Will P&O now delay announcements for future cruise pauses?

[MX-Drew]

11 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Isnt it right that some time ago Matt Hancock announced that he had booked a summer holiday in Cornwall if so nice to know that Ministers are singing from the same song sheet. If they cannot agree a plan and stick to it how are we supposed to know what to do.

Whilst not defending the government, I think the key point there is "some time ago". I believe things looked very different then and that was before the second wave. I think it is only right that we have to admit we are aiming at a moving target.

[MX-Drew]

4 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

If they have extended the balance payments of 30 days for cruises up to August, they must be cancelling April & May I would have thought.

Or just trying to make people feel more comfortable in either making or keeping a booking thus keeping money in their pockets.

That said I tend to agree.

Edited February 10, 2021 by MX-Drew

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Chrisdriving said:

We both do not want a vaccine at this time(50 yrs and 51yrs old

As a matter of interest, why not? What needs to change that will encourage you to be vaccinated? 

[Selbourne]

46 minutes ago, tring said:

 

What bothers me is that we could book a hotel or other accommodation in what becomes a low tier, yet be in a higher tier ourselves, so not allowed to travel.  Would we be entitled to a cash refund?  Do you know how holiday businesses are dealing with that sort of problem Jean?

The company that we use to book holiday cottages in the UK now say that if you cannot travel, due to the tier that either the cottage is in or where the customer lives prevents travel, then a full refund is an option. As to how widely that has been adopted I do not know. We had a hell of a job getting  a  refund from them last year, as they were trying to push credit notes, and it took months, but our holiday that we were due to go on in a fortnights time was refunded in full in just a week, including booking fees. 

[jeanlyon]

When I booked the hotel in Cornwall for my birthday, they just took a credit card to guarantee the booking.  So when we had to cancel, no money had changed hands.  Much the better way to do it.

[Eddie99]

I’ll just slip in that Warner’s, if that would prove an attractive alternative for you, have a splendid cancellation policy.  It seems to give the customer full confidence that money expended will not be lost

 

If anyone is considering booking anything at the mo, I would think it’s only sensible to check cancellation terms

[tring]

35 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

The company that we use to book holiday cottages in the UK now say that if you cannot travel, due to the tier that either the cottage is in or where the customer lives prevents travel, then a full refund is an option. As to how widely that has been adopted I do not know. We had a hell of a job getting  a  refund from them last year, as they were trying to push credit notes, and it took months, but our holiday that we were due to go on in a fortnights time was refunded in full in just a week, including booking fees. 

 

Thanks, good to know there is movement on that.  We may have to go with a big company rather than an individual to ensure that, though normally in the UK we would book direct with the owner rather than an agent.

 

What had worried us about that was a booking we had for a couple of nights in Wales after The Welsh Government had banned travel from England (with big fines), yet had not told the hotels to close to English tourists.  I asked about the situation on TA and got a lot of responses from holiday property owners insisting that it was our problem as the hotels were still open, so we should just loose our cash.  Luckily the booking was with Travelodge and they were happy to replace the vouchers which we had used to make the booking.  The vouchers were issued after our pre cruise Southampton hotel booking had to be cancelled last March, but only for another saver rate, which was fair enough IMO and not a lot of cash either.  Given the reaction of those Welsh holiday property owners, along with the actions of the Welsh Government during the pandemic, we will not be looking to book there, yet it would be a very common go to destination for us because of proximity.  I do not think their Government have done their holiday industry any good at all, sadly.

 

[Selbourne]

53 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

If they have extended the balance payments of 30 days for cruises up to August, they must be cancelling April & May I would have thought.

I should think so Jean. Whilst I don’t think that many of us would hold out much hope for cruises resuming for a good few months yet, it is obviously in P&O’s interest to only cancel cruises in batches of a few months at a time. I guess that they may stretch it into June to match some of the others?

[Chrisdriving]

59 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest, why not? What needs to change that will encourage you to be vaccinated? 

We have both had reactions to medication before, i will be having a conversation with my GP about this when the time comes.

For now and totally IMHO i consider the risk of being very ill due to Covid for my age and otherwise fine health very low so will be happier to see how things play out.

 

I am absolutely not against the idea of the Vaccine in principle, i do not see the urgency at this moment.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Chrisdriving

[tring]

46 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

When I booked the hotel in Cornwall for my birthday, they just took a credit card to guarantee the booking.  So when we had to cancel, no money had changed hands.  Much the better way to do it.

 

It would still depend on T&C's though Jean as they could still have the complete right to just deduct the cash owed to them at the appropriate time, unless a cancellation was allowed.

 

The big hotel chains do have cancellable rates of course, but a lot of holiday accommodation is in smaller establishments, even farm B&B's which we have enjoyed in the past, could be taking a big risk if they just allowed cancellations ad. hoc.  A future booking would be acceptable to us though in such circumstances, as long as there was a fair bit of flexibility on that though.

 

Just trying to think of somewhere that will not be overrun with holiday makers, so possibly somewhere inland for September. 

[Scriv]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Down here in Devon, we are now down to less than 50 cases per 100K people.  It was worse than that when it was OK to go and stay in a hotel which we did back in October.  If they don't allow hospitality to open up soon, half these places will go under.

 

 

HI Jean - it's a really hard one isn't it? I am champing at the bit to book a holiday away when allowed, but it doesn't look at all good even for the UK. Places filling up very fast and prices seem to have risen. Only looking at places where we can get a full refund if unable to go, but quite put off by thinking it could be very very busy and that we're not really welcome by the locals. Will probably end up staying home!

 

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, Scriv said:

HI Jean - it's a really hard one isn't it? I am champing at the bit to book a holiday away when allowed, but it doesn't look at all good even for the UK. Places filling up very fast and prices seem to have risen. Only looking at places where we can get a full refund if unable to go, but quite put off by thinking it could be very very busy and that we're not really welcome by the locals. Will probably end up staying home!

 

We have a holiday lodge booked in Tenby for a week in mid May. Final payment is due mid March. I'm hoping that the management company/owner will allow the payment to be delayed until 4 weeks prior. If not, we will bite the bullet and cancel, with a consequent loss of deposit.

 

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

It makes you wonder whether all the doom and gloom is a deliberate ploy, then Boris can give us some good news on Feb 22nd. Apart from the SA strain of covid raising its ugly head things are looking more promising, infection, deaths and hospitalisation are falling at a good rate, there are several studies giving promising results for the vaccine, a few weeks and we are into the warmer weather. I am confident we will be coming out of lockdown soon, albeit slowly. I have pretty much resigned myself to holidaying in the UK this year, but am keeping my fingers crossed for cruising late summer.

I think he is waiting until just before the May elections, so I forecast he will announce an end to lockdown late in April with holiday firms open for business from May 1st.

[joeecco]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I think he is waiting until just before the May elections, so I forecast he will announce an end to lockdown late in April with holiday firms open for business from May 1st.

I think he’s aiming more for Easter still secretly so he can have the ‘we did it’ moment he’s been hoping for. 

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Extended it to when?

Certainly for our July cruise on Britannia.

[Eglesbrech]

1 hour ago, MX-Drew said:

Whilst not defending the government, I think the key point there is "some time ago". I believe things looked very different then and that was before the second wave. I think it is only right that we have to admit we are aiming at a moving target.

It was actually on the 18th of January he said it at a press conference, so only 3 weeks ago. The cabinet do need to get on the same message as people hearing Mr Hancock may well have thought it was just fine for them to do the same and book a staycation for later in the year.

 

I suspect lots of people will have U.K. holidays booked already as first we were told it would all be fine by Christmas, then it was all going to be “over by Easter”. There is thankfully slightly more caution about giving precise dates now,. As you say it’s a bit of a moving target.

 

I have a cruise for later this year but that was booked at launch before COVID was a thing. I doubt it will happen. I also have a staycation booked, who knows if that will happen.

 

I do feel that if they don’t start to get the economy moving then there will be nothing left to open in some sectors, particularly hospitality. It is a fine balancing act.

 

 

 

 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Chrisdriving said:

We have both had reactions to medication before, i will be having a conversation with my GP about this when the time comes.

For now and totally IMHO i consider the risk of being very ill due to Covid for my age and otherwise fine health very low so will be happier to see how things play out.

 

I am absolutely not against the idea of the Vaccine in principle, i do not see the urgency at this moment.

vaccine passport is introduced?

 

I assume you will be content not to go on holiday then if a vaccine passport is introduced?

[Scriv]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

What bothers me is that we could book a hotel or other accommodation in what becomes a low tier, yet be in a higher tier ourselves, so not allowed to travel.  Would we be entitled to a cash refund?  Do you know how holiday businesses are dealing with that sort of problem Jean?

I have asked that of two accommodations  and a hotel and all three said yes. But I think you have to check the individual policies and the small print.

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Scriv

[ann141]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

The company that we use to book holiday cottages in the UK now say that if you cannot travel, due to the tier that either the cottage is in or where the customer lives prevents travel, then a full refund is an option. As to how widely that has been adopted I do not know. We had a hell of a job getting  a  refund from them last year, as they were trying to push credit notes, and it took months, but our holiday that we were due to go on in a fortnights time was refunded in full in just a week, including booking fees. 

We want to book a self catering holiday and although the holiday company offer a refund if you can't travel because of government policy they won't refund your money if you have to self isolate.Also they require the balance 12 weeks before the date of the holiday.As we are thinking of May or June that would mean paying very soon.We are going to wait (at least until after 22 Feb) and probably just book last minute

[Scriv]

8 minutes ago, ann141 said:

We want to book a self catering holiday and although the holiday company offer a refund if you can't travel because of government policy they won't refund your money if you have to self isolate.Also they require the balance 12 weeks before the date of the holiday.As we are thinking of May or June that would mean paying very soon.We are going to wait (at least until after 22 Feb) and probably just book last minute

Think that's what we are probably going to do... along with half the nation, I guess.

[MX-Drew]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

It was actually on the 18th of January he said it at a press conference, so only 3 weeks ago. The cabinet do need to get on the same message as people hearing Mr Hancock may well have thought it was just fine for them to do the same and book a staycation for later in the year.

 

I stand corrected, seems much longer ago.

 

What does not help in my opinion is this constant pressure on the government to give dates and road maps etc. The whole science relies on us the human race to do as we are advised and I have seen first hand that is not being done by young and old alike. Just say "I'm bored of this lockdown" does not help yet some I've seen meeting in other peoples houses around me seem to think it is.   

[Eglesbrech]

6 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

I stand corrected, seems much longer ago.

 

What does not help in my opinion is this constant pressure on the government to give dates and road maps etc. The whole science relies on us the human race to do as we are advised and I have seen first hand that is not being done by young and old alike. Just say "I'm bored of this lockdown" does not help yet some I've seen meeting in other peoples houses around me seem to think it is.   

I have to say compliance with lockdown around here is pretty good but I have read the press reports about parties etc.

 

I remember listening to a psychologist back during the first lockdown saying that people will only fully comply for so long. The government will have had this advise as well. You can’t keep people virtually imprisoned in their own homes forever, particularly when all the press is about how well the vaccine programme is progressing.

 

We have already had 2 false dawns (for perfectly understandable reasons) so I do think the government need to be very careful about any route map they do announce. They will however know that something will give if progress does not happen soon, parts of society will just start doing what they want to. As you say some already are.

 

[Cathygh]

My TA rang me today. It was a courtesy call to check that I was happy regarding fcc/refunds and an apology from the company who felt they hadn't been able to look after their customers as well as they would have liked. I have had no issues with the company or how they have handled anything but I appreciated the call. During the chat we talked about my upcoming cruise in August. She told me she didn't think it would happen and that she didn't expect cruises to start properly until the autumn. I don't know if she's right but it did make me think, I'd rather know than not know, because then I can just get on with it. 

Cathy

[terrierjohn]

44 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I have to say compliance with lockdown around here is pretty good but I have read the press reports about parties etc.

 

I remember listening to a psychologist back during the first lockdown saying that people will only fully comply for so long. The government will have had this advise as well. You can’t keep people virtually imprisoned in their own homes forever, particularly when all the press is about how well the vaccine programme is progressing.

 

We have already had 2 false dawns (for perfectly understandable reasons) so I do think the government need to be very careful about any route map they do announce. They will however know that something will give if progress does not happen soon, parts of society will just start doing what they want to. As you say some already are.

 

If track and trace is now working as well as claimed, it must have masses of data to indicate where the virus is spreading, where the contacts were made, which age groups and ethnicities are having most cases etc etc etc.

I think it is about time this data was made public, and not just total cases, hospitalisations, deaths and numbers being vaccinated.

It would undoubtedly be considered a violation of privacy by the woke brigade, but it just might shame some sections of the population into re-considering their actions.

 

 

[wowzz]

16 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

My TA rang me today. It was a courtesy call to check that I was happy regarding fcc/refunds and an apology from the company who felt they hadn't been able to look after their customers as well as they would have liked. I have had no issues with the company or how they have handled anything but I appreciated the call. During the chat we talked about my upcoming cruise in August. She told me she didn't think it would happen and that she didn't expect cruises to start properly until the autumn. I don't know if she's right but it did make me think, I'd rather know than not know, because then I can just get on with it. 

Cathy

I had a similar call. A nice touch I thought. 

I'd agree with the Autumn timing.