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select and saver - Drinks package - entertainment


BABBY
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Hi 

I note that there is a difference in price for the saver and select? and can only see that the extra you get with the select is that cabin no can be chosen, port shuttle is inc if neccessary and not provided by the port and you can choose table size/sitting and are available for upgrades and a bit of onboard credit.

 

So just wondered if it was worth paying the select price? has anyone done the both of them?

 

Have also seen that they do an all inclusive alcoholic package?  but when looking at the bars on the ships etc on the website has the icon showing pay extra so unsure what that is about, does that mean cant get the drinks inc in them bars?

 

Also is there lots going on as we like staying up late and having plenty of entertainment, we have mostly cruised with Thomson/Marella so any advice re the difference in the 2 greatly appreciated

 

Thank you

 

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You've identified the main differences between Saver and Select, and it's pretty much a matter of choice. 

 

Do check the prices carefully, though, because sometimes Saver can actually cost more than Select when you factor in OBC. 

 

Personally, there's no way I'd not make my own choice of cabin - far too much at stake - but others will take a different view.

 

Drinks packages I know very little about - though I believe the consensus is that they offer poor value.

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On a select booking you usually get on board credit or free coach or free parking. This reduces the differential cost to a saver fare. Sometimes a select booking can be the cheapest option.

Brian

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We have done both select and saver fares. If we are pre-booking or booking very early select is the only option, usually the OBC and other perks will be better then plus you will get a discount, usually 5% for return customer +5% Portunas/captains discount. If you want a particular cabin (if available) then select may be the best option. It also depends where you cruise to, in the Caribbean for example shuttle busses are not normally available, we did USA/Caribbean earlier this year and shuttles were free for everyone regardless of fare paid. Some of them would have been supplied by the port. 

 

If you are not particular where your cabin is there can be a very substantial saving with a saver fare especially if the cruise is not selling well. 

 

You really need to look at the small print and do the math. The drinks package is £39/pppn so again is it worth it to you, P&O drinks prices are very fairly priced. We certainly would not have the package.

 

Entertainment is good on P&O with plenty of bars and disco open till late, we have many cruises with both P&O and Marella and find them generally comparable. 

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As others have said ,you will have to do the maths as to whether select minus the OBC works out less than the saver fare. Also look at the deck plans .

With saver fares (released later ,pay 100% at time of booking, only choice inside, outside or balcony) The price quoted will be the cheapest of that type--for balcony that would be fore or aft low down with obstructed view. If you would be happy if that is what you end up with then it comes down to the maths. 

With early saver fares (deposit and balance) you can pick a grade, and you will end up with that grade of higher

Again with those 2 pando will slot you in where they have empty cabins. Be it above/below public areas etc.

You can strike lucky , but not always. 

Only you can decide which you would be happy with.

Final thing is people will say if you dont get the choice of dining you want you can change it onboard. People have been posting that now you cannot. Most popular is freedom, followed by 1st sitting,followed by 2nd sitting. More select fare payers are choosing freedom, so you are more likely to end up 1st or 2nd sitting. Especially if on one of the smaller ships that only have 1 dining room of each.

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The English Lady has given a good summary above of the restrictions on saver fares. The main thing with a saver is that you absolutely must be content to accept the cabin and dining you are given as it will not change once you are onboard. 

 

The benefit is obviously a much lower cost and depending on what you book a much better cabin grade for the money but do the maths for OBC etc as advised by others. Make sure to check how many ports would have a shuttle as this can add up as well as saver passengers pay for these if P&O are providing them.

 

Before booking a saver check out the ship plans and any comments about it.  I would not book a balcony saver on Britannia for example as she has issues with ash for aft cabins or the lower grade deluxe cabins on Ventura as a couple of the ones on the E 

deck under Havana get noise and vibration apparently (strangely just a couple and not them all).

 

We use the fare savings to book select restaurants for much of the cruise so the dining time allocated matters much less to us. 

 

Savers can can be a bargain if you do your homework but not if you end up in a cabin that you personally could not cope with and would spoil your holiday if you got them.

 

I would finish by saying that P&O do not have many “horror” cabins that I am aware of  and by that I mean cabins that everyone would universally hate to be in. They don’t tend to have cabins with excessive engine noise like some ships and sound proofing is generally fairly good.

 

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 We have done both. Our select cruises have ranged from £68pppn up tp £83pppn.

Our savers have been £56 & £58 pppn.     That is the net cost after all other benefits.

Have seen as low as £50pppn, but not frequently.

Have often seen how select is claimed to be the cheapest option but rarely see any costing to back it up.

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53 minutes ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

 We have done both. Our select cruises have ranged from £68pppn up tp £83pppn.

Our savers have been £56 & £58 pppn.     That is the net cost after all other benefits.

Have seen as low as £50pppn, but not frequently.

Have often seen how select is claimed to be the cheapest option but rarely see any costing to back it up.

I have seen it several times,  quite often close in to cruise date, many have suggested its because P&O don't know what they are doing, you may think that, I couldnt possibly comment.

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We had a select fare and the only benefit was being able to select our dining option. We had to do this as we were travelling with friends. Couldn’t pick our cabin, no shuttles, no parking , no on board credit. 

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15 hours ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

 We have done both. Our select cruises have ranged from £68pppn up tp £83pppn.

Our savers have been £56 & £58 pppn.     That is the net cost after all other benefits.

Have seen as low as £50pppn, but not frequently.

Have often seen how select is claimed to be the cheapest option but rarely see any costing to back it up.

Our next cruise was cheaper at select price (taking off OBS) than it was at whatever saver was currently being sold. Priced it up before booking. We booked a few days ago and go in November. 

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12 minutes ago, the english lady said:

Our next cruise was cheaper at select price (taking off OBS) than it was at whatever saver was currently being sold. Priced it up before booking. We booked a few days ago and go in November. 

It would be genuinely interesting to see how that select price compares to any late saver by the actual sail date in November.

 

 

 

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15 minutes ago, the english lady said:

Our next cruise was cheaper at select price (taking off OBS) than it was at whatever saver was currently being sold. Priced it up before booking. We booked a few days ago and go in November. 

We have booked one on Azura for next year. With the free coach fare we had a better deal with Select and chose cabins and dining too. It pays to do the maths.

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32 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

It would be genuinely interesting to see how that select price compares to any late saver by the actual sail date in November.

 

 

 

Except the grade of cabin we usually have is always sold out before it gets down to saver, or are in a position we do not want so in our case it would be a case of not going if we waited.

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3 minutes ago, the english lady said:

Except the grade of cabin we usually have is always sold out before it gets down to saver, or are in a position we do not want so in our case it would be a case of not going if we waited.

Suites, mini suites, larger sized cabins etc rarely go onto saver. General run of the mill cabins are more likely to and at that point a higher grade is usually better value eg deluxe cabin for the price of a standard balcony

 

It is all down to personal preference, glad you got what you wanted.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Suites, mini suites, larger sized cabins etc rarely go onto saver. General run of the mill cabins are more likely to and at that point a higher grade is usually better value eg deluxe cabin for the price of a standard balcony

 

It is all down to personal preference, glad you got what you wanted.

 

 

Thank you.

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English Lady, Yes your cruise select price may be cheaper at the moment than saver; but at some point saver will be better value. Often it is much cheaper.

It would be much better if select price was not quoted as being a factor when cabin selection and dining option is much more of a consideration.

 

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4 hours ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

English Lady, Yes your cruise select price may be cheaper at the moment than saver; but at some point saver will be better value. Often it is much cheaper.

It would be much better if select price was not quoted as being a factor when cabin selection and dining option is much more of a consideration.

 

I don't quite follow the point you're making, if you are suggesting that the best select price will always be beaten at some point by a saver fare, then I think that you are misleading an awful lot of people.

All our bookings over the last 8 years have been select prices at launch, because we need an accessible cabin, and for only one of those have I ever seen a saver fare that was lower, even after taking OBC into account.

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7 hours ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

English Lady, Yes your cruise select price may be cheaper at the moment than saver; but at some point saver will be better value. Often it is much cheaper.

It would be much better if select price was not quoted as being a factor when cabin selection and dining option is much more of a consideration.

 

i would have thought that if saver was the cheaper option in the end why do people book select apart from getting the cabin of our choice,the two further cruises we have got booked neither have come down in price yet. 

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On 7/19/2019 at 5:12 PM, oxygenbanditnot said:

 We have done both. Our select cruises have ranged from £68pppn up tp £83pppn.

Our savers have been £56 & £58 pppn.     That is the net cost after all other benefits.

Have seen as low as £50pppn, but not frequently.

Have often seen how select is claimed to be the cheapest option but rarely see any costing to back it up.

Well we are sailing in October.  We paid £1547 pp for a 17 night cruise.  The saver fare has never been anywhere near as low as that and the latest price for a saver when it was available was £1899 pp.  As of now, there are only Balconies available, so we saved £300 pp  And we have OBC as well.

Edited by jeanlyon
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15 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Well we are sailing in October.  We paid £1547 pp for a 17 night cruise.  The saver fare has never been anywhere near as low as that and the latest price for a saver when it was available was £1899 pp.  As of now, there are only Balconies available, so we saved £300 pp  And we have OBC as well.

You must have booked really early to get that price! A year ago i was quoted £6500 for solo occupancy of a balcony on that 17 night Aurora cruise. Which is why I'm going with Silversea this Autumn.

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Terrierjohn, no I'm not trying to mislead. Some clarification. I only look at Inside cabins, just quote net prices I have paid and tend to only look at cruises that I would be interested in.

I THINK that most inside select prices will be beaten at some point, but as above ; I do not track cruises. Not enough time or inclination.

Jeanlyon, that is £91pppn. In April 16, we did 17nights western med for £70pppn.

Again, I have paid as low as £58pppn.  Saver NET price.

Can anyone quote Launch select as low as that?

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1 hour ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

Terrierjohn, no I'm not trying to mislead. Some clarification. I only look at Inside cabins, just quote net prices I have paid and tend to only look at cruises that I would be interested in.

I THINK that most inside select prices will be beaten at some point, but as above ; I do not track cruises. Not enough time or inclination.

Jeanlyon, that is £91pppn. In April 16, we did 17nights western med for £70pppn.

Again, I have paid as low as £58pppn.  Saver NET price.

Can anyone quote Launch select as low as that?

Yep.

Iona 14 nights Spain/Portugal November 2020, £719 inside cabin select at launch with a little bit of obc.

Our friends got this, we booked to go with them the very next day and the best we could get was the same price for saver, which is still amazing... £51.35 per night.

Andy

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No one has the capacity to track every cruise from opening offer to last minute late saver, people tend to only follow the ones they have booked/ the ones they are interested in booking.

 

I know for a fact that some early bookings will never be beaten when you consider OBC etc.

 

I also know for a fact that some early / late savers have represented excellent value and certainly beat the opening price.

 

I only however know this about the very small number of cruises I have followed for my own bookings. I have no idea what the general trend is. My gut feeling is that in the last few years I would have said early was best as a general rule but more recently the late offers are getting much better again, back to what they were 10 years ago. It all depends on the individual cruise, where it is going and how well it is selling etc.

 

If you are happy with your booking then that’s all that matters really. Happy cruising.

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6 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

No one has the capacity to track every cruise from opening offer to last minute late saver, people tend to only follow the ones they have booked/ the ones they are interested in booking.

 

I know for a fact that some early bookings will never be beaten when you consider OBC etc.

 

I also know for a fact that some early / late savers have represented excellent value and certainly beat the opening price.

 

I only however know this about the very small number of cruises I have followed for my own bookings. I have no idea what the general trend is. My gut feeling is that in the last few years I would have said early was best as a general rule but more recently the late offers are getting much better again, back to what they were 10 years ago. It all depends on the individual cruise, where it is going and how well it is selling etc.

 

If you are happy with your booking then that’s all that matters really. Happy cruising.

Well put. Nobody really knows the answer to this long running conundrum, because people follow only the prices of the cruises they themselves have booked, and even then they can easily miss the last minute price drops.

 

Since Cruiseville vanished there’s even less information available.

 

Personally, I’ll continue with the earliest possible date booking policy. My requirements are very specific, limited to just a very small number of options, and it’s the only way to get that level of certainty at a good price.

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Was also going to say the actual cruise itself would have a bearing. the same as same as destinations where its just a case of filling cabins will always have more dynamic pricing than lets say the usa/canada trips that Aurora and Arcadia do. Cant remember now what grade we were looking at ,but twice we have looked at these cruises at different stages and always just outside our price point as they worked out over £5k per person.  

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