Preregistering/Booking For September 2021

[majortom10]

2 hours ago, daiB said:

Not sure which cruises have lots of sea days with the ship going slow! True there are lots of sea days but most of the cruises are going to ports which are further away. The 2  I am interested in have no extra sea days than that I would expect for that cruise. The September USA one has a 4 day crossing to St John. To do that she will have to be shifting. I agree that cruises are of the longer variety, which suits us down to the ground. But I cannot see the slow cruising. Which is unfortunate as that would be our perfect cruise as I may have mentioned before. 

1st May for one we have done a very similar cruise to that in the past and did nowhere near as many sea days. 11 sea days and 7 ports of call.

 

[daiB]

18 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

1st May for one we have done a very similar cruise to that in the past and did nowhere near as many sea days. 11 sea days and 7 ports of call.

 

 

Not sure you can do that area with fewer sea days the ones we have done have only had 6 ports and 10 sae days. The same with our Venice cruises 6 ports 10 sea days.

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by daiB

[majortom10]

2 minutes ago, daiB said:

 

Not sure you can do that area with fewer sea days the ones we have done have only had 6 ports and 10 sae days. The same with our Venice cruises 6 ports 10 sae days.

 

I am sure you can because we have done it on Arcadia and it was only a 17 nt cruise.

 

[Clodia]

I like the sound of several of these Aurora cruises as they go further into the Med; also I love Aurora and i love sea days! But they will be expensive.

[pete14]

3 hours ago, Clodia said:

I like the sound of several of these Aurora cruises as they go further into the Med; also I love Aurora and i love sea days! But they will be expensive.

I also like them and there are some new ports for me as well. I don’t mind sea days either, nice and relaxed especially if the weather is good. 

 

I think they will be expensive but launch prices may just make them affordable. 

[AJ22]

What's the process if you are onboard on 23rd October, the day they go on general sale? Is there a huge queue at the onboard booking desk? Are there other benefits, such as extra OBC?

 

I had been thinking of going with a TA this time, as my experience of preregistration for Iona wasn't good, and just phoning up on the day for the rearranged Oceana cruises was worse. Should I still go with a TA or book on board?

 

To complicate things, we'll be in Gibraltar that day, and have booked a 9am excursion!

 

Any tips very welcome!

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, AJ22 said:

What's the process if you are onboard on 23rd October, the day they go on general sale? Is there a huge queue at the onboard booking desk? Are there other benefits, such as extra OBC?

 

I had been thinking of going with a TA this time, as my experience of preregistration for Iona wasn't good, and just phoning up on the day for the rearranged Oceana cruises was worse. Should I still go with a TA or book on board?

 

To complicate things, we'll be in Gibraltar that day, and have booked a 9am excursion!

 

Any tips very welcome!

We booked a launch cruise with our TA while on board, you will need to be available for your TA to ring you and confirm your agreement to the booking, and to give them your credit card details for the deposit, but as long as you have your mobile with you that should not be a problem.  We have also booked on board, we gave the future cruise people our requirements and then saw them later to check the booking, they had of course cocked it up, but fortunately were able to sort it out and get us back to our preferred cabin.  The TA option will be our future choice if it happens again.

[Rupert2251]

3 hours ago, AJ22 said:

What's the process if you are onboard on 23rd October, the day they go on general sale? Is there a huge queue at the onboard booking desk? Are there other benefits, such as extra OBC?

 

I had been thinking of going with a TA this time, as my experience of preregistration for Iona wasn't good, and just phoning up on the day for the rearranged Oceana cruises was worse. Should I still go with a TA or book on board?

 

To complicate things, we'll be in Gibraltar that day, and have booked a 9am excursion!

 

Any tips very welcome!

You can book it onboard and pay your small deposit (normally only £50 pp) at the future cruise desk. You can then nominate the TA of your choice you wish the booking to be taken over by. No need for mobile phones at all. Your TA will then receive the booking and you would deal with them on your return.

[Britboys]

16 minutes ago, Rupert2251 said:

You can book it onboard and pay your small deposit (normally only £50 pp) at the future cruise desk. You can then nominate the TA of your choice you wish the booking to be taken over by. No need for mobile phones at all. Your TA will then receive the booking and you would deal with them on your return.

You are quite right in what you say Rupert2251 but this is a slightly different situation in that it is a new season being launched whilst AJ22 is on board and they are looking to book on day 1.

 

Personally I think the TA route is the best - provided you use a TA who is a cruise specialist and who you know you can trust.  If not, booking on board may then be the next best option.

 

I assume you are on Oceana AJ22 as that seems to be the only ship in Gib that day.  There might well be a way of pre-registering once you are on board but I guess it depends whether you want to wait to do that.  If so, you might want to give P&O reservations a call and ask them if you will be able to do so on board.  You often get a little extra obc by booking on board but whether that will apply to new launch prices I don't know.

[Rupert2251]

23 minutes ago, Britboys said:

You are quite right in what you say Rupert2251 but this is a slightly different situation in that it is a new season being launched whilst AJ22 is on board and they are looking to book on day 1.

 

Personally I think the TA route is the best - provided you use a TA who is a cruise specialist and who you know you can trust.  If not, booking on board may then be the next best option.

 

I assume you are on Oceana AJ22 as that seems to be the only ship in Gib that day.  There might well be a way of pre-registering once you are on board but I guess it depends whether you want to wait to do that.  If so, you might want to give P&O reservations a call and ask them if you will be able to do so on board.  You often get a little extra obc by booking on board but whether that will apply to new launch prices I don't know.

Yes I see what you are saying but I don't think it would make any difference whether it was day 1 or day 21, it is still a booking and works the same way. 

[Britboys]

The big agents like the one you mention get priority access to the systems before they open to the public and I think they get just about every member of staff onto it (and they have quite a few!). They have direct access to the reservation system, so don't have to contact P&O.  I have never pre-registered as I am reluctant to book anything almost 2 years ahead but from what I understand, if you pre-register you are guaranteed the advertised price - just not a specific cabin.  You can give the agent your cabin choices, either by say a certain block or certain numbers.

[AJ22]

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

The big agents like the one you mention get priority access to the systems before they open to the public and I think they get just about every member of staff onto it (and they have quite a few!). They have direct access to the reservation system, so don't have to contact P&O.  I have never pre-registered as I am reluctant to book anything almost 2 years ahead but from what I understand, if you pre-register you are guaranteed the advertised price - just not a specific cabin.  You can give the agent your cabin choices, either by say a certain block or certain numbers.

Thanks. That seems reasonable to go with a TA then, but I will still make a few phone calls once the itineraries are released. Cheers!

[eddie11]

I’ve booked on board on first day of bookings being open.

Talked with the Future Cruises desk before ‘opening date’.

Gave them half a dozen cabins I’d be happy with

Went ashore

Returned to a confirmed booking slip in my cabin

Got the extra OBC with the on-board booking and the £50 deposit.

It was all pretty simple

[AJ22]

3 minutes ago, eddie11 said:

I’ve booked on board on first day of bookings being open.

Talked with the Future Cruises desk before ‘opening date’.

Gave them half a dozen cabins I’d be happy with

Went ashore

Returned to a confirmed booking slip in my cabin

Got the extra OBC with the on-board booking and the £50 deposit.

It was all pretty simple

Thanks. I was hoping someone on the forum had past experience!

[Rupert2251]

6 minutes ago, eddie11 said:

I’ve booked on board on first day of bookings being open.

Talked with the Future Cruises desk before ‘opening date’.

Gave them half a dozen cabins I’d be happy with

Went ashore

Returned to a confirmed booking slip in my cabin

Got the extra OBC with the on-board booking and the £50 deposit.

It was all pretty simple

Thanks Eddie that is what I have been trying to say, book onboard and nominate an agent!!

[happy v]

3 hours ago, eddie11 said:

I’ve booked on board on first day of bookings being open.

Talked with the Future Cruises desk before ‘opening date’.

Gave them half a dozen cabins I’d be happy with

Went ashore

Returned to a confirmed booking slip in my cabin

Got the extra OBC with the on-board booking and the £50 deposit.

It was all pretty simple

Did you have to queue? There always seems to be a queue when I pass FC desk. Or could you just fill in a form telling them what you wanted?

[eddie11]

Oh yes - good point.  I think you asked that earlier but I forgot to respond?

 

You’re right, they often seem to be very busy but I don’t recall queueing.  I think we handed in a note asking for prices for 3 alternative cruises and got the figures prior to bookings opening.  Chose a quiet time (?early ?late - don’t remember that) and didn’t have to wait, as I recall.  Certainly no queue - I maybe had to wait for the member of staff to finish with their current customer.

Then, as I said, just gave her my chosen cruise and preferred cabins.  Bingo!

 

I think there should be some Future Cruise Desk slots available for pre-booking, for those people who know they intend to book plus, possibly, time periods set aside for “quickies”, for people with simple, non-private queries, where the staff could handle a high volume of traffic.  It seems a terrible waste of good cruise time to queue for an hour.

[ann141]

We have booked onboard previously ,on the day bookings opened.One time we had no problems apart from a fairly long queue.More recently we had visited the future sales desk prior to the day with details of the cruise we wanted plus a list of suitable cabins.We were told the cruise would be booked for us as soon as bookings opened, between 8 and 9am.When i went to the desk just after 10 am to check I was told that there hadnt been time to make the booking and when the girl booked for us the price of the cruise had risen!!We went ahead and booked but I contacted P and O on our return and explained everything and they said that we could have the booking at the original price and confirmed that the price had risen at 10 15am!

[AJ22]

That's very helpful, Ann and Eddie. With Gibraltar being an hour ahead of the UK, I guess booking will open at 9am on board. If you can book slots with the future cruise team, maybe I'll do that as soon as we board. 

[Clodia]

I'll be in Greece when pre registration opens, so I guess that's 10 am for me!

[galeforce9]

Sorry without scrolling through many pages, are the itineraries and prices on the P&O website?  I understand that you can preregister with a travel agent etc 

[majortom10]

38 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

Sorry without scrolling through many pages, are the itineraries and prices on the P&O website?  I understand that you can preregister with a travel agent etc 

No they are not.

[galeforce9]

2 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

No they are not.

So where are they 🤨

[Les_ldh]

9 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

So where are they 🤨

My understanding is that they will be released on October 14th. I’m sure if I’m wrong someone will correct me.

[terrierjohn]

18 minutes ago, galeforce9 said:

So where are they 🤨

They were on an Australian TA website, and Ulsteinvik, a member from Germany posted some of the itineraries on here, but as Les says they will be on the P&O website on 14th Oct, and hopefully on all TAs websites as well.