clivep

Select fares with the benifits will not go up and if come down will get the extra benifits which never seemed to happen with vantage so will see.

 

And

 

 

just to add, he said so many people had been waiting for the getaways, apparently they will get a shock in future if they wait...........things will be changing for definate apparently, they cant risk this ever happening again its cost them a lot

As far as I can see, the new Select fares have dropped the price guarantee of the Vantage fares. P&O says it's "kept all the benefits you value" with the Select prices... they obviously agree that the price guarantee of the Vantage fares had no value.

P&O also state "Other promotional prices may be introduced within three months of the sailing date". Let's call them Late Savers (or Getaways version 2) and will presumably be at whatever price is needed to fill the ships.

Reading the link on Cruise Critic I am confused - does this mean that Getaway fares for Feb/March 2014 will not be available after Nov 4th which is only next week. Does this mean if I want a Getaway for next March that I have to book it before Nov 4th.

If you wanted a balcony cabin then it looks like you're out of luck already...

As of last night, there are no Getaway balcony cabin prices being advertised on the P&O site for ANY cruises.

Edit: If you try making a booking then the balcony prices do come up.

The new fare structure comes into place from Monday and will apply to bookings from spring 2014 onwards

The new premium Select Price fares are being introduced in place of Vantage fares. These new fares also offer flexible booking conditions but have a lower price point than Vantage.

An Early Saver fare is also being introduced on selected cruises with further price reductions, limited added value options and less flexible conditions.

Presumably the misleading and mostly pointless "price promise" idea has been shelved leaving the way clear for the fares to be heavily discounted close to sailing date as in the past unless they have something else in mind to replace the Getaway pricing to fill the ships.

"For those customers already booked on a Vantage or Getaway Fare, the booking terms and conditions will remain the same and Vantage fares will continue to be protected by the price promise". Yeah, right. As there will no longer be Vantage pricing then the price on them cannot drop. As we all know the Vantage price promise will not be applicable to the new cheaper Select Price fare. Will P&O do the decent thing and drop the Vantage price to the Select Price before the Vantage price disappears???

Bear in mind that although the Spanish VAT for drinks is 8%, the rate for goods and services (spa, specialty dining & gift shop) is 21%.

Just to correct myself, the VAT on drinks has now risen to 10% as others have pointed out.

Bear in mind that although the Spanish VAT for drinks is 8%, the rate for goods and services (spa, specialty dining & gift shop) is 21%.

We didn't really get it at first, as the receipt said "Spanish tax @ 10%", which we understood while we were in Spain, but not after we left Spain. I realised though that it would be too much hassle to reprogram the tills for each country, so it's just easier to leave it saying Spanish. Maybe printing "European Tax" on the receipts would make it clearer.

It said Spanish tax as that's what it was.

Unless this has changed recently, it works this way:

For cruises embarking in Spain and not stopping in a port outside the EU there is SPANISH VAT charged for the whole cruise. If there is a visit to a port outside the EU during any part of the cruise then the Spanish VAT is only to be paid whilst in Spanish waters (which is also what happens if the departure port is not in Spain). Spain is the only EU country to do this.

Celebrity Equinox 13th November back down to £799 for a balcony today. October 20th sailing also at £799. These are prices from Celebrity website so you may get a discount on these through your TA. This is below £70 pppn for a balcony cabin and pretty much below the best P & O getaway fares (certainly for the Med).

Long live the getaway fare. :)

I don't plan too far ahead and getting mine and hubby's holiday to coincide takes arranging. So frequently only know a couple of months ahead. I love a bargain and the getaway fares are just up my street. Managed one in June and had a great time, so now looking to book another for November.( did look at a Celebrity cruise but the difference in price means two for the price of one on P&O )

Just keeping my fingers crossed that when booking they apologise for only late sitting being available like last time. Wanted late sitting anyway. :D

I'm still waiting for the Adonia Baltic sailings in Sepember/October to come down to a sensible price. RCI/Celebrity for November is the backup plan. We've always preferred the Med in November to October but RCI have tended to take their ships back across the pond earlier over the past couple of years as they couldn't fill them on November Med cruises. This year they have several still here in November with good prices. The 13th November 12 night Celebrity Equinox looks good at £850 for a balcony cabin although it was £799 yesterday (+ flights but we always book these ourselves anyway). There are numerous cheaper RCI and Celebrity ones for November and are not last minute pricing as they're more than 2 months away.

I know we Brits are used to paying through the nose which is why I often book European cruises through American travel agents where the price can be half that being charged in the UK (in addition to free pre-paid gratuities and/or OBC).

If you want to see how little P&O's parent Carnival can charge then look at their Costa Mediterranea cruises for 10th and 15th November. These 5 day cruises are currently £129 for an inside cabin so slightly over £25 pppn.

It depends on the cabin class and time of year. £50 is about right for an inside or outside but a bit low for a balcony on P&O.

We always have a balcony and only sail in the spring and autumn as the summer is too hot for us. Fortunately this is when they have most trouble filling the ships. I usually book about 4 weeks before the cruise and would not pay more than £80 pppn for a balcony cabin. We've only had 2 P&O cruises (1 pre-Getaways introduction and 1 post) with a balcony cabin price of about £70 per night. I find the Vantage prices ridiculously high and expect the Getaway price on the cruises I'm interested in to be less than 50% of the Vantage ones.

Other cruise lines seem to manage with lower prices! Our 7 day RCI Adventure of the Seas cruise in April last year cost $832 (£525 at the time) for a balcony cabin. This was the total for the 2 of us including gratuities. This works out at about £30 pppn without the gratuities.

I was looking at a couple of Costa cruises earlier this year where the prices for a 7 night cruise were £149 inside and £199 balcony!

We did self-assist off the Carnival Legend this morning without any problems. This was allowed at any time up until 8.30 when all passengers were required to be ashore. They had a separate exit from the ship at dock level and by-passed using the high-level walkway that the passengers not doing self-assist used.

We were on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas twice in 2011 (June and October). We opted for the self-disembarkation as we needed to catch the People Mover to Piazzale Roma when it opened at 7am in order to catch the ATVO bus to get to the airport in time for our flight.

We are going on a cruise later this month that ends in Venice. We need to be off even earlier in order to catch a 7am coach transfer from the Tronchetto to Treviso airport. This will be our first time with Carnival and will be doing self-disembarkation whether they like it or not.

NCL may not give the option of self-disembarkation but it's certainly not against port rules.

We went to Cavtat on a ship's excursion in June and plan to visit again next month.

The tourist bus and ferry are OK but both go from old town. The local bus #10 seems much more convenient (and probably cheaper) as it runs every 30 minutes and the bus stop is close to the port gates.

We'll get local currency for the bus tickets from the ATM at the cruise terminal. I know bus tickets can be bought at the newsstand and that the fare into old town is 10 Kuna (on buses 1A, 1B or 8) and that the ticket is valid for up to 1 hour. The price is 12 Kuna if you pay the driver.

I believe this is the same ticket we need for the suburban bus #10 to Cavtat? Maybe someone will be good enough to correct me if I'm wrong.

When we return from Cavtat we'll probably get off near the East end of the city and go on the cable car.