MX-Drew

7 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I'm interested to know how many people were disbarred from boarding BEFORE covid and am trying to get information from insurers to compare the figures. If, as I suspect, numbers are limited it will prove my theory they are being trigger happy and a little paranoid.

Maybe a freedom of information request to P&O is required for this information.

25 minutes ago, john watson said:

 

To be frank when they used to do a physical muster, at the conclusion everyone bundled in to  get in the lifts while people in wheelchairs were passed by.  Obviously there was not an emergency actually happening.

 

Regards John

People were in a rush to get to the bars as I recall.

17 minutes ago, ElmaLee said:

Have you any details to back this up?  I’m booked in Feb 23.  

My holiday dropped by £1000.  
Also, I had £360 OBC and P& O added another £150 in October but new bookers get £650 OBC

 P&O insisted I cancel and rebook to make a saving.  So I lost my deposit.

Totally agree, I haven't seen anything to back up Moley's claim, in fact quite the opposite, price dropped but no refund yes received a small amount of OBC but only making up a fraction of new booker's OBC. I wrote to customer service dept. and basically told that's the way it goes. So that turned out to be my last ever booking with P&O.

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Arvia now showing on Southampton VTS.

 

23 December, arrival time TBA.

 

If this is the date of her "new" maiden, presumably she will be in town a couple of days before?

Correction to my previous post.

That entry on the Southampton VTS is remaining from before the maiden cruise was cancelled as that would have arrived in Southampton in the morning for the changeover.

Just my thought.

31 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Arvia now showing on Southampton VTS.

 

23 December, arrival time TBA.

 

If this is the date of her "new" maiden, presumably she will be in town a couple of days before?

Maybe she is due to do a shakedown cruise for a day or two in the Channel first and these dates aren't shown.

37 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

There is a new bridge under construction so possible that this may have some affect on movements

 

https://www.marine-pilots.com/videos/329100-animation-weener-bridge-newbuilding

Possible but Moley said "repairs" to a movable structure. I think it is unlikely that something still being built needs repairs unless of course they set light to it.

1 hour ago, bobstheboy said:

P&O have not covered themselves with glory recently, but there are a few on here regularly beating the same drum saying they are not cruising with P&O again. Why are you still posting on this forum ? Are you trying to turn a few more away ?

Some of us, like myself have cruise booked up to 2024 (not all with P&O) so without losing in some case a large deposit we have little choice.

I should add that whilst I have booked other cruises non have or will be with P&O. The final straw was changing or should I say trying to change the T&C's after I had booked then trying to retrospectively apply them to my booking. 

24 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

At least two bridges to move.  The girder one looks a bit rickety.

 

Someone should have built a bit of wriggle room into what happens in the event that a bridge cannot be operated to allow shipping through.

 

IMO this one rest with P&O...

Likewise, it would be down to P&O to schedule the cruises and whilst I understand you don't want a large asset sitting idle on the the other hand having to cancel a cruise is not good either.

23 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I don't get anything from anywhere!  I understood from another thread people were being given large refunds on the maiden?  I want to ascertain if everyone got one of those  certainly there are some on this thread saying they're awaiting money.  These are totally hypothetical scenarios with no relevance to anyone in particular- I just used round figures for ease.  I wanted to understand what actual amounts P&O are offering the 10% FCC on, ie original sale price, refunded/amended price or current on sale price at the date of cancellation.

 

I sympathise with you on pricing - my £8,000 Christmas cruise with £620 OBC is currently £6,000 with £650 OBC for the cabin next door!

Sorry I wasn't "having a go" at you I just wanted to understand the figures like yourself.

It is very strange P&O offered refunds on the maiden when the price dropped but not any other cruise.

21 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Can we just take breath and clarify what exactly is happening regarding this so called reduced price?

 

Scenario 1: I book a balcony cabin on release date priced at £6,000 for two, ie £3,000 each. I pay my balance 12 weeks before sail date.  P&O then reduce the price to £2,500 each and notify me I am receiving £1,000 refund which they will repay to me via my payment card or travel agent.  Unfortunately they cancel and say I will get a refund, ie £5,000 plus a FCC of £500.

 

Scenario 2: I book a balcony cabin on release date priced at £6,000 for two, ie £3,000 each. I pay my balance 12 weeks before sail date.  P&O then reduce the price to £2,500 each and notify me I am receiving £1,000 in OBC. Unfortunately they cancel and say I will get a refund, ie £5,000 plus a FCC of £500 but no OBC.

 

Scenario 3:  I book a balcony cabin on release date priced at £6,000 for two, ie £3,000 each. I pay my balance 12 weeks before sail date.  P&O then reduce the price to £2,500 each andnotify me I am receiving £1,000 refund which they will repay to me via my payment card or travel agent.   P&O then substantially reduce the price of my cruise as it isn't selling well.  The equivalent balcony cabin is now priced at £1,500pp and a new booking would pay £3,000 for two. Unfortunately they cancel and say I will get a refund, ie £5,000 plus a FCC of 10% based on the sale price on the date of cancellation,  ie £300.

 

Obviously all of this scenarios have different outcomes for the passenger.  Perhaps someone who has been cancelled could identify which of these three scenarios is the one nearest to fact?

 

If on the other hand people were expecting 10% of the original sale price (in scenario 1 £6,000) could they explain why they thought this to be the case as assumedly a refund of £1,000 would have occurred - I am aware some are still awaiting this cash but this hopefully will arrive shortly.

 

Before we get too aerated with P&O on this issue surely the full picture on the money side at least needs to be explained?

Where do you get this £1000 refund or £1000 OBC from?

Whilst I'm not on the cancelled cruise I am on the Christmas cruise that has also dropped in price (well did while it was still on sale), and I have received no refund and a pittance extra in OBC that will be spent on drink on the first day. 

14 minutes ago, john watson said:

 

The fines I mentioned are often levied in the contract between a supplying contractor and an organisation which has ordered something.  It normally compensates the organisation against claims which it might face because of late delivery.  This type of fund is then used to refund people who are out of pocket resulting from late delivery.

 

Regards John

Which is exactly what P&O are not doing, they are not paying for out of pocket expenses or insurance excess. Yes they are giving 10% of the new discounted price (is that why they discounted the price I wonder?) but who gains from this at the end of the day? Oh yes P&O get another booking and more money.

Seems to me the customer is in a lose lose position and the company is in a win win position.

For the record I run a small retail business and if I handled things this way I would lose my repeat customers over night.

4 minutes ago, john watson said:

 

It is possible to get a nil excess policy obviously more expensive though.  In terms of offering compensation P&O should be able to refund money using the fines imposed for late delivery from  the constructor.

 

Regards John

A refund of any money paid is just that, the money you paid, or you referring to refund of excess? If so I agree.

14 minutes ago, Solent Richard said:

 

 

Most travel Insurances that I have taken out offer a choice of excess in order to limit the premium size.

 

Caveat Emptor.

But still an excess applies. In my opinion P&O at the very least should pay the excess amount.

A company shouldn’t run so they always win. At the end of the day P&O haven’t factored in the possibility of a delay on build, instead they risked being able to cruise almost the first day theoretically possible and now they can’t they (P&O) should pay the price and not the customers who put there faith in them.

Don’t worry P&O won’t be out of pocket after this as there will be insurance and penalties from the ship yard.

24 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

Royal Caribbean offer that, albeit bundled in with an internet package and some other perks (called The Key).

I looked at that and thought it was extremely expensive for what you get.

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

I think they’ve long since learned the lesson that good customer service costs money, and that if they follow the Ryanair approach, and position the brand correctly, they’ll still get plenty of repeat business without it, or its cost.

 

Whatever we might think about that, I’m sure they know their business better than we do, and that they know exactly what they’re doing.

What I know is, I’m not booking with P&O again.

22 minutes ago, Host Sharon said:

Just been offered a like for like cabin on the 23rd December Christmas cruise, same itinerary, same 14 days, just £986 extra, plus Christmas Day in the Bay of Biscay. Decided no thanks.

Please tell me that you are joking that P&O want to charge you extra for making you change plans with such little notice.

I think this fits my theory why the Christmas cruise was withdrawn from sale, they were holding a number of cabins for people from the cancelled maiden cruise. Although I'm feel very sorry for those who have had their holidays spoiled, I hope very few take up this offer leaving P&O with empty cabins and whilst not losing money they will not make as much.  

Hearing this behaviour by P&O has made me decide no more cruises with them, however cheap. They have lost all faith I had in them. I really wish I was not sailing with then at Christmas now.

36 minutes ago, wowzz said:

 

To be clear, I am not defending the way that P&O have handled the situation, or the dismal level of compensation. 

But some posters were insinuating that the issue was due to factors within P&O 's control, which is not the case. 

To be clear myself, I'm not saying P&O are responsible for the build of the ship but they are responsible for the communication to their customers (guests). 

6 hours ago, wowzz said:

That is a reasonable position apart from one big problem.  P&O are not responsible for the construction of the ship.

Shouldn't your comments, plus similar ones made by other posters,  be directed at the German ship yard ?  After all, it is their fault that the ship is late.  

No P&O aren’t responsible for building the ship but they are the ones passing on the information or do you believe the ship yard sent similar information to P&O information (which somehow I doubt very much).

11 minutes ago, Pippa04 said:

Will any of this compensation be passed on to the pax whose holidays have been cancelled do we think?

Yes they get a massive 10% FCC.

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Likely there are restrictions in what can be said listed in the contract between ship builder and P&O. If the ship is not delivered as agreed, P&O will want to keep their powder dry in order to extract the maximum compensation possible.

 

The fires did not cause much impact in the end - not to final delivery date. Afterall, you never get the entire ship finished on the same day so it’s a case of areas that should have been finished earlier still being finished on time - just not as early.

I understand what you’re saying but P&O have a track record of using the stock phrase “For reasons beyond our control” and never a semi reasonable explanation in my opinion. 
Also, sorry but to say the fires did not cause much impact etc is my opinion rubbish. Agreed the entire ship is not finished on the same day but there is only a finite number of workers so once they have finished one area they will be required elsewhere and may well not be available not only to redo the work in the fire damaged area but that has to be cleared and cleaned first so it is logical to think there is some impact. 
 

This is just my opinion and I could well be wrong but I have experience in project planning and after this is just one big project.

Still time to book with Fred, I have just received an email offering festive cruises. They weren’t slow.

What I don’t understand is why are P&O a little more honest with the issue? Something like due to earlier incidents during the build the final completion has been delayed etc. or due to unplanned repairs to a movable structure on the Ems the transfer to the North Sea has had to be delayed with the knock on effect of the hand over date to P&O being delayed etc.

May be they think (and they maybe right) this is too detailed for some / most to understand. I would certainly appreciate the honesty a lot more.

42 minutes ago, paulatsea said:

What fires ? 

Really? I think in the end there were three fires but at least two. The last one was just after the float out.

1 minute ago, Camberley said:

Oh they do don’t they.

 

They really have no idea. Do they honestly think this sort of thing will soften the or prevent folk fromfrom going elsewhere for their cruises?

It will more likely drive them to go elsewhere. I have already started going to other cruise lines for my core cruising and only now use P&O if the price and itinerary is right (not very often). 

56 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

I don't have an official reason. P&O have publicly said they won't compromise on the high standards of build.

 

I did say that there were two dates for the Ems transfer, once this month, one next month. I do understand that there is a structure over the Ems which is moved for each transfer, which has been having repair work. The trial of this repaired structure is now only this week which may have forced the later transfer date. This would fit in with just cancelling one cruise.

Whilst that is a totally plausible to a point, this type of work in know about months or even years in advance, this could be an unusual case granted but I wonder if it is more to do with the damage done in the fires and maybe the subsequent repairs have taken a little longer than expected.

Just a thought.