Selbourne

Thanks. That all makes sense. I think that we only have two overnights (Bermuda and New Orleans) so I guess we may not get the local entertainers, but maybe as the distances between many Caribbean islands are short we may do some late evening departures which may allow time for them? I hope so, as it’s a nice change from the usual Headliners, singers or comedians that seem to be the default entertainment!

Having booked our first really long cruise (65 nights) my wife has been asking me a number of questions that I don’t have a clue about. Essentially, we are interested to know how they differ from regular length cruises. Questions that spring to mind are; Headliners Shows - As the Headliners only have a limited number of shows, do the same shows get repeated throughout the cruise? Other shows - Are there still shows of some description in the theatre every night? Do local acts come on board (we are in the Caribbean)? Guest Lecturers - Are there usually guest lecturers on all sea days and roughly how often do they change? MDR Menus - Presumably these start to repeat after a few weeks? Over 65 nights are we likely to get each menu 3 or 4 times, or does it change a bit? Offers - Are there more likely to be offers for things like speciality restaurants and laundry services? Anything else that we can expect to be different from our normal cruises? Thanks.

But it would be less amusing if they charged me the £24,360 minimum bid for the privilege 😂

I have been extremely surprised to receive the ‘bid to upgrade’ email this morning for our 65 night Aurora cruise in January, which we booked last week on a late saver fare via a TA. It’s wasted on us, as we couldn’t upgrade even if we wanted to, as there are no higher grade accessible cabins on the ship. However, the minimum bid prices were, shall we say, interesting 😂 Mini-suite - an additional £12,920 Aft Suite - an additional £24,360 Midships Suite - an additional £26,600 Penthouse Suite - an additional £39,180 I can’t imagine that there will be much take-up at those prices! I wonder if those who booked on a Select basis (as we usually do) will be offered them at much lower prices? Has there been any evidence of that approach? That would seem like a much fairer system to me. Better still, when they don’t manage to sell the upgrades I would hope that those who paid Select fares are upgraded free of charge. Again, has there been much evidence of that since the bid to upgrade system was introduced?

Well I’ve had a good laugh this morning. I’ve received the ‘bid to upgrade’ email. I’m rather surprised that I’ve received the email as we booked a late saver (presumed they’d be exempt?) and we already have the highest grade accessible cabin on the ship, so they physically couldn’t upgrade us if we wanted to! Anyway, if we were both able bodied then we could attempt to trade our £9,500 balcony cabin for these cheap as chips minimum upgrade costs; Mini-suite - an additional £12,920 minimum bid Aft Suite - an additional £24,360 minimum bid Midships Suite - an additional £26,600 minimum bid Penthouse Suite - an additional £39,180 minimum bid I can’t imagine that there will be many takers at those prices 😂 In all honesty, I hope that those who have paid the Select fare end up with complimentary upgrades, especially if they booked early.

I think that most of us know that you only book inside cabins, usually on savers, and think that the rest of us are absolutely bonkers for doing anything else 😂 Equally, whilst I fully respect your choices, in our case we would prefer not to cruise at all than to have an inside cabin. I really don’t want to exchange in a protracted back and forth on this, as we are all different and are all entitled to use our money as we wish, but in our case there were lots of reasons for booking suites at the time, the principal ones being; - The extra space, including separate bedroom and living room - Better balconies, especially the huge aft corner wrap around ones - Unique experiences that we had, such as a served dinner on our aft suite balcony cruising down the fjords in Arcadia and watching the International Firework Festival with drinks and snacks in Monaco. - Quality, quiet and private space (indoor and outdoor) to use when the ship is busy (we use our current balcony cabins a lot for this purpose - much prefer that to public areas) - Priority boarding, priority tenders, priority disembarkation - Breakfast in Epicurean - Our kids were in an adjacent balcony cabin but were able to utilise our suite benefits, such as free room service, which they liked We were also fortunate that we were able to afford suites without having to go without other things, so it was never a case that by not having them we could have gone on more cruises. However, as I have said, we no longer use them. Our kids are now adults and rarely cruise with us. Also, there is virtually zero choice of accessible suites (often a maximum of one per ship and often they are in poor locations). We now get priority boarding anyway. Also, the one and only positive aspect of being in a situation where you have to book an accessible cabin is that the accessible balcony cabins are the size of mini-suites, but at no additional cost. Being able to afford a suite is one thing, but I like to feel that we are getting value for money and, for these reasons, in our case a suite no longer ticks that box.

That’s interesting John. Sadly, whilst my current provider (GiffGaff) is absolutely brilliant within the EU and many other European countries (as usage there is at no extra cost whatsoever), they don’t appear to have a roaming passport. There are just (expensive) fees per country. When we did our USA and Canada cruise some years ago we managed to get free WiFi very easily in every port. I suspect that might be more challenging in the Caribbean and Central America.

As I said, it was only four nights and we booked it on a Saver (the first time we had done so) as there’s only two of those suites, so we knew exactly where we would be (i.e. no risks) and were happy to use speciality restaurants each night if we didn’t get our dining choice. We’ve long since given up on booking suites. With P&O we no longer feel that they are value for money, especially since we now get priority boarding on every cruise anyway due to loyalty tier. For ‘treat’ cruises we are now booking Cunard, where extra expenditure gets you far more meaningful benefits.

Thank you. I don’t think I’ll push my luck any further 😂. Besides, I like the tip given earlier in the thread about just buying the odd day during sea days and starting it during the afternoon so that you can use it the next day as well. Assuming that I can get some free WiFi in each port (which I appreciate might be a challenge in some places) then I reckon that half a dozen 24 hour periods on the ship should hopefully suffice. I’d get the package if it wasn’t so ridiculously expensive.

I can assure you that our one and only stay in a penthouse suite (which was all of four nights) was exceeding dull compared to anything that Hugh Hefner or Donald Trump would get up to. However, if Playboy Bunnies were introduced by P&O as an enhancement to the paltry suite benefits, I might consider giving them a second go 😂

Thank you. I really appreciate you saying that. I must say that I absolutely never discuss prices when on a cruise as it is a recipe for disaster. Several people have started the conversation with me over the years and I just smile and don’t give anything back. We had a hilarious example of this on Ventura when we shared a table at lunch. One chap proceeded to brag about how little he’d paid for the cruise, clearly expecting us to recoil in horror and say that we had paid significantly more. Getting no response he returned to the subject again10 minutes later, repeating what he’d paid, again to no avail as I just smiled. Although he didn’t say so, it was blatantly obvious that he was staying in an inside cabin. I didn’t have the heart to inflate his ego by confirming that we had indeed paid quite a bit more than him, only to burst his bubble by explaining that the reason we had paid more was because we were in a penthouse suite 😂

Having now sorted out travel insurance, ESTAs (authorised today) and yellow fever jabs (booked for 13th Nov), the last big thing that I need to sort is home insurance. I decided to contact my insurer and was quite surprised at their response, as it was very different to your insurance company. The biggest differences are that my policy gives me full cover for the first 60 days of any unoccupied period, with no exceptions or conditions. Even though they informed me of that in writing, I doubted them and asked them to confirm that I hadn’t read it incorrectly. I hadn’t. After 60 unoccupied days we are not covered for burglary or water damage, but all other cover remains in place. Finally, their definition of unoccupied was similar to the one you quoted, but only seems to exclude someone staying for one night. The actual wording they quoted was; For a property to be considered 'lived in' you must be carrying out of normal, everyday activities there - these would include regular cooking, eating, bathing, cleaning, and sleeping at the property. Staying in the property for one night within the 60-day period does not constitute 'lived in' and does not therefore negate the policy exclusions. To me, that means that if one of our daughters stays at our house for a week (as opposed to one night), during which time she would naturally cook, eat, bathe, clean and sleep, that would be our 65 days sorted. However, I’m going to price up some stand alone unoccupied insurance as a possible ‘belt and braces’ approach.

I must apologise, as I could be accused of that in my excitement to share our news about the Aurora 65 nighter that we booked on the spur of the moment last week. It certainly was never my intention to rub anyone’s nose in it and, in my defence, the prices I have quoted are clearly visible on the P&O website for all to see. Also, as you know, late savers come with some limitations and risks and no OBC. P.S. Thanks for your very helpful tips that you gave on that thread. ESTAs applied for (and approved today) and yellow fever jabs booked (hopefully my wife will get an exemption).

Although, for the first time in our near 30 year cruising history, we have just bagged a bargain last minute fare, I would agree with this approach. We have almost always booked at launch, partly because we now need an accessible cabin, but also because the launch prices were never beaten. As this seems to have changed now, we have stopped booking at launch (unless it’s an excellent price - which they aren’t currently), but as we are retired we are able to. That’s not fair on those who have no choice but to book early (school holidays etc) or those who book early in good faith.

That’s extremely kind of you and I am so sorry to hear that you have had to cancel your cruise. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Indeed John and what a great community that we have on here. I would not have got the cruise or the travel insurance for anything like these prices had it not been for the extremely helpful advice from all of you. Hopefully by sharing these experiences more of us can benefit in the future.

There has been an absolutely staggering development that I must share, as full marks are due to both our TA and P&O for this. To briefly re-cap, when we booked this 65 night cruise at the end of last week, the price we paid for a ‘late saver’ (for two in a Balcony cabin) was £11,998 (prior to TA discount). This was against a Select price of £19,998 (with £1,190 OBC) and a ‘Saver’ price of £16,400 (as per P&O website), so we thought we had a great deal, especially as we were told that the price was going up the next day. Anyway, within 12 hours of booking, rather than go up, the late saver price appeared on the P&O website and had dropped to ‘from £9,998’. I resigned myself to the fact that we were still getting the cruise at a great price and we had secured an accessible balcony cabin (that hadn’t been available prior to balance due date). However, something had been niggling away at me - where had the £11,998 price come from? On the day we booked, the Saver price was £16,400 which was presumably a normal saver, not a late one. Thanks to excellent advice from @Megabear2 (who had said that late savers for that cruise wouldn’t normally kick in until the day after we booked - being balance due date plus 7 days) I had looked again the next day and, sure enough, whilst not promoted as a ‘late’ saver, the saver price had dropped from £16,400 to £9,998 overnight. That was clearly the ‘late saver’ kicking in. So why had we been charged £11,998? Surely it should have been £16,400 as a standard Saver or £9,998 as a late saver, there being no other prices having been advertised. My wife had suggested that I just forget about it as we were happy with the price, but this question was niggling away at me, so I decided to call our TA to try to understand it. They could see my point entirely, so said they would call P&O to discuss. Knowing from previous encounters how belligerent P&O can be about things, I fully expected the response to be a lecture on how fluid pricing worked. You can imagine my utter amazement when I got a call an hour or two later to say that P&O could see my point and were going to honour the newly advertised price of £9,998 on our booking and would be issuing me with a £2,000 refund! So, after TA discount, we are now paying £9,500 for 65 nights on Aurora, with our accessible balcony cabin assigned (very happy with it as we’ve used it before). The deposit from our now cancelled Ventura cruise is being further deducted from this £9,500 and we get £150 shareholder OBC as well. I’m still in shock and, credit where credit is due, I have to give both our TA and P&O full marks for this. Good job that I didn’t heed my wife’s advice 😂 As previously mentioned, it is worth @TigerB @terrierjohn and others who need accessible cabins being aware that if you need an accessible cabin and you book a late saver, P&O will only charge you for the lowest grade balcony cabin, but will instantly assign you a specific accessible cabin even if it is a number of grades higher (as ours was). Others may already know this, but it’s the first time we have ever booked a late saver, so it’s all new to us.

I completely agree about the hard sell part of the spa and I always warn family and friends about it and tell them to be polite but firm in declining any products as it’s a complete rip off. Interestingly, my wife went for a nail treatment on Britannia in July and said the lady was very pleasant, until she declined the ‘up sell’ treatment, at which the beautician just walked off and left her 😂 p.s. I have an important update on my 65 nighter price issue later which you will be very interested in. Will post when I get chance.

Oh, I see. You obviously didn’t get that resolved either! As you used a TA I’d pass all the problems on to them. It should all be resolvable. We went on our first cruise when our youngest was 2. Our solution was to leave her at home with Grandma and Grandad. She had a great time, as did we 😂

There are times when I actually look forward to having a degree of hearing loss John. 😂

As has been mentioned, when Pullman berths are used the lower berths have to be configured as twins. If configured as a Queen bed the Pullman berth is inaccessible. I’ve no idea about cots, as we didn’t take our children on cruises until they were older, but P&O should be able to answer that now. If a cot is possible and you won’t need the Pullman berth then a Queen bed becomes possible. There is no reason why P&O can’t answer that question now, so best to persevere on that one. Just be aware that inside cabins are small, so floor space is at a premium. If the above point can be clarified and P&O agree that you can use a cot, in the same conversation you should then be able to switch to an outside (if still available). P&O have a policy that if you change your cabin type the extra cost is the one that applied at the time that you made your original booking, so if it was the same price you won’t have to pay any more. There has been a very recent thread regarding exactly the same issue re drinks packages and babies. You should hopefully find the answer to that question within that thread.

I like the actual venue on Aurora, and agree that classical recitals are superb, but I think I’d struggle to watch a film in there. The door seems to open and close with great regularity and you hear conversations from the corridor outside, plus the irritating people who come in to supposedly watch a film but feel the need to discuss it, or rustle sweet wrappers etc. Due to all these irritating distractions I don’t go to the cinema at home either! However, we have quite a few sea days on our first cruise next year, so I might have to take a chill pill and try to endure it, especially as I find sea days to be a bit boring and the cabin TVs on Aurora are rubbish 😂

I think it’s worth keeping in mind that only a minuscule number of people (mostly on this forum 😂) will know what the P&O approach to pricing is nowadays, and even those of us who think we’ve sussed it can still get our fingers burnt, as I did the other day! Add to this the fact that the majority of cruisers on Iona and Arvia are first timers and also that these ships attract families who are tied to school holidays and I don’t think that the odd exception, such as a Xmas cruise on Arvia, is going to disprove our theory that the days of launch prices being the cheapest are now over.

Just to be clear (before anyone tells me off 😂) I do feel sorry for the lady if she has had some blisters on her scalp and was genuinely affected by the experience, but it was the headline that first made me laugh, then the fact that every time they tried to correct it her hair went a different colour again! I admit to having a rather juvenile sense of humour on occasions 😂

We have all become accustomed to the fairly regular “Cruise from Hell” stories. I apologise in advance to those Cruise Critic readers who are far more politically correct than I am, but I’m afraid that this one made me laugh out loud 🤣….. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23857629.p-o-passenger-tells-cruise-hell-botched-hair-treatment/