P&O Cancelling Cruise Bookings!

[Pink-belle]

4 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

At least RCI gave the option of a125% Future Cruise Credit when they cancelled cruises

As did P& O,  

[Cathygh]

4 hours ago, Pink-belle said:

That is exactly what I would have expected from P&O, move over offers the same I have experienced in the past with Princess.

So do Princess offer passengers a deal to change their cruise if it's overbooked? I have never heard of PandO doing that but it's a good idea

[Josy1953]

1 minute ago, Cathygh said:

So do Princess offer passengers a deal to change their cruise if it's overbooked? I have never heard of PandO doing that but it's a good idea

Yes they do,  they rang us 2 days before we were due to sail and offered us $500 each on board spend and  50% refund to move our Mediterranean cruise to the same itinerary 2 weeks later.  We took up the offer because we are retired so are flexible, they then upgraded us from a balcony to a mini-suite, so a good deal.

[Pink-belle]

4 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

So do Princess offer passengers a deal to change their cruise if it's overbooked? I have never heard of PandO doing that but it's a good idea

Yes, and I truly expected this to be the same.  I have had move over and a move down offers from Princess.  Like airlines Cruise ships oversell anticipating a certain number of cancellations.

 

my last offer was for a move down, they wanted our balcony room and offered us an ocean view and a refund of 50%, I said no as they couldn’t give me a room number so I could check layout.  The next day they called with room number and an increased financial offer, which we took.

search Move over offers, some people have had incredible ones. 
 

I am sure if P&O had offered move over offers they would have had people take them up. I would have accepted a move to a later date in an upgraded cabin, not a big upgrade just a guarantee of an aft facing one.

[Pink-belle]

5 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

There is a mention on the book of faces that the  crusies were over booked by 94 people and that the cancellation emails have now all been sent. I'm only repeating it,   I can't verify how true it is

Yes I heard this too.

[Cathygh]

8 minutes ago, Pink-belle said:

Yes, and I truly expected this to be the same.  I have had move over and a move down offers from Princess.  Like airlines Cruise ships oversell anticipating a certain number of cancellations.

 

my last offer was for a move down, they wanted our balcony room and offered us an ocean view and a refund of 50%, I said no as they couldn’t give me a room number so I could check layout.  The next day they called with room number and an increased financial offer, which we took.

search Move over offers, some people have had incredible ones. 
 

I am sure if P&O had offered move over offers they would have had people take them up. I would have accepted a move to a later date in an upgraded cabin, not a big upgrade just a guarantee of an aft facing one.

Thanks for explaining how it works. I'd certainly consider it if I was offered one.

[Pink-belle]

Okay, so now I am feeling very annoyed with P&O, they have not done themselves any favours in my opinion.

 

Ben & David are Travel Vloggers who I sometimes watch on You Tube.  They are also on FB. 
They have posted the email they had from P&O .  I think it is a good email, would I have been disappointed to receive it, Yes I would, would I be angry, no I don’t think I would. 
P&O could have done themselves some favours by having that notification on their website where we could all see it. 
Their marketing and PR department is failing them badly.!

[Dermotsgirl]

2 hours ago, molecrochip said:

I’m sorry Major Tom but this isn’t P&O’s fault. The government encouraged the industry to proceed as if no capacity restrictions would be in place post 21 June. Now that’s changed, P&O have had to adapt.

 

 

In spite of what has been said about 19th July being 'terminus day' this is dependent on what happens with the virus - and infection rates are still going up.

 

So there's no guarantee that this is going to be the last of the 'bumping', if restrictions aren't removed on 19th July.

 

Therefore, I think people will need to bear in mind cruising in the Covid era was always going to be uncertain, and to expect sudden changes.

 

I can see this from both sides. I totally understand people's disappointment. I was booked on a coach holiday to go to see the Edinburgh Tattoo, and had just started to allow myself to start actively looking forward to it when the tattoo was cancelled.

 

I can also see it from P&O's point of view. They obviously want to get as much money into their coffers as possible, so accepted all bookings with a view to sorting out any pitfalls later.

 

I think better expectation management would have been in order, but this is at odds with the idea of a blissful break with no hassle.

 

Something else I picked up from Molecrochip's comment. The government seems to have indicated to P&O that no capacity restrictions were going to be needed after 21st June. So cruises after this date could have been quite full, and if people are having to move to a later date, the cruises after 19th July could be positively rammed with passengers.  Not sure if that is desirable so soon, or if passengers are really up for an effectively non socially distanced cruise so soon.  Not sure if this is a good idea.

[Glenndale]

Viking currently have some spaces on 3rd July, Viking Venus, for their repositioning cruise from Portsmouth to Malta.

From what I’ve heard it’s reasonably priced 🙂

[Eglesbrech]

5 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

So cruises after this date could have been quite full, and if people are having to move to a later date, the cruises after 19th July could be positively rammed with passengers.  Not sure if that is desirable so soon, or if passengers are really up for an effectively non socially distanced cruise so soon.  Not sure if this is a good idea

That would put me right off. I’m not sure what the regulations will be but I would not want to sail on a full ship for a while. Perhaps others are braver than I 😀.

[MX-Drew]

27 minutes ago, Pink-belle said:

Yes, and I truly expected this to be the same.  I have had move over and a move down offers from Princess.  Like airlines Cruise ships oversell anticipating a certain number of cancellations.

 

my last offer was for a move down, they wanted our balcony room and offered us an ocean view and a refund of 50%, I said no as they couldn’t give me a room number so I could check layout.  The next day they called with room number and an increased financial offer, which we took.

search Move over offers, some people have had incredible ones. 
 

I am sure if P&O had offered move over offers they would have had people take them up. I would have accepted a move to a later date in an upgraded cabin, not a big upgrade just a guarantee of an aft facing one.

Maybe P&O had too many people to bump to be able to offer meaningful move over offers.

[Megabear2]

Have all cruise lines overbooked? I also have a Princess booking on 28 August and understood all bookings were with reduced capacity. No one said the cruises would be at normal levels if restrictions on land were lifted. Naively I thought some restrictions would still apply to ships.

[rumbalizw]

46 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Have all cruise lines overbooked? I also have a Princess booking on 28 August and understood all bookings were with reduced capacity. No one said the cruises would be at normal levels if restrictions on land were lifted. Naively I thought some restrictions would still apply to ships.

At the moment,it's affecting cruises up to 19th July ,while we're in these current restrictions.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

That would put me right off. I’m not sure what the regulations will be but I would not want to sail on a full ship for a while. Perhaps others are braver than I 😀.

As long as all the passengers are vaccinated,  I can't see any problem with being on a full ship.

After all, the vaccination programme is allowing the vaccinated to lead normal lives. 

[Windsurfboy]

Any idea who has been cancelled,  was it last booked first out , or by grade of cabin. Any suites cancelled ?

[smollett]

I'd booked pretty early for the 1 Jul cruise - I went for an internal room. Got an email confirmation a few days back with an upgrade to a balcony. 

 

So I guess they're honouring early bookings, and since they've got fewer travelling, they're moving everyone out of the inside rooms?

[lindylooellalouise]

2 hours ago, Pink-belle said:

Yes, and I truly expected this to be the same.  I have had move over and a move down offers from Princess.  Like airlines Cruise ships oversell anticipating a certain number of cancellations.

 

my last offer was for a move down, they wanted our balcony room and offered us an ocean view and a refund of 50%, I said no as they couldn’t give me a room number so I could check layout.  The next day they called with room number and an increased financial offer, which we took.

search Move over offers, some people have had incredible ones. 
 

I am sure if P&O had offered move over offers they would have had people take them up. I would have accepted a move to a later date in an upgraded cabin, not a big upgrade just a guarantee of an aft facing one.

Only incentive offered was the extra 25% no other offers of upgrades at a later date or on the other 5 cruises we have booked for 2021 2022 and 2023

[mike x ftc]

I think it is entirely P&O's fault, we all understand the situation we are in, they should have only taken bookings up to the allowed, restricted numbers and restarted cruising safely and successfully.  Then in the coming weeks when the restrictions lift a bit more open up more bookings. The phrase 'with caution' is quite rightly being used all the time. We all knew June 21st was not set in stone and in reality was almost certainly going to be pushed back.   This is pure greed on P&O's part, of course we want to get back to cruising but we want it to be safe. P&O were obviously quite happy to have ships packed to the rafters with people risking the return of cruising.

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

If P and O are/were planning on sailing with full capacity once current capacity restrictions are lifted then check in will/would be a nightmare if COVID testing and checking vaccinations+ insurance was still in place.

[Eddie99]

Well exactly!

 

The protocols publicised for the first cruises sounded way too onerous for me, personally, to go through them to access a “staycation” but, as a non-involved observer, I felt that the limited numbers plus masks plus whatever appeared to be a very acceptable way to make the start-up as safe as it could be

Now it seems that the company was happy to “pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap” 🙁

I’m really sad that cruising is one of the industries hardest hit by the pandemic.  At the moment I’m rather irked that P&O have  not helped themselves

[rainbowhays]

We are booked on Britannia for 11/07/21. Have all the people who P&O have cancelled for this cruise already been told?

What would the legal position be if we had our booking cancelled but refused to accept the cancellation arguing that we have a valid contact with P&O for our cruise? Obviously force majure and government policy changes excluded.

[cruisenewbie1976]

1 hour ago, rainbowhays said:

We are booked on Britannia for 11/07/21. Have all the people who P&O have cancelled for this cruise already been told?

What would the legal position be if we had our booking cancelled but refused to accept the cancellation arguing that we have a valid contact with P&O for our cruise? Obviously force majure and government policy changes excluded.

They've been saying on social media that everyone who's been cancelled has now been told. But this is P&O so who knows. Not sure they'd be too fussed if you told them you weren't accepting the cancellation. They just wouldn't let you board. You'd probably need to pursue it through the courts, which wouldn't be resolved before the cruise happens anyway. 

[molecrochip]

P&O were never planning to sail at capacity, I think it was 50% max until the end of July. Two of the first 4 cruises had already moved to sold out (based on restricted capacity) a good 2 weeks ago.

 

Please remember that when the cruises went on sale in March, the government advice was: lower of 1000 and 50% before 21 June, no restrictions after. Numbers were falling, vaccinations increasing and the Indian/Delta variant didn't exist.

 

Yes - some cruises sold more than 1,000 places on launch day so some launch day bookers are disappointed.

 

The website did state that cruises/bookings were subject to government restrictions being eased as planned but in March there was no reason to suspect otherwise.

 

@rainbowhaysTheir Ts and Cs are tight enough that you wouldn't win.

@smollettIts important that passengers are distributed throughout the ship for muster allocation purposes. So, once cancellations were calculated, it may have been necessary to upgrade to move more passengers in the correct part of the ship.

[MX-Drew]

18 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

P&O were never planning to sail at capacity, I think it was 50% max until the end of July. Two of the first 4 cruises had already moved to sold out (based on restricted capacity) a good 2 weeks ago.

 

Please remember that when the cruises went on sale in March, the government advice was: lower of 1000 and 50% before 21 June, no restrictions after. Numbers were falling, vaccinations increasing and the Indian/Delta variant didn't exist.

 

Yes - some cruises sold more than 1,000 places on launch day so some launch day bookers are disappointed.

 

The website did state that cruises/bookings were subject to government restrictions being eased as planned but in March there was no reason to suspect otherwise.

 

@rainbowhaysTheir Ts and Cs are tight enough that you wouldn't win.

@smollettIts important that passengers are distributed throughout the ship for muster allocation purposes. So, once cancellations were calculated, it may have been necessary to upgrade to move more passengers in the correct part of the ship.

Thank you, I feel that is a good insight.

[rainbowhays]

25 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

P&O were never planning to sail at capacity, I think it was 50% max until the end of July. Two of the first 4 cruises had already moved to sold out (based on restricted capacity) a good 2 weeks ago.

 

Please remember that when the cruises went on sale in March, the government advice was: lower of 1000 and 50% before 21 June, no restrictions after. Numbers were falling, vaccinations increasing and the Indian/Delta variant didn't exist.

 

Yes - some cruises sold more than 1,000 places on launch day so some launch day bookers are disappointed.

 

The website did state that cruises/bookings were subject to government restrictions being eased as planned but in March there was no reason to suspect otherwise.

 

@rainbowhaysTheir Ts and Cs are tight enough that you wouldn't win.

@smollettIts important that passengers are distributed throughout the ship for muster allocation purposes. So, once cancellations were calculated, it may have been necessary to upgrade to move more passengers in the correct part of the ship.

Sorry to disagree, but it wasn’t government ADVICE, it was a Directive to the relevant cruise companies not to have more than 1000 passengers. Correct me if I am wrong and please provide any evidence but I have found nowhere in the records where it states that the restrictions imposed are to be lifted after such and such a date.

As regards to Ts and Cs the law states that they have to be relevant, fair and not hidden away.