Will the phone lines crash at 8.30?

[jaydee6969]

13 minutes ago, tring said:

Just looked at the Azura 16 night relocation in October, which we have booked and ALL balcony cabins have now sold out, as well as suites.  Would love to know how many had sold out after the priority bookings took place on Monday - perhaps quite a number.  The booking system for that cruise was showing whole decks of balcony cabins sold out early this morning and I thought it was a fault with the system, but perhaps not.

 

 

Blimey, I was looking at that cruise at 8.30 this morning to check prices for different cabins and typed various cabins in and plenty were available or got lucky.

 

Will need to be on my game to book the return fixture tomorrow, perhaps I can gather up all 7 phones in the house and mass dial and block everyone🤣

[tring]

7 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

Blimey, I was looking at that cruise at 8.30 this morning to check prices for different cabins and typed various cabins in and plenty were available or got lucky.

 

Will need to be on my game to book the return fixture tomorrow, perhaps I can gather up all 7 phones in the house and mass dial and block everyone🤣

 

When I rang about 10.30am I got through straight away, but doubt you could make a fresh booking for the Azura March translocation then.   You could perhaps contact an agent and pre-register for it with them.

Edited April 28, 2021 by tring

[jaydee6969]

5 minutes ago, tring said:

 

I agree there is a disadvantage for the trans Atlantics or similar, but the Azura cruises are just tootering out of the Med to the Canaries and back again in March so there are a lot of port days, very few sea days and the cruises start/finish at your local airport, so as far as the passenger is concerned there is no extra transport problems. 

 

That is the appeal to us, plenty of new ports for us, and hopefully better weather than the UK.  But will involve a trip up to Gatwick from Southampton for us.

 

Having looked again, part of the problem is you can book parts of the 16 night cruise under several different cruises so that would block cabins from the longer stay.  Balcony cabins are available on shorter durations.

 

Might have similar problems when I try and book the 13 night repositioning cruise tomorrow.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

Might have similar problems when I try and book the 13 night repositioning cruise tomorrow.

I think you're right - we are trying for the 20 day repo - it's fantastic value for money,  and therefore likely to be in high demand, leaving less choice for the 13 day segment.

Good luck - I hope you get what you want.  

[wowzz]

35 minutes ago, MX-Drew said:

The number of times I have heard that and my response is what would you be doing instead?

The reply is usually something like erm I don't know🤣.

Well, anything is better than hanging on the phone for yonks!

[Cathygh]

Managed to book Azura 16 days in October 2022 but demand was very high and so although we got the grade and deck we wanted it is a little too far forward for our liking so she will monitor it and see if anything becomes available later on. 

There were also problems with Gatwick flights showing as sold out when they weren't but all is ok now. As someone else said this cruise is almost sold out, so I feel lucky to have got on it

Cathy

[tring]

21 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

That is the appeal to us, plenty of new ports for us, and hopefully better weather than the UK.  But will involve a trip up to Gatwick from Southampton for us.

 

Having looked again, part of the problem is you can book parts of the 16 night cruise under several different cruises so that would block cabins from the longer stay.  Balcony cabins are available on shorter durations.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Managed to book Azura 16 days in October 2022 but demand was very high and so although we got the grade and deck we wanted it is a little too far forward for our liking so she will monitor it and see if anything becomes available later on. 

There were also problems with Gatwick flights showing as sold out when they weren't but all is ok now. As someone else said this cruise is almost sold out, so I feel lucky to have got on it

Cathy

 

Yes, the overlap will be a problem.  I am also thinking the flights could well be the major factor - particularly for the longer cruises as P&O will also want to fill the intervening flights and with different departure airports making it even more complicated.  I think the longer cruises will be the most difficult to get what you want.

 

I assume the system gives Gatwick as default, so possibly any booking in process, (and possibly people playing with the system), reserves a Gatwick flight until that is changed for another airport.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I just logged in to my cruise.  Definitely no cabin number anywhere, just type of cabin and bed config.

I have had the on line cruise booklet from my TA, and that includes the P&O booking statement as well as one from my TA, both show my cabin number.

Edited April 28, 2021 by terrierjohn

[jeanlyon]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I have had the on line cruise booklet from my TA, and that includes the P&O booking statement as well as one from my TA, both show my cabin number.

Yes, that's the only place I have ever seen the cabin number, on my P&O booking confirmation.

[jaydee6969]

10 minutes ago, tring said:

I assume the system gives Gatwick as default, so possibly any booking in process, (and possibly people playing with the system), reserves a Gatwick flight until that is changed for another airport.

 

We could always opt for Bristol as a backup, closer on distance but lack of motorways makes it a longer journey.  Keep the options open. ✈️🚢👍

[Britboys]

Good to see that many of you have got what you wanted today and good luck for those booking tomorrow. Hope you all have great cruises when they go.

[yorkshirephil]

We have our confirmation from P&O, we asked for an inside as near to the centre of the ship as possible for Arcadia Nov 22. We got deck 7 smack in the middle of the ship and anytime dining. Happy days. This is the first time we have booked direct with P&O when not booking while onboard.

[majortom10]

We all have our favoured ways to book a cruise and because everyone is different there is not a right or wrong way to do it but having always go my first choice when pre registered, this week was the first time pre registering for normal cruise and not a maiden, dont see any reason to change when always been happy with excellent service and on every occasion always been cheaper with my TA  than booking direct and on occasions by a substantial amount not just a few pounds.

[MX-Drew]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

Well, anything is better than hanging on the phone for yonks!

I don't see as getting straight through as yonks but maybe you would like them to call you to cut the waiting time down. 🤣

[MX-Drew]

29 minutes ago, jaydee6969 said:

 

We could always opt for Bristol as a backup, closer on distance but lack of motorways makes it a longer journey.  Keep the options open. ✈️🚢👍

Do you have time to build a motorway?🤣

[MX-Drew]

8 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

We all have our favoured ways to book a cruise and because everyone is different there is not a right or wrong way to do it but having always go my first choice when pre registered, this week was the first time pre registering for normal cruise and not a maiden, dont see any reason to change when always been happy with excellent service and on every occasion always been cheaper with my TA  than booking direct and on occasions by a substantial amount not just a few pounds.

I don't disagree other than my experience with TAs is the opposite and I have tried many, I even tried yours and they did not bother to respond so they hit the pile with the 💩 TAs.  

[tring]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

We have our confirmation from P&O, we asked for an inside as near to the centre of the ship as possible for Arcadia Nov 22. We got deck 7 smack in the middle of the ship and anytime dining. Happy days. This is the first time we have booked direct with P&O when not booking while onboard.

 

Were you able to request a location with a P&O pre-registration, or have I mis-understood that?

 

Also did you get an email to confirm - we still do not have ours, but it looks like all our emails have packed up being delivered!

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, tring said:

 

Were you able to request a location with a P&O pre-registration, or have I mis-understood that?

 

Also did you get an email to confirm - we still do not have ours, but it looks like all our emails have packed up being delivered!

I asked for a cabin as near to the middle as possible, it is no big deal for us but if there is an option then I always take middle, especially when crossing the Atlantic.

 

We got an email mid morning confirming our cabin No, dining and bed configuration.

[bungle66]

8 hours ago, bungle66 said:

I need to change a cruise, treating myself to a suite and worried sick they will all be gone already. 35 minutes to go - how excited am I? I feel like a 5 year old waiting for Christmas morning lol. Have a great day everyone.

Hi guys and girls, for those that kindly asked if I got my choice of suite - the answer is YES!!! Hooray!! I started calling at 0828 and on my third go at dead on 0830 I got straight through to a really lovely lady. I was so shocked at getting through immediately that I dropped my piece of paper with all the details on and had to scrabble around to retrieve it lol. Thankfully was able to transfer across without issue and we've actually ended up with £100 more on board credit than I thought, so happy days. I hope you have all been as successful as me. Good luck everyone and take good care.

[wowzz]

15 minutes ago, bungle66 said:

Hi guys and girls, for those that kindly asked if I got my choice of suite - the answer is YES!!! Hooray!! I started calling at 0828 and on my third go at dead on 0830 I got straight through to a really lovely lady. I was so shocked at getting through immediately that I dropped my piece of paper with all the details on and had to scrabble around to retrieve it lol. Thankfully was able to transfer across without issue and we've actually ended up with £100 more on board credit than I thought, so happy days. I hope you have all been as successful as me. Good luck everyone and take good care.

Congratulations- glad you got what you wanted.

[kevcharben]

Sorted my deluxe cabin 'B' Deck on the Aurora online at 8-35 no problem.

[tring]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

I asked for a cabin as near to the middle as possible, it is no big deal for us but if there is an option then I always take middle, especially when crossing the Atlantic.

 

We got an email mid morning confirming our cabin No, dining and bed configuration.

 

Thanks, yes agree about a central cabin, especially for a November crossing as still at the end of the stormy season and we leave two days after you.

 

We have our email confirmation now - dh rang again and asked them to change the email address to his gmail one that is far more reliable.  Sadly it was not possible to change it for the booking we will have confirmed tomorrow, but that does give us an excuse to ring as soon as allocations are made and that was done about 10am today 🙂

 

Glad you got what you wanted - looks like most, possibly all have done well.

[grapau27]

14 hours ago, bungle66 said:

I need to change a cruise, treating myself to a suite and worried sick they will all be gone already. 35 minutes to go - how excited am I? I feel like a 5 year old waiting for Christmas morning lol. Have a great day everyone.

My TA rang me at 8.32am with our cabin number on hold and we said yes straight away.

[jaydee6969]

Good luck on getting your cabin choices this morning.

[jaydee6969]

Well that was painless and quick.  All booked direct with P&O onto A311 in my 1st choice of cabin and all discounts applied.

 

Happy days, best get back to work.