P&O Prices 2013

[Wavebreakers]

Just finished scanning the 2013 brochure received from P&O. The prices are sadly a joke, I fear they will lose a lot of previously loyal customers if these prices remain. Sadly they have lost us for next year - Much better deal on a rival company and virtually same ports of call.

 

P&O need to wake up to what competative pricing is, this fludid pricing is losing them customers. :)

[jeanlyon]

Well I have read this on another site. I checked out P&O 17 nights to Central Med with Celebrity Western Med - same time or year, they were nearly identical. Cunard were more.

[Thejuggler]

We haven't a a P&O brochure, despite having cruised with them twice so can't comment on prices. I work on £100 a night for an inside as a typical starting price whatever the itinerary, are they now much higher than this?

 

Don't worry about loyalty. If you can find a cruise cheaper with another operator use them, we are this year.

[cclarke12]

It was a no brainer for us for summer school holidays 2013. Two weeks on Celebrity (including grats) for last two weeks of August is over £1k cheaper for a family of 4 in an inside cabin compared with what P&O is offering for a two weeks on Ventura for similar dates. To be fair Celebrity is Baltic itinerary and P&O is Western Med, so not a like for like. However, we haven't done the Baltic before and with that kind of price difference (as an example) there was no contest.

 

We love P&O, but not are bowled over by next year's prices and itineraries. I have cancelled a pre-booking we made as with all the recent late offers (even in school hols), and even more competition from Southampton (with two RCI ships), we've decided to just sit it out and wait for the late offers and pick up a cheap second cruise.

[virginvirgo]

Do people really pay the list price though? Offers will come along, upgrades etc. unless you really really want a cruise for a special occasion that is likely to sell out why book so early? There are places on cruises leaving next week for the med.

[jeanlyon]

No, that is about right. We are booking a 17 night Central Med and it's £1642 and that's not for the cheapest inside. It's three grades up. Sounds about right to me. Freek parking and a little bit of OBC

[Thejuggler]

Do people really pay the list price though? Offers will come along, upgrades etc. unless you really really want a cruise for a special occasion that is likely to sell out why book so early? There are places on cruises leaving next week for the med.

 

There is no 'list' price due to fluid pricing. If they are advertising at circa £100 a night this is the same as three years ago. Comments that prices have increased dramatically do not therefore ring true with me.

 

There are deals if you can wait. Just had a flyer for a North Cape trip with Cunard for £1400 in a balcony during school hols, inside is £999.

[chiapetti]

We love P&O, but not are bowled over by next year's prices and itineraries. I have cancelled a pre-booking we made as with all the recent late offers (even in school hols), and even more competition from Southampton (with two RCI ships), we've decided to just sit it out and wait for the late offers and pick up a cheap second cruise.

[Brayman]

We love P&O, but not are bowled over by next year's prices and itineraries. I have cancelled a pre-booking we made as with all the recent late offers (even in school hols), and even more competition from Southampton (with two RCI ships), we've decided to just sit it out and wait for the late offers and pick up a cheap second cruise.

 

Deja Vu?

 

We have pre=registered for May 2013 at better prices than we are paying this year!

[Janey]

There is an increase of £900 pp (for a balcony cabin) in the Aurora caribbean cruise for Oct 2013. We are going this year and were going to do it next year but I've changed my mind! Perhaps another error in the new brochure?!

[kevinyork]

Just had a flyer direct from P&O offering huge OBC if you book a festive cruise this December. Festive cruises are usually very popular and easily sell without heavy discounting or offers so I was suprised to see such an attractive deal e.g. £700 per cabin for a balcomy cabin. I think this could indicate people are not booking ahead due to perhaps concerns re jobs/the economy.

[smileon]

Just had a flyer direct from P&O offering huge OBC if you book a festive cruise this December. Festive cruises are usually very popular and easily sell without heavy discounting or offers so I was suprised to see such an attractive deal e.g. £700 per cabin for a balcomy cabin. I think this could indicate people are not booking ahead due to perhaps concerns re jobs/the economy.

 

 

Hi kevinyork

 

Just wondering - can you tell me which cruise this is for - we have been thinking about something over the festive period but not had any recent mailings

 

Thank you

[kevinyork]

Hi kevinyork

 

Just wondering - can you tell me which cruise this is for - we have been thinking about something over the festive period but not had any recent mailings

 

Thank you

 

They are offering substantial OBC on every festive cruise in 2012. If you pm me your email address I could scan it and email it to you. Not sure if I can post the scan on here as it may be seen as promotion?

[smileon]

Thanks kevinyork - have received details of the promotion myself in the mail today!

[tom_uk]

We're just back from a weekend break in Venice - non-cruise. It's the first significant non-cruise holiday we've taken for quite a while, and I thought it might be interesting to give some information about the prices and some other experiences.

 

We stayed in a good room in a good three star hotel not too far from the Rialto (in Canareggio, for Venice afficionados). We had one of their better rooms, with a canal view, so the equivalent of a good cabin: deluxe balcony, say. The room cost us €450 for two nights. Then we spent about €350 on this and that. Some of that was for excursions - vaporetto tickets, airport bus tickets, entrance money, daytime drinks & coffees, etc, but I would say that at least 50% of it was for meals and stuff that on a cruise would have been included in the price. Finally, we paid for travelling to Venice & back, which with flights, the overnight Travelodge, breakfast at LBA & petrol to and from home, came to not far shy of £300. Again, let's say that we might have spent 50% of that getting to and from Southampton. Overall, the price was at least what we would paid for a cruise.

 

Then there was the whole 'meals out' thing. Frankly, this was the most disappointing part of the weekend. The meals were OK but not great - not as good as we would expect to have in the MDR on a cruise. The service in these restaurants was comically inefficient - much, much worse than anything I have seen on a ship. And then there was the whole "where shall we have dinner?" thing, which you simple don't get on a cruise.

 

It brought home to us what good value cruises are. Yes, we could have done it all cheaper, but we choose to spend a certain amount on a holiday because they are important times for us. But we're looking forward to the next cruise.

 

Finally, in case you're all thinking we didn't enjoy it: - ah, Venice!

[southwinds]

Every year this seems to happen with Pricing... years back you could be sure the early price was much like the late deal prices now ..not so for the last few years I have tracked prices of cruises I hope to go on... each year I got the crusie I wanted for a better than book early price ...This year I got my second choice but got a balcony for the price of an inside cabin... our agent was doing double OBC on this cruise and with our FCD and our shareholders OBC we have just under £800 obc !!! now if you take that off the bottom line price of the cruise its even better deal. OK we didnt get free car parking .. even deducting this off the £800 we are still way ahead of the early booking price. So unless you want a particular cabin and cruise .. im not sure why I would book early...

[southwinds]

They are offering substantial OBC on every festive cruise in 2012. If you pm me your email address I could scan it and email it to you. Not sure if I can post the scan on here as it may be seen as promotion?

 

remember the rules you cant promote agents on here suggest you PM each other or you will get your post deleated ...

[terrierjohn]

Every year this seems to happen with Pricing... years back you could be sure the early price was much like the late deal prices now ..not so for the last few years I have tracked prices of cruises I hope to go on... each year I got the crusie I wanted for a better than book early price ...This year I got my second choice but got a balcony for the price of an inside cabin... our agent was doing double OBC on this cruise and with our FCD and our shareholders OBC we have just under £800 obc !!! now if you take that off the bottom line price of the cruise its even better deal. OK we didnt get free car parking .. even deducting this off the £800 we are still way ahead of the early booking price. So unless you want a particular cabin and cruise .. im not sure why I would book early...

Unfortunately we fall into the latter category as we need an accessible cabin, so we have no option other than to dig deep for P&O's 15% deposit and then wait and watch for the special offers that come along at well below the price we paid.

But good launch prices can be had, RCI offer excellent prices on both RCCL and Celebrity, and we have yet to see significant reductions being offered for similar grade cabins on a Sept 2012 cruise that we booked in April last year, and their deposit is only £150pp.

So P&O take note, some cruise lines do like to treat their early booking customers well and offer prices that are indeed special.

[C at Sea]

We have always booked very early - as soon as cruises released. Never again!

Our friends booked same cruise recently that we had booked some time ago - they've had free coach travel that we've had to pay for and higher obc. Lower priced cruise!

[Scotty27]

I don't think that anyone pays the brochure price - why can't the prices be exceptionally low when bookings open - like the budget airlines - and then gradually rise.

Initial brochure prices far to high ! - with offers of free parking, free hotel the night before, OBC, Upgrades

Lets get back to a basic price

[jeanlyon]

Hmm, we do a land based driving holiday each year and stay in some lovely small hotels. Paying 450 Euros for 2 nights in a hotel - what a rip- off. What did you actually get for that amoutn of money. We have stayed in Venice or nearby. nothing like that price. Oh well.

[MattyBarlow]

OBC seems very stingy for the new cruises. They don't appear to be giving any extra for past pax. We booked a cruises last year and got £180 OBC. Same cruise, same time in 2013 and you only get £50!

[jeanlyon]

Matty - agree. We only got £30 each :-(

[Presto2]

We've sailed with OV2 once, P&O once and Celebrity once - we have just got £400 off our Celebrity Cruise plus $200 on board credit . With the discount from the TA we have saved over £900 for our cruise ------ we have paid £4000 for a a 2 night stay in a very nice hotel in Rome followed by a 12 night cruise in a Sunset Veranda cabin to the Eastern Med and Greek Islands select dining mid August. It is not cheap but we know that if the price drops after we book Celebrity drop our price too ---

 

Mmmmmmmmm :rolleyes:

[hooked cruiser]

We have also noticed the reduction in on-board credit. However if you are looking at maybe 2 cruises then the way to get extra is to register your interest for the 2nd cruise while on-board the first, pay £50 each deposit and then book a cruise within the year. This then gives you additional OBC as well as that offered.

 

An example we are booked for Xmas 2013 on Aurora and both have £100 OBC (inside cabin) by doing it this way as oppossed to only £25 if booked on its own.