holidaydebbie

I forgot to add that even if I booked a Select fare, the TA would still be charging me extra for the change/cancellation of the cruise!

5 hours ago, tring said:

Overall there are a lot of advantages in booking a select fare which are well worth considering before you make any bookings another time.   Booking a saver may give a price advantage at times, but otherwise there will likely be occasions when you just have to accept any loss incurred in doing so, hence you need to factor in that potential loss as well.

There wasn’t any advantage to booking a select fare imo; it was hundreds of pounds more and even the TA, who I might add tried to sell me a saver fare, had to admit there was a big difference and I got a fab price on the saver.

And I have accepted the loss from P & O, my point is an objection and query of the extra charges from the TA (buried in TA’s small print).

23 hours ago, Cathygh said:

P&O cabins for sale is on facecloth. There are instructions on there that tell you how to sell. I hope that helps. 

Facecloth! 😂 I think I might have found the relevant page, but not sure I would be able to change names on booking. Due to the fact I’ve booked an early saver fare. Might be worth a try though. Thanks again.

On 1/19/2024 at 5:51 PM, amajaa said:

Wow I think you need to book with a new travel agent another time. 

 

Unfortunately if you book a Saver Fare that is the risk you take. I very much doubt insurance will pay out because something else had come up but would be really interested to know the outcome of that one. 

I am not trying to claim it through travel insurance.

On 1/19/2024 at 6:10 PM, Cathygh said:

You might be able to sell your cabin, there is a page on an another site that had P&O cabins for sale. I believe that P&O charge £20pp for a name change.

Great idea, thanks for the tip. I might try this. Could you give me a clue as to how/which site to sell it on?

On 1/19/2024 at 7:28 PM, tring said:

If it is stated in T&C's say a £50 payment is due in this case then it is perfectly legal.  If you do not pay, the agent could sue you, though whether they would bother is perhaps debatable.   However, you would be in default of that payment which may get you a bad reputation of non payment.  They may tell other travel agents or maybe some way this can be shared with other businesses, though I have no idea how this sort of thing works.  Hardly seems worth getting into that situation for the sake of £50 imo though.

 

If it is an agent we have used in the past, (when an amount was kept back from a payment due to us after a cruise line cancelled a cruise).  If so, that agent let us make another fresh cruise booking and that lost payment was considered as part of the new cruise cost.  What they wanted was a cruise booked with them, so they got a commission from the new cruise.  Would not get you the P&O deposit back, but you would not loose a further £50.  We did not use that agent again.

 

The alternative, as someone suggested, is to sell the cruise booking which may be viable if you booked at a good price.  P&O allow that to be done, but wondering if the agent would be prepared to go with that as well, if so they may lop on an admin charge. 

 

I would owe them an extra £100 not £50. I stated in my explanation that cancellation/admin charge from TA is £50 per person. But you make some interesting points about getting a bad name for not paying up.

I might ask the TA if I can book an alternative cruise through them. I do want to go on another cruise and had originally asked if P & O would let me swap to the same itinerary but different date.

If both parties agreed to me selling the cabin, I would not mind a £100 admin fee as this would mean I kept my £413 deposit.

On 1/20/2024 at 1:15 AM, roomba920 said:

I thought they allow a one time date change request? I have an early saver reservation, and we were able to move it from June to May without losing our deposit, or paying any fee.

I would be interested to know more about this. Mine is an early saver but I’ve been told I can’t make a change of date.

I have booked a cruise for this July but unfortunately it coincides with my daughter’s graduation week and I have no option but to cancel. I have booked on an early saver fare so no option to change the date or claim on travel insurance. At this stage I have only paid my deposit but it is quite a hefty one - £413 to be precise. I have reconciled myself to the fact that I will lose this but my problem is that the travel agent has told me that to cancel they require a written request together with an agreement to pay, not only the deposit (which as stated earlier, is already paid) but a £50 pp admin charge which they reckon is theirs, implying that the £413 has gone to P & O. I am curious to find out how they will collect this charge if I refuse. I must admit this is the first I’ve heard of another charge on top of a deposit but it is in their small print and I am not in the habit of cancelling my holidays so don’t have much experience of it. I was thinking of complaining to the regulatory body but has anyone else got any suggestions or experienced this? Indeed, am I being unreasonable to have a problem with this charge?

3 minutes ago, 6MonthsHere6MonthsThere said:

Not Little Britain but yes they are as we used them last week to board the Anthem on Friday.

Thank you so much for responding 6MonthsHere6MonthsThere. I have now booked myself and family in for the day before we cruise on 4th June but I did have to book for a branch a few miles away from where we are staying in Portsmouth. It looked as though some branches weren't open, possibly because of the bank holiday, and maybe the weekend, who knows?? I was starting to find this all quite stressful. Just have to 'pass' the test now! And relax .............

P.S. I hope you enjoyed your cruise on Anthem, or are you still on it?

On 5/14/2022 at 8:32 AM, little britain said:

Lloyds in Sainsburys 

Do you know if they are accepted by Royal Carribbean LittleBritain or Norwich Cruiser?

Hi all,

Just wanted to say thank you for your replies and shared wisdom. I think we got slightly off topic, however that is not a complaint as it enabled a not so seasoned cruiser such as myself to gain extra tips. It has certainly given me some food for thought for future cruise bookings!

As it happens, and for those that are interested , I waited a couple more weeks before booking, you could say that I bottled it as it seemed that balconies were disappearing fast and I needed a 3 berth cabin of which there is a more limited supply. In the end I paid far more than I wanted to, but had I waited until the ship visit, it might only have been worth a bit of onboard credit but I hadn’t realised that I could have got a price from P & O direct that might have been comparable to my TA. I am happy I get to look forward to another cruise next year and so is my OH but I’m planning on starting another thread asking about tips to get the cost down!

Thanks again for sharing your experiences and views!

Thanks for the advice Selbourne, I will bear it in mind. The only reason I don't usually book direct is because the prices always seem a lot higher than a TA will give you via phone. Do the cruise companies give you a better price if you phone them than as advertised on their website?

Hi all

I am seriously considering booking a summer 2019 cruise on Ventura to the Canaries. I also have a ship visit booked for next month on Britannia. In the ship visit information it says, "we’ll have an exclusive offer to make your booking even better value". Does anyone know what the offer made on ship visits is?

My obvious dilemma is; should I book now based on the price I have been given by my TA, or shall I wait to see what the exclusive offer from P & O is on ship visit day?

Surely that isn't a good thing, power outages? Especially in rough seas or shallower water?

In case it helps anyone with deciding what to do here are 3 videos from my time there in 2013. We walked to the Trafalgar Cemetery and took a taxi (€22 pp from memory) up to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. After viewing the Great Siege Tunnels we walked back down to the town, calling at the World War II Tunnels where by chance a tour was just about to start. It took an hour and was an additional €8 pp. All the best, Tony

 

[YOUTUBE]EHNGMyY7v-A[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]0UWYOuN4phs[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]QpBAu6E7vEA[/YOUTUBE]

Thanks for your videos cornishpastyman. How lucky you are to live in St Ives, I do hope you appreciate it. The videos have helped me decide what I'm going to do when on my cruise in August.

Hi, I felt I had just had to add my experience of going it alone on the train. It was 7 years ago now but I don't believe much has changed. First the positive: The train station is very close to the port so I would recommend walking unless you have problems with mobility. The train was ridiculously cheap; 20 euros for a family of four! We travelled to Rome and back quite easily. The not so good: trains in Italy can be quite unreliable and apparently can be cancelled just like that. We had this problem with the trains from Livorno to Florence and of course all the announcements are in Italian, none in English so we had to ask when we suspected something was going on half way through our journey. We ended up getting 3 trains back to Livorno, got a taxi to the port and arrived back onboard with only 20 mins to spare.

Hope this is helpful.

Forgive for maybe being a bit stupid but what would I do exactly to find out about my cabin?

Thanks, Debbie