New P&O Website.

[Les_ldh]

34 minutes ago, john watson said:

Problem most people have is "Select the cruise you're interested in"  There should likely be a huge amount of  browsing options available before you can answer this point.

 

Second point is, if you are very interested in an identified cruise, like 95% decided, clicking "Select Book ow" might be a mistake.

 

I wonder how much business is lost through people wanting to think things through more before getting to a point where they think they have gone past the point of no return and their money is gone.

 

Regards John

 

‘I totally agree with you John. The new site leaves a lot to be desired, I was merely trying to show how to how to get to where you can select a specific cabin, which is what quite a few posters seem to be frustrated with.

 

Les.

[Strawberry field]

Thanks for your help Les it’s worked for me but I still can’t see grade prices. However the instructions you posted have moved me further along than I was before! 

 

 

[Goosebear Mum]

Nope. I’m using an iPad mini, and I’m unable to do a booking. It’s impossible to choose a cabin type. It gives me an option of one cabin on one deck. If I go to chose a different desk, they’re all greyed out with a large ! too.  I can’t believe Ventura balconies are all full, for a cruise in September... Poor testing by P&O... (and I work in software testing) 

[john watson]

8 hours ago, Strawberry field said:

Thanks for your help Les it’s worked for me but I still can’t see grade prices. However the instructions you posted have moved me further along than I was before! 

 

 

Once you get to this stage one strategy is to either walk into a travel agent or phone P&O direct with a brochure deck-plan handy.  At this point your basic price can be compared to individual grade prices. You might get a deal brokered. The complete range of grade prices for ocean view cabins for example should range between the obstructed ocean view prices and balcony cabin prices.  Fluid pricing sometimes provides an anomaly where say ocean view cabins are dearer than balcony  cabins due to supply/demand or where marketing strategy is trying to make balconies look a bargain they might advertise balconies only a few pounds more or same price.  If you are not fussy on location a "Guaranteed Minimum Grade" booking is cheap but you might land an unpopular or problematic cabin.

 

Travel agents are not always very good, I went to one a few years back and mentioned cruises.  I had previously got print outs for various options.  I had already decided, school holidays, Mediterranean and cruise line.  I picked the deck first and went through three dates.  Could not get the cabin I wanted on the first choice date so went for another within my range and the clerk was surprised about my decision as it increased the price £200.   You have to follow your own parameters on what is ideal and what is acceptable.  They matched my print out price after the manager was consulted.

 

What was interesting to me is that I did not point out I knew anything about cruising and the clerk said I had come to the right place and she was a "Cruise Expert".  Not a problem but later on she said she was going on a cruise with her husband later in the year as an anniversary celebration and mentioned this was her first cruise.  She later asked me questions about obtaining and paying for excursions.  I concluded "Cruise Expert" in the travel agent domain is probably attending some sort of cruise holidays lecture and getting a certificate.

 

Regards John

Edited May 4, 2019 by john watson

[Strawberry field]

I agree about the travel agents and have always booked direct with P&O and received first class service including extra OBC for a very minor mistake last time I booked. However the new website is not good enough just for general browsing and checking on future prices and availability etc. I have two cruises booked for this and next year but for new customers it must be such a mess that it puts people off booking. 

 

 

[Les_ldh]

10 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Nope. I’m using an iPad mini, and I’m unable to do a booking. It’s impossible to choose a cabin type. It gives me an option of one cabin on one deck. If I go to chose a different desk, they’re all greyed out with a large ! too.  I can’t believe Ventura balconies are all full, for a cruise in September... Poor testing by P&O... (and I work in software testing) 

 

I’ve looked at all three sailings for Ventura in September this year and I there are balcony cabins still available on all three. I would think you’re probably looking at N926, which seems to be the most heavily booked. Have you tried looking at all parts of the ship as it’s certainly true that midships seems to be fully booked? 

 

Les.

[Goosebear Mum]

13 minutes ago, Les_ldh said:

 

I’ve looked at all three sailings for Ventura in September this year and I there are balcony cabins still available on all three. I would think you’re probably looking at N926, which seems to be the most heavily booked. Have you tried looking at all parts of the ship as it’s certainly true that midships seems to be fully booked? 

 

Les.

 

Hi, I’m looking at N925, and no, it just shows ONE balcony cabin (A203) as bookable across the whole of Ventura!!!  It won’t let me change the deck, or the cabin number (select fare) whether I start the booking as a select fare, or upgrade it to a select fare, the result is the same... 

 

plus all the red ‘buttons’ to click have no text on them. Just solid red, so have to guess that they mean ‘go’ or equivalent

 

plus there are loads of warning exclamation marks everywhere 

 

The site is not in a fit state for the public... 

 

 

[crompton21]

10 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Nope. I’m using an iPad mini, and I’m unable to do a booking. It’s impossible to choose a cabin type. It gives me an option of one cabin on one deck. If I go to chose a different desk, they’re all greyed out with a large ! too.  I can’t believe Ventura balconies are all full, for a cruise in September... Poor testing by P&O... (and I work in software testing) 

 

Do you have a new (2018) iPad mini 4?.  If you have an older version it may sadly not be compatible as Apple do not update the operating system on older iPad mini versions.

[bee-ess]

16 hours ago, Strawberry field said:

Thanks for your help Les it’s worked for me but I still can’t see grade prices. However the instructions you posted have moved me further along than I was before! 

 

 

I agree, being able to see the grade prices is pretty fundamental to cruise booking for me. It seems silly that I have to go to a travel agent website to see the individual P&O grade prices that the TA are using as a comparison to their prices !!

The new website aim as I see it is to simply allocate you a cabin, if you wanted that you would choose saver.

[Goosebear Mum]

5 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

 

Do you have a new (2018) iPad mini 4?.  If you have an older version it may sadly not be compatible as Apple do not update the operating system on older iPad mini versions.

Nothing to do with the iPad mini (and no it’s not a new one). I have tried different browsers. It’s the website

[Goosebear Mum]

LOL. P&O have just started to back out  website changes, to the original one! 

 

But it if I go to booking, I now get ASP object errors

 

They obviously know they have a major live issue... 

[grapau27]

8 hours ago, john watson said:

Once you get to this stage one strategy is to either walk into a travel agent or phone P&O direct with a brochure deck-plan handy.  At this point your basic price can be compared to individual grade prices. You might get a deal brokered. The complete range of grade prices for ocean view cabins for example should range between the obstructed ocean view prices and balcony cabin prices.  Fluid pricing sometimes provides an anomaly where say ocean view cabins are dearer than balcony  cabins due to supply/demand or where marketing strategy is trying to make balconies look a bargain they might advertise balconies only a few pounds more or same price.  If you are not fussy on location a "Guaranteed Minimum Grade" booking is cheap but you might land an unpopular or problematic cabin.

 

Travel agents are not always very good, I went to one a few years back and mentioned cruises.  I had previously got print outs for various options.  I had already decided, school holidays, Mediterranean and cruise line.  I picked the deck first and went through three dates.  Could not get the cabin I wanted on the first choice date so went for another within my range and the clerk was surprised about my decision as it increased the price £200.   You have to follow your own parameters on what is ideal and what is acceptable.  They matched my print out price after the manager was consulted.

 

What was interesting to me is that I did not point out I knew anything about cruising and the clerk said I had come to the right place and she was a "Cruise Expert".  Not a problem but later on she said she was going on a cruise with her husband later in the year as an anniversary celebration and mentioned this was her first cruise.  She later asked me questions about obtaining and paying for excursions.  I concluded "Cruise Expert" in the travel agent domain is probably attending some sort of cruise holidays lecture and getting a certificate.

 

Regards John

That is my experience too.

Regular TAs are not cruise experts as they sell all holidays not just cruises.

I have recently used a specialist cruise TA and noticed a big difference in knowledge and the ability to get me the best deal quite quickly. 

 

[Les_ldh]

15 minutes ago, Goosebear Mum said:

 

Hi, I’m looking at N925, and no, it just shows ONE balcony cabin (A203) as bookable across the whole of Ventura!!!  It won’t let me change the deck, or the cabin number (select fare) whether I start the booking as a select fare, or upgrade it to a select fare, the result is the same... 

 

plus all the red ‘buttons’ to click have no text on them. Just solid red, so have to guess that they mean ‘go’ or equivalent

 

plus there are loads of warning exclamation marks everywhere 

 

The site is not in a fit state for the public... 

 

 

 

I’ve just looked again and there are balcony cabins available on A,B, and C deck (see screenshot below as an example). The red buttons don’t have any text on them for me either but they mean Continue. The exclamation marks seem to denote no availability. I agree that is not really fit for purpose at the moment, so let’s hope P&O are trying to fix it behind the scenes... but don’t hold your breath 😂.

 

if you’re happy with everything except for cabin selection it might be best to call to book where they will be able to advise you which cabins are available (or use a TA of course).

[crompton21]

Having not tried to book anything on the new site, I am not really in a position to comment.  Presumably they will have seen a drop off in bookings as it appears to not work for a lot of people, and they have gone back to the old site again this morning.

I wonder if the fluid pricing algorithm has the ability to recognise a company created ***** up, if it sees low booking rates it should adjust prices down accordingly.

[Les_ldh]

2 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

Having not tried to book anything on the new site, I am not really in a position to comment.  Presumably they will have seen a drop off in bookings as it appears to not work for a lot of people, and they have gone back to the old site again this morning.

I wonder if the fluid pricing algorithm has the ability to recognise a company created ***** up, if it sees low booking rates it should adjust prices down accordingly.

 

‘I’m still seeing the new site ☹️

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, Les_ldh said:

 

‘I’m still seeing the new site ☹️

Me too. It seems to be hit and miss as to which you get at any particular point in time, though it’s probably all browser and cookie related.

[crompton21]

11 minutes ago, docco said:

Me too. It seems to be hit and miss as to which you get at any particular point in time, though it’s probably all browser and cookie related.

 

09.14, I have the old site on an ipad pro and on my pc.  I was hoping I could get both sites up to check the prices!

[Les_ldh]

44 minutes ago, crompton21 said:

 

09.14, I have the old site on an ipad pro and on my pc.  I was hoping I could get both sites up to check the prices!

 

‘Nope, still the new site here also on an iPad Pro. It doesn’t matter whether I use my shortcuts or google search 🤷‍♂️

[bee-ess]

I am still on new site - Macbook and Chrome

[Tablelamp]

When I book a cruise, I like to take time which is not possible doing a telephone booking.  Has anybody had any success?

[john watson]

21 hours ago, Tablelamp said:

When I book a cruise, I like to take time which is not possible doing a telephone booking.  Has anybody had any success?

 

When I recommended telephoning, I was suggesting that you do so after ages of extensive internet research to ascertain which cruise or couple of cruises you are interested in and the cheapest prices available for any cabins you really like.  In other words after you have worked out all the answers but the internet is not giving all the cabins available, same situation where you instead go into a travel agents.  You know the entire score bar individual cabin availability and that's why you need a brochure to hand open at the deck plans page, in case you are offered a different cabin option to your targeted range.  The overall process is not quick.

 

Regards John

Edited May 11, 2019 by john watson

[Tablelamp]

Dear John,

 

Thank you, I think I have probably reached the same conclusion, unfortunately a step back.  Another solution i am exploring is to use a good Travel Agent’s website, they seem to be showing available cabins.

regards Tablelamp

[P&O SUE]

It's so frustrating! After being able to access the old site I can only see the new site now (on my laptop and an apple Ipad),

As John says I would phone P&O once I was ready to book but I'm trying to see what price,  for example, various outside cabins are and if they have many left.

If there weren't many left I might have booked it now but as I'm just looking for now I've given up! I did push the "feedback" button and said it was frustrating that I can't find any cabins available.

They seem to be pushing us to go "saver" fare.

Edited May 11, 2019 by P&O SUE

[daiB]

I do love all this chatter about how bad the online system is and it sounds like people are spending hours on looking on it to book a cruise. 

 

It it took me all of two minutes to book our latest cruise, well Mar. 2021. And a further 10 minutes chatting about cruising.

 

As I have said before stop wasting time and use a good cruise TA. There are plenty about and they are generally cheaper.

 

You know it makes sense

[Josy1953]

23 minutes ago, daiB said:

I do love all this chatter about how bad the online system is and it sounds like people are spending hours on looking on it to book a cruise. 

 

It it took me all of two minutes to book our latest cruise, well Mar. 2021. And a further 10 minutes chatting about cruising.

 

As I have said before stop wasting time and use a good cruise TA. There are plenty about and they are generally cheaper.

 

You know it makes sense

Dai yes there are good TAs and I use one that I am happy with but I like to do my initial investigation on the P&O site so that when I call the TA I know exactly what is available and what I want, I then call the TA to get a better price.  The current iteration of the P&O site won't let me and many other potential cruisers do this, I have had no success this morning using laptop, iPad or Kindle.  After 40 years in the IT industry and having an Msc in computer science I like to think that I am an IT literate but this site is appalling now.