P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[kruzseeka]

8 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Please can someone tell me how much military spend per week on board extra credit you get , I’m going on a 19 day cruise and they have only given me £50 per person, I’m sure it should be more than that when I had it last time unless they have cut it down! ! 
Im sure it used to be £15 , £35, £50 depending on the days you spent on the cruise.🤷‍♀️

Well I'm very confused now too Purdey.  I've searched P&O's site and go round in circles and cannot find the page which used to be there which detailed benefits.  However I have found this on the British Forces Discount site:

 

Forces Discount: P&O Cruises2-6 nights-£15pp7-13 nights-£30pp14-21 nights-£75pp22+ nights-£125ppCall P&O Cruises on 0843 373 0111 quoting HMS or visit www.cruises-armedforces.com

 

That doesn't clarify much though as the figures don't correspond with the £50pp you quote and moreover I've  checked and on our next cruise of 12 days we have £20pp!!!  That was booked and the benefit applied a long time ago so I've no idea what may have changed in the meantime.  Good luck getting to the bottom of it.  

 

p.s. in the past I've known some benefits weren't combinable and adjustments would be made accordingly but I'm still confused!

Edited July 13, 2022 by kruzseeka

[Purdey16]

Thank you very much for that Kruzseeka , I knew it started with £15 then upwards, I will be making another phone call to sort this out but my travel agent has as well  came back with the £50 pp for the 19 days 

[kruzseeka]

1 minute ago, Purdey16 said:

Thank you very much for that Kruzseeka , I knew it started with £15 then upwards, I will be making another phone call to sort this out but my travel agent has as well  came back with the £50 pp for the 19 days 

Well with my figure being less than that quoted on the BFD site for my 12 nighter and yours is less for 19 nights too, it looks as though the benefits may have been reduced.  I suppose that's not too surprising given the current situation.  

[Purdey16]

Well it was a quick call today to P &O about the extra on board spending money, my £50 pp for 19 days is correct for my sea view cabin. 
 

[Caullkhead]

@Purdey16 looks like you have a lovely trip. Love the photos of Motistone, used to go there with my gran & toddler on Wednesday for a cup of tea & look for the pot people some 20 years ago now! We had a lovely week on the island last month, really lucky with the weather., loads of walking. 

[Grumpycruiser60plus]

1 hour ago, Purdey16 said:

Well it was a quick call today to P &O about the extra on board spending money, my £50 pp for 19 days is correct for my sea view cabin. 
 

I think you have already answered the query yourself, i have attached the OBC list from the DDS website, to my knowledge these amounts have been available for some years now.   (sorry if wrong way round) had problems with this before.

[Harry Peterson]

Currently playing with a spreadsheet working out what’s going to be disappearing from our bank account by way of direct debits from next October when the energy ‘price’ cap goes up again. 42% was the projected increase not so long ago. It’s now 65%!
 

We’re fortunate in that we’re on a fix at the moment, but it ends in early October, so with last April’s 54% and another 65% on top of that the current £200 pm will rocket to just over £500 pm. I knew it was going to be a lot, but across the country that’s a huge chunk of spending taken out of the economy. 
 

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

[lincslady]

Wow, that is one big debit (direct, I presume).  I have done dd before, and ended up being owed a lot which they refused to pay back, so now pay each month (now, used to be per quarter) and mainly estimated as I have refused so far to have a smart meter.  The meter man is supposed to appear any time soon.  Mine is estimated, lately, at about £120 in winter and £80 in summer, and I think is probably right.  I do live in a small bungalow, and don't heat the house with electricity at all.  That is via  an oil boiler (no town gas in the countryside), and of course those bills are huge.  Swings and roundabouts!  Sadly, these are one cost which does not go down if you live on our own, of course.

[Eglesbrech]

25 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Currently playing with a spreadsheet working out what’s going to be disappearing from our bank account by way of direct debits from next October when the energy ‘price’ cap goes up again. 42% was the projected increase not so long ago. It’s now 65%!
 

We’re fortunate in that we’re on a fix at the moment, but it ends in early October, so with last April’s 54% and another 65% on top of that the current £200 pm will rocket to just over £500 pm. I knew it was going to be a lot, but across the country that’s a huge chunk of spending taken out of the economy. 
 

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

Yes it’s going to come as a nasty shock to many just how high bills will be.

 

As for the cruise lines and holiday industry in general they seem to be having a boom time at the moment. Ships are running at high occupancy, airports are stuffed. People either don’t know this is coming, are burying their heads in the sand or there are more people out there with money to spare than the bad headlines would seem to reflect.

[P&O SUE]

16 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

We went to the  Isle of wight today and had a lovely day driving around all the island visiting the needles to the pearl shop with a xtra pressie brought me , went to the smoking lobster at ventnor for the sea food platter in pictures and then on to the garlic farm for pudding, black garlic salted caramel chocolate brownie with ice cream it was absolutely delicious,.

we caught the 7.10 ferry out and returned on the 8.50 so a very long day but we’ll worth it .

Stunning sunset. Lovely photos.

[kalos]

34 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Wow, that is one big debit (direct, I presume).  I have done dd before, and ended up being owed a lot which they refused to pay back, so now pay each month (now, used to be per quarter) and mainly estimated as I have refused so far to have a smart meter.  The meter man is supposed to appear any time soon.  Mine is estimated, lately, at about £120 in winter and £80 in summer, and I think is probably right.  I do live in a small bungalow, and don't heat the house with electricity at all.  That is via  an oil boiler (no town gas in the countryside), and of course those bills are huge.  Swings and roundabouts!  Sadly, these are one cost which does not go down if you live on our own, of course.

Our gas and electric is around £1880 in total for the year .They say I could maybe save up to 

£50 per year with a DD  but as my Sister has found out they are handy at taking a lot more than needed to cover her bills. She also had a smart meter that does not work since she swapped companies ,leaving her now sending the readings in herself .

I am personally happy to read our meters and send in the readings and am bright enough to know that if I switch the heating on or boil a kettle ,then that costs money .

Edited July 13, 2022 by kalos

[grapau27]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:54 PM, zap99 said:

Looks nice. Being a Southerner can I ask is Cleethorpes far from Scunthorpe.?.Still on the healthy breakfast.?.🤣

This is South Shields beach today.

 

[Harry Peterson]

35 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Wow, that is one big debit (direct, I presume).  I have done dd before, and ended up being owed a lot which they refused to pay back, so now pay each month (now, used to be per quarter) and mainly estimated as I have refused so far to have a smart meter.  The meter man is supposed to appear any time soon.  Mine is estimated, lately, at about £120 in winter and £80 in summer, and I think is probably right.  I do live in a small bungalow, and don't heat the house with electricity at all.  That is via  an oil boiler (no town gas in the countryside), and of course those bills are huge.  Swings and roundabouts!  Sadly, these are one cost which does not go down if you live on our own, of course.

Confirmed - it’s a direct debit to get the lowest price. I wish it were just an estimate, but it’s pretty accurate and based on my own actual usage for last year. Obviously I’m not exactly chuffed with it, but I can at least afford to pay it - what really bothers me is what’s going to happen to the large numbers of families and individuals who can’t.

[terrierjohn]

45 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Currently playing with a spreadsheet working out what’s going to be disappearing from our bank account by way of direct debits from next October when the energy ‘price’ cap goes up again. 42% was the projected increase not so long ago. It’s now 65%!
 

We’re fortunate in that we’re on a fix at the moment, but it ends in early October, so with last April’s 54% and another 65% on top of that the current £200 pm will rocket to just over £500 pm. I knew it was going to be a lot, but across the country that’s a huge chunk of spending taken out of the economy. 
 

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

Do we all believe that oil and gas prices can remain high as inflation starts to hit the world economies.  Once that happens demand is going to reduce, and we all know that the market always tends to over react and commodity prices tend to plummet, let's hope!

[wowzz]

51 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

Of course the cruise companies will have the same inflationary pressures as an individual. Higher fuel costs,  higher f&b costs etc, so really they are in no real position to implement hefty price cuts. 

They have to find a balance between passing on the extra costs , and maintaining acceptable occupancy levels. No different to any other company in the hospitality business these days, I suppose.  

[Eglesbrech]

8 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Of course the cruise companies will have the same inflationary pressures as an individual. Higher fuel costs,  higher f&b costs etc, so really they are in no real position to implement hefty price cuts. 

They have to find a balance between passing on the extra costs , and maintaining acceptable occupancy levels. No different to any other company in the hospitality business these days, I suppose.  

They have a bit of an advantage over other areas of hospitality, a captive audience once onboard. They can charge what they want once people have booked and paid final balances.

 

I predict rises to bar costs, reductions in drinks package inclusions, price increase for speciality restaurants, trips etc to keep the base price, as you correctly indicate, at a level to maintain occupancy.

 

Have you noticed how much they were charging on ships for toiletries, silly prices. Again if you don’t have it on a ship you can’t get it until in a suitable port so captive audience= higher prices.

 

 

[pete14]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

Currently playing with a spreadsheet working out what’s going to be disappearing from our bank account by way of direct debits from next October when the energy ‘price’ cap goes up again. 42% was the projected increase not so long ago. It’s now 65%!
 

We’re fortunate in that we’re on a fix at the moment, but it ends in early October, so with last April’s 54% and another 65% on top of that the current £200 pm will rocket to just over £500 pm. I knew it was going to be a lot, but across the country that’s a huge chunk of spending taken out of the economy. 
 

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

You are right Harry, the rises are frightening and the money has to be found somewhere. We were on a 2 year fix for £110 per month until last month. We were offered a further fix at £190 per month for 2 years or £160 on the variable rate. I snatched their hand off for the fix which already looks to be a good decision although sometime in the next 2 years, prices will have to fall (I hope). It would of course have been higher if we didn’t spend time in our static van but even when we are there, we are still using nearly £2 a day of electricity, presumably for the fridge freezer, security cameras, lights set on timers and things on standby. 
 

I feel very sorry for those with poorly insulated houses or who need to use more than the average electricity and gas and those who already struggling to make ends meet. They may not all be regular cruisers, possibly few of them are, but if you are struggling, holidays will be low on the list of priorities and perhaps one of the most expensive. 

[Splice the mainbrace]

56 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Do we all believe that oil and gas prices can remain high as inflation starts to hit the world economies.  Once that happens demand is going to reduce, and we all know that the market always tends to over react and commodity prices tend to plummet, let's hope!

 

Oil prices seem to respond downwards more to recession fears but Gas prices seem to lose for example 20% one day and then up 15% or more the next and no general downward movement unfortunately at the moment.

 

I have just come off a 2 year energy fix at May 2020 prices and my DD will increase from £110 per month to £240, if current estimates for the October price increases are accurate then it will increase substantially again to £360 + 

 

 

[brian1]

OMG,binmen have been relieved in some London boroughs cos it's too bloody hot.When I was 60 I was installing heating in occupied flats in these temps INSIDE.Rant over.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

They have a bit of an advantage over other areas of hospitality, a captive audience once onboard. They can charge what they want once people have booked and paid final balances.

 

I predict rises to bar costs, reductions in drinks package inclusions, price increase for speciality restaurants, trips etc to keep the base price, as you correctly indicate, at a level to maintain occupancy.

 

Have you noticed how much they were charging on ships for toiletries, silly prices. Again if you don’t have it on a ship you can’t get it until in a suitable port so captive audience= higher prices.

 

 

They really have no more of a captive audience than any all inclusive holiday resort.

[Eglesbrech]

13 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

They really have no more of a captive audience than any all inclusive holiday resort.

I have been at ai holiday resorts and could get to local towns, restaurants etc. Depends where you go.

 

At sea is at sea, no options.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

I have been at ai holiday resorts and could get to local towns, restaurants etc. Depends where you go.

 

At sea is at sea, no options.

I did say all inclusive resorts, where most people want to get full value for their holiday, those who can afford to utilise non resort restaurants, would not be too bothered about increased prices on board ship.

[Eglesbrech]

26 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I did say all inclusive resorts, where most people want to get full value for their holiday, those who can afford to utilise non resort restaurants, would not be too bothered about increased prices on board ship.

But that’s an entirely different point John.

 

The discussion was around captive audiences. There are are options on land, some may not choose to use them but they are there. 

 

 

[delgirl]

6 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Currently playing with a spreadsheet working out what’s going to be disappearing from our bank account by way of direct debits from next October when the energy ‘price’ cap goes up again. 42% was the projected increase not so long ago. It’s now 65%!
 

We’re fortunate in that we’re on a fix at the moment, but it ends in early October, so with last April’s 54% and another 65% on top of that the current £200 pm will rocket to just over £500 pm. I knew it was going to be a lot, but across the country that’s a huge chunk of spending taken out of the economy. 
 

Netflix is an early casualty, along with big ticket items like white goods, but it strikes me that cruise companies may have to make some pretty hefty price cuts if they’re going to pull in the punters. I’m sure they’re well aware already, with contingency plans in place, but I’m not sure it’s yet fully hit home how much higher the energy bills are going to be in October.

We were on a fix until last feb. When that finished stayed exactly the same. I was expecting it to go up lots in april, guess what still paying the same as I have been the last 2/3 years. Either we have slipped through the system or we were overpaying on the fix. Can't decide.🤣

[wowzz]

5 hours ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

Oil prices seem to respond downwards more to recession fears but Gas prices seem to lose for example 20% one day and then up 15% or more the next and no general downward movement unfortunately at the moment.

The difference now  is  Putin.

Before, gas and oil prices varied, depending on assorted supply and demand issues. 

However,  now we have one man who, basically can turn off the supply of gas to major parts  of  Europe.

Consequently,  demand for, not only gas,  but also for other carbon fuels,  increases, not only in Europe,  but globally. 

Anyone expecting gas, oil  and electricity prices to fall whilst the war in Ukraine continues, is living in an alternative universe!