Service charge ending!

[jeanlyon]

I am well pleased with the prices. Have lined up 2 on Arcadia for 19 days each. :-)

[Selbourne]

Well said Selbourne.

IMO yourself and daiB are the main two P&O poster's for information and advice.

Regards Graham.

 

Thanks Graham. That drink looks very nice! Pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourself. Whilst I’m not a great fan of short Cruises, the last one we did had better entertainment than the 7 day one that followed it (that we did a back to back with).

 

I’m genuinely not having a whinge about the prices, just stating some facts based upon our launch day bookings 2 years in a row. If I was that bothered I wouldn’t have booked!

 

What I should have said in my last post (where I quoted the prices) was that OBC for 2020 is just £85 per person OR free parking. For our 2019 booking we had £150 per person PLUS free parking. Same cabin, same ship, similar duration, but different month.

 

It just seems to me that, as you and others predicted, the loss of revenue of auto service charge has been offset. Like you, I am not complaining about that. I agree with it as we all now pay.

[Selbourne]

I am well pleased with the prices. Have lined up 2 on Arcadia for 19 days each. :-)

 

Pleased to hear that Jean. We don’t like Arcadia as much as Aurora, but she is doing some great itineraries so I’m not surprised that you have found some good ones. In addition to a 21 nighter on Aurora we are doing the Maiden on Iona, which I know would be your idea of hell on Earth ;) Pleasantly surprised by the price of that one.

[Presto2]

Have to say we are looking at the new prices and to be fair to P&O we think they are very fair.

If we compare this to the cruise we did in 2016 like to like it is actually cheaper for the same grade of cabin, we have no gratuities to pay (we always pay and extra too) and the drinks package looks like it could save is money. (If I have got the daily rate right ... if!). Add the 7.5% discount we get off 'stuff' then it isn't bad

 

All in all very pleased tonight and tempted but will keep watching for now :-)

 

I was being cynical and am quite surprised

 

Sorry to quote myself but not sure now how to comment on it without doing this as there is no edit button.

Just wanted to add that we have now found the right price for the drinks package so scrub that comment! I think we will give that a miss.

 

Still a good price though

[Presto2]

That's good to hear.

We intend sailing more on P&O in future as we recently enjoyed the night time entertainment immensely on our Ventura 3 night cruise over the August bank holiday.[ATTACH]427714[/ATTACH][ATTACH]427715[/ATTACH]

 

 

Now that looks like a great Pina Colada ----------- mmmmmmm ----- only been home from our cruise since last Thursday and missing them already

 

;-)

[Presto2]

Thanks Graham. That drink looks very nice! Pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourself. Whilst I’m not a great fan of short Cruises, the last one we did had better entertainment than the 7 day one that followed it (that we did a back to back with).

 

I’m genuinely not having a whinge about the prices, just stating some facts based upon our launch day bookings 2 years in a row. If I was that bothered I wouldn’t have booked!

 

What I should have said in my last post (where I quoted the prices) was that OBC for 2020 is just £85 per person OR free parking. For our 2019 booking we had £150 per person PLUS free parking. Same cabin, same ship, similar duration, but different month.

 

It just seems to me that, as you and others predicted, the loss of revenue of auto service charge has been offset. Like you, I am not complaining about that. I agree with it as we all now pay.

 

We always have to sail in the school holidays so I always expect to pay lots more for the holiday and get nowhere near as many perks unless you wait for a very late deal.

[grapau27]

Thanks Graham. That drink looks very nice! Pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourself. Whilst I’m not a great fan of short Cruises, the last one we did had better entertainment than the 7 day one that followed it (that we did a back to back with).

 

I’m genuinely not having a whinge about the prices, just stating some facts based upon our launch day bookings 2 years in a row. If I was that bothered I wouldn’t have booked!

 

What I should have said in my last post (where I quoted the prices) was that OBC for 2020 is just £85 per person OR free parking. For our 2019 booking we had £150 per person PLUS free parking. Same cabin, same ship, similar duration, but different month.

 

It just seems to me that, as you and others predicted, the loss of revenue of auto service charge has been offset. Like you, I am not complaining about that. I agree with it as we all now pay.

Thanks,it was a lovely Pina Colada.

Your post was helpful and in no way did I think you were having a whinge

I prefer longer cruises but Pauline's mam who is 96 and celebrated her 90th birthday in a similar cabin on Ventura with us has late stage dementia and takes up a lot of our time now so we are restricted at the moment for short cruises.

I booked a Suite on Oceana for 2 nights in December and got £100 obc.

We started cruising on Aurora in 2003 and i always believed in being generous with crews tips because they deserve them and I am pleased that everyone will be contributing from May and personally will continue with autogratuities until then plus extra cash tip when a crew member has made our cruise better.

[Selbourne]

We always have to sail in the school holidays so I always expect to pay lots more for the holiday and get nowhere near as many perks unless you wait for a very late deal.

 

Yes, until recently we had the same issue. Thankfully we are now liberated! I don’t know whether school holiday prices are such a factor on child free ships though, but the conversion to adult only is fine by us!

[grapau27]

Now that looks like a great Pina Colada ----------- mmmmmmm ----- only been home from our cruise since last Thursday and missing them already

 

;-)

Thinking the same myself.

[daiB]

Thanks Graham. That drink looks very nice! Pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourself. Whilst I’m not a great fan of short Cruises, the last one we did had better entertainment than the 7 day one that followed it (that we did a back to back with).

 

 

 

I’m genuinely not having a whinge about the prices, just stating some facts based upon our launch day bookings 2 years in a row. If I was that bothered I wouldn’t have booked!

 

 

 

What I should have said in my last post (where I quoted the prices) was that OBC for 2020 is just £85 per person OR free parking. For our 2019 booking we had £150 per person PLUS free parking. Same cabin, same ship, similar duration, but different month.

 

 

 

It just seems to me that, as you and others predicted, the loss of revenue of auto service charge has been offset. Like you, I am not complaining about that. I agree with it as we all now pay.

 

 

 

I do find that there is quite a difference between cruises in term time and those in the holidays. You may notice we tend to avoid the summer months.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Selbourne]

I do find that there is quite a difference between cruises in term time and those in the holidays. You may notice we tend to avoid the summer months.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I’m sure, but whether it’s to that extent I don’t know. OBC this time certainly seems to be on the miserly side. Have you not booked anything on Iona Dai? Prices seem pretty good - as long as you like the Fjords, which thankfully we do!

[jeanlyon]

Pleased to hear that Jean. We don’t like Arcadia as much as Aurora, but she is doing some great itineraries so I’m not surprised that you have found some good ones. In addition to a 21 nighter on Aurora we are doing the Maiden on Iona, which I know would be your idea of hell on Earth ;) Pleasantly surprised by the price of that one.

 

Havent been on her for 6 years, but the itineraries are really good and nothing appealed on Aurora, so Arcadia it is!

[daiB]

I’m sure, but whether it’s to that extent I don’t know. OBC this time certainly seems to be on the miserly side. Have you not booked anything on Iona Dai? Prices seem pretty good - as long as you like the Fjords, which thankfully we do!

No chance. Not driving to Southampton for only 7 nights. And no chance of a back to back with repeat cruises.

 

Sent from my SM-G965F using Forums mobile app

[Selbourne]

No chance. Not driving to Southampton for only 7 nights. And no chance of a back to back with repeat cruises.

 

Sent from my SM-G965F using Forums mobile app

 

Ah, not surprised, given where you live. It’s only a couple of hours for us, so less of an issue, especially for the 9 night maiden.

 

I hadn’t thought about the impact on B2B’s with these repeat itineraries - that’s a very good point. I have a feeling that this new approach may not last as it makes the choices very restricted. As we know from this forum, many of us have favourites and/or ships we don’t particularly like.

 

I shouldn’t imagine that the crew are that chuffed either. It must make it very boring for them going to the same places all the time and the Indian crew members all seem to hate Norway as they say it is too cold (even when its not)! The Captain on Iona is going to feel that he’s Captain of a large ferry going to the same 4 ports every week.

[Ranchi]

Not too keen to get involved in a thread on gratuities, but here goes!

As I don’t always read the small print, I didn’t realise until yesterday that a shareholder’s on board credit could not be used to pay gratuities. I assume this also applies to auto gratuities. I realise this is of limited interest as the system is finishing next year but we have left auto grats on in the past and never considered that it would not come from OBC. We have never had a problem as we have always spent enough to ensure OBC from all sources have been exhausted elsewhere.

As I say, not a problem but just a point that I hadn’t appreciated previously.

[Philimorr]

Have received an email this morning advising they are removing the daily service charge from May 2019 starting with A911, B912, E911/A, J903, N910, R907, X907 and all thereafter. Makes me wonder what percentage of passengers have been cancelling these charges to bring about such a change.

 

If the pile of Service Reward forms I recently saw behind reception on our last cruise is anything to go by, a lot of passengers remove the charge. A friendly reception staff member told me that it is becoming ridiculous. Will cruise prices rise? Yes, despite what P&O may say, prices will have to rise to cover paying the crew a proper wage which is way overdue in my opinion. I understand that the crew will still be rewarded based upon individual or team performance but that is not a bad thing,

[Expat Cruise]

If the pile of Service Reward forms I recently saw behind reception on our last cruise is anything to go by, a lot of passengers remove the charge. A friendly reception staff member told me that it is becoming ridiculous. Will cruise prices rise? Yes, despite what P&O may say, prices will have to rise to cover paying the crew a proper wage which is way overdue in my opinion. I understand that the crew will still be rewarded based upon individual or team performance but that is not a bad thing,

 

One error in this logic, prices would need to be raised to pay a proper wage and maintain profits if the wages are to Western Standards. But most of the crew come from third World countries like the Philippines and the basic crew wages are much higher than they can earn at home. So with almost a unlimited labor supply willing to work for very low wages no changes are required or needed to the cruise fare for crew wages.

 

The cruise lines have hundreds of people standing willing to take the low level wages offered to them. Any increase will just go to the corporations bottom line profit.

[terrierjohn]

Come on everyone this thread has now become a bit ridiculous with posters arguing about how P&O will recoup any lost revenue from the auto grats. From the prices of the 2020 cruises launched yesterday, there is no major indication of price increases, or nothing higher than previous years, and in view of Sterling's current weakness this must be hitting P&O much harder than the lost gratuity money.

So why cannot we just enjoy the fact that it seems P&O have listened to their customers, and we no longer have to worry whether our table companions are getting a cheaper deal because they don't auto tip.

We can then get back to worrying just how much less those same table companions might have paid due to fluid pricing!!;p:cool:

[Pennbank]

Not too keen to get involved in a thread on gratuities, but here goes!

As I don’t always read the small print, I didn’t realise until yesterday that a shareholder’s on board credit could not be used to pay gratuities. I assume this also applies to auto gratuities. I realise this is of limited interest as the system is finishing next year but we have left auto grats on in the past and never considered that it would not come from OBC. We have never had a problem as we have always spent enough to ensure OBC from all sources have been exhausted elsewhere.

As I say, not a problem but just a point that I hadn’t appreciated previously.

 

 

I think you will find that it is ad hoc gratuities shareholders obc could not be used for. It did not apply to standard auto grats.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Pennbank

[jeanlyon]

Well they haven't raised prices on the two cruises I am looking at in 2020. Excellent prices and 10% discount for past pax. I'm a happy bunny.

[grapau27]

Well they haven't raised prices on the two cruises I am looking at in 2020. Excellent prices and 10% discount for past pax. I'm a happy bunny.

That's great news for you.

Was there a difference in the obc offered?

The reduction of obc is an easy and clever way for P&O to offset the loss of autogratuities.

[jeanlyon]

Not sure yet, because last time I thought I was getting £55, it turned out to be £135, so it doesn't look any different.

[Pennbank]

Not sure yet, because last time I thought I was getting £55, it turned out to be £135, so it doesn't look any different.

 

Iona is presently showing up to £30 inside Cabin, £35 Seaview, £40 Balcony, £75 Mini Suit and £85 suit on G005.

[jeanlyon]

Arcadia is showing £60pp for an inside. Haven't looked at the others. That's interesting comparing the two ships?

[P-L-B]

Well they haven't raised prices on the two cruises I am looking at in 2020. Excellent prices and 10% discount for past pax. I'm a happy bunny.

Yes, agreed.

We are about to book (Iona) with our TA and we are very happy with the pricing. We also get the 10% discount plus the TA discount which is good.

Apart from a few exceptions the prices do not appear to have increased significantly as most feared.

 

However the OBC has been reduced but I think its clever marketing buy P&O.