Straw Poll on reversion on amended flexible booking conditions

[Megabear2]

11 hours ago, WelshmanAtSea said:

I've 6 booked and must admit in the past year I have moved bookings quite a bit, often fetching deposits on very distant bookings into almost last minute getaways as I perceived better value. 

 

That said anyone who made bookings for 2023 / 2024 earlier on this year will see that prices have already risen quite substantially, given the cost of living and inflation predictions those bookings will look tremendous value by the time comes around.

I think it depends on the cruise/ship if they are value.  I booked at launch December 2023 Arvia Christmas Caribbean cruise.  Price was very high but they offered £500 OBC which made it palatable. It was also only £200pp dearer than my Britannia Christmas 2022 booking.  Remembering this is Arvia with all the deck 8 problems to avoid select seemed okay.

 

Checked it out over the weekend in light of the extra OBC offer.  Price has dropped on select by £600 and OBC increased to £780.  We stuck with it purely because we have one of the cabins with a large balcony and the cost difference is minimal, but there is one.  If we were prepared to risk deck 8 we could have saved £1900 which is a massive difference, and no way does the OBC go anyway to making select better value.

 

I'm extremely loyal to P&O and book Christmas or just after on launch every year depending when it falls.  With these sorts of differences there's absolutely no way I will commit to December 2024 when it goes on sale.

 

 

[tring]

 

 

We are surprised the flexible cancellation option had not gone earlier TBH, though we have three very well priced cruises for this winter, (in good balcony cabins booked on launch), which we are very happy about. 

 

We also booked a US/Canada Eastern Seaboard cruise on Aurora for Sept 2023, on launch, though as it is an expensive cruise, we only booked an inside cabin with the intention of probably changing to a balcony, (or at least an outside), nearer to the sailing date, hoping to get the launch price for that upgrade as P&O seem to do.  This is to prevent having to change to another expensive cruise if we do need to change it for some reason, as we did not expect the flexibly transfer policy to be retained until then.

 

Pre-covid we needed to change a 28 night Med fly cruise on Oceana due to family reasons and found there was no option to choose a cruise of the same length for the following year, only cruises of up to 14 nights, so not a high enough price to transfer like for like, so we went for another cruise which was really not well priced at all.  This experience was in mind when we booked the US/Canada cruise, so we may well book cheaper category cabins again, should we book ahead, though not sure we really want to commit ourselves to early bookings at present anyway.  Another constraint on changing a booking was that it had to be for a cruise within a year of the date it is changed and I assume that is now in the current transfer conditions.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by tring

[WelshmanAtSea]

4 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I think it depends on the cruise/ship if they are value.  I booked at launch December 2023 Arvia Christmas Caribbean cruise.  Price was very high but they offered £500 OBC which made it palatable. It was also only £200pp dearer than my Britannia Christmas 2022 booking.  Remembering this is Arvia with all the deck 8 problems to avoid select seemed okay.

 

Checked it out over the weekend in light of the extra OBC offer.  Price has dropped on select by £600 and OBC increased to £780.  We stuck with it purely because we have one of the cabins with a large balcony and the cost difference is minimal, but there is one.  If we were prepared to risk deck 8 we could have saved £1900 which is a massive difference, and no way does the OBC go anyway to making select better value.

 

I'm extremely loyal to P&O and book Christmas or just after on launch every year depending when it falls.  With these sorts of differences there's absolutely no way I will commit to December 2024 when it goes on sale.

 

 

I agree. As someone that does move deposits around I am very unlikely to book at launch which is something I have done in the past. I also look for the just after Christmas schedules as they can be great value (and as a tight Welshman save me burning huge amounts of heating oil at home.) 

 

I held of booking cruises during Covid, partly because I was in so many disagreements with British Airways Holidays and Disney as both owed me many thousands of pounds I had almost given up on holidays full stop. When I finally decided the World was getting back to normal I hit the bookings hard. Hence why I made many booking earlier this year, not just cruises but holidays as well. We are both 50 this year and I am determined I am going to make up for the missed holidays in 20220 & 2021. 

 

Maybe I have been lucky with some of the Feb/March 2022 bookings I made, we are on Iona in Jan 23 to the Canaries, booked a Balcony Saver for £1,958 which is outstanding value, that Saver fare today is £2,898 

[Megabear2]

Not in the market for much at the moment as still using up bookings made a very long time ago. However:

 

P&O

December 16th 2022 - price now dropped £1,800 on my select fares plus extra £300OBC

October 8th 2022 - price dropped by £250 with extra OBC - also smaller single supplement 

December 22 2023 - price dropped by £600 with extra OBC

 

NCL August 2023 - price risen by £1,300 even with AI taken into account

 

Celebrity May 2023 - price remains static but 60% of second person. However new bookings no always included

 

Non cruising: 10 nights 5* Kefalonia with private pool July 2023 £3,600 total for 2

10 nights 5* Venice/Verona booked independentfly with flights, transfers, B&B - £1,100 for 2

 

Interesting pattern here - why would I choose to book more cruises???

 

 

[WelshmanAtSea]

28 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Not in the market for much at the moment as still using up bookings made a very long time ago. However:

 

P&O

December 16th 2022 - price now dropped £1,800 on my select fares plus extra £300OBC

October 8th 2022 - price dropped by £250 with extra OBC - also smaller single supplement 

December 22 2023 - price dropped by £600 with extra OBC

 

NCL August 2023 - price risen by £1,300 even with AI taken into account

 

Celebrity May 2023 - price remains static but 60% of second person. However new bookings no always included

 

Non cruising: 10 nights 5* Kefalonia with private pool July 2023 £3,600 total for 2

10 nights 5* Venice/Verona booked independentfly with flights, transfers, B&B - £1,100 for 2

 

Interesting pattern here - why would I choose to book more cruises???

 

 

It Certainly does make you think are we better off just booking last minute rather than commit months / years ahead. 

 

That said, I do love the planning of it all, sometimes I think I get as much enjoyment out of the research and planning as I do out of the Holiday itself. My Wife sometimes jokes its like National Lampoons Vacation as I have spreadsheets and itineraries for most holidays. I convince myself I am not alone and its only what any prepared person would do. 

[Megabear2]

11 minutes ago, WelshmanAtSea said:

It Certainly does make you think are we better off just booking last minute rather than commit months / years ahead. 

 

That said, I do love the planning of it all, sometimes I think I get as much enjoyment out of the research and planning as I do out of the Holiday itself. My Wife sometimes jokes its like National Lampoons Vacation as I have spreadsheets and itineraries for most holidays. I convince myself I am not alone and its only what any prepared person would do. 

I did used to do that on a Disney Florida holiday.  My friends and family were astonished what would come and go in their Disney diary as I moved restaurants, fast passes, events and even meet and greets.  Despite their laughter they all admitted in dozens of trips they'd never seen or done so much.  Happy days indeed. Now I can't even afford a day in a park the prices are so Hugh.

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

I did used to do that on a Disney Florida holiday.  My friends and family were astonished what would come and go in their Disney diary as I moved restaurants, fast passes, events and even meet and greets.  Despite their laughter they all admitted in dozens of trips they'd never seen or done so much.  Happy days indeed. Now I can't even afford a day in a park the prices are so Hugh.

We did Disney Florida once brilliant but very expensive, we than kept an eye out for what offers we’re on got an hotel plus free admission to universal saved hundreds, we used to buy part used tickets but they stopped that, now we have seen it done it now part of our past.

[Megabear2]

21 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

We did Disney Florida once brilliant but very expensive, we than kept an eye out for what offers we’re on got an hotel plus free admission to universal saved hundreds, we used to buy part used tickets but they stopped that, now we have seen it done it now part of our past.

First went in 1988 and a Daily Mirror 14 nights on the new Virgin charter(!) 7 nights Disney 7 nights Miami cost £399 each including car hire. My last one in 2017 was 14 nights Animal Kingdom Lodge costing £9,800!  

 

We used to have annual passes and managed three trips a year, 2 by flying and one in November by a repositioning cruise to FL or Miami followed by a drive.  Three weeks of winter sun, pure bliss. Gradually replaced that with a P&O Caribbean Christmas cruise as I got older but I'd still love to go on a Disney cruise because the child in me will always love Mickey!

[Son of Anarchy]

Happy with the four cruises we've got booked at the moment   The policy was destined to return to pre pandemic times at some point. I'm surprised it's stayed in this format for so long

[ozzysdad]

I changed a cruise only the start of this week which I booked months ago, moved an early saver guaranteed grade to a select fare, no regional flight charge, extra £780 obc and over £400 off the original asking price, no brainer really, went through an independent travel agent and they were inundated with customers wanting to do similar.

 

I suppose P&O realised that having fluid pricing is pointless if the customer can chop and change if a better offer is released at a later date. I personally think  there will be little point booking early as there will be bargains to be had in the run up to departure date. I've got two booked with P&O one in 16 weeks and another next November but won't be commiting silly money on any others until all the uncertainty dies down.

[Cathygh]

I had been thinking about moving our family holiday (11 of us) from Iona in the May half term next year to Sky Princess. We booked Iona on launch and at time Sky was much more expensive but now I can get deluxe balconies on Sky for the same price as outside cabins on Iona. But if I have to move to a cruise of equal or higher value I am not sure how that will work as we are paying for everyone. Perhaps I need to do the Maths to see if it's worthwhile losing my deposit.🤔

[Britboys]

The availability of late deals however is far from guaranteed on the two smaller ships and then usually even more limited for those of us that travel solo.

As previously mentioned, my Aurora cruise is sold out.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Britboys

[ozzysdad]

49 minutes ago, Britboys said:

The availability of late deals however is far from guaranteed on the two smaller ships and then usually even more limited for those of us that travel solo.

As previously mentioned, my Aurora cruise is sold out.

Yes it's a good point and if you want something specific it's always worth booking at launch.

[Britboys]

16 minutes ago, ozzysdad said:

Yes it's a good point and if you want something specific it's always worth booking at launch.

Yes. More/better deals on the oft-repeated itineraries (that most of the bigger ships do these days...).