Winter 22/23 dates announced

[Son of Anarchy]

Just had this from a TA:

 

Winter Collection On Sale Dates

Wednesday 7th April – New itineraries released 
Monday 26th April – On sale to Caribbean, Baltic and Ligurian tier members
Wednesday 28th April – Holidays departing October 2022 to December 2022 on general sale
Thursday 29th April – Holidays departing October 2022 to April 2023 on general sale

Arvia On Sale Dates

Wednesday 7th March – New itineraries released 
Monday 19th April – On sale to Caribbean, Baltic and Ligurian tier members
Wednesday 21st April – Holidays departing December 2022 to January 2023 on general sale
Thursday 22nd April – Holidays departing December 2022 to March 2023 on general sale

[No pager thank you]

Think we posted this at exactly the same time, sorry!

[ann141]

There is also mention on P and O website of fly cruise holidays to the Canary Islands on Azura.I wonder where Iona will be during the winter? Dubai perhaps?

[Son of Anarchy]

Looks like Arcadia is up for Worldie 23 😀

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, ann141 said:

There is also mention on P and O website of fly cruise holidays to the Canary Islands on Azura.I wonder where Iona will be during the winter? Dubai perhaps?

Perhaps same as this winter - Canaries and round Spain with a couple of North Europe breaks? Interesting Azura going to Canaries for fly cruises, I’ve just had an email about it.

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, ann141 said:

There is also mention on P and O website of fly cruise holidays to the Canary Islands on Azura.I wonder where Iona will be during the winter? Dubai perhaps?

Probably Southampton as she has the closed Skydome making her more suitable for cool-weather cruising. Or maybe they'll be really innovative and base her in Barcelona or Malaga... 🤔

[Ecuador]

Hope there are some New ports for Azura.

[Denarius]

15 minutes ago, Ecuador said:

Hope there are some New ports for Azura.

I wonder how long the Canary Island fly cruises will last. I suspect that they will be for seven nights as there are limited number of islands which could cope with a cruise ship of her size and would hold any interest for passengers. Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and Fuerteventura, and that's about it unless she takes a detour to Morocco. Probably no sea days. Sounds like a good idea to me for those who would like some winter sun but who do not want the long flight to or high temperatures of the Caribbbean.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Denarius

[tring]

3 hours ago, ann141 said:

There is also mention on P and O website of fly cruise holidays to the Canary Islands on Azura.I wonder where Iona will be during the winter? Dubai perhaps?

Interesting re Azura.  Iona not a sun ship, so perhaps still sail out of UK.

[tring]

13 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I wonder how long the Canary Island fly cruises will last. I suspect that they will be for seven nights as there are limited number of islands which could cope with a cruise ship of her size and would hold any interest for passengers. Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and Fuerteventura, and that's about it unless she takes a detour to Morocco. Probably no sea days. Sounds like a good idea to me for those who would like some winter sun but who do not want the long flight to or high temperatures of the Caribbbean.

Could also go north to Madeira, which is a regular port from Tenerife.  Depending on if the port can take Azura, there is also a possible detour to Cape Verde.  A lot of the smaller ports are starting to take bigger ships than they used to.  Fred used to do a two week from Tenerife with no problem at all and overnights could be done, which are great when the Christmas lights are on in Tenerife and also Madeira.

Edited March 29, 2021 by tring

[tring]

Do the prices tend to rise much before the cruises go on general sale?  We are only Mediterranean.  

[tring]

3 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Looks like Arcadia is up for Worldie 23 😀

I wonder if that means Aurora will have gone by then as if I remember correctly, Moley had said one would go when Our be Vera sails.

[bee-ess]

Hoping to book Our Vera, either the 22 night TA outbound (if there is one) or a standard 2 weeks in Feb if the prices are not too high.

Anyone else ?

[Angel57]

30 minutes ago, tring said:

I wonder if that means Aurora will have gone by then as if I remember correctly, Moley had said one would go when Our be Vera sails.

I was also wondering if Arcadia doing the Worldie in 2023 might mean Aurora’s future is doubtful. I do hope that is not the case......

[Britboys]

58 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I wonder how long the Canary Island fly cruises will last. I suspect that they will be for seven nights as there are limited number of islands which could cope with a cruise ship of her size and would hold any interest for passengers. Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and Fuerteventura, and that's about it unless she takes a detour to Morocco. Probably no sea days. Sounds like a good idea to me for those who would like some winter sun but who do not want the long flight to or high temperatures of the Caribbbean.

They might run two alternating seven-night itineraries which can also be booked as a two-week cruise, like they seem to in the Caribbean. I would be surprised if they didn't include Madeira.

[tring]

3 minutes ago, Britboys said:

They might run two alternating seven-night itineraries which can also be booked as a two-week cruise, like they seem to in the Caribbean. I would be surprised if they didn't include Madeira.

Yes, that would also give time for a couple of sea days.  They will have to get bar sales somehow 🙂

 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by tring

[zap99]

55 minutes ago, tring said:

Could also go north to Madeira, which is a regular port from Tenerife.  Depending on if the port can take Azura, there is also a possible detour to Cape Verde.  A lot of the smaller ports are starting to take bigger ships than they used to.  Fred used to do a two week from Tenerife with no problem at all and overnights could be done, which are great when the Christmas lights are on in Tenerife and also Madeira.

Madeira quite a good addition, but Cape Verde is quite a trek. Morocco could be interesting.

[bee-ess]

Maybe they could consider Porto Santo near Madeira that has Cruise ships tendering.

[terrierjohn]

5 hours ago, ann141 said:

There is also mention on P and O website of fly cruise holidays to the Canary Islands on Azura.I wonder where Iona will be during the winter? Dubai perhaps?

I can't see any reference to this, can you please supply a link Ann?

[Gettingwarmer]

 

In box at top

https://www.pocruises.com/new-winter-collection

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Gettingwarmer

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Madeira quite a good addition, but Cape Verde is quite a trek. Morocco could be interesting.

If you add Cape Verde, Madeira and Morocco (Casablanca?) to the six major Canary islands you get 9 ports; enough for 2 one week cruises if you add an overnight stay in the departure port (Tenerife?), perhaps a sea day and maybe repeat a popular stop (Madeira and/or Gran Canaria?). So they could be sold as two separate one week cruises or a two week cruise. Could work; we will see!

[zap99]

1 minute ago, Denarius said:

If you add Cape Verde, Madeira and Morocco (Casablanca?) to the six major Canary islands you get 9 ports; enough for 2 one week cruises if you add an overnight stay in the departure port (Tenerife?), perhaps a sea day and maybe repeat a popular stop (Madeira and/or Gran Canaria?). So they could be sold as two separate one week cruises or a two week cruise. Could work; we will see!

That would certainly be an interesting couple of weeks. We have been looking at 2022 and have been thinking same old, same old. Food for thought.🤔

[No pager thank you]

3 hours ago, tring said:

Do the prices tend to rise much before the cruises go on general sale?  We are only Mediterranean.  

 

My understanding is that if you are interested in a cruise then you will be able to pre-register regardless.  It's only the subsequent general sale which is influenced by higher loyalty tiers having first dibs. 

 

If I recall correctly, the disadvantages of pre-registration are that the system assumes you want the OBC (instead of parking or coach) for your sweetener and it can allocate cabins within a certain grade instead of free choice.  There may be a way round this by calling direct.  Worth checking with a dummy online booking!

 

Pre-registration means - theoretically - that if bookings are weak then it will be the higher tier guests who will get earlier access to the lower fares. 

 

However, we have found there is usually not much difference between the pre-registration price and the initial on sale price, given that many of the long standing customers will register early.  Exceptions may be for singles, disabled access cabins, and perhaps high end suites where there is less supply.

 

It's getting in quick then (i.e., when on general sale) which is important, if you favour a particular itinerary or ship etc.

 

[No pager thank you]

On the points about itineraries, I would suggest that Madeira will definitely be a port of call due to the fireworks at New Year, which will be one of Azura's cruises in this release.

 

My instinct that Azura's calls will "play it safe" i.e., selection of Lanzarote, Tenerife, La Palma, Gran Caneria, Madeira, Fuerteventura, Lisbon in a 7-10 night circuit. 

 

Not sure they will put on any "Explorer" cruises to Cape Verde, Casablanca or Ponta Delgada etc.

 

Am interested to see the Christmas and New Year itineraries...now I know that the two ships are in the Caribbean, and Azura is doing the "hot" cruise, that leaves Iona, Ventura, Aurora and Arcadia - at least one (and probably two) must be doing one of the "cold" festive cruises and it will be interesting to see if this is the route that picks up the extra ship in the fleet.

 

Any thoughts around if this will be more innovative itinerary wise?

[tring]

3 hours ago, zap99 said:

Madeira quite a good addition, but Cape Verde is quite a trek. Morocco could be interesting.

 

Yes Cape Verde a couple of days each way and probably not a likely P&O port, but when Fred did two week fly cruises from Tenerife, a couple of ports in Cape Verde on some of them meant some warmer weather in the winter 🙂