CPS (cruise parking) Southampton price increases wef 11Jan23? +40%?

[thornegirl]

48 minutes ago, itf said:

There's no chance I'm paying what they're asking for Arvia in April. Absolute joke so will have to investigate alternatives although even Penguin is asking £189 for 2 weeks. 

Ive booked parking4cruise for my Arvia 2nd April cruise.  I booked it on 5/1/23 and paid £129 for the two weeks.  I compared CPS which on the 5/1/23 was £160, its now £243.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

Just checked cps for arvia 20th aug two weeks £243 😲😲😲😲 Thankfully got free parking with P&O. 

[Selbourne]

5 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Just checked cps for arvia 20th aug two weeks £243 😲😲😲😲 Thankfully got free parking with P&O. 

Keep in mind though that it’s never free, as you have to decline additional OBC to get ‘free’ parking. Often you can get parking with an alternative operator to CPS for far less than the extra OBC that you get by declining the free parking!

[Fionboard]

Holiday Inn cruise package is good value. Have used it over 50 times with no problems. 

[RaspberryCremeBrulee]

34 minutes ago, Fionboard said:

Holiday Inn cruise package is good value. Have used it over 50 times with no problems. 

We have used HI cruise package quite a lot when we wanted to stay in Southampton night before.

Package includes car parking for up to 15 days. If your cruise is more than 14 nights you need to currently add £15 per extra day so, for longer cruises it may not be such good value.

 

Note: when the boat show is on during September you cannot normally book a cruise package.  Also, prices for hotel room itself is more costly during that period.

[molecrochip]

On 1/12/2023 at 3:10 PM, RaspberryCremeBrulee said:

Spoke with a lady at CPS who advised that prices went up yesterday, and it would appear that this increase is in line with instructions from Carnival UK.

Rubbish.... sorry to be so blunt. I don't doubt what you were told... but its rubbish. Its bad customer service to make such claims. I am going to defend P&O here as the economics don't work in reverse.

 

Cruise and Passenger Services Ltd is part of a larger group which operates across the entire port providing warehousing, transport, parking etc. It is a completely independent company to P&O, and Carnival etc.

 

P&O is a customer, they have no control over the prices charged by CPS. Their only connection is that they have a contract with CPS to provide the bundled car parking benefit on a select fare. I'm sure they get a discount for the thousands of bookings that P&O directly generate and pay for however that's pure economies of scale.

 

What is more likely is that P&O pay an agreed percentage of the public price, and CPS have put the public price up so as to increase the P&O price. P&O are not going to voluntarily offer to increase what they pay. Alternatively, maybe P&O have negotiated themselves a cheaper price and CPS need to up their price to compensate.

 

Or maybe, the parent companies were not happy that CPS made a loss last year and have put up all the prices to try and make some money <- most likely!

[majortom10]

52 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Rubbish.... sorry to be so blunt. I don't doubt what you were told... but its rubbish. Its bad customer service to make such claims. I am going to defend P&O here as the economics don't work in reverse.

 

Cruise and Passenger Services Ltd is part of a larger group which operates across the entire port providing warehousing, transport, parking etc. It is a completely independent company to P&O, and Carnival etc.

 

P&O is a customer, they have no control over the prices charged by CPS. Their only connection is that they have a contract with CPS to provide the bundled car parking benefit on a select fare. I'm sure they get a discount for the thousands of bookings that P&O directly generate and pay for however that's pure economies of scale.

 

What is more likely is that P&O pay an agreed percentage of the public price, and CPS have put the public price up so as to increase the P&O price. P&O are not going to voluntarily offer to increase what they pay. Alternatively, maybe P&O have negotiated themselves a cheaper price and CPS need to up their price to compensate.

 

Or maybe, the parent companies were not happy that CPS made a loss last year and have put up all the prices to try and make some money <- most likely!

But will have the opposite effect because of the exorbitant increase that fewer will park and go elsewhere. So CPS will make less money not more as is pure economics so if that is why they have done it it will have reverse effect and increase profits at other car parking companies of which there are many in Southampton

 

[molecrochip]

3 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

But will have the opposite effect because of the exorbitant increase that fewer will park and go elsewhere. So CPS will make less money not more as is pure economics so if that is why they have done it it will have reverse effect and increase profits at other car parking companies of which there are many in Southampton

Except history says that people, in general, will pay more for the official, nearest, quickest service.

 

And if one puts prices up, they all tend to.

[terrierjohn]

42 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Except history says that people, in general, will pay more for the official, nearest, quickest service.

 

And if one puts prices up, they all tend to.

A very unfortunate economic fact of life for a finite service, but lets hope Moleys wrong and Majortom is right on this one.

[NavyPanda]

14 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Some, myself included, would not consider parking there cars at a council multi storey car park or hotel car park which are open to the public with no security for duration of a cruise just to save a few pounds. 

 

I understand that some people will have reservations over such parking arrangements, however if you're price conscious (like the original poster apparently is) then it's worth noting that there are cheaper options available, which can have apparent downsides.

 

For what it is worth, I have used both the council car park and the Ibis/Novotel parking for a 7 and 12 night cruise respectively. No issues were encountered. That might be because I own a car 'not worth stealing', but I note that many people avail themselves of similar 'airport hotel and parking' offerings, where you leave your car in open hotel car parks for weeks, and I further note that others on this thread have commented they use the Holiday Inn with parking which again has a similar car park, open to the public, without issues. 

[Snow Hill]

It’s part of the rise in parking charges across the leisure industry, CPS parking can be compared with on airport parking, which has seen anything up to a 20% rise in charges over last 12 months as operators seek to recoup their losses made during pandemic. Offsite parking is usually cheaper, but care needs to be taken in respect of security of the site, friends of ours parked at a Holiday Inn site in Manchester a few years ago, came back off holiday to find car gone, called police who said the car was in their pound following its use in a ram raid. 
 

 

[Harry Peterson]

Simple economics, unfortunately. CPS will charge the highest price they think the market will bear, and they’ll have researched that price. They’ll lose some custom, but that’ll very likely be more than outweighed by the additional revenue.

 

And if forward bookings do drop below their predictions, they’ve always got the option of discounting, so they can’t really lose. Some will park elsewhere - there are cheaper options - but many more will just pay up.

[majortom10]

12 hours ago, molecrochip said:

Except history says that people, in general, will pay more for the official, nearest, quickest service.

 

And if one puts prices up, they all tend to.

Perhaps so with regards to history but we are living in very difficult times possibly not encountered for a generation and really think the economic brains of CPS have got it wrong. I know of at least 2 private car parking companies that provide exactly the same service as CPS. The only difference is on embarkation you walk 50 yds more from short stay car park to Ocean Terminal and on disembarkation you actually walk not as far as CPS to pick your car up. Both these companies are currently considerably cheaper than CPS and if they stay the same will take a lot of business from CPS. New CPS prices of around £240+ for 14 nt cruises and the exorbitant increase way above inflation are unjustifiable in anyone's minds. Let's hope they have the courage to shop around and not use CPS.

Edited January 14, 2023 by majortom10

[jeanlyon]

Deleted

Edited January 14, 2023 by jeanlyon

[Son of Anarchy]

3 hours ago, majortom10 said:

Perhaps so with regards to history but we are living in very difficult times possibly not encountered for a generation and really think the economic brains of CPS have got it wrong. I know of at least 2 private car parking companies that provide exactly the same service as CPS. The only difference is on embarkation you walk 50 yds more from short stay car park to Ocean Terminal and on disembarkation you actually walk not as far as CPS to pick your car up. Both these companies are currently considerably cheaper than CPS and if they stay the same will take a lot of business from CPS. New CPS prices of around £240+ for 14 nt cruises and the exorbitant increase way above inflation are unjustifiable in anyone's minds. Let's hope they have the courage to shop around and not use CPS.

As you say, shop around, other operators out there.

 

We have been using P4C for over five, if not more, years now.  Personally, the  short walk from the short stay car park is worth the saving.  On one occasion, CPS were holding back those checking in, (ship was in late), while P4C took our keys and off we went.  People missed the Peninsula embarkation lunch because they were held back by CPS.

 

This thread certainly re-focussed my mind.  Post #15, I did a quick bit research, and for two of our forthcoming cruises CPS are cheaper than P4C.  Quite happy to switch between the two for the right price.

[Ardennais]

We have only ever used CPS (apart from ABP when cruising with RCI). We’ve had to cancel two cruises in the past 6 months and they refunded the fee promptly, minus £15 admin. I would therefore urge anyone to check the cancellation terms before booking with any other company. 

[kalos]

14 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

We have only ever used CPS (apart from ABP when cruising with RCI). We’ve had to cancel two cruises in the past 6 months and they refunded the fee promptly, minus £15 admin. I would therefore urge anyone to check the cancellation terms before booking with any other company. 

Excellent advice . A well known company T&C's say "If you decide to cancel within 14 days of making the booking, we charge an administration fee of £20.00 that will be deducted from
the amount you have paid. However, there are no refunds for cancellations made after that time"

As Clint used to say  "Well do ya feel lucky ? "

[Selbourne]

20 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

We have only ever used CPS (apart from ABP when cruising with RCI). We’ve had to cancel two cruises in the past 6 months and they refunded the fee promptly, minus £15 admin. I would therefore urge anyone to check the cancellation terms before booking with any other company. 

P4C give you several prices based on differing terms. The extra price of a package offering free cancellation can often be minimal.

[Ardennais]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

P4C give you several prices based on differing terms. The extra price of a package offering free cancellation can often be minimal.

Good to know. 
We were due to sail with FO from Liverpool on Monday, Dec 5th but had to cancel suddenly early evening Friday, Dec 2nd. I was going to phone CPS on the Saturday morning, but found that they’re not open on Saturdays. I sent them a short e-mail with the relevant details before 10am that very morning hoping that this would fall outside the 48 hr rule. They credited the booking fee, minus £15 admin, within a week. 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

P4C give you several prices based on differing terms. The extra price of a package offering free cancellation can often be minimal.

 

Yes very little difference in cost, so a no brainer to book the cancellable option with P4C. 

 

We cancelled a booking for November with them, six days before it was due to start.  We did not get an immediate reply from our cancellation email, but about three days later they acknowledged our cancellation and agreed to give is a full refund.

 

There was a delay with the refund payment, since they could not refund to our CC because our payment was made more than a year earlier.  However our bank details were supplied and the payment came through about three weeks later.  No admin deduction at all.

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

Most people here, like us, have probably used both CPS and P4C. We switched to P4C and never went back to CPS - so little difference between the two in operation, apart from the price. I’d guess that plenty of others feel the same way about P4C.

 

We did try a cheaper alternative once, involving parking in Marchwood and being transferred by minibus, and it worked well enough. Nothing like as convenient though.

 

Look out for increases by P4C - almost inevitable.

[molecrochip]

10 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Simple economics, unfortunately. CPS will charge the highest price they think the market will bear, and they’ll have researched that price. They’ll lose some custom, but that’ll very likely be more than outweighed by the additional revenue.

 

And if forward bookings do drop below their predictions, they’ve always got the option of discounting, so they can’t really lose. Some will park elsewhere - there are cheaper options - but many more will just pay up.

Also if bookings drop, they can use less contractors and save themselves money. On days when Iona is full, they actually struggle with capacity which makes think they would rather have fewer but more more profitable numbers.

[majortom10]

11 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

Also if bookings drop, they can use less contractors and save themselves money. On days when Iona is full, they actually struggle with capacity which makes think they would rather have fewer but more more profitable numbers.

Well apart from those that get 'free' parking with either P&O or Cunard the bean counters at CPS will have got that right they will get fewer bookings. We have used both CPS and P4C many times and recently more often than chose free parking and the odd occasion we have had to pay we have booked with CPS. Our next 3 cruises this year we have booked free parking with CPS, our cruise on QV in November, due to logistics, we have yet to book parking on checking we will definitely be booking with P4C.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

On 1/13/2023 at 2:50 PM, Selbourne said:

Keep in mind though that it’s never free, as you have to decline additional OBC to get ‘free’ parking. Often you can get parking with an alternative operator to CPS for far less than the extra OBC that you get by declining the free parking!

Yeah, we booked when they were giving silly ammounts of OBC, so we took the carpark option. I priced it up at the time with other parking venders. Cost to park v OBC. 

[tring]

12 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Yeah, we booked when they were giving silly ammounts of OBC, so we took the carpark option. I priced it up at the time with other parking venders. Cost to park v OBC. 

 

I had mentioned earlier that more people will be taking the parking option when booking cruises if loads of obc is being given.  In my mind, that makes this year a lot different to the previous years regards number of people choosing the parking option when booking with P&O or other lines giving the same options.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by tring