choice.

Received an email from our TA today advertising balcony cabins for 6 consecutive Iona 7 night Fjord cruises (commencing 15th April), plus 2 Britannia ones, at £494pp for a balcony cabin (just over £70 pppn). As many of us have long predicted, last minute offers will be necessary to fill the family ships outside of school holidays, especially with the repetitive itineraries. I’m not knocking it. We love the Fjords and may have been tempted ourselves if we didn’t have other things planned (and a Fjord cruise on Iona in August) but, as I say, entirely predictable.

Can I ask those who had no, or very little, wait if any of you dined around 8 / 8.30pm? Seems like a lot of participants on this forum dine quite early.

To be fair to @tring there have been no updates on that thread for 6 weeks. I am also interested to know when Summer 2025 will be released. Perhaps @molecrochip may be able to advise?

I also agree. It makes a mockery of what Freedom Dining is all about. It appears that this hybrid system on Arvia is in response to a lack of capacity in the MDR. I can’t see how it helps though, other than to push people to the less popular times in order to spread demand more. There are bound to be tables sitting empty, reserved for people who have booked, that could have been used for those just turning up as intended. For a ship that’s advertised as 100% Freedom Dining, it’s a shame that those who wish to use Freedom Dining as intended effectively end up getting ‘what’s left’.

They don’t help themselves with things like this. Sadly, it’s yet another P&O example of something that is excellent on the ships but let down by poor shoreside service. I filled in the forms for my wife when we booked the cruises (at launch), so I assume that these may be out of date? As to whether P&O will contact us with the ‘new’ forms is anybody’s guess!

Basically you wait in a dedicated area just inside the terminal and a number of helpers in high viz vests will take those with walking difficulties through check-in and on to the ship. People are boarded in priority order, not first come first served (so suites and high tier loyalty first). They have their own wheelchairs for those who don’t have their own. They will take the person to the buffet (if cabin not available) and will take the wheelchair back when they leave. It’s an excellent service. Disembarkation is the same in that there will be a dedicated lounge for assistance and they will actually wheel people through luggage pick up and all the way back to the car (not sure how this works when travelling solo, as I tend to collect and push the luggage to the car whilst the assistance person pushes my wife.

Enjoy!