Six Summer Short Breaks on Britannia Cancelled!

[Britboys]

Well, just as well I hadn't booked a 3 or 4 night trip on Britannia in late August or September as I had been considering. P&O have cancelled six of them and are replacing them with 3 seven night cruises. Due to demand apparently. I would have been really pee'd off if I had booked one.

[tring]

1 minute ago, Britboys said:

Well, just as well I hadn't booked a 3 or 4 night trip on Britannia in late August or September as I had been considering. P&O have cancelled six of them and are replacing them with 3 seven night cruises. Due to demand apparently. I would have been really pee'd off if I had booked one.

 

That did not take long then - do the new ones have any ports of call? 

 

Also out of interest had the prices of the summer breaks on both Iona and Britannia generally gone up in price, like often happens with P&O?

[majortom10]

Absolutely disgusting that people who booked 3-4 nt cruises on Monday have already had their cruises cancelled. I am sorry to say but senior mangers at P&O really havent got a clue what they are doing and if heads dont roll then I fear for the future of P&O with such incompetent managers running it.

[joeecco]

They’re also selling inside cabins for these 3 cruises now.

 

Each 7 night cruise will make 1 U.K. port of call.

 

They should have added 3 more 7 night sailings on another unused ship. 
 

 

[Spike11]

However, it does seem that those already booked on the  3 or 4 night cruises can transfer to the 7 nights cruises for the same price! That is what is being reported on another site.

[cloud_nine]

Good job I hadn't got around to booking one then. I was planning on a 4 night in late August. That would have been annoying having only just booked to then have it cancelled. 

[Britboys]

3 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

However, it does seem that those already booked on the  3 or 4 night cruises can transfer to the 7 nights cruises for the same price! That is what is being reported on another site.

But that is no use to people who couldn't take or didn't want a week on board a ship....

[joeecco]

4 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

However, it does seem that those already booked on the  3 or 4 night cruises can transfer to the 7 nights cruises for the same price! That is what is being reported on another site.

Surely not, else that defeats the object of extending them to 7 night sailings for ‘popularity’ - there’s not enough room

for all guests to transfer anyway, essentially 2 sailings into 1... 

[Spike11]

1 minute ago, joeecco said:

Surely not, else that defeats the object of extending them to 7 night sailings for ‘popularity’ - there’s not enough room

for all guests to transfer anyway, essentially 2 sailings into 1... 

I must admit it doesn’t sound like the P&O I know - we’ll have to wait for confirmation or otherwise!

[tring]

1 minute ago, joeecco said:

Surely not, else that defeats the object of extending them to 7 night sailings for ‘popularity’ - there’s not enough room

for all guests to transfer anyway, essentially 2 sailings into 1... 

 Depends how many bookings they have for the cancelled ones - lots of competition with quite a number of companies doing short cruises from Southampton this summer.  Maybe same price, but not for a balcony cabin? 

[Tough Guy]

Due to guest feedback and demand for week long UK holidays a number of Britannia’s three and four night breaks will be replaced by seven night cruises. As a result of this change we are pleased to inform you that your booking will automatically be transferred free of charge, with no additional cost to a seven night cruise visiting Greenock departing on 12 September 2021. Your new booking will be made on the same grade of cabin you originally booked.

We will be transferring over your booking by Thursday 22 April 2021 so there is no need to contact us if you wish to remain booked on the new seven night cruise. A booking confirmation will be sent to you after your booking has been transferred with your new booking details.

Please note, any personal details you have entered in My P&O Cruises for this booking will not be transferred to your new seven night cruise booking so will need to be re-populated.

If this change in duration does not meet your needs and you are no longer able to travel on this new seven night cruise then you have the following two options:

Option 1:  You can transfer your booking to an alternative three or four night holiday on one of Britannia’s UK getaway cruises. If the cost of this new cruise is lower value this will be reflected on your booking. If the cost is more we will honour the original price.

Option 2:  If you wish to no longer travel we will cancel your holiday free of charge and refund you any monies paid on the booking. Alternatively, if you wish to transfer to another cruise with us then please refer to our free flexible transfer policy.

If you wish to take one of the alternative options above then please contact us on 0344 338 8003 (local charges apply) by Thursday 8 April 2021.

Once again, please accept my sincere apologies for this change to your booking. We look forward to seeing you on one of our ships very soon.

[Tough Guy]

This was the email received earlier.  We booked a 3 night only 2 days ago and so not happy with the change. Unfortunately we would not be able to take the 7 day cruise which would have been nice.

[Harry Peterson]

It’s almost as if they had a Zoom meeting that ran roughly like this:

 

Which do you think would sell best and make the most profit? 3 day or 7 day?

 

Not sure really, but why don’t we put both out there, see what happens, and just cancel the least profitable ones?

 

Genius!  Go for it.

[jeanlyon]

Good lord, you couldn't make it up could you?  Why would you put just one stop on a 7 night cruise?

[fragilek]

Not sure what Greenock will make of this.  

[jasperado]

Do you think that P and O have just realised that to turn a ship around with a completely new group of passengers twice each week is going to be "very busy"? No B2Bs were being allowed so everybody off. 

[tring]

The early cruises are still shorter ones though, presumably as a trial and possibly because of Government requirements.

 

Now I wonder how many of us wish they had booked one of those 3-4 nighters and got a seven night one in exchange.  She says putting her hand up :). 

 

Shame you cannot do the seven nights though Tough Guy.

[ann141]

1 minute ago, tring said:

The early cruises are still shorter ones though, presumably as a trial and possibly because of Government requirements.

 

Now I wonder how many of us wish they had booked one of those 3-4 nighters and got a seven night one in exchange.  She says putting her hand up :). 

 

Shame you cannot do the seven nights though Tough Guy.

I do feel sorry for the people who had booked a 3 or 4 night cruise on Britannia and are unable to go because of other commitments.I also think P and O are just doing it because they realise they can make more money but have to admit to thinking I wish we had booked a mini suite on one of the 3 or 4 nighters!!

[joeecco]

11 minutes ago, tring said:

The early cruises are still shorter ones though, presumably as a trial and possibly because of Government requirements.

 

Now I wonder how many of us wish they had booked one of those 3-4 nighters and got a seven night one in exchange.  She says putting her hand up :). 

 

Shame you cannot do the seven nights though Tough Guy.

If you were on one of the cancelled sailings, you can transfer to another 3 or 4 night sailing. 
 

It doesn’t say you can for a 7 night sailing in that text off of the website above. 

[jasperado]

I'm a bit unsure of the dates cancelled. Are the 3 night ones now cancelled, and the 4 night ones now 7 night ones? Will the new 7 nighters be the same price as was charged for the old 4 nighters, or will they be increased to the previously advertised 7 nights ( or was it 6)? Good grief, what a way to instill confidence in a recovering industry.

[Spike11]

42 minutes ago, joeecco said:

If you were on one of the cancelled sailings, you can transfer to another 3 or 4 night sailing. 
 

It doesn’t say you can for a 7 night sailing in that text off of the website above. 

It mentions transferring to the seven night cruise at no extra charge in the second sentence of the first paragraph!

[joeecco]

3 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

It mentions transferring to the seven night cruise at no extra charge in the second sentence of the first paragraph!

Oh yeah 😂😂 I only read the ‘options’ part 😂😂

[Son of Anarchy]

56 minutes ago, ann141 said:

I do feel sorry for the people who had booked a 3 or 4 night cruise on Britannia and are unable to go because of other commitments.I also think P and O are just doing it because they realise they can make more money but have to admit to thinking I wish we had booked a mini suite on one of the 3 or 4 nighters!!

Feel that way a bit myself!  Mind you we wouldn't have wanted to book a ship's tour in Greenock, as we would have wanted to go ashore independently to meet up with family in Greenock.

 

 

[Manx buoy]

11 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

It mentions transferring to the seven night cruise at no extra charge in the second sentence of the first paragraph!

 

11 minutes ago, Spike11 said:

It mentions transferring to the seven night cruise at no extra charge in the second sentence of the first paragraph!

But only on one of the 7 night cruises if I’m reading it right

[tring]

9 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Feel that way a bit myself!  Mind you we wouldn't have wanted to book a ship's tour in Greenock, as we would have wanted to go ashore independently to meet up with family in Greenock.

 

 

Yes shame about that sort of situation.  The sail in and out of The Clyde is very scenic though and possibly visible when docked, so better than just being in the open sea with sea breezes as the ship moves along.