Pre registering for 2016 cruise

[Suebiker]

Hi - we are looking to book a cruise which will be sailing during the school holidays and see that now you can pre register to book a cruise. Please can anyone tell me what benefits there are to doing this. As far as I can see there are none really as you do not get to book your cabin but are allocated one at a later date when the cruise goes on general sale. Also is it worth booking onboard as we will be onboard in 3 weeks time - I believe you can get extra onboard credit. Can anyone tell me if that is true? Finally is it better to book with P and O - I have just been sent a mailshot from an agent offering 10% off. Are agents starting to give discounts again like they have done previously.

 

Anny help or advice much appreciate - we usually book last minute so this is all new to us

 

Thanks.

 

Sue

[daiB]

Hi - we are looking to book a cruise which will be sailing during the school holidays and see that now you can pre register to book a cruise. Please can anyone tell me what benefits there are to doing this. As far as I can see there are none really as you do not get to book your cabin but are allocated one at a later date when the cruise goes on general sale. Also is it worth booking onboard as we will be onboard in 3 weeks time - I believe you can get extra onboard credit. Can anyone tell me if that is true? Finally is it better to book with P and O - I have just been sent a mailshot from an agent offering 10% off. Are agents starting to give discounts again like they have done previously.

 

 

 

Anny help or advice much appreciate - we usually book last minute so this is all new to us

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Sue

 

 

Sue,

 

Book with a TA, if you are booking select you will get your cabin number with the booking. It is only booking with P&O direct that you have to wait.

[BrianI]

Preregistering means you give your requirements specifying what cabins you want in order of preference, dining requirements and debit card details. The travel agent will then book your cruise when the bookings open based on your requirements. I have done this in the past and had a call from the agent about 2 hours after booking opened to confirm my booking. I have always got my first choice of cabin.

If you book on board you get extra on board credit, £50pp for a two week cruise up to £100 for a longer one.

Brian

[jeanlyon]

I pre-registered for Adonia and I wish I had gone to a TA. We are on a linked booking with a friend and we wanted our cabins to be close, but they wouldn't do that. We are on board Adonia in 4 weeks time and I shall be booking on there to get the extra OBC and also putting the booking through to our TA who will give us another 5%.

[Suebiker]

Thanks everyone for all your replies - they are really helpful

 

Sue

[terrierjohn]

Sue, you could wait till you're on board and receive whatever extra OBC P&O are offering as well as the normal extra 5% off for booking before May 31st, and you can ask for the booking to be allocated to your TA and receive any extra benefit they are offering.

But do your homework beforehand so you know what the best price is, which is what we will be doing before our Britannia cruise.

Edited March 26, 2015 by terrierjohn

[tonyl1956]

On another forum (or maybe just another post here), it's been reported that, if you book on board, you are now required to sign a piece of paper undertaking not to transfer the booking to a TA. I can't confirm this but maybe someone on board or going shortly could do so.

 

Tony

[Clodia]

I booked onboard Oceans last week and was given the choice of going direct with P and O or transferring to a TA. No problem whatsoever.

[Clodia]

That was Oceana. Bloody predictive text!

[jeanlyon]

don't understand the concept of undertaking not to transfer. When we did it, they simply put it straight through to our TA, it wasn't a case of us doing it?

[jeanlyon]

Ah got it Tony, will take a look.

[Scriv]

I am also reading the invitation to pre register for a June 2016 cruise on Azura. I don't know the ship at all and have no specific cabin requests, so I can easily wait until mid April to book.... but do I gain anything at all by pre-registering?

 

I will be booking direct with P&O as I do not have a TA, whereas I have booked several times now ith P&O direct and have been very happy with that.

 

I know a lot of you have booked with TAs, but as I don't have a history with any, I feel that they are more likely to favour their regulars like yourselves, rather than a complete newcomer, so I would be unlikely to gain much by going via a TA than direct.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Scriv

[jeanlyon]

Scriv, I don't think that's the case at all. Our new TA was delighted to welcome us and gave us a nice 5% discount on top of our past pax discount with P&O

[Scriv]

Thanks Jean! Found it - The price is a lot lower than in the new leaflet and on the website, but would I still get the 10% off that I have been offered with P&O as a past peninsular customer on a 'Captain's Choice' by 31 May? Plus the 5% cos it is a Peninsular Club starred cruise? Plus OBC or parking?

Edited April 3, 2015 by Scriv

[Scriv]

Thanks for all your help Jean!

[jeanlyon]

No probs. Lots of good TAs out there, and I was recommended to the first one by someone on another forum. They are nice and friendly. Ask if they give some extra discount. Don't ask, don't get :-)

[jh1809]

I've just pre-registered for a cruise on Aurora, and it went very smoothly. The only reason I did it is that I'll be on my own and Aurora has only four single cabins, so I wanted to make sure that I got one of them before they all went.

[Scriv]

That sounds very sensible JH :)

[Suebiker]

Hi - please could someone explain how you go about booking onboard and then transferring your booking to a travel agent once onboard?

 

Do you arrange a deal with a travel agent and then book onboard and transfer it to the agreed travel agent?

 

When I looked at the P and O website it appeared to me as though you had to book via your own Travel agent who you usually use. Our next cruise is booked direct with P and O.

 

Please can someone advise how this all works

 

Many thanks

 

Sue

[kersh]

The rule is/was that you can only transfer your cruise booked on board op to the Travel agent you had booked the cruise you are on with.

 

You don't need to do anything other than tell the future cruise crew on board that you want to transfer it. They have all the details on their computer of who you booked your cruise with.

 

We generally just send an e mail or text to our TA to tell them what we have done so they can look out for the paperwork arriving by e nail from P & O. It is generally very quick within a few hours but maybe at peak booking time it would take longer.

 

Sue

[Holker01]

All those thinking of waiting to book for 2016, until they are on ships in the next couple of weeks, fluid pricing could kick in, so even though you get some obc for booking onboard, in real terms you may be worse off

[Scriv]

We are going to be booking as soon as we can for June 2016 taking advantage of the various discounts available.

[Suebiker]

The rule is/was that you can only transfer your cruise booked on board op to the Travel agent you had booked the cruise you are on with.

 

You don't need to do anything other than tell the future cruise crew on board that you want to transfer it. They have all the details on their computer of who you booked your cruise with.

 

We generally just send an e mail or text to our TA to tell them what we have done so they can look out for the paperwork arriving by e nail from P & O. It is generally very quick within a few hours but maybe at peak booking time it would take longer.

 

Sue

 

Ok - thanks - thanks for clarifying that for me.

 

Sue

[Suebiker]

All those thinking of waiting to book for 2016, until they are on ships in the next couple of weeks, fluid pricing could kick in, so even though you get some obc for booking onboard, in real terms you may be worse off

 

Ok , thanks for that, we were thinking of hanging on a few weeks when we are onboard - but we may now re-think that.

 

Thanks

 

Sue

[Scriv]

This opening offer for 2016 cruises is for bookings made by May 31st.

 

Surely they wouldn't change prices until after then?

Edited April 5, 2015 by Scriv