Megabear2

I've had problems with this previously. It's not keen on any browser other than Chrome. Normally works with that - I've just checked my own link and it's working in Chrome.

Liquid sunshine ... it is the rainy season you know!

There's apparently no clear liability with anyone. We are pursing the insurance company through the Ombudsman. Unfortunately there is no direct financial loss attributable to either the t/a or cruise line so apart from the medical bill cost being taken from me and then returned and the cruise line having now threatened us with legal action we cannot seek any financial redress. The complaint is about failure in duty of care. I have a lawyer who is looking at compensation and this is why arbitration is considered at this stage a better solution. I'm pretty sure these posts will disappear rather quickly but thanks for everyone's concern.

Well with a current base price of £7396 for a balcony cabin versus £11,938 for a deck 8 mid or £12,298 for a deck 5 mid I don't think I'd be complaining too much!

No. They are saying the TA is not liable as it was a cruise line issue. The cruise line is refusing to speak to them or us - they are apparently under no obligation to do so. I'm now told next step would be arbitration which of course costs but no idea who we arbitrate with. It's not clear cut due to the exceptional circumstances which I cannot discuss on this forum.

The doctor's letter comes at the point he submits the form to the insurance company. Anyone with real influenza, not a viral sniffle, would need to seek medical attention anyway. It is very easy to overthink this. To report you are unwell you need to call your GP surgery and speak to a medical professional, ie a surgery nurse, a doctor etc. This then records your illness and symptoms on your medical records and lo and behold you can make an insurance claim. At the point you submit your cancellation claim to your insurer he sends a form to your doctor's surgery who note what's in your records, holds his hand out for his fee and says thank you very much. There I'd of course a significant difference between real 'flu and the common cold etc but if you have just been refused boarding for anything, even covid, you would be very well advised to get it noted on your GP records that you are unwell.

May I ask why you wanted to move, is it because of the floor, surroundings or what? Appreciate you now say you're happy to stick but I'm intrigued where you actually wanted to be and in what cabin. Which ship are you on?

Ironically cancellation from flu would be covered under insurance.

Very true, as I say the questionnaire based on searching for out dated signs of covid is the problem. Until a common sense attitude to current covid infections is adopted honestly is most definitely not the best policy.

Thanks Moley. You are correct. I had final response from ABTA last week stating as Princess have refused to answer any questions as they are not the organisers I would now need to start arbitration or legal action. They have exonerated IC completely stating that being locked in a port by the cruise line, together with the failed assistance not being within their remit. I will look into your suggestion. At the moment our hands are somewhat tied as Princess are now threatening to sue us for the outstanding funds they had to return to us and the insurance issue is with the Ombudsman. Oh happy days!

Unfortunately we cannot say that is the case. The problem being faced by everyone is that travel insurance policies separate covid from other illnesses and treat claims in a separate way. The rules they have in place in their policies are actually quite out of date in the modern covid era but it very much suits them. Having a specific separate covid policy within a policy (which is what they effectively offer) means claims are in very grey areas with crusing. The cruise lines are sailing on terms made up on the hoof, also very out of date, and as a result the passenger is caught in the middle. Prior to covid the health questionnaire was a relatively small piece of paper handed to you at the terminal and to be frank was mainly looking for signs of norovirus. Anyone refused boarding at the port would have a valid cancellation insurance claim, simple and straightforward. Now with the three day before online job it's become draconian and unfair. The current purpose of the questionnaire is to search for covid but the questionnaire is so generic it includes almost any common ailment. Not fit for either purpose at this stage in the pandemic. The insurer is left to choose which section he wants to judge a claim under and in many cases if the word "covid" rears its head that section is chosen and consequently there is deemed no valid claim. However if it is looked at under the "normal" terms of cancellation there may well be a valid claim in some instances. The original poster on this thread had an illness which was technically not covid and being treated by a doctor. Her claim under the cancellation clause would most likely succeed but those denied boarding with her would have difficulty. Similarly Kopchadder's wife is unwell, albeit with the common cold. Normally no one would make an insurance claim for having the common cold but in light of P&O denying boarding based on their questionnaire and a refusal to even discuss the issue it may well be that is the route Kopchadder takes. Again, however, his in laws will have difficulty. Until the letter from P&O is seen and the reason for refused boarding is fully explained it is therefore impossible to say whether or not an insurance claim will succeed. Everything depends on the use of the covid being the reason for cancellation.

The price on my cruise was steady until final balance due date, about the same ut with slightly higher OBC but nothing to write home about. Three weeks ago it dropped by £1,000, then £1,500 and as at Friday there is £2,000 difference, ie £1,000pp. I cannot therefore do anything about it as it's balance paid. I have another Caribbean Christmas cruise for 2023 booked on Arvia with a £385 deposit which is a replacement for one booked for New Year this year. It was a moved deposit when we decided to look at two separate cruises in Decemberand March next year instead of a back to back over Christma/New Year. I also have FCC which will more or less cover the £7,700 total cost but because of this year's situation I am monitoring it extremely closely and will decide near September 2023 what to with it. I may use the FCC for March instead to get it out of the way - its valid until mid April 2024. The difference for me is I do not book suites or specific cabins or indeed specific ships. I'm content with any mid forward balcony on the ships I sail with my husband and as a solo take what I can get! I'm under no illusions that those who want something very limited are happy but there are many like me who are fairly content with a certain area of a ship but aren't too fussed about which deck etc. I book midforward on select or saver where the option is there, particularly on Britannia, as my husband swims extremely early every day and likes to go direct to the pool area. I hope that explains a bit better why I'm very cross about this particular price cut.

Thank you. I always try to be polite as everyone has a view and there's no right or wrong one, just different ones. I get a bit paranoid I might upset someone!

I would agree in the past with all you say. His time, however, I'm finding it hard to do so at the present when the alternative cabin I'd indicated to my travel agent at the time of booking is so much reduced with more OBC.

No offence was intended and I do appreciate the needs of others. However when I use the word "silly" I do so ironically. I consider myself very "silly" for believing P&O wouldn't launch at a very high price in comparison with previous years because at that point they were offering less accomodation and they knew demand would outstrip supply. I consider myself "silly" for believing that if circumstances changed they'd do right by their loyal passengers who booked at day one, and I consider myself "silly" for thinking they wouldn't just use the old argument of their algorithm raising or lowering fares. What I can say is I feel duped when I see the cabin next door to mine available for a third less and indirectly P&O have admitted just maybe I'm unhappy by chucking an extra £150 OBC at me a month or so ago. I've a right to feel conned as have all others. There's always been cheap saver fares to clear cabins, what there hasn't been until now is a fire sale on select fares with masses of OBC being thrown around like confetti. The 29 October sailing of Iona had fire sale fares across the board in the 10 days before sailing, still on a select fare with OBC. If you look through there are others creeping into that direction. Currently Ticketmaster are causing a furore with their dynamic pricing - Bruce Springsteen tickets at thousands of pounds and his fans bring told tough pay it if you want it. None of it makes it right. Booking a cruise at the moment feels like that, am I just a mug for being loyal and making the cruise line richer by my eagerness to book? Certainly that's how I feel now.

And then the trade association, ie ABTA, finds the travel agent has done nothing incorrect but the supplier (cruise line ) is not obligated to answer legitimate questions and throws up a defence wall stating sue us if you like - at least that's my experience!!!

There's a whole bunch of these no supplement cruises on offer, all sailing fairly soon. I had one of my "special letters" on Friday just passed with about 12 voyages on it. I'm guessing they want to fill empty space going from Autumn to Winter and one body is better than none!

This appears to be a new development. I doubt it will be covid related as apparently all cabins are now bookable with little or no quarantine allocation. If this continues it may become interesting as many tick no upgrade for a specific reason.

Kopchadder I'm sure will clarify the position. There are two ways to read his post. The first is that his email to customer relations has received a reply leading to dialogue. The second is he has received the standard automated reply - I have approaching 30 of these over the past 18 months. Many on this forum have indicated over the years they have had this "automated" reply and it certainly doesn't mean a case has opened only that P&O are undertaking to contact you after 28 days. As for the letter he mentioned it in his first post as being provided. I'm guessing - no doubt he will clarify - that this too is part of the standard automatic cancellation procedure. Certainly when my famiky and i had to cancel a cruise due to covid earlier this year a flurry of automated emails were received within minutes of our failing the questionnaire. Perhaps Kopchadder will post here when he has time details of exactly who is speaking with him and by which channels of communication and who initiated the conversations. I have no axe to grind here, this is nothing directly to do with me. However I am concerned that as Kopchadder has chosen to put his problem to the media at the same point as trying to open a dialogue with P&O then he may become trapped in the case one of those other mediums does take the bait and start a story. I doubt P&O would speak to him or help him if a journalist from the Mail or whoever rang them out of the blue saying 'oy what's your game 'ere then"! P&O's own channels are notoriously defensive and slow, I hope you would agree. Neither you or I know if P&O are in this case actually in communication with Kopchadder. I'm guessing not because he's gone out of his way to join the forum and tell his story which indicates a man trying any channel to get help.

Yes, I agree. Those of us silly enough to book early are taking a very major hit financially. My next cruise now looking at a difference of £2,000 in favour of new bookers. They also get £30 more OBC and the cabin in question is the one next door to mine. One proviso I make here: I've noticed the select fares on the cruises I'm following are now beginning to rise and in some cases look to be back to the £1500 to £2000 different with the saver fare. Interestingly while the £100 Arvia reductions are in place those headline prices are not being lowered in the same way others are. Some of the Caribbean itineraries especially look very over priced if, as Moley believes, extra cabin capacity has caused the price drops and bargain basement type fares. I continue to patiently wait before thinking about a March booking.

If the comment is directed to my suggestion, which I believe it may be, the poster has apparently already contacted the media etc and therefore has already taken steps that necessitate P&O being made aware of this. I would agree with you 100% that P&O should be offered the chance to deal with the issue, however because they like to hide behind the 28 days of ABTA response and treat all correspondence the same, my experience is that the time afforded is not used to look at the issue but merely to buy time to do so. In other words the automated response triggered is a false flag. It will be better for all if those in the Executive Office are aware the poster has gone down the route he has chosen and as a result might actually speak to him and start to look into it. Silence will just aggravate the problem. If proper replies with a named person start to be received it takes the sting out of the problem. Feeling ignored will make things even worse. My suggested actions should, in my experience, get them to take the matter as urgent and actually open a line of dialogue and most importantly still within the 28 days. Personally I would not have taken the route of using the media at this stage, but fully understand the frustration of the poster and his extended family in choosing to do so. He has large sums of money involved, lost his holiday and now faces a long and arduous fight with his insurer and P&O. Neither you or I are thankfully in that position. A situation like the poster's can lead to very serious stress and mental health issues. P&O need to be aware of this when using their deliberate delaying tactics. Never forget my dialogue started months ago and they still wiggle and thrash like a fish on a rod. In fact a very slippery eel.

Sadly on my last Azura cruise, ones with holes!

I've got two fully paid ones still. One is from this year and small at £999 and the other is a cancellation on a long ago forgotten cruise which was mixed up and not available when I booked this year and next year's Christmas cruises. That's a bigger one at £4,700. Both are valid well into 2024. If, and it's a big if, the insurance situation is sorted they'll be used in March this year or paid towards the Christmas booking.

The government regulations do not apply to cruises. They are special rules, hence all the crap in the past.

It may not be P&O wanting this but they are being guided by other countries' rules and regulations.