Selbourne

I’ve often said this. I am frequently amazed at the number of cruises that many retired people can do and wonder where on earth they get the money from, given that many that I talk to haven’t had particularly senior jobs. I’ve always put it down to the golden era of generous defined benefit pensions and inheritances - or both. I am fortunate that I have an excellent pension provision and was able to retire comfortably at a relatively young age (54 at the time), but I am acutely aware that I am in a minority for my age group (all my mates of the same age are still working and have to) and those that are younger than me won’t have anything like the same level of income in retirement and will probably be working well into their 60s. Whilst those who work in the public sector will still enjoy pensions that those in the private sector can only dream about, even these are now eroded from their heyday, with higher contributions required and / or lower pensions based on career average rather than final salary. This is, I am sure, a major driver in why companies such as P&O are changing tack and targeting a much younger generation of cruisers. In years to come, a much smaller percentage of retirees will be able to cruise regularly compared to the current day.

I agree that different ships tick different boxes for different people, but I don’t think it’s as simple to say it’s age related. Like the lady that you spoke to, we have been on both Iona and Ventura very recently. We are younger than the lady in question, yet our views are the polar opposite of hers. We didn’t particularly enjoy the passenger demographic on Iona but, by contrast, felt entirely at home on Ventura. We started cruising with P&O when we were in our early 30s when it was a very different experience to now and we have been on all the P&O ships bar Arvia, many of them multiple times, so feel able to make comparisons. In the days when Freedom Dining didn’t exist, we got on famously with some table mates who were much older than us and equally we have have had table mates who were a similar age or younger who were not conversationalists and every meal felt like hard work. These were on the largest ships in the fleet (as they were then). Two or three bad experiences in a row pushed us to Freedom Dining. On our recent Ventura cruise we tended to share tables at lunchtime if we used the MDR and we got on well with everyone that we dined with, but our favourite couple, who we dined with twice, were old enough to be our parents, were great fun and shared loads of great tips with us for our upcoming Caribbean cruise. We are not party types, so don’t enjoy crowded and ‘lively’ atmospheres, as was the case on Iona. We also dislike the ‘look at me’ types who feel that everyone in a bar or restaurant needs to be aware that they are enjoying themselves, hence why we tend to prefer the ships with the older passenger demographic, where this is less likely. We like the facilities and choice of eateries on the bigger ships and we have never felt that a ship was too big, but we very much prefer the passenger profile on the smaller ships. However, there are plenty of regulars on this forum who are older than us but prefer the newest ships and all that goes with them and consider the older ships to be too stuffy. Just goes to prove that there’s no right or wrong, nor can you generalise by age. It’s just different strokes for different folks.

Yes we use the app and no it doesn’t show! The really annoying thing is that I know that what we already have is the proper documentation and the P&O website confirms this, but we cannot run the risk of not having a GP letter given that every communication from P&O has insisted on it and a phone call to P&O querying this also resulted in a “you must have a GP letter” 😡

Yep, so that’s the same as what the P&O info on their website says. Interesting that not a single one of the countless messages that we have received says that the exemption in the international certificate of vaccination is acceptable and when asked directly they say that it isn’t. As I said earlier, left hand, right hand stuff.

Very interesting. This thread has been extremely useful, especially the info that @CarlaMarie posted from P&Os small print, which confirms that the exemption certificate in the international vaccination booklet, which is what my wife already has, is acceptable. However, out of the countless emails that we have had about the yellow fever requirement, not a single one has referred to this and all bar none has insisted that we need a letter from our GP. The bloody minded side of me is tempted not to pay for this letter and at check in just show the certificate and if they try to refuse boarding point to their own website info which confirms that we are OK. However, whilst I would be prepared to take them to the cleaners legally if they still denied us boarding, it would mean that we would have lost the holiday completely. Flying out to join the cruise at Madeira (the first stop) is simply not an option for us. I might, as a point of principle, try to reclaim the cost of the unnecessary GP letter from P&O. Like you I now have a contact in the executive office. I think I might alert them to this nonsense anyway.

Ah, I see. We booked our July Britannia cruise (so not out of season) 3 months out and got a balcony cabin on a Select fare for under £100 pppn. The Aurora 65 nighter was the first Saver we have ever booked and there was zero risk, as there are only 8 accessible balcony cabins and they are all identical (we have stayed in 6 of them) and in the same position, just 2 decks apart (with cabins above and below in both cases). As it happened, they told us which cabin we were getting before we even paid, so had it been another ship and it was a naff location we could have said no. This is obviously a unique situation with it being an adapted cabin. As you say, for a non adapted cabin this would have been a risk. Worst case scenario is that we end up being allocated the dining option that we would least like (first sitting), but as that seems to be the most popular I'm hopeful we won’t get allocated that. If we do I will attempt to change it on board.

We haven’t booked any 14 nighters on Aurora John (don’t think I said we had), but our 65 nighter on Aurora is £73 ppn before shareholder OBC for a balcony cabin. As I said, that’s a Saver. The Select fare was twice that but we wouldn’t have booked at that price.

Quite possibly John, although they didn’t mention a fee when they gave me an email address to send the request do. I doubt that they will do it for nothing though and I don’t blame them. This will add to my irritation with P&O, as I remain convinced that my wife already has the official exemption certificate and our TA has been given duff info by P&O saying that we also need a GP letter. I wonder if @molecrochip has any knowledge of this?

There was a fee for the exemption certificate. I can’t remember what it was because the very nice pharmacist said that he would waive it. When you say you did something else, do you mean you booked a different cruise that didn’t have the requirement, or did you come up with a cunning plan to circumvent the bureaucracy?

I can’t speak for fly cruises as I never look at them, but I’m not at all surprised that cruises for next summer are still fairly expensive. I’ve never found that 6-12 months out is a good time to book a P&O cruise. I also wouldn’t expect any bargain prices over the next few months either. Launches aside (which probably only appeal to regulars), I suspect that the next few months have high very levels of bookings from the new to cruising market, who won’t have the first clue about P&Os pricing antics. As we know, the cold winter months are when people’s minds turn to summer holidays and the concept of booking a few years out will be an alien concept to the market that P&O now targets. As to what prices those cruises will sell for in the 3 months prior to sail dates only time will tell. As an aside, whilst we now have a target maximum price with P&O of £100 pppn for a balcony cabin, this isn’t because we are tied to a budget. It’s a combination of our judgement of what we now consider to be the most we are prepared to pay and still get good value for what P&O now offers and because we now know from experience that we can obtain good cruises (not just the unpopular ones) at these prices if we get the timing right. Admittedly it helps that we are retired and aren’t restricted to one holiday a year. When we were working and the kids were young we had to secure the ‘big’ holiday asap.

The exemption certificate was signed by the dispensing pharmacist at a Boots Travel Clinic who was the one who administered my yellow fever vaccine, so presumably he is covered to do this or wouldn’t be working in a hub dispensing such vaccinations and certificates. I had my other (precautionary rather than mandatory) jabs today and that was just done by a nurse.

and yet the 65 night Aurora cruise that we have booked, which is presumably a one off, we secured at around 40% of the price we have usually paid for our 7 previous cruises on Aurora. OK, it was a late saver, which we’ve never booked before, but we weren’t inclined to pay £10k extra (which was the select price) solely to guarantee our first dining choice. I accept that probably only a small percentage of passengers paid this price, but the fact that P&O had to sell cabins at these prices is telling. As I say, the prices they quote versus the prices they get may sometimes differ!

Now that’s very interesting. My wife’s exemption is in the international vaccination booklet so, according to that info, what we have is acceptable - yet when my TA called P&O today they said only a GP letter would suffice. Left hand, right hand. Much as I like the on board experience and staff on the P&O ships, their shoreside staff are as useless as a chocolate fire guard when it comes to things like this 😡

Are they different to the official Yellow Fever Exemption certificate that my wife was given (as in the photo) that P&O don’t seem to recognise?

Exactly my view. In the past we always booked at launch. Prices were never bettered. Those days have gone and the launch prices of the last few launches have been way higher per night than we have paid for our most recent P&O cruises, which we booked much closer to sail date (all but one of which were booked on a Select basis). It’s all very well claiming that they are selling cruises at much higher prices. Well, they might be - to those who don’t understand how the prices flex up and down - but as many of us on this forum, who are alert to the spin versus the reality, can attest, it is possible to book at very low prices, even on a Select basis, if you get your timing right. It’s a bit like I say to people when they say “I’ve seen x on eBay and it was ££££”. Well, that might be what some ambitious person is asking, but click on ‘sold items’ and see how much they actually sell for 😂

Forgive my rant, but this has really irritated me. My wife and I are going on the 65 night Aurora cruise (America and Caribbean Discovery) departing 3rd January, for which there is a compulsory requirement to have a yellow fever vaccination or an exemption certificate. I have had the jab and as my wife has Multiple Sclerosis she has been exempted on medical advice. The little yellow certificate booklet that they give you when you have the jab also has a specific page for those who have had a medical exemption, so my wife’s booklet has been completed and stamped on that page (photo below with my wife’s name blanked out). We have received quite a few emails and prompts from both P&O and our TA to say that anyone who is travelling but hasn’t had the vaccination must have an exemption certificate to be allowed to board, which we assumed this was. However, all these communications continually refer to the exemption certificate as being a letter from your GP, on headed paper. All the information that must be on this letter is contained on the exemption certificate that we already have. As I know that last year 40 or so passengers were denied boarding due to not having the correct documentation, I asked our TA to clarify with P&O that we didn’t need a GP letter, as my wife has an official yellow fever exemption, signed and dated, in a yellow fever vaccination booklet, with the info that they require. P&O claim to know nothing about this and say that we must have a GP letter. Thankfully we have a first class GP surgery, but it irritates me that when they are already under pressure I will be adding to their workload by asking them to write a pointless letter when we already have an official signed and stamped exemption that P&O claim to know nothing about. Utterly stupid, but we can’t afford the risk of of being denied boarding. Rant over.

Just to slightly correct myself. Whilst I certainly don’t consider wearing a jacket and tie as being smart casual, I’ve remembered that P&O used to have a 3rd dress code called ‘informal’ which was exactly this. I wouldn’t welcome a return to that though. Ties have died a death these days. I remember that in my grandparents generation all the gents wore ties every day, all through retirement and right up until they popped their clogs. Fast forward to these days and it strikes me that only a tiny proportion of chaps wear a tie and they are only worn at work in certain sectors. It’s quite normal now to see Chief Executives of huge companies with open neck shirts. I don’t like having to wear a dinner suit and bow tie, so would be happy to see the requirement dropped, but not if it gives P&O an excuse to ditch the slightly better menus that you get on formal nights. Personally, an enhanced menu with just a ‘smart’ requirement, which might include a jacket with an open neck shirt, would be my ideal choice.

I don’t see it as a change. I wear a proper dinner suit on formal nights, but for many many years have felt as though I am in a minority of the gents. You see a fair few tuxedos but an awful lot of normal suits or jackets and trousers with standard ties or bow ties. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest BTW, but I don’t consider a jacket and tie to be smart casual. I still see that as quite formal.

I don’t mind a formal night if it’s accompanied by the slightly enhanced MDR menus. However, if it’s a standard menu then I see absolutely no point in having a formal dress code, so I can quite understand why people opt out.

My sense is that that the vast majority of people must adhere to the strict disembarkation instructions. My rationale for that is that when we walk directly off the ship after a leisurely breakfast, there is never a long queue, and sometimes no queue at all, so my assumption is that most people are compliantly sitting in lounges waiting until they are told that they can leave 🫣😂

That’s why I try to book during periods when there is little or no OBC. We all know that P&O use OBC to encourage bookings during quieter periods, so a £2,000 cruise with no OBC suddenly becomes £2,500 with £500 OBC and people think they are getting a great offer! For those of us with decent loyalty discount, it’s obviously better to get the lower cruise price and then enjoy the discount on onboard spend.

Does anyone have any idea how many formal nights there are likely to be on a 65 night cruise on Aurora?

I’m sure that you will enjoy it. Potential noise issues aside, aft cabins have a lovely perspective. We thoroughly enjoyed ours on Ventura and Arcadia. You are correct that there is no risk of soot on Iona or Arvia. This was a problem on our aft balcony on Britannia.

Thanks. Yes, it’s our plan to do South Beach, Miami Beach and the Art Deco district. Promenade walks are always good for wheelchairs. Presume me might need to get a cab both ways. Hopefully a ‘Dad Bod’ will be a welcome change to all the body obsessives that frequent the area? 😂 I wasn’t aware that there was anything worth seeing near where we are berthed, so a wander after lunch might be just the ticket.

Sorry - replied before seeing that you’d already answered! 😂